2020-01-29

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Wednesday, January 29, 2020

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statement

Schlissel on ‘U’ Provost, fossil fuel divestment

‘This sort of thing should never happen,’ President says of Philbert situation RUCHITA IYER/Daily New York Times Domestic Correspondent Nikole Hannah-Jones speaks on her “1619 Project,” examining slavery in the United States in Rackham Auditorium Tuesday evening.

New York Times journalist talks racial justice, impact of ‘1619’ project

Nikole Hannah-Jones discusses education, history at Wallace House event CALLIE TEITELBAUM Daily Staff Reporter

Nikole Hannah-Jones, domestic correspondent for The New York Times Magazine and creator of the NYT 1619 Project, compared slavery to the red pill in the movie, “The Matrix.” As Hannah- Jones described it, the legacy of slavery in America is “the coding and the architecture of everything that we see, and we have been allowing this

country to pretend that slavery is marginal to the American story.”

Tuesday night, The Wallace House hosted Hannah-Jones for a dialogue with Rochelle Riley, a 2008 Knight-Wallace Fellow, City of Detroit Arts and Culture director and longtime columnist at the Detroit Free Press. Hannah-Jones spoke to a packed Rackham Auditorium.

The 1619 Project is an ongoing initiative by The New York Times

Magazine, discussing the history of slavery in America, its legacy within the Consitution, the miseducation of American youth and the modern implications of America’s discriminatory history. The project also includes a five episode podcast. The project, released in August 2019, marked the 400th anniversary of institutional slavery, when The White Lion ship brought over 20 enslaved Africans to the English Colony of Virginia in

August 1619.

Throughout the talk, Hannah-Jones discussed the gruesome existence of slavery in American culture. She answered audience questions bluntly, jokingly exclaiming “no” when an audience member asked if she had a “sense that a real reckoning is happening in our communities and in our systems” because of the 1619 project.

See 1619, Page 3A

EMMA STEIN, PARNIA MAZHAR & ARJUN THAKKAR Daily News Editor & Daily Staff Reporters

Each month, The Michigan Daily’s Administration Beat sits down with University of Michigan President Mark Schlissel to discuss important questions about University policy, commitments and challenges. Topics discussed in this month’s interview included Provost Martin Philbert, divestment from fossil fuels, the President’s Commission on Carbon Neutrality, the discrimination lawsuit filed against the University and more.

This month, we used input from the campus community to guide our questions for Schlissel. Stay tuned for next month’s interview to submit your questions. This

Professors University warns of coronavirus highlight outbreak in Chinese province research ‘U’ declares there is no threat of the new fatal disease in Washtenaw County impacts RESEARCH

HANNAH MACKAY

Distinguished faculty members share work during joint lecture KRISTINA LENN Daily Staff Reporter

The University of Michigan honored three recipients of the Distinguished University Professorship on Tuesday at the Ross School of Business to an audience of about 100 students, faculty and staff.

The University established the Distinguished University Professorships in 1947 to recognize professors with a noteworthy commitment to academia. Those bestowed with the honor serve as models of success in research, teaching and community leadership to faculty and students.

In his opening remarks, University President Mark Schlissel spoke on the importance of talented faculty in academia.

“A university can only be as great as its faculty,” Schlissel said.

Each professor presented topics related to their research.

John M. Carethers, the Richard Boland Distinguished University Professor of Internal Medicine and Human Genetics, spoke on DNA mismatch repair, a process that prevents DNA mutations by correcting any damage that could lead to See RESEARCH, Page 3A

Daily Staff Reporters

The University of Michigan issued a travel warning for the city of Wuhan in China’s Hubei Province Monday afternoon following the outbreak of coronavirus, a rapidly spreading new virus. With the warning, undergraduate students may not travel to the region and must prepare a safety plan to study in other areas in China, according to an email sent to all University faculty, students and staff.

The novel coronavirus strain, also known as the Wuhan coronavirus, transmits quickly. According to the

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Center for Disease Control and Prevention, symptoms for the Wuhan coronavirus can present themselves between two and 14 days after exposure and include fever, coughing and shortness of breath.

The virus broke out in December 2019 in the city of Wuhan in China’s Hubei Province, and the exact number of cases has not been confirmed.

The Chinese government has locked down several cities including Wuhan, prohibiting travel into or out of quarantined destinations.

There are multiple international confirmed cases of the Wuhan coronavirus, including a few in the United

States. According to the World Health Organization, all coronaviruses are zoonotic, meaning they are transferred between humans and animals.

The Wuhan coronavirus has not previously been identified in humans, and many of the people who have been infected frequented the Huanan seafood wholesale market in the city.

Mary Gallagher, political science professor and director of the Lieberthal-Rogel Center for Chinese Studies, said there was an apparent initial effort on the part of the local Wuhan government to cover up the severity of the outbreak. Since the central Chinese government was made aware of the situation,

its response has been efficient and effective, especially compared to their actions in 2003 after the outbreak of SARS, or severe acute respiratory syndrome.

“The government in Wuhan seemed reluctant to alert the central authorities and public health authorities to the severity of the breakout in Wuhan and the evidence for human to human transmission,” Gallagher said. “The Chinese central government now has reacted very aggressively to do some things that seem amazing and excellent, like building a bunch of hospitals as quickly as they See CORONAVIRUS, Page 3A

interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Provost Philbert The Michigan Daily: On Jan. 22, you sent an email to the entire student body informing them about several allegations of sexual misconduct by Provost Philbert.

Public Affairs confirmed on Thursday that Philbert was on medical leave for part of the fall semester.

I’m aware that his health is his personal business. I’m more curious as to why this administrative leave was not widely communicated to the campus community given the high-profile nature of Philbert’s position?

Mark Schlissel: Health is a very private matter. It affects the Provost. It affects his family. It doesn’t affect you and me; it’s his health.

So, we have great respect See SCHLISSEL, Page 2A

STUDENT GOVERNMENT

Big 10 SG executives sign CO2 proposal

Resolution calls for climate action, carbon neutrality by 2020 EMMA STEIN & BRAYDEN HIRSCH Daily News Editor & Daily Staff Reporter

The University of Michigan Central Student Government released a statement on Jan. 26 announcing that they passed a resolution demanding the University freeze all of its fossil fuel investments and commit to divestment in 2020.

The resolution was brought up at the Association of Big Ten Students Conference this past weekend in Bloomington, Ind. The association includes representatives from each of the Big Ten schools’ student governments.

“With a collective representation of over 500,000 students across 14 universities, ABTS is a critical organization that can be used to push for concrete, institutional change,” the statement read.

“CSG urges the University of Michigan Board of Regents and Executive Officers to stand up for climate justice.

Hundreds of thousands of students and millions of alumni are watching.”

The resolution passed unanimously.

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MONDAY: Looking at the Numbers

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WEDNESDAY: This Week in History

THURSDAY: Twitter Talk

FRIDAY: Behind the Story

Jan. 29, 1978: Human rights law looks to eliminate discrimination within housing, employment, investing in Ann Arbor Ann Arbor’s going to be a mighty tough place for businesses who practice discrimination in housing, employment and investment if a hard nosed new city human rights ordinance wins final approval from City Council.

The new ordinance, which would extend the protection of the law to pregnant women, families with small children and recipients of public assistance, was accepted at first reading during council’s Jan. 9 meeting. If passed, it would be one of the most comprehensive laws of its kind in the country.

ANN ARBOR- ALREADY has a human rights ordinance-- a muchamended patchwork affair dating back to the Democratic-Human Rights Party Council of 1970. But city officials have been complaining for a long time that the present ordinance is confusing and unenforceable.

The purpose of the new ordinance is to cut down on the excessive verbiage of the present law,” said Byron Marshall, who as special assistant to City Administrator Sylvester Murray was one of the main architects of the proposed ordinance.

But the new law would do much more

than simply clean up a few language problems; as it now stands, it would: Widen the categories of people protected against disrcimination to include prohibitions against discrimination for race, color, religion, national origin, sex, age, marital status, sexual prefernce, family responsibilities, educational association, physical limitations, source of income, personal associations and pregnancy; Define more clearly the number and kind of discriminatory practices prohibited by law; Place added emphasis on specific

penalties for companies and individuals found guilty of violating the ordinance (up to a $500 fine and/ or 90 days in jail); Forbid unions to discriminate in apprenticeship and other training programs; and, Prohibit any form of retaliation against individuals who bring complaints to the city under the ordinance.

CERTAIN TYPES of “justified” discrimination--sororities and fraternities for instance--would be exempted from compliance. But the overall effect of the new ordinance

would be to pack some muscle into the city’s antidiscrimination efforts.

“I think we’re going to come through with a pretty good ordinance,” said Mayor Albert Wheeler, who has identified himself very closely with the proposed law, and has vowed to veto the ordinance if council passes a diluted version.

The ordinance could also go a long way toward reviving the city’s longdormant Human Rights Commision and Human Rights Department.

The Human Rights Commission-a Council-appointed body whose purpose was originally to make

policy recommendations to the Mayor and Council--was allowed to fall into disuse over the last few years.

The Human Rights Department-a city administrative agency which was intended to investigate discrimination and enforce the 1970 ordinance-was widely criticized for its ineffectiveness, and was divested of its department status in July 1976.

UNDER THE CITY reorganization plan adopted by Council earlier this month, the Human Rights Department has been reestablished under Murray’s direct supervision.

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Editorial Staff ERIN WHITE ALEXANDRIA POMPEI/Daily Steven Bodei, Associate Director of Student Life Leadership Education, discusses MLEAD at the First Generation Program Community Dinner at Palmer Commons Tuesday evening.

Central Student Government discusses tenants’ union, new voting process New model aims to streamline meetings, impact method for discussing potential resolutions JULIA RUBIN

Daily Staff Reporter

With Ann Arbor rent prices skyrocketing and student voter turnout f latlining, the University of Michigan Central Student Government met Tuesday night in the Michigan Union to pass resolutions to renew a taskforce researching a student tenants union and to discuss CSG and national election reform.

Because Ann Arbor rent has increased at a yearly rate of nearly 16 percent, the Assembly passed a resolution reauthorizing the Student Tenants Union taskforce to research the structure and demand for a student tenant’s union.

LSA sophomore Sam Burnstein said the end goal for the taskforce is to create a tenant’s union with full-time staff to advocate on behalf of students, assist students with

SCHLISSEL From Page 1A the privacy involved. It was in the meeting materials for the Dec. 15 or so Regents meeting, so it’s in the public domain. But because it was about a personal health matter, I didn’t think it rose to the level of informing the community. An acting provost was in place, and I was in place and the business of the University continued.

TMD: The email you sent to students said the University received “several allegations of sexual misconduct by Dr. Philbert” on Jan. 16-17 of 2020. I’m curious about what exactly this means.

Was Jan. 16 the first time the University was made aware of Philbert’s alleged sexual misconduct, or is it a technical way of describing a step in a reporting process

searching for housing and answer questions on topics from renting to roommates.

“This idea for a Student Tenants Union was really born out of two issues most students on campus face in some way,” Burstein said. “The first being affordability, and the second, really, is a deficit of information regarding renting.”

Burnstein stressed the importance of advocacy, especially since four of the five seats up for election in the Ann Arbor City Council went to “anti-housing candidates” last year, each of which were won with less than 1 percent of the vote.

“At the core of this issue are terrible laws and regulations in the city of Ann Arbor, particularly zoning codes, height limits on buildings, where buildings can be built (and) how the city council approves which buildings can be built,” Burstein said.

The Assembly passed a resolution 22-5 to include an author’s summary and FAQ section within resolutions to increase accessibility to students, the press and Assembly members themselves.

Burstein said these additions would help readers better understand CSG’s work.

“This definitely would help students read, understand and interpret our resolutions,” Burstein said.

Engineering sophomore Carla Voigt raised concerns the summaries would discourage Assembly members from reading resolutions in their entireties. LSA sophomore Sam Braden approved of an FAQ section but worried about members maliciously excluding certain details from a summary.

“An author’s summary is actually dangerous, while an FAQ is not,” Braden said.

“It is a lot more difficult to abuse an FAQ than an author’s

summary.”

Engineering senior Mario Galindez disagreed, noting the resolution gives the committee the ability to edit the summary at every stage.

“No mechanism can’t be abused,” Galindez said. “I think in everything there’s room for abuse, and I think there’s a good check here, which is the committee structure.”

The Assembly debated a resolution allowing faculty to grant students excused absences on national election days if they have significant barriers to voting due to transportation limitations or class schedule. It was ultimately sent back to its creators to be revised.

Additionally, the Assembly passed resolutions supporting carbon-neutral facilities on campus and ensuring party names are not listed alongside candidate names on the CSG ballot.

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that actually began earlier than Jan. 16?

MS: We take allegations of sexual misconduct with the utmost seriousness, the 16th and the 17th was the first I became aware of any allegation whatsoever. We, because of the high rank of the person and the fact that we all know each other very well and work together very closely, the general counsel decided it was wisest to immediately bring in an outside law firm to help us investigate. And over the course of the first several days of that investigation, we learned enough that the allegations were credible, and as a result, to allow the investigation to proceed completely, and to assure the ongoing safety in the comfort of the community the Provost was put on leave. And then we announced what we had done.

That’s basically what I said

in the statement, and that’s basically all I can say because there’s always a presumption of innocence.

Everyone deserves due process and a full investigation. I want to give tremendous thanks and credit to the people who have stepped up and told us about their experiences. That takes a lot of bravery to do that. It’s an act of giving, because it helps others in the community either feel comfortable to step up themselves or feel like they’re being safer.

We provided access to all the different modalities of support for the folks that made these reports. And we’re trying to deal with it as sensitively as possible while keeping the business of the University moving forward.

TMD: How is it that the University received several allegations on the same day without any prior knowledge

of the situation?

MS: It’s interesting. I don’t know the answer. And so, perhaps during the course of the investigation, we’ll figure that out. But I don’t know why we received several over the space of a couple of days.

TMD: I was wondering if you could tell me a little bit more about what exactly he did, given he oversaw the Office of Institutional Equity?

MS: The Provost oversees a huge swath of the entire institution. He is the Chief Budget Officer and the Chief Academic Officer for the whole University. OIE, because of its importance, we changed its reporting line a year ago, to report directly to the Provost’s Office. We did that to make sure that it receives the resources that it needs and the attention that it See SCHLISSEL, 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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CORONAVIRUS From Page 1A can and decoding the genomic structure of the virus.”

Gallagher also commented on the quarantine of Wuhan city and several others in province, noting potential shortcomings of this strategy.

“The problem with the quarantine is that the quarantine comes after this period of local coverup and a huge exodus of people from Wuhan, partly probably because of the fear of the virus, but also because Chinese New Year was about to happen and people were going home to celebrate the holiday,” Gallagher said. “So, it’s not really clear to me that the quarantine is going to stop the virus from spreading.”

Adam Lauring, an infectious disease specialist at Michigan Medicine, described the likely origin of the virus in humans

RESEARCH From Page 1A colorectal cancer.

“You have a normal colon that can develop (one of these) polyps — you can either have a germline mutation or develop somatic inactivation,” Carethers said.

“Either possibility can affect DNA mismatch repair.”

Anna Suk-Fong Lok, the Dame Sheila Sherlock Distinguished University Professor of Hepatology and Internal Medicine, began her career as a professor at the University of Hong Kong before deciding to move to the United States. She presented her work on viral hepatitis, of which the B and C strains are a leading cause of liver cancer.

Lok described her experience as a professor in medicine in the early 1990s.

1619 From Page 1A Throughout the Magazine issue, the various essays argue the founding principles of the country — including liberty, equality and democracy — did not come to fruition when written into the Constitution.

The practice of slavery contradicted these principles because Black Americans continuously fought for their democracy, Hannah-Jones said. She argues slavery is not only the foundation of American history, but is deeply embedded in society today through the country’s education, housing, health care systems and more.

Hannah-Jones said she was inspired to write the series of essays because of the 400th anniversary of 1619, and because she has been thinking about 1619 since high school when she took a Back studies course. She called attention to how frequently American youth learn about The Mayf lower in 1620, but not about the arrival of The White Lion in 1619.

Hannah-Jones said the lack of education about The White Lion erases key moments in history, and the glorification of The Mayf lower is an example of Americans choosing to remember only a positive perspective of their history. “(There’s) this idea of national memory,” HannahJones said. “How we create a sense of our history, who we are and what decisions are made about what we learn and what we don’t.”

Hannah-Jones said she chose to focus on themes such as capitalism, healthcare, music and mass incarceration to shock readers about the modern implications of slavery.

While Hannah-Jones has received accolades for her work, a group of historians publicly criticized the project, arguing it failed to properly address the origins of the Revolutionary War and Abraham Lincoln’s role in abolishing slavery.

Additionally, Hannah-Jones said she received criticism

News

Wednesday, January 29, 2020 — 3A

as well as likely first treatment steps.

“Based on the sequences that are out now and have been analyzed, there was probably one animal to human spillover event that happened probably in late November or early December, and since then the virus has been spreading from person to person,” Lauring said. “The first thing they’re probably doing is a lot of what we call ‘supportive care.’ The biggest issue is that it apparently causes a bad pneumonia or lung infection, and the thing that most people would be needing would be help with their breathing.”

On Monday, University students received an email from the University Health Service concerning the novel coronavirus.

In the email, Preeti Malani, University of Michigan Chief Health Officer, wrote the University is closely monitoring the situation and the risk is

minimal at this time.

“While there are some confirmed cases in the U.S., no cases have been confirmed in Michigan,” Malani wrote.

“Of the four potential cases in southeast Michigan that were recently submitted for testing, three have come back negative for the virus. University officials are monitoring the remaining case closely in partnership with local and state public health experts. At this time, the immediate health risk from 2019-nCoV to the general public in the U.S. is considered low.”

In his email to the University, Malani wrote there are no confirmed cases of the virus in Michigan and out of three potential cases sent for testing, three came back negative.

Lauring elaborated, saying hospitals and clinics in the University area are employing careful screening procedures to ensure that any potential cases are recognized and the threat of

infection is minimized.

“People at the medical center and clinics, everyone’s being screened (who has) traveled in the past few weeks to try and identify people who might be at risk or might have an illness that could be due to the coronavirus,” Lauring said. “That is probably the biggest thing that’s going on here is just making sure that potential cases are evaluated and making sure that we’re not missing anyone that could potentially bring the virus here or spread it here.”

The University of Michigan has contacted all travelers registered to be in China or traveling there in the upcoming months and designated a University travel warning for China, in addition to convening a team of experts to monitor new developments. The same post clarified that currently there are no University-registered travelers going to the Hubei province at this time.

In an email to The Daily, University spokesperson Kim Broekhuizen noted there are no University students currently in the province.

Michigan University Health Services has created an information page for the 2019 novel coronavirus containing general information about transmission as well as avoidance and risk. According to UHS, the Center for Disease Control has been monitoring the virus and do not see it as an active threat to the U.S. The lack of knowledge about the coronavirus outbreak is the main reason there is currently no vaccine. As a result, the future risks associated with this particular strain remain ambiguous. Lauring said a vaccine could potentially be developed, but the analysis and testing required will require several months of research.

“We’re probably months away at least from a vaccine,” Lauring

said. “There’s a number of what would be called platforms for coronavirus vaccines where people have tried to develop vaccines for other coronaviruses, so what they would do would be modifying those approaches specifically for this new virus.”

Michigan Medicine volunteer Natalie White, LSA sophomore, said she trusts clinics and hospitals around the country to contain the virus’s spread.

“In general, I haven’t seen enough cases to personally feel concerned about it,” White said.

“I have a pretty strong faith in Michigan Medicine and a lot of the medical establishments across the country that it shouldn’t be a huge deal. I feel like some people definitely are getting a little bit of hysteria surrounding it.”

“In 1992, the chair of medicine told me to slow down because there was no more room to move up,” Lok said.

Lok went on to further explain her research on Hepatitis B and C. “These viruses can lead to chronic infection and cirrhosis, which means scarring of the liver, and in turn liver cancer,” Lok said.

“Hepatitis B is more common globally, whereas Hepatitis C is more common in this country. Together, these two viruses result in roughly 1.2 million deaths per year. This is the reason why, in 2015, the World Health Organization declared that we need to eliminate these viruses by 2030.”

Scott E. Page, the John Seely Brown Distinguished University Professor of Complexity, Social Science and Management, then

spoke about his research in cognitive diversity, which incorporates a fusion of different approaches to problem solving, including models.

“One of the things we do with models is we just explore the world,” Page said.

Page then spoke about diversity, noting how it is closely related to accuracy.

“So, then here’s the question: Is more diversity better?” Page said. “As I ramp up diversity, you can just see accuracy go up.”

Business graduate student Gautam Kandlikar is one of Page’s students and said he found the lecture series inspiring.

“They’re gathering data, they’re analyzing systems, they’re creating new knowledge that helps us advance society, and I think that’s really fascinating,” Kandlikar said.

“That’s really inspiring.”

BIG 10 From Page 1A

in support of CSG’s resolution.

Engineering senior Logan Vear, member of the Climate Action Movement and member of the President’s Commission on Carbon Neutrality, signed the statement.

“Today, students of the Big Ten have sent a clear message to the nation: the time has come for universities to act on the urgency of the climate crisis,” Vear wrote.

“Divestment from the harmful fossil fuel industry can and must be normalized across the nation’s public-facing institutions.”

Vear compared calls to divest from fossil fuels to past massive student protests when the University divested from apartheid South Africa and the tobacco industry.

“The University of Michigan has precedent in this regard — past Administrations divested from apartheid South Africa and the tobacco industry after robust student-led activism,” Vear wrote.

“Divesting the $1 billion U-M has invested in the fossil fuel industry

requires the same moral urgency.”

Abdul El-Sayed, politician and runner up in the 2018 Michigan gubernatorial election, tweeted his praise for the resolution.

“This is a big deal,” El-Sayed wrote. “Our young leaders know what’s at stake. And they know what our major institutions need to be doing to defend us.”

Voigt said she was surprised but glad to see the support the proposal has gained among students as the issue of climate change is pressing.

She said she is hopeful other work CSG and the ABTS does also receives similar attention.

“It’s definitely surprising, but at the same time, it’s also kind of not surprising because it is something that is really important,” Voigt said. “It’s really good to see it gain traction. I hope that some of the other things that we do gain traction in the future.”

for her statement that Black Americans fought for democracy alone.

The New York Times issued a response to the historians, defending the factual backing of the project. Hannah-Jones said a minority of white people helped Black Americans in the fight for democracy, but most of the time, Black people fought independently for their rights. Hannah-Jones said she would ultimately not apologize for the way she framed her argument and the organizing principle of the U.S. is slavery, not democracy — people already know about the history of Lincoln, she said.

“The pushback is about the idea that even in the telling of our own story, we have to center the white people, and that we don’t give enough credit,” Hannah-Jones said.

Hannah-Jones also spoke about the project’s personal effect on her. She became emotional when speaking of her grandmother, who was born in Mississippi and gave birth to Hannah-Jones’s father in a sharecropping shack on a plantation because Black people were not permitted to give birth in hospitals.

Hannah-Jones said her grandmother died of diabetes, her father died before he was old enough to get social security benefits and her uncle died at 50 of cancer because he didn’t have insurance and in turn, couldn’t receive an MRI. “All I kept thinking was everyone was lost,” HannahJones said. “All lives still are lost because we can’t purge this anti-Blackness from our country. And then, I can somehow, everything that my grandmother suffered, she could not imagine that she had a grandchild who could do something like this in The New York Times.”

The 1619 Project has been adapted into an education curriculum. The project was sold and created into a series of books that go from elementary school, middle school, high school and adults. HannahJones is also currently working on marking slave auctioning sites in U.S. cities and creating a photojournalism series.

Public Health student Janae Best appreciated HannahJones’s honesty and felt her thesis emphasized the pride Black Americans should feel about their place in the U.S. “How truthful she was, how raw she was and how unapologetic she was about telling the truth that has been hidden for so long, and just reminding us of the fact that Black people have a right to this country,” Best said. “Even more so than white people do because of the fact that the country was founded based off of slavery. That was very empowering.”

Rackham student Gabriel Gadsden applauded HannahJones for her frankness.

“Just how frank she was and just how unapologetic she was,” Gadsden said. “It was a conversation, and I think that she truly embodied that. And I think that’s the conversation that we need to have about race in America … You know, at a certain point you just can’t sugarcoat it. You just have to say what it is. And if it’s going to make people uncomfortable, so be it, but that’s the best trajectory that we need to go in.”

Gadsden said he grew up with slavery as an important conversation at home. He said it is crucial to discuss unknown actors in history beyond the activists commonly discussed in textbooks.

“It’s always the right time to talk about slavery and to talk about it, not just through the lens of Martin Luther King and Malcolm X, and these big names, but as she was addressing, was that the unsung heroes,” Gadsden said. “About those people who names are forgotten, whose plantations have been whitewashed, to bring that to the forefront of the conversation as well.”

The purpose of the 1619 Project, Hannah-Jones said, was indeed to celebrate unsung Black American heroes.

“This was about telling the story that people do not get, and this was about telling the story that Black Americans were not just sitting around waiting for equality,” HannahJones said. “That we fought every day.”

occurring, feel comfortable and know how to report it. In terms of moving forward, the University, you know, really has to have a provost in place.

So right now, I’m in the process of looking at people who have administrative experience and familiarity, because they sort of have to take over all at once, although I’ll be working with them very closely … And we’ll get talented people, it’s an important job. We’re fortunate at the University to have a large number of folks with a history of high-level service and demonstrated good judgment, and we’ll select and get a good person to serve.

The endowment and divesting from fossil fuels TMD: At their last meeting in December, the regents voted down a $50 million investment into Vendera Resources, a company with assets in oil and gas production. Does this indicate a shift in the University’s investment pursuits?

MS: I just don’t have more to say about that now. I don’t have anything to add to the observation that you made.

I’d love to talk about carbon neutrality efforts more generally, because they’re extremely important.

TMD: Do you believe the endowment should be governed by political ideology?

MS: In general, the purpose of the endowment is to provide support for an area that we’ve agreed with a donor is an area that the University thinks is important and the donor wants to support. We make a commitment to the donor to be a good steward of their money. So that means trying to generate the right mix of risk and return, you know, that sort of yield to the investment so that in perpetuity, we can support the thing that we agreed upon — students’ scholarships, for example — and have the endowment grow so that its value is not eroded with inf lation through the years. … So, I think that’s our primary responsibility … So, I’m giving a general answer. I’m not giving it in the instance of this issue or that

issue or even your question of politics. I’m saying in general, our obligation to donors when we accept their money is to do this form of stewardship and support what we agreed to support.

TMD: The Daily released a Statement piece in December about how mass student protests led up to divestment from apartheid South Africa.

Just these last few days, Central Student Government passed a resolution with other Big Ten schools that demands the administrations of all the schools freeze all their fossil fuel investments. Do you see a connection between these situations?

MS: Well, the same words are used — the word divestment is used — so that’s an obvious connection. The details of the two causes that we’re talking about, I can’t make a statement, you know. It’s an interesting question. The fact that both CSG and then collectively the equivalent bodies all across the Big Ten made a statement about this, I think is important. I think we have to hear the student voice and respect it and try to understand it.

The President’s Commission on Carbon Neutrality TMD: We reported earlier this month on the President’s Commission on Carbon Neutrality and how, in the process of preparing recommendations for achieving carbon neutrality, members of the Student Advisory Panel felt that the perspective of stakeholders such as themselves were overlooked. The co-chairs of the Commission, Jennifer Haverkamp and Stephen Forrest, also stated that they haven’t yet met with the other three advisory panels. What role do student perspectives have in the carbon neutrality process?

MS: I think we won’t be successful unless we have student perspectives, and more than just perspectives.

You know, I think often we

Engineering sophomore Carla Voigt, the University’s liaison to the ABTS, said the passage of the proposal aligns with CSG’s past actions.

“We really just wanted to get the other Big Ten schools to be a part of the same thing that we were investigating, pulling out of investments in fossil fuel industries,” Voigt said. “It’s not unlike claims that we have made in the past or actions that we have done, like when we divested from the tobacco industry in 2000.”

Voigt said the legislation works hand in hand with other proposals passed at the conference, such as the University of Indiana’s proposal to create a sustainability committee.

The Climate Action Movement has been a big proponent of pressuring the University of Michigan to divest in the past year.

They released a statement Tuesday

SCHLISSEL From Page 1A needs. The provost’s role though, is as a supervisor of the employees in the office.

The provost does not sign off on cases, he doesn’t play a role in investigations, doesn’t play a role in assigning punishment in cases. He, in this case, was simply the supervisor of this function for the University.

So, none of the cases that have come up during the months that the Provost was supervising, did he weigh in on the details of the case, but rather he was the supervisor for the office and responsible for its management and its budget.

TMD: Given Provost Philbert oversaw OIE and was such an important figure at the University and now has accusations of sexual misconduct against him, how will the University ensure that this does not happen again?

What steps will you take in hiring an interim provost – and all future administrators – to make sure they have no history of sexual misconduct?

MS: This sort of thing should never happen. So, if the allegations are proven true, and regardless, we have to think of how we select, and then vet our candidates for all different jobs at the University. … We have to look as carefully as we can of the people we hire to make sure that the likelihood of hiring people that have committed misconduct in the past or may commit it in the future is as low as possible. You can tell from all the reports around different parts of society, of episodes of sexual misconduct, that it’s not infrequent. And you know, our own survey data on campus have told us that it’s not infrequent. So, we’ve got to figure out how to do this better to figure out, how to set up a culture where this type of misbehavior, this category of misbehavior is not tolerated, that people feel comfortable to report it and to ask for help.

That peers or other people in the environment that have suspicions that misconduct is

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Opinion

4A — Wednesday, January 29, 2020

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ANIK JOSHI | COLUMN

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ISABELLE SCHINDLER | COLUMN

T

The need for qualified voices in government

he beginning of 2020 has been defined by international turmoil, ranging from our escalating conflict with Iran to sustained tensions with North Korea. As the United States grapples with these issues and many others, it is more important than ever that there are experienced and competent leaders in critical diplomatic posts.

During his presidential campaign, Donald Trump promised to “drain the swamp” and rid Washington of career politicians. Consequently, once elected, Trump failed to fill many important diplomatic positions or nominated people who lack critical international relations experience. One of the clearest examples of an underqualified diplomat is Kelly Craft, the current U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations. Craft’s husband is a coal baron who donated heavily to GOP candidates, including over $2 million to Trump’s campaign. After his election, Trump nominated Craft to be the U.S. Ambassador to Canada. She served in this role for 20 months, but came under fire for not being present in Canada for nearly half her time as Ambassador.

The role of a U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. is one of great importance as the ambassador represents America on a world stage and helps facilitate the resolution of important global issues through diplomacy.

Whether it is imposing sanctions on North Korea, advocating for an arms embargo to prevent weapons being sent to a war-torn region or helping to organize the international response to the Ebola crisis, this is a vitally important position.

Craft is particularly concerning due to her ties to the fossil fuel industry. She has

made concerning comments in the past about how she sees “both sides” in the climate change debate — remarks which she was later forced to retract.

Although she agreed to recuse herself on any coal-related U.N. discussions due to her husband’s business, there is still concern about how her ties to the fossil fuel industry will impact her work.

The U.N. is on the front lines of the fight against climate change, from hosting Greta Thunberg at the 2019 Climate Action Summit to commissioning reports that emphasize the true magnitude of the issue. Given Craft’s ties to the coal industry, it is concerning that she will be in this position.

Despite these issues, Craft was confirmed as U.N. ambassador by the Senate with almost no Democratic support.

We have seen similar stories of inexperienced officials being awarded important roles in government, including Rex Tillerson — former Exxon Mobil CEO — who served as Trump’s first Secretary of State, despite having no formal diplomatic experience or background.

Trump has shown a propensity for nominating donors to ambassadorships, despite their inherent lack of relevant experience for the role. Such was the case with the Ambassador to the United Arab Emirates, where Trump broke the longstanding precedent of appointing a career diplomat to the role and instead chose John Rakolta Jr., a businessman with no diplomatic background.

One may argue Trump is simply following a precedent set by past U.S. presidents on both sides of the aisle, who also awarded donors with ambassadorships.

However, an analysis of Trump’s picks has shown that he has

nominated underqualified donors to ambassadorships at a higher rate than any of his predecessors. In an equally dangerous fashion, many important positions related to international relations or national security remain vacant.

There are hundreds of open positions in the administration, with at least 88 of them in the Department of Defense.

Important roles such as Secretary of the Navy, Director of National Intelligence and Secretary of Homeland Security are all vacant or are filled by acting personnel who have not had to face questioning or a Senate confirmation vote.

This is extremely concerning because, without the proper staffing, these departments and agencies may be stretched too thin or may be unable to meet the needs of our rapidly changing geopolitical situation. Given our current international uncertainty, it is more important than ever that these critical positions are filled by competent and experienced officials.

As we have seen with the recent situation with Iran, students are taking notice of the volatile state of our international affairs. From protests to memes, University of Michigan students have expressed concern over the condition of our world and our relationship with other nations.

If we want to maintain a safe and secure world, we need to be aware of the incompetent but powerful figures guiding our foreign policy and use our voices to advocate for stronger and more capable leaders to resolve the issues facing our nation and our world in the future.

Isabelle Schindler can be reached at ischind@umich.edu.

ANNA GETZINGER | CONTACT CARTOONIST AT GETZINGA@UMICH.EDU

I

Why does CNN keep putting these people on TV?

n Rick Santorum, Sean Duffy and every other commentator on cable news, there is a politician. More importantly, there is content.

The outrage cycle is just a part of that content, and as long as there is more content, everyone is happy. Duffy, formerly of “The Real World” fame, was elected as part of the 2010 Tea Party wave to Congress, where he remained for almost ten years until resigning in September of 2019.

After, he opted to head where most former politicians do — cable news. He made his CNN debut in October 2019 by smearing an Iraq war veteran with a Purple Heart — Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman — as someone with possible dual loyalties toward the Ukraine.

Duffy’s shameless guesswork predictably resulted in outrage, and much of it was justified.

Condemnation reigned down from members of the Republican leadership like Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., and Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., on Duffy’s idea.

There was another kind of condemnation that was far more interesting. CNN’s Brianna Keilar went out of her way to push back on antiimmigrant bigotry — a good thing, no doubt. She was not the only CNN anchor to do this; others went out of their way to prove that Duffy’s ideas were reprehensible, and that kind of behavior and rhetoric had no place in public discourse.

These stances may have had no place in the discourse; however, that didn’t stop CNN from handing Duffy an obscene contract worth countless millions for exactly that rhetoric and behavior. Duffy backed the Muslim Ban and was hired with

an entire history of problematic actions. And yet, CNN is now surprised he is a bigot. Was the entire hiring department recently hit over the head with a two-by-four?

Duffy is a more egregious offender than most, but he is by no means alone. The entire Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman cycle with him is almost identical to the conflict between former Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., and the Parkland teenagers in early 2018.

The Parkland students were asking for gun safety laws, and Rick Santorum said that students from the high school should learn CPR instead of marching.

Was the entire hiring department recently hit over the head with a two-by-four?

Of course, there was outrage — there were panelists who were offended and hosts who took shots at Santorum. However, Santorum behaving like this should not have surprised anyone actually paying attention to his long career.

Santorum wrote a book in 2006 that angrily denounced what he saw as “radical feminists” undermining families among other claims that would make Don Draper blush as far as women in the workplace are concerned. Again: Here is a guy with a history of making outlandish comments, and here is CNN ready and willing to put him back on your TV.

Santorum will continue to say idiotic things on TV and continue to get rewarded for it with bigger contribution deals.

The cycle then feeds off itself, because with more people saying bigoted things, there is more of a need to send out other people and contributors to cut down the nonsense. Rather than shoveling this garbage into the atmosphere and then sending out the cleanup crew, perhaps CNN could skip the first step.

CNN is not the only offender in this arena. Many stations have signed former politicians; it’s good to get expertise. But that’s not what CNN is getting when they give a platform to people like Duffy and Santorum. Duffy was never a particularly important member — one of his more famous projects was a push to end endangered protections for grey wolves.

Furthermore, one can question Santorum’s political chops; his Senatorial race in 2006 ended with the 25th worst defeat by an incumbent senator in the history of the institution.

The endless outrage cycles ought to end. President Donald Trump sucks all the oxygen out of the room, but still leaves space for outrage, and the American people deserve better than that. TV journalism was left a sparkling legacy by journalists like Edward Murrow and Michigan’s own Mike Wallace. Returning to their craft and practice will take more than firing the Duffys and Santorums of the world, but it’s a damn good start.

Anik Joshi can be reached at anikj@umich.edu.

KIANNA MARQUEZ | COLUMN

Urban development should be inclusive and proactive

T

he way we think ref lects the way we live.

Some people live their lives with more logical setups, others with more free-spirited attitudes, but the ability to live with a balance of logic and naiveté are essential for a wellrounded, stable life.

In the same way, effective sustainable development in urban planning should come with both logic and abstraction in its design.

We should logically address the existing technical problems while thoughtfully anticipating the possible issues in our future society, including how we imagine our future infrastructure and how we interact with infrastructure today.

University of Michigan alum Kristin Baja, with her involvement in the Urban Sustainability Directors Network, has crusaded a constant focus on using the present to address existing problems from the past and build for the future. Baja, among others on the USDN staff, has capitalized on the idea of resilience to construct a type of infrastructure that addresses the climate issue in a fast-paced and evolving world: Resilience Hubs.

Resilience Hubs are public facilities made to support communication among residents of disadvantaged communities, distribute resources and power to them and reduce carbon emissions to enhance their quality of life. Similar to standard community centers, they are created to develop social equity and community resilience, which is the general term used to refer to the measure of a community’s resources, connections, health and mental outlook, as well as other factors.

However, these Resilience Hubs also prioritize emergency management and climate change mitigation while providing opportunities for the community to become more self-sufficient. Though the performance of these hubs has yet to be evaluated in any case studies, they aim to compile both tangible and abstract

components of resilience that make for the well-rounded function of a community: programming, structure, power, communication and operations. As the Director of Climate Resilience for the USDN, Baja works to connect local governments and community-based organizations for urban planning, leading the effort to make these Resilience Hubs a reality for interested communities in North America.

One of the main benefits Resilience Hubs aim to create for disadvantaged communities is a restoration of equity. In response to the over-extraction of resources and racial inequity that causes people of color and indigenous populations to face the worst of climate change, these hubs are meant to solve systemic inequity crises by acknowledging and repairing these systems on an administrative level.

The hubs uphold an all-encompassing approach to solving community problems.

In supporting Resilience Hubs, local governments can demonstrate their concern for meeting a community’s needs and involving it in future decision-making. As community directors of the hubs gain financial support and interest from their local governments, the hubs can become a central mechanism by which authorities can enhance community cohesion and build trust with a fair distribution of power.

In other words, the hubs make an effort to address what each community needs while maintaining their infrastructural and cultural integrity rather than implementing a solution that is not usable in that community.

In using this approach, a community can receive the

specific type of help it needs in order to f lourish. In addition, the purpose of the hubs is to harbor collaboration among multiple disciplines and achieve the goals of more than one stakeholder involved.

In upholding awareness of the needs of communities along with the needs of local governments, the hubs uphold an all-encompassing approach to solving community problems in an adaptive and proactive way.

Here at the University, we have a responsibility to pursue efforts that benefit all walks of life on our campus.

Whether we take part in leading community reform efforts or simply advocate for them indirectly, it’s important that everyone on our campus upholds our reputation of being the Leaders and the Best by working to implement and support fair and restorative policies for all groups of people. With that said, I urge University authorities to pursue the purpose of Resilience Hubs, if not the facilities themselves. This is especially salient as we continue to boast about the positive impacts of our outreach efforts, including those we implement in Detroit.

In terms of urban development, we owe it to the future of this campus and the future of Ann Arbor to begin constructing sustainable infrastructure with the mentality of appealing to all who interact with it. Besides the trivial initiatives we have executed for our city, we should be focusing on how we can make it multifaceted and adaptable to the evolving needs of our population. We should ignore the seeming importance of focusing on one person’s benefit and instead be thinking about how we can self-determine together as a city. We could mold our city into one that exemplifies our lifestyles: sustainable, inclusive and proactive. In doing so, we will create a reality that is respectable and one that we can relish.

Kianna Marquez can be reached at kmarquez@umich.edu.

Arts

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Wednesday, January 29, 2020 — 5A

Blake Shelton claims he’s done releasing full albums KATIE BEEKMAN Daily Arts Writer

For better or for worse, it seems like we won’t be getting any new Blake Shelton albums for a long time … or maybe ever. Whether that possibility bums you out or makes you sigh in relief — keep in mind that Shelton isn’t going anywhere.

In an interview with Entertainment Tonight, Shelton admitted, “I don’t want to put out another album, I really don’t.” Instead, he hinted that his plan is to keep releasing music as it comes to him, to just put out single after single. “Do people care about [albums] anymore?”

Shelton asked himself during his decision-making process. “I don’t know,” he concluded. But in an industry where streaming reigns supreme and singles drop like wildfire, Shelton can’t be alone in having doubts.

At the same time Shelton was swearing off releasing albums, his single “God’s Country” was climbing to its eventual spot atop Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart. Dark, moody and more southern rock than country pop, “God’s Country” was a departure for Shelton.

Then came “Hell Right,” a nauseating return to his usual, featuring Trace Adkins. As of Jan. 21, his latest single is

“Nobody But You,” a pleasant yet forgettable duet with Shelton’s girlfriend Gwen Stefani.

One read on Shelton’s latest offerings is freedom. Another is chaos. Unchained to curating a group of songs into an album, Shelton can release whatever he wants, whenever he wants. As a listener, I was refreshed to hear “God’s Country.” I thought that I was being introduced to a new

Unchained to curating a group of songs into an album, Shelton can release whatever he wants, whenever he wants.

side of Shelton — the serious side. But I was misled. His next two singles sound nothing like “God’s Country” and the

promising direction suggested by that song became a missed opportunity.

This is precisely what Shelton is losing out on by forgoing albums — the chance to dive into a new sound, to be pulled in an artistic direction and stick with it long enough to explore where it could lead him. Making an album has the ability to improve the overall quality of the singles.

More importantly, this prevents listeners from getting whiplash every time they hear new music from an artist. Albums are meant to anchor. They contextualize, constructing a world the singles can thrive in. In order to really sink your teeth into a new sound or idea or artist, you need more than three minutes with them.

Blake Shelton’s unique position within country music, and the greater music industry itself, cannot be ignored when analyzing his business strategies. Shelton holds the record for the most consecutive number ones on the country airplay chart. He’s a beloved personality inside and outside of the genre with gigs like hosting the American Country Music Awards and judging The Voice.

Shelton could release static to country radio, and it would get airtime. Maybe that’s why Shelton is actually the perfect candidate to experiment with how he releases music — he doesn’t need an album to glue his songs together, his brand is

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enough.

Shelton isn’t the only country artist to have challenged the value of albums. In 2017, up-andcomer Hunter Hayes decided that he would simply release songs when he felt their stories needed to be heard, without any kind of album agenda. “It’s gonna be a little bit of everything,” he announced at the CMT Music Awards that year, “the big singles and the songs that just matter to me.” But none of the songs he ended up releasing, single or not, ended up catching speed.

Eventually, Hayes relented. In October of 2019 he released his first album in five years, Wild Blue, and found himself further back in his country music career than where he left off with his sophomore record.

Pop artists have tried the same technique with great success. Selena Gomez released a string of hit singles in 2017

Minnesota Orchestra hit their stride with Sibelius SAMMY SUSSMAN Daily Arts Writer

WARNER BROS. PICTURES

‘Mercy’ portrays racism of criminal justice system Daily Arts Writer

A white girl is murdered in a small town in the South.

The police have no leads and are under pressure to arrest a suspect. Who easier to convict than a Black man from a poor neighborhood?

“Just Mercy” follows the true story of Walter “Johnny D.” McMillian (Jamie Foxx, “Robin Hood”), a Black man who is sentenced to death for a crime he couldn’t have possibly committed, and Bryan Stevenson (Michael B. Jordan, “Black Panther”), the young upstart lawyer who fights for his freedom. Stevenson and his newly-formed law firm face fierce opposition from the district attorney, the county sheriff and the deeply entrenched racism of a small southern community.

Set in Monroeville, Alabama in the late ’80s and early ’90s, the film is an exhibition of police corruption, judicial malpractice and a shattered system of justice.

From the very beginning, Stevenson sees the glaring holes in the case against McMillian, just from reading the court documents. When Stevenson goes to county prosecutor Tommy Chapman (Rafe Spall, “Men In Black: International”), he warns against opening old wounds. According to him, nobody in town believes McMillian is innocent. But when Stevenson goes to McMillian’s

Albums set the tone for artists’ subsequent tours and live shows.

I think the best concerts create an atmosphere where an artist’s latest album and biggest hits can exist together. Playing a set of detached singles doesn’t have the same affect.

While researching this article, I came across the names of a few of Shelton’s latest tours.

There’s the incredibly creative “Blake Shelton 2016 Tour,” the cringeworthy “Doing It to Country Songs Tour” and the downright odd “Country Music Freaks Tour.” And then it hit me.

Just releasing singles is perfect for an artist like Shelton. He isn’t interested in making any grand artistic statements, he’s interested in singing the songs he likes, entertaining crowds and making money. And maybe that’s OK. Maybe there’s room for all kinds of artists and release strategies in music.

COMMUNITY CULTURE REVIEW

FILM REVIEW

DYLAN YONO

with “It Ain’t Me,” “Bad Liar,” “Fetish” and “Wolves” before eventually placing them on the Target edition of her album Rare two years later. Gomez’s success points to the artist being the key to pursuing the “single strategy.” Additionally, because of country radio’s dominance in determining what gets heard by which country artists, country music may be an even more conducive format to releasing album-less singles than pop — if you’re the right artist.

At the end of the day, I will always root for albums.

Listening to a carefully crafted collection of songs from top to bottom is an experience; one that isn’t worth sacrificing for an already popular artist to boost their streams. Many of my favorite songs are album cuts — experimental tracks that wouldn’t quite make it on radio but still deserve to be heard.

family, he is welcomed by a crowd of community members who know McMillian’s innocence for a fact. There’s overwhelming evidence to clear McMillian’s name, and when word spreads that Stevenson is digging up that evidence, the intimidation begins: the unlawful arrest of a witness testifying to McMillian’s innocence, a bomb threat against Stevenson’s

Just Mercy GQT Quality 16 Warner Bros. Pictures

partner Eva Ansley (Brie Larson, “Avengers: Endgame”), police officers who hold Stevenson at gunpoint at a traffic stop.

However, Stevenson’s resolve is unshakeable and he refuses to walk away from the case.

While the movie principally follows the case of Walter McMillian, it also covers a concurrent case handled by Stevenson, the story of death row inmate Herbert “Herb” Richardson (Rob Morgan, “The Last Black Man In San Francisco”). Richardson’s case is different from McMillian’s.

Richardson did in fact commit the crime he was charged with: planting a bomb that killed a

young girl. Yet he was jailed with no acknowledgment of his service in Vietnam or his obvious and untreated PTSD. “Just Mercy” would be incomplete without Richardson’s inclusion. It’s one thing to show how the death penalty has been doled out wrongly on a racial pretext. It’s another to expose just how wrong the death penalty is, even when the charges are accurate. Morgan’s performance as the haunted, death-destined inmate compels compassion in the audience. He encapsulates the hopelessness of death row in a brutally frank comparison to being in war: “It’s different than ‘Nam. At least I had a chance there.”

Given the dramatized nature of the story, it’s easy to suspect there are many artistic liberties at play. But “Just Mercy” sticks to the facts with surprising accuracy. A fact vs. fiction piece

by Slate highlights this, noting most changes to Stevenson’s story are “matters of dramatic compression.” That being said, the movie is not 100% accurate.

If anything, it underplays much of the stark racism; what real-life Sheriff Tate (Michael Harding, “Halt and Catch Fire”) said upon arresting McMillian is far more egregious than his film counterpart. Ironically, “Just Mercy” is merciful in its depiction of its most guilty characters.

Read more online at

michigandaily.com

The atmosphere before Saturday night’s Minnesota Orchestra concert at Hill Auditorium was electric. The orchestra was dressed in whitetie attire, the choir in black ties.

This was the University Musical Society’s first performance of the decade in Hill Auditorium.

It was an all-Sibelius concert conducted by Finnish conductor (and noted Sibelius enthusiast) Osmo Vänskä. The stage was artificially extended to fit the large orchestra, as well as the choir and narrator required for the opening work: composer Jean Sibelius’s “Snöfrid,” a choral melodrama rarely performed in the United States.

In a pre-concert talk, the audience got a sense for the musical and linguistic challenges that went behind programming this rarelyperformed work. Not only were the choral and narratorial parts in Swedish, they were in Old Swedish. The UMS Choral Union, a UMS employee explained, spent months learning to sing in this language. Along with the narrator, Sassa Åkervall, they were more than up to the task.

Though the work dragged at a few points, particularly when the audience’s attention was split between the supertitles projected above the ensemble and the narrator speaking over simple orchestral textures, the overall effect was quite convincing. For those American audiences that know little of Sibelius’s work besides his symphonies and violin concerto, this was a reminder of Sibelius’s tone poems, melodramas and other programmatic pieces.

After a brief pause, the orchestra launched into my favorite performance of the evening, Sibelius’s “Concerto in d minor for Violin and Orchestra.” The soloist was US-born Finnish violinist Elina Vähälä.

Coming from the triumphant ending of the first work, it took a few seconds to adjust to the orchestra’s new sound.

Sibelius’s concerto starts almost as quiet as possible — in the transition between “Snöfrid” and the Violin Concerto, the full dynamic range of the ensemble was on display.

From her first entrance, Vähälä’s sound was as commanding as her presence was unassuming. Unlike many concerto soloists, she didn’t use physical gestures to emphasize her performance abilities. She made her part look easy, almost effortless at times.

At one point, for example, the violinist is called upon to play four notes at once; by quickly curling the bow along the four strings, they can approximate these four-note harmonies.

Vähälä navigated this passage

It was the quintessential Sibelius ending: loud, proud melodic lines over simple pedal harmonies.

with ease, even managing to compliment the inner-harmony melodies she was playing that were also sounding in the upper woodwinds.

The orchestra, particularly the upper strings, seemed to build off of Vähälä’s energy.

A performance that began tentative and fragile ended bright and triumphant. The Minnesota Orchestra clearly knows its Sibelius, from the sweeping melodic lines double by the strings to the occasional brass melodies and woodwind solos that briefly come to the fore.

After Vähälä’s stellar performance and the audience’s two rounds of applause, the orchestra began one of Sibelius’s most performed works: the “Symphony No. 5 in E-flat Major.” Yet again, the

opening minutes felt tentative and rushed. Some of the accelerandos and ritardandos (increases and decreases in tempo) were slightly exaggerated.

Once the orchestra hit their stride, though, they never lost it. The ending of the first movement was executed perfectly. It was the quintessential Sibelius ending: loud, proud melodic lines over simple pedal harmonies.

The second and third movements unfolded in a similar manner to the first.

I was surprised, at first, at how little the volume and expressive contour of these two movements changed. But this was not a quiet, unassuming concert opener. This was the confident end to the concert and the orchestra interpreted the work at such.

And in the middle of the third movement, when the orchestra finally played the sweeping, soaring theme the symphony is famous for, I couldn’t help but close my eyes to revel in the sound. If this had been all that the orchestra performed, it still would have made the evening worth it.

After two rounds of applause, the orchestra performed a brief encore: Sibelius’s “Valse Triste.” This quirky little waltz was an appropriate end to an evening of Sibelius. We’d heard his dramatic choral music, his virtuosic instrumental music, his magnificent symphonic music and now his fun character pieces.

This all-Sibelius concert drew my attention to a number of these archetypical Sibelius techniques. Frequent fluctuations between arco and pizzicato string sections, for one thing, as a means of repeating melodic lines but varying color and texture.

Sparing use of brass and woodwinds was another.

Above all, it was Sibelius’s simple, diatonic melodies, the kind that are doubled by three string sections (sometimes even at the octave) that most stuck out to me. I left with a newfound interest in Sibelius — a composer that I thought I knew very well — which is quite a statement about the quality of the performance I’d witnessed.

Arts

6A — Wednesday, January 29, 2020

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

COMMUNITY CULTURE REVIEW

TV REVIEW

Multi-talented musicians of Mipso return to the Ark STEPHANIE GURALNICK Daily Arts Writer

NETFLIX

Here’s to roots, to ‘Ranch’ MAXWELL SCHWARZ Daily Arts Writer

For all its subplots, the enduring struggle of Netflix’s “The Ranch” has always been the Bennetts themselves.

The tumultuous relationship between Colt’s (Ashton Kutcher, “That 70s Show”) narcissism and the intensity of his father, Beau (Sam Elliot, “The Mule”), has been at the center of it all. As the Bennetts continue to suffer from fighting one another, so does their beloved ranch. Nothing grows where there is no nurturing.

Thus, the fourth season of this often dark western comedy has arrived and with it, the end of “The Ranch.”

The second half of the season comes after the first half was left on a cliffhanger: Who shot Nick (Josh Burrow, “The Crimson Mask”)?

While both Colt and his cousin Luke (Dax Shepard, “Bless This Mess”) are arrested, it was actually Colt’s ex-girlfriend Heather (Kelli Goss, “Grey’s Anatomy”) behind the trigger.

Season four allows the Bennets to leave on a high note, after three seasons of misfortunes. Colt and Abby (Elisha Cuthbert, “24”) come to the decision that they’d like to have a second child. Luke comes to terms with the death of a close friend and to the conclusion about

where he wants to be — at the ranch with the Bennetts. At the same time, Colt manages to do some sleuthing — proving the foul play of a large agricultural corporation.

In the process, Colt not only saves his father’s ranch, but also acquires a new ranch next door for his new family.

Despite its large and talented cast, “The Ranch” has gone relatively overlooked for each of

The Ranch Season Four Netflix Streaming now

its four seasons. Yet, the show has been notable for a number of reasons, including the crassness with which the characters speak.

The series never shied away from f-bombs, nor introspection. Even more notable is its subject matter.

“The Ranch” has maintained an

idle, almost offhand preoccupation with the rural. Here the Bennetts were, in the same town they grew up in, in the same bar they’ve always been drinking in, doing the same things they’ve always done.

Perhaps it’s because of this that the Bennetts have struggled to survive in the onslaught of change and misfortune. Beau’s insistence on not moving his herd during a wildfire, only to lose track of his family, is one such notable example.

But I think “The Ranch” is more than that. There are few televised offerings that portray country living in a way that doesn’t pander or talk down to people with rural lifestyles.

Yet, “The Ranch” has always been firm in portraying ruralites with a heavy dash of humility. Yes, Colt and Rooster are ranchers whose names are literal farm animals, and yes, they do get up to some yee-haw shenanigans. But the show also punishes its characters for this. The narrative punishes characters for being set in their ways too deeply. “The Ranch” does not praise the mischief that arises from the itchiness that comes with living in the middle of nowhere. But it also doesn’t condemn it, because that’s unreasonable and a tad discriminatory.

Read more online at

michigandaily.com

album (title TBD) and some hilariously-picked and brilliantly-executed covers.

The audience chuckled and cackled in disbelief when the shimmering opening chords of a new song quickly turned into a Death Cab for Cutie song.

Each member shone brilliantly: Jacob Sharp’s (mandolin, vocals) lyrical depth and quiet, yearning vocals were heart-wrenching; Wood Robinson (bass, vocals) rooted the band with his steady playing; Joseph Terrell (guitar, vocals) gave the band its fun,

Oh, Mipso, you have my heart.

Mipso, a folk/bluegrass quartet hailing from Chapel Hill, returned to Ann Arbor this past Friday to perform at the Ark and fit into this city like a vintage, leather glove.

The evening began as quietly and strangely as it ended, with the astral music of openers Bridget Kearney on electric bass/vocals and Benjamin Lazar Davis on a whole slew of instruments. Their music snuck up on me. These two quiet, endearingly awkward musicians created these incredibly stark soundscapes dotted with musical oddities and rhythmic complications.

Kearney’s deceptively simple lyrics combined with Davis’ eccentric musical f lare made for a continually surprising experience. It felt simultaneously welcoming and isolating, like they were inviting you to feel lonely with them. Each song had an uncomfortable element to it, but uncomfortable in classically-country f lair; and that it made you alert, not in Libby Rodenbough (fiddle, a way that was unpleasant to vocals) tied it all together listen to. These oddball songs, with a fiddle that soared and coupled with the performers’ danced, a voice that slipped awkwardly wonderful sense through tight harmonies and of humor, made the audience sweet lyrics, and an attitude that commanded and drove the ready to receive anything.

When Mipso entered, they band forward.

Though each was slid right into their set as if they had always been there, playing remarkable, the most beautiful as smooth and consistent as aspect of their performance river water. They didn’t stop — in addition to their quirky to acknowledge the audience quips between songs and their until after their third song, and friendly, intimate banter with the greeting seemed less like each other and the audience an introduction and more like a — was how much they shared continuation of a relationship. the spotlight. The songs in the set felt varied tonally in Their set glittered with gems Sudoku Generator from their new album, EDGES a complementary, refreshing RUN, as well as a few sneak way, and the lead singer was peaks from their upcoming constantly rotating between

It is rare to see tight collaboration anywhere, but what a delight it is to witness such collaboration in action.

the band members.

In fact, I don’t even know if I can say there is a lead singer in the band. Mipso accomplishes something rare that I didn’t realize the full extent of until seeing them live: they all work.

Each one of them played at least two different instruments in the concert alone, all of them sang beautifully, and from the lyrical variance, it became clear that each of them contributed to the writing. Each band member is a musician, a singer, a lyricist and a vivid, welcoming presence onstage, making each of them essential and irreplaceable. And that is, for a lack of better words, truly insane.

It is rare to see tight collaboration anywhere, but what a delight it is to witness such collaboration in action.

The multi-talented, symbiotic relationship between all of the group members coalesced into a vibrant, energetic folk experience.

Each song charged forward, while retaining that sense of laid-back ease inherent in folk music. They met each moment with enthusiasm and then relaxed into it. And, in turn, we relaxed with them.

When they came back out for their encore, the band met the audience with an incredibly somber song about being ready to die. This made a few audience members who recognized the tune greet the encore with scattered chuckles, but we all quickly gave into the soothing f low of the song.

They slipped out of the concert and this town as smoothly and naturally as they had entered it, leaving the audience with sweet memories of well-crafted songs and a subtle itching in the back of our minds — a sense of waiting and eagerness for whatever is to come from the haunting, lively band Mipso.

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The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Sports

Wednesday, January 29, 2020 — 7A

Johnson, Hillmon adding leadership Michigan sweeps ITA kickoff, 2-0 BRENDAN ROOSE Daily Sports Writer

On Sunday, the Michigan women’s basketball team desperately needed a win against Rutgers to get its season back on track. Putting up a career-high 24 points and 11 rebounds, senior guard Akienreh Johnson stepped up with her first career doubledouble to help the Wolverines win, 71-57. Her performance was even more crucial with senior forward Kayla Robbins out with a torn ACL. But equally important to her performance on the court has been her emergence as a leader.

It’s something she’s had to do all season, but now that Robbins is out, she’s the only healthy senior on the team — thrust into a much higher-pressure situation.

She answered the call.

“That’s the first thing I thought about (after Robbins’ injury) when we got back to Ann Arbor, is like, ‘How am I going to lead this team without my partner in crime?’ ” Johnson said last week.

“We’re still roommates, we’re still going to do that, but it’s just going to be difficult without an

experienced person and that’s part of the worker she is. She’s just not going to be on the court.

So my leadership role is definitely going to have to change.”

That change was clear Sunday.

With three freshmen — guards Maddie Nolan and Michelle Sidor, and center Izabel Varejão — all seeing meaningful minutes, Johnson was much more vocal on the court than she has been in the past. When her teammates made shots, she was the first to congratulate them. When they missed shots, she was there to pick them up.

But even more telling of her leadership capabilities, she publicly called on them to step up. “(My role) is going to have to change, but also everybody else,” Johnson said. “(Sophomore forward Naz Hillmon) is going to have to step up, be a more vocal leader. Amy (Dilk) is going to have to step up. I think Danielle (Rauch) did a great job during that game of being a vocal leader … I’m only one person, and it’s just not going to get done with just one person being a leader on the court.”

Hillmon will be looking to

answer that call. Though she’s only a sophomore, her role as the team’s leading scorer means that she’ll need to mature as a player more quickly than her teammates.

On Sunday, she led by example.

Beyond her usual scoring — she scored 20 points, 3.9 more than her season average — she added 12 rebounds. On defense, she anchored a 2-3 zone that helped force the Scarlet Knights into 17 turnovers.

“I think that I’m still coming into that role, just trying to make sure I’m focusing on myself, make sure I’m focused in,” Hillmon said. “Because I can’t really tell other people to do stuff that I’m not already locked in on. … Trying to talk as much as I can, especially when we’re in zone. I mean the top of the zone doesn’t know what’s going on half the time and just trying to be in those huddles, being a positive energy.”

It’ll be a process for both Johnson and Hillmon to adapt to their new roles. Both of them have stressed that they’re going to lead their own way — they won’t try to be Kayla Robbins.

Against Rutgers, they showed that they don’t have to be.

EMMA MATI/Daily

Senior guard Akeinreh Johnson has stepped up as a leader after Kayla Robbins’ ACL tear sidlined her for the season.

JACK WHITTEN Daily Sports Writer

Andrea Cerdan was ready to deliver the dagger.

The freshman had taken the upper hand against Valeriya Zeleva, forcing her into the alley to respond to an aggressive series of groundstrokes. All Zeleva could manage was a desperation heave, sending the ball in a slow, looping trajectory over the net, while Cerdan positioned herself for a volley to put the point out of reach.

She fired it into the net.

The dagger would have to wait.

The No. 15 Michigan women’s tennis team (2-0) played host to the International Tennis Association kick-off meet at the Varsity Tennis Center this weekend, and after a 4-2 semifinal win over Mississippi (3-1) and a 4-2 defeat of No. 12 Central Florida (2-1), the Wolverines clinched a berth to the ITA National Team indoor championship. It did not go without a hitch.

“We’re going to have a lot of opportunities there to play the top teams in the country,” Michigan coach Ronni Bernstein said. “That was our goal, so (we’re) happy to get through this weekend.”

Against the Rebels, the Wolverines jumped out to an early lead thanks to their sweep of the doubles matches; in the singles, the only major casualty was No. 1 singles player and No. 26 overall, senior Guilia Pairone, who fell in straight sets.

“For our first match, to play a quality team like that and get through … that was a big team win,” Bernstein said.

On Sunday, Michigan found itself on the other side of a doubles sweep. Two of Central Florida’s pairs ranked inside the top 15 nationally, compared to three unranked Wolverine duos.

Michigan kept all three matches close with competence on the baseline, but Central Florida used its subtlety at the net to create winners and end rallies in its favor; the same could not be said for the Wolverines.

FILE PHOTO/Daily

Senior Chiara Lommer won, 6-2, 7-6, in Michigan’s win over Central Florida.

“We’re staying back more, and they’re hitting it big,” Bernstein said, “so it’s hard to come in unless it’s the right ball, so maybe they just weren’t picking the right ball.”

Six points were still available at the start of singles play, and both squads claimed one after early straight-set victories.

Meanwhile, Pairone and the Knights’ Evgeniya Levashova took their time, exchanging long rallies and dueling deep into each game. Levashova grabbed a slight advantage when she went up a break, riding it to a first set victory.

On the other side of the complex, Cerdan dropped a tightly-contested first set, 7-5.

“The first set, I was going a little bit too much, being a little overly aggressive.” Cerdan said. “I was too focused on holding back or being too aggressive; I couldn’t find the in-between. That also led to me getting frustrated.”

Cerdan found the balance deep in the second set. Moments after the unforced error on the volley, she faced a similar opportunity on a set point. Zeleva surrendered another lob, but before she could get back to the middle, Cerdan used an overhead smash — over the net this time — to even the match. She took the third set, 6-1, delivering the final blow.

While Pairone won her second set by that same score, senior Chiara Lommer was frustrated on the adjacent court.

She had made quick work of Nadja Bay Christians in the first

set, 6-2, and built a 5-1 lead in the second, but began to hemorrhage points. As the match wore on, she leaned on her forehand more and more, taking inside-out shots instead of the more efficient backhand from the baseline corner.

Her groundstrokes barraged the net, leaving ample “what-ifs.”

“I haven’t been feeling great on the court, so a little bit of belief in closing out the second set was just missing,” Lommer said. “And she also, obviously, didn’t miss a ball anymore.”

Bernstein stopped pacing around the remaining matches and sat by Lommer’s court.

“I knew that I didn’t want her to slip,” Bernstein said. “She had a big lead, you want them to get off the court there, get that third point.”

Lommer managed to win the first-to-seven tiebreaker, taking the set, match and even more crucially, the fourth and final point needed for Michigan’s team win.

“That’s a great win for her,” Bernstein said. “For her to come back in that pressure moment, to come through, I think it’s going to give her a lot of confidence. I’m really proud of how she fought and stuck with it.”

Lommer fell to her knees as Bay Christians’ final ball soared out of bounds. The first to join her in celebration was Pairone, whose match was abandoned in the midst of a neck-and-neck third set.

Cerdan wasn’t far behind. She had delivered the dagger after all.

Split decision Michigan beats Northwestern, falls to Illinois in weekend swing, giving Wolverines first Big Ten loss LILY ISRAEL

Daily Sports Writer

It’s a moment Michigan coach Sean Bormet always talks about: being the guy to decide the match. The one with the weight of the team on your shoulders.

It’s usually the heavyweights.

The 125-pound duals get the match started off on the right foot, then sit back and watch their teammates try and pull out a victory.

But Friday night, on the road against No. 15 Northwestern (3-4 overall, 1-3 Big Ten), 125-pound redshirt sophomore Jack Medley found himself competing in the final bout of the night with the score tied at 17.

“I think Jack enjoyed the moment and enjoyed the opportunity,” Bormet said. “...

I turned around on the bench to check with each guy before they step on the mat. I could see he was excited and eager for the moment to be the last guy to wrestle and decide the team dual victory.”

The Wildcats won the coin toss and strategically started the dual with the 133-pound bout in hopes that the fate of the dual would come down to the 125-bout. Their wish was granted, but it was Medley and the No. 25 Michigan wrestling team (5-3, 4-1) that pulled off the upset road victory, 20-17, over Northwestern.

Medley faced sixth-ranked Michael DeAugustino with the dual on the line. The score was tied after the first period, with neither wrestler finding the opportunity for a takedown.

DeAugustino scored an escape point to take the lead in the second period, but Medley quickly evened the score with an escape of his own to start the third, and final, period.

With 1:24 left in the third period, Medley scored a takedown, putting him up, 3-1, which would ultimately be the deciding factor in the match and

meet. With under one minute left, DeAugustino needed a takedown for the comeback victory.

“The last 15 seconds I told myself, ‘Stay smart don’t back up and get a stalling call’ cause I had a stalling call against me, so that would have given him a point,” Medley said.

Though he scored an escape point, Medley miraculously avoided a takedown with just nine seconds left to clinch the bout. Medley won, 3-2, securing an upset victory for himself and a 20-17 win for his team.

“He’s a guy that’s a tireless worker and we as a staff and as a team have a ton of confidence in Jack,” Bormet said.

Competing in an unusual spot in the lineup and wrestling a highly-ranked opponent did not faze Medley and was a challenge he fully embraced.

“They definitely had a strategy of having our match as the last match to give their other guy some more recovery time,” Medley said. “But it didn’t matter.”

The Wolverines began the match strong, winning the first three bouts in dominant fashion to give Michigan a 12-0 lead. 133pound fifth-year senior Austin Assad set the tone from the onset with a 10-0 major decision.

However, inconsistency in the middleweights, which has plagued the Wolverines throughout the season, caused the outcome of the dual to be in doubt. After a hot start, Michigan lost five straight bouts in the 157, 165, 174, 184 and 197 weight classes.

“I think we need to be consistent in how we think and in how we wrestle,” Bormet said.

“There were a couple of matches that we lost our composure and we didn’t refocus the way we needed to.”

The Wildcats turned a 12-point deficit into a 14-12 lead after 11th-ranked, 184-pound redshirt sophomore Jelani Embree fell to Northwestern’s

Jack Jessen. Embree took a 2-1 lead after the first period, but was taken down in the second period and never recovered. Jessen won the decision, 7-6, and, more importantly, stole the lead and momentum from the Wolverines.

“I think (Embree) was really capable of scoring with his speed and some leg attacks,” Bormet said. “He kinda got caught up wrestling some upper body positions that he is pretty good it but its just positions that he didn’t need to wrestle in.”

Sophomore and No. 2 heavyweight wrestler Mason Parris brought consistency back to the team as he dominated his bought.

Parris’ 20-5 win, including a technical fall and bonus points, proved instrumental in a victory that provided momentum and confidence to the wrestlers.

“I think this team is still learning a lot but we are starting to come together,” Medley said. “I think a lot of our guys are starting to believe in themselves.”

AVI RAJENDRA-NICOLUCCI Daily Sports Writer

Michigan wrestling’s Jelani Embree battled Illinois’ Zac Braunagel for control in the 184-pound match.

Down 4-3 in the match, Braunagel went low, grabbed Embree’s legs and slammed him onto the mat to take the lead, 5-4. Braunagel finished Embree with a second thunderous takedown to end the match and clinch the meet for the No. 15 Illini (5-3 overall, 2-2 Big Ten) giving them a 20-13 win over No. 23 Michigan (5-3, 4-1) on Sunday afternoon.

“I’ll say it wasn’t our best performance,” Michigan coach Sean Bormet said. “We lost some close matches. (Had) some attacks that didn’t finish cleanly, quickly. We had a couple matches in the middle get away from us with some bonus points.”

The Illini got off to a quick start, winning the first three matches. Travis Piotrowski had an early takedown in the 133-pound match against the Wolverines’ redshirt senior Austin Assad. But Assad fought back before losing, 9-7.

In the 141-pound match, Dylan Duncan swept freshman Cole Mattin 6-0 to extend Illinois to 9-0. Michigan responded in the 149-pound match with redshirt junior Kanen Storr gaining a bonus point to cut the lead to 9-4.

Redshirt freshman Will Lewan followed that up with another win over Eric Barone to cut the Illini lead to two.

“I’d say Kanen Storr wrestled pretty well, offensively and on his feet,” Bormet said.

“But he needs to find ways to

take guys to their back off his takedowns (that’s) something he’s working on. He had some missed opportunities there.

But I think Kanen wrestled really well on his feet.”

Junior Reece Hughes missed several early opportunities for takedowns in the 165-pound match. Danny Braunagel took advantage with two late takedowns and extended the Illinois lead with a bonus point to 13-7.

Joey Gunther added another bonus point with a 15-3 major decision before Zac Braunagel clinched the win.

“Guys did some good things in really almost every match,” Bormet said. “Overall I thought we wrestled pretty hard. Just in some critical moments, we just didn’t get as tough as we needed to on some finishes, we didn’t get as tough as we needed to on some defenses.”

Redshirt senior Jackson Striggow won his match with a single leg takedown and sophomore Mason Parris dominated with four takedowns to add consolation victories for the Wolverines.

In the end it was too little, too late for Michigan, and Bormet believes there were several missed chances in the match.

“We’re going to continue to work on the things we’ve been working on which is finishing our leg attacks, defending our legs and mat returns,” Bormet said. “Those would be the three things we’re going to continue to work on. They were three areas that cost us some matches today.

“Every one of these guys had opportunities to score more, we left a lot of points on the match and it cost us a couple matches.”

Guys did some good things in really almost every match.

FILE PHOTO/Daily

Redshirt junior Kanen Storr excelled Sunday, despite Michigan’s eventual 20-13 loss to Illinois that finished a weekend split.

8A — Wednesday, January 29, 2020

Sports

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Win-coln, Nebraska

Michigan overcomes Simpson suspension to beat Nebraska, 79-68, snapping four-game losing streak ABBY SNYDER

JACOB KOPNICK

LINCOLN — It was decidedly different from the Michigan lineup that’s showed up most of this season, and decidedly different from the fast-paced, physical style of play that has become a trademark of the Wolverines this season.

Still, though, it was a win. And on Tuesday in Lincoln, when Michigan came in looking to snap a disheartening four-game losing skid and improve a bleak conference record, a win was more than enough.

The Michigan men’s basketball team (11-9 overall, 3-6 Big Ten) defeated Nebraska, 79-68, on the road on Tuesday night behind the leadership of junior guard Eli Brooks and an offensive explosion from freshman wing Franz Wagner.

Notably missing from Michigan’s lineup was senior point guard Zavier Simpson, who did not travel with the team after sustaining a suspension for violating a team policy. Junior forward Isaiah Livers travelled with the team but did not play after re-aggravating a lingering groin injury in Saturday’s game against Illinois.

After a rocky start to the game, the Wolverines seemed to settle in. Brooks stepped into a commanding role on offense, contributing 20 points and nine rebounds on the night, while playing all but thirty seconds of the game.

“It was good to see guys like Eli Brooks step into that leadership role,” Michigan coach Juwan Howard said. “He’s been a leader throughout the year, so it wasn’t a surprise to me and the coaching staff.”

Wagner also helped provide some spark on offense, with 18 points and eight rebounds on the night. It was a resilient performance from the freshman, who missed two free throws late

LINCOLN — What do you do when your most comfortable state is upended? When all sense of familiarity is thrown out the window?

For many, the answer may be to lose all sense of composure.

Fold under the pressure that is the massive concept of perpetual and unexpected change and let the winds of chance sweep you away.

While this is clearly a melodramatic rendering of the Michigan men’s basketball team’s game against Nebraska — the Big Ten’s worst team, per KenPom — Tuesday’s critical road win for the Wolverines was their ferocious shout into the wind.

For in the end, that’s all they could do. Shout or be suffocated under a set of bruising circumstances and an even tougher schedule. After all, Michigan’s two best players on the team — senior guard Zavier Simpson and junior forward Isaiah Livers — were out due to suspension and injury, respectively.

When it was all said and done, the Wolverines (12-8 overall, 3-6 Big Ten) overcame a sense of overwhelming strangeness, showing the depth of their roster, to handle the Cornhuskers (7-14, 2-8), winning 79-68.

In the hard-fought triumph, the Wolverines had to tap deep into the well of its players and talents in order to secure a hard-to-come-by road win. In doing so, Michigan looked like a completely different team than it had in months.

“Today, a coach like myself had to work a little extra,” Michigan coach Juwan Howard said. “And I don’t mind that. But our guys did an excellent job of collectively stepping in as a group and filling the void of one of our best players (Simpson).”

Daily Sports Writer

Daily Sports Editor

ALEC COHEN/Daily

Sophomore forward Brandon Johns finished with 16 points Tuesday night.

Saturday that could’ve changed the game’s outcome; Wagner was visibly upset in Saturday’s postgame press conference.

It was an offensive presence that Michigan has been missing without Livers, and the Wolverines’ offense was much the better for it. A combination of Wagner, Brooks and sophomore forward Brandon Johns, Jr. helped make up for the points lost when Simpson and Livers were sidelined; the three of them combined for 54 points and 24 rebounds on the night.

“I just wanted to really focus on being active tonight on the offensive end,” Johns, Jr. said.

“The more I move, the more I dive, I think it opens up a lot of perimeter play. So I think that the more I do that, the more I affect the game.”

Michigan put the game away for good with just under ten minutes left in regulation, going up 63-55 on a three and then a dunk from Johns, Jr. From there, the game was never in question. Despite a valiant effort from Cornhuskers’ guards Cam Mack and Haanif Cheatham, who combined for 36 points on the night, Nebraska couldn’t seem to keep up.

From there, the game was never in question. The Huskers never drew back within one possession of the Wolverines. It started to look more like the game that had

been predicted between these two teams at the beginning of the season.

Without two of its best talents, Michigan got off to a slow start.

DeJulius, in the starting lineup as a replacement for Simpson, had his ankles broken by Mack, who easily sank three with DeJulius out of the way. Wagner missed the response three, and after Cheatham made a layup, Michigan went down early, 5-0.

A layup from Wagner and a wide-open three from junior guard Eli Brooks tied the game at five, but the Wolverines continued to struggle to put shots in the net, and after allowing another layup, they went into the under16 timeout trailing, 7-5. Things improved after the break, though; Michigan went down by four, 9-5 and then 7-11, but drew within a one-point margin on another Brooks three-pointer, and took their first lead of the game, 12-11, on a layup from Wagner just inside the 13-minute mark.

“Franz is a high-IQ basketball player,” Howard said. “He knows that we need his offensive leadership. He knows that we need his offensive talent. And today, he did a really good job of mixing in both by attacking the basket and making outside shots.”

Ultimately, it was different. And it wasn’t always pretty.

But it was enough.

Junior guard Eli Brooks became the ball-dominant leader of the offense, distributing the ball and playing aggressive with repeated takes to the rim.

Sophomore forward Brandon Johns Jr. transformed into an offensive powerhouse, posting up defenders and shooting at a remarkably efficient clip.

Freshman forward Franz Wagner stopped shooting 3-pointers and began attacking the basket — a marked departure from his offensive rhythm thus far.

Sophomore guard David DeJulius started his first career game.

Junior walk-on forward C.J. Baird played in a non-blowout regular season game.

All telltale signs of player development and rather unthinkable play calls for this Wolverine team with an entirely healthy roster. And for most of the game, it all started with Brooks and Johns.

With Livers and Simpson out of the picture, the floor was open for Johns to take charge on the offensive end. He would end the night with 16 points on 5-of-6 shooting and seven rebounds. Feeling dissatisfied with his level of movement on the floor during his previous opportunities, Johns made sure his feet were active on the hardwood, forcing defensive miscues, especially around the rim.

“I think the more I move, the more I dive,” Johns said. “I think it brings people to me, so it opens up perimeter players, so I think the more I do that, the more effective I can be.”

Added Howard: “He’s been huge for us all season. He’s been playing with a lot of energy, toughness, did a really good job on the glass, got some opportunities to score inside.

Kid is just growing. Day by day, getting better game by game.”

By playing through this wrinkle in the roster, the Wolverines were able to fully display the talents of their players. One such byproduct of this set of circumstances came from the walk-on Baird.

With Wagner in foul trouble in the first half, Baird entered as his willing back-up, entering over scholarship player, freshman guard Cole Bajema.

Regardless, his teammates were happy to see him finally get an opportunity.

“It was awesome,” Johns said, pausing to draw out the word ‘awesome.’ “It was great seeing him out there. Just knowing what he does in practice and what he’s capable of doing, it was great seeing him out there.

He should’ve played a little more confident, but I was just happy to see him out there.”

What’s more is that with Simpson off the floor, Wagner had the opportunity to expand his game beyond his normal sub-30 percent 3-point shooting mark and attack the basket. The freshman ended the night with 18 points and more confidence in his shot selection.

“I thought attacking the rim was very important, I tried to do that,” Wagner said. “I think everybody tried to do that.

At the start, I think we shot a little bit too much instead of playing to our advantage down low, but I think it was good towards the end that we kept staying aggressive attacking the basket.”

Johns. Brooks. DeJulius.

Wagner. Baird.

The list of players with an increased workload on Tuesday read like a laundry list, and in the end, with their postseason hopes on the line staring down a Quad 3 loss, they never batted an eye. They emotionlessly recited the mantra, “Next man up,” as drilled into their brains by Howard and continued shouting into the wind.

Pitching staff finding right mentality ‘M’ top line leading way offensively MOLLY SHEA

Daily Sports Writer

ALEC COHEN/Daily

Sophomore right-hander Alex Storako pitched to a 2.02 ERA in 2019 but hopes to be more confident this season.

LANE KIZZIAH Daily Sports Writer

Mentality.

It’s the word that’s guided Michigan softball’s pitching staff through the offseason. But for its top two arms, that means something different.

For junior left-hander Meghan Beaubien, that means not getting caught up in other people’s expectations.

As a freshman in 2018, Beaubien raked in the accolades — everything from Big Ten Freshman and Pitcher of the Year to being named a first team All-American. She carried the pitching staff with 217 innings and an ERA of 1.16. After a debut season like that, Beaubien felt the pressure to live up to her own reputation.

While she was still a force in the circle the following season, she had her off days and failed to match the eye-catching ERA of her freshman year, posting an ERA of 1.87. With another season under her belt, Beaubien’s learned to take the pressure off. This offseason, she focused on a different approach.

“I think a big lesson I can learn from last year is to not really think about my numbers or not really think about any of my previous seasons,” Beaubien said. “Even as the season goes on, not thinking

about my previous games because I play my best when I’m not overthinking things, and I have a very active mind. Just focus on the game.”

For sophomore right-hander Alex Storako, that means finding her presence on the mound.

By all accounts, Storako had a successful freshman season, racking up 142.1 innings and ending with an ERA of 2.02, but her biggest struggle was maintaining her composure when the pressure was on. She wasn’t able to make it through seven consecutive innings until March — her 10th appearance.

“I think she’s just come back more confident,” Beaubien said. “I think you can see it in situations where maybe her freshman year she would waiver a little bit if she gave up a couple hits or let a couple people on base. She shakes off mistakes really well and bounces back really well.”

Mental stamina has always been Storako’s biggest challenge.

In several games, she’d start off strong, but begin to doubt herself after a couple well-placed hits. In these instances, Michigan coach Carol Hutchins would opt to bring in Beaubien, the team’s reliable ace.

But those days may be in the past.

“I think she understands this level better,” Hutchins said. “She understands the expectations

better. I think she knows better what to expect — I mean, that’s just something with freshmen. They just have to learn it. She’s more mature, noticeably. Her mentality has to be pitch to pitch. Finding the zone and then break it through the zone. I think she works hard, and keeping her mentality into killer instinct. She throws some fantastic pitches and great pitchers put them together and they slice up hitters.”

Though they have very different personalities, the pitchers have rubbed off on each other in many different ways both on and off the field — Beaubien has helped Storako work through the transition to collegiate ball and gotten her hooked on Marvel movies.

They share the same work ethic and have worked together through the offseason to get in the right frame of mind. They go to bullpen practice together, run together and do ab workouts together. They both consider themselves to be competitive, and though they face different challenges, each pushes the other to work harder.

It’s a mentality that breeds winning, and their competitive battles in practice have helped them grow into a formidable pair.

Now, with an extra year under their belts, and the duo’s growth over the offseason, they look well set to dominate on the mound.

lineup and plenty of options, Pearson’s lines have yielded results throughout the second half of the season. Michigan has scored 16 goals in its last four games, nearly doubling its goals per game average from the first 20 games.

That means in just four games, Michigan’s offense has produced over a third of the goals it scored in the first half. And while the scoring was shared between a number of players, one line in particular made significant offensive contributions.

It was a line of Lockwood, Beecher and freshman forward Nick Granowicz that combined for five of those goals. The line born out of necessity. Within the opening minutes of the first game against Notre Dame, Pearson knew he needed to mix a few things up to create the matchups he wanted.

He was inspired by the chemistry between Lockwood and Beecher that had been evident in practice. They like playing together. They’ve got size, smarts, defensive awareness, speed. They just needed a little bit of grit, and that’s exactly what Granowicz brought.

With all these factors in mind, Pearson sent Granowicz, Beecher and Lockwood over the boards together midway through the first period of Friday night’s game against the Fighting Irish.

Beecher’s line generated plenty of offense and early in the third period, they found the back of the net. It wasn’t a typical goal, as the puck went in off Granowicz’s head as a result of crashing toward the goaltender. “… We were on the road those four games,” Pearson said. “So

whoever we put on the ice we felt comfortable first and foremost defensively. Then hopefully they can do something offensively.

Because you don’t get last change.

You don’t want to get a bad mismatch in those games because every game can come down to that one goal where it’s so close.”

While the line didn’t appear on the score sheet in the following game, it created many opportunities. It also made strong defensive plays.

Pearson was impressed. His team’s offense finally seemed to be catching fire. So the next weekend against then-No. 6 Penn State, he wasn’t taking any chances with adjusting lines.

That series, Granowicz, Lockwood and Beecher combined for four goals. The first night, Beecher scored two goals in the 6-0 victory. Lockwood had three primary assists on the weekend.

Most notably, though, Granowicz scored two important goals to boost his team to the extra point in double over time.

“I think that’s kind of what our line needed,” Lockwood said. “(Granowicz has) been the key to our line. Beecher and I do a lot of the outside work, and he gets to those gritty areas. He’s been the guy that’s completed our line.”

With 11 of 12 points in their last four games, Beecher’s line is emerging as an offensive power that came at a pivotal point in the season. Now, only Big Ten games remain on Michigan’s schedule.

If it wants to extend the season beyond the first weekend of March, the goal scoring, led by this line, has to continue.

Throughout the first half of the season, Michigan’s line chart lacked one thing — stability.

For the first few weeks, coach Mel Pearson tried out some different combinations and witnessed varying degrees of success. He had senior forwards Will Lockwood and Nick Pastujov playing with freshman Eric Ciccolini in the first game of the season against Clarkson. The next night, Ciccolini was swapped out for redshirt sophomore Luke Morgan.

The revolving door at wing continued the next weekend when Morgan was replaced by senior forward Jake Slaker. This new line worked well together, having already played a stretch of games together the season before. But midway through their third game as a line, Slaker got injured. So again, Pearson had to shake up his lines.

That was the story for the first half of the Wolverines’ season.

A line would play well together and seem to be building a bit of offensive chemistry, but then an injury would occur somewhere in the lineup and everything had to be reshuffled.

When Lockwood got injured Nov. 8 against Minnesota, the two members of his line were separated. When freshman Johnny Beecher suffered a shoulder injury that limited his ability to take faceoffs, the winger on his line — sophomore forward Jimmy Lambert — stepped into the role of center. Then when Beecher returned, Lambert remained a center but was moved to a different line. Pearson just couldn’t find a stable lineup.

Each time a player had to miss games because of injury, budding chemistry was cut short.

“That’s what you’re looking for, some sort of chemistry on a line,” Pearson said. “We’ve had Johnny and Will at times together trying to find something, but because of all the injuries we had in the fall there … we had to juggle lines for a lot of different reasons. We couldn’t just KELSEY PEASE/Daily have our full lineup.”

Senior forward Will Lockwood is part of a surging top line for Michigan.

Now with a fully healthy

statement T H E M I C H I G A N DA I LY | JA N UA RY 29, 2020

PHOTO BY KEEMYA ESMAEL

A shaved head will grow back

2B Wednesday, January 29, 2020 // The Statement

statement T H E M I CH I GA N DAI LY | JA N UA RY 2 9, 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

American American girl needed American Girl Magazine

Girls G

rowing up in the late 2000s, the best six days of the year were when my American Girl Magazine arrived in the mail. When I saw it on the counter under a stack of bills and advertisements, I ran up to my room and carefully opened the table of contents like it was precious candy. There was always a free poster, a craft, a quiz, an advice column and a featured reader smiling on the cover.

Many issues included interviews with the cover girls, who earned their face in print by volunteering at a community garden, starting a jewelry business or organizing a clothing drive. I dreamt of being published in the magazine and entered writing and photo contests to do so, having photoshoots with my stuffed animals and trying to fit the vocabulary word “tchotchke” into a short story. I even started a business making collars for Webkinz stuffed animals in hopes I’d become a success story in the next issue.

Unsurprisingly, I spent more money on my business cards and bracelet beads than I made in actual revenue. Yet even though I never found my face on the cover or my story in the magazine, I set a foundation for my future pursuits in photography, writing and entrepreneurship. The magazine undeniably shaped who I am today.

When I got older, I tried reading Girls’ Life, Teen Vogue and even Tiger Beat, which stressed me out with its loud colors and celebrity gossip. I read these magazines for a few years, but I never cherished the moments spent with their pages like I did with American Girl Magazine. I guess I just didn’t care about which $90 handbag matches which $200 cheetah-printed boots or if Maybelline mascara is less

BY HANNAH BRAUER, STATEMENT COLUMNIST

clumpy than CoverGirl — I didn’t even wear makeup or care about clothes until I got to college.

I recently discovered that American Girl Magazine stopped production in 2019. I had carelessly thrown out my issues around the time of high school graduation, but still searched my room in hopes of finding them. After no luck, I bought four 2009 issues on eBay. I mourned the loss of the magazine not because I wanted to try its recipe for “fruit pizza” again, but because it represented a world where regular girls — not celebrities — graced the cover of a mainstream magazine. It’s difficult to find anything similar to American Girl Magazine today, or even a magazine targeted at young girls whose covers don’t advertise “does your crush like you?” but rather “plan a spooky party.”

Though the magazine is gone, the American Girl brand still thrives through their popular dolls. The franchise began producing dolls in the 1980s, years before the magazine began in 1992, and are now accompanied by books that gave each character a backstory. The dolls and their stories have been applauded for their diverse narratives that encompass how the average young girl lived during a specific time period, which is a demographic often left out of textbooks and elementary school classes.

Historical characters included Addy, an African-American girl who escaped slavery; Kaya, a girl from the Nez Perce tribe living before white colonization; and Josefina, a Mexican girl living in Santa Fe while it was still Mexican territory.

Recent dolls emphasize today’s diversity more than historical narratives, exemplified by Joss, the 2020 doll of the year who is a surfer with a hearing aid. Customizable “Truly Me” dolls are also available with various skin tones, boy and girl genders and accessories such as an insulin pump.

I had two historical dolls of my own, Kirsten and Elizabeth, and loved their books so much that I went on to also read

the other dolls’ stories. Much like the magazine, the books teach girls to be clever and powerful without focusing on the presence of men. But owning the dolls is undeniably a privilege, with the doll and book alone costing upwards of $100, while the magazine was more accessible at $20 for an annual subscription.

American Girl Magazine was important not only for its accessibility but because it was a separate entity from the products.

It wasn’t just another platform advertising the dolls, but a way to bridge the gap between the dolls’ historical narratives and modern narratives of girls doing good work today. This is arguably needed more than ever in an age where young girls are more vulnerable to toxic pressures than ever before.

As someone born between millennials and Generation Z, my childhood was influenced by the digital world, but not defined by it. Today, girls from eight to 12 years old spend around six hours a day with entertainment media — and while my childhood entertainment meant Webkinz and Club Penguin, today it means Instagram and TikTok, where girls as young as 15 put on makeup and tight clothing and perform for followers.

What other options do they have? If a young girl wants to read a girls-oriented magazine, she must choose one with a photoshopped celebrity on the cover often littered with tips about how to be appealing to men. If she wants to make a DIY craft, she will probably seek out a YouTube influencer to teach her, persuaded by their “authenticity” when they are likely also performing for social capital.

Of course, there is still good work happening for girls’ empowerment online: Teen Vogue now publishes political articles in addition to content about fashion and makeup, and Barbie releases animated vlogs covering feminist topics such as girls’ tendency to apologize more than boys. Competitors of American Girl are now trying to fill in the gaps in the digital world.

Plus, American Girl still produces informational content — many will

remember the books “The Care and Keeping of You” which teaches girls about their growing bodies and “A Smart Girl’s Guide to Boys” which, despite becoming a meme (as a conversation starter, it recommends “I wish they’d teach us more about Vikings”), encourages curiosity and equality in relationships. More recently, the company released another guide to the digital world about how to safely navigate the Internet.

Yet, there is something deeply personal about a physical magazine that I wish girls today could experience. There was a sense that you were the only one reading the issue and it was made for you specifically. It was sent to your house. You owned it and the information in it. That medium, in and of itself, was empowering.

It is natural that American Girl is changing as American girls are changing.

But while the instant gratification of the Internet can jumpstart imagination with information, young girls also don’t get downtime in between ideas. Consumption becomes more appealing than action: When girls can stay in that media environment forever, they never have to sit back and work with what they’re given before the next issue arrives.

I am anxiously waiting for my own copies to arrive from eBay. When they do, I’ll probably run to my room and pore over every word. Maybe it will feel more precious than before, knowing once the print issues are gone, all traces will be lost. But even though the magazine faded away before it could reach the girls of today and tomorrow, I know they will be clever enough to grow in the digital world.

In fact, if they are anything like the American girls throughout the rest of history, I know they already are.

In the long run

Wednesday, January 29, 2020 // The Statement

3B 3B

BY ELLIE KATZ, STATEMENT COLUMNIST

I

’ve recently noticed that when I talk to someone I’m just getting to know — a new classmate or coworker — and I tell a story that involves my boyfriend, I’ll refer to him as “one of my friends” or “this one guy.” It’s funny, and I feel a little strange after I say it, but it’s as if there’s a standard I can’t defy. This elusive standard keeps me in line with the expectation for young college women: Don’t appear too tied down, over-committed or like your relationship is the biggest part of your life.

Even writing that — that my relationship is one of the most important things in my life — makes me feel embarrassed.

Ashamed, even. As a woman in college, there is the subliminal expectation that one should be unfettered, untethered and unencumbered. I’m supposed to be focused on school, friends, finding myself and figuring out what I want to do with my life.

If I was following this ideal, I’d be “playing the field,” exploring my options and would be unconcerned with serious romantic relationships. If I was adhering to the expectation, I wouldn’t have to worry about replacing “boyfriend” with a less antiquated identifier in casual conversation. If I was doing college right, I’d be single, because that’s what young, well-educated, driven women are supposed to be at 21 — at least that’s who they are in the media and, it seems, who they are in contemporary feminism. It’s hard to ignore the seemingly limitless Odyssey, Her Campus and Elite Dailyesque headlines shared on timelines that describe six, seven, 28 or some arbitrary number of reasons why you should stay single in college.

Before I was in a serious relationship, I tried all the things that I thought were supposed to make me feel sexually liberated and powerful: messaging with potential partners on apps, dating around and hooking up with different people. My closest friends had no problems doing it all — they even kept lists of former lovers on their phones in case any STI sourcing had to be done. But the more dates I went on and the more hookups I had, the lonelier I felt.

I eventually stopped and took time to just be with myself, but I still felt pressure to try again. Friends told me I should get back out there. We’d gloomily joke around about how long it had been since I’d last had sex. It seemed like the common mantra was that I was missing out on something — that I wasn’t fully embracing all my sexuality had to offer — but I felt better and steadier on my own than I’d felt when I’d been “exploring all my options.”

And even though I’ve been in a happy, healthy and loving relationship with a person I truly consider my best friend for over a year now (this, too, somehow feels like something I should not publicly admit to — a significant other should never be the

best friend), I still feel like I have to prove my feminism when it comes to relationships and love. I still feel like I have to prove I’m as modern a woman as the next one, despite choosing to be in a longterm relationship at a young age.

Whether it be deliberately not mentioning my boyfriend in conversation or feeling hesitant to write about just how important our relationship is to me, there exists a pressure to be a certain kind of woman when I’m young, and ironically, that ideal woman and her construction has roots in liberation.

The sexual revolution of the 1960s, 70s and 80s formed the modern woman as we know her today. With widened access to birth control, the mainstreaming of sex in popular culture and the empowerment of women in education, careers and the home, women felt liberated from the former ideal of getting married at a young age and resigning themselves to life as a housewife.

Before the sexual revolution, post-war ideal womanhood involved marrying young, having and raising children and keeping house. Some 30 percent of women dyed their hair blond — which was considered more feminine — and department stores started to sell dress sizes three or four sizes smaller to match up with expectations that women have thinner physiques. Sex was reserved for marriage, and when it began to appear in the pop culture of the 1960s, there was widespread panic about moral upheaval.

But changes that began as freedoms have today narrowed into unattainable, unfair expectations for young women.

That blooming sexuality of our parents’ generation has become twisted into a seemingly ideal image for girls: Being liberated and strong only happens when one invests wholly in herself — and that investment gets lower returns when it involves committing to someone else too soon. It sometimes feels like having sex has become a kind of currency: the more a woman has, the more sex-positive, progressive and feminist she is. She’s not held back, and her future is not jeopardized by commitment or, even worse, by a man.

Not only are these ideas not true, they’re harmful — to single women and women in relationships alike. But it’s hard to ignore their prevalence: In a 2012 article, Hanna Rosin of The Atlantic writes, “To put it crudely, feminist progress right now largely depends on the existence of the hookup culture.

And to a surprising degree, it is women — not men — who are perpetuating the culture, especially in school, cannily manipulating it to make space for their

ILLUSTRATION BY DORY TUNG

own success, always keeping their own ends in mind.”

In the same piece, she writes, “For college girls these days, an overly serious suitor fills the same role an accidental pregnancy did in the 19th century: a danger to be avoided at all costs, lest it get in the way of a promising future.”

In a 2013 interview with The New York Times, University of Michigan sociologist Elizabeth Armstrong explained that “increasingly, many privileged young people see college as a unique life stage in which they don’t — and shouldn’t — have obligations other than their own selfdevelopment.”

In the same article, a young woman with a serious boyfriend told the Times that she felt “as if she were breaking a social taboo,” saying, “Am I allowed to find the person that I want to spend the rest of my life with when I’m 19? I don’t really know. It feels like I’m not.” here is certainly an element of privilege in being able to write this: I am able to choose whether I want to be in a relationship or not. I am able to choose who I want to share myself with, whether that be in a long-term relationship, a hook up, a date or with no one at all — choices that were all afforded to me by the work of the feminist movement of the 20th century.

But those choices fail to erase the feelings of guilt that sometimes bubble up when I spend a Friday night with my boyfriend instead of my girlfriends.

They fail to explain why I feel like I’m somehow outside the range of good, liberated, feminist behavior when instead of giving the guy at the party my number I unintentionally apologize to him, saying, “Sorry, I have a boyfriend.”

T

I am not desperately searching for a space to complain, nor am I questioning my decision to be in a relationship.

Instead, I’m looking for a way to explain how frustrating it feels to have my decisions questioned for the supposed sake of my own womanhood. Am I not capable of choosing a life and a love for myself? Am I not a well-educated, driven, intelligent, young and modern woman who is able to decide for herself what her sexuality should entail?

These are not isolated feelings. I spoke to three other women at the University of Michigan who are in long-term relationships. The final question I asked each of them was this: Do you ever feel excluded from the feminist ideal of a woman because you are in a relationship?

I let them individually define what they viewed as “the feminist ideal of a woman,” and as might be expected, they each had a different answer. Yet all three shared a similar feeling that they might, in some way, be dismissed because of their relationship status.

LSA senior Daija White, who met her significant other the first weekend of her freshman year, told me, “No, not at all. I am confident and capable on my own, I know what I want, and I am capable of achieving it with or without my partner.”

She emphasized her own choice of being in a relationship, as well as her respect for every woman’s choices, but in the last few lines of her email to me, she wrote, “Maybe other women might think I’ve sold out or something, but that doesn’t matter much to me.”

Read more at MichiganDaily.com

4B Wednesday, January 29, 2020 // The Statement

A shaved head will grow back

Wednesday, January 29, 2020 // The Statement 5B

BY CATHERINE NOUHAN, STATEMENT CONTRIBUTOR

I

n May of 2019, I sat staring at my reflection in a small rectangular mirror. I pulled my hair back tightly, entangling my fingers within locks of hair. Staring at my complexion I saw a round, egg-shaped face and pale pink lips that were cracked from unseasonably cold weather. I ran my hands through my hair, letting it fall to my shoulders. Some intertwined pieces coiled around one another forming knots. I laughed at the knots. It was a tangle of time — or it would be the last tangle for some time. Again, I pulled my hair back, asking myself “Will I like it? Why does that really matter?”

The material security of a full head of hair blocked my ability to fully interrogate my relationship with it. It was a weight that shackled me into a performance of failed conformity. I wanted to rid myself of this performance — who am I rehearsing for? A week of heavy risk assessment left me embracing potential repercussions of shaving my head — which included frustrating my conservative family, accepting a new mirror image and being more vulnerable in public.

Three friends came into the room and placed a pair of crafting scissors on the table in front of me. My untrained hands hacked away ropes of black hair, which swiftly entered freefall and landed in their ultimate resting place on the wooden floor. In one minute, I saw my face in an uneven set of bangs, an unnerving mullet and an asymmetrical pixie cut. With the haphazard smock left sitting on my head, the buzz of hair clippers began to drown out all sounds.

The buzz stimulated a brief moment of regret. It was a buzz that represented both an aesthetic and a desire to be free of an aesthetic. It sounded through my self-destructive construction, adhered to my adolescent reflection and battled with my blemished foundation of femininity.

The buzz oscillated in the room, vibrating through my hands, drumming in my ears and filling my eyes with curiosity — what a fragile form of finery hair is.

I sat there looking at myself, not feeling as though the motions of my arms swiping the clippers back and forth were my own.

I was looking at the mirror, but felt like I was sitting front row at a hazy film showing, in which I was the protagonist.

My head felt like soft carpet.

Hot tears leapt from my cheeks in the overwhelming moment of instantaneous change, of complex austerity. I was reintroduced to myself in the small rectangular mirror.

In the last decade, more women and non-binary folks have shaved their heads in an effort to subvert mainstream heteronormative and patriarchal beauty standards. At the same time, the mainstream media focus on this trend has consistently highlighted those who meet Eurocentric and/or feminine beauty standards. In January 2018, the pages of beauty magazine Allure were adorned with glamorous pictures of highfashion models for a feature about women who shaved their heads as a sartorial statement. Similarly, the New York Times shared stories of female models who shaved their heads — again perpetuating the idea that a buzzcut is only a fashionable hairstyle if you have a femme face or “the right head shape.”

LSA senior Taylor Luthe (she/her) decided to shave her head twice in the summer of 2019. She agreed that many of the bald women that are perceived as beautiful had features that were stereotypically female. During that time, she noticed parts of herself that made her sometimes insecure about the decision.

“It was hard seeing little parts and pieces of your body, like in pictures, in the mirror, and not having ever seen those before. And then really over-analyzing those. Like ‘Oh, is that what the back of my neck looks like? Is there a roll?’ ” Even as a radical feminist, Taylor acknowledged that she held deep-rooted ideas of gendered beauty. She asked herself, “Who do I need to feel feminine for? Why do I need to embody these characteristics if I already feel okay within myself about who I am and how I act in the world?”

A shaved head has not, and will never be, reserved for those with “suitable” features. Promoting this narrative over others excludes those who shave for gender expression, sexual orientation or freedom from gendered beauty. Though it is perfectly acceptable to buzz for a fashion look, media outlets that fail to include varying perspectives, identities and experiences beyond runway trends continue to silence individuals who have been harmed by a binary promotion of beauty.

The physical action of shaving one’s head is the same for everyone, but the reasons behind the decision are beautifully dissimilar. For LSA sophomore Aldo Pando Girard (he/they), hair has been something that has always separated them from their peers. “It was a big thing for me to be like no white people are going to touch my hair, ever, period, at all,” Aldo said.

Aldo is Cuban and Black, and has experimented with a variety of hairstyles throughout their college career. From box braids to waves, changes in their hair have often left friends initially disoriented upon seeing them.

“It’s been weird making big changes to my hair and people not recognizing me, that has been very surreal,” they said. “My hair is just pretty closely tied to how I view myself and how I can express myself.”

As someone who is gender f luid and likes to stretch and surpass traditional masculine beauty ideals, shaving their head made Aldo feel as though they had less control over their outward perception.

It made them feel more masculine and publicly perceived as masculine, even when they had the desire to be androgynous.

LSA senior Leena Ghannam (they/ them) shaved for a more androgynous look.

Their relationship with their hair has been “antagonistic” partly due to their hometown.

“To have curly hair or kinky hair, especially because I grew up in a town that was majority white, I did not feel comfortable with the texture of my hair, and the quantity of it also,” Leena said.

They are from a Palestinian family that holds traditional ideals about the female appearance. When shaving their head, the “fear of family reaction” was a pressing thought. But the action ultimately aided in healing that “tumultuous” relationship they had with their hair, making the threat of family backlash a worthy fight. “It felt like a weird worship of hair, or an appreciation of it, but also a castration of it. It helped me develop a much better relationship with my hair,” they said.

In addition to looking more androgynous, Leena also shaved to help

prevent the symptoms of trichotillomania — a somatic symptom of anxiety and OCD that causes an uncontrollable urge to pluck hair.

My desire to shave my head was similar to Leena’s. At age thirteen, I started losing the hair on my head from trichotillomania.

The idiomatic expression “I want to pull my hair out” exposes a real and diagnosable disorder.

A 2002 University of Wisconsin– Madison study found at least 13 percent of adults in the United States engage

in body-focused repetitive behaviors (BFRBs). Of the 13 percent, an estimated one to two percent of the population has trichotillomania. I didn’t meet someone with this disorder until I was 20 years old.

We cried, hand-in-hand, understanding one another without words.

Hair-pulling triggered my first headshaving fantasies. The only place where it was socially acceptable for women to be hairy was your head, and my scalp was being picked clean. The strands that sprouted from my head were of varying lengths after years of plucking in high

school. A healthy mane only seemed attainable if I buzzed it down to the root, but the thought of being a teenage girl with a shaved head in a religious and conservative community deterred all plans of execution. My body only became a vehicle for expression once I entered college.

My parents were not happy the first time I came home with a buzzcut. My mom’s first questions were: “What’s wrong? Are you gay? Why did you do this?” Though I knew the reasons behind my decision, it

with their hair for reasons of religious purification, public humiliation or cultural erasure.

For instance, after World War II, French women accused of sleeping with German soldiers were publicly humiliated by having their heads shaved. “The shorn women” were forced to walk through the streets bald, with swastikas painted on their bodies. Some 20,000 women were shamed in the streets.

During the Atlantic Slave Trade, Africans were captured by colonizers and their hair was cut off. This signified COURTESY OF CATHERINE NOUHAN an eradication of personality and culture, as head and hair adornment was a fundamental part of one’s wardrobe.

These dark histories still inform perceptions of shaved heads, even though practicality, convenience, androgyny and style are now the predominant factors.

LSA junior Hannah Meyers (she/they) has shaved their head three times in their life. The last time they shaved their head, it was because of a bad bleach and hair-coloring job.

Even in the messy moment, shaving their head was saving their hair.

“I feel like the Britney moment came before the head shaving, and the head shaving was like the was hard to come home to a place where reclaiming of the moment,” they said. “It my appearance was not only unacceptable was starting over.” but also immediately and constantly Recently, she entered the workforce questioned. as a middle school student teacher.

The history of shaved heads is one that Hair is used as a uniform for students is full of freedom — but also deviance. and teachers alike. Students with It’s been used to physically display an nonconforming hairstyles can be subject entrance into a group or an obliteration to expulsion. Teachers can be fired for not of individuality — a social tariff on social setting appropriate examples. But Hannah interactions. The common associations of believes that their choices regarding body shaved heads are of religious conformity, and head hair will be a model for younger military admission or a chemotherapy children. patient. Throughout history and in most “I am questioning what it means to be places, women and men have parted hairy or not hairy in the workforce. I want

to be a public school teacher, I’m getting certified for middle or high school. I’m not sure which one I would prefer yet,” Hannah said. “Working with young kids who are just forming their opinions, I think it’s important to have people who they look up to who they see different options of what to do with their hair.”

At the first extended family gathering since my buzzcut, my grandmother came up to me, smiled and said I looked like “an Italian opera singer.” I was incredibly surprised. I had already put up defenses, practicing half-true explanations for the buzzcut. When my grandmother was growing up in Italy in the 1930s and 40s, the common hairstyle for women was a short cut. The disparity between how my mother and grandmother reacted to my hair must have been due to the fluctuating ideals of femininity and hair.

In 2016, Time magazine talked to historians who track the social and gendered history of hair. Long hair was a status symbol as complex hairstyles require the help of another person demonstrating wealth and power. In the U.S., though, women began cutting their hair into bobs during World War I, a trend attributed to military nurses adopting shorter cuts for convenience and hygiene.

In the 1920s, many American schools and churches rallied against flappers for “acting like men.” A shaved head has never formally been an accepted style for women. A woman’s hair has long been regarded as the key to her femininity and a persuasive symbol of her sexuality.

Zoe Cutler (she/her) is a graduate student at the School of Music, Theatre & Dance. As a trans woman, Zoe’s chosen hairstyle has much more to do with her identity as a lesbian. She never actually shaved her hair, but keeps a short hairstyle to “lean into the butch aesthetic,” and to “establish a specific genre of womanhood.”

“I think originally, I was trying to lean into some more classic model or like a mainstream model of womanhood that wasn’t really working for me in various ways. And so that was something that I could latch onto,” Zoe said.

Femininity has invariably been synonymous with long hair, but the regular removal of body hair is a relatively recent phenomenon, gaining steam in the 1970s during Second Wave Feminism. Former Atlantic writer Nadine Ajaka traces the original campaign against women’s hair to Darwin’s evolutionary theory in the midnineteenth century where scientists were determined to show hairiness in women as

“indicative of deviance” from femininity and the white race.

Heavy-handed marketing techniques from companies, like Gillette, convinced adolescent girls that a women’s right of passage included shaving your legs. Those girls became our mothers’ mothers, and our mothers brought the idea into this generation — an oral tradition.

Recently, Gillette was criticized for the “pink tax” they placed on female hair removal products. The “pink tax” refers to the price disparity between men and women’s commercial hygiene products.

I can’t remember the exact day I started attaching abstract ideas to the presence of natural hairs growing from my body, but once my classmates could label me in one word — hairy — my ref lection was no longer an impression of my appearance, but instead a place of personal scrutiny. All my features were up for reevaluation. My Mediterranean and Arabic genealog y was not forgiving in an era that idolized and still idolizes hairlessness.

With leftover lunch money in my pocket, I would bike to CVS half a mile from my house and buy Sally Hansen Body Hair Bleach Cream – Extra Strength. In those impatient 13 minutes, my arm hair was lightening and my skin was faintly burning, but my excitement was rising.

From ages nine to 19 I tried plucking, shaving, waxing, threading, chemicallyremoving, lasering and bleaching most of the hair on my body. These removalrituals began prior to my understanding that the male gaze was the origin of the assault on women’s body hair.

The regrowth of my shaved head has been a space for me to interrogate gendered beauty ideals. A shaved head does eventually grow back, but the experience has left me with a permanent introspection of my reflection’s foundation. There was a time when I ran around with a dark brown bob and a set of bangs that would tickle my eyelids in the weeks my mother forgot to trim them. And that’s all hair was to me.

The unlearning process is slow, but I am confident knowing that the presence of hair on my head or body — or lack thereof — will not play a role in defining my femininity.

Catherine Nouhan is a senior studying English and Philosophy. She is the former Podcast Managing Editor at the Michigan Daily and can be reached at cnouhan@ umich.edu.

6B

Wednesday, January 29, 2020 // The Statement

What’s with the crows?

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BY FINNTAN STORER, STATEMENT CORRESPONDENT

t’s late. You’re walking home from somewhere on campus, maybe Mason Hall or the Michigan League. Walking through the cold, wintery night air, you hear drops on the ground and movements in the trees. You look up and see dozens — even hundreds — of American black crows peppering the branches. You bolt, hearing more drops, while covering your head and ducking.

If you’ve seen the Alfred Hitchcock film, “Birds”, you let out a yell, causing the birds to take off into the night sky.

Hopefully you’ve made a daring escape from the crows, averting a crisis … for now.

I’ve found myself in this scenario more than a few times. I want to be clear, though: I am not afraid of birds.

As a child, I would go birdwatching with my dad, and still today our shelves are filled with many editions of “The Sibley Guide to Birds.” Rather, I find that birds have a mystique about them. My friends and I were once confronted by a man in Washington, D.C. who claimed that birds aren’t real. The basis for his theory was that none of us have touched a bird so, therefore, birds can’t possibly be real.

Now even ads on my social media have been trying to sell me “Birds Aren’t Real” t-shirts. But these murders of crows in Ann Arbor certainly are real (yes, the term “murder” to refer to a group of crows is also real).

Assistant Professor Ben Winger, the University of Michigan’s curator of birds, had the answers to all my burning questions concerning the crows. The best way to avoid them is in the daylight.

The only trace of the crows during the daytime is their “whitewash,” which is a “polite term” for bird poop used by Winger during our interview. He also told me that the American crow, known scientifically as Corvus brachyrhynchos, tends to become more social in the winter.

“A lot of (crow) species form these big roosts in the winter. They’re not unique to Ann Arbor,” Winger said. “... Basically during the wintertime, when there’s not much food and it’s colder in a lot of places, crows will just form these enormous nighttime roosts and they’ll become very social.”

These roosts can be seen in Ann Arbor in the nighttime, as leafless trees become covered with black tops. While the exact reason for this roosting is not known, Winger gave a number of ideas.

“One idea is, first of all, it’s a safety in numbers type thing so they can better avoid predators when they’re in flocks,” Winger said. “Another idea is that food is really scarce in the winter, but crows are very smart and they’re very social and they can probably exchange a lot of information amongst each other about where food is.”

The city of Ann Arbor, compared to woods or fields, seems to be a haven for crows due to its warmth and light sources, which is to the advantage of crows, according to Winger.

“And as for why Ann Arbor, it’s actually not uncommon for them to be around towns … It’s probably a combination of it being a little bit warmer than the surrounding environment but also I think the light, since the campus is pretty well lit at night,” Winger said. “So in some contexts, artificial light is bad for birds but in this context, the crows might prefer it because they can more easily spot owls and other predators.”

Unlike Hitchcock’s 1963 horror classic, the crows will not be attacking humans anytime soon.

“I don’t think they’re a threat to other species and they’re not a threat to humans either, I should add,” Winger said.

Though it’s slightly disappointing to know that it’s unnecessary to run from the crows in terms of avoiding attack, some people in the past have gone to extreme measures to avoid them.

According to the Audubon Society, the United States’ eminent association of birders, one extermination effort in the past has included the “dynamiting of winter roosts.”

Engineering freshman Vanya Lazarevic is quite familiar with the crows at Helen Newberry Residence Hall. She thought the birds — which she initially mistook to be geese — were just passing through for a day or two. Now, Lazarevic is struggling to get a good night’s sleep with the crows roosting outside for months.

“I feel like it was fine the first two weeks but the fact that they just keep returning is just very annoying.” Lazarevic said.

“I actually slept with earbuds in and it helped. Light sleepers don’t have it easy.”

While the crows have disturbed her sleeping, the whitewash left behind is also unpleasant. Often patches of campus will be covered in white splotches from the crows roosting above, coloring anything from the sidewalks to cars a shade of white with specks of brown.

“Just stepping in bird poop in the morning is not a mood,” Lazarevic said.

“You can’t just get rid of the crows.”

The presence of crow feces across campus is unpleasant, and there’s some speculation that it could drive away prospective students and visitors to campus.

With this being my fourth winter at the University, I told Lazarevic that this is not a one-time deal: The crows are a wintertime staple in Ann Arbor. Her response: “I hate that.”

In my research about the crows, I came across an article published by The Daily in 2011. Robert Payne, a former University professor, estimated a count

of 10,000 crows in Ann Arbor while the Washtenaw County Audubon Society chapter counted 30,000 in their annual Christmas bird count. I interviewed Sherri Smith, an Audobon Society member since the 1980s and a former president of the chapter, to hear the thoughts of a true local birder.

Smith finds the crows fascinating because of their intelligence and unique behavior. When I asked about the numbers from the annual bird count, she said they weren’t able to get a good count because of the sheer size and the movement of the crows, but she did offer an estimate.

“I’d guess there’s 11,000 or 12,000,” Smith said.

Smith provided the best analogy for when the crows can be seen flying at dusk.

“They all take off like a tornado going to wherever they’re going to spend the night.”

I’ve witnessed the site a number of times, always whipping my phone out to film the spectacle. Looking through my Snapchat memories, I find videos from across campus filming the crows covering the night sky. Most recently, seemingly hundreds came flying over the Intramural Sports Building.

The crows were the subject of an op-ed to The Daily last year, calling for sustainable practices to control the crow population. There have been efforts in the past, though some were illegal and not very sustainable — such as the mass poisoning of crows in 2008 and 2009, which was investigated by the Department of Natural Resources.

An article published by Michigan News, the University-run media service, informed the public that flare guns were being used to scare off the crows. Smith also mentioned that in the past, a University employee told her they used firecrackers to scare off the crows. In 2016, the LSA Student Government passed a resolution calling on the Ann Arbor government to investigate the crow population.

The fact of the matter is that crows like Ann Arbor for the lights, trees and warmth. No, they aren’t going to fly down and peck at you. I find the hundreds of crows flying reminiscent of David Attenborough’s Planet Earth, almost like the crows are some exotic species flying in the thousands to evade predators. This isn’t to say I — like the majority of campus — don’t have a distaste for the crows, I certainly do, but they’re not the boring creature one might presume them to be.

So, when you’re strolling home after a long day and the sidewalks are quiet and deserted, look up. You might find some friendly faces dropping gifts for you as you pass by.

ILLUSTRATION BY JOHNATHAN WALSH

7B Wednesday, January January16, 29,2019 2020////The The Statement 7B Wednesday, Statement

On finding labels, and maybe myself

BY MAYA GOLDMAN, STATEMENT CONTRIBUTOR

things: I rode my bike around the neighborhood all the time, my dad taught me how to ride a unicycle and I learned to love hiking and canoeing during my summers at sleepaway camp. Still, I had this perception of athletes as talented, competitive people with an intense love for physical activity — and none of those childhood activities ever made me feel like an athlete in that sense. t’s hard to believe ILLUSTRATION BY MAGGIE WIEBE now that I stuck with cross n a past life, I ran. For all four years country for all four years of high school. of high school, I was a member of the Most of the memories that linger involve serijunior varsity cross country team, ous pain and total mental anguish. I couldn’t having joined on a mandate from my mom: I walk for two months sophomore year had to do a sport in high school to keep busy, because I’d given myself horrible shin splints be healthy and stay “socially stimulated.” Ball on both legs. I can also remember the refrain sports were an automatic no for someone like that would run through my head every time me, who’d been hit in the face with a basket- I ran a race: “If you finish this race, you never ball during gym class one too many times, have to run again, ever.” Of course, I would and you didn’t have to try out for cross coun- always go back to practice the next day.

I recently came across two of my high try. Plus my older cousin Jackie was already on the team, so I figured that might give me school journals while rooting through the a leg up in the social scene. Cross country it drawer of my bedside table. Sure enough, the first entry I saw when I opened the purple was, then.

This fall, three years after my last cross notebook from my senior year confirmed my country race, I found myself struggling to memories.

“I dread going back to school 90% because propel my body down Stadium Boulevard in Ann Arbor after I’d vowed to start run- of XC,” I wrote on Aug. 30, 2015, a few days ning again. My destination was Washtenaw before I began my senior year. “I don’t mind Avenue, and as I inched down the sidewalk, the other parts of it so much, but UGH I just I finally began to see a stoplight in the dis- hate cross country and I want to love it ... but tance. I picked up the pace a little because I oy, I can’t.”

When I read that, I remembered the dread knew the faster I got to the light, the faster I could be done. But when I neared the light, I I felt just driving by the high school that saw that it wasn’t Washtenaw at all. I realized August. I remembered the desire to either I hadn’t even passed the Trader Joe’s yet. I become a “real” runner or stop having to still had so much left to run before I could pretend I felt like one. I shuddered under the rest. Holy shit, I thought, trying to surrepti- weight of the memories as I closed the diary.

Then I opened the second journal, this tiously wipe my runny nose, what have I gotone an earlier volume that I filled throughout ten myself into? ’ve never thought of myself as an ath- my freshman year. On Sep. 18, 2012, I wrote: lete. In elementary school, I danced “I have cross-country every single day after for a few years. I did gymnastics, school. OH MY GOD, it’s so hard! It’s the best played rec softball and soccer. None of it kind of hard, though, because I feel so accomstuck, though, and as the talent of my peers plished after I run.” And on Nov. 2: “I can’t increased and mine plateaued, I’d drop each believe the season’s over!! I’m SO glad I did it; sport without much remorse — I preferred I made so many amazing friends. I loved XC.” I was so taken aback after reading those to explore other interests, like reading novels and writing articles for a weekly news- entries that I had to lie down on my bedroom paper I distributed at my extended family’s floor. I couldn’t help but laugh. How in the Friday night dinners. I still did “athletic” world had I gone from that level of enthu-

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siasm freshman year to the pessimism of senior year? And why were those final memories the only ones I remembered? f nothing else, running gives you a lot of time to think, and as I trudged down the street five days after beginning to run again, the journal entries kept popping into my mind. I thought about how I’d felt both grown up and protected when the older girls on the cross country team took me on a tour of the high school even before freshman orientation. I thought about the team sleepover we’d had and how cool I’d felt just hearing two of the seniors on the team talk nonchalantly about having “naked pool parties” with their boyfriends. I thought about the sense of accomplishment I felt from making it up the notoriously awful hill at Kensington Metropark. I didn’t run fast that first season, but it didn’t matter. I was pushing myself. I was growing. I was having fun.

Thinking about cross country made me think about the concept of strength. The summer before my sophomore year, I missed most of the team’s summer practices because I was away at camp, and when I came back to practice in the early fall, I was incredibly out of shape. The brand new freshmen were outrunning me and I couldn’t complete the 3-mile run without stopping. I remember sobbing to my mom about how embarrassing it felt to still be running at the back after a full year on the team. I remember the pain that rattled through my shins during those first few practices of the year, and the shame that came from learning it wasn’t even a stress fracture, just stupid shin splints, which everyone gets. I remember sprints practice on the soccer field, watching my teammate Ioana limp through her own injury as I sat out entirely. Of course, now I understand how serious shin splints are and that running would have been unsafe for me that season.

But all I knew then was that Ioana was strong enough to push through her injury, and I wasn’t. I remember thinking: I must not be a runner. I must not be an athlete. abeling myself in any way made me feel vulnerable as a kid. To call myself an athlete was to tell the world I thought of myself as a person with certain talents and passions. What if I called myself a runner but people saw me running in the back of the pack? What if I called myself a writer but people didn’t like my stories? I worried so much about what other people would think of my labels that I never thought to define the terms for myself. I wonder now if it would have mattered that I didn’t consider myself a runner if others had. Which is more important: what others think of me, or how I think of myself? Can I even separate those perceptions from one another?

When I applied to colleges my senior year of high school, I thought for a long time about what I should write in my application essays. Although I didn’t decide I wanted to

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be a writer until my sophomore year of college, there must have been some deep-seated desire in me to go down that path, because I remember hesitating to write about my love for writing in my essays. What would happen, I’d fret, if I wrote that I wanted to be a writer, but the admissions counselor didn’t think I had any writing talent? I’d be bearing my whole soul right there on the page, and the reader would have the authority to decide my fate. It was too risky. I wrote about other topics instead.

I’m no longer afraid to call myself a writer, but the confidence in that label didn’t take hold until I became the Editor in Chief of my college newspaper. Even as a staff reporter, I still felt like I only dabbled in writing, and that anyone who was a “real” writer would laugh if they knew I was calling myself one, too.

Perhaps this preoccupation with how others perceive our labels impacted my view of my cross country experience. It was acceptable, expected even, to be a less talented runner freshman year. It wasn’t as common to still be running in JV races as a senior.

Everyone got injured at one point or another, but not everyone decided to sit out for threequarters of the season because of shin splints.

Maybe the contempt I expressed in my senior year diary and the unhappy memories that remain of the experience stemmed from a subconscious effort to create cognitive dissonance between myself and the sport. Maybe I was trying to signal to the outside world that I didn’t care if I was a slow runner, because I didn’t enjoy running at all. I didn’t feel like I deserved the running label, so I shunned the sport altogether. Would I have gone on to love running if I hadn’t been so afraid of labels?

I think about what would have happened if I’d shied away from writing, too. I never would have joined The Michigan Daily. I never would have become Editor in Chief.

My whole identity would be different.

Though I’ve started running again, I’m still not sure if I’ll ever be able to call myself a runner — at least not with the same confidence I have in calling myself a writer. I’d like to say I’ve matured beyond the point of caring about how others viewed me, but part of me still thinks I’d feel like an imposter if I claimed the label. I have to wonder, though — does it even matter? I’m running again and feeling good about it. This time I’m not going to let a label — or lack thereof — dictate how I feel about the sport as a whole. For now, you can catch me trudging down Stadium Boulevard. I’ll have a better sense of where my landmarks are this time.

Maya Goldman is the former Editor in Chief of The Michigan Daily and can be reached at mayagold@umich.edu.

8B Wednesday, January 29, 2020 // The Statement

STREET CATS OF IRAN WILD CATS ROAM THE STREETS OF TEHR AN, ISFAHAN AND SHIR AZ PHOTOS BY KEEMYA ESMAEL