2020-02-04

ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-NINE YEARS OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM

Tuesday, February 4, 2020

Ann Arbor, Michigan

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‘U’ students travel to Iowa in support of candidates

Political organizations knock on doors, try to garner support for election MAYA GOLDMAN Daily Staff Reporter

ANNIE KLUSENDORF/Daily Dr. Yusuf Salaam discusses pertinent issues in today’s society at the Michigan Union Ballroom Monday evening.

Member of the Exonerated Five speaks on criminal justice system

Keynote speaker Yusef Salaam details experiences with wrongful conviction, exoneration and religion in honor of Black History Month JASMIN LEE

Daily Staff Reporter

“You were born on purpose,” Yusef Salaam, public speaker and one of the Exonerated 5, said. “If you were born on purpose, then you were born with a purpose.”

Salaam spoke to a crowd of more than 400 people at the Michigan Union Ballroom on Monday night.

Sponsors of the event included Multi-Ethnic Student Affairs, the Ford School of Public Policy and

the Department of Afroamerican and African Studies, among many others.

The Exonerated 5, previously known as the Central Park 5, were falsely accused of rape in 1989 and sentenced for up to 13 years in prison as teenagers in New York. The defendants’ assault convictions were overturned in 2002 and the five agreed to a $40 million settlement in 2014. A Netflix series called “When They See Us” shares the true story of the Exonerated 5. Salaam was

only 15 years old when he went to prison and was exonerated when the actual assailant confessed to the Central Park rape.

DAAS Program Associate Elizabeth James began the event with an acknowledgment of the Union occupying formerly tribal land. MESA staff Leslie Tetteh and Saveri Nandigama then gave the welcoming address. Three poets performed before Salaam was introduced to the audience with a standing ovation.

Salaam engaged with the audience as he walked across the stage multiple times to address the large crowd. He shared stories about the effects prison had on his life and how he grew through his incarceration.

Salaam said an important part of his identity is his religion and he spoke about how Islam helped him grow into a leader during and after his time in prison. The presence of his religion brought him companionship.brought him companionship.

See HISTORIC, Page 3

DAVENPORT, IOWA — Public Policy junior Camille Mancuso and LSA junior Jordyn Houle stood over a kitchen table covered in campaign fliers of Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., at a house serving as one of the campaign’s canvassing headquarters in Davenport, Iowa on Friday.

Houle and Mancuso, two leaders of the University of Michigan’s Students for Warren chapter, arrived in Iowa late Thursday night with two other Students for Warren members to spend the weekend canvassing for Warren, Democratic presidential candidate, ahead of Monday’s Iowa caucus.

They had been planning the weekend for a while, along with LSA junior Maya Chamra and Engineering sophomore Ashvin Kumar. Mancuso told The Daily ahead of the trip that they’ve been canvassing for Warren in Michigan, but they’ve wanted to come knock doors in Iowa since the end of last semester.

“We knew it was going to be all hands on deck,” Mancuso said. “All of the presidential campaigns have sort of been cycling with who’s at the top of the polls, who’s near the bottom of

CAMPUS LIFE

Therapist Ann Arbor District Library serves examines as Michigan’s only satellite caucus LQBTQ+ Out of state Iowans cast their primary votes, Sanders and Warren split delegates wellness CALDER LEWIS

Spectrum Center hosts psychologist Joy Saniyah, emphasizes importance of mental health, healing LILY GOODING

Daily Staff Reporter

As part of LGBTQ Health and Wellness Week, the Spectrum Center hosted keynote speaker Joy Saniyah, a mental health professional, at the School of Social Work on Monday night.

Saniyah spoke to a crowd of about 25 regarding her experience as a therapist, registered yoga teacher and an energy healer, or reiki practitioner. Saniyah explained what freedom and self-expression means to her to address the guiding question “what is right with you?” at the event.

As a therapist, Saniyah focuses on creating a space where any marginalized group or individual can feel supported. As a queer, woman of color, Saniyah emphasized the importance of feminist values, especially in the realm of healing. Seven years ago, Saniyah founded the Integrative Empowerment Group, a mental health and wellness group based in Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti.

Saniyah said healing requires a multidisciplinary approach.

See LGBTQ, Page 3

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

Daily Staff Reporter

As Iowans cast the nation’s first votes in the 2020 Democratic Presidential primaries Monday night, Iowa residents living in Michigan descended on the Ann Arbor District Library for the state’s only satellite caucus. Ann Arbor joined 86 other satellite locations from as far as Paris, France open to Iowa Democrats living out of the state, as part of a wider effort by the Iowa Democratic Party to expand accessibility

in the caucus process.

The final delegate count for the satellite caucus was two delegates for Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-VT, and two delegates for Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass.

Those delegates will be factored in proportion with results from the other satellite caucuses.

Nine Iowa Democrats were caucusing, with more than 30 non-Iowan community members observing. One observer, LSA sophomore Neil Jain, said he came because he’s impressed with the caucus system of selecting a

candidate.

“Democracy is about having these conversations,” Jain said. “It’s about dissent and disagreement and being able to work out and discuss those differences instead of being able to hide away in our own little cubicles filling out ballots. I’m here to see how the process unfolds on a microscopic level.”

Non-Iowan supporters representing former Vice President Joe Biden, South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg, Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., Sanders, Warren

and entrepreneur Andrew Yang courted voters before the caucus began. Many carried signs and wore shirts and pins supporting their candidate.

However, most Iowans, including Engineering senior Alex Skillin, had already made up their mind coming into the caucus.

“I’m pretty well behind Warren and I have been for a while following the process,” Skillin said. “I was back in Iowa over break and saw a town hall or two.”

See SATELLITE, Page 3

RYAN LITTLE/Daily Nine Iowans partcipate in a satellite caucus held at the Ann Arbor Public Library Monday evening. Michigan held one one of the 87 total satellite caucuse around the globe.

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INDEX

Vol. CXXIX, No. 62 ©2020 The Michigan Daily

the polls — it sort of changes pretty often. So we knew that last weekend before the caucus was going to be super important to ensure that Elizabeth Warren is successful in Iowa.”

In the kitchen, the students listened to Jean Simpson, Davenport resident and a canvass captain for the Warren campaign as she explained door-knocking routes and how to report responses from residents.

“What we’re going to do is I’m going to give you a script,” Simpson told the group. “You’re each going to get a clipboard, and that will have your script and everything you need, and I’m going to go through that now.”

“I guess I’m skipping class on Monday.”

Students from several other University of Michigan groups also planned canvassing trips in Iowa this weekend to participate in the lead-up to the caucus.

LSA senior Jessica Kosticak was inspired to start Students for Pete at the University after a November trip to Iowa for Pete Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Ind., and the youngest candidate in the race. When she heard the friends she’d made on that trip were going back to the state for the caucus, she knew she wanted in too.

See IOWA, Page 3

ACADEMICS

Town hall discusses two bylaws on tenure Faculty senate meeting explores issues regarding trials for severance pay, professor misconduct HANNAH MACKAY Daily Staff Reporter

Members of the Senate Advisory Committee on University Affairs hosted the faculty tenure bylaw working group at Palmer Commons on Monday. The group, which was established to draft recommendations for potential changes to Regent’s bylaws 5.09 and 5.10, presented to about 50 faculty and staff at a town hallstyle meeting.

These two bylaws establish the processes and practices for firing tenured faculty. The bylaw working group aims to make recommendations on potential amendments that are reflective of faculty wishes. The group was formed after Music, Theatre & Dance professor David Daniels was accused of sexual assault in August 2018.

Soon after, Daniels was placed on paid leave and the University is still in the process of firing Daniels.

Sharon Glotzer, professor and chair of Chemical Engineering and chair of the faculty working group, explained the specific purposes of Regents bylaws 5.09 and 5.10, as well as the time period in which they were enacted.

See ASSEMBLY, Page 3

NEWS.........................2 OPINION.....................4 CLASSIFIEDS................6

SUDOKU.....................6 SPORTS...................7 ARTS...............5

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SAYALI AMIN and LEAH GRAHAM ALEC COHEN/Daily Journalist Anu Partanen speaks on her book “The Nordic Theory of Everything: In Search of a Better Life,” during an Honors Stowe lecture in the Rackham amphitheater Monday.

City Council renames landmark in honor of Dingell, talks parking

Group votes to continue leasing 18 spots from the University over next two years, sponsors resolution to name East Stadium Bridges LEAH GRAHAM

Managing News Editor

The Ann Arbor City Council renewed a parking lease with the University of Michigan and renamed the East Stadium Bridges after former Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., at its meeting on Monday.

Council voted to continue to lease 18 parking spaces at Riverside Park to the University for two years, at a cost to the University of $13,305 for the first year and $13,704 for the second. The money will go to the Parks and Recreation General Fund.

Councilmember Jeff Hayner, D-Ward 1, opposed extending the lease, saying it did not align with Ann Arbor’s carbon reduction goals and calling on the University to augment its own infrastructure without relying on the city for parking.

“I’m simply saying I’m tired of having cars come down into our neighborhood when we’re in the middle of a climate emergency,” Hayner said. “It’s terrible for the air, it’s terrible for the climate, it’s terrible for our carbon counting.”

Mayor Christopher Taylor called the University a business partner and voted in favor of the lease.

“The city and the University of Michigan work closely and well together on a wide variety of matters,” Taylor said. “This is an instance in which we can help them with some of their parking needs in an important area of the community and we can obtain a measure of

revenue for our parks … It’s a win-win.”

Taylor also sponsored a resolution to rename the East Stadium Bridges after Dingell, who passed away last February at age 92. Dingell was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1955 when he was 29, retiring in 2014 after 59 years in office.

Rep. Debbie Dingell, D-Mich., who was his wife, now holds the seat and represents Ann Arbor.

Taylor noted Dingell helped Ann Arbor secure a $13.9 million federal grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation to replace the then-crumbling bridge.

“John Dingell holds a place in Ann Arbor history, of course, but more importantly in American history, serving as the longest-serving member of Congress in United States history, which is truly an incredible thing,” Taylor said. “John Dingell served his district, his state and the nation with dignity and courage and passion and integrity. He was everything that you would want a legislator to be and a true friend to his constituents.”

Councilmember Chip Smith, D-Ward 5, asked to be added as a co-sponsor of the resolution. He spoke of Dingell’s iconic leadership.

“Clearly, we wouldn’t have built those bridges without his help,” Smith said.

The resolution passed unanimously.

During public comment, Ann Arbor resident Abu Ibrahim described his issues

with local law enforcement stemming from a case of mistaken identity.

The 26-year-old said despite having no criminal record, he was rejected from a job at the University after the school determined he was a felon.

After requesting a report from state police officers, Ibrahim said he found eight pages worth of charges of misdemeanors and felonies that he had “nothing to do with.”

“I’ve been told that my name is linked to 44 other aliases, and I’ve talked to multiple members of Council about this over the years to try to address it, try to fix it, what can be done about it,” Ibrahim said.

Last September, Ibrahim filed a complaint with the Ann Arbor Police Department, but he said he was told all the officers involved with his case were exonerated.

“This complaint is tied to a dashcam video of four officers coming to my house in the middle of the night, harassing me, interrogating me, illegally holding me and taking me to jail illegally without any charges,” Ibrahim said.

Ibrahim said Police Chief Michael Cox canceled a meeting he had scheduled with him. He added that he wanted the video sent to the Independent Community Police Oversight Commission and the city’s Human Rights Commission, but neither body received it.

“There’s still no resolution to my problem,” Ibrahim said.

“I have a huge target on my back every time I’m stopped

by the police, I’m driving, whether I’m being detained, it doesn’t matter. This has put my life in danger, it’s added to my plight, it’s got me kicked out of school, fired from jobs.

I paid thousands of dollars in fines to the city of Ann Arbor, fines that the city of Ann Arbor has told me — judges and police officers — that they know they’re not my fines, but I have to pay them anyway, which doesn’t make sense to me.”

Ibrahim left after public comment.

Later in the meeting, Hayner said the police chief had been made aware of the situation.

“From our understanding what’s going on there is that there’s been a mix up with some information in the lien system, which is monitored by the state and that the city of Ann Arbor doesn’t have anything to do with that,” Hayner said.

“We can’t go in there and modify those records or make the change to that record.

Apparently fingerprints and other identifying data were switched.”

Hayner added the AAPD was working to let its officers know that Ibrahim had been incorrectly identified by state records.

“They’re doing what they can to make that recognition out through the force that, ‘Hey, this isn’t the guy. (It’s a) different guy, different guy, there’s been a mix-up,’” Hayner said.

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IOWA From Page 1 “I’m like, guess I’m skipping class on Monday,” Kosticak said.

She drove nine hours to Des Moines by herself, in her selfproclaimed “clown car” — a hybrid with great gas mileage.

Kosticak wasn’t nervous for the long drive, she said, but her parents were.

“I almost didn’t tell them, but then I’m like, I feel like they would want to know something like this,” Kosticak said. “Like, ‘oh, I’m just going to go to Iowa for four days!’”

Once there, Kosticak said her job was to knock on doors and do whatever the campaign needed at the moment.

“That weekend before, I’m told, is crucial for reaching out to folks,” she said. “So just showing that we care about having people’s voices heard no matter where they come from or what their political beliefs are.”

LSA sophomore Alexander Zittleman, a member of the University’s chapter of Students for Bernie, travelled to Clinton, Iowa, to canvass for Sen. Bernie Sanders, D-Vt., with Spartans

HISTORIC From Page 1 “Six months in jail, this officer asked me a question that seemed basic,” Salaam said. “He said ‘Hey there, who are you? ‘I’ve been watching you. You are not supposed to be here. Who are you?’”

LSA freshman Temilolu Yusuf told The Daily she enjoyed hearing Salaam talk about the role of religion in his journey through prison.

“I love the fact that he really incorporated religion and the role of religion in his incarceration process as well as his exoneration,” Yusuf said.

“He really shows that for some things in life, that you really need that belief and support system… Even in prison, where many people use religion as a way to bring themselves up and not feel like prisoners, feel like they have control over themselves. It was amazing to see that he’s telling us, as people who have never been in prison, that religion is something that you shouldn’t only have when your back is against the wall.

TOWN HALL From Page 1 “They specify the process by which faculty can be fired or lose tenure and receive one year of compensation, severance, after termination,” Glotzer said. “These bylaws were instituted back in the McCarthy era to ensure strong protections for academic freedom and they were mostly unchanged since they were written back in the ‘50s.”

Glotzer also elaborated on the current system instituted by these bylaws, saying that there is a twotiered process in place that can be very complex and time-consuming.

In this process, two separate trials run alongside one another in cases of charged tenured faculty members.

“Our current bylaws also say that faculty receive full compensation until the 5.09 process concludes with termination, regardless of the aggressiveness of the alleged misconduct,” Glotzer said.

“And in most cases terminated faculty members receive a year of severance pay. The issue is that

SATELLITE From Page 1 In the first round of preferences, five Iowans supported Warren, three voters supported Sanders and one supported Buttigieg.

Due to Iowa Democratic Party rules, Buttigieg and the other candidates who received less than 15 percent of the initial vote were deemed “non-viable” for the caucus in Ann Arbor. The Warren and Sanders supporters had a fifteen-minute period to try to convince the lone Buttigieg supporter, Law School student Michael Goodyear, to join their group.

This realignment period took up the majority of the time

Tuesday, February 4, 2020 — 3

for Sanders, a student group from Michigan State University.

“I decided to go to Iowa for the chance to get out of my comfort zone and talk to people about the issues that matter and to encourage people to vote,” Zittleman told The Daily in an email interview. “Being the first caucus, Iowa sets the tone for the rest of the primary season and Iowa has the potential to build even more momentum for Bernie.”

“It was just fun getting involved because it was the first time for most of us.”

Seven members of the Ann Arbor Yang Gang also traveled to Davenport to canvass for Andrew Yang, entrepreneur and Democratic presidential candidate. This wasn’t their first trip for the candidate — members of the group went to Westerville, Ohio, to support Yang during the fourth Democratic debate this past October.

“That trip was a lot of fun,” Engineering senior Justin Zhao, event coordinator for the group, said. “People were super receptive to our candidate. It was just fun getting involved because it was the first time for

most of us.”

When they had the opportunity to travel for Yang again, they jumped at the chance.

“Andrew is still kind of a fringe candidate, I would say,” Zhao told The Daily. “So he needs to perform well in the early states for his campaign … to succeed.”

Zhao said they may look into planning a canvassing trip to New Hampshire, the next state to hold a primary, as well. South Carolina, another early state, is “too far of a drive.”

The group has been working to drum up support for Yang on campus through tabling in Mason Hall and postering around Ann Arbor, but Zhao said they’re putting most of their energy into making sure Yang can stay in the race long enough to get to the Michigan primary.

“We’re probably going to be most energized if he’s doing well in the early states. If he’s doing well in the early states and he has a viable chance to win then we’re going to do more work for sure,” he said.

“Even if we’re not in Iowa, we’re still going to make our

presence felt.”

Some students who couldn’t physically be in Iowa this weekend still chose to help out their chosen candidates from afar. Kosticak said her fellow Students for Pete members who couldn’t travel this weekend were planning a phone banking event to reach Iowa voters remotely.

Similarly, LSA freshman Andrew Schaeffler, co-founder of the University’s Students for Biden chapter, had hoped to organize a trip to Iowa for some Students for Biden members.

They weren’t able to coordinate a ride, but Schaeffler said they planned to make calls to Iowa residents in support of the former vice president.

Students for Biden has held regular phone banks for the campaign this fall — “every weekend or every other weekend,” Schaeffler said. They used the campaign’s website to call into Iowa and talk to caucus voters about why they support Biden and to make sure voters have information about their caucus locations.

Schaeffler said the group has placed an emphasis on phone banking into Iowa because it’s

a crucial point in the campaign.

“I was definitely more so expecting to do things that were on a more local basis,” he said. “But we’ve put such an emphasis on our phone banking calling into Iowa because we know … that’s a priority that we want to commit to. And then once Iowa passes, we’ll be much more focused on Michigan.”

Schaeffler was also asked to serve as a precinct captain, a person who serves as a liaison between a political party and voters, for Biden at the first-ever satellite caucus in Ann Arbor on Monday. The caucus is one of 99 events that will allow registered Iowa Democrats who can’t be at their allocated caucus location to cast their vote on Monday.

“Even if we’re not in Iowa, we’re still going to make our presence felt in Iowa, and do everything we can to reach out,” he said.

Back in Davenport After receiving their instructions, the Students for Warren group left canvassing HQ and drove to a quiet Davenport street a few miles away.

Chamra and Kumar walked up the driveway and through the

fence of the first house on their canvassing list. Kumar knocked on the door, and they waited a moment until a man opened the door a crack, his young daughter peeking out next to him.

“Hi, my name’s Ashvin, I’m a volunteer with Elizabeth Warren’s campaign, and this is Maya,” Kumar said, following the script on his clipboard.

They talked to the man for a moment, but he said he already supported Warren and already knew his caucus day plan, so Chamra and Kumar thanked him and said goodbye.

As they walked back down the driveway, Chamra said she thought it had gone pretty well.

“A lot of people kind of don’t like to be disturbed at their house,” she said. “But he opened the door and said he supported Warren and that he has a caucus plan, so that’s good!”

The pair huddled over Kumar’s phone, trying to figure out where to go next. With a direction decided, they started off down the street, feeling warmed up and ready for a day of knocking on doors.

Benjamin Rosenfeld contributed reporting to this article.

You should have it all the time.”

mean the man who called for our death. The man who was the fire starter. The man who writes in the papers that we should just take the eldest one

Aysiah White told The Daily she appreciated Salaam talk about his personal experience and how it has impacted his life’s work.

as personal as his. So I was just very appreciative that he took time to actually tell his part of his story.”

A panel following the keynote speech featured five panelists who contributed to the Black History Month narrative. Su’ad Abdul Khabeer, associate professor of American Culture, moderated the discussion and asked the panelists questions about hope, abolitionism and the impact of incarceration on families.

A student asked the panel about unconscious racial bias and how to interact with people who present those attitudes towards people of color. In response, Erin Keith, staff attorney for the Detroit Justice Center, said unconscious bias is a reaction to Black people being able to thrive through centuries of injustice.

“Black people are in the

future,” Keith said. “(People with unconscious bias) are afraid because they are wondering how we are still here, how are we still standing.

No matter what anyone says, we are still gonna be in the future.”

LSA senior Nando Felten said he appreciated the multiple perspectives on the panel and the empowerment of Black people as the future of America.

Felten said hearing Public Policy junior Cydney Garner Brown and Cozine Welch of the Prison Creative Arts Project speak on the panel was especially moving.

“My favorite part was just seeing the panel, seeing Cydney Garner Brown on stage with people that have served,” Felton said. “Cozine served 20 years in prison and that’s pretty much as long as (I’ve) been alive and seeing how he’s still here. He’s a director of different organizations and seeing the impact that these people are making on the world is amazing. The final ending part of how they said that Black people are in the future was just amazing and touching.”

LGBTQ From Page 1

by the idea of resistance, not resilience. Through my actions, I want to inspire others to resist the narratives and systems that try to suffocate us and make us feel small.”

The event then opened up to a Q&A segment. Neal Elkin, alum of the University of Michigan’s Medical School, asked the first question. He spoke about his experience marching in the 1973 gay pride parade in Ann Arbor.

His question concerned the current political climate in the country.

“I’m really worried about where our country is going right now, all of the benefits we’ve been able to achieve are under threat,” Elkin said. “I’m just wondering what you personally think about political activism and the role it will play in preserving where we’re at right now and making progress in the future.”

During his speech, Salaam also discussed how, in the 1980s, President Donald Trump, a prominent business figure in New York at the time, wanted the five teenagers to be sentenced to the death penalty only two weeks after their arrest.

Salaam discussed the horrific statements Trump made about them and his reaction when Trump became president.

Salaam spoke about Trump while holding up a copy of an advertisement Trump paid for in the New York Times.

“In a country where you think you are innocent until proven guilty,” Salaam said. “In a country where Dr. King said we live in two Americas: divided and unequal … Then you turn on the news and you realize, this can’t be right. You

“In a country where Dr. King said we live in two Americas: divided and unequal … Then you turn on the news and you realize, this can’t be right. You mean the man who called for our death. The man who was the fire starter. The man who writes in the papers that we should just take the eldest one and hang him from a tree in Central Park … That

and hang him from a tree in Central Park … That he will become the President of the United States. I wondered what God was doing.”

Public

Health

sophomore

“My favorite part about the event was Dr. Salaam being vulnerable and sharing his voice,” White said. “It takes a lot for a person to stand in front of a whole crowd and to tell their story, especially one

our current 5.09 process has been applied to the type of egregious misconduct that was never meant to be afforded the protections of tenure in the first place.”

The faculty working group received input and feedback from faculty members, lawyers and administrators that had experience with 5.09 cases.

The first proposed change is to eliminate the two-tiered process and create one pathway with a clear timeline that uses deadlines to initiate review processes efficiently.

Glotzer said individual hearing committees are selected from a standing committee of members, and she asked for feedback on the two-tiered process.

“One of the ideas that we’re considering is to establish a standing Judicial Committee under SACUA that would be like a tenure and promotion committee,” Glotzer said. “It would be a standing committee from which members of the hearing committee could be chosen.”

Glotzer also said bylaw 5.10, which dictates severance pay policy, does not exclude exceptions for harassment cases and other

“non-crimes” that go against University policy. She said she was open to feedback on whether to adopt or eliminate it.

“Our current bylaw 5.10 allows for one-year severance pay after termination, except when prohibited by law based on the character or conduct of the faculty member, when the faculty member is convicted of a felony or serious misdemeanor that involves students or the university or when there is intentional refusal to perform properly assigned academic duties,” Glotzer said.

The committee then opened the floor for questions from the town hall audience and feedback on their proposed changes to the bylaws.

Astronomy professor Sally Oey said she would support SACUA accepting responsibility for review committee appointments.

“I would just ask that SACUA be the entity that does the actual appointment of the committee and that we just specify that that’s it,” Oey said. “That the bylaw itself specifies that SACUA be the responsible party, and that way if the judicial panel doesn’t work and if there are unforeseen things that

may be awkward or logistically problematic, those things can be tweaked, but the bylaw itself be something simple and high level.”

Astronomy professor Michael Meyer said he supported eliminating pay suspension before a review process is carried out.

“I understand that there was a consensus to get rid of the suspension of pay before due processes unfolded and I support that, but in this case I don’t think there would be severance, typically for other employees at the University who are terminated for cause,” Meyer said. “I think if the process is good and it’s gone through thoroughly, someone has been fired and they no longer have tenure.”

Jerry Sanders, associate professor of biology at U-M Flint, expressed concern at the ambiguous nature of the current bylaws.

“One thing that I’m concerned about the severance pay suspension and the phrase ‘other non-crimes’, when you’re being very very vague about things, that opens up a whole can of worms,” Sanders said.

in the caucus, and Goodyear was resistant to odes from the Sanders and Warren groups.

“I’m a fan of Buttigieg’s moderate policies,” Goodyear said. “I went through all the platforms online and Buttigieg’s are all extremely well thought out. As a law student, I like that there are footnotes that have actual sources for everything and credible depth to a lot of policies.”

Goodyear ultimately decided to abstain from voting rather than join the Sanders or Warren groups after the realignment period.

“It felt odd, like my vote wasn’t counting,” Goodyear said. “Caucuses are a very different experience but certainly not the most democratic. It was great for

the 19th century but not so great for the 21st.”

Before the caucus, LSA freshman Andrew Schaeff ler told The Daily that close to half of the satellite caucus locations are in college towns like Ann Arbor.

“It’s really cool for college students who are registered Iowa Democrats to have their voices heard,” Schaeff ler said. “It’s a phenomenal job by the Iowa Democratic Party to put the focus on students … since it’s not a primary system in which they can just cast an absentee ballot.”

After the caucus, Iowan Joanna Courteau ref lected on the differences between the traditional Iowa caucuses she’s attended since 1976 and the new satellite caucus.

“The participants in

a regular caucus totally outnumber observers and media people,” Courteau said.

“They’re really involved and there’s a lot of haggling going on and a lot of persuading the non-aligned people. People today were so polite with the Pete Buttigieg guy.”

Every Iowan caucusing Monday night, beside Courteau, were University students.

Courteau, who splits time between Ann Arbor and Aimes, Iowa, was grateful for the large student presence.

“I am trying as hard as I can to pass the torch to the younger generation,” Courteau said. “Seeing them be involved, them being interested is really important to me.”

“We don’t just have therapy,” Saniyah said. “We have yoga, massage, energy work because we do believe that healing is an integrative journey.”

Saniyah exemplified the necessity of diverse healing approaches by leading the audience in a brief two-minute breathing exercise. She said with meditation, attendees have the opportunity to connect with their surroundings and with their breathing.

The event progressed to a larger discussion of identity and healing. Saniyah said when she was first invited to speak, she was unsure what she would share with the audience. What was most important to her was the idea of freedom and liberation in the world today, especially as someone who has been marginalized by society.

“What does it mean to truly be free? How much agency do I have over what that looks like in my life?” Saniyah asked.

“We can talk about freedom from structures and systems that seek to control us, or maybe it’s freedom from stories or narratives that have been projected onto us.”

In addressing these questions, Saniyah related back to the practice and importance of health in wellness in our communities.

Therapy, as Saniyah described, provides the opportunity to share experiences and heal. Moreover, Saniyah said she focuses on the idea of resistance instead of resilience.

“In my view, resilience highlights the ability for marginalized folks to be strong and overcome,” Saniyah said.

“It’s our responsibility to be strong and resilient rather than the system’s responsibility to change? For me, I’m driven

Saniyah responded by addressing how activism can create change.

According to Saniyah, both activism and therapy have an equally significant role to play in making marginalized groups and individuals feel heard.

“Political activism can be really helpful and empowering for folks and can effect change,” Saniyah said. “My hope and my dream is that we don’t have to change who we are. That’s why voting matters, supporting candidates who share our values matter and having conversations with people who don’t always share our views matter.”

LSA freshman Lydia Stevens said a quote mentioned by feminist writer Audre Lorde about how self-care is a revolutionary act really resonated with her.

“I really liked the quote from Audre Lorde,” Stevens said.

“The best resistance is selfcare and thriving. That’s really important to keep in mind, especially in today’s climate.”

Opinion

4 — Tuesday, February 4, 2020

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

LEAH ADELMAN | COLUMN

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NEIL SHAH | COLUMN

The dangers of group identity politics on college campuses

I

recently read a piece by essayist Phillip Lopate titled “On the Necessity of Turning Oneself into a Character.” It offers advice to writers about building themselves into characters — rounding out the “I” in the narration of personal narratives and creative nonfiction. One passage stood out for reasons entirely unrelated to the craft of writing: “Ethnicity, gender, religion, class, geography, politics: These are all strong determinants in the development of character.

Sometimes they can be made too much of, as in the worst sort of ‘identity politics,’ which seeks to explain away all the intangibles of a human being’s destiny by this or that social oppression.”

Lopate suggests that an element of building characters in stories is explicitly recognizing the groups to which we belong, because to some extent, these groups have shaped us. They are not meaningless associations.

They’re worth bringing to the forefront when we define ourselves. But Lopate makes the poignant observation that, beyond what applies to essay-writing and selfquestioning, “identity politics” reduce the individual to these group associations — known quantities — and neuters the qualities that make one an individual.

Lopate’s point, while tangential, applies to university climates.

At universities, political correctness is a subtle but dominating force; it’s a feature of many college campuses around the nation.

Essayist John Taylor describes it as a “New Fundamentalism” in a New York Magazine cover story: The radical left students who live by politically correct dogma take on extreme measures to make sure other students do the same. This purportedly advances the interests of oppressed groups.

Why? Because the zeitgeist of universities, specifically the humanities and even the sciences, are informed by belief systems that favor wealthy, powerful and privileged groups. Political correctness (PC) culture, therefore, corrects this inherent imbalance by purging out of the public sphere ideas that are considered the status quo.

As reasoned as it might be to simply believe a societal power structure exists that prevents equal opportunity, the most extreme PC activists go to embarrassing and even violent ends to act on their strongly held beliefs.

Political correctness is, therefore, an ideological engine that promotes group identity politics on college

campuses. This is dangerous for several reasons. It co-opts meaningful indicators of identity, like background, ethnicity and politics, for use in assigning value to each other and each other’s opinions. This creates an atmosphere where opinions are judged not on the merits of their idea, but on how supposedly oppressed the individual holding that opinion is. Moreover, certain opinions can be deemed invalid (by the left) for reasons that are wholly beyond your control. This harms campus discourse because it enables people to presume your opinions based on your group identities. You may not agree with any of the beliefs you’re linked with but are judged for them nonetheless. Moreover, it encourages a silencing of viewpoints that are misaligned with (read: right-leaning) prevailing campus ideas, so only certain groups are worth listening to.

The politicallycorrect left has free reign to stymie campus discussion This emphasis on group identities politics makes political correctness harmful to free speech as well. Open discourse is necessarily linked to the sharing of ideas; it is tied to an environment in which ideas can be heard. PC culture inhibits the formation of such an environment because it labels people and their ideas with unrelated superlatives like “racist,” “sexist” and “patriarchal” for mostly arbitrary reasons. What might have begun as a parsing tool for identifying ideas with malintent has become a mechanism for silencing people who don’t agree with PC culture.

These viewpoints are not “racist” or “sexist”; they’re just labeled as such, due to some unclear association with these labels, for the purposes of silencing a competing opinion.

As such, the politically-correct left has free reign to stymie campus discussions and debates that involve ideas they don’t like. This fundamentally defeats the purpose of universities, as Robert Zimmer, president of the University of Chicago, recently noted in a speech in Vienna: “Students should be learning from each other by working through and discussing different opinions ... But the

environment of demonization and ostracism of those with opposing views can choke the intra-student discourse vital to an education.”

This type of closedmindedness, this unwillingness to listen to other opinions, is antithetical to the mission of a university. And more specifically, the intent to shut down other opinions due to their disagreement with farleft culture inhibits free and open speech. Free speech, however, is a necessary element of universities as it fosters an intellectually rigorous environment where voices and ideas can be heard and scrutinized properly.

Radical promoters of political correctness prevent this ideal culture from existing because people are unjustly demeaned for their divergent beliefs.

Indeed, this is a problem even on the University of Michigan campus. Only two years ago, protests nearly derailed an American Enterprise Institutesponsored event hosting controversial political scientist Charles Murray. Chants and disruptions reigned during the entirety of a peaceful event about the politics underpinning the 2016 election. PC culture is a problem among faculty, too.

This past year, a non-profit free speech advocacy group Speech First filed a lawsuit against the University on behalf of students who were identified by the U-M Bias Response Team (BRT). The team was designed to reprimand students for offensive speech, but how they carried out this intention was called into question by the students and Speech First, resulting in a victory for the conservative activists and disbanding of the BRT. The phenomenon of political correctness on campuses is dangerous. It prevents the understanding that our identities are most definitely informed by our backgrounds, politics and unique ways of thinking: This surely applies to writing, but is more true for individuals in real life.

It reduces the individual to group identities; it reduces divergent ideas to their group associations. This brand of identity politics devalues diversity of viewpoint and imposes a danger to free discourse on campus because individual and divergent opinions are considered fundamentally invalid due to their departure from the accepted norm. This culture can only be corrected with a robust commitment to free and independent thinking, for which a university atmosphere is perfect.

Neil Shah can be reached at neilsh@umich.edu.

CONTRIBUTE TO THE CONVERSATION Readers are encouraged to submit letters to the editor and op-eds. Letters should be fewer than 300 words while op-eds should be 550 to 850 words.

Send the writer’s full name and University affiliation to tothedaily@michigandaily.com.

T

Compostable cup meets reality

here is a great deal of hypocrisy in throwing a compostable cup into the garbage. Despite being labeled as environmentally friendly, these products are often sent to the landfill anyway. In Crisler Center, many concessions are sold in compostable ware, often accompanied by a utensil in an eco-friendly wrapper.

However, there is not a single compost bin in Crisler Center.

A common misconception is that compostable items can biodegrade in landfills, but compostable materials must be placed in the correct environment to actually break down. So, what happens when these compostable materials end up in the landfill?

Without the oxygen provided by a proper composting cycle, items in a landfill will either cease to break down at all or break down anaerobically. In one study published by the American Chemical Society, the Polylactic acid (PLA) — or cornstarch, which is what most compostable materials are made from — released methane via anaerobic decomposition. Another study published by the analytics company Elsevier, however, concluded the PLA did not break down at all. At the bare minimum, while these items may not release methane, they are still effectively relegated to being normal trash.

Regardless of whether the compostable material releases methane, one thing is for certain: It is not becoming compost.

When compostable items do end up in the compost, it is a completely different story. At a composting facility, care is taken in the aeration of organic materials so they properly decompose. Through a specialized process, composting creates a useful product for agriculture and gardening while diverting waste from the landfill.

Composting has exploded in visibility with the rise of certified compostable disposable

foodware and bags.

The Biodegradable Products Institute (BPI), the lead certifier in North America, was founded in 1990 and today has certified over 10,000 products. It is common to see the green BPI logo on the disposable cups or bags sold

by Ann Arbor vendors and at University of Michigan events.

Another concern for compostable products is the inclusion of a non-compostable sticker on the product, which prevents them from being composted.

Plastic stickers contaminate the compost, resulting in a whole load of organic materials being rejected by the composting facility.

Perhaps the company did not truly intend for the item to be composted if it was so carelessly converted into a noncompostable item. The desire for personalized branding can be accommodated while staying true to the product’s goal, which is easily done as compostable ware companies do offer customization.

In sustainability efforts, the responsibility is frequently placed on the individual to seek out environmentally-conscious actions. While education and awareness are crucial to a functioning composting system, there is a big problem with companies that set consumers up for failure. Compostable materials are too often introduced without even giving the consumer the option to dispose of them properly.

If a company’s management genuinely intends to reduce waste, they need to think about where their compostable items will end up. When a restaurant offers compostable products without the intent for them to be composted, they are greenwashing themselves — changing appearances to look environmentally friendly without making any true impact.

Companies that are purchasing compostable ware are

still helping the environmental cause in some way because they are giving their money to a green industry. While financially supporting a sustainabilityfocused industry is certainly useful, not offering their products with the appropriate care is taking away from the accomplishments of other companies that are. An example is Hopcat, a Michigan restaurant and bar chain that walks the walk with a robust composting system. They communicate with local composting providers and train employees on composting.

This successful system is far more proactive than just offering compostable products, although the average consumer may not be able to tell.

Food-service businesses should not give out compostable ware until they are prepared to offer consumers a way to compost them.

It is irresponsible to make people throw their compostable cups into garbage bins as if there has still been some environmental success. Until the business is ready to offer a compost bin, they can instead provide disposables that are made of post-consumer products or other sustainably sourced materials.

I commend businesses that make an effort to be more sustainable even when not done to completion. The thought is there, although the execution is ineffective and perhaps misleading the public. Places like Crisler Center should be held to a higher standard.

The University certainly has the knowledge and ability to offer composting in the locations where compostable ware is available. If you find yourself holding a cup with a compostable logo on it, don’t pat yourself on the back just yet.

It may not be plastic, but it’s as good as trash if you don’t put it in the right place.

Leah Adelman can be reached at ladelman@umich.edu.

EVAN STERN | COLUMN

I

How to really address climate change

n the last few years, whether it be on our campus or halfway across the world, our anxiety around climate change has hit an unprecedented level — dominating conversations, protests and activism on practically every continent.

Here in Ann Arbor, University of Michigan students and the greater Washtenaw County community have made their voices heard that they want real action on the climate crisis. In September 2019, thousands of community members joined the large-scale Washtenaw County Climate Strike and demanded immediate change.

Beyond this, student activists have overwhelmingly pushed back against the University’s commitment to investing in fossil fuels, climaxing in the arrest of 10 protesters by campus police in March.

Many of my colleagues at The Michigan Daily have clearly echoed these opinions, stressing how important it is that society adopts aggressive plans like the Green New Deal without hesitation.

However, travel a few miles outside Ann Arbor city limits and you’ll get a completely different picture of Washtenaw County’s position on climate change. According to county election records, while the Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti areas — predominantly urban centers — have unsurprisingly supported the Democratic agenda, the same isn’t true in other parts of the county. In fact, in the November 2016 election, many of the Washtenaw townships unequivocally affirmed their support for President Donald Trump, who has done little to fight the climate crisis, calling it a Chinese hoax. Election results show that a high number of precincts supported Trump by over 50 percent, while some areas voted for him by almost 65 percent. Therefore, while many of the opinions expressed here on our campus are valid, they clearly don’t represent the perspectives of many Washtenaw residents or the areas surrounding our university.

This means something not only for Washtenaw County — but for the entire climate fight.

The same trend is occurring across the entire country, as well as on the international stage. The problem is that climate change has for years remained an issue on the left.

Many people in Ann Arbor think we need to support legislation like the Green New Deal and throw away all fossil fuels, but you’ll hear exactly the opposite from people living a short drive away. All across the country and perhaps the world, liberals talk a lot about climate change while conservatives remain relatively silent. The crisis has gained significant attention — there’s no doubt about that — but this recognition is unevenly distributed across society.

I support many Republican positions on issues, but I fear the inherent dangers of climate change. Many people might expect me to reject climate change entirely because of my political views, but that’s not true. It’s not a Chinese hoax, but a real disaster that needs a real solution. Sooner rather than later, our society will have to confront the effects of global warming and rising sea levels.

However, I, along with many other more conservative and moderate citizens, am unable to engage in the climate conversation because it has become far too extreme. (I would even suggest that Trump’s ability to address the crisis is impaired by this phenomenon that so many have experienced.) It is easy to feel alienated and excluded in this divisive conversation, one where few alternative viewpoints are readily welcomed. Real change could occur, if only the leaders of the conversation could become leaders for all and invite everybody to work toward a solution. A movement cannot ignore the views of half of the constituency; it has to learn to adapt, encompassing what everybody believes if true progress is to occur.

There have been numerous legislative attempts in the past to mitigate climate change and

global warming on a smaller scale, but few, if any, have made notable advancements for the cause. More recently, some members of Congress, including Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., have even advocated for alternatives to the Green New Deal, like the “Green Real Deal.” The Green Real Deal “recognizes that a national commitment to innovation, competitive markets, and the deployment of advanced energy technologies will help the United States as the global leader in clean energy,” according to the Gaetz’s official website.

While Democrats predictably didn’t express much approval for the proposal, these types of bills — which are far more practical and politically feasible — are precisely the kind we need to pass if we want to save our planet.

The truth is that proposals like the Green New Deal, along with a cascade of other extreme climate legislation, are simply not capable of solving this crisis because they’re far too dramatic.

We shouldn’t be talking about complex measures that completely change our way of life, something that makes these proposals so unattractive in the first place.

We need to find ways to draft legislation that respects the needs of ordinary, hard-working Americans, our current way of life and the economy. We need to take small but significant steps that can gradually move our planet toward the ideal state that so many climate advocates envision.

The progress we will experience by acting in this manner may not be exactly what current activists are hoping for, but it will surely be a significant leap from what’s being accomplished now.

Ultimately, until society can effectively part ways with the divisive, unrealistic solutions that have become so common in the climate conversation, real improvement will be near impossible to reach.

Evan Stern can be reached at erstern@umich.edu.

Arts

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Tuesday, February 4, 2020 — 5

MUSIC REVIEW

MUSIC REVIEW

Sitting down with Ingrid Ann Arbor Folkfest Day 2 Michaelson, AA Folkfest is full of magnetic talent KAITLYN FOX Daily Arts Writer

When listening to her song “Christmas Lights,” you might think Ingrid Michaelson is describing the sadness of missing a loved one during the holidays; however, she’s actually narrating the thoughts of Joyce Byers, the mother of a missing boy in another dimension from the Netflix series “Stranger Things.” “You’re not here, but you’re here / I can still hear you call / Like a faraway bird trapped inside of the wall” Michaelson croons, recounting the scenes when Byers is able to communicate with her son via the Christmas lights hanging around her house.

While she’s built her career on her honesty and vulnerability, Michaelson took a new approach on her latest album Stranger Songs, dedicating the entirety of the album to the characters of “Stranger Things.” I had the opportunity to talk with Michaelson on Wednesday before watching her perform live at Folk Festival to discuss her new album and her upcoming show.

“Basically all the songs on the record are from the point of view of a few of the characters,” Michaelson said. “It’s essentially an assignment.

There’s this song, you have to tell this story. For me, the structure of it is really different and just getting into a groove of writing about what you’re thinking or writing what you’re feeling or writing about what you went through, it sort of feels like you have homework.

But within that structure I find great comfort for whatever reason, maybe because I’ve never really written like that before. It allows me to somehow be more creative because I have this structure, if that makes any sense. I’ve been really loving it and enjoying it. Applying it to pop writing has just been really cool and fun and rewarding.”

In her bio for Stranger Songs, Michaelson describes how she felt as though she was writing too much from the “brain and mind and soul of Ingrid Michaelson,” so Stranger Songs was a way for her to

plug her own experiences into a pre-existing story.

“Even though you’re taking inspiration from something else, there are still songs on the record that are very personal to me because the ideas are universal,” Michaelson said. “We all suffer heartbreak, we all suffer loss, we all have love in our life in some capacity, so even though they are pre-existing stories, my own voice is definitely there. My own vulnerability and my own part are definitely in the songs in Stranger Songs.”

The album pairs well with her other big project as the composer for the musical adaptation of “The Notebook.”

“In a musical you’re writing music that’s from the point of view of other characters of another story, so you get to tell a story through songs, which is really amazing,” Michaelson noted. “And then that’s where, although I didn’t realize this until after the fact, Stranger Songs came from because I was doing a very similar thing only in the realm of pop music where I’m taking pre-existing stories and characters and I’m funneling them through my lense.”

As a teaser to the opening of “The Notebook,” Michaelson performed an unreleased song from the show at the festival and encouraged audience members to see it live at the Chicago Shakespeare Theater in September.

Michaelson was one of six acts performing at the first night of the 43rd Annual Folk Festival, a twoday event that raises money for The Ark, a local nonprofit concert venue in Ann Arbor. Sporting black jeans and a t-shirt, Michaelson walked on stage with her long-time bandmate Allie Moss.

“It’s going to be very acoustic, just how I started touring years ago,” Michaelson said before the show. “It was just Allie and me in a minivan. So we’re going to do everything acoustic, stripped down. She’s one of my favorite people to sing with.

Harmonizing with her is [great]. She’s so amazingly good and she blends so well.”

Read more at MichiganDaily.com

CLARA SCOTT Daily Arts Writer

The second night of The Ark’s 43rd Ann Arbor Folk Festival began with the lilting sounds of guitar, banjo and lap steel, as it often does. There is nothing quite like sitting in Hill Auditorium during the festival, every seat filled with excited patrons laughing, crying and clapping throughout four hours of music that The Ark, a local music venue, puts on each year. To begin this year’s second night, emcee Willy Porter roused the crowd for the first act, a bluegrass and rootsrock group called Cold Tone Harvest. As audience members filed in through the auditorium’s gilded doors, they were met with the beautiful, yet gritty voice of the band’s lead vocalist, over a soundscape of rhythmic slide guitar and bouncing drums. Though the group played only three songs during their act, they set the tone for the rest of the night with a warm sense of intimacy.

After Cold Tone Harvest, Tulsa, Oklahoma. native John Moreland took the stage with his musical partner and guitarist John Calvin Abney, both of whom are monumental talents in their own right.

Moreland is the kind of songwriter that makes you forget everything that’s happening around you, his deep voice wielding the kind of gravitas that only comes from years of careful practice. As he played several songs from his upcoming album, Abney’s trills and riffs added a brilliant dose of treble to the songwriter’s emotive lyrics and cadenced guitar strumming. Moreland is a big guy, but his stage presence dwarfs any physical attributes he might have. It is hard to fill an auditorium of Hill’s size with one person’s voice alone, but he achieved it easily, moving the audience with each line of his rootsrock stylings. If soul is what sets folk music apart from other genres, Moreland is its poster boy. His performance reminds us of why large events like the Ann Arbor Folk Festival are critical: They highlight lesser-known but immensely talented artists with time on the big stage.

Moreland is a tough act to follow under any

circumstance, but Nashville songwriter and acclaimed guitarist Molly Tuttle is one of the only people who could match his intensity and talent.

The first woman to win the International Bluegrass Music Association’s Guitar Player of the Year award, Tuttle’s flatpicking skills are incredible to watch and even more of a gift to hear. Paired with the singer’s clear and stirring voice, her songs call to mind the kind of timeless music folk is built on. At the peak of one chorus, Tuttle’s precision both with the guitar and her own vocals left the audience in awe, with the typical whoops of support and enjoyment quieted as each note echoed through the auditorium. She approaches music like a surgeon would a body. In many ways, her live performance is a spectacle of both heartfelt commitment and incredible technical prowess.

Following the theme of female empowerment and skill, Tuttle’s talent was matched by the next act, R&B legend Bettye Lavette. The Detroit singer began her career in the early days of Motown, and decades later, Lavette has gotten back on the horse to show audiences her unforgettable voice and inimitable soul once again. Her performance was full of laughter and wit, with Lavette’s raspy voice carrying each song with jokes and false exits. Near the end of the set, she admitted to the audience that she was out of breath, proceeded to dance off the stage in her black velvet jumpsuit and came back a minute later with the fervor and stage presence only a veteran of the industry can embody. For a woman of advanced age, Lavette’s spark is still as bright as it ever was, her raw talent and gregarious personality pulling the audience in with every word that came out of her painted-red mouth.

The festival could have easily ended with Lavette’s magnetic performance, and yet, the two headliners hadn’t even played yet. As Lavette danced through the stage doors once more, this time not returning, cleverly-named North Carolina duo Mandolin Orange prepared for a set full of grace and emotional clarity.

Read more at MichiganDaily.com

TV REVIEW

‘Bojack Horseman’ season six reveals vital truths SOPHIA YOON Daily TV Editor

Not many things in life are truly black or white. There will always be more unanswered questions than answered, and the ethics behind our choices are often what make these questions nearly impossible to solve.

Despite this headache that morality drags us into, many would agree that part of our responsibility on Earth is, to some extent, recognize that working to solve moral dilemmas is far better than ignoring them altogether. “Bojack Horseman” knows this and, through its entire sixseason run, has never been afraid to shout into the void to try and get the message across that “the truth is none of it matters and the truth is it all matters tremendously.”

In this eight-episode conclusion to the show’s final season, everything is the same and everything is different. The first half of the final season left us in a transition period in each character’s life and with a cliffhanger that hinted at the fateful culmination of Bojack’s (Will Arnett, “Riviera”) mistakes. The second half leans into the anxiety that was built up surrounding Bojack’s rocky attempt to be a better, sober person and capitalizes on the fear but logical expectation he’ll relapse into the “old Bojack” that everyone’s so resentful of.

In the last season in particular, the show begs the question of whether people should be allowed to move on or should have to remain plagued by the mistakes of their past. Bojack, caught up in the wake of the #MeToo movement, finally faces legal and societal backlash as the secrets surrounding Sarah Lynn’s (Kristen Schaal, “Bob’s Burgers”) death air to the public. Bojack, like all flawed characters, causes internal conflict for the show’s viewers and at times forces them to choose whether they stay hopeful that Bojack will improve, or hold him to the same cancel culture

standard most powerful Hollywood men have been held to in the past few years. It makes us wonder whether people can really change, or if they’re bound to the chains of their toxicity. And if people really can change, to what extent should we hold them accountable for the actions of their old self?

A distinctive characteristic of the show is its consistently unforgettable penultimate episodes. Always pivotal, always poignant and always action-packed, these episodes have been a marker for how meticulous the creators can be and how human this fantasy-like show really is. Each character, no matter how profusely they deny it, is a product of their past.

In between the puns, the movie references and the absurd escapades, the show is filled with existentialism and profound one-liners that make “The Good Place” seem like a children’s show.

This final season is different in that it intentionally includes all the ethical discussions the show kept relatively subliminal in prior seasons.

In its penultimate episode, characters — which I’ll leave undisclosed to avoid exposing crucial plot points — are literally having these discussions around the dinner table. In a game called “Best Part/Worst Part,” the characters debate sacrifice, happiness and the best and worst parts of their lives. It emulated what the fans have been doing over the past six years — analyzing, discussing, interpreting.

Even though I know all good things must come to an end, I can’t help but pine for more. This last season is the most precise, carefully-crafted the series has ever been, and yet there’s a part of me that knows it wasn’t their peak. Thankfully, the creators tied all the necessary loose ends to wrap up the show in exactly the way it was supposed to be, and we can only hope television doesn’t peak with this series. Good things are fleeting and their fleeting nature is often what makes them so special.

And like Diane (Alison Brie, “Horse Girl”) says, some things “were never meant to be in your life forever.”

Bojack Horseman Season Six Netflix

NETFLIX

BOOKS REVIEW

‘The Starless Sea’ is the perfect book for book lovers SEJJAD ALKHALBY Daily Arts Writer

There’s a certain type of person you’ve probably encountered in grade school. Perhaps you were this person yourself. This was the person who didn’t just like to read — reading was part of their identity. The one who was on a first name basis with the librarian; the one who finished all the Harry Potter books by middle school; the one who always had a book on their desk and it was always thicker than a dictionary; the one who, when the Scholastic Book Fair came to school, arrived with two crisp twenty dollar bills and put more thought into their purchases than most would into buying a car. You get the idea. Chances are, this person doesn’t read so much anymore. Maybe they haven’t found the time or just haven’t gotten around to making that trip to the library, but of course, deep down they know that they just don’t enjoy reading as much as they used to. This experience is encapsulated by Erin Morgenstern’s “The Starless Sea.” The book is an amalgamation of interconnected narratives experienced by the main character, Zachary. It starts with him finding a book in a college library that tells of an event from his own life that he’s never told anyone about. What follows is a fairytale-like adventure where Zachary is taken from story to story, about everything from pirates to princesses to painters. In what is essentially a story about stories, he rides this rollercoaster of fantastical narratives, guided by the eccentric characters he meets along the way.

My initial impulse was to hate this book. The plot is all over the place and often confusing, which is not surprising given that it tries to incorporate so many simultaneous subplots. The main plot is frequently interrupted with short stories whose relevance is sometimes unclear, even by the end. There is, for example, a three page story about a man who collects keys. Though keys are a prominent symbol in the book, the book never revisits the key collector. In this instance the story serves to clarify the meaning of the symbol, but doesn’t advance the plot. These ambiguous

This is a book that can be enjoyed if its reader lets go of the need to make sense of it and gives in to its elegant chaos

reading was for its own sake. The sheer imagination of Morgenstern’s stories combined with the sense of familiarity brought by the incorporation of classic literary motifs take you back to a time when you sat in bed late at night, effortlessly engrossed in book after book.

Reading “The Starless Sea” is a bittersweet experience. It evokes the feelings associated with reading a truly great book without being a great book itself. It summons nostalgia for the childlike sense of wonder that many once felt when reading. Yet, like all forms of nostalgia, the feeling is fleeting. It’s like a diet Coke or a decaf coffee.

You know exactly what it’s supposed to be and, therefore, exactly what you don’t have. Readers of “The Starless Sea” are similarly left wanting the real thing. Its value is in the evocation of the experience of reading without expectation, of reading simply to read.

they’re introduced. One could overlook this if the main characters were complex and memorable enough, but even Zachary seems to just be along for the ride rather than an active participant in the action. He meanders between whimsical tales without any real purpose aside from a desire to continue the story. “The Starless Sea” has all the warning signs of a bad book.

However, I still found myself eager to continue, to find out about what subsequent wondrous adventure Morgenstern had in store for me. This is a book one can enjoy if one lets go of the need to make sense of it and gives in to its elegant chaos. The beautiful prose works to construct incredibly rich and imaginative worlds.

For instance, the shores of the Starless Sea, the place the book is named after, houses entrances to the “labyrinth” of stories that Zachary traverses. This physical location is described in a manner that mirrors the interconnectedness of literature as a whole, a major theme of the book. Morgenstern can build this intricate image and just as easily transition to a chapter about a dinner party or an intimate conversation between lovers. “The Starless Sea” is, in short, a spectacle.

When reading it, one feels a sense of nostalgia for a time when

PENGUIN RANDOM HOUSE

interludes are stretched out across nearly five-hundred pages, making it nearly impossible to keep track of relevant characters and plot points.

This unfortunately also produces many underdeveloped side characters, like the key collector, who disappear as effortlessly as

Arts

6 — Tuesday, February 4, 2020

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

FILM REVIEW

Sundance 2020: ‘Nine Days’ questions nearly everything TRINA PAL

but we live as if this life was always meant to be. It wasn’t.

Daily Arts Writer

What happens after we die? It’s an eternal question, one that humans have asked time and time again but will likely never know the answer to.

“Nine Days” asks the exact opposite question: What happens before we’re born? The premise of the movie was intriguing enough to give it a watch; why do we focus so much on our future without any regard for our past?

“Nine Days,” directed by Edson Oda (“Malaria”), does an admirable job of focusing on the other end of the biological timeline.

Will (Winston Duke, “Black Panther”) is tasked with judging who is allowed to be born. He informs every candidate who arrives at his house, a place where people are neither dead nor alive, of the same thing: “You are being considered for the amazing opportunity of life.” Over the next nine days, Will tests them and determines if they’re strong enough to survive in the real world. If they are, they become a newborn. If not, they simply vanish into the air, becoming a part of the white desert that surrounds them. It’s easy to believe that Oda’s middle ground world, while fictional, actually does exist. You can see yourself in Mike (David Rysdahl, “That’s Not Us”), the shy, insecure candidate who constantly feels like he’s not good enough, or Maria (Arianna Ortiz, “Parenthood”) who only craves bike rides and the outdoors. At a certain point, you start to believe that any of these people could have been you. The specific set of circumstances that led to you being born is monumental. We’re lucky to be in this world,

We all suffer heartbreak, we all suffer loss, we all have love in our life in some capacity, so even though they are pre-existing stories, my own voice is definitely there Much of “Nine Days” revolves around the relationship between Will and Emma (Zazie Beetz, “Deadpool 2”), a free-spirited, headstrong young woman who doesn’t care for Will’s tests or questions. She wants to live on her own terms. As a character, Emma is predictable as the one that breaks the conventional mold. Even so, Duke’s and Beetz’s performances perfectly complement each other; every interaction sends fiery sparks flying through the theater. Oda crafts a beautifully juxtaposed duo without hinting at any romantic relationship between the two, an easy misstep that would’ve taken away much of the magic.

Even with such a somber theme, Oda manages to sprinkle in lots of

humor and vitality. Kyo (Benedict Wong, “The Martian”), Will’s helper, offsets Will’s melancholy aura, giving the audience something firm to grasp onto in a world of altered realities. Alexander (Tony Hale, “Arrested Development”) offers the predicted and appreciated punchlines, the awkward stumbling and bumbling reminiscent of a newborn taking their first steps. There’s nothing funny about people ceasing to exist when they’re not selected, but the humor still lands well.

A cloudy Utah morning greeted me when I walked out of the theater, but it felt like the sun was shining on me, rays cascading into my heart.

This film makes you think, feel and love life. “Nine Days” may be one of the most thought-provoking films to come out of Sundance 2020.

“Nine Days” Dir. Edson Oda January 27, 2020 Sundance Film Festival

FILM REVIEW

Sundance 2020: ‘Possesor’ offers shock but little else DYLAN YONO Daily Arts Writer

What does it take to earn the accolade of “most fucked-up film at Sundance 2020?”

That’s the (unofficial) badge of honor “Possessor” wears. The Sundance representative introducing the film at the screening acknowledged that “mindfuck” is an overused descriptor for psychological films, but promised this was a movie worthy of the word.

The premise surely lends itself to a mindfuck. Tasya Vos (Andrea Riseborough, “The Grudge”) is an assassin who uses brain-implant technology to take over a host body, controlling it to kill targets for high-paying clients. The story revolves around a f lashy murder mission: the assassination of a highprofile CEO — fittingly played by Sean Bean (“Drone”) who is notorious for dying violently in all his roles — committed by the hostbody of Colin Tate (Christopher Abbott, “It Comes At Night”), the target’s daughter’s boyfriend.

Implied to have numerous successful assassinations under her belt, Tasya’s mind is breaking under the trauma of so many killings and body takeovers. Everything unravels as she inhabits Colin’s body. Abbott carries most of the film’s weight.

Playing Tasya-controlling-Colin is a very specific character to capture, especially considering the movie gives no indication of Colin’s personality until Tasya has already taken over. It’s

obvious in the way Abbot’s vaguely detached on-screen energy resembles Riseborough’s performance from the beginning of the film. Colin’s girlfriend Ava (Tuppence Middleton, “Downton Abbey”) often notes that he’s acting funny, but that’s not the main indicator that something’s off. It’s the dissonance between Abbott portraying Tasya’s detachment and all the hints of the real Colin’s wild lifestyle: sleeping with the CEO’s daughter in her swanky apartment, drinking and drug-doing with his friends, messing around with another girl on the side.

While “Possessor” has the potential to dive deep into a world in which remote body-control assassinations are possible, it rejects this direction and instead devotes itself to the exhibition of a psychological breakdown. Tasya’s assassination mission and its worldly consequences are unimportant; her psychosis is, and so is the internal battle of will between her and Colin over control of his body.

If “Possessor” had focused on a grander world and story in which brain-implant assassination is just a novelty mechanism to drive the plot, it would probably be an irrelevant, purposeless film. But the movie isn’t about telling a story, or even sharing a higher message. It’s a film about literally getting into people’s heads, and it’s hell-bent on getting into its viewers’ heads too.

To that end it is gruesome, gory, unsettling and unforgiving.

Oftentimes when depicting something violent or graphic in a movie, the viewer can have faith that the most uncomfortable moments will be kept offscreen. “Possessor” takes that expectation, builds on it until you’re fully confident they

wouldn’t actually show that, then skewers it with a fire iron.

I didn’t walk out of the theater after “Possessor” feeling changed. I didn’t develop a nuanced understanding of a subject, I didn’t grow attached to the characters, I wasn’t inspired to tears or compelled to take action. None of that. I just felt mindfucked. I don’t cope well with body horror, and I nearly walked out three times. In fact, the director, Brandon Cronenberg (“Antiviral”) is the son of acclaimed director and body horror pioneer David Cronenberg. There’s surely lots of intentional symbolism and underlying meaning to dig out of multiple rewatches. But I’m not interested in digging. I will be leaving my experience of watching “Possessor” with my time at Sundance.

“Possesor” Dir. Brandon Cronenberg January 25, 2020 Sundance Film Festival

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Release Date: Tuesday, February 4, 2020

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

ACROSS 1 Madeline of “History of the World, Part I” 5 Respectful address to a woman 9 Declare void 14 Sailing or whaling 15 Jackson 5 hairdo 16 Golden-egg layer 17 Line on a Yankee uniform 19 Lather, __, repeat 20 Have a share (of) 21 Arachnophobe’s worry 23 “__ questions?”

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49 Throw hard 50 Morse code word 53 Portable charcoal grill 57 How some chew gum 59 Novelist Wharton 60 Washing machine feature shown graphically in this puzzle’s circles 62 Free-for-all 63 “The African Queen” screenwriter James 64 Gas in a sign 65 Burpee buy 66 Hospital section 67 “¿Cómo __ usted?”

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13 Levi’s alternatives 18 Mystic’s deck 22 Sickly pale 25 Language that gave us “kvetch” 27 Gatsby of “The Great Gatsby” 28 Remind nonstop 29 Run amok 30 Fuzzy fruit 31 Fodder holder 32 Henry VIII’s last wife Catherine 33 In __ of: substituted for 34 Energy units

38 Cook just below a boil 39 Network absorbed by The CW 40 Possesses 42 Bums a ride 43 Piece from the past 45 On chairs 46 Smaller and weaker 47 Smoothed out the wrinkles

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Sports

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Tuesday, February 4, 2020 — 7

Michigan dispatches Michigan State, ‘M’ gets new perspective in Cuba trip prepares for Big Ten Championships MATTHEW JOHNSON For The Daily

Land der Berge, Land am Strome — the national anthem of Austria— played in Canham Natatorium to open up the swim and dive meet on Friday night against Michigan State (8-7-1, 1-4-1) on the Michigan men and women swim teams’ senior night. Senior Felix Auböck from Austria, the NCAA champion in the 1,650yard freestyle, had never heard his anthem in his four years swimming at Michigan.

Auböck, inspired by his national anthem, led the thirdranked Michigan men’s swim (6-1, 4-1) team to a 195-76 win over the Spartans with a victory in the 200-yard freestyle.

Meanwhile, the No. 1 Michigan women’s swim team (6-0, 4-0) defeated Michigan State 181-83, led by senior Miranda Tucker with three event wins. Both the men’s and women’s teams got off to fast starts, taking 31-5 and 31-4 leads, respectively.

From there, the Wolverines

dominated, with the men winning all 16 events, and the women taking 15 events out of 16.

The last dual meet of the season was fine-tuning for Michigan, with many swimmers competing in races which they do not usually compete.

Tucker, usually dominant in the breaststroke, won the women’s 100-yard freestyle, women’s 200-yard freestyle and women’s 100-yard IM. The Wolverines’ men’s and women’s teams won in both the 400-yard medley relay and 200-yard freestyle relay, with sophomore Maggie MacNeil almost breaking the pool record for the 100 yard-backstroke on the leadoff leg with a time of 51.87.

On the men’s side for dive, junior Ross Todd finished first in both the one-meter and the three-meter, with senior Jake Herremans finishing second in the one-meter and junior Chris Canning finishing second in the three-meter.

The Wolverines now look ahead to the Big Ten Championships at the end of the month in Iowa City.

“We’re going to be in a battle,” Michigan coach Mike Bottom said. “Indiana on the women’s side are the champions, Ohio State lost fewer people than anybody last year … on the women’s side we have a shot.”

He noted how great swimmers such as Auböck and Tucker have been but emphasized how important it will be for the rest of the team to perform as they did against the Spartans.

“It’s going to be our number 14 through 24 that are going to win the meet if we are going to win the meet,” Bottom said.

“Our top end is going to what they’re going to do and score points.”

Sixteen seniors were honored on senior night, and though their careers at Canham Natatorium are over, they still have work to do and a title to earn in the Big Ten Championships.

ALEC COHEN/Daily

Senior Felix Auböck had the national anthem from his native Austria played before Friday night’s meet.

ALEC COHEN/Daily

The Michigan softball team had a memorable experience when it traveled to Cuba over fall break in October.

NICHOLAS STOLL Daily Sports Writer

In October, the University of Michigan gives its students and faculty a long weekend as an annual fall break. For most, it’s a time to relax, catch up on work and spend time with family. For the Michigan softball team, it was a life experience.

By 6:30 a.m. that Friday, the Wolverines were already loading the bus for their trip. Four hours later they were in the air — destination: Cuba.

Once in Havana, the team was charmed by the beautifully ornate architecture, the cars straight out of the 1950s and the delicious food.

“The food was amazing,” Michigan coach Carol Hutchins said. “We ate a lot of plantains.

We ate a lot of vegetables and a lot of meat and rice. … Totally my kind of food. It was great.”

Hutchins couldn’t decide what food was best — the Cuban beef, chicken she described as fantastic or Cuba’s national dish, ropa vieja. She even claimed to have eaten so much meat that she went vegetarian for a week after returning home.

The Wolverines continued

their trip on Sunday, away from Havana, by traveling to Viñales.

There, they explored the caves, marveled at the mountains and visited a tobacco farm where some of the most famous Cuban cigars are made.

But these tourist spots and the food weren’t what defined the trip for Michigan. It was the people and what the team did with them that made it fantastic.

The team played two games against a Cuban softball team, one on Saturday and one on Monday. Despite the grounds of competition, the atmosphere was light. The teams spent much of the time interacting and talking with each other in addition to playing the game itself.

After Monday’s game, Michigan held a clinic for the Cuban team. They practiced everything from ground balls and hitting to putting rotation on pitches using a spinner.

At the same time, the Cuban team helped the Wolverines practice their Spanish. As most of the team struggled, to both the Cubans’ and Wolverines’ amusement, junior shortstop Natalia Rodriguez and senior outfielder Thais Gonzales helped bridge the language barrier so

everyone could communicate more easily.

The clinic ended with a language both teams spoke fluently — dance. Music played from a speaker while the players gathered in a circle around each other, moving together to the beat.

After it all, Michigan gave the Cuban players their gloves, cleats and backpacks along with some other miscellaneous items they brought with them.

Sophomore pitcher Alex Storako saw her outlook change after the experience.

“I think my biggest takeaway from Cuba is how fortunate we are to be able to go to this beautiful university and have the greatest experience this year,” Storako said. “This past year, everything we’ve gotten we’ve just been extra grateful for. Every little thing is just magnified for sure.”

In just five days, the Wolverines explored a country’s sights, ate tons of delicious food, had fun with new friends, learned a life lesson and came home with a fantastic answer to an inevitable question.

“What did you do over fall break?”

Western two-step

Buoyed by communication, Wolverines roll through Horned Frogs, Broncos, moving to 6-1 on the season KYLE LAYMAN For The Daily

Sophomore Andrew Fenty crouches low by the net while his doubles partner, junior Mattias Siimar, winds up for the serve.

Siimar fires the ball into the back left corner of the service box where Western Michigan’s Jannik Opitz reaches out his racket for the return, sending a slow, uncontrolled ball back to the Wolverines. At the net, Fenty springs up raising his racket and bringing it down to smash the ball onto Western’s side of the court. All the Western duo can do is watch as the ball soars over their heads and Michigan scores another point.

Coming off a 4-2 win against No. 8 TCU, its first win against a top-10 team in nine years, the No. 16 Michigan men’s tennis team held on to close out the day with a win against Western Michigan, 4-2.

Michigan came out firing on all cylinders in doubles, delivering convincing 6-2 and 6-1 wins to head into singles with a 1-0 lead. The Wolverines’ excellent chemistry was on full display in the doubles matches as the Michigan players were constantly setting up opportunities for their teammates and encouraging each other throughout the match.

“It’s what our program is about,” Michigan coach Adam Steinberg said. “Everything that we do is making teammates better on a daily basis. We live it — it’s not just words, all those words come to life every day in practice. What you see in the matches is what you do everyday.

“I can’t ask the guys to do it just on game day, and not be a great team player during the week. It’s something that I’ve believed in for 25 years of doing this — trying to take an individual sport and make it a team sport, and these guys are doing a great job of doing that.”

After a hot start to the day, Michigan stumbled to begin

the singles matches with a number of close first sets as Western Michigan looked to potentially steal the day from the Wolverines.

Wins from Siimar (6-4, 6-2) and senior Nick Beatty (7-6, 6-2), who both remain unbeaten in singles for the season, pushed the Wolverines’ point total to three. But senior Connor Johnston and junior Harrison Brown dropped their matches 6-4, 7-5 and 7-6, 6-3, respectively, leaving the match neck-and-neck at 3-2.

With Michigan in need of one more point to close out the day, the spotlight turned to Fenty on the No. 1 singles court.

Coming off a key singles win against TCU earlier in the day and a dominating doubles performance, Fenty looked to have the momentum for another big win but, inexplicably, struggled. In the first set, Fenty committed a number of unforced errors and his

opponent appeared to have him figured out as Western’s Opitz took the first set, 6-3. However, Fenty stormed back to dominate the following sets, 6-2 and 6-1, tallying the final point Michigan needed.

Fenty attributed his struggles in the first set to a brief lapse in self confidence.

“I was thinking way too much about him, sometimes I dont think to myself about how good I am and how hard it is for him to play me,” Fenty said. “I got a couple games then I just took it to another level.”

After its performance today, Michigan continued to gain confidence and will be looking to carry that success through the rest of the season.

“We can beat anyone,” Fenty said. “We’re the team that’s tough to play home, away, anywhere you’ve got to go through us and we’re going to hustle and compete for every match, that’s how we do it.”

JACK WHITTEN Daily Sports Writer

Harrison Brown was struggling, and everyone at the Varsity Tennis Center could hear it.

The encouraging correspondence between Brown and his teammates, once consistently following each point, had reached the lowest volume of the night. The junior had just lost his third straight set of the day, each of which had necessitated at least a seventh game. After one match loss, he was staring down the barrel of a second when he suddenly faced a 3-0 deficit in the second set of his second match.

All of this was readily apparent if you just closed your eyes.

Throughout the No. 16 Michigan men’s tennis team’s pair of wins last Saturday — a 4-2 afternoon affair against No. 8 Texas Christian and a 4-2 win that evening against Western Michigan — each Wolverines’

point was every teammate’s concern, and they let that be known loudly.

“It’s something that I’ve believed in for 25 years of doing this,” Michigan coach Adam Steinberg said. “Trying to take an individual sport and make it a team sport, and these guys are doing a great job of doing that.”

After a surprisingly straightforward win over the Horned Frogs, the program’s first top-10 victory since 2011 — in which Michigan earned three consecutive straight-sets singles matches — the Wolverines relied on each other to keep the energy boiling over into the nightcap.

Junior Mattias Siimar, who just hours earlier had clinched the fourth and final point for Michigan’s first win of the day, was mired in a pattern of unforced errors during his No. 1 doubles match.

The remedy?

Positive communication with his partner, sophomore Andrew

ALEC COHEN/Daily

Sophomore Andrew Fenty helped Michigan to wins over TCU and Western Michigan, winning both a singles and doubles match against the Broncos.

Fenty. Having overcome his earlier poor play, Siimar’s powerful serves elicited weaker and weaker returns — plenty of fodder for Fenty, waiting at the net, to smash over the back curtain.

“Mattias and I have great chemistry,” Fenty said. “He’s honestly very easy to play with.

We lead the team when we play — our energy, I think everyone can feed off that. It’s a good trickledown effect.”

During singles play, communication began with equal enthusiasm.

“We’re in this together, Harry, you and me!” senior Connor Johnston — who Steinberg describes as the team’s emotional leader — called toward Brown a few games into their respective matches. Johnston and Brown weren’t even on adjacent courts.

As Brown’s second set grinded on toward his defeat, the cheerful discourse began to lose his voice. The absence of Brown’s contributions underlined his difficulties as much as his opponent’s rising numbers on the scoreboard.

Johnston worked his own opponent deep into games but began to struggle on deuce points.

Watching from the balcony, his teammates had a simple message for him.

“Deuce, boy!”

It was a reminder that this crucial point was not a cause for worry, but for optimism. Johnston had already won three points.

What was one more?

The Wolverines worked up the singles points they needed thanks to a pair of straight-sets wins and a dominant latter two sets from Fenty.

“The best memory obviously is match point for Mattias (Siimar, against Texas Christian) and seeing the guys charge the court and dancing in the locker room after,” Steinberg said.

That may have been Saturday’s exclamation mark, but a win against Western Michigan was the period that concluded the story.

It was a period every player helped type.

Sports

8 — Tuesday, February 4, 2020

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Beecher suspended Freshman forward will miss Friday’s game against Wisconsin; Pearson unhappy with decision BAILEY JOHNSON Daily Sports Editor

Freshman forward Johnny Beecher has been suspended for Michigan’s game on Friday night against Wisconsin, per a release from the Big Ten. Early in the second period Saturday night’s 4-1 loss to Ohio State, Beecher was involved in a scrum around the Buckeyes bench and received a 5-minute major and a game misconduct for head butting an Ohio State player. The Big Ten has added a suspension Friday night as supplemental discipline.

Through 22 games this season, Beecher is third on the team in points with 12, seven goals and five assists. His seven goals rank second on the team and he leads all freshmen in points with one more than freshman defenseman Cam York.

Of late, Beecher has been centering a line with senior forward Will Lockwood and freshman forward Nick Granowicz. Michigan coach Mel Pearson put the line together at Notre Dame in the first weekend of the second half and it has produced six goals in six games since then.

Without Beecher on Friday night, Pearson may turn to players like graduate transfer Jacob Hayhurst or redshirt junior Luke Morgan to fill his gap, both of whom have played center in the past but now play on the wing.

BY THE NUMBERS Johnny Beecher’s production

7

goals this season

5

assists this season

ROHAN KUMAR Daily Sports Writer

Practice had already ended a while back, Monday at Yost Ice Arena. Yet there were still teachings to come.

Michigan coach Mel Pearson had just finished answering questions from a group of reporters in the lobby of the hockey offices. He got up and headed to go join the rest of his staff, but at the last moment — just before disappearing around the corner — he turned back and called for the reporters’ attention.

Pearson had unfinished business.

Earlier that afternoon, the Big Ten had announced a one-game suspension on freshman forward Johnny Beecher for his actions during a brawl that erupted against Ohio State on Saturday at Yost. The suspension was slated to keep Beecher out of Friday’s home game against Wisconsin.

Pearson had already expressed his frustrations with NATALIE STEPHENS/Daily the conference’s decision while Freshman forward Johnny Beecher received a one-game suspension on Monday afternoon for headbutting an Ohio State player in Saturday’s game.

“It’s total hypocrisy to me,” misconduct plus a suspension bent over the bench backward sitting down, but wanted to show everything that was going on Pearson said. “You can write — but the video depicts that and two of their players actually the reporters, visually, why he there and the context of it.” was annoyed. So, before going on Pearson was unhappy about that, too, and I’ll probably get a Beecher’s head whip doesn’t had hands on him while 40 is with his day he invited the group how blame for the scuffle was slap on the wrist. But it is. Watch hit the opposing player. Also, punching him.”

Pearson believes that the to see a film breakdown of the assigned. The way he saw the the video. The video doesn’t lie. Lockwood received a minor events that led to the suspension. play, Beecher did not start it. It’s all right there if you watch it. for elbowing defenseman Ryan punishment Beecher received during the And in the In recalling the Johnny might be the guy holding O’Connell before game was brief session event, Pearson the gun, but there’s a lot of other the fight broke out enough and that — but one could huddled around pointed out that things going on there.” the suspension Beecher was The hockey program provided argue Lockwood’s a TV that soon is simply over rather peaceful The Daily with footage of hit was clean. followed, he the top.

Yet Hein made sure when first entering the brawl, and the coach’s “He wasn’t just to point out the commotion description fits the video quite received putting a minor for created by accurately. all that was while anybody in Pearson understands why roughing forward Ronnie wrong with the danger, no one Hein, number 40 Beecher got a penalty during the rest of his decision. was getting “I just totally for the Buckeyes. the game but feels others, such team stayed out of hurt,” Pearson disagree with Hein had targeted as Hein, should’ve been held to the penalty box.

“I’m all for said.

“Like Lockwood, the same standard. In his eyes, the call, on the record,” Pearson had said getting him pinned against the Hein’s actions were much more player safety and that, but Will there’s been things that have Lockwood was in a much tougher happened in our league this year prior. “There’s just so many bench and thus drawing in all dangerous than Beecher’s.

Following the outbreak, position than Johnny ever put where kids have been put in bad things going on in that play and the players. Pearson stressed if you play the game of hockey that Beecher only retaliated after Beecher got a five-minute any of their players in,” Pearson positions for serious injury. This long enough, you understand taking a few punches to the head. major for head-butting, a game said. “ ... Will Lockwood was was not like that.”

He wasn’t putting anybody in danger.

I just totally disagree with the call, on the record.

In Ohio State, Michigan sees its mirror image Rauch’s motor lifts ‘M’ WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

JACOB KOPNICK

BRENDAN ROOSE

Daily Sports Editor

Daily Sports Writer

Basketball is a game of runs.

Both on the court and in the schedule.

A team will hit a big 3-pointer, throw down a massive dunk or put together a dizzying take to the rim and all of a sudden, the momentum has shifted. Buckets — or wins — start coming and they seem to never stop. Or, as is much too often the case for teams in the Big Ten this season, shooting droughts and losses send a team down the rabbit hole of mediocrity.

Rarely though, does the season-long trajectory of two teams nearly mirror itself.

Let alone rivals in the same conference.

That just so happens to be the case with the Michigan men’s basketball team and its opponent Tuesday: Ohio State.

Both clubs started the season off as hot as can be.

The Wolverines racked up some seemingly insignificant wins at home, then downed some of the nation’s top teams in The Bahamas. After its miracle stretch, Michigan held the No. 4 ranking in the country.

The Buckeyes, using a combination of bruising size in the paint, elite guard play and a smoldering defense, f lew through the teams on their schedule leading to a six-point surprise win over then-No. 6 Kentucky on Dec 21. Standing atop an 11-1 record and a top-10 win, Ohio State held the No. 2 ranking in the nation.

To add to the deja vu, both teams beat North Carolina.

“I’m sure everyone recalls a time earlier in the year where we both were at the top,” Michigan coach Juwan Howard said. “Like I said before, it’s the beginning of the season, there’s a lot of season to be played. But it’s also an example of the Big Ten. We have a really good conference, and there’s a lot of season to be played.”

If you look at the stat sheets before a game, you wouldn’t expect to see much of sophomore guard Danielle Rauch. She’s not the leading scorer for the Michigan women’s basketball team.

Far from it, actually, as she averages just 1.3 points per game. Sometimes, she’ll even go an entire game without attempting a shot.

But when you watch her play, you see a much different story. On defense, she keeps her feet moving and disrupts opponents’ offensive flow. On offense, she helps her point guard — sophomore Amy Dilk — direct traffic. When a loose ball hits the floor, she’ll be on the floor with it in moments.

She’s everywhere.

For the first half of the season, Rauch was the backup point guard. With Dilk having a bit of a breakout season, she didn’t see much playing time, tallying less than ten minutes in each of the first six Big Ten games. Rauch was a role player, and she accepted that.

But since senior forward Kayla Robbins’ seasonending injury, Rauch has started on the wing for the Wolverines against Rutgers, Northwestern and Iowa.

Though she wasn’t much of a scorer in any of those contests — she totaled just nine shot attempts over that stretch — her palpable energ y had a clear impact on her teammates.

“I love playing with Danielle because (of ) her high energ y. She’s always talking, she makes the hustle play,” Dilk said. “ … She really sets the tone for our team with the hustle plays, being aggressive, talking, communicating, just

ALEC COHEN/Daily

Michigan coach Juwan Howard has seen his team follow a similar trajectory to Ohio State over the course of the season.

Then, the high of both programs’ success began to wear off and each team slipped into the unforgettable rhythm of losing.

For the Wolverines, it all began when junior forward Isaiah Livers went down with a groin injury, triggering a four-game losing skid. For the Buckeyes, the losing took the form of an inexplicable inability to hit shots. This accumulated into a four-game losing streak of Ohio State’s own.

Even the Buckeyes’ and Wolverines’ losses were similar too. Add up losses in Minneapolis to Minnesota and against Penn State and you have a better picture of each program’s loss column.

The team to pull both programs out of the losing skid? Nebraska.

The Big Ten’s punching bag galvanized each program at just the right time to fix

whatever errors the players were experiencing in their shooting mechanics or defensive communication.

Perhaps the most baff ling part of each team’s losing streak is the fundamental reasons why they were losing.

For Ohio State, this looked like an utterly stagnant offense.

The team that waxed the Nittany Lions for over 100 points now couldn’t even crack 60 for four straight games. The shots refused to fall.

For Michigan, defensive miscue after defensive miscue rendered any offensive momentum or valiant comeback attempt null and void.

But when they’re on, the Buckeyes seemed worthy of their former No. 2 spot. The positives jump off the page.

“They have great inside play,” Howard said. “Their guard play is doing a really

I’m sure everyone recalls ... we were both on top.

good job of shooting the basketball. They have pretty much four or five stickers I would say that can shoot the 3-ball very, very well. They’re quick. They do an excellent job of attacking the offensive glass.

They’re an excellent defensive team.”

The thing about both teams’ f laws, though? They’re easily fixable — and both teams have proven they can overcome these obstacles. It all now comes down to which version of each of these programs will show up on Tuesday.

“The more we play to our advantage, I think that’s very important that we do that, that we not stay stagnant on offense and make sure that we communicate,” freshman forward Franz Wagner said.

“I think when we do that we have an advantage on a lot of teams. But as you can see, how the season went, either you do those things and you win the game or you don’t and then we lose against a lot of teams where I felt like we could’ve won the game, and I feel like it’s gonna be the same thing tomorrow.”

outworking everyone on the court.”

Even when Rauch goes to the bench, she’s often still the most energetic person on the floor. She claps after defensive stops, and leaps up to highfive the rest of the bench after a three is made. That kind of energy — especially from a role player — can help the team stay positive when down.

To be clear, it’s not that Rauch can’t score. She’s shot a respectable 44.4 percent from the field this season, including making 7-of-17 from three. In Thursday’s loss at Northwestern, she buried a 3-pointer that cut the Wildcats’ lead to three midway through the fourth quarter.

She just recognizes she’s on a team full of elite scorers.

Junior forward Hailey Brown is a sharpshooter at her best.

Dilk and senior guard Akienreh Johnson can embarrass a defense on their way to the hoop. Sophomore forward Naz Hillmon is a borderline Big Ten Offensive Player of the Year candidate. Rauch can score, but her teammates change games.

“Danielle is very unselfish,” Hillmon said.

“She’s an energygiver, never an energy-taker, so she wants to give me the ball, she wants to give AK the ball, she wants to give Hailey the ball.

But we’ve really been working in practice like ‘D, you need to get the ball.

You’re just as good a shooter as anybody on the team.’ ” Rauch has taken a difficult role — filling in for the team’s second-leading scorer — and embraced it. She may not appear on the stat sheet as much as her teammates, but she’s still a vocal leader on the team. Maybe it’s the point guard in her. Maybe she’s trying to prove something.

Either way, that energy’s not going away.

She’s always talking, she makes the hustle play.