2021-12-01

ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY ONE YEARS OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM

Wednesday, December 1, 2021

Ann Arbor, Michigan

michigandaily.com

42--27 42

FINALLY Michigan shocks Ohio State, ends eight-game losing streak in The Game JARED GREENSPAN Daily Sports Editor

For 3,653 days — long, arduous, hollow days — the Michigan football program lived in the shadows of its unremitting failures against Ohio State.

There won’t be a 3,654th day. At long last, that futile streak is over.

After eight consecutive bitter losses to the Buckeyes, the Wolverines emerged from The Game victorious.

No. 5 Michigan (11-1 overall, 8-1 Big Ten) shocked No. 2 Ohio State (102, 8-1), 42-27, clinching the Big Ten East and punching a ticket to next Saturday’s Big Ten Championship Game.

“One of my favorite sayings of all time is, ‘When there’s a will, there’s a way,’ ” Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh said after the game. “And the will was very strong for our team.”

As the fourth quarter wound to a close, reality melded with imagination. Senior running back Hassan Haskins stood in the

endzone with outstretched arms, celebrating a touchdown that handed Michigan a 15-point lead with 2:17 minutes to play. He blew kisses to the crowd, beckoning the raucous sea of maize pom poms that serenaded him for an electric five touchdown performance.

Pandemonium had officially set in.

When the clock struck doublezeroes, everyone seemed to forget about the freezing cold and the endless nightmares from previous defeats.

Droves of fans plunged from the stands and spilled out onto the turf, reveling in their newfound glory.

Michigan, champions of the Big Ten East.

“It was a surreal moment,” junior quarterback Cade McNamara said.

“It’s something we’ve dreamed of.

Every 6 a.m. (practice), that feeling is the reason why we do it.”

Saturday offered an opportunity for the Wolverines to exorcise past demons, escaping the recent doldrums and persistent pain of the rivalry. A win would vault them into the Big

Ten Championship Game and buoy aspirations of a berth in the College Football Playoff, two hurdles that the program had yet to clear as of the morning, seven years into Jim Harbaugh’s tenure.

But just as toppling the Buckeyes began to feel sisyphean, the Wolverines punched first — and refused to relent.

“It’s something we’ve dreamed of. Every 6 a.m. (practice), that feeling is the reason why we do it.”

“It was really like a war out there,” senior defensive end Aidan Hutchinson, who wreaked havoc on Ohio State’s offense with three sacks, said.

On Michigan’s opening possession, sophomore receiver A.J. Henning

found the endzone on a 14-yard touchdown run, whipping Michigan Stadium into an immediate frenzy.

In the second quarter, even as Ohio State took a brief 10-7 lead, Michigan proved unfazed, embodying its season-long serenity. A 13-play, 82-yard touchdown drive sent the Wolverines into halftime clenching a 14-13 lead.

In past years, Michigan unraveled in similar moments, particularly in The Game. On Saturday, the team merely grew stronger.

The second half started to a tee.

The Wolverines’ defense forced a crisp three-and-out, and the offense blazed down the field, running the ball three times for a total of 81 yards; Haskins capped the drive with a touchdown.

They had kicked Ohio State back onto its heels, and the Buckeyes would never recover.

Michigan’s offense, having re-discovered its rhythm, operated with machine-like efficiency. A 31-yard pass from freshman quarterback J.J. McCarthy to sophomore receiver

Roman Wilson set up a 34-yard fleaflicker from McNamara to junior receiver Mike Sainristil.

So hapless were the Buckeyes that only a brief kerfuffle could slow down the Wolverines. After a scrum triggered an unsportsmanlike conduct on Ohio State’s Cameron Brown, Michigan found the endzone again. Haskins bounced outside, scoring for the third time on the day, staking the Wolverines to a stunning 15-point lead.

The result incited delirium and momentarily broke the Michigan Stadium scoreboard — an apt microcosm for the shock of The Game’s result.

Even as Ohio State scratched and clawed its way to an early fourth quarter touchdown, Michigan responded with yet another emphatic, methodic drive. Haskins wiggled his way down the field, ultimately plowing into the endzone for his fourth touchdown.

In the game’s waning minutes, when Stroud’s fourth-and-18 heave fell

shy of a first down, the reality set in.

Bleachers rattled. The stadium shook.

Hutchinson and fifth-year safety Brad Hawkins shed tears.

“We have (a sign) inside Schembechler Hall, ‘What are you doing today to beat Ohio State,’ ” Hawkins said. “And today, we beat them. It’s a blessing.”

A blessing, perhaps, but certainly not a product of luck.

“Every workout, every practice, every game, everything that we put into this season — that’s something that we kept in the back of our minds every single day that we entered Schembechler Hall,” McNamara said of Ohio State. “We did enough to beat them today.”

After nine years of perpetual suffering, Michigan had achieved the unthinkable. It’s a game that no one will soon forget.

“We’ve got a lot of hours left today,” Harbaugh smirked, allowing himself to digest the gravity of the moment. “… Celebrating long into the night.”

Madeline Hinkley/Daily | Page Design by Sophie Grand

G O T A N EWS T I P ?

Let us know: Call 734-418-4115 or e-mail news@michigandaily.com

Follow The Daily on Instagram, @michigandaily

For more stories and coverage, visit

michigandaily.com

IN DEX

Vol. CXXX, No. 60 ©2021 The Michigan Daily

NEWS.........................2 A RTS..........................5 MIC.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

S TAT E M E N T. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 OPINION.................10 SPORTS....................11

2 — Wednesday, December 1, 2021

News

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

PHOTO

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

CLAIRE HAO

Editor-in-Chief eic@michigandaily.com

TARA MOORE

Business Manager business@michigandaily.com

NEWS TIPS

tipline@michigandaily.com

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR tothedaily@michigandaily.com

EDITORIAL PAGE

opinion@michigandaily.com

PHOTOGRAPHY SECTION

ARTS SECTION

photo@michigandaily.com

arts@michigandaily.com

NEWSROOM

SPORTS SECTION

news@michigandaily.com

sports@michigandaily.com

CORRECTIONS

ADVERTISING

corrections@michigandaily.com

WMG-contact@umich.edu

Editorial Staff

MADELINE HINKLEY/Daily Students and fans storm the field after Michigan football beats Ohio State Nov. 27.

BRITTANY BOWMAN Managing Editor

NEWS

Bo Schembechler statue vandalized, painted with “Bo Knew #HailToTheVictims”

Unknown individual took responsibility, said “it is time for the world to know” CALDER LEWIS Daily News Editor

An unknown individual splattered red paint onto the statue of Bo Schembechler in front of Schembechler Hall on the University of Michigan campus and spray painted “Bo knew #HailToTheVictims” at its base overnight on Nov. 23.

“Bo knew” references the allegations that the late Schembechler, head football coach at Michigan from 1969 to 1989 and later athletic director, was alerted several times to former athletic doctor Robert Anderson’s sexual abuse of football players and failed to take appropriate action.

Anderson was the head doctor for the football team during much of Schembechler’s tenure.

More than 950 former University students have come forward in recent years alleging Anderson abused them, most typically under the guise of medical examinations.

An anonymous local resident took responsibility for the action in an email sent to local media and

obtained by The Michigan Daily.

“It is time for the world to know that Bo is responsible for the abuse of innumerable Michigan football players,” the resident wrote.

The resident wrote that the action was in solidarity with the “Hail to the Victims” campaign led by Anderson survivors, who have been protesting for the past few months to bring attention to the abuse and to hold the University accountable.

Jonathan Vaughn, a former football player and Anderson survivor who has been protesting outside of University President Mark Schlissel’s house since Oct. 8 to ask for the University to take responsibility for Anderson’s abuse, told The Daily that the statue paint was not related to his protest.

“Not in anyway!” Vaughn wrote in a text message. “I’m out here everyday fighting for justice why would I go and do something unjust?!” [sic] The University is investigating the paint incident, according to University spokesperson Rick Fitzgerald.

“We understand and appreciate the passionate advocacy on behalf of

those who were abused by the late Robert Anderson,” Fitzgerald wrote in an email to The Daily. “But the vandalism to the University of Michigan statue of Bo Schembechler will be investigated fully in order to hold those responsible accountable for their actions.”

Fitzgerald added that the University is working toward “fair compensation” for Anderson survivors in confidential mediation.

“We are working every day to make our campus safer for every member of our community,” Fitzgerald wrote.

A spokesperson for the Division of Public Safety and Security had no update to provide on the investigation.

A representative for Michigan Students Against Sexual Assault, a campus organization that has advocated for Anderson survivors in recent months, did not have any information or comment on the paint incident.

The paint incident comes days before the Michigan football team faces Ohio State, in a rivalry that

largely defined Schembechler’s legacy before allegations that he knew of Anderson’s abuse surfaced last year.

Since then, many community members have called for a reevaluation of the place of Schembechler’s image on campus.

Though the University has yet to comment directly on Schembechler, the huge “The Team, The Team, The Team” banner, quoting a famous Schembechler speech and traditionally unfurled in the student section at every home game, has not appeared at Michigan Stadium since 2019.

Schlissel declined to answer whether he supported removing the statue or renaming Schembechler Hall, the football team’s main practice facility, when The Daily asked him in August.

“This Schembechler issue is too tied up in the litigation around the awful acts of Dr. Anderson to really act on right now,” Schlissel said.

“We’ll see what happens down the road.”

Daily News Editor Calder Lewis can be reached at calderll@umich.edu.

ANN ARBOR

Landlords find loopholes to Early Leasing Ordinance Students concerned by practices such as housing reservations, bribes and threats KAITLYN LUCKOFF Daily Staff Reporter

When a couple knocked on Rackham student Jeffrey Lockhart’s door on Nov. 4 asking if he was planning on renewing his apartment lease, Lockhart knew something wasn’t right.

As a tenant of Oxford Companies, a popular Ann Arbor real estate company, Lockhart said he was surprised to find prospective tenants outside his home asking about his plans to renew so that they can potentially take over his lease next year. Lockhart said he received an email from the leasing company that said “leasing season is upon us.” “(Oxford Companies) wrote the email basically as if the new ordinance had not happened and that leasing season was now in early October, which it of course is not anymore because that is the whole point of the new ordinance,” Lockhart said.

In September, the city of Ann Arbor approved a new leasing ordinance to protect students from being forced into signing leases nearly a year before the lease was planned to start. Multiple stakeholders were involved in the development of the legislation, including the Graduate Employees’ Organization, Central Student Government, tenants and landlords.

The new leasing ordinance ensures landlords are unable to show a property to new tenants until 150 days prior to the expiration of the current lease. Previous legislation allowed landlords to begin showing properties to prospective tenants 70 days into the current lease. In opposition to the new ordinance, landlords filed a lawsuit in September

against the city of Ann Arbor.

Now, many tenants are saying that landlords are finding loopholes in the new ordinance and pressuring students in current leases to renew their contracts much earlier than the accepted time period.

Engineering senior Nathan Nohr is currently a resident of Prime Student Housing, a local housing authority. In a statement to The Michigan Daily, Nohr said there is a waitlist process for current residents. According to Nohr, a reservation requires paying one and a half months of rent, which will give residents priority to sign in March — a move Nohr said is unfair.

“Prime Student Housing notified current residents in September that we would need to resign our lease or else they would open up reservations for our apartment,” Nohr wrote.

“This circumvents the ordinance and still requires students to renew early in the year and now forces other prospective residents to make a hefty reservation if they want to make sure to get a place. If students decide not to act on the waitlist reservation they lose the rent reservation fee.”

As a GEO member in the union’s housing caucus group, Rackham student Lucy Peterson said the legislation was widely supported by GEO members since many in the organization have experienced their own issues with housing as graduate students.

“From being graduate students living in the city for a while, a lot of us have experienced issues with early leasing,” Peterson said. “Graduate students have to handle a lot of precarity in their work because we could be needing to do research one semester, we could get a job and have to move. So the idea of having to

sign a lease 10 months in advance is a huge burden on graduate students in particular.”

Peterson said she believes some landlords are using bribes and threats to encourage tenants to sign the leases early. “(Some landlords are) counting on tenants being afraid and isolated and worried about their housing security to get them to renew,” Peterson said.

“So landlords are free to use pressure, coercion, manipulation, bribes and threats in order to get their existing tenants to renew or to say that they’re not going to renew.”

CSG President Nithya Arun, a Public Health senior, said she also received an email from University Towers — a popular student housing apartment complex — saying they are ready to start signing leases for next year. She said that CSG has received many complaints from students who expressed frustrations about their landlords disregarding the new ordinance.

“I immediately thought that the leasing period is not supposed to be open until March, so that seems like a violation,” Arun said.

Lockhart said there is also a power dynamic that exists between landlords and tenants, making the effort to stand up for tenant rights difficult for some renters who do not necessarily understand the City Council rules.

“If I didn’t follow local city council ordinance stuff and if I wasn’t paying close attention to this, I’d have no idea that I didn’t have to make that decision now,” Lockhart said. “These are the people that control whether you have housing, how much you pay for housing, they have a lot of power and it’s very easy for landlords to make people’s lives miserable.”

Arun said she and other CSG members felt very passionate about housing issues since they have also experienced issues with leasing before. Despite all the effort put forth by CSG, GEO and City Council to pass this legislation, Arun said the same issues are still prevalent.

“A lot of shareholders spent time crafting this piece of legislation and making sure students would benefit from it and not be pressured to sign leases early, and now it almost feels like nothing has changed,” Arun said.

Since landlords now have to wait longer than they did in previous years to sign leases for their properties, many are offering voluntary waitlists for new tenants to join, according to Jordan Else, a landlord with Wessinger Properties. Else has been involved with the Ann Arbor housing market as a resident, parent of a U-M student and now as a landlord with her husband.

The concept of the voluntary waitlist varies with each landlord, but the concept allows renters to reserve a spot in a certain building or unit in advance without officially signing a lease since leases cannot be signed at this time, Else said.

Else said she is in support of the ordinance and that she feels that there is confusion about how the ordinance affects leases that begin in May versus those that begin in September. With the new ordinance, she said that new May leases can now be signed in early December and September leases can be signed in March.

“I think part of why all this isn’t working great and has historically not worked great is there’s an education piece that’s missing,” Else said.

Read more at MichiganDaily.com

babowm@umich.edu

JACK GRIEVE

Digital Managing Editor

jgrieve@umich.edu

BARBARA COLLINS and LIAT WEINSTEIN Managing News Editors

news@michigandaily.com

Senior News Editors: Emma Ruberg, Hannah Mackay, Calder Lewis, Jasmin Lee, Kristina Zheng, Lily Gooding Investigative Editor: Sammy Sussman FOIA Manager: Ayse Eldes

ELIZABETH COOK and JOEL WEINER

Editorial Page Editors tothedaily@michigandaily.com Senior Opinion Editors: Julian Barnard, Brandon Cowit, Shubhum Giroti, Jessie Mitchell, Evan Stern

LANE KIZZIAH and KENT SCHWARTZ

Managing Sports Editors sports@michigandaily.com Senior Sports Editors: Drew Cox, Lily Friedman, Jack Kingsley, Brendan Roose, Daniel Dash, Jared Greenspan, Jacob Cohen

ELISE GODFRYD and ELIZABETH YOON

Managing Arts Editors arts@michigandaily.com Senior Arts Editors: Kari Anderson, Drew Gadbois, Andrew Pluta, Grace Tucker, Sophia Yoon Arts Beat Editors: Lilly Pearce, Peter Hummer, Mik Deitz, Sabriya Imami, Kaitlyn Fox, Anya Soller

SHANNON STOCKING and ALLISON YIH

Managing Design Editors Senior Layout Editor: Sophie Grand

design@michigandaily.com

ALLISON ENGKVIST and MADDIE HINKLEY

Managing Photo Editors photo@michigandaily.com Senior Photo Editors: Emma Mati, Miles Macklin, Becca Mahon, Julia Schachinger Assistant Photo Editors: Grace Beal, Tess Crowley, Kate Hua, Jarett Orr, Dominick Sokotoff

ANDIE HOROWITZ

Managing Statement Editor Deputy Editors: Samantha Cole, Leo Krinsky Associate Editor: Julia Maloney

statement@michigandaily.com

MADISON GAGNE and OLIVIA BRADISH

Managing Copy Editors copydesk@michigandaily.com Senior Copy Editors: Caroline Atkinson, Anjali Chiravuri, Ethan Patrick, Kelsey Burke, Emily Wilson, Vanita Seed, Ellen Howell, Kathryn Kulie, Rena McRoy, Alison Chesnick

PARTH DHYANI and NAITIAN ZHOU

Managing Online Editors webteam@michigandaily.com Project Managers: Rimaz Khan, Alex Cotignola, Jessica Chiu, Simran Pujji

IULIA DOBRIN and ANNIKA WANG

Managing Video Editors video@michigandaily.com Senior Video Editors: Margaret Rudnick, Jordan Shefman

ANAMIKA KANNAN and GABRIJELA SKOKO

Michigan in Color Editors michiganincolor@michigandaily.com Senior Michigan in Color Editors: Noor Moughni, Maya Kadouh, Eliya Imtiaz, Jessica Kwon, Lola Yang

EMILY OHL and GERALD SILL

Managing Podcast Editors podeditors@michigandaily.com Senior Podcast Editors: Doug McClure, Max Rosenzweig, Avin Katyal

HALEY JOHNSON and ASHA LEWIS

Managing Social Media Editors socialmedia@michigandaily.com Senior Social Media Editors: Kirti Aplash, Natalie Knight, Cristina Costin, Ryan Postman, Evan DeLorenzo, Sarah Kent, Bella Morreale

ALEX HARRING and SARAH SZALAI Co-Chairs of Access & Inclusion

accessandinclusion@michigandaily.com

Business Staff RORI MILLER Creative Director

SCHUYLER JANZEN Sales Manager

The Michigan Daily (ISSN 0745-967) is publishing weekly on Wednesdays for the Winter 2021 semester by students at the University of Michigan. One copy is available free of charge to all readers. Additional copies may be picked up at the Daily’s office for $2. If you would like a current copy of the paper mailed to you, please visit store. pub.umich.edu/michigan-daily-buy-this-edition to place your order.

News

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Wednesday, December 1, 2021 — 3

ADMINISTRATION

ANN ARBOR

Black UMich calls on ‘U’ admin to address Anderson victims

60 students gathered in solidarity with survivors camped outside Schlissel’s house KATE WEILAND Daily Staff Reporter

LILA TURNER/Daily Ann Arbor residents gathered to advocate for those unhoused in Washtenaw County on Nov. 20.

Ann Arbor locals rally for housing rights in county

Attendees urged leaders for more affordable housing, funding and resources KRISTINA ZHENG Daily News Editor

Bundled up in hats and gloves and with coffees in hand, dozens of Ann Arbor community members braved the brisk, cold morning of Nov. 20 to increase awareness and advocate for unhoused individuals in Washtenaw County.

In honor of National Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week, the Shelter Association of Washtenaw County organized the “Hustle for Housing and Walk to End Homelessness,” which included a two-mile walk around downtown Ann Arbor.

The group first gathered at Liberty Plaza at the corner of East Liberty St. and South Division St. Adam, a former unhoused client at the Delonis Shelter, recently received housing assistance in Ann Arbor. After being unhoused for a long time, Adam told the crowd housing is a necessity for all people and urged county leaders to provide the funding and resources to support other unhoused individuals in the county.

“We are people, we are human beings, we deserve housing,” Adam said. “We need other people to look at us as we are people.

We are human just like you. If we are left out on the streets, there’s a possibility we might end up in the hospital, dead or anything else. It’s unsafe.”

Amanda Carlisle, executive director of the Washtenaw County Housing Alliance, also spoke to the community, advocating for the need to increase resources to support more permanent affordable housing options.

“We want to make sure that we share with everybody that there are people experiencing

housing insecurity here, there are people who are homeless right here in Washtenaw County, and we know what we can do to help them,” Carlisle said. “We can provide them with permanent housing. We can provide them with services. We can provide them with rapid rehousing, get them out of the streets, out of shelters.

We know what we can do. We just need the resources to do it.”

Some local organizations have already contributed to the effort.

Avalon Housing, a non-profit organization providing permanent affordable housing for more than 800 people in Washtenaw County, recently opened 36 affordable apartment units on Maple Road. The project was funded in part by the city of Ann Arbor’s 20-year affordable housing millage.

“We used a ton of federal dollars to build (the Avalon) housing but the services that are being provided at Avalon Hickory Way projects are being funded through the millage, so this really matters,” Carlisle said. “What you can do now is make sure to pay attention to what’s happening at the city and county level and also at the federal level.”

The Biden Administration’s Build Back Better Bill, which was passed in the House of Representatives on Nov. 19, includes efforts to build more than one million new rental and single-family homes. The bill also contains rental and down payment assistance using an expanded voucher program. If passed in the Senate, the $150 billion bill would be the single most largest investment in affordable housing in history.

Dan Kelly, executive director of the Shelter Association of Washtenaw County, also encouraged the Ann Arbor City Council to allocate more American Rescue Plan Act funds towards

affordable housing. The Biden Administration passed the ARPA in March to help local governments, municipalities and citizens recover from the pandemic.

Washtenaw County was awarded more than $71 million to be granted in two equal allotments: first in May 2021 and then in May 2022.

“We want to see as much of (the funding) go towards affordable housing and supports like the shelter as possible,” Kelly said. “That way we can have more incredible stories, more housing right down there, over there, over there, all over downtown and throughout the county of course.

Thank you, thank you, thank you for coming out showing your support. Let’s just keep this mission going and end homelessness here in Washtenaw County.”

The group then began marching down South Division St., chanting “Housing is human right” and “Affordable housing for all.” As the group made their way through the Ann Arbor Farmers Market and into nearby neighborhoods, a few cars drove by honked in support. The Ann Arbor Police Department also followed along, blocking the streets from oncoming traffic.

Rackham student Matt Dargay, a Masters student in the University of Michigan Social Work program, told The Michigan Daily he hopes the city prioritizes affordable housing and gets rid of exclusive zoning restrictions, which place limitations on the types of homes that can be built in a particular neighborhood.

“We’re here today because we want to show support for housing policies and the funding of affordable housing in the area because it’s getting more and more expensive to live here,” Dargay said. “If we’re going to sustain housing for essential workers and workingclass people, then we need to pro-

vide more affordable housing. So we’re here to show our support for that.”

Ann Arbor resident Shirley Wolfe, who has been living in the city since she graduated from the University in the 1950s, came to the protest with fellow Ann Arbor resident Phil Carroll. Despite the cold, Wolfe said she came out to rally for the people in the city who have to deal with this weather day in and day out.

“We’re both of an age — I’m in my 90th year, and (Carroll is) almost in his 80th,” Wolfe said. “(But) anything to promote more concern to let people know that we have a huge number of homeless in Ann Arbor right now, and we have a lot of people your age and even families living in cars.

It’s really cold.”

Carroll said he hopes the City considers implementing a rent control ordinance to curb affordable housing issues. A similar proposal was brought to Ann Arbor in the 1980s, but the state of Michigan enacted legislation that prohibited this proposal.

“We will never have affordable housing in Ann Arbor as long as we let the developers dominate our City Council,” Carroll said. “We need a rent control ordinance, and people should be aware that there’s a lot of sentiment that would favor that.”

Some members of Ann Arbor City Council were also in attendance, including council members Kathy Griswold, D-Ward 2, and Elizabeth Nelson, D-Ward 4.

Griswold said she is in preliminary discussions with the University to implement additional housing for individuals in the workforce who might not be able to afford living in the city and must commute everyday to work.

Read more at MichiganDaily.com

ADMINISTRATION

University endowment grew by 40.6% this year

$4.7 billion increase was announced at the Oct. 21 Board of Regents meeting ELISSA WELLE

Daily Staff Reporter

The University of Michigan’s endowment, which is currently valued at $17 billion, rose by an estimated $4.7 billion in the 2021 financial year, a 40.6% return on investment.

The increase was announced by Geoffrey Chatas, executive vice president and chief financial officer, at the Oct. 21 Board of Regents meeting.

This year, higher education institution endowments across the U.S. saw the strongest annual performance since 1986, with an increase of 27% on average. Many similarly endowed schools to the University announced eye-popping figures: Brown University announced a 51% return and Washington University in St. Louis broke records with a return of 65%.

Brian Smith, U-M associate vice president for finance, said the timeline for an endowment is not one year but “perpetuity,” leading him to remain cau-

tious when speculating on future growth. Over a 20-year period, the endowment’s return averages around 9.5%.

“The endowment is here for the long haul and to provide consistent support or raw consistent income,” Smith said. “A 40% year is definitely an outlier. It’s not often that we have a year like that. In financial markets in particular, over time reversion to the mean typically proves out.”

The growth of endowments generally mirrors the health of the stock market, which has more than doubled its value in 2021 from its lowest level in March 2020. Soaring tech company stocks, various federal COVID-19 relief bills and interest rate cuts from the U.S. Federal Reserve all contributed to a booming stock market, despite the pandemic.

Smith said the bulk of the University’s endowment growth is due to the returns from venture capital and private equity funds, two asset classes that higher education institutions increas-

ingly invest in.

However, those gains for venture capital and private equity funds are “unrealized,” meaning they are not liquid, according to Smith. Non-liquid assets are typically those that can’t be quickly converted into cash, like real estate properties or land.

“Venture capital and private equity are private transactions that aren’t publicly traded,” Smith said. “Typically the underlying investment agreements could be 10-plus year commitments where you’re not going to get your money for years down the road.”

Business junior Noah Maciulewicz, president of student investment group Wolverine Capital Investments, explained that the endowment benefited from dips in the stock market coinciding with the predetermined days when shares were purchased.

“Every time that the University has bought more shares has been when the market has been in the absolute best position,

which is why the endowment’s been making so much money over the past year and a half,” Maciulewicz said. “The people managing the fund are making good stock picks and the time in which they’ve done investing has just happened to be absolutely perfect.”

John Burkhardt, clinical professor emeritus in the School of Education, said donors tend to give more money to schools with large existing endowments, and endowment growth relies on the long history of donations since the University’s founding in 1817.

“One of the functions for big endowments is how long has the institution been soliciting support from donors,” Burkhardt said. “Contributions made to these institutions that were founded in the 19th century have been earning interest for a very long time. This is just a statement of American society: If you have money, you make money.”

Read more at MichiganDaily.com

About 60 students gathered the night of Nov. 19 outside University of Michigan President Mark Schlissel’s house to demonstrate their solidarity with victims of former athletic doctor Robert Anderson as part of a rally organized by Black UMich. Black UMich, a student-run organization on campus dedicated to amplifying the voices of Black people at the University, called on the University to address the demands of victims and have a formal conversation about the culture of sexual assault on campus.

The event consisted of speakers, chants expressing solidarity with the victims and a demonstration of “Black joy,” an act of resistance and expression of Black culture. Music by Black artists played, and protestors danced and sang together. Students chanted, “No justice, no peace. Let John speak,” “Black students won’t be silenced,” “Hail to the victims” and “Black students are under attack.

What do we do? Stand up, fight back!”

Jon Vaughn and other survivors of Anderson have been camping outside of Schlissel’s house since Oct. 8 in protest against the University’s handling of the nearly 1,000 sexual assault allegations against Anderson.

Vaughn spoke at the event, telling his story in addition to the history of sexual abuse at the University. When Vaughn was recruited to play football for the Wolverines, he said he was told that the University would prioritize his health and wellbeing.

“I think back to how these men came into my living room when my mother was dying, and (they) promised her that (they) were protecting me and I’d have the best medical care,” Vaughn said. “Obviously, that was all a lie.”

Vaughn explained the actions taken by the University immediately after Tad DeLuca, a former U-M wrestler, filed a formal complaint about Anderson in 1975. DeLuca, who is the first person known to have reported Anderson to the University, had his scholarship and financial aid revoked and was removed from the wrestling team after reporting Anderson’s abuse.

After DeLuca reported Anderson’s abuse to the University, the Division of Public Safety and Security began an investigation. The University later hired the law firm Steptoe & Johnson to do a formal investigation, but switched to WilmerHale in March 2020 due to Steptoe & Johnson’s previous defense of Jeffrey Epstein and director Roman Polanski.

“At that point, I knew that we would never be treated as human beings, let alone respected as former student athletes,” Vaughn said. “When I was recruited here, you celebrated me, but now I’m a villain, and that’s how they’ve been treating us ever since.”

The University has denied knowingly hiring attorneys from the same law firm that represented Epstein and Polanski.

Vaughn said conversations with current U-M students, who he said continue to experience a culture of sexual violence on campus on a daily basis, have been powerful.

“On the second day I was here, a young lady said to me, ‘you know, I think about when’s the next time I’m going to be raped or sexually assaulted on this campus more than I do what is going to be my major,’” Vaughn said.

“And at that point … I realized this is worse than I thought. It’s not only that they treat us inhumanely, they’re treating the students inhumanely.

Students’ safety is not a priority here.”

In an interview with The Michigan Daily, Business senior and student athlete Job Mayhue said he wants the public to know about what happened to survivors of Anderson and hopes transparency will prevent abuse in the future.

“I want this event to lead to open and transparent conversations and culture to have difficult conversations about sexual violence,” Mayhue said. “I also want the University to do more about creating a safer campus and create a system where action is being taken every single time somebody reports and it’s not just swept under the rug.”

Mayhue also said the University’s lack of cooperation with the survivors, as well as their reluctance to talk directly to survivors and provide any sort of compensation for them, further disincentives students from sharing

their stories.

“They keep asking him (Jon Vaughn), ‘What can we do to get you off of our space?” Mayhue said. “It’s not, ‘What can we do to help?” It’s not, ‘What can we do to make a safer campus?’ It’s, ‘What can we do to hush you up and get you going on your way?’”

LSA junior Zach Briggs also said the lack of action and accountability from the University regarding the current U-M assistant athletic director, Paul Schmidt, who was allegedly aware of Anderson’s behavior, has been disappointing.

“Across every college campus in America, there’s massive sexual assault scandals or mishandling of sexual assault reporting,” Briggs said.

“I definitely think there should be some form of justice with the firing of Dr. Schmidt, and I feel as though anyone who has covered it up needs to be reprimanded.”

In mid-November, Vaughn announced his plan to run for the Board of Regents in 2022. During the rally, Vaughn said he was running because of the stories he hears from students about safety and sexual assault on campus. He also called out Schlissel directly.

“I watch a man go to work almost every day, and I’ve never seen him interact with any student or professor, in now 42 days, and I just find that that’s an atrocity,” Vaughn said. “It really shows where the focus of the leadership is in this University. It’s all on money, sponsors, donors, even donors who let young men into school that have Title IX rapes in their history.”

Mayhue said during the rally that Black representation in the Board of Regents is essential to making progress.

“I’m so thankful that you are going for the Board of Regents, because putting a Black man in a position of leadership is the first step in making tangible change for the Black community and making it a safe space on campus,” Mayhue said to Vaughn.

Regent Katherine White (D) is currently the only Black regent on the eight-member board. Vaughn said that the marginalization of Black people at U-M and the ways in which the University has suppressed the voices of the Black community has been a historic problem.

“I might be a student athlete and I might be a victim of Dr. Anderson, but I’m a Black man, and that’s something I can never not be,” Vaughn said.

“I’m ready to fight for not only the University, but I’m also here to fight for my people.”

Following the speakers, Rackham student Byron Brooks recited a poem he wrote in light of the University’s handling of the allegations.

“How can an institution of higher education hire, protect, and admit known rapists?” Brooks read. “I bet if Anderson was Black, he would have been thrown into prison and the story would’ve been known throughout the nation. Hail to the victims, yet as their voices were silenced, checks were still cleared and retirement was granted.

The President right now won’t even come out of his house as if he’s on a vacation. That should be enough to let you know that the rapist at hand was a privileged Caucasian. Hail to the victims.”

In an interview with The Daily, Brooks said he stood in solidarity with the survivors.

“For this issue to have gone on for decades and generations is truly saddening,” Brooks said. “Although I was not a victim, I feel like it is my duty to stand with the victims, because it takes that solidarity to make something happen.”

Brooks said he is disheartened by the lack of action taken by the University and hopes that they will be more focused on the wellbeing of the survivors and all students moving forward.

“Honestly, I’m tired,” Brooks said.

“I feel like the school is looking at it from a marketing and PR (public relations) perspective. I’m looking for actual equitable actions. And not only that, but a true apology, authentic apology, and extra steps that will help.

We are at an institution of learning.

We are here to learn. A lot of these athletes, they put their bodies on the line for this institution, so they deserve some form of equitable reparations.”

Daily News Reporter Kate Weiland can be reached at kmwblue@umich.edu.

4 — Wednesday, December 1, 2021

News

CAMPUS LIFE

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

ACADEMICS

Undergrad students receive varying accommodations due to COVID-19, flu

Some professors more willing to change exam, homework policies than others, resulting in stress on top of illness EVAN DELORENZO Daily Staff Reporter

ANNA FUDER/Daily Students gathered on the Diag on Nov. 19, some leaving their classes, to advocate for climate and misconduct accountability.

Students walk out for climate, sexual misconduct accountability Event called for broader transparency, action from ‘U’ administration ARJUN THAKKAR Daily News Reporter

Around 50 students gathered on the Diag the afternoon of Nov. 19, with some walking out of their classes, to demand the University of Michigan expand its policies for climate change mitigation and sexual misconduct prevention and take responsibility for its actions.

The strike was organized

by Fridays for Future, an environmental organization that leads climate strikes around the world, as well as Roe v. Rape, a campus nonprofit organization supporting sexual misconduct prevention and survivor advocacy efforts. Fridays for Future previously organized a climate strike on Oct. 22.

The event was a distinct collaboration between the two separate causes organized around calling for broader transparency and accountability from the University’s administration. Over the past few years, climate activists and sexual assault prevention advocates have pushed the University to commit to limiting its carbon emissions and reforming how it handles cases of sexual misconduct committed by faculty and administrators.

Some students walked out of classes to support the event. LSA Junior Jesse Bishop, member of the advocacy group Students for Clean Energy, left his class to attend the strike. Bishop said he came out for the strike to hold the University accountable for its handling of climate change and sexual misconduct policies, which he believes are inadequate.

“It’s not enough at all, it’s not even near enough,” Bishop said.

It’s (the University’s) responsibility to protect their students from the climate and sexual assaults…it’s not a business and they’re treating it like a business.”

Jon Vaughn, a survivor of Robert Anderson and former University football player who has been protesting outside University President Mark Schlissel’s home on

South University Avenue, was set to speak at the strike, but organizers said a last-minute change meant Vaughn was unable to attend the event. Vaughn recently announced that he plans to run for a seat on the Board of Regents in 2022 LSA sophomore Jacob Sendra, an organizer with Fridays for Future, criticized the University for taking insufficient action to address the climate crisis.

“When it comes to climate policy, the University of Michigan drapes itself with the language and imagery of decisive action … while actively profiting from the destruction of our futures,” Sendra said. “It’s time to demand accountability.”

Sendra highlighted the group’s demands for the University to follow the City of Ann Arbor’s A2Zero initiative to achieve carbon neutrality by 2030 and to divest its endowed funds from natural gas investments.

In May, University President Mark Schlissel and the Board of Regents committed the University to achieving full carbon neutrality by 2040 across all scopes of emissions.

The commitment followed after significant student and community activism, but activists point to data from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and argue the University’s plan does not limit emissions fast enough to prevent the worst effects of climate change.

In March, the University also committed to disinvest the endowment from fossil fuel investments and have a netzero-emissions endowment by 2050. Activists have urged the administration to go further and also divest from natural gas companies.

LSA sophomore Lexi Crilley said she appreciated the University’s revised endowment policies but said the University had an obligation to go further.

“We are grateful that the University of Michigan has agreed to divest from coal and oil, but what about natural gas?” Crilley said.

“And again, 2050 is way too far away. We need to emphasize that

it’s not enough action.”

Multiple survivor advocates then began to speak, reproaching the University for how they’ve handled allegations of misconduct against administrators and faculty and encouraged the administration to better protect students.

Public Policy senior Emma Sandberg, executive director of Roe v. Rape, has been advocating for survivors of sexual assault since her freshman year. Sandberg criticized the University for a lack of support for survivors and for not doing enough to punish those who commit misconduct.

“We are not the Leaders and Best if our policies are designed to deter students from reporting and let perpetrators off the hook,” Sandberg said. “Whether you’ve been working on this from the beginning or whether you are just hearing about these issues today, it is up to everyone listening, not just survivors and allies, to keep fighting until all of our demands are met.”

Advocates pointed out multiple prominent University officials who committed misconduct while serving at the University, including former Provost Martin Philbert and former University Health Service director and team doctor Robert Anderson. They also highlighted the recent instance at the Ford School of Public Policy, in which students protested the decision to admit a master’s student who was guilty of Title IX violations at their previous school.

Among the advocates’ list of demands was a rule that the University would not admit anyone who previously committed sexual misconduct, as well as provide expanded support and outreach resources for survivors of assault.

In July, the University restructured the Office of Institutional Equity into the Equity, Civil Rights and Title IX Office to enhance its handling of sexual misconduct and provide support for those who file complaints through the office. The announcement came with multiple reforms meant to address the culture around reporting and prevent future instances of misconduct.

In an interview with The Daily, Sandberg recognized the actions the University had taken but said activists needed to push the administration to go further in supporting survivors.

“Currently, survivors lack so many resources on campus,” Sandberg said. “We want to see new centers (for support) created, and that’s something that without further action, I don’t see the University choosing to do that themselves.”

The University’s Office of Public Affairs did not respond to requests for comment at the time of this article’s publication.

After multiple environmental activists and survivor advocates spoke, organizers led the crowd off the Diag, southbound on State St. and eastbound on South University Ave.. The protesters chanted phrases demanding action from the University, including “Support survivors, Schlissel must go” and “Climate change is a war of the rich against the poor.”

Read more at MichiganDaily.com

With COVID-19 cases on the rise and flu season in full effect, sickness has recently become the norm on campus. In yet another semester defined by the pandemic, students told The Michigan Daily they find themselves asking instructors for accommodations more than ever before.

LSA freshman Allen Shen, who lives in a residence hall, said he noticed many students feeling burnt out or sick over the past few weeks.

“Everyone around me has been sick here and there — my friend got the flu last week, but he was perfectly fine,” Shen said. “Other people have been really, really sick, especially in the dorms.”

Shen said he was no exception to this campus-wide trend, as he fell sick with pneumonia early on in the semester and experienced symptoms that lingered through September.

“Since two or three days after I moved in, I started getting a sore throat and then got progressively worse over time,” Shen said. “I was probably sick for a good month, but not deathly sick.”

During midterm season, Shen said he realized his workload was becoming too much to handle on top of managing his pneumonia symptoms. With three exams in a single week, Shen said he felt especially burnt out. He explained his situation to his MATH 215 instructor Mattias Jonsson, professor of mathematics, who then let him opt out of his midterm. “(My professor) was really understanding and just asked for a doctor’s note,” Shen said. “He said I could skip the first midterm, and the next two would be weighted heavier to accommodate me missing the first one.”

In an email to The Daily, Jonsson reiterated the course’s accommodation policy, citing alternative ways to make up for missed exams.

“In MATH 215, there are two midterm exams and a final exam, along with a good deal of homework,” Jonsson said. “For students who miss one of the midterm exams for illness, the general policy has been not to count that midterm and instead reweight the other midterm and

final exam.”

Accommodations generally depend on department or course policies. Some instructors have incorporated different ways for students to make up or drop assignments when they feel sick.

After testing positive for COVID-19 during midterm season, Engineering junior Izzy Ferranti said one of her instructors offered a virtual option to take her typically in-person quiz.

“I received an exam accommodation for CHEM 342, which was held online the same day as the regularly scheduled quiz,” Ferranti said. “I thought having it the same day was difficult because it was shortly after I developed symptoms, so I still wasn’t feeling well.”

Ferranti said her CHEM 342 professor was willing to push her quiz back several days to allow for a recovery period.

“I was able to take (my quiz) on campus when I was released from quarantine, about four days after the regularly scheduled quiz,” Ferranti said. “This was helpful because I was able to ask questions in person, and I didn’t have the stress of taking it online.”

While Ferranti said the accommodations she received helped alleviate some stress, LSA senior Aratrika Ganguli said she wished the Economics Department had taken a similar approach. After testing positive for COVID-19 several days before her ECON 431 midterm, Ganguli said she emailed her professor asking to take the exam virtually or at a later date only to find that there was no alternative to the in-person exam, as per department policy.

“When (my professor and I) were conversing through email, she let me know that there are just no options for those who are sick,” Ganguli said.

“We would just make you not take this exam, which would mean that my final exam is worth 60% of my entire grade.”

Ganguli said this accommodation only exacerbated her stress, especially when thinking about how much more she would need to prepare for her future exam.

“Now, I feel like any free time I have, I need to be studying for my final because I know that whatever grade I get on that final is literally my grade for the class,” Ganguli said.

“That’s very stressful for a student

who did not even expect to get sick.”

The Economics Department did not respond to The Daily when asked to comment on its accommodation policy.

Despite her frustration with the Economics Department’s policy, Ganguli said all of her professors were understanding of her situation and reminded her to focus on her mental and physical health during quarantine.

“I was very happy to see my professors’ reactions … they all told me to prioritize my health and stop worrying about everything else,” Ganguli said. “But the only thing that’s going through my head as a senior is my grade and what’s going to happen if I can’t attend this class.”

While attending classes asynchronously prevented her from falling far behind on coursework, Ganguli said she spent most of her free time in quarantine catching up on lecture content instead of fully recovering.

“Because I had a lot of time during quarantine, I felt as though I was just doing homework the entire time,” Ganguli said. “There wasn’t a lot of free time to walk around, breathe and take care of my own health.”

When Ferranti began attending in-person classes again, she said she felt mostly caught up with classwork because she could attend lectures asynchronously during her quarantine period.

“When I returned to the classroom, I did not feel like I fell behind on coursework due to asynchronous lectures,” Ferranti said. “The only setback I experienced was missing my CHEM 342 discussion, which is helpful for solving homework problems.”

The amount of time Ganguli dedicated to her courses during quarantine and the additional stress of heavily-weighted exams are both indicative of some of the struggles students continue to face this semester.

“It was definitely tough to balance taking care of your own health and making sure you’re on top of things,” Ganguli said. “So, it really sucks to see that you’re at a disadvantage in terms of your education because of the fact that you unexpectedly got sick.”

Daily Staff Reporter Evan Delorenzo can be reached at evandelo@umich.edu.

ADMINISTRATION

UMich child care workers allege unfair compensation

Employees say low salary doesn’t reflect job’s demands amid pandemic PAIGE HODDER & RILEY HODDER Daily Staff Reporters

The educators at the University of Michigan Children’s Centers are responsible for teaching and socializing the youngest victors on campus. After more than a year of working as critical employees during a pandemic, U-M child care center teachers are now demanding higher salaries, saying their wages do not reflect the demands of their job.

The problem The average salary of a teacher at the U-M centers is $38,588, far below the base salary of an Ann Arbor Public Schools teacher at $43,906✎ EditSign.

The Daily spoke to two teachers from the U-M child care centers, both of whom wished to remain anonymous for fear of professional retaliation. For the purposes of this article, they will be referred to as Source 1 and Source 2.

Source 1 has a bachelor’s degree in early education and works in the early preschool department. They said their main frustration with the situation is their compensation not being reflective of their role as an educator.

“We’re working on a 12-month schedule, and we’re being compensated for less than what nine-month teachers are putting out,” Source 1 said. “With the same qualifications and the same level of education and the same interactions with young people and children.”

Source 1 said as a research university, the University should be better able to recognize the

importance of their work, which has been proven to have lasting, positive impacts on a child’s development.

“We’re building the foundation for the educational future of our tiniest victors here at the University,” Source 1 said. “And they don’t want to pay the teachers, who are on the front lines with their children, a living wage.” Source 2, a lead teacher who supervises the U-M child care center workers, highlighted another issue: retention. The lack of compensation does not encourage new teachers to be interested in the program in a time when new teachers are desperately needed, they said.

“I think if I was being paid more and I could’ve paid for child care for my children, it would’ve been a better situation for my children and me because teaching my children was not a good experience,” Source 2 said.

Jennie McAlpine, senior director of Work-Life Programs at the University’s Work-Life Resource Center, wrote in an email to The Daily that because of low compensation, Ann Arbor and Washtenaw County are experiencing an educator shortage.

“It is hard for staff to stay in a chronically undercompensated, demanding job and care for themselves and their families,” McAlpine wrote.

Working during a pandemic Source 1 also said these teachers were called back to work in-person by the University amid the COVID19 pandemic, long before the vaccines were readily available.

“We’re needed by the University and they showed that by having us continue to work through the

pandemic while a lot of the families were working from the comfort of their homes at the time,” Source 1 said.

“But we’re not being compensated for being critical staff.”

Though children ages 5-11 just became eligible to receive their COVID-19 vaccines as of Nov. 10, children under five are still not eligible for vaccination. As a result, teachers have been working with an unvaccinated population, putting themselves at risk of being exposed to COVID-19.

With low vaccination rates in K-12 schools as well as a staff shortage, Ann Arbor has seen many school closures this fall due to low staff numbers.

Source 2 said child care workers are in even more of a dire situation than others considering that they teach children who are often sick.

“Since we work with children, we get sick often,” Source 2 said. “If you have sick symptoms, you can’t come to work because you have to get tested and have your test results before you can come back, even if it’s just a cold.

We’re always understaffed and that’s stretching teachers.”

According to McAlpine, 90% of the Work-Life Resource Center’s funding comes directly from tuition, while 10% comes directly from the University. This, according to Source 1, is a large part of the problem.

“The University expects the child care centers to pay for themselves, which in turn raises tuition costs, which is a burden to families and it doesn’t allow for the teachers in our programs to make a living wage,” Source 1 said.

Read more at MichiganDaily.com

Arts

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Wednesday, December 1, 2021 — 5

MUSKET returns to the Power Center for a weekend of “Funny Girl” PRISCILLA KIM Daily Arts Writer

After a successful four-show run, the cast and crew of MUSKET wrapped up their production of the Broadway hit “Funny Girl” last Sunday at the Power Center. Audiences watched leading lady Fanny Brice, played by Music, Theatre & Dance sophomore Carly Meyer, go from a determined dreamer to a star whose attention every character longs for.

Inspired by the real life of Fanny Brice, the musical follows the actress’s rise to fame and the effects fame had on her life off the stage.

The show began with quite the entrance from Fanny. Walking from behind the audience, she made her way through the aisles to take her place at center stage. Shortly after, the first of many exclamations Fanny would make was a memorable one: “I’m a bagel on a plate full of onion rolls!”

She admitted that she’s not like others, but used this fact to advocate for herself, reminding the audience that what’s more important than surface appearance is self-advocacy. As she declared herself “The Greatest Star” in one of the musical’s most iconic

numbers, other characters began to acknowledge her stardom as well.

While Fanny achieved fame, she was quickly consumed by it, and those close to her worried about its effects.

When Fanny entered a long and complicated relationship with the charismatic socialite and swindler Nicky Arnstein, played by LSA sophomore Sohil Apte, the two sang a series of songs that depicted their struggle to find their identities apart from each other. By the end, Fanny found clarity back on the stage, with a triumphant reprise of the iconic tune “Don’t Rain on My Parade.”

Storyline aside, serving as the base for the musical’s progression was the 21-piece orchestra led by Andrew Gerace — the Music Director and LSA and Music, Theatre & Dance senior — seen swaying along to the music as he conducted. One of the musical’s most exuberant moments was the number “Cornet Man,” with trumpeter Ryan Venora, a Music, Theatre & Dance junior, onstage interacting with Fanny.

Blasting like a big band, the pit orchestra showcased full energy as Fanny imitated the trumpet sounds above.

Another show highlight came about midway through the first act with the number “His Love Makes

Me Beautiful” — a scene that brought in stunning solos by Meyer and Music, Theatre & Dance sophomore Alexandra Humphreys. When Meyer struggled comically up a set of stairs — a possible nod to the stairs in the 1968 film with Barbra Streisand — as a pregnant bride, her interactions with an appalled Humphreys were priceless.

As the bridal scene came to an end, figures in black swiftly wheeled the stairs offstage, bringing in simple panels to transition into Fanny’s dressing room. These stagehands were a reminder of yet another team driving the production forward. The mechanism of actors onstage, musicians in the pit and stagehands worked like clockwork on the Power Center stage.

With only a two-and-a-half-hour running time and a relentlessly moving orchestra below the stage, MUSKET’s production staff, completely studentrun, made a lasting impression, allowing the cast to shine.

“Funny Girl” marked MUSKET’s much-anticipated return to the Power Center since halting live shows in March of last year. While the theatre group had kept itself busy at the height of the pandemic with well-produced virtual stagings of “Bright Star” and

BECCA MAHON/Daily

“Newsies,” viewers last weekend laid witness to a full range of expression from an unmasked, in-person cast, with ample distance between stage and audience.

In the words of MUSKET’s Music, Theatre & Dance senior Jonas McMullen, whose Director’s Note graces the playbill: “We are reminded why we love to gather in the theatre,

when we could not for so long.” After all the time that has passed, the celebratory nature of MUSKET’s return seemed to make their year-long hiatus well worth the wait.

One Sunday morning at the Pioneer Woods CECILIA DURAN Daily Arts Writer

I bet you can think of a song from which you can never detach a specific memory. The kind where, every time it comes on, the place you’re currently in blurs, and you’re suddenly in another space, in another time. For me, books have the capacity to bottle up feelings. “Bloom” by The Paper Kites will forever remind me of the novel “The Light Between Oceans,” and “Jolene” by Ray LaMontagne is the faint sound that accompanies any flashback I get to the novel “A Little Life.”

The greatest memory-keepers, however, are walks. More specifically, what I like to call ‘thought walks,’ the ones you take when thoughts become so loud that you feel like you need to drown them out with a tune that is ten decibels too loud.

As much of a coping mechanism as it is, music can also be a catalyst, an absinthe that makes a specific moment in time become ingrained in your memory forever.

Let me tell you about my favorite place in Ann Arbor for those

“thought walks”: the Pioneer Woods. It wasn’t until late in my time in Ann Arbor that I found it, and I’m bitter I didn’t find it earlier.

You probably wouldn’t believe me if I told you the closest road to it was W. Stadium Boulevard (in my opinion, the noisiest and least appealing road in Ann Arbor).

It is the place where industrial life mingles with nature. There are various entrances to the woods, so many that I am pretty sure I have yet to discover new ones. Typically, I make my way toward the small, almost rabbit-hole paths off the side of W. Stadium Boulevard.

Like entering Narnia, you go from being surrounded by street signs to tall trees that drown out the hum of city life. The woods are not big — it takes less than ten minutes to cross through them — but it’s a magical place where oaks, white pines and shagbark hickories engulf you, the leaves below your feet crunching with every step you take.

At the end of the woods, an arched tunnel created by bent branches leads you into a vast open space called the Greenview Nature Area. In the fall season, the meadow

grows untamed, and in the spring, the weeds turn into colorful wildflowers that become the home of 55 different kinds of butterflies. A few

the first snowfall or the first dip in the ocean after a cold winter. It felt pure, so much so that I felt like I was trespassing. Yet at the same time, I

Design by Madison Grosvenor

yards away is a little pond, seemingly so forgotten and untouched that you could imagine the water has been the same since the beginning of time.

The first day I set foot in this place was probably one of the most cathartic days of my life. I experienced nature as one experiences

was welcomed, embraced by the tall weeds, calmed down by the sound they made as the wind brushed them from side to side.

I sat down on one of the three logs at the top of the meadows, and here is where catharsis occurred. “One Sunday Morning (Song for Jane Smiley’s Boyfriend)” by Wilco start-

ed playing, and suddenly, breathing felt like a harder task than it usually is. I am not a crier, I never have been, but in that moment, a tear rushed down my cheek. They weren’t tears of joy, but they weren’t tears of sadness, either. I think it was my body’s way of telling me it was at peace.

“Outside I looked lived in” was whispered in my ear as I took everything in. Those twelve melodic minutes glued every detail in the scenery to the twists and turns of the phrases, the piano motifs and the painfully honest lyrics. I had felt like this before, but it’s not often that a song and a landscape leave you gasping for air. I don’t mean to sound melodramatic, exaggerated or even absurd, but I really mean it.

A song, “One Sunday Morning,” and a landscape, the Pioneer Woods, had caused a perfect chemical reaction — liberation pickled with sadness.

Not out of grief, but by the mere fact that I couldn’t live in that moment forever.

I knew I could still go back to the Pioneer Woods whenever, but it just wouldn’t be the same. Life isn’t static. It’s ever-changing, and I am a different person every time I go

back — even if only two days go by between visits. But for twelve minutes, despite what I may be going through, despite the weather or the season or the reason for my escape, the warm tenderness that I bottled up one afternoon in May becomes present. I cannot come to these woods and not listen to “One Sunday Morning.” I make it a ceremony, actually, a ritual to see how this song morphs as I myself morph — reading between the lines and seeing details of the landscape I hadn’t seen before.

It’s all part of a continuous narrative, one which parts me from the acceptance that that tenderness will never be as strong as the first day I encountered this safe haven.

Songs being memory boxes is a universal phenomenon, I think, or at least I hope it is. So I reveal my secret, my little treasure — it would be selfish not to. I think everyone should know this feeling of release through alignment. So go out to the Pioneer Woods and allow yourself to feel, whatever that means.

The Wilco prayer said it first: “Something sad keeps moving, so I wandered around. I fell in love with the burden, holding me down.”

The cultural impact of Noodle the Pug HANNAH CARAPELLOTTI Daily Arts Writer

A semester in Washington, D.C. Keeping a priceless opportunity within reach • Financial support available • • Open to all majors • • Earn a full semester of credit • • Network with experts • • Gain work experience through internships •

APPLICATIONS ACCEPTED IN SEPTEMBER & FEBRUARY

lsa.umich.edu/MichInWash

Produced by Michigan Creative, a unit of the Office of the Vice President for Communications. MC190193

“Good morning, everyone, and welcome back to yet another round of Bones or No Bones: the game where we find out if my 13-year-old pug woke up with bones, and, as a result, we’ll find out what kind of day we’re going to have.”

This is how Jonathan Graziano opens almost every one of his TikTok videos featuring his adorable pug, Noodle. For over a year now, Graziano has made jokes about Noodle having “no bones,” flopping back down on his bed every time he has to get up to go for a walk or use the bathroom. In the last couple of months, Graziano has begun posting daily “readings,” in which Noodle’s having bones (or lack thereof) determines how our day will go as well. “It’s kind of like reading tea leaves,” he says in one video. A “bones day” is a sign of good luck, and we’re supposed to treat ourselves and go after the things we want. A “no bones day” is not necessarily a bad thing, though.

Graziano recommends we use the day for self-care, and just take it easy.

For those of us lucky enough to have these little videos cross our “For You” pages, Noodle has quickly grown into a cultural phenomenon.

Graziano currently has 4.5 million followers on Tik-

Tok, and #Bones and #NoBones have hundreds of millions of views as well. Creators are writing songs about Noodle, designing “bones day” animations and 3D-printing wallet-sized displays to help keep track of each day’s reading. Noodle’s fame is not limited to TikTok, as he and Graziano have made appearances on several talk shows and most notably, Noodle was canceled by Rolling Stone. There’s merchandise available just about everywhere, and teachers are even incorporating the lingo into their classrooms. I’ve heard stories of students in class crowding around someone’s phone to watch the daily reading once it’s been posted.

So why does it concern me to see some people taking these forecasts a little too seriously?

Sometimes the videos under the Bones/No Bones hashtags are clearly just meant to be funny, but other creators seem to be basing their day on whether an old dog stands up or not.

This isn’t the first time that the general public has taken the “advice” of an animal. We have an entire holiday built around it.

Instead of controlling the weather, Noodle con-

trols people’s moods and energy, like a version of spoon theory for Gen Z. Why do we feel like we need an excuse to have a good day, or to take it easy?

If I had to guess, I’d say this is one of the ways we’re coping post-pandemic. Most of us are back in person now, whether it’s for school or for work. Having spent the last year and a half adjusting to

isolation, I’ve found it’s an equally big adjustment to leave. Being expected to return to our normal workload is exhausting, and some of us still need a break but don’t feel like we’re allowed to take it. Noodle is our current solution to this problem, providing us with either the justification for taking that break or motivation to keep going. As one creator put it, “The entire world is revolving around Noodle right now, and we are okay with that because he came to us in a time of need.”

There’s no telling how much longer Noodle’s fame will last, but for now, he’s helping us feel better — and looking cute while doing it.

Design by Maggie Weibe

Arts

6 — Wednesday, December 1, 2021

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

‘All Too Well: The Short Film’ rekindles age gap discourse MARY ELIZABETH JOHNSON Daily Arts Writer

I can’t in good faith say that I’m a Swiftie.

I’m a Swiftie in the sense that we all are Swifties — because you can’t avoid her. Her music has defined a generation, whether you like it or not.

Even if I don’t buy tickets to Taylor’s shows, it’s still a Swift-dominated world, and I still reap the benefits of breakup songs. Everybody loves her femcel anthem, and I literally go crazy any time any of her singles play at a party. Part of the reason people joke about her being a crazy girlfriend with a self-described long list of ex-lovers is that she’s so lovable that we wish we could hate her, like our ex-boyfriend’s newest lover. She, like her Cool Girl contemporaries Jennifer Lawrence and Anne Hathaway (who supposedly has her own connection to “All Too Well (10 Minute Version) (Taylor’s Version) (From the Vault)”), is just a beautiful, talented woman who seems a little too good to be true, and we tend to be distrustful of that. Maybe my lowered expectation of her is why I actually kind of love this short film.

If you haven’t heard yet, Taylor Swift and Jake Gyllenhaal (“Nightcrawler”) dated for three months when she was 20 and he was 29.

While nine years might not be as egregious as the infamous age gaps in Bradley Cooper and Leonardo Dicaprio’s relationships, there was a massive gap in experience. She had only just released her first album a few years before, and Gyllenhaal been in the public eye since he was a child. Looking back at those paparazzi shots of the two of them, you can’t help but see how different Swift looks.

The greatest directorial choice Swift made for “All Too Well: The Short Film” was in her casting. Dylan O’Brien (“Teen Wolf”) plays Him and Sadie Sink (“Stranger Things”) plays Her; the actors are the roughly same ages that Gyllenhaal and Swift were when they were together. I can’t say definitively if nine years is too much of an age difference if both parties are consenting adults, but when I first saw O’Brien and Sink lock lips, it was a bit jarring. I couldn’t help the queasy feeling in my stomach. I’m sure Swift knew what she was doing when she chose Sink; her role as a child actor is still fresh in the world’s mind, and we can’t help but feel

that she’s still too young, that she’s still 13 in our minds. It makes me think that this is how Swift must have felt during this relationship: frozen in time, feeling like a little girl trying desperately to grow up.

The highlight of the short film is the acting.

It has been way too long since O’Brien has had the chance to do dramatic acting on such a large stage. Swift said that much of the “electric” dialogue in one particular scene was improvised, giving a really natural feel to the atmosphere.

O’Brien puts dirty dishes away and half-laughs as Sink explains her hurt feelings, calling her selfish only to backtrack by saying, “You’re acting selfish.” He repeats a half-hearted, weightless apology like in an early 2000s rom-com where men never know what they’re apologizing for but want to get out of the doghouse.

Worse still, O’Brien’s performance is still so romantic and charming. If it were me, I could never convince myself that he was anything else but a handsome guy who makes me laugh.

I’m tempted to believe him a bit when he says he didn’t mean to brush off his girlfriend’s hand at dinner, that he really was just having fun with his friends and maybe she is making it

Design by Michelle Kim

about herself. But, just as magnetic as he is, this nameless man turns on a dime and slams a car door in his girlfriend’s face, throwing the keys at her. A Twitter user writes, “Jake Gyllenhaal having a ‘fuck the patriarchy’ keychain while

dating women 10 years younger than him does track.” Men always seem to find a reason to make us hate them, don’t they?

Read more at MichiganDaily.com

Ann Arbor’s Yik Yak scene LAINE BROTHERTON Daily Arts Writer

Anonymity is the internet’s most sacred asset. The freedom to say anything, to ignore the draconian social rules of everyday life, is what made the anonymous messaging application Yik Yak popular after its initial launch in 2013.

The app shut down in 2017 after cyberbullying concerns, but in August of this year, Yik Yak re-appeared in app stores. This Yik Yak is a buggy yet functional reincarnation of its previous self — the app centers around “yaks,” text posts with a 200-character limit shown to anyone within a five-mile radius. Users can upvote or downvote posts, and enough upvotes can earn yaks a spot on the “Local Top Yaks”; yaks that receive more than five downvotes are hidden from the feed. Each poster is nameless; the only way to tell users apart is from their representative emoji randomly chosen by the app — this can be changed at any time.

Whether it’s from the nostalgia of the 2010s, the excitement of returning to campus

after a year and a half or the innate desire to connect with people, the Ann Arbor Yik Yak bubble has been populated with hundreds, possibly thousands, of University of Michigan students. From South Quad to the UGLi to North Campus to the Blue Leprechaun, Ann Arbor’s pandemic-weary student body

Design by Jessica Chiu

has yikked every yak, putting every fleeting thought on blast no matter how obscene. It’s unclear exactly how many people actively use Yik Yak, but the archive of “Local Top Yaks” gives an idea — the most popular yak in the area exceeds 450 upvotes, which doesn’t account for the additional downvotes the post

may have received or the users who simply didn’t interact.

Over the last several weeks, I’ve happily shoved aside impending midterms and assignments to pursue the more stimulating task of researching the University’s Yik Yak scene. At first, I tried to reach out to the Yik Yak community and ask them what they would like to say to The Daily. The responses included, but were not limited to: “Don’t go to class, eat ass,” “Fuck MSU,” “No one in the daily knows how big my dick is” and “balls.” With this, I determined that the best move forward would be to leave the yakkers up to their own devices and simply observe. So, I did — from morning to evening, I took in every new yak, scrolling with abandon during any and all spare moments.

With a paralyzing amount of confessionals, complaints, jokes and drunken rambles, I was able to interpret Yik Yak as a microcosm of local youth culture.

Yik Yak is a place for speaking your mind — evidently, the minds of U-M students are fraught with dysfunctional group projects, midterms, Math 116 assignments on “WeBWorK” and the

hassle of finding an unoccupied study space in any campus building. On a fundamental level, all students can relate to personal experiences with stress and exhaustion. After all, suffering is easier when it’s shared.

When the dining halls are open, you might see complaints about the long lines at South Quad or the quality of the food from that day.

One user posts detailed dining hall reviews, ranking their experience with the culinary competence of Gordon Ramsay. Other notable yak topics include the resounding shrieks of 6 a.m. Amtrak trains, midnight fire alarms at the residence halls, offensive B.O. on the BursleyBaits Loop and scathing fraternity slander.

The lighthearted innocence of Yik Yak stops there. Sometimes, actually most of the time, yaks lean towards the cruder side — on a mid-October evening, an influx of yaks revolved around an alleged poop-related incident in the Stockwell showers. With 62 upvotes, the sentiments of many residents were memorialized in the following yak, “Trying to go to sleep but I cannot knowing the stockwell shitter walks free.” As much

as there was disgust, the jokes ran rampant too: one yak reads, “Just went to take a shit in Stockwell and there was a shower in the way??!” and another “McCarthyism, but it’s the poop in the shower.”

On the other end of the “out-of-pocket” spectrum, hormones rage with reckless abandon. After the sun goes down, roughly one out of every three yaks is a cry for help, an S.O.S. from the throes of loneliness. I couldn’t forget them if I tried: “I’m so down bad I might just try finding love with the next snapchat sex bot that adds me” and “what are boobs?

I’m a visual learner btw” are the tamest of the tame. The efforts of Yik Yak’s community guardrails are of no avail of even the most vulgar expressions of biological needs.

The “Leaders and Best” of Ann Arbor share a propensity for all things toilet-related, whether it’s debates of the best bathroom on campus or anecdotes of traumatizing experiences — I wouldn’t address the fixation on potty humor if it wasn’t for its alarming frequency.

Read more at MichiganDaily.com

‘Always Jane’ falls short of its potential MOLLY HIRSCH

SUDOKU

puzzle by sudokusnydictation.com

Daily Arts Writer

Release Date: Wednesday, November 24, 2021 Release Date: Wednesday, December 1, 2021

Los Crossword Puzzle Puzzle Los Angeles Angeles Times Times Daily Daily Crossword Edited Joyce Nichols Nichols Lewis Lewis Edited by

by Rich Rich Norris Norris and and Joyce

ACROSS ACROSS 11Little __ Muffet Surpasses 21, in 5 Roger Bannister, blackjack 6famously Top-level 10 Speaker in performance 11Cooperstown NBA legend, 14 Elvis or Cocafamiliarly 14Cola Company that’s 15 “The L of Word” proud its co-creator quacks?

Chaiken 15 Chopper topper 16 16Whisper Like the top half 17 Interstate hauler of Monaco’s flag 18 Ad prizesendeavor 17 Craven 19 opener 19Dramatic In the style of 20 and spot 20Adagio Solar panel 21allegro Blockhead 22 the city to 22Leave Like energyefficient buildings, evade arrest e.g. some tanks 24 Like 29Where Together, 27 the in old music lived woman 30 Acid found in 28 Permits to enter oliveofoilrespect 30 Title 31Exec, 34-Across has 31 slangily one of them 33 Schoolmarmish 34List Historic ship 35 to-dos 35Intense QB’s tryanger 39 38ItTerritorial 40 has just one complex 64-Down dissolved 42 Shapiro of during NPR the Napoleonic 43 Delivery, as of a Wars baby 41Inter Senator 45 __ Klobuchar 42Recipe Orator’sword art: Abbr.

46 43 WWI president 47 Relieved (of) 44Comes Dough to light 49 45 Resistance units 51 Secret fraternity 46 Acclaimed member 2016 Broadway 55 Party or wild with soundtrack, follower “The” 57 52Bit “ByofJove!”

53encouragement Ticket datum 59 Vinyl-covered, as 54 __-country floorleg ... and a 55aFinal 61 Worldwide: hint to eachAbbr. set of 62 Absinthe circles flavor 65 a roundChast on 62Half Cartoonist links 63the Precipice 66 Ohio’s lake 64 Like an egg 67 65R&B Tablefamily for __name 68 66Budget Passingsister words? company 67 Tranquilizing 69 Runs brandout of juice 70 “It’s true!”

71 Guido of Baroque DOWN fame 1art “Harrumph!”

2 Eerie sky sight 3 Canon letters DOWN Pitchfog 14Light Org. whose 25Relatives of income taxes are Slurpees passedwith through 3 Server a to shareholders blush?

46 Piece prose Tanksof and such 57 A hot one can be Digress 8 problematic Dune buggy, 6 Laid up briefly 79 Island L’état, necklaces à Louis 8 Long, XIV thin soup 10 mushroom Bard’s before 9 Viscous 11 Outlined,plant substances maybe 10 12 “Bingo!”

Museum piece 11 Japanese 13 Website for electronics Jewish singles 18 company Sushi topper 12 the 21 Cut Halfdown a Northwest middle airport 13 “Goosebumps” 22 series Yoga term author meaning “force” 21 Gomez’s furry 23 cousin “Under the weather,” say 23 French capital 24 Road Water-formed 25 trip game ditch 26 Approximately 25 Nabisco Actress Lamarr 29 brand 26 name Director of many “This to Is Scout Us” 31 Jem, episodes Finch 27 Psychic What people 32 Gellerwho need People 34 Ballerina Shearer might do?

36 Completely 28 Coconut Grove dominates city 37 injury 32 Med. Swashbuckling detector Flynn 38 Title for two 33 Très chic 35 Beatles Tyler of “Archer”

40 Tread The good dishes 36 heavily 41 Future, Discomfort 37 e.g. cause 44 Ten-time Makes four into 39 NBA twelve, say All-Star Anthony, 46 to Advanced course fans offering 40 Story arc 48 Prefix Hold for questions 44 with day 50 Symbol Take care 46 of of a affection kitty 47 up down a 51 Lit Went 48 Passover staple slippery slope 49 Hides 52 Matisse of the art 50 Wednesday kin world 51 Copy, in a way

53 “Industry” Knot again 55 54 network Old-time laundry soap brand 56 Celestial 56 sphere Red Square figure 58 Place for singles 57 Customizable 60 Nintendo He loved Lucille 63 avatar Cinque e uno 64 Green Watcher 58 of ... and “Casino Royale” homophone of a 59 Shade on appears the letter that beach exactly once in 60 Windy City and all every clue train letters but two answers 61 Curse

PREVIOUS PUZZLE: PUZZLE: ANSWER TO PREVIOUS

12/01/21 11/24/21

By Joe Deeney By DaveTribune Taber and Laura Moll LLC ©2021 Content Agency, (c)2021 Tribune Content Agency, LLC

12/01/21 11/24/21

WHISPER WHISPER “Did you hear?”

“Yeah. Go Blue.

First time in 10 years!”

Reality television has monopolized the TV screen for years. From “Keeping Up with the Kardashians” to “The Bachelor,” audiences around the world are immersed in the overwhelmingly ridiculous lives of celebrities or those who want to be celebrities. Nevertheless, the genre is expanding to encompass people of different backgrounds, with different stories. This includes Amazon Prime’s new docuseries “Always Jane.”

This four-part series focuses on Jane Noury, a transgender teenager, and the Noury family throughout her transitioning period. The audience is given a glimpse into their world at a time that precedes much change: Jane prepares for college, awaits her gender-affirming surgery and takes a chance on modeling. Fortunately for her, she is supported by her parents, two sisters and grandfather throughout it all.

While “Always Jane” takes on a sensitive and highly relevant topic, the first episode falls short of its potential.

Undoubtedly, the show is engaging and the audience can’t help but fall in love with the Nourys: They are the quintessential boisterous and overprotective family. In fact, throughout the pilot, Jane reiterates how grateful she is for her parents and their unwavering love during what is an extremely pivotal time in her life.

And so, as we watch the show, we can’t help but feel relief and pure happiness for Jane, who is a lively, passionate and silly teenage girl. However, while the series aims to present the difficulties that a trans teen like Jane faces in the political and social climate of today’s world, it doesn’t entirely live up to this goal.

The way the story is presented is too simplified and superficial. Through videos Jane takes of herself and clips of her day-to-day life, the only thing the show reveals is how strong she is as an individual and how understanding her family has been throughout her transition. However, it doesn’t touch on the fact that a support system and the acceptance of friends and family is not a luxury that every person in the LGBTQ+ community is lucky enough to have.

So while Jane discusses her past issues of bullying and self-acceptance, the series only barely scratches the surface of what is a much larger issue. And inevitably, this undermines the main intention of the show: to address the larger struggles transgender people endure on a daily basis.

“Always Jane” doesn’t necessarily devalue Jane’s journey and the many obstacles that came with her decision to transition. Yet, it doesn’t dive into those obstacles nearly as much as it otherwise could have. Simply put, the tribulations Jane has experienced and will continue to experience as a trans woman are only briefly mentioned but not further developed within the episode. For instance, her mother Laura explains that there was a process the family had to go through in order for Jane to play on the girls’ soccer team at school; however, nothing else like this is addressed. The audience isn’t explicitly told what that process was like, how long it took or how it affected Jane personally. Instead, it is mentioned and never talked about again.

So, while “Always Jane” attempts to show viewers the implications of being a young trans person in the 21st century, it does so in a very surface-level way. Rather than being privy to the adversity Jane faces, we are just onlookers into the life of a teenager as she gets into college, hangs out with her friends and spends time with her family.

Michigan in Color

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

ZAFIRAH RAHMAN MiC Columnist

700 square feet. That is how much space I had for the first 18 years of my life. 700 square feet consisted of one full bathroom, a connected kitchen and living room, a bedroom and a master bedroom that was only a few feet longer — split among five people.

The members of apartment 2F included my busy dad, doting mom, brat of a little sister, smiley baby brother and myself.

700 square feet forces you to be creative.

My dad was able to strategically fit a baby’s

crib, a file cabinet and a three-piece furniture set in one bedroom while leaving a single strip of floor space for praying. Sticky, humid New York summers also meant investing and placing wall fans, window fans, standing fans and tower fans in each room. Those 700 square feet taught my sister how to pick the bathroom lock when I would hog up the only private space in our home. When friends or family came over, we slept laterally to fit as many people onto a bed as possible, with our feet hanging off as we grew taller.

My mom shopped for furniture with storage units, and even stacked our drawers to make for more room. Naturally, nothing was set. There were no designated rooms. My socks and computer desk floated around the living room or wherever they fit best at the time. My sister and I slept wherever there was a bed. Neither of us claimed a room as we had guests flow in and out of 2F for weeks to months at a time. I learned how to fall asleep anywhere, to keep earbuds with me always and most importantly: to not be confined to my 700 square feet.

My parents kept my siblings and me busy

Design by Zafirah Rahman

Preemptive Grieving ANDREW NAKAMURA MiC Columnist

My paint-chipped garage slowly unhinges its gaping jaw to swallow my father’s car whole.

Clad in my only fitting black collared shirt and a pair of athletic shorts, I walk down the stairs to meet my dad, still wearing his aloha shirt and black slacks from work. We smile at each other before climbing into his car. The half-hour drive passes by silently until we reach our destination. “We’re a little early, do you want to get a snack to kill time?” “Of course,” I enthusiastically answer. My dad navigates to a nearby 7-11, where I check out with a warm spam musubi and a refreshing can of Thai tea in hand. I don’t want to be disrespectful, so I wolf down both before we return to our destination. My dad laughs at my remarkable eating speed, and I chuckle in response as he pulls into the parking lot. We park across from my mom, who is just getting out of her car as well. We greet each other and then follow the familiar laughter echoing out of the funeral home.

I knew this day was coming long before I learned of my aunty’s passing the previous month. Of course, death can claim anyone at any moment, but I only really thought about it in my own life after my aunty’s stroke a few years earlier. My grandparents would take my sister and I to her house sometimes when my parents had to work. We would spend the afternoon taking her dog on a walk to the market up the street and strolling through the aisles of the small store. I knew she liked to travel, and my dad told me she had been to Japan a few times. She was one of few in our

Wednesday, December 1, 2021 — 7

and out of the house with school, afterschool programs and every weekend at madrasa. But these in themselves all felt like work and chores — not a true escape from my bottom bunk. I craved being outside without reason. I yearned for mindless walks and car rides. I satisfied this need every time my mom went out, practically begging her to let me join in on her errands.

I’d happily hop in the car on a Sunday morning to play music and offer mindless chatter.

Any aunties who’d join would give animated gasps each time they found me sitting in the backseat, but I soon became a regular member on these trips. The route followed the order of errands: first to put in orders at the butcher shop, then random shops and stalls with things to return and only buy if there was a good deal and finally returning back to the butcher and local supermarkets for frozen groceries. I was of no use on these trips as I enjoyed eating Costco samples, wandering through the stores eyeing items and — at my best — reminding my mom to pick up some cilantro. I mainly liked the potential of convincing my mom to pull into the McDonald’s drive-thru or stop at a halal cart before getting back home. I was unsuccessful most times. Instead, she let me pick up light snacks or chocolate at the register — a little treat for doing nothing but being outside with her. I’d set my strawberry-kiwi Snapple and two-for-$1 potato chips on the counter while my mom added, “Take 5, please.”

Take 5. It can be interpreted as “take a break” or even the Reese’s

“Take 5” chocolate bar. But it was understood as a one-dollar, small scratch-away lottery ticket. The bright yellow and magenta card could always be found in my mom’s purse or kitchen countertop. It’s an easy game to play: scratch away and get three of the same number to win that amount in dollars. Most commonly, my mom would win back the one dollar she’d initially spent on the lotto ticket. This mostly no-loss trend made it harmless fun. There were only a few times she won anything upwards of five dollars, which would be enough to cover my little snacks. The greatest amount you can win is $5,555. It was not a lot but it was definitely something. A lump sum to ease the pressure at home. Something to make our measly 700 square feet feel lavish. I imagined the $5,555 being put to good use to buy more McDonald’s Happy Meals long into the future. In hindsight, I realize $5,555 runs out quickly.

This weekend, I finally understood the significance of Take 5. The high pressures of raising three kids in Queens, N.Y. have dissolved as my mom now settles into a quiet, suburban lifestyle. The image of her sipping hot tea in our backyard before tending to her small garden fits so well that I’ve forgotten how she’d scratch the lotto ticket against the deli wall with a rusting penny.

There’s no more running rushed errands, scrambling for parking or navigating a 700-square-foot living space. There seems to be no more need for Take 5 or lotto tickets. But this past weekend, I learned I was wrong when my mom asked my dad to pick up a Take 5 for her. It was then that I real-

ized the goal was never to win $5,555 (but that would have been nice). Instead, it was to try and test one’s luck. It may bring an extra ten or fifteen bucks, or you lose a dollar. Like many other immigrants, faith in luck is one of the things my mom held on to in starting a new life where she knew no one. In moving across the globe with nothing but hope and luck, you have to trust that things will work out. That’s a much bigger gamble to make than playing Take 5. My mom continues to fall back on pure luck, except now by scratching three-like amounts [COPY: is this phrase referring to the three same numbers you have to get? maybe rephrase this if that’s not what it’s referring to] to see how lucky she might be.

My childhood home might be dubbed as “not so lucky” by others. But I never felt unfortunate, even if my mom lost a dollar that day on Take 5. I never felt that way at all in our 700 square feet. It’s easy to say I felt content because that’s all I’d ever known.

But it was my parents who truly made me feel lucky. I was lucky that my mom stocked our snack cabinet with Ferrero-Rochers in secret after telling my sister and me “no” at the store. My dad fulfilled our dreams by somehow making space for a five-foot-tall aquarium with tens of neon-colored fish.

We were lucky to have our yellowish-white fridge covered in magnets from our vacations, family photos and messy art projects.

Our cozy apartment 2F may not be classified as a house, but my parents definitely made it a home. Every square foot was somewhere I felt lucky to be.

musings of my family members’ minds as we sat in silence. At the end of the funeral, we all make an incense offering. One by one, my family members walk up to the podium and move a few incense chips from their box into the fire.

We each slightly bow our heads and clasp our hands together in a moment of silence before returning to our seats.

When it’s my turn, I don’t know what I should pray for. After so many hospital visits and silent car rides down the long hill down from the hospital to the city, I had long since accepted that this fate was inevitable. My aunty would want us to be happy despite her absence.

And so I am happy, or at least I am as happy as one could be at a funeral. This preemptive grieving had saved me the anguish of suddenly trying to process the void she had left behind in the short month between her passing and the

funeral. I turn around and walk back to my seat, facing the rest of my family. Their eyes all point in different directions, some are closed, some aim at the ground and others stare directly at me. Those eyes have seen my aunty’s face long before I was born. I wonder what thoughts and memories churn behind their pupils. But I can at least guess that they too have privately mourned before now, because when the funeral is finished, we all leave dry-eyed.

This wasn’t the first time I thought about losing my family. Ever since ninth grade, when I knew I was gay, I’ve been thinking about the consequences of my coming out. My family and I have come to a nonverbal peace agreement since we’ve grown. It’s been years since shouting voices had endlessly bounced off the walls of the house. In their place, quietness fills up every inch of the house. The stillness of the air seeps

into my throat and arrests my vocal cords. But I prefer this silent suffocation to choked back tears. The fleeting silence makes the threat of bereavement loom even more menacingly over my household. I don’t want to risk undermining all the effort we’ve put in over the years, yet I cannot live a lie forever. Thus I grieve the comfort we share knowing that I will eventually shatter this fragile reality we’ve shaped for ourselves.

In the Buddhist faith, death results in rebirth until we can escape the cycle and achieve enlightenment. I find comfort in knowing that we may get unlimited opportunities to keep learning and growing. Although the comparison isn’t one-to-one, if the revelation of my true self does kill our family’s relationship as we know it, I hope that household can be reconstructed and tried again.

Design by Andrew Nakamura

family who actually went back to our ancestral home country, and I regret not asking her about her memories of Japan now. As a young child, I never thought to ask her about her life before I was born. We weren’t that close since and as I grew older I only saw her at occasional family gatherings. I didn’t even know her full name until I saw the nameplate in her hospital room. I always just called her “Aunty K” as everyone else in my family did. “K” wasn’t even her first initial.

She also wasn’t actually my aunt. Technically she was my grandmother’s sister, but I always felt more comfortable just calling her “aunty,” just like my dad’s sister and his mother’s other sister’s daughter and his dad’s sister’s husband’s two daughters, all of whom sit in the metal folding chairs of the mortuary. I bounce around the room to chat with all of my relatives, whom I haven’t seen since the start of the pandemic. They are brimming with questions about my major and my first year of college.

My other aunty’s infectious laughter echoes around the room as I talk about my steady diet of dining hall chicken tenders and fries. I don’t tell her — don’t tell anyone — that I ate almost every meal alone in my dorm room. Beneath their masks, I can tell that everyone was smiling, and especially with death looming over us, I don’t want to ruin the mood. I eventually nestle into a seat between my grandma and my dad before the funeral director comes out to start the ceremony.

We skip the eulogy. While the gong rings through my eardrums, the monk recites a Buddhist prayer in a language I can’t even identify, much less understand. We all bow our heads and close our eyes in prayer. I can’t read the

Y O U R W E E K LY

Scan this QR code to see your full horoscope!

Addressing Angell EASHETA SHAH MiC Columnist

by A n d y N a k a m u r a With Neptune in your eleventh house of friendships, you may start to over-romanticize being in a group. Of course, it is natural to yearn for inclusion; however, peer pressure could also force you to conform to everyone else’s standards. Neptune has the tendency to make us overromanticize people, but you need to remain true to your own feelings.

Neptune stations direct in its ruling house, the twelfth house of the subconscious. Now is the time to look inward for motivation and creative inspiration.

However, don’t get sidetracked by your own mind; keep a list of priorities and stick to them before starting any new projects.

When Neptune stations direct in your sixth house of organization, you may have great ideas about reorganizing your schedule or your space. This is a great time to think of new plans, but be careful that you don’t over-commit yourself or begin a reckless renovation process. The new moon and solar eclipse in your third house of communication and intelligence is asking you to take a moment alone.

With Neptune in your ninth house of philosophy, you may suddenly have grand ideas about travel and educational pursuits. Now is a great time to chase this heightened motivation.

However, it can be easy to become swept up in the fantasy of travel or grandiose intellectual pursuits.

When Neptune stations direct in your eighth house of death and rebirth, your ideal aspirations may not pan out exactly the way you had hoped. Leos can get especially frustrated when they don’t get what they want, and this can further hinder their opportunities to move past their obstacles. When your dreams are crushed, don’t dwell on the disrupted past, but instead look toward an even brighter future.

With Neptune in your fifth house of creation, you may come to some incredible creative breakthroughs. Now is the time to harness this positive energy and use it to create something you’re passionate about. The new moon and solar eclipse in your second house of materialism may cause you to reapproach your relationship with money. You should examine your expenses and aim to eliminate anything that isn’t necessary.

With Neptune in your third house of communication, you may view conversations and intellectual pursuits through a much more optimistic lens than usual.

This can be more relieving, but you must also approach your studies critically as well. If you’re passionate about a certain interest, don’t settle for “good enough”; strive to be as proficient as possible.

When Neptune stations direct in your tenth house of career ambitions, your work life may suddenly become jumbled as projected plans don’t pan out the way you had intended. However, adaptability is a Gemini’s specialty, so just stay on your toes and keep in mind alternate paths you can take. Ever the social butterfly, Geminis often form new connections just as quickly as they lose old ones.

When Neptune stations direct in your second house of materialism, be wary of frivolous purchases. Neptune can cause us to see the world through rose-tinted glasses, and this can be especially dangerous when it comes to money. Now is not the time to splurge since it is easy to overspend.

With Neptune in your seventh house of partnerships, you may need to re-evaluate some of your relationships.

Neptune can cause us to see people as better than they really are. Virgos are great at observing small details, and this is the time to be critical. If certain partnerships are causing you distress, there is no need to continue silently tolerating the harm they’ve caused you.

When Neptune stations direct in your fourth house of home and family, you may suddenly have new ideas to rearrange your living space. However, Sagittarius’s typical carefree attitude combined with Neptune’s fantastical influence may cause you to act recklessly.

Before making any major changes to your home, be sure you think carefully about every decision you make. The light of the new moon shines upon your sign.

This is an intense week for you. Your ruling planet, Neptune, stations direct in your sign and your first house of self-identity. This is a great opportunity to generate new creative ideas and you may come to a sudden emotional breakthrough. However, your extremely active imagination can cause issues as well. You may tend to over-romanticize opportunities or people, which can cause you to overlook underlying issues.

Attending a 9 a.m. lecture. Setting up a table at the Posting Wall. Printing out a lastminute essay. Gathering for a student organization meeting after hours. As students at the University of Michigan, we spend so much of our time in Angell Hall, but how many of us actually know who James Burrill Angell is and what his legacy entails? Learned pieces of the University’s history seem to be met exclusively with shock and disappointment from students, faculty and alumni, and my moral outrage is growing weary. As a thirdyear student, each passing term’s revelations have left me with more to consider in regards to my relationship to this institution and its roots. I feel tainted with remorse for the countless survivors of sexual misconduct denied their due justice. I stand in solidarity with the unmet needs of the Graduate Employees’ Organization and the Lecturers’ Employee Organization from an inadequate reopening plan. I remain appalled by the historically racist and exploitative practices of the Order of Angell, an exclusive senior honor society that disbanded just this past spring. Most of all, I am frustrated at the lack of accountability taken by the administration to address an imperfect history of the Leaders and the Best.

Over the course of the past month, members from my organization South Asian Awareness Network came together with organizers from the United Asian American Organizations, Central Student Government and LSA Student Government to discuss the legacy of former University President James B. Angell and the memorialization of his name to one of the highest-traffic student buildings on campus. Each week’s meetings worked toward brainstorming and planning a response to appropriately address his legacy.

Here’s what we came up with: a CSG resolution draft calling for the removal of Angell’s

name from the University building, a teachin and dialogue surrounding the present-day implications of Angell’s history, and a cultural fashion show on the steps of Angell Hall in celebration and reclamation of a space that the late president himself may not have expected our presence in.

For context, Angell held a 38-year term as the president of the University and was a nationally recognized leader in higher education, bringing in record number enrollments and increasing accessibility for many students. In addition to his presidency, Angell served as a U.S. ambassador to China during which he re-negotiated the Burlingame Treaty. While this treaty endorsed immigration at the high point of U.S.-China relations, the Treaty of Angell recognized the U.S. government’s power to regulate the immigration of Chinese laborers due to domestic economic tension. As American Culture professor Ian Shin explained during the mid-November teach-in, Angell signed on to this treaty out of a sense of public duty as opposed to actual support for exclusion. Regardless of his initial hesitations to sign, the Treaty of Angell paved the way for the passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, one of the most racist immigration bills in American history. Regardless of his intent to bring students on campus together, the secret society Order of Angell — formerly known as Michigamua — eventually became known for its profane appropriation of Native American culture and its notoriously racist and elitist nature. President James B. Angell may have been a moral centrist, but the consequences of his neutrality leave a permanent mark on the University’s history. Is this someone worth memorializing?

On Nov. 17, 2021, CSG’s ongoing resolution passed for the renaming of the University building Angell Hall and Angell Scholar Award. While I consider this a necessary step in the right direction, I can’t help but admit to a qualm I’ve had since the teach-in.

Read more at MichiganDaily.com

8 — Wednesday, December 1, 2021

S T A T E M E N T

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Design by Grace Aretakis Page Design by Sarah Chung

A Proclivity for Procrastination: The Story of My

“LOST SEMESTERS” MELANIE TAYLOR

Statement Correspondent

I love a good, classic loading screen. I don’t mean those obnoxiously slow progression bars or the tracker timelines on food delivery apps that halt on each stage for 15 minutes. My favorites are the small, simple graphics that repeat in perpetuity with no discernible end to their progression. The repetitive, continuous motion is oddly calming. I love the little revolving lights that circle around and around, lavishing away the time. Or the hypnotic pulsing atop the TikTok menu as it struggles to load new content.

I love loading screens because, in that ephemeral period of rendering, the stakes are lower than low. It’s a liminal moment, a beat between lines, a time to rest. There are no expectations on you because, by nature of the technology, there’s nothing you can or should be doing in that instant. It’s like the calm before the storm. I know that in a moment, I’ll be forced to reckon with the task at hand, but all I can do in the meantime is wait.

As soon as the application loads, you’re thrust back into the turmoil of anticipated productivity; the clock resumes its incessant ticking. Rest takes on a new name: procrastination. My screen assaults me with a thin, blinking cursor on the fresh Word Doc, mocking and prodding with each flicker.

Now you see me, now you don’t. Why won’t you put me to use? While the loading screen represents a brief, sanctioned, finite hiatus, the cursor could blink on in judgment forever.

Sometimes I wish I could dive right into the loading screen and ride the blinking light on its ceaseless track like a digital merry-go-round. More often, however, I feel like the lone cursor, resting on the precipice of potential, flashing in and out of existence like a specter haunting the page as I conjure up my next great passage. If I dwell too long on the pressure of the task, I simply freeze in place.

There is no gradient in the way I experience stress. Whether I have a deadline in three days or three hours, if I’m struck with writer’s block or my ideas won’t calibrate, my anxiety will evoke the same measure of stress. But every time I decide to take a break, to indulge in the luxury of relaxation, I can feel the pressure melt away. That same sense of serenity is renewed every time I let myself push the task off for another day.

I had a friend who told me once that she liked to wear her retainer once a week — no more, no less. She relished the feeling of slight discomfort that came with the sporadic endeavor. Any more often, and her teeth would have molded to their proper places, undermining the purpose of the exercise. Any less often, and she would be

denying herself the masochistic joy of the experience.

That’s kind of how I feel about procrastination. I know that eventually, I’ll have to address the task, but there’s a certain thrill in letting the deadline inch closer and closer for a buzzer-beating win. Counterproductive as the strategy may be, the risk is part of the reward.

Stalling is a dangerous vice because its short-term benefits eclipse the long-term consequences. What is the point of punctuality? Why would I ever elect proactivity over procrastination when the former requires so much more effort and the latter packs a more rewarding punch? I can live with the blinking cursor’s nagging admonition, especially when I can simply close my laptop and willfully forget. *** hen I was in sixth grade, my mom mysteriously vanished from our Thanksgiving celebration early in the morning. It was a full week before my dad explained to my brother and me that our mom had checked into rehab and was seeking counsel for her alcoholism.

I don’t remember my mom’s addiction being an imposition on our family. I was only 11 at the time, and my brother was even younger. Sure, my mom drank on vacations, but I couldn’t yet discern the difference between social drinking and drinking to excess. She never drank and drove, she never embarrassed me, but clearly, the issue was severe enough to warrant treatment.

All I knew was that when my mom returned home, she seemed happier and healthier than I’d ever remembered her being. Last week was her 10-year anniversary of sobriety.

I’ve always regarded my mom’s decision to check into rehab as the pinnacle of maturity and self-discipline. She had the remarkable foresight to get ahead of her addiction, addressing the problem while her children were still young before it had the chance to fester any further. As evidenced by this decision, my brother and I were raised in a household that valued accountability and acknowledged the dangers of addiction.

There were no flippant analogies to addiction in my house; no graphic tees with the phrase “chocoholic” or “addicted to naps” plastered across the front. I’ve pondered the weight of this disease since before my adolescent growth spurt. It’s one of, if not the sole reason why I can say with complete sincerity that I have addictive tendencies when it comes to procrastination.

I wasn’t always prone to this behavior.

My whole childhood was an exercise in selfcensorship and perfectionism. I distinctly remember the first time I ever dared to ask my parents for something without already knowing their answer would be yes. I naturally fell into the mold of a “perfect daughter,” and some part of me was afraid that if I started poking holes in that facade, it would

W

all come crashing down.

I was a top-notch kid. I don’t say this seeking any praise. It’s just true. I got perfect grades, had a diverse set of extracurriculars, worked 30 hour weeks at the local ice cream shop — the whole nine. I did everything that was asked of me above and beyond. I had high expectations for myself.

One night in eighth grade, I asked my parents if I could go to a 9 p.m. movie with a friend. It was a chilly fall school night, and I’d finished all of my homework, but I wasn’t sure if they’d let me go to the late showtime that ended slightly after my curfew.

But when they said yes, a whole new world opened up to me. I began to recognize my own agency, particularly as it pertained to abstaining from the expectations that I’d always just assumed were requirements.

In my senior year of high school, I was editor-in-chief of our school’s newspaper.

That was when I started pushing my luck with deadlines. On the eve of the first edition, I realized that we were one-story short from filling the pages, so I churned out 1,500 words in a single night and sent the completed edition off to the printing presses. It was a successful bout of simulated procrastination — a gateway into the more egregious offenses to come.

From then on, I procrastinated writing at least one piece (if not two or three) until the week of production. Quite frankly, it was invigorating, because I just kept getting away with it. I was hooked on the thrill of inaction.

The tendency to postpone and binge my responsibilities began seeping into my formal academics. My class had a full year to write our senior theses, but I wrote mine over the course of four afternoons. I crammed for every test the night before.

I would accumulate work over weeks and weeks and then hole up in my room for a weekend every month to catch up. And I still graduated with a perfect record.

When I got to college, my self-destructive habits began to catch up with me. A’s turned to B’s turned to a whole semester of sealedoff grades for classes that I barely passed.

I was a sophomore when the pandemic hit campus and students were sent home.

For the next two semesters, I did the bare minimum to get through my classes. I would wallow in a depressive state for hours on end, attend Zoom meetings with my camera turned off and whip up a subpar discussion post in 15 minutes before logging off for the weekend.

I cut off contact with every campus organization I’d joined. I didn’t call my parents or pick up when they called me. I would check in every few weeks to let them know I was still alive, but for the most part, I kept everyone at a distance. This was my proverbial “rock bottom.”

Growing up, before I discovered the splendor of edging my responsibilities, pro-

ductivity and punctuality were my default modes. I never learned how to choose to work. It was like I was functioning on autopilot. Instead, I learned to choose by learning to let go. Yet once I’d let go, I didn’t have the skillset to start back up again. Accountability is so much easier to destroy than it is to create.

Sometimes I wish I’d never realized my agency, the power I have to simply press pause. Maybe then I’d be graduating with a better GPA or a fuller resume. Maybe then I’d be blissfully happy. But I catch myself whenever I lapse into that line of thinking and remind myself of my mom. If I hadn’t gone down this path when I did, I would have had to reckon with it later in life once I’d amassed more to lose. *** hen you’re addicted to a substance, the treatment is simple: You cut yourself off from the substance completely.

This is not to say that the process is easy or inconsequential, but at least you have a road map. When your vice is something like procrastination, which will always exist as an option, there is no way to avoid its persistent beckoning.

During those few semesters, the urge to procrastinate was debilitating. Whenever I was overtaken by a passing thought of guilt, I brushed it off by doubling down in self-righteous inaction. I’ve since come to terms with the fact that guilt has value.

It reminds you that what you’re doing is wrong, and encourages you to reverse course. I had to stop taking offense at reasonable criticism, even when it came from my own conscience.

I am still making an effort every day to be better than I was yesterday. I am not always successful. For example, I turned this essay in over 12 hours after it was due (sorry Statement friends). But the biggest thing I’ve learned from my “lost semesters” is that yesterday’s failure does not give me a free pass to make the same mistakes today. I have to choose to work all over again every single day.

What is the benefit of punctuality? Improved mental health, for one. Why choose proactivity over procrastination? To prove to yourself that you are capable of it.

Perhaps that is easier said than done, but at least I know it’s possible. At this stage, that’s enough for me.

It’s fun to submit an assignment days before it’s due, with Canvas congratulating me with digital confetti for a job well done.

The TV shows I used to employ as a distraction from the compounding workload are better without that constant twinge of anxiety looming over me as I watch. Loading screens are an earned respite when you know you’ve been working hard, and the blinking cursor is stripped of its power when it’s met with a piece of writing that I’m proud of.

W

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

S T A T E M E N T

Wednesday, December 1, 2021 — 9

Page Design by Sarah Chung, Brittany Bowman

Thankful for feeling Thankful

LILLY DICKMAN

Statement Correspondent

Since the start of my childhood, Nov. 1 meant the hanging of a quilt from the stove in my kitchen.

It was my mom’s “Thankful Quilt,” decorated with felt leaves, turkeys and other Thanksgiving-esque patches. More importantly, the quilt was lined with little pockets numbered one through 30 — a pocket for each day of the month.

And every night, before eating dinner, my mom would have my sister and I write down what we were thankful for that day on tiny paper cards that tucked perfectly into the little felt slots.

We did it each day until all 30 were filled and then tucked the quilt away for hibernation until the following November.

Our Thankful Quilt became such a routine part of our Novembers that the process came without much thought. Sometimes I’d put genuine effort into my day’s thankful card. Others, I’d scribble something down on the paper to expedite the commencement of the meal. If nothing else, the Thankful Quilt was familiar — it was tradition.

Last year was my first November away from home, yet I never thought about the quilt. I simply didn’t have the mental capacity to reminisce. At that time, I was preoccupied with the announcement that the freshman dorms were closing due to the uncontrollable COVID-19 spread. I was running around Ann Arbor trying to find housing for my second semester at the University of Michigan. I was worried about

the friends I had made thus far, or lack thereof, and how my social life would play out with common areas unavailable to us. I was anticipating the nearly two-month break that was approaching, where the progress I had made in pioneering my pandemic-era first semester of college would be halted, maybe even reversed. I was operating in fight-or-flight, running on autopilot as a defense mechanism; thus, the Thankful Quilt didn’t grace my thoughts.

This year, with life more settled, the treasured novelty made its return into my concerns. On Nov. 1, I thought about the bare stove at home, which, on this day, was usually made merrier. I filled out a mental card and tucked it into a mental Nov. 1 pocket: “I’m thankful that I’m calm enough this year to think about our quilt.”

The minute of gratitude felt like progress, for sure. I am infinitely grateful that now, come November, it doesn’t necessarily feel like the world is crumbling in on me. That I have certainty of my near future and a sense of purpose here at this school. Now I realize how much our circumstances can impact what we’re grateful for, what matters to us, what’s relevant, and what we feel lucky to have as ours. All of this can change in just one revolution around the sun, one November to the next.

While I’m no longer in a

state of fight-or-flight, my life is still extremely hectic — just in a “normal life” sort of way.

So are most students’ day-to-days here at the University. We’re running to classes, extracurriculars, social events and meetings. We’re navigating flu season, midterms and course scheduling. No one sits us down before dinner to make us pause and think. No one straps us to a chair and forces us to come up with something we’re thankful for before we’re able to receive our mobile order from Chipotle on State Street.

But I feel like we’re the ones who need a Thankful Quilt the most, even more so than our 8-yearold selves. Currently, at the University, we’re experiencing some of the most unique, rewarding, exciting years of our lives. But often, we’re too caught up in the everyday bustle to take note of what’s happening around us. As we run from classes to meetings, submit one assignment to Canvas and begin the next, we lose sight of the forest for the trees. That we need to stop and smell the roses may be cliché, but it’s cliché for good reason.

I have lots of anxiety, and I admittedly do complain a lot on a daily basis. But thinking about even how much I’ve grown and learned since August, or how much I have to be grateful for this year that would have been missing from my paper cards last year, things are looking, overall, pretty positive.

I should be taking inventory more often to notice such a fact. I should be filling out a thankful card each and every night.

Moreover, we should notice and applaud what’s happening in our lives right now, before all of a sudden we’re putting on shorts again. Better yet, before we’re putting on a cap and gown, or even more daunting, professional clothes for our adult-life jobs.

Even though I let a handful of days slip through the cracks, about three days ago I decided I would re-implement the Thankful Quilt into my daily practice. Before allowing myself to indulge in my dinner, whatever and wherever it is, I’ve been pausing to write a mental card and place it in a mental pocket. On Nov. 8, I was thankful that I’m living in a sorority house with friends I’ll have for the rest of my life. On Nov. 9, I was thankful that I have such a well-rounded slew of classes and extracurriculars that are rewarding to me. I was grateful for Parents Weekend on Nov. 10 and Thursday nights out on Nov. 11. Come Nov. 12, I was

grateful that we can now go to basketball games at the Crisler Center.

I called my mom alerting her of my practice, and she revealed that she’d saved the cards my sister and I had written growing up. Dug out from the

bottom of a drawer, they read: “I’m thankful for Eggos pancakes;” “I’m thankful that we have medicine;” “I’m thankful that I have time to practice my dance routine for Sunday;” “I’m thankful for sweatpants;” and “I’m thankful that we get to visit Michigan this weekend.”

Ironically, not much has changed. While I’m newly thankful to be secure in how to navigate a college campus, for Thursday nights out and for weeks without too much work, I’m still thankful for Eggo pancakes, and I’m always happy about a day spent in sweats. Coincidentally enough, I have a hip-hop team performance on Saturday and am still thankful that I’ve had enough time to practice for it. And obviously, I am thankful that I now go to Michigan and am here every weekend.

We should always be grateful for those nuts and bolts that withstand changing circumstances; like family, good health, and of course, sweatpants. But changing or static, whether we’re 10 or 20, it’s the stepping back, seeing the big picture and acknowledging our blessings that matters. Because life moves quickly — as quickly as the slots on the Thankful Quilt fill up, and as quickly as I grew up and am no longer home to partake in the activity.

Luckily, I’ll be home soon for Thanksgiving break to fill out pre-dinner thankful cards. But until then, and maybe even after, I think I’ll continue filling out my mental ones. Tonight, I am thankful for tradition, for the quilt itself. Of all my years slipping cards into those felt pockets, I never gave thanks to their reliable, yearly presence over my stove. I think my thanks is long overdue. Our little family ritual taught me to value the moment and what I have in it. And while I can’t carry the Thankful Quilt with me, I can certainly carry its teachings.

On ethical stealing OSCAN NOLLETTE-PATULSKI Statement Correspondent

It’s mid-January, so it’s cold outside. In front of the sliding glass doors of the superstore, one can see the glimmer of snowflakes falling in the navy of night and the resulting slush on the pavement. Inside the doors, however, it’s warm. Fluorescent lights flood the surfaces and the metal shelves, filled to the brim with products across all genres. The rows have a certain metallic shine. Workers pace diligently throughout the store, but a particular corner goes unnoticed.

Hidden behind the vacant check-out counters is a group of teenagers unable to be seen due to height and in sufficient quantity to make a calculated circle.

In the middle of this circle is a pair of hands, prying open the paperboard that contains a plush fried egg collectible. The collection of heads maintain the noise level with conversation and ensure security by frequently glancing outside of the huddle. The fried egg is freed from the confines of plastic and paper and is slipped silently into a jean pocket. Smiles of success are exchanged, and the group splits up into different checkouts to pay for the legally obtained items. The group ventures back into the winter’s night. It was only a few minutes after initiation, and the theft was complete.

What they did was illegal under all interpretations of the law and could land any of them with a scratch on their permanent record. But, was not paying for a small toy wrong?

Stories of small thefts, trespassing, and other petty crimes are often taboo subjects, especially among classmates or acquaintances whose potential reactions are hard to anticipate. Once one anecdote is shared, however, the door often opens for many more — what was once underground flows out to the surface. Conversations of recent robberies serve as a sort of group therapy among youth and young adults, validating an experience many keep within them due to fear of the law. Where the law and the general public draw the line is not necessarily the same, however.

Hobby Lobby has been called “the best place to steal from,” with social media users citing its lack of barcodes and cameras. Others’ justification stems from the chain’s conservative anti-worker and anti-LGBT+ policies. Similarly, people steal from national chain stores like Walmart and Kroger with the mindset of

fighting back against billion-dollar corporate-conglomerates.

The reasoning above is easy to say out loud, but are these actions doing any good in the real world?

Target stores were looted in Minneapolis during summer 2020’s Black Lives Matter protests, some arguing that the losses would not even affect the superstore’s bottom line. But as The Atlantic points out, looters are usually different people than peaceful protestors, and what is equated with altruism may just be a vehicle for young adrenaline. *** When one types in “Target,” “Meijer,” or any other retail giant into Google Maps while looking at southeast Michigan, many red pins appear just a few miles apart, affixed to the suburban grid-like knots on a quilt. The streets are threaded together by the continuity of corporate brands that might invoke a seasick sense of deja vu if one drives down them for too long.

This repetition has no meaningful rhythm; the logos on metal poles that are meant to excite and attract blend together into a neon malaise.

It is easy to feel a sort of contempt and powerlessness when faced with the monolithic stucco walls and fields of pavement that characterize the landscape, even while equipped with the American ideals of freedom, and if you’re lucky, leisure time. After work and school are done for the day, what is there to do? And when the pressure to buy into the capitalist ecosystem becomes too much, what else is there to do but take back? Stealing as a way to feel something, as some may put it, is an increasingly acceptable source of entertainment. What other activity puts our brain and survival instincts to the test in a world where most things are a part of a dull exchange? Under the falling snow of a January night, what else besides theft with friends gets the blood pumping so quickly and with great reward? The capitalist fabric of America has stolen so much from people, whether it be space, time, or variety — doesn’t it only make sense to take some of that back?

This power dynamic is what seems to propel the thrill: Underdog customers stick it to the man by sticking something in their pockets. When “the man” is actually a person, whether that be a small business owner, a neighbor, or a friend of a friend, the action of robbery trespasses into something more personal.

Walking down the tree-lined streets of Ann Arbor, many stores are one of a kind, titled with names of

owners or the street that they are on; hand-painted windows advertising their particular niche. Go to a farm stand in Kerrytown enough times and you might get your apple cider with a side of pleasant banter, and learning the name of a new kind of lettuce might lead you to know the names of the people that sell the produce. The experience of shopping small is one that is photogenic, Instagram-mable and yields memories worth posting about in the increasingly popular monthly photo dump. On the contrary, heading over to Walgreens or CVS to spend money on generic snacks can’t be romanticized.

But stealing them can.

TikToks with the hashtag “#deviouslicks” have sprung up on the For You Page of millions, in an effort to channel a rebellious version of the main character archetype. They usually begin by describing the theft as “diabolical”, “devious” or “ungodly” as a remix of a 2014 Lil B song sings in the background.

A few seconds later as the video concludes, one sees the unscrewing of a hubcap in the parking lot, or the empty holes of plumbing in the bathroom where a toilet usually connects. (It is worth noting that upon searching for the hashtag today, TikTok will invite you to learn how to recognize “harmful challenges”.)

What is unique about these videos is the focus on stealing from one’s own school. Any unsupervised area is fair game: the soap dispensers of the boy’s bathroom, stockpiles of disposable masks formerly tucked away in closets or the occasional ceiling tile.

To users, the risk of discipline is a small price to pay for the souvenirs of classroom chairs and the rush of recognition from millions of online peers. The boredom of mandatory education seeks to be remedied through the creation of avant-garde collections of stolen institutional furniture.

Yet unlike the retailers that dot the suburbs, schools do not aim to make money and in many areas, do not have enough. While the chronic underfunding of schools is low on the list of things someone who is about to steal the door to a bathroom stall might be thinking about, there are some who carefully consider the ethics of where exactly they choose to steal. This includes large corporations as mentioned earlier, but also not-for-profit retail stores like the Salvation Army and Goodwill over concerns of worker exploitation and discrimination. Perhaps viewed as more environmentally and financially conscious consumerism by the perpetrators, those in older generations may

look down upon stealing this from charity, making it harder to do the good work these organizations have done.

But are the conditions of suburban boredom and corporate conglomerates enough to justify stealing when others have to do it out of necessity? Shoplifting due to hunger increased during the pandemic, and it’s hard to criticize people who steal so they can put food on the table. What’s a semi-frequent thrill for some is a fact of life for many, and a means of entertainment doesn’t share equal weight to means of survival. One’s economic status and race affect how accessible shoplifting is. Depending on the color of the person’s hands peeling back the packaging of the toy that January night, the consequences could range from life-altering to a forgotten memory. Although an isolated act of theft from corporations does not necessarily affect any individual, in particular, does stealing wrongly take advantage of a justice system that’s overbearing on some people and too passive on others? Are the desires to bring back power to the common people served by ethical stealing if not all people can participate? As one considers the justifications of what they’re stealing from, it’s worth considering their own identity, and if they are shifting the societal power dynamic at all.

The phrase “there is no ethical consumption under capitalism” gets thrown around a lot on the University of Michigan’s campus, but it’s not too clear what this means for theft. Everyone has different comfort lines, and the gradient of what’s honorable isn’t linear. Rather, this invisible boundary can be twisted and molded to whatever shape of justification one might like — including the want for a collectible plush egg. To be clear: theft is very much illegal, but it also takes creativity, courage, and gusto and can provide new social and philosophical realms for people to explore. In a system that undervalues the arts and emphasizes infatuation with the stock market, exactly where money and resources should end up is blurred with collective selfishness. So, if you’re buying a card for a friend or getting ingredients to feed someone dinner, why not grab the things for free and get some adrenaline for yourself? The only thing stopping you is your own moral judgment.

Opinion

10 — Wednesday, December 1, 2021

Why Squid Game is the perfect cautionary cryptocurrency tale

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

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

CLAIRE HAO Editor in Chief

ELIZABETH COOK AND JOEL WEINER

SIDDHARTH PARMAR Opinion Columnist

BRITTANY BOWMAN Managing Editor

Editorial Page Editors

EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS Julian Barnard Zack Blumberg Brittany Bowman Emily Considine Elizabeth Cook Brandon Cowit

Jess D’Agostino Ben Davis Andrew Gerace Krystal Hur Min Soo Kim Jessie Mitchell

Zoe Phillips Mary Rolfes Elayna Swift Jack Tumpowsky Joel Weiner Erin White

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

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

Why The Wall Street Journal shouldn’t have published Trump’s election lies LYDIA STORELLA Opinion Columnist

O

n Oct. 27, the Wall Street Journal published a letter to the editor from former President Donald Trump regarding an editorial that the paper had previously published which stated that he lost Pennsylvania by 80,555 votes. In his letter, Trump reasserted that the 2020 election was fraudulent, rigged and corrupt, and therefore The Journal’s editorial was incorrect.

After publication, some objected to The Journal publishing this letter at all, leading the newspaper to publish a statement on their decision. This statement conveyed their belief that their readers could come to their own conclusions, and then debunked some of the lies that Trump wrote in his letter.

Personally, I don’t think that The Journal should have published Trump’s letter. Lies should not be tolerated in newspapers, especially not in one of the most reputable newspapers in the country. Allowing a lie of this magnitude to be published as an opinion piece in a paper with this level of prestige legitimizes it in a way that a tweet or a Facebook post does not. But, in their piece defending publishing the letter, The Journal’s editorial board raised points worthy of consideration. For example, Trump says these things elsewhere, and trying to censor him doesn’t hinder his ability to share these views. It begs the question — what should the role of an opinion page be in publishing speech that is deemed offensive or blatantly false?

Traditionally, opinion pages publish pieces from two main sources: people who are hired to write for the paper (columnists or editorial board

members) and people who write as guests — they typically write guest op-eds or letters to the editor. The purpose of guest op-eds is to highlight perspectives of those who do not write for the paper. The purpose of letters to the editor is to allow members of a paper’s audience to engage with their content, whether that engagement is in support or criticism.

Many newspapers allow for a wide variety of people with a range of opinions to write op-eds in their opinion sections, including people who many would consider as having values that are antithetical to a democratic society. For example, The New York Times has published op-eds from Russian President Vladimir Putin and Taliban deputy leader Sirajuddin Haqqani, both of whom are enemies of the United States. The Times also published an op-ed by Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., in June 2020 that called for the president to send in the military to combat Black Lives Matter protests.

Readers reacted strongly (and negatively) to the op-eds by Haqqani and Cotton, and for good reason — Haqqani has been involved in strikes that have killed American soldiers and Afghani citizens, and Cotton’s position is un-American at best and fascist at worst. But do our opinions and feelings about these beliefs and these people mean that we shouldn’t hear about them? Putin, Haqqani and Cotton are three people who matter.

The actions of Putin and Haqqani directly influence American foreign policy. Cotton is a U.S. senator, and has aspirations to be the president of the United States. Their views have a real impact on the way the world works and for that, we’re better off knowing what they think, as appalling as their opinions may be.

Readers of The Journal and The Times rightfully want to hear nuanced, informed opinions in their newspapers, not lies and un-American rants. But it might be even more important that these readers hear these opinions, no matter how scary or deluded they are. While some may prefer to ignore it, others may want to learn more about the sentiments expressed by Haqqani or Cotton. That doesn’t mean that anyone should be able to write an op-ed about such a topic. But, since all three men have the ability to make their ideas into policy or social norms, it’s necessary that the public is aware of what their ideas are.

The distinction between the pieces The Times published and the letter to the editor that Trump wrote is that the Times pieces were opinions, meaning that readers could oppose them on the basis of disagreement, but couldn’t dismiss them as wholly untrue. Trump’s letter was based on lies, which made it unfit to be in a newspaper. To me, this is where the line should be drawn — media sources should not, as a matter of ethics, publish something that is based on clear falsehoods.

We can disagree with Putin, Haqqani and Cotton on the basis of their ideas, but a lack of decency or adherence to democratic ideals cannot be disparaged in the same way as lies. Knowledge of the opinions and ideas of important policymakers and figureheads — told from their own perspective — is necessary in order to combat bad or dangerous ideas.

Opinion pages have an obligation to publish a diversity of opinions, even when those opinions will be unpopular with readers. But readers should not have to read unchecked falsehoods directly from the mouth of their main purveyor.

I

n the last week of October, there was a curious new cryptocurrency that burst onto the scene: Squid Game, or SQUID for short. Based on, but not officially affiliated with, the Netflix sensation, its whitepaper promised a reward pool that would grow as the number of participants grew and a series of games inspired by the show involving SQUID tokens.

The past year saw themed cryptocurrencies like Dogecoin and Shiba Inu achieve exponential, albeit temporary, growth driven primarily by market hype. Squid Game was perfectly placed to emulate their success by capturing the excitement around its namesake. And it did!

Squid Game grew to $1, then $10, then $100, all while capturing more people giving into their feelings of FOMO (fear of missing out). It peaked at a valuation of nearly $3,000, tremendous growth in the space of a week.

Sound too good to be true? It was.

Within 10 minutes, it all went awry.

The creators took the $3.36 million invested into the coin until Nov. 1 and vanished. The coin was reduced to a valuation of less than a third of a cent in value; the holders were left gaping at the speed and scale of the “rug pull.”

In hindsight, there were red flags throughout SQUID’s short lifetime.

The value of SQUID never went down. There were also complaints about people being unable to sell any

MIGUEL CALLE Opinion Columnist

I

t’s no coincidence that the best film from the 2010s was — according to Quentin Tarantino and myself — David Fincher’s “The Social Network.”

At the time, the movie’s depiction of the protagonist, Mark Zuckerberg (played by Jesse Eisenberg), seemed a bit over-the-top. Today it feels like they held back. The inherent evils of Zuckerberg’s monstrosity have been evident for years; a solution cannot be delayed any longer.

Following the testimony of whistleblower Frances Haugen, a

Design by Jessica Chiu

former data scientist at Facebook, we’ve learned a great deal about what Zuckerberg and his company are doing. Haugen declared that “Facebook can change, but is clearly not going to do so on its own” and that Congress can limit Facebook’s ability to cause harm by changing the rules. I disagree — Congress cannot stop this social media giant and its conniving CEO. Only the people can do that, and

think that he’s had malicious intent in constructing his spectacularly successful corporation. Good for him for making that much money; it’s what capitalism is all about. And I do agree with him on one point: It is wrong to regulate what can or cannot be said on a social network — though this doesn’t mean that Congress shouldn’t pass privacy and anti-monopoly legislation, it absolutely should. My refusal to

accept the stifling of free speech in social media — a topic for another article — is why I think people need to take matters into their own hands. We need to draw on capitalism’s greatest strength: choice.

Whoever you are, whatever your age or ethnicity, various social media outlets play a leviathan role in how you and others interpret the world.

There’s Twitter, Snapchat, Telegram, Pinterest, TikTok, Tumblr, Reddit, YouTube and even LinkedIn for the more career-inclined. There’s Instagram and WhatsApp, two that belong to Facebook, Inc, which is now called Meta after a rebrand.

Those are toxic in a throng of ways too. But Facebook itself is the belle of the ball. It started an information revolution; if another data revolution is coming, the second one would – and should – begin with Facebook’s demise. I promised myself that I wouldn’t reference the movie beyond a nod of recognition to its artistic brilliance, as it is widely inaccurate in numerous regards. However, one of Aaron Sorkin’s masterly lines is fitting.

It’s a prescient remark from Jesse Eisenberg’s Zuckerberg, in which he says that “Users are fickle. Friendster has proved that. Even a few people leaving would reverberate through the entire user base. The users are interconnected.” Should a fraction of Facebook’s users choose to leave it, the company would be forced to make changes without Congress getting involved.

According to a study conducted by the University of Colorado, Facebook is more of a breeding ground for misinformation and lies than other social media sites like Twitter, and those belonging to the far-left or right are more prone to sharing those lies.

Read more at MichiganDaily.com

tokens. This was initially attributed to the anti-dump mechanism described by the creators. It also never had any connection to the Netflix show.

Despite all of this, many people blindly bought into SQUID trying to chase the next big thing.

Squid Game perfectly encapsulates everything that’s wrong with the fastgrowing cryptocurrency market.

Cryptocurrencies are mostly driven by market excitement. A problem arises when those feelings aren’t backed by sound fundamentals.

I’ve already mentioned Dogecoin a few times in this piece, and it’s worth delving into it for a bit. Dogecoin was created back in 2013 as a joke, meant to poke fun at the then-speculative cryptocurrency market. Unlike Bitcoin, whose value in large part derives from its limited supply, Dogecoin could technically have an infinite supply. Until the start of 2021, its value never went above a cent. Yet, in the aftermath of the r/ WallStreetBets GameStop saga, Dogecoin started rising inexplicably, so much so that celebrities such as Elon Musk took notice with his tweets, further fueling its growth.

After peaking in May, it started falling again, settling now at around a quarter dollar.w Cryptocurrencies, even the more well-known and sound ones, are extremely volatile. Cryptocurrency advocates will tell you about how their decentralized nature prevents any central entity from influencing the valuation of the currency. However, in their current form, they are still easily manipulated. Elon Musk, for

instance, tweeted his reservations against Bitcoin’s environmental impact. The damage was immediate.

Bitcoin’s value would dip by more than $10,000 in the coming days. You don’t have to be a Musk-level celebrity either to impact valuations. There are many groups that work to orchestrate pump-and-dump schemes wherein the whole group invests in a cryptocurrency of their choosing at once. This generates a buzz around it that drives other investors to invest in it. As the value of the cryptocurrency rises, more investors flock to it.

When the group is satisfied with the growth of the cryptocurrency, they sell their holdings rapidly, triggering a dramatic fall in the valuation of cryptocurrency.

Cryptocurrency’s nature as something that is outside governmental regulations acts as a double-edged sword here. While some praise it for being free of government interference, it also lacks all legal consumer protections.

This often means that in the event of a scam, consumers have little to no legal recourse.

I’m certainly not going to discourage anyone from investing in cryptocurrency if they so choose.

I personally don’t because it doesn’t align with my risk tolerance. There’s a certain level of volatility with even the more stable cryptocurrencies, so it is crucial to do your research before investing. Only invest as much as you can afford to lose. And never blindly “hold” on a quest to send prices to “the moon.” You might get the rug pulled out from under you.

File Photo/DAILY

The roaring comeback of live sports

It’s time for Facebook to end it requires one step: hit delete.

Additionally, Haugen said “During my time at Facebook, I came to realize a devastating truth: Almost no one outside of Facebook knows what happens inside Facebook.”

She also stated that Facebook hides information from the public, the U.S. government and other governments; that it uses algorithms to exploit teens’ insecurities, like exposing them to anorexia content; and that the website is “fanning ethnic violence” in places like Ethiopia. She put her career on the line to expose Facebook’s abominable footprint.

That being said, I don’t think Mark Zuckerberg is vile. Nor do I

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

NOAH ENTE

Opinion Columnist

I

n 2020, the first and most intense year of the COVID-19 pandemic, daily life in our society underwent significant changes.

These adaptations were part of what many believed to be a “new normal” that would persist as long as — if not longer than — the pandemic itself. Some developments have been widely considered positive. Unnecessary meetings were canceled or adapted into emails. Long commutes were often eliminated. Many families found themselves spending more time together. Despite the rapidly worsening state of public health, perhaps there were a few silver linings in this new normal.

Such was not the case for spectator sports and fans. With restrictions on large gatherings, live audiences were prevented from attending sporting events, and after long periods of complete shutdown, seasons were either canceled altogether or resumed in vacuum environments free of fans. Players across various sports noticed the difference in the atmosphere and the ways in which empty arenas impacted the games. Fans waxed poetic about missing the experience of attending live competitions and witnessing athletic history. These audiencefree environments were a necessary alteration during the height of the pandemic, but all parties wished for the conditions which would allow sports and the broader community a return to normalcy.

With COVID-19 cases decreasing as a result of widespread immunization, spectators have started to trickle back into stadiums, and fan bases could not be happier.

The sights and sounds of tens of

thousands of raucous people reacting to every play could never be replaced by artificial crowd noise, and being part of a team’s home-field advantage is a magical feeling for fans of all ages.

The return of fans has increased both the quality and stakes of each game played. The NFL, for one, has repeatedly called 2021 its “biggest season ever,” as the return of fans across the league and the addition of a 17th game for each team combine to ceremoniously usher in the future of the sport.

Nowhere has this comeback borne out more evidently than at Michigan Stadium, where spectators have enthusiastically returned after a 2020 season that left many fans feeling as empty as the bleachers at the Big House. As the largest stadium in North America and the third-largest in the world, the complete absence of fans could not be more unnatural.

In normal times, those in attendance at Michigan football games are reminded by announcer Carl Grapentine that they are part of the “largest crowd watching a football game anywhere in America today,” a fact which carries special weight after a year in which crowds were robbed of the electric atmosphere of Michigan football. U-M fans certainly appear refreshed upon their return, with their spirited game day traditions, such as the crowd’s inspired singing of The Killers’ “Mr. Brightside,” garnering national attention.

For those who already had the chance to be part of college fandom before the pandemic struck, the removal of fans from sporting events made for yet another tough blow.

Taking in a game at the Big House, Crisler Center, Yost Ice Arena or anywhere else on campus is a oneof-a-kind experience and practically a rite of passage for U-M students.

With boisterous collective chants, seas of maize and blue apparel and the exceptional performances of U-M student-athletes, the environment is unparalleled. After a year of watching from our couches as U-M teams achieve greatness, students and fans have found an even greater appreciation for simply being present.

Athletes often explain their love for team-oriented sport through an appreciation for being part of something greater than themselves.

The same can be said for fans, who dedicate their time, resources and energy to the teams they adore. Their cheers, whether stemming from euphoria or exasperation, are what make spectator sporting events the popular rituals they are. Research has shown that the presence and energy of a live audience often affect the performance of athletes and may exert notable influence on the outcome of a game. Home court advantage exists and can certainly prove powerful.

After a year in which people felt more socially isolated than ever before, the enthusiasm for live sports comes as no surprise.

Despite the lingering of COVID19, many of those with a love for their teams and competition simply cannot remain on the sidelines any longer. It once seemed improbable for crowds to come back to arenas this year, or perhaps for even longer.

Now, scientific developments and necessary precautions have assured that in-person sports attendance is back and likely here to stay, and it is beautiful to see athletes and fans coming together once again. For those able to attend who haven’t gotten in on the action, there’s no better time to get in the game and be a part of something bigger than oneself.

Sports

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Wednesday, December 1, 2021 — 11

With historic day, Hassan Haskins guides Michigan to victory KENT SCHWARTZ

Managing Sports Editor

All season, this Michigan team has had an identity: run the ball.

With two players at the center of that ethos, sophomore Blake Corum and senior Hassan Haskins, the ‘thunder and lightning’ running back duo became a bellwether for the offense.

On Saturday, Haskins led the Wolverines’ to a 42-27 victory over Ohio State.

His performance, which totaled 169 yards on 28 attempts for five touchdowns, will go down in the record books — it’s the most rushing touchdowns in The Game’s history, as well as tying Michigan’s all-time single-game record.

But his historic performance went beyond the stat sheet.

Haskins dictated the pace of the game from the very start. He touched the ball on five of nine plays, including three 3rd-and-short downs. In those three downs he ran for 35 yards total, keeping a crucial opening drive alive, a drive that ended with the only Michigan touchdown Haskins wouldn’t take in himself.

His quick cuts found holes and broke through a Buckeye defense that had yet to stack the box, demoralizing a defense that held Heisman candidate Kenneth Walker III to just 28 rushing yards a week ago. Yet when Ohio State adjusted, stacking the box, Haskins still found a way to fall forward.

“They thought they saw a ghost but it was

number 25, Hassan Haskins,” Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh said. “He has great determination, great purpose. Creatability.”

On a crucial drive to reestablish itself in the game, down 10-7, Michigan faced a fourth-and-one. Following a timeout, the Wolverines set up in a three tight-end set with Haskins in the backfield. Clearly, there was one place the ball would end up. Yet after a push and a twist, the chains moved and the drive stayed alive.

Four plays later, Haskins dove over a pile to stretch the ball in for his first touchdown of the afternoon. Michigan never trailed again.

“It was a big emphasis to be able to run the ball this week,” fifth-year offensive lineman Andrew Stueber said. “We thought that a lot

At last, Aidan Hutchinson has his moment offense. Once again, no one listened — this publication included, of course.

Daily Sports Editor Saturday, though, Hutchinson realized his vision. In the fifth-ranked Wolverines’ Despite first-round projections in the 42-27 upset of the second-ranked Buckeyes, NFL Draft last season, senior edge rusher he recorded three sacks — including his 13th Aidan Hutchinson returned to Michigan of the season, which set the Michigan alltime record — on Ohio State quarterback for one reason: to beat Ohio State.

“I told you guys at Big Ten Media Days and Heisman frontrunner C.J. Stroud.

Over those three-and-a-half hours, that we were emphasizing this game more,” Hutchinson said. “Everyone seemed to have as the Wolverines solidified themselves a lot of questions about that, in terms of how as a legitimate College Football Playoff we were doing it, but I told you to trust me, contender, Hutchinson himself solidified his position as one of college football’s we were doing it.”

He was right — pretty much nobody top players, and maybe even stole some of outside Schembechler Hall bought his Stroud’s hype along the way. “(Hutchinson’s) performance was … optimism. It wasn’t Hutchinson’s own abilities that people doubted; it was the dominant,” Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh said. “Single-season sack record already — definitely should be in strong consideration for the Heisman Trophy.”

In every moment where the Wolverines needed a play from their defense, Hutchinson was there to deliver it.

After a first quarter interception sparked a long Buckeyes drive and a 3rd-and-goal at Michigan’s eight, Hutchinson recorded ALLISON ENGKVIST/Daily his first sack and ability of his team to actually beat the forced Ohio State into a field goal. That stop Buckeyes. At the start of the season, national preserved the Wolverines’ one-score lead media gave the Wolverines no shot in and helped the team carry its momentum The Game. This publication unanimously into the second quarter.

In the third quarter, with Michigan picked Ohio State.

And still, Hutchinson persisted. On nursing an eight-point lead and the Tuesday, he reiterated that the Buckeyes Buckeyes again finding some rhythm had been a focus since January. He opined offensively, Hutchinson notched another that, while a lot of teams play Ohio State sack that forced Ohio State to punt. On “fearful,” his defense would have no the next defensive possession, with the fear against the Buckeyes’ top-ranked Wolverines up 15, he recorded another sack.

BRENDAN ROOSE

Even when he wasn’t sacking Stroud, Hutchinson’s drive was present on virtually every defensive snap. On one fourth down, as the Buckeyes worked to mount a comeback, Hutchinson was seen visibly jawing with the left tackle prior to the snap. As soon as Stroud took the snap, Hutchinson ran directly over the lineman into the backfield (Ohio State still converted, thanks to a borderline miraculous throw from Stroud).

Even beyond the Heisman comments, Harbaugh continued to sing Hutchinson’s praises after the game. He named him among a group of players he called the “foundation” of the team — players who had been with Michigan through the struggles of 2020 and beyond and refused to give in.

“If there was a train, like a locomotive going down the tracks, they literally stopped it, picked it up onto their backs, turned it around and started pushing,” Harbaugh said. “(Saturday), the rest of us started pushing, too.”

More than anything, though, Hutchinson’s performance represents a clean resolution to a truly historic Michigan career. An athlete raised in Wolverine tradition — his father, Chris Hutchinson, was a Michigan captain and All-American defensive lineman in the early ’90s — Hutchinson had already achieved just about every individual accolade he could hope for entering Saturday. Like countless Wolverine greats in recent years, he only lacked the elusive win over the Buckeyes.

Saturday, he sat grinning and shaking his head at the postgame press conference, as if in disbelief of what his team had just achieved. With his Michigan journey almost complete, he allowed himself to reflect on that sack record and the elusive rivalry win: “Man. It was crazy. I can’t really put it into words. I really just wanted to beat my dad, and I went a little farther. It’s so cool, and it’s a moment I can’t wait to share (with) my dad.”

of teams came out and played a little scared against them, a little timid, and that’s just not Michigan football. That’s not what we like to play as an o-line, as Michigan football, as a run game, as a unit.”

As time wound down in the end of the game, Haskins played an even bigger part. Up eight with just 14 minutes left, the Wolverines needed to accomplish two things: drain clock and score. So they turned to Haskins. A nine-play, four-and-a-halfminute drive featured eight runs, six of them from Haskins.

In one instance, he showed his patience, waiting behind a wall of blockers before finding a hole and darting for six yards. Other times, he showed his innate ability to fall forward,

turning a five yard rush into an eight-yard rush and keeping the chains moving.

On its last drive of the game, Michigan needed to move the sticks twice in order to ice out Ohio State. Haskins listed off five rushes for 63 yards through a humiliated Buckeye defense, sealing the game.

At the beginning of the season, it seemed as though the Wolverines’ reliance on its rushing game would be a hindrance against the best teams in the country. Against an explosive Ohio State offense? There was no question, Michigan would fail to keep pace.

Instead, on Saturday, as Haskins walked in for his fifth touchdown, it became clear that this Wolverine running offense is capable of dominating just about everyone.

‘We want to go finish’: Harbaugh, Michigan begin shifting focus to Iowa JARED GREENSPAN

Daily Sports Editor

Following a thorough, dominant victory over Ohio State — the most important win in his seven-year tenure as Michigan coach — Jim Harbaugh went home.

He spent the night surrounded by family, commemorating his parents’ 60th wedding anniversary. Festivities included watching football, as they “always do,” and a few episodes of “Heartland” with his daughter.

Then Harbaugh went to sleep. On to Iowa.

“The thing that hits me first is that this is a new beginning,” Harbaugh said on Sunday. “(We want to do) what we always do. We prepare, we practice, we try to have great days. One good day of meetings, practices, get ourselves healthy, get ourselves ready and go play the game.”

That’s a mentality that Michigan has stuck to throughout the season, one instilled by Harbaugh.

But as much as that quote feels familiar, something about Harbaugh seemed different.

He conducted the press conference like a man who just had a burden lifted from his shoulders.

He was downright giddy recounting his postgame interaction with Juwan Howard, laughing that the moment was “so cool.” He rattled off the congratulatory messages that flooded his phone, highlighting a memorable text from John Madden, who lauded the Wolverines’ offensive line for one of the best performances he’s ever seen.

“They really like our team,” Harbaugh said of the common thread through the messages.

“They really like how hard our players play.

Kinda that’s been the theme. Comes through the TV set. See a bunch of guys that really like playing the game and playing the game the way it’s supposed to be played.”

The “new beginning” phrase also speaks to his refined mindset. Harbaugh is cognizant of the implications looming this weekend, just as he was aware of the stakes against Ohio State.

Remaining levelheaded is difficult following a victory of such emotional magnitude. These situations are conducive for letdowns.

That’s why, when Harbaugh thinks about the pending Big Ten Championship Game, he is reminded of the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team. The group famously stunned the heavily favored Soviet Union, but still needed one more victory to secure the goal medal. The Americans finished the job, rallying from a 2-1 deficit to defeat Finland.

Harbaugh wants the Wolverines to follow their lead.

“This is the championship this week,” Harbaugh said. “This week, that’s for all the marbles. That’s for the championship. It’s a continuation of the playoffs. … That’s the message towards the team this week.”

Harbaugh carried that out in his press conference. He showed appreciation for Kirk Ferentz and his Iowa team, noting that there’s “pretty much no one” he respects more.

And though Michigan opened as 10.5-point favorites, he’s not overlooking the Hawkeyes, either.

“We know how good Iowa is,” Harbaugh said. “What stands out is how good and conscious they are in all three phases — offense, defense, special teams.”

As Harbaugh flipped the page to Iowa, he allowed for moments of reflection, too. He thought back to the spring, when he realized the potential of this collection of players and coaches that no one else saw.

“That’s one of those feelings that you have, and the guys start feeling it too,” Harbaugh said. “… The comments back then were, ‘Well, everybody says that.’ But we felt it.”

And against Ohio State, they sure did show it. Now, if the Wolverines can do so one more time, they’ll be Big Ten champions.

“Maybe we were better prepared, maybe we were stronger, maybe we were more talented, a lot of factors there,” Harbaugh said, reflecting on the victory. “The fact is that we’re here. We’re excited about it. We want to go finish.”

SportsWednesday: It’s a new team, is it a new program?

Come late November, the Michigan fanbase is used to singing the same melancholy song: There’s always next year.

But, as the Wolverines have espoused since the first day of the season, this year — and this team — is different.

On Saturday, when Michigan led Ohio State at the half, fans started to believe that it could be true. The 14-13 score was hardly an indication of LANE the dominance to come, KIZZIAH but rather a hint that this time, maybe, their confidence wasn’t misplaced.

The momentum in the stands continued to grow with each ensuing touchdown.

When senior running back Hassan Haskins brought the score to 34-20 with a touchdown early in the fourth quarter — his fourth of the day — the feeling turned from excitement to one of surreal acceptance.

Fans might not have to wait any longer.

By the time Haskins ran into the end zone with the Wolverines’ sixth and final touchdown with just over two minutes

left on the clock, the spots of red began to disappear from the stadium as Ohio State fans tried to avoid the inevitable. Michigan was going to win and the field would fill with maize and blue.

The fanbase that has sustained itself on blind hope and willpower for nearly a decade has finally gotten what it wants: a win against Ohio State.

But what happens from here?

When you’ve already surpassed your own bar for success, how do you gauge what comes after? It’s a question Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh has surely had to ask himself several times this year.

“Just everything about the team,” Harbaugh said. “Every day, every week, every month. Going back to the beginning of this year, it’s always felt like the beginning.

Accomplish one goal then go to the next and the next and the next.”

Coming into the season carrying mediocre expectations, the Wolverines have raised their ceiling with each win. On Saturday, they shattered it completely.

The win opened doors for the remainder of the season, doors Harbaugh has never walked through. A Big Ten Championship and College Football Playoff berth are well

within reach.

It’s been said before every big game in Harbaugh’s seven-year tenure, but this time the notion rings true more than ever: This is very possibly the turning point in the Harbaugh era, the moment the former-Michigan quarterback has been waiting for, a chance to elevate this program into the upper echelon of college football.

Or it could be a repeat of 2011, a good team and a good season that ended one Ohio State drought just to start another.

The difference between this being a different Michigan team and a different Michigan program will be decided in the coming weeks.

A different Michigan team can end the season 11-2 with a win over the Buckeyes and an appearance at a Big Ten Championship.

A different Michigan program has to prove to recruits that Harbaugh has made good

largest barrier to success since the turn of the century — opening a whole new box of challenges.

There’s a different feeling about this team, obviously.

If anyone can pass through the challenges ahead, it’s this team. A team that’s kept its fans on their feet and sent them out onto the field at the end of the game.

And players feel confident that they can keep it going.

“Long term, we’ve set the expectation now,” MADELINE HINKLEY/Daily junior quarterback Cade on his promise and made the Wolverines a McNamara said. “It’s been real national contender. That would mean so long since we beat Ohio State, but we did capturing the program’s first Big Ten that today. For the guys coming back, now Championship since 2004 and notching its we’ve got to do that every single year. We first-ever berth in the playoff. know what it took.”

When Harbaugh said in his postgame The Wolverines proved they knew what press conference that this felt more like the it took to turn the page on Ohio State. In the beginning than the culmination, this was coming weeks, we will find out if they have what he meant. Michigan has moved past what it takes to start a whole new chapter of its biggest hurdle under Harbaugh — and its Michigan football.

S P O RT SW E D N E S DAY

For Jim Harbaugh, this win opens new doors for his program DANIEL DASH

Daily Sports Editor Sitting behind the podium after the Michigan football team’s win over No. 2 Ohio State on Saturday, Jim Harbaugh took a moment to look around.

Usually, his press conferences strike the same somber, frustrated, dejected chords after games against the Buckeyes. But when Harbaugh’s welldocumented 0-5 record against his arch rival changed during Saturday’s 42-27 victory, so did No. 5 Michigan’s season outlook.

And Harbaugh’s tone followed suit.

“The way it feels now, it feels like the beginning,” Harbaugh said.

Asked to elaborate, Harbaugh pointed to the formative days of the 2021 team.

“Just everything about the team,” Harbaugh said. “Every day, every week, every month. Going back to the beginning of this year, it’s always felt like the beginning. Accomplish one goal then go to the next and the next and the next.”

He’s not wrong. But he’s certainly underselling the implications.

For the Wolverines, Saturday was more program-altering than season-altering. In a three-hour span, Michigan upended its national

perception with its first win over Ohio State since 2011. No longer are the Wolverines a former powerhouse gone stagnant. No longer is Harbaugh the epitome of a coach that can’t get over the hump.

Long-lasting implications are sure to follow on the field and recruiting trail. More importantly, though, there’s a new generation of Michigan football players who have reached the summit. In that sense, it truly is the rebirth of a program — and a purpose that no longer seems hollow.

From an outsider’s perspective, it was hard to take claims of added emphasis on Ohio State seriously given the rivalry’s recent results. But within Schembechler Hall, a “What are you doing to beat Ohio State today?” sign already proudly hangs. Since January, players have asked the question of themselves every day.

Now, they know the answer.

“Long term, we’ve set the expectation now,” junior quarterback Cade McNamara said. “It’s been so long since we beat Ohio State, but we did that today. For the guys coming back, now we’ve got to do that every single year. We know what it took.”

Harbaugh spent the first six years of his tenure sellingaplantoovertaketheBuckeyes.Butyearafter year, the Saturday after Thanksgiving repeatedly proved it was nothing more than an empty vision.

He cycled through multiple coordinators on both

sides of the ball and built teams rooted in almost a half-dozen different schemes.

That is, until he found himself this past winter.

In the days and weeks after the Wolverines’ 2020 season careened to an end, it looked like Harbaugh’s tenure might follow suit. But a schoolfriendly contract with a unique buyout structure and incentive-laden salary kept him at his alma mater. Michigan athletic director Warde Manuel seemingly dared Harbaugh to break through, to bring the Wolverines to the upper echelon of college football.

So Harbaugh took a look in the mirror. He overhauled the program’s coaching staff and culture, delivering a much-needed youth infusion.

From an Xs and Os standpoint, Harbaugh has rediscovered himself. In an era of up-tempo, no-huddle spread offenses, he and offensive coordinator Josh Gattis have gone against the grain in 2021. They’ve relied on run-first football and 20th-century offensive line fundamentals.

On the other side of the ball, hiring 34-yearold Mike Macdonald — a first-time defensive coordinator — marked a clear departure from Harbaugh’s previous philosophy of relying on coaching experience. But on Saturday, Macdonald’s defense kept the Buckeyes’ offense off-balance with a mix of coverages and disguised pass rushes.

Harbaugh has always been a nonconformist, but the 2021 Wolverines take that to an extreme.

And on Saturday, all of it was validated.

“You guys should’ve seen him in the locker room after the game,” fifth-year offensive lineman Andrew Stueber said. “I’ve never seen him more happy, more excited. … He’s gone through some tough times, he’s faced a lot of adversity since he’s been the coach here. To see him finally beat Ohio State, as a team, as a unit, we knew what this team was capable of, and it all starts with him.”

Saturday’s win opens doors Michigan has yet to experience under Harbaugh. For the first time, the Wolverines will play for a Big Ten Championship and College Football Playoff berth in Indianapolis.

However, that indication pales in comparison to the fact that this might be permanent. In its biggest game of the season, in a year full of tests, Michigan finally created its own narrative. Led by a quirky, unapologetically authentic coach, the Wolverines had their own coming out party on Saturday.

“This is one (celebration) that’ll go long into the night,” Harbaugh said.

The program-shaping implications, on the other hand, will last a whole lot longer.

Photos by Allison Engkvist, Madeline Hinkley/Daily. Page Design

by Brittany Bowman