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UMich undergraduate robotics program to open this fall
First dedicated robotics program among the top 10 engineering schools in the United States opens its doors
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5 bills to watch in the Michigan legislature: June 2022
The Michigan Daily breaks down five bills in the Michigan legislature for students to be aware of NIRALI PATEL
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IRENA LI
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The University of Michigan undergraduate robotics program will open its doors this fall, becoming the first dedicated robotics department among the top 10 engineering schools in the United States. First announced by the College of Engineering in Fall 2021, the program is now open for enrollment for the upcoming fall semester after receiving approval from the Michigan Association of State Universities on June 2. The Michigan Daily sat down with students, professors and the incoming department chair to discuss the unique opportunities the program has to offer. How did we get here? A brief history of Michigan Robotics A University press release cited a figure from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics stating that demand for robotics-educated professionals
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has continued to increase over the past few years, rising by 13% in 2018. Much like the industry at large, robotics at the University has emerged and grown rapidly within a relatively short period of time. Engineering professor Dawn Tilbury, who will become the robotics department’s first chair on July 1, spoke with The Daily about the first steps taken toward establishing a robotics program at the University just over a decade ago in 2011. “I was asked to chair a committee to think about the future of robotics at the University of Michigan,” Tilbury said. “That committee met and just proposed to the (University) in 2012 that we should have a graduate program in robotics, independent of any department; an institute that would bring the faculty together around research, and some shared space for the graduate students who are working in all these different departments around robotics to work together.” Follow The Daily on Instagram, @michigandaily
The University introduced a Master’s and Ph.D. program in robotics through the Rackham Graduate School in 2014, which allowed students to obtain graduate degrees in the field for the first time. The U-M Robotics Institute was created in 2017 as a dedicated space for faculty who were interested in robotics. In the spring of 2021, the University opened the Ford Motor Company Robotics Building, a 134,000-square-foot complex on North Campus dedicated to robotics research, assembly and education. The building currently houses the U-M Robotics Institute and will allow undergraduate students in the new degree program to design, build and test robots of all kinds. After offering a handful of robotics courses to students at the University for a few years, the College of Engineering announced its undergraduate robotics program.
The following article explains five bills that have been introduced, passed or signed into law by the Michigan legislature or Gov. Gretchen Whitmer throughout the past month. Each month, The Michigan Daily publishes a compilation of bills in the Michigan legislature for students at the University of Michigan to be aware of. 1. Expanding gun restrictions to combat “ghost guns” Status: Introduced in the House Introduced on June 15 by state Rep. Jeffrey Pepper, D-Dearborn, H.B. 6228 aims to amend Act 328 of the Michigan Penal Code (1931), which limits the sale, manufacture, and possession of guns and other weapons. The amendment expands the definition of firearms to include firearms that are created by 3D
printing. In a June 16 press release, Pepper said banning firearms made by 3D printing helps regulate “ghost guns,” privately made firearms that are untraceable by security technology such as metal detectors. Ghost guns are not marked with serial numbers and no background check is required for someone to purchase their parts. On April 11, President Biden issued regulations on ghost guns classifying many ghost gun kits as “firearms” under the Gun Control Act. Illinois is set to be the first state in the Midwest to have legislation on regulating ghost guns after passing a bill banning the weapons in May 2022. “As a gun owner, I understand the importance of the Second Amendment — but that shouldn’t stop us from enacting sensible legislation to curb the senseless violence happening daily across our state,” Pepper said.
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INDEX
Vol. CXXX, No. 84 ©2022 The Michigan Daily
NEWS................... 2 ARTS...................3 STATEMENT. . . . . . . . . . . . 4
MIC......................5 OPINION................6 SPORTS..............7
News
2 — Wednesday, July 6, 2022
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RESEARCH
UMich study finds correlation between Flint water crisis and poor academic performance UMich researchers discuss findings and next steps after Flint water crisis
JONATHAN WANG Daily News Contributor
A recent University of Michigan study found a correlation between the Flint water crisis and a decrease in academic performance for schoolage children. In April 2014, the city of Flint switched its drinking water supply from Detroit’s system to the Flint River to save money. However, later studies revealed elevated levels of lead in the blood of the city’s residents. The city switched its water source to Lake Huron in 2015, but the damage had already been done—approximately 99,000 residents had already been exposed to lead poisoning. Former Governor Rick Snyder and eight former state officials faced criminal charges for the Flint water crisis in 2021. Samuel Owusu, a research analyst at the Educational Policy Initiative, said one of the defining aspects of the study was its use of non-educational data—data not relating to academic,
educator, demographic and student information—to show the effect the Flint water crisis had on student performance. “This is a novel study and uses different types of data,” Owusu said. “It shows the power of leveraging administrative records, but also records from local nonprofits and other stakeholders to do some fascinating educational research… It opens the floodgates for more research.” Through examining the educational records of Flint students, the authors found a decrease in math achievement for school-age children and an increase in special needs children over the course of the water crisis. However, they found little difference in the academic performance between students living in homes with lead pipes compared to students living in homes with copper pipes, suggesting that there are other components to the trend beyond lead contamination. Brian Jacob, professor of economics at the School of Public
Four faculty research projects at the University of Michigan received a combined $4.5 million investment from the University this month to pursue their research on social and environmental justice, according to a June 21 press release. The grants
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Policy and one of the authors of the study, said a potential factor for the decrease in academic performance could be anxiety about health and safety surrounding the crisis. “The main implication is that the Flint water crisis did have an important impact on educational outcomes on school children,” Jacobs said. “It seems like it was due not (entirely) to the lead contamination itself, but due to the other social
yet officially announced a call for applications. Thomson said the University established this initiative as a way to direct attention and resources to research with the potential to bring about concrete change. “We in LSA are uniquely positioned to bridge some of the things that have been happening in the world and what we can do to make it a better place,” Thomson said. “We have expert faculty, we have all the resources, we’ve got motivated and engaged students who are willing to learn new things and be part of something bigger than just their own disciplines … These projects are about combining all of these things together and bringing about something that can actually, truly make a difference.” The Michigan Daily spoke with members of the research team for each of the selected proposals to understand their projects’ goals and
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disruption that resulted from the contamination and political backlash and the legal and other issues in the community.” However, Jacobs emphasized that it is too early to discount the effects of lead toxicity on student performance. He said it is important to study the children who have been left out of the study’s sample.
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Four UMich research projects receive combined $4.5 million from LSA research initiative are a part of LSA’s Meet the Moment initiative, which awards funding to faculty whose research addresses urgent social issues. The projects fall into two categories: A “Change the World” project, which can receive up to $2 million in funding extended over a five-year period; or a “Vital Impact” project, which can receive up to $250,000 extended over a two-year period. Anne Thomson, director of Research and Compliance for LSA, said LSA expects to fund another round of four projects in 2024, though they have not
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the implications of their research. Confronting the carceral state: criminalization, confinement and control Heather Ann Thompson, Christian Davenport, Matthew Lassiter, Kentaro Toyama, Jesse Hoffnung-Garskof, Melissa Borja, Ruby Tapia and William Lopez This “Change the World” project will examine historical trends and present-day conditions in the American criminal justice system, including mass incarceration, police violence, wrongful convictions, systemic racism and immigration detention. Through studying historical archives, oral histories and other first-hand accounts, researchers hope to increase awareness and transparency on contemporary issues in the U.S. carceral system.
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Arts ‘Objects of Desire’ cultivates intimacy and demands it from you
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EMILIA FERRANTE Senior Arts Editor
Clare Sestanovich’s “Objects of Desire” feels like the end of a gray, overcast day when you realize you haven’t spoken to anyone since you woke up. Maybe you say a word out loud, just to remind yourself that you can talk, and your voice is scratchy with disuse. In the haze of solitude, everything starts to look like a metaphor: the coffee machine, the clouds, the brown water stain on the ceiling. Life seems beautiful — not in the sunny, ecstatic way but in the melancholy, pensive way. Sestanovich’s collection of short stories captures this elusive feeling exquisitely. Her stories are filled with yearning and meaning and mundanity that feels meaningful. She has a talent for making anything significant: Skittles, eggs, Tupperware, semen, ice skates, a tile floor. In the story “Old Hope,” the narrator has inherited glow-in-the-dark celestial stickers on her rented bedroom’s ceiling, which combines the childlike nostalgia and bitter realism of adulthood, a theme common throughout “Objects of Desire.” The narrator writes, “Sometimes in the morning there was a star or an orb or a planet’s ring on the pillow beside me.” It seems like the perfect metaphor, imbued with a meaning so potent it can’t be ignored. I don’t know exactly what it’s a metaphor for — and Sestanovich, in a move consistent throughout the stories, doesn’t elaborate on the meanings behind the suddenly significant mundanities she describes. Even further, she resists the urge to romanticize; she follows the line about stars with “I had to remind myself not to make everything into a metaphor.” It feels almost like the reader is being chastised as the narrator chastises herself for reading too far into things. But we are eventually validated in our feeling that there’s got to be a metaphor
in there somewhere because Sestanovich ends the story with the same image: “I sat up. A star did not fall from the ceiling.” “Objects of Desire” is heavy with metaphors like this one. From a less skilled writer, this would become exhausting; short stories can get bogged down in their attempt to convey too much in too little space. Like a poem, a short story doesn’t have the freedom of a novel to get its meaning across — it can’t try to do everything a longer narrative does. This means that every word in a short story is that much more important to the meaning of the story as a whole, and this is where metaphor can get tiring. Instead, Sestanovich’s stories are invigorating, no one sentence doing too much of the heavy lifting. She carefully cultivates a mood and a character in each of her stories and guides the reader from beginning to end so seamlessly you’ll forget you’re reading at all. Short stories generally have to
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choose one aspect of narrative; while some short stories rely on plot or setting, the stories of “Objects of Desire” rely on character. Sestanovich’s protagonists — all different, all women — share a certain kind of melancholy, a yearning, a sense of being unfulfilled. They are all, to differing degrees, trying to figure out what the world around them wants: In the short story that shares its name with the collection, Leonora finds that “The more passionate her displays of anger, the more gratified her friends are.” In this way, Sestanovich explores the way women are expected to behave and how those expectations match up with reality. She gives us an intimate view of the narrators, a peek behind the curtain of their external facades and into their inner thoughts in a way that makes them seem unabashedly real. In “Annunciation,” for example, Iris “gives herself assignments” to appear as though she doesn’t care, like “eat peanut butter straight
from the jar, steal ChapStick from CVS.” In curating carelessness, she realizes that “In general, not caring requires studiousness.” This studied, methodical quirkiness reads as both funny and sad — we can all see ourselves in Iris trying to be something she is not. Intimacy is something this book both cultivates with its reader and explores in its stories. Even in its most distant narrators, “Objects of Desire” makes us care intensely about them for the short period of time they exist on the pages. Some short stories leave you itching to know more about their protagonist or grateful that you’re not reading a novel because the protagonist is so awful. Sestanovich’s are like the Goldilocks of short story characters: They seep into the pages deeply when you read, full of life and imbued with undeniable existence, and then their vignette is up, and they sink back down. These stories feel complete, even as our experiences with characters end unfulfilled. The
open-endedness creates an intimacy with the reader — you have been trusted with this story, just a little snippet of life, and you can do what you will with it. Often, that means sitting with the last page of the story for a while, letting it ooze into your pores. Sometimes, it means flipping immediately to the next story, entranced by Sestanovich’s gentle yet driving prose and wanting to meet her next character. “Objects of Desire” stays true to its name, examining both the way women move through society, and the things they yearn for and often don’t receive. Sestanovich’s prose is dexterous and haunting, and her style is a comforting sameness in stories that cover different people, places and events. Each story stands on its own while also silently speaking to each other between the covers — it’s up to you, the reader, to figure out what exactly they’re saying. Senior Arts Editor Emilia Ferrante can be reached at emiliajf@umich.edu.
Cover art for “Objects of Desire” owned by Penguin Random House
STATEMENT
Bus routes along the Washtenaw wealth gap AVA BURZYCKI
Statement Columnist
This past year, I’ve spent an almost uncomfortable amount of time waiting for the bus, running after the bus and, finally, riding the bus. It takes around a half-hour to get from my Pittsfield Township apartment to downtown Ann Arbor, and I spend the majority of this time stuck in a locked gaze, inspecting both inside and out of the wide window panes. Each ride is a new mix of personalities — some are quiet, some rowdy and some strictly full of discomfort. The Pittsfield scenery tends to be more uniform, with only business closures and outlandish weather provoking new curiosity. But there is one clear and unchanging linearity I see when riding the bus from Ypsilanti to Ann Arbor — the poverty lessens, and the homes and businesses become more extravagant. Most often, I take route five. Across from my apartment, the bus stop waits on the other side of Packard’s potholes and faded dash lines. Extending from Ann Arbor to Ypsilanti, even Packard begins to crumble as it moves away from Ann Arbor’s wealth. Immediately upon stepping out, the outside air reeks of gasoline and cigarettes. The road is crumbled and well-littered with the only bits of beauty being a handful of sturdy maple trees. There is no sense of comfort or humanity, just impersonal and uniform suburbanbrutalist street planning. Here, the world simply looks cement-gray and
holds nothing but bleakness. This is an area built to hold the working class, their workplaces and their cars, not to build community or enrich the lives of its citizens. These types of underfunded communities are not scarce in Michigan, but Ypsilanti’s economic position is situated uniquely in comparison to the adjoining city of Ann Arbor. With Washtenaw county resting at a lowly 80th of 83 Michigan counties for income equality, the significantly aboveaverage economic disparities practically define the area. The main divide exists between Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti — the former being closer to a standard homogeneity of the well-educated and white upper class, and the latter being a more diverse group of working-class individuals. One city is allowed the resources to flourish above the basic necessities, and the other is barely given enough to survive, if that. *** Washtenaw has a visible wealth inequality problem — this is inarguable. Even in the businesses I see, there is a clear assumption about the locals being made: Ypsilanti is built for lowincome groups and Ann Arbor pushes a high-end narrative. On route four, I see Big Lots turn into Whole Foods, and General Dollar into Lululemon. This business divide impacts food as well: Ypsilanti holds a plethora of cheap fast food options whereas Ann Arbor leans into a higher price tag and higher quality options. As a poor commuter, if I don’t pack a lunch then I simply cannot afford to
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eat. The biggest difference between storefronts and production, however, stems from the simple existence of business — in Ypsilanti, there are significantly more barren buildings, broken windows and crowded housing options. Once the bus stops at the Blake Transit Center, the buildings slowly turn from rotting wood to beautiful planes of brick, the nature almost built into the city planning. These two stops sit in completely different worlds — my low-income apartment and surrounding area were not built for beauty and comfort in the same way Ann Arbor is. Libraries, restaurants, public museums and outdoor areas are all reflections of the investment in quality of life that Ann Arbor gives to its residents. Often, it is rated one of the best places to live not despite its cost, but because of it. The high price-tag investments create a colorful city that only its target demographic, affluent students and professionals, can afford. This community investment contrasts heavily with Ypsilanti. Despite also housing a university, Eastern Michigan University, it is not afforded the same cushions and living standards as wealthy Ann Arbor residents are. It is simply built to physically house poor residents, nothing more and nothing less. Ann Arbor is built as an individualoriented city, but only for those who can afford it. As potentially the most influencing factor in creating Ann Arbor’s population demographic, the University of Michigan implicitly enables and perpetuates this predicament. Among public universities, the University has one of the highest proportions of students from the top 1%, but is also deemed as one of the most affordable for poor and rural Michigan students because of the Go Blue Guarantee, which offers free tuition and tuition support for families with incomes below $65,000. In many ways, it can be difficult to sit with this dissonance: The technicality of funding is there, but the entire system and culture of the University are screaming at its poor students to leave.
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Beach reads and the construction of a guilty pleasure
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4 – Wednesday, July 6, 2022
KAYA GINSKY
Statement Correspondent
To some, the idea of a “beach read” fits the dictionary definition: “A book you can take on holiday, which is good enough to keep you engaged but not so serious it will spoil your holiday.” Romance fanatics like myself have a different definition, one more like The New York Times “American summer novel,” one featuring a whirlwind romantic story in a vacation spot far from a character or reader’s reality. From its conception in 19th century middle-class vacation culture by authors like Louisa May Alcott, the American summer novel genre has been owned by women. While immensely popular with readers and placing at the top of “summer reading lists,” critics soon dismissed the genre as “light reading.” My “beach reads” contain worlds limited to coastal islands and vacation hotspots. They feature beautiful romances — books like “Beach Read” (Emily Henry) and the many works of Mary Alice Monroe. Complex dramas, often involving small-town or family life and its eccentricities or a troubled past with love, make the novels long, emotional and turbulent — like “Sex and Vanity” (Kevin Kwan) or the iconic body of work by Elin Hilderbrand. While extremely “whirlwind” in their narratives, every beach read must have a happy ending — or at least hint at one. Another element of the genre of
“beach reads” is its aesthetic and artistic perception — critics and readers (including myself) treat the entire genre as if it were sinful and distasteful, calling the books “guilty pleasures” or “indulgences.” I admit to hiding the books at the bottom of my beach bag, under sand and pentup shame, only opening the wellworn pages on an empty beach with my toes in the sand. In unpacking my convoluted views around my reading habits, I looked to the late media critic and activist bell hooks. In her novel, “All About Love”, hooks writes that “Male fantasy is seen as something that can create reality, whereas female fantasy is regarded as pure escape.” Women authors, female protagonists and increasingly feminist themes have begun to dominate the beach read genre. The reader base of all “romantic fiction” is primarily female, with 82% of surveyed romance readers in 2017 identifying as such. hooks continues: “The romance novel remains the only domain in which women speak of love with any degree of authority. However, when men appropriate the romance genre, their work is far more rewarded.” For many women, controlling narratives in love are but a fantasy reserved for fiction writing. In beach reads, a female protagonist often takes control of her love life and finds her truest self through it.
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Michigan in Color A critique of Hindu American identity Crying over a puzzle
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Wednesday, July 6, 2022 — 5
SAARHTAK JOHRI
MiC Columnist
MiC Columnist
CW: Racism, Transphobia Disclaimer: The author of this piece was a representative on CSG’s 11th Assembly. They were not affiliated with The Daily while holding that role and they no longer have an affiliation with CSG since joining The Daily. Blind Spots “Currently in progress! Protest march against the Hinduphobic conference Dismantling Global Hindutva!” My phone chimed cheerily at the latest message in the University of Michigan Central Student Government (CSG) GroupMe. Accompanying the message was a picture of several Indian students gathered in the Diag holding handmade protest signs. “Stop Anti-Hindu Hatred,” one read. “Stop bigotry against Hindus,” read another. Suspicious of the sender’s intentions, I switched into my browser, typing “dismantling hindutva conference” into the search bar. I scrolled through the results with a sinking feeling in my stomach. As it turned out, Dismantling Global Hindutva (DGH) was an academic conference aimed at critiquing Hindutva, or Hindu nationalism, a right-wing fascist ideology held by the current ruling party in India, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). A series of articles detailed how Hindu right activists were attempting to shut down the conference, engaging in a wide array of actions from pressuring universities to withdraw their support of the conference to sending death threats to DGH organizers. The search results confirmed my initial suspicions; the students on the Diag were Hindu nationalists who were displeased that the University was endorsing a conference that would generate awareness and scrutiny of their activities. Utilizing slogans such as “U-M vilifies Hinduism,” and banking on the fact that most people were ill-informed about their ideology, the protesters were blatantly appropriating concepts of inherent criminality, typically used to deconstruct prejudices such as Islamophobia and AntiBlack racism, in an entirely cynical attempt to evoke the traumas of systematic persecution. Their rhetoric was made all the more sickening given the decades-long history of persecution against Black people and Muslims by Hindutvainspired organizations. And, somehow, their tactics were
To answer your question — no, the puzzle wasn’t that hard. When I say I was crying over a puzzle, I mean that I decided I needed to cry and simultaneously do a puzzle. It was a quiet Saturday night after the rest of my family had gone to bed. I needed to cry. If you want to know why, you can look to any of the other reasons I’ve confessed to crying over and take your guess. All I need you to know is that the puzzle I was doing wasn’t the cause. The puzzle, I figured, was something that I’d been meaning to do and could finish tonight while I worked my feelings out. The process was simple enough. As I brought out the “Spider-Man 3” puzzle my friends had bought me as a present from Goodwill, I queued up a few songs by one of my favorite bands — Current Joys — to cry to. As the solitary, somber chords of “Become the Warm Jets” echoed through my bedroom, I poured the pieces out of the box and the tears out of my eyes. As I sobbed, I used my typical puzzle-assembling strategy — find the four corner pieces first, and then begin assembling the frame using edge pieces. The singer mourned the pain of nostalgia so distant it was an unreachable memory as I split my mind in two between Spider-Man and sadness. The basic beat of “Fear” began its melancholic melody and countermelody, invoking being afraid of loss and the pain it brings. I finished the frame and began sorting the inside pieces by color. I was still sniffling. As I wept and went through the same motions as I had with any other puzzle, the quiet absurdity of my actions occurred to me, splitting my mind into three. This
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working! By the time I navigated back to GroupMe, my phone had chimed two more times. Holy crap, how could U-M sponsor such a thing?! Very upsetting to hear U-M push this hate. I will gladly co-sponsor a resolution condemning the Department of South Asian Studies for engaging in this xenophobia. Fuck. Two messages of support from two otherwise staunchly progressive representatives who clearly had no idea what the DGH conference, or for that matter Hindutva, was. Going into damage control mode, I quickly typed out several messages attempting to explain that there was a clear distinction between Hinduism and Hindutva — the former referring to a wide range of religious practices while the latter was an ethnonationalist project that aimed to reformulate India into a Hindu majoritarian state. As such, I tried to argue, anti-Hindutva movements — such as the DGH conference — were not inherently anti-Hindu. The Hindu nationalist representative who sent the original text matched me message for message, at one point claiming that Hindus were being subjected to the same dehumanization tactics used against Jews in Nazi Germany. He was extremely persistent and our back and forth continued for almost an hour before I gave up. Turning my phone off, I threw it across the room. My frustration with the whole situation was only heightened by the fact that, in the days following the GroupMe exchange, there was not even the slightest concern within CSG that one of their representatives had promoted and participated in a Hindu nationalist demonstration on the Diag. Hoping to find some support for my cause outside of CSG, I turned to some of my Indian American friends to vent. I was sorely disappointed, however, when, after I
had recounted the DGH argument, they did not throw their hands up in anger and enthusiastically condemn the Hindutva protesters as well as the ambivalence of CSG. Though my friends were aware of what Hindutva represented and opposed the bigotry it spread, their dissent was passive, a private opposition that manifested in ambivalence rather than action. Many second generation upper-caste Indian Americans, myself included, had family members who were involved with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a paramilitary Hindutva organization founded in 1925 with the stated goal of consolidating a Hindu society along the lines of European style fascism through “a military regeneration of the Hindus.” Revelations of such history can be quite jarring; I still remember my disbelief when my mother told me that my uncle had attended one of the infamous RSS training camps in his youth. One friend explained to me that, faced with such family history, they had a hard time outright condemning the Hindu right as it felt akin to marking their loved ones as hateful and bigoted. I was further disappointed to find that a small minority went to even greater lengths in order to avoid cognitive dissonance; they saw little to no problem with Hindutva ideology, spoke in support of the demonstration on the Diag and argued that any anti-Hindutva activism — the DGH conference included — was inherently Hinduphobic. The debacle of the DGH conference took place in early September of 2021 and, thankfully, the Hindu nationalists did not organize any further. Though many of the DGH organizers continued to be harassed by Hindutva activists, the conference went on as planned and CSG did not release a resolution condemning the University for promoting it.
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wasn’t how I usually cried or how anyone usually cries: on night drives scream-singing my heart out, clutching my pillow/stuffed animal (Mr. Beary and Mr. Terry have been invaluable companions) to my chest, in the arms of a loved one. I’ve cried softly, muffled and wailed out in my empty house, listening to my cries echo around the building like a dying animal. Crying is a funny, accumulating experience for me. It seems to gather up everything I could possibly mourn into my mind, like taking everyone else’s donations to Goodwill because well, you’re already going there. Sitting with the lump sum of my past and others’, neatly packed into boxes to never be seen again. Simple strifes like minor inconveniences or stress buildup turn into existential crises and the emotional infection of old wounds. Donation is where the analogy stops though, as my tears pass on to no one but emptiness in their evaporation. The lonely drumbeats accompanied the comforting repetition of strumming as the singer began “A Different Age.” The synth grew into a dull roar as cymbal crashes joined the guitar, while the vocals bemoaned a disconnect of a self-hating artist from the people he creates for. They reached toward me in harmony and moved my hand, wiping my tears. I matched the darker pieces with logos, symbiote Spider-Men and city backgrounds. My thoughts spiraled off into complexities until they reached one of my most common conclusions — the fact that I could write about this — this out-of-the-ordinary, cathartic and appealing-toreadership moment; a chance to make the anguish of my emotions into art. Splitting my mind into four, I began to write out prose in my head.
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Democrats did the right thing by choosing progress over perfection DEVON HESANO Opinion Columnist
O
n June 24, Congress passed the most significant and wide-ranging piece of gun safety legislation in nearly 30 years. A bipartisan group of senators spearheaded the legislation, resulting in a bill supported by 15 Republican senators. It was an increasingly rare instance of efficient and substantial bipartisan legislation, on an issue that many have long thought was irreparably partisan. While the bill does not go far enough in tackling gun violence, it is more than many pundits expected, and one that will hopefully save many lives. It is to be celebrated, commended and built upon. While the legislation was naturally cast aside by many as insubstantial, those behind the curtains have shown it is anything but. Most striking to me was that the bill closed the boyfriend loophole, which has been a key priority in the state of Michigan, especially for gun safety groups on campus, and will help to clarify a current law that prevents people convicted of domestic abuse from being able to own a gun. Until the passage of this bill, a long-time partner in a relationship who had been convicted of domestic abuse could still purchase a gun. That will be allowed no longer, as this bill expands beyond the current scope of spouses, live-in partners and those who have a child with the victim. That is a substantial win and one which the Republican Party has railed against for years. Another key win is the $750 million that will go toward helping states implement red flag laws. These laws allow law enforcement to temporarily take the guns of individuals deemed dangerous to themselves or their community. These laws, too, have been a major gripe for Republicans in the past, with much of the party claiming them to
be a gross encroachment on Second Amendment rights. Background checks for those who are 18-21, the age range which disproportionately commits mass shootings, are being substantially strengthened. The last gun control measure is new penalties for those who illegally buy guns for individuals who otherwise would not be able to obtain them as a result of failing background checks. The other aspect of the bill, and the part that Republicans like to emphasize the most, are measures that seek to address mental health and increase funding for school safety. Republicans have erroneously tried for years to claim that mass shootings are almost, if not completely, a result of these two components in an attempt to prevent even the slightest gun control measures. Though off-base, many Democrats are off-base as well when they try to cast off these parts of the bill completely. Increasing funding for mental health initiatives has benefits far beyond curbing mass shootings, and there have been cases where shooters had mental ailments. The money would also go toward school-based mental health centers, suicide hotline support and first aid programs. Moreover, fortifying schools and funding anti-violence programs, especially those in underserved communities that otherwise don’t have the resources, is an equitable positive. Though lax gun regulations, an insane abundance of guns and a cult-like institutional attachment to gun rights nationwide are far and away the main reasons the U.S. has such unique problems, it doesn’t mean legislators have to stop at fixing those. Beyond the fact that this is the most substantial gun control bill in close to three decades, it is important to note the fierce opposition that Congress was able to overcome. The National Rifle Association, which has effectively
COVID-19 has created a new need to lie down for a bit AMY EDMUNDS
Stanford Lipsey Student Publications Building 420 Maynard St. Ann Arbor, MI 48109 tothedaily@michigandaily.com
VANESSA KIEFER
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had veto power over congressional Republicans on gun-related issues for decades, was decidedly against the bill. Republican after Republican, both at the grassroots and elected levels, rallied fiercely against the bill. From GOP state conventions to the most powerful man in the Republican Party, opposition to any sort of participation in this billwriting process by Republicans was dominant. Yet, good won out. The NRA lost. The far-right lost. In the wake of the Uvalde shooting, gun control advocates and legislators vowed this time would be different. They vowed, as they have fruitlessly done so many times before, that inaction was not a possibility. Those who have been dismayed at what has become so accepted as an inevitable normal in this country, myself included, did not expect these vows to come true. Yet they did, and for that, we should be grateful. It is undeniable that this legislation doesn’t come close to serving as a comprehensive solution to gun violence. Popular gun control measures still face continued Republican opposition. However, there is nothing worse than doing nothing at all. We live in an incrementalist country with institutional barriers that make landmark legislation close to impossible. Accepting nothing because we don’t get everything is nothing but selfish and short-sighted. Democrats were able to take what they could get, move on and continue to fight for life-saving gun control measures. Republicans, though few, were finally able to muster the will to put the lives of our country’s kids ahead of the NRA and the gun lobby. And for that, we celebrate; for that, we can only hope this is just one of many positive steps in the right direction. Devon Hesano is an Opinion Columnist and can be reached at dehesano@umich.edu.
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he symptoms and side effects of COVID-19 are well known, with scientists all over the world having long studied the disease that’s been plaguing our lives for the last two years. But there’s one side effect that isn’t very well documented and that almost everyone has experienced, whether they have caught the virus or not. It seems that, even more widespread than COVID19, people everywhere feel the need to lie down for a bit. I’m being satirical, of course, but I sincerely do find myself having a newfound need to take a break in between tasks, and have gathered that I’m not the only one suffering from this new “side effect” of the pandemic. Granted, everyone needs a rest sometimes, or maybe even a little nap here and there — but this is more than being tired: it’s being physically and mentally exhausted by minor tasks. Before COVID-19 hit, my days were absolutely full, with “busy” barely covering it. I somehow fit what felt like days’ worth of class, practices,
appointments and activities into 24 hours. My life was going 100 mph at all times; I didn’t take breaks because I simply didn’t have time for them. Then the lockdowns started. Rather quickly, the entire world came to a stop. And it became the pause in life that I had so desperately needed. Government orders to stay inside and do nothing for two weeks? You didn’t have to tell me twice. At first, so used to the daily chaos of life, I didn’t know what to do with myself. With nowhere to be, I did a lot of lying down during this time. “A nice rest,” I thought before things picked back up and I again had no time to rest. But the pandemic continued, and the lockdowns were extended, until suddenly life had been paused for not just two weeks but two years. I stopped lying down to rest and started lying down because there was nothing else to do. I was bored. Suddenly, everything was exhausting. After each Zoom class I needed a rest. Then making lunch became tiresome, and soon I found that even lying down tired me out, so that too required a rest afterward.
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The true story behind your $100 tank of gas ANNA TRUPIANO Opinion Columnist
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ransportation is a key component of Americans’ daily lives. Of the 84.6% of Americans licensed to drive, the average travels a distance of 13,474 miles per year, or slightly over half the circumference of planet Earth. This half-globe journey ends up costing Americans $1,262 per year in gas and affects the vast majority of drivers since less than 1% of the cars on the road are electric. With gas costs normally accounting for up to 3.12% of the average American’s monthly income, many of us have become easily irritated at the ever-fluctuating and sky high prices we’ve recently seen at the pump. As of June 2022, gas prices are up an alarming 61% compared to one year ago. Our irritation with these prices often leads to a search for scapegoats, which in this case is largely Russian President Vladmir
Putin, President Joe Biden and oil companies. According to an ABC News/Ipsos poll from April 2022, 71% of Americans blame Putin for the current state of our gas prices, 51% blame Biden and 68% blame oil companies. Only 20% of respondents consider Biden to be blameless. Despite this tendency to pinpoint blame, an issue as multifaceted as gas prices cannot be watered down to one sole cause. There are a couple factors that play into the obnoxious number you see on the meter. Even though we are turning toward a greater state of normalcy, the effects of COVID-19 have lingered. Oil producers were not prepared for the somewhat sudden reopening of the economy, and the increased number of people driving around again. This change led to a high demand for gas paired with a low supply of it — a basic economic concept which explains the rise in gas prices.
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Sports
Wednesday, July 6, 2022 — 7
SOCCER
From gold medals to Big Ten Championships: Jayde Riviere’s journey REMI WILLIAMSON Daily Sports Writer
Athletes strive to be the best. They want the most touchdowns, the highest batting average and the most goals. But beyond what appears in the stat sheets, they also want to reach — and succeed — at the highest level of their sports. They want to win the Super Bowl on a hail mary in the fourth quarter, they want to clinch a World Series championship and they want to win at the World Cup in penalty kicks. Each athlete defines success differently, and for some athletes, earning a championship supersedes personal accolades. And on the Michigan women’s soccer team, senior defender Jayde Riviere found success through winning. Her championship moment came with Team Canada at the 2020 Olympics where she earned a gold medal by defeating Sweden in a match that was decided by penalty kicks. For a player to represent their country on the biggest stage is an immense honor in itself, but Riviere took it a step further by succeeding under the pressure and bringing home gold. “I think it was the scariest moment of my career, considering that it went
to penalties.” Riviere said. “It is a different kind of fear when you have to line up knowing you might potentially have to take a penalty kick.” But the work to reach that moment started long ago, and that championship drive traces through her career at Michigan. *** Riviere’s aspirations of being a soccer star began well before her college days. She started playing at three years old with her father, Tony Riviere, who was a soccer player for a local club team. He made sure to get her on the turf as soon as she could and he wasted no time showing her the great joys of the sport. “He would take me out to the field every other day to run drills, ” Jayde said. “I had a more emotional connection to the sport because of my dad.” And that passion blossomed into Riviere’s love of the sport. She started her national duties when she was 15 with the U15 Provincial Team, an experience that left her with a room full of medals and trophies to commemorate her contribution to her country even before graduating high school. And the connection to her home country played a huge
Priestman shaped her into the player Canada needed most for the Olympic Games. Riviere willingly shifted positions from her natural midfield to fullback in order to fill those needs. She even changed positions at Michigan in order to better prepare for national team duties when she was called up. “The national team was in need of a fullback,” Riviere said. “The more I can get practice as a fullback at Michigan, the easier it will be to transition for international play.” But to win a championship, she needed to do more than just change positions. She had to adapt to playing with teammates and against opponents that were faster and more skilled than those she knew in Pickering and at Michigan. “(The) speed of play and the experience that comes with that are really different,” Riviere said. “I think the biggest difference for me is going from a leadership role at Michigan to being a newbie and trying to find myself on an international platform.” That experience, and her time with the Wolverines, showed her how to be a better athlete. “Adaptability is a huge thing Courtesy of the Riviere family when it comes to being an
role in her decision to play with the Wolverines. “It is only a four-and-a-half-hour drive from Pickering,” Riviere said. “It was important to me that my parents could come watch games.” It was important that her parents — the people who supported her from the first time she kicked a ball at three years old — could travel and watch her develop her game at the collegiate level. And as the national team called on her, the game quickly transformed into something drastically different. As one of the youngest members on the national team, Riviere was moldable, and Canada coach Bev
athlete. Our bodies get put through a lot, especially at the Olympics,” Riviere said. “I think learning to adapt to other teams and how they play is crucial.” And as her pursuit of a championship forced her to accept change, Riviere embodied that mentality. In the end, the Olympic gold medal that hung around her neck and the pride of success showed that her sacrifice was worth it.. Entering her junior year at Michigan, she had already proven that her championship mentality could put hardware in the trophy case. *** Coming off that success, Riviere joined a Michigan program competing for its own championship. And in that quest, she played a crucial role. Riviere was a key pillar to the Wolverines’ backline, seeing over 1,620 minutes of match time in the 2021-22 season and only ever missing games for national team duties. In that role, she led Michigan to a Big Ten Championship and an NCAA Quarterfinals appearance. The experience of that Michigan team facilitated its success. The foundation of the Wolverines’ game was built on the leadership and skills of their upperclassmen, who filled every slot in the starting lineup.
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LACROSSE
‘Anybody, anytime, anywhere’: Michigan’s roots in Canadian box lacrosse JOHN TONDORA Daily Sports Writer
In just 11 seasons, the Michigan men’s lacrosse team has rapidly cemented itself as a competitive program. As with any Big Ten sport, lacrosse’s identity stems from a physicality, intimidation and grittiness that makes it one of the most unique lacrosse spaces to play in. The Wolverines themselves are led by defense-first coach Kevin Conry, who prioritizes a commitment to locking down opposing offenses. Despite being one of the newest Division 1 teams, Michigan has already established its legacy of defensive prowess. While many associate the Wolverines with their defense, this program has another less noticed strength: the offensive cutting edge. Specifically, the cutting edge of Canadian box lacrosse. Powered by the likes of Michigan alumnus attackman Kyle Jackson and
rising senior attackman Josh Zawada, the Wolverines’ legacy of Canadian box lacrosse players continues to play an integral role in the program. While it may already have deep roots in Canadian lacrosse, Michigan stands at the forefront of a growing recruiting surge of the box style within the NCAA sphere. “The game is trying to get into that hybrid Canadian-American kind of mix,” Zawada said. “… The big difference is how unselfish it was in Canada and how they like moving the ball so well, and that’s where they get it in the box game. The game has just transitioned so much.” College men’s lacrosse is changing, and it’s trending northward to do it. *** In Canada, box lacrosse has long been the dominant style. Invented in the early twentieth century as an indoor alternative to field lacrosse during cold Canadian winters, box lacrosse is characterized by its quick five-on-five style, smaller field of play and smaller nets.
Sourced from converted ice hockey rinks, at times, the game can almost feel like a hockey bout. Unlike field lacrosse, there is no out-of-bounds, and the rinks even retain their patented plexiglass boards to protect onlookers and to provide the business end of bone-crunching checks. Nevertheless, to play box lacrosse is to simplify the game to its purest form while also requiring speed and precision that cannot be found anywhere else. For generations of Canadian lacrosse players, this was a way of life. But for American coaches and players just beginning to encounter the style, it’s a brave new world. And at the forefront of the Canadian pioneers bringing the game south is Ontario’s own: Hill Academy and its alumni Kyle Jackson and Josh Zawada. *** Founded in 2006, the Hill Academy has had a meteoric ascension to become one of the elite high school lacrosse programs in North America.
The program is famous for its Hill Academy,” Josh’s father, John, humble beginnings and impressive said. “He lived on a bus and they would international schedule, playing — and play all the top teams out of Maryland, often dismantling — some of the top in all the storied programs that have a super rich history of top talent in the teams across North America. Despite the Hill’s impressive country. And the Hill Academy spent a records, though, Jackson and Zawada week playing all those top teams, and experienced a high school lacrosse that was just part of it.” environment unlike any other. Read more at michigandaily.com While many traditional lacrosse players in the United States will have a stationary, public or private high school team during the academic year that plays local teams on a fixed divisional circuit, the Hill was a school on wheels. It followed the team’s patented phrase: Anybody, anytime, anywhere. KATE HUA/Daily “Josh never Canadian box lacrosse players like Josh Zawada and Kyle played a home game Jackson have had a major impact on the Michigan men’s lacrosse when he was at the program.
Sports Adam Fantilli’s hockey journey worked toward development, not comfort
8 — Wednesday, July 6, 2022
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ICE HOCKEY
CONNOR EAREGOOD
Summer Managing Sports Editor
On a long car ride from Chicago to his home in Nobleton, Ontario, Adam Fantilli’s family made a pit stop — a detour years in the making. Stopping in Ann Arbor to visit the Michigan hockey program — which his older brother, Luca, had committed to a few months prior — Fantilli got an up close look at one of the many options for his future. As one of the top prospects for the 2023 NHL Draft, he had the opportunity to play anywhere he wanted, but Fantilli’s focus was to pick a home that would help him grow the most as a hockey player. “I’m a late birthday,” Fantilli told The Daily. “So I thought playing three years of major junior before being even eligible (for the NHL Draft) was not really the way I wanted to take things because it’s hard to make the NHL as an 18-year-old.” That meant that Fantilli wouldn’t immediately sign a major junior contract like so many other top Canadian peers had done — he needed another path. And in the quest to find the right one, he found overlap with his brother. From playing for Kimball Union Academy in New Hampshire to the United States Hockey League’s Chicago Steel, the Fantilli brothers played side by side. But their journey wasn’t scripted like that. They never planned to don
the same jersey each night — one with their first initial squeezed ahead of their last name. It just so happened that the same programs filled each brother’s separate needs — needs that led both brothers to the Michigan hockey team. *** Adam’s decision to choose the NCAA came quickly once he saw Ann Arbor. He liked what he heard from Michigan coach Mel Pearson, and made his commitment shortly after the visit. But that decision went against the grain of everything a Canadian hockey player hears growing up. For decades, most top Canadian junior players have chosen to play in Canadian major juniors leagues. Rarely have Canada’s best young players taken the NCAA route. Of the top 10 Canadians picked in the past 10 NHL drafts, just 11 played college hockey — and that includes last year’s picks Owen Power and Kent Johnson, both of whom did so at Michigan. Top Canadians in college hockey continues to be a rare occurrence. But that didn’t distract Adam — and Luca — from taking that option. “They always said they wanted to pursue hockey, so we felt it was always best for them to keep all their options open,” Adam’s father, Giuliano, said. “And we made sure that their marks were always really good, Adam always took extra courses in the summer to get ahead.The NCAA was always an option from day one.”
Keeping options open meant that even though he was one of the premier prospects in his age range, Adam couldn’t play major junior hockey because it would take away his NCAA eligibility. He continued the common development route in his local AAA league, the Greater Toronto Hockey League’s U16 league, but he needed to make sure his next hockey destination didn’t shut any doors. Luckily, his brother had already found it. Luca had gone to the States to play for Kimball Union Academy, and he loved the program. After visiting, Adam did too, in addition to being close to his brother. So Adam made a decision that baffled some of his Toronto neighbors. He packed his bags and joined Luca to play American prep school hockey. “We’ve always kept their hockey careers separate,” Giuliano said. “… When (Adam) went to visit his brother down south, he missed him. And then he saw the caliber of play down there, which we aren’t normally exposed to up here in Toronto, and he was like, ‘Wow, this would be a great option for me.’ ” Playing with Luca was just the icing on the cake, as their father described it. But beyond that, the experience provided plenty of benefits. Playing for former Maine coach Tim Whitehead — who won 250 games behind the Black Bears’ bench — both Fantilli brothers sharpened their skills against top American competition. Both thrived playing for the Wildcats,
and soon other junior programs pursued them. After he honed his game against a higher level of competition, Adam decided to push himself even harder, and that took him to one of the best prospect development programs in America: the United States Hockey League’s Chicago Steel — yet another team that his brother already played for. “It kind of happened by fluke,” Giuliano said. “… If it was a better spot for Adam somewhere else, he would have definitely done it. He wasn’t going somewhere because of his brother, that’s for sure.” Chicago fit Adam’s needs perfectly. It allowed him to play other elite junior players without closing off a path to college hockey. In fact, that was the path that almost every one of the brothers’ teammates took, committing to an NCAA school. By not committing to a major junior program, Adam found himself in a college hockey feeder system. Still, major junior hockey was never fully off Adam’s radar. The USHL simply offered an opportunity to play tougher competition without jeopardizing his NCAA eligibility. As a top prospect with his pick of junior
programs to play for, he prioritized keeping his options open. “It’s not like they’re closing the door on the OHL or the Western League or Quebec,” Chicago Steel coach Brock Sheahan said. “That is still an option for them. But if you go the other route, you’ve closed off college.” So Adam skated for Chicago alongside his brother and Michigancommitted forward Mackie Samoskevich. But back home in Canada, some of his neighbors questioned Adam’s decision. Sheahan noted that Adam received hate mail for his decision, and Giuliano fielded plenty of questions about why Adam was playing in the States. “Other people just have Canadian Major Junior (in mind), that’s all they want you to do,” Giuliano said. “They want you to stay in Canada and play junior hockey, and they think it’s the best route. And it is a great route for a lot of kids. “When people actually ask, and we give an explanation on why we’re doing what we do and we take Adam’s birthday into account I think they understand a little bit more.”
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Photos courtesy of Chicago Steel
KATE HUA/Daily
