2022-03-30

ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY ONE YEARS OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM

Wednesday, March 30, 2022

Ann Arbor, Michigan

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Board of Regents talk presidential search, athletic facility and Big House upgrades

U-M administrators approve $41 million project for replacing video scoreboards ANNA FIFELSKI & SAMANTHA RICH Daily Staff Reporters

Students call for climate action from UMich, demands ‘People Over Profit’ ALLISON ENGKVIST/Daily

Over 15 environmental advocacy groups sign open letter for admin to prioritize sustainability SAMANTHA RICH & IRENA LI Daily Staff Reporters

Over 100 students gathered on the Diag Friday afternoon as part of a global climate strike organized

by Fridays for Future, a youth-led organization dedicated to fighting climate change. The theme of Friday’s strike was “People Over Profit” and featured speakers calling for climate action centering around social justice.

The event kicked off with live music and educational booths

on topics such as the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the ongoing indigenous Landback movement and ways to address climate change through public policy.

Speakers from various student and local organizations then addressed attendees, emphasizing the importance of clean energy and climate justice.

LSA sophomore Lexi Crilley emphasized the “People Over Profit” theme in her speech Friday afternoon.

“Climate justice is social,

economic and political justice on all fronts,” Crilley said. “It is racial justice, it is gender equality — and it cannot be achieved without addressing the complex systems of oppression that have created all of these issues.”

Greg Woodring, president of Ann Arbor for Public Power (AAPP), discussed the importance of transitioning to a publicly owned utility instead of relying on a private company. The AAPP organization advocates for a switch to an energy grid that is clean, renewable and owned by the city of Ann Arbor.

Currently, the city’s electricity is

supplied by Detroit-based DTE Energy, with about half of the company’s electricity supply being generated by coal.

“We can say that we are no longer going to allow a private corporation controlled by a small group of callous and indifferent people to determine what the fate of this world will be,” Woodring said. “We can invest in our future, we can build a new paradigm and we can say that we are no longer going to accept the world as it is.”

Read more at MichiganDaily.com

The University of Michigan Board of Regents met at University Hall in the Ruthven Building Thursday to discuss progress in the search for a new University president, renovations to the Central Campus Recreation Building (CCRB) and upgrades to University athletic facilities.

Interim University President Mary Sue Coleman began the meeting by addressing the recently created Coordinated Community Response Team (CCRT) which is designed to address sexual violence at the University. The formation of the CCRT was included in the terms of settlement of a classaction lawsuit brought against the University

by LSA senior Josephine Graham in May 2021.

Graham alleged the University was not adequately protecting students from sexual abuse and said the

formation of the CCRT is a critical step in addressing this failure at a Wednesday press conference.

Graham’s lawsuit is separate from the 2020 class-action suit filed by survivors of former University doctor Robert Anderson, which recently reached a settlement of $490 million for over a 1,000 survivors.

The regents also approved Dentistry Dean Laurie K. McCauley as the University’s next provost and president of academic affairs. McCauley will replace outgoing Provost Susan Collins, who will leave the position on May 15 to become the next President of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.

The board voted unanimously to bestow Collins with a Regents Citation of Honor for her service to the University.

Collins thanked the board for this honor, reflecting on her time as University Provost.

“Serving as provost, particularly during a difficult time, it’s really been a privilege,” Collins said. “It’s also been a privilege to work with so many wonderful

leaders at this university …

It has been a team effort, and together I do believe we have gone far.”

Collins then provided an update on how the University is supporting students affected by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Collins said the University has been in touch with students from Russia and Ukraine, and it has taken a number of measures to ensure the safety and educational security of these students.

“We have responded by providing them with information about support services and by taking action to ensure that they can continue their education here, despite financial constraints and other difficulties in their home countries,” Collins said. “(We) will continue to monitor this situation and to support our students throughout this very challenging time.”

On March 15, the University announced it will no longer make investments in Russia and will pull all current investments from 2009 See BOARD OF REGENTS, Page 3

CSG executive candidates sit down for Q&A ahead of elections EnvisionBLUE, Diverse&Dedicated platforms running in 2022

NIRALI PATEL, RACHEL MINTZ, & ASHNA MEHRA Daily Staff Reporters

The University of Michigan Central Student Government will be hosting its annual election for the CSG assembly and the Police Department Oversight Committee on March 30 and 31. Two platforms — EnvisionBLUE and Diverse&Dedicated — are running in the executive ticket for CSG President and Vice President. The Michigan Daily sat down with the members

from both parties to discuss their platforms and goals for campus if elected.

This conversation has been condensed and edited for clarity.

EnvisionBLUE LSA junior Noah Zimmerman is running for President of the EnvisionBLUE Party with LSA junior Jacqueline Hillman as the vice presidential candidate. The EnvisionBlue platform consists of 30 action items and 15 advocacy projects in collaboration with CSG and campus organizations. Zimmerman

University reaches settlement in lawsuit over handling of sexual misconduct

New Coordinated Community Response Team to work on transparency, accountability in policies SHANNON STOCKING

Daily News Editor

The University of Michigan and attorneys representing U-M students have reached a settlement in a class action lawsuit and have agreed to the creation of a Coordinated Community Response Team (CCRT). This comprehensive group will work to add transparency to the University’s response to sexual violence on campus and ensure students’ safety.

The lawsuit was filed in May 2021 by LSA senior Josephine Graham, a student representative, accusing the University of their failure to protect students on campus from sexual violence.

This settlement follows the $490 million agreement with survivors of the late University doctor Robert Anderson. The financial

agreement for Graham’s case is still being finalized, but the implementation of the CCRT will begin. Graham said that the CCRT is the capstone of the settlement and spoke to her excitement of the process beginning.

“I’m really excited about the potential of this Coordinated Community Response Team, and it’s really a first step in establishing more accountability, transparency and, really importantly, community decision making,” Graham said at a press conference Wednesday. “When it comes to U of M’s, history of sexual misconduct and the policies and procedures and all those programs that are being implemented, the CCRT (will further this innovation) which is the main focal point of the settlement.”

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said that one of the party’s main goals is to strengthen leadership and representation on campus.

Zimmerman previously served as LSA representative and Chair of the Rules Committee of the CSG assembly.

Hillman has not held a position on CSG prior to running this year.

Diverse&Dedicated LSA junior Erica Nelson is running for President of the Diverse&Dedicated party with LSA sophomore Ronald Burgaj as the vice presidential candidate. Nelson said that Diverse&Dedicated aims

to promote diverse experiences and backgrounds while uplifting unique student perspectives on campus.

Nelson and Burgaj have served as LSA representatives for LSA student government. Both Burgaj and Nelson are also currently running for LSA student government as president and Vice President respectively.

TMD: What inspired you to run this year for CSG? Noah Zimmerman: Through our past experiences, Jackie and I got to learn a lot about the

structure of CSG. I saw myself as someone who got a lot done, but at the same time, I felt CSG was missing something. I had a lot of projects that I really wanted to get done, but I wasn’t able to get those implemented in the (CSG) assembly. That’s when I started to think about running for CSG president. Jackie and I came together and talked about our vision for CSG, the mission that we wanted to create, and that determined that we wanted to run.

Jacqueline Hillman: I’ve actually done a lot of political work.

So it’s been really rewarding just to experience politics in the real world and on campus. So I wanted to bring that perspective into campus politics and bring a fresh pair of eyes to CSG and the way it operates.

I think that’s reflected not only in our platform, but it really centers well with what Noah is doing in his perspectives from a historical standpoint. Then I can come in and bring in my own approach for my See CSG, Page 3

CAMPUS LIFE

‘U’ hosts 26th annual exhibition of art

by Michigan prisoners at Duderstadt Over 700 pieces on display from March 22 to April 5

SEJAL PATIL

Daily Staff Reporter

The 26th Annual Exhibition of Art by Michigan Prisoners opening gallery was held on Tuesday evening at the Duderstadt Center Gallery. The exhibition was put together by the Prison Creative Arts Project (PCAP) in coordination with the Michigan Department of Corrections (MDOC).

The gallery is open to the public from March 22-April 5.

The first exhibition was held in the University of Michigan Rackham Galleries in February 1996; seventy pieces of art from 50 artists were featured in the first exhibition. This year, all 26 Michigan prisons sent in artwork by people who are incarcerated there – 714 pieces were displayed from 392 artists.

Nora Krinitsky, PCAP director and lecturer in the Residential College, said this year’s exhibition would be the first one in three years. Krinitsky said people who are incarcerated face isolation and unimaginable loss over the years and are excited to share their work with the public.

“Viewing another person’s art is absolutely fascinating,” Krinitsky said. “A population that has been almost entirely

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cut off from human contact over the past two years really deserves our attention … I think you’ll also find incredible examples of resilience in the artwork. Looking at the pieces and spending time with that is uplifting in ways that I couldn’t have even imagined.”

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The artists work independently using supplies they have obtained themselves.

Various media were used by the artists such as acrylic, colored pencil, watercolor, embroidery floss with glue and more. Art selection teams, consisting of curators, staff, students

and volunteers, travel to each prison to meet artists to select work for display and provide general feedback and support to the artists.

Read more at MichiganDaily.com

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INDEX

Vol. CXXXI, No. 70 ©2022 The Michigan Daily

N E WS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 ARTS...................4 MIC. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6

OPINION..................8 SPORTS...................10

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ADMINISTRATION

Jonathan Vaughn working with private investigator on allegations the University sanctioned Anderson study on athletes California-based company GET BIT to handle the case pro-bono

ANNA FIFELSKI Daily Staff Reporter

Jonathan Vaughn shared a press release on March 11 announcing he hired a private investigation company based in southern California, GET BIT, to investigate allegations that the University of Michigan “sanctioned” a study by Dr. Robert Anderson that researched the sperm of “elite athletes.”

The press release alleges Anderson forced athletes to provide sperm samples and illegally sold the sperm to unknowing parties. According to GET BIT, the Private Investigator company is handling the case pro-bono.

In May 2021, WilmerHale, an independent law firm hired by the University to investigate allegations of sexual assault against Anderson, found that hundreds of the allegations are credible. The report also stated that several University officials were aware of Anderson’s misconduct.

University spokesman Rick Fitzgerald wrote in an email to The Michigan Daily that WilmerHale didn’t find evidence of the new allegations against Anderson.

“While the WilmerHale report contains references to Anderson’s interest in male reproductive health, including the collection of semen samples, the investigative team found no evidence of the activities alleged in the press release you cite,” Fitzgerald wrote.

Fitzgerald added that the University provided many documents and pieces of evidence to the WilmerHale investigation, but he did not directly respond to inquiries about the University participation in the GET BIT investigation.

“It’s also worth noting that the university provided WilmerHale with unfettered access to more than 200 individuals, 2 million documents from the Bentley Historical Library, 125 boxes of paper personnel files and tens of thousands of other documents.”

According to Luis Bolaños, founder of GET BIT Investigations and the private investigator for Vaughn’s case, the “Hail to the Victims” investigation is considered a criminal investigation.

Bolaños said he reached out to Vaughn about conducting an investigation when he saw a headline about Anderson and was reminded of a

2020 lawsuit in California that was filed against a late sheriff who was found to have been involved in one of the largest child molestation and sexual assault cases.

“I had no idea what was happening in Michigan,” Bolaños said. “I’ve never heard of Jon. I had no idea who he was.

I had no idea of Dr. Anderson and the allegations against him. But between (Anderson and Duffy), there are thousands and thousands of victims, so that’s why I first heard about it and (what) made me want to reach out to (Vaughn) and talk to him a little more.”

Vaughn said he decided to work with GET BIT because he and other survivors are still looking for answers.

“There were two times specifically I remember offhanded comments where Dr. Robert Anderson said (he was) trying to figure out how to create the perfect Black athlete,” Vaughn said.

Vaughn said he began his personal investigation into his and other allegations against Anderson in 2020 after hearing similar stories from other survivors.

“This is something that I have been investigating since early into the mediation process, (which) dates back to probably September or October of

2020,” Vaughn said. “It was just very clear to me and to several of us survivors that there was an issue with the location of not only our medical reports, but we got several stories that they were destroyed or they kept them for 10 years and then destroyed (them) or they don’t exist.”

Bolaños said GET BIT and Vaughn are working with Promoting Awareness | Victim Empowerment (PAVE) to schedule virtual and in-person press conferences surrounding this issue.

PAVE founder Angela Rose told The Daily she was inspired to start this organization after she was abducted and assaulted by a repeat sex offender when she was 17. Rose said PAVE is working on setting up a half-day virtual summit dedicated to supporting male survivors.

“People knew that these things were happening (and) I don’t know if they just don’t know what to say, or do, or if their moral compass is broken or who knows what the reason, but there are a lot of men in a lot of pain right now and so I feel like it’s our job to try and do something proactive,” Rose said.

Read more at MichiganDaily.com

Art & Afrofuturism panel explores the work of late author Octavia Butler Experts discuss intersection of Black popular culture, science fiction and activism

GENEVIEVE GRUENLER Daily Staff Reporter

The LSA Institute for the Humanities and the University of Michigan Arts Initiative explored how Afrofuturism — a cultural aesthetic emerging in the 1990s that combined elements of science fiction and Black popular culture — manifests in art today in a virtual panel Wednesday night.

The panel was a part of the University’s Octavia Butler Week programming in honor of African American author Octavia Butler who received a MacArthur Genius Grant in 1995.

Four panelists were featured and the panel was moderated by Christopher Audain, managing director of the U-M Arts Initiative. The panel discussed the intersection of art and Afrofuturism in light of the upcoming U-M theatrical adaptation of Octavia Butler’s postapocalyptic novel Parable of the Sower.

Naomi André, professor of Afroamerican and American studies and women’s and gender studies, began the panel discussion by talking about the function of art in an Afrofuture.

Andre said Afrofuturism is a space of possibility and art can help realize that possibility.

“Metaphorically art can be a spaceship,” Andre said. “The destination of the spaceship is that space

of possibility … a place where Black people are treated as fully human. A place where Black folks do not need handouts or special treatments. It is a space where all people are part of the same whole where the smartest and the best people come from all racial backgrounds and ethnic backgrounds.

Art can help us think of these places, envision these landscapes.”

Tananarive Due, a lecturer in the department of African American studies at the University of California at Los Angeles, spoke about her work with horror. As a genre, Due said, horror can be a form of escapism for members of the Black community because the danger portrayed is not real, unlike the ever-present threat posed by white supremacy.

Due then spoke about her mother’s experience as an activist in the 1960s.

She said that her parents were living proof that change was possible through action and that through activism, change was already happening.

“I’m often struck by the irony of how that social agitation in the 1960s was in sort of a futuristic vacuum,” Due said. “Because you’re fighting for a future you do not know how to even anticipate, and in fact, some of the things that those activists in the 60s would have considered futurism were already happening, but just outside of their knowledge, which is one of the things about Afrofuturism that is so exciting. It’s not only the arts, but it’s the

activism.”

Susana M. Morris, an associate professor and scholar of Black feminism, Black digital media and Afrofuturism at Georgia Institute of Technology, then spoke about the power she felt when she first met Octavia Butler.

“The idea that the only constant (in the world) is change and that we humans, even working class Black girls with big ideas have the power to truly shape our world for the better or worse, was thrilling,” Morris said.

Morris then spoke about the idea of a “positive obsession,” something that Butler described herself as having. “(Butler) called her deep unmitigated desire to create art and share her work a positive obsession,” Morris said. “Butler said her positive obsession became a higher calling and wished everyone to have a positive obsession.

John Jennings, professor of media and cultural studies at the University of California at Riverside, also spoke at the panel about the rise of Afrofuturism and his work translating Octavia Butler’s novels into graphic novels.

“I can’t relate how difficult it was to work with but also the amount of pressure it was … thinking about this from a kind of vantage point of us collaborating with Octavia Butler and trying to figure out how to translate her words into a graphic novel,” Jennings said.

In the question and answer portion of the event, Rackham student Symone Campbell asked the panelists for

recommendations of texts or films for Black students who want to learn more about Afrofuturism.

“Start with the dark matter series,” Jennings said. “These are collections of speculative fiction by and about people of color. They are a really good subsection of work in various genres.”

Morris added that Afrofuturism is closely tied to the idea of Black joy, which celebrates the accomplishments and experiences of the Black community, despite centuries of discrimmination and trauma.

“Afrofuturism as a cultural movement is fundamentally Black joy centered, because to posit a future where Black folk are centered, not marginalized, where we are absolutely necessary for the continuance of human society is a hopeful project, is a project that is joyful,” Morris said.

In her final remarks, Due said that younger people have a different perspective and that the younger generation has the ability to question aspects of the world that older generations have settled into.

“There’s a part of us that has settled for what reality is and the way the younger generation has not, they look out and say why,” Due said. “So let’s … have the imagination at least to listen to someone who’s trying to picture and point a path toward a different way.”

Daily Staff Reporter Genevieve Gruenler can be reached at gruenler@ umich.edu.

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CAMPUS LIFE

School of Social Work students walk out of classes, demand payment for field work Over 80 protestors cite frustrations with lack of compensation for degree-required internships ALEC HUGHES

Daily News Contributor

Graduate students at the University of Michigan School of Social Work walked out of their classes Monday morning and gathered on the Diag to rally for Payments for Placements (P4P). This is a student campaign demanding that the University begin compensating Master of Social Work (MSW) students for their internship work; around 80 members of the campus community attended the walkout.

In 2017, MSW students, Social Work alumni and social workers started a petition calling for fair compensation for their field work.

Most recently in January, MSW students submitted a petition with over 300 student signatures to Social Work Dean Joseph Himle and other Social Work administrators calling on the University to fund their degree-required internships.

CSG From Page 1 Erica Nelson: I wanted a real seat at a table that is not often invited to me. I wanted to give myself a place in (the) university, specifically in student government, where I can help students who look like me — or don’t look like me — have a voice in the system, have a say in the things that impact them. I am running, because I wanted to be there for the students. I want to be a voice, be a light, and show future Wolverines that being at a place like this and having a voice in the decisions that affect you is important.

That’s really why I wanted to run. I want to inspire. I want to lead but I also know how to be led. I want to show underrepresented communities that this is okay and that (the University) is a place that you belong.

Ron Burgaj: A lot of wanting to run is being the change that we want to see happen. Part of being the “Leaders and Best” isn’t just talking the talk, but it’s walking the walk. It’s speaking to the underrepresented groups here at the University, it’s meeting with them, meeting with admin, seeing how we can best incorporate what’s best for the students, what’s best for us. We are the University and our voices need to be heard.

TMD: Is there anything you would like to highlight regarding your campaign?

NZ: The biggest thing is that our candidacy is more of a partnership.

BOARD OF REGENTS From Page 1 Geoffrey Chatas, executive vice president and chief financial officer, updated the regents on the University’s carbon neutrality progress, including the creation of the new Planet Blue dashboard, which tracks U-M greenhouse gas emissions levels and reduction trajectory. According to Chatas, the University is on track to meet its sustainability goals and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

“I’m extremely pleased to announce that U of M is on pace to reduce greenhouse gasses scope one and two by 50% by 2025, which is both five years ahead of and exceeds the United Nations intergovernmental panel on climate change … guidance to reduce emissions by 45% by 2030,” Chatas said. “We’re also working to instill a University-wide culture of sustainability with justice as a core principle.”

Chatas also revealed plans to purchase four all-electric buses for the Ann Arbor campus — one 60-foot bus and three standard 40-foot buses — as well as a $10 million plan to replace lights in 70 buildings on all three campuses with LED lights. Chatas also said the University is working on existing investments that emit large levels of greenhouse gasses.

The board then discussed plans to renovate the Central Campus Recreational Building . New features of the plan include a three-court gymnasium and a natatorium with a lap pool, a recreational pool and a postworkout recovery pool. Mike Widen, director of Recreational Sports,

Currently, the majority of MSW field work positions are unpaid even though the Council on Social Work Education requires that MSW students across the U.S. complete 900 hours of field work during their master’s program.

SSW spokeswoman Lisa Raycraft confirmed that at the University, non-advanced standing MSW students must complete 912 hours of field work to get their degree. However, MSW students with advanced standing — those who come into the University with a BSW — only have to complete 684 hours during their three semester program.

At the protest, several MSW students expressed their frustrations with the lack of compensation for their field work, which they claim has impacted their mental health and ability to afford housing.

Anjelica Abraham, a MSW student and one of the speakers at the walkout, told the crowd that balancing a paid job with her unpaid field work causes a lot of stress. Abra-

ham said she is currently working to complete her field work at Kids-TALK Children’s Advocacy Center in Detroit, which involves an 85-mile commute.

“I’m tired of having to juggle two part-time jobs on top of class work, on top of field (work) and with an 85 mile round trip multiple times a week,” Abraham said. “I’m tired of working 12 hours a day, six days a week.”

Other students within the Social Work School shared Abraham’s frustration. A survey conducted by the P4P leaders found that 83% of respondents worked additional jobs on top of the required field work.

In an email to The Michigan Daily, Dan Fischer, assistant dean of field education in the SSW, wrote that unpaid field work does not violate the U.S. Fair Labor and Standards Act which helps protect workers’ rights. Fischer emphasized that the field work is primarily intended to academically support the MSW program by providing

students with hands-on experience before receiving their degree.

“Students are unlicensed professionals and would not be able to engage in MSW-level work,” Fischer wrote. “Field placements also provide opportunities for students to discover new ideas or to think about themselves and their own values, prejudices, and attitudes towards others while learning to manage emotions and feelings within real-world settings.”

Other programs at the University provide stipends for students

There’s this stigmatization of president and vice president. We’re seeing these positions as a separation of focus areas rather than a hierarchy.

Jackie and I want to make sure that we’re playing to our strengths. Jackie has her strengths. She’s very good at communications, programming and government relations, so those are the focus areas that she’ll have. I’ve had a lot of experience in CSG policy and law experience with working with the assembly and the other student governments in Flint and Dearborn, the Association of Big Ten Students.

I’ve also had some experience working with the Student Organization Committee. We want to be able to make sure that we’re doing everything as efficiently as possible.

JH: Processes that are going to better represent voices on campus.

We think different populations, like the Greek Life Community, doesn’t have a spot within CSG to advocate for their needs. With different cultural groups, we want to make sure that those voices are being heard.

There are a lot of different structural changes that we want to make in order to allow for that to be the case within (student) government and ensure that our policies are actually going to impact the people they’re intended for. While it’s great to have 15 LSA representatives, that can’t represent 1000s of (LSA) students, so we want to create a space where everyone’s input can be shared.

EN: We’re the Diverse&Dedicated students. We’re diverse in our beliefs,

diverse in our experiences, we’re dedicated to making real change, we’re dedicated to underrepresented communities. We have gone out and asked them how we can best (serve them). While campaigning, we’ve gone to La Casa, we’ve gone to the Michigan Africans, we’ve gone to BSU (Black Student Union), we’ve gone to the Arab Student Association and we’ve had conversations with them.

We have already taken that leap by saying, ‘How can we best serve you?’

That’s who we are. We want to serve the students, we want to serve the people. People like us, people different from us. That’s just who we are.

RB: We’ve talked with a lot of different cultural organizations on campus. There have been groups that we went to, and they’ve told us, ‘You were the first ones to ever reach out, you’re the first ones that come to our meetings for this, you’re the first ones to actually hear what we have to say.’ We plan to continue that work, because we want to be the change that we want to see. There’s a big growing nontraditional population of students here, and every year that continues to grow: students that are first generation, students that are immigrants in this country, students that are transferring here. We want to give them a seat at the table. So together with their love and support, we can make the University better for all its students so we can be the change we want to see, so we can be diverse and dedicated.

TMD: Why did you two decide to

run together as president and vice president?

NZ: We had met a couple times earlier, but we didn’t really know each other before this year. While working on FlipBLUE, we got to talking more and more. We had a shared vision for what campus could look like. We saw that there is a lack of sufficient programming and policies being implemented this year. We don’t think that’s the fault of anyone. It’s just been transition years with COVID. But we thought we could bring a sense of pragmatism and practicality to CSG, especially with our experience in government. So that’s how we decided to run.

EN: Ron and I, we’ve been best friends for a few months now. We met in the LSA student government, and it just felt natural for us to run together because we’re both passionate about making a difference. After talking to each other, learning more about each other and seeing how passionate the other person is, we were like, ‘Yeah, we should do this.’ Especially since we’ve shared some experiences within Student Government that weren’t the most positive, it really solidified our bond. We said we’re gonna be a powerhouse. Let’s get this done. Let’s put that work in.

TMD: For the executive runner, what are some prevalent campus issues you plan on addressing through your campaign?

NZ: Jackie highlighted a lot of our main points that we’re trying to

emphasized the value of renovating the CCRB given its contributions to student well-being.

“This is a truly comprehensive facility built for student experience,” Widen said. “This is a prime example for many decades to come of our campus’s commitment to health and well-being for our students and our entire University of Michigan community.”

Regent Denise Illitch (D), co-chair of the Presidential Search Committee, gave an update on the board’s search for a new University president and expressed gratitude for the level of campus involvement in the process.

“I want to say how grateful we are for the outpouring of community engagement and feedback we’ve received since the beginning of this presidential search process,” Illitch said. “Over 1,000 University of Michigan community members completed our feedback survey.”

Illitch also shared some of the major themes from the February Presidential Search Committee listening sessions.

“Number one, it is important that the next president rebuild trust and accountability within the University community, leading with integrity and readdressing past abuses and sexual misconduct,” Illitch said. “I was struck by all (the) sessions, the observations of being heard, and of listening and of being appreciated.”

The regents then allowed public commenters to communicate what they would like to see in the next University president. Law student Hafsa Tout said she wanted a president who would commit to listening to students and addressing campus concerns.

As an undergraduate at the University, Tout was a Central Student Government (CSG) representative and was part of passing a resolution in 2017 asking the board to divest from companiesbasedinIsraelinresponseto the occupation of Palestine. The board voted to reject this resolution less than a month later. Tout said she felt that the University’s recent announcement to pull its investments in Russian-based companies demonstrated hypocrisy in light of its previous attitude toward divesting in Israel-based companies.

“The statement that the board issued in response to that resolution read, ‘We remain committed to the University’s long-standing policy to shield the endowment from political pressures,’” Tout said. “But here we are in 2022 when the board and Interim President are openly, unhesitatingly and quickly making decisions and changes to the endowment in response to undeniably political situations across the world, which fully deserve that response, but which directly contradict that supposed commitment to shielding the endowment from political pressure.”

Illitch also addressed concerns from meeting attendees who commented on the difficulties that individuals with physical disabilities face opening doors on campus.

“We commit to prioritize and provide an automatic door opener into all of our public buildings right now,” Illitch said. “We have 50 buildings in need of that; we already have several hundred automatic door openers on entry doors, but if there is a specific door that’s difficult to open, please email (me) … or the associate vice president of Facilities and Operations.”

Illitch said a new map of all accessible pathways in buildings will be completed over the summer and made available to the public in Fall 2022.

Public Health senior Nithya Arun, CSG President, asked the Regents to consider changing the name of Angell Hall — a building named after the University’s longest-serving president, James B. Angell.

In 1880, Angell negotiated The Angell Treaty, which allowed the United States to restrict the migration of certain categories of Chinese workers and is widely considered to be a precursor to the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, a piece of legislation that prohibited all immigration of Chinese laborers into the United States.

Arun also asked the regents to consider increasing the CSG student fee, which currently requires all students to pay $9.19. Arun did not clarify the amount she is interested in receiving.

“We implement recurring programs that are heavily utilized by students, such as a free subscription to The New York Times and Wall Street Journal, a GRE, MCAT and LSAT test prep program provided at reduced cost, subsidized transportation to and from the airport for major breaks and significant student org funding,” Arun said. “Unfortunately, given that our current student fee is set at $9.19, these programs are becoming unsustainable for CSG’s budget. So when the time comes to vote on the new budget, I urge you to vote in favor of a fee increase.”

The regents then voted to approve a $41 million update to the Big House, including an $8 million upgrade to the production room — the space that

Design by Kate Shen

to compensate for their work. The Ford School of Public Policy offers funding for Master of Public Policy students with low-paying or unpaid internships — 60% of MPP students receive funding from Ford School partnerships or other U-M resources. Similarly, the University of Michigan Law School guarantees up to a $6,500 stipend for secondyear law students who take summer internships with government agencies or public interest organizations.

MSW students are not the only master’s students who are not paid

for field work. Fischer wrote that other master’s programs in the health sciences at the University also do not provide monetary compensation for clinical work.

“No other health sciences professional program at U-M, including medicine, nursing, dentistry and pharmacy, pays students for clinical training recognizing the critical impact of experiential learning,” Fischer wrote.

make with the campaign. During my first year, I saw a lot of programs and policies that were directed towards students’ everyday lives, something as simple as the calculator and iClicker loan programs. Jackie and I really

want to provide the small things for students that don’t end up being small after all.

Palmer Commons, Forum Hall 4:00 pm

Read more at MichiganDaily.com

Read more at MichiganDaily.com

2022 Thomas Spencer Jerome Lecture Series

A FUTURE IN

Ethics of Archaeology and Heritage Monday, March 28

Engineering Internationalism: Colonialism, the Cold War and UNESCO’s Victory in Nubia

Wednesday, March 30 Friday, April 1 Monday, April 4

Imperialism, Internationalism and Archaeology in the Un/Making of the Middle East

Saving the World? Reflections on UNESCO’s Mid Century Mission in Conflict Developing Petra: UNESCO, the World Bank, and America in the Desert

Lynn Meskell is a Penn Integrates Knowledge (PIK) Professor at the University

of Pennsylvania, the Richard D. Green Professor of Anthropology, Professor of Historic Preservation in the Weitzman School of Design, a curator at the Penn Museum, and an A.D. White Professor-at-Large at Cornell University.

For more info, including Zoom links, visit events.umich.edu/event/92110 or call 734.615.6667.

controls the audiovisual experience for several U-M sports venues across campus — which serves field hockey, ice hockey, basketball, football, soccer, indoor track, baseball and softball.

Additional updates include replacements for the north and south video boards in Michigan Stadium for $12 million, and an audio system replacement for $5 million. Other updates to the Big House include safety additions for $4 million and infrastructure, site work and design fees for $12 million. According to Rob Rademacher, chief operating officer of U-M Athletics, the source of funding will be Athletic Department Gifts Restricted for Capital Improvements.

“I also just want to reiterate a little bit of my experience in sports and with stadiums, and I can’t begin to tell you the enhancement of a scoreboard and the infrastructure and the new technology around it, how much it enhances the fan experience,” Illitch said. “It will be like night and day.”

During the public comment portion of the meeting, several commenters expressed desires for increased resources for student physical and financial well-being.

Elaine Lande, comprehensive studies program lecturer, said the University needs to increase the availability of menstrual products on campus. In late January, the University announced 670 main-floor restrooms will be given free menstrual products in all academic and student-facing buildings.

“I am a Gen X-er,” Lande said. “I learned a lot from my students. They are not shy or embarrassed to talk about their periods as my generation and those before; I am following their

lead. While the need for feminine products in the bathrooms may be difficult for someone to understand, I liken this to someone defecating and then realizing there’s no toilet paper, or in this case, having no expectation of toilet paper available.”

Social Work students Matthew Dargay and Arie Davey, representatives for Payments for Placements, said students in the School of Social Work should be paid for the field placements in which they are required to participate for graduation.

The organization wrote a petition in January outlining their concerns and emphasizing that the University affords stipends to students in other graduate programs, a practice they argue should be extended to include social work students.

“Nine hundred and fourteen hours I work in my internship are required for me to receive my master’s degree,” Davey said. “I do the same work as the paid staff at my agency, but I don’t get paid. Social work students are in a financial crisis.”

Dargay echoed similar sentiments and pointed to how Public Policy and Law students at the University are compensated for their internships, while Social Work students are still not.

“We applaud the University of Michigan for affording stipends to public policy students and law students who have decided to take their internships with public interest firms,” Dargay said. “And we believe that social work students should be treated similarly.”

Daily Staff Reporters Anna Fifelski and Samantha Rich can be reached at afifelsk@umich.edu and sammrich@ umich.edu.

Arts

4 — Wednesday, March 30, 2022

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

The Surprise B-Side

Why I hate classic rom-com endings

SARAH RAHMAN Senior Arts Editor

IN THIS WORLD of expectations, schedules, meticulously crafted five-year plans and a deep underlying pressure to have everything figured out, a surprise can be refreshing, terrifying, the absolute worst or the one thing you needed all along. Surprises have been the key to my life, simultaneously adding the sprinkles of delight I need to get through the ceaseless repetition of existence while also ripping any semblance of control out from under me like an amateur magician pulling a tablecloth from under fine china (and leaving me to pick up the pieces). Simply put, I wouldn’t be the person I am today without the surprises I’ve experienced along the way. So of course, I wanted to hear about what surprises mean to the thoughtful, lovely and sometimes delightfully unhinged writers here at the Arts section of The Michigan Daily.

As I gave them a false pitch for this B-Side (The Taylor Swift B-Side) before revealing the true

SERENA IRANI Daily Arts Writer

Design by Francie Ahrens

theme, watching their faces morph from disgust to relief to betrayal, I knew they wouldn’t skip the

https://files.slack.com/files-pri/T01S9SM6UAVF038S0BAH0F/untitled_artwork__4_.jpg

Musical theatre magic happens on a screen too, not just onstage MALLORY EDGELL Daily Arts Writer

I AVOIDED DOWNLOADING TikTok for as long as I could. I watched as friends got drawn in, downloading it from the App Store and ending up glued to their phone for hours, as the app scrolled through short-length videos automatically. I never had Vine or Musical.ly, never cared about that side of Gen Z’s pop culture. I never saw the appeal of the short video format. Who could effectively tell stories in so brief a time? What meaningful ideas and thoughts could come from it? I decided as it grew in popularity that I would not download TikTok and waste my time watching mindlessly humorous videos of people I didn’t know.

I finally caved in to the social pressure in January 2020 when a friend convinced me to get the app on the way back from a Broadway performance. Normally after seeing a show, I would spend hours examining the details from scenic transitions to the melody of a single lyric. That night I only spent a brief

amount of time discussing the show, the musical “Jagged Little Pill,” with my friend.

Once we got back to where we were staying on the trip, I sunk into the couch, sucked in by the TikTok pull.

So isn’t it ironic that the very app that pulled me away from thinking about theatre two years ago has ended up being a huge force in theatre’s development since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic? Somehow an app with only a 60-second (and since July 2021, three-minute) video time limit has become a force in the development of theatre works.

On Aug. 10, 2021, this development began with the post of a video by Emily Jacobsen.

Jacobsen created an original audio for the app of herself singing a self-deemed “love ballad” to the rat Remy, the leading character in the 2007 fan-favorite Disney movie “Ratatouille.” As of March 22, 2022, this video has 1.2 million views and 160.5 thousand likes.

But the story didn’t stop after just one video.

On Oct. 19 of that year, Daniel Mertzlufft added onto Jacobsen’s original tune in a new video. By turning it into what he imagined as an Act Two finale song for a Disney-style

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Broadway musical, theatremakers began to see this as a project they could piece together note by note, costume sketch by costume sketch.

Disney Theatrical Group, the producing agency wing of the Walt Disney Company, is responsible for live performances, plays and musicals. To this day they have produced over 15 productions, including incredibly successful adaptations of animated movies such as “Beauty and the Beast,” “The Lion King” and “Aladdin.” The rise of Disney on Broadway brought about some amazing art and important steps forward in the Broadway industry, particularly through “The Lion King.” Known for its use of innovative puppetry to portray the animal characters, the broadway adaptation took home six Tony Awards the year it opened in 1997. Director Julie Taymor became the first woman in the history of the award show to win in the Best Direction of a Musical category. The musical still plays to Broadway audiences today, with over 9,000 performances under its belt.

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ROM-COMS ARE THE film equivalent of comfort foods. They may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but their predictable nature and formulaic plots lend themselves well to staying within the bounds of audience expectations. At the end of the day you’ll laugh, cry and sit with the heart-warming feeling of a love story turning out precisely as it should. Now I’m not really a huge fan of the romantic comedy genre, but I’ve begun to realize that it’s not so much the romance that I’m averse to, but the predictability. Nearly all of the great romantic comedies that have stayed with me are the ones that defy these sorts of expectations, wherein the film’s final moments, they simply don’t end up together.

To clarify, I’m not here to rant about the failings of the modernday rom-com or shame cheesy romance movie lovers, because I promise you I get the appeal.

I understand the familiarity of watching a movie you know like the back of your hand, of drifting off on the couch and waking up an hour later without having missed all that much. Evidently, the romance genre excels in this domain of expected endings; most of us have experienced crying our hearts out and sitting with a warm contented feeling in our chest at the sight of the quintessential climactic airport scene or something as wholeheartedly profound as “a girl standing in front of a boy asking him to love her.”

There’s something inherently special to me when a rom-com strays from this path and actively subverts the age-old, tried and true formula. It’s a bold move, one that the writers must recognize as being instinctually upsetting to much of its audience. But when it’s a well-thought-out decision, it almost always feels right, one that I would argue pulls at your heartstrings even more than the cop-out of a last-second death or uncharacteristic proclamation of love. After watching and reading romance after romance that trains you to put your full faith in the inevitable fate of the Hollywood ending and the way things were supposed to turn out, I find myself drawn to the ones that wreak havoc on nearly all of those preconceived notions and let our sorely misplaced projections of romance down.

Some of my earliest movie memories originate from watching Audrey Hepburn (“My Fair Lady”) gracefully glide across the screen, singing about how “the rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain.” In the ’50s classic “Roman Holiday,” Hepburn as Princess Ann plays hooky for the day with an American reporter running around the city of Rome. As a kid, I could never fully appreciate the final scene, the bittersweet longing apparent in her fleeting remark of “Rome, by all means Rome” as she locks eyes with Gregory Peck (“To Kill a Mockingbird”) in the crowd.

At this moment, we’re thrust back into reality as there’s simply no feasible way for it to work out. She’s European royalty, he’s an American journalist, but the omnipotent cinematic hand guiding their encounters innocently kindles that inkling of hope that it could possibly turn out any other way. To this day I still can’t quite shake the resolve of the film’s ending shot of Peck walking away, a sense of finality seeping into the echoes of his very footsteps. It’s a perfect ending to a perfect movie and more importantly, it’s befitting to the fleeting nature of their relationship and gives Ann the capacity to exist outside of the confines of their love story.

With “Roman Holiday,” the ending is tinged with sadness, but is ultimately pragmatic. I cannot say the same for the rollercoaster that is “The Philadelphia Story.” Another early blueprint in the rom-com field, Tracy Lord (Katherine Hepburn, “Bringing Up Baby”) spends the day before her wedding with undercover reporter Mike (James Stewart, “It’s a Wonderful Life”).

All the signs point to a Mike and Tracy endgame, yet in quite literally the last 30 seconds of the film she not only jilts her fiancé at the altar, but turns down runner-up Mike too. In a surprise upset by all accounts, she remarries her ex-husband Dexter (Cary Grant, “North

by Northwest”) and so concludes a jaw-dropping resolution to a love

quadrilateral the audience wasn’t even aware of.

Beyond the shock factor, the ending works so brilliantly because it not only leaves viewers in a state of laughable bewilderment, but aligns with Tracy’s character and flighty nature. Who she marries ultimately matters very little. What does matter is her desire to not be placed upon a pedestal and perceived as a goddess or a queen, which comes to fruition in those final moments as she proclaims to feel “like a human being!” The ending scene preserves rather than detracts from the consistency of her characterization and establishes the significance of having agency over her own love life, charismatic Jimmy Stewart be damned.

But Tracy’s capricious tendencies have got nothing on the icon that is Holly Golightly (Audrey Hepburn, “My Fair Lady”) of “Breakfast at Tiffany’s.” If you’ve seen it, you’re probably shaking your head at the thought of the movie’s ending being surprising in the slightest, because it’s pretty much your standard heartfelt profession of love and a proposal, followed by a dramatic kiss in the rain (they weren’t exactly reinventing the wheel here). The film is adapted from Truman Capote’s short story of the same name, of which there are some minor variations that attest to a far from G-rated interpretation of Holly. Yet the main difference is in the story’s close, in which Holly leaves her cat behind, flies off to South America and is never seen by the protagonist again.

Now hear me out: that is how the film should have ended. The forced Hollywood ending manifested a romance where there wasn’t one and wholly disregarded Holly as a character. Even in the ending taxi scene, her dialogue is line-for-line from the original text as she repeatedly states her desire to not be caged in by a life of personal attachments.

But in the film, the protagonist’s response twists her words, causing the audience to read her, albeit unpredictable and careless, actions as a cry for help; as if love was a void in her heart in need of fixing, that she was somehow in need of fixing.

Capote’s Holly is an undoubtedly damaged and self-centered person; confining the magnificence that is Hepburn’s performance of a woman of her own devices to that of a helpless heroine is why we sit and watch rom-coms earnestly expecting the female lead to compromise herself, her sense of independence and agency, for the sake of a love story that renders her second-class to the male protagonist’s newfound attachment to her.

I’ll always love “Breakfast at Tiffany’s,” but I’ll never be able to content myself with its uncharacteristically over-romanticized ending. Even if it was done purely as an appeal to mass audiences at the time, it’s a dishonor to Capote’s work: an examination of a spectacularly selfish female character that loves and cares for no one but herself. And sure, even in the original we’re delimited to viewing Holly through the lens of a male narrator’s platonic love for her, but for all the iconic kiss in the rain does to Holly, she might as well have been hit by that taxi. It’s the effective death of her character and all that she stands for. Because in terms of the romantic female lead’s worth, that’s all the viewers care about, right? Married or dead?

A similar line of thought manifests in the holy grail of indie romcoms, “(500) Days of Summer.”

It’s questionable as to whether the ending can even be considered a “surprise,” as it is made abundantly clear from the start that “This is not a love story.” When I first watched this I thought it was the greatest thing I’d ever seen (what 16-year-old didn’t, honestly), but I retrospectively and quite generously view it as a take on the fragile “manic pixie dream girl” fantasy too often projected upon female love interests. It’s hard not to align yourself with Tom (Joseph Gordon-Levitt, “Inception”), to feel your heart shatter as he visually plays out his expectations, or rather our expectations of how their interactions should play out.

The intricately anachronistic timeline also aids in Tom’s faulty memory of events that culminate in the genuine shock of Summer (Zooey Deschanel, “New Girl”) marrying someone else.

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Arts

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Wednesday, March 30, 2022 — 5

Surprises from the man who taught me how to love a good movie MEERA KUMAR Book Beat Editor

WHOEVER SAID “KIDS say the darndest things” has obviously not heard their father share personal information before.

When moving me into my apartment this year, my dad walked around the room in his self-possessed, serene way, a half-smile on his face. Without an ounce of malice, he laughed to himself about me, “You’re so spoiled. When I was in grad school, I shared a room half this size with three roommates.

We had two beds — whoever got home last had to sleep on the air mattress,” adding, “the first person home had to make dinner.” My father, who would rather enjoy the sweet sound of a grating silence than tell me about his personal life, let slip a tiny detail of his college experience. It was not what I expected.

Most other things I know about my dad’s childhood are bits I’ve pieced together, information stolen away from family members or weaseled out of him while he sat in the passenger seat, tapping out work emails on his phone as I drove around to accrue hours for my Level 1 driver’s license. Here’s what I’ve known for a while: My dad grew up in Chennai, India and he skipped two grades in school, so he was consistently smaller than everyone else in his black and white

class pictures. From what I understand, he and his dad (my grandpa) had a distant relationship, but they watched movies together sometimes.

If you ask me what my favorite movie is, I probably won’t tell you the truth in order to maintain my (nonexistent) respectability in Daily Arts. Well, here it is: I love “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.” I love the brightly filtered shots of mountains of playfully imagined sweets, worth more than the GDP of a small country. There truly is no other word to describe the music except for charming — the melancholic violins and bells ringing with a simplicity that brings you back to a sweeter, simpler time, telling you how to feel and doing it well. The swirling, terrifying boat scene montage — which, yes, does feature a chicken being beheaded — still scares me, but I dreaded the scene so much I was curious to see it whenever I rewatched the movie, which was often; at first at the insistence of my dad, but later it was me that began asking that we watch the movie more times than I can count.

Once, when I was in elementary school, he mentioned that he watched the film with his dad — the only memory he’s shared with me of his father. When my dad was 19, he came to the unknown (Toledo, Ohio) for grad school.

My grandpa died shortly after, and my dad couldn’t fly back to India for the funeral due to his immigration status. When he finally

made it back a year later, his old dachshund ran up to my dad at the front door of his family home and collapsed in his arms, dying a few minutes later. It’s worlds away from what I’ve had to go through, but it seems a distance from who he is now as well — my dad is just my dad, who loves intentionally pronouncing words wrong to irritate everyone (including me), blasts his Simon & Garfunkel music too loud on speakers that he’s set up in the basement and buys strawberries on his way back from work if he hears that I’ve come back home from Ann Arbor.

When I moved back home in the second semester of my freshman year of college, it was just the two of us, but by then I had my own secret. My dad has always hoped I would become an engineer, enamored by the stability it would give me, but by this point, I was staying up late researching how to transfer out of the College of Engineering; I had stopped understanding why it all mattered, the physics and math and programming. It hit me that this was it, that the tangibility of calculating the physical plausibility of structures and taking soil samples was what I had chosen to do for the rest of my life, instead of learning about the books and ideas and people I had always ached to know more about. The reverse wasn’t the most exciting prospect for my father, who has moved the earth and the sky in order for me to have a more stable life than he does.

Courtesy of Warner Bros

Maybe a better child would have stuck with engineering, but I jumped into aimlessly taking various classes: environmental science, creative writing, anthropology, architecture.

During the week, we had intense conversations about my (lack of a) major, but on Sunday nights, we took a break: We watched movies like “Parasite,” “Knives Out” and “Soul,” and would visibly jolt backward during jump scares and sit in our basement for a while afterward, breaking down the movie, and of course, looking up everyone involved

in the production on Wikipedia. What I don’t think my father realizes is that he taught me how to love movies, that I learned from him — from the man who took me to the library on weekends, who bought a Detroit Institute of Arts membership so we could go together and whose love language is reading Wikipedia articles on authors I offhandedly mention — that sometimes art can say what you cannot.

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Musings about pop-out cakes KARI ANDERSON Daily Arts Writer

DURING AN EARLY scene in “Singin’ in the Rain,” there’s a moment that I’ve always found memorable, and mildly confusing. A man throwing a party shows off a massive cake and tells movie star Don Lockwood (Gene Kelly, “An American in Paris”) that there’s something “special” about it. And then Kathy Selden (Debbie Reynolds, “How the West Was Won”) pops out with a big performer’s smile, but when she looks down at Don, a man she had literally just rejected and lied to and generally belittled out of spite for the fact that he was being a jerk, her smile fades and is replaced with a look of shock.

The idea of a woman popping out of a cake being more surprised than the people witnessing said moment is kind of absurd. But at the same time, isn’t the idea of a woman

popping out of a cake already absurd?

It’s a trope that I’ve heard about more than witnessed: It happens occasionally in the context of celebrity events and historical parties, as well as films and TV shows (including “The Bachelor”). The point here is that it’s not a common part of life, but is a recognizable trope; if I were to ask someone about “those cakes that people jump out of,” most people would know what I was talking about. There’s a societal understanding or at least acknowledgment that pop-out cakes exist, and a general association with them as signs of surprise, celebration, wealth and status.

Truthfully, I can’t believe I haven’t questioned the idea of pop-out cakes sooner, because they are even more bizarre the more you think about them. There are so many pieces that go into the creation of a pop-out cake, and every single one of them is strange. As a result, I have a lot of questions.

Who came up with this?

The answer is apparently the Romans — which, unlike someone popping out of a cake, is not much of a surprise. It was originally with pies; it became popular among the English to make it appear as if live animals were popping out of pies (which is how we get “four-and-twenty blackbirds”). But I more want to know who exactly came up with this idea, the same way I want to know how someone looked at a pineapple and said, “That looks edible!” or how someone looked at the sea and said, “This looks like a great spot to build Venice.” I want to know who looked at a cake and said, “You know what would make this better? If it was bigger, but instead of more cake, it had a person inside of it.” It’s a chain of thoughts that will forever baffle me.

Who even makes these cakes?

In my opinion, it’s not worth asking how these cakes are made — there are videos and instructions about DIYs on the internet. I’m

Surprise! Your favorite movie is a little bit fascist LAINE BROTHERTON Digital Culture Beat Editor

WALT DISNEY, I think, is probably more influential than Jesus. So why do I feel like critics shy away from critical analyses of Disney films, especially the classics? Just because they are cute and enormously popular to the point of being mythologized does not make them safe from insufferable people like me.

In fact, I have never seen a Disney film in the same light after taking U-M class FTVM 333, or Fascist Cinemas. My capac-

don’t have a rags-to-riches story, an emphasis on benevolence and “good morals” over ambition and individualism?

Furthermore, how does this relate to fascism?

“Fascist” might be a flashy buzzword, but it shouldn’t be thrown around indiscriminately; it is a set of ideas, an amalgamation of strategies, that a dictator or governing body might employ.

It’s not just in the leader, though — for a society to be considered “fascist,” a set of values is deeply embedded into its culture. In the most simplistic way possible, fascism is characterized by a cult of tradition, nationalism, anti-

Design by Reid Graham

ity to enjoy these films without picking them apart to a pulp has significantly reduced. I’m not talking about The Lion King — that would be too easy — but about the much more subtle ways that Disney flirts with fascism.

If your favorite form of escapism is a Technicolor song and dance, be warned: The innocence of any Disney classic crumbles under just a little socio-historical scrutiny.

Consider the bare-bones plot of any Disney fairytale. The protagonist — usually a young woman — wants relief from her current situation, whether she is poor, her family is mean to her or her life is boring. She is surrounded by cute little bunny rabbits and birds as she sings about her fantastical hopes and dreams. Except they aren’t so fantastical, because she always gets married in the end, hence “happily ever after.” How far is this from the myth of the American dream? How many Disney films can you name that

intellectualism, contempt for the weak, selective populism and a frustrated middle class. But the list goes on. There are ten pillars that contribute towards a more general fascism, according to Yale professor Jason Stanley’s book “How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us And Them.” Any of history’s fascist dictatorships you might think of may use five or six or seven of these strategies, but not necessarily all of them. In a similar fashion, Disney films do the same thing.

Of course, I could get specific with it. Let’s go back in time to 1937, the year of “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.” As a juicy time capsule of escapism demanded by the Depression-era U.S., the film is consistent with several of Stanley’s fascist tendencies. Our protagonist, Snow White, is a princess by birthright but a lowly maid by the order of her evil stepmother. But she doesn’t mope and whine about her situation — instead, our prin-

cess is complacent and pleasant.

Snow White fits nicely into the natural hierarchies of worth that a fascist society demands: She recognizes that her role as a woman is one of submission and patience, and as a perfect fascist woman she is virtuous and pure.

The film also makes an “us versus them” distinction; the stepmother-slash-queen is evil because of her individualistic values of selfishness and ambition, values that threaten the altruistic purity of Snow White and the rest of the “good guys.” And don’t forget the dwarfs themselves — Grumpy and the other guys are just cartoonish iterations of the fascist “everyman,” with their admirable work ethic and apparent infatuation with labor. The dwarves valorize self-sufficiency and give rise to the distinction of hardworking versus lazy. “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” puts forth a damning thesis of rural idealism and rejection of modernity, a tale of happy endings and a mythic utopia over a backdrop of tragedy and loss of hope during the Great Depression.

It doesn’t stop here — ask me to consume any piece of media that holds significant cultural power, and I will find a source of propaganda. Don’t even ask me about Marvel’s big fat crush on the military (surprise, Disney also owns Marvel). You might be reading this and notice that the films I describe as “fascist” don’t exactly align with textbook examples of fascism. But that’s the problem. Fascism is often understated. It slips through the cracks — it’s something that doesn’t get noticed until it’s too late, and that’s the point.

Lest we forget that films, especially fancy ones from big studios, were probably (and still might be) the most effective mediums of cultural influence.

Through these films, micro-signs of nationalism and indulgences in utopia — the core ideas of fascism — are flirting with American audiences. I’m not arguing that Disney movies are abundant sources of propaganda, but that inklings of fascist ideas might wriggle their way into our minds so that we don’t see much of a problem.

more interested in how it feels to make this kind of cake, especially for bakers that are making pop-out cakes made of real cake.

Most pop-out cakes are made of cardboard and covered in frosting to make them look like real cakes. For a true cake maker, it must be humiliating to have your one true passion be reduced to making a prop so that some rich guy can feel cool when a girl jumps out of his cake.

Some of them don’t bother with cake altogether — you can rent fake pop-out cakes for a decently steep price. The ones made of real cake are even more expensive — which means that these bakers are making a cake with a giant part of it taken out but charging more than a fully-intact cake would cost.

Maybe they’re the real winners here.

If you’re in the cake, how do you know when to pop out?

Because I cannot imagine that sound travels well through layers of cardboard and frosting. Is there a signal, like a musical cue,

that you have to hit at exactly the right time?

Obviously being crouched in the sweaty, cramped space within the cake would be torturous enough, but then there’s the attempt to smash through the cake and get out gracefully at the exact perfect moment.

What if you’re too early? It would be simply mortifying; a smashed-through pop-out cake cannot be un-smashed-through.

Then there’s the other part of it: the moment when you emerge. If you’re in the unfortunate position of being Kathy Selden, you might find yourself face-to-face with a very famous man that you just emotionally destroyed mere hours before. I don’t know who I would expect to see the moment I jumped out of the cake, and I can’t imagine it would be easy to control my emotions. In all truth, Kathy’s only slightly stunned face is impressive; I probably would’ve fallen out of the cake altogether.

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6 — Wednesday, March 30, 2022

Michigan in Color

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Our wall of paintings: healing through art SAHANA NANDIGAMA MiC Columnist

Over the past two years, my vibrant paintings have engulfed my once unembellished bedroom wall. Each comes with a unique color scheme: from a pale orange canvas of Lisa Simpson to soulful butterflies flying across a lilac sky. To me, painting is a therapeutic release that I don’t find in other spaces I use for comfort. While I often use journaling as an outlet to organize my thoughts and track my personal growth, I find that painting gives me the ability to express my emotions and leave the experience with a souvenir. I can trace a memory back to every one of my pieces and the emotions I experienced during its creation. Adding onto my wall of paintings has become an incentive for me to experience a brief moment of euphoria and pride for the art that I made with my own vision. It quite literally allows me to bring my thoughts into reality. When I paint, I find freedom in mixing any color to create another. My paintbrush is not capable of creating anything but beauty, and I have the ultimate autonomy of deciding how to personalize my canvas. During 2020, I used painting as a fluid art form; it was the only aspect that I had control of when every other part of my life was thrown in disarray during the pandemic.

Since 2020, 17 members of my family have tested positive for COVID-19, two of whom have died, one of them being my grandfather. My grandfather had lived in the U.S. with my family since I was born, and as a first-generation Asian American, I saw him as one of my greatest blessings.

Having a figure like him present throughout my life, I learned the importance of humility, genuinity, strength and compassion simply by observing him. Between his conversations with everyone that entered our home, the relationships he built with

my friends or how he said “God bless you” every time he answered and ended a phone call, my grandfather set the foundation for my values that I still live by.

He also served as a bridge connecting both of my cultures — American and Indian. Since visiting India was only possible every few years, I relied on my grandfather to affirm my Indian identity. The universal identity crisis that first-generation Americans face is humbling and never-ending, but having my grandfather around was how I felt enough. With the inability to grow up with my family in India, I held onto my grandfather as a connection to my culture. Practicing Telugu with him, listening to his stories from his childhood or even teaching him about Thanksgiving and other American traditions gave me

best friends or even stepping outside for a walk has trapped me in an endless bubble of fear. Will I encounter the virus today?

Will I see someone, who saw someone, who tested positive? I hope I don’t expose my family. Dealing with anxiety my whole life, I’ve leaned on my friends for support and surrounded myself with the things I love to do when things get rough. But even this form of comfort was taken away from me. How was I supposed to do that when I was in my room trying to do anatomy labs over Google Meets and adjust to the possibility of encountering the virus if I left my house? I was trapped in a state of constant movement and change. I needed time to stay still for just a moment to process my grief, but instead, the pandemic introduced so much disturbance in my life that

Design by Yash Aprameya

a balance that I couldn’t find on my own.

Losing him meant losing my immediate sense of cultural identity. When he passed away, I struggled with losing someone so sacred to my heart, as well as my understanding of who I was.

Grieving the death of a loved one is hard in itself, but grieving someone through a pandemic is a slap in the face. Going to the grocery store, making plans with my

I simply didn’t have the energy to experience; I just had to get through each day.

While this was the ugliest time in my life, it enabled me to create the most beautiful art. I channeled my grief into painting as a way to cope with my new reality.

While painting was not an escape from the burden I was bearing, it helped me understand my situation better.

My grandfather’s passing taught me that

life is a lot like painting on a blank canvas.

We have an idea of what we want in life, but the colors we are given rarely align with our wishes. Regardless, we end up finding ways to work with our circumstances to create a masterpiece. This pandemic will eventually come to an end (hopefully). The mask mandates will lift (for a final time).

“Maskfishing” will no longer be an issue for Gen Z to consider. Life will go back to being somewhat normal. Maybe, even, the lingering fear I face when leaving my home will disappear as well. But the guilt that plagues my mind will forever be a part of me. The survivor’s guilt I have had throughout this pandemic has been one of the biggest roadblocks in my healing process. I remember the long-awaited day I got my vaccine. Despite my mortal fear of needles, I was almost excited to get my injection. I remember thinking that finally I could hug my friends without having to replay and worry about the interaction later that night (though later that sense of security would prove false). But I found myself feeling empty. My first instinct was to feel guilty for surviving the pandemic while my grandfather wasn’t able to. I constantly question why I’m able to enjoy the things that were stripped away from the victims of this virus and the families that it ran through, and it makes me sick that I can’t find an answer.

I write this piece with the newfound realization that my survivor’s guilt is undeserved. Society has failed our communities so badly that we’ve convinced ourselves that we are deserving of punishment even when we are at our most vulnerable states.

This toxic notion pushes the idea that we, as humans, have the duty to continue pushing ourselves past awful situations in order to prove our worth by being “resilient” in the end. There is no finding beauty in this situation, because beauty doesn’t exist here. That’s why I found it so incredible when I witnessed the people around

me create it even amidst the hell we were going through.

Before the pandemic, my life was filled with familiarity and structure within my community at school and my town — from my AP Chem lab table, the girl who held the door open for me at 7:35 a.m., the Starbucks baristas who knew to brew a tall salted caramel hot chocolate every time I stumbled in with my backpack to my four best friends who saw me every day after school. The pandemic put my personal issues into perspective as I heard stories about the 400,000 families who also lost a member to COVID-19, friends of mine whose parents had lost their jobs and those struggling with their mental health. I finally grasped the idea that every community member of my previously structured life, from my favorite Starbucks barista to my lab partner, was also forced to work with a blank canvas. Social media became a new place of unison for these members of my community; I witnessed them post updates on their health anxiety, how they implemented family walks into their daily routine or how they experimented with new hobbies. It was during this time that each of our individually complicated lives became the most similar as we all sought to “create art” amidst our personal struggles.

My community showed me that in pressing times like this pandemic, humans have the same capacity to experience joy as we do pain. What surprised me, though, was how natural recovery seems to be.

Watching many of the people around me being thrown into a realm of the unknown and still making the most of their situation showed me that while I am not obligated to find the silver lining in all of my losses, it’s pretty amazing that somehow I can. And discovering this ability is when we begin to create each of our own masterpieces.

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Bajo El Sol: A trip to Mexico 20 years in the making JUAN PABLOS ANGEL MARCOS MiC Columnist

Te voy a contar una historia…

Una historia de muchas lágrimas Mis lágrimas y Las lágrimas de mi familia Una historia de mi vida Una parte de mi vida Que me va a tomar años para entender Años, años y años Pero Es parte del viaje Acompañeme For the first time ever in my life, I embarked on a trip 20 years in the making: I set foot into the country of Mexico.

The country I dreamed of visiting since I was a tree-climbing toddler, theater performing teenager and now an anxious, stressed out young adult. Dreams that started in my childhood bedroom back in Wyoming, MI, created in the twin bed with the Spider-Man sheets.

During my adulthood, I was still that small Mexican boy with caramel skin and shaggy hair that dreamt about visiting Mexico, living with that childlike wonder and waiting for the day I would see Mexico in all its glory…

What does Mexico look like?

What does Mexico smell like?

What does Mexico feel like?

Since I was a little kid, I always knew I was Mexican. I spoke Spanish at home, I ate Mom’s spicy enchiladas, I learned that my parents were immigrants from Mexico and how to navigate life under these circumstanc-

es. I went to quinceañeras, feeling the booming bass in my heart, and ate all the wonder pan dulce. These things were normal to me because it was all I knew, but this understanding of my identity had always been something in my peripheral mind.

I remember the day when I discovered how much culture I truly held.

I was in third grade and it was like any other day. During our usual snack break, I pulled three items out of my lunch box: a banana, Tajín y mi concha…

Three of my favorite foods in the entire world!

I peeled the banana, popped the cap off my Tajín bottle, sprinkled the seasoning on the top of the banana and took one big bite. Once I finished eating the banana, I took another bite of the chocolate concha. As I finished my lunch, my teacher walked up behind me to peer over my shoulder and with a curious voice, she asked, “What’s that?”

I shifted my body to quickly inform her, “It’s a concha! And this is my Tajín! What, you don’t know what this is?”

I was astonished that she didn’t know what I was eating. This was my normal, and I had to realize that other people didn’t eat my “normal.” I remember little Pablo feeling a bit perplexed, but also filled with a belly full of pride. At an early age, I was proud of my Mexican heritage and cherished the food I brought to class. All the other kids were eating their lunchables, peanut butter jelly sandwiches and other classic American lunchtime favorites, but there I was enjoying my favorite foods….

Un platano Un poquito de Tajín y Una concha Eso era mi lonche There were even times before school where I would join my mom in delivering lunch to my dad during work…

Una torta con frijoles, Aguacate y Una Coca-Cola Eso era su lonche Even with all this self-admiration I had in third grade, growing up in America, there were times when my Mexican identity was questioned.

Growing up in the U.S., I thought to myself…

ties. Though it was a surface level comment that people would use against me, I would still think to myself…

Am I Mexican enough?

Despite these incessant doubts about my identity brought about by living in the U.S., the dreams of visiting Mexico that were imagined from my Spider-Man bed all those years ago never faded.

And this spring, those childhood dreams finally became a reality: I visited Mexico, consequently gaining new confidence in my

dawn saying goodbye to my parents. Then in the blink of an eye, I was waiting in the immigration line to officially check into Mexico.

My Tío picked us up from the airport and took us on a speedy tour of Mexico city in his car. He insisted that we had to do a bit of sightseeing before we headed to my Abuelita’s casa. As we were swerving through traffic and dodging the hectic drivers, he talked about the history of Mexico City: how it was built on a giant lake, the history of the ancient Aztec civilization and much much more. He was giving me a whole history lesson and I was absolutely loving it.

Am I Mexican enough?

What a silly question! But this silly question stuck with me — especially when it came to my Spanish speaking abilities.

I spoke Spanish at home with my parents and in other settings when visiting our family friends, but for the most part I primarily spoke English. I’m the youngest out of my siblings, and I always knew that my Spanish was not the strongest out of the bunch.

In high school, some kids would tease me and my Spanish by calling me a “gringo.” Now the word gringo can have multiple meanings, and it isn’t always used as an offensive word.

It can refer to a traveler, a person of foreign birth, a person who doesn’t speak Spanish or Hispanics that speak very little Spanish or aren’t in touch with their Latino roots. Still, I never liked being described as a gringo because I knew personally that I was tapped into my Mexican roots to the best of my abili-

Design by Maya Sheth

native tongue, and more significantly, my Mexican identity.

From the moment I entered the Benito Juarez International Airport en la Ciudad de México, I was in a country that felt so familiar yet so different. My brain was trying to make sense of where I was because I couldn’t believe I had actually arrived. It was only four hours earlier that I was back in the cold Chicago

I was listening to every word he was saying with the biggest smile across my face. While he focused on getting us home in one piece, talking as he was making turns and shifting into different gears, my face was lit up, staring and listening to him talk about Mexico with such passion.

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Chinese girl eats dirty for 24 hours CLAIRE GALLAGHER MiC Columnist

As a product of the time I spent counting my calories, weighing myself twice a day and cutting out major food groups from my diet, I could tell you a dozen different ways to turn a rice cake into a slightly less bland “meal” or how to make cauliflower rice taste almost like the real deal. I could tell you exactly how many calories are in a serving of rice and exactly how many grams of protein are in a cup of yogurt.

“Clean eating” dominated my Instagram explore page and TikTok feed until I was spending hours in the grocery store reading ingredient lists and nutrition labels every time I needed to buy something.

There’s a fixation on cleanliness that dominates diet culture today. No longer are we in the era of keto diets or fat-free chips. Instead, we’re told to cook without oil, to cut out dairy and gluten and processed foods. To never drink alcohol and to live and breathe green smoothies and salad bowls. I tried, with great effort, to achieve the aura of cleanliness and light that seemed to saturate the women I followed on social media, an aura that they told me came from their diets. Clean eating told me to focus on protein, but only in the form of chicken breast or tofu nuggets.

It told me that carbs make you fat — unless it’s oatmeal or quinoa — and that oils and sauces were my worst enemy. Most importantly, it told me that if I wanted to be like the girls I followed, there was a select group of food options I had to choose from … and Chinese food was certainly not included.

For context, my family’s primary love language is food. On nights I was up late studying in high school, my mother would bring a plate of cut-up fresh fruit to my room. My Ayi made me a homecooked meal everyday after school from grades K-12: xucài ròushí mian (pickled mustard greens and pork noodle soup), ji ozi (dumplings) and yóufàn (savory sticky rice), su nlàt ng (hot and sour soup) and xi obáicài (sauteed baby bok choy). Once in ninth grade, I told her that I loved Asian pears and now every year when they’re in season, she buys me boxes and boxes of them (I would never tell her that I don’t really love them anymore). My grandmother has arthritis and can’t stand for too long without needing to rest, but she still makes me soup when I’m sick and m f n (sauteed rice noodles) on the nights before I go back to school because she heard that it’s my favorite recipe of hers. I grew up on Chinese food from my grandmother’s kitchen, the restaurants Ayi’s sister worked at and the supermarkets where I had thirty aun-

ties who would give me free mochi and Choco-pies. For a family that struggles to show affection in a conventional way, I’ve never doubted that I am truly and deeply loved, a sentiment communicated through our sharing of food.

My family’s cooking has always been a source of pride for me. I thought of them as artists and musicians in the kitchen, creating colorful, intricate dishes from the simplest ingredients. When I was in third grade, I promised my Ayi that when I grew up and had my own money, I would buy her her own restaurant so that everyone could eat the food I loved so much. However, I quickly learned that others saw my culture’s food not as something to be revered, but something to be corrected.

In 2019, Arielle Haspel, a white health and nutrition coach, opened her own Chinese restaurant named “Lucky Lee’s” in an attempt to do just that. The restaurant’s logo was adorned with chopsticks and a lotus flower painting decorated a wall inside (points for cherry-picking what fits her Orientalist aesthetic). When promoting her restaurant, Haspel described her vision as a ‘clean’ version of Chinese cuisine, one that would be accessible to her and her food-sensitive clients. She boasted that her lo mein would not make you feel “bloated and icky” the next day because her food would not be “too oily.” Blog posts

on Haspel’s page mentioned health-ifying Chinese food that is usually “doused in brown sauces” and makes your eyes puffy.

Upon facing backlash, Haspel defended herself by asserting that her mantra of clean eating is “all about finding a healthier alternative to your favorite indulgent food,” regardless of what cuisine that food was associated with. This pseudo-apology for offending the Chinese community failed to address how all of her “clean eating” marketing carried the glaringly obvious connotation that Chinese food in and of itself is dirty and unhealthy. By default, this response also failed to address the historical association of whiteness with cleanliness and Color with uncleanliness.

There’s nothing wrong with the concept of a Chinese restaurant tailored to those with dietary restrictions. Creating glutenfree, dairy-free or nut-free options, among others, is a great, inclusive idea. But you know what? I actually don’t even want to give Haspel that one, because my sister’s favorite restaurant when we were kids was a Chinese-owned, vegan Chinese restaurant. So it’s not an innovative idea then, because shocker! Chinese food is more than orange chicken and chow mein. My frustration with this restaurant doesn’t stem from a white woman opening a restaurant to serve another country’s cuisine, either. Fuchsia Dunlop’s Chinese cook-

books are awesome and delicious. Instead, my frustration stems from a white woman implying that Chinese food has something to be cured.

Haspel’s visions of “fixing” Chinese food are hardly novel. Chinese food’s original bogeyman, MSG, has been demonized since the 60s. There is no scientific evidence that MSG has negative health effects and yet, the term Chinese Restaurant Syndrome was coined in 1969 to describe the alleged burning and chest-pain inducing effects of MSG. In the 1990s, the FDA concluded that MSG is safe for consumption.

But still, MSG continues to be vilified in the food industry and used to uphold the image of Chinese food as unhealthy and unclean. Anyway, MSG is in ranch dressing which is like, the most American thing I can think of.

To counter Haspel’s assertions about Chinese food and its alleged bloating properties, as well as the xenophobic undertones of our society having a term called “Chinese Restaurant Syndrome,” allow me to walk you through a “what I eat in a day” in the life of a K-12 me. While much of Chinese cuisine might fall into whatever fad diet is trending at the moment, it already has universal health benefits that I’m glad to be acquainted with in my everyday life.

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Michigan in Color

Wednesday, March 30, 2022 — 7

I’m just some guy: navigating my ethnically ambiguous “American” identity S TEPHEN BUCKLEY MiC Columnist

“I want the tall Mexican kid!”

Nobody moved from the pickup basketball line. Every player’s eyes were suddenly searching for this elusive, presumably Hispanic guy so the game could start.

“You, dude, YOU” an impatient finger points directly at me, the exasperation clear in my temporary teammate’s voice.

“Uh… I’m not Mexican,” I awkwardly reply.

“Yeah, yeah no hablo Español motherfucker. Just get on my team.”

Uncomfortable laughter erupts. I trot over to my temporary team.

As hilariously offensive as this exchange was, it may be familiar to many ethnically ambiguous Americans like me. I have learned repeatedly throughout my life that if someone doesn’t know what “group” you belong to, they’ll be sure to put you in one.

I am not entirely sure when I first became aware of my “race”, or even when I realized that race was something that mattered. Perhaps it was one of the times some random white person thought it was a good idea to ask if I was adopted when I was out with my dad. Truly crucial information for her to go about her day. Maybe it was the hundreds of times I got the “Where are you really from?” question. That one is always a favorite. An even better rendition is the “Is it ok if I ask what your race is?” … Uh, I guess so dude?

Or maybe it was getting called racial slurs at summer camp. Sailing camp in North Carolina turned out to be a dubious idea at best.

If you’re even slightly melanated, you may also have a number of awkward, hilarious and/or offensive exchanges imprinted in your memory. There comes a point, whether it be middle school, elementary or even Pre-K, that the white majority of the U.S. stamps you with an otherness that is seemingly impossible to escape. There is something undeniably American about a knee-jerk desire to compartmentalize racial and ethnic groups. A desire that is not born from curiosity or genuine interest in other cultures or histories, but from a need to organize. An attitude that says, “once I find out your ‘group’ I’ll know how I can treat you.”

Throughout a life full of “Which one

of your parents is white?” and “Are you allowed to say the N-word?” and “Where did you get your tan?”, I’ve learned that it’s some combination of unsettling and intriguing for many to see me and not be able to immediately allocate me to some region of heritage.

I could be Latinx, European, African, Middle Eastern, you name it! I’m a nosy white lady’s worst nightmare.

An interesting social phenomenon I’ve noticed is the hesitation in the questions — the faux uneasiness in asking. It’s as though it’s polite to be on the fence before asking an inherently rude question. Look, I know you don’t really care about my comfort, so you may as well just ask away. The truth is — I don’t really mind when people ask anymore. I have no problem simply shrugging or walking away from rude or inconsiderate people, or even making up an outlandish answer to cue them in on their own weirdness. “Oh yeah I’m from Sweden, I just tan really easily.”

As I have gotten older, I have come to learn that I don’t owe anyone answers about my personal life or identity. A valuable lesson I’ve learned from my mom is that if someone takes offense to my indifference, then they’re simply not a person worth talking to in the first place.

What I do mind is the fact that I don’t even completely know my heritage. Imagine how frustrating it can be sometimes. “Hey man, where you from from?” I’m not really sure. If nosy people at the grocery store are curious, just think about what it’s like to look in the mirror every day. Where am I from?

I have a vague idea, of course. My dad’s side is the simple part, a blend of white European immigrants. Along with his last name, I inherited a healthy dose of Irish-Italian blood, thick curly hair and an inability to dance. My mom’s side is where things get complicated, a mixed bag if ever there was one. She has seven siblings and each one looks to be from different area codes, longitudes, latitudes and continents. Every family member is essentially a surprise. Uncle Doug is undoubtedly a Black man, but Aunt Tony-Girl is a pale amber and everyone thinks my mom looks like Jeanie Boulet from “ER.” My sister and I carried on that legacy, it would seem. She’s fairer than me, with blonde hair and blue eyes no less. One family, same genes, just a cocktail of phenotypic expressions and confused nosy neighbors.

Don’t get me wrong, curiosity has gotten the better of me many times. It’s frustrating that I couldn’t fully escape the culture of ascription that surrounds me, but my identity is important for more reasons than being able to tell people about it when they ask. Identity is as personal as a name or a laugh.

While it’s annoying and disheartening that a made-up construct like race is intrinsic to its construction, as long as it is I will always wonder exactly who, what and where I am composed of.

There is comfort in racial and ethnic identity. Pride. There is a fondness and security I see others have that I wish I could in many ways. I’m proud to be a member of my family, and I’m proud to call myself a person of Color, but the tension that comes with my ambiguity extends beyond my interactions with white people.

What struggles am I allowed to participate in — allowed to feel as though they apply to me? I’ve been discriminated against and suffered both micro and macro-aggressions because of my

always got me some version of the same disappointing answer.

“You’re an American Stephen, who cares!”

The first time I had that conversation with my mom, I was endlessly frustrated. I know I’m an American.

Culturally and physically, I fit right into the romanticized melting pot that this country so often fails to live up to. Although I wish it wasn’t the case that the closest identity marker I’d get would be so inherently problematic, it is evident that being an American isn’t even something to be proud of. I was born in Long Island, raised in Maryland (though I claim D.C.) and deeply appreciate the art, food, music and culture I grew up with. However, this country’s history is full of targeted violence and systemic oppression that directly brought about this “melting pot” that many revere and praise. Having an already tainted image of this country given its oppressive history, it was disheartening to be the physical manifestation of a rhetoric that’s sim-

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skin, but I’ve also had people of Color tell me that they consider me white. It seems that no matter what, ascriptive culture has me at a loss. I know that I have African American heritage, but I am by no means a Black man. I know that I am related by blood to members of the Ramapough Lenape Nation, but nothing of my upbringing or familial culture was by any means Native American. The Ramapough Lenape themselves are a wonderful combination of Native, Dutch and Freed people, so no luck there if I wanted a concrete group of origin. What a headache! The more I learn about my history, the more blended it becomes. I wish it was as simple as just asking my mom, but that

ply tokenizing. Being an “American” felt trivial and at odds with my personal values. I wanted to know where the melanin was from, my non-whiteness.

So much of American culture tells me that due to my skin tone, being “American” must only be part of the story.

Everyone and their racist grandma wants to know, so I figured I ought to figure it out.

I routinely had this conversation with my mom several years in a row around Christmas time. I would ask for an Ancestry.com or 23andMe test and each time I was met with reluctance or chiding rebuttal. “It’s not like you as a person will change in any way. It doesn’t matter as much as you think it

does.” How could it not matter? How could I exist in this ambiguous space without grounding, without a broader community? If I’m going to be bothered so often, at least let me know who the “others” I can relate to are! I’ve often been envious of people who are able to call a group their own, who belong somewhere in a way I often feel as though I don’t.

However, with each passing year, I believe that I see more nuances to my mom’s philosophy. I think I am slowly learning that her answer isn’t just her being dismissive or flippant, and isn’t necessarily to say that my racial or ethnic identity doesn’t matter. It is in part a rejection of this culture of ascription that detracts from meaningful interaction, and in larger part an explanation that the nuances of my identity are truly as American as it gets. I believe that my mom’s interpretation is her protecting my peace, and I will forever appreciate that. The idea of a hodgepodge person born from generations of cultural and ethnic plurality is a noble one. As I get older, I notice I take more and more pride in that idea of my identity. I think that I still have more capacity for appreciation of my existence and am interested in seeing how that appreciation grows in five or ten years. While feelings of insecurity and curiosity are sure to reappear from time to time, I feel blessed to be in such a unique position.

I’m an American in the sense that I’m just some guy. To my mom’s chagrin, I’m sure I’ll do some ancestry program at some point to get the percentages in my head because I’m obsessive like that, but my initial reasoning for getting the statistics has evolved. I no longer care about changing my life or attitude to fit those numbers as I once did. A naive and immature perspective of social readjustment has grown into a more three-dimensional appreciation of my specific heritage. I’m not going to take on new dimensions of my identity or ~get in touch with my roots~. I don’t intend to adjust my self-perception based on newly discovered pieces of my history. I’ll still shrug off nosy people and continue to make up answers for my amusement when I get asked about my skin. I’ll simply have the privilege of knowing a little bit more about myself and move on trying to be the best person I can be. I’ll continue to take pride as a hodgepodge person because that’s how I identify.

Between my childhood and me: the tale of a women left behind by China’s “economic miracle” ZOE ZHANG

MiC Columnist

“Why do you treat me so horrendously?” a voice called out. Upon hearing this, the young girl froze motionless on the pavement. She stood facing away from a woman more than 20 years her senior several feet behind her, who held tightly onto a stroller — having just cathartically confronted the young girl on her passive-aggressive actions over the past year. The young girl was shocked as the woman almost always met her dismissive attitudes and snarkiness with gracious tolerance. The two stood in utter silence until the girl’s baby sister cooed for their attention, blissfully unaware of the atmosphere of brewing anger and conflict or the longstanding discord between her sister and the woman.

That young girl was 11-year-old me, and the woman was Pei, our live-in maid who was employed by my family a decade ago, back when we were living in Beijing. Due to its acute intensity, that confrontation is but a distant and blurred memory of mine. However, the profound conflict we had and the naive cruelty I had demonstrated during the year she inhabited our home still occupies a dark corner of my brain, tucked away in a vast library of my memories, and still haunts me to this day. The dimmed details and incentives behind this ingenuous cruelty of mine had grown lucid as I became increasingly aware of China’s policies; ones that sustained wealth inequality and inequity that dictate the lives of women like Pei over the course of modern Chinese history.

Pei was in her mid-30s when she was hired to help my mother with household duties after my sister’s birth in Beijing, far away from her husband who still resided in her hometown in the country. My family stood in a position of privilege from the get-go: my mother was a part of the diminutive percentage of women who were able to afford a maid to aid with chores and child care and my father was among the smidgen of men who could afford never learning to drive, instead opting for drivers to take him to work and airports. Pei’s work consisted of shopping for groceries, cooking, cleaning, taking care of my

baby sister and any other miscellaneous tasks around the house.

I can’t quite recall when I started seeing her signature old, pilling red sweater float by as she cooked, scrubbed and swept all over the house every day. Pei was a tall woman with broad shoulders.

She had freckles and tan skin, and constantly wore her hair in a simple ponytail that I always assumed was for the purposes of her labor-intensive work. I don’t ever recall seeing her hands resting: they were either submerged in salt water, purging sand out of clams that would eventually end up as our dinner, or squeezing the cleaning solution out of a terry cloth to deep-clean a variety of surfaces around the house.

As a result, her hands were wrinkled with dry patches. Juxtaposed with my mother’s pale and supple hands, nourished in L’Occitane hand cream and La Roche-Posay sunscreen, her hands invoked a slight sense of disgust in me.

As an 11-year-old, I was just beginning to comprehend the fact that I was far more financially privileged than a lot of my peers who stood in awe at my mother’s pampered beauty and fashion, which I took great pride in. Therefore, I gradually began associating the polished feminine stillness demonstrated by my mother, who was scouted as an actress and model in her younger years, with desirability and associating rugged appearances with Pei’s infelicitous physical labor, which I had looked down upon. Unbeknownst to me at the time, despite being a full-fledged individual of her own, Pei’s upbringing, her socioeconomic status and work were all influenced by China’s history of misogyny and classist policies that prevented upward mobility. Based on this history, I try, now, to piece together parts of Pei’s life.

My mother and Pei perfectly exemplified the clash between newly imported “white” femininity coinciding with the economic boom at the end of the 20th century that ushered in a new age of capitalism and traditional rural Chinese femininity. In the 80’s, during Pei’s childhood and adolescence, billboards of double-eyelidded models with ghostly white skin and dyed chocolate brown hair gradually emerged in cityscapes, and the ancient gender role of women as the sole conductor of exhaustive household chores who needed to give birth to

as many farm hands as possible persisted in the countryside.

The ever-popular folktale of the cowherd and the weaver girl perfectly illustrates the gender roles mapped out by thousands of years of Chinese history characterized by the division of work in an agricultural setting. For one, sex had always been a taboo subject, with feminine modesty being a muchpraised virtue: according to this outdated cultural framework, the weaver girl was forced to accept the cowherd’s marriage proposal as he had seen her naked body as she bathed in the river.

The weaver girl, despite her status as a literal goddess, took on domestic work, consisting of weaving, cooking, cleaning and, of course, child-rearing, birthing the cowherd, a mere mortal, two children. Unsurprisingly, regardless of the picture-perfect domestic bliss of the farmhand household, the weaver girl was punished for marrying a mortal and neglecting her divine tasks of cloud-weaving, forever destined to be separated from the rest of her family in heaven. To me, the folktale illustrates a concealed culturally misogynistic urge to punish women for men’s wrongdoings and an inability to balance domestic and work duties that translates in both urban and rural settings.

This cultural misogyny reflected in the folktale was certainly exacerbated by poverty and a population boom. Pei is but a grain of sand in a sea of hundreds of millions of women falling victim to the national ailment of women’s ambitions being suppressed due to misogyny and poverty. Unbeknownst to most, before the one-child policy was implemented in 1980, Chinese women were actually encouraged by Mao to have as many children as possible in an effort to expand the workforce and military.

In fact, my four grandparents who were born in the 40’s shortly before Mao was elected into office had two, five, seven and eight siblings, respectively. Therefore, we can reasonably infer that as a result of Mao’s encouragement and a long-running cultural norm of birthing as many children as possible, Pei likely had several siblings.

Despite decades of unrest and cultural change that preceded the 80’s, the sentiment depicted in the folktale retained its cultural imprint; its misogyny passed through the stagnant pov-

erty that still plagued Chinese society despite the rampant urbanization and economic boom that stemmed from a growing workforce from China’s skyrocketing population. This misogyny was especially prevalent in rural areas as agricultural work still overwhelmingly required physical labor designated for men. Thus, rural women were relegated to tasks akin to those of the weaver girl’s, without financial compensation and within the confines of the house or nearby areas.

In cities, by contrast women such as my mother were more likely to receive a high-quality education. They discovered newfound opportunities such as retail, factory and even corporate work that provided them some level of financial independence. By the late 1980s, the ratio of the average income of China’s richest 20% to poorest 80% had more than doubled since the late 1970s, from 2.5:1 to almost 6:1. In 1980, China’s rural per capita net income was a meager 191.33 yuan, which is around $161 in today’s USD. Assuming Pei’s family had a yearly income somewhere near that, there was certainly not enough money to finance all of her siblings’ educations. If her family did have enough money, it is not so farfetched to assume Pei’s parents had spent it on her brothers, as they were the designated “cowherds” of the family.

To make matters worse, even if Pei did receive an education, it would not have been enough to lay the foundation for her success later in life. In the early 1980s, just 60 to 70% of Chinese children made it through elementary school and continued onto middle school, and the figure was likely much lower in rural areas. Even more dishearteningly, education was few and far between back then, requiring children to hike great distances across China’s mountainous rural regions to enter a school house with little food, school supplies or other resources that facilitated learning. It was far more likely that a young girl like Pei would stay home to help her mother with household chores, instead of going through hell 250 days a year to pursue a relatively poor education if she was destined to be married off to a “cowherd” later on in life anyway.

Even if by some miracle Pei had made it to high school, the rigged rules of the Gaokao, China’s college entrance exam,

would have likely prevented her from escaping poverty. Perhaps Pei, by some blessed silver lining, may have pushed through unimaginable difficulties to make it to college in another city. However, I know that in reality, this is highly unlikely due to the many inequities facing rural students. There is, of course, the obvious lack of high-quality education, poverty and pressures brought upon by Gaokao. As if rural students weren’t already at a disadvantage, the cutoff score to enter into universities is often higher for them than it is for local urban students in a gruesome act of institutionalized oppression. This is because, according to journalist Yiqin Fu, “universities located in Beijing will reserve more spots for students with Beijing hukou (residency);” thus, the lowest qualifying score for a Beijingbased test-taker may be vastly lower than the score required from a student taking the examination in rural areas.

When you consider that wealthier Chinese families with more resources are better positioned to enlist tutoring assistance, preparation courses and a whole host of other investments designed to increase a student’s score, ’80s and present-day students residing in rural areas barely even had a fighting chance at achieving the same level of success as their urban counterparts.

Regardless of Pei’s educational status, China’s aforementioned Hukou policy restricts population flow from rural to urban areas. Workers like Pei, who look to move to larger cities like Beijing while being registered as residents in a rural area, need to meet educational and wealth requirements that many cannot meet. As a result, many like Pei are restricted to the status of “temporary” or “transitory” migrants by these discriminatory Hukou policies, forever forbidden from permanently moving themselves and their families to cities like Beijing and Shanghai with higher pay and better living conditions. Even if the migrants’ children obtain the same status as their parents and move to cities along with their parents, local governments have set up these barriers to prevent the children of migrant parents from accessing quality public education, continuing the generational curse bestowed upon their rural parents.

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Opinion

8 — Wednesday, March 30, 2022

Andrew Yang’s a loser: The future of third parties

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From the Daily: Vote EnvisionBlue on March 30-31 THE MICHIGAN DAILY EDITORIAL BOARD

interest, both of the Editorial Page Editors did not participate in The Editorial Board’s interviews with the candidates, the subsequent deliberation and voting on candidates or in the writing and editing of this editorial. Editorials represent the views of The Editorial Board, hosted within The Michigan Daily’s Opinion section. he Michigan Daily Editorial Board voted to endorse Noah Zimmerman and Jackie Hillman of the EnvisionBlue party for 20222023 Central Student Government president and vice president in the election on March 30 and 31. While both parties running offer valuable perspectives, the specificity and breadth of EnvisionBlue’s platform sets them apart. It is paramount to have a CSG president and vice president who come into office with tangible initiatives that reflect the extensive scope of issues the incoming administration will encounter, and EnvisionBlue’s platform offers these policies.

With an emphasis on instituting pragmatic policies, EnvisionBlue’s platform consists of 30 action items and 15 advocacy initiatives.

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Zimmerman and Hillman aim to serve as a voice of the students while keeping their promises realistic and within the realm of CSG’s capabilities. This platform’s advocacy priorities emphasize the importance of both enhancing current CSG programming and creating new CSG programming.

The candidates would like to create partnerships between CSG and upper-level diversity programs within the Spectrum Center, the Trotter Multicultural Center and advocacy groups to ensure CSG’s resources are serving all students.

This platform also details the advancements of several specific programs designed to increase accessibility and affordability for students, such as creating a textbook donation program.

Considering the University of Michigan’s history of sexual misconduct, the candidates expressed their commitment to rebuilding trust with the administration and pre-existing organizations for preventing sexual assault. To do this, this platform advocates for an acceleration in SAPAC’s case manager–hiring process; as there are currently two case manager vacancies, this would allow SAPAC to more efficiently address the needs of the student body. Part of this platform’s sexual misconduct

prevention initiatives also includes requiring any candidate for University president and future administrative positions to undergo extensive background checks specifically related to past cases of handling sexual misconduct. One of this platform’s 30 action items is to install a “Blue Light” outpost near the fraternities, a manageable change that will advance student safety on campus.

The Board’s evaluation of the candidates was twofold, considering not only the candidates’ stated platform but also their personal commitment to their goals. The duo is well prepared for office and the high-pressure positions they would be accepting.

Zimmerman’s membership in CSG as a College of LSA representative gives him valuable knowledge on the inner workings of CSG, while Hillman’s experience with the California Senate empowers her with fundamental communication and organizational skills. In their presentation, both beamed while sharing their plans for the future of CSG and the students it represents, full of energy and drive to accomplish what they have set out to do.

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ndrew Yang rose to prominence on the back of a very peculiar idea: universal basic income. This proposal that every American should receive a no-strings-attached $1,000 check from the federal government every month propelled Yang to the presidential debate stage. Though it was impressive that he shared the stage with experienced politicians like (then Vice) President Biden and several senators, his lack of experience and a stable base were ultimately his downfall.

Leaning into meme culture and popular podcasts like The Joe Rogan Experience, Yang often touted his approval rating with Independents and Trump supporters, but he was sorely unable to transform that general likability into cold hard votes.

After this impressive — but nonetheless disappointing — campaign for a relative newcomer to electoral politics, Yang transitioned to running for mayor of New York City. I won’t delve too deeply into Yang’s journey from leading the mayoral primary to a disappointing fourth-place finish, but rest assured that his subsequent failure hinged on

the same issues: an inability to form a coherent base from merely a friendly smile and some unique ideas.

After his defeat to current New York City Mayor, Eric Adams, Yang made a public announcement.

He had formally left the Democratic Party and formed the Forward Party. He announced this new party in his book of the same name. “Forward” — which I read — laid out the platform of “rankedchoice voting,” “open primaries,” “fact-based governance,” “humancentered capitalism,” “modern and effective government,” “universal basic income” and “grace and tolerance.”

Yang’s core claim was that this party, with its hodgepodge of reasonable-sounding policy ideas, would be able to fill a gap in the American party repertoire that both Democrats and Republicans were neglecting. Through an assortment of commonsense policies aimed at reforming government, Yang believes this party could inspire action in a diverse coalition of discouraged and infrequent voters.

In some sense the polls are on Yang’s side: many of his ideas are certainly popular. Seventy-seven percent of Americans agree that campaign spending needs to be curtailed. Eighty-two percent side

with his call for Congressional term limits. Nine in 10 Americans share his stance against partisan gerrymandering.

With 42% of Americans identifying as independents, this should be great news for a party that aims to capture the politically homeless middle.

Unfortunately, even though a plurality of Americans identify as Independents, as many as 91% of Americans have a significant preference for one party or the other, with the leftover 9% of “true” Independents varying significantly in race, occupation and economic interests. This makes forming a base from voters with common interests — like how Democrats captured the union vote and Republicans successfully courted evangelicals — very difficult.

Currently, the Democrats’ base is largely young people, urbanites, ethnic minorities, LGBTQ+ people and those with college degrees. The Republican base is largely white evangelicals, business owners, those living in rural areas and voters older than 65. These bases are sustainable, based on groups with shared interests and are able to mobilize effectively to achieve concrete outcomes.

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College sexual assault primary prevention programs are failing us. Why? SOPHIA LEHRBAUM Opinion Columnist

Content note: This article contains mentions of sexual assault. s incoming freshmen at the University of Michigan, many students grumbled about being required to complete an online course as a prerequisite for beginning the school year — namely, AlcoholEdu and Sexual Assault Prevention for Undergraduates. A blurb from the University’s First Year Experience webpage explains that these programs are designed “to inform students about alcohol and sexual assault issues. The confidential, research-based courses provide students with accurate information in a non-judgmental tone and encourages students to consider their own decisions and those of their peers.” Taking the course was fairly straightforward and seemed rather educational; the program explains in great detail what is required for informed consent to be given. Likewise, it emphasizes that the aftereffects of being victimized by sexual violence are treatable and that support is available. As a survivor of sexual assault myself, I felt an overall satisfaction with the information that was provided, and I figured that other students felt similarly.

However, the effectiveness of the sexual assault prevention program on our campus fails to withstand more intense scrutiny. Despite the fact this program was required for every incoming Michigan student and thoroughly explained the concepts of sexual assault and consent, the University still experienced a spike in

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sexual misconduct cases from 2017 to 2019, ranging from stalking to rape.

Moreover, the Office of Institutional Equity reported that violations, from intimate partner violence to sexual harassment, increased almost every year from 2014 to 2020, climbing from 134 violations to an astonishing 322 violations. Though this can be partially attributed to a culture shift on campus that has made it more comfortable for survivors to report instances of sexual violence, these numbers still stand as evidence that our required sexual violence prevention program is not functioning to the extent that it should. Had the program successfully deterred sexual violence from happening in the first place, there would be far fewer reports for instances of sexual violence on campus.

These numbers are estimated to be even more alarming among women of marginalized identities, and cases involving non-white women are frequently underreported, especially on college campuses. Moreover, though Black women, Indigenous women, disabled women and LGBTQ+ women are disproportionately affected by sexual violence, our school’s required prevention program still centers white, straight, able-bodied women in discussions about sexual assault.

The institutional barriers that exist for marginalized communities within our country’s education and criminal justice systems evidently bleed into the supposed equitable reporting opportunities — and support systems — for survivors of color.

An example of students of color disproportionately suffering from

sexual exploitation on college campuses can be observed at our very own university. Serial sexual abuser Dr. Robert Anderson, who assaulted over 950 students during his time at the University, is said to have targeted Black male athletes more than any other identity group. Jamie White, a lawyer for approximately 40 of Anderson’s survivors, cited the students’ first-generation and lower socioeconomic statuses as factors that made them increasingly vulnerable to Anderson’s abuse.

Many of these Black athletes risked losing their athletic scholarships that enabled them to attend the University if they came forward with abuse claims. This horrific pattern alone proves the necessity of transforming our sexual violence prevention program to better serve students from a variety of backgrounds and social identities.

Aside from how our current sexual violence prevention program is oriented around white, straight, able-bodied identities, these sorts of programs are ineffective at actually preventing assault from occurring.

A study focused on the difficulty of analyzing the effectiveness of these programs describes how there is a “lack of outcome studies that evaluate the event to which interventions have been effective at decreasing the actual rates of sexual assault.” In other words, little to no studies surrounding sexual assault prevention programs on college campuses can present empirical data that evaluate the effectiveness of these programs or measure learning directly after these programs are taught.

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Solar power, unions and the need for a new clean energy paradigm

The snow and the sun: My first Michigan winter RUSHABH SHAH Opinion Columnist

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he Michigan winter.

It’s a phenomenon I had grown tired of hearing about in the weeks leading up to my first semester at the University. It was always the first thing my friends and relatives in India asked me about when I mentioned this school, because even halfway across the world, tales of the Midwest winter are common knowledge.

Although it annoyed me, I understood their concern. How was a boy who has lived all his life in a city that has never seen snow going to survive in Ann Arbor? I was afraid, but I always comforted myself with one thought: how bad could it possibly be?

It was bad. The first discovery, which came as a massive surprise, was the approximate time period of this “winter.” I had asked around, and most people said that it gets really cold by December and stays that way until February. What I did not realize, however, is that “really cold” is a relative concept. As early as October, my resolve started to crumble. The lower temperatures coupled with seemingly unyielding winds made for a duo that I was not prepared for. After less than a week, I considered opening up my collection of winter clothes. That was when I made my second discovery.

The cold might be unbearable, but it’s your ego that kills you. I had promised myself very early that if other people were not wearing a winter jacket, I wouldn’t either. If people were walking out of Starbucks or M-36 holding a cup of coffee with their bare hands, I would not be wearing any gloves either.

My goal was to not put on a single piece of winter clothing until the first of November.

I succeeded, but at great personal cost. On every walk to the Michigan Union and every bike ride across the Diag, I remember being unable to feel my hands and desperately trying to cover up every inch of my body to prevent any wind from reaching it. Every step in the freezing cold of Ann Arbor was a reminder of the worried look on my parents’ faces when I said I wanted to go to Michigan and that I’d deal with the cold. The addition of a thick winter jacket and boots to my set of winter clothes helped, but it couldn’t keep up with the rapidly falling temperatures.

Over the last week, as we collectively felt the mercy of the weather gods (albeit

only temporarily, it seems) I thought back to the peak winter months and felt a sense of victory. I had, for the most part, made it through my first winter. Nevertheless, I couldn’t deny the effect weeks of cloudy skies and shorter days had had on me.

From a very young age, we are surrounded by the idea that winter is associated with more negative themes — sadness, loneliness and sometimes even death. Recurring themes in poems I was taught during my middle school and high school years — even the greats often resorted to this archetype. It is also an idea many echo when they speak of the adverse effects colder weather have on college students, and to a certain extent, I agree with this sentiment.

believe that the Michigan

From being unable to play outdoor sports to being discouraged from leaving the house at all, the harsh winters of Michigan did curb some of my happiness.

I began to notice that on the rare occasions when we had a warmer day, I would see a drastic upturn in not only my mood, but the entire vibe on campus. This past week has been a testament to that.

In what couldn’t have been a better buildup to the St. Patrick’s day celebrations, seeing people in shorts and t-shirts, gathering in masses at Elbel Field or the Diag, was a sight for sore eyes. It might not be spring yet, but it feels like the first few weeks of the fall semester, which were some of my most memorable on this campus. That being said, I firmly believe that the Michigan winter is part of the experience. It is a part of the lore of this great school and if nothing else, it has given me a newfound appreciation for the sun. I might not have known it before, but boy, oh boy do I love the sun.

That is, of course, until I’m back in India for summer break and wishing that I was sipping some hot chocolate in snowy Ann Arbor.

Wednesday, March 30, 2022 — 9

ought to seriously evaluate whether we are on track to successf ully transition to renewable energ y alongside the rest of the world.

Aggressive climate policy is a top priority for the Biden administration.

Last year, President Biden announced a plan to decrease emissions by 50% (from 2005 levels) by 2030. To achieve this ambitious goal, rapid investment in solar, wind and other renewables will be necessary on a massive scale. At the same time, Biden’s industrial policy — protecting American industry from foreign competitors and bringing industrial plants back to America — has the potential to frustrate his climate goals if it is not executed strategically.

Policy decisions affecting the solar power industry illustrate the tension between the interests of labor and swift climate policy. President Biden wants a rapid shift to clean energ y, but at the same time wants American solar manufacturers to play a major role in that shift. To demonstrate his commitment to American labor, Biden extended and amplified Trump-era “Buy American” economic policies aimed at protecting manufacturing jobs, including jobs in the solar power industry. In practice, that has meant the continuation of tariffs levied

ALEX YEE

Opinion Columnist

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n unavoidable consequence of the war in Ukraine will be shifting energ y supply chains globally.

European Union member states dependent on Russian oil have already voiced a strong desire to establish better energ y security. In the short-term, that will require burning greater quantities of fossil fuels. European consumption of imported natural gas and coal are expected to increase as EU imports of Russian oil are slowly phased out by 2027. In the long-term, however, the EU has indicated that renewable energ y will fuel energ y security on the Continent.

America’s relationship to Russian oil is less precarious than that of our neighbors across the Atlantic. The war has caused gas prices to skyrocket — which of ten harms low income Americans the most — but has not endangered our long-term energ y supply. We only imported 8% of our crude oil from Russia in the year preceding Biden’s import ban and, f urthermore, we are net exporters of energ y. Even so, the U.S. attitude toward action abroad for g reater renewable energ y should not be indifference. America

on solar panel components imported from China.

Because Chinese polysilicon, a major component of solar panels, is much cheaper, tariffs imposed on Chinese imports lead to increased costs for firms installing solar panel fields and slow down the pace of increasing America’s solar power capacity. Because of this complication, tariffs of this nature are generally not popular among economists.

However, President Biden’s (and Trump’s) concern about the economic well-being of manufacturing workers is not misplaced, only misdirected.

Advocates of the transition to solar tend to make the arg ument that because the burgeoning industry will create jobs, those working in fossil fuels stand to lose nothing in the transition.

Though the “more jobs” claim is correct, the second — and arg uably more important — claim that solar jobs are just as good is not.

The American Federation of Labor and Cong ress of Industrial Organizations, or A FL-CIO, a prominent U.S. labor union, came out against the Green New Deal when it was pitched in 2019. Although other unions supported the bill, A FL-CIO’s leader, R ichard Trumka, was concerned about what the leg islation as written would do to the livelihoods of

fossil f uel workers. Evidence suggests his worr y was warranted. Currently, the average compensation for California fossil f uel workers is $130,000 (including benef its), while the same f ig ure for solar power workers is roughly $86,000.

Comparing wages across these industries nationally tells a similar stor y, with oil workers making roughly $27 for ever y hour worked, compared to an average $24 an hour wage for solar workers. Without labor laws that streng then the position of labor unions in the clean energ y industr y, a hast y transition to solar energ y would g ive hundreds of thousands of workers an effective pay cut.

Opening up trade with China is essential to the future of American renewable energ y.

China has long been dominant in the race to produce solar power; continuing to protect American solar manufacturers is a noble, though idealistic, project. Even so, the Biden administration must work to ensure that the interests of the new generation of workers in the clean energ y industry are not ignored by providing the legal backing necessary for unionization. The transition to green energ y will not be painless, but it is inevitable.

Striking a better balance between rapid development and fair labor conditions must become part of that transition.

Our crumbling world

Design by Anya Singh, Opinion Cartoonist

Stop asking bisexuals to prove their identity CLAUDIA FLYNN Opinion Columnist

“

Sexuality is a spectrum.”

I’m sure you’ve heard this sentiment many times before, as it’s become the poster slogan for a progressive view on what it means to be queer. As younger populations continue to explore queerness, our preestablished binary definitions of attraction begin to blend into a continuum of different levels of sexual, romantic and gendered attraction.

As Generation Z (Gen Z) becomes more accepting and open to these identities, we implicitly hold expectations for what a person of each sexual identity should look and act like, which often align with how masculine and feminine we believe a person should be.

Society expects a gay man to be feminine, a lesbian women to be masculine and a bisexual, pansexual or queer person to be somewhere right in the middle.

Consequently, the vice versa of this is true, where we assume feminine men and masculine

women must fall in to their implied queer identities.

Notably, many of our expectations around queerness still revolve around the pre-concieved notion that everyone must be attracted to men. Bisexual women in relationships with men are assumed to be straight and in search of attention, and therefore are less comfortable coming out. On the other hand, bisexual men are assumed to be gay and too afraid to admit it. The inherent assumption that all people must be attracted to men stems from the androcentric structure of society and its incessant need for men to be idolized. Even male heterosexuality revolves around a constant need to “perform,” for, or compete with, other men. In the same way a high body count (a more recent phrase for number of sexual partners) is villainized in women, it becomes a token that men will use to compete with their friends. For women, decisions such as choosing to wear makeup or revealing clothing are assumed to be for

the purpose of male attention, while liking things such as sports and cars have been recently deemed “pick me” activities, a new phrase used to describe situations where girls use more historically masculine interests to get attention from guys.

Young women being accused of hopping on the “bisexuality trend” for attention is a continuation of the expectation that anything women do is for men. “Alt girls” (or alternative girls) became a trend on TikTok in 2020, where mainly bisexual women would wear darker makeup and unique clothing.

As people drew correlation between “alt girls” and bisexual girls, the trend-like nature of the former creates an association between bisexuality and trends. If men do validate a feminine presenting bisexual or lesbian, it’s often in the context of sexualization, such as in porn. Queer women are mainly represented in a sexual context in media, harming the overall image of queer and bisexual women, and minimizing it to sex.

People will justify their claim that bisexuality is a “trend” by discussing how a large number of youth, especially young women, all began to come out at around the same time. From 2015-2019, the number of nonstraight identifying 15- to 17-year-olds grew from 8.3% to 11.7%; for girls, this number went from 12.2% to 17.8%, approximately a 46% increase.

This rise has led many adults, straight youth and even queer youth to question how valid the newest members of the bisexual community are. What this line of questioning threatens, however, is the comfort people find in having a community. A 2022 poll from Gallup showed that 62% of respondents were somewhat or very satisfied with how lesbians and gays are accepted in the U.S., up from 55% in 2021. More people aren’t “becoming” queer, they’re instead finding the bravery and communities they need to feel safe coming out.

Despite the increase in progressive thought surrounding queerness within our society, the conf lict between

the androcentric structure and the rise in population of LGBTQ+ youth leaves the queer community, and specifically the bisexual and pansexual communities, with the need to “prove” their sexuality. When I originally came to terms with my own bisexuality, I knew I wouldn’t come out until I was dating a girl. As a femininepresenting girl who had only been romantically involved with men in the past, I felt as though my sexuality wouldn’t be taken seriously unless I had something to show for it. Even now, as I discuss my sexuality with others, it has become compulsory to me to include the fact that I had a girlfriend in the past, in order to provide a sort of ethos within the subject of sexuality.

However, as I’ve developed more relationships with women, my friends make little quips of “I feel like you’re actually just a lesbian.” In response, I’ve felt pressured to reign in my attraction to women and develop more relationships with men in order to prove and authenticate my

sexuality. Many of my sexual and romantic decisions since coming out have been dictated by society’s view of the validity of my sexuality, instead of being driven by the freedom to simply be attracted to who I’m attracted to.

The future of sexuality and the queer identity as a whole requires us to remove expectations. Being queer is not a personality trait, as there is no one personality that aligns with queerness or any queer identity.

Instead, it is a part of one’s identity that can present itself in any way. We have to continue to push for nuanced concepts in the conversation on sexuality, such as bisexual men or women who come out and continue to date members of the opposite gender, or bisexual men and women who “seem straight” due to their hobbies, history or personality.

The entire point of coming out as bisexual is to finally have the freedom to explore whatever relationships you want, and we have to stop limiting that freedom simply because we have certain expectations of what bisexuality looks like.

10 — Wednesday, March 30, 2022

Sports

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Taylor Daniels: Shattering the grass ceiling: the first women’s collegiate club baseball championship Growing up as the only girl on my at Fullerton and the University youth baseball team, of course one of Washington took the field at of my favorite movies was A League the Major League Baseball Youth Academy in Compton, of Their Own. The 1992 California on March classic and highest20, making history and grossing baseball movie breaking the grass ceilof all time depicts the ing.

All-American Girls Pro“Ever since I was a fessional Baseball League kid, watching A League (AAGPBL), which ran of Their Own, I always from 1943 to 1954, feathought, ‘I wish I was tured teams from the alive during this time, Midwest and gave over so I could play women’s 600 women the opportubaseball,’ ” University nity to play professional TAYLOR of Washington women’s baseball. I always won- DANIELS club baseball founder dered why I had to play and first base/pitcher with boys, instead of with girls like Marla Hooch and Kit and Katie Firestone said. “So to be Dottie Hinson, my heroes from the able to actually have an opportunity to have something to do with movie.

In 2015, when I was 12 years old, something like that … was amazI found my first opportunity to play ing.”

Firestone, who had grown up with and against other girls at the inaugural Baseball For All National playing baseball informally and girls’ baseball tournament in Orlan- then in a Sunday men’s league in do, Florida. There, I joined over 100 high school, originally thought other girls aged 13 and under to play about trying out for her universibaseball. For almost all of us, it was ty’s men’s club baseball team. But the first time that we had been sur- as a first year out-of-state student rounded by athletes who shared from California, she didn’t want that love and passion for the game, to go about it alone.

When Firestone researched the along with the hard-won strength and resilience that resulted from men’s club baseball team prior to tryouts, there was a woman in a being the only girl on the field.

Since then, I’ve played at every photo on the team’s Instagram Nationals and have seen firsthand page. After reaching out, Firethe exponential growth of the wom- stone discovered that she was en’s game. The event has expanded Maggie Gallagher, the team’s first to include over 500 girls, in five age ever female club president. Galdivisions, representing nearly forty lagher had played on the team for states. Baseball For All has built a two years after playing on the UW nation-wide community of girls and varsity softball’s Women’s Colwomen from ages 8 to 19 who play lege World Series team. Firestone baseball, and they aren’t stopping at connected with Gallagher, who is now the general manager and the youth level.

Last weekend, for the first head coach of UW’s women’s club time since Vassar College’s team baseball team.

Gallagher opened doors for the was disbanded over one hundred years ago, women’s collegiate team in the Seattle area, helpbaseball teams faced each other ing them secure a practice facilat the inaugural Baseball For All ity, land sponsorships and garner College Club Baseball Champion- media attention. And with that publicity came more players, leadship.

Ballplayers from Montclair ing to a final roster size of nineState University, Occidental Col- teen, up from the original two.

The Huskies ended up taklege, California State University

ing home the trophy, after going undefeated in the tournament, scoring a total of 48 runs and beating Occidental College in the championship game, 19-3.

“Based on how much hype we’ve gotten, we have more girls who are interested from the University of Washington,” Firestone said. “Next year, I see tryouts, maybe a travel team and a practice team, practice t-shirts, more sponsors, more hype, just continuing to build this community of women at UW who love baseball.

“I think that the coolest part about it for me is that when you come to college, you’re trying to find your community. I feel like I was a part of starting a different club that has created this community for these girls.”

The girls baseball community is the most accepting place I have ever known. And bringing that community to the college level, where so many students are trying to find their place, is something incredible.

“It was something that I knew I needed, I just didn’t know exactly where to find it,” Occidental College freshman pitcher and catcher Siena Jarrin said. “Continuing to have that baseball part of my life is really important to me.”

A softball player since she could walk, Jarrin tried baseball for the first time when Occidental College formed its first team, even learning to pitch in time for the championships.

“The fact is, baseball does exist for women,” Jarrin said. “And it’s an opportunity that you can have if you’re new, if you’re not new, and it could be something that’s really fun for a lot of people.”

The key to growth in women’s college baseball is having new athletes try the sport. Right now, there is a severe drop in female participation in baseball when they hit the high school level.

According to Baseball For All, the 100,000 girls in the sport drops to

1,000 due to more high school and collegiate opportunities in other sports. A number of my women’s baseball friends have elected to pursue opportunities in track and field, softball or basketball because they can play longer.

That’s not to say that women cannot succeed in men’s high school or collegiate baseball; there is a record eight women are currently playing for men’s collegiate baseball teams this spring.

For those who aren’t able to play at the varsity level, they can join the men’s club baseball team and continue to play the game they love there. That’s what my friend Beth Greenwood did at the University of Rochester, and it eventually led to her earning a spot as the first American female NCAA catcher on the Yellow Jacket team last year.

Currently, boys and men have the opportunity to play all the way from tee ball, to high school, college and beyond. The only thing that limits them is their talent.

Girls, regardless of their – often considerable – talent, are often told that they should quit baseball simply because they are girls.

“By creating a pipeline that becomes equal to what the boys already have, gender equity in baseball can exist,” Siegal said. “(Baseball For All) supports co-ed baseball at the college level, but know that more women will get an opportunity if there is women’s baseball as sport for students to aim towards.”

In order to become an official NCAA championship sport, an emerging sport for women must have a minimum of 40 varsity programs and demonstrate viability through consistent league play. Baseball For All, while encouraging teams to start all over the country, will be focusing on the Los Angeles area in order to form a league and have consistent competition, similar to a college club softball league. This will help it reach its goal of hav-

JEREMY WEINE/Daily Alana Richardson scored Michigan’s first goal in its loss to Penn State.

ing 8-12 teams in 2023 and 40-50 teams in five years.

“We showed that our model works,” Siegal said. “There are women on campuses that want to play baseball, and there are students willing to make it happen.

So our only limit now is funding and exposure.”

Here at the University of Michigan, there is not currently a women’s club baseball team. If women want to play a bat-andball sport, they can either try out for the men’s club baseball team or the women’s club softball team.

Similar to Firestone, I had to decide whether to try out as the only girl on the men’s club baseball team or try out for the club softball team. I chose the club softball team and have loved my experience. I have found a community of women that are like family to me, who all work towards a goal bigger than ourselves.

What women deserve is the option to do that through playing baseball.

That’s why I’m planning to start a women’s club baseball team here at Michigan in the fall.

I hope to create an additional experience for women to play club baseball, and plan to schedule the women’s baseball team so that athletes don’t have to choose between the sports.

The friendships I have made throughout the eight years I have been involved in women’s baseball are among the strongest relationships in my life. My closest friends are the girls I get to see only a few weeks a year at tournaments or elite development programs. The moments we spend together on and off the field are the most memorable experiences I have. Simply put, these girls are my people.

I have been dedicated to growing women’s baseball since I played at Nationals for the first time. In 2016, I co-founded Illinois Girls Baseball and we ran our

first two years of practices with less than ten girls. In fall 2020, we held the first-ever female youth baseball league in the state of Illinois, and our organization has grown to over one hundred participants.

It is incredible to watch the next generation of female baseball players growing up playing on all-girls youth baseball teams, when at their age, I was the only girl in the league. They see a female MLB general manager, an on-field MLB coach, a low-A manager, a director of Major League operations, a professional draft pick, and so many more women in professional baseball.

And with the creation of the University of Michigan women’s club baseball team, I want them to see women playing collegiate baseball, on both men’s and on women’s teams.

Collegiate women’s basketball, now a well-established sport, provides a framework for what women’s club baseball could become.

Fifty years ago, Immaculata University won the first-ever national women’s college basketball championship, hosted by the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW). Ten years later, the NCAA sponsored the first NCAA women’s college basketball championship.

Now, we know women’s basketball as a sport with a presence on every stage: Olympic, professional, collegiate, club, high school and youth. Women’s baseball in the United States has a national team and a widespread youth level, but it’s missing the intermediates.

“It took women’s basketball 10 years to get there from when they first started playing club,” Firestone said. “I think that with social media and the support women in baseball have right now, we could do it sooner.”

In order to have a league of their own, women’s baseball needs to gain NCAA status.

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Sports

Wednesday, March 30, 2022 — 11

“What’s next?”: Maggie MacNeil’s journey to Olympic gold and beyond KATELYN TURNER

For The Daily

The Olympics are the grandest stage in sports and the ultimate dream of many athletes. For the very driven and gifted few, that dream becomes a goal.

Maggie MacNeil, a Canadian native and senior on the Michigan swimming and diving team, had the Olympics as a backdrop from the very beginning. Right after the 2008 Beijing Games, an eight-year-old MacNeil started her swimming career.

MacNeil’s passion arose from the most raw aspect of the sport: her love of the water. Her mother, a physician, emphasized water safety from a young age, which spurred MacNeil’s interest. But back then, she never imagined swimming would carry her to such heights.

“Whenever someone starts sports, the Olympics are always a goal,” MacNeil said. “But I didn’t think swimming would take me this far.”

MacNeil initially realized the exceptionalism of her talent in 2015 when she first joined Canada’s Junior National Team at age fifteen.

Even after reaching that elite level, she never acknowledged the Olympics as a potential reality until 2019 at her first FINA World Championships.

MacNeil won the 100-meter butterfly, defeating Sweden’s Sarah Sjostrom—the 2016 Olympic champion — and breaking the Americas’, Canadian and Commonwealth records in the process. As the world champion, it began to sink in that she could qualify for the Tokyo Olympics the following

year.

But in March 2020, all of MacNeil’s plans were derailed. With the NCAA Championships canceled, she returned home to Canada, where she was isolated from her teammates and her regimented training schedule.

MacNeil went six months without a regulation-size pool and was forced to find other ways to stay in shape.

“None of us (swimmers) are great at land sports,” MacNeil said. “Running is my enemy.”

To help her get any minimal feel for the water during quarantine, MacNeil’s parents opened their backyard pool at the end of March. While it was nowhere near the 50-meter Olympic-size pools, MacNeil trained in the heated waters during the brisk Canadian spring, even if it was merely for ten minutes a day.

“Motivation was really hard,” MacNeil said. “In retrospect, I probably should have done more than I did.”

Her atypical training paid off when she qualified for the rescheduled Tokyo Games. But the 2021 Olympics were far from the typical competitive atmosphere. No fans were allowed at the natatorium, and athletes were divided into quarantine bubbles by country and sport.

But this being her first Olympics, there was nothing for MacNeil to compare the conditions to, so she used that to her advantage.

One of the most impactful alterations was changing the time of day that the 100-meter butterfly finals were swam. Rather than taking place in the evening, the finals were held in the morning, giving MacNeil no time to overthink.

Out of COVID’s shadow, Michigan lacrosse has found its identity

KATE HUA/Daily Now, out of the shadow of the pandemic, the women’s lacrosse team is ready for a historic season.

LINDSAY BUDIN

Daily Sports Writer

The implications of COVID stretch far past health, and for the Michigan women’s lacrosse team, the pandemic-inflicted burden hampered their 2021 season.

Being part of a team entails much more than the product on the field.

Goals and assists may appear in the boxscore, but without camaraderie and trust, little production — and subsequent winning — can occur during games.

As someone who’s been around the game of lacrosse all of her life, first as a decorated player and now as the Michigan coach, Hannah Nielsen understands that better than anyone.

“It’s about road trips and eating together and being on the same bus,” Nielsen said. “Just those little things you have along the way. That’s how you build relationships.”

In a year where student athletes around the country lived in fear of falling ill, sacrificed their social lives and played in front of empty bleachers, building strong connections seemed inconceivable Last year, despite having talented pieces, the blockage of any normalcy proved too severe for the Wolverines. They finished 3-9, concluding their season with a demoralizing loss to Maryland in the Big Ten Tournament.

Activities as basic as eating meals together and spending time as a group are often overlooked, but without them, chemistry is unattainable.

“We couldn’t (do) the little things you do off the field,” Nielsen said.

“Wins and losses are great but lacrosse and the collegiate-athlete experience is so much more than that.”

The team experienced firsthand that the impacts of the pandemic ran deep.

At a school that excels in athletics, people often focus on the “athlete” part in “student-athlete,” but first and foremost, these players are students. In late 2021, as the Omicron variant soared and outlook on life seemed grim, the expectations for collegiate athletes to perform grew

even higher.

But with immense sacrifice and little optimism, it’s difficult to live up to the expectations.

With vaccinations in full effect and the pandemic winding down, normalcy was beginning to resurface. As the world inched closer to equilibrium and the 2022 season neared, many unanswered questions remained, the most glaring one being: What now?

The team could dwell on the previous season’s shortcomings or focus on the future; the choice was obvious to them.

“It was ‘Hey guys, let’s forget about it, it happened and we’re moving on,’ ” Nielsen said. “The girls are motivated because 3-9 … wasn’t really a true illustration of who we are and what we could accomplish.”

The silver lining of the pandemic, though, was an extra year of eligibility. The love of their team, their school and their sport drove fifth-year captains Caitlin Muir and Arielle Weissman to exercise that privilege. “(Coming back) was never anything that I thought about before COVID happened,” Muir said. “But with not getting to finish out my years on my own terms, it was really a done deal.”

As COVID-induced crutches lifted and the team began to focus on building relationships and nurturing talent, the players set out to show that the driving force of the abysmal 2021 season was the looming pandemic and not the players themselves.

The Wolverines opened their season with seven straight wins — making it clear to everybody what they were capable of.

Leadership from seniors Erin Garvey, Kaitlyn Mead and Morgan Whitaker in addition to the two fifth-years displays the potential that the pandemic was covering in the previous season.

“They’re doing a great job,” Nielsen said. “It makes me want to coach harder because of the effort they’re putting in so that we can reach our goals this year.”

Read more at MichiganDaily.com

not only during Olympic years.

Swimming is arguably the most grueling yet underappreciated sport in the world of athletics. Many spectators tune in every four years for the Olympics and then neglect swimming’s relevance after the Games conclude.

But for athletes such as MacNeil, the work never stops.

“Swimming is not an easy sport,” MacNeil said. “We don’t have an offseason.”

While she tries to take two-tofour weeks off in between each college and international season, the training drought MacNeil and every other athlete endured during was JULIANNE YOON/Daily quarantine unlike any other.

Maggie MacNeil won a gold medal at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics.

But despite the unorthodox condiher, winning was still a possibility. At same as being in person. Instead she tions, MacNeil and many others had the 50-meter turn, halfway through celebrated with her Canadian team- stellar performances as a result.

“I’m really grateful I was able to the race, MacNeil’s split was not even mates and also those she swam with succeed despite all the challenges,” in the top three. But in the last 15 at Michigan.

Training for four years in Ann Ayr- MacNeil said. “But it definitely meters, MacNeil put her head down, touching the wall in 55.59 seconds bor with those swimmers left strong makes me reevaluate my plans going to capture a new Americas record. ties, with the collegiate season lasting into the next Olympics.”

Leading up to the 2020 Games, Winning gold made MacNeil the first from early September to late March. female Michigan swimmer to place In between, from April through MacNeil’s training was significantly first individually at the Olympics August, MacNeil competes in the lighter than what it would have been in a typical year. While practicing international season. since 1964.

And this is an annual occurrence, with teammates is something that But earning gold was not the same “I just woke up and knew I had a job to do,” MacNeil said.

Entering the finals ranked No. 6, MacNeil was not deterred by her seed. As long as there was a lane for

without her family present to celebrate with her. The endearing video footage that MacNeil’s cousin sent to her displaying her family’s reaction and excitement was not nearly the

is imperative, she is looking to adopt some of the aspects that transpired into a gold medal.

Going forward, MacNeil recently announced her commitment to exercise her final year of NCAA eligibility to compete at the University of California Berkeley while pursuing a master’s degree. After graduating in 2023, she will have complete control over her training the year before the 2024 Olympics.

Although it seems as if MacNeil just won Olympic gold, but the turnaround is swift. With the 2020 Olympics postponed a year, Paris is quickly approaching. While MacNeil has her eyes set on the 2024 Games, her focus has not come without doubt.

“I’ve definitely questioned swimming and goals because I feel like I’ve done a lot of everything I’ve ever wanted,” MacNeil said. “I felt lost in the ‘What’s next?’”

MacNeil has decided to train for Paris, but beyond that, she is not tying herself to anything. Every athlete’s career comes to an end at some point, and she is going to determine her future based on her happiness and the satisfaction she derives from swimming.

There could be a long professional swimming career on the horizon, or she may pivot into something else. No matter what comes her way, MacNeil is taking her training and her career day by day.

“As long as I’m enjoying it, whatever happens along the way will be icing on the cake,” MacNeil said.

She has turned her dreams into goals and her goals into reality. All that is left is for MacNeil to answer her own question: “What’s next?”

SportsMonday: Don’t judge Michigan at its highs, judge it by its lows If you’ve been following the tory throughout this entire season, Michigan women’s basketball team but we wanted to continue to keep for the past couple of years, you doing things that have never been know how many history-making done before and go through the moments it has had. highs and lows that we did this seaIn 2017, the Wolverines won their son,” senior guard Leigha Brown first WNIT Championship. said after Saturday’s win In 2021, then-junior foragainst South Dakota. “ … ward Naz Hillmon broke But we’re not done yet. We the Michigan record – for want to keep making hisboth the men’s and women’s tory.” programs – with 50 points You can judge Michigan in a single game, and the by its extensive list of accoWolverines made their first lades. But it’s even more Sweet Sixteen appeartelling to look at what’s LANE ance. not on its résumé.

This season, they KIZZIAH It was less than two secured a No. 3 seed in the months ago that a snowNCAA Tournament — the storm and a canceled highest in program history. road game essentially lost MichiAlong the way, Michigan coach gan what would have been its first Kim Barnes Arico has become the Big Ten title. And it was less than a first coach in program history to month ago that No. 6 seed Nebraska lead the team to a top 10 ranking, took the Wolverines by surprise reaching as high as top five. The first in the second round of the Big Ten to surpass 200 wins with the pro- Tournament. gram. The only coach to have eight “That’s crushing and that can 20-win seasons. be devastating and that can change On Monday, the Wolverines will the outcome of the year, for sure,” add another line to their list of firsts: Barnes Arico said.

First Elite Eight appearance.

And, yet, it didn’t. Michigan took “Obviously we have made his- to the court in the first round of

March Madness, seemingly unfazed by its earlier challenges, and blew out American, 74-39.

What’s not noted on the Wolverines’ stats sheet is senior guard Amy Dilk’s injury that kept her out of most conference games. And the fact that they pulled off a 13-4 Big Ten record even without one of their biggest defensive assets.

It’s not just the record-breaking moments, but the times they’ve been tested that makes this team what it is.

That combination of confidence and resilience is tested more and more as Michigan makes its way through March. Even as their wins have gotten progressively closer — their first win by 35, their second by 15 and their most recent by just three — the Wolverines have maintained their composure.

“There were a lot of things that happened during the course of the year that we could have crumbled and said ‘Well, woe is me’ and ‘Why did this happen to us?’ ” Barnes Arico said. “I’m sure alone in our moments we do say that, but I think the great quality about this team and this program has been the ability to

get back up every day and to come together and say, ‘Well, now we have something to prove.’ ” This dynamic is maybe best seen in the ending of Saturday’s game.

After trailing by five points with less than two minutes left, the Coyotes managed to tie the game. In the final minute with the team’s hopes on the line, Barnes Arico’s message from the sidelines encompassed all of the confidence and resilience this season has built: Just score.

“That right there, that gave me the most confidence in the world,” freshman guard Laila Phelia said.

“I felt like just being able to have the head coach sit there and tell me to go score and don’t hesitate at all, I felt like that really helped a lot.”

You can judge the Wolverines by the records they’ve broken and the games that they’ve won, or you can judge them by the number of times they’ve fallen and had to get back up. Either way, the conclusion is the same: Michigan is a force to be reckoned with.

Paul Nasr: Quinnipiac’s early goaltender pull saved Michigan’s season ALLENTOWN, Penn.

— Despite entering the third period with a 4-0 lead, the Michigan hockey team still struggled to put Quinnipiac away. The Wolverines completely collapsed throughout the first 15 minutes of the final frame.

And Bobcats coach Rand Pecknold’s decision to pull goaltender Dylan St. Cyr with almost four minutes left saved Michigan’s season.

That’s not an indictment on the Wolverines. PAUL They manhandled Quin- NASR nipiac’s nation-leading defense throughout much of the contest. They earned their place in the Frozen Four.

But the Bobcats could’ve taken Michigan’s spot in Boston. Quinnipiac took over the game, seized all the momentum and then freely handed it right back to Michigan on Pecknold’s baffling decision.

“It was a pretty normal decision for how I operate,” Pecknold said of pulling his goaltender while his team was surging, having scored three unanswered goals. “… Probably the last 13 (to) 14 years, we’ve done that pretty regularly, getting

the goalie out early. … It works a lot more than it doesn’t for us.”

As Pecknold made that statement, celebratory music from Michigan’s locker room blared into the media room while he spoke somberly. Clearly, pulling the goalie worked for the Wolverines, not his own team. Michigan is uber-talented, but young and untested.

It’s a critique Michigan coach Mel Pearson called out after the game, but one that made itself clear throughout the third period. The Wolverines have the talent to win a national championship, but older and more battle-tested teams have an advantage in composure and game management.

After the Bobcats scored their three unanswered goals, they continued to methodically desecrate Michigan’s young, faltering roster. Quinnipiac was calm and poised, and with its regularly dangerous attacks, it had a clear blueprint to victory with plenty of time.

That blueprint was thrown into

the Lehigh River when the goaltender was pulled, a saving grace for Michigan’s young squad.

“We were reeling,” Pearson said. “… They had us on the ropes.

It was an interesting time to pull the goalie.”

Interesting indeed.

Halving almost four minutes left wasn’t the only shocking thing about the goaltender being pulled, it was the on-ice context as well. Instead of at least pulling the goalie while his team controlled possession in its offensive zone, Pecknold ordered St. Cyr to the bench before a faceoff, where the puck’s possession was in question.

Who does that?

The Wolverines could very well have won that faceoff and launched the puck into the empty net right then and there. Pecknold added extra strain to his decision by betting on his team to win the faceoff too. Although the Bobcats won the draw, sophomore forward Thomas Bordeleau quickly challenged and stole the puck.

He then raced down the ice, passing it across to wide open fifth year senior Michael Pastujov for the empty-net goal that essentially sealed the game with over three and a half minutes left.

“They had all the momentum, and there’s like four minutes left in the game,” Pearson said. “I’m not going to question any coach. … (Pecknold’s) been around a long time, ton of respect for him … (but) they were pushing, they didn’t need to pull the goalie, they were all over us.”

With 22 seconds left in the game, defenseman Zach Metsa removed any room for debate, scoring Quinnipiac’s fourth goal on even strength. Had the Bobcats left their goaltender in, the fourth goal could have very well tied the game, giving Quinnipiac all the momentum entering overtime.

When asked if he regrets pulling his goaltender so early in hindsight, Pecknold’s answer was blunt: “No.” Michigan certainly doesn’t regret it either. It was a team sliding into an embarrassing loss, and its opponent saved it from demise. By pulling his goaltender with almost four minutes left as his team was surging, Pecknold threw the Wolverines a life raft.

A raft that will carry Michigan to Boston for the Frozen Four.

SPORTSWEDNESDAY

CURTAIN CALL

Michigan’s historic season comes to a close in Elite Eight loss to Louisville ABBIE TELGENHOF Daily Sports Writer

WICHITA, Kan. — With the clock ticking down in the Michigan women’s basketball team’s first ever Elite Eight, junior guard Maddie Nolan, standing on the block, looked across the lane to senior forward Naz Hillmon. The two shared a look, Hillmon told Nolan to take a deep breath and they both steeled themselves for the next play.

Down by nine and struggling to overcome a late onslaught from Louisville, both players knew the situation was grim. Michigan’s chances at a Final Four berth — the first in program history — were quickly slipping away.

In their first trip to the Elite Eight in program history, the third-seeded Wolverines (25-7 overall) fell to the first-seeded Cardinals (29-4), 62-50.

In a crushing loss to end its historic season on Monday night, Michigan struggled to break through against Louisville’s stifling defense in spite of its own defensive strength.

“We knew it would be a game of runs and we had our share of runs,” Michigan coach Kim Barnes Arico said. “They did what they do best.

They forced us into some turnovers which resulted in some easy points for them.”

A defensive battle from the beginning, both teams were hardpressed to score. The Wolverines zeroed in on stopping the Cardinals from running their fast-paced transition offense.

Lousiville jumped out to an early lead, but were continually tested by Michigan’s pesky defense — a narrative that repeated itself multiple times down the stretch.

On the offensive end, the Wolverines struggled to score throughout the first quarter. With the Cardinals dropping into their fullcourt press after nearly every made basket, they forced Michigan into a few crucial early turnovers.

The Wolverines tried to find their offense both inside and out, looking to Hillmon and senior forward Emily Kiser in the paint early on. But the

Wolverines struggled to find the bottom of the net, starting cold behind the 3-point line — until junior guard Maddie Nolan checked in.

Cutting Louisville’s growing lead with two 3-pointers late in the first quarter, Nolan was the offensive

had a chance to take the lead for the second time. Instead, a turnover and a missed defensive rebound allowed the Cardinals to extend their lead, forcing Michigan to enter the locker room down by three.

Opening the second half facing

Ending their season in the program’s first-ever Elite Eight, the Wolverines made history.

Just not as much as they wanted. difference-maker early on. With the Cardinals having to leave their player to help on Nolan, Kiser and Hillmon found more space in the post. Ending the quarter by taking a charge, Nolan continued to keep Louisville at bay.

The defensive battle continued as both teams fought to gain control of the game. Forcing the Cardinals into a shot clock violation with under 30 seconds left in the half, the Wolverines

a renewed Louisville full-court press, the Wolverines fell back into their early pattern of turnovers. A scoring drought plagued Michigan throughout the third quarter, allowing the Cardinals to continue their balanced scoring attack from all five starters.

“I think their pressure, and that’s something that was obviously a concern of ours, really wore us down,”

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Barnes Arico said. “… Once we settled down (offensively), they wore us down with their defensive pressure, which forced turnovers.”

Drawing fouls in the paint, the Wolverines’ main source of points in the third quarter on the free-throw line until Nolan drained another 3-pointer from the corner — once again cutting into Louisville’s lead.

Michigan continued to pester the Cardinals, refusing to be buried, ending the quarter down by just two points.

Starting the fourth quarter once again with a turnover, the Wolverines quickly erased the progress they’d made at the end of the third — back-toback turnovers led to quick transition buckets for Louisville.

Then, senior wing Leigha Brown stepped off the floor for the final time just under two minutes into the fourth quarter. Brown, who’s struggled with a lower-leg injury all season, had seemingly re-aggravated her injury.

With Brown relegated to the bench, Michigan struggled to find any scoring outside the paint.

“Really, her tank was empty,” Barnes Arico said. “She couldn’t go anymore. … When you don’t have a dynamic guard, like Leigha Brown, arguably our best guard on the roster, that really hurts.”

With just under three minutes left in regulation, the Wolverines faced a two point differential. But failing to execute, missing multiple shots and turning the ball over, Michigan allowed the Cardinals to extend their lead. As Louisville continued to grow its advantage throughout the remaining minutes, Michigan could only watch as its hopes at a Final Four were dashed.

“I don’t think the final score is indicative of how that game went,” senior guard Danielle Rauch said.

“How hard we fought and how much we put them on the ropes and we applied pressure as much as we could.

Some things didn’t go our way. But I think that’s important to recognize.”

Ending their season in the program’s first-ever Elite Eight, the Wolverines made history.

Just not as much as they wanted.

x Opinion

Taboo Edition

DESIGN BY TAMARA TURNER

An Ethnography of Adderall and Wolverines

2 — Wednesday, March 30, 2022 // The Statement

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BY VALERIJA MALASHEVICH, STATEMENT COLUMNIST

Content warning: Mentions of substance abuse Becoming a university student means experiencing many ‘firsts,’ one of which being the first time you might try stimulants — caffeine, nicotine, cocaine, the list goes on. For me, Adderall arrived months too late, but it changed my life nonetheless.

Had I known the achievement-obsessed lion’s den I was walking into when I arrived in Ann Arbor my first time, I probably would have left that same night. It’s hard to see this environment when you’re sitting on the Diag, watching people bounce a basketball around, friends walking side by side, smiles on faces and block ‘M’s emblazoned on shirts.

What does it mean to be a Michigan Wolverine?

How many tour groups have to walk by me before I get the sudden urge to let it all out, to scream in their face and warn them that Ann Arbor is brutal, that it’s eat or be eaten on a daily basis. During those hallowed ‘Campus Days,’ what they don’t tell you about being a Michigan Wolverine is the number of hours you’ll spend ruining your eyesight staring at a computer screen, nearly sobbing because you can’t figure out how to calculate an integral. To hear roommates screaming down the hall and witness strangers wiping away tears in the UGLi, afraid to admit defeat.

How many more nights can I handle looking up from my screen and seeing the sun rise in the distance? How many more eyes can I look into, drained of their color and plump, before I finally say something?

There is a communal suffering we all bear witness to, sometimes falling into the very trap ourselves, and yet this is something many of us refuse to talk about. It’s time we change that. *** My story with my ADHD diagnosis began during my very first semester on campus. It was fall semester and COVID-19 was at its peak, reducing me to Zoom lectures that I couldn’t bear to attend and homework groups I couldn’t bother to meet with. I had all the time in the world it seemed, just like during quarantine, but something was different.

My mind was persistently aware of the schoolwork slowly piling up, but I could do absolutely nothing to induce movement in my body to change anything about it. Sitting behind the worn down desks of South Quad dormitories made me feel queasy, a constant reminder of all the things I had promised to complete and never did.

Then winter semester came around, and I was still wasting hours of my time working on Canvas discussion posts and applications to internships I knew I wouldn’t get, and still falling behind my peers. It was a rat race, and I was losing.

Eventually, I got my slice of heaven: I was diagnosed with ADHD my sophomore year of college, and I could finally silence my frenzied thoughts with a little pill each day. Then, as more and more people learned of my treatment plan, and I began to ask those around me what they think of stimulants like Adderall, I quickly realized that my medication was a valuable commodity — pharmaceutical gold to certain Michigan students.

When you’re a Wolverine, you’re either buying or selling, trading or spotting — like at any other American university, Adderall is a precious commodity in our collegiate climate. You hook friends up with people who know people, facilitate silent exchanges on Venmo with cryptic descriptions, an illegal trade we’ve almost normalized. But these are symptoms, not the cause, of the increasing dependence on stimulants among college students.

I set out to follow the breadcrumb trail, tracing the origins of the campus-wide Adderall abuse by seeking out students and asking them about their stories with this coveted little pill. In some sort of twisted way, I desperately sought a solution from the words of those affected most, the people who sit next to you in lecture as you both ignore each other’s despair — a silent recognition that needs to be vocalized.

Everyone remembers their first time Like most things, drugs often sneak into your life quietly and unexpectedly, but they leave a big impact. It’s not exactly a secret that college students are twice as likely to use stimulants than other non-students at their age, and that 5 to 35% of students have tried Adderall without a prescription, but numbers don’t always tell the entire story.

Data can illustrate trends and correlations, but it says nothing about the real motive behind campus-wide Adderall use. Sometimes, upholding the notion of ‘leaders and best’ pushes us to a breaking point, a point that can be remedied by a productivity pill.

Here’s what my peers had to say about their first time with Adderall.

A sophomore majoring in philosophy in LSA, like many others, happened to stumble upon access to Adderall through pure luck. “I think

I tried Adderall for the first time in my sophomore year of high school — a friend had it. And they’re like, ‘yo, you should try this.

It’s crazy, it helps you focus and it makes you feel good.’ And I was like, ‘oh, sounds good.’ I’m like, it goes with the ADHD thing, but I’m very impulsive and have no willpower. So, if something’s in front of me, I’m gonna take it. … So that was it and I loved it.”

For those with ADHD, Adderall can give us a breath of fresh air, as the winding and persistent overlapping conversations in our minds die down to mere whispers.

An LSA sophomore majoring in sociology reflected on when they first became lovestruck by the pill’s effect. “I was 15 or 16. I bought it from my drug dealer who I used to (buy) these THC pills from. He kind of skipped out on me a couple times, he’s just so unreliable because that’s how drug dealers are. But he felt bad. And I think he just threw one (Adderall) in for free. … I took it and … I sat down and drew pictures, which is very strange for me, because I don’t like to focus.

I don’t like to pay attention to one thing, but I did it. I spent two hours on it. And afterwards I really liked (Adderall).”

A computer science student in the college of LSA reflected on their first couple of experiences with Adderall. “The first time I ever got Adderall, I bought it off a friend. It was actually Vyvanse, but same shit different name. The first time I took it was actually at the Union at 6 p.m. to do work, or it was to go to Necto. …That’s how I got it the first time, because someone offered to give it to me.”

Like many students, this particular individual found Adderall by way of a friend who had it, rather than intently seeking it out themselves. Thus, an informal but meticulously-cultivated network of Adderall users and dealers begins to take form on campus.

Additionally, they mentioned the first time they took Adderall in conjunction with another

drug, an extreme dose of caffeine. “There was a period of time where I was staying up every night for quite a while. That’s happened quite a bit in computer science. And one of my friends who has an Adderall prescription, she opened up one of the capsules of her Adderall and poured it into a Bang energy (drink). And I thought, this is a good idea and I need this right now. And so I drank it.”

According to fellow students, finding Adderall also seems to involve being at the right place at the right time.

The computer science student continued, and our conversation quickly turned to the cyclical nature of Adderall usage on campus: “Anytime I mentioned that I have (Adderall) someone will be like, yo, where’d you get that? Literally everyone, like if you say the word Adderall on this campus everyone goes like, where’d you get it from? Okay, you pay five? I pay 10. Where’d you get that bro?”

Successfully acquiring Adderall on campus is indeed a game of knowing people who know people.

It’s not a sin if you’re not a sinner.

How do we define the ends justifying the means? “Drug abuse is bad” is quite an archaic notion, almost too black and white for our generation. Researchers cherish categories and numbers and correlations, but I find them to be a detached approach to complex anthropological questions.

Humans are smart, adaptable and first and foremost, curious. And curiosity, it seems, is a major factor of first-time Adderall use.

Read more at MichiganDaily.com

BY HALEY JOHNSON, STATEMENT COLUMNIST I’ve begun to think that the University of Michigan community isn’t really defined by shared experiences, or sports, or “the Michigan difference,” or any of the other things people say it’s about. We talk about being a Wolverine like it’s something we all just choose to buy into — wear maize and blue, sing “Mr. Brightside,” go to Rick’s and you too can be the Michigan difference.

But underlying all this supposed togetherness and camaraderie is something that no one likes to talk about. We’re all here because someone pays our tuition. Someone, or some combination of people, is paying between $16,178 and $56,962 every academic year for each and every single one of us to attend this school.

It’s uncomfortable to talk about tuition. Especially if your parents aren’t paying it. There’s no hard data on what percentage of students are supporting themselves through college, but given the Ann Arbor campus has a median family income of $154,000 (over twice the median family income in Michigan) and a pervasive wealth culture, you have to imagine these students are few and far between.

But behind the high-rise apartments, the “daddy’s credit card” attitude and the wealth culture are hundreds if not thousands of students who struggle to attend this University. There are students at this university who feel like people from their socioeconomic backgrounds are invisible on campus.

As recent U-M alum Mattie Bowen described in an inter-

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Let’s talk about who pays your tuition

Wednesday, March 30, 2022 // The Statement — 3

view, “Most people at Michigan would be considered by most people in this country to be rich. And rich people really get uncomfortable if you tell them that you’re not rich.”

You won’t hear from any of these rich students in this story.

They make up the majority of the student body, and their story has long been told. Here’s what the rest of us have to say. *** What the majority of our study body doesn’t understand is that U-M financial aid is no guarantee.

LSA senior Trenten Ingell, a recipient of the Go Blue Guarantee, explained that his aid package would often be adjusted before the start of the academic year, factoring in more money from work study or loans. “There’s always a moment over the summer where they process things and say, ‘Okay, here’s what you’re getting.’ That’s never the thing that you’re getting,” he said. There’s something paradoxical about the “Go Blue Guarantee,” which is supposed to cover the cost of attendance for in-state, low-income students. But in actuality, there is no “guaranteed” support when the aid you do get is constantly fluctuating and students are burdened with more loans year to year.

Read more at MichiganDaily.com

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A crash course on alpha males

BY ELIZABETH WOLFE, OPINION ADVICE COLUMNIST

Content warning: Messages pertaining to violence against women and gun shootings.

Oct. 2, 2021 I’m sure you remember it was the beginning of October.

Though it really doesn’t matter what kind of day it was — which day of the week, whether it was sunny or rainy — it really was lovely. Fall is my favorite season. It was sunny but breezy, and I had a window open to let the wind carry the sweet scent of falling leaves into the little study room I’d found empty that morning. I brought a mug of hot apple cider and played my “spooky study” playlist as I worked. My mom would be arriving on campus soon. I don’t remember why she was coming up, but I was excited to see her.

I was being lazy, checking Instagram and TikTok instead of working on my homework. A Snapchat notification popped up from a crudely named conversation group. Was I expecting a funny video, an invite to hang out? Again, I guess it doesn’t matter, especially once I opened it.

I could’ve stopped reading after I saw the words shooting threat. In fact, I wish I hadn’t continued reading, at least in the moment.

“Those fucking animals deserve (to) die.”

“There is a violent pro-male revolution coming.”

He was specifically targeting women at the University of Michigan. I still don’t know why us in particular. What con-

fused me even more was the lack of concern demonstrated

by University administration. They said they were taking the threat seriously, but there was no mention of classes being canceled or extra measures being taken to ensure our safety.

DPSS and the FBI said the perpetrator was found the next day, on Oct. 3, and that everyone was safe. None of my classes were canceled; my job went remote for one day.

Nothing is going to happen. From that Saturday to a week later, that phrase rang constantly in my head; when I cried on the phone to my mom, when I frantically texted my sister, when I emailed my professors saying I’d be missing class.

When we talk about violence against women, we talk about physical harm, excluding the great emotional harm that is involved as well. Female U-M students faced collective emotional damage, whether anyone wanted to admit it or not.

When the Monday following the threat rolled around, there was a false of report of shots fired on the U-M Flint campus.

There was no indication of what caused the false alarm; my guess is the heightened anxiety from Saturday’s threat. However, I fell apart for a moment. My sister texted me, we’re coming to get you. I took an Ativan and stumbled out the door in my pajamas. As we drove down Read more at Hill Street, the MichiganDaily.com streets of Ann

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4 — Wednesday, March 30, 2022 // The Statement

What’s Grindr got to do with it?

BY DRAKE GEORGE, STATEMENT CORRESPONDENT

Content Warning: Mentions of sexual abuse, abuse of minors, graphic nudity Opening up Grindr is like reading a magazine with no articles or captions. Just photos of the sexiest male celebrities, faceless creatures we like to flip through like products in a catalog.

Grindr is designed to allow Queer men to find other Queer men to hook up with. In my experience, many men will send graphic photos of their body, or send a lewd pick up line in an attempt to sleep with others in the area.

As a teenager, this app scared the hell out of me. The first time I was introduced to the app, I was scrolling on Instagram and saw meme posts about it. I heard horror stories from Queer friends of mine about boys, just like me, being abducted and slaughtered as a result of connecting with a stranger on Grindr. Other cautionary tales I heard involved boys my own age being groomed into performing ludicrous acts for faceless profiles that they had never seen in person.

These stories were enough to instill an aversion to Grindr. I promised myself that when I turned eighteen (the age required to sign onto the app), I would not be using an app as dangerous as that.

Beyond the horror stories, many individuals who did use the app at the time had negative experiences that proved my fear valid.

In a Vox Article from 2018, a poll revealed “77 percent of Grindr

users felt regret after using the app.” In the same article, the interviewees said “that when they closed their phones and reflected on the shallow conversations and sexually explicit pictures they sent, they felt more depressed, more anxious, and even more isolated.”

In an interview by NPR, a man named German Chavez speaks about how he downloaded the dating app Grindr when he was 13.

The interview revealed that “more than 100 men across the United States have faced charges since 2015 related to sexually assaulting or attempting to meet minors for sex on Grindr … according to an investigation by the GBH News Center for Investigative Reporting.”

Although the idea of exposing myself to this dangerous app initially left a foul taste in my mouth, as soon as I got to college, my thinking shifted. I, a Queer man, really wanted to meet other Queer men and get to know them intimately. Suddenly, the app that had been so scary to me was now providing a great opportunity to explore my sexual desires. I was in the Buffalo Wild Wings on State Street my freshman year when I decided to download Grindr. I’d finally turned eighteen and was ready to enter the world of ‘hookup culture.’

Read more at MichiganDaily.com

Two skeletons walked into a bar: Why we love joking about death

BY REVA LALWANI, OPINION COLUMNIST Content warning: Mentions of self-harm and suicide I can’t quite remember when morbidity became a “thing.” Was it before or after rainy day dodgeball games in the middle school gymnasium? Was it during our first finals season of freshman year? Or maybe it was when we were busy running around trying to catch an Eevee in Pokémon Go. All I know is that by my sophomore year in high school, I would hear at least one suicide joke made amid the cackles of my sleep-deprived peers before recess had even started.

I made (read: make) them just as frequently as anyone else because sometimes, “This is so hard” just couldn’t capture my frustration as well as “Death would be easier” could. Soon enough, our generation had somehow glorified the concept of death while laughing at our shared experience.

“I’d literally rather die than take this math test,” is tossed around at Mason Hall as easily as commentary on Michigan’s unpredictable weather.

“Do you think I’d get an extension on the Euchre project if I jumped off a cliff and broke both legs?” is followed up with a “Definitely not. You’d get an ‘I understand your situation’ email at most.”

And “thoughts on just letting climate change win?” is the new and improved response to “What’s up?” Our generation is faced with such incredible levels of existential dread that sometime, somehow, expressing our concern begins to sound more and more like morbid standup comedy.

Whether or not these jokes should even be made is another issue entirely, but in examining why this form of humor is com-

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mon among Millennials and Gen Z, we discover what exactly our morbidity attempts to obscure.

Starting from increasingly competitive college admissions and leading to sleepless nights during final season, the glorification of death has become a coping mechanism for people my age trying to find the silver lining amid the never-ending stressors.

Gen Z has the highest rates of depression to date, stemming from unprecedented levels of academic, personal and financial stress.

What seems ironic is the extent to which Millennials and Gen Z focus on mental health, or, at least, make the performative effort to focus on it.

For most of us, the completion of each midterm prompts a self care day: face masks, childhood movies (“How to Train Your Dragon” is a personal favorite) and comfort food. Mental health resources are made accessible to University students right alongside yoga classes and fun, stress-buster activities. From the “wellbeing breaks” that replaced spring break in the 2020-2021 school year to the LSA@Play posters that decorate each empty wall in Angell Hall, the University seems to have caught on to the new trend. Arguably, self-care has never been more advertised than it is today — so why do we still prefer dark humor to the other, more conventional coping mechanisms that are so readily pushed onto us?

Read more at MichiganDaily.com