Festifall spotlights hundred of organizations on North and Central Campus
student organizations represented at the annual fair and how it compared to last year’s fair.
Festifall drew thousands of students to Pierpont Commons on Monday and the Diag on Wednesday, offering the chance to learn more about the University’s hundreds of student organizations, as well as various academic programs and departments.
Kaila Sell, lead Festifall organizer and diversity, equity, and inclusion manager at the Center for Campus Involvement, spoke about the broad range of
“We have around 965 student organizations, which is a slight increase from last year, and then there are 20 vendors,” Sell said.
“That includes those on both Central and North Campus.”
Sell said she encourages students to look on the site Maize Pages for more information on all the organizations on campus since they are not all present at Festifall.
“Not all organizations are represented at Festifall, so if students either didn’t get a chance to attend or after the fact want to
follow up and learn more about organizations, they should check out Maize Pages,” Sell said. “That has all organizations, their contact information, a little bit about them and they should be able to find more information there.”
Engineering junior Ashley Drzewicki, scholarship chair and ritual chair in Phi Sigma Rho, a social sorority for women in engineering and technical science fields, represented her organization at Festifall on North Campus. Drzewicki said she was impressed by the student turnout.
“The student turnout was really good,” Drzewicki said. “I
‘We will always protect one another’: Ann Arbor community gathers to protest UMich researcher’s arrest
The demonstration follows the arrest of four people during a pro-Palestine protest on Wednesday
hour before the arrests took place.
wasn’t expecting to talk to as many people as I did and have a lot of really genuine conversations about Phi Rho. It is so nice for both incoming freshmen and transfer students as well as older students to get the opportunity to meet new clubs and new people.”
Engineering freshman Ashley McPike said she enjoyed being able to attend both Central Campus and the North Campus Festifall.
“I went to both Festifalls, and the North Campus Festifall was great for the engineering clubs and the Central Campus Festifall was great for other clubs that
don’t necessarily have to do with my major,” McPike said. “Seeing everybody have their own little groups and niches is really cool to see, especially coming from a small school where I didn’t have this many options.”
LSA sophomore Varad Chapalgaonkar, deputy section head for The Michigan Journal of Economics, said he believes Festifall is a valuable resource to help students find extracurriculars they are passionate about at the University.
“Michigan is a big community and a lot of people want to do something with their time but
STUDENT GOVERNMENT
Four people were arrested during a pro-Palestine protest on the Diag Wednesday afternoon.
Three of those arrested — a community member, a University of Michigan alum and a 16-yearold high schooler — were released 3 hours later. The fourth, a U-M researcher, was placed on a 48-hour hold without bail in the Washtenaw County Jail. As a result, the TAHRIR Coalition, an association of more than 90 proPalestine organizations, launched a campaign advocating for his release, vowing to protest at the U-M Division of Public Safety and Security headquarters and Washtenaw County Jail until the researcher was released.
The protest for the researcher’s release began Thursday at 9 a.m. in the parking lot outside of DPSS headquarters. A crowd of about 50 protesters gathered on hot asphalt in the muggy air, chanting, beating drums and blowing horns. Police stood across the street, closer to DPSS headquarters behind a line of yellow police tape.
Protesters moved to the Washtenaw County Jail at noon, and about 30 minutes later the U-M researcher was found at the restaurant Palm Palace, where Public Policy junior Assmaa Eidy said the researcher had walked after his 11:20 a.m. release.
In a joint press release between DPSS and Public Affairs, Melissa Overton, Deputy Chief of Police for DPSS, wrote that the protesters on the Diag were given multiple warnings more than an
“Some refused to leave and, as a result, four people were arrested,” Overton wrote. “None of the people who were arrested were students.”
The release did not comment on why the researcher was detained for an extended period while the other three were released. A student protester, who requested anonymity out of fear of retribution and will be referred to as Jaime, told The Daily that while the researcher was standing nearby, he was not involved in the protest.
“The police got in formation and just lunged at protesters at random,” Jaime said. “They arrested two individuals at first, and then they arrested another individual … and then another individual who wasn’t even engaging in the protest, who wasn’t even part of the demonstration, who was off to the side, was also arrested.”
Overton wrote in an email to The Daily that while the researcher has been released, the incident is still under investigation.
Eidy said that the University has ramped up its intensity in response to their protests, but the protesters do not intend to stop until the University divests from companies profiting off Israel’s military campaign in Gaza.
“First and foremost, we will always protect one another,” Eidy said. “We’re always going to stand here with our community.”
don’t know where to start with finding clubs,” Chapalgaonkar said. “Festifall is a great resource to walk around with friends and actually see all these different clubs and hear their pitches.”
Erin Snyder, LSA sophomore and a member of Campus Advocates for Resilience, Empowerment, and Safety, a student organization focused on the health of the U-M student community, said in an interview with The Daily that Festifall is also incredibly important for new organizations looking to expand.
CSG holds first meeting of semester, passes fall 2024 budget
The student government met amid concerns that it would halt all operations after the SHUT IT DOWN party won the CSG March elections
EDRA TIMMERMAN Daily Staff Reporter
The University of Michigan Central Student Government met in the Wolverine Room of the Michigan Union for the first in-person meeting of the semester Tuesday evening. Amid concerns that the student government would halt all operations after the SHUT IT DOWN party won the Central Student Government March elections, the assembly discussed the decision not to fund student organizations during the spring and summer semesters. The Assembly also passed several resolutions including the fall budget, a resolution to provide select students with discounted parking permits and a resolution requesting reduced police presence surrounding campus polling sites.
CSG President Alifa Chowdhury spoke to the Assembly at Tuesday’s meeting to explain the decision to withhold funding from student organizations.
“I think by not funding student orgs, we are asking the University to step up,” Chowdhury said. “By asking the regents to not just divest from Israel and weapons manufacturing companies, but to reinvest money from the $18 billion endowment to students and to make y’alls lives better.”
CSG Vice President Elias Atkinson said the decision not to
fund student organizations is part of a larger pressure campaign urging the University to be more responsive to student demands, including those about divestment.
“We’re pledging now to sort of step up the communication with everyone and really try to make this a collaborative effort, to use this as a form of protest, for divestment, but also for the things that you guys care about,” Atkinson said. “We can find a way to relate all of our demands and our struggles and bring them together against the Regents or to the Regents and the University. … We could effect a lot of positive change.”
The assembly discussed and voted on AR 14-016, a resolution that requested that any police presence be at least 300 feet from poll lines during CSG and general elections. The resolution passed unanimously.
The assembly unanimously passed AR 14-021, a resolution proposing gathering data on the CSG Airbus to determine if the initiative is effective in providing affordable transportation for students. If the results of the data show that the CSG Airbus is not effective, the assembly will allocate those funds elsewhere.
AR 14-025 calls on the School of Nursing to fund required equipment and procedures for nursing students, such as scrubs, drug screenings and background checks. The resolution passed unanimously.
AR 14-019, which asks the University to provide discounted parking permits for students who qualify for need-based financial aid or are employed by the University, also passed unanimously.
Members also discussed AR 14-023, the Fall 2024 CSG Budget Act, which proposes allocating $603,453 to various enterprises within CSG, including but not limited to the Legislative Discretionary Fund, Airbus and the Student Organization Committee. LSA senior Mario Thaqi, CSG representative, shared information about the University’s relatively high endowment and relatively low funding of organizations compared to other Big Ten schools.
“I think it’s really important to hold the University accountable for their abysmal funding compared to the rest of the Big Ten,” Thaqi said. “Even though (the Student Organization Funding Committee) provides a lot of money for these club sports organizations, it would be great if that burden was freed up so we could continue to fund more student organizations on this campus.”
LSA senior Ryan Grover, president of the U-M rugby team, expressed concerns with the lack of funding for organizations through the Student Organization Funding Committee on behalf of the rugby team.
ALYSSA TISCH Daily Staff Reporter
AVA CHATLOSH Daily Staff Reporter
COLE CARRICO/Daily
University of Michigan hosts the annual Festifall club rush in the Diag Wednesday afternoon.
Ann Arbor
City Council discusses federal grant approvals for forest preservation, Drive SAFE
The council also discussed a new rental housing project
Bills
The Ann Arbor City Council met in Larcom City Hall the evening Aug. 19 to discuss approval of federal grant funds for Ann Arbor urban forestry initiatives, a new rental housing project located near the University of Michigan’s North Campus and the reintroduction of the Drive SAFE (Safety, Access, Freedom, and Economy) Bills to Michigan Legislature. The bills enable Ann Arbor residents to acquire driver’s licenses and state identification cards without requiring proof of U.S. citizenship or documentation status.
In an update to the City Council, Jeffrey Pfeifer, manager of public affairs and engagement of Ann Arbor Area Transportation Authority, announced that the Federal Trade Administration approved a $25 million dollar grant for the construction of zeroemission hydrogen buses.
“First … we had some exciting news happen to TheRide in relation to zero-emissions buses,” Pfeifer said. “In April, we submitted an application to the FTA for a Low (or) No (Emission) Grant application and (are) happy to announce that in early July, we heard from the FTA that we were being awarded $25 million as part of our grant application.”
Pfeifer also announced that TheRide will be expanding their service hours beginning Aug. 25, increasing the frequency of transportation at night, weekends and holidays. Weekday service hours begin at 6 a.m. and end at 11:30 p.m., and intervals between bus arrivals have shortened to 30 minutes on weekends.
“Secondly, we want to announce that TheRide is proud to continue delivering on our promises made to our voters in our 2022 millage proposal,” Pfeifer said. “Starting next Monday, Aug. 26, we will be expanding our service, basically offering more service more often.”
During public speaking time, Adam Goodman, an Ann Arbor resident in Ward 5, addressed the shortcomings of Ann Arbor’s Vision Zero plan. The plan, which was in the works for years and finally finalized in 2021, aims to eliminate pedestrian and bike fatalities from major traffic crashes by 2025. Goodman participated in the July 26 die-in protest at City Hall, calling for improved biker and pedestrian safety on Ann Arbor streets.
“It’s almost 10 years ago that we set our Vision Zero goal to eliminate fatal and serious injury crashes by 2025, and at this point, it was clear that we will fail to meet this goal,” Goodman said. “So I think it’s worth asking, what have we actually done with the last almost 10 years? Well, one thing we’ve done, we’ve made a lot of plans.”
Goodman acknowledged the positive impact of city initiatives including the Pedestrian Safety and Access Task Force 2015 report and the Vision Zero plan. However, he said he still feels limited progress has been made toward pedestrian safety in Ann Arbor.
“My question is: Most of these plans look great, but when do we get to stop planning and start doing?” Goodman said. “Because it sure seems like we spent the last 10 years in an endless cycle of plans and more plans (that) cost probably millions of dollars, with not a lot of on-the-ground improvements to actually show for it.”
Another topic of discussion at the meeting was the expansion of a free gun-lock program in Ann Arbor.
Free gun locks with a no-questionsasked policy are now available at three Ann Arbor District Library locations — Downtown, Westgate and Malletts Creek. The program arose following collaboration with Andre Anderson, Ann Arbor’s chief of police, about necessary expansion of gun safety measures in Ann Arbor, according to City Councilmember Dharma Akmon, D-Ward 4.
“A key (shooting) prevention tool is locking your gun,” Akmon
said. “A couple of months ago, a constituent approached me to ask if the city could offer gun locks in vending machines, much like we do for Narcan and other public health supplies. That began a conversation with Chief Anderson and his team about how we could offer free gun locks on a no-questions-asked basis.”
Mayor Christopher Taylor also announced Ann Arbor will receive a $1 million grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture designated for the preservation of urban forestry as part of the BidenHarris Inflation Reduction Act.
Previous sustainability initiatives supported by the Inflation Reduction Act funds include Ann Arbor’s million-dollar purchase of solar power technology.
“Here, we as a municipal organization are going to be receiving a million dollars to support our urban forestry efforts, which are crucial to quality of life, health and pollution fighting here within the city,” Taylor said.
The City Council approved the resolution to accept these funds.
City Councilmember Lisa Disch, D-Ward 1, introduced Resolution DS-1, a rezoning proposal to approve a 131-unit housing project in Owl Creek located near the U-M North Campus. The new complex will incorporate existing infrastructure to make the construction process more efficient, according to Disch.
“I am very happy to discuss this project, which, as a public commenter already mentioned, is a housing infill project that makes use of the existing infrastructure to provide additional housing units in an efficient way,” Disch said.
“This rezoning will allow us to consider a site plan that will add a 131-unit apartment building next to an existing parking lot.”
City Councilmember Chris Watson, D-Ward 2, expressed his support for the housing project. He said new rental units are not only a need in the Ann Arbor community but will help the city meet its sustainability goals.
“I’m just happy to say I’m supportive of this project because it’s infill development that provides much-needed rental units in Ward 2 on a site that was already prepared for housing,” Watson said. “In addition to the electric units, there’s (electric vehicle) parking spaces, 10 installed and 86 capable, and all around this project helps meet our city sustainability goals.”
This resolution was approved.
City Council then moved to discuss the Resolution in Support of Michigan’s Drive SAFE Bills, sponsored by City Councilmembers Erica Briggs, D-Ward 5, and Akmon. Previously introduced in 2021, the bills allow Ann Arbor residents to acquire a driver’s license or state identification card, regardless of their documentation status. Currently, 19 other states and Washington, D.C. have adopted similar legislation. Akmon spoke about the history of the bills in the state.
“The purpose of these bills is to restore Michigan’s pre-2008 practice of allowing residents to obtain a Michigan driver’s license and state ID card, regardless of their ability to demonstrate US citizenship or immigration status,” Akmon said. “It’s in our collective interest that all Michigan drivers are trained, screened, tested, made familiar with Michigan driving regulations and also have access to purchase auto insurance.”
Akmon also underlined the importance of the bill’s passage, including the reduction of hitand-run incidents and uninsured drivers in Michigan.
“Law enforcement and other states have voiced their support for this because it allows them to focus on other important public safety issues,” Akmon said. “Far less people are found guilty of illegally driving. There’s dramatic reductions in uninsured drivers and a reduction in hit and run crashes.”
This resolution was approved unanimously.
UMich students push for Huwaida Arraf to win Board of Regents nomination at Michigan DNC
While Arraf won the popular vote, weighted votes favored incumbent University Regent Denise Ilitch and former University Regent Shanna Ruder Diggs
At the Michigan Democratic Convention in Lansing, one contested election took center stage — the race to fill two seats on the University of Michigan Board of Regents.
Incumbent University
Regent Denise Ilitch and former University Regent Shanna Ryder Diggs were officially nominated at the Michigan Democratic Convention, though pro-Palestine activist Huwaida Arraf won the popular vote.
Three days before the deadline to nominate a candidate, a group of University of Michigan students asked Arraf to run for a seat on the Board. In an interview with The Michigan Daily, U-M alum Salma Hamamy, who served as the president of U-M student organization Students Allied for Freedom and Equality last year, said the campaign came together quickly, similar to other previous SAFE initiatives.
“We figured if we can put together an encampment in three days, we can start a campaign in three days,” Hamamy said. “So that’s what we did today.”
Arraf’s campaign comes after months of student protests demanding that the University divest from companies profiting off Israel’s military campaign in Gaza.
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“We have exhausted all options to advocate for the divestment movement,” Hamamy said. “Not only have we tried to articulate our demands through the democratic processes within the University sphere, which have been canceled and shut down, through the faculty level, through the staff level, through the alumni level, through grassroots action, through organizing. This is now the next step that we need to take.”
As the National Anthem played at the convention, Pro-Palestine protesters demanded divestment from Acker, who was in attendance. In an interview with The Daily, Acker said he feels the role of a regent has become overshadowed by the issue of divestment. Acker said the regents work on other important initiatives, such as the Go Blue Guarantee and policy to reduce barriers to unionization for University workers.
“Those are the important things we work on on a day-to-day basis,” Acker said. “We don’t have the
The University’s Board of Regents has said they will not divest from these companies, citing their policy to shield the endowment from political pressures. The University has previously divested from South African companies during apartheid and Russian companies following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022. In May, the U-M administration removed the Gaza solidarity encampment, which was set up on the Diag for a month. In an email to the campus community, University President Santa Ono said this decision was partially in response to a protest at University Regent Sarah Hubbard’s residence and a graffiti incident at University Regent Jordan Acker’s law office. Arraf co-founded the proPalestine organizations International Solidarity Movement and Free Gaza Movement and is currently a civil rights attorney for U-M students who are facing disciplinary action in response to the Nov. 17 sit-in at the Alexander G. Ruthven Building, where 40 students were arrested. Hamamy said she believed nominating Arraf would help advance the divestment movement.
conversation about Israel. … We elect leaders in Congress to do stuff like that. Our job is to make sure we have the best campus we (can) possibly have. I’m pretty confident that our board is among the highest functioning of any university in the country, and that’s because of the people that we put forward here, and we’ll continue to put forward, I hope.”
Arraf told The Daily that student voices are at the forefront of her campaign, which focused on ethical investment and protecting students’ rights.
“We have to protect students’ civil liberties, and students have to feel safe, and they don’t, and they don’t feel heard, and so I said I would run, and it has been a wonderful experience,” Arraf said. “(Student activists) didn’t feel like they had a home in any kind of political party, but in the past three weeks, I’ve seen them mobilize and do more for (our) campaign than other campaigns can do in three or six months. And that is the kind of energy that I think the Democratic Party needs to … attract.”
After being nominated, Arraf needed 349 in-person signatures to be included on the ballot. Between 8 a.m. and 3 p.m., Arraf’s supporters filed into the convention wearing maize T-shirts in support of Arraf, chanting “Huwaida” and holding signs reading “Huwaida Arraf for Regent.” Arraf received more than double the number of signatures needed.
U-M Dearborn junior Ahmed Hussein drove to Lansing from Wayne County to vote for Arraf.
“She’s done a bunch of great stuff, and she’s trying to help get our voices out,” Hussein said. “So that’s why I’m here. I’m trying to help promote a great candidate that I support. Just like all these people here.”
While Arraf won the popular vote, votes were weighted based on a formula that calculates Democratic turnout at the last election in order to account for voter preferences across Michigan. Under the proportional voting system, Diggs received more than 2,800 votes, Illitch received more than 2,400 and Arraf received just over 2,300. Upon the announcement, many of Arraf’s supporters began chanting “In November, we’ll remember” and “show the math.”.
Law School student Gabriel Jimenez stood among Arraf’s supporters towards the front of the room. Jimenez told The Daily he believes the election results might spur distrust in the democratic process due to a perceived lack of transparency about the votecounting process.
“I think people are disenchanted by democracy, because there is this shield from knowing how the process is actually done,” Jimenez said. “We’re told to believe in this system of voting, but yet, we’re not given the math to know what the actual counting is. And I think we’re also concerned about trusting … that they’ve administered the voting and calculating it.”
Hamamy said the movement advocating for the University’s divestment will continue despite the results.
“Nonetheless, we showed up here and we showed our commitment and our dedication to the cause, and that’s truly the bare minimum.”
At the Michigan Republican Convention in Flint, incumbent University Regent Ron Weiser was not nominated by the Republican Party. Carl Meyers and Sevag Vartanian were nominated and will advance to the November general election.
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Michigan takes center stage at DNC
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer called on delegates to be leaders in getting out the vote and spoke about Michigan’s importance in the election
on delegates to be leaders in getting out the vote in November and spoke about Michigan’s importance in the election.
As the 2024 presidential election draws closer, Democrats are turning to a small set of crucial swing states to ensure they keep the presidency and control of the Senate and assume the majority in the House of Representatives. These seven swing states — Nevada, Arizona, Georgia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan — were at the forefront of Democratic leadership’s minds this week at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
At a breakfast for Michigan delegates and politicians held during the convention, state leaders encouraged delegates to keep working to get Democrats elected to local, state and national positions.
Shawn Fain, president of the United Auto Workers, highlighted Democrats’ work to reframe themselves as the party of the American workforce.
After the UAW went on strike in September 2023 against the Big Three Detroit automakers — General Motors, Ford and Stellantis — Fain and the UAW endorsed President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign and went on to endorse Vice President Kamala Harris after Biden ended his bid. Fain praised the Democratic Party for listening to workers and union members going into the election.
“It’s been amazing to watch and help our party find our way back to the moral clarity of standing with the working class,” Fain said. “There’s a billionaire class on one side that serves themselves, and there’s a working class on the other side. Those representatives that serve the working class and look out for the people, those are people that are going to get elected.”
At the convention, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer called
“We are going to roll up our sleeves and make the phone calls and make the contributions and pull people into this moment, get them registered, get them flushed out for Election Day,” Whitmer said. “We hold the key to winning this race in the state of Michigan, and we are going to show the world how to do it, because that’s who we are and what we do.”
Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., also highlighted the need for Michigan residents to vote in anticipation of the state’s upcoming Senate election, where Rep. Elissa Slotkin, D-Holly, will face off against former Republican congressman Mike Rogers for the seat currently held by Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., who is not seeking reelection.
“We are going into the campaign season now,” Peters said. “Let’s face it everybody: Michigan is the center of the political universe. You cannot be president if you do not win Michigan. I will also say, as chair of the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee, we will not be in the majority in the Senate unless we elect Elissa Slotkin to the United States Senate. She has to win.”
In addition to Michigan politicians, nationally recognized political figures attended the Michigan Delegation breakfast.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, a Traverse City resident, told delegates that most Americans already agree with Democrats on most important policy positions.
“I want to talk tonight about national security because the choice in November is stark,” Slotkin said. “Trump wants to take us backwards. He admires dictators a lot. He treats our friends as adversaries and our adversaries as friends. But our vision is based on our values. The values that took us to the shores of Normandy and helped us win the Cold War. We believe America should inspire and lead at home and abroad.” Genesee County Sheriff Chris Swanson, who came into the public eye after marching with Black Lives Matter protesters in 2020, called for unity across the country’s political divide and said he felt Harris was a president who could deliver.
“We need a leader who will embody what’s affixed to all three sides of my sheriff patrol cars — protect, serve and unify,” Swanson said. “Kamala Harris is that leader.”
In a speech closely preceding Harris’ acceptance of her nomination, Whitmer painted Harris as someone who understands the issues faced by everyday Americans, in direct contrast with former President Donald Trump.
“She’s lived a life like ours, she knows us,” Whitmer said. “Donald Trump doesn’t know you at all. You think he understands that when your car breaks down, you can’t get to work? No — his first word was probably ‘chauffeur.’”
“We are going to win for so many reasons, and one of the most important is the fact that it turns out Americans already agree with us on the issues that matter most,” Buttigieg said. “We can’t forget that, especially those of us who live in more conservative or rural or swing communities. Sometimes we Democrats fool ourselves into thinking that we don’t have the most popular positions. The reverse is true.” Beyond speaking at delegation, caucus and council meetings throughout the convention, Michigan leaders were prominently featured in the DNC’s main programming at the United Center. Slotkin primarily spoke about national security, highlighting her background with the CIA.
Michigan students and faculty attend the Party For Your Mind Welcome Event at Shapiro Undergraduate Library Monday afternoon.
CALEB ROSENBLUM/Daily
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer gives a rallying speech at the Michigan Democrats Breakfast in Chicago. GRACE LAHTI/Daily
MARY COREY Senior News Editor
A new ‘Age of Aquarius’
I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that as artists and art enjoyers, subcultures and their associated communities have played a huge part in forming who we are. Whether formed around a genre of music, a TV show, a movie or a shared aesthetic and romanticization of life, people have been rallying behind all kinds of shared causes since the beginning of media. These connections with each other have lasted across cities and countries and span time and space.
Subcultures have played a huge role in my own life. I put on eyeliner like an emo kid. At clubs, I dance like the punks I knew in high school (very unfortunate for those around me). I don’t know if the various gaming subcultures I’ve participated in have made me a better person, but they have brought me closer to people I never would have befriended otherwise. Similarly, The Daily Arts writers present their thoughts on the subcultures they love, the ones they hate and the ones that just passed them like ships in the night. Enjoy! LIN YANG
In the aisles of a Party City store in 2011, I carefully searched for the perfect Halloween costume, overwhelmed by countless options. Long after my parents were ready to leave, I finally selected a hippie costume, drawn to its bright colors and flowy fabrics. I proudly wore the costume to my class party and out on the town trick-or-treating. I told everyone that I was a hippie, despite not knowing what that meant beyond having a good style. Turning pieces of history and culture into Halloween costumes is nothing new, with stores offering options ranging from harmless period wear to outright cultural appropriation. In recent years, it’s
become easy to find similar hippie-inspired pieces outside of costume parties — in trendy clothing stores, on social media sites and in films and television. Beyond clothing, other components of hippie culture remain popular, from psychedelic rock to LSD and weed. In a time echoing the political turmoil of the 1960s, with the return in force of campus protests and divides with the major political parties, Generation Z has led a resurgence of hippie culture. But can this counterculture from half a century ago still be considered the same movement? Or were hippies left behind in the years after the Vietnam War, and is this something else entirely?
The hippie subculture was originally created by youths as a response to frustrations surrounding American culture, con-
In defense of bronies
CECILIA LEDEZMA Managing Arts Editor
My journey into ponydom began the summer of my freshman year. I finished season one of “My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic” over the three days it took me to unpack into a leased room and continued to catch up during breaks from my internship. The interest continued into the school year; when I blew out the candles for my 20th birthday in winter, it was in an Equestria Girl Twilight Sparkle cosplay at my ponythemed party.
I’ve taken a weird route here, all things considered. I recall watching “Rainbow Rocks,” the 2014 Equestria Girls movie, in middle school but didn’t watch much else from MLP. Though part of the target audience who grew up alongside the more famous airing of “Friendship is Magic,” I don’t even remember seeing it on TV, only noticing the occasional toy on store shelves that didn’t interest me much. I wasn’t even a horse girl. It just so happened that at 19, something clicked, and I became a magical horse enthusiast as an adult.
It’s a little weird, being a grown MLP fan in a post-brony age. I remember the hay day of bronies, a fandom term for (typically adult) male fans of “FiM” and its spinoffs. They were close to internet bogeymen for a tween discovering fandom spaces like myself; a group of adult men deriving enjoyment from kids’ shows was often framed as sinister. I couldn’t seem to make manes or tails of it: I was just entering my “children’s media is below me, a double-digitage-haver” era and couldn’t wrap my head around how a show for babies was seemingly regarded as highly intellectual but also profane. I, of course, also stumbled into erotic fan-made art of the ponies, posted mostly as a gotcha punchline against bronies as a whole. It confounded and upset me so I left it alone for a much saner alternative: Superwholock.
Jenny Nicholson’s brony autopsy is a great first-hand account of the phenomenon, and she helps explain a lot of the edgy and perverted corners of the bronysphere. She boils down the overt sexualization of the ponies as being caused by men, particularly the ironic fans that began posting about the show on 4chan forums. She argues that, as users adjacent to the manosphere, men “are not socialized to recognize uncomplicated, unsexual fondness for a female character,” so they warped their genuine interest and investment in the show into a sexual fantasy to justify liking a girly show. However, though loud and the easiest to point and laugh at, Nicholson notes this was not the
general makeup of the fandom nor did it reflect all fans’ (regardless of age and gender) interactions with the franchise; this toxic minority is ostracized from the general community. Nevertheless, the image persists. I recently became uncomfortable watching the Bob’s Burgers episode “The Equestranauts” which parodied bronies (here called “equesticles”); the eldest daughter in the family goes to a Bronycon and is the only little girl around with all the other attendees men pushing 40 in horse costumes. To stress how pervasive this image had quickly become, the episode aired 10 years ago in the middle of “FiM’s” run; this wasn’t a quick topical joke but the basis of an entire episode, that’s how much pop cult weight the subculture held. Though not vilifying the equesticles as a whole, a casual viewer unfamiliar with the fandom but aware of the phenomenon would walk away with the conclusion of, “Wow, those guys are weird. They should leave enjoying this show to the real audience, the children.”
So, if not bronies, who is Canterlot for? Who is the platonic and ideal audience member? A young child — possibly a horse girl — and other long-time MLP fans. To this day, I see licensed newlyproduced original debut MLP merchandise in stores sold for nostalgia. These girls and women connecting with their childhood are the acceptable targets.
I don’t take up the brony label, but I don’t feel comfortable sneering at it from my vantage point in the future. I am an adult fan with no childhood connection to the show, who, one day, out of nowhere, became invested in the horse show. I have my little OCs, I doodle Rarity on my notebooks, I get annoyed at Rainbow Dash every single episode because I simply do not like her. I do not care for Rainbow Dash — she insists upon herself. She’s rude to her friends; that’s not very magical of her. I dislike the new generations’ decisions to turn their leads into alicorns; I’m a huge G5 fan and will argue online about it ad nauseam. But I’m also closer to a brony than what the acceptable, palatable fan “should” be. If I were an adult 10 years ago, I would be right there with them, at a convention, singing along to fan songs and attending panels. I don’t have any standing to look down at the normal, non-toxic fans of MLP. I love the subcultures that emerge from fan connection, the creativity engendered. I would have fallen in love with the brony space, I would have belonged there. I would have been a textbook brony.
sumerism and involvement in the Vietnam War. Drawing inspiration from anti-war sentiment, Eastern spirituality and the work of eccentric Beatniks like Allen Ginsberg, youths across the country banded together to reject the mainstream and adopt alternative living. Like Beatniks, the subculture emphasized experimentation with art, music, sexuality and, of course, drugs. There was a levity to the movement, including a group called the “Merry Pranksters” who road-tripped across the United States in a psychedelic school bus, giving out LSD. Hippies embraced ridiculousness in the name of both enlightenment and enjoying life despite the increasingly pessimistic political climate. Love, peace, psychedelia and flower power became the pillars of hippie identity.
However, hippie culture was also inherently political, rooted in radical leftism and social liberalism. Peaceful anti-war protests inspired by hippie values erupted on college campuses across the United States and the counterculture at large clashed with the police, government and older generations. The University of Michigan campus hosted sit-ins, protests, marches, petitions and more as leftist students fought for change on issues ranging from university policy to civil rights. Students and faculty forged a place in history as the university became the first to host a teachin about the Vietnam War, a concept that became popular among hippies. Similarly, universities across the country were the sites of demonstrations advocating for freedom, peace and equality.
Although not all of the students involved may have identified as hippies, peaceful protest was deeply interwoven with hippie culture. Calls to “make love, not war” inspired a generation of students to advocate their beliefs through nonviolent means. As Gen Z embraces humor and activism amidst growing political tensions, there are countless parallels between the youth of the 1960s and today. The increased popularity of 1960s counterculture fashion, art, music and more suggests that the hippie subculture has taken root in a new generation. However, this new wave of hippie culture has assimilated with the mainstream, with crystals, bohemian style, long hair and Fleetwood Mac becoming trendy across demographics. By separating hippie characteristics
The Michigan Daily Crossword
ACROSS
1. Up to the task
5. 2018 grime hit "___ Not Hot"
9. Egyptian capital
14. Strategize
15. Like some proportions
16. Unexpected encounter
17. British slang term meaning "attractive"
18. Greek robe
19. Changes clues in a crossword puzzle, for example
20. Organism with both male and female gametes
23. Chicago airport code
24. Gambler's IOU
25. Ankle monitor purpose
30. Chocolate dog
33. Little rascals
34. Golf peg
35. "Say cheese!"
37. Subdivision of 23-Across
38. Company with a spokesduck
41. Hertz rival
42. Word with town and writer
44. Actress Longoria
45. Word with check and killer
46. Deplete
47. Sibling's complaint about a brother after a fight
51. Lover
52. ___ ejemplo:
53. Devastating, or what's literally happening in 20-, 25-, and 47-Across
59. Birthplace of Muhammad
60. Skyrocket
61. Sty : pig :: chicken : ___
63. Sag
64. "___ of Eden"
65. NBA Hall of Famer Bryant
66. Tottenham Hotspur's South Korean winger, to fans
67. ___ leches cake 68. Spotify button
from their counterculture beginnings, they’ve become fundamentally different from the original movement. In becoming part of the larger culture, enjoying hippie fashion or music no longer goes hand in hand with activism or certain political beliefs. The optimism in the ability to create change that originally defined the subculture has deteriorated with time. But although it has been bastardized, pieces of the subculture continue to rise and fall in popularity; amid modern political tension, violence and uncertainty not unlike the 1960s, we turn to our past to understand and act upon the present. While the hippie movement is long gone, its influence remains fixated as a part of American popular culture.
Calamari, to a server
"Yuck!"
"Stay in your ___!"
Captivates
Information about information
Each
At hand
Uncommon
Movie trailer?
IRS activity
Still competing
Religious ceremony
Tunisian tennis star Jabeur
Soldier's grub 22. Professor's time for extra help: Abbr. 25. ___ boson (elementary particle)
Word with couples and sex
Cranny alternative
Mongolian desert
Hosp. staffers
Legendary soccer manager Guardiola
ISABELLE PERRAUT
Courtesy of Lin Yang
From one great public university to another, congratulations on your 2023 National Championship!
Thank you for hosting Longhorn Nation! We are excited to bring some Burnt Orange to Ann Arbor.
We look forward to a great game in The Big House... and we can’t wait to host you in 2027! HOOK ’EM!
“What is your favorite song?” is a question I have begun to despise. I can recall when I used to be able to answer the question with little to no effort. Yet, now, each time I’m asked, I do a little soul searching. I ask myself, “What is my favorite song (at the moment)?” Or rather, my second favorite?
I weigh my options with what comes to mind. Maybe “Distant Dreamer” by Duffy? I suppose “Duvet” by Bôa, but that is a bit obscure. Truth be told, my favorite song has remained the same since I was seven years old. “Ya Habibti ya Masr” (O’ Egypt my beloved) by Shadia has rung through every hall in every home my family has ever lived in. It’s a symptom of my parent’s homesickness ever since they came to the United States. Naturally, I began exhibiting similar symptoms.
My relationship with the song differs from other Egyptians. I lived in Egypt from the ages of four to seven. It has been 13 long years since I last visited the country. Thus, when Shadia sings, “He has never seen the Nile, within the embrace of the trees,” I cannot help but think of myself. The song takes me back to days bygone and sorely reminds me of my home that never was.
Music, like any other art form, invokes different interpretations and feelings depending on the person. To my Egyptian friend and roommate who lived in Egypt for most of his life, it’s a love ode and a reminder of the life that has been. To both of us, the song is bittersweet.
My roommate does not listen to music any longer, believing that it is Haram (Forbidden) for us in Islam. It is not a ruling I haven’t heard before. There were times
An Arab Muslim’s Musing on Music
that I myself would abstain from listening to music under this jurisdiction. It may be helpful to think of Islam as a religion that places heavy emphasis on antihedonism and values asceticism. However, I always struggled to reconcile with the ruling on music. A ruling that has, however, been hotly debated within the Muslim community throughout history.
My last attempt at abstention lasted only a couple days. I must admit, I did feel a certain serenity towards the end. But it was broken when I happened upon the song “A Time to Cry” by Rim Banna. The song vividly describes the sorrow caused by the Israeli occupation.
“They burned (Jerusalem) … they crushed her … and occupied the people’s homes in broad daylight.”
“And the people … they were uprooted … by the force of weapons and fire … Nothing is left, except a few stones and a shrub that limps over the walls.”
It’s no wonder it’s the title song of the album, “A Time to Cry – a Lament over Jerusalem”: a collaboration effort by multiple artists. The album’s self-stated mission is to “express deep sadness about the situation in Palestine” and “to reach out to the world.” Here, music is not just a means of hedonistically passing time but a means of resistance. The sorrow expressed in the songs prove corrosive to the narratives placed upon them. It’s an honest expression of pain and loss, more powerful than any bullet point argumentative essay “proving” why Palestinians deserve to live.
***
Every year, the Arab community at the University of Michigan hosts Arab Xpressions, a showcase of our cultural heritage through music, dance, singing, poetry and other talents. Arab Xpressions provides the opportunity for our community to celebrate what is deemed as
“other”. This year’s theme was inspired by the Palestinian’s plight of self determination: “Hurayatna” (Our Freedom). In the beginning of each Arab Xpressions, the flags of the 22 Arab countries are raised one by one. As the Palestinian flag was walked, a fervor unseen in many years infected the crowd.
Yet, it paled in comparison to the crowd’s increasing restlessness over Adam M. Abduljabbar, who was scheduled to cover “Falasteen Biladi” by Humood but had been repeatedly delayed by technical difficulties. “We want Adam!” *clap clap clap* “We want Adam!” *clap clap clap* “We want Adam!” echoed in the Michigan Theater. There was a payoff, then, when he was brought out. Deafening applause arose, and it was quickly hushed as he grabbed the microphone. We were still tense, waiting for Adam to sing like a congregation waiting for the imam to begin our prayer.
“We won’t be silent, we won’t surrender, no!” Adam sang, tinging his voice with grief — as if he were mourning. He, delivering the eulogy; and we, attendees of the Jannazah (funeral). The crowd swayed in unison: some out of sadness, some out of hope, yet all out of underlying love.
The hope to return is not exclusive to Palestinians — it exists across all the Arab peoples. Whether it be Palestinians, Lebanese, Egyptians, Iraqis or Syrians, it has become ingrained into our identities. No song better exemplifies this than “Sa-Narj’u,” sung by The Voice of Lebanon, Fairuz. While originally inspired by the Palestinian plight, the song is broadly applicable to all Arab diasporas. My favorite line is, “and people, who are in love, their days, the tranquility of bluessinging waiting.”
It would be an understatement to call the love Arabs have for their respective countries patriotism, as it’s more akin to the love one would have for their father or mother
or their sweethearts. “We used to say separation was impossible. And every tear on the checks used to drop: filled with hope that we would remain in the ocean of love, between the two seashores,” sings Dalida in “Helwa ya baladi” (How sweet my country). The song is sung in the second person, addressing Egypt as if it were her lover. She is not just a plot of land, but the mother who raised us and the grandmother who raised our parents.
***
Arabic is a deeply romantic language. It’s reflected in how we address each other day-to-day — “My beloved,” “my eyes,” “my heart,” “my moon,” “my soul” and “my soul’s soul” to name a few examples. “She is the cure, she the disease,” writes the poet Dhu al-Rumma. Many of the nostalgic Arab love songs of the past are indeed poetry. Both in words and in the way they push your imagination through rich imagery and metaphors. The first time I had listened to Umm Kulthum’s “Enta Omry” (You are my life) in its entirety, I found myself repeatedly jumping out of my chair.
“Your eyes returned me to my bygone days. They taught me to regret the past and its wounds.”
“And my heart never saw any happiness before you. And it has never tasted anything in this world except the taste of wounds.”
“Every happiness I had longed for before you was imaginary. Only within the light of your eyes had my heart and mind found it.”
It’s difficult to mention Umm Kulthum without then mentioning Abdel Halim Hafez — nicknamed “the dark-skinned nightingale” — alongside her. You cannot find an Arab who is not familiar with his most beloved song: “Ahwak” (I love you). The song is a reflection of passion or, more accurately, infatuation.
“And I wake up in the middle of the night calling you, and I send my
Learning language with you
LEILA KASSEM MiC Columnist
“You speak Arabic in an American accent.” Thus spoke my Lebaneseborn cousin when I made the fatal mistake of saying the word for chicken in fus-ha, or formal Arabic, rather than in the Levantine dialect. Though this happened six years ago, my cousin’s remark has been seared into my memory ever since, partly because of the embarrassment it imparted and partly because of the insight it held. Until then, I, who had always been quick to notice and poke fun at the Arabic accent in my father’s English, had never realized that I fell into the reverse category, or that it was possible to speak Arabic in an American accent in the first place. It was my first glimpse into something I had not known I had been deprived of as an unwilling student of weekly, formal Arabic classes: the colorful world of spoken Arabic. My ears became more attuned to the rich variety of dialects that exist across the Middle East and North Africa. I began to listen with heightened attention to the informal vocabulary and distinctly Lebanese drawl in my parents’ speech. The knowledge that I could not hope to blend in with native speakers of Arabic, which had never bothered me before, suddenly weighed heavily on my heart and clumsy tongue.
The LSA foreign language requirement I wasn’t too worried when I first heard about the infamous LSA two-year language requirement as an incoming freshman. After all, my Arabic classes had taught me the (not so) basics of verbal conjugations, and my parents had always spoken to me mostly in Arabic (never mind the fact that I invariably responded in English). Testing out of a semester or two basically seemed guaranteed.
At least, until I actually opened the placement exam.
I blinked in utter stupefaction at the walls of Arabic text in front of me. Unable to even parse what the questions were asking, I guessed on almost every single
one. In the speaking section, after my dozenth “I don’t know,” all I could say in my defeat was “I’m sorry.” Finally, after the essay section, in which I pulled out words as if I were pulling teeth to form a grand total of one sentence, the proctor asked, with a glance at my nearly blank paper, “Did you forget to submit a page?”
“No, that’s all I wrote,” I replied.
I was placed into Arabic 101.
Constructive criticism
The patient came into the clinic shouting and swearing in Arabic, demanding to see the doctor. His grandson stood unfazed at his side.
“Ammu, the doctor can’t see you for your refills until we take your vitals, so please take a seat,” the secretary implored. She waved me over before leaving the room. I opened his chart and steeled myself to ask him our standard questions in Arabic; after completing Arabic 101 and 102, it was time to put my newfound knowledge to the test. The octogenarian’s eyes narrowed on me in suspicion as I stumbled through the greetings.
“Do you smoke?” I asked in what I thought was smoothly confident Arabic, and mentally patted myself on the back for subtly throwing in the Levantine “b-” prefix on the verb.
Seemingly in no mood to answer my questions, he shot back, “Were you born in America?”
“Yes.”
“I can tell. Your Arabic is very broken,” he said gruffly. Before my eyes, a vision flashed of my two A’s in Arabic peeling off my transcript and bursting into flames.
“He said you’re bad at Arabic,” the grandson helpfully translated.
“Yeah, I got that. Thanks.”
With time comes change
On a chilly day in November of my sophomore year, a friend of mine from high school came to Ann Arbor and asked if she could stay the night at my apartment. We spent the evening wandering around the campus and catching up on each other’s lives. When the day drew to a close, we retired to my cramped bedroom, settled into our beds, and continued chatting, our eyes trained on the
dark ceiling, until a hush fell over us. Piercing the silence, she said, “Do you think you’ve changed since high school?”
A simple question, really. I quickly opened my mouth to answer before realizing that my mind had drawn a blank. I thought of the same old hobbies, insecurities and tendencies that had followed me into the present. I had entered university an inveterate worrywart, unknowing of what I wanted to do in the future, and terrified I would never find it. Had I changed?
“In high school, I never really felt passionate enough about anything to want to study it. Now at least I know I want to minor in Arabic. I genuinely enjoy learning it now and I want to continue until I’m fluent.”
It was the only answer I could give in full honesty, though I hadn’t really known it until I spoke it aloud. I was tempted to say I had finally overcome all my fears and insecurities, became the person I had always wanted to be and figured it all out, but of course, none of that would have been true.
Funnily enough though, I found that I wasn’t at all disappointed with that reality. The reality was that my perpetual indecision regarding my major had been joined by an inexplicably firm decision to minor in Arabic Studies the moment my Arabic 102 professor had announced its creation. The poetry of Mahmoud Darwish, with its English translation reflected by the original Arabic on each opposing page, now sat creased atop my forever-favorite novels. My long-held aversion to humiliating myself by revealing my clumsy wielding of the Arabic language had manifested as a persistence to speak it at any given chance so as to improve. I was the same person I had always been; I was also a through and through student of Arabic, eager to steep myself in the culture I had always side-stepped in fear and alienation. This was the change that had overtaken me before I even knew it.
The lists
Several years ago — as a middle school student — I decided, for no particular reason, to begin compiling every English word
is
These songs of the past and their rich imagery contribute to our conceptions of love now. Love to me is when every happiness I had felt before is incomparable. I know I’m in love when I’m unable to fall asleep in bed, kept awake by thoughts of her. The love the artist expresses gives voice to what is shackled within the rest of our hearts.
*** Despite differences on the forbiddance of music in Islam, it still prevailed as a method to also express love for the Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him) and the religion. One of the most beautiful odes dedicated to the
(Muhammad O’
The song addresses the Prophet in the second person as if he were still alive and in the crowd, listening. In Islam, the Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon
is believed to be God’s last messenger. The Quran is the word of God brought down to us through him. The Messenger’s actions while he was alive is the embodiment of the perfect Muslim. As such, Muslims past and present have a deep and sincere love for the Prophet and view him as a role model. It’s thus not uncommon to hear the actions and the sayings of the Prophet in the present tense, as we still strive to emulate his example.
I stumbled across that I did not understand into a note on my phone. I began humbly with “emancipation” and made my way through the years to increasingly recondite words such as “recondite.” However, as time passed I found less occasion to lengthen my nearly one thousandword long list, and it became stagnant, relegated to the depths of my Notes app.
I was unexpectedly reminded of this relic of my past one day at the end of my sophomore year when I was filing my employment papers. The young white woman behind the counter looked at my home address and excitedly asked, “You’re from Dearborn?” When I answered in the affirmative, she asked if I spoke Arabic — a line of inquiry that intrigued me when I thought back on all of the elderly Middle Easterners who had only to perceive the hijab on my head before jumping into Arabic conversation, only to be sorely disappointed when I could merely smile blankly at them in response. I told her, “I’m getting there,” to which she smiled and said that she’s always glad to have the opportunity to engage with Arabic speakers since she’s been trying to learn Arabic, the native language of her Jordanian partner. She spoke a few basic phrases in Arabic to me; I reciprocated and gave her pronunciation tips in line with the Levantine dialect. Finally, she pulled out her phone and proudly opened a note filled with dozens, maybe hundreds, of Arabic words transliterated into English with the corresponding translations, explaining that she was using it to keep track of every new word she learned, from isim for name to qalb for heart. When I returned to my apartment, I opened my own forgotten list of words and studied it somewhat wistfully. It had been with me through the years, through all of the books I’d struggled to complete and all of the articles I’d labored to pick apart, a testament to the time and painstaking effort requisite to mastering a language, even a language that one is native to. I created a new note and began with a word I had just learned that morning before it could escape me: mujaddadan, or, “again.”
SRILEKHA CHERUKUVADA MiC Columnist
i grew up with idlis, peanut chutney and milky swirls of cardamom and ginger. i grew up with amma asking me to watch as the milk slowly rose in her small steel pot. we called it masala tea in my house, not chai. amma had a set recipe, starting with water and tea leaves, adding fresh cardamom, cloves, cinnamon and sometimes ginger, too, if our throats were sore. she would add one cup of milk using the same steel cup twice a day, boiling it over until the pot came down to a gentle simmer. then, she would strain it out using a small mesh sieve into white floral tea mugs, serving it to my father first with minimal sugar, and then adding fresh cut jaggery into her own cup. i was not allowed to drink tea as a child. amma said she didn’t want me to bounce off the walls any more than i already was. i never really learned how to make tea either, so i watched my amma from afar as she elegantly placed all of the ingredients to concoct a mug of love and warmth. each afternoon, amma, nanna, akka and i would sit around our rectangular kitchen table, sipping on some piping hot, freshly brewed tea with a small snack of indian crunchies — it became a ritual. we would chat as if we were friends, not just family. amma would warn us about how hot the tea would be after she served it and i would still burn my tongue anyways. akka and i would fight over small things that we really didn’t care about, and amma would yell at us for yelling at each other. eventually, nanna would get sick of us girls chatting about nonsense and would leave to go watch his cricket. it was home — everything i want right now, everything I regret forgetting about. i didn’t make tea myself until i was in college with my best friend from northern india who was more versed in making tea. she called it chai and made it a little bit differently. she didn’t really measure the milk and made it based on her gut. a chai made with independence, whilst my amma’s lingered with familial flavors of togetherness. my roommates and i would sit around
our living room table a few times a month, sipping on her delicious chai and spilling tea about our friend group. it was a foreign feeling to me, to not do this with my akka around. silly little fights with someone new who didn’t call me stupid in telugu — they called me stupid in english. i told myself i liked this new me, calling myself “sri” instead of “srilekha” and wearing low cuts with no red dot on my forehead. i donned a version of myself that was underneath layers of cardamom, hidden from the world over fear that amma would no longer make tea for me with the same love she had years ago. my younger self, sitting at the kitchen table, no longer has to wait for my turn in the kitchen. i usually make tea for just myself now. i stand in my kitchen now, as amma stands in hers. i am both the chef and the audience, as amma cooks for nanna and akka. i make my food in a rush before my nine am classes, with instant noodles and pasta, as amma cooks after her workday is over, with fresh vegetables and spices. mine is not nearly as spicy as hers, but i find comfort in knowing we share the same roots. there is a beauty in the solace that i received in university, from this new chai my roommate introduced me to. my friends became a family, with a basement level apartment infested with ants at some point, walls dotted with strange tapestries and a room full of stuffed plushies i always wanted — a place i now call home. i miss the days I spent with my amma and nanna and akka at my kitchen table, where we could sit, eat and enjoy each other’s company. there was a comfort and an ease in doing nothing at all while day dreaming and fucking around. i thought i had a whole lifetime of immaturity left to live, but there is no more child in my life; i am not her anymore. when i go home, things will be different, i know. no matter how much i want to be thirteen again, i am now turning twenty one. a child better off alone. a child who sometimes (mostly) disappoints. a child who is too american to be indian, and too indian to be american. a child who wants so badly to embrace a culture that is tainted with unagreeable values.
soul to wake you up. Get up O’one who has occupied my mind, taste the torture you have inflicted upon me”
Prophet Muhammad
Yasmine El Khayam’s “Mohamed Rasol Allah 1”
Messenger of God).
him)
It’s time for Michigan to demand climate accountability
JASON MORGAN Michigan State Representative
If the devastating flooding and scorching heat hasn’t made it clear, data confirms that the climate crisis is dramatically altering the Michigan we know and love. The burning of fossil fuels has increased temperatures, intensified storms and put our environment in jeopardy.
Responding to this crisis will take leaders from every sector and a multitude of solutions. As a legislator, it’s my job to enact policies that protect our communities from environmental harm and further our transition to cleaner, more affordable energy options.
But, we also can’t ignore how we got into this mess. Major fossil fuel companies have known for decades that their products could lead to “dramatic climatic changes” and require a shift away from oil and gas. To protect their massive profits, companies like ExxonMobil and others took a page from the Big Tobacco playbook and ran ads insisting the science was “unsettled” while they lobbied against solutions. This deception stole precious time in the fight against climate change, and now Michiganders are paying the price.
No company should be allowed to sell a product they know is harmful, lie about it and get away with it. That’s why I’m glad that Michigan’s top law enforcement official is now taking steps to hold Big Oil accountable.
Attorney General Dana Nessel announced that her office plans on bringing legal action against fossil fuel companies for their deception and the damage they have caused our state.
“While they bring in enormous profits, we here in Michigan are experiencing negative health impacts, changes to the state’s agricultural products, an impact on tourism and annual events, harm to our natural resources, an increase in emergency response costs and so much more,” Nessel said. “…Michigan taxpayers didn’t create this problem, and they shouldn’t have to foot the bill to address it.”
The history of the fossil fuel industry’s deception is long and well documented. In 1978, the same year Michigan was hit with the Great Blizzard, Exxon’s internal researchers found that “there is general scientific agreement that the most likely manner in which mankind is influencing the global climate is through carbon dioxide release from the burning of fossil fuels.”
But nearly two decades later, in 1997, Exxon CEO Lee Raymond publicly stated that “most of the greenhouse effect comes from
natural sources,” and burning fossil fuels represented a “tiny sliver” of input in the burgeoning climate crisis. In 2006, the same year Michigan suffered a near record-high heat wave, an Exxon publication claimed that it remained “difficult to understand” the consequences of increasing greenhouse gas levels, and “the extent to which recent temperature changes can be attributed to greenhouse gas increases remains uncertain.”
Fossil fuel companies have had the answers to the climate crisis for decades, but have chosen to lie to us about the dangers of their products to protect their enormous profits — and they’re still lying. A recent congressional investigation found that Big Oil has evolved from outright denying climate change to “spreading disinformation and perpetuating doublespeak” about false climate solutions. Congressional leaders referred their findings to the Department of Justice, making comparisons to the historic federal lawsuit against Big Tobacco. When those companies and others — from opioid manufacturers to forever chemical producers — lied about the harms of their products, Michigan took steps to hold them accountable. Now it’s Big Oil’s turn, and I’m proud that Attorney General Nessel is fighting on our behalf.
an unfavorable opinion of both candidates overwhelmingly chose Trump, which may be a testament to just how deeply influential these gendered biases are.
O n Sunday, July 21, millions of Democrats let out a sigh of relief as President Joe Biden announced he would be dropping out of the race for president. Still, an undeniable sense of tension and uncertainty lingered. Now, with Vice President Kamala Harris set to lead the Democratic Party, the question of whether she can defeat Donald Trump still remains. It is possible, but she will face several unique obstacles in her path to victory. Her biggest roadblock is the issue of popularity. The truth is, she’s never been particularly popular — with consistently negative approval ratings for the last couple of years and nearly 50% disapproval in more recent polls.
Harris has her work cut out for her. In the limited time before the November election, she has to prove herself as not only a strong presidential candidate but also as a likable one. Research shows that voters will support a male candidate they do not like if they believe he is qualified. The same is not true for female candidates.
Maintaining popularity is absolutely crucial to keeping Harris’ campaign afloat and also much more difficult because of her gender. Gender and likability affected the outcome of the 2016 election. Hillary Clinton was often deemed unlikable, and she was routinely the target of gendered insults, such as being compared to a “nagging wife,” facing criticism for her volume and tone, or simply being labeled a “bitch.” CNN exit polls found that those who had
It is particularly difficult for female politicians to come off as likable and authentic because of a phenomenon researchers have termed “the double bind.”
The double bind is an impossible set of expectations, both about leadership and gender, that women have been trying to hack, to no avail, fwwor years.
The double bind describes this impossible task at hand that Harris must grapple with.
Women are expected to behave in a way that demonstrates they are nurturing, empathetic and communicative. In contrast, leaders are usually expected to behave in a way that demonstrates that they are strong, assertive and decisive. With this dichotomy in mind, it is nearly impossible for a female candidate to fit both the mold of the ideal woman and the ideal leader, as these traits often conflict with one another.
Women who seek leadership roles, particularly in politics, are put in a no-win situation, where they must try to strike the perfect balance of being perceived as both likable and competent. It seems that despite her best efforts, Harris can’t hack this impossible challenge. For one, she has been chastised repeatedly by rightwing media for her laugh in an effort to call her sensibility into question.
During a campaign stop earlier in the summer, former President Donald Trump referred to her as “laughing Kamala.”
“You can tell a lot by a laugh,” Trump said, “She’s crazy, she’s nuts.” These comments illustrate the
EDITORIAL
The 2024 Democratic National Convention was anything but conventional. As recently as late July, President Joe Biden was the unpopular presumptive Democratic nominee and Vice President Kamala Harris was his similarly unpopular running mate.
By late August at the DNC, Biden’s 11:30 p.m. speech effectively amounted to a farewell address, both passing Harris the torch and yielding power to a new generation of Democrats.
In Harris’ acceptance speech on the fourth night of the convention, she stood before a party in flux — yes, it was more diverse and hopeful, but it was also a party less focused on policy. Democrats made a concerted effort to widen their tent in Chicago, both demographically and ideologically.
Gen Z voters dominated the convention hall, with the youngest delegate from Michigan being 19. The speaker list was tailored to historically underrepresented groups such as the LGBTQ+ community and people of Color. Even Republicans were invited to give speeches: Former Illinois Rep. Adam Kinzinger and former Georgia Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan received thunderous applause as they tore into former President Donald Trump.
It is important to note that no stage time was given to a Palestinian American speaker, despite intense advocacy by pro-Palestine groups in the form of protest in front of the convention and a continued dedication to an “uncommitted” vote.
Although these advocacy groups offered a list of possible speakers and even a script for a potential speech, the DNC’s refusal to highlight Palestinian voices demonstrates the limits of how wide Democrats want this tent to be.
Typical Republican talking points such as patriotism and freedom were staples for this year’s DNC programming, and Harris’ speech was no exception. Surrounded by American flags, the vice president praised veterans and discussed her mother’s immigrant background. She never used the phrase “American dream,” but it was an obvious theme of the night. Whether or not this will translate to increased voter turnout in November is yet to be seen, but her current messaging appears to be working.
Harris is relying on vibes to appeal to the broadest electorate possible, presenting neutral political recommendations with nonpartisan wording. Vibes are fine — but not when they come at the expense of real policy discussion. In Harris’ case, and in her party at large, that’s precisely what’s happening.
While this strategy may pay off in the short term, it’s bad for the country in the long term. Americans have no idea what they’d be in for under a Harris administration because she hasn’t told us. That means we are unable to cast an informed vote. Without the clear focus on policy that voters deserve, the Democratic Party risks giving demagogues the platform to enact change that sounds appealing but has disastrous consequences.
Harris has caught significant flack for her lack of clarity on key issues. When she ran for president in 2019, she promised to outlaw fracking, deliver single-payer health care and decriminalize illegal border crossings. Her campaign says she no longer holds these positions. In her interview that aired tonight, she claimed her values have stayed the same, despite her policy positions switching. Her obfuscation of a consistent policy outlook leaves voters asking themselves what her actual positions are.
Harris’ website still lacks a policy section, and tonight marked Harris’ first interview on cable news as the Democratic nominee. With a little over two months until the election, just one pre-recorded sit-down with a journalist isn’t — and wasn’t — enough for voters. Harris must recognize the value of live interviews, as they will give her a chance to properly articulate policy plans, answer the “hard” questions and directly address the American public’s concerns. Some have called Harris’ intentionally vague approach “political pragmatism.” This Editorial Board calls it a cop-out. The challenges America faces demand real solutions, of which Harris and the Democrats have offered none. They’ve made every effort to fill this void with buzzwords such as “joy,” “forward” and “brat,” but these aren’t policies. When former President Barack Obama ran on “Hope” in 2008, he accompanied the slogan with an actual platform. Americans elected him because they knew what they were hoping for. No one knows what about Harris and the Democrats should make them joyful.
frustrating issue of the double bind. If Harris were to act entirely serious at all times, she would likely still face criticism, possibly even to a greater extent. Clinton, for instance, was criticized for her stoicism, with male commentators instructing her to smile. Not to mention that Harris’ race makes her more susceptible to unfair stereotypes; for example, the “angry Black woman” stereotype has been used for years as a demeaning label for other prominent public figures, such as Michelle Obama. For all we know,
Harris’ humorous comments or giggles during otherwise tense moments may be part of an intentional effort to evade this characterization. Unfortunately, though, her demeanor has resulted in criticism, mockery or, as many voters perceive, an air of inauthenticity. When trying to pinpoint the reason behind this inability to connect with voters, some point to her consistent trouble with messaging. She has acknowledged this weakness, contrasting her background as a prosecutor to the
skill set required in politics. Her career has not been measured by “giving lovely speeches,” she said in a New York Times interview. There’s also an issue for voters to overcome. It is easy to make quick judgements about Harris without making an effort to understand how her background as a woman of Color may shape her behavior and decisions. This is something that Harris cannot control but will have to simply fight hard against to overcome. This is just the beginning of Harris’ journey; a lot can happen
between now and November. If she can present strong messaging that resonates with voters, she may be able to completely change the narrative currently surrounding her, her messaging and her politics. How the remaining race for president will unfold is uncertain. One thing is for sure: Just by making the attempt, Harris is breaking down barriers for future generations of female leaders. I
GRACE LAHTI/Daily
Delegates cheer and hold up signs as Gov. Tim Walz takes the stage.
Design
The academic horrors
You can,
and should,
talk to anyone
One of my hometown friends illuminated a startling truth of college life in a random text message on a Thursday night: The work-life-study balance is elusive. She pointed out that students can only practice a few major aspects of college life at a time, always sacrificing one for another at some point. Studying, working, developing professionally, maintaining physical wellness and cultivating a social life are all important, yet difficult to pursue simultaneously.
As I reflected on my own priorities, I realized that I often sacrifice social connections in exchange for the other important things in my life. In place of late-night parties or mid-afternoon tailgates with large friend groups, I reviewed my history notes at the Shapiro Undergraduate Library and walked through the Nichols Arboretum while listening to Taylor Swift. Due to declining multi-hour social events in my packed Google Calendar, I felt like I struggled to live the “best four years” of my life.
But my perspective on balance changed during these past few months. After a summer of chats by the coffee machine at work and chance encounters with high school acquaintances at the library, I reconsidered my rigid perception of a fulfilling college social life. I realized that there is no one way to have a social life. Frequent
conversations (no matter how brief) are necessary parts of a vibrant social life, similar to how regular exercise is critical for physical health.
Now, while I agree with my friend that balancing social activities with the rest of college life is difficult, this task is not impossible. By engaging in more one-on-one conversations, we dismantle myths of the idyllic college social life and gain greater fulfillment from interacting with new perspectives.
Engaging with others is especially important in light of the loneliness epidemic. In a Gallup poll from last summer, nearly four in 10 of college students reported feeling lonely the day before. Many students struggle to reconcile their lives with refined Instagram feeds or romanticized movies, and the inability to reach this idyllic life compounds feelings of loneliness.
Small talk offers a solution. These brief interactions boost our mood and energy throughout the day and increase our feelings of happiness. Learning how to have a conversation with anyone is also important for raising morale and productivity in social and professional circumstances.
Given the benefits of small talk, we should seek opportunities on campus to break out of our shells and practice our conversation skills. Luckily, beginning-ofthe-year festivities are a prime opportunity to practice. We can learn new information by talking with strangers and embracing chance encounters
for further connection. To take advantage of the back-to-school excitement, we can challenge ourselves to talk to someone new every time we enter the dining hall or make a point to introduce ourselves to potential lecture friends.
While a cold reach-out can be awkward, placing ourselves in the right environment is key.
Beyond the first few weeks of school, we can reach out to people in our clubs or text a friend who we have not seen in a while. We can also visit a restaurant in person instead of ordering in or watch a movie on the Diag instead of in our dorm room. Even in environments that are not ripe for connection, we can still find opportunities to reach out. We all have classes or events that we do not look forward to attending, yet small talk helps us make the most of our situation. Others likely share our lack of enthusiasm and are open to a conversation, especially since most people find small talk to be more pleasant than they anticipate.
Although some people find these brief conversations to be excruciating, we can practice our skills and learn our personal discussion styles to access the benefits of connection without draining our social battery. Despite our different approaches to dialogue, the most important tenet is open-mindedness. We must lead with empathy and treat each conversation like a “treasure hunt.” Given the meaninglessness of asking “How are you?” and exchanging one-line responses, we should
regard conversations as a fluid give-and-take and become aware of our roles to listen and provide robust responses ourselves.
To practice open-mindedness during conversations, we can sincerely compliment the other person and ask followup questions. For example, I enjoy complimenting someone else’s clothing and initiating a conversation about their personal style or favorite retailers.
When conversations stall, we can take keywords from what someone else says and parrot them back. This action demonstrates our active listening and often encourages the other person to share more of their experiences on the topic. For introverts (myself included), preparing unique questions ahead of time can help move the conversation along. We can ask about someone’s favorite (or least favorite) professor at the moment or their latest culinary experience at the dining hall, and we can take notes from conversations to follow up about in the future. However, some discussions just fizzle out. According to one study on social connections, researchers found that during 2% of conversations, both parties hope to stop talking at the same point and actually do so. Despite this mismatch, we can still practice openmindedness by showing our appreciation for the conversation before leaving or inviting someone new to make the discussion more enjoyable for both parties. Even if our
conversation did not end with a new friendship, our time was still worth it in terms of building our skills and feeling fulfilled.
Even though I enjoy making new connections, I am still anxious to reach out, as I often feel unsure whether someone has time to talk or fear outright rejection. However, most people actually want to talk to others; the main obstacle is the initial outreach. By creating my list of conversation starters and spending more time in third
places, I hope to jump into this new year with the courage to start dialogues and the open-mindedness to cultivate genuine connections.
Although our Instagram feeds may show us photos of football games and house parties, the social fabric of our campus is woven with the individual conversations between us. Whether we walk to class with a new friend or compliment someone’s shirt at Target, we can craft a true culture of connection together.
Congratulations
To our 31E scholars, recipients of this year’s Class of 1931 Engineering Scholarship
The class of ‘31E and its Scholarship Selection Committee welcomes their five new scholarship winners for the 2024-2025 academic year: They will be joining the ‘31E Honor Society and our sixteen current scholars:
Joseph Berryman
Armaan Kamat
Kaitlyn Frey
Callissa
Design by Evelyn Mousigian
SARAH ZHANG Opinion Analyst
Design by Emily Quinteros
We, alumni recipients of the MLK Spirit Award, return our awards and urge the University to
divest.
We, the undersigned, are alumni recipients of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Spirit Award at the University of Michigan.
In January of this year, the University awarded recent alum Salma Hamamy the MLK Spirit Award in recognition of her steadfast activism promoting Indigenous sovereignty and Palestinian liberation — activism that included calling for the University to divest from weapons manufacturers. The University also awarded the MLK Spirit Award to the student group Hamamy led as president, Students Allied for Freedom and Equality. Five months later, in May, Provost Laurie McCauley sent a letter to Hamamy’s personal home stating, “With the full support of the Board of Regents and President Ono, I am writing to notify you that your award has been revoked effective immediately,” based on an Instagram story post from her personal social media account. In the letter, Provost McCauley characterized Hamamy’s post as “inconsistent with the University’s
values.” This letter was dated May 21, 2024 — the same day that campus police violently removed the University’s Gaza solidarity encampment from the Diag. Whether intentional or not, it planted the decision firmly within the context of a broader attempt to suppress the burgeoning anti-war student movement.
To our knowledge, never before in the 18-year history of this award have university administrators interfered with — let alone nullified — the careful deliberation and unanimous decision of the Central Campus MLK Spirit Award Selection Committee, a diverse, 13-member body representing the full breadth of central campus undergraduate and graduate programs. Administrators did not consult the Committee. Allowing administrators and the politically influenced University Board of Regents to overturn a tradition led by students, faculty and staff sets a dangerous precedent that threatens the integrity and prestige of this historic award.
Had the administrators taken the time to speak with Hamamy directly, they would have learned the following, which she shared with us recently: In her letter, McCauley suggested that the board revoked
Repurpose anger into passion
In the 1970s, psychologist Paul Eckman defined six basic emotions of which he believed all other emotions were a combination. He theorized that these six emotions — happiness, sadness, fear, anger, disgust and surprise — serve as crucial building blocks for all the other feelings we experience every day.
For example, anger can give way to strong emotions that trigger our fight-or-flight response, and it can also be channeled into motivation and passion. Anger is a successful motivator because it causes people to process perceived obstacles quickly. It prepares them to decide whether to meet their goal or flee from it, which results from the neural activation of the fight-or-flight area of the brain.
In an attempt to address the commonly-held belief that people should regulate their anger, researchers at Texas A&M University observed how anger affected participants’ abilities to complete different tasks. They found that participants who experienced angry emotions before the test, rather than neutral or happy emotions, completed more tasks.
The study revealed that anger, directed at the task at hand or at an individual’s satisfaction with their performance, motivates people to take action. By channeling a single negative feeling — anger — to produce a satisfying outcome, an individual could experience fewer negative feelings overall. The resulting satisfaction the participants experienced for succeeding in their tasks is significant; people tend to overemphasize the importance of positivity as the key to success, even though anger can produce the same results.
A balance of emotions is the healthiest option — avoiding anger to appear “positive” disturbs this complex necessity. So, rather than constantly trying to feel happy or neutral, take advantage of angry emotions when they materialize. Repurposing anger takes different shapes for everybody. For example, when I begin to feel
the award because of posts Hamamy shared on her Instagram story. In an interview with a Detroit News journalist, University spokesperson Colleen Mastony suggested that administrators revoked the award from Hamamy because she endorsed “violence and murder.” We note that Hamamy’s post shared disturbing surfaced footage of Israeli drones summarily executing displaced Palestinians seeking refuge. Her caption effectively called for the abolition of Zionism and damnation of those who support the crimes of the Israeli state. There is a painful irony in the University claiming Hamamy’s actions run “directly counter to the values of our university” all while administrators stand complicit in the illegal occupation of Palestinian land, the apartheid of Palestinian society and the genocide of the Palestinian people — an ongoing genocide that has killed Hamamy’s own family members.
We do not see Hamamy’s condemnation of Zionism as supporting violence. Instead, it is a call for an end to a political ideology that denies Palestinians their rights to land, self-determination and their very livelihood. Surely we can understand how in this moment, when grave atrocities
are being committed against Palestinians month after month, that a member of that community would feel immense anguish, anger and grief — a mix of emotions that those of us who are not Palestinian cannot fully understand. Can Palestinians not rebuke those that kill their families? Must they observe the ongoing and grotesque mass murder of their people with decorum? Are they not human, too? If University President Santa Ono and the board were concerned by comments made by Hamamy in which she condemned the racial supremacy and deadly political ideology of Zionism and those who uphold it — which commits grave crimes against her community day after day — she should have been provided with an opportunity to be heard.
We were awarded the MLK Spirit Award precisely because of our work to advance social, racial and economic justice in the spirit of the esteemed Dr. King and his explicit struggle against militarism, white supremacy and economic oppression. Palestinian liberation activism is no exception to that. What standing does a university that defames and silences its students engaged in the righteous struggle for Palestinian self-determination
have in arbitrating which students deserve social justice awards? What moral authority does a university that overrides the collective decision of a committee it had established — ironically, to engage in a deliberative process in order to choose who to award — have in coopting the message of Dr. King, a message that is surely at odds with an ideological system of apartheid that results in the starvation, torture and land theft of Palestinians?
The University has long presented itself as a leading institution for social justice. Alumni activists’ images, names, work and voices are frequently showcased to prospective students and donors, and student activists are fully aware of the norms established by the University’s valorization of this tradition. Ono and the Board of Regents’ authoritarian, unjust and calculated decision to capitulate and rescind Hamamy’s award — likely due to unchecked external political and financial pressure — contradicts the values we espouse as advocates for social justice.
The University’s administration instigated this unprecedented legacy of prejudiced interference, and we refuse to take part in it. Therefore, we renounce our respective awards and, effective
immediately, we withdraw our consent for the University to use our names, images and work for its websites, promotional materials or donor appeals. We also decline to participate, within our capacity, in events or programs hosted by the University until Hamamy’s award is rightfully reinstated and an apology is issued to her.
Hamamy is an exemplar of the social justice advocacy that the University has to offer. She has inspired us over the last year with her courageous leadership and principled movement building. We unequivocally affirm the growing alumni call for the University to immediately divest from any and all companies profiting off Israel’s ongoing military campaign in Gaza. We fully support and uplift Hamamy’s conscientious hopes for “a world where colonial, racist and violent ideologies are abolished.” We hope the U-M community will mirror her courage in this call to action for a liberated Palestine and an end to the longstanding genocide against the Palestinian people.
Anna Dang is a U-M Alumni and MLK Spirit Award Recipient. The above op-ed is signed and endorsed by 65 MLK Spirit Award Recipients. Their names can be found online at michigandaily.com.
The future isn’t what you think it’ll be
HAYDEN BUCKFIRE Opinion Analyst
The future is a seductive concept. It tantalizes us with promises of progress, innovation and change, driving our imaginations toward a horizon we can never reach. I have dabbled in predicting the future, myself. However, the future we envision is already outdated.
see around us. However, this approach can lead to a narrow and often misleading view. The future, by its very nature, is shaped by unforeseen variables.
The French futurists of 1900, who were seemingly inspired by science fiction writer Jules Verne, focused on deep-sea travel and other forms of transportation because several innovations of their time were in those areas. They could not have predicted the personal computer revolution or the internet..
the year 2001. The movie is still imaginative by today’s standards but did indeed nail several aspects of the present, albeit several years later.
Perhaps the most memorable prediction in 2001 was that superintelligence would surpass human intellect. By 2001, no such technology existed (though a computer was able to defeat the best human chess player as depicted in the film).
angry, I channel the emotion into my writing. It helps me think of ideas, outline and ultimately plan essays with a specific focus in mind. Artists may express the emotion on a canvas, while others like to physically expel the emotion and release tension by going for a run or heading to the gym.
Many people are hesitant to embrace anger due to its negative perception and its potential to cause health problems if experienced frequently. The release of stress hormones affects the heart, disrupts functions of the gut and amplifies some mental health issues. But its potential harm could be greatly reduced, such as when anger is channeled into more positive feelings like passion. When we feel productive, we feel good — thus, our body releases less stress hormones and instead boosts levels of serotonin, dopamine and endorphins.
The wide range of curriculum and experiences a student encounters in college leaves room for experiencing failure. The most common way students can take anger and turn it into passion is when they fail to achieve a goal. For instance, if you score poorly on a test you studied for, the best outcome would be to utilize your frustration to strategize and study for the next exam.
According to a 2024 Gallup survey, two in five undergraduate students experience some form of emotional distress in their lives — ranging between anger and sadness. Feeling negative emotions can be frustrating, but this is why a mindset shift is necessary. Rather than giving up or forcing themselves to be toxically optimistic, students should allow themselves to feel their otherwise uncomfortable emotions. From there, students can channel those emotions into feelings of motivation and passion.
Treat anger as a building block. It may give way to feelings of frustration and dissatisfaction at first, but repurposing that experience can lead to more positive feelings. The next time you’re angry, allow yourself to confront the cause — the outcome could be an essay you’re proud of, a new personal record in the gym or another success you have been hoping to achieve.
For the 1900 Paris Exposition, a French businessman commissioned artists to imagine what the world would look like in the year 2000. The accuracy of the resulting illustrations was a mixed bag.
The artists were right on the nose in some respects. One image apparently predicted FaceTime; another, a war fought by combat vehicles. One print showed a train suspended above a track, which looked a lot like a modern monorail. Another image predicted mass agricultural machinery.
But most of the other images are bizarre. One depicts a legion of flying firefighters. In another, a ship is carried above the water’s surface by a pair of blimps (the need to fly a boat above the surface on which it is designed to travel is not clear).
The strangest images feature an underwater race of humans riding live fish and a classroom where children seemingly learn from electric brain shocks.
In order to predict the future, we draw from the trends we
Humans also have a tendency to embellish the time frames by which technological advancements will be possible. It was not long ago that selfdriving cars were Silicon Valley darlings. In 2015, The Guardian proclaimed that we’d all be “permanent backseat driver(s)” by 2020. Car manufacturers General Motors, Honda and Toyota made similar forecasts. They did not come true.
Such predictions might have excited investors and the general public but were not grounded in reality — developing the technology needed for these innovations ended up being very difficult. Self-driving vehicles may very well be the technology of the eventual future, but what is clear is that initial timelines were dead wrong and that nothing about the future is certain.
Many predictions of the future come from science fiction.
The seminal 1968 film “2001: A Space Odyssey” captivated audiences with its portrayal of what the world could look like in
Today, that seems like a foregone conclusion. Technology giants Google, OpenAI, Meta and others have poured hundreds of billions of dollars into artificial intelligence development. Meanwhile, chatbots such as ChatGPT have become increasingly powerful. Such initiatives have led many to believe that AI will make humans obsolete, ruin the world and take everyone’s jobs. Are these apocalyptic predictions going to come true?
History shows that these preconceptions will probably look silly in retrospect. When the radio was invented, critics called it “un-American” and “just another disintegrating toy.” Following the introduction of the telephone, many people refused to use them for fear of electric shocks.
Some skeptics of technology are even experts in their field.“The cinema is little more than a fad,” filmmaker and actor Charlie Chaplin declared in 1918. “It’s canned drama. What audiences really want to see is flesh and blood on the stage.” Consider the current state of
AI. While tools like ChatGPT and image-generating platforms can produce astonishingly human-like content, they are still fundamentally limited by the data they are trained on and often are very wrong. For example, Google’s rollout of AI-powered search advised users to glue pizza and eat rocks. The answers appeared to be based on satirical Reddit comments. The technology is very likely to improve, but there are no guarantees. So, what will the future look like? I will not pretend to have any specific answers. What can be gleaned from the past is that the future will, more likely than not, be better than today — technological advancements in the 19th and 20th centuries extended and improved our lives immensely. AI and other impending technologies may certainly have some serious drawbacks, but they will also be useful in other respects. Its eventual functions may be completely unfathomable to us now. The future might be uncertain, but it’s not something we should leave to chance. Even though we can’t predict exactly what’s coming, we have the power to shape it. The choices we make today will influence the world of tomorrow. Yes, the unknown can be intimidating, but it’s also full of possibilities. By staying focused on what matters to us and making thoughtful decisions, we can help ensure that the future turns out better than we imagined.
GISELLE SESI Opinion Analyst
ANNA DANG Opinion Contributor
Design by Rumaisa Wajahath
Design by Evelyn Mousigian
Kalel Mullings steals the show as Michigan’s leading rusher against Fresno State
REKHA LEONARD Managing Sports Editor
On Saturday night, it was all Donovan Edwards to start — as expected. The senior running back played all five snaps of the No. 9 Michigan football team’s first drive against Fresno State, and he capped it off with a 3-yard receiving touchdown.
The start boded well for Edwards as the Wolverines’ starting running back. On their next offensive drive, they subbed in senior Kalel Mullings to get some reps — also expected. Mullings took his first handoff 8 yards up the middle, pushing two defenders along with him. Michigan’s offense quickly fizzled out, ending the five-play second drive with a punt, but Mullings’ 13 total yards in three touches eclipsed Edwards’ five total yards in the same amount. Thus began an unexpected story of the game: Mullings, the presumed backup, looked like the lead back.
“We think we have two guys that are starters,” Michigan coach Sherrone Moore said. “So we’ll play both of them, let them keep playing. And you’re going to need all of them for the long drive, long haul of the season. So we’ll just keep playing both of them.”
The Wolverines have certainly been high on Mullings through the offseason, and he was surely in line for plenty of carries. But he was assumed to be the complement to Edwards, and instead he became the focal point. Mullings ended up with 15 carries to Edwards’ 11, and looking at what he did with his carries, it’s clear why he earned more opportunities.
Mullings averaged 6.1 yards per carry, totaling 92 yards. Edwards, on the other hand, struggled, only averaging 2.5 yards per carry. While Mullings managed to break off a few explosive runs, Edwards couldn’t, especially struggling to make headway in short-yardage situations.
When the Bulldogs scored to cut the Wolverines’ lead to six points in the fourth quarter, Michigan responded with a statement touchdown of its own. Edwards started the drive with two decent runs of 3 and 6 yards, respectively, but he didn’t set the tone like the Wolverines needed him to.
Mullings, however, subbed in and made his best plays of the night, gaining 42 yards in three plays. His 21-yard rush was Michigan’s longest of the evening and set up its second touchdown of the game.
“In the fourth quarter on
that drive, it didn’t seem like guys really wanted to tackle as much as they did earlier,” Mullings said. “We were able to take advantage of that and score. Really, (what) was going through my mind was just continuing to throw those gut punches, continue to soften up the defense.”
In addition to his 92 rushing yards, Mullings also amassed 74 yards on kickoff returns. He was just as effective at breaking through tackles on those returns as he was on offensive drives. His 166 all-purpose yards far outpaced any other player.
Edwards is by no means a bust after one uninspiring game, but Mullings outplayed him on Saturday. As Moore remarked, Michigan will need both running backs to impact the game through the season. And according to Mullings, that’s been the plan all along.
“Going into the season, me and Dono always just viewed it as a team thing, us just getting the job done together,” Mullings said.
They did get the job done together on Saturday, but it didn’t look quite how most anticipated. Mullings played like the starter, even though he wasn’t the first back in the game — and he made a case for that to change in the future.
SportsTuesday: Don’t panic just yet
NOAH KINGSLEY Managing Sports Editor
The No. 9 Michigan football team’s season opener wasn’t exactly what fans are used to seeing. The Wolverines’ starters played the entire game, Fresno State made it a one-possession contest with 10 minutes left and it took until the fourth quarter for Michigan to put together a long touchdown drive.
Compare that to recent drubbings of Western Michigan, Colorado State and East Carolina in the first game of the season, and well, Saturday’s showing looks wholly unimpressive. With a newly-minted starting quarterback and head coach, any early slip-ups are magnified and doubt begins to swirl. With each drive that stalls out, people begin to wonder: Are the Wolverines any good? Can senior quarterback Davis Warren really lead the offense? Would junior Alex Orji be any better?
With so much uncertainty surrounding this new season, it’s fair to wonder. But after only one game — that Michigan won by three possessions — those questions aren’t worth panicking about. Because while Saturday’s season opener was far from perfect, it also isn’t a reason to freak out over the trajectory of the entire season.
To start, the Bulldogs are a much better team than Michigan’s other recent first opponents. Fresno State has had at least nine wins each of the past three years and returned an All-Conference honorable mention starting quarterback. The Broncos, Rams and Pirates, meanwhile, finished the seasons in which they played the Wolverines 8-5, 3-9 and 2-10, respectively.
Going from “bad Group of Five opponent” to “bet-
ter Group of Five opponent” doesn’t suddenly absolve Michigan of any mistake it made on Saturday. While the Wolverines faced higher-quality competition, their offense still managed only 121 passing yards, and couldn’t get anything going for three-plus quarters. Save for its final touchdown drive, Michigan’s offense looked largely stagnant, unable to sustain a drive and move the ball down the field.
“It’s football, it’s not always gonna be perfect,” Moore said postgame. “It’s gonna be up and down.”
It’s true that for a good portion of Saturday’s game, the Wolverines’ offense was down.
But the defense was up. Holding the Bulldogs to a measly nine rushing yards, the front seven looked the part of one of the best in the country — just as advertised. The secondary wasn’t without its flaws, but it still picked off two passes and returned one of them for a touchdown.
That’s the defense that led people to predict that Michigan can compete for a College Football Playoff spot this preseason. It’s the defense that helped get it there each of the past three years. While it features new players, it’s the level of defense that meant that in 2021, then-starting quarterback Cade McNamara only needed to average 184 yards to win 11 games.
And if 2021 is a comparable season for how the 2024 Wolverines can find success, then Saturday’s fourth quarter gave a glimpse of the path there. The offensive line started to gel.
Graduate running back Kalel Mullings starred as a potential workhorse back. Junior tight end Colston Loveland established himself as Warren’s favorite target, and as Michigan settled in, it finally looked like the successful offenses of years past.
“I was praying we got another drive,” Warren said. “Because I felt like if we got another drive, we would have scored again.”
Granted, the Wolverines won’t get the same ramp-up period this season as they did in 2021. No. 4 Texas comes to town this week, and the Longhorns are as finished of a product as any other team in the country at this point. Led by star quarterback Quinn Ewers, they’re coming off a Week 1 drubbing of their own against Colorado State. Michigan won’t have three quarters to find their rhythm this week; the Wolverines will need to find it immediately to have a shot at the upset. But at the end of the day, even Michigan’s first home loss since 2020 wouldn’t end its season. Playing three topfive teams will lend itself to picking up a loss or two, but it also means that the Wolverines have some leeway. The version of Michigan that took the field Week 1 didn’t look ready to face Texas — but that doesn’t mean it isn’t a Playoff-caliber team. “You’re just going to be a different team Week 3 than you are Week 2,” Moore said Monday. “You’re going to be a different team Week 1 than you are Week 2.” That, effectively, is what the Wolverines’ slow start boils down to. They’re a work in progress, as was expected of them at the start of the season. But they also made progress in the fourth quarter on Saturday, and started laying out a formula for success. So ahead of a marquee clash with the Longhorns, wonder about Moore, Warren and Michigan as a whole. Consider why it took the Wolverines 50 minutes to find a groove, or whether they can add a more explosive side to their offense. But after a 20-point win over a capable opponent, don’t panic.
Closing out Saturday’s game with 269 and 247 total yards, respectively, the No. 9 Michigan football team and Fresno State were seemingly neck-andneck in total offense. Where the two teams diverged, however, was in the distribution of those yards. The Wolverines were relatively even, gaining 121 total yards through the air and 148 on the ground. The Bulldogs, on the other hand, threw for 238 total yards — leaving a measly nine to the run game’s name.
Granted, Michigan ran the ball 13 more times than Fresno State throughout the Wolverines’ 30-10 season-opening victory. But both statistics — the low number of attempts and total rushing yards — speak volumes to the success of Michigan’s loaded defensive front.
“I mean, we have (junior defensive tackles) Mason Graham and Kenneth Grant in the middle, so it makes it pretty hard for them to run inside,” senior edge rusher Josaiah Stewart said bluntly, garnering some laughter from the crowd of reporters. Graham and Grant are cer -
tainly the biggest names, and there’s no doubt that they both made significant impacts on Saturday night. Neither of them topped the stat sheet — Graham finished the night with four total tackles, two solo, while Grant contributed a pass breakup — but even just their presence likely impacted the Bulldogs’ play calling.
Playing alongside the formidable duo, Stewart made a statement with five solo tackles, two sacks and three tackles for loss. A constant threat off the edge, he showed off his speed and strength while stuffing the Bulldogs at nearly every opportunity.
“Just the defense running to the ball, the swarm mentality,” Stewart said. “Especially stopping the run is our mantra. You stop the run, you leave them left-handed so they just throwing the ball all day.”
There’s no question that the Wolverines were successful in forcing Fresno State to throw the ball all day. Another key component of that effort was senior defensive lineman Rayshaun Benny.
Coming off a lower leg injury that sidelined him for last season’s National Championship game, Benny was still “knocking off some rust,” as defensive
coordinator Wink Martindale said Monday night on the “Inside Michigan Football” radio show. But it didn’t seem like it took Benny long to get comfortable. Even at less than 100 percent, Benny tallied five total tackles, one sack and two tackles for loss.
Behind the front four, junior linebackers Ernest Hausmann and Jaishawn Barham stood their ground, although they didn’t produce all that many flashy plays. Barham, a transfer from Maryland who garnered heavy praise throughout the offseason, showed flashes of standout quickness and energy.
“Having the front seven that we have, they played hard, stopped the run as best as they could today,” junior defensive back Zeke Berry said. “They were prepared, ready to play, (ready) to hit another team other than our teammates. So the performance they put on today was outstanding.”
After months of lining up against one another, Michigan’s highly touted defensive front finally got the chance to start proving itself against a real opponent on Saturday night.
And through game one, giving up just nine total rushing yards, it lived up to the billing.
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JENNA HICKEY/Daily
‘A huge victory for the good guys’: How Sherrone Moore reached new heights through authenticity, positivity and fierce selflessness
sky’s the limit for him.’
“I’m very pleased to be able to sit here and say that in this one instance, I was absolutely right.” ***
John Bonamego wasn’t surprised when his phone rang.
Following the 2017 college football season, Bonamego — Central Michigan’s head coach at the time — answered a call from thenMichigan head coach Jim Harbaugh. Looking to fill a tight ends coach vacancy, Harbaugh wanted Bonamego’s opinion on an up-andcomer: Sherrone Moore.
Moore had joined the Chippewas’ staff in 2014, a year before Bonamego took the helm. Hearing high praise about Moore’s capabilities, Bonamego made the “very easy decision,” as he described it, to retain the young tight ends coach.
Over the subsequent few seasons, Bonamego’s respect and regard for Moore grew exponentially. He was especially impressed by how Moore connected with players through his authenticity and genuinely positive energy, so much so that he promoted him to assistant head coach prior to the 2017 season.
Perhaps the only downside of noticing all those standout traits in a 31-year-old coach was that others would, too. Bonamego knew he wouldn’t be able to keep Moore long. After all, big-time programs often present greater career opportunities and financial capacities than schools like Central Michigan.
So when Harbaugh came calling, Bonamego wasn’t surprised. He also didn’t have to think twice about what he’d say.
“I didn’t want to lose (Moore), and I let Jim know that,” Bonamego told The Michigan Daily. “But I also told Coach Harbaugh, ‘You need look no further. He’s your guy. I think he’s the best tight ends coach in the country. This guy is a young, rapidly ascending coach, and I think the
CHARLIE PAPPALARDO Daily Sports Editor FOOTBALL
As a kid, Moore didn’t dream about becoming a football coach. He didn’t even dream about becoming a football player. He grew up playing basketball and wanted to continue his career on the hardwood in college. That is, until a dunk in his high school gym opened his eyes to a new opportunity on the gridiron.
“My high school football coach saw me playing basketball,” Moore told The Daily. “I was in the gymnasium, I think I was a sophomore, and I think I dunked it. He just saw my size, my length, and said, ‘Hey, man, have you ever played football before?’ I said, ‘No.’ And he’s like, ‘Well, I think you should come out for the team.’ ” Moore was interested, but he couldn’t say yes right off the jump.
“I was like, ‘Well, I gotta ask my mom, she’s very protective,’ ” Moore continued. “I’m an only child. She’s from Trinidad and Tobago, both my parents are, so not very familiar with the sport. She thought it was dangerous, but I asked her, ended up playing, and the rest was history.”
Once he got the go-ahead, Moore’s sights shifted from a career in basketball to one in football. He became a two-year starter at Derby High School in Kansas, slotting in along the offensive line. Though he didn’t choose the position himself, he recalls the fun of being able to hit people and blow off some steam.
So Moore kept playing. He spent his first two college seasons at Butler County Community College, about an hour away from Derby, before developing his game and frame enough to earn a spot on Oklahoma’s roster. He assumed a backup role for the Sooners but was still a meaningful component, on and off the field, of a team that
won back-to-back Big 12 championships.
It wasn’t until his second and final year at Oklahoma that Moore started to seriously consider coaching. Even before he realized it, though, he was acting like a coach in his own way.
“He was always doing extra,”
James Patton, Moore’s offensive line coach with the Sooners, told The Daily. “He was always doing more. You could see him in a backup role, but he was always pushing and helping and trying to help everybody else — his teammates — out. Very well-liked guy.”
Leaning on those inherent qualities and enthusiasm, Moore landed his first coaching job in 2009 as a graduate assistant at Louisville. He spent five seasons with the Cardinals, the last two as tight ends coach, before taking on the same role at Central Michigan.
Four years later, with Bonamego’s recommendation, Moore began his legacy at Michigan. He coached the Wolverines’ tight ends for three seasons before transitioning to offensive line coach/co-offensive coordinator. The following year, he took on sole offensive coordinator duties while retaining his offensive line responsibilities.
Davis Warren up and down against Fresno State in first start
play adding some depth, the strategy worked well enough for Michigan to secure the win — but not well enough to assuage fears.
bother him, though.
Now heading into his seventh year at Michigan and his first as head coach, Moore has added new responsibilities — and titles — each of the past three offseasons. Rapidly climbing the coaching ladder was never his goal or plan, though. He much preferred living in the present and focusing on where his feet were.
Back in his days coaching tight ends, that’s exactly what Moore told Bonamego when asked if he wanted to eventually return to his roots and lead the offensive line. He did, eventually, but he liked where he was for the time being. Working with tight ends allowed him to bridge the gap between the pass and run game, rounding out his experience and making him a better overall offensive coach.
That philosophy is also part of the reason Moore stayed with the Chippewas for one last season in 2017. A year before he took the Michigan job, he had a different opportunity on the table. But, again, he liked where he was for the time being.
And as was becoming a theme throughout both his playing and coaching career, all his focus was on those around him.
“I had a real affection for the kids there,” Moore said. “I had coached some guys there for two years, three years and so on, going to the fourth year with some guys, and I wanted to see it through with them and watch them develop.”
*** Reflecting on his time as Moore’s offensive line coach, Patton knows there are details and memories that have slipped through the cracks since 2007 — a long 17 years for both of them.
But there’s one thing that he could never forget: Moore’s smile, and the energy that came with it.
“He never had a bad day,” Patton said. “He was always going to show up and practice hard. Tough practices and physical practices, you could always hear his voice. You could always hear him cheering and encouraging guys.”
From Patton’s perspective, Moore’s smile embodied the energy that he brought — and continues to bring — every day. It’s an uplifting type of energy, one that has resonated so much with his teammates, coaches and now players because it’s completely genuine. When you boil it down, that’s just Moore’s personality. That’s just who he is, as both a person and a coach.
There’s no faking anything.
“As camp goes on and things get longer, days get longer, having a coach that’s always bringing that energy, and you know he’s always going to come out and get guys going, is huge,” graduate running back Kalel Mullings said Tuesday. “We all appreciate it, and it’s a huge reason why we’ve gotten to the point we’ve gotten to.”
That energy also makes tough conversations a whole lot easier. Described by Bonamego as “maybe the most challenging thing” that coaches have to do, figuring out how best to navigate the delivery of criticism is a difficult but foundational component of any coach’s job.
Yet for Moore, his authentically positive nature makes it almost effortless.
“It’s easy for me, because that’s just who I am,” Moore said. “They know that if they’re out of line or they’re wrong, I’m going to address it, because I’m always just going to tell them the truth, whether they like it or not. But I try to be as approachable as possible.”
Allowing his natural energy to send the message smoothly and effectively, Moore has no trouble giving feedback when talking with others. Ask him to talk at length about himself, though, and that’s when you might see his trademark positive energy shift.
For all back-to-back Joe Moore Awards, three wins as acting head coach, three Big Ten Championships and even a National Championship can say, Moore has no interest in boasting. In fact, he has no interest in even thinking about himself and his own accomplishments.
Addressing the media on Monday, Moore was asked if he’s taken a moment of personal reflection heading into the season opener. Most people in his shoes, those of a 38-year-old first-time head coach taking over one of the most storied programs in college football, would surely have stepped back to think about their own growth and success. But Moore isn’t most people. He answered the question plain and simple:
“No, I haven’t,” Moore said. “I’ve been asked that before. All I care about is the players. I don’t think about myself. … Why do I have to talk about myself? All I care about is the players. That’s it. That’s all I care about. So I haven’t looked at it in my perspective. I just want them to go out there and be successful and have the time of their lives.”
Just minutes before the No. 9 Michigan football team took to the field on Saturday, months of speculation were finally brought to a close. After endless conversation about the quarterback battle that lasted through to the bitter end of training camp, it was revealed that senior quarterback Davis Warren had won the job, and would lead the Wolverines out onto the field.
After surviving cancer five years ago, walking onto the Michigan football team three years ago and spending the next three years on the bench behind Cade McNamara and J.J. McCarthy, Warren’s moment had finally arrived.
“Ultimately, he won the job,” Michigan coach Sherrone Moore said postgame. “He was just consistent, took care of the football, made plays against (our) defense that you saw out there. … But he ultimately took the job and won it.”
Funnily enough however, after just four plays, it was junior quarterback Alex Orji who threw Michigan’s first touchdown.
Adding Orji into the mix on that first drive was a confusing wrinkle that worked well enough to fool Fresno State . But more broadly, it was indicative of the way Michigan coach Sherrone Moore operated the Wolverines’ offense the entire night — and presumably how he will lead them throughout the season.
All night on Saturday, Warren was firmly the starter. Warren threw the ball. Warren operated the offense. And the fate of the Wolverines’ passing game rested firmly in his hands.
But that didn’t stop Moore from bringing Orji into the fold. And with Warren up and down throughout the night and Orji’s
Warren looked confident for the most part, managing a decent 60% completion rate with a touchdown. But with only 118 yards and a pick on a pass into triple coverage, the passing game was not a motor for the offense.
“Obviously there were some moments where we struggled to get the ball moving and do some things on third downs,” Warren said. “That falls on me as a quarterback to make sure we’re in the right play and doing the right thing. But we can’t leave ourselves in third and long, we gotta keep the chains moving, and that falls on all of us.”
Throughout the game, the Wolverines’ passing attack lacked spark. Even Alex Orji, in his sparse usage, struggled to give them what they were looking for.
On almost every offensive drive, Moore found moments to sprinkle Orji into the mix. Using him as a run-decoy worked on the first offensive drive, with Michigan finding the end zone as Orji hit a wide open target for a 3-yard touchdown. But after that, Orji’s usage didn’t find nearly as much success. He found some success on the ground with five carries for 32 yards. However, with his only other throw, Orji badly missed a wide open receiver in the flat, throwing the ball into the ground yards in front of him. And with Warren finding rhythm on some drives and lacking it at others, the addition of Orji didn’t always enhance the Wolverines’ offense. Warren insisted that splitting reps didn’t
“It’s no different than in practice,” Warren said. “In practice the ones are going, and then the twos are going, and then the ones are going again … it’s no different than that. I’ve got no issue doing that.”
And so all night, Warren led the offense while Orji jumped in for a play or two. And all night, the Wolverines found only moderate success. After the first drive, Michigan went eight drives without a touchdown, and while the stagnation was not all on Warren and the passing game, neither he nor Orji did much to make it stand out.
Warren consistently found success connecting with junior tight end Colston Loveland. As the game wore on and Warren developed more confidence, he threw more and more to Loveland, who amassed 87 yards, eight receptions and a touchdown.
“If they’re gonna leave (Loveland) open, we’re gonna throw him the ball, it’s pretty simple,” Warren said. “And we’re gonna keep doing that, and then other guys … are going to step up and make plays too.”
As the night closed, it was apparent that the quarterback battle is fully solved.
Warren’s arm strength and mobility won him the job, and he showed some of that. At the same time, Orji’s inaccuracy lost him the job, though his dual threat abilities kept him in the mix — and he showed some of that as well.
The Wolverines produced an answer at quarterback against the Bulldogs, and Warren did enough to show why they arrived at that answer on Saturday. But with only 121 yards total in an inconsistent passing attack, there wasn’t enough to demonstrate that their answer can take them far.
LYS GOLDMAN Daily Sports Editor
DA YS
MICHIGAN 30 | FRESNO STATE 10
NOAH KINGSLEY Managing Sports Editor
For the No. 9 Michigan football team, Saturday marked the start of a new era filled with unknowns.
A competition for the starting quarterback job between senior Davis Warren and junior Alex Orji continued all through fall camp, causing questions to swirl about the viability of the Wolverines’ new-look offense. Neither had much previous experience, nor did they have much success in what little experience they had.
With Warren at the helm after winning the job, Michigan’s offense experienced lots of growing pains throughout the first three-plus quarters on Saturday. But thanks to an expected playmaker in junior tight end Colston Loveland, an
unexpected one in graduate running back Kalel Mullings and a strong defensive performance that kept them afloat, the Wolverines (1-0) pulled away late from Fresno State (0-1), 30-10.
Though Warren took the first snap of the game, junior quarterback Alex Orji accounted for the Wolverines’ first points.
After junior cornerback Zeke Berry picked off the Bulldogs’ second pass attempt, Orji came in on Michigan’s next drive for one play and found senior running back Donovan Edwards for a 3-yard touchdown — his only completion of the game.
The first drive featured success from both starting quarterback candidates, but those early bursts soon gave way to a slog. The Wolverines averaged just 3.3 yards per play in the first half, punted three times and turned the ball over on an interception Warren
threw into triple coverage.
“There’s some moments where we struggle to get the ball moving and do some things on third downs,” Warren said. “That falls on me as a quarterback to make sure we’re in the right play and doing the right things.”
As Warren and the offense stumbled, however, the defense kept Michigan ahead. The Wolverines allowed more total yards than they gained in the first half, but they came up with enough stops in key moments to hold Fresno State to a single field goal
Then, perhaps slightly woken up by the Bulldogs’ first points, the Wolverines began to find a formula for success. Mullings took advantage of increased touches, averaging 6.1 yards per carry, and Warren repeatedly found Loveland over the middle of the field to start moving the chains.
While that method produced more success than Michigan found for most of the first half after its first drive, it still didn’t get the Wolverines back in the end zone. They turned to junior kicker Dominic Zvada for support, who drilled kicks from 45, 53 and 55 yards. Zvada’s field goals bookended halftime and opened the fourth quarter, giving Michigan a 16-3 lead.
“Zvada’s been a dog,” Warren said. “…It’s fun to watch him kick the ball, and to know that once we get into his range, we’re guaranteed points.”
As the Wolverines’ offense found enough of a groove to get those guaranteed points, their defense brought the pressure to prevent them. Senior defensive lineman Rayshaun Benny and edge rusher Josaiah Stewart led the charge, combining for three sacks and five tackles for losses.
Michigan still hadn’t taken full advantage of its defense’s success, though. So when Fresno State quarterback Mikey Keene found wideout Raylen Sharpe for a 19-yard score with 10 minutes left, Warren and the Wolverines suddenly found themselves back in a one-score game in the fourth quarter. Needing to respond, Michigan turned back to the two facets of its offense that made things happen earlier: Mullings and Loveland. And as the pair broke through opposing tacklers, the Wolverines offense finally broke through. Mullings started the charge, barging up the middle for consecutive 21- and 15-yard runs. Warren then found Loveland cutting across the middle once more with 5:43 left, this time for a crucial 18-yard touchdown that capped off his eight-catch, 87-yard day.
“We kind of got it together at the end,” Loveland said. “And defense can only go hard for so long. … But (there’s still) a lot of meat left on the bone.” On the ensuing Bulldogs drive, junior cornerback Will Johnson added one last key play. Following two interceptions earlier on the drive that were called back, Johnson jumped a route and took a pick 86 yards to the house, finally sealing the contest shut. At the start of a new, uncertain era, Saturday’s offensive showing left 50 minutes worth of issues swirling. But as Mullings and Loveland stepped up, they gave a glimpse into what a successful offense looks like for Michigan — and staved off Fresno State in the process.
