The office of Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel (D) has announced criminal charges against 11 individuals connected to the Gaza solidarity encampment set up on the University of Michigan Diag last spring. According to a Thursday press release from Nessel’s office, most of those charged are University of Michigan students and alumni.
Nessel charged two of the 11 with trespassing due to failure to evacuate the encampment, which carries a maximum 30-day sentence. Seven others were charged with trespassing and an additional count of resisting or obstructing a police officer, a felony that can result in up to two years in prison.
The office charged the remaining two people for allegedly disturbed the encampment and its surrounding areas on April 25 in two separate incidents. A U-M alum was charged with disturbing the peace for allegedly kicking over Israeli flags and attempted ethnic intimidation, a maximum oneyear misdemeanor. In the other incident, a man allegedly took and broke multiple flags belonging to counter-protesters, for which he was charged with two counts of malicious destruction of personal property, a 93-day misdemeanor.
The solidarity encampment remained in the Diag for about a month before the Ann Arbor Police Department and the Division of Public Safety and Security removed it May 21. According to the press release, DPSS officers read a dispersal order at 5:38 a.m. that day and gave students 10 minutes to clear the area. This decision to sweep the encampment was made after the U-M Fire Marshal Andrew Box observed fire hazards at the site during an inspection in May, including a generator and multiple significantly overloaded electrical devices. Box reported the large volume of tents and makeshift fencing would have prevented a quick escape.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz
traveled to Grand Rapids Thursday evening for his first solo visit as Vice President Kamala Harris’ vice presidential pick. Hundreds of community members gathered inside the Grand Rapids Public Museum to hear Walz and other Democratic Party members speak about the recent presidential debate and the importance of voting in November.
Walz’s trip to Grand Rapids was part of a four-day campaign tour through the swing states of North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin following the Sept. 10 presidential debate between Harris and former President Donald Trump.
Grand Rapids is located in Kent County, which has shifted from largely red to a battleground district in recent years. This election season, it has become a key focus of both presidential campaigns.
On July 20, Trump visited Grand Rapids for his first campaign rally after surviving an assassination attempt, and in August, he also made an appearance in Howell.
Robert Dean, former state representative for the 75th District,
gave the opening remarks at Thursday’s rally. In his speech, Dean said the Harris-Walz campaign provides a promising vision for the future of America.
“Harris and Tim Walz talk about a new way forward,” Dean said. “When they talk about their plan for a strong democracy, a fair economy and a country where our rights and freedoms are protected, when they lay out a fight or vision for the future, their eyes are looking straight ahead.”
Other speakers at the rally included Grand Rapids Mayor Rosalynn Bliss, state Rep. Carol Glanville, D-Grand Rapids, and State Sen. Winnie Brinks, D-Grand Rapids.
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer commended Harris’ performance at Tuesday’s presidential debate and highlighted Walz’s accomplishments as governor of Minnesota. During his tenure as governor, Walz provided free breakfast and lunch for all students at Minnesota public schools, invested $300 million into public safety measures and signed abortion protections into law.
“In Minnesota, he delivered results again and again and again (with) the biggest investment in fixing their damn roads to free school meals for every public school
beliefs about police violence at the encampment removal and the recent “Die-in” event on the U-M Diag, as well as Nessel’s previous actions.
“Police Violence to suppress dissent has become routine at Michigan – recently, police charged at protesters participating in a “Die In” demonstration on the University of Michigan Diag and tackled individuals to the ground, arresting four, including a minor,” the statement read. “Given Attorney General Dana Nessel’s attack of Detroit congresswoman Rashida Tlaib for criticizing the Biden administration funding of the genocide in Gaza, these unconstitutional charges are an indication of the political and racialized targeting of the pro Palestine divestment movement. In conjunction with AG Nessel’s recent failure to deliver justice for the victims of the Flint Water crisis, this unfounded attack is a clear demonstration of the remarkable ineptitude of the attorney general office, and the criminal justice system as a whole.”
The TAHRIR Coalition, a group consisting of more than 90 proPalestine student organizations including Students Allied for Freedom and Equality, said in a statement following the removal of the encampment that the fire marshal never visited the encampment, and that there were no open flames or overloaded power outlets.
According to the press release, U-M officials met with students present at the encampment 11 times over the course of 20 days to discuss policy violations and the University’s intention to remove the encampment.
Nessel’s department also conducted a review of protests that took place on March 25 outside Hill Auditorium and April 22 outside the University of Michigan Museum of Art, and declined to prosecute any individuals involved.
In the statement, the coalition also said the group at the encampment received no communication from the offices involved in its removal.
In a statement released Friday morning, the TAHRIR Coalition condemned the charges and called for them to be dropped due to their
According to the press release, the department is currently investigating protests that occurred at the homes of multiple University regents on May 15.
student, protections for abortion rights, expansion on workers rights and so much more,” Whitmer said.
Whitmer said Walz and Harris both exemplify Midwestern values.
“Most of all, Tim is a fundamentally good person,” Whitmer said. “He shows up. He works hard. He can laugh at himself. He’s just like us. Both he and Kamala Harris understand our lives because they live lives like ours. They grew up in the middle class, worked hourly jobs just like we did. They care for sick family members, just like we have.”
Whitmer said Michigan voters could be the deciding factor in the outcome of the November election and emphasized the relatively small number of votes that delivered Trump’s victory in the state in 2016.
“In 2016, Trump won this state by just less than 11,000 votes,” Whitmer said. “He won by 10,704 votes. That’s two votes per precinct. We control the outcome of this election. The world is counting on us. … Our Democratic candidates for the Michigan House are counting on us. Tim Walz and Kamala Harris are counting on us.”
Following an introduction from LSA junior Mariah Stewart, Walz came on stage. During his speech, he recapped the presidential debate
and said he sees it as evidence that Harris is fit to win the presidential race.
“There was one person on that stage who should be the next President of the United States,” Walz said. “She commanded the room, and I know all of us are incredibly proud of Vice President Harris. But let’s be very clear, none of us were surprised at what happened there. No one has come more experienced in this job than she has, and no one has done more damage than Donald Trump has.”
During his comments on the debate, Walz said Trump’s presidential agenda was based on Project 2025, a conservative initiative developed by The Heritage Foundation that lays out policies and plans for a second Trump term.
Walz also criticized the price gouging of drugs like insulin, which Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act capped at $35 for Medicare users, and said a Harris presidency would maintain efforts to lower the cost of medicine.
“In the richest country on Earth, it is an absolute disgrace that folks have to ration their drugs because they can’t afford them because trust me, Big Pharma is doing just fine,” Walz said. “We need to make sure that folks get their insulin at
$35 each and get the drugs that they need.”
Walz also reaffirmed the Harris-Walz campaign’s positions on issues including their support for workers’ rights, an increase in manufacturing jobs and the restoration of national protections for abortion. The candidates — who are both gun owners — have also promised to fight for stricter firearm laws.
In his speech, Walz noted the Sept. 4 shooting at Apalachee High School in Georgia and the February 2023 shooting at Michigan State University.
“I’m a veteran, I’m a hunter,” Walz said. “Kamala Harris is a gun
Heather Mayle, who attended the event, is an alum of Mankato West High School in Mankato, Minn., where Walz and his wife Gwen taught for two decades. In an interview with The Daily, Mayle said she believes that Walz’s background as an educator connects him to the general public.
“He is the perfect
owner by the way. … We support the Second Amendment, but our first responsibility is keeping our children safe.”
Meleck Eldahshoury/DAILY
Sarah Boeke/DAILY
CSG fails to pass fall budget act
The Assembly failed to overturn the president’s veto
The University of Michigan’s Central Student Government met in the Wolverine Room of the Michigan Union Tuesday evening to vote on whether to overturn CSG president Alifa Chowdhury’s veto on the Fall 2024 CSG Budget Act, AR 14-023.
In August, the Assembly passed the budget act, but Chowdhury vetoed the act in early September. Following the veto and amid concern brought up by student organizations that funds would not be available, CSG assembly members attempted to vote on the fall budget for the second time.
Chowdhury is a member of the SHUT IT DOWN Party, which won 23 seats in the March 2024 CSG elections. The party campaigned on stopping all CSG activity and associated funding until the University divests from companies profiting off the Israeli military campaign in Gaza. Since taking office in April, Chowdhury has vetoed the body’s spring, summer and fall budgets.
After the most recent budget was vetoed, the University allocated interim funds to student organizations. The University provided the funding, as well as consultation services, through the Dean of Students Office.
In an executive statement, Chowdhury expressed frustration that the funding veto was bypassed by the University, which continued to provide student organizations with funding against the SHUT IT DOWN party’s platform.
“By bypassing CSG and centralizing control over funding, the administration is attempting
to neutralize our campaign’s impact and maintain a facade of normalcy,” Chowdhury wrote. “This move demonstrates the lengths to which the University will go to protect its financial and political interests at the expense of democratic student governance and ethical responsibility.”
The meeting began with Community Concerns, during which about 25 U-M students, community members and alumni shared their thoughts on the vote.
LSA and Art & Design senior Eaman Ali, who supports the veto, addressed the assembly to emphasize her disappointment in the attempted blocking of the veto. Ali said the decision to veto the budget is reflective of campus sentiment about divestment.
“I voted for and fully endorsed the SHUT IT DOWN party and their platform, which was explicit and understood by the student body in their vote,” Ali said. “I am very disappointed by the acts that many of you here have taken to sabotage the SHUT IT DOWN party, which is what the students have voted for on this campus.… You are not representing your constituents like you claim. It is clear where the students stand.”
Other students at the meeting countered by saying they felt it was unfair that many student organizations on campus would not have access to necessary funding. LSA junior Ryan Finlay said it was inconsiderate to ignore the issues facing students in their day-to-day lives on campus.
“There is a prevailing sentiment here that a minuscule fraction of the University’s endowment is of total importance,” Finlay said. “How arrogant of you to think that your struggle for divestment is more important than anyone
else’s? More important, in fact, than the struggle of low-income students to afford food sources from a food bank, partially funded by CSG. How about making sure students can eat first?”
Engineering junior Marisa May, logistics director of Michigan Baja Racing, a student organization that competes in offroad racecar competition series, said she supports overturning the veto because the withheld funding has negatively impacted the club’s ability to function.
“Each year our budget is comprised of funds from CSG, which are usually allocated in waves throughout both semesters and over the summer,” May said. “Without these funds, our team has fit eight people in hotels for competition travel and reduced part complexity to bring manufacturing back in-house. We also rely on CSG funding to keep events free for members, which allows lower-income students like myself to join our team.” May emphasized the importance of supporting student organizations on campus due to the communities they create,
and expressed concern about the viability of these organizations without funding.
“I count Baja lucky that we haven’t had to stop our season,” May said. “I’m not sure other student organizations can say the same. Our student organizations do great things on campus, giving students a sense of belonging they may not otherwise have and encouraging professional and academic growth. I hope student organization funding will begin again soon.”
The assembly then entered closed session to debate and vote on whether to override Chowdhury’s veto; in the end, they did not secure enough votes to do so. Mario Thaqi, speaker of the 14th CSG Assembly, wrote in an email to The Michigan Daily that the veto override failed with a vote of 23-18, meaning the CSG budget will continue to be withheld from student organizations. The override required two-thirds of the vote, or 28 votes.
Due to timing, the meeting was adjourned after voting, and the rest of the agenda was pushed to a future meeting.
Altman visited Rackham Auditorium Thursday, the same day OpenAI launched o1-preview
RACHEL MINTZ Managing News
Sam Altman, OpenAI’s chief executive officer, visited the University of Michigan’s Rackham Auditorium Thursday evening for a fireside chat. Altman discussed the future of artificial intelligence and OpenAI’s new AI model — also released Thursday — to an audience of about 1,000 U-M students. The event was hosted by the College of Engineering and moderated by Dan Feder, managing director of the U-M Investment Office.
OpenAI’s new series of AI, called o1-preview, is designed to give nuanced responses to complex problems, particularly ones related to science, coding and math. The model, which focuses on refining thinking processes and trying different strategies before giving a response, is currently being previewed by ChatGPT users and in OpenAI’s application programming interface.
Altman’s ties to the University
are not new. The University has invested in Altman’s venture capital firm, Hydrazine Capital, twice — first with a $105 million investment in 2023, and a second $75 million investment to the same firm later that year.
After announcing the launch of o1-preview, nicknamed “Strawberry,” Altman explained his team’s motivation to build on their groundbreaking AI model.
“When we finished GPT-4, one of the things we were most excited about is … can we use this thing we’ve created, and on top of it, can we teach models to reason?”
Altman said. “And we thought that if we could do that, it would be a very significant step forward.”
Altman said he conceptualizes AI in five levels. The first level is commonly seen in today’s AI use and is considered to be “conversational AI.” The second level is reaching “reasoning AI”, or when AI can perform basic problem-solving tasks similar to a human.
“The model that we launched
today is, I think, … the first model that is a true general purpose, complex reasoner,” Altman said.
When Feder asked if “Strawberry” would put humans on the path to finding artificial general intelligence or superhuman intelligence, Altman said he believes that this is a step in the right direction.
“I think we are on that path,” Altman said. “This is the next step on that path. But, I think it’s all one long, exponential curve and that we are very fortunate to get to live and witness.”
While some experts in the technology field have raised concerns about the ethics of creating AI tools that are not yet regulated or tested on a broad scale, Altman said he cannot help but feel optimistic about the future.
“I don’t know how we could sit at this present moment and not be optimistic,” Altman said. “I think we are living through probably the most exciting piece of the technological revolution in human history.”
Altman also discussed the implications of reasoning AI models such as o1-preview on the job market, particularly for those who already are working in software development or engineering.
“If you think that the job of a programmer in five years is going to look at a kind of minute to minute level, similar to what a programmer does today, then obviously you’re in for a bad time,” Altman said. “But if you think that the world is going to continue to have near limitless demand for software, and that, as part of that, there will be a very important role to figure out what it should be and how to work with a much higher level of programming than we use today, then I think there’ll be a ton of demand for that kind of a job. But it will be really different.”
Information graduate student Mila Filipof attended the event and told The Michigan Daily she appreciates the opportunities the University provides to meet with top executives in the technology field.
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Sam Altman joins U-M Senior Managing Director of Investments Daniel Feder to discuss the current state and future aims of AI Thursday afternoon.
‘The Adventure Zone: The Suffering Game’ rolls a nat 20
ALEX HETZLER Daily Arts Writer
In “The Adventure Zone: The Suffering Game,” the sixth installment of the New York Times best-selling graphic novel series, twin necromancersslash-game show hosts Lydia and Edward step onto the page like glam rock gods, clad in caped bodysuits and tights. These glitzy liches run Wonderland, aa supernatural game show that promises to grant its winners whatever their hearts desire.
Unfortunately, the game show is more “Saw” trap than “Wheel of Fortune.” Advancing in the game forces participants to sacrifice a part of themselves, from digits to limbs to years off their lives. Hungry monsters wait behind every corner, ready to snap up the unsuspecting contestant (Ken Jennings, take notes!).
Enabling it all is the Animus Bell — a magical item imbued with power over life and death.
Enter adventurers Magnus, Merle and Taako. Their quest?
Survive Wonderland, defeat Lydia and Edward and escape with the Grand Relic. It’s an old hat for the trio by now, who have been stealing magical weapons of mass destruction like the Animus Bell since, like, book one. However, the appearance of a red-robed figure from their past throws a wrench in their plans, one that forces them to question their loyalty to their quest and employer.
“The Adventure Zone” is comedy and fantasy at its finest (and most crass). The graphic novel series adapts the podcast of the same name, which stars the McElroy family — brothers Justin, Travis and Griffin alongside their father Clint — playing the popular tabletop roleplaying game Dungeons & Dragons.
Artist Carey Pietsch and writer Clint McElroy began adapting the series with “Here There Be Gerblins” in 2018, with Griffin McElroy joining as co-writer for subsequent releases after the fifth novel. The McElroy brand of humor — always irreverent, occasionally witty and alarmingly referential — along
with Pietsch’s character design and glossy colors have made the series a multiple best seller. This triumph only continues in “The Suffering Game.” Combining two story arcs and dozens of hours of audio from the original show, adapters Griffin and Clint have vastly improved upon the original narrative. Longtime listeners may notice that the adaptation has wisely not included a whole subplot centering a rival group of adventurers. Likewise, extraneous fight scenes
that took up whole podcast episodes have been cut entirely. Mindless repetition of the podcast storyline is sidestepped, leaving crucial moments with more time and weight. The result is far better paced than the previous adaptations from the McElroys, which often felt a bit compressed and rushed. This brevity keeps the story moving at a brisk pace. Moments after escaping Wonderland more or less intact, Merle, Magnus and Taako are thrust into an even
greater threat. Without too many spoilers, our intrepid heroes have been lied to by their enigmatic employer, Lucretia, and their confrontation is one of cosmic proportions. Questions raised in the very first book are finally answered and the stage is set for the climatic finale, to be released sometime next year. Scenes move from witty side jokes and visual gags (including one particularly memorable sequence involving a buck-naked Magnus and a rather well-placed… sword) to dramatic, close-angle monologues with remarkable deftness. It’s a ratcheting of tensions the book series had yet to grapple with, and one that it navigates rather well.
For its short length, the book does sometimes feel cluttered. Pietsch is a master of character design and color, but her panel compositions can be busy to the point of obstruction. A larger page size might help alleviate some of the problem, but unfortunately “The Suffering Game” is locked down at a standard trade paperback size. This renders her pages hard to read: Loaded as they are with detail and emotion,
the action scenes are crowded, with the line of motion through each panel hard to follow.
Still, Pietsch makes Wonderland and its inhabitants as glamorous as they are deadly. Character design has long been a strong suit of the series, and while her scenes are still awash with detail, the emotional register has been broadened. Her close shots are clearly a favorite of hers during tense sequences, and for good reason. In these large inset panels, each gooey tear or billowing shirt is lovely and fluid. It’s simply a shame that the publisher chose not to play to Pietsch’s strengths by giving her more room to breathe.
“The Suffering Game” is an improvement on both the original story arc of the podcast and on the usual formula of the graphic novel adaptations. The series finale releases next year, and the sta ge has been set; all questions are about to be answered; a final battle awaits our intrepid band of vagabonds (as is the way of things). With the smash success of “The Suffering Game,” there’s nowhere to go but up.
‘Terminator Zero’ falters, then innovates upon the franchise
Netflix’s current trend of sponsoring anime works has yielded a crop of TV shows that combine the best aspects of limited series and Japanese anime. Without needing to release episodes in a cour, animation studios are able to produce more consistent, high-quality work. The collaboration between Japanese directors and American writers allows for a fascinating thematic exploration of both old IPs through a new lens. A collaborative show about the “Terminator” franchise focused primarily on the anxiety surrounding artifi-
cial intelligence and what exactly it means to be human would seem to be the perfect project considering animation studio Production I.G’s (“Ghost in the Shell”) previous work. However, “Terminator Zero” only brings new ideas to the table after it’s already too late. The first half of “Terminator Zero” is bland and derivative. In 1997, Malcolm Lee (Andre Holland, “Moonlight”), an AI researcher in Japan, finds himself and his family hunted by the eponymous Terminator (Timothy Olyphant, “Scream 2”), a cyborg assassin from the 21st century. The Terminator was sent courtesy of Skynet, an AI defense system gone rogue that will cause nuclear armageddon in the distant future.
In order to fully drive humans to extinction, Skynet is experimenting with time travel to eliminate their opponents before they are even born. However, Skynet is not the only group with access to time travel, and the resistance movement fighting Skynet in the post-apocalyptic future sends one of their operatives, Eiko (Sonoya Mizuno, “House of the Dragon”), back in time to protect find Malcolm and stop the Terminator. The fantastic character work and background design shine through in the show’s first episode. The action scenes are sleek and stylish, and the mechanical design of the buildings’ exteriors bring out the oppressive atmosphere of the setting. Director
Masashi Kudo (“Bleach”) professed his intention to make the Terminators as menacing and brutal as possible, to emphasize the desperation of the struggle against Skynet. This comes through clearly in the first scene, as the resistance members desperately throw themselves at the cyborg just to slow it down, with little to no effect. Yet, all creativity seems to fizzle out of the show when the plot picks up in the present. The drama simply isn’t engaging — after a brief scuffle with the Terminator, Malcolm has a wildly uninteresting dialogue with an AI at a secure location for the remainder of the series.
NICOLAS EISENBERG Daily Arts Writer
GRACE SIELINSKI Daily Arts Writer
This fall, three relay teams of four Daily Arts staffers will train for and run the Probility Ann Arbor Marathon. But as writers, we can’t just run the race — we have to write about our past experiences with running, how we are preparing for the marathon, what we look forward to and what we are afraid of. What shocked me most as I walked out the back door was how afraid I was. It wasn’t dread, just sheer anxiety, as if I was an overly attached kid going off to kindergarten for the first time. I had butterflies and sweaty palms — you get the gist. I actually almost chickened out! I thought to myself, no, this seems too hard. And it’s pointless. Maybe I shouldn’t. What Herculean task had I resigned myself to complete?
I, for the first time in years, had decided to go for a run without music. It sounds so trivial it’s almost absurd. But the knots in my stomach were real — and it seems I’m not alone. In 2016, a poll in Runner’s World magazine found that 61% of respondents reported listening to something while they ran; of that population, 82% listened to music, 11% to podcasts and 4% to audiobooks. When we introduce the treadmill into the mix, even visual forms of media can be consumed in motion. I grew up watching my mother use the machine while
Running without art
catching up on episodes of “Grey’s Anatomy.” Gyms are littered with televisions blasting sports, news and all the other delights a cable connection can bring. Art, it seems, is a runner’s constant companion. But is that a good thing?
When evaluating the “performance” of your run — measured by pace, mostly — findings lean positively toward staying plugged in. A 2020 study showed that listening to preferred music over a short period increased speed against a similar no-music trial. Another from 2015 showed
positive results when participants listened to “motivational songs.”
However, the results rely on a bit of a limiting framework. Is speed all that we should consider when evaluating the “quality” of a run?
Those in the anti-running-withmusic camp claim that the extra stimulus detracts from enjoying the run itself. The distraction is exactly what it sounds like — a distraction. It acts as a way to pull you away from your movement, your breathing and yes, the constant struggle and pain that comes with running. If you consume art while
The Michigan Daily Crossword
running, are you really giving it the respect it deserves? When I run, I exclusively use a playlist of well-worn songs. I know that if something new comes into the mix, I won’t be able to give it the attention it needs. The proof that humans are bad at multitasking is overwhelming, meaning that during physical activity, we constantly switch between comprehending whatever we’re listening to and telling our muscles to push ourselves forward. Especially during long distances, runners tend to zone out to get through some of the strain they put on their bodies — any narrative piping into their ears just isn’t going to register. This brings me to my jog: I’m training for the Ann Arbor Marathon Relay with some of my fellow arts writers, so I planned to go about four miles — about 45 minutes at my tortoise-level pace. For me, that’s a long time to be without mindless stimulation, let alone with the ever-present reminders that my feet hurt, my legs hurt, my shoulders hurt, my lungs hurt, I’m thirsty, I’m tired and I want to go home. That’s what I was so nervous about: In my head, running without something to take my mind off — you know, running — was analogous to getting a cavity filled without numbing cream. What was I going to focus on other than the physical effort?
On a technicality, I am a Disney adult. I love “The Aristocats.” It is my favorite movie of all time. There’s just something about the softness of its lines and colors, its permeating Parisian aesthetic and its feel-good familial story that tugs at my heartstrings. To be fair, so do most other animated Disney movies, which is why I talk about them so often and stay up to date with new releases. I also adore the Star Wars franchise and follow Marvel films with good regularity. Naturally, the D23 Expo was an event very much on my radar. After scrolling through a 22-part TikTok slideshow of the upcoming titles, I was ecstatic. Seeing videos of “Zootopia 2,” “Incredibles 3” and “Toy Story 5” teasers, I began to experience critical levels of FOMO. When I looked up ticket prices for a trip of my own in two years, I shared my plan with my equally Disney-enthused partner, who only had one question: “Why?” Why, indeed. Why do I want to go to what is ultimately a corporate event for a company I have no stock in? Ultimately, I want a first look at what will be a child’s first film — a film that will become the theme of their seventh birthday party, influence how their room is decorated or the image on their brand-new lunch bag. It’s a glimpse of a life-altering work. Then I looked once more at the list of “noun + integer greater than one” upcoming titles and wondered what “brand new content” was actually being revealed, if any.
Once you walk past the shadows of the larger-than-life intellectual properties getting even grander through sequels, threequels and the like, you’ll see the new ground being broken by the three new projects: “Elio,” a children’s sci-fi adventure; “Hoppers,” another girl-turnsinto-animal-hijinks flick and “Win or Lose,” the first Pixar TV show. As a matter of fact, all three major nonadaptation works are by Pixar. Walt Disney Animation Studios unveiled no nonadaptation works at D23; every single announcement was a reboot or continuation of existing works by the Disney brand. While understandable in instances like announcements of new TV seasons or works in the Star Wars and Marvel universes (where building off previous material is a base necessity), there were no new solo Disney movies announced. None!
off in the distance
Do something
Flight paths
Swaddled ones
Taylor Swift's ___ Tour
Hypothetical technology achieving human-level capabilities, for short
Ferretlike carnivore
Pearl Jam lyricist
Animated character
As well
Branch
Hit the slopes
"... ___ it me?"
Lululemon alternative
Alice In Chains lead
British blockheads
Coast
Done for
Nannies and billies
"Ready or not, here ____!"
Wanderer
Secluded valley
Mason
Shrinking Asian lake
Certain Monopoly token
Stylish 44. Egypt's capital 45. Lend a hand
46. H.S. junior's exam 47. Self-referential 48. Small bills
49. Sea, in Saint-Tropez
50. "Dancing With the Stars" network
51. Steamed bun
53. Roswell sighting
Am I happy my dear friend Stitch (Chris Sanders, “The Croods”) from “Lilo and Stitch” is here? Sure! But if I wanted to see him so bad, I could just watch his original film again and call it a day. My nostalgia doesn’t demand a CGI render of him to feel content, though you can bet it will push me to buy a collectible soda cup when I go see the remake opening night.
As I said, I am a Disney adult and still actively find joy and entertainment in this content to this day, but I can only keep drinking the readaptation swill for so long. There hasn’t been a Disney princess announcement since 2019, but I guess you can maim people as Elastigirl when gaming now!
I am experiencing a new phenomenon called franchise fatigue: I am tired of seeing the same stories told through the same characters over and over again. As mentioned, I will be there when the “Lilo and Stitch” remake drops, but I have avoided the new “The Lion King” and have no interest in Mufasa’s
upcoming prequel. I enjoy superhero stories, so I’ll probably be there for the new “Incredibles” but not enough to go to theaters. I’ll just wait a few months and watch it on Disney+ during a slow day, and I might get to “Toy Story 5” (eventually) in the same manner if the spirit moves me. I never even saw “Freaky Friday,” so there’s no hype there, and now I’m basically at the end of the list. As mentioned, I love “The Aristocats.” It’s a beautifully animated and orchestrated film that touches my soul in the deepest way imaginable and is only racist for about three minutes in the middle of its most memorable song, using a Siamese cat as an anti-Asian punchline. Recently, another animal-centric traditionally animated film that is similarly beautiful and also utilizes Siamese cats in a song for an anti-Asian punchline, “The Lady and the Tramp,” received a live-action remake. I enjoyed it quite a bit; the dogs were on model for the original film and it got me to relive a story I had mostly forgotten about from my childhood (minus those three minutes). It was a fine film. It also made me realize I unequivocally do not want a remake of “The Aristocats.” I do not want to see Duchess’s (Eva Gabor, “The Rescuers”) lifeless real-life, cataccurate eyes gaze into Thomas O’Malley’s (Phil Harris, “The Jungle Book”) unmoving face under the Paris moon as three scrunched-up, unemotive kitten faces watch on from a distance. I do not want to finally be able to buy the Duchess plushie my heart longs for only for it to look like a realistic feline with white scleras instead of blue. I have many times tried to draw Duchess, my favorite character of all time. I have many times failed. Like “The Aristocats,” all movies from Disney’s Bronze Age were made with physical cells and scanning technology that often left light traces of sketches and similar linework in the final product, giving it a “scratchy,” many-lined look (think “Robin Hood” and “The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh,” for example). I find it near-impossible to recreate the shifting pencil markings on paper. This movement is so cozy and comforting, harboring a subtle charm lacking in the modern, computer-assisted animation of today. It is also something that would be completely gone when an animal actor replaced the original character. There is something lost with every new installment and remake — through technological change or new storylines or marketable additions to new media, nothing’s going to be as good as what came before it. The charm of a children’s film as a child, whether it be a tangible difference or simply the effect of watching through a kid’s eyes, cannot be recreated. And that’s OK. That’s why — instead of trying to capture the same lightning for the quintupleth time — branching out to something new is the way forward. A child going to theaters to see a Disney movie announced at this year’s D23 needs to do homework to enjoy the film because nothing upcoming exists as a standalone property. That should not be the case. I don’t think I can quench my creative thirst with the dregs that remain from the juice of a concluded franchise. Regardless, that is not our main issue. The deeper problem is that there’s a new generation of children growing up without films that are truly their own; “Toy Story 5” might be a children’s film, but requiring a 3-year-old
54. Berkeley school, on scoreboards ReadmoreatMichiganDaily.com
Courtesy of Cecilia Ledezma
31. Pub orders
Sports figures
Author’s note: The title of this piece is a direct reference to Karim Kattan’s piece, entitled “At the Threshold of Humanity”, wherein he says “Gaza is not an abstraction.”
A few months ago, I was flyering for the TAHRIR Coalition’s Divest, Don’t Arrest campaign in the Chemistry Building. After a few hours of flyering I’d pretty much memorized my script and gotten used to the awkward avoidance of eye contact and fast walks of passersby as they tried to avoid my, “Do you have a minute to talk about the Divest, Don’t Arrest campaign?” Near the end of my shift someone stopped by, and I started with my usual line: “Have you heard of the DDA campaign?” Upon an affirmation of interest, I described the campaign to him, and the University’s history of arresting pro-Palestinian protestors. I showed him a zine put together by the TAHRIR
Coalition, which highlights the University’s direct investment in Israel — including but not limited to the investment in research and development of spyware, drones and weapons technology. I explained all the different ways he could get involved, but ultimately he told me that he wasn’t really interested and how he didn’t want to get involved in something that had nothing to do with him and that that was unfortunate for “those people” but he had his own problems to deal with. More than just his actual words, what struck me was his apathy. I forgot my script; all I wanted to say to him was, “Why?” Not just why, but “How?” Why don’t you care?
How can you not care? At the same time, it felt less like a simple question but more like a “How can I convince you to care?” What could I say that I haven’t already said?
Convincing this stranger in the middle of the Chemistry
Building to care about an active, ongoing genocide — one of the most documented in history — by Israel against the Palestinian people became tantamount to
Palestine is not an abstraction Summer camp
convincing the whole world. I thought that if I could just figure out what to say and change his mind, then I’d have unlocked the key to overturning the apathy I saw in everyone else.
As Students Allied for Freedom and Equality (SAFE) set up their encampment on the Diag in the beginning of May, my last few weeks as a junior at the University of Michigan were distinctly characterized by the apathy people around me had towards the Palestinian cause.
Seeing people taking graduation photos on the steps of Hatcher Library, their cameras angled in such a way to conveniently crop out the encampment a mere few feet behind them, left me feeling upset for reasons I couldn’t articulate. While I wanted to join them in their earned celebration of graduation and accomplishment, it unsettled me to see how people could be so close and yet just skirt by and gingerly avoid acknowledging both the encampment and what it stood for; for them, it seemed, the encampment was simply an inconvenient issue of pictorial composition. All
I could think about was how most universities in Gaza have been destroyed by the Israeli Occupation Force in the past year, with the United Nations quoting billions in damage to the education system. Of how Nada Almadhoun, a medical school senior at Al-Azhar Medical School in Gaza, wrote : “Graduation year turned out to feel like an amputation of our aspirations.”
—
Despite what I desperately want to believe, it often seems to me that apathy prevails as the guiding political world view for the average University of Michigan student. Year after year, beyond just DDA flyering in March or the encampment in May, engagement in student activism for Palestine on campus in all its forms — whether it be a protest or petition — is consistently limited by the fact that some people just don’t seem to care.
While I want to pathologize and rationalize reasons why (discomfort, ignorance, the list goes on), my naivete has limits: It’s clear to me why some people don’t care. Like Karim Kattan
describes in his essay, “On the Threshold of Humanity,” “Gaza is an abstraction, a space designed for the violent death of an abstract people inhabiting it.” Gaza, and Palestine, and subsequently the Palestinian people, lack a materiality or tangibility in the minds of these passersby. What remains is an abstraction, one that they, consciously or otherwise, do not deem worthy of their labor, emotional or literal. For them, Palestine is a place far away, inhabited not by people like them but by statistics that don’t have anything to do with them. For them, the genocide is not quite a genocide, but rather, like Kattan describes once being told, a vague and amorphous “current situation.”
This, of course, couldn’t be further from the truth: The liberation of Palestine from oppression, apartheid and colonialism concerns all of humanity, regardless of who you are. Care, or lack thereof, for Palestinians and their liberation is a mirror of our own humanity, or lack thereof. Our daily lives are intertwined with those of Palestinians in tangible ways
that surpass the metaphorical or abstract. From our tax dollars to our tuition to the University’s endowment fund all actively being invested into the genocide, we are already involved with and benefitting from the destruction of Palestine, whether we choose to be or not. As such, doing nothing and remaining steadfast in apathy isn’t neutrality; it’s a stance in and of itself. There is no neutrality in the face of genocide and apartheid. All neutrality serves to do is normalize the inherently abnormal — the injustice and violence by Israel against the Palestinian people — as normal. The point isn’t guilt or hopelessness. It’s understanding that actively disrupting and dismantling these normalized structures, and ultimately working toward joining the movement for the liberation of Palestine, is thus a responsibility that concerns all of us.
Letter 1: Just like Summer Camp.
It’s my first week alone. Papi told me that college is like a summer camp, and it feels like it. My hallmates and I are always out, never sleeping before midnight. Going to places I didn’t even know were on campus — like Markley and Baits. We used to sit right by the wind tunnel for the soft breeze. Greeting people
I only knew by name, but they always ask me, “Wait, where are you really from?” I guess they’re just interested! I’ve never been to summer camp, but if this is it, I’m happy to know I found where I should be so quickly.
Letter 5: Nobody Saw Me Crying. I’ve been studying so much that I started crying. We’re not even at the halfway mark and suddenly I have no time for anything. No one has ever seen me cry before. What should I do? What if I’m not meant for this?
Why am I even crying? I’ll just go back to my room. My roommate has their friend over. I can’t even mutter a word. I sit on the stairs. My eyes are bloodshot red; I can’t even recognize the footsteps walking past me. No one I know, I hope. But no one asked me if I was okay. No one should even know.
Letter 12: The Sun Sets Before I Can Call Mami. Mami is a talker, she is a caller. She doesn’t know the sun vanishes at 5 p.m. I usually sit by the window, telling her what
I see, what I did today. She says she’s proud, only a few more months. By the time she calls, I am missing from the sky. I’ve already passed the horizon. Nothing can get me out of this hole I’ve created. I’ve lost touch with the reality of summer camp.
Letter 27: I Am Designing Three Shows Simultaneously. The only way to keep myself awake is by working. I don’t know how I have this much time. I’m taking 18 credits, working three studios and three student productions. I keep saying yes.
Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes is my cry for help. And no one knows. Everyone applauds me but my name tag is always spelled wrong. I don’t even know who I am anymore. LED screens and electronic keypads become my voice. Letter 36: The W inter Never Left. My sister told me to get help. I’ve been on hold for months. Why find help when I am pumping out so much work — this is the most I’ve done in my life. An email came in, “This seems Urgent, Let’s meet tomorrow.” I forgot I even sent an email to a therapist. I agree to meet. I find myself curled up in a ball in a room that isn’t mine — not like any of this is supposed to be mine. “I’m
AYA SHARABI MiC Managing Editor
NAOMI RODRIGUEZ MiC Columnist
Courtesy of Aya Sharabi
See no evil: Regulate AIgenerated images for Michigan
TOM MUHA Opinion Columnist
Last month, former President Trump posted an image of pop star Taylor Swift holding a sign that says “Taylor Wants You To Vote for Donald Trump” on the social media site Truth Social. Swift, who endorsed Biden in 2020, made no such statement; the photo was made by artificial intelligence. Although this post generated criticism from political commentators and the public, AI-generated images continue to be posted by politicians and partisans alike, depicting anything from Kamala Harris delivering a speech at a Communist Party rally to Trump riding a lion like a horse. While some of the examples seem so nonsensical that they are easily clocked as fake, images like that of Swift demonstrate the ways that AI images can be weaponized. The use of AI to generate false political images is a dangerous political strategy which necessitates regulation.
When politicians and their supporters post AI-generated images on social media, they spread disinformation for all to see. This disinformation becomes especially harmful when its impact is seen during a historically impactful election year. AI-generated images have the potential to be very destructive to both campaigns, as they are both turning toward heavily-online campaign strategies. Both campaigns are using social media to gain crucial support, particularly via strategic outreach to young voters — a demographic that dominates social media and appreciates the innovation of AI at a higher rate than older generations. An issue is encountered when there is a continued dispersal of AI-generated images and their use in a political nature.
Although political candidates’ use of AI-generated images is relatively new, the images themselves are not. The origins of AI-generated images date back to
the 1960s, when they were used to display the capabilities of early computers. This is still true, as the hyper realistic AI-images we have today are a testament to the advancement of computers. In some cases, these computer-generated images are hardly decipherable from real images.
As AI-generated images — like those posted by politicians and their supporters — continue to improve in quality, it becomes more difficult for viewers to determine if an image is real or AI-generated without using external tools, like AI-image detectors. It is this very concern that should motivate state and federal lawmakers to enact laws that regulate the use of AI-generated images. These regulations should target specific AI-generated images that look to directly influence elections and are used to directly mimic a realistic event and deceive its viewers. Just like fair use laws, these regulations shouldn’t apply to AI-generated images that are used to parody some part of the candidate as long as it is a distinguishable parody.
Although using regulation to police online posts can seem to violate the freedom of speech guaranteed by the First Amendment, regulation of AI-generated political content is given a legal basis by laws enacted by the state legislatures of Alabama and Colorado. Alabama’s regulation specifically aims to stop the use of AI-generated content that a reasonable person can confuse for a real image. However, Alabama’s law relies heavily on the court to determine what a reasonable viewer believes. If given enough leeway, the law could end in overregulation or no regulation at all, with both outcomes leading to potential abuse.
While achieving federal regulation is a grandiose aspiration, it isn’t the quickest path to getting AI regulated at the local level. Michigan’s state legislature can pass its own regulations in a faster, more resolute manner. Its lawmakers can
avoid the potential limitations of a federal law and guarantee that even those unassociated with a campaign would still face repercussions for the use of AI-generated content for political means. These more local regulations can also be written to protect those who use AI-generated images for personal activity and parody from those who intend to use it in a harmful, deceiving manner. Starting from the bottom of the legislative chain and moving to the top could be the most effective strategy in controlling the issue of political AI-generated images. Voters should not take AI-generated content for political use lightly. Campaigns aim AI-generated images at impressionable voters, and advancements in AI could make this task even easier. Events and endorsements influence how one will vote, so an AI-generated endorsement by a favorite pop singer could just change the results of an election. Although no distinct regulations exist in most states right now, staying vigilant and warning others of AI-generated images in politics can make a difference. Taking a few extra seconds to look over an image can help distinguish fact from fiction.
At this point in time, it is important to note that while many states have put forward a bill in their state legislature to begin regulating AI-generated images, Michigan is not one of them. The prospect of getting a bill introduced and enacted in the Michigan state legislature before the election are essentially zero, but pushing for regulation now can help guarantee that future elections are free from the growing influence of AI-generated images. It is even more important to encourage your representatives and senators to pass these same regulations on a national level, as not all states will pass the same protections as others. A federal law can guarantee uniformity in policy and protection of this country’s electoral integrity.
Of the many websites and apps that dot the digital landscape, few are as notorious as X, formerly known as Twitter. The app — which has only grown in infamy since Elon Musk acquired it — has built a reputation of being a vicious and angry place, where chronically online individuals express themselves without the accountability of in-person discourse. Mix this with increasingly high political tensions and a tight upcoming election, and you have a recipe for disaster. If social media users want to remain sane, smart and open-minded, it’s time they axe X. After being introduced to the world as Twitter, the app has not only grown to become a social media behemoth but also a big influence in the political media industry. Competing with TV news heavyweights has become easy for X, as the platform’s large number of users makes reaching large swaths of people quick and efficient.
However, X’s community culture — as well as users’ broad capabilities to post whatever they
want — means that the distinctions between credible and unreliable sources are more murky than ever. Unlike traditional political media, in which few select verified sources are broadcast to the public, X allows anyone to post, share and like content, regardless of their journalistic credibility or integrity. This means that the quality of the news is less consistent, and it’s more difficult for users to distinguish between news, satire, opinion and misinformation.
Some would argue this is a good thing. Social media apps allow their diverse user bases to report on a story from a multitude of different points of view, meaning that underrepresented viewpoints become more visible than they were in the time of traditional media. Understanding diverse perspectives helps make people more open-minded and aware of the ways in which people might disagree on a variety of issues.
However, any chance at making users more open-minded and informed is instantly crushed by the app’s sharp and sophisticated algorithm.
X’s algorithm essentially trains itself to recognize posts that a user may find interesting based on their previous likes, posts and
From The Daily: CSG, pass the budget
THE MICHIGAN DAILY EDITORIAL BOARD
It’s been an unusual several months for Central Student Government. In March, the SHUT IT DOWN party ran on the platform of halting all CSG operations until the University of Michigan divests from companies profiting off Israel’s military campaign in Gaza. They subsequently won both the presidency and vice presidency in the spring election, although they narrowly fell short of a majority in the Student Assembly.
Since then, CSG President Alifa Chowdhury has made good on her party’s promise of disruption. She has vetoed the body’s spring, summer and, as of this past Thursday, fall budgets. As it stands, the vote to override the fall budget veto will take place this Tuesday and if it doesn’t pass, CSG will essentially be nonfunctional. Students deserve, and need, more from their student government.
CSG operates using student funds. The money for the budget comes from a mandatory $11.19 fee included in students’ tuition each semester. In the past, this has been a worthwhile investment. CSG, being composed of students, is well-suited to identify and remedy the concerns faced by its constituents.
Many of the campus programs students have come to love — the low-cost AirBus shuttles to and from the airport, special events that make freshmen feel at home and the invaluable funding for student organizations — all come from CSG money and efforts. With the budget now in limbo, all of these programs are unrealizable.
Upward of $600,000 in CSG fees was collected this semester, which student groups can’t access until the current impasse is resolved. AntiSHUT IT DOWN members of CSG leadership seeking a temporary solution asked the University to step in to meet the funding need. The University agreed to meet the request, blunting the most severe consequences of SHUT IT
DOWN’s victory, but the situation is not ideal for campus.
In an interview with The Michigan Daily, Mario Thaqi, speaker of the 14th CSG Assembly, explained the trade-off.
“We’re weighing two separate things here,” Thaqi said. “We’re weighing our sovereignty as a government, and then we’re weighing the needs of the students.”
In order to meet those needs, Thaqi and aligned members of the Assembly — none of whom are members of SHUT IT DOWN — chose to give up some of the government’s autonomy in exchange for temporary funding. Given the circumstances, this was a good decision. The long-term consequences of a defanged CSG, however, won’t be good.
When the CSG is functioning, students have the power to solve their own problems. When students felt the cost of New York Times subscriptions and Airbus rides weigh on them, students voted to allocate money to subsidize them. When students felt campus community wane, students voted to host events to unify it. And, when students determined that our campus would be more vibrant if student organizations had more funding, students voted to fund them.
Now that CSG is shut down, that power belongs to the University, an entity that — as evidenced by the recent changes to the Statement of Student Rights and Responsibilities — doesn’t always have student interests at heart.
The circumstances which forced student legislators to seek aid from the University were created entirely by SHUT IT DOWN. Its candidates won the executive and veto authority of the most powerful advocacy body on campus and decided to bring its operations to a halt. They call this plan disruption, but this Editorial Board thinks that “dereliction” is a more accurate description.
The party used real and meaningful pro-Palestine sentiment to coast to the highest student office on campus and has done nothing to advance that movement. The resolutions, ballot measures and polling initiatives that allowed students to make their priorities and voices clear to the administration are gone. Before SHUT IT DOWN, students had few avenues beyond the University Board of Regents to make decisions for campus and to make themselves heard. Now they have none. The party is penalizing students for an issue they have no control over. Yes, it’s opposing the administration, but it’s also opposing the large portion of the student body who benefits from CSG programs and funding — a group it should be trying to win over to its side.
This Editorial Board has, in the past, been critical of CSG’s role on campus. We’ve questioned its effectiveness and the impact of its decisions. But, after witnessing the catastrophic consequences of SHUT IT DOWN’s victory, we have come to the conclusion that CSG’s role in the lives of students is indispensable. The dilemma surrounding the budget has shown the key role that CSG plays in campus life — a role that must be preserved.
Students need a functioning student government, and right now, they don’t have one. As Thaqi said, “We don’t have a government if we don’t have a budget.” The upcoming CSG elections in November are a chance for the student body to reclaim its voice and restore the organization’s ability to act effectively. With interim seats on the ballot and on-the-fence assembly members in office, U-M students need to vote this fall to preserve an Assembly majority that fulfills the integral duties of CSG. And for the assembly members voting on Tuesday: Pass the budget.
This Editorial Board chose not to endorse SHUT IT DOWN in the March election. Even then, we feared that their plan, or lack thereof, was unrealistic and counterproductive to the overall wellbeing of campus and also to the very policy goals they aim to achieve.
interactions — creating a tailormade experience for every user. This means that, instead of seeing different sources from unique perspectives, users see more content that aligns with their values and less content that they would not engage with, such as posts that they might disagree with or find upsetting.
X’s algorithm encourages polarization within its user base by presenting users with biased, one-sided information that they are more likely to agree with, rather than showing them content with perspectives that they
might not like. This leads X users to spend more time in an echo chamber of political sameness and less time opening up to unique perspectives and different ideas. In any democracy, open discourse is important, and the polarization of opinions presented by X’s algorithm jeopardizes that. While almost every social media platform uses algorithmic mechanisms, X falls victim to these pitfalls at a greater, more destructive rate — significantly contributing to the decline of both personal relationships and political development.
The organization of X also cultivates the site’s hostile environment, rejecting dissenters and encouraging a mob mentality. This is the antithesis of democracy, where the free trade of ideas is imperative for growth.
X’s isolationist algorithm is only partly responsible for the app’s devolution into a political aberration. Musk’s purchase of the tech giant in 2022 led to a sudden and intense shift in its mission. With the acquisition, Musk fired 80% of Twitter’s staff and ordered a dramatic change in the platform’s content policy. These changes were made with the hopes of turning the app into a “digital town square,” where content would generally be unmoderated and unregulated. However, the Tesla CEO has never been shy about his political opinions, and many believe that they have compromised Musk’s aspirations for neutrality.
In fact, his changes to the app’s content policy have instead helped turn the app into a sanctuary for far-right individuals. This has made the app more divided than ever before. In an attempt to create a depiction of the public’s genuine consciousness, Musk has created a site where hate speech
and inflammatory content has run rampant. The app’s abundance of unregulated hate and misinformation is further exacerbated by new artificial intelligence abilities that can forge images, videos and audio in mere seconds. These artificial forms of media are getting increasingly more realistic and harder to discern from real news.
X’s new AI, Grok-2, serves as a direct competitor to ChatGPT and is arguably more sophisticated in its ability to render hyperrealistic images based on user prompts. The system also has little to no regulation and can render anything regardless of copyright infringement or content sensitivity. Between an algorithm that stifles true debate and a policy that fails to crack down on hate speech and AI content, X has become a site inadequately suited for meaningful political dialogue. With a highly-competitive -election on the horizon and political tensions at unsettling highs, users should put X away. Instead, voters should talk to people outside their
KEITH MELONG/Daily
Design by Matthew Prock
While most University of Michigan students spent the final days of August preparing for Welcome Week and the beginning of fall semester, I spent my time preparing to live in Germany for the coming year. Studying abroad has been a goal of mine since applying to college, and junior year felt like the perfect time to experience another part of the world. But from the time I first set my plans in motion, persistent reminders of the things I’d miss out on have kept me somewhat apprehensive. In spending the academic year elsewhere, I’d have to give up a whole year of football games, parties, club meetings, outings in Ann Arbor and, most importantly, time with my friends.
“Study abroad FOMO,” a feeling emerging from an overlap of preemptive homesickness and the fear of missing out, is something most students will have to wrestle with when they consider studying abroad. Studying abroad is often an exciting prospect, promising new environments, experiences and relationships. But as exciting as study abroad can be, it can be daunting to consider what you’re leaving behind. Will there be an overload of academic stress when you get back? Are there leadership or job opportunities on campus that you can’t find in another country? Will you be able to stay in contact with your closest friends?
These questions and the reasoning that accompanies
Something changes in you when you start your junior year of college. It’s hard to pinpoint when it started or where it originated, but you can feel it. There’s a tinge of anxiety and restlessness seeping into conversations with friends, in your classrooms and on your social media timelines. If you’re a newly-minted upperclassman like myself, you might know what I’m talking about. Though we only said our goodbyes to sophomore year four months ago, the transition to the second half of college has left many third-years feeling strange and desperate to hold onto youth while reeling from the fast approach of postgrad life. It seems as if we have a midcollege crisis on our hands.
I would describe the midcollege crisis as a sudden and heightened shift in mood or behavior caused by the transition to junior year. But this definition is only based on my personal experience, so I interviewed a half dozen third-years to corroborate my observations.
With much of our lives still ahead of us, I recognize that it sounds ironic to say that a bunch of 20-somethings are undergoing a crisis of lost youth. However, that irony is more a product of societal expectations than anything else; college has been glamorized as the “end goal” for young people, often lauded as “the best four years of our lives.”
This idealization is great for underclassmen looking to embrace the newness of college and discover what university life has to offer, and for seniors who are reminded to enjoy their final year as the “heads” of campus. But as LSA junior Sohum Pavaskar puts it, the motto is a stark reminder that the clock is ticking and time is halfway up.
“Junior year, for many, is the transition from youth to actual adulthood,” Pavaskar said in an interview with The Daily.
Our temporal culture is built around milestones, so it’s no surprise that juniors might feel uncomfortable when sandwiched between getting into college and getting a job. Entering college opens you up to a world of possibilities — new
Overcoming study abroad FOMO
them are well-intentioned, but aimless. As the traditional college experience is limited to just four years, no one can have it all. Choosing to tudy abroad for a semester, or even a year, will always involve trade-offs. Accepting this fact does not make this dilemma any easier, though.
FOMO often comes with an understandably negative connotation. It’s a nagging feeling that you’re out of the loop or not living your life to its fullest potential. At its worst, FOMO contributes to a feeling of being left out even when you have
little control over your situation. However, at its best, FOMO can be the motivating factor that challenges you to take on exciting and new opportunities in spite of what you’re missing out on. Here’s the thing: When it comes to studying abroad and FOMO, you’re most likely going to feel it no matter what you choose. If you leave campus and study elsewhere, you’re going to miss the things that make your home university special. If you don’t, you might spend that extra time at home dwelling on what you’re missing abroad.
Ultimately, Ann Arbor, which comprises the majority of your college career, will still be there when you return home — the possibility of studying abroad might not be. When you can and want to, opt for the unique opportunity of studying abroad over another year at your home institution.
Of course, it’s not like making the decision with intention causes study abroad FOMO to evaporate completely. While I was confident in my decision far in advance of leaving for Germany, I still found myself questioning my choice and
getting lost in anticipatory homesickness. At a certain point, I realized this was anxiety getting in the way. The prospect of living in a foreign country, improving my language skills and meeting new people was exciting, of course, but it was also nerve wracking. Instead of looking forward to my approaching adventure, I would get to thinking about what I’d miss at home and why it maybe wouldn’t be so bad to stay in the United States.
I’ve since found that dealing with study abroad FOMO requires a balance of excitement
Making sense of the midcollege crisis
friends and experiences, clubs and organizations to join, an array of classes to take — but the novelty of these opportunities does not wear off when you’re an upperclassman. If anything, you realize just how much is available to you in college and must reflect on what you failed to take advantage of in your first two years.
The hope is that in the second half of college, upperclassmen can look forward to their fair share of opportunities that await them in the professional world of jobs, internships and postgraduate life. Yet, data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics has shown that it’s gotten significantly harder for college graduates to find a job. So, with juniors facing a dwindling college experience and a bleak postgrad reality, can you really blame them for not feeling completely OK?
It’s difficult to imagine that anyone could deny the precarious situation facing third-years.
Of course, it’s not just thirdyears struggling; every student, regardless of their year, has to fight against the transformational nature of challenge and college itself.
Music, Theatre & Dance junior Claire Marquardt believes that the college environment is largely responsible for this.
“Most students face a crisis at some point in their college career, not necessarily always during the junior year,” Marquardt said.
“It’s just because of how different everything is and definitely because of not being at home with your family.”
College is a period of immense change and growth, so it’s natural for uncertainty and stress to take their toll. But to dismiss the midcollege crisis as just another typical college struggle overlooks the unusual feeling of becoming a college upperclassman. LSA junior Alyssa Fan echoes this same philosophy.
“While it felt totally normal to have an open mindset in freshman and sophomore year,” Fan said. “I can’t help but feel a huge shift in my outlook on life.”
When college is no longer something you’re looking forward to, but rather something you’re looking back on, your whole perspective shifts. Your outlook on yourself and your life is no longer just about youth or stress
— it’s about your future and what
and acceptance. For those considering a study abroad program or already preparing to travel, think about the things you’d get excited about at your destination. That might mean visiting art museums and nearby scenic areas, or maybe joining clubs and taking part in activities in your new temporary home. What’s more: Think of all the people you’ll meet who could become — in addition to your friends at home — part of your close circle.
At the same time, students expecting to go abroad can take measures to appreciate the things they’ll miss before they depart. Spend extra time with your friends and make plans for how you’ll stay in touch. Visit your favorite places. Get a bite at your favorite restaurant. It may not make leaving home as simple as you’d want it to be, but taking it all in can make farewells that much easier.
Those interested in studying abroad shouldn’t hesitate to, at the very least, look further into programs that strike their interest. The Center for Global and Intercultural Study and Global Michigan are just a couple options where interested U-M students can explore and find more information. Furthermore, those with a program already in their cards shouldn’t let inklings of study abroad FOMO discourage them. With the University’s role status as a national leader in students studying abroad, you’re far from the only person leaving Ann Arbor for a semester or two. Take in what you’ll miss and look forward to the new things you’ll encounter — the football games and sticky frat floors will still be there when you get back to your home campus.
you’ll contribute to the world around you.
This is a little dramatic, I know. But if you compare a midcollege crisis to a midlife crisis, the weight of it becomes a little more believable. Someone facing a midlife crisis is forced to confront their own mortality and the fact that their lives are half over. They might make rash decisions or alter their behavior in an attempt to cling onto the fleeting remnants of their youth.
In a similar manner, students facing a midcollege crisis are forced to confront the fact that their undergraduate experience is half over. They might change study areas or friend groups to make up for lost time or, in extreme instances, completely alter their campus identity. What sets the junior class apart from their fellow college students is an incessant need to change, to feel youthful and to ensure that their college experience is complete. With one hand grasping the blossoms of youth and the other reaching out to fullfledged adulthood, juniors face a choice: become consumed by the midcollege crisis and let it rule over the next two years, or embrace the fact that college is finite. The hard truth is that college won’t last forever and it isn’t
meant to. It’s a sandbox for us to play in, where we can build up great sandcastles with our hands and slam them down just the same. By coming to terms with this fact, you can devote your time as an undergraduate to doing as many meaningful activities as you possibly can or. Business junior Tom Cavanaugh puts this change of heart one specific way:
“Make hay while the sun is shining.”
Yes, your time in college slowly fades away, and it can be hard to let go of something that is so impactful but also so limited. But the fact that college is going to end is inevitable. So, if we allow ourselves to seek enjoyment in the finite nature of college, to feel content with our accomplishments and revel in the happy moments, we can overcome the midcollege crisis and everything associated with it.
Now is there a way to erase the midcollege crisis entirely from the college experience? Probably not, according to Engineering junior Jack Woods.
“It may just be a part of this whole growing up thing,” Woods said. The unrest that comes with aging is a weight that we all must carry and the midcollege crisis is just one time where that weight increases.
The solution, in Pavaskar’s eyes, is acceptance: “Accepting that time is always moving, and while it does suck that things come to an end, the future always
holds so much and is so exciting. It’s a mindset shift, to enjoy the present and the few years we have in college, but to
AUDRA WOEHLE Opinion Columnist
Design by Natasha Eliya
MAX FELDMAN Opinion Columnist
Design by Michelle Peng
KATIE LYNCH Statement Columnist
For a couple of years now, I’ve had this dream of putting a real, upright piano in my college bedroom. It’s an image beautiful for its eccentricity more so than its practicality; real pianos are not typically associated with bedrooms, let alone ones with chipping lead paint and chipmunks in the walls. Even so, I hold this daydream close to me like a necklace, twirling it in my fingers once in a while, letting myself relish in the ever-sweet sensations of “what if.”
I played piano for more than a decade as a child, but fell out of it toward the end of high school, to my great regret, as the reality of busy schedules and finite time set in. I loved playing and the idea of becoming better, but I just couldn’t seem to make these values click when it came to prioritizing my practice schedule. Ever since then, I’ve been itching to begin playing again. When I go home for the holidays, I’ll sometimes pick it back up for a bit, always trying (and never succeeding) to work my way through the “A Charlie Brown Christmas” sheet music. During my freshman year, I spent some time playing in the practice room of my dorm, but after suffering a humiliating loss in an after-hours piano duel (which I did not initiate), I lost gusto for a while. Other than these few, interstitial moments, a consistent relationship between the piano and me continues to feel ever so slightly out of reach.
Growing up, my family had an old upright gifted to us from a friend of a friend. It lives by the stairs to the second floor of our house and whenever I’d be passing by on my way up to my bedroom, I would often stop to play for a moment or two. Sometimes, my parents would come and sit on the chair next to the piano to watch me play, which made me oddly nervous and embarrassed of my mistakes; but, looking back on those years, I’ve realized that those occasions filled me with a deep sense of love and happiness. It was the best possible environment a young pianist could have asked for. I had the freedom to play whenever I wanted to, and my parents were clear that they loved to hear my wellrehearsed pieces and discordant practice sessions alike. I miss the habit of playing all the time, born of muscle memory and the sheer magnetism that existed between me and the piano in those days. I miss just being in such close proximity to a piano. Out of these memories and all of the things that I miss about
IAN JOO Statement Columnist
Like so many other freshmen, my first real exposure to the University of Michigan experience was the U-M student Snapchat story — a shared social media feed anyone with a U-M email could view and post on. Anxious about meeting new people, I posted my class schedule and residence hall placement (East Quad, forever the best residence hall), hoping to make new friends before I even arrived at the University.
I quickly gained and talked to several new Snapchat friends, mainly ones who also had the pleasure of living in East Quad. In particular, I argued with one girl over Taylor Swift’s albums (who doesn’t like 1989?!). I was confident that I would be able to create deeper connections with these same people once the school year actually started. However, I never actually ended up physically meeting any of the people I talked to on Snapchat. Despite so many of them living in the same residence hall as me, I never encountered or recognized them. However, I quickly forgot about these connections. Still, during the first few weeks of college, I scrolled through the story daily. There, I found several posts from students detailing their experiences with orientation, their dorms and the food. From my feed, I learned that Markley had roaches,
STATEMENT
What’s so bad about dreaming big?
piano with such tenderness, I began to envision recreating this environment in the home where I live now. This is what my dream looks like when I play it out in my mind: I move my dresser somewhere else, anywhere else — and, against that wall, a beautiful upright piano, walnut or oak, would sit. It juts out awkwardly, but I don’t mind at all. The lid of the bench lifts up, and inside I keep the sheet music I’m not using. The crinkled and overly annotated pages I am using stay resting precariously on the ledge above the keys, a perpetual reminder of all the things I have to learn and all the music I want to play. When I come home after class, I throw my backpack to the side, run to the piano gleefully like a kid to a playground and start playing to my heart’s content. Nobody gets tired of hearing me practice, too. All of my choppy arpeggios, missed notes and repeated measures are felt only as a gentle ripple through the air of the house my roommates and I share. In my dream, not only is the piano in my bedroom and not only do I practice as often as I should, but I can also take comfort in knowing that the noise I create can be messy; the pressure for perfection, a feeling that playing in a public space can often create, is alleviated.
To the great surprise of any 18th-century pianist, it is not difficult to find a free piano these days. I see them all the time at garage sales and on Facebook Marketplace, but the catch (because there is always a catch) is that you’d have to transport it yourself. Pianos, even free ones, are heavy and can be expensive to move if you’re using a professional service. So, even in the face of great opportunity (free pianos around every corner), my dream stops here. I could opt for a keyboard instead, but there’s just something so romantic about a real wooden piano — eternally dingy, always a little bit out of tune. With the help of several strong and patient friends, I know I could find a way to move a piano into my bedroom, but the rosy-lensed perspective is shattered when I start to imagine myself dragging a wooden piano on skateboards down the uneven sidewalks of Ann Arbor. And I’m busier now than I was in high school; realistically, I don’t know where I’d find the time in my schedule to practice piano consistently like I want to.
So why do I indulge in this dream at all when, in my head, I know how it’s going to end? Just as there is no such thing as a free lunch, as the idiom proclaims, there are no truly
free pianos either, and their hidden cost is just high enough to keep me from trying to obtain one. But the idea that something as decadent as a real, wooden piano is relatively accessible continues to enthrall me.
More than I really truly care about having a piano in my bedroom, I am in love with this idea that there legitimately are (semi)free pianos all around us. It’s a beautiful metaphor for the dreamscapes that exist in everyday life, if nothing else.
I’ve always had a tendency to romanticize first and consider reality after. I’m a gullible person, a sucker for wild dreams and grand promises who would rather choose to believe in something than to default toward distrust. It can be a frustrating way to live because when you’re constantly aspiring to the best case scenario or to the idea that literally anything is possible, you are inevitably setting yourself up for frequent failure. Even so, I continue to feel that it would be a rejection of myself to not opt towards optimistic first impressions. People who are inherently skeptical of grandiose dreams are probably saved a lot of heartache, but I’ve never felt myself to be one of them.
After nearly two decades of living this way, I’ve felt reality come crashing down enough
times to know it’s there, but still I insist on these idealistic dreams of mine: the “live in a cabin on the side of a mountain and write for a living” dream, the “thru hike the Appalachian Trail by myself” dream, the “live in a commune with all of my closest friends and family” dream and, of course, the “find a free upright piano and give it a home in my college bedroom” dream. Sometimes these feel like unrealistic and starry-eyed aspirations to hold, but that’s only when I consider them in the context of my life as it is now. How could I, or anyone else, be one to say with definitive clarity that these grand, storybook ideas might not fit into the life I end up living 15 years from now?
I don’t believe thinking and dreaming should be limited within the scope of practicality, and I don’t think I’m naive for having this perspective either. Practicality should be reserved for questions like “how much money can I afford to spend at the grocery store today?” and not “what are some fulfilling ways that I could spend part of my life?”
My unrealistic dreams sustain me in ways that my normal, smaller, responsible goals aren’t always able to. There is so much power in having something abstract to yearn for. It keeps you grounded in what you
What’s the point of Michigan’s Snapchat story?
that crazy preachers were common on campus and that math here was almost impossible to go through. As the year went on, however, the story began to lose its relevance. After all, I had already found my friends, mapped out the campus geography and learned about campus life in general. What was the point of the story?
There was nothing worthwhile in it anymore; it now almost exclusively consisted of students attempting to sell their overpriced football tickets. I continued to mindlessly scroll through it between bouts of studying for finals and was rather disappointed by the lack of unique content. However, this summer, something finally caught my eye. Someone had posted several selfies on the story. Alongside these selfies were several outlandish, usually self-congratulatory statements. One post proudly claimed, “Mother Nature has granted me two things, dastardly good looks and the heavy weight on my shoulders to save the human species.” Another boasted, “I go the extra mile in fashion just like my academic works.” Still, one more stated, “Many people ask (me) … ‘Why do you dress so seductively?’.”
Alongside these were several other political posts expressing support for leftist policies and candidates.
All of these posts were created by one user. These posts soon went viral on both X and Instagram. As ridiculous as they were, I couldn’t help but excitedly wait for his next post. The posts were an odd but
funny relief from the usual routine content on the story — I knew I needed to meet their creator.
LSA junior Damien Baldwin, the man behind these posts, is a recent transfer to the University. Baldwin describes his posts as a form of venting.
“A lot of my posts deal maybe not directly, but in large part, with a lot of socioeconomic, political factors that are happening in the United States,” Baldwin said. “And it’s more so a method for me to communicate and be authentic with other people. That’s a big thing for me: authentic human connections.”
Baldwin stated that the tone of his posts were inspired by political shows, most notably “Secular Talk” and “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart,” which he grew up watching. However, he noted that he was more left-wing than those political commentators.
“I’m at least deeply inspired by the methods they use and the format that they presented,” Baldwin said.
Like both shows, Baldwin evidently wanted to reach a more grounded, working-class audience, and he found Snapchat to be the perfect platform to do so. After all, what other venue reaches almost all U-M students?
When asked about his more outrageous posts, Baldwin said that his content was “30% truth, 70% exaggeration.”
He explained, “(The exaggerations were) getting people to interact, respond. And you know, some people say ‘rage bait.’ I don’t
really like that word. But yeah, that’s definitely a big reason why it blew up.”
Still, he added that his political views were 100% genuine.
LSA junior Noah Gulli also achieved fame on the Snapchat story in the months leading up to the fall semester of my freshman year. He posted several videos of himself walking through the campus at midnight, sometimes trekking as far as Bursley to Alice Lloyd. However, Gulli disagrees with Baldwin’s approach to the Snapchat story, believing that his posts are too political and too frequent.
Despite their differences, I actually found that Gulli and Baldwin held similar opinions on the Snapchat story. For one, they both thought the type of content on the platform should shift.
Gulli believes that the story should be used to promote clubs and events for students. He recalled that he had only found out about the yearly snowball fight because of his Snapchat feed.
“I kind of liked having celebrities on there, where you could look forward to something, or maybe like a daily meme page. If somebody gave a new story and you had something like that, or maybe like contests, or I don’t know, something to make me look forward to looking through it,” said Gulli
I found myself agreeing with both Baldwin and Gulli; the Snapchat story seems like massive wasted potential. Used well, the platform has more reach than even
advertising on the Diag. Right now, however, it’s cluttered by advertisements for football tickets.
I’m surprised by how few clubs advertise their events there, but maybe that’s for the best: We’ve already seen what advertising for football tickets has turned the story into.
Even if you don’t like Baldwin or Gulli’s posts, you can’t deny that they stand out. Both realized that the Snapchat story could be something more, and their genuinely creative usage of the platform made them campus celebrities. I want more of these posts — something that makes me look forward to scrolling through my Snapchat feed. The Snapchat story should look less like eBay and more like the Diag. Of course, the Diag itself does have some advertising, but it’s always filled with something unique: singers, dancers, crazy preachers (Sister Cindy, anyone?) and protesters. I never get bored walking through it; I shouldn’t get bored scrolling through my Snapchat feed.
Other student-made platforms, such as YikYak and Reddit, are able to cultivate a distinct community despite having a smaller reach than the story. I don’t see why the Snapchat story wouldn’t be able to form a community similar to these.
And, unlike YikYak and Reddit, most Snapchat accounts are not anonymous, allowing people to recognize you in real life.
Still, Baldwin and Gulli found that the Snapchat story was not ideal for making new friends,
love, reminds you of where your values are and holds the essence of the things you most deeply desire. It’s not a deterrent from reality, but rather a form of harnessing into this deeper understanding of what it means to be human — to contain multitudes, to want to experience multitudes. Practical thinking insists that you can only have one life, but letting yourself dream freely gives space to believe that you can live as many as you want. The mirage of an upright piano in my college bedroom is more about the potential of what can be imagined beyond the constraints of space, time and prudence than it is about the piano itself.
I continue to feel excited when I think about possibility unfulfilled, about this dream I once had that connected me anew to an instrument I always cared about deeply. Dreams are kept alive by thinking about them, even if they will probably never come true. The free pianos that are never picked up are memorialized by staying the object of someone’s fantasy even as they are consigned to living in a dusty garage forever. This slight sliver of chance that action can be attached to a daydream is just something I let myself dwell on from time to time to keep my imagination lit.
even though both said they have been recognized several times on campus.
“You have people taking pictures with you and everything on the street,” Baldwin said. “But then at the end of the day, those are not real human connections in any meaningful way…In Snapchat, you’re not gonna find true human connection.”
Though he did go to some parties advertised in the story, Baldwin ultimately decided they weren’t for him. When I asked Gulli if he had met any friends through the story, he answered:
“I wouldn’t say real friends.” The Snapchat story is similar to the Diag in this aspect, too: you may meet someone at the Diag, but you likely won’t get close to them. As previously stated, I didn’t make any true friends from Snapchat. However, I think it’s unfair to blame Snapchat for this; after all, I didn’t make an effort to keep in contact with them. The story, like the Diag, could be a great platform for finding friends, but it’s ultimately up to you to develop that friendship by continuously talking and meeting with them. When I first joined The Statement, I recognized the name of one of my fellow staffers. It turned out she was the girl that had argued with me about Taylor Swift on Snapchat. We recognized each other and recalled our conversation, before wishing each other luck on our articles. Perhaps the Snapchat story did help me make a friend.
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IRENA TUTUNARI Statement Columnist
There is one type of question my long-distance boyfriend knows not to ask me unless he wants my breakfast to creep up my throat and deliver a cheeky “how do you do?” Does this stop him from asking it and having a chuckle at my adverse reaction? Unfortunately, I’m not that lucky.
We’ll be having a perfectly innocuous conversation about something far more pleasant, such as the joys of food poisoning or stubbing one’s toe, and all of a sudden, he’ll whip out the dreaded question.
“So … what are your plans for the weekend?”
Eggs over-easy, coming right up.
I deadpan “Why do you hate me” or “Get a hobby” or “For the love of God, it’s Thursday,” and he laughs an evil laugh while I instruct the contents of my tummy to stay in there!
Last week, after thoroughly disturbing my inner peace, he snorted and said, “You know, Irena, some people are afraid of spiders, but I could hold a calendar on a stick and it would be wraps for you.” I barked a wry laugh and told him where he could shove it, but I realized that he just might have a point (though they are few and far between).
I’ll be the first to concede that no, I am not a planner; this isn’t a revelation that knocks my socks off. My first instinct when someone tries to engage me in conversation about the future is to knock on wood and say, “If I’m alive, that is!” like I’m someone’s senile grandfather deeply breathing in the last morsels of life. And I firmly believe that, as my mom would instruct me growing up, “You make plans, God sits and laughs on your face.”
I suspect that she’s added her own Eastern European flair to that colloquialism, but the meaning still resonates just the same.
I find making plans for a future
I can scarcely conceive in my mind is as useful as watering a fake plant. It’s a waste of time, a waste of energy and a waste of my social battery. Let’s play this out; what if
PAIGE WILSON Statement Columnist
I was lounging on a brown leather loveseat on a Wednesday afternoon last April. The sun beat through the window onto my head, warming my hair and fooling me into thinking that maybe the spring chill had finally turned to a warm summer breeze. I finished the latest row of the scarf I was knitting and poured myself another cup of maple walnut tea — soon to be my favorite. I didn’t touch my phone. It was nearly dead, and I was saving the last of its juice so I wouldn’t have to walk home in silence. I kind of just stared out the window. I was at Tea Haus, an Ann Arbor tea shop I had previously vowed to avoid due to their laptop-free policy. I had initially scoffed at the policy in annoyance; it was hindering my productivity. But I had been craving an afternoon tea and some alone time, so I made the trek to Kerrytown anyway. My bag felt unsettlingly light, as I hadn’t even brought my laptop along — a rarity for me these days. Though I anticipated having some separation anxiety from my electronics, I felt oddly at peace — like I was living in the real world for the first time in a while. I could hear the clinks of teacups clink, shuffle of playing cards, laughter and the scrape of chairs against the floor. It was then that I decided to end my vendetta against laptop-free cafes. After the pandemic, my to-do list saw an exhausting influx of drab virtual tasks. By then, I was sick of doing work in my bedroom, so I took up residence in my local cafe. It was there that I did my homework, wrote stories, addressed thank you cards, took a mandated drivers
Don’t ask me my plans!
I say to my boyfriend, “Certainly, I’d be happy to tell you of my weekend social engagements!” and they don’t pan out? I can yammer on till the cows come home about the house party I’m thinking of attending on Friday night, and the tailgating I’m likely engaging in on Saturday afternoon and the run I’m going on with my friend on Sunday, but come on: What if I decide I’m not ecstatic about going out on a Friday night prior to game day? What if the house party gets canceled or, to put it a little more bluntly and a little less nicely, what if something better comes along and I want to keep my options open? What if, on Sunday morning, my leg muscles shrivel up due to excessive tailgating and I’ve lost the ability to move beyond a glacial pace? (This is in fact what I plan on telling my friend on Sunday morning.)
Any number of things could go awry that I have no control over and no ability to predict ahead of time, so I see zero point in talking about a made-up potential reality. Making plans often leads to creating expectations, and when those expectations aren’t met, it feels like I’m setting myself up for failure. I’d hate to be presumptuous about a future that I have little present control over —one that’s, frankly, not even guaranteed.
This phenomenon is officially known as a “locus of control.” In essence, the way people perceive control over their own lives can range from an external locus of control, which is the belief that one’s future is controlled by external forces and factors rather than oneself, or an internal locus of control, which is the belief that control of one’s future rests solely in the individual’s actions. I’ll let you guess which school of thought I clearly align with.
Due to the firm belief that my future is not wholly in my control and is instead subject to the unpredictable currents of the universe, I make plans spur of the moment. I make all major decisions via my trusty decision maker app. I can’t even tell you what I’m having for dinner tonight, let alone what I’m doing this weekend, and I’m late to everything barring my own funeral, which I also apparently seem to think is right around the
corner. And man, if I had a nickel for every time someone looked at my planning habits and said to me, “Irena, you stress me out,” I’d be making major bank. Some call it spontaneity (which makes me feel very cool and carefree), but really, it’s more like feeling assured that I’ll end up happy without wrestling with the universe for control of my future.
Would I say this is an issue for me going about my day-today life? Not really. Despite my inability to write things down, I get all of my assignments done by their deadlines, I get good marks and I’m meeting all of my present career goals without strapping myself down to a five-year plan. I feel like in college, specifically, there’s so much pressure to base your current actions on what you want to be doing in five years (what an arbitrary number, right?); but, the way I see it, if I know what I’m passionate about and I continue to pursue the things I’m passionate about, I will inevitably be happy either way.
I take my life step by step and do what makes me happy in the moment — and if I keep doing that, won’t that mean that I’ll always be happy? At least until I retire (knock on wood) and realize that, damn, I should’ve looked into that Roth IRA situation all those years ago. Some may say that I, perhaps, navigate life with an instant gratification mindset, through which I select habits and activities that make me happy in the moment without basing my actions on future rewards or consequences, otherwise known as delayed gratification. But I don’t think that’s it. It’s not that I don’t care about the future, it’s more so that I don’t take it as a given and refuse to torture myself today for the potential of a tomorrow that may never come. Morbid, I know, but I like to think that this mindset keeps me grounded in the present and limits the time I spend biting my nails and losing sleep over the future.
Entering a long-distance
relationship, however, has made my seat-of-my-pants lifestyle a bit more risky than usual. My wagon is now hitched to someone else’s, and I am constantly facing the pressure of making decisions, establishing plans and giving concrete answers — my three least favorite things after doing laundry. And it doesn’t help that my boyfriend is a major planner. On Aug. 31, he asked me what I was doing during the weekend of Oct. 5. I nearly spit out my beverage of choice and chastised him for asking me such a blasphemous thing. We are, by all intents and purposes, polar opposites and prefer to live in vastly different ways.
I’m still figuring out how to be half of a pair; my boyfriend described me as someone who goes where the wind blows me, but I can’t really do that anymore, can I? He tells me sometimes that he gets nervous because he doesn’t know what to expect from me a week from now. And all I can tell him is,
“Yeah, I don’t know either.”
He didn’t seem to know if that
Leave your laptop at the door
training course after my speeding ticket and completed countless crossword puzzles. Usually, my best friends sat beside me doing tasks of their own. There’s something to be said about this sort of parallel play: Cafes became my designated place to get work done while still feeling the support and comfort of a social group. It felt far less isolating than staring at my computer alone — like I’d finally escaped a sort of solitary confinement and emerged into a fantasy world of bubbly voices and the sharp scent of espresso, muted only by the call of my to-do list. My computer felt like a prerequisite to join that world: a price to pay for enjoying the space. By the time I ventured to Tea Haus, I’d entirely forgotten what it was like to do something purely for enjoyment rather than productivity. I began to suggest these laptop-free locations for catch-ups with friends, and games of chess with my sister. Still, I wasn’t sure where I stood on the whole “no laptops” rule. Was I destined once again to complete all my online work in the barren solitude of my home? To remain in the claustrophobic confines of the uninspiring Hatcher Graduate Library stacks? To what extent did I need to separate my work from my social life?
Conflicted and intrigued, I talked to some Ann Arbor business owners that employed these policies. Jim Saborio, the owner of Comet Coffee, summed things up perfectly.
“There are work cafes, and there are social cafes,” Saborio said. “And I wanted (Comet) to be a social cafe.”
At Comet, all but a few window seats have signs that kindly ask customers to keep the space laptopfree, leaving the majority of their tables open for people to enjoy each other’s (or their own) company without the distraction of a screen.
“My first job in coffee was when I was 18 years old in 1992,” Saborio said. “I’ve always loved cafes and the sort of microcommunity they create.”
Saborio went on to tell me about an experience that pushed him to reevaluate the modern cafe climate.
“Sometime in 2015, my wife and I went (to a local cafe) and we sat down and had tea,” he said. “And the place was so full of people working on laptops and wearing headphones that we didn’t really feel comfortable having a conversation.”
As I thought about Saborio’s story of the uncomfortably quiet cafe, I realized just how right he was. Just a few months prior, I had gone to a cafe with a friend and felt pressured to move to an obscure corner of the room so we didn’t disturb a slew of students working quietly. There’s nothing wrong with working in public, but it seems we’ve lost a degree of separation between our places to socialize and our places to lock in and get things done.
Cafes — at least before the rise of such transportable tech — were once the perfect model of a third place. A third place (or third space) is a space that isn’t work nor home, but a location where people can gather and socialize as a separate activity. It strives to exist as a refuge from the potential stressors of the workplace or home life. Other examples include public parks, libraries, gardens and bars. In fact, dare I say that pubs, short for “public houses,” were sort of the original third place. Dating back to 15th-century England, these taverns were meant to offer a place to eat, drink, socialize and even sleep. Though many of us are probably glad not to live in 15th-century England, perhaps we shouldn’t scrap their idea of community building entirely.
Lisa McDonald, a trained tea
sommelier and owner of Tea Haus, seeks to maintain the intention of third places by asking that customers don’t bring computers into her shop at all, not even offering public Wi-Fi.
“I think that prior to COVID, the third space was a social environment,” McDonald said. “And then during COVID and postCOVID, that third space just was an extension of work, and I didn’t want that.”
McDonald explained that her kids were young when she opened Tea Haus, and she knew she wanted them to spend plenty of time in the shop with her.
“My kids have spent the majority of their lives here,” she said.
“Knowing that going in, I wanted to make sure that the community was important.”
McDonald noticed the effect that the pandemic had on the community both inside and outside of cafes. She told me that maintaining that environment for her kids was a major motivator in instituting her laptop-free policy.
“I have very outgoing kids and (during the pandemic) I saw them kind of retreat into being online for school, online for clubs, online for everything,” she explained. “So I was like, ‘OK, this is ridiculous.’ I think we need to reconnect by completely disconnecting.”
I found myself agreeing wholeheartedly. Although I loved to do work alongside my friends, that type of interaction (or lack thereof) began to encroach on a space that was meant for more conversation.
It became routine that when I met a friend at the cafe, we would arrive with our computers as if we had some kind of visceral ache for productivity. The boundaries between work and social time began to blur and suddenly there was
always a computer screen mediating the conversation. It almost began to feel embarrassingly vulnerable to stare into a friend’s eyes as they spoke to me over coffee, with no electronic shield to hide behind. I suddenly realized I wanted out of that vicious cycle. I’ve decided that my initial resistance to these laptop-free policies is the very reason they’re so important. In an age where productivity feels paramount, most of us need a little push to spend some time away from our work, nurturing our relationships while we converse
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was a good thing or a bad thing. Yeah, I don’t know either. My lifestyle makes me happy and keeps me on my toes in the best way, but my boyfriend is more flat footed; he likes to be certain that he’s standing on a solid foundation before he’s too generous with his heart. So while his need to have a grasp on the future frightens me and often incites a speedy subject change, I know that I’m with someone who’s carving a path for me to be in his life not just for the foreseeable future, but for the unfathomable and unimaginable future.
So maybe I can do the same for him and keep him posted on my Oct. 5 social engagements, whatever they may be. Maybe instead of briskly changing the subject when he asks me about my weekend, I can squeeze a stress ball and offer a rough blueprint. Maybe I can save him a seat in my future, and allow him to be the one thing I plan for. But I guess we’ll tune in and find out next week, won’t we?
over our favorite drinks. People like Saborio and McDonald are giving us that nudge. By no means am I making an argument against study dates and homework sessions — there is certainly a place for both work and play. But I’ve come to realize that those places shouldn’t necessarily be the same. As we each continue the never-ending battle of balancing our work and social lives, I encourage you to stop fighting for a second. Go get a cup of your favorite beverage. And maybe, instead of a laptop, just bring a friend.
From chasing his school bus to chasing opponents, how Kenneth Grant became Michigan’s resident freak
REKHA LEONARD Managing Sports Editor
Kenneth Grant was about to miss the elementary school bus. He called his mom, Ewana, in a panic, but she was already miles away from their home in Northern Indiana on her way to work in Chicago. She wasn’t about to let him stay home alone all day, so she made it very clear that he had to book it.
“I said, ‘Hang this phone up. You better catch that bus before it goes out of this subdivision, and you better be on the bus,’ ” Ewana told The Michigan Daily.
With no other options, Kenneth took off. He ran as fast as his legs could take him, and at the last minute, just as the bus was turning out of his subdivision, he caught it. He made it to school without incurring his mom’s wrath, and he probably thought little else of his early-morning sprint at the time.
Ten years later, the now-junior defensive lineman remembers that run clearly.
That was the day the freak realized his speed.
The transition from second to third grade was a big one for Kenneth. It wasn’t just because he learned cursive or his times tables. It was the year he realized he was big. Suddenly, he was taller than all of his classmates. He noticed it, and so did everyone else. When he started playing football around age 8 or 9, he was certainly under the 250-pound weight limit, but others took note of his physical stature and weren’t so sure.
“Every game, the parents were like, ‘That’s a grown man. Did we weigh him in? Where’s his birth certificate?’ ” Ewana said. “So he’s been getting that since like 8 or 9 when he first started.”
Kenneth used his size to his advantage on the football field, but he didn’t let it pigeon hole him into one discipline. He was a year-round athlete, competing in basketball in the winter and track and field in the spring, in addition to fall football.
In high school, Kenneth made a name for himself in shot put.
To this day, he’s a top-10 shot put thrower in Merrillville High School history. His personal record of 60 feet ranks second at Merrillville in the 12-pound shot put.
“To throw shot put, that’s a strength and power thing,”
Michigan strength and conditioning coach Justin Tress told The Michigan Daily. “You’re throwing the shot put, and the power and explosiveness you have to display through your lower body and then in the upper body with rotational movement. So it’s just pure strength and power, which relates right to exactly what he does on the football field as a defensive tackle.”
Kenneth’s strength was just as plain to see watching him throw the shot put as it was on the high school football field. Doing a bit of everything in his senior season, he played on both the offensive and defensive lines as well as special teams. On defense, he racked up 38 tackles, 6.5 sacks and 12 quarterback hurries.
His numbers, his size and his strength all caught the attention of Michigan coaches during Kenneth’s recruitment. But looking at his hulking frame, they had some concerns as well.
“A guy at his frame and size, body composition is initially the issue, so lean mass versus fat mass” Tress said. “For obvious reasons, the less fat mass, the better. So added body weight makes everything just slightly more challenging, whether it’s running, whether it’s your conditioning, whether it’s your stamina, all those things. So the expectations are for someone of his size to struggle.”
Former Michigan running backs coach Mike Hart led recruitment for Kenneth’s area, and when he visited Merrillville after Kenneth had committed to the Wolverines, he was hesitant. Hart noted Kenneth’s size and told him he better be training to pass Michigan’s conditioning test. In Hart’s view, Kenneth was nowhere near ready.
“It seemed like he was dead serious,” Kenneth told The Michigan Daily. “It kind of rubbed me the wrong way, so I was like, I’m gonna make sure I prove him wrong. It’s just all the competitive nature in me trying to prove people wrong.”
Tress’s first impression of Kenneth was the same as pretty much everyone else’s: He was really big. Weighing over 350 pounds when he first arrived at Michigan, Kenneth really was a specimen. But in his baseline evaluation, he proved that he could move, too.
Still, no one necessarily expected Kenneth to pass his conditioning test right away. Senior defensive
linemen who had been building up endurance at Michigan for years routinely struggled with it. But Kenneth wanted to silence the doubters.
“(I want to be) able to do everything that smaller people are able to do,” Kenneth said. “The smaller guys are more athletic I guess you could say, but just challenging myself to fit in that category as well. It’s always about competition in my eyes. I always try to challenge myself to do what people say is impossible.”
A mere month after he arrived on campus, Kenneth passed his conditioning test — introducing Michigan to the freak. In Beaver Stadium on Nov. 11, all eyes were on Penn State running back Kaytron Allen as he broke through a hole. Allen had yards of open field stretching out ahead of him all the way to the end zone. The Wolverines scrambled to pursue him, and one in particular found an angle and raced ahead of the pack.
Finally, the Wolverine in question caught up to Allen, tackling him at the 40-yard and saving a likely touchdown in the process.
It was 340-pound Kenneth Grant. His chasedown went viral, drawing national attention and shooting him up NFL Draft boards. The same discourse that had surrounded Kenneth his entire life — ‘How can such a big guy move so well?’ — became a national conversation. Those familiar with his abilities, though, saw it coming.
“It was awesome to see, but it wasn’t surprising to us because he displays that in a training environment,” Tress said. “What I was proud of is, out of all things abilitywise, that’s purely his effort and his mindset to have to go redirect, retrace and chase down that running back. That’s more so than his ability. His ability allowed him to do it. His effort is what made him do it.”
Just like Kenneth chased down his school bus some 10 years earlier, in Happy Valley he chased down a player who weighed 120 pounds less than him. He put the same unselfish effort into both endeavors because catching the bus and making it to school was important to his mom, and tackling Allen was important to his team.
Kenneth has never relied on his physical gifts by themselves. On his highlight play alone, he used his size and strength to shed his block, his football IQ to determine the right angle and his endurance to stick with the play. Spectators saw a big man tearing down the field, but the play garnered so much attention because people saw Kenneth’s effort accentuating his physical gifts.
“Given his size, his strength, his speed, his quickness, his ability to change direction, the effort that he displays, I’d say (he’s) a freak,” Tress said. “It’s freaky to be able to do that and to do that consistently.”
At Penn State last fall, the whole country finally got to see the freak. Seeing Kenneth hurtle down the field at full speed can be a scary sight. As he chased Allen, for example, Kenneth was focused, pumping his arms and locking in on his target. But once he made the tackle, he simply stood up, calmly disentangled himself from Allen and walked away. At one moment, he was the picture of aggression, and the next, he was back to his normal, mild-mannered self.
“He’s a gentle giant,” Ewana said. “I’ve always said that you would think his personality would be a little more aggressive, but he’s such a teddy bear. That’s what I love about him.” Kenneth is big, strong and fast. He fittingly came in at No. 3 on Bruce Feldman’s CFB Freaks list ahead of the 2024 season. He’s been lauded as part of the best interior defensive line duo in the country paired with fellow junior Mason Graham. He also smiles as he speaks and shuffles his feet when he walks. He’s never the loudest in the room. He leads by example and takes younger members of his team under his wing. From a young age, Kenneth realized he was already big, so he worked to become fast and strong. He was driven to disprove preconceived notions about his abilities, and he didn’t let his size tell the whole story. Now, the effort he put in to develop his natural gifts has turned him into the freak who battles for Michigan each and every Saturday.
Davis Warren benched after 3-pick day against Arkansas State
NOAH KINGSLEY Managing Sports Editor
Davis Warren didn’t throw an incomplete pass on Saturday.
The senior quarterback went 11-for-14 for 122 yards, and the No. 17 Michigan football team comfortably beat Arkansas State, 28-18. The only problem for Warren was that the three passes not caught by Wolverines receivers were three brutal interceptions — each one worse than the last. After his third pick, Warren was benched for junior quarterback Alex Orji, reopening a quarterback controversy that Michigan had hoped it already put to rest.
“At the end of the day, they just got to take care of the football,” Wolverines coach Sherrone Moore said. “We can’t have those turnovers. We take a lot of pride
in making sure we don’t do that. Usually, when we take care of the football, we win.”
While Warren can’t alone be blamed for all three interceptions, he didn’t help matters on any of them.
On his first pick of the day, Warren and senior running back Donovan Edwards had a miscommunication on a playaction call. Warren attempted to hand the ball off to his left as Edwards stepped to his right. Then, Edwards missed his blocking assignment, collapsing the pocket in on Warren. Warren panicked and tried to force the ball to junior tight end Colston Loveland, where it was easily picked off by the Red Wolves. “I messed up on his first pick, and I told him that,” Edwards said. “I let him know in the locker room and on the field. It was a different look that they had brought, and we didn’t — it was
basically all on me. I should have just went backside, took my man … It’s nothing on Dave, that’s a mistake that’s on me.”
Edwards wanted to take all the blame for himself, but Warren still failed to handle the added pressure effectively. His panicked throw resulted in a pick and gave Arkansas State an instant red-zone opportunity.
A similar situation occurred on Warren’s second interception, when a missed block by sophomore right tackle Evan Link forced Warren to rush his progressions. Warren stepped up in the pocket to get the ball out quickly, but between the pressure and his arm getting brushed as he threw, his pass ended up in Red Wolves hands once again, nowhere near any of his receivers. And while external factors helped cause Warren’s first two picks, the last one was entirely
on his poor decision making. More than halfway through the third quarter, Warren stepped up in the pocket to throw once more. He attempted to force the ball to sophomore wideout Semaj Morgan, but he sailed it three yards over Morgan’s head, again directly into the arms of a waiting Arkansas State defender.
There were no possible excuses this time — Warren made a poor decision, and he executed his choice even worse.
“I’ve never played quarterback, but I can probably assume that if you get hit, it’s going to affect your throw,” Moore said. “… That’s why he stayed in the game. But just, the last one was an (errant) throw, so, had to make a change.”
Orji wasn’t perfect when he came in, but he threw one more touchdown and three less interceptions than Warren did. And despite the fact that Warren
has 12 times as many passing attempts as Orji does this season, both players have two touchdown passes. Warren’s completion percentage is higher — 67% compared to 50% — but Saturday served as another example of his inability to take care of the football, with six picks in just three games.
Moore didn’t share anything about who will start at quarterback for Michigan in the future, saying that it’ll be decided in practice, as it has been all along. But with his three interceptions, and subsequent benching, Warren reopened the door to the starting job — one that he had previously shut.
Kalel Mullings runs with new opportunities in career day against Arkansas State
To the tune of 153 yards and two touchdowns, graduate running back Kalel Mullings bulldozed the Arkansas State defense on Saturday. He made defenders miss left and right, creating space and imposing his will. Through 60 minutes, the Red Wolves proved no match for Mullings. It was during his postgame press conference that he ran into some pushback — and it was from his own teammate.
Reflecting on his growth and development heading into this season, Mullings mentioned expanding upon what he did last year and learning from his mistakes. Senior running back Donovan Edwards disagreed.
“You had no mistakes, though,” Edwards interjected.
“Last year?” Mullings clarified with a chuckle. “Nah, there was some stuff left on the field.” Edwards pushed back one more time, smiling as he said that players can be too picky about themselves, before Mullings explained that he’s always looking for ways to get better. This offseason espe-
cially, he was working to continuously improve his game. Regardless of whether he made any mistakes last year, Mullings has now emerged as one of Michigan’s biggest offensive weapons. That was especially apparent in the 17th-ranked Wolverines’ win over Arkansas State, an afternoon that turned into a career day for Mullings.
Late in the first quarter, Mullings scored Michigan’s first rushing touchdown of the season with a physical 30-yard run. Following an impressive block by graduate wide receiver C.J. Charleston, Mullings slipped a tackle near
the line of scrimmage and turned on the jets. He outpaced the Red Wolves’ remaining few defenders to find paydirt, putting the Wolverines on the board and reinvigorating the run game.
That was Mullings’ first of three 30-plus-yard runs on 15 total carries. He consistently broke or bounced off tackles, running through defenders and embodying the ‘smash’ mentality that Michigan prides itself on. His 38-yard rush in the fourth quarter stands as the Wolverines’ longest play from scrimmage this season. “Everyone out there was doing their jobs, and it was just able to
click really well,” Mullings said. “I’m just just proud of everybody and excited for next week.”
Mullings’ second touchdown came toward the end of the second quarter, set up by another of his long runs that brought Michigan to the five-yard line. Mullings ran straight up the middle for the score, helped by a big block from senior offensive lineman Giovanni El-Hadi. By the final whistle, Mullings had set four personal careerhighs — total carries, yards, touchdowns and 30-plus-yard rushes — powering the Wolverines to a run-heavy victory. And
while Saturday was the first day Mullings recorded those types of numbers, Michigan coach Sherrone Moore wasn’t surprised.
“I think he averaged like six yards a carry last year,” Moore said. “So it doesn’t surprise me (that) he’s running the way he is. He just needed all the opportunities. But when you got Blake Corum, it’s a little different. He’s handled it very well.”
So when it comes to Mullings’ development, Moore and Edwards are in the same boat — he’s always been a good player, but now he’s getting the chance to show it.
LYS GOLDMAN Daily Sports Editor
Emily Alberts/DAILY
Ellie Vice/DAILY
MICHIGAN 28 | ARKANSAS STATE 18
Michigan beats the Red Wolves, returning to rushing identity amid passing game struggles
As the No. 17 Michigan football team ran out onto the field on Saturday to face Arkansas State, for the first time in a year and a half, it was coming off of a loss. In a 31-12 drubbing last Saturday, the Wolverines were outmatched, outworked and outclassed by a confident No. 2 Texas.
In that game, a litany of missteps and mistakes on all sides of the ball contributed to the Wolverines’ downfall. But this Monday, as Michigan coach Sherrone Moore took to the podium in Schembechler Hall, his message was clear: The Wolverines had gotten away from their run-first identity against the Longhorns, and it wouldn’t happen again.
Against Arkansas State (2-1), Moore made good on that promise. Combining for over 300 yards, Michigan’s (2-1) rushing game stole the show. Lead backs
Kalel Mullings and Donovan Edwards piloted Michigan to a 28-18 victory, despite a lackluster passing offense that saw senior quarterback Davis Warren benched.
“The biggest thing that we talked about, (that) we stressed was running the football,” Moore said. “We had 44 attempts for 301 yards, so I’d say that was pretty successful. … We’ve got to take care of the football number one. And then be able to run the football like we have been — that made me happy.”
From the Wolverines’ first drive, it was clear that the contest would not be a repeat of the Texas game. Instead of forcing throws, Moore was content to ram the ball at the Red Wolves with Edwards and Mullings — over and over again. And eventually, Arkansas State’s defense broke as Mullings darted right on a rush, broke two tackles, and emphatically punched the ball into the end zone with a 30-yard touchdown to open the scoring.
The Wolverines’ defense held
firm, but on Michigan’s second drive, it proved exactly why a rushing identity was its only option. On his third dropback, Warren panicked under pressure and launched an ugly ball directly to the Red Wolves, setting them up for three points — and that
drive after the interception, finding holes in the defensive line, consistently gaining chunk yardage to move the chains and finally capping off the drive with a touchdown.
But when the Wolverines got the ball back, and for the rest of
Lead backs Kalel Mullings and Donovan Edwards piloted Michigan to a 28-18 victory, despite a lackluster passing offense that saw senior quarterback Davis Warren benched.
turned out not to be an anomaly.
When the Wolverines got the ball back, and for the rest of the game really, their focus was decidedly on the run game. Like Moore had predicted, Michigan needed rushing to be its strength, and Mullings and Edwards delivered.
Edwards highlighted the next
the game really, it was Mullings who starred. Mullings needed only three rushes to push for 42 yards and a touchdown on that next drive, taking Michigan into the half up 21-3 after another Warren pick.
And after the break, it was more of the same. When the Wolverines ran the ball it moved
the chains, scored points and prevented turnovers. When they threw, the offense sputtered.
Late in the third, facing no pressure, Warren badly overthrew his man, and Arkansas State easily picked him off for a third time. Michigan’s defense held strong, forcing a turnover to prevent points. But Warren’s third misstep was enough for Moore to end his afternoon — casting doubt on his status as the starter for the first time this season.
“I mean, you just can’t have them,” Moore said of Warren’s interceptions. “(He) put the ball in harm’s way too many times. So we made a change, and we’ll continue to practice and see where we go from there.”
For the rest of the contest, junior quarterback Alex Orji piloted the Wolverines to some success. But that success was — still — not powered by the passing offense, but by Mullings’ legs.
Throughout the entire contest, Mullings was electric: He broke
off three 30-plus yard runs, amassed a career high 153 yards and did it all averaging 10.2 yards per carry — turning heads and sparking Michigan’s offense while little else worked. Orji too showed his dualthreat capabilities late in the game, running well and even lobbing a touchdown on a short pass to freshman tight end Hogan Hansen to make the score 28-3 Michigan. But the Wolverines’ defense broke late in the fourth quarter, allowing two long touchdown drives that tightened the game to 28-18, where it eventually settled. Michigan had known from the beginning that it needed its rushers to be its identity on Saturday. Moore said as much Monday, and called a game in that style Saturday. And given the reins of the offense as the Wolverines’ passing game looked dreary, Mullings and Edwards delivered a 10-point victory.
WEDNESDAY
RED FLAGS SPORTS
CHARLIE PAPPALARDO Daily Sports Editor
Riley Nieboer & Ellie Vice/DAILY Design by Lys Goldman
