2024-12-04

Michigan beats No. 2 Ohio State for fourth straight year, stunning Buckeyes in Columbus

NOAH KINGSLEY Managing Sports Editor

COLUMBUS — With 45 seconds left in the game, it finally began to settle in. Gone was the pregame expectation that No. 2 Ohio State would finally break its losing streak to the Michigan football team. Gone was the threetouchdown spread favoring the Buckeyes. Gone were the thoughts that the five-loss Wolverines had no chance, particularly with star cornerback Will Johnson and tight end Colston Loveland sidelined. Instead, all that was left was a distraught hush over the Ohio Stadium crowd, a three-point Michigan lead and a swarming Wolverines defense. With a final four-play, 1-yard drive, Michigan’s defense completed its second-half shutout of Ohio State’s high-powered offense. And with some help from graduate running back

Kalel Mullings, the Wolverines (7-5 overall, 5-4 Big Ten) pulled off the miraculous upset, beating rival Ohio State (10-2, 7-2) for the fourth–straight year, 13-10.

“It’s hard to really put into words how much it means to this group,” senior quarterback Davis Warren said. “We talk about it 365 days a year. … This game means everything to us. Things haven’t gone exactly as we wanted them to over the course of the year, but man, just so proud of this group.”

From the moment Michigan’s defense took the field, it showed it could hang with the Buckeyes. Ohio State demonstrated its inability to run the ball from the opening drive. Its air attack, though significantly better, only earned it a field goal. And while the Buckeyes stuffed Mullings on fourth-and-1 to take back over on their own 3-yard line, the Wolverines showed an early ability to move the ball down the field.

Graduate cornerback Aamir Hall wasn’t satisfied with the Wolverines’ failed goal-line

chance, however.

On Ohio State’s third play of the drive, Hall jumped a route on the sideline to pick Howard off, before he took the ball all the way back to the 2-yard line. There, Mullings punched it in two rushes later to give Michigan a 7-3 lead, refusing to be denied again. With some help from special teams in the form of a missed Buckeyes field goal and a 54-yard make by junior kicker Dominic Zvada, Michigan took a touchdown lead up to the twominute mark of the first half. But once Ohio State upped the tempo during its ensuing two-minute drill, it found its only real success in the game. Quarterback Will Howard piloted a smooth nineplay, 75-yard drive, capping it off with a wide-open touchdown pass to wideout Jeremiah Smith to tie the game at 10-10. As the teams entered their respective tunnels, momentum swung in the Buckeyes’ favor. A once-booing crowd began erupting in cheers. But Michigan’s defense refused to let

a little momentum take it out of the game.

Even as Ohio State drove down the field on its second drive of the second half, the Wolverines never broke. Threatening in the red zone with five minutes left in the third quarter, Howard attempted to pick up a first down over the middle of the field, but graduate safety Makari Paige didn’t let him. He lunged forward, intercepted Howard’s pass and handed the ball right back to his offense, the game still tied.

For much of the second half, though, Michigan’s offense did little with the lifelines its defense gave it. Three plays after Paige’s interception, senior quarterback Davis Warren gave the ball, and an instant red zone opportunity, right back to the Buckeyes. When the defense forced Ohio State kicker Jayden Fielding to miss a second field goal, this time from just 34 yards out, the offense still couldn’t break through.

While Warren led a 15-play, 77-yard drive to the 3-yard line, he made one more error. With

freshman tight end Hogan Hansen open in the end zone, he threw the ball too low, allowing defensive end Jack Sawyer to pick it off. Despite their defense’s performance to that point, the Wolverines left the red zone empty-handed again.

“Makari and that whole group, they won us this football game no doubt,” Warren said. “The way that they played against that offense, they did an incredible job. All credit goes to them.”

Again Michigan’s defense forced a three-and-out. And then, Mullings took matters into his own hands, defying gravity to give the Wolverines a first down they so desperately needed.

Tripped up in the backfield at the Buckeyes’ 44-yard line on thirdand-6 with 3:26 left, Mullings somehow managed to stay on his feet and keep his legs churning. He turned a surefire punting situation into a game-breaking 27-yard run, driving Michigan well into Zvada’s range.

“Really just unbelievable, superhuman from Kalel,” Warren

said. “Especially on that third down, being able to shake a guy off and really just want it more. That’s what it came down to.” Zvada then drilled his kick from 21 yards out, leaving Ohio State with just 45 seconds to mount a response. Forty-five seconds of agony among the Buckeyes, 45 seconds of joy about to explode on the Wolverines’ sideline and 45 seconds with all the pregame narratives completely dispelled.

One narrative held up in those final moments, though: Michigan’s defense can wreak havoc. So with a little more pressure and a final hurried Howard incompletion on fourth down, the Wolverines sealed the game. And between that dominant defensive performance and a little magic from Mullings, Michigan went down to Columbus, disproved the expectations and pulled off the biggest upset in the history of The Game.

Lawsuit alleges UMich owes back pay to about 3,600 professors

The lawsuit claims that this debt is owed as a result of the University systematically delaying pay raises

ABIGAIL VANDERMOLEN

A lawsuit filed in the Michigan Court of Claims Tuesday claims the University of Michigan owes back pay to about 3,600 U-M professors after systematically underpaying them by delaying pay raises.

Sociology professor Fatima Müge Göçek filed the lawsuit.

Sommers Schwartz, P.C, the law firm representing Göçek, is seeking class-action status for the lawsuit,

which would represent U-M faculty hired under similar contracts from 2018 to the present. Göçek’s lawyer, Matthew Turner, told The Michigan Daily the lawsuit is important because faculty deserve to be paid what they were promised. “It doesn’t matter if you’re a professor, a lawyer, a journalist, a police officer, or somebody who works at McDonald’s — you’re entitled to get paid what you were promised to be paid,” Turner said. U-M faculty members are employed under a “University Year”

system in which they teach for two academic semesters at a time. They are paid in 12 equal installments from July 1 to June 30. However, when faculty receive a raise, they do not see an increase in pay until September, according to the classaction complaint filed Tuesday, meaning faculty do not receive the promised increase in pay during those two months.

“The bottom line: Faculty appointed on a University Year basis have been systematically underpaid each year they received a salary

increase by the amount equal to the raise of their base pay multiplied by two twelfths,” the complaint states.

The U-M Faculty Senate Assembly passed a resolution in April asking the University to provide back pay for affected employees.

The University agreed to change the payment schedule for affected faculty members beginning July 1, 2025. However, the complaint states that this change did not provide back pay for the current year or previous years.

“Despite acknowledging that it has improperly paid faculty raises for years, Defendant has refused to provide any compensation for underpayment in the current year, or for any years prior,” the complaint reads.

For Göçek, this back pay amount totals $3,643.67 from July 2018 to present. According to Turner, this amount is roughly estimated to be about $2.5 million per year across the whole university. The lawsuit seeks back pay for the previous three years — the maximum

U-M Dearborn faces course cuts, faculty layoffs amid budgetary challenges

allowed under Michigan law — but Turner said the underpayment has been occurring for much longer.

“My insight, really, is that the University just stuck their head in the sand and refused to acknowledge that they had a problem, and nobody was forcing them to come to grips with it until now,” Turner said. University spokesperson Kay Jarvis told The Daily in an email Wednesday that the University has not yet been served with the lawsuit, and declined to comment on the case.

‘These changes will only exacerbate enrollment declines and the quality of instruction for students.’

University of MichiganDearborn students and faculty at the College of Arts, Sciences and Letters will see class size increases, course cuts and section consolidations for the winter 2025 semester, according to a Tuesday morning press release from the Lecturers’ Employers Organization. These cuts have also resulted in layoffs of non-tenure track faculty that are a part of LEO.

Jamie Wraight, LEO chair of U-M Dearborn, heard that the University was looking to cut classes about two weeks ago. In an interview with The Michigan Daily, Wright said this is a common occurrence at the Dearborn campus, but Wright heard the cuts were larger than normal in a meeting with the Department of Language, Culture, and the Arts.

“One of the (sections) actually doubled the course cap, or doubled the enrollment,” Wraight said.

“That’s how most of us began to really hear that this was going to be kind of deeper cuts than what we’re used to seeing this time of year — much deeper, a lot deeper, I think somebody used the word unprecedented — and that it was going to affect more than just one or two disciplines.”

Kirsten Herold, president of the LEO, said these changes demonstrate a lack of investment in the liberal arts.

“This all speaks to a de-emphasis of the liberal arts on the Dearborn campus,” Herold wrote. “Apparently it is no longer important for students to learn

writing, history or political science. It is all very short-sighted. Honors courses have seen course caps raised from 15 to 30 students. Dearborn students and parents chose to enroll based on small class sizes. These changes will only exacerbate enrollment declines and the quality of instruction for students.

U-M Dearborn students started a petition against these administrative change, which

will result in zero change in pay for faculty despite larger class sizes, according to the petition. The petition had received 407 signatures as of Nov. 27.

Wraight emphasized that the changes, which include upperlevel course cancellations in the Philosophy and History Departments and a lower facultyto-student ratio, would affect the quality of the students’ education.

“Not only is it an increase in

workload, but it’s going to have an extremely negative effect on our students,” Wraight said. “Our students have lots of other outside things they have to do. They have family obligations. They have jobs. They’re trying to juggle two or three different things. So say they go ahead, and they’ve signed up for the whole course for next semester. Now, all of a sudden, they find out that (the) course has been canceled, and they’re given

an option of taking the course in another modality or at another time.”

Article 28 of LEO’s contract states that U-M administration cannot make big changes to a faculty member’s workload without fair warning. For a change made during the fall semester, the warning must be given in March, according to the 2021-2024 LEO agreement.

Wraight said LEO has not received

much communication from the administration about these budget cuts, which they attribute to the Thanksgiving break.

“We were working behind the scenes to do as much as we could, but we can’t really get any relief, or we can’t get any answers from the college because nobody’s there, so it’s just been incredibly frustrating,” Wraight said. Wraight said U-M Dearborn has told many faculty members that while they will have more students, the number of courses they teach will remain the same.

“What they have said is that, ‘Yes, you will have more students, but you can now just assign fewer assignments so your workload won’t be changing,’” Wraight said.

Kenneth Kettenbeil, the U-M Dearborn vice chancellor for external relations, wrote in an email to The Daily that the College is working with faculty to address ongoing budgetary challenges.

“The College of Arts, Sciences, and Letters is experiencing challenging financial times, like many liberal arts colleges across the country,” Kettenbeil wrote. “The college is considering a variety of options (some of which are more difficult than others) and all options are taken very seriously due to their potential impact on the livelihoods of our employees and impact on students. Consideration and discussion continues in the college and final decisions have not been made. The administration will work closely with college faculty and staff, in a collaborative manner, to seek input on proposed actions as we all work together to address the budgetary challenges ahead of us.”

Arbor and all the communities in Washtenaw County are a quality destination for travelers of all types.’

communities.

Traveling while disabled can be difficult without access to assistance or inclusively built spaces, and for the more than 2.3 million adults in Michigan who have a disability, the challenges that arise can often discourage them from taking trips. In light of these challenges, online travel agency Wheel the World is dedicated to helping those with disabilities find accessible hotels, attractions and restaurants. Destination Ann Arbor announced that the Ann Arbor area had become “Destination Verified” by Wheel the World in a Nov. 18 press release.

Chad Wiebesick, director of public affairs for Destination Ann Arbor, told The Michigan Daily in an interview that the group chose to work with Wheel the World to support visitors with different types of disabilities.

“We recognized that accessibility was a growing need in the travel industry, and we wanted to make sure that Ann Arbor and all the communities in Washtenaw County are a quality destination for travelers of all types, regardless of

the physical or cognitive or invisible disability that they might have,” Wiebeseick said.

To support Ann Arbor’s goal to become “Destination Verified,” Wheel the World trained members of Disability Network Washtenaw Monroe Livingston, a local disability advocacy and service group, to conduct assessments of local businesses. According to the press release, the evaluation team collected more than 200 data points, including bed heights in hotels and other aspects of accessibility that exceed the requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Wiebesick said many Ann Arbor businesses and University of Michigan attractions already had accommodations for a wide range of disabilities.

“A common misconception is that accessibility is just physical needs, but it also means sensory needs and communication needs, for example,” Wiebesick said.

“The University of Michigan Natural History Museum, they have sensory kits available for people that are on the autism spectrum — same with the Ann Arbor Hands-on Museum. …

Another cool thing that we saw was with the Michigan Theater and State Theatre. They offer

sign language interpretation for people who are deaf or hard of hearing.”

As a “Destination Verified” locale, evaluated businesses in Ann Arbor can sign up to participate in the Wheel the World Academy, a training program that shares the best practices to accommodate visitors with disabilities. In addition, Ann Arbor now appears as a landing page on the Wheel the World website, sharing suggestions for accessible activities to participate in and attractions to visit while in town.

The Ann Arbor initiative was supported by the Pure Michigan Accessible Traveler Grant. The grant utilizes a $1 million portion of the federal funds awarded to Michigan in 2021 from the Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration’s State Travel, Tourism and Outdoor Recreation program Destination Ann Arbor was recommended to receive $57,500 by the application review committee.

In an email to The Daily, Kelly Wolgamott, vice president of Pure Michigan, wrote that the Accessible Traveler Grant was created to support destination marketing organizations in promoting accessibility in their

“The Accessible Travel Grant program utilized funds from the EDA State Travel, Tourism, and Outdoor Recreation grant to support statewide travel destinations in creating a more accessible and inclusive environment in their communities,” Wolgamott wrote.

“The grant provided the added resources to elevate the important work of destination websites (from) meeting the needs of the visually and hearing impaired to conducting community accessibility audits.”

Ann Arbor is the first location in the state to receive the “Destination Verified” status from Wheel the World. Wiebesick said he hopes the initiative will continue to expand across Michigan.

“What we recognize is that this is a journey,” Wiebesick said. “There are next steps as we continue to promote accessibility in our region, and so we’re hoping to expand the number of businesses that are involved in our accessibility initiative. … We hope that ultimately, through this process, we’re encouraging our local businesses to prioritize accessibility.” Wiebesick added that

accessibility resources could also benefit others with mobility challenges or assistance needs, such as families with strollers or the elderly. Pharmacy student Kareem Hussein, vice president of student organization KinectAbility, which supports children with disabilities, told The Daily in an interview that the issue of accessibility should be meaningful to everyone due to the complexity of disabilities.

“It’s very easy to separate yourself from (the disabled community) and think that, ‘Oh, I’m not disabled, so this doesn’t apply to me,’” Hussein said. “But the nature of disabilities is that it can happen to anybody at any point in time. … By creating an accessible and equitable place to live — which I’m happy to say that I think Ann Arbor is, but obviously, it could be better — by doing those kinds of things, we create a better environment for everybody to live and grow.”

Alex Gossage, the executive director of DNWML, wrote in an email to The Daily that the “Destination Verified” status may highlight accessibility in new, more prevalent ways to the entire Ann Arbor area.

“From the perspective of someone who is disabled,

becoming “Destination Verified” is an opportunity to raise awareness of accessibility as an important issue in our community,” Gossage wrote. “It demonstrates that there are many in our community who are already taking accessibility into account and see its value. Being “Destination Verified” is also a way to generate greater interest in making our entire community accessible to people with and without disabilities and to foster a culture of accessibility that we can all (unite) around.” Wiebesick said he believes travel is important for everyone regardless of disability status, and hopes to continue expressing the importance of accessibility when traveling to Ann Arbor.

“Every person, regardless of ability, deserves the human right to travel and experience and explore the world regardless of their ability,” Wiebeseick said.

“Travel is important to people. It creates memories, meaningful relationships. It breaks down boundaries and makes our world a more open-minded place. And so everyone, I believe, has a fundamental right to experience and explore the world, regardless if you are in a wheelchair or if you have some other disability.”

Holly Burkhart/DAILY

MARISSA CORSI Daily Staff Reporter

NOLAN SARGENT Daily Staff Reporter

University of Michigan students and community members gathered in the Michigan Room of the Michigan League Wednesday evening for the Transgender Day of Remembrance Banquet, an annual event organized by the Spectrum Center to commemorate transgender people whose lives have been lost to antitrans violence.

The event featured a dinner alongside speeches from transgender and nonbinary students and community members. Event attendees also had the opportunity to participate in a quilt-making activity where they could share positive messages on quilt squares. Organizers also read aloud a list of 74 names of trans people who died in 2023 and 2024, largely to violence or suicide.

Kinesiology junior Daniel Chavez spoke about his experience growing

up transgender and his struggles with coming out to his family.

“I’ll never forget the summer before my sophomore year, when I finally tried to tell them I was trans,” Chavez said. “I was met with threats — threats to take everything from me, to cut me off from school and my future, to tell me that I was nothing but a disappointment. That moment broke me. I’ve been playing a game of hide and seek with my family ever since.”

Chavez added that — despite his difficulties with finding acceptance within his biological family — he has made new connections that have been fulfilling in light of those strained family relationships.

“As painful as that has been, it has also led me to this,” Chavez said. “I am here. I am still here, and I am thriving. And while my family may not see me, I have found a chosen family, a community that sees me and loves me for exactly who I am.”

Chavez’s speech was followed by one from Rackham student Melodie

Blake Jaeger. In her speech, she focused on the emotion of joy and the unique ways in which transgender people experience that emotion.

“Ours is the joy of comfort and so many little moments whose very essence is lightened and lifted by our journey towards self-discovery, however cheesy that might sound,” Jaeger said. “Ours is the joy of a people who know that every moment of life is a singular triumph over a system that intended for us only closets and caskets.”

Raja Benz, the resident consultant on consent and culture at the School of Music, Theater & Dance, was the keynote speaker. Benz spoke about how transgender people relate to the concept of change, both internal and external.

“I’ve learned to embrace change as a source of strength,” Benz said.

“I’ve fallen in love, in love with the opportunity to make and remake myself. There’s a beautiful alchemy in it: to reconfigure the contours of one’s body. There is great joy, not

just in the grapes and the wheats of this earth, but in the wines and the breads too.”

Benz also addressed the struggle to change society to be more accepting of and safer for trans people.

“We don’t look for paradise elsewhere,” Benz said. “We’re creating change here on this Earth in this time with each other. And it doesn’t mean that we’re ignoring the pain because that pain is a constant reminder why we are fighting. It means turning that pain into the strength to protect that which matters, to build a world where we are not forced to hide or defend our rights to exist anymore.”

Tristan Morton, the associate director of the Spectrum Center, helped to organize the event. Morton said the event was planned to provide a supportive community at the University while honoring trans people who have died.

“So the main goals that we had for this event were to have the U of M community come into

UMich study looks at flooding risk, social vulnerability and climate skepticism while looking toward the future

The

study focuses on the Appalachia, New England and Northwest regions

The Appalachia, New England and Northwest regions of the United States are more vulnerable to flooding due to factors such as the federal government’s underestimation of flood risk, social vulnerability and climate change skepticism, according to a recently published School for

Environment and Sustainability study. Researchers used data from multiple sources to analyze levels of vulnerability including a national survey created by Yale University on climate attitude, the federal social vulnerability index and household flood risk estimates. In late September, Hurricane Helene hit rural communities in the Appalachia area with extreme flooding, which caused damage

that will take long-term efforts to redevelop. Asheville, N.C. was one of the communities hit the hardest, just west of what the University of Michigan researchers determined to be a flood risk hotspot. Many viewed this area of the U.S. as a “climate haven” — an escape from the effects of climate change — before the hurricane.

Maize Loves Blue Ridge, a U-M student organization established to raise funds for Appalachian

communities after Hurricane Helene, focuses on centering students from rural areas to the University. LSA

junior Macie Richardson, founder of MLBR, spoke with The Michigan Daily about their personal reasons for starting this organization.

“I am from rural Appalachia,” Richardson said. “When the hurricane hit, it was not the best situation for people in my hometown. There was a lot of devastation involved and a lot

of people I personally cared about were impacted. I was wondering how I could make a difference from so far away because it was hard to watch it happen and not be able to do anything.”

The study was in its final stages of review when Hurricane Helene hit.

Dimitris Gounaridis, SEAS research specialist and co-author of the study, spoke with The Daily on the relevance of this study.

“Unfortunately, this paper has become timely,” Gounaridis said. “We were looking at the news during Helene and realized that it hit right in the region we are highlighting in the paper.”

The Federal Emergency Management Agency has historically underestimated the flooding risks in many counties across the country.

As the 2024 presidential election results rolled in earlier last month, Michigan, one of seven swing states, found itself in a tight race. With both President-elect Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris making a combined nearly 50 campaign stops in the state since August, Michigan was again a decisive battleground.

Trump ultimately won the state’s 15 electoral votes with 49.7% of the vote.

In an interview with The Michigan Daily, political science professor Ken Kollman, director of the Institute for Social Research, said the Harris campaign struggled with the lingering effects of inflation and cultural debates about schools and transgender rights. Harris also struggled throughout her campaign to distance herself from Biden’s policies on the ongoing Israeli military campaign in Gaza, which have been unpopular with Michigan’s large Arab American and Muslim communities. Kollman said he felt these issues created an environment that made Harris’ path to victory a difficult one.

“I think the challenges facing the Harris campaign in particular were substantial,” Kollman said. “They include the unpopularity of President Biden, they include a short period of time for people to get to know Harris and to learn what she’s like, what her strengths might be. There were some clouds over the Democrats, over certain issues of, certainly, inflation and the Middle East war.” Inflation and rising costs of essentials like groceries and housing remained a top issue for voters. Many Michiganders expressed concerns about their financial well-being, a sentiment that Trump’s campaign capitalized on by focusing on economic anxieties.

LSA junior Ryan Finlay identifies as an independent voter and is a member of Young Americans for Freedom at the University of Michigan, an organization for young conservatives, and the U-M chapter of The Alexander Hamilton Society, an organization dedicated to extending U.S. dominance in global security. Finlay said he felt Harris’ campaign

strategy focusing on contrasting herself with Trump fell flat for many voters. Leading up to the election, some criticized Harris for what they felt was a lack of concrete policy proposals, leaving Michiganders feeling uncertain about her vision.

“Harris, as a candidate, made very few tangible policy proposals, and that stemmed mostly from a deliberate choice of her campaign to stick to a narrative of avoiding the worst-case Trump scenario,” Finlay said. “I think a lot of people felt there weren’t any serious policy proposals or positions that (Harris) was coming out with. … Her whole campaign was a campaign of anti-Trump. It didn’t seem she was for anything. It seemed she was just against problems which were not endearing to voters.”

The economic stress felt by many Michiganders, particularly among younger and minority voters, translated into a modest but notable increase in Trump’s support among young Black and Latine men.

According to exit polls, 55% of Latine men supported Trump in 2024, a substantial increase from 2020 when 36% of Latine men and 30% of Latine women voted for Trump.

Kollman attributed this shift to growing economic anxiety, particularly among Latine men.

“Trump is doing better among young men and among Latino men than he did in 2020 and 2016,” Kollman said. “The evidence I’ve seen from my colleagues is that it’s mostly economic anxiety among Latino men.”

In the 2024 election, voters also grappled with a media landscape that often deepened political divisions. As political division grows across the county, voters’ media choices not only reinforce existing beliefs but also shape their understanding of political realities.

LSA senior Phoebe Yi said in an interview with The Daily her media habits shaped her expectations for the 2024 election.

“I definitely think the media I consumed was biased,” Yi said.

“For a really long time I thought Harris would win, especially after the Selzer poll about Iowa, and numerous headlines that were incredibly optimistic about Harris.” Finlay said he believes that

mainstream media coverage often misrepresented Trump’s words, leading to a distorted public perception.

“The mainstream media has done an excellent job of taking every one of Trump’s most colorful quotes and taking them out of context in order to scare people,” Finlay said. “When you listen to Trump’s speeches, the context of a lot of these quotes that people will say proves that Trump is proposing untenable positions.”

Finlay said young voters are pushing American politics in a new direction, reflecting broader societal shifts. This trend suggests a changing political landscape, with young men increasingly leaning towards conservative values amid ongoing social and economic challenges.

“I think we’ve reached a point in American history where we’re starting to swing that pendulum back in the other way, in the other direction, because of a lot of the problems that American society is facing today,” Finlay said. “Young people are seeing these problems and responding by becoming more conservative, especially among male voters. For the first time in a long time, American politics is seeing a gender split in the parties that they vote for.”

Yi said recent socio-cultural trends reflect a growing conservative lean among young people, especially in gender norms and online spaces.

“I do think young people are leaning more conservative recently,” Yi said. “For young men especially, we see this through the rise of the ‘manosphere’ and the alt-right pipeline, in which thinly veiled gender essentialism is also being pushed to a widespread audience on the internet … I think it starts as a socio-cultural change in attitude that eventually seeps into other parts of life, such as politics.”

The 2024 election again exemplified Michigan’s unpredictable status in American politics. After narrowly favoring Biden in 2020 and returning to Trump in 2024, the state’s voting patterns reveal a deep divide.

EMMA LAPP Daily Staff Reporter

SACUA discusses U-M Dearborn budget, future of Senate secretary role

HALLE PRATT & ABBY

The Senate Advisory Committee on University of Affairs gathered in the Alexander G. Ruthven Building Monday afternoon to discuss the national trends in shared governance in higher education and the future of the Senate secretary role.

SACUA Chair Rebekah Modrak, Art & Design professor, began the meeting with an update about the faculty proposals to the Statement of Student Rights and Responsibilities, which outlines University of Michigan policies on non-academic misconduct and were amended by the U-M Board of Regents on July 18 without consulting SACUA. The Senate Assembly reviewed the proposals at the last meeting and sent them to the Student Relations Advisory Committee, which will begin the process of looking over the proposals.

The second update involved the College of Arts, Sciences, and Letters at the University of Michigan-Dearborn.

Modrak said she sent an email to University President Santa Ono with a draft letter explaining budget mismanagement at U-M Dearborn, which SACUA was informed of by Kirsten Herold, president of the Lecturers’ Employee Organization.

“Kirsten Herold, the president of LEO, has been really helpful and shared that apparently the budget was mismanaged, and (University of Michigan) Ann Arbor offered to help out by providing the funds that were necessary so that they wouldn’t run into austerity measures,” Modrak said. “University of MichiganDearborn declined the money, saying the students would be embarrassed to have to accept Ann Arbor money, and instead they’re canceling classes left and right.”

SACUA decided to conduct an electronic vote about whether or not to send a finalized version of the letter to Ono and Board of Regents as a SACUAapproved letter or to have Modrak alone, as the SACUA chair, send the letter. The committee decided to vote after the meeting was adjourned.

The committee moved to discuss an issue raised at the last meeting about seeking a guest speaker to talk about trends in shared governance between faculty and administration and higher education. Modrak said the issue of faculty and trustee relations needs to be addressed by an expert.

“The question that was raised from the Senate Assembly is both looking at national trends in shared governance and also looking at, ‘What are the relationships between faculty and boards of regents or trustees across the country?’” Modrak said.

Modrak shared that she had reached out to Todd Wolfson, president of the American Association of University Professors, to speak at the next Senate Assembly meeting about academic freedom in the context of the current national landscape.

The committee received no objections to confirming Wolfson as a speaker but is still searching for an expert who can speak on the communication between those overseeing operations at institutions and those teaching or conducting research.

“(Wolfson) still doesn’t have information about the relationships between trustees and faculties,” Modrak said. “So we’re still looking for somebody who can speak to that particular issue, but we haven’t approved, yet, the Senate Assembly agenda for the next meeting.”

SACUA then discussed the future of the Senate secretary role. Deirdre Spencer, a U-M librarian for history of art who has served as the Faculty Senate secretary since 2021, was elected recently to become the Faculty Senate parliamentarian, a new role in the Senate.

Nominations were called for the position of Faculty Senate secretary, but none were received.

Luke McCarthy, Faculty Senate Office director, shared that the Faculty Senate Office has

received feedback that the job has many responsibilities, making it challenging to take on in the middle of an academic year.

Spencer said she believes it is important to take varying viewpoints and perspectives into account when writing drafts summarizing the minutes of Senate meetings, one of the primary duties of the secretary.

“My approach to summarizing (the minutes) is that anybody who’s looking at these (documents) needs to be able to know the things we talked about because these are public records,” Spencer said. “It’s important that various viewpoints are recorded, and the nuance of discussion is important to me.”

McCarthy said there are three possibilities for the committee to consider between the period when Spencer’s term ends in January and the changeover for the position in May.

“One possibility is Deirdre being both parliamentarian and secretary,” McCarthy said. “The second possibility is that under the Senate rules, SACUA can appoint an interim secretary. The third possibility is that SACUA can delegate secretary duties to the Faculty Senate office staff.”

Washtenaw County Board of Commissioners hosts public hearing on county finances

a member of the public via Zoom. Brassow noted that the background check policy did not clarify what the timeline of the new process would entail, which could potentially have unintended impacts on new employees.

was interested in is the conference center and hotel that will be being built, along with the rail that will connect the entirety of campus and beyond.”

public hearing.

3rd Quarter General Fund and NonGeneral Fund Non-Structural Budget Adjustments. The adjustments included resolutions related to topics such as the use of general funds for an IT software maintenance contract finance adjustment, 2025 winter sheltering, a housing feasibility study and additional funding for Saline courthouse renovations. The meeting included

“I agree that background checks are important,” Brassow said. “But this policy is vague and there are unintended consequences on new team members coming in.” After discussion, the Board voted to table the Employee Background Check Policy until a later date.

Chairman Justin Hodge, D-District 5, spoke about a recent presentation from representatives of the University of Michigan that he heard at a prior Ann Arbor SPARK meeting focusing on economic development in the Ann Arbor area. The presentation highlighted how the University’s Campus Plan 2050, which would include a new conference center and monorail through campus, might be of interest to the Ann Arbor community.

In an interview with The Michigan Daily after the meeting, Commissioner Yousef Rabhi, D-District 8, told The Daily about his concerns regarding Campus Plan 2050, specifically that the proposed monorail would run through Nichols Arboretum.

“I don’t necessarily have a problem with doing a monorail,” Rabhi said. “(But the Arb is) a very special place to me, as it is for a lot of people, and the idea of putting this concrete contraption that goes through such a pristine, beautiful place really doesn’t sit well with me.”

During the hearing, the Board also discussed the authorization of two representatives from Washtenaw County to attend a December Michigan Middle East and North Africa Delegation Trip, during which trade delegates will travel to Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. The Board is authorizing two representatives from Washtenaw County to attend.

Crystal Campbell, public information officer for Washtenaw County, said in addition to facilitating international connections, she believes the trip will serve to better connect visiting counties and communities within the state of Michigan.

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MEREDITH KNIGHT

new position.

Jennifer Brassow, Washtenaw County Health Department finance manager, attended the meeting as

“We got a presentation from the University of Michigan about their long-term plans for developing campus and the kinds of partnerships that we’re looking to be able to build with that,” Hodge said. “The key thing that SPARK

The Board of Commissioners also discussed the Saline Court Energy Improvements Funding at the meeting Wednesday. According to Rabhi, past commissioner hearings have engaged with the court to tackle environmental issues within the county. The fund will help direct more money towards energy upgrades in the courthouse by installing solar panels and is expected to reach $6 million total, including the $1.3 million unanimously approved during the

“A part of the reason they’re going is to learn not just what is happening in that region of the world, but what is happening with our neighboring counties, and understanding that climate action is a priority for the counties,” Campbell said.

Toni Kayumi, director of the county management team and one of the two attendees from Washtenaw County, said the purpose of the trip is to promote economic development.

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Dogpark performs at The Blind Pig Sunday evening.

‘Meditations for Mortals’ is refreshingly realistic

LOGAN BROWN Daily Arts Editor

Former journalist Oliver Burkeman published his latest book, “Meditations for Mortals: Four Weeks to Embrace Your Limitations and Make Time for What Counts,” this past September as the next publication in his collection of self-help books. As the author of books such as “Four Thousand Weeks” and “The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can’t Stand Positive Thinking” Burkeman offers insight into how we can live a life not plagued by perfectionism and procrastination during the limited time we have on Earth this time around. Written as a self-help book for those of us who live a mortal life, Burkeman outlines his book as a four-week process that allows us to “embrace (our) limitations.” As someone who deems herself mortal — and one with her fair share of limitations — I was intrigued. Burkeman threw me a line, and I bit.

“Meditations for Mortals” opens with a relentlessly honest introduction, and while I don’t find myself often reading introductions, this one is worth combing through. In his explanation of the conception of this book, Burkeman explains his background as a writer and columnist at the renowned publication, The Guardian — a job that is undoubtedly governed by deadlines and to-do lists, constantly spent sprinting from one task to another. In this introduction, Burkeman sets the book’s tone, one that is brutally honest and remarkably candid regarding his own difficulties in finding a fulfilling life. Arguably the most important facet of a self-help

book is for the reader to actually trust the credibility of the author giving advice — something which, thanks to the experience and expertise he shares right from the start, Burkeman has no difficulty convincing his readers to do.

As is highlighted and recommended on the cover and in the introduction, this book is perfectly set up to be read over four weeks. Not only does this give us as readers the chance to jump into reading at a sustainable pace, but it also makes this lifechanging process of self-help a little less daunting. Now, did I read this book over the recommended four weeks? No. Not even close. But regardless of my sore attempt to turn this book’s preaching into practice, I nonetheless walked away with a heightened awareness of the things I could, and wanted to, change in my life. What Burkeman makes explicitly clear right off the bat is the scary truth that we are never going to get to everything we plan to accomplish in life. Whether we deem that scary or irresistibly motivating is what Burkeman sets out to guide us through, with each chapter being a chance for readers to make more progress in determining for themselves what mortality means to them. Burkeman does not waste readers’ time but rather touches on each of his lessons in a breadth that allows readers to build on them even after they’ve finished reading. Between the lines, there are no mandates or stipulations for the reader to complete upon finishing the book, simply four weeks of commitment and the self-governed timer of 10 minutes of reading a day.

I wish we never ‘Went Up the Hill’

Content warning: mentions of abuse

We meet Jack (Dacre Montgomery, “Stranger Things”) at his mother Elizabeth’s funeral. He doesn’t get to see her — not that he even remembers what she looked like — and neither do we. She is as much a stranger to him as she is to us. It doesn’t matter that he only accepted the invitation to learn more about the woman who abandoned him as a child. He’s here now and he wants to stay. The film follows the aftermath of this funeral. Jack stays the night in Jill’s (Vicky Krieps, “Old”) house, which she used to share with his mother, occupied by the eerie silence of calm after a storm. Jill is his mother’s widow, yet she does not recall inviting Jack to the funeral. Elizabeth’s last living relatives take turns being possessed by her, confronting posthumously the woman who has caused them both so much pain through her abuse. They don’t question the magic behind this phenomenon until her control over their bodies turns violent as she tries to pull them from the living world. We learn alarmingly little about both of them. Jill might be a professor, or a carpenter, or unemployed, but she happens to live in a gorgeous mansion. Jack probably has a life to get back to in some big city; we know he has a boyfriend waiting for him and an art career that sustains him, but for all we know he could be a recluse. Jack and Jill don’t feel the need to find out more about each other, remaining more or

Major franchises and the death of originality

MORGAN SIERADSKI Daily Arts Writer

Since the release of “Avengers: Endgame,” the Marvel Cinematic Universe has expanded to include a barrage of new TV shows. Attempting to ride the popularity of that event film, a slew of new projects was announced. Series like “WandaVision” and “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier” excited viewers by placing fan favorites into the titular roles. Others like “Loki” and “What If…?” introduced the concept of the multiverse, the primary theme of the new Multiverse Saga. Each of these series promised fans a bigger and better MCU.

An overwhelming amount of new content has characterized The Multiverse Saga. Since “Endgame,” 12 movies and 11 original series have been released by Marvel Studios. In 2021 alone, four movies and five series were released, marking a major increase in output compared to previous phases. Unfortunately, this increase in quantity correlates with a decrease in quality.

As a (formerly) devout Marvel fan, I was excited about a new era of the MCU. The multiverse concept provides endless possibilities for new storylines and characters. As the first TV installment of the MCU, “WandaVision” started Phase Four off strong. Viewers were enticed by the mystery surrounding longbeloved characters Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen, “The Assessment”) and Vision (Paul Bettany, “Here”). The new format and style were received well by fans, and anticipation only

grew with each episode. By the time the finale was released, the internet was rampant with fan theories. On the day of its release, I woke up at 5 a.m. to watch the “WandaVision” finale with my dad before school. Despite my high hopes, the ending fell flat for me. Rather than tying up its various plotlines, the finale primarily promotes future Marvel projects. Characters like Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris, “Candyman”) weren’t given proper development, as her primary purpose in the series was to set up her appearance in “The Marvels.” Teasing future projects is nothing new for Marvel. Post-credit scenes have been iconic in the MCU since its dawn. However, a project should still be able to stand alone. I still loved “WandaVision,” but it needed more time to wrap up its storylines rather than pushing off the resolution to a future film or series. I went to school unsatisfied that morning.

As more shows were released, I noticed poor endings were becoming a theme of Phase Four, and “WandaVision” was far from the worst offender. Each series would start off with a wave of momentum that fizzled out by the season finale. These series’ conclusions felt rushed due to the small number of allotted episodes (only six to nine per season) and left multiple storylines unfinished in that small timeframe. Big character names are used to promote the show, but actual development of said characters is lacking. Fans were left wildly disappointed after Maria Hill’s (Cobie Smulders, “How I Met Your Mother”) death in the first episode of “Secret Invasion.” Hill’s death was intended to raise the series stakes but only frustrated fans who expected her to play a more substantial role. Attaching a popular name to a series only to fridge them in the first episode is a clear prioritization of

The Michigan Daily Crossword

November 24, 2024 —

1. Unwanted email 5. Owned

8. Zuckerberg company

12. Low female voice part

13. Referred to 15. Leave out

16. River in Germany

17. Unwraps

18. Second base hits, for short

19. 1982 Survivor chart topper

22. Internet personality Rudy known for comedic skits

23. Eurasian mountain range

26. Paul Bunyan is the subject of a tall one

27. Racing series for Lightning McQueen

less strangers as they inhabit the same house and tiptoe around the foreboding coffin in the room. Their lack of connection creates a lack of connection with the audience. We don’t know these people, we don’t know why we should care yet and the film doesn’t mind starting the train before we’re sure we want to be on board with its conductors. Compelling performances from the lead actors make it easier to follow their stories. Jack comes off as earnest yet jaded through Montgomery’s soulful portrayal. Each time he comes close to tears after a new revelation about his mother’s abandonment, we find a new reason to root for him. Jack chases answers to questions he probably shouldn’t be asking, his yearning endearing us to him just as it does to Jill. She carries a quiet dignity through Krieps’ reserved performance, though clear anger and desperation are bubbling beneath the surface. Jack and Jill’s desperate desire for more time with Elizabeth pushes them to rejoice when she begins possessing their bodies. Cleverly, we don’t get to see Elizabeth as herself. She only exists to us through the physical forms of Jack and Jill, biasing the audience toward her due to our existing empathy for them. Both Krieps and Montgomery manage to instill a sinister stiffness in their portrayal of Elizabeth that distinguishes her from the protagonists. Elizabeth does not smile, she does not ask permission and she does not apologize for her mistakes. She is unafraid, and even at times eager, to cause her family pain.

31. Big head

33. Pop star ___ Lipa

34. British lead-in to plane

35. What an infant might wear to dinner

38. Disney World locale

41. Volleyball move 42. Hebrew winter month

44. Ooh and ___

45. "Life of Pi" director Lee

47. Shays' ___ (Massachusetts armed uprising)

50. Discounted online marketplace

53. Grammy-nominated Doja Cat hit

54. How the Leaning Tower of Pisa is positioned

57. Motor City athletics, whose professional teams are hidden in 19-Across, 27-Across and 47-Across

61. In need

63. ___ paneer (Indian spinach dish)

64. TikTok influencer Smith known for cooking from scratch

65. Long-time coaching spot for "Tark the Shark," briefly 66. Smiles 67. Composer Stravinsky

68. Fair, as skin

Test for a H.S. junior

Log bases

Witch trials setting

Feign interest in

Greek goddess of wisdom

Eyewear falsely linked to Mr. Monopoly

Cultural movement and music genre born in the Bronx

To ___ (perfectly) 7. Damage from a collision

COVID-19 vaccine developer

Hugs

"___ death do us part"

Social media handles

Air mattress alternatives

Nintendo console model

Fire, in Spanish

Chinese fashion designer Pei

Tempt

See

Boise state

Natural tanner

"And there you have it!"

profit. The Star Wars franchise suffers from the same issue, though to a lesser degree. With a growing number of spinoffs and new films in production, Star Wars is expanding its universe similarly to the MCU. These projects are marketed using the Star Wars brand instead of their own plots. Not only does this detract from the story but also limits the creative liberties a series can take by forcing it into a specific canon. “The Acolyte” received criticism for allegedly breaking Star Wars canon, prompting heated online debates within the fandom. Although it doesn’t technically break any established canon, “The Acolyte” begs the question of how much expansion is too much. The decline in major media franchise quality reflects a larger problem with modern TV: the takeover of streaming services. Corporations like Disney know that Marvel and Star Wars will automatically draw an audience, so they are less likely to

32. Feared exam for language students 35. Ann Arbor's Scorekeepers and Rick's, for example 36. Thought

37. Plaything for a toddler, maybe 39. My ___, Vietnam 40. Ready to pour 43. Save 46. "What are you waiting for?" 48. Place to park

Swimming

Optical illusion caused by light refraction 52. "Avengers: Age of ___"

55. Sounds made with distaste 56. Ivan the Terrible and Peter the Great, for two

D&D, e.g.

59. Paddles for a crew team

60. Pelvic bones

61. Young dog 62. "I'm ___ roll!"

This image is from the official trailer for “WandaVision” distributed by Disney+.

MINA TOBYA Senior Arts Editor

Caroline Guenther/DAILY

Sean Baker (“The Florida Project”) loves sex workers. Sex workers are as integral to his filmography as gangsters are to Martin Scorsese’s (“Goodfellas”). Since “Starlet” (2012), Baker has time and again explored this field, casting a small but sympathetic spotlight on the disenfranchised. From prostitutes and porn stars to suitcase pimps and strippers, the indie film phenom has dug his heels into this underground world and found no good reason to leave. Baker also loves to make a big splash. If there is a pool, Baker will cannonball into it — it is instinctual. Though his naturalism and stoner aesthetic dominate the discourse surrounding his films, Baker’s crazed flashes of expressionism make up his most impressive moments as a filmmaker. From the montage sequence in “The Florida Project” to making the Backstreet Boys’ “Bye Bye Bye” an anthemic motif in “Red Rocket,” Baker has a penchant for creative explosions, which often gets overlooked. Fortunately, he is finally being lauded for it. Baker’s Palme d’Or-winning “Anora” represents his most ambitious effort. The film has the same basic contour as his other works: It concerns a sex worker making do outside of the public eye. But, as it’s set in New York, everything in “Anora” is appropriately bigger and bolder — the scope, the set pieces and the casting. From the outside looking in, this may suggest Baker has cleaned up his indie pastiche, but rest assured, the world of “Anora” is even grimier.“Anora” sets the tone immediately: ass and tits, neon lights and dollar bills, young women and old men. The film’s opening shot stares directly into a row of private booths, tracking left as the strippers tease their clients. Rumbling over the speakers is the glitzy club hit “Greatest Day” which, much like “Bye Bye Bye,” has been repurposed into a sonic motif. While the song cheers on these sex workers, the scene is any-

‘Anora’: Sean Baker keeps getting better

thing but sexy. The old men grin ear to ear, viewing the girls as “pieces of ass” and nothing more. Watching the scene, you can’t help but wonder what becomes of the sex workers after their shift — after their clientele inevitably leaves them. Cinematographer Drew Daniels (“Red Rocket”) finally stops the tracking shot on our protagonist Ani (Mikey Madison, “Better Things”) — whose birth name is Anora — grinding on a man who definitely shouldn’t be at a strip club. Ani too grins ear to ear, but her smile is false — a mere performance of pleasure. It’s a provocative opening, setting up the central conflict between the lifestyle’s glitz and glamor and its seedy underbelly. “Today this could be the greatest day of our lives,” the song continues. Indeed, it could be, but for who? Our answer to that question comes in the form of 21-year-old Russian nepo-baby Ivan (Mark Eydelshteyn, “The Land of Sasha”). The plot kicks into motion when Ani courts the spoiled rascal at the club, and her fortunes take a turn when Ivan throws thousands of dollars her way to be his “horny girlfriend” for

the week. They drink, do drugs, fly and fuck every chance they get. It’s a win-win-win: Ivan gets to live the 20-something dream, Ani gets to pocket some cash and Baker gets to indulge in all of it. Baker dedicates the first half-hour of the film to the couple’s excessive sexual excursions. It’s a fever dream of an opening, one whose frivolity is only matched by Baker’s frenetic filmmaking. In “Anora,” he takes the chaos and creativity that would have constituted a few minutes of “The Florida Project” or “Red Rocket” and stretches it into a feature. As a result, every scene is a big splash. Everything is loud, and everything is fun. While “Anora” may be chaotic and fun, it’s also formally precise. With a bigger budget, Baker is less concerned with playing scenes long and wide, as he did in “Red Rocket.” With “Anora,” he and Daniels employ a tighter visual aesthetic, punctuating the dreamy, fast-paced first act with quick cuts between a fair amount of coverage. The pace is aptly feverish, sweeping the audience into the couple’s ravenous romance. This snappier approach to editing

Odie Leigh plays at El Club in Detroit

MILES ANDERSON Daily Arts Contributor

The line wrapping around El Club in Detroit, looking like it was about to attend a Bon Iver-Chappell Roan combo-concert, left me feeling wholly underdressed in my black T-shirt and brown pants. With a total crowd of about 200, spanning from early teens to 50-somethings, Odie Leigh and her opener Charlotte Rose Benjamin have a wide appeal. Just 10 minutes after doors, I saw a merch line about 40 people long and about the same number eagerly standing in front of the empty stage. As I staked out my spot for the night, we listened to El Club’s eclectic playlist of everything from Kenny Rogers to Charli XCX. Looking around, I noticed something: This may be the first concert I had ever been to where I wasn’t one of the youngest people there. As I contemplated the perpetual march of time, the weird playlist turned off, the room dimmed, the stage lights came on and a cheer arose from the crowd. Shrouded in a feathery rainbow boa, Charlotte Rose Benjamin told us she was kicking off the second leg of Odie Leigh’s Carrier Pigeon tour. Then she got into the music. The band started off with some of their older songs, including my personal favorite, “Slot Machine.” Benjamin’s voice filled the venue like water overflowing a cup; all the while, the guitar rang out in the sweetest tone I had ever heard.

As Benjamin’s set ventured into songs from their latest album, Moth Mouth, a bubbly indie pop record anchored by Benjamin’s powerfully wispy vocals, I couldn’t help but sway with the crowd. Onstage, Charlotte Rose Benjamin and the band laid down their bedroom indie grooves methodically but not mechanically, and some sick-ass guitar solos even made the dads in the audience bob their heads. Just because they mostly play softer music didn’t mean they couldn’t go hard in their 30-minute set. My one complaint is that their set wasn’t longer. When Odie Leigh and her band came on stage, the room exploded with cheers, even as the frontman herself wore a deadpan expression. Within seconds of strumming the first chord, her stoicism melted to reveal what can only be described as joy. What struck me first was the harmonies. Now I am always a sucker for a good harmony, but these blew me away, and they never let up throughout the entire set. It was the same with Leigh’s voice. The harmonies from the band were effortless, almost as if they had always existed in the room and the band was channeling them through their mics. Listening to her music, I knew she would sound better live, but hearing the warm analog sound of her voice was an ethereal experience. Between every song, Leigh talked to the crowd, asking us how we were doing and telling us about her life. She never hesitated to get

the audience involved, responding to audience members who shouted their praise. It was hard not to sway to the gentle yet assertive music, whose rhythm section was precisely controlled with zero wasted movement. The setlist was made up of songs like “No Doubt” and “Conversation Starter” from the tour’s titular album Carrier Pigeon, but also deeper cuts into her discography like “Chutes & Ladders” and her viral hit “Crop Circles.” Regardless, the crowd seemed to know every word. Framed by neon bangs, an ornate silver capo and a lipstick-red guitar, Odie Leigh’s performance felt almost theatrical. Every note and movement had the same flourish and polish as a Broadway musical: heavily practiced, but not robotic. That doesn’t mean there weren’t a few hiccups, though. This was Leigh and her band’s first show on the second leg of their tour, so tuning took a bit longer and a verse’s lyrics were a little flubbed on one song. But, the venue’s energy never let up even when Leigh was doing her gorgeous fingerpicking solo on stage. That being said, it did get a little wild at the end after the drummer Grace demanded the crowd, “Open up the fucking pit!” causing a circle “mosh” of indie kids to emerge. If you did want a show filled with shredding and thrashing, you’d be out of luck at an Odie Leigh show. But if you want to connect with an artist and get lost in a performance, then you’re in the right spot.

helps Baker transition into the film’s second act, which finds the couple’s “greatest day(s)” ending rather abruptly. After quickly proposing to and marrying Ani, Ivan gets in hot water with his family and church, all of whom vehemently disapprove of this marriage. In a masterful comedic frenzy, church pastor Toros (Karren Karagulian, “Starlet”) and his two goons Garnick (Vache Tovmasyan, “Lost and Found in Armenia”) and Igor (Yura Borisov, “Compartment No. 6”) arrive at Ivan’s mansion, attempting to annul the marriage at the behest of his parents. Upon hearing this, Ivan literally runs away from the problem, leaving his wife alone to deal with his family’s henchmen. The scene fully flirts with the screwball genre, containing funny gags like Ani breaking Carnick’s nose and Igor struggling to restrain her. Unfortunately, the tonal shift doesn’t flow seamlessly, and at times, Baker leans far too much into cheap gags. But his formal development as a filmmaker still shines. In the scene, he seamlessly switches between each character in the budding quartet, relying on

well-timed inserts and precise reaction shots to drive the comedy home. The scene’s staging is also impressive — taking place in one room — allowing Baker to show off his intelligent use of coverage and that tighter visual aesthetic. Much of the same hijinks continue throughout the second act as Ani’s nebulous motivations subtly come to the fore. As the goons berate her about Ivan’s whereabouts and try to annul the marriage, we ask whether Ani, like in the first scene, is still performing. Does she actually love Ivan or only his money? While Baker distracts us with excessive sex and screwball gags, we question why exactly Ani is so dedicated to staying with Ivan — a boy who she has every financial incentive to leave. What is she looking for — in herself and in him?These thorny questions wind “Anora” down to its final sobering leg. It’s past work hours, the club is dead and the fun is over. There are no men left to please, no boy to chase, no money to finagle. What’s left are the ruins of Ani’s blind naivety. While caught up in the thrill of her misadventures, we might have failed to con-

sider that this lifestyle may be all she has going for her, that her time with Ivan may have been her greatest days. At this point of profound desolation, Baker forces Ani to confront the one question we’ve had for the entire film: Who is Anora, the girl after the club doors close? The brutal third act is also where we see Baker’s bread and butter: filming awkward, tightly wound conversations in long, wide shots. It becomes clear that Baker has made a conscious effort to invert his formula. Instead of escalating in creativity, “Anora” de-escalates. There are no creative explosions — no montage sequence or rendition of “Bye Bye Bye.” Baker doesn’t engage in abstraction, either, like filming scenes from a character’s imagination. Instead, the last act is just the basics: shot-reverse shot. This brutal simplicity culminates in a devastating ending. Where “The Florida Project” and “Red Rocket” explore the objectification of sex workers through the eyes of innocent children and an opportunistic man, the objectification in “Anora” is (tragically) selfinflicted. Anora and Ani might be one and the same, and that realization hits like a freight train. Despite the weight of the last act, the transition from screwball to tragedy is

The Detroit Opera’s ‘La Traviata’ and a glimpse into the future of opera: A review

The Detroit Opera House opened their 2024-25 season on Saturday, Oct. 19 with the classic La traviata. The following shows occurred on Friday, Oct. 25, and Sunday, Oct. 27. For those unfamiliar with the Detroit Opera, let’s quickly set the scene. Nestled in The District Detroit, where all of the sporting and entertainment venues are bunched together, the Detroit Opera House’s interior is as vast and ornate as any other opera house, taking architectural inspiration from the Italian Renaissance.

Every opera has an optional pre-show lecture where audience members can arrive early and listen to a more extensive analysis of the production, plot and other relevant details. Beyond the beautiful architecture, the first notable aspect of the event was the people. A sea of white-haired heads were clustered together, almost blindingly. During the performance, the age range expanded, but it was somewhat disheartening to find a lack of younger audience members during the preshow lecture.

The speakers’ enthusiasm leaped out into the audience. Smaller details of the show, like the balance between the timpanist and the soprano in the legendary “Brindisi” (also known as “The Drinking Song”), were explained with fervor. Some additional highlights were shared, such as how all five resident artists, young singers who are early in their careers, were involved in this production, a rare feat demonstrating a commitment to elevating young blood.

As a music performance and American culture double major, I oftentimes have to explain “music things” to my nonmusical LSA friends. But, sometimes, things fall through the cracks.

For people who work with music for a living, these topics seem

straightforward. Bringing one of my nonmusical friends with me, I was stunned when she told me she did not know what a bar was. Context clues allowed her to figure out the gist of it, but these small things can add up in a relatively lengthy talk. To be clear, all classical music pre-lectures or talks face this ambiguous dilemma. The only fault that exists lies in the lack of a conscious effort to have accessible nonexpert knowledge within the entire genre of classical music. This half-complete revelation struck as the show was just about to start.

Acting as curtains, a screen with a close-up of a woman’s eye with surrounding abstract red slashes lifted, and the audience was introduced to a roaring party. The ’20s Parisian appeal, changed from the original 19th-century setting, worked in tandem with the soprano female lead Emily Pogorelc, who played the infectious courtesan, Violetta Valéry. Galeano Salas, the tenor who played male lead Alfredo Germont, acted the part of a shy, doting admirer to the highest degree. When they touched at last, goosebumps were compulsory for the audience. To forewarn, knowledge of the synopsis is probably best to understand the emotional complexities these vocalists had to cultivate.

In Violetta’s iconic aria, “Sempre Libera,” Pogorelc’s passionate yet composed body language stole the show, especially when Salas appeared in a back panel of the stage with Alfredo’s famous responding lines. “Always Free” in Italian, “Sempre Libera” begins with Violetta frolicking in her bachelorette glory until she and Alfredo confess their love to each other. This major turning point was well delivered.

Beyond Pogorelc and Salas, the chemistry between Violetta and Giorgio Germont, played by Joo Won Kang, was tense and filled with strife, performing exactly as it should. Kang was deviously impos-

ing as he plucked petals off house flowers during their confrontation. Afterward, new party scenes lit up the theater. Red and black swirled in the form of dancers and matadors to create an entertaining heated atmosphere. A maiden used a tambourine to slap a matador on the butt in a whimsical display. The costuming was already impeccable, but this particular scene stole the show. Each character displayed their emotions on the fabric they moved in, and the neon highlighter uniforms the matadors donned were eye-popping. Some other costuming highlights included Violetta’s post-intermission serene blue dress and all of Flora’s decadent party gowns.

Each production sets up “Sempre Libera” a little differently, but Alfredo is usually either completely offstage or somewhere Violetta just can’t see. Choosing to have him appear in the very back was a directorial decision that aligned with many of the other arrangements, such as how the hospital settings would transition immediately into party scenes, a drastic contrast. These stagecraft moments emphasize seamless transitions, likely mimicking Violetta’s mind as she navigates the blurred lines of her sickness in contrast with her courtesan lifestyle.

The hospital scenes took place in a sterile sanatorium, providing a desolate mood that contributes to the tragedy of Violetta’s impending death. The cabin where Violetta and Alfredo spent their romantic getaway was woodsy, spacious and down to earth. Overall, everything just made sense.

One thing’s for sure: Opera is resilient. There is a call for the arts-loving philanthropist to make accessibility a priority. But there is also a call for a massive change in perspective on what the art form entails. We decide what keeps up with contemporary standards, and ultimately, opera is in the hands of the people.

Who is Halsey?

An artistic remnant of early 2010s Tumblr-core? A mother? A, as they put in this post, “maladaptive daydream turned full-time reality”?

Nearly every project that Halsey puts out is an increasingly ambitious attempt to answer this question, and their fifth studio album, The Great Impersonator, is no exception. In a trailer posted to Instagram to announce the record, they laid out the terms for this round of self-exploration, asking, “What if I debuted in the early 2000s? The 90’s? The 80’s? The 70’s? Am I still Halsey every time?” The rollout was accompanied by a series of social media posts, recreating iconic photoshoots of the artists most influential to them in dedicated facsimile. (These are more than worth the clicks to check them out!

Seriously, this is a run-don’t-walk situation). The idea of the record, it seemed, was that each song would reimagine Halsey’s sound from the perspective of a different moment in music history, as represented by an artist of that period. It would be remiss not to mention the other crucial thematic centerpoint of The Great Impersonator — indeed, the exigence of the project’s creation. On June 5, Halsey officially publicized their two-year battle with systemic lupus erythematous and a T-cell lymphoproliferative

disorder, noting that they thought this album may be the last they ever made. The follow-up to their question “Am I still Halsey every time?” became, “If it all ended right now, is this a person you’d be proud to leave behind? Is it even you?”

Asking The Great Impersonator to juggle so many ideas — mortality, authenticity of self, alternate lives, musical history, etc. — is no short order and puts a great deal of weight on the shoulders of the songs themselves. This isn’t inherently a problem, especially considering Halsey has successfully contended with similar themes in the past. The issue is that The Great Impersonator can rarely attend to all of its demands at once. “Ego,” for instance, the record’s Dolores O’Riordan-inspired track, succeeds neither at channeling the clear-eyed magnetism of a Cranberries song nor at feeling markedly different from the more commercial-leaning pop-punk that has characterized Halsey previously — a disappointing result when the record promises to do both. By the same token, the extent to which Halsey is actually interested in impersonation is muddied throughout the record. Tracks like “Panic Attack” and “Letter to God (1983)” take a more literal approach through highly-recognizable interpolation: nearly recreating the opening instrumentation of Fleetwood Mac’s “Dreams” on the former and taking on the Bruce Springsteen live persona and “Dancing in

‘Silver Linings’ exhibit contemplates the abstract world of identity

through the act of witnessing.”

Pastels, collages and photography are center stage at the University of Michigan Museum of Art’s “Silver Linings: Celebrating the Spelman Art Collection”, consisting of 40 pieces that span decades, genres and mediums from the Spelman College Museum of Fine Art. Located in Atlanta, Georgia, Spelman College is one of the highestranking historically Black liberal arts colleges for women. The college’s vast art collection seeks to feature art that is created by and about women in the African diaspora, exploring concepts like spirituality, family and identity through a variety of formats.

The “Silver Linings” exhibit has also been curated by julia elizabeth neal, a U-M history of art assistant professor. Here’s a sneak peek into four artists featured in this powerful collection. All quotations are from the descriptions found next to these works.

Content warning: discussions of racism and objectification

“In the Garden, the Artist at Home” by Beverly Buchanan; mixed media drawing (1993) Spiky multicolored lines jitter around a frantic scene, which features two photographs of Buchanan centered in the upper third of what appears to be a house. The lines obscure most of the painting as well as Buchanan herself. This hectic image represents the chaos and uncertainty surrounding ideas of race in America, which Buchanan witnessed firsthand as an activist during the Civil Rights Movement. She participated in the sit-ins of the early ’60s, dur-

ing which her physical safety was endangered by racists who resorted to assaulting protestors in an attempt to force them out of their positions, sustaining an injury to the arm. Buchanan channeled both the pain and resilience of her experiences to highlight “tension between erasure and presence” in this drawing, evoking determination in a domestic setting. Her inclusion in this exhibit is also because of a local connection — she lived in Ann Arbor for part of her life.

Hot-en-Tot by Renee Cox; gelatin silver print (1994) Renee Cox, a New York-based photographer known for provocative, unapologetic imagery that explores racism and femininity in America makes quite the striking photograph with Hot-en-Tot. The picture is a side profile of Cox, who is nude with plastic-enlarged breasts and buttocks covering her real body. Despite her body turning away from the camera, she stares directly at the viewer. Cox created this artwork to reclaim the 19th-century image of the Hottentot Venus, an enslaved Khoikhoi woman whose real name was Saartjie Baartman. “Hottentot” was a derogatory term that was used to refer to the Khoikhoi people. After being kidnapped from South Africa, Baartman was forced into public nude displays throughout Europe, where she was fetishized for her large figure. Her image was appropriated by racists to promote hateful stereotypes, and she was nonconsensually examined by pseudoscientists. Cox aims to call attention to the objectification of Black women both then and now, as well as to “create a triumphant moment for Baartman, highlighting agency

“From the Mountain Top” and “Fun #2” by Benny Andrews; oil and collage on paper (1999; 2002)

“From the Mountain Top”: In this gorgeous, heavenly landscape, a woman is overjoyed as she stands under a berry-laden tree and a serene sunset by a majestic river. She is quite small compared to the world around her and is not depicted in much detail, but her joy is palpable. Andrews — whose activism and art often coexisted — was inspired to create this piece as an ode to the Black church: “I tried to capture an enormous emotional release that was expressed in those services. … African-Americans, oppressed through segregation and lacking many of the necessities needed for a decent life, could find relief in only one place, the church.” This piece celebrates the importance of spirituality and references Martin Luther King Jr., who delivered his famous “Mountaintop Speech” the night before he was assassinated. By depicting a world from said Mountaintop, Andrews succeeds in showing the viewer a world of total harmony.

“Fun #2”: Andrews returns with a warm image of a happy family at home. The mother and father are romantically dancing to a vintage radio, and their son is quietly drawing across the room. Pictures of nature adorn the flowery walls in this tribute to everyday Black familial joy, growth and stability.

“Of Love Possessed (lessons on alterity for G.D. and F.G at a local BSS)” by Firelei Báez; acrylic on Yupo paper (2016)

the Dark” kick drum on the latter. Other songs, like “I Never Loved You,” are virtually unrecognizable as pastiches of the artist they claim to be inspired by — in this case, a significant lack of Kate Bush-ness. Instead of giving Halsey’s very real and very moving story new purchase, The Great Impersonator seesaws between uncanny-valley re-appropriations and surfacelevel acknowledgments of its timehonored influences (I’m looking at you, stray David Bowie references on “Darwinism”).

With some projects, a poorly realized concept could be pruned and set aside to give the music a chance on its own. The issue with The Great Impersonator is that many of the tracks are so rooted in their premise that to do so would be to deprive them of any oxygen they have. A song like “Dog Years,” which has the seeds of something edgy, is so focused on being a caricature of 90s grunge, so dead set on manufacturing grit, that none of it actually surfaces. When Halsey fails at being PJ Harvey, it’s kind of funny. But when they fail to reach their audience on tracks that document their sickness, their worries about their child, their mortality? That’s a problem. On a record that memorializes some of the most deeply personal and harrowing experiences a human can have, I don’t want to hear Halsey routed through someone else’s art — I want it straight from them. To Halsey’s credit, their song-

writing is often sharp and revealing and when it works, it works. Lead single “The End” drops the theatrics and makes their storytelling the focal point of the song, and in these moments, where their knack for imagery and near-journalistic

confessions shine, the record is far more compelling. An emotionally tough listen, sure, but it feels like Halsey is telling the story. For an artist that often feels like an alsoran — trailing years behind Pure Heroine’s character-driven dark

TARA WASIK Daily Arts Writer

ISABELLA CASAGRANDA Daily Arts Contributor

Courtesy of Austin Richey from The Detroit Opera House.

Evelyn Mousigian/DAILY

‘Tell me where it hurts.’

I remember being 9 years old, sitting in an autorickshaw with my older cousin who was in college, and telling her about my “mini-headaches.” They were an ear-splitting, visceral sort of pain that would make it hard to breathe. I would clench my fists till my knuckles turned white, and my nails left half-moon prints in my palm; eyes open, but unseeing, hearing everything but not processing. And then it would go away, almost as quickly as it arrived. They barely lasted 10 seconds. Not long enough for anyone to really notice, and not bothersome enough for me to bring it to anyone’s attention. I had my own way of dealing with it: forcing slow, steady breaths in and out my nose as I slowly tilted my head upwards to focus on the ceiling. My cousin was the first person I told. Not because I thought it was concerning and that I should let someone know — I just thought it was kind of interesting. Cool, even. I guess she picked up on the lack of concern in my voice, and replied laughingly, “Hey, I don’t think that’s normal!” We left it at that.

There had eventually been a few medical investigations into my headaches around 10, but they had not been very fruitful. Doctor after doctor, no one had an answer. Eventually, everybody just sort of forgot about it. In the sixth grade, I wrote an entrance exam for a little boarding school nestled in a valley in the foothills of the Himalayas in northern India. I got in, and at age 11, began my life away from home. I just kept dealing with them as I had before. When I had my first seizure at 12, no one was expecting it. I started feeling really sick that day around lunchtime. I had to excuse myself from the dining hall to go to the bathroom, but on the way there I found that I couldn’t quite walk or stand up. Everyone was still at lunch, so the campus was mostly empty. I called out to someone who was passing by me in a hurry. “Can you please help me get to the infirmary? I’m not feeling too well.” She winced apologetically. “Sorry, I’m busy.”

I shrunk down to the floor in a crawl, breathing heavy. When I woke up, I was in an ambulance, one of the school nurse’s worried faces looking down at me. I tried to ask what happened, but the sounds wouldn’t quite come out right. My tongue felt heavy, and my jaw too stiff. She told me not to worry about it and to just go back to sleep.

I didn’t end up going back to school that term. I got my diagnosis after a week or two of consultations and second consultations.

I had a kind of epilepsy. All the headaches had been building up to this. I suppose I should’ve felt sad about this, but I felt vindicated in a way. I could finally put a name to what had been happening. Everything made sense now. That clarity didn’t last very

long. It was a brief visit, but when I went to visit my dad in Singapore that summer, he took me to another neurologist to whom we showed the prescriptions and notes of the other doctors. He laughed when he read them.

“One seizure doesn’t make you an epileptic,” he said. I tried to explain the deal with the headaches, and he scoffed. “Usually the headaches in this kind of epilepsy last much longer than what you have described. You were probably just really tired. The doctors in your country just want to make money off of you.”

I didn’t realize it at the time, but that dismissal of my diagnosis stuck with me. Doubt crept in, quiet enough that I didn’t even realize it. I was taking my medicine everyday, but each time I did, I wondered: What would happen if I skipped a dose? Maybe there really isn’t anything wrong with me. Wouldn’t the only way to find out be to stop taking my medicines?

It started with one skipped dose, then two or three a week, until eventually I just stopped taking them at all. I told my mom after a few months: “Hey, I stopped taking those pills, and nothing bad happened, so I think that means I’m better now.” She was worried that I had stopped without telling anyone, but I was so sure that I had never actually had epilepsy after all that I

convinced her it was fine. And it really was, for a while. And then the hallucinations started.

It’s really hard to describe to people what these hallucinations were like. They didn’t even feel like hallucinations — they were too real. I didn’t see or hear things, no, but it was almost like my mind was in two places at once. I forgot almost everything as soon as it ended, but I knew that whatever world I was experiencing in my mind when it happened was incredibly wellfleshed out. Was it just my imagination? I didn’t know. Ever since I was a little kid, I have been able to dissociate very easily. Sometimes so strongly, and for so long, that I’d be disoriented and upset when I came back to myself. My real life felt fake in comparison. Off my medication, I probably wasn’t in my right mind, but I never once thought that these visions were a cause for concern. I didn’t connect it back to my epilepsy, either, because I was still convinced that wasn’t real. One seizure doesn’t make you an epileptic. In fact, I was happy to have them, if only for the brief escape they provided.

I started having seizures again a couple of months later.

I felt stupid, facing the doctors and admitting what I had done. I didn’t want to tell them the real reason I had stopped, that I was

convinced that I had been faking it all these years just to get attention and special treatment. I mumbled some other excuse instead, which they accepted, still with disappointment, but at least lacking the pity that I dreaded so much. I went on my medication again.

Illness is not a dignified state of being. When I was younger, I used to think I was good at being sick. Whenever I was admitted to the school infirmary, I was never fussy, and dutifully took all my medication without complaining like some of the other kids did. I never flinched when the nurses collected my blood samples. I didn’t mind being woken up at night so they could check my fever. That was an easy kind of sickness, though.

In hospitals, in intensive care units, dignity isn’t on the top of the list of priorities. You are expected to be comfortable with nudity, with pain. You are carted off in different directions with barely any idea of what’s going on. You are completely reliant on strangers even for basic functions. I once woke up in a hospital, drowsy and disgruntled and was told to put on my shoes and get onto an ambulance. Only once I got on was I told that I was being moved to a hospital in a different city. I wanted to cry, act out, make a scene. I didn’t. I

MUNA AGWA MiC Columnist

You left your high cheeks and sharp collar bones in me –stretched over our shared, stylish frame. They made a museum for you, overflowing with books and boxes and ashtrays and albums.

I run my thumbs through the waxy, unending pages, and it’s like you’re watching yourself being watched – looking right past the camera lens and film, into the picture’s beating heart. They tell me how regal you were. How witty and beautiful and unprecious you were. In your sweaters and heels and red lipstick. They say I would have loved you. And I do. They say say I’m so much like you, but I only get to feel your magic through the photos. And it feels like something rare and shiny was taken from me. Now, you live out your days between two names–in the large curling “J” I sign paperwork and love letters with. Now, I’m feeling in the dark, searching for what else you left behind.

just went to sleep.

In school, I was told that because of my diagnosis, I didn’t have to go for morning sports anymore. The faculty started treating me with more care, afraid to trigger my condition in any way. They wouldn’t assign me the usual punishments, and were eager to send me to the infirmary or tell me to rest whenever I was feeling even slightly unwell. Every visit to the infirmary was accompanied by all the nurses interrogating me to figure out if there was any further cause for concern. If a slight fever would get someone else just a pill and a glass of cool water, for me it warranted a bed in the ward and constant monitoring for at least a day. I would roll my eyes and just accept it each time. The special treatment wasn’t that bad, after all. When I left school and came to Michigan, it took me some time to adjust to giving myself that level of care and attention. If you couldn’t already tell, I have a habit of ignoring things that are possibly harming me. (I once had a lump growing in my neck for three years before I told anyone about it. I was convinced it was okay, and it would be an overreaction to bother everyone to go to a doctor just for this.) I was able to go days without eating anything except gummy bears, just

because it was so easy to tune out the hunger and forget about it. This didn’t end well, for obvious reasons. After three days of accidental fasting, I finally started feeling like I was about to get really sick if I didn’t eat soon. I walked over from my dorm, Betsy Barbour, to the South Quad dining hall to grab something to eat. On the way back, my legs gave in and my vision started swimming. I was scared. I couldn’t move. I felt too weak to even ask for help, and even if I wasn’t, I don’t think I would’ve been able to. It took me a half hour to slowly make my way back to my dorm. As soon as I entered my room, I broke into tears. Why was it so hard for me to ask for help?

My mom is driving me back home at night after a party at someone’s house, and I’m lying down in the backseat. I am 10 years old. My head is hurting. “Mumma?” I call out, tentatively. “Yeah?” she replies, half-attentive as she navigates the narrow Delhi streets. “You remember those headaches I told you about? They’re still happening.” She is silent for a while. “Are they really bad? Should I try to get an appointment this weekend?” She turns a corner, and I feel the road get bumpier underneath us. I think about her question for a while. My head has stopped hurting. “No, not really. It can wait.”

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IHAA MOHAN MiC Columnist

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Underclassmen, intern outside of your major this summer

SARAH ZHANG Opinion Analyst

With the job recruitment cycle for this summer in full swing, I open my laptop each morning to an inbox full of internship listings from Handshake, coffee chat follow-ups and rejection emails. As a business student, I target finance roles with the goal of building my skill set and adding relevant experience to my resume.

However, as I peel back the layers, I question whether my decision to exclusively focus on finance aligns with the kind of person or professional I want to become. Reflecting on my interests, I realize that I want to learn more about policy or law and gain experience to determine whether these career paths match more closely with my passions.

Therefore, given that many of us have diverse interests, we should not allow our summer experiences to silo ourselves into a single career path. Those of us interested in finding an internship, especially underclassmen, should find an opportunity outside of our majors to discover unexpected interests and stand out in future recruitment processes. From a practical standpoint, the competitiveness of the job and internship search processes means that we should apply to as many postings as we can. With single-digit acceptances for certain opportunities, 57% of surveyed students report a lack of confidence in finding an internship aligned with their standards. Our best strategy to land a position is thus casting a wide net and looking beyond roles directly connected to our major.

But, we should not apply to opportunities without intention — especially since 84% of recruiters say that cultural fit is one of the most significant factors

for hiring. This emphasis on fit means that companies want candidates who align with the firm’s values and can contribute to the company’s culture.

Rather than applying to all the LinkedIn postings we come across, we should reflect on whether our personality and goals align with the ideal traits or expected responsibilities for a certain role. If we are not interested in the specifics of the job, we certainly will not be a cultural fit, and should instead focus on the genuinely interesting opportunities.

Beyond being strategic with applications, we should actively seek ways to gain experience across industries and develop a diverse skill set. Unique experiences on our resumes can help us stand out from applicants who only list industry-specific experiences. Specifically, we can hone skills not used enough in our chosen field and develop transferable skills for any job.

Last summer, I interned at a sports tech firm. While the industry was not my first choice during the search process, I was surprised by how excited I was to learn about data analytics in professional sports leagues. I realized that I enjoyed researching within an industry outside my major. Further, the skill of learning about a completely new topic within a short period of time will prepare me for success in future opportunities.

However, I am not the only one who benefits from transferable skills. For instance, empathy is a key part of working in the medical profession, and volunteering at a nonprofit provides opportunities to build the trait. Similarly, communication is important even for technical roles like investment banking, and writing for an on-campus journal or taking an English class are great ways to hone this skill. Given the value of transferable skills, people who pursue a wide variety

of experiences and strengths set themselves up for success in their chosen profession.

Despite the importance of trying new experiences and developing a diverse skill set, seeking an opportunity outside of our major can feel like a setback in our career progression. Experience directly relevant to a desired internship is important to solidify our career interests and may help us stand out among applicants vying for the same position, especially given the ambitious and competitive student culture surrounding professional opportunities.

While such culture — as well as our peers’ LinkedIn updates — may pressure us to run the rat race and secure the best internship now, we often overlook the consequences of pigeonholing ourselves too early. We have three summers in college available to intern, and we have the space to use one of them to explore a different interest than our major or intended career.

In fact, if we do not fully explore our interests now, we may never have the opportunity to do so in the future. After college, we will rarely be able to cold email a professional or to work in a new environment for three months just for the sake of trying something new. We never truly know what we are interested in until we try it, and learning about what we don’t like is just as important as figuring out what we enjoy.

Furthermore, non-linear career paths are increasingly becoming the new normal, as we place greater emphasis on continuous learning and skill development. We do not need to have our entire lives figured out by this summer or even by the time we graduate. Our interests are often not confined to one discrete subject area, and our chosen area of study often connects with other sectors. As long as we’re still in college, we never have to stop exploring.

The library study rooms need a rehaul

My Google Calendar has been filled with study room reservations at the Shapiro Undergraduate Library as of late. My friends and I finally cracked the code: Every night at 11:59 p.m. when the next week’s reservations open up, two of us will get on LibCal and book one study room for eight consecutive hours. Rinse and repeat, and behold: a monopoly on UGLi study rooms.

With only one library on Central Campus in which undergraduates can reserve rooms, getting a secluded group study spot at the UGLi is always a struggle. My friends and I got tired of wandering the floors until we found a spot, so we started utilizing the reservation system. Joining the rat race to book the best rooms, we noticed the same people booking the same rooms: Before we found our loophole in room booking, we’d see the same fraternity name beat us to it over and over again. As a result, large groups are forced to wander around the UGLi banking on a room to be open until they give up and go somewhere else. It’s clear that the study room system is overwhelmed, and something needs to change.

The library already does some things right. After midnight, for example, study rooms are firstcome, first-served. Additionally, people cannot book every single room they want for any amount of time they want — students are only allowed to book rooms one week in advance for up to four hours per day. Even if a student can’t book a room, the vast amount of open space in the library means there will always be some sort of seat available.

Studies consistently show that

students study better at a library than at home, so students will flock to the few buildings on campus that are dedicated to studying. Of course, the UGLi isn’t the only study spot on campus, but it’s one of the most accessible; the building is open 24/7 five days a week, whereas other campus buildings are only open during regular business hours on weekdays. Study rooms in other campus buildings, such as the Ross School of Business, are only open for business students to reserve. And while it’s theoretically possible to travel to North Campus and find a study room at “the Dude” (or the Duderstadt Center), the commute deters most. Good luck finding a cafe in town with open seats and good Wi-Fi, too.

While the study rooms list a capacity number, any group, big or small, can use a study room. Students, including my friend group of five, will also book study rooms meant for larger groups of people, leaving empty chairs behind. Our study group has also come across study rooms with more chairs than advertised, meaning more people are fitting in these rooms than advertised. Making people write down the names and uniqnames of everybody in their group and confirming they exist via email is one way to correct this.

Undergraduate enrollment keeps increasing, but study space infrastructure remains largely the same. Long-term solutions such as constructing new libraries or expanding the UGLi would be expensive, complex and provide no benefit to the current student body. Instead, libraries should invest in creating short-term solutions that can benefit students right now. Putting a stricter quota on how often one individual can book a room can help give everyone an equal chance. For instance, at the University of California,

Berkeley, people can only book a study room for up to two hours a day. If the group doesn’t show up after 15 minutes, the room is forfeited and anybody can use it. At the University of California, Los Angeles, students can only have one reservation per day and two upcoming reservations maximum. In comparison, the University of Michigan allows students to book a study room for four hours in a single day. The rooms also get, to be blunt, disgusting. Every time, without fail, when my friends and I enter a study room, there is always some sort of trash left behind. Not cleaning up spaces in the libraries carries over to other parts of campus, too; if groups aren’t getting punished for trashing the library rooms, what is the likelihood that they are leaving other spaces messy? Fining or temporarily banning study room access to groups that dirty the spaces can enforce a better working environment and ensure the space is being taken care of.

No system is going to be truly equitable. Worst comes to worst, increasing transparency about other spaces, or the library advertising other buildings that are open for studying, can mitigate some traffic. The William Clements Library right next door is a good example: While primarily a research library, during finals season, the Reading Room is open for studying.

The hardest part should be the act of studying itself, not finding a place to study. At an institutional level, implementing stricter reservation requirements will not onlxy help all students gain equal access to study spaces that can help them complete their work distractionfree, but also will enforce a higher level of cleanliness that can make studying a more enjoyable experience.

Making sense of the moment: A Black student perspective on the attack on DEI

With one of the largest diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives in the country, the University of Michigan has become a central target of the anti-DEI crusade. Facing heightened media coverage and increased scrutiny, the University’s DEI program is in a uniquely vulnerable position. In states like Texas and Alabama, DEI offices, programs, curriculums and initiatives that focus on or are dedicated to race, gender and sexuality have been systematically dismantled. And in the wake of the presidential election results, with the U.S. Congress reaching a Republican majority, the precarity of DEI programs has only increased. As a campus community, it is time that we seriously consider what this well-funded and coordinated attack on DEI may mean for the future of our University and, more broadly, the future of social and racial progress. Most importantly, though, it is time

we seriously consider what we can and must do in this moment. As leaders of the Black Student Union, we have been unafraid to loudly voice our critiques of the DEI system — particularly as it relates to anti-Blackness and the University’s hypocrisy and complicity in the Palestinian genocide — and we will continue to stand by our values and analysis. Our critiques, however, have been flattened and conflated with critics who don’t believe in diversity, equity and inclusion — not only as a system, but as a concept.

This intntional weaponization of our voice as Black students is particularly harmful, as it has succeeded in planting the falsenarrative seed that DEI systems and programs simply don’t work and that “both sides” don’t like it. This inaccurate narrative has begun to proliferate, widely adopted and constructed by the media, and is now being wielded as justification for dismantling DEI initiatives in totality.

One notable, and particularly insidious, example of the media advancing this false narrative is in a New York Times

article titled, “The University of Michigan Doubled Down on D.E.I. What Went Wrong?” In this article, we found ourselves, our faces and our words front and center. While framed as an investigative piece, the article functions as a politically motivated critique of DEI initiatives rather than a balanced examination. The bias in this article is rampant, though concealed among genuine concerns and complicated truths — those such as our own. The troubling flaws, factual inaccuracies and sinister nature of the article has already been well analyzed by Tabbye Chavous, the University’s chief of diversity, who was a central focus and seemingly personal target in the piece. While we are hesitant to even dignify what we believe is an intentional mischaracterization of our critiques of the DEI system, we will clarify that when we, as leaders in BSU and as Black students at the University, critique the DEI system for its shortcomings and fundamental incongruence with our values, we do so with the intention of pushing the University to

change the system for the better. We speak our critiques and craft our analysis with the intention of rolling up our sleeves and digging into the work, not discarding DEI and the values it represents. And we — not without difficulty or barring critique — are actively engaging in that critical work with the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Office.

Oftentimes, we risk falling into the fallacy of believing that we should not offer critique or speak loudly about our grievances in fear of facing retaliation and manipulation of our words. But we must fight against this fear, in refusal to compromise on our values and beliefs.

In advocating for the continuation of the DEI office and system, we often face glaring concerns — concerns like, “How can I hold the values of believing in a better, more just world, liberated from colonial and white supremacist violence, and yet still advocate for a DEI system at a University that funds and is complicit in genocide, amongst many other injustices?”

We don’t want to shy away from this truth and very real

tension. We understand that we will not DEI our way into liberation, but we also know that there is a lot of space between where we are today and the liberated future we want. In working toward that future, we have to reckon with the fact that the most marginalized on our campus stand to lose the most if DEI initiatives and programs are dismantled and defunded.

Racists and white supremacists have already been emboldened and marginalized students face a very real threat on campus. We know that the material conditions for BIPOC students, staff and faculty, low-income students, people with disabilities and the LGBTQ+ community, among many other groups, will worsen with the fall of DEI.

We believe in the power and necessity of radical dreaming, and believe that our visions for what can be should never succumb to the limits of what is. We also believe it is our duty to be responsive to our current material conditions and what is in our scope of influence, though it may be at times unglamorous, slow and incremental work.

Advocating for the continuation of DEI initiatives is a strategic choice about the landscape that we believe will be best to organize under.

As we try our best moving imperfectly, as opposed to not moving at all — paralyzed by perfectionism, fear and false notions of moral superiority — we challenge others to do the same. We challenge others to act and to use their voices, truths and stories to fight against attempts of flattening and mischaracterization. In these times, it is imperative that as a University community we remain vigilant and committed to the values of diversity, equity, justice and inclusion. We must ask, will the University, with its stated commitment to DEI, lay down and let it die, or will the University stand up and fight? To lay down and allow DEI to die would be much too convenient. It is our responsibility to hold the University accountable to the values it claims to hold. We must urge the University’s Board of Regents and leaders to fight to keep DEI and continually refine it.

Lara Ringey/DAILY

LIV FREY Opinion Analyst

HAYDEN BUCKFIRE

The past two years have been eventful for the University of Michigan, to say the least. Community stakeholders have grappled with a strike by the Graduate Employees’ Organization, outspoken student protests, disapproval from student and alumni groups, and national criticism of the University’s diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. Many are left asking why the University acts as it does.

This confusion is derived from a belief that the University operates as an institution of higher education, dedicated to knowledge, critical thinking, free expression and student growth. But its operational strategy does not comport with such a mission. Rather, the University operates more like a corporation. At the same time, it flouts obvious corporate solutions that would benefit students — the institution’s most important stakeholders.

The sheer size of the University cannot be understated. Its revenue

SKATE MICALLEF

Analyst

mall acts of kindness are my love language. I remember little moments, like when my roommate came back from her morning walk with coffee for the entire apartment after a long night out. It was a small but meaningful gesture. It makes me happy to know my friends are thinking of me, even when they are just coming back from a walk. These acts of kindness describe one of the five love languages: giftgiving. On the surface, gift-giving can appear superficial and materialistic. But the gift’s rarity or monetary value is of little importance — rather, it’s the personal sentiment behind the gift. It’s an act that says, “I was thinking about you and wanted to

Opinion

The University of Michigan is a corporation

for the 2024 fiscal year — $13.4 billion — would place it at number 311 on the Forbes 500 list of America’s largest companies, higher than DTE Energy, DuPont and Hershey. The University, however, is not on this list due to its nonprofit status. The University’s endowment — now valued at a staggering $19.2 billion — is in the ballpark of Southwest Airlines and Best Buy’s market values. And what about the block ‘M’? It’s slapped onto hats, flags and anything short of your grandmother’s quilt. You’re bound to see the University’s logo several times while walking around any major international city. The University takes its visual identity very seriously, as evidenced by its 33-page “Brand Identity Style Guide.”

The University’s actions make much more sense when contextualizing it as a corporation: Its main goals are self-preservation, self-perpetuation and maintaining a competitive edge over its peers. If Milton Friedman’s doctrine of the corporation expresses that a firm’s chief obligation is to

maximize profits for shareholders, what is the doctrine of a university?

To maximize the value of a degree?

To climb up the U.S. News & World Report ranking of the top American universities? To secure funding to build futuristic-looking buildings on campus? To take the path of least resistance in the face of public backlash?

This isn’t exactly characteristic of a place of higher education that aims to advance knowledge.

The University’s Board of

Regents recently approved a contract extension to increase University President Santa Ono’s base salary to $1.3 million, with more in deferred compensation. The Michigan Daily Editorial Board has previously grappled with defining what exactly Santa Ono’s job entails — it is clearly to fundraise. In October, Ono introduced a $7 billion fundraising initiative to prepare for a “new era of impact.” Recent U-M decisions make sense when viewed through this lens.

Student protests at the University of Michigan and elsewhere have induced outrage from alumni donors. The University subsequently took several actions to limit student speech on campus. Most notably, the Board of Regents amended the Statement of Student Rights and Responsibilities without any community input, effectively rigging the student disciplinary process against students. These policies are probably more popular among the benefactors making a $7 billion fundraiser possible than students.

Regardless of your opinions on campus activism, the University’s actions to silence dissent clearly deviate from its mission to develop “leaders and citizens who will challenge the present.”

All academic institutions play a balancing act between meeting their financial needs and upholding their educational mission, but the University should put more emphasis on actually prioritizing students, rather than commodifying its degree.

The Ross School of Business’ decision to open a satellite campus in

Venmo has destroyed generosity

reinforces our friendship and shows me that they care. I know they don’t expect anything in return, but their kindness inspires me to show them their love is mutual.

In a pre-Venmo age, friends engaged in an informal process of “getting each other back.” If a friend bought me ice cream, I’d cover theirs next time. For many people, the difference of a few dollars is minimal — it’s a price that friends are willing to let go for the sake of friendship, generosity and politeness. Today’s use of Venmo has created an expectation that we must match generosity monetarily and immediately. Before my coffee is even made, I will have shamelessly received a Venmo request for the exact $6.31. Prior to Venmo, expecting payment down to the penny was considered impolite. It would be ridiculous to hand over

back the exact $6.31 coffee. But with Venmo, charging to the cent is too easy. Friends don’t even bother rounding down for the sake of being polite.

Instead, we even itemize and bill small gestures. Purchasing $8 parking leads to a $2 Venmo request split among four friends. Renting a $4 movie is $1.33 per roommate.

One time, I split a bag of chips with a friend and received a $1.79 Venmo request later that day.

While I don’t expect my friends to continuously cover my coffee, the process of nickel-and-diming each expense creates a toxic culture of “keeping score.” The next time we go out, I’ll expect them to pay me back as well. This constant cycle of back and forth of billing has shifted people’s mindset on generosity. Rather than doing small gestures to show you care, Venmo has made

even is exhausting. It has made informal encounters and lunch dates business-like as friends scrutinize receipts, calculate tips and end group activities with invoices. This process ultimately ends in frustration and resentment. It’s almost impossible to keep everything equal, so someone usually ends up feeling short-changed. This pursuit of monetary fairness undermines the goodwill and give-and-take nature of friendships.

We are social beings by nature, and helping others makes us feel good. Research has shown that generosity can even increase happiness, releasing “feel good” hormones, like serotonin and dopamine. Kindness further increases your connection to others, and can work to decrease loneliness and stress. However, with Venmo so easily accessible, these acts of kindness are becoming increasingly rare.

Venmo’s convenience has greatly contributed to its success. With our declining use of cash, the app makes it easier to pay a friend for rent or split the bill at dinner.

Among college students specifically, Venmo is a standard social practice. Small expenses add up, and with a college student’s limited budget, Venmo helps those who don’t always feel comfortable paying for others. The app makes getting paid back a lot easier and a lot less awkward. The phrase “just Venmo me” has become such a common saying that the app itself is now a verb.

In an interview with The Michigan Daily, LSA senior Haley Gagerman described how Venmo saves time.

“When I go to dinner with large groups of friends, I don’t want to bother the waiter running the check on eight different cards,” Gagerman said. “So one of us just pays and then

downtown Los Angeles confounded many observers, given that Los Angeles is not located in Michigan. In fact, it is quite far away from Ann Arbor. There is a rhyme and reason to the Business School’s decision — university executive programs are well-documented cash cows. Thus, California-based businesspeople wanting a coveted University of Michigan degree without enduring the harsh Michigan winters can shell out $191,000 to do so. “UMLA” is a

do not feel included on campus. The goals of the program are commendable but have simply not been met with results — it is not a good sign when observers with varying political views are upset.

we take a picture of the bill and Venmo later.” I asked her what she thought about Venmoing for expenses $5 or less.

“I think it depends on the dynamic you have with your friends,” Gagerman said. “I enjoy treating a friend for coffee or even paying for their Rick’s cover every once in a while. It doesn’t have to be equal, but I know they’ll get me back.” Venmo challenges generosity. It undermines the principle of giving without expecting immediate return. Generosity is a key component in friendship — not just with finances, but with your time and energy too. Healthy relationships involve a balance of giving and receiving. Venmo destroys this balance, making every action into a transaction.

Skip class, save lives

LEAH HUANG Opinion Columnist

Every fall, college students return to campus, accompanied by the unmistakable sounds of sniffles, coughs and congested voices. The seasonal epidemic, often referred to as the “frat flu,” spreads like wildfire, fueled by the cramped nature of dorm life, parties and lecture halls. Despite these symptoms, students still routinely show up to class, clutching tissues and chugging cough syrup. Although it’s tempting to blame students for dragging themselves to class and potentially spreading illness, the root of the problem lies in universities’ culture and policies. Professors, departments and campus leadership send a clear message: Attendance matters, and missing class — even for legitimate health reasons — can come at a cost. The detrimental mix of rigid academic expectations and social stigma leaves students feeling like they have no choice but to prioritize performance over recovery.

This isn’t just a matter of individual behavior; it’s a systemic issue that requires systemic solutions. Universities

need to rethink their approach to illness on campus by adopting policies that make it easier for students to stay home when sick, while also changing the culture around attendance and academic success.

The COVID-19 pandemic drilled lessons into us about public health and personal responsibility. “Stay home if you’re sick” became the bottom line necessary to prevent the spread of illness. But, less than five years after the pandemic’s peak, we seem to have regressed to prepandemic policies, forgetting the lesson we learned that staying home protects both yourself and others. Some professors still take attendance, penalize absences and require medical documentation, which is difficult for students to obtain. Even when alternatives like lecture recordings or make-up assignments exist, they are often inconsistent or poorly communicated.

This disconnect forces students to prioritize attendance over health. LSA junior Olivia Donahue spoke with The Michigan Daily about the challenges of balancing being sick with academic obligations.

“Many times, I’ve gone to school sick because of my Spanish class. They have an attendance policy and don’t record

lectures,” Donahue said. “Even if they say they can be accommodating, they aren’t. They drop your grade a letter after however many absences you’re allowed to have, which is especially challenging because being sick doesn’t only take a day.” Donahue’s experience illustrates the dilemma many students face. Missing even a single class can lead to significant academic penalties, and illness often requires multiple days of recovery. This dynamic pressures students into attending class regardless of their health, perpetuating a cycle that harms both individuals and the broader campus community.

Students feel trapped. Missing one lecture may not seem catastrophic, but in competitive academic environments, small setbacks often feel monumental. Depending on class policy, missing even a single class can mean falling behind, losing participation points, or risking lower grades — all of which can contribute to anxiety and fear of failure. Many students also feel judged by their peers or professors for missing class, even when their absence is for legitimate health reasons.

Abby Schreck/DAILY

With Mullings at the center, Michigan wins battle in the trenches against Ohio State

REKHA LEONARD Managing Sports Editor

COLUMBUS — Kalel Mullings felt the contact before he even made it back to the line of scrimmage.

On third-and-6 with 3:26 left in a tie game, the graduate running back carried the fate of the Michigan football team in his hands. So, he bounced off the first mass of tacklers he encountered, kept his footing as more bodies tried to trip him up and raced down the sideline for a 27-yard gain.

“Superhuman from Kalel, especially on that third down being able to shake a guy off and really just want it more,” senior quarterback Davis Warren said. “That’s what it came down to, and he wanted it.”

The Wolverines played their signature brand of smashmouth football and steadily sucked the life out of the second-ranked Buckeyes through 60 minutes. As both teams know all too well, the team that wins the rushing battle tends to win The Game. And Michigan kept that tradition alive and well on Saturday, outgaining Ohio State on the ground 172-77 in a 13-10 win.

Grace Lahti/DAILY

Wolverines’ defensive line overwhelmed Ohio State quarterback Will Howard. He succumbed to the pressure more and more as the game went on. In the fourth quarter, the Buckeyes managed just 10 yards of total offense on seven plays, five of which were incomplete passes as Howard had lost his rhythm after being worn down by Michigan’s pass rush all game.

On the other side, the Wolverines found their best rhythm of the game in the fourth quarter. Even though senior running back Donovan Edwards left the game with an injury before halftime, Mullings readily picked up the extra workload with 15 carries in the fourth quarter alone. Slowly and steadily, he pounded the pile. And eventually, he broke through with his chunk play that set up Michigan to win the game — the epitome of the grittiness the Wolverines displayed all game.

The Buckeyes’ rushing defense ranked third in the country entering the game while the Wolverines’ offense —despite some highlight performances from Mullings — came in at 69th. The odds were stacked against Michigan. And as the Wolverines continuously ran straight up the middle for monotonous small gains, they appeared to lack efficiency. But eventually, those 3- and 4-yard gains wore Ohio State down.

“Coach Moore talks about it, that smash mentality,” Warren said. “And that’s discipline and tough and doing your job, not doing too much, not trying to do anything outside of what you know how to do, and just operating to the best of your abil-

ity. I’m just really proud of this whole group. I think they did that today. They showed toughness. Everyone that was out there showed toughness, and that’s what these games came down to. And it showed in the final score.”

Earning a career-high 32 carries, Mullings was the workhorse of Michigan’s offense, proving his toughness every time he touched the ball. He

Postgame fight elicits varied reactions from Michigan and Ohio State

NOAH KINGSLEY Managing Sports Editor

COLUMBUS — In the moments following the Michigan football team’s upset of No. 2 Ohio State, an unruly scene broke out on the Ohio Stadium turf. As a gaggle of Wolverines gathered around the ‘O’ logo at midfield to plant a Michigan flag, the Buckeyes were fed up.

With tensions boiling over after the rivalry game, Ohio State players rushed in, trying to prevent the Wolverines from staking their claim to the turf. The flag fell before Michigan senior running back Tavierre Dunlap grabbed it to try planting it again, at which point Buckeyes defensive end Jack Sawyer stepped in. Sawyer ripped the flag off the pole, leading to an extended brawl featuring large portions of both rosters.

The tradition of planting a flag on the opponents’ midfield logo has become a common trend in college football, albeit not a savory one. But with Ohio State’s frustrations high after the loss — its fourth straight to the Wolverines — it devolved into a full-on fight.

kept that late-game drive alive, leading to the Wolverines’ eventual game-winning field goal. And he consistently outmuscled the Buckeyes’ defense with 116 yards and a touchdown.

With Mullings leading the charge on offense, Michigan’s defensive line held down the fort on the other side of the trenches.

The front four pounded Ohio State’s injury-riddled offensive line, continuously blowing up

run plays. “I feel like, personally, up front, they couldn’t hang with us,” senior edge rusher Josaiah Stewart said. “We just took it to them, and we knew eventually, Joel Klatt said it the best — ‘boa constrictor,’ like, they start losing life as we keep being physical, hitting in the mouth, finishing strong.”

Beyond throttling the Buckeyes’ running game, the

“That’s who we are, so we don’t really need to talk about it,” Michigan coach Sherrone Moore said of whether he emphasized “outtoughing” Ohio State to his players before the game. “That’s how we’re built. We don’t talk about toughness.” Whether or not the Wolverines talk about being tough, their ability to play tougher than the Buckeyes on Saturday swung the game in their favor. With Mullings running through the trenches, and Michigan’s defensive line preventing Ohio State from doing the same, the Wolverines won the battle and The Game.

Dominic Zvada comes up clutch for Michigan, paving way to victory

For 60 minutes, that fight was contained within the whistles.

But once it got outside of that, it had poor consequences for not only the teams involved in the fight, but all those on the field.

In an attempt to clear the commotion, members of multiple law enforcement agencies began spraying pepper spray. According to a statement posted on X by Ohio State University police, it was sprayed by agencies representing both Michigan and Ohio. Both Michigan and the Buckeyes had players who got sprayed, as did many members of the press and photographers who were surrounding the brawl.

Wolverines senior edge rusher Josaiah Stewart was among the players who got pepper sprayed, saying that his eyes started getting red while he tried to break up the fight. Mullings didn’t get pepper sprayed himself, but he said in his postgame presser that seeing it happen to his teammates “definitely got (him) going.”

The two teams’ coaches took a different approach when discussing the fight, too. Ohio State coach Ryan Day stood by his players’

“For such a great game, you hate to see stuff like that after the game,” Mullings told FOX’s Jenny Taft on the field moments after the fight. “It’s just bad for the sport, bad for college football. But at the end of the day, some people, they gotta just learn how to lose. You can’t be fighting and stuff just because you lost a game. All that fighting, we had 60 minutes, four quarters to do all that fighting.”

decision to try to prevent the flag from getting planted.

“I don’t know all the details, but I know these guys were looking to put a flag on our field and we’re not going to let that happen,” Day said.

Michigan coach Sherrone Moore, meanwhile, showed more disdain for the brawl:

“It was emotions on both sides, and our guys, I didn’t see they had the flag,” Moore said. “Guys were waving it around, and their guys charged us, so it was motion on both sides. It can’t happen. Rivalry games get heated, especially this one. It’s the biggest one in the country, so we gotta handle that better.”

Moore was certainly in a better mood than Day, and had fewer frustrations to cloud his judgement. That chipper mood showed throughout his presser, including when he responded to a question about whether there’s a need to “lose gracefully” by simply acknowledging that he didn’t lose.

But at the end of the day, a fight broke out and multiple innocent bystanders were pepper sprayed in an attempt to contain it. Regardless of boiling rivalry tensions or actions from the Wolverines and Buckeyes that can be argued as distasteful, that wasn’t a palatable end to The Game for anyone, and extended a fight meant to be settled on the football field outside of it.

ries going into that kick … no real stress at all.”

COLUMBUS — With 48 seconds left in Michigan-Ohio State, it was obvious that everything about The Game and its aftermath — from the result, to the complexion of the Wolverines’ season, to the Buckeyes’ Big Ten title hopes — came down to Dominic Zvada.

Facing a routine 21-yard field goal with the chance to put Michigan ahead 13-10, the question wasn’t whether or not the junior kicker had the range for the chip-shot, but rather if he could handle the pressure. And for about five minutes — as Zvada was put in a holding pattern while the clock drained down before being reset and Michigan coach Sherrone Moore took a timeout — the pressure only grew in the stadium. As the minutes passed by, Zvada stood by himself, kicking into the air and preparing for a season-defining moment.

Then, finally, with his first chance to kick a game-winner all season, Zvada drilled it straight down the middle and gave the Wolverines a lead they’ll carry all the way back to Ann Arbor.

“On that last kick — I knew I was gonna put it through,” Zvada said. “You gotta be confident, and you know, I’ve been kicking good all season. The operation has been really good. The line was really good. So I had no wor-

All season, Zvada has been a key component of Michigan’s offense. But against Ohio State, Zvada wasn’t just a component — he was a game changer. Because in an unconventional win in which the Wolverines topped the Buckeyes despite a mostly stagnant offense, Zvada put points on the board even when Michigan couldn’t move. And with 48 seconds left in the contest, he came up clutch when it mattered most.

“He’s the man. He’s an absolute animal,” Moore said of Zvada after the game. “… We just have complete trust in him. Everything, it never phases him. In practice we put him in the worst situations and he just drills it and looks at you like, ‘Yeah, that’s what I’m supposed to do.’ ” Saturday, Zvada was put into two of those difficult, highintensity situations. And both times, he walked away with points that proved crucial to the Wolverines’ victory.

Late in the second quarter, Michigan’s offense produced a stagnant drive. After fielding a short punt on the Buckeyes’ 39-yard line, the Wolverines managed just 3 yards on their ensuing offensive possession — a drive unworthy of points in most scenarios. But Zvada took the field position, lined up for a 54-yard kick, and drove it straight down the middle.

It took almost everything going right for Michigan to put

points on the board Saturday. It took goal-line interceptions, crucial defensive stops and long runheavy drives for the Wolverines to total just 13 points. And within the eventual three-point victory, Zvada’s calm strikes proved to be the difference maker. While Ohio State’s kicker Jayden Fielding missed 38- and 34-yard kicks in clutch moments, holding the Buckeyes back, Zvada drove Michigan forward. He was in the game for only two full plays, and both times, facing distance, pressure, or even one of the biggest moments of the season, he delivered.

“(Baltimore Ravens kicker) Justin Tucker said that he was a ‘system kicker,’ and I kind of feel the same way,” Zvada said. All I have to do is know when the ball’s snapped and kick it, and it’s gonna go through just because everything (in the operation) is perfect. So, kicking’s the same. Regardless of where you’re at, if we’re in range we’re in range. So I feel the same way going into every kick, regardless of if it’s a 56-yarder or a 20-yarder. That’s how you stay consistent.” Saturday, Michigan needed both of those types of kicks from Zvada. It needed his early 54-yarder, and it needed his game-sealing 21-yard kick in the face of a season’s worth of pressure. Zvada energized the Wolverines’ offense when it went flat, and in doing so, paved the way for Michigan to reenergize its season with a win over Ohio State.

CHARLIE PAPPALARDO Daily Sports Editor

Lila Turner/DAILY

Lila Turner/DAILY

Lys

LYS GOLDMAN

COLUMBUS — Three years ago, on the third Saturday of November in snowy Ann Arbor, the Michigan football team finally turned the tides. The fifth-ranked Wolverines snapped an eight-game losing streak against Ohio State, breathing life and competition back into the historic rivalry.

Two years ago, on the other side of the Toledo Strip, Michigan did it again. The third-ranked Wolverines beat the Buckeyes on their home turf for the first time in over two decades.

Last year, back in the Big House, Michigan made it a triple. En route to a perfect, National Championship-winning season, the third-ranked Wolverines took care of business on Thanksgiving weekend once more. And this Saturday, back in enemy territory, Michigan defied all odds to win The Game for the fourth straight year. The unranked Wolverines stunned No. 2 Ohio State, finding a way to win the biggest game of both rivals’ seasons as three-score underdogs. In doing so, not only did Team 145 rewrite its own legacy, but it also restitched the fabric of the rivalry as a whole. Michigan never seemed to doubt that The Game was well within reach, despite the paradoxical circumstances of each team’s

2024 campaign. Earlier this week, when asked if he expected the Wolverines to beat the Buckeyes, senior edge rusher Josaiah Stewart laughed in disbelief.

“Are you serious?” Stewart responded. “Yes.”

After the game, when asked if he paid any mind to pregame rumblings that Michigan had “no chance” against Ohio State, Wolverines coach Sherrone Moore reacted similarly.

“No chance?” Moore replied with a chuckle. “Cool.”

While Michigan’s internal confidence seemingly never wavered, the same can’t be said for most outside the program. And frankly, the widespread dubiety was rather warranted.

Before 2021, the Wolverines

had lost 17 of their last 20 rivalry clashes with the Buckeyes. The three-game winning streak since then featured a trio of College Football Playoff-bound and Big Ten Championship-winning Michigan teams — three of the strongest and most well-rounded squads in recent memory. Heading into this weekend, an unranked group of Wolverines hadn’t won The Game since 1993.

Based on the history, it’s not surprising that Michigan would be underestimated and overlooked.

After all, the Buckeyes were the betting favorites to win a national title, playing at home with three years of pent-up anger to avenge. The Wolverines were 6-5, with a first-year head coach and without both their star offensive and

defensive players, in the midst of one of their worst seasons in recent memory.

And yet, Michigan pulled it off. Miraculous, unbelievable, astonishing — call it what you want, but a win’s a win, and the Wolverines earned it. With Saturday’s victory, Michigan has officially planted the Block M flag in the center of the rivalry.

So from now on, as the Wolverines ride a four-game winning streak in a new chapter of college football’s biggest rivalry, stop underestimating and overlooking. They deserve the respect.

“Amazing,” graduate running back Kalel Mullings, who will finish his Michigan career undefeated in The Game, said

Sports Editor

Designed by Leyla Dumke and Maisie Derlega

Sex Edition Sex Edition

‘Sex and the City’ and its longevity

MEGHAN DWAN Statement Contributor

“It’s like the riddle of the sphinx”: Why is “Sex and the City” so popular again?

The 1999 hit TV show “Sex and the City” is by no means new, but it is new to many in my generation after it experienced a great revival on streaming services. I heard about the show while flipping through channels and MsMojo YouTube videos, and wanted to watch the series and see for myself if it stood the test of time.

“Sex and the City” is about four women — Carrie, Samantha, Miranda and Charlotte — living independently in New York City and going after whatever they want. They’re flawed characters who make mistakes but keep moving forward, and I found that a little refreshing. Each friend has different ideas about sex and relationships, but they also disagree and debate about friendships, careers, family and money.

Honestly, I don’t love everything about the series: It lacks diversity; the way Carrie acts about her main love interest, Mr. Big, is insane; it portrays an unrealistic image of New York City and many of the

however, is how candid the women are about what they want. Even today, I feel like a lot of TV shows portray women’s sexual desires through thinly veiled metaphors or symbolism — like the toothbrush moment in the hit Netflix series “Ginny & Georgia.” Sexual desire is implied, but not really talked about. Some shows, like the earlier seasons of “Grey’s Anatomy,” feature sex scenes, but never really talk about sex without embarrassment or shame, unless it’s played for a joke. “Sex and the City” offers a different perspective.

Instead of sex being some secret, morally damning activity, or a plot device to build tension, sex is just something the characters do. Sometimes it contributes to the plot, sometimes it doesn’t; but, either way, it’s happening, and it centers around the women.

The characters state their sexual desires with ease and then go after them without hesitance. One of the women, Samantha, wanted to get with her yoga instructor, so she straight up asked him. Carrie wants to get with Mr. Big, so she’ll call him — any time, any place. They unapologetically want sex, in a way that is almost exclusively reserved for male characters in the media.

Growing up, I mostly watched

fice,” sex is reserved for crude jokes. In “Bones,” sex gets between the characters becoming a couple, then it forces them together in a negative way, making it seem like they chose sex over one another. In “Orange is the New Black,” sex landed the main character in jail.

“Sex and the City” never gets the characters in trouble just for having sex; it’s always a consequence of who they’re sleeping with. Samantha picks a new guy every episode and almost never suffers for it. Carrie isn’t punished for having sexual desire — it’s for being with Mr. Big. Sex isn’t the problem. In the show, sex is casual and fun; it’s something to explore yourself through, something to discover without guilt.

I was pretty sure that “Sex and the City” was the first show to tackle these topics, but I’m also not a history expert. So, I turned to Anthony Mora, associate professor of history at the University of Michigan, who teaches a class titled Sex and Sexuality in U.S. Pop Culture.

According to Mora, people have different responses to the show, both then and now. Mora said some found “Sex and the City” feminist because of its candid discussion of sexual desire and practices.

I think now, people are a lot

show. In one scene, Samantha flashes the doorman; though the show frames it as sexy, in reality, it’s illegal and inappropriate. On the other hand, the show also shows that women should want sex too, if they’re going to have it. The show frames women as active and willing partners in sex, rather than begrudging participants, which I think combats some myths about consent, like the idea that wearing your partner down to a “yes” is enthusiastic enough to be considered consensual.

Either way, the show is still beloved, especially by the first generation who enjoyed it as it aired. Its release onto streaming networks earlier this year gave the show a pretty significant revival. Most of my friends have watched it, or at least seen an episode. I found the show really refreshing; I loved its aesthetic, as well as its honesty. Growing up in a medium-sized town in the middle of Michigan, I dreamed of a big city to escape into, and New York City is the perfect place to dream of. The glamor and glitz, though unrealistic, gripped me. I picked out the best outfits, I made a list of the famous locations I wanted to visit and the iconic Carrie strut on the busy streets became my ide -

Evelyn Mousigian/DAILY

there were debates about who is which character (nobody wants to be Carrie), which apartment is the best and who’s the most aspirational character. I even talked about the show with my mom and learned that her favorite character was Miranda.

My mom and I had never really discussed her past relationships before, but it did open up a discussion about what it was like living in a big city during that time, though it was Chicago for her instead of New York City. She spoke about what it was like dating then and having every weekend be an adventure between her and her friends. When I asked if it was anything like “Sex and the City,” she laughed and said she did not spend nearly as much money as them.

We still don’t talk about sex, but these discussions made me realize she’s still the same girl she was then. When I get older and have kids, I’ll still have the adventurous spark I inherited from her.

After chatting with my mom, I was interested in learning more about how different generations might react or talk about the show. Mora was able to offer some insight.

“The audience and our relationship to the media has changed since the 1990s,” Mora said. “I think, from what I’ve seen, the audience, even though they very much enjoy the show today, they’re probably more critical of some of the elements in it than when it originally aired, like the lack of diversity, for instance.”

The main characters are all white, telling their own stories and almost never entering interracial relationships to address diverse stories. “Sex and the City” is also criticized for its failure to explore anything outside the heterosexual mold.

In a show that talks a lot about sex, I expected different sexualities to be discussed at some point, but as an LGBTQ+ viewer, I was disappointed. Part of the dream of New York was blending in, and I thought different sexualities and identities would be accepted without question, but instead it’s something that makes characters stick out. They have lots of side characters who come and go that have different identities, but not many are what I would call great representations. In one scene, Mi-

randa calls Carrie’s bisexual love interest greedy. This stereotyping didn’t really fit into my idealized view of the city that the show helped build. His sexuality was a problem that warranted debate among her friends. But I wanted somewhere where I could wear whatever, say whatever and be whoever without question.

Usually this disappointment would turn me away, but I still couldn’t stop watching the show. Despite their flaws, the conversa tions between the women often reminded me of conversations I’ve had with my roommates when we’re so tired we have no choice but to be candid. I think if the show does one thing right, it’s the por trayal of friendships as something inherently valuable, even essen tial. This idea is at the core of the show.

In my conversation with Mora, I wondered how “Sex and the City” was once again popular amongst younger generations.

“Any show that has that du rability, that I mean we’re still talking about it now, 20 plus years later...suggests that it really reso nates with people,” Mora said. “There’s not that many shows that are like that, that sort of prove that longevity.”

In one episode, “The Agony and the Ex-tacy,” Charlotte tells the girls, “Maybe we could just be each other’s soulmates. And then we could just let men be these great, nice guys to have fun with!”

I love this sentiment — that boy friends are meant to add to a wom an’s world, but not be the center of it. As the show goes on, though, it becomes more and more centered on men. Conversations about their ambitions dwindle, the characters stop talking about themselves, they stop having journeys that lead to self-discovery. Even though the show includes men’s opinions about sex from the beginning, the questions Carrie asks in her ar ticles often surround women’s de sires and views on sex. I know a lot of friends who dropped the show in the later seasons. I stopped watch ing by season six. I always end up giving up as the characters lose themselves a little more, and they start prioritizing their boyfriends, husbands or whoever they’re see ing at the time.

At its core, the show is sup posed to be about four friends who

The Statement 2024 sex survey

Editor’s note: In recent years, The Michigan Daily has used the University of Michigan’s targeted email service to send its annual Sex Survey out to the entire student body. This year, The Daily was unable to do so. In April, U-M officials said they were reviewing multiple targeted email requests from The Daily, including the annual Sex Survey and a new survey gauging satisfaction with the University’s presidential administration. Eight months later, after repeated follow-ups, The Daily’s requests remain under review, and the University has failed to provide any further updates. As a result, The Daily distributed the 2024 survey through social media and print flyers. The survey garnered 2,866 responses — far fewer than the 7,611 responses collected last year.

and the student body anxiously awaits for the results of The Michigan Daily’s annual Statement Sex Survey. Well, one vigorous social media campaign and several hundred printed flyers later, we are thrilled to report that The 2024 Sex Survey is finally here, revealing all the dirty little details of University of Michigan students’ sex lives for your reading pleasure.

While this past year has come with many challenges, U-M students still found their way into each other’s beds — or, more specifically, Mason Hall bathrooms, Undergraduate Science Building classrooms and benches in Nichols Arboretum. Sex is in the air, and likely on the dorm lounge couches, too.

Twelve years ago today, The Statement published its first ever Sex Issue, where we investigated “casual encounters” on campus (and Craigslist) and learned that three is, in fact, a crowd. Needless to say, The Michigan Daily and The Statement are loyal Wolverines when it comes to reporting on your sex lives, which, based on your responses, is more

to record their body counts, app preferences and kinks in the 2024 Sex Survey. Although the survey did not find its way to your U-M inboxes this year, 2,866 of the Leaders and Best still responded through social media, QR code flyers and good old fashioned mouth-to-mouth — excuse me, word-ofmouth — promotion. Our data includes respondents of all ages, ranging from freshman to graduate students. And we are dying to share it all.

According to the demographic results of the survey, 27% of respondents were freshmen, 17% were sophomores, 24% were juniors, 19% were seniors and 13% were graduate students or higher. In regards to gender identity, 58% of respondents were women, 36% were men, 3% were nonbinary, 2% were Genderqueer and 1% identified as other. As for sexual orientation, 60% of respondents identified as heterosexual, 20% as bisexual, 8% as lesbian/gay, 5% as Queer, 3% as asexual, 3% as pansexual and 1%

The survey results presented today are not entirely representative of the U-M population. Despite our best efforts, statis

tical skews continue to occur. More than half of survey respondents identified as women, which means that responses may favor the female-identifying perspective. And given the explicit nature of the questions, these survey results are likely representative of students who are more comfortable with topics surrounding sex and sexual curiosity — as they may be more inclined to fill out the survey than students who are less comfortable discussing sex. However, we also acknowledge the possibility that some respondents may have not been entirely truthful or refrained from answering certain questions throughout the survey.

Additionally, the distribution of sexual orientations presented in this sample may not be reflective of the array of sexual identities amongst the entire U-M student body. There may also be a heteronormative skew due to the phrasing of the questions asked and the corresponding answers. Segments regarding relationships, kinks, sex education and contraception, in particular, may not be representative of all sexual orientations and identities. The results may also favor students who follow The Michigan Daily on social media platforms, the mode by which the

THE STATEMENT EDITORIAL STAFF

Vivien Wang/DAILY

College and Class Standing

This semester, 61% of students at the University have gotten it on — two percentage points lower than last year. Perhaps the class of 2024 was particularly hot and we’ve all been pining since their departure from campus, or maybe Michigan Math got just that much harder. Whatever it is, the Leaders and Best are hooking up (slightly) less than they have in two years. While the majority of the campus was getting down and dirty, 39% of students were embracing a sex-free semester. To the students who “held hands premaritally” and referred to it as their most interesting sexual experiences to date, we’re proud of you for putting yourselves out there — but not actually putting out, of course.

More than half of the freshman class has been entirely celibate in their first semester at the University — but, a little more than 2% are putting socks on their residence-hall doors more than once a day. To their roommates: We salute you.

To any lonely Wolverines, if you’re in the market for a major and perhaps a more-thanstudy buddy, look no further than a degree in architecture; 77% of Taubman School of Architecture students have spent their semester in the sheets. Among their extensive blueprint collections, there may be one titled “success in the bedroom.” On the other hand, our friends in Kinesiology appear to be sexually frustrated —

Relationships and Consent

When it comes to the birds and the bees, we must understand the different acts Wolverines carry out with glee. According to our results, 99% of the student body believes sex to be penetrative, and 44% think sex consists of other genital contact. The majority of students believe you can only give affirmative consent while sober, with 59% of students also saying a verbal “yes” is the only way to consent to sexual activity. While Wolverines are mostly in agreement about how to define sex and consent, things get a little hazier when it comes to hookup culture. Eighty-five percent of students believe that hooking up is synonymous with penetrative sex, 54% of students believe it entails heavy petting and 39% consider it to mean making out. So next time you send that “u up?” text, make sure you and your partner are on the same page about what you’re signing up for!

We know how popular the Michigan Marriage Pact is on campus and figured that you Wolverines were ready to start settling down; but while 65% of students identified the relationship with their sexual partner or partners as exclusive, 19% of students indicated that they were in a casual relationship — so don’t expect to be getting a ring by spring. The respondent who said that “sex doesn’t always involve people who want to be parents,” you seem to have gotten it right on the nose. While sex can be part of planning your future with your partner, it can also be spontaneous and relaxed.

Speaking of planning, many Wolverines are committed to figuring out the Blue Buses if it means they can spend the night with that special someone. Fourteen percent of students said they would be willing to travel from Central Campus to North Campus for sexual purposes,

Sexual Education and Safe Sex Practices

When asked where they first gained knowledge about rolling in the hay, 72% of students said they first learned about sex from the internet and social media as opposed to more formal resources, such as medical professionals or school environments. This underscores the already glaring knowledge that the sex education curriculum is lacking for many students, as less than half (41%) of students learned about sex in a classroom setting.

Fifty-three percent of students first learned of sex from their friends. Perhaps this openness translates to everyday college life: Thirty-four percent of students regularly discuss their sexual escapades with their friends, and 43% sometimes discuss sexual topics with their friends. Furthermore, levels of these forthcoming conversations vary from college to college. Students in the Rackham Graduate School tend to be the most private about sex, with only 20% discussing their sex lives often with their friends. On the contrary, more than 50% of Public Policy and Business students chat with their friends frequently about their sex lives. Predictably, students are more reticent about their sexual experiences with their families, with 48% of students hoping to avoid “the talk” as much as possible.

50% of them haven’t done the deed all semester. Maybe winning the National Championship was all the satisfaction these sports nuts needed. And, in a surprising turn of events, engineers have proven they have better sex lives than some of their LSA counterparts. It seems like these computer science lovers have finally picked up some game, and no we’re not referring to their video game skills. In any event, LSA students who major in Quantitative Analysis or Natural Science are having 4-7% (respectively) less sex than their engineering peers. At this point, if you have no chemistry with your lab partner, you might as well pack it up and catch the next bus up to the Gerstacker Grove.

Online Dating

Speaking of taboo topics, only 18% of students have taken advantage of the sexual health services that the University provides, including University Health Services’ free sexually transmitted infection testing and the Sexual Health website. For the 82% of you who have not taken advantage of these resources that are so easily at your disposal, we would suggest getting out of the sheets and heading to the UHS Building before and after you engage in the deed.

This isn’t to say that Michigan students aren’t engaging in safe sexual practices. Twenty-one percent of students often ask for their partner(s)’ sexual history before getting down and dirty. Furthermore, of those who use contraception, condoms are the preferred method for 68% of students — the phrase “no glove, no love” comes to mind here. This is followed by birth control pills for 34% of students, and lastly (and by far the most risky), the withdrawal method for 21% of students. For those of you who enjoy the precarious experience of “pulling out,” we implore you to seek that thrill in other ways in your sex life. Wolverine Wellness offers a variety of free contraceptives, such as free condoms, dental dams and lubricants, so that you can keep it clean while staying freaky.

although we’re not sure who would willingly risk an interruption by Bursley or Baits flooding. Thirty-six percent of respondents said they would be willing to travel within Ann Arbor which might just mean figuring out the city buses, too — unless you’re the respondent who informed us that they once had sex “in a hot tub overlooking the French Riviera.” You can probably afford an Uber.

Regardless of where U-M students are having sex — whether it’s in the Hatcher Graduate Library stacks, tents in the woods or the Necto bathroom — the orgasm gap remains alive and well. Of the female respondents, 64% attested to faking sexual satisfaction, while 57% of male respondents have never once faked an orgasm. For advice on how to close this gap, we defer to the respondent who put it most bluntly: “Most women do not orgasm from penetration.”

Kinks and Fetishes

With the holidays on the horizon, we regret to say that some U-M students may find themselves on the naughty list this Christmas season. But, according to your responses, that seems to be just the way you like it. Eighty-four percent of students are at least a little freaky, according to the vanilla scale, with 26% of students rating themselves as “mostly vanilla,” 29% as “somewhat vanilla,” 22% as “a little bit vanilla” and 7% as “not at all vanilla.” Students are evidently craving some spice in their lives, and they are ready to take it to the kitchen… and the bedroom… and the bathroom floor. Let’s just say, Shaggy would be proud.

However, the College of Pharmacy has some real freaks in their sheets, with 26.3% of pharmacy students rating themselves as “not at all vanilla” — the highest portion of not-so-plain Janes out of any school on campus. We were wondering where all those little blue pills went.

Conversely, the School of Information likes to keep things simple, with 8.5% of students rating themselves as “entirely vanilla” — a significantly higher statistic than any other school or college at the Uni -

In 2024, many U-M students have gotten lucky in the internet dating sphere. Although all the typical platforms remain popular, Wolverines have sought out sex on a variety of online mediums this season. The majority of students have once again found themselves swiping right, with 61% of respondents on Tinder. Fifty percent of respondents have also tested the waters on Hinge. However, a small but mighty group of respondents have turned to less conventional forums of online dating — but, hey, does size really matter? In this case, we think not: 17% of respondents like to get hot and heavy on Snapchat, 12% of respondents are down and dirty in the Instagram DMs and 4% of respondents are turned on by a good LinkedIn profile. The Rossholes seem to have taken networking to a whole new level this year. And for those of you wondering if you’ll find your soulmate on one of these apps, you’re probably better off looking confused in a Home Depot. Fifty-three of campus singles primarily use dating apps and social media for casual browsing, hooking up and boosting their own self-esteem. For the 22% of students who are looking for a relationship on Tinder, you may find more inviting prospects on Hinge or Bumble — 27% of students on Hinge are seeking a relationship while 32% are ready to meet the one on Bumble. If that doesn’t work, the Michigan Marriage Pact may be the way to go, though only 1% of respondents seem to have achieved long-lasting, sexual success with their matches. But for the quantitative and natural sciences majors in LSA, truly nothing can hurt at this point. You may even want to join the minority seeking out sex on Twitter, TikTok and Spotify — we hear that shared playlists are all the rage in the Shapiro Undergraduate Library study rooms.

versity. They say knowledge is power, and perhaps with that data, some students will choose to throw something new into the mix for next year.

Maybe they’d be willing to try out some rope play, as bondage and restraints appear to be the most popular kink on campus for the second year in a row — suggesting that at least 65% of students have lived out their “Fifty Shades of Grey” fantasy. It seems as though the rope bunnies in Ann Arbor were busy multiplying this past spring.

If kinks and fetishes aren’t quite your style, plenty of other gadgets and gizmos have found their way into students’ beds. Vibrators have once again received a glowing review, with 77% of campus having employed one, either alone or with a partner. More than 25% of total respondents have also gotten creative with dildos, anal beads, cock rings and gags. And, according to the free responses, some of you have even experimented with edibles and a variety of fruits. To the respondent who once used cough medicine, we hope you saved yourself a trip to the doctors.

Read more at michigandaily.com

ALLANA SMITH Statement Contributor

I suppose that the average college girl hopes to be a cool girl — a chill girl. She is sex positive in a decidedly unradical, libfem way. She doesn’t mind if he cums on her face or pulls her hair too hard. Perhaps she’ll even let him place a hand upon her throat during the most casual of her heterosexual encounters, let him squeeze, the way she’s seen men do in the most obscene of pornographies.

To the chill girl, some pain exists as euphoric, or rather should exist as euphoric. We are pink mouths and raw knees, we wear his sweat upon our skin just as any seasoned chill girl would. His fingerprints upon our thighs remain a rite of passage.

I am a chill girl, maybe. I certainly like being chosen, perhaps in the way a person might, as we are predisposed as individuals to vie for the approval of our peers — in an unintellectual, potentially nonfeminist way. Though, I am often faced with the fleeting realization of “This man wants to fuck me.” And I don’t think I enjoy it — the weight of a heavy, wandering eye; the “what’s your name?”; the “where are you going?”; the “we keep seeing each other. I think we’re meant to be’s.” He said it must be fate, I said I just go to school here.

The more mainstream examples of sex-positive rhetoric come in the form of popular television. For instance, streaming platform Max’s “The Sex Lives of College Girls” follows four suitemates as they navigate relationships, extracurriculars and a new college environment that brings independence and freedom. In episode one, “Welcome to Essex,” one of the main characters, Bela Malhotra, resorts to giving six hand jobs to secure a position as writer for the campus comedy magazine after being told that there may not be enough female spots available. Bela is not a histrionic feminist —dramatic or theatrical, as her suitemate Leighton has warned against being — instead, she’s chill and “fun to have around.” And she wants to be picked.

She’s sex positive. Deal with it.

We chill girls are down for anything. This wish to be picked and consumed has been redefined as feminist. An expression of agency.

But agency is not freedom.

As we demand space for individual women to enact the most conventional forms of heterosexuality, “women like sex” remains a true statement; but, it is no longer radical, and our patriarchal complicity remains nonsubversive.

Her.

Girl meets boy, or, I suppose, boy meets girl. She appears, and he watches her. Me. Us. And He decides that we are made for Him. Her womanhood is a commodity, made to be looked upon. The boy, this masculine figure — He acts, He watches, He is our avid consumer. He believes that He is owed us. The softness of our lips and skin, the length of our legs. She is public property. This passive female, do I emulate Her? Am I straightened hair and blushing cheeks? Am I a thong and a tiny skirt? Do I perform like Her and wish to be consumed? Am I being duped to an existence that culminates in some fleeting thought of “am I sexy now?”

Her theoretical self, She does not exist — Her female-ness, Her femininity is a violent thing. Her subordination is an act innate to Her. She is ran through, fucked. In Her passiveness, Her proximity to the more active male degrades her. She is a submission to vile affection. And what have we done?

We have served our function, we are a supple body for the cannibal to savor. We watch Him watch us, lay pliant while He engorges Himself. We watch while he takes our hated flesh and consumes us whole.

As girls, we spend our lives abjectly hunted. Should it make us feel special to be looked upon? We are seen and unheard, we are meat at first breath. Our beauty is a currency, something indicative of our value.

Within His masculinity, He prospers, flourishes — His maleness exists as some innate fact of reality. He is first a boy king, then a male “conqueror.” Aloof to his power, to the cruelty of His gaze. At the helm of His consumption we are His whores. The feminine is Othered. We are second-to. We are bitches, we are cunts.

And He is at the center. He is our whole world.

A woman, in all her loveliness and apathy, is made.

Who am I? If not a pussy, a body — for Him.

If, as feminist activist Andrea Dworkin suggests, equality is defined by physical wholeness, then He — the patriarch — has carved out a place within us. We are chosen by him. And our body is not our own. We — the passive feminine — exist for him. Live for him, breathe for him. Suffocate without Him.

Am I suffocating in my rejection of Him? Am I nothing now?

I am not an object, or a pretty toy with plastic hair, encased in plastic and glitter with rooted lashes and painted makeup. But She, the traditional feminine, She is His ball jointed doll, She is His prey.

“You’re smart, pretty. But I can’t imagine you as a scholar. Like this, you’ll never get married.”

Or so I’ve been told at the University of Michigan by an older man who saw Jordan Peterson as the paragon of male virtue in his misogyny and audacity. A man who believes feminism to be ruining the lives of young women and girls. Does my fear and anger ruin me? If masculinity is “order” and femininity is “chaos” then Her place is at His feet, satiated by His attention, His con sumption.

Have I failed? I am an offensive body, seen and heard. What am I worth if I will never be Her? What is my worth outside of a family? If I will never become His wife, their mother, His private property. Lick His boots and accept my subordination. The feminine exists as a ritual of humiliation; it is a quality of degrada tion, a process of reduc ing Her to mere flesh, to the meaning ascribed to Her sex.

Thus, She certainly must be re evaluated and He must be decentered. In decentering Him, the narrative be gins to shift. His gaze, which had once defined Her, becomes irrelevant. She remains a singular person, an individual with subjective experi ence, a past, a present, a future. Her identity is not Her own. Therefore, She must make Her own meaning and shed Her place as the bearer of it. The masculine cannot dictate her worth, her identity. Her autonomy must be asserted — not in quiet submission, but with bold defiance. Her life can not be spent on her back, barefoot and pregnant. As a piece of breath ing furniture, a pretty thing to look at. She is more than His sister or His Mother. His daughter or His wife. Someone kept, given away, and then kept again. We must acknowledge Her intrinsic value, Her right to a life well and fully lived. As we con tinue to redefine the traditional feminine, degradation will cease to be a facet of Her identity, and thus patriarchal convention will be subverted.

The socially constructed feminine renders us passive par

ticipants within the male-female dichotomy. We exist in the shadow of His gaze, defined by what we are to and for Him. Our identities should not be His to shape, our bodies should not be His to claim. Our personhood entails something greater than a commodity,

Four small words taught me that hookup culture has become too casual

MIKAELA LEWIS

with an answer other than that I wanted her. I went through the casual hookup phase early on in college, one that many undergraduates explore. Aided by a fusion of alcohol and emotional detachment, sex was something I would do with girls who I never planned to see again, girls who I seldom knew the last name of. Hookup culture wasn’t necessarily fun for me, but that’s what everyone else seemed to be doing.

Coming from a conservative county in New Jersey, I was terrified when I realized I liked girls. Since I never had much of a chance to meet Queer girls in high school, I dove headfirst into the deep end upon arriving in open-minded Ann Arbor.

I originally thought my attraction to women made me bisexual. I treated my sexual desires as something I could satiate within four years, conveniently 600 miles from my hometown; my extended family would never find out I wasn’t “perfectly” straight. Since I was bisexual, I had eight semesters to get the attraction to women out of my system before returning to New Jersey to settle down with a man. Except, I am a lesbian. Realizing I was attracted to girls was frightening, but coming to terms with the fact that I was repulsed by men was a rude awakening. Sure, I can admit when a man is conventionally attractive, but that doesn’t mean I’d ever want to be with one. This stark realization forced me to consider the deviation between who I find hot and who I could love. A month into my freshman year, eating lunch across from a new friend in Mosher-Jordan Residence Hall, I referred to myself with the “L word” for the first time.

For the next two years, I would go out on the weekends and go home with strangers. I don’t know if I was trying to prove something to myself or to my peers, but I do know that it took a while to realize I was effectively out of touch with my body — detached from my unfulfilled emotional needs.

Then, as sophomore year winded down, I met someone. Unfortunately, this connection was hampered by her impending flight to Spain, where she would study for two months. As I attempted to memorize every detail about her to remember while she was away, I found myself becoming infatuated. My obsession existed far beyond her body; she was the first person I starved to get

to know, reciprocating her genuine interest in myself.

I realized I could fall in love with her, so I did what any reasonable 19 year old would do: I ghosted her.

Of course, that’s not how this story ends. With a heartfelt apology and full accountability on my end — “sorry, my phone was dead … for three days” — I convinced her to sleep over in our last few hours living on the same continent. Maybe subconsciously, I was testing to see if she actually liked me beyond my body. But mostly because I wanted to deviate from emotionless encounters, I asked her if it was OK if we didn’t have sex. She reassured me with a kiss, then fell asleep with her hand clasped in mine. Despite the ensuing time difference and ocean between us, she continued to peel back my layers day in and day out and let me chip away at the guard she held up, too. I started to realize that sex did not equate connection.

In Spain, when she was merely gray text bubbles in my phone, I told her I hated being called “hot” because I felt as though it carried the implication of sex. She materialized more with each instance she called me beautiful instead. Even with about 4,000 miles between us, I was heard.

By the time she got back to the United States, we had built a genuine connection and I was sure my attraction for her was allencompassing. Between kisses on our first night reunited, she whispered, “What do you want?” I had no idea how to respond. Sexual encounters for me usually played out like a game of follow-the-leader, lacking any verbal communication beyond consent.

How did I get through numerous hookups without having a conversation about my wants? It never occurred to me to voice my desires because I was never prompted to. I didn’t even know what my desires were.

So when she asked, I froze; my mind went blank before I let out an awkward chuckle and tried to brush it off. She persisted and asked again, “What do you want?” and I registered that she was the first person who cared enough to ask. Hot blood rushed into my cheeks, and, overcome by a wave of emotions I could not articulate, I rolled on my back and stared at the ceiling; tears silently streaming while she consoled me.

With four small words, my idea of sex transitioned from something I do to something I have. The next night she asked me to be her girlfriend, and we spent several more nights discussing how sex is just one component of our relationship, not the cornerstone of it. With many more hours of talking and admittedly a few more tears, she taught me how

sex could be a way to share existing intimacy, not a thing to feel pressured to do because our friends were doing it.

Everyone can recall their first time — usually memorable for all the wrong reasons. Most people would agree that losing your virginity is awkward because you don’t really know what you’re doing. Since I was always playing follow the leader, each new partner was entirely different than the last, so every encounter was preceded by the same nerves as the first time. If you’re not in touch with how you truly view sex — beyond the influence of your peers — whether you’ve had sex with one person or 100 people, it will feel like you’re re-losing your virginity each time.

The worst part of hooking up with strangers was immediately after. If I won the game of a night out in college and got invited back to a girl’s apartment, I would slip out at 3:00 a.m. because a sleepover would be too intimate for me. Walking home alone in the middle of the night was sobering; it felt inherently dirty to so easily share something supposedly intimate with a complete stranger, but then to leave at the risk of something terrifyingly intimate like cuddling.

I joked with my friends that if she and I ever broke up, I would accidentally say “I love you” to the next person I slept with out of habit. I can’t imagine starting over with someone who doesn’t know my body, someone who doesn’t know me or, worst of all, someone who doesn’t care to ask. Our intimate relationship has always been so comfortable, even when communicating was uncomfortable. For the first time in my life, communicating felt possible. With her, I am perfectly safe.

The best part of having sex with someone you love is immediately after. Feeling her fingers run through my hair, we bask in the silence. It’s broken only by the rhythmic pumping of her heart where my ear is pressed against her chest. Getting up for a shower together wouldn’t have any ulterior implications, just help scrubbing my back. My apprehension of intimacy faded away knowing I wouldn’t face the sinking feeling of a midnight walk home alone.

With each subliminal lesson, she led me to unlearn the notion that a woman’s body is inherently sexual, an idea instilled in young girls’ minds through dress codes and victim blaming. We celebrated our first anniversary the same way it all started, but this time it was me who was living on another continent for a few months.

Vivien Wang/DAILY

Sex Survey Responses

W hat do you wish you had learned about sex when you were younger?

How important it is to be confident in your boundaries, and how to get out of an unsafe sexual situation.

Do not rush into it

It’s not all it’s cracked up to be and it almost never lives up to your expectations. It’s still pretty cool

It’s not evil, bad, or dirty

That it is awesome

Just communicate, it will get you a long way

Not everyone finishes using the same methods

Don’t feel pressured to have sex because your friends are.

More same-sex and queer sexuality, as well as how to have sex when you aren’t able-bodied or cisgendered

How to put on a condom properly

What was your most interesting sexual experience?

Ever heard of Bronners?

Having sex in a tent next to a group of Boy Scouts (we didn’t know they were there until the next morning...)

Trying to keep our dogs away while we get it on

I once cuddled with a girl. That was the furthest I’ve ever gotten Mason hall bathroom

one time my apple watch called my mom and left her a voicemail but it was just fabric rustling on the watch (thank god)

The first time I realized I didn’t want to engage with male genitalia

Caught in a parking lot with my hands duct-taped together by a cop while getting a BJ

Having sex in an old navy or target dressing room

Vivien Wang/DAILY