The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com Monday, March 21, 2011 - 5A The Michigan Daily - michigandailycomMonday, March 21, 2011 - 5A QUAKE From Page 1A his friends and family in Tokyo. At first, Matsushima said he wasn't sure if the images he saw were real. "It was really hard to take in," Matsushima said. "It took me a couple of hours justto grasp what was going on." Matsushima said he eventual- ly learned that his family is safe, but was very anxious while wait- ing for the delayed delivery time it took for an e-mail to reach his " mother. In frequent communication with his family, Matsushima said he's learned that though they had stocked up on rice and other foods before the disaster, Tokyo is now running out of food. His family's home is also affected by planned power outages - which also cause a temporary loss of heat - so that power can be diverted to the northern part of the country. Though Matsushima and people his age have experienced earthquakes before, he said he feels his age group was more affected by this quake than the older generation. "This is the first time for all the people my age to experience something this devastating," Matsushima said. From a young age, Matsushi- ma said his school held earth- quake and fire drills, but even with this preparation, he said his friends were still unprepared for the level of destruction. "The thing is, it really hap- pens; we have earthquakes, so we have drills," he said. "But we actually do that in real life too." LSA senior Kenta Hayashi, an international student at the University, said he also clearly remembers drills from his kin- dergarten class in Tokyo. Though his family has since moved to Taiwan, he said he has friends and extended family in Japan, who are safe but shaken by the disaster. He added that amid the initial shock, there is still civil order and no reports of looting. Matsushima said he believes the reason for the lack of panic stems from the Japanese culture of respecting others. "We're basically educated to RHA From Page 1A hope to establish regulations in time for the 2012 election. "Now we're just ready to get a permanent policy in place, get input 9 from anyone who is interested and t would be affected by this policy, and move on quickly," Jones said. Currently, only an interim policy is in place, Jones said. Anyone liv- ing in a residence hall is allowed to knock on doors within that hall to campaign for candidates or discuss any other political issues. Jones said this policy placed limitations on political activities within the residence halls during this past November's elections since stu- dents who don't live in a residence hall aren't allowed to canvass in the building. This interim policy will expire at the end of the semester, at which point the residence halls will return to the previous policy which only allows members of the Michigan Student Assembly or Voice Your Vote, an MSA commis- sion that advocates for students to vote, to canvass in the residence halls, Jones said. She added that the College Democrats and the ACLU respect other people andto think about ourselves second and oth- ers first," Matsushima said. Matsushima said he has seen this awareness of helping others extend across Twitter feeds, with his friends re-tweeting basic first aid and emergency information. In Kyoto, people of all ages are bucketing to raise money for those affected by the disaster, Resnick said. She said she the city has seen an influx of people seekingrefuge from the radiation and lack of food in the northeast. These refugees are almost indis- tinguishable from Kyoto citizens, Resnick said. "Sometimes it's hard to tell them apart from ordinary people because they don't look any dif- ferent," she said. "They act the same; it's just that they're here because they feel that here's a bit safer." But even as students in Japan help garner funds for the victims, Hayashi said he and his friends don't truly know how to help the victims of the disaster. "There's a lot of sense of hope- lessness among the younger generation because they want to help but don't know what to do," Hayashi said. He added that he believes because the older generation lived through the destruction of World War II, they're able to help younger people cope with this disaster. With her program canceled and her return to Michigan on Wednesday, Resnick said she and others in her program wish they could stay to help with relief efforts. She said she still feels safe in Kyoto, and this is an unex- pected end to her program. "I think we're all kind of feel- ing shocked and wondering why (the program is canceled)," she said. Resnick was part of the Kyoto Consortium for Japanese Stud- ies headed by Columbia Univer- sity. However, the University also canceled its undergraduate study abroad program in Japan for the semester since the U.S. State Department issued a travel warning to the country. The Uni- versity has a policy not to host international study programs in nations that have U.S. State Department travelwarnings. The 10 University undergradu- believe that a representative from any registered student organization should be able to campaign in the residence halls. "We really thought it was impor- tant that we set upa working group to get the ball rolling on putting into place a better permanent poli- cy," Jones said. The resolution passed last week doesn't propose a new policy, but it does establish a working group to discuss the situation and potential policies, Jones said. She added that it's important to get this dialogue started since people were unsure of the canvassing rules in the 2008 and 2010 elections. Business sophomore Trevor Grieb, president of RHA, wrote in an e-mail interview that the asso- ciation supports the working group so that a permanent policy can eventually be adopted. He added that RHA doesn't support one pol- icy over another. "Some representatives wanted no political activity in the dorms, others welcomed as much politi- cal activity as possible, as long as security was still strictly managed within the halls," Grieb wrote. Jones said the University has been willing to engage in discussion about potential policies, adding atesbstudying in Japan are com- ing back to the United States and will be able to enroll in classes in Ann Arbor, according to Fitzger- ald. The six University graduate students who are also in Japan this semester will decide inde- pendently whether to stay in Japan or return to the United States, he said. Resnick said the prevailing feeling in Kyoto is that the coun- try will recover from the devas- tation. "I think that now the main feeling is a sense of we can rebuild and there is hope," she said. Here in Ann Arbor, Hayashi said the Japan Student Associa- tion - of which he is internal vice president and Matsushima is a member - painted the rock with the phrase "Pray for Japan" on Friday and is making wristbands and T-shirts to fundraise money for the Red Cross in Japan. The group is also fundraising by mak- ing origami cranes and area busi- nesses have agreed to give money to the group for every 1,000 cranes they create. But even with these efforts and his own donations, Hayashi said he wishes he could do more. He added that he felt strange on St. Patrick's Day amid the celebra- tions in Ann Arbor while people in Japan were suffering. Though Matsushima's mid- term studying was affected by constantly monitoring the situa- tion, he said he and many of his friends who are studying abroad at other universities outside Japan feel guilty about going about their daily lives. But he said he hopes to take the education and skills he learns here to help Japan when he returns in May. "We kind of feel guilt about us being happy and having fun, leading ordinary lives, doing homework, while our friends in Japan are migrating to the West and going to supermarkets in search of food and trying to donate whatever they can to the East," Matsushima said. "We think we kind of have to live on and try to get whatever we (can) from the life we're having here because we're going back in the future." - The Associated Press contributed to this report. that ACLU decided to collaborate with RHA to give University Hous- ingstudent feedback. "They really wanted input from RHA since that is the organization that represents students living in the residence halls," she said. University Housing spokesman Peter Logan wrote in an e-mail interview that the residence halls are seen as the private homes of students living in them. "University Housing has not allowed open access to the halls for door-to-door canvassing because it would compromise the privacy and security of the residents - not unlike someone enteringyour home and knocking on your bedroom door to advocate a candidate, an organization or a cause," he wrote. University Housing isn't push- ing for a particular policy in the working group and will continue an ongoing discussion on the topic since student opinions are valued in the creation of Housing policies, Logan wrote. "We want to know what the RHA, as representatives of our resident students, feel is useful and appropriate for the housing com- munities and their residents, as well as what would be practical for Housingstaffto manage," he wrote. Holocaust survivors share their stories with students More than 40 survivors, 250 attendees gather at Hillel luncheon By KIMBERLY PAGEAU Daily StaffReporter Zygie Allweiss was only 12 years old when the Holocaust began, but he vividly remembers breaking stones everyday at a labor camp in Poland and seeing his uncle and two aunts shot in the back of their heads by Ger- man soldiers. Allweiss was one of more than 40 Holocaust survivors, who came to tell their personal accounts at the 4th annual Con- ference on the Holocaust at the University of Michigan Hillel yesterday. Organized by the Children of the Holocaust Survivors Asso- ciation of Michigan and the University's Hillel, the confer- ence had 250 guests, who were assigned to sit at tables where the survivors individually shared their experiences during World War II. After the confer- ence, students were asked to sign a pledge to tell the survivor's story in 2045 - the 100th anni- versary of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp. LSA junior Haley Volk, a co-chair of the event, said she decided to get involved with Holocaust commemoration because her grandparents were survivors. In high school, she worked with her grandmother to record and her grandparents' experiences. "When my grandfather passed away, we realized that nobody had ever recorded his story," she said. Volk said she thinks it's important for students to hear the stories firsthand from a sur- vivor instead of simply learning the facts about the Holocaust. "It's one thing to read it in a textbook, but it's another thing to hear it firsthand and to hear it from the person who actu- ally experienced it," Volk said. "While we have the opportu- nity, while the survivors are still alive, we should definitely take advantage of that." Another survivor who spoke to a table of students at yester- day's event, Gerry Kraus, was 6 years old when the war began. Born in Berlin, Kraus spent the duration of the war hiding from Nazis. Initially, he stayed with relatives living near Berlin but had to leave after a Nazi SS officer moved in with them. He spent the remainder of the war living in various bombed out buildings, he told the group. "By my wits and some good fortune I managed to survive living in and around Berlin," he said. He said even after the con- clusion of the war, he struggled with reliving the past and had difficulty moving on. "I have been torn between wanting to go on with life and leaving the past behind me and feeling an obligation to those that survived," he told the table of attendees. Mark Webber told the stu- dentsat his table the story of how he escaped to Russia to avoid the war. He recounted dealing with the remnants of anti-Semitism in Poland, which led to the mur- der of his parents a year after the close of WWII. LSA freshman Natasha Nanus said the survivor she spoke with emphasized the importance of valuing your life and others' lives. "Our survivor stressed that we are all individuals and that we have to take our lives into our own hands," Nanus said. "We have to make a promise to ourselves not to hurt any other human being." POWWOW From Page 1A Pasfield, a senior member of the powwow committee and a member of the Bay Mills Tribe, said in an interview before the event that she enjoys the pow- wow because of its ability to bring people together. "To see people from differ- ent nations, different tribes and different parts of the country is the most special part ..." Pas- field said. "No matter what's going on at the campus or in life, Native (American) stu- dents at the University of Mich- igan can be counted on toput on this really incredible powwow for the community, bringing people together under a com- mon cause." At the event, dancers moved in circles formed around drums Pasfield compared to "the size of a standard dining room table." She said every movement made during the course of the powwow, includ- ing the dancers' circular motions, is symbolic and rep- resentative of a larger cultural theme. The dancer's circular motions represent the circle of life, a thematic element in Native American culture, Pasfield said. Even the direc- tion from which the dancers entered the circular arena, the east, is derived from the direc- tion in which the sun rises every morning. Yvonne Moore, a longtime powwow attendee, said the drummers live a life free of alcohol, drugs and adultery because when they play their drums, they pay homage to the Earth and to their cul- tural roots. Aside from the artistic displays, two issues arose throughout the course of the event - racism against Native Americans today and the tension that exists between the University and NASA. Representatives from the Michigan Coalition Against Racism in Sports and Media had a table displaying various Native American racial slurs in common products and the media today - like how sports teams frequently use the name "Redskins." The organization sends memos to school boards and regents of various universi- ties, requesting that the derog- atory slogans, mascots and imagery be removed, according to Todd Linder, a member of the organization. Though the University held the event for many years at Crisler Arena the powwow moved to Saline Middle School three years ago. Rick Schott, a longtime Mother Earth Powwow secu- rity and event coordinator, said one of the reasons for the venue change was due to ten- sions stemming from the Uni- versity's policy of requiring tribes to provide evidence of ownership or affiliation with the artifacts in the Univer- sity's Exhibit Natural History Museum in order for them to be returned to the tribes. Fol- lowing the Native American Graves Protection and Repa- triation Act, which was cre- ated in 1990 and updated in March 2010, institutions that receive federal funding are required to return Native American artifacts to their original owners. Schott said the University's process of requiring proof of affiliation "upsets and saddens" him because he thinks many tribes cannot meet the Univer- sity's requirement. University spokesman Rick Fitzgerald wrote in an e-mail interview that the Univer- sity has a "moratorium" on any research with NAGPRA remains and has contact- ed tribes affiliated with the objects still in the University's possession to inform them of their possible claims. While waiting for a response from tribes, Fitzgerald wrote that the University will hold onto the objects in a "ritually appro- priate way." LSA junior Alys Alley, who is a member of the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians and a senior member of the powwow committee, wrote in an e-mail interview that she would "like to see more institutional sup- port from the University for Native (American) students, especially when it comes to recruitment and retention." "We are at a critical time where our incoming classes of Native (American) students are getting smaller and smaller, and I hope that this problem can gain more attention and resources from the University," Alley wrote. Despite the politics and change in locations, Martin said the powwow is stilla mem- orable and enriching experi- ence. "It is one of the greatest days of the year, and something everyone should experience in their life, whether Native American or not," Martin said. "After 39 years, it is just as spe- cial now as it was on day one." I Please join us for a special presentation by Drew Westen, PhD Professor, Dept. of Psychology and Psychiatry, Emory University Personality and Depression in College Students: Opportunities for Early Intervention and Treatment Tuesday, March 29, 3:00-4:00 pm Rackham Auditorium, 915 E. Washington St. No charge for attendance-Open to the public Dr. Westen's major areas of research include personality and personality disorders in adolescents and adults, psychotherapy, and political psychology. His book, The Political Brain, has had a wide influence internationally. This lecture is presented as part of the U-M Depression on College Campuses Conference. No registration is required to attend Dr. Westen's lecture.