4A - Wednesday, April 3, 2013
The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
4A - Wednesday, April 3, 2013 The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
~J~ie 1Mid1igan &4
Edited and managed by students at
the University of Michigan since 1890.
420 Maynard St.
Ann Arbor, MI 48109
tothedaily@michigandaily.com
ANDREW WEINER
EDITOR IN CHIEF
MELANIE KRUVELIS
and ADRIENNE ROBERTS
EDITORIAL PAGE EDITORS
MATT SLOVIN
MANAGING EDITOR
After what feels like a very long winter,
this has been a fabulous new spring for
Michigan basketball. And don't be
shocked if it gets better."
-Detroit Free Press columnist Mitch Albom said in his on April 2 column.
Fact or fiction?
Unsigned editorials reflect the official position of the Daily's editorial board.
All other signed articles and illustrations represent solely the views of their authors.
Funding mental health
The University and CSG need to make sure CAPS is well-funded
With rising student debt and a shaky job market, stressors
for college students are taking their toll. In the last 10
years, the number of psychological disorders found in
college students has increased: One study by the National Alliance on
Mental Illness shows that 40 percent feel overwhelmed by stress on
a daily basis. Like many colleges and universities, the University has
its own mental health service, Counseling and Psychological Services
to combat these issues. Because of its proven benefits, CAPS has been
flooded with students seeking counseling. It has become increas-
ingly obvious that it does not have the resources to help everyone
who needs it. To ensure that these programs are continued and made
more accessible to students, the responsibility lies in the support of
CSG and additional funding from the University.
The current wait time for a CAPS appoint-
ment is an estimated eight days; however,
students sometimes have had to wait two or
three weeks for an opening. This delay could
be quite damaging to the students who need
help. For urgent cases, CAPS offers imme-
diate appointments as well as a 24/7 crisis
phone line, but the wording on their website
judges an "emergency" with arbitrary time
frames. This wording may make students
question whether their problem is urgent
enough and may discourage them from mak-
ing an appointment. CAPS would also ben-
efit by implementing late-night and weekend
hours so students can get help as soon as they
need it. The necessity of CAPS for students on
campus is growing, and making these chang-
es now is critical to the continued success of
the program.
The fact that CAPS is struggling to keep up
with the demand for its services points to a
problem with University mental health ser-
vices. This issue was brought to light in the
CSG election by independent candidate Scott,
Christopher, who campaigned to expand the
mental health services program in order to
promote campus safety. Though he did not
win the election, it's still crucial that his
promise to work on improving CAPS is car-
ried out by the new CSG president. Although
the University has had budget cuts, a pro-
gram as effective as CAPS should not have to
feel these effects. If anything, CAPS should
receive more funding to expand services.
For example, CAPS offers group counseling,
a form of counseling some students prefer in
order to learn from others. Yet, CAPS only
offers a handful of group counseling sessions
that only apply to a small percentage of stu-
dents. With increased funding, CAPS could
offer more diverse group sessions that appeal
to more students.
With its capable counseling staff, health-
education seminars and stress-reducing
events like Puppy Day, CAPS is an important
and appreciated student resource. Because of
its direct connection to students' well-being
and campus safety, continuing and strength-
ening the success of CAPS is not something
that Qan be casually thrown on the back burn
er. An improvement in the mental health ser-
vices benefits the entire student body.
ately, I've been watching
the popular YouTube web
series "The Lizzie Bennet
Diaries." The
show, which
offers a tart spin
on the Jane Aus-
ten classic Pride
and Prejudice,
reincarnates the
heroine, Eliza-
beth "Lizzie"
Bennet, as a E JENNIFER
modern-day XU
24-year-old
graduate stu-
dent who starts a video blog for a
school project.
I want to put it out there that this
show is brilliant. Each of the 100
episodes is six minutes long at most,
running every Monday and Thurs-
day as a continuous vlog series. And
though the program was designed
to be consumed in short, digestible
diary segments, I've ingested 30 or
40 of them in a few breathless gulps.
There's somethingto be said about
the staying power of the romance
between Elizabeth Bennet and Mr.
Darcy, which has endured so many
reformulations over the years yet
isn't stale. One might presume that
"She is tolerable; but not handsome
enough to tempt me" would get old
after its umpteenth utterance by
Darcy doppelgangers in an assort-
ment of coiffures and colloquialisms.
But if you are of this camp, prepareto
be surprised, because "LBD" bursts
with freshness and ingenuity.
Take Mr. Bingley, the adorably
clueless object of Jane Bennet's
affections, who's reinvented as a
rich Chinese medical student from
Los Angeles called "Bing Lee,"
or Mr. Darcy, re-imagined in the
21st century as a taciturn hipster.
What's more, the five Bennet sisters
have become three, with angsty
Mary Bennet relegated to the role
of the forgotten emo cousin and
Kitty Bennet reincarnated as, quite
literally, a kitty cat.
But I think the show's greatest
appeal is the expansiveness of its
fictional cosmos. By that I mean the
characters are dealt with as if they
were real people operating in real
time. Most of the characters have
their own Twitter accounts, where
they flirt, scheme and occasion-
ally reply to real-world followers.
They reblog fan Gifs on their tum-
blrs. Jane Bennet even has a Look-
book, on which she posts links to
the painfully adorable outfits she is
spotted donning in her sister's vid-
eos. For all intents and purposes,
this show is an exercise in voyeur-
ism, perfect for a generation raised
on a healthy diet of Google-search-
ing and Facebook-stalking.
It struck me one day how potent-
ly the show might act as a commen-
tary on the fictionality of real-life
YouTube video bloggers, a large
number of whom have become
brands and characters of their
own. It's not insignificant to men-
tion that "LBD" was co-created by
Hank Green, who together with
his brother John has revolution-
ized the YouTube community with
his own special brand of vlog style.
Part storytelling, part chatty con-
fessional - this style straddles the
line between fiction and nonfiction,
private and public.
Take this guy, who made a name
for himself after reading the entire
"Twilight" series on camera and
endured a very messy (and very pub-
lic) break-up with his girlfriend, who
just so happens to also be aYouTube
star. or this guy, who embarked on
a yearlong project that ordained his
viewers to decide what he ate, when
he shaved and where he moved. Out-
side of the conceit that they've made
the decision to throw their lives onto
the screen for the world to see, these
YouTube "celebrities" aren't distin-
guishable from anybody else you'd
encounter walking down the street.
They're college students with aver-
age faces and average body weights -
they're people who would otherwise
meld in with a crowd full of strang-
ers. Real people.
Reality television
has long occupied
a curious space in
popular culture.
Yet, in many ways, they're not.
Because there's an invisible compo-
nent at play here: money. The You-
Tube Partner Program, a business
venture which awards dollars for
view counts, has imposed a tightly
regulated economic system on what
is and isn't broadcasted online.
Everyone you see onscreen, osten-
sibly engaged in his or her everyday *
lives, is working. They compete for
Twitter followers; they return real-
life events into fodder for video
narratives. They have fans, but fans
of what? Of their characters, their
acting? No, of their lives.
Reality television has long occu-
pied a curious space in popular
culture, with scholars and viewers
alike contending on it's grouping as
art or anthropology. A more accu-
rate genre categorization might be
somethinglike anthropology as art.
When people simultaneously juggle
their lives with their livelihoods,
what makes a pedestrian vlog about
the deliciousness of a Chipotle bur-
rito any different from a television
episode from "The Lizzie Bennet
Diaries?" When does a life cross the
line from fact into fiction? Is there a
difference anymore?
- Jennifer Xu can be reached
at jennifxu@umich.edu. 6
EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS
Kaan Avdan, Sharik Bashir, Barry Belmont, Eli Cahan, Eric Ferguson, Jesse Klein,
Melanie Kruvelis, Maura Levine, Patrick Maillet, Aarica Marsh, Megan McDonald,
Jasmine McNenny, Harsha Nahata, Adrienne Roberts, Paul Sherman, Sarah Skaluba,
Michael Spaeth, Daniel Wang, Luchen Wang, Derek Wolfe
CONTRIBUTE TO THE CONVERSATION
Readers are encouraged to submit letters to the editor and viewpoints.
Letters should be fewer than 300 words while viewpoints should be 550-850
words. Send full name and University affiliation to tothedaily@michigandaily.com.
AARICA MARCH I
A powerful partnership
The hunt is on
The state of Michigan is ranked 33rd in
the nation for highest teen birth rates. Last
year alone,- 10,947 children were born to
girls between the ages of 15 and 19. Though
teen birth rates have been declining for
decades now, teen pregnancy continues to
be a problematic issue in the United States,
especially for individuals more susceptible
to poverty and unaccommodating circum-
stances. In order to combat the negative
effects of young motherhood - such as pre-
mature birth, delayed education for infants
and financial troubles - the state of Michi-
gan has looked to the Colorado-based Nurse-
Family Partnership program, which helps
young women, particularly from low-income
backgrounds, smoothly transition from preg-
nancy to motherhood. On March 28, a Michi-
gan law went into effect mandating the use
of evidence-based or promising practices if
the Nurse-Family Partnership receives state
funding. The state should further support the
Nurse-Family Partnership Program by imple-
menting program standards that educate
young mothers and improve the health and
development of their children.
In the early 1970s, David Olds, a professor
at the University of Colorado, Denver, created
the initial idea for the Nurse-Family Partner-
ship program after witnessingthe difficulties
lower-income children face at urban day-
cares. Olds developed a program to help first
time, low-income mothers and their children,
which eventuallytransformed into the Nurse-
Family Partnership Program. As of July 2012,
'41 states across the nation have adopted some
-form of Nurse-Family Partnership.
Basically, the program assigns nurses to
"visit struggling mothers around their 28th
week of pregnancy. The at-home visits last
,approximately 90 minutes and cover a variety
of topics. The nurse will work with the moth-
er to counsel her on maternity health and give
her advice on child development, health and
education. These visits last until the infant
reaches the age of two. Many of the nurses
also help the teen mothers start a career. In
2010, it was estimated that the program cost
$12,500 per woman for three years of vis-
its. On average, states that have adopted the
program will prevent 78 premature births,
73 second-births to teen mothers and 3.4
infant deaths per 1,000 low-income families
enrolled.
Currently, Michigan has programs in
every county, but they vary in funding and
services. The state government should imple-
ment clearer standards and help finance
the non-profit organization in order to help
Michigan's teen mothers raise their children
to meet developmental milestones. Instead of
independent operations, each county should
collaborate to potentially increase the posi-
tive effects of the program throughout the
state. Some counties are struggling with long
waitlists while other counties are actively
searching for families to fit its models of ser-
vice. "There's not a shortage of people who
need services; we just need to do a better job
of connecting people to programs," said Amy
Zaagman, executive director of the Michigan
Council for Maternal and Child Health.
In the long run, Nurse-Family Partner-
ship programs will save the state money by
preventing children from entering Child
Protective Services and juvenile homes, and
preparing them for their future education.
Michigan - and states throughout the nation
- should implement a Nurse-Family Partner-
ship program standard across the board. It's a
first step to creating healthier and better edu-
cated mothers and children.
Aarica Marsh is an LSA sophomore.
t's that dreaded time of the
year again: internship season.
The hunt is on, and it's a fierce
one. Resembling
something very
close to The
Hunger Games,
internship sea-
son is a battle.
Findingthe
perfect summer
internship to SARAH
complete your SKALUBA
resume, pro-
vide you with
much needed experience and pos-
sibly - just possibly - help you snag
that coveted dream job is invalu-
able. Regardless of school, class or
concentration, University students
across campus are putting on their
bestgame face and compiling
resumes that make even the bright-
est of us envious.
As if midterms weren't reason
enough to worry, add to this the
immense pressure of finding an A-list
internship -innowhere else but New
York, Chicago or Washington D.C., of
course - and it's easy to understand
why so many of us are feeling rather
anxious. It's a cutthroat, dog-eat-dog
world out there, and when it comes to
landing the ideal summer internship,
the competition only heightens.
I mean, there's no shame in call-
ing it quits and spending a fifth
consecutive summer lifeguarding
at home, right?
Don't get me wrong, there's
absolutely nothing wrong with life-
guarding, waitressing or babysit-
ting for the millionth summer in a
row. That's exactly what I did my
first summer back home, and my
measly salary almost managed to
cover the six weeks I spent "study-
ing" in Spain. But this summer is
different. I'm no longer the hope-
less, confused freshman I was three
years ago. As much as I'd love to roll
aimlessly around my hometown all
summer or travel the world with the
money I don't have, it's no longer a
viable option. Somewhere along the
way I grew up. I declared a double
major, discovered my niche and
decided it's time to plunge into this
season's Hunger Games.
So here I am: still internship-less,
anxious and ready to politely smack
the next person who brags about
his or her killer salary and summer
bonus to me - if you're a friend or
person I actually care about, I'll glad-
ly make an exception. Nevertheless,
I'm on a serious prowl to lock some-
thing down for the summer before
I'm stuck back home living on the
streets, considering my mother will
most definitely be barricading the
doors if I can't find some useful way
to spend my four-months of freedom.
But when I accidentally overhear
my fellow peers bragging about the
multitude of internships they've
already applied for, or learn about
the casual $25-an-hour my friends in
the Business School will be making,
I can't help but feel a touch disheart-
ened. Just last week one of my room-
mates in the College of Engineering
received a gift basket from a compa-
ny before even accepting their offer.
Were we ecstatic for her? Yes. Were
we wondering where our presents
werePOf course.
At this point, I'm praying my LSA
expertise will land me a job sort-
ing paperclips or counting ballpoint
pens somewhere on the East Coast.
Rather melodramatic, I know, but I
truly wish this whole process wasn't
so damn cutthroat. I have friends
who legitimately avoid B-Schoolers
during recruitment so that they don't
have to listen to the constant rant-
ing and stressing which just adds to
everyone's anxiety, fueling the manic
nature of the hunt.
The tears and sobs following a
rejection letter, the excited Face-
book status following an offer
- I've witnessed both. Hell, I've
even received those much-dreaded
rejection letters myself and man-
aged to survive. I think at times
we become so wrapped up in this
hunt that we fail to recognize that
regardless of what happens, we'll
be alright. In the grand scheme of
things, landing the ideal summer
internship may seem like the end-
all be-all of our college careers, but
there's so much more to it than that.
6
And it resembles
something very
close to The
Hunger Games.
0
When one door closes for us, new
ones open. We gain the opportunity
to explore different interests, try
something new and push ourselves
out of our comfort zone. Maybe we
didn't land that incredible intern-
ship in the heart of New York City
with a fabulous wage and bonus.
But on the plus side, we did gain the
opportunity to seize a new experi-
ence and explore the boatload of
other options out there.
No one likes being rejected from
anything whether it's an intern-
ship, job or coveted leadership posi-
tion. However, we need to step back
for a moment and realize that the
internship quest is not the earth-
shattering situation we make it out
to be. There will always be more
opportunities that lie ahead, and,
in the meantime, whoever said Ann
Arbor isn't a classy place to spend
the summer?
- Sarah Skaluba can be reached
at sskaluba@umich.edu.