4A - Wednesday, October 2, 2013 Op1 .ioti The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com 4 c t e Mchioan l 4:3all Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan since 1890. 420 Maynard St. Ann Arbor, MI 48109 tothedaily@michigandaily.com MELANIE KRUVELIS and ADRIENNE ROBERTS MATT SLOVIN EDITORIAL PAGE EDITORS MANAGING EDITOR ANDREW WEINER EDITOR IN CHIEF 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. FROM THE DAILY Sufficient funds yet lack of safety The Athletic Department should ensure that their programs are safe At a forum on minors' on-campus safety on Sept. 24, the direc- tor of the University's athletic camps admitted to "significant gaps" in the University's ability to oversee the safety of. more than 9,000 minors in attendance. For instance, Athletic Camp adminis- trator Katie Miranto highlighted flaws in the University's background checks, acknowledging that the system didn't account for crimes commit- ted outside of Michigan - meaning out-of-state applicants, who make up approximately 33 percent of all camp staff, might not be fully scrutinized before beginning to work with children. While the Athletic Department's acknowledgement of program flaws is a refreshing admission and steps have already been taken to amend the process, it points to a serious lack of prioritization within the Athletic Department. It's encouraging to see that the Athletic The Athletic Department has come under Department is taking the appropriate steps criticism lately - and rightly so - for spend- to fix this important hole in the system. In ing money on trite endeavors, such as paying a letter to the editor of The Michigan Daily, for 55 skywritten messages at $100 a piece. David Ablauf, the Athletic Department's While this is a drop in the bucket for the Ath- spokesman, wrote that the'Athletic Depart- letic Department's budget, and may very well menthas invested in the "hiring of a full-time be a smart marketing move, marketing comes administrator who focuses daily on the sum- after child safety. Money clearly isn't the mer camps, stepped up safety and security issue. Priorities are. training for the camp director and counsel- It's troubling that it took this long to find ors, establishment of a tracking and location gaps in the program. There's a serious lack system for campers and coaches, develop- of communication within the department. A ment of facility emergency plans that are full-time administrator for summer camps widely shared and annual audits of the camps was needed from day one; hiring someone to assure compliance with our policies." The after a problem was found is a good preventa- Athletic Department took the correct steps to tive move for the future, but it doesn't change solve this problem and did it quickly. Howev- the fact that this oversightshould have always er, it's discouraging to see that this was over- been in place. The Athletic Department has looked in the first place. no problem investing in new ways to market The real problem here is something that themselves. It's unfortunate that they didn't the Athletic Department can't necessarily spend this time looking within and making solve with a new hire or advanced training. sure their programs are safe. L ETTER T THE EDITOR SEND LETTERS TO: TOTHEDAILY@MICHIGANDAILY.COM May I have this dance? CONOR ANDERSON/Daly S o, here's a familiar situ s- about to vomit, it's not the sexiest of me, gr my waist and press their ~tion: It's Friday night. You've settings. However, that small space denim-confined whiskey dicks just spent a couple hours at a churning with colliding elbows and against my ass without so much asa pregame where throwback R&B is the closest thing nod - which, I'd like to gently point you popped college kids have to a bathhouse, out, would be considered harass- beer bottles and where sexual displays are politely ment in any other situation. I'm clinked shot unacknowledged and rubbing your not saying that all men are guilty glasses of fruit- body against that of a stranger is of this, but it does happen and it's a flavored fire expected if not encouraged. If the turn off for me no matter how many water with your night is going to soar into the direc- times I give ita shot. At that point I friends cheering, tion of sex, the dance floor seems to usually moonwalk out of there won- "To tonight!" EMILY be the most likely point of takeoff. dering: Is this sexy and I'm just not You're headed to PITY If you're like me, however, the getting it? a bigger party - PITTINOS idea of these random encounters is of course, for me the answer is maybe down the much more enticing than the actual no. Call me vanilla, but turning street, or maybe experience. I usually dance onto the around to see who's latched onto across town - but it doesn't matter floor with confidence, wiggle for a my backside is not my ideal first because the distance is truncated minute, consider putting my mouth step toward a sexual encounter. by your drunkenness. The walk is on someone's mouth, and then What happened to eye contact? chilly, but your beer coat keeps you rapidly wise-up to my surround- What happened to romance and warm. You throw your arm around ings. I watch some of the dancers conversation? It's not naive or a friend's shoulder and slur some- goof off with uptight to crave thing along the lines of: "You guys, their friends some kind of I just really want to make out with a while the rest It's not naive or uptight spark before stranger tonight." Everyone laugh - sway dizzily locking lips it's funny because it's true. with lust, their to crave some kind of with another It's easy to arrive at a college drunk-eyes spark before locking lips person. party with sexual expectations. The only half open I, for example, first things you find when you walk as they grind with another person. am way more through the door are 1.) a place to eighth-grade likely to hook stash your purse and 2.) bodies, bod- style against up with some- ies, bodies. Contact seems so pos- an unfamil- one I'm laughing sible. Blood alcohol content is high, iar crotch. Everyone is sweaty. No with on the porch than a stranger inhibitions are low and every room one can be heard over the beats of taking liberties with my body inside vibrates with kinetic sexual energy. Nelly's "Hot in Herre." The fantasy the house. It's definitely possible to Whether it's been a while since you is suddenly too real, and the room have a meaningful one-night stand got it on, you're trying to get over comes into sharp focus while my with a brand new person, buttI don't someone or liquor just causes super- desire melts away. think the grab-and-grind approach human sensitivity to pheromones But it's more than forced voyeur- is the way to go. There would prob- in the air, the thought of an anony- ism making me uncomfortable out ably be more successful hook-ups mous bump and grind can be highly there; the lack of communication if initial introductions were done attractive. freaks me out. Yes, it may betoo loud with the basics - words, smiles, eye The dance floor is often the breed- for "May I have this dance?" but it contact - rather than a surprise dry ing ground for these desires. Sure, seems like the moment I find myself hump masquerading as dance. with beer pooling on the living room marooned on the dance floor I've floor and walls lined withtcouches signed a blanket consent form that -Emily Pittinos can be reached full of kids who look like they're entitles dudes to come up behind at pittinos@umich.edu. 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, Harsha Nahata, Adrienne Roberts, Paul Sherman, Sarah Skaluba, Daniel Wang, Derek Wolfe Crisis. ofconfidence 4 4 4 4 The Athletic Department has program in place to protect children TO THE DAILY: The University of Michigan Athletic Depart- ment wanted to correct the record regarding incorrect information in The Michigan Daily. The Athletics Department has spent the past 40-plus years providing a safe, fun environment for tens of thousands of kids through the summer camp program - an exceptional track record for which we're extremely proud. The Athletic Department, in partnership with the University, University of Michigan Police Department and others, protects minors at the camps through background checks,training pro- grams and numerous other ways. Many of the counselors we select are teachers and coaches elsewhere, and they are hand-picked by Univer- sity of Michigan coaches who own and operate the camps. Finances have never been a factor in our decision-making about safe practices nor will they ever be. We recently identified a gap in the system, were transparent about that at a public forum, have made corrections and are moving forward with anenhanced service thatincludes a national directorysearch. That said, background checks of all kinds - whether handled personally, by coaches or through database reviews - are important, but they are just one way to keep kids safe. A multi- layered effort is needed, and that's what we have in place. We've invested heavily in other areas to enhance the safety of our programs, includ- ing the hiring of a full-time administrator who focuses daily on the summer camps, stepped up safety and security training for the camp direc- tor and counselors, establishment of a tracking and location system for campers and coaches, development of facility emergency plans that are widely shared and annual audits of the camps to assure compliance with our policies. David Ablauf AssociateAthletic Directorfor media and public relations 4 , DAN GREEN I Being black in Ann Arbor AnnArbor - a college town with leafysubur- ban campus, beautiful skies, an old tradition and a dollop of grace - for all intents and purposes, is a haven of safety. People come here from around the world to study and to cheer on the ol' maize and blue. Being from Detroit, I had (and still have) the same aspirations as any student. But being a senior at the University and being from Detroit, I have encountered an unsettling reality, one that may be surprising to those students who routinely ask me, "How dangerous was your high school?" and "When was the last time you were shot at?" I feel less safe in Ann Arbor than I do in Detroit. It's not that I feel more physically threatened. There are some students who are.even so nice as to walk on the opposite side of the street when they see me walking their way. I feel a more per- nicious, more dangerous threat than that. I con- stantly feel that my identity as well as my city are inneed of protection. This year I'm finishing up my Organizational Studies major. Out of 100 students, I'm the only black man in the program. How can this be? We are the flagship public university in the state of Michigan. We are 40 minutes away from Detroit, a city with a black population of at least 80 per- cent. But what is our black enrollment here at Michigan?Only about4 percent.Worse yet,black enrollment has fallen 30percent since 2006. Then we have the "I was a Quicken intern and I love the Wings!" Detroiters. I'm sure you've seen a lot of Detroit on the commute from West Bloomfield, straight to Hockeytown and back to your safe haven. Often times these are the folks who went to Detroit Partnership Day that one time freshman year and feel as if they have actually accomplished something. I love DP Day, but people should realize that it's a genesis of something bigger. Your one day of service really doesn'tamounttomuchifyouarenotgoingtotry to create bigger change from that day of service. And what do you have left? You have a campus that claims to be diverse, viewing the picture through a white lens, but falling pretty short of that mark. Some may argue, "Nothing is in Detroit; what good can you really say about it?" I have seen this in so many comment sections on blogs and news sites. My family lives in Detroit. I person- ally take offense to this remark because it pretty much implies my family's existence is worthless. It hurts me every time someone makes a blan- ket statement about Detroit because I view it' as a personal attack on who I am and what has shaped me. It's embarrassing that the University doesn't have a bigger presence in the city of Detroit. It could help a lot in debunking the myths and challenge the. stereotypes many people have of Detroit and Detroiters. The new Connector to Detroit is cool, I guess, but I have a suspicion it will be used most frequently for Red Wings game trips, which breeds the pseudo-Detroiter men- tality I mentioned earlier. I never even thought of being a Detroiter as an identity until I came to college. Now, it is an identity I hold with pride to show the University that you really don't know Detroit like you think you do. Dan Green is an LSA senior. ast week, a friend sent me a study that concluded col- lege is bad for women's self-esteem. According to this 2012 study, female students graduated from Boston College with lower lev- els of self-esteem than they had ZOE exhibited asS freshmen. Mean- STAHL while, the male students of Bos- ton College became more confident during their college careers despite having lower average GPAs than their female counterparts. As a private, Jesuit research uni- versity on the East Coast, Boston Col- lege may seem worlds apart from our big, public, midwestern university. But, it's not hard to imagine how the same might go on here. In my classes, I've noticed that my female peers and I seem less certain of what we say -undermining our musings with "maybe," "sorta" and "kinda." The scientific research seems to suggest the same. According to the Center for Collegiate Mental Health annual report, female students were more likely to experience depression, gen- eralized anxiety, social anxiety and eating concerns, making it hard to imagine how female students could feel confident about themselves. Discussing the study with my friends, we admitted that, sadly, we weren't all too surprised. What con- cerned us even more though was the conversation following the report's release. The social commentary was predictable - merely platitudes. Female students felt less confident, a writer suggested, because of the pressure to be perfect. The same article cited Maria Pas- cucci, founder of Campus Calm - a national organizati helping college-age healthier and hapi saying, "In our soci fectionist is a glorif acceptable form of women)." Other re study cited the hook superficial pressure dress a certain way. All the talk and become a redundar And although the focus so acutely on s es that could contr self-esteem, they're But because these been recited again: discussion of young psyches, they seem1 only explanation, th rative in which girls they endure the con be perfect, skinny an What this narrat the culpability on so even women themselves. But if these college- aged women have presum- ably lived in our cruel world their whole lives, aren't we ignoring the new variables in the really, or at least sp be causing female: less confident in col Lisa Wade, an ass and chair of the s ment at Occident, suggested that the insecurity may hay perfectionism and1 and more to do wi privileging of men ity in our society."; campuses are micrc societies. And whil on focused on and structures may be similar, d women lead they've now become more obvious pier lives - as to us college-aged women. We've ety, being a per--heard that "we can do whatever we ied and socially want" or "women are equal as men" self-abuse (for all our lives, but it's hard to deny the sponses to the reality we see - that the Central k-up culture and Student Government president is es to look and always a man and that male college athletics always seems to get more reasoning have coverage than their female peers. nt, empty trope. This is certainly not to suggest se observations that men have it easy. At the end uperficial stress- of the day, this constantly cited ibute to female narrative doesn't only do a dis- not everything. service to female students, but to concerns have male students, too. Statements like and again in the "women leave college with lower women and their self-esteem" and "women feel like to prevail as the they have to be perfect" deny the is creates a nar- pressure male students also feel. feel insecure as Gender norms can be just as confin- stant pressure to ing for men as women. And these ad to hook up. broad claims overshadow the other ive does is place part of the story: that male students cietal forces and experience higher levels of academ- it distress than female students, Let's not rely on tired that men expe- truisms when talking rience greater levels of hostil- about men and ity and alcohol abuse, and that women in college. men are more likely to seri- ously consider equation? What suicide after starting college than ecifically, might women. This picture reveals that students to feel we can't forget the unique stresses lege? of men. ociate professor So, the next time we inevitably ociology depart- start talking about men and women al College, has in college, let's not rely on and rein- root of female force these tired truisms. Instead, e less to do with let's consider the forces that create hook-up culture stress for all students. It might not th "the ongoing be an easy or pleasant dialogue, but and masculin- it's one worth having. 4 So, sure, college ocosmic, smaller le the pressures -Zoe Stahl can be reached at zoestahl@umich.edu. N 0