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MEGAN MCDONALD
PETER SHAHIN and DANIEL WANG KATIE BURKE
EDITOR IN CHIEF EDITORIAL PAGE EDITORS MANAGING EDITOR
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.
A full house
The 'U' should plan ahead for student overflow
This June, University Housing officials announced that
there would be several hundred more freshmen on
campus during the Fall 2014 semester than the initial
estimate of 6,000. By the beginning of the semester, Housing was
able to place the overflow of 423 freshmen into dorms by creating
brand new alternative living arrangements. According to Peter
Logan, the communications director for University Housing, the
University was able to open 337 spots for freshmen by offering
a voluntary housing swap to upperclassmen in one of four off-
campus apartment complexes. In addition, 86 freshmen were
placed into converted overflow lounge spaces. However, the
challenges faced during the recent housing dilemma should and
could have been avoided by proactive planning. The University
can prevent future crises by improving interdepartmental
communications and planning contingencies for inevitable errors.
The silent battle of women
Warm sun, good books,
boat rides and leisure
lounging cover the
painting of an
idyllic summer.
But a college
summer looks
a bit different.
It's filled with
applications,
mentorships and
internships. For
many, relaxed MAJA
summers are TOSIC
exchanged for
the privilege
of building reputations and con-
nections. This summer, I followed
my fellow Wolverines to a place
that inflates with interns during
the summer - Washington, D.C.
Together we exchanged our casual
sweats and yoga pants for awk-
wardly fitting suits and blistering
heels. As we rushed on the metro
and interned with various organi-
zations, we all gained a taste of the
workplace. But the taste Igot turned
sour and could not be rinsed out.
At first, I barely noticed it. The
guidelines that dictated a woman's
place at work were silent, but
extremely powerful. As I entered
my building each day with a swish
of my badge and the click of my
heels, I also opened the doors to
a vacuum. It was a vacuum that
sucked out all the air and applied
enough pressure to bend objects.
It could not be avoided, and soon I
was its subject - a young, malleable
woman ready to learn.
I learned that asuccessfulwoman
is never successful in just one thing.
She's successful for transforming
herself into a superwoman and bal-
ancing between the scales weighed
down with thinness, beauty, work But our battle was not fair. It was
and family. The pressure to abide a delusional search for a prize that
by this notion of success consumes was never established. It was fought
a cubicle like an ominous cloud of without written rules. There was
smoke. It choked me more and more no unbiased, uninvolved and un-
until I simply could not inhale with- invested judge. However, the great-
out suffocating on the very envi- est disheartening illusion was that
ronment that was meant to ignite there was never a winner. I quickly
my growth. learned that no woman could ever
I learned that the workplace was step onto the first place podium and
a battlefield for women. It was a receive her medal, because it implies
battle of having less: less food, less that the ideal has been reached. But
weight, less fat, less outspokenness. we are told our bodies are always
And it was a battle of having more: able to bear the loss of a few more
more self-control, more resistance, pounds. We are told that we can
more approachability. It was a battle always strive to be more perfect.
to reach "the" lucky number on the As a result, our battle was designed
scale. It was a battle to fit into the to fight for a goal that is never in
unattainable norm of beauty. sight and never achievable. It's
Every time food was offered in intended to keep us spinning end-
the office, I watched as each woman lessly and to forget the things that
gave her excuse truly matter.
for eating as if As my
it had become a internship came
necessary step It was a battle to a close, I
in digestion. learned my final
The in-sync line to fit into the lesson. I let my
of women ogled silence settle in
and cautiously unattainable norm the office, and it
approached the quickly turned
rows of birthday Of beauty. into a nod of
cake and cookies affirmation. By
as the days spun simply swishing
past. Every my badge and
conversation lingering in the break silently walking through the
room, lunch room, conference room vacuum, I approved of its effects
and executive room was about the upon me. It was understood that
successes and failures that came I had joined the battle, because I
with the latest diets and fitness had never voiced otherwise. The
plans. Women slyly interjected the only way to break the competition
details of their breakfast and walked was to acknowledge its impending
with their small salads held high. presence. I never did. But these
These acts were far too common for written words are my first steps
them to be considered coincidences. toward finally breaking the silence.
We had siphoned ourselves into
a battle, and these were our - Maja Tosic can be reached
battle tactics. at tosimaj@umich.edu.
With only a few months to solve the
housing overflow before students returned
in the fall, the University quickly developed
an innovative alternative living situation.
The University contacted and then
subsequently signed agreements with three
local apartment complexes involved in
their Beyond the Diag listing service - The
Courtyards, Varsity and University Towers.
Later, Sterling 411 Lofts was also included
as an off-campus housing option. According
to a FAQ sheet about the contract offer
obtained from Housing, the alternative living
arrangement was then offered to several
hundred non-freshmen undergraduates. For
the price of a room in University housing, the
offer included rent, utilities and furniture
with the option of keeping or dropping their
meal plan. All provisions of the dormitory
contracts remained the same with no change
in obligations for students. When considering
the agreement, the University commendably
cooperated with students and landlords to
create an arrangement that comfortably
accommodated as many people as possible.
While the University was successful in
placing the extra students, it also diminished
the ability for movement within housing,
creating a potential for serious problems
this semester and the next. For example, in
training, residential advisors were told that
the number of emergency spaces would be
limited. Emergency spaces are critical as
they provide another room for residents to
move to when they feel targeted by other
hallmates or roommates. Reducing the
number of these emergency spaces limits the
solution set for situations in which a resident
feels uncomfortable within their own room
or hall. This is especially concerning for
young freshmen discovering their individual
identities and are learning to live with one
another for the first time.
This situation was created by a
miscalculation of the incoming freshman class
size by the University Office of Undergraduate
Admissions, an honest mistake, and some level
of variation between the number of students
admitted and those expected to actually enroll
is part of the system. However, honest mistakes
can be prevented with clear and constant
communication. Due to the unexpected
surplus of students this fall, and the necessity
for such creative solutions, it's clear that there
was a breakdown in communication between
University departments. It's problematic if
University Admissions solely provides an
incoming class size estimate for University:
Housing to accommodate. University Housing
should also provide the Admissions Officewith
an estimate of the number of beds available
in a given year so that Admissions can plan
accordingly. If University Admissions knows
that the University will have diminished
dorm space due to extensive renovations, the
Admissions office must keep this in mind when
offering acceptances to potential students so
as not to matriculate many more students than
available housing spaces.
Even though the predicament was caused by
anhonestmistake,thecomplexityoftheproblem
doesn't fit the scale of the miscalculation. An
additional 400 students to a 6,000 student
estimation is a 6 percent difference. It's
concerning thatthe University has such a small
margin for error, and that a seemingly small
difference in estimation can create a situation
that requires never-before-used innovations. If
these dormitory renovations are planned years
in advance, the number of beds should also be
known years in advance. Though this situation
isn't likely to repeat itself next year - with the
reopening of West Quad and Cambridge House
- it's important that the University install
a contingency plan that will hedge against a
margin of error larger than 6 percent.
INTERESTED IN CAMPUS ISSUES?
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SEX, DRUGS AND ROCK'N'ROLL?
Check out The Michigan Daily's editorial board meetings.
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Servants and critics
0
EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS
Jaekwan An, Barry Belmont,
Edvinas Berzanskis, David Harris, Rachel John, Nivedita
Karki, Jacob Karafa, Jordyn Kay, Aarica Marsh, Megan
McDonald, Victoria Noble, Melissa Scholke, Michael
Schramm, Matthew Seligman, Paul Sherman, Allison Raeck,
Linh Vu, Meher Walia, Mary Kate Winn,
Daniel Wang, Derek Wolfe
At his inauguration, newly
installed University Presi-
dent Mark Schlissel spoke
highly of
the need for
tolerating
the ideas we
hate, criti-
cizing recent
trends of
controver-
sial speak-
ers being
disinvited JAMES
from college BRENNAN
campuses.
Michael
Bloomberg, former mayor of New
York City, touched on the same sub-
ject at his commencement speech at
Harvard University this year, call-
ing student and faculty pushback
against figures like Condoleezza
Rice manifestations of "tyrannical
tendencies" that shut down dissent.
Bloomberg and Schlissel both men-
tioned the shouting down of Ray
Kelly, former New York City police
commissioner, at Brown University,
whose controversial affiliation with
racial profiling and stop-and-frisk
led to widespread protest.
Bloomberg and Schlissel -
Brown's provost at the time -
derided the behavior of students in
failing to let Kelly speak, describ-
ing these and other actions as det-
rimental to the free marketplace
of ideas on college campuses.
Without having our favored ideas
challenged, Schlissel argued, we
become intellectually stunted,
uncritical and a failure as students
and educators. President Schlissel
demanded that students be exposed
to differing ideas to see the other
side of any argument, even if the
other side is horrendous and despi-
cable. To illustrate, he described
an event in the '60s at which Ross
Barnett, segregationist and white
supremacist Mississippi governor,
came to Hill Auditorium. He was
booed and challenged by students,
but the man was allowed to speak.
In 2007, Columbia University
President Lee Bollinger - formerly
of the University of Michigan -
invited then-Irania
Mahmoud Ahmadine
Columbia's World Le
Bollinger was chast
Senators Barack Obat
Clinton for inviting.
and massive protests
campus and through
City opposing the bru
But the man
to speak.
Ahmadinejad belit
uality, questioned the
Holocaust and attac
Israeli foreign polic
dinejad, I pause to p
believes that Israel sh
off the face of the ear
Bollinger, a First
scholar, called the e
Columbia's tradition
debate" and invoked1
free speech and criti
explaining his decis
through with the s
are ideas directly in
our fundamental va
are ideas nonethele
to Schlissel's
logic, even this
genocidal des-
pot should get a
chance to speak
if invited. (It
should be noted
that Bloomberg
didn't attend
the speech but
refused to criti-
cize Columbia
for inviting
Ahmadinejad).
This is a commen
to take, showingatru
to free speech and
I despise the ideast
Ahmadinejad and B
feel similarly about
of Ray Kelly and
Rice, but they are ju
to their right to spe
I agree with. To
Schlissel, if ideas go
education fails.
On that logic, Presi
I'm compelled to as
freedom of expression
During last year's
in President debate over divestment from
jad to speak at Israel, pro-Israel student groups
eaders Forum. took to the pages of the Daily and
ised by then- widespread e-mail lists to work on
ma and Hillary shutting down the debate. Students
Ahmadinejad, wrote under the veil of "safe spaces"
were held on and "meaningful dialogue" in an
out New York attempt to silence pro-Palestinian
tal dictator. groups. At the same time, student
was allowed government sidestepped the
issue entirely by calling student
tled homosex- activists threatening.
history of the This is the exact behavior that
ked U.S. and Schlissel condemned in his speech,
y. Mr. Ahma- calling student self-censorship
point out, also one of the major challenges in
ould be wiped addressing open and free debates.
th. Dozens of students across campus
Amendment were targeted for their involvement
vent a part of in pro-Palestinian activism and had
for "robust their voices unfairly stifled under
principles like labels like anti-semitic and violent.
cal thought in Dean of Students Laura Blake
ion to follow Jones and E. Royster Harper, vice
peech. These president for student life, didn't
opposition to take campus-wide action to protect
lues, yet they these voices until the debate itself
ss. According was nearly over, doing so only by
sending out a
short e-mail.
Down the
road, President
Butthe m an c Schlissel will be
asked to stand
was allowed for student free
speech in protest
to speak. of any number of
controversies,
Israel sure to
be among them.
If the man is
to be taken at his word, he must
dable position proactively stand for students to
e commitment speakfreelyandopenlyinthefaceof
open debate. intimidation and bullying. A nicely
of people like worded e-mail about tolerance will
arnett, and I not suffice.
t the policies Schlissel cannot just advocate
Condoleezza for free speech for war criminals
tst as entitled and racists while surrounded
ak as anyone by applauding luminaries. He
paraphrase must be an advocate for each and
unchallenged, every student to express their
voice, especially in the face of
dent Schlissel, overwhelming criticism.
U
I
I
Our map shows the likely
reservoir' of Ebola virus in animal
populations, and this is larger than
has been previously appreciated:'
- Oxford University Department of Zoology researcher Dr. Nick Golding said when
discussing the University's new study on the regions where animals are likely infected
with the Ebola virus, increasing the size of potential infections.
0
k: what about
n for students?
controversial
- James Brennan can be
reached at jmbthree@umich.edu
A
I
rt
4 I & &