Page 4A - Thursday, October 2, 2014
The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
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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 oftthe Daily's editorial board.
All other signed articles and illustrations represent solely the views ofttheir authors.
A cohesive strategy
White House must provide tangible actions against sexual assault
n January President Barack Obama and his administration
J yformed a task force to discuss issues surrounding sexual
assault prevention and awareness. The task force, Not Alone,
published its recommendations and results in April. Subsequently,
Sept.19, Obama and Vice President Joe Biden publicly launched the
"It's On Us" campaign - an effort geared primarily toward raising
awareness of sexual assault on college campuses and encouraging
us, the students, to stop these crimes from occurring. While the
campaign is admirable in its creation, the White House must provide
students with tangible solutions, such as the Bipartisan Campus
Accountability and Safety Act, in order to actually initiate change.
bills. Her efforts have successfully
raised over $2,000. Meanwhile, it is
these encounters with animals like
Faith to which Haugen attributes
her education in selflessness,
compassion and empathy.
The product of Haugen's
experience was undeniable during
ourmeeting:agloballyandculturally
enriched young woman who
unquestionably challenged herself
on all accounts, and fully capitalized
on the educational opportunities
thatthis Universityis able toprovide
its students.
"I realized nothing is going
to be handed to* me," Haugen
said. "At a big university - you
can get lost in it. There are great
opportunities here but you
have to go out and make these
things happen."
It is this student initiative, but
also an understanding of the com-
plexity of the system, that I fear
many students may lack - thank-
fully, Haugen doesn't. Her experi-
ences abroad also contributed in
part to her decision to found the
University's chapter of The Stu-
dent Animals and Society Institute
- going by the acronym 'SASI'.
While Haugen explains that the
first two years of SASI were admit-
tedly difficult, even somewhat dis-
heartening, she now hasa renewed
faith in the young person's percep-
tion and understanding of wildlife
conservation. She assured me that
our generation isn't necessarily
ignorant, per se, but most do not
realize that there is an entire field
of study dedicated to conserva-
tion that exists - a field of study
entirely intertwined both environ-
mental studies and sustainability
as a whole.
Haugen's positivity and opti-
mism are enchanting, if not infec-
tious. More so than ever before,
Haugen feels confident that the
University is acknowledging the
leverage and importance of sus-
tainability, and bringing it to the
forefront of worthwhile conversa-
tions. She looked over the table at
me sincerely - as did Tonka - con-
vincing me of her unfailing com-
mitment to communicating her
global experience back to the stu-
dents in Ann Arbor, hoping at the
very least, to inspire younger stu-
dents to capitalize on the personal-
ly and educationally revolutionary
opportunities that this institution
can afford - if only you seek them.
- Lauren McCarthy can be
reached at laurmc@umich.edu.
Football! Football!! FOOTBALL!!!!
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Through partnerships that include the Big
Ten conference and NCAA, the "It's On Us"
campaign advances into everyday campus life,
infiltrating Facebook and becoming readily
accessible to students across the nation. With
500 million users on Facebook alone, social
media is a popular avenue through which many
activist campaigns reach the public. According
to a study done by Burson-Marsteller, a global
publicrelations and communicationsfirm,33out
of 34 political advocacy groups use social media
as a platform for change.
The executive branch is admirable in its
attempt to create cultural change on college
campuses through a web-based public service
campaign. However, it will not be effective on
its own. The "It's On Us" campaign has been an
informational movement thus far, but refrains
from calling for any specific action. In order
for social campaigns to work and for some sort
of action to be initiated, a call to rise must be
visibly present to the audience. This step is vital
in transitioning the "It's On Us" movement from
the Internet to college campuses.
The University has officially joined Obama's
campaign to start the conversation about sexual
assault in our community, along with nearly
200 other colleges across the country. This
past summer our Central Student Government
was invited to join the initiative and has been
working in great strides to spread the word by
working with various student organizations,
suchas IWill, astudent-runcampaign dedicated
to preventing sexual assault, the Student-
Athlete Advisory Committee, the University's
chapter of the National PanHellenic council,
LSA Student Government and the Education
Theatre Company. The "It's On Us" campaign
has made its way to Ann Arbor and has started
what hopefully becomes a revolution, but leaves
the question of what more can we do.
July 30, eight U.S. Senators proposed one of
many solutions by unveiling a bipartisan bill to
address the problem of sexual assault in colleges
and universities. The bill, called the Bipartisan
Campus Accountability and Safety Act, aims
to more effectively enforce the handling and
prevention of sexual assault on campuses.
With "It's On Us" in full swing, voters must
urge their senators to act on the bill as soon as
possible in order to further ensure safety on
college campuses.
This Bipartisan Campus and Accountability
Safety Act requires colleges to designate
Confidential Advisors who will coordinate
support services and resources to survivors,
ensure minimum training standards for
on-campus personnel, follow a single
disciplinary process to be used by the entire
school and increase coordination with local
law enforcement.
The bill will also create a standardized,
anonymous survey to be conducted annually.
These surveys will be published online and
available to the general public. Though these
data collection practices havebeen criticized for
being biased, the goal of the surveys is to gauge
the actual prevalence of sexual assaultinstead of
just the officially reported number of incidents.
This particular stipulation in the bill will
finally provide basic metrics to how well a
school is handling sexual assault on campus.
The anonymity may also encourage more
survivors to come forward. According to the
report published by Not Alone, "only 2 percent
of incapacitated sexual assault survivors and
13 percent of forcible rape survivors report the
crime to campus or local law enforcement."Both
the anonymity and the greater transparency
of the surveys will hopefully alleviate this
startlinglylowreportrate.
A final stipulation in the bill will create
stiffer penalties for violations of both Title
IX amd the Clery Act. Title IX establishes
penalties for discrimination based on sex
in federally funded colleges while the Clery
Act requires schools to keep and disclose all
information about crime on or near campuses.
Under the Bipartisan Campus Accountability
Safety Act, schools who violate the act may
suffer a fine of up to1 percent of their operating
budget. Similarly, penalties for the Clery Act
will increase from $35,000 to $150,000 for
each violation.
Previously, schools found to be in violation
of the law were at risk of losing federal funding
entirely, though no school has been issued this
penaltyyet. Totallyrevoking all federalfunding
from a school isn't a realistic punishment, and
the lack of any lesser punishment for schools
makes for an ineffective deterrent. The
penalties brought forth by this bill therefore act
as a potentially more effective intermediary.
This softer penalty may be enforced more
frequently, incentivizing schools to better
handle incidents of sexual assault.
Writing anything anti-foot-
ballwon'tmakeme many
friendsinthese parts.But
with all our guns locked and loaded
on a greedy athletic director and his
inept department as of late, I thought
Iwould focus mine elsewhere.
Yes, the coachingand medical staff
madeanerroronSaturday.Sophomore
quarterback Shane Morris needed
to have been indefinitely sidelined
after he suffered a violent blow to
the head and came up wobbly with
concussion-like symptoms. But who
are we kidding? Football is inherently
a violent sport, a hotbed of gung-ho
testosterone and drunken aggression.
Debilitated brains and bodies have
always and will continue to always be
its inconvenient byproduct.
Just two weeks ago, the NFL itself
was forced to concede, after years of
litigation, that 28 percent of retired
players develop long-term cognitive
problems that manifest "notably"
earlier than in the general public.
(Yes, that's over one in four players
withseverebraininjuries.)Howmany
studies are necessary before it's clear
that slamming 250-pound men into
one another can't be good for them?
Blaming Michigan coach Brady
Hoke and UniversityAthletic Director
Dave Brandon for not protecting Mor-
ris is as ridiculous asblamingMuham-
mad Ali's coach, Joe Martin, for Ali's
current vegetative state. The problem
is systemic,notindividualistic.Atleast
boxingishonest about its brutality.
Imagine for a moment that
Michigan football was not off to its
worststart ever. Imagine that we won
on Saturday, and are 5-0 so far and
that murmurs are already brewing
thatwecanwinthe Rose Bowl.Ohthe
glory!! Now, imagine that the whole
Shane Morris incident played out the
exact same way.Inthis counterfactual
history, tell me honestly: Would
your athletic department vitriol be
as cutthroat? Would there still be
shouts (first from this newspaper) to
fire Hoke, a 10,000-signature-and-
still-growing petition to fire Brandon
and impassioned protests before the
president's house - and risk wrecking
alegendary season?
No, there's just no way.
Morris's concussion is the perfect
ploy, player safety the dishonest front
for fans to hide behind, claim moral
superiority from Brandon and his
businesscronies, and hopefully,ifthey
scream loud enough, get what they
really want:those Ws.
Because winning comes first in
this city, and everything else second.
Michigan fans expect nothing less.
How else could it be true that the
"medical and coaching staffs did
not see the hit," as Brandon wrote
in his statement that reads, if you
know anything about Brandon, as a
crafty and failed attempt to quell a
PR nightmare. You're going to have
me believe that not one of the maybe
30-person medical and coachingstaff
on the field saw the hit? Dave, you're
going to have to do better than that.
The staff didn't want to see the hit.
Morris was the team's last hope. And
if the fans were right now riding a
winningwave and not apaing one, I
bet the outcry would have been much
more muted.
The die-hard fans will scream
that I'm not a Wolverine, that I'm
spurning Michigan's deep football
tradition. So be it. Some traditions
are just outdated.
I know that's not realistic, though.
There are too many students and
alumni that live to their bone marrow
for Michiganfootball.
As I write (Sept. 30, 11:41 p.m.) the
MOST READ stories on this paper's
website are as follows:
1. LIVE BLOG: Students
gather for'Fire Dave Brandon'rally on
the Diag
2. Student petition calls for
President Schlissel to remove Athletic
Director Dave Brandon
3. Brandon'sstatement expos-
es institutional dysfunction within the
Athletic Department
4. SportsMonday Column:
Brady Hoke mustbe fired
5. Dave Brandon releases
statement addressing Shane Morris
incident
In fact, between Sunday and this
moment, nine out of 10 of the MOST
READ articles have been football-
related. (The 10th is that hilarious
sorority rush parody.)
It's about time we got our priorities
straight, because at the end of the day,
a game will always be a game. We're
clearly capable of organizing quickly
and loudly - Tuesday's protest and
petition proved as such. Can't we
mobilize around issues with actual
stakes? Say, 110,000 fanscheering and
protesting for tuition equality, diver-
sity or Sexual assault prevention?
-Yardain Amron can be
reached at amron@umich.edu.
.!
Society rules
EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS
Barry Belmont, 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
Michigan Woman - AndZe Haugen
. am currently enrolled in an Eng-
lish class where we consistently
discuss literature and social
change. A piece
of literature that
was recently dis-
cussed was Rita
Mae Brown's
"Rubyfruit
Jungle" (1973),
and while read-
ing, my class-
mates and I SIERRA
were asked to BROWN
keep in mind the
stereotypes pre-
sented throughout the novel. We ran
into stereotypes such as these: "Only
boys can be doctors ... All girls look
like that ... Lesbians look like men
and are ugly ... Lesbians are boyish
and athletic." These and many other
stereotypes in the book surround
the idea that individuals should take
on a certain role in society and look
a certain way. I've always wondered
what gave people the right, and the
nerve, to assign "roles" that say how
others should act or whattheyshould
look like. What happens when people
don't play their "roles" properly? But
who makes these rules anyway?
Sunday night, I worked my
regular shift in the dining hall, and
while working, I spoke with one
of the chefs to help pass the time
when customers were not in line for
food. Upon talking to him, a student
worker, Carlton, came to the station
to deliver clean dishes. Carlton
lingered for a minute, making a
comical statement to us, and before
leaving,the chef requested his name.
"Carlton," he responded, "but not
like the 'Fresh Prince of Bel-Air."'
I laughed instantly, registering
that Carlton did share the name of a
well-known character from the show.
While laughing, I heard the chef and
Carlton sustain the conversation.
Carlton delivered an explanation,
stating that people typically learn
his name and urge him to do the
"Carlton dance." Shortly after
Carlton left, the chef and I ended our
laughter, then he shocked me with an
unexpected remark.
"He doesn't look like a Carlton,
maybe a Deandre or a Jackson."
What? I hoped I'd heard him
wrong, hoped that his statement
wasn't meant to sound as prejudiced
as it had. What made Carlton not
"look" like a Carlton?
"It's just that Carlton sounds so
proper and preppy,"he continued.
The sentence sounded like it
was missing a "but." What? Carlton
sounds so proper and preppy, but
Carlton doesn't "look" proper
and preppy?
I attempted to tune him out,
fearing that he would say something
else that I didn't like. I tried focusing
on my ownthoughts concerning what
Iheard but could still hear his voice.
"You don't meet many Carltons
since he's Black with tattoos,
one could assume that he's from
the hood."
According to the chef, the
name "Carlton" is preppy. The
term "preppy" carries certain
connotations, such as expensive,
upper-middle class and nice clothes.
What was Carlton's "role" in society?
A non-preppy, Black man with
tattoos from the hood? Carlton may
not look "preppy," but nothing about
him screams that he isn't. What if he
doesn'tplayhis"role"properly? What
if he comes from a wealthy family
and a nice neighborhood? What if he
attended a prep school that led him
to "Go Blue" here-at the University?
Neither Carlton's name nor race
speaks to who he is as a person or
where he's from.
At this point, I let the chef talk to
himselfforthe remainder ofthe night.
I busied myself with imaginary work
to avoid any further conversation.
My best friend worked the same shift
but was placed at a different station
for the duration of the shift. This
bothered me. This time I needed to
talk to her about how ignorant the
chef was and how annoyed I was
by the whole situation. I needed to
get these aggravated feelings off my
chest. When 10 o'clock hit, my best
friend and I clocked out, and when
we started our walk home, I began
ranting. I went on and on about what
I experienced at work and the chef's
racist and preconceived notions
of Carlton.
My conversation with her led
me to think about my English class
and our various discussions on
racism, sexism, classism, etc. and
the normative. Norms shape for us
what's normal, and this notion comes
from majority group in society. In
the United States, the dominant
group is white. The problem arises
when the belief of groups of majority/
dominant is seen as normal or right.
Unfortunately, we live in a culture
where majority rules.
If Carlton were not a Black male
with tattoos, would he have been
judged by his name and skin color?
What if he were not male at all, would
this person still be from the hood? Is
it a normal assumption that Black
people with body ink only possess
non-preppy names and are from
the hood?
What happens when people don't
play their "roles" properly? Do the
members of society who create these
rules and roles become shocked?
I couldn't agree more with the
main character in "Rubyfruit
Jungle" when stating, "Why does
everyone have to put you in a box
and nail the lid on it?" That's exactly
what the chef did to Carlton; he
used small-minded thinking to
compartmentalize him as a non-
preppy, Black man with tattoos
from the hood. Carlton should be
viewed on the basis of his character
versus the "roles." I wonder if the
chef thought, for a fraction of a
second, that his initial thoughts of
Carton were incorrect. Instead of
viewing Carlton on the basis of his
character after speaking with him
briefly, he used society's roles to
define him and dictate his behavior.
The chef contributes to the majority
group, and until they speak against
the use of labels and roles to define
people, we will continuously live
in a society full of poor stereotypes
and misconstrued norms. As you go
about your daily routines, think of
your "role" in society. Think of the
"norms" and who created them.
- Sierra Brown can be reached
at snbrown@umich.edu.
I
I
Inoticed Tonka first, as it is difficult not to
notice a110-pound beast (or Saint Bernard)
when it comes hurtling toward you. Mouth
wide open, with one distinct
brown splotch over his left
eye, Tonka is undoubtedly
the most intimidating,
yet lovable and wildly 1
approachable, therapy dog
I have ever encountered
- but his owner is even
more impressive.
Throughout our entire LAUREN
interview, LSA senior Andrea MCCARTHY
Haugenremainedontheedge
of her seat, utterly engaged
and impassioned, as she recounted her past three
years at the University. Though initially a part of
the MichiganAthletic Department, and member
of the women's varsity rowing team during her
first two years, Haugen made the difficult deci-
sion to forgo athletics in order to uninhibitedly
pursue the Graham Undergraduate Sustainabil-
ity Scholars Program.
In the midst ofther sophomore year, Haugen
ultimately realized that her interests did not fit
the mold of any one conventional major - and
she created an additional major ofther own. As
a double major in Human-Animal Studies (a
hybrid of hard science and social sciences as
they pertain to the study of the relationship
between humans and animals) and the Program
in the Environment, Haugen is wholeheartedly
dedicated to advancing the work and studies of
wildlife conservation.
It is this genuine thirst for both education
and service that has led Haugen on numerous
veterinary, volunteer, service and care-
taking expeditions to France, South Africa,
Thailand and China. She's become versed
in wildlife management, as well as wildlife
veterinary science, ecosystems, biodiversity
and conservation. She's worked hands-on
with countless wild species and seen firsthand
the critical state of South African wildlife,
global threats to habitat loss and the effects of
poaching, senseless killing and animal abuse.
After forging a bond with a paralyzed
cheetah named Faith, Haugen led fundraising
efforts to help pay the impending medical
I
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