Page 4A - Thursday, October 2, 2014 The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com 0 Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan since 1890. 420 Maynard St. Ann Arbor, MI 48109 tothedaily@michigandaily.com 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!!!! 4 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 4 0