Thursday, July 18, 2013 The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com C 4 Igan Ba ly Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan since 1890. 420 Maynard St. Ann Arbor, MI 48109 tothedaily@umich.edu The comfort zone Thursday, July 18, 2013 1 l The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com 'Orange is the new show to beat KATIE BURKE EDITOR IN CHIEF ERIC FERGUSON EDITORIAL PAGE EDITOR ELLIOT ALPERN MANAGING EDITOR Unsigned editorials reflect the official position of the Daily's editorial hoard. All other signed articles andillustrations represent solely the views of their authors. A call for tuitionequality Regents should approve revisions amid Congress's inaction At their meeting Thursday, the University's Board of Regents will consider proposed revisions to the University's in-state tuition guidelines that would make it possible for undocumented students from Michigan - who currently pay out-of-state tuition rates - to qualify for in-state tuition. If approved, these revisions would be a major victory for the student-led Coalition for Tuition Equality and affiliated student organizations, as they have sought an opportunity for undocumented students to qualify for in-state tuition since October2011. By approving these revisions, the regents can greatly aid undocumented students in the state and do their part in what has become a nationwide movement towards revamping immigration policy. his Friday, the first session - of the camp I'm working at this summer will come to a close. Nearly 600 campers will be leaving the woods and the new friends they have made and return home. At the end of many school 1 years, it's easy to question wheth- DEREK er or not I've WOLFE actually learned anything. I know I've spent countless hours studying and working on class assignments, but it's not unreasonable to wonder if I've truly advanced academically. The same question can be asked for camp, just in a very different context - have I grown as a person? The week before camp - known as "precamp" - the staff is essentially preached two core values: keep the kids safe and let them have the summer of their lives. But I think there's a third unwritten value that is perhaps more important than having fun - find a way to get kids to break out of their comfort zones. The comfort zone is defined as a state of mind in which anxiety and the feeling of risk are minimized. Mental boundaries are set and it takes immense courage for anyone to step outside of the "zone," myself included. But I recognize there are many reasons why it's important to break out of the comfort zone. To name a few, it maintains a sense of drive and ambition. If we're too unwill- ing to leave the comfort zone, then it's likely we'll never get around to accomplishing the things that could lead to a meaningful life. From per- sonal experience, each and every time I've stepped outside my com- fort zone - and that can be as sim- ple as making a phone call to a total stranger - the added experience makes the next challenge easier to deal with. And lastly, it can help us live with a more open mind. Any idea I've pursued that at first seemed risky or scary but ended up work- ing out provides confidence that a similar idea could result similarly. Essentially, there should be no fear of being bold. We're at our best at a level called "optimal anxiety" and in order to reach it, risk-taking must be a part of our daily agenda. As a counselor, the campers I've watched overall have a different willingness to step outside the comfort zone. Some will attempt a Recreation, Observation, Problem Solving, Experiential Education and Self-Esteem course head-on with no thought whatsoever and others will overthink an activity to the point of mental paralysis. There's absolutely nothing that can be said to make these campers participate in activities they're afraid of. Dealing with this range of emo- tions is challenging. Trying too hard and ultimately forcing the camper to do something they fear could be traumatizing and diminish the con- fidence they have. But if we - the counselors - don't try hard enough, then these campers will remain within the comfort zone and will never know what they're missing if they don't expand their horizons. We want to make them better people. After spending nearly every moment with these campers for three weeks, the camper-counselor relationship becomes very close, almost parent-like. We want - more than anything - to see these teenagers reach their potential, whatever that may be. Like I said in my last column, there is no great- er feeling than watching a child accomplish something for the first time. And there's also no greater frustration than watching a child not accomplish something they are capable of doing. Last year, my friend joked that instead of writing camp counselor on his resume, he would write that he was a "child development special- ist." And that's a quite accurate job description. Each session, the goal is to leave each camper with a greater sense of self-worth and confidence. Ultimately, we want to make them better people. Stepping-out of the comfort zone - no matter how small the step - is where that change begins. There's no debate-about whether its easy to do that or not because it's hard, no doubt. But being able to dig deep for a split second and find the courage to do something out of the ordinary routine has long-lasting positive effects down the road. ' -Derek Wolfe can be reached at dewolfe@umich.edu. Netflix's lastest series challenges industry standards By KAYLA UPADHYAYA ManagingArts Editor I had a few concerns about Netf- lix's latest original series, "Orange is the New Black." I worried it would expect us to sympathize " exclusively with its main char- Orange iS acter '-the very the New white and very B privileged Piper Bck Chapman - as Season 1 she navigates the Litchfield wom- Netfxli en's federal pris- on. I worried it would succumb to white saviorism, presenting Piper as the prison angel among a cast of anonymous criminals. I wor- ried it would romanticize prison life in the same way creator Jenji Kohan's previous work "Weeds" romanticized the drug trade. "Orange" does none of these things. Piper Chapman (Taylor Schil- ling, "The Lucky One"), with her attractive fiance Larry (Jason Biggs, "American Pie") and suc- cessful artisanal soap company, basically lives one of those posh New York lifestyles that only seems to exist in Nora Ephron movies and the New York Times style section. But none of that mat- ters anymore as she finds herself facing a 15-month stint in federal prison for a crime she committed 10 years prior with her then-girl- friend Alex (Laura Prepon, "That 70s Show"), a cool, sexy inter- national drug trafficker (pro tip: don't fall for cool,' sexy interna- tional drug traffickers, no matter how cool and sexy they are). Piper arrives at Litchfield, determined to make her time in prison count, maybe learn a craft or two, and then return to her fianc6 Larry as a new, enlightened woman. She's met quickly with the harsh, metallic clamor of pris- on reality. It's a place where say- ing the wrong thing at the wrong time can leave you without food for days, a place where money is replaced with a barter system that includes everything from cans of Pepsi to duct tape to sex. The only new crafts she learns are how to fix broken lamps, how to fashion shower slippers out of Maxi pads and how to live locked up with the ex-girlfriend who landed her in this shit hole in the first place. "This isn't 'Oz,' " a correctional officer remarks during Piper's Litchfield check-in. With its sharp humor and female-centric sto- rytelling, the series isn't exactly of the same brand as "Oz," but to call it too watered down to be compared to the harrowing HBO series - or worse, "Oz" for women - is insulting and untrue. "Orange" uses graphic violence sparingly, but when it does, it's powerful. There's darkness with- in the walls of Litchfield. The tone weaves expertly between sweet and poisonous. A jubilant celebra- tion - set to Kelis's "Milkshake," obviously - for an inmate who's finally getting out takes a nasty turn that lands Piper in solitary for an isolating Thanksgiving marked by nonsensical echoes and moldy bologna. In Piper's first few weeks behind bars, "Orange" starts to unfurl a series of wonderful sur- prises. Though we stay close to Piper throughout the 13-episode first season, the story isn't just hers. She shares it with a whole crew of intricate characters who are far from anonymous. There's Morello (Yael Stone, "Spirited"), who spends her days planning her wedding with a boyfriend who never visits and screwing the lesbian ex-heroin-junkie Nich- ols (Natasha Lyonne, "Weeds"). There's Daya (newcomer Dascha Polanco), who tries so desperate- ly to not end up like her mother (Elizabeth Rodriguez, "Prime Suspect"), a fellow inmate who welcomes her to Litchfield with a motherly slap across the face. The Russian head chef with a bad temper, Red (Kate Mulgrew, "Warehouse 13"), acts as a moth- er figure to many of the girls, including Tricia (newcomer Mad- eline Brewer), a lovesick junkie who keeps a handwritten ledger of everything she's ever stolen so she can one day pay her debts. Piper's roommate Miss Claudette (Michelle Hurst, "Blue Bloods") is fiercely tidy, and whispered rumors that she killed a man fol- low her everywhere. When it's time for a new 'do, the girls know to go to resident stylist Sophia (Laverne Cox, "Transform Me"), a trans woman who befriends a hilariously liberal nun (Beth Fowler, "Gossip Girl"). Well-placed flashbacks reveal how some of these characters ended up in Litchfield, and it quickly becomes clear that no one woman belongs here more than any other. They're full of flaws and unconventional talents. They're vastly distinct from one another, yet their stories overlap in compelling ways, as relation- ships - maternal, sexual, amia- ble, hostile - form and transform from episode to episode. The characters -are backed by a superb cast. Schilling gives a career-making performance, and Prepon similarly delivers at an emotional level we haven't gotten from her in past work. This cast - which bursts with talented new- comers - also strikingly looks like no other ensemble you'll see on television, starring women of varying ages, sizes, races and sex- ual orientations. With its diverse representation of women, race and sexuality play huge roles in the show's narratives. It explores trans issues with a candor rarely found on television and delves into lesbian love as complexly as "The L Word" once did (though it's worth noting that "Orange" manages, so far, to be more coher- ent and substantive than "The L Word" ever was). When Larry becomes con- cerned that Piper is getting too swept up in prison life (her world suddenly revolves around the sighting of a fabled chicken, because fowl folklore is appar- ently quite powerful in prison),' he points out it's like living in a fishbowl. As I barreled through the first season of "Orange" (thanks to the release-it-all-at- once delivery method of Netflix original programming), I found myself completely swept up in the super-detailed world Kohan has created. With its specificity and colorful characters, "Orange" is like a fishbowl you can't help but love being thrown into. YOU'VE BINGE WATCHED WITH THE REST... NOW BINGE WATCH WITH THE BEST! APPLY TO DAILY ARTS. arts@michigandaily.com Under the revised policy, undocumented students would be eligible for in-state tuition if they attended at least two years of middle school and three years of high school in the state, gradu- ated from a Michigan high school or earned a Michigan high school equivalency certificate and start classes at the University within 28 months of graduation. This would be one of three ways students could claim eligibility for in-state tuition - the other two are Michi- gan residency and being either a member of the military or having a family member in the military. Many undocumented students' status as non-residents is a result of their parents bringing them to Michigan and the U.S. at a young age - a condition outside of their control. For the 29,000 undocu- mented students currently living in Michigan, a college education, let alone a University education - charging out-of-state tuition - on the average undocumented household's income of $36,000 per year is virtually impossible to afford. However, being able to claim in-state residency and the corresponding in-state tuition rate would make attending the University far more feasible. But even if the regents approve these revisions - and they should - the fundamental issues of an antiquated federal immigration policy behind many of the prob- lems undocumented students face will remain in place. Currently, undocumented students can't apply for federal financial aid. This is largely because they don't meet the requirements for acquir- ing permanent residence visas or "green cards". Moreover, under current law there is a backlog of over four million applications for these visas. A Senate immigra- tion reform bill passed in late June goes a long way towards fix- ing this problem by providing an alternative pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants. But the bill wouldn't permit stu- dents who have set out on this path to apply for financial aid, and House Republicans have stated they don't intend to introduce a similarly sweeping package any- time soon. With widespread support for tuition equality evidenced by CTE's nearly two-year campaign as well as a Congress that has proven its capacity for inaction on important issues such as immi- gration reform time and time again, the regents should approve the proposed in-state tuition guidelines. Doing so would both reaffirm the University's commit- ment to Michigan's residents and serve as an important gesture of solidarity to undocumented peo- ple who - though not American citizens - desire a world-class education and a chance to make their mark in the U.S. eeea~eaesaj 1REOUxxaxsxaeea Other Subs With steamin' hot meats and cheeses piled high on toasted private recipe sub rolls, nobody matches our lineup. Get Firehouse Subs on your team. 609 E. William, Ann Arbor MI 734.332.4100 © 2012 Firehouse Subs. ------------------------------------ I Buy a smoothie and receive one of I I greater or equal free. Limit One offer per customer with coupon. Cannot be combined with any other offer. Valid at Barry Bagels Aran Arbor location ONLY. Ill BAGELS ..mo. ssae .Barry Bagels Westgate ShopngCenterI 2515 tackc Ao4e, Ann Arbor, MaI8to3 (734)662-2435 www.barrybagels.com Expires: July 24, 2013 L-----------------------~---------- I