I S:Thursday, July 3, 2014 8 iThe Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com Thursday, July 3, 2014 The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com I5 PIGEONS From Page 3 President's House sees focus on preservation Not your cutie "PRIME" PARKING FOR SALE 2014-15 Great Locations: 721 S. Forest $1500 1320 S. University $1500 326 E. Madison-1 Pass $960 515 E. Lawrence $720 511 Hoover $720 508 S. Division $600 Parking for less than the rest! the species to the wild. However, the efforts may be too little, and much too late. Dil- lenburg expressed concerns that F EN genetically engineered specimens would simply die out in the labs as did the last members of the spe- cies in the early 1900s. NORTH CAMPUS 1-2 Bdrm. ! "Even if you could perfect the ! Riverfront/Heat/Water/Parking. ! technology and create a new pas- ! www.HRPAA.com ! senger pigeon, the current envi- . NORTH CAMPUS 1-2 Bdrm. ! ronment - they just wouldn't fit," Riverfront/Heat/Water/Parking. ! he said. www.HRPAA.com ! PROF. !!LG. 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In the next five years, beyond CENTRAL CAMPUS, FURNISHED revamping Chem 211, McNeil rooms for students, shared kitch., ldry., plans to apply these concepts to bath., internet, summer from $400, fall classes offered at the University, and to Washtenaw Community RENTAL APARTMENTS NOW College students through sum- available close to Ross & Law School mer immersion programs. She 1 year lease September 2014 - August also hopes to create a two-week 2015 utilities included. summer program for high school Call:(734)834-5021 students -including a hands-on lab - to foster and encourage an interest in science. By SHOHAM GEVA ManagingNews Editor One of the most striking aspects of the President's House, currently the oldest building on campus, is the way it blends the past and pres- ent. In the hallways, original aspects of the architecture mix with the type of industrial fire alarms you'd find in University buildings on campus. When it was decided that the the study needed new win- dows to be more energy efficient as part of the ongoing, $1.3 mil- lion renovation project, architects planned to build them inside of the original ones, in a compromise between preservation and utility. In the bathrooms, the electricity outlets are updated to comply with code - the bathtubs, showers, and counters themselves mostly stay the same. During a tour of the house, Henry Baier, associate vice presi- dent for facilities and operations, said for the most part, the focus of renovations has been on main- taining the historic nature of the exterior while still updating the interior, a balance he acknowl- edged isn't always easy. When bal- ancing between the two, he said safety, energy efficiency, and cost are top factors. Renovations are expected to be completed by the end of this sum- mer, though they won't be done in time for Schlissel officially assumes his position on July 14th. Thus far, Baier said, the project has been proceeding on track. NEED A BUS to the Notre Dame foot- ball game from downtown Chicago? $120 for transportation, refreshments, and tailgating. Contact Bus2notredame.com. 312-371-7142. THESIS EDITING. LANGUAGE, organization, format. All Disciplines. 734/996-0566 or writeon@iserv.net n the dark, the flashlight in my pocket chafes against my thigh and I watch northern Michigan huff out its pudding- night. Stars pout stupidly in the sky. A plane hobbles past; I say, "Is that a satellite?" My friend shakes C his head no. CABLINA Somebody else DUAN calls me cute for dreaming. In the night, surrounded by a smattering of sand and beetles, I feel itchy. Exhausted. Filled with ache and temperature and unrest. Frequently, I'm told by others that I'm "small" or"cute." Ironically,I feel neither. At home, I rifle through our cabinet and eat all the pita chips. I forget to sweep the floors. I overbook myself frequently; fall in love on the hour. Most days, I'm awkward and shy and filled with a windowless joy. People shake their heads. People point and call me "petite." I'm five feet. The man carting cans of Coca Cola at Meijer tells me not to look at it as a diss. "Let's put it this way," he laughs, "You're fun-sized." At work, I'm called "cute" by a co-worker, who chirps out, "You're just like, the cutest person I've ever seen!" and crushes me in a hug. A yellow dog hair rides her shirt collar, and I'm immediately filled with a watery rage. I have biceps. I clip my nails. I have hair that tussles down a wide back. I'm twenty years old, and I'm frequently pegged by others as "cute." Cuteness and smallness are terms that are shoved into my world often - by strangers, friends, peers. They're not intended as insults. After all, I'm five feet tall. I write poems. I eat sugar. I wear children's size Nike sneakers. Fireflies light me up with glee. Still, the project of naming others can become one- dimensional, squashing down, rather than lifting up. The word "cute" has its rightful place. In the daycare center where I work, we circulate the word frequently. Cute kids. Cute bangs and lost babyteeth. Cute Lego blocks shaped into castles and crayons. At my other job waiting tables, we discuss cuteness in the context of the elderly woman who slides into the restaurant in plum-colored shoes and matching sunglasses, dicing her dill pickle with a fork. Cute baby on the patio,mashinghis macaroniwith a fat fist. Cute dog slurping from the waterbowl. Cute, waggingtail. For all the times I'm forecast with the word "cute," cutenessitselfseems foreign to me. "Cute" doesn't strut. "Cute" doesn't drink its chocolate milkshake with bare feet, perched by the electric socket in July heat. "Cute" doesn't place its hand on its hip, talking back. There seemsto be a strange glossiness that accompanies cuteness. What is nonthreatening, easily cooed at, easily pet on the head - that's cute. As a "petite" Asian-American woman, I find itincrediblyimportant to redefine my own sense of space. I find it urgent to shout, to bust out of the words I'm given or made to wear. There's wonder in shaping the world with my own two hands: Why "cute"? Why "small"? When frozen in these words, how can I do my own kind of snipping? How can I uncover? How canI groove or glow? Instead of settling into these names, it's important that we roll into and out of them. The practice of naming with language has such a slow-churned power - it's important that we don't retreat. I aim to challenge myself to twist these words inside-out. Smallness, cuteness - I fall into that, and so much more. For me, what's intriguing is that these terms have never aligned with how I feel. So the bigger project becomes navigating a world where I am seen as X, but shimmy into Y. While, at times, it's frustrating to be pinned down into these terms, I also find that it introduces a sense of awe into my own work and the ways I practice self-care. I appreciate moments of self-hugeness much, much more. I ask questions. I can be cute or small, but I can also brim full of sass, song, trouble. In cuteness, in smallness - I do notrest. I amout-of- breath,lIrun, I marvel. In a writing prompt, the poet Shira Erlichman encourages others to, "Snatch a potent name back from the air. (...) How do you make or re-make it? Shake the snowglobe of the name: what floats, what sinks?" For me, "cute" and "small" give me opportunities to claim mightiness and power in revolutionary ways. I can be cute, but I can also be dimensional. I can name myself - loud-mouthed, long-haired, tall-hearted, giant in wonder, giant in love. - Carlina Duan can be reached at linaduan@umich.edu. Unpaid, A s a society, we've generally accepted the institution of unpaid student labor. Many students, especially those from less privileged backgrounds, struggle with choosing ZAK between paid WITUS jobs that benefit them more immediately and unpaid jobs that benefit them more in the future. As it is, we accept that universities don't pay most students who assist with their research, and that companies don't pay most of their student- interns. But why? There's no good reason for students to accept that they won't be paid for their labor. The struggle between choosing unpaid versus paid work is unnecessary if students opt instead to struggle against the employers who believe it's acceptable not to pay students for their labor. Many employers claim that the special advantages of unpaid student jobs for the students justify the absence of wages. Internships and university- based research assistance appear to be the most popular kinds of unpaid student jobs. Most students want to intern with certain companies or assist with university research because these jobs are in the students' professional fields of interest and will therefore help them achieve their career goals. By interning and/or researching, students can gain specialized academic knowledge as well as develop professional skills, such as researching techniques, writing, unfair internships networking, etc. If nothing else, but only wages that help pay by the end of an internship or for students' "educational research assistantship, student expenses." The universities who workers can add references and employ work-study students bullet points for their resumes. as research assistants may These are, more or less, the appear altruistic in helping to advantages of unpaid student pay students' tuition, but really labor for the student workers. the relationship is quite pro Although one can't deny that bono. Universities should pay these advantages do exist, all students who assist with they don't constitute fair their research. Less privileged compensation nor a justification students should receive financial for not paying them. All workers aid, but paying work-study deserved to be paid fairly for students for assisting with their labor. Students, like all research is not actually financial other workers, should be able to aid; it's fairly paying the least receive the long-term benefits privileged students the way that of their work experience in all student-workers should be addition to fair wages. There's paid. nothing special about the jobs We ought to eliminate the held by student workers that institution of unpaid student justifies the outright absence of labor. The feeble compensation wages and exploitation of their that the employers claim they labor. provide is inadequate, and we Perhaps the biggest problem need not accept it. If students with the institution of unpaid demand to be paid for their student labor is that it limits labor, everyone but the profit- socioeconomic mobility. The makers will benefit - students special advantages of unpaid will earn more money to help student labor are advantages fund, among other things, their largely impossible to obtain from ridiculously high tuition costs, the paid jobs currently available. and one barrier of socioeconomic The wealthier students, who can mobility will diminish. One afford to work for free, reap all important obstacle for this the aforementioned advantages potential movement is that of the unpaid jobs. Conversely, currently students aren't of course, poorer students, who properly organized. Any can't afford to work for free, reap successful boycott or strike none of these advantages. Thus, would require a vast majority of the institution of unpaid student students to ban together against labor bars poorer students those exploiting them for their from these opportunities and, labor and together demand fair through this inequality, impedes wages. The key component is for upon their achievement of the the working students to realize so-called American Dream. their power: the institution only The possible exceptions are continues to exploit us because college work-study programs.' we consent to it. We can be paid Students who qualify and for our work if we are willing complete all the necessary to organize and demand it. paperwork can participate in Students of the world, unite! these programs and receive wages from their university - Zak Witus can be reached for assisting with research _ at zakwitus@umich.edu. ALLISON FARRAND/Daily $1.3 million in renovations are being done at the President's House this summer. If I had a rock, I would throw it at you right now' -Florida judge John Murphy while arguing with a public defender over client's right to a speedy trial. The pair then brawled "out back" away from court cameras.