The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
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Wednesday, January 7, 2015 — 5A

ALLISON FARRAND/Daily

Class of 2014 winter graduates listen to NASA Administrator Charles F. Bolden, Jr., the commencement speaker, discuss 
the importance of love prevailing in the face of conflict and tragedy.

Demonstration 

draws attention to 
policy brutality

By JENNIFER CALFAS and 

SAM GRINGLAS

Editor in Chief and 

Managing News Editor

Multiple keynote speakers 

called on graduates to use their 
diplomas to promote positive 
change at the 2014 Winter Com-
mencement on Sunday. But after 
the ceremony, guests exited the 
Crisler Center to find about 60 
students taking that drive to 
heart.

Outside Crisler, protesters 

gathered for a “die-in” to call 
for an end to police brutality 
and racial profiling. The event 
follows several similar events 
held on campus in recent weeks 
to protest grand jury decisions 
not to indict police officers 
responsible for the deaths of 
two unarmed Black men in Fer-
guson, Mo. and Staten Island, 
New York.

Among several speeches and 

musical performances during 
the ceremony, University Presi-
dent Mark Schlissel, Univer-
sity Provost Martha Pollack and 
NASA Administrator Charles F. 
Bolden, Jr., the commencement 
speaker, pushed graduates to 
challenge the status quo as they 
begin their lives outside of the 
University.

In opening his speech, Bold-

en echoed the remarks of the 
2013 Commencement Speaker 
Michele Norris, a renowned 
journalist, who said love should 
prevail in light of conflict and 
tragedy across the nation.

After protests and calls for 

reform erupted across the coun-
try over the last few months, 
Bolden called on University’s 
graduates to play a part in fos-
tering change.

“Much as it was for the class 

of (2013), you arrived at this day 
of celebration with our nation 
still struggling to provide peace 
and justice for all its citizens,” 
he said. “You are well prepared 
and ready to make a difference.”

Under 
his 
leadership 
as 

NASA’s first Black administra-
tor, NASA landed a rover on 
Mars and launched a spacecraft 
to Jupiter, among other feats, 
after President Barack Obama 
nominated 
Bolden 
to 
head 

NASA in 2009.

“It’s time for you to go out 

and challenge the status quo. 
It’s the mission of the Univer-
sity of Michigan to, and I quote, 
‘Educate leaders and citizens 
to challenge the present and 
enrich the future.’”

During his first commence-

ment ceremony, Schlissel said 
he had been looking forward to 
this day since he was selected 
as the University’s 14th presi-
dent in January. In his address, 
Schlissel asked graduates to 
chart their own “Michigan sto-
ries.”

“I ask, because the stories 

that intrigue me most, those 
that drive me and inspire me, 
are the stories yet to be writ-
ten,” he said. “You have the tools 
to help individuals and entire 
populations. You can create new 
knowledge and inspire commu-
nities. You have the optimism 
and entrepreneurial spirit to 
take on the biggest challenges 
– and you have your Michigan 
family to cheer you on and sup-
port you every step of the way.”

University Provost Martha 

Pollack opened the ceremony, 
thanking students for their 
activism on campus and passion 
for social justice. One of her 
main wishes for graduates, she 
noted, was for them to take risks 
and challenge existing social 
norms.

“I don’t think you (will) shy 

away from, but instead will seek 
out challenges throughout your 
life,” Pollack said.

When 
listing 
possibilities 

for students to promote change 
after graduation, Pollack lauded 
student activism and the stu-
dents’ desire for an equitable, 
diverse campus.

“Perhaps, as so many of you 

have done during your time 
at Michigan, you will become 
involved in social activism, 
challenging all of us to become 
a better, more equitable and 
inclusive society.”

After 
Schlissel 
conferred 

degrees, hundreds of under-
graduate, graduate and doctor-
ate students, family and friends 
exiting Crisler were greeted by 
dozens of protesters laying on 
the plaza.

Though die-in protests held 

across the country over the 
past few weeks typically last 
4.5 minutes to represent the 
4.5 hours Ferguson resident 
Michael Brown spent on the 
ground after he was shot and 
killed by a police officer, pro-
testers remained in position 
until the hundreds of com-
mencement guests funneled out 
of Crisler.

As commencement attend-

ees exited Crisler, they walked 
around — or through — the 
group of protestors on the 
ground. 
Some 
encouraged 

them, while others voiced dis-
taste in their choice of timing 
the protest after the graduation 
ceremony.

LSA senior Canon Thomas, 

one of the event’s organizers, 
said demonstrating after the 
commencement ceremony pro-
vided an opportunity to reach a 
wider audience beyond Univer-
sity students. He also empha-
sized the ties between the 
occasion of receiving a degree 
and taking steps to enact posi-
tive change.

“Once you get your degree, 

as I understand from the mis-
sion statement, you’re supposed 
to go out in the world and make 
change,” he said. “You’re sup-
posed to take your degree and 
make the world a better place. 
So yes you have your degree, 

you have it in hand, now what? 
Come join us and tell everyone 
with your degree that Black 
lives matter. We didn’t do it 
before or during, we did it after. 
As you walk to your car, I want 
you to remember Black lives 
matter. If it’s not appropriate, 
when is the time? When is the 
right time for justice?”

Law Prof. Martha Jones, who 

stood beside the students for 
several minutes during the pro-
test and teared up as she spoke 
about the demonstration, said 
she couldn’t imagine a better 
moment to communicate to the 
graduates’ family, friends and 
supporters what students have 
been working on and thinking 
about during the past semester.

“It 
makes 
me 
optimistic 

because I think that when we 
charge students with gradua-
tion and commencement and 
(think about) who they’ll be… 
we want them to be citizens of 
the world and to not only have 
ideas, but to act on their ideas 
and this to me seems to be abso-
lutely the embodiment of that.”

Jones also said this type of 

broad discussion pairs well with 
the conversations about diver-
sity and inclusion currently 
underway at the University.

“We still have a serious 

conversation in house about 
students, and numbers and per-
centages that shouldn’t be lost 
even as we’re now very much 
part of this national conversa-
tion that is focused on police 
violence — that the experience 
of our students at Michigan is 
still very much tied to our num-
bers. So I hope that we’ll contin-
ue with that commitment and 
still working on that very chal-
lenging problem while we’re 
also part of this bigger discus-
sion. They’re really companion 
pieces,” she said.

LSA junior Rachel Webb, 

another organizer for the dem-
onstration, worked with Uni-
versity Police to ensure the 
protest was peaceful and did not 
obstruct the ceremony. While 
Webb recognized the need to 
end police brutality, she noted 
that protesters must not assume 
all officers profile citizens based 
on race.

“We were proud of the police 

officers who stood in solidar-
ity with us,” Webb said, noting 
that her father is a police officer. 
“They were very adamant about 
us exercising those rights.”

In response to those criticiz-

ing the protest for its placement 
after the ceremony, Webb said 
the demonstration did not aim 
to take attention away from the 
graduates, but rather serve as a 
forum to both educate attendees 
and provide a voice for concerns 
with which many University 
students are grappling.

“We didn’t want to take 

away from graduation at all, 
but there’s a lot of Black grads 
in that crowd that are feeling 
these things, and it doesn’t just 
stop because things are happy.”

Students hold ‘die-in’ 
after commencement

Obama to visit Metro 
Detroit Wednesday

WINTER BREAK in Review

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President to 

announce executive 
orders ahead of State 
of the Union address

By SHOHAM GEVA

Daily News Editor

President Barack Obama will 

visit Metro Detroit Wednesday 
as part of a three-city tour lead-
ing up to his State of the Union 
address, the Detroit Free Press 
reported Saturday afternoon.

Citing a statement by White 

House spokesperson Eric Schul-
tz, the Free Press reported 
Obama’s visit would highlight his 
administration’s 2009 efforts to 
bail out Michigan’s auto industry 
through a series of intentional 
bankruptcies and federal loans.

The statement also said his 

remarks 
would 
include 
the 

announcement of several legis-
lative proposals and executive 
orders.

No 
further 
details 
about 

Obama’s visit were available Sat-
urday. The White House did not 

immediately respond to a request 
for comment. There are no Mich-
igan events currently listed on 
the president’s public schedule 
for Wednesday.

Wednesday will mark the 

president’s second visit to Michi-
gan in recent months. In Novem-
ber, he spoke at Wayne State 
University to campaign for Dem-
ocratic candidates in a number 
of statewide elections. The auto 
bailout emerged as an issue dur-
ing this year’s fall election season 
and was also highlighted during 
the president’s November visit.

Vigil honors Pakistani 
students slain in attack

Over 100 gather to 
remember people 
killed by Taliban

By EMMA KINERY

Daily Staff Reporter

As part of a candlelight vigil 

honoring lives lost in Tuesday’s 
Taliban attack on the Army Pub-
lic School and Degree College 
in Peshawar, Pakistan, over 100 
members of the University com-
munity gathered on the Diag 
Wednesday evening to reflect on 
the recent violence in the coun-
try.

In the Taliban’s most recent 

attack on Pakistani schools, 148 
people were killed — 132 of which 
were children — and at least a 
hundred more hospitalized with 
injuries.

At the vigil, which was orga-

nized by the Michigan Pakistanis 
and the Muslim Students’ Associ-
ation, many of the students stood 
on the Hatcher Graduate Library 

stairs holding Pakistani flags and 
signs reading, “The smallest cof-
fins are the heaviest,” “Today we 
bleed together” and “#PrayFor-
Peshawar.” At the bottom of the 
steps candles were arranged to 
spell “Peshawar.”

Before student leaders shared 

their thoughts on the events, the 
group was silent for 10 minutes of 
reflection. Most of the speakers 
were of Pakistani heritage and 
several spoke of personal experi-
ences dealing with violence in the 
country.

“It’s amazing to see all the 

solidarity,” said MSA President 
Saher Rathur, an LSA senior. 
“People of all ethnicities attend-
ed the event to show their sup-
port for Pakistan.”

Many of the speakers dis-

cussed their hope that the media 
does not define all of Pakistan 
by these attacks. Speakers asked 
attendants to pray for Pakistan 
and the families affected by the 
attacks.

MPak 
President 
Mansoor 

Saqib, an LSA senior, said he 

hopes the media depicts these 
attacks with nuance.

“Instead we should focus 

on why this attack took place,” 
Saquib said. “What were the real 
political agendas of these groups 
or monsters? What is our govern-
ment and the Pakistani govern-
ment doing to perpetuate such 
violence? And more importantly, 
what can we as citizens of this 
world do to stop violent tragedies 
like this from frequently repeat-
ing?”

Following the vigil, organizers 

held a traditional funeral prayer 
in Mason Hall and prepared a 
card for attendees to sign and 
send to Peshawar.

LSA junior Haider Malik’s 

family lives in Peshawar and 
he attended school there before 
coming to Michigan for college. 
He said he hopes the United 
States does not react with force as 
it did in its response to the Sep-
tember 11 attacks.

“Let us not seek to respond 

to force with more force,” Malik 
said. “That’s not the answer.”

ALLISON FARRAND/Daily

LSA senior Nadir Rehman reminds attendants never to conflate the oppressed with their oppressors at vigil for Peshawar 
on December 18.

