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Ann Arbor, Michigan
Tuesday, January 20, 2015
CELEBRATING OUR ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-FIFTH YEAR OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM
Discussions, panels
kick off week-long
symposium on race
and social justice
By ALLANA AKHTAR
Daily Staff Reporter
Instead of attending classes
Monday,
University
students
and faculty honored the legacy of
Martin Luther King Jr. by host-
ing or attending various semi-
nars and discussions to examine
social justice in American soci-
ety.
The School of Social Work
hosted “Policing Black Bodies:
A Dialogue on Poverty, Police
Brutality and the Way Out” to
reflect on King’s legacy in mod-
ern America. Writer Shaun Ossei
Owusu, Assistant Prof. Kamau
Rashid and Rackham student
Finn Bell discussed how poverty,
race and police brutality have
changed throughout U.S. his-
tory.
“The
historical
configura-
tions of race in the United States,
within the context of slavery and
colonialism, actually teaches us
a great deal about the contempo-
rary manifestations and expres-
sions of racism today,” Rashid
said. “Racism is both permanent
and indestructible and I think
that there’s a lot that we can
learn from this.”
Rackham
student
Loren
Cahill, who is in the School of
Social Work, said the most nota-
ble part of the event was Rashid’s
acknowledgement of racism’s
permanency and inability to
completely dissolve.
“I thought it was phenom-
enal,” she said. “I liked the dis-
cussion about still fighting to do
racial work and to end profiling,
still striving to improve it.
Bell spoke of his experience
growing up white in the South
and witnessing the racial dis-
crimination his peers through
an outside lens. He also warned
LEFT: Ndaba Mandela, grandson of Nelson Mandela, speaks at the Ross School of Business as part of the MLK Symposium Monday. (Andrew Cohen/Daily)
UPPER RIGHT: Students join hands on the Diag for the Circle of Unity presented by the Michigan Commuity Scholars Program. (Virginia Lozano/Daily)
LOWER RIGHT: Dr. Marc Lamont Hill speaks about Martin Luther King, Jr.’s legacy at Hill Auditorium . (David Song/Daily)
CAMPUS LIFE
Efforts to move
multicultural center,
increase minority
enrollment continue
By ALYSSA BRANDON
Daily Staff Reporter
On a cold Martin Luther King, Jr.
Day last year, members of the Uni-
versity’s Black Student Union stood
atop the steps of Hill Auditorium,
holding black signs etched with
white chalk. The organization gath-
ered to protest stagnant minority
enrollment and demand the Univer-
sity meet seven goals for improving
campus climate.
Engineering
senior
Robert
Greenfield, BSU treasurer, said in
early discussions, administrators
expressed a genuine willingness to
collaborate with the BSU.
“University
administration
is
made of the highest and best ser-
vants of our University, and the BSU
is very appreciative of how they
have collaborated with us,” he said.
“However, as of now, it is the overall
sentiment of the BSU that progress
is not being made, and as an execu-
tive board, we’re questioning the
administration’s willingness due to
how fast things are progressing.”
Despite progress on several of
the BSU’s demands, which includ-
ed revising the Race and Ethnic-
ity distribution requirement and
providing emergency funding for
students, Greenfield said he and
other members of the BSU believe
progress slowed over the last year,
particularly in increasing minority
enrollment and establishing a new
multicultural center on Central
Campus.
“It’s been a year, and many of the
things that still need to be done, the
Black Student Union just can’t con-
trol,” he said. “Many of the solutions
to the demands have been handed
over to people who are very pas-
sionate about fulfilling the work, but
just simply don’t have the resources
to do so.”
In November 2013, the BSU had
launched the Twitter initiative
#BBUM. Students of color used the
hashtag, which stands for Being
Black at the University of Michigan,
to share thoughts and experiences
about being a minority on campus.
#BBUM soon went viral, accumu-
lating over 10,000 tweets by 10 p.m.
MEN’S BASKETBALL
With much of its
roster depleted,
Michigan faces an
uphill battle
By LEV FACHER
Managing Editor
John Beilein was frank in
assessing the Michigan men’s
basketball team’s roster prior to
its Tuesday night tilt with Rut-
gers in Piscataway.
“We have more injured or sick
players than we have healthy
players right now,” Beilein said.
The Wolverines’ eighth-year
coach is barely exaggerating. As
few as six players are entirely
healthy and ready to contribute
major minutes against a Rutgers
team that upset then-No. 4 Wis-
consin on Jan. 11, and the rest of
Michigan’s roster is hurt, sick,
ineligible or some combination
thereof.
Following
the
team’s
announcement
Sunday
that
junior guard Caris LeVert is out
for the remainder of the season
with a left foot injury, the Wol-
verines’ injury tally stands at
four. Freshman forward D.J. Wil-
son may redshirt and has yet to
be cleared for full-court play fol-
lowing a December knee sprain.
Freshman
forward
Kameron
Chatman is questionable thanks
to a knee injury suffered Satur-
day against Northwestern. And
sophomore guard Derrick Walton
Jr. remains limited by an injured
toe on his right foot which has
plagued him throughout the year.
To make matters worse, fresh-
man forward Ricky Doyle’s status
is uncertain thanks to an illness,
and junior guard Spike Albrecht
is questionable because of an
upper respiratory infection.
Per Beilein, Albrecht has been
“cleared to give it a shot and see
how he feels.”
That leaves just nine healthy
players. But sophomore guard
Andrew Dakich hasn’t played this
season, and likely won’t — Beilein
has said previously that Dakich
will redshirt so that he has a
fifth year of eligibility remain-
ing should he choose to transfer.
Duncan Robinson is also sitting
out the season, because NCAA
transfer policy precludes him
from playing in the year follow-
ing his move to Ann Arbor from
Division III Williams College.
But Robinson wouldn’t have been
available, anyway — he suffered a
sprained ankle in recent weeks,
preventing him from contribut-
ing to the scout team during prac-
tice.
The injuries have depleted the
scout team and forced to Beilein
took advantage of an NCAA rule
that allows coaches to occasional-
ly bring in former players to prac-
tice with the team. He invited
David Merritt, a former Michigan
point guard and 2009 graduate,
to ensure that 5-on-5 competition
was an option in practice.
To stop Rutgers, the Wolver-
ROBERT DUNNE/Daily
Washington University student Rohan Khopkar works on his team with Purdue University student Andrew Xia at
MHacks Saturday on North Campus.
Fifth annual
MHacks event
engages students
over 36 hours
By TANYA MADHANI
Daily Staff Reporter
When the clock struck mid-
night on Friday, 1,200 people
rushed to begin 36 hours of liv-
ing and breathing one thing:
programming.
Over the weekend, MHacks,
a hackathon competition orga-
nized by University students,
held its fifth hacking competi-
tion.
Saturday morning, 11 hours
into the competition, teams
filed into the nooks and cran-
nies of the Bob and Betty
Beyster building on North
Campus to work on their proj-
ects. Rooms called “hacking
spaces,” labeled with famous
programmers such as Alan
Turing, were filled to the brim
with teams.
Throughout the event, some
hackers wore pajamas, others
remained in the clothes they
had arrived in. A few partici-
pants slept on benches outside
of rooms or at their desks as the
night wore on. Several sleeping
bags were scattered in the hall-
ways and on the floors, but a
few resisted sleep through the
entirety of the event.
“There
are
people
who
haven’t gone to sleep yet from
the (organizing) team,” said
MHacks Director John Zwick,
an Engineering junior. “And I
really appreciate that.”
Started in 2013 by MPow-
ered, a student organization
that encourages entrepreneur-
ship among college students,
MHacks promotes program-
ming innovation and encour-
ages students to build both
software and hardware they
can continue to develop in the
future.
The closing ceremony of
MHacks was held at Rack-
ham Auditorium where fam-
ily members and observers sat
patiently for the top 10 teams
to present the fruits of their
labors.
After
each
presentation,
Zwick read off special prizes
ADMINISTRATION
Envoy to include
meetings with
several partner
institutions
By MICHAEL SUGERMAN
Daily News Editor
In his first international trip
as the University’s chief adminis-
trator, University President Mark
Schlissel will head to China early
this July to continue collabora-
tion with the country’s universi-
ties, as well as to meet alumni,
faculty and students studying
abroad.
In an interview with The
Michigan Daily on Friday, Schlis-
sel said the visit — slated for the
week of July 5 — is demonstrative
of the University’s growing pres-
ence in China.
“Michigan is a global univer-
sity, and I think in the decades
ahead more so,” he said. “The
world is becoming smaller, peo-
ple are traveling and communi-
cating with one another, students
are traveling the globe, so reach-
ing out around the world is an
important part of my job.”
Schlissel visit Shanghai Jiao
Tong University and Peking Uni-
versity. Fifty University under-
graduates currently attend SJTU
each summer through the UM-
SJTU Joint Institute to study
See MLK, Page 3
See BBUM, Page 3
See RUTGERS, Page 3
See MHACKS, Page 3
See CHINA, Page 3
Programs across campus
honor Dr. King’s legacy
‘U’ reflects
on #BBUM
a year after
demands
Injured, sick
‘M’ readying
for Rutgers
Hacking competition draws
1,200 participants to A2
Schlissel to
strengthen
connections
during July
trip to China
INDEX
Vol. CXXIV, No. 50
©2015 The Michigan Daily
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