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The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News
Monday, January 26, 2015 — 3A

on their own campuses as well 
as nationally,” AAU President 
Hunter Rawlings said in a 
statement.

“We also hope the survey 

will help policymakers gain 
a better understanding of the 

problem, and that it will make 
a significant contribution to 
the growing body of research 
on sexual assault,” he added.

Correction 
appended: 
A 

previous version of this article 
misstated the number of AAU 
member universities. It is 62, 
not 64. Twenty-eight cam-
puses are participating in the 
survey.

SURVEY
From Page 1A

“As a model, you get to show-

case the designer’s art,” Nwam-
ba said. “It’s a fun experience 
because you get to get out of your 
comfort zone. It allows you to 
not only express the designers’ 
art, but also express your own 
art — the way you express the 
fashion.”

The show opened with styles 

from Moscow. As fake snow fell 
on the audience, models walked 
down the runway wearing cold-
weather designs such as fur 
coats and hats. The “train” then 
moved to Tokyo, where mod-
els displayed a “modern” style, 
sporting pantsuits and messen-

ger bags, intended to capture 
the essence of a rapidly growing 
Tokyo fashion industry.

The audience cheered loudly 

when the Detroit scene began. 
Models wore clothing inspired 
by the city and its sports teams.

The final scene, displaying 

fashion from Rio de Janeiro, 
opened with a model walking 
down the runway carrying a live 
snake.

In an e-mail interview, LSA 

senior 
Christopher 
James, 

a member of the EnspiRED 
e-board, said a high-fashion 
show allows for all types of 
flourishes.

“Once the lights come on and 

the music plays, you will for-
get that you’re at a student-run 
show,” James wrote.

FASHION
From Page 1A

comments like “Go home, fascists” 
and “Why aren’t you protesting 
against Obama,” several audience 
members took flyers explaining 
Gergiev’s political stances from 
the protesters and offered to read 
it inside the theatre premises.

Ann Arbor resident Arsenia 

Kozak, an active member of the 
Ukranian cultural community in 
Greater Detroit, said it was hard 
to separate the art from the poli-
tics when Ukrainians were dying 
from the policies that Gergiev 
condoned.

“The arts is beautiful and I’m 

not saying anything against Ger-
giev as a conductor,” she said. 
“Even if (people) go in there and 
listen to his music, I want them to 
be aware of what is happening in 
Ukraine.”

UMS President Ken Fisher said 

the protest was not unique and 
the musical society has seen simi-
lar demonstrations in the past 
when Russian artists have graced 
Hill Auditorium.

“I’m all for freedom of speech, 

and I’m really impressed that 
people that are doing this have 
chosen this vehicle,” he said, com-
mending the protestors for not 
attempting to disrupt the concert. 
“At a university, we need to first of 
all celebrate freedom of speech, 
but also be tolerant of different 
points of view.”

Nevertheless, given the Mari-

insky Orchestra’s 23 year history 
with UMS and the Ann Arbor 
community, 
Fisher 
said 
the 

“extraordinary things” Gergiev 
had achieved artistically deserved 
recognition.

“We made the decision over 

two years ago to honor Valery Ger-
giev and the Mariinsky Orches-
tra,” Fisher explained. “They 
are among the best in the world, 
and we try to separate politics 
from their artistic achievements, 
and also from the contributions 
they’ve made to our community.”

PROTEST
From Page 1A

sion with regard to the South 
Asian community at the Univer-
sity and beyond.

“It was kind of an attempt to 

create a space for conversations 
that weren’t being had in the 
South Asian community,” Shetty 
said. “It was kind of a place to 
bring people together and start 
engaging with those issues with 
leaders in our communities.”

This year, “Threads” focused 

on personal stories from various 
members of the South Asian com-
munity, emphasizing the signifi-
cance of individuals’ journeys and 
the relation to their identities.

Public Policy senior Raeesa 

Khan, 
co-director 
of 
SAAN 

and the conference, said the 
“Threads” theme diverged from 
previous iterations of the confer-
ence, which concentrated more 
on business and entrepreneur-
ship. She added that the goal this 
year shifted toward social justice 
and activism.

“We’re trying to show partici-

pants that you can make some sort 
of change, whether that’s change 
at an individual level or a larger 
level within in your field regard-
less of whether you’re a doctor, 
lawyer or artist,” Khan said.

This year’s guests were activ-

ist Almas Haider, comedian Hari 
Kondabolu, actor and writer 
Sunny Tripathy, youth activist 
Saajan Bhakta, pediatric special-
ist Seema Jilani and Mahima 
Mahadevan, who works at the 
Education Policy Initiative at the 
Ford School.

Past SAAN conference speak-

ers 
include 
University 
alum 

Sanjay Gupta, the CNN medical 
correspondent, Pepsi CEO Indra 
Nooyi and actor Kal Penn.

Each of the speakers present-

ed their experiences with South 
Asian identity in a narrative form 
by providing stories and examples 
from their own lives.

Kondabolu, who performed the 

introductory act for “Threads,” 
addressed the importance of 
hosting an event like the SAAN 
conference because he feels that 
many young South Asians follow 
a tunnel vision to their career 

paths, and don’t have enough 
social justice awareness.

“They have their career path 

and some of it’s pressure from 
the parents and some of it’s from 
going to great schools,” Kond-
abolu said. “This isn’t all (South 
Asians), but … I think they forget 
the bigger issues and the context 
that they live in.

“Awareness 
is 
a 
minimal 

requirement to know what’s hap-
pening in the world and perhaps 
do something about it,” he added. 
“Every year I’m always impressed 
by (SAAN), even when I’m not 
invited. It’s not just one token 
event; it’s actually a commitment 
to justice.”

Tripathy, who is an actor and 

writer for a newly developed Fox 
show titled “Keeping Up with the 
Guptas,” said being the victim of a 
hate crime when he was 16 years 
old shaped his personal character 
and his future ambitions.

Tripathy was attacked by a neo-

Nazi gang on the day of his prom 
and was left severely injured, 
with a broken clavicle that still 
protrudes today. Realizing his life 
could end any day, he began to 
work harder at his schooling and 
filmmaking, of which he became 
an avid fan after receiving a cam-
corder to document his sister’s 
childhood.

South Asians have such diverse 

subsections, Tripathy said, that 
that holding a conference like 
SAAN is necessary.

“(The South Asian community) 

needs its own voice,” Tripathy 
said. “It needs its own space and 
I think the more people know 
about our cultures, our ideas, 
our philosophies, they’ll see that 
we’re no different from anybody 
else.”

Bhakta, youth activist and CEO 

of the non-profit PovSolve, shared 
his narrative related to mental 
health — a topic he said is taboo in 
South Asian communities.

Bhakta, who was invited to 

the White House and honored by 
President Barack Obama, detailed 
how his own struggle with men-
tal health, resulting from years of 
emotional abuse, inspired him to 
help his community.

“We’re a community and in 

order to make a difference we 
have to come together as a com-

munity and we have to be able 
to talk about sensitive issues like 
mental health and breaking stig-
mas,” Bhakta said.

Khan, the event co-director, 

said while the speakers were spe-
cial, the subsequent group con-
versations were just as important 
— if not more so.

After each workshop, attendees 

split into small groups to discuss 
what they had heard and share 
their 
individual 
perspectives. 

These groups were comprised of 
12 to 15 randomly selected stu-
dents with two members of SAAN 
trained to help facilitate discus-
sion about potentially sensitive 
and triggering issues.

Throughout the conference, 

members of the “Threads” Cen-
tral Planning Team and small 
group 
facilitators 
continually 

emphasized the importance of a 
safe space for these conversations.

“The strengths of the small 

group is that the conference really 
tries to tap into different commu-
nities on campus and provide a 
space where all those narratives 
can be shared,” Shetty said.

“This is to build trust and to 

build a group of people that you 
become comfortable talking (to) 
about not only these issues, but, 
this year especially, your own per-
sonal narratives,” Khan added.

Two of the small group facilita-

tors, LSA junior Amanda Ruesch 
and LSA sophomore Sidra Kader, 
said the conference left them feel-
ing more challenged about their 
own perceptions of the issues at 
play.

“Facilitating is a (much) dif-

ferent role than participating,” 
Ruesch said “It challenges you 
and it actually makes you think 
a little bit more, just because you 
have to be the one to come up with 
questions to ask.”

Kader was not only a first-time 

facilitator, but also a first-time 
attendant of the conference. She 
said she liked delving deeper into 
the social issues that were pre-
sented at the conference, and felt 
empowered by her facilitator role.

“If I can be in control of this, 

well I can be in control of making 
the change we need to make and 
have improvements in society, 
which is the point of the confer-
ence, is it not?” Kader said.

CONFERENCE
From Page 1A

rect imaging data. When paired 
with other components of the 
NGV project, these advances 
aim to launch the first class of 
driverless vehicles.

Led by Ryan Eustice, associ-

ate professor of engineering, 
and Edwin Olson, associate pro-
fessor of computer science and 
engineering, the NGV project 
has a team of graduate students 
developing vehicle technologies 
like new navigational and obsta-
cle detection systems designed 
to enhance driver safety, reduce 
vehicle production costs and 
ultimately design a self-driving 
car.

Arash Ushani, an engineering 

graduate student, said the NGV 
project will have a long lifespan 
at the University even after it 
accomplishes its target goals.

“It’s like saying, ‘Do you think 

airplanes will be complete once 
you make something that flies?’ 
” Ushani said. “There’s always 
ways you can improve it to make 
it better.”

Ryan Wolcott, an engineer-

ing graduate student, has been 
working on the NGV project’s 
navigational system since 2012. 
The system employs the same 
type of camera technology used 
in video gaming systems to pro-
duce three-dimensional map-
ping data.

“The end goal is for driver 

safety,” Wolcott said, “It’s obvi-
ous that human drivers are not 
very good at driving. You know, 
people have gotten accustomed 
to fatalities with driving just 
because it’s such an important 
piece of technology. Technol-
ogy can fill in the gaps where 
humans are distracted, or what 
have you. It’s ultimately technol-
ogy that the user can then turn 

on.”

However, it will still be a 

while before driverless vehicles 
hit the market, as researchers 
run into obstacles. The naviga-
tion system, for example, has 
trouble adapting to a change in 
weather conditions and is diffi-
cult to implement in natural gas 
vehicles.

The vehicle’s software inde-

pendently deciphers the images 
it collects to make operating 
decisions. The transition from 
laser scanning technology to 
NGV’s camera-based unit is pro-
jected to significantly reduce the 
cost of vehicle navigation sys-
tems, setting their project apart 
from other, higher-cost projects 
that use lasers.

“A lot of the bigger compa-

nies like Google rely on (lasers) 
so heavily,” Wolcott said. “A 
key part of their infrastructure 
is these laser scanners. But it’d 
be nice long term to have the 
cameras as maybe the only sen-
sor because they’re far easier to 
conceal. It will lead to a car that 
looks more attractive.”

Engineering junior Carl Ker-

shaw worked on the NGV proj-
ect as part of the Undergraduate 
Research Opportunity Program.

“We have a few research 

vehicles, but they have to be 
hybrids because of how much 
power the computers draw,” 
he said. “Those cars are very 
expensive because they’re cov-
ered in sensors, basically. You 
try to plug this into a normal 
car, you basically slowly drain 
the battery.”

Ford Motor Company and 

State Farm Insurance sponsor 
the NGV project, in collabora-
tion with April Robotics Labora-
tory. Further NGV testing will 
be conducted at the University’s 
new Mobility Transformation 
Center testing facility, set to 
open this spring.

CARS
From Page 1A

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