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anonymity for this piece.

Many agreed with Krupiak’s

statement and did not support the
disrespect of the few who were
disrupting the speeches with
their outbursts of coughing orga-
nized over Yik Yak. One member
of Greek life told the Daily Kru-
piak’s assertion at the end of the
event resonated with her.

“The immaturity and rude-

ness that Greek life members
showed throughout the entire
meeting was appalling,” one
member said. “People were
laughing and cheering when the
University officials were listing
terrible cases of alcohol abuse,
vandalism and other behavior
that is really a problem in the
community. Many people did
not give the speakers enough
respect even to sit through the
entire meeting. I left the meet-
ing with little hope that Greek
life will change.”

LSA junior Nicolette Taber,

a member of Alpha Delta Pi,
agreed.

“I thought it was extremely

disappointing to see my fellow
Greek students disrespect our
school’s leadership,” Taber said.
“While Schlissel was address-
ing our community’s alcohol
and sexual assault issues, many
people in the crowd coughed
and laughed. I am proud to be in
Greek life, but I was taken aback
by the utter lack of respect for
our school’s leaders.”

Still, many of those inter-

viewed said the meeting was
handled poorly, noting in par-
ticular that the the administra-
tion offered more criticism than
solutions or proposals.

Several students said the dis-

ruptions during the meeting
represented only a minority of
the Greek life community and
did not feel it was fair for all of
Greek life to be blamed for the
actions of few.

Alpha Sigma Phi president

Tom Allen, a Public Policy
junior, said he believes Greek life
is open to change overall.

“I think as a whole probably

95 percent of people there were
respectful and open and wel-
coming to the message that was
being given,” Allen said. “Maybe
there are a few people there who
didn’t feel that way because
they were forced to be there, but
those people aren’t the ones that
are going to be making decisions
for fraternities and sororities
and Greek life as a whole. (Greek
life) is definitely going to be open
to what was said yesterday and
in the future work really close
with the University to make
things safer.”

The University’s decision to

levy penalties on chapters who
failed to meet the 70 percent
attendance
requirement
also

rubbed several members the
wrong way.

“We do respect the leader-

ship, but we don’t believe in
forced respect,” a fraternity
member said. “We were forced
under fiscal and social penalty
to attend, we were forced to be
lectured at, and that’s why there
was not a more positive show-
ing. You can’t force people to do
things against their will and get
a positive reaction and spark a
strong discussion.”

While many of the members

interviewed agreed with those
sentiments, others said there
was no other way to have this
type of discussion and reach a
mass audience.

One person said she agreed

with the points raised, but felt
unfairly targeted. Others said
the event was redundant and the
message was lost in the process.

“I thought the meeting’s

effect was killed by its length,”
one sorority member said. “No
one wanted to be there in the
first place, and the sheer number
of speakers did not help change
anyone’s mind. After listening
to the disrespectful responses of
the crowd during the meeting, I
don’t think it will affect change.
They didn’t announce any policy
changes, it was more of an hour-
and-a-half long warning.”

Most said the issues raised by

University administrators were
broad problems and applied to

student communities other than
Greek life.

“That was the one big thing

that people were against is that
it was spoken as just the Greek
community,” he said. “If any-
thing, a lot of the times when
incidents happen it’s people
from outside of the organiza-
tion that come to our parties and
cause trouble. So, it’s a message
that really should have been
transmitted to the entire Uni-
versity.”

Many members who spoke

with the Daily said Greek life
actually does a better job than
other organizations at ensuring
parties are safe. Unlike students
hosting house parties or ath-
letic teams hosting team parties,
Greek life parties are heavily
regulated.

“We have sober monitors,

attendance lists, strict alcohol
rules
and
risk-management

policies. Removing Greek life
wouldn’t remove parties, it
would remove safe parties,” one
member said.

Several members said they

did not see an actual plan that
would be implemented and felt
the University was just telling
them things they already knew.

But that doesn’t mean they

disagreed with the points given.

Several members said they

identified with the problems
outlined — one even agreed
with Schlissel’s statement on the
party culture devaluing the Uni-
versity.

Members said they’re just not

sure what should be done about
it.“They did address Greek cul-
ture, partying and drinking, but
that’s also a nationwide prob-
lem which is something we can
help but it’s not just us,” another
member said. “They were talk-
ing about I’m Shmacked videos
a lot and how they think it’s
attracting the wrong crowd, but
at the same time the people in
admissions are the ones mak-
ing the decisions. Just because
you want to go to a party school,
you still have to have the grades
to get in. The people that want
to come here don’t just want the
party scene.”

of the University community.

“We enjoy that,” Harbaugh said.

“You’re a very small part.”

But Harbaugh’s return brought

more than a small dose of excite-
ment to the Big House. It brought
fans who came early and stayed
late, and students who remained
standing at their seats well into the
second half, even in what became
a blowout.

It
also
brought
something

rarely seen from Michigan in
recent years: smashmouth foot-
ball. Junior running back De’Veon
Smith bulldozed his way to 126
yards and three touchdowns. He
ran through tacklers, and he ran
around tacklers. The first phrase
Smith uttered in his postgame
press conference was telling.

“Shout-out to the offensive

line,” he said.

The unit has been criticized

and picked apart in recent years,
known more for allowing hits

to the quarterback than making
holes for running backs. That was
not the case Saturday. The offen-
sive line’s play improved as the
game wore on. Michigan rushed
for 215 yards after the first quar-
ter, while the Beavers ran for
minus-28 in that time.

Oregon State was able to hide

its offensive ineptitude early on.
The Beavers picked apart the
Wolverine defense on a seven-
play, 79-yard touchdown drive on
their first possession of the game.
Oregon State then forced a fumble
when the Michigan offense took
over, regaining possession on the
Wolverines’ 24-yard line.

The opportunity to take a 14-0

lead was short-lived. Michigan
junior defensive end Taco Charl-
ton stripped Oregon State running
back Victor Bolden of the ball,
and Michigan senior linebacker
Joe Bolden snatched it out of the
air and returned it 17 yards. With
that, the Beavers’ opportunity for
offensive productivity had ended.

The Wolverines’ offensive pro-

duction did not begin in earnest
until 7:01 remained in the first half.

Michigan orchestrated a 69-yard
touchdown drive that featured a
heavy dose of Smith. He ran for
22 yards on the drive, added 20
more on a 4th-and-5 reception and
capped it with a touchdown.

Smith’s second touchdown of

the game was the result of what
Harbaugh called a fortuitous play
with 1:12 left in the first half. Ore-
gon State punter Nick Porebski
settled back to punt, and booted
the ball out of bounds on Michi-
gan’s two-yard line. However, a
penalty called the kick back.

The ensuing attempt resulted

in disaster for the Beavers. The
snap sailed over Porebski’s head,
and the Wolverines took over on
Oregon State’s three-yard line.

“That happens once a half-a-

century for your team,” Harbaugh
deadpanned.

Smith punched the ball into the

end zone three plays later. Min-
utes earlier, Harbaugh had been
furious at a roughing the punter
call on Michigan, throwing his
play sheet in disgust while relent-
lessly chirping at the referees.
The stadium roared in agreement,

basking in Harbaugh’s emotion,
but his prior dissatisfaction mat-
tered little after the Wolverines
scored.

Michigan never relinquished

the momentum as Oregon State
reeled. The second half was simi-
lar to the end of the first. Smith
finished the game with 23 carries,
nine more than junior running
backs Derrick Green and Ty Isaac
combined. Smith and Green each
added touchdowns to the Wol-
verines’ lead, and the size of their
running holes only increased.

Fifth-year senior quarterback

Jake Rudock, charged primar-
ily with managing the game
while Smith did the heavy lift-
ing, finished 18-for-26 on passing
attempts for 180 yards. He threw
one interception, well after the
result had been decided.

In the game’s final moments,

Harbaugh walked straight to the
center of the field to shake Ore-
gon State coach Gary Andersen’s
hand. If he was excited for his first
win as Michigan’s head coach, he
didn’t show it. He celebrated little
on the field.

3-News

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News
Monday, September 14, 2015 — 3A



El Niño could
bring end to harsh
winters

Weather
forecasters
are

predicting a more mild winter,
with less precipitation, this year
in Michigan, the Detroit Free
Press reported. This change will
be due to a natural warming of
the surface waters in certain
regions in the Pacific Ocean, a
phenomenon called El Niño.

Tom
Di
Liberto,
a

meteorologist with the National
Oceanic
and
Atmospheric

Administration, said there is a
95-percent chance El Niño will
last through the winter.

A warmer, drier winter could


limit the flooding Michigan has
seen in recent springs, as well as
mean fewer logistical problems
for the shipping industry.

38-year-old rushes
frat at University

Alex
Stone,
a
38-year-

old fellow in a program for
mid-career journalists at the
University, decided to check out
the fraternity scene on campus,
as he wrote in a The New York
Times piece. Stone wanted to
see what all the recent hype
surrounding
Greek
life
was

about.

Stone
reported
fraternity

brothers
were
frequently

skeptical
of
his
age,
but

ultimately he bonded with the
members of Alpha Delta Phi.
That is, until he partied too hard,
and they learned he was indeed
38.

In the tell-all piece, Stone said

he ended up joining the Acacia
Fraternity — a group of men he
had first judged as “desperate.”
He learned he had much in
common
with
the
Acacia

brothers, and spent his year at
the University with them, until
returning to life in New York.

NEWS BRIEFS

MICHIGAN
From Page 1A

GREEK LIFE
From Page 1A

that she has a problem with. It’s the
excess.

“All we’re trying to say is, ‘Look,

we’re putting up some guard rails,’
” she said. “ ‘We want you to have
as much fun as you want within the
bounds of this guard rail … there
are boundaries. We need to agree
on what they are and stay within
them.’ ”

In this vein, the University

recently unveiled a new policy to
call the parents of students who
have broken the school’s alcohol
guidelines more than once, or
those of students who have gone to

the hospital for overconsumption
of alcohol or drugs.

The University is also offering

its Change it Up program — which
promotes bystander intervention
and inclusive language — to stu-
dent cohorts in individual schools,
as opposed to solely freshmen stu-
dents living in the dorms.

However, following on the heels

of a University survey that indi-
cated a higher prevalence of sexual
assault in the Greek life commu-
nity — and other data showing the
strong link between sexual assault
and alcohol — University officials
say there is more work to be done.

One measure being considered,

Harper said, is delaying rush.

“Does it make sense to have

students come, and in a week, by
the whole pledging process, we
have thrown them into a whole
environment that we’re worried
about?” Harper asked. “Should we
stay on this path we have, where
we’ve been so committed to self-
governance, that we allow rush
to happen sometimes less than a
week after students get here? So
we’re certainly going to take a look
at that.”

Another measure, she said, will

involve putting rogue Greek hous-
es under greater scrutiny.

Harper said she understands

some students may perceive these
new policies to be punitive.

“That’s not what you do with

people you respect,” she noted,

adding that she is a supporter of
all the good the Greek life com-
munity contributes. “I think what
we were trying to do (Thursday)
night is have an authentic conver-
sation.

“I think that was a little bit

of what we were trying to say
(Thursday): We can’t collude
with you to be unsafe,” Harper
said. “So I think what we’re likely
to see is, many more strategies
that are designed to say, there
are boundaries, and yeah, you’re
going to live within them. And if
that’s not possible, perhaps we
need to rethink who’s coming to
Michigan. Because we are not
going to become the party school
… that’s not this place.”

“The problem with looking

at post-mortem human brains
is that we could not tell the
difference between something
that
predisposes
someone

toward getting depression ver-
sus a result of a person having
had depression for years,” Aur-
bach said.

To
address
this
limita-

tion, researchers did further
experiments with live rats.
They observed three key find-
ings. When rats were exposed
to social stress, they showed
increased levels of FGF9 in the
hippocampus, the part of the
brain associated with emotion
and memory. If injected with
FGF9, rats displayed increased
anxiety — a common symptom
of depression.

The third key finding: After

using a virus to interfere with
FGF9 production, the rats’
anxiety decreased.

These experiments showed

increased FGF9 is not only a
result of depression, but can
actually cause depression in
rats. As a result, Aurbach said
this discovery has far-reaching
implications.

“This study reinforces the

idea that depression is a physi-
cal illness of the brain,” she
said. “It is not a problem of
willpower or of people being
able to snap their fingers and
adopt a different coping strat-
egy.”

Inui, co-author of the study,

said the findings of the paper
offer potential for design-
ing novel therapeutics. The
results are especially promis-
ing because it is safer to design
drugs that block the actions of
something harmful rather than
those that increase the actions
of something beneficial.

“It is a lot easier from a

drug perspective to knock
that expression down than it
is to increase the expression of
another target,” she said. “That
can potentially have many
more side effects.”

Central to this study is its

connection to the lives of col-
lege students, Aurbach said.
Faced with the task of suc-
ceeding academically while
maintaining social and extra-
curricular
commitments,

college students experience
numerous stressors that can
lead to a wide variety of mental
health issues.

LSA senior Anna Chen is

the president of the Univer-
sity’s chapter of Active Minds
at the University of Michigan.
This nonprofit organization is
dedicated to raising awareness
for mental health issues among
college students.

Chen said she is very excited

for the therapeutic potential of
the study. Even so, she recog-
nizes there is no “quick fix” for
mental illness.

“The causes of any mental

illness are multifaceted,” Chen
said. “I hope that the increas-
ing effectiveness of medica-
tions doesn’t cause people to
devalue the benefit of supple-
menting psychiatric treatment
with behavioral therapy.”

In the future, Aurbach said

she aims to better understand
how FGF9 is functioning in
more areas of the brain and
whether FGF9 is working
with or against other mol-
ecules in the brain to change
behavior.

“If we can understand how

FGF9 is involved in all areas
of the brain, then we can build
a much bigger picture of how
we can develop a drug to tar-
get depression effectively,” she
said.

RESEARCH
From Page 1A

HARPER
From Page 1A

client’s rights.

“We are very pleased with the

settlement,” Gordon said. “It null
and voids the findings against Mr.
Sterrett and cleans his records
against and removes the prior
findings against him.”

The
female
student
who

claimed Sterrett engaged in non-
consensual sex with her said in a

statement that by the University,
by signing the settlement, is not
following through on its com-
mitment to support survivors
of sexual assault. She also cau-
tioned other students from going
through the school’s Title IX pro-
cess.

“Worst of all, I have come to

believe they do not care about
individual
students
seeking

help and are more concerned
with producing the paperwork
which demonstrates compliance

with U.S. Department of Educa-
tion mandates,” the student said
in a statement provided through
her attorney, Douglas Fierberg.
“With the multiple efforts and
initiatives the University has
undertaken
and
administra-

tors have espoused, the big-
gest threat on campus has now
become the Title IX Sexual
Assault Policy as implemented
by the University.

University spokesman Rick

Fitzgerald said in an e-mail that

students have a number of options
for seeking support in the wake of
a sexual assault, including strict-
ly confidential resources.

“The University offers exten-

sive,
research-informed
edu-

cational programs designed to
reduce sexual misconduct and
increase reporting,” he wrote.
“We strive to continually improve
our processes to improve the
experiences and outcomes for
students who report sexual mis-
conduct to the University.”

RULING
From Page 1A

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