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Ann Arbor, Michigan
Wednesday, October 28, 2015
ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-FIVE YEARS OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM
The Personal Statement Issue
» INSIDE
let’s get personal
Nutrition, food
security and fair
trade featured in
short lectures
By ANNA HARITOS
Daily Staff Reporter
The University’s Sustainable
Food Systems Initiative hosted
10 bite-sized talks Tuesday
night on topics related to food
and agriculture.
The second annual “Fast
Food for Thought” talk brought
together nine faculty members
from several University depart-
ments, with the 10th “talk” for-
matted as a Q&A session. Each
of the speakers was given five
minutes to address a broad
range of global and local food
topics, including sustainability,
potential connections between
food and politics and the grow-
ing problem of herbicide resis-
tance. The USFSI encourages
University students and faculty
members to learn about and
promote food systems that are
beneficial to both the environ-
ment and economy.
More than 100 attendees
filled the lecture hall in the
Dana Building. Thomas Prin-
cen,
associate
professor
of
natural resource and environ-
mental policy, started off the
event by asking, “Why food,
why now?” In his talk, he brief-
ly explained his six hypotheses
for why American interest in
food has skyrocketed in the
past few years.
Among them: the “brains and
hands” hypothesis. What dis-
tinguishes humans from other
animals, Princen said, is the
ability to combine experiences
both tactile and intellectual.
He said because food engages
humans both with their brains
Two former
Congressmen
address increased
legislative gridlock
By SAMANTHA WINTNER
Daily Staff Reporter
Frustration
with
the
sometimes sluggish legislative
process isn’t unique to voters
— a point that two former
legislators hammered home in a
lecture Tuesday night.
Former Congressmen Tom
Davis (R–Va.) and Martin Frost
(D–Texas) spoke at the Gerald
R. Ford Presidential Library
about legislative gridlock and
how bipartisanship can remedy
it, an issue they address in a new
book they co-authored with
journalist Richard Cohen.
Davis
and
Frost
have
a
combined
40
years
of
congressional experience, and
both served two terms as the
chair of their respective party’s
House campaign committees.
“(Because we’ve both had
these roles), we tend to see
things structurally the same
way,” Frost said.
According
to
a
2008
interview with The New York
Times, Davis decided not to run
for re-election because he was
dissatisfied with the partisan
nature of Congress. At the
time, he said party divides were
increasingly making the process
of lawmaking dysfunctional,
especially as a new wave of social
conservatives were becoming
a dominant contingency in the
GOP.
“I’m a partisan Republican
and
Martin
is
a
partisan
Democrat,” Davis said. “But we
were dealmakers, we know how
to work with the other side, we
felt when the election was over,
it was time for everyone to act
like grown ups again and try to
get things done.”
In their book, Davis and
Frost elaborate on the growing
political
polarization
they
Assembly also
hears resolution to
add mental health
resources to syllabi
By JACKIE CHARNIGA
Daily Staff Reporter
The
Central
Student
Government Assembly deviated
from its usual meeting spot
in the Michigan Union on
Tuesday night, convening in
Pierpont Commons on North
Campus
to
discuss
course
evaluations
and
increasing
awareness of on-campus mental
health services by including
information on syllabi.
Course evaluations
A chunk of Tuesday’s meeting
was dedicated to discussing
the Faculty Senate’s decision
Monday to vote against the
immediate release of student
course evaluation data. The CSG
Assembly has previously pushed
to make these course evaluations
available to the public, and
introduced a resolution last year
to do so.
Public Policy junior Jacob
Pearlman, CSG general counsel,
noted that the course evaluation
results,
which
provide
a
mechanism for the University
to gauge professor proficiency,
were originally made available
Louise Glück
featured in Helen
Zell Visiting
Writers Series
By CAMY METWALLY
Daily Staff Reporter
In
a
gallery
inside
the
University’s Museum of Art,
Louise Glück stood between
two white sculptures, and read
poetry that conjured images
of the night sky, rain and the
changing seasons.
Tuesday night, the Pulitzer
Prize-winner
and
former
United States Poet Laureate
read a collection of her poetry
for the Zell Visiting Writers
Series, presented by the Helen
Zell
Writers’
Program.
A
reception and book signing
followed the event.
Between
poems,
Glück
shared some of the struggles
she has faced in her professional
career. She said during one low
point in her writing, she sat at
home reading plant catalogues
to pass the time. Even so, she
said this period was ultimately
productive because later on it
inspired a number of poems
in her Pulitzer-winning book,
“The Wild Iris.”
“It’s ... poems spoken by
flowers,
poems
spoken
by
humans who are in conflict
with each other, and poems
spoken by some third celestial
principle,” Glück said.
Glück
advised
poets
to
do what they want, even if
it’s reading plant catalogues
because, ultimately, this is how
they will write poems of their
own.
“You have to do what you
want to do,” Glück said. “If you
don’t do what you want to do,
you will ever write poems that
are yours alone to write.”
Glück read a number of
poems from “The Wild Iris,”
including “The Red Poppy.”
During the Q&A portion,
an
attendee
sought
advice
for aspiring writers. Glück
encouraged those interested in
poetry and writing to read what
they love and build a life they
Guest lecture
focuses on political
influence of scholar
Al-Qaradawi
By ALEXA ST. JOHN
Daily Staff Reporter
Jakob
Skovgaard-Petersen,
a professor in the University of
Copenhagen’s
Department
of
Cross-Cultural
and
Regional
Studies, lectured in the School of
Social Work on Tuesday about the
life and significance of Egyptian
Islamic activist and author Yusuf
al-Qaradawi.
Hosted by the Center for Mid-
dle Eastern and North African
Studies, Skovgaard-Petersen eval-
uated al-Qaradawi’s public and
political role in Egypt, particular-
ly after the Egyptian revolution
in 2011. Al-Qaradawi is a widely
known figure in the Islamic
world, with a television program,
books and a website that reach
millions of people.
According
to
Skovgaard-
Petersen,
the
“apex”
of
al-
ZOEY HOLMSTROM/Daily
Art & Design Prof. Joe Trumpy speaks about sustainable farming in his speech titled “Homesteading as Creative Practice” at the Fast Food for Thought
discussion in the Dana Building on Tuesday.
EMILIE FARRUGIA/Daily
LSA senior David Schafer discusses the proposal to include language mental health resources in course syllabi at the
Central Student Government meeting in the East Room of Pierpont Commons on Tuesday.
GOVERNMENT
LITERATURE
CAMPUS LIFE
See FOOD, Page 3A
See CONGRESS, Page 2A
See SCHOLAR, Page 3A
See CSG, Page 3A
See POET, Page 3A
Ex-House
leaders dish
on political
polarization
Faculty discuss foodways,
agriculture in 10 mini talks
Former poet
laureate hosts
reading in A2
CSG remains committed to
course evaluation release
Visiting prof.
talks Islam,
activism in
Middle East
INDEX
Vol. CXXV, No. 20
©2015 The Michigan Daily
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