Opinion JENNIFER CALFAS EDITOR IN CHIEF AARICA MARSH and DEREK WOLFE EDITORIAL PAGE EDITORS LEV FACHER MANAGING EDITOR 420 Maynard St. Ann Arbor, MI 48109 tothedaily@michigandaily.com Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan since 1890. Unsigned editorials reflect the official position of the Daily’s editorial board. All other signed articles and illustrations represent solely the views of their authors. The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com 4A — Monday, November 2, 2015 Claire Bryan, Regan Detwiler, Ben Keller, Payton Luokkala, Aarica Marsh, Adam Morton, Victoria Noble, Anna Polumbo-Levy, Melissa Scholke, Michael Schramm, Stephanie Trierweiler, Mary Kate Winn, Derek Wolfe EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS Supporting a sanctuary campus JOSE ALVARENGA AND LAMIN MANNEH | VIEWPOINT I was blessed with the chance to live the typical overscheduled suburban kid lifestyle. I say “blessed” because having the means to keep busy by over-scheduling my life was an absolute privilege. Every year, I begged my mother to sign me up for a new after-school activity, never quitting the previ- ous one. By sixth grade, I committed each week to nine hours of gymnastics practices, four hours of music lessons, two hours of all-city choir and at least an hour of drama practice. I regularly ate dinner in a thermos, as some- one’s parent in an elaborate three-way carpool shuttled me to my next activity. I often fell asleep doing homework and woke up early to practice violin. I remember collapsing onto a mat one night at gymnastics practice and ask- ing my teammates if it was Friday yet. It was Monday. I was 12. In a recent New York Times piece, Bruce Feiler explored where the true costs of busy, over- scheduled childhoods lie. According to Feiler’s research, structure can be good for children. It helps them perfect new skills and keeps them out of trouble. The costs occur when children feel pres- sured to succeed at these activities. Luckily for me, my parents never pres- sured me to aim higher with my activities. If anything, in high school they frequently asked me if I would like to quit certain obligations so that I could get more than four hours of sleep per night. The pressure I felt came from my peers rath- er than my parents. Seeing everyone around me overbook themselves and do well in everything influenced me to keep going, even though I was starting to lose enjoyment and burn out doing my favorite activities. As I entered college, I felt pressured to be busy doing less of what I loved and more of what I thought might look impressive on future applications. Initially I signed up for uninter- esting academic clubs and tedious classes, hop- ing their prestige might set me apart from the crowd. Since I cared so little for these obliga- tions, I quickly became overwhelmed and had no sense of fulfillment to push me through the toughest days. Being busy became more manageable when I started pursuing things I actually enjoyed. This year I’m the busiest I have ever been in col- lege, but I’m also the happiest. No matter how little sleep I get, each morning I jump out of bed because there are so many exciting things to do throughout my day. I get to write, sing, teach, work, study and interact with amazing people along the way. Because I practiced being busy as a child, I finally know how to manage my time and prioritize my most important respon- sibilities. Friends tell me that I exude a sense of joy and optimism that I never did before. On the rare occasions when I still feel stressed out and overwhelmed, I try my best not to complain about how busy I am. For one thing, I would choose being busy over idleness any day. Last year, I had the rare experience of accidentally under-scheduling my life. A research opportunity fell through and classes turned out to be easier than expected, so I had several extra hours of empty time in my week that I hadn’t anticipated. Rather than using this time to study more or find a new hobby, I spent most of it sleeping and watching TV. While those who oppose a busy lifestyle might applaud me for indulging in some valu- able “me time,” I felt completely empty. Per- haps my structured childhood influenced me to unhealthily crave it, but I truly felt that by sitting around doing nothing I was wasting my chance to explore all of the opportunities that the University offers. Another reason I avoid complaining about being busy is because I don’t want to promote a sense of competition among my peers. As Tim Kre- ider wrote in a New York Times opinion piece, pro- claiming our busyness is often a “boast disguised as a complaint” because it lets others know that we’re going above and beyond to achieve our goals. Kreider then goes on to speak about larger themes surrounding the importance of idleness. Though some University students are busy working full-time jobs out of financial neces- sity, others choose being busy as a way to set themselves apart from the crowd. By discuss- ing how busy our impressive-sounding respon- sibilities leave us, we inadvertently make others feel inadequate or guilty for choosing a more relaxed schedule. I’m glad I grew up in a time when being busy was encouraged. This culture has allowed me to push myself past the limits of what I thought was possible to achieve in a single day, and it has given me the chance to learn a multitude of new skills. Even though our society can some- times have an unhealthy, competitive obsession regarding busyness, I know that as long as my desire to fill my time is internally motivated I will always have the drive to explore new opportunities and carry out each of my respon- sibilities with diligence and enthusiasm. — Annie Humphrey can be reached at annieah@umich.edu. ANNIE HUMPHREY Happily over-scheduled T he Internet has become littered with marketing gimmicks. It’s bad enough that sidebar banners clutter the periphery of websites; just when you’ve trained yourself to ignore them, native adver- tising ensures that you’ll find a few promotions embedded in your news arti- cle as well that often match the format of other articles. But there’s a certain type of junk that’s more common than the rest — diet and weight-loss ads. These ads pervade magazine shelves and commercials, too, and there’s no surprise why: it’s an extremely rewarding market. About one in seven Americans have used a non-prescription weight- loss supplement at some point in their lives. This statistic is less sur- prising when you consider that 38 percent of individuals who make New Years resolutions make losing weight their first priority. Besides that, anyone who has had as much as a passing thought about fitness has probably wondered what simple trick could be “mak- ing nutritionists furious.” And for people who are serious about get- ting fit (through whatever means), this passing curiosity can quickly become an intense obsession. My fixation on being fit came to me during my senior year of high school. Having been out of shape for a majority of my life, I decided to finally make whatever changes were necessary. With college just around the corner, I was deter- mined to reach my goals as quickly and efficiently as possible. I can’t count how many nights I spent browsing not-so-reputable sources online trying to turn my fitness dreams into reality. Worse yet, I would usually pick up a diet or exercise routine for a few weeks, only to replace it with another one I thought to be more convincing. I spent Halloween on the Atkins diet; by Thanksgiving, I was no-carb. I alternated between lifting and jogging as my ideas about which one would allow me to get fit more quickly shifted. All this was motivated by my self-imposed time constraint. I wanted to look as good as possible going into college. And eventually, stumbling through a host of diet and exercise regimens actually paid off. But at what cost? I had paid hundreds of dollars for supplements I thought would hasten my progress. Countless hours were wasted “researching” (read: obsess- ing) over what routine was best. Worst of all, I didn’t really learn anything. Which type of diet was most effective? What exercise is most important for losing weight? The answers to these questions were lost in my mess of a year. Looking back, it seems the effi- cacy of those fads stemmed from the fact that they’re advertised to be uniquely fast. Rarely do you see a diet ad that doesn’t promise results in a matter of weeks. As consumers, we’re naturally inclined to desire the product immediately. So how can we make ourselves immune to this damning temptation? I think we need to change how we view diets and nutrition at a fundamental level. There’s a mis- leading conception that the answer to “how do I lose weight” is some- thing to be discovered, on the Internet or otherwise. But the third word of that question is I, and your experiences might differ dramati- cally from someone else’s. In truth, the “secret to losing weight” is a knowledge that comes from self-experimentation. We are nothing more than complicated, walking biochemical processes. Try changing one variable at a time and see how your body responds. Does eating carbs before hitting the gym help you lift more? Try it for a few weeks and find out. Would 30 minutes of walking be sufficient to burn off that dessert you ate? Do it and see whether the effect on your weight appears or not, keeping everything else constant. When it comes to our own bodies, these personal experiments (when done correctly) can be more valuable than even scientific literature on the subject. If I had been so structured with my progress, I may have delayed my goals by about a year. But the knowl- edge I’d gain would have been well worth the wait. Next time you come across a fitness ad, see if its appeal comes from your own eagerness or impatience. Then exit out and know that the alternate course will be far more rewarding. — Farid Alsabeh can be reached at falsabeh@umich.edu. Resisting the fads In truth, the “secret to losing weight” is a knowledge that comes from self- experimentation. FARID ALSABEH China’s one-child policy TO THE DAILY: China just announced that it’s ending its one- child policy. This is a monumental moment for me and many others who were directly affected by the one-child policy. When I was 6 months old, I was adopted from China and brought to the United States. For many years, I resented this policy. I blamed it for the lack of knowledge of my origins and the people I had come from. But today, I see the policy was a blessing in disguise. For without it, I would not be able to call the wonderful woman and man who raised me Mom and Dad. I would not have my beautiful little sister, who also was adopted from China. The one-child policy gave me a wonderful life, full of loving people and great opportunities. But with its end, I am look- ing forward to seeing China’s families grow and prosper. Sophie Sproul Engineering Sophomore Send letterS to: tothedaily@michigandaily.com LETTER TO THE EDITOR E-mail in Chan at tokg@umiCh.Edu IN CHAN LEE For the University to be the diverse, inclusive, representa- tive and great campus it claims to be, it must stand with immigrant communities by opening access to education for immigrant students, defending sanctuary cities and declaring itself a sanctuary cam- pus. The state of Michigan is a his- toric place of refuge for immigrants from all over the world, including the world’s second-largest Arab and Muslim population outside of the Middle East (after Paris) and a growing Latino community. Refu- gee children from Central America and more recently from war-torn countries like Syria are already residing in cities like Detroit, Grand Rapids and Dearborn with more on their way. Immigration is the question of the day everywhere in the world. The globalized economy, free trade measures, global warming and the foreign policies of stronger pow- ers exploiting poorer nations: these factors have combined to create one of the most massive relocations of humanity across national borders in all of world history. The United Nations reported in June that cur- rently, one in every 122 people are refugees displaced by war, violence and persecution, the highest num- ber of refugees since World War II. In 2015, 700,000 immigrants are estimated to have arrived in Europe by sea, and 3,138 refugees are reported to have died this year in the Mediterranean. Last year, at least 68,541 unaccompanied children crossed the southern border into the United States from various Central American countries — El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras — seeking to escape the gang violence, death squads and poverty. This worldwide mass migration is ongoing, and is profoundly transforming many nations. Yet as we become a majority- minority nation, there hasn’t been a corresponding increase in the rights of racial and ethnic minori- ties. However, there has been a corresponding struggle and polar- ization over immigrant rights. Under some of the most vicious attacks against immigrants in the United States, including a record high of more than two million deportations, the immigrant rights movement — led by undocumented youth with actions in the streets, college campuses, detention centers and Congress chambers — has won important victories. These include in-state tuition in more than 16 states, state-sponsored financial aid like the California Dream Act, work permits for some undocu- mented youth with Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals and a work permit for immigrant parents with Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents, which has been stalled by a right-wing legal challenge. The immigrant rights movement increases in strength with each vic- tory, over and against each attack. The student movement at the University has won recently impor- tant victories for immigrant stu- dents — in-state tuition and a small scholarship pilot program that allotted $450,000 for undocument- ed undergraduate students for the 2014-2015 year. But the conditions for undocumented immigrant and international students are still far from equal. The University must increase the number of undocu- mented students. The University of California, Berkeley has taken important steps to open access and support for undocumented students by creating an undocumented student center to provide financial aid, free legal aid and cover the legal filing fees to apply for DACA. Since the creation of the program, the numbers of undocu- mented students at UC Berkeley has doubled. The University should fol- low Berkeley’s example. The schol- arship for undocumented students must be increased, expanded to include graduate students, and publi- cized to prospective students. Over- all, the University must guarantee the continuation of the program. Both educational access and the safety of immigrant students must be a priority for the University. This means the University must publicly declare itself a sanctuary campus for immigrants. Currently, Ann Arbor and Detroit are sanctuary cities, meaning that local authorities aren’t supposed to turn over undocument- ed immigrants to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. A recent proposal in the Michi- gan Legislature is threatening these sanctuary cities, forcing city offi- cials to publicly defend the impor- tance of these sanctuaries against a dangerous precedent of open anti-immigrant bigotry from gov- ernment officials, institutions and racists, most clearly expressed in the xenophobic rhetoric of Repub- lican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s campaign. The scapegoat- ing of immigrants in Europe and the United States for the economic and environmental crisis on the part of politicians and national leaders is already creating a dan- gerous situation similar to that of the 1930s, which led to World War II and the Holocaust. These recent attacks necessitate the leadership of public figures and institutions like the University to defend the rights of immigrants in this country and prevent the anti- immigrant bigotry on campus from becoming a real physical threat to immigrant students and commu- nity members. Central Student Government will be considering a resolution to support making the University a sanctuary campus this Tuesday. We encourage immigrant rights supporters to join us in support of the resolution. Jose Alvarenga is an organizer with By Any Means Necessary. Lamin Manneh is a Rackham student and a Rackham representative on CSG. LIKE OPINIONS? AND WRITING? Readers are encouraged to submit letters to the editor and viewpoints. Letters should be fewer than 300 words, while viewpoints should be 550-850 words. Send the writer’s full name and University affiliation to tothedaily@michigandaily.com. Being busy became more manageable when I started pursuing things I actually enjoyed.