Opinion
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AND REGAN DETWILER
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The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
4A — Wednesday, February 3, 2016
Claire Bryan, Regan Detwiler, Caitlin Heenan,
Jeremy Kaplan, Ben Keller, Minsoo Kim, Payton Luokkala,
Aarica Marsh, Anna Polumbo-Levy, Jason Rowland, Lauren Schandevel,
Melissa Scholke, Rebecca Tarnopol, Ashley Tjhung,
Stephanie Trierweiler, Mary Kate Winn, Derek Wolfe, Hunter Zhao
EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS
Let’s be friends
S
aturday, Jan. 23, news broke
that Michael Bloomberg was
mulling a run for president.
The 73-year-old
billionaire
and
Independent
former mayor of
New York City
had
instructed
advisers to draw
up plans for a
campaign.
By
the
following
Monday
morn-
ing, however, his
possible
cam-
paign had been
pronounced dead
by thousands. Not by ballots or polls,
or any sort of popular voice, but by
likes, comments and retweets.
Almost immediately, editorials
flooded into the news cycle, ques-
tioning his chances and declaring
him the 2016 equivalent of Ralph
Nader. But why? In a race that fea-
tures intensely polarizing candi-
dates and a profound divide between
party insiders and “anti-establish-
ment” candidates, Bloomberg has
the potential to capture the ideologi-
cal middle. It may not be apparent,
but as party-faithfuls in Iowa and
New Hampshire embrace hyper-
conservative rhetoric on the right
and populist progressivism on the
left, there are many voters who are
not comfortable voting for a Donald
Trump or a Bernie Sanders.
Mayor Bloomberg has proven suc-
cessful in both the public and private
sectors. Relatively popular during
his tenure in the Big Apple, he led
the fight to reform public schools
(with an 18-percent increase in
high school graduation rates within
five years of his taking office). He
fought to reduce greenhouse gases,
improved the city’s transportation
system and helped reduce crime
rates. If he could do to the country
what he did to New York City, he
would be one of the best presidents
in modern history. Being socially
liberal and fiscally conservative,
Bloomberg is both pro-abortion
rights and pro-immigration reform.
So why, exactly, is he plagued by
articles titled “No way, no how” and
“Why Michael Bloomberg for presi-
dent makes no sense”?
In this age of round-the-clock
coverage and constant activity on
social media, this new brand of
article seems to dominate the news.
Journalists, for the sake of ease and
click-bait value, forego declarative
statements and title their articles
with a question, opening up discus-
sion often without taking on the
responsibility of answering it. From
“Is Hillary Clinton more elect-
able than Bernie Sanders?” to “Can
Establishment Candidate Rubio Still
Win for the GOP?,” articles lazily
disregard an old adage in journalism
— any headline that ends in a ques-
tion mark can be answered by the
word no. Otherwise, they’d be titled
“Hillary Clinton is more electable
than Bernie Sanders” and “Estab-
lishment Candidate Rubio Can Win
for the GOP.” By framing these
articles as questions, seeds of doubt
are planted from the outset. Readers
can draw conclusions without get-
ting past the title — it happened nine
months ago with Bernie Sanders
and it’s happening once again with
Michael Bloomberg.
Days later, these sentiments were
echoed by polls that placed Bloom-
berg at around 9 percent in races
against Republican and Democratic
frontrunners. In this way, articles
and the journalists who write them
appear impartial and unbiased — but
Americans’ obsession with polls is
misleading at best and downright
corruptive at worst. Check the poll
numbers on Bernie Sanders during
his campaign’s early stages. He was
referred to as the Ron Paul of the left
— a quixotic long shot, a fly on the
windshield of the Clinton machine.
But after surmounting the challenge
of low name recognition and carving
out his support in the liberal base,
Sanders is a household name, and
millennials across the country are
“feeling the Bern.”
One of the most common themes
in the primaries thus far has been
electability. Can this candidate suc-
ceed outside of the primary states?
Sanders clings to polls that say he
fares better than Hillary Clinton
against the majority of Republicans,
while Trump rallies are often high-
lighted by cherry-picked data that
claim he is the outright and indisput-
able favorite over Cruz and Rubio.
But what each and every analysis
leaves out is that electability is an
entirely subjective and (more impor-
tantly) fluid concept.
In 2008, similar remarks about
viability were leveled against a
young African American senator
from Illinois. In 1959, Democrats
and journalists worried over the
prospect of nominating a Catho-
lic — but all their intel and politi-
cal acumen were invalidated when
John F. Kennedy walloped Hubert
Humphrey in widely Protestant
West Virginia and went on to win
the nomination.
To be fair, if ever there was a pres-
idential election to cover, it would be
this one. As easy as it is to blame “the
media” for the long list of problems
our society faces, put yourself in the
shoes of someone who writes for The
Huffington Post or hosts a political
podcast, or has airtime on Fox News
or MSNBC. How could you resist
discussing a loudmouthed reality
television star feuding with a Cana-
dian-born immigration crusader, or
a fiery progressive with a Brooklyn
accent challenging a former first
lady? This election has been political
theater at its best.
When I read the articles that
explained why Michael Bloomberg
has no shot at moving into the White
House in 2017, I didn’t entirely dis-
agree. I think he lacks the charisma
and the foreign policy experience.
His support of the Stop-and-Frisk
program will complicate his appeal
to African Americans and Latino
voters. But by no means is he the
unfathomable long-shot the media
has painted him to be.
Think of how many decisions have
been made for the entire election
season before the Iowa caucuses.
Candidates have been pronounced
underdogs, frontrunners, dead in
the water or building momentum.
All without a single vote cast. So, at
least in the case of Michael Bloom-
berg’s presidential campaign, I’m
not quite ready to accept the fore-
gone conclusions.
Brett Graham can be reached
at btgraham@umich.edu.
A
couple weeks ago, I accepted an
invitation to get coffee with someone
I’d never met before. Asking someone
you don’t know well out
for coffee seems normal,
but I mean it when I say
that I’d never met this
person before — I didn’t
even know what he (or
she)
looked
like.
The
idea was to have fun and
maybe make a new friend.
The initiative came from a
new campus group called
Argo UMich.
Argo
finds
it
can
sometimes be hard to
meet people outside the
confines of class, something students across
the University can related to. It’s intimidating
to strike up a conversation with someone who
just happens to be walking across the Diag in
the same direction as you — as Argo explained
in an e-mail with the Daily, “If you’re not in the
same class or club, you don’t have an excuse.”
Sometimes you’re too busy to join new clubs or
take on more extracurricular activities. Maybe
partying isn’t really your scene because you
prefer talking to people one-on-one in places
where you don’t find it necessary to shout over
the music.
You probably know you’re capable of being
funny and interesting — that you’re able to
hold a conversation, but only if you’re given
the chance to get one started. And it can be
hard to maintain relationships when you’re
not involved in activities with your friends,
instead having to schedule times when you can
meet up in person. With all of those things in
mind, I signed up for a Friday afternoon slot
at Sweetwaters on East Liberty Street. At the
very least, I figured I’d be able to enjoy a hot
cup of tea and some macarons.
Argo sends e-mails to each pair of students
a few minutes before their friend-date is
supposed to start, providing each with a link
to the other’s Facebook page and offering a
short list of questions to get the conversation
going. But since I don’t have data on my phone
and was coming straight from class, I didn’t
have a chance to so much as glance at my
mystery-friend’s profile picture, and worried
that I wouldn’t be able to recognize whoever
I was meeting. Almost as soon as I walked in,
though, I was greeted by another girl with the
words, “Hi, are you here for Argo?”
Over hot drinks, we got as far as the first
question Argo had sent along — What is
something you used to do as a child that you
wish you could still do? Then the talk went in
a totally different direction as we discovered
a strong passion we both shared: a love of
art. We swapped preferences for paints and
the best places to buy art supplies (agreeing
on www.dickblick.com, nodding sadly to the
Walgreens that was once Michigan Book &
Supply). We complimented pictures of one
another’s pieces that we had on our laptops
and phones. When it was time for both of us
to leave, we looked up and found the hour had
flown by.
As Argo had hoped would be the case, we had
fun. Though the organization doesn’t match
people for their preferences, instead using
time and location to set up the coffee dates, we
were able to find an area which we had a lot in
common, and that’s what Argo hopes for: “We
know there is something really exciting and
powerful about meeting someone new and
discovering all that you have in common and all
that makes you different — and we don’t think
students get the opportunity to connect with
one another in this way very often, if at all.”
Though I haven’t kept in touch with the girl
I talked to that rainy Friday afternoon, I did
enjoy myself as we shared stories of something
we both love doing. And I was able to relax
because I knew we had each chosen to be in
that place at that time, listening to one another.
“Both parties sign up for our service,” Argo
says. “So both parties want to meet someone
new. … That eliminates a lot of the anxiety we
feel when we don’t know if someone actually
wants us to talk to them.”
Overall, the response to Argo has been
very positive: “We don’t personally know the
majority of students who signed up for friend-
dates, and that’s been really validating because
it tells us that yes, there is a problem, and Argo
might be the way to solve it.”
Ultimately, they want to help people
recognize that there are others out there who
feel the same way they do — who understand
how, without a class or club to provide a
connection, starting conversations might seem
a little weird.
“You can’t just strike up a conversation
with the person next to you at the dining hall
without getting, at least in some way, a ‘why
are you talking to me?’ vibe,” Argo explains.
It’s hard to turn strangers into friends, and
Argo understands this — it’s what spawned
the idea for the organization in the first place.
As students become comfortable with Argo,
and as it becomes a part of the culture here
on campus, the organization aims to continue
expanding its reach by taking the openness it
promotes outside the boundaries of friend-
dates. “Eventually, our hope is that after
using Argo a handful of times, students will
learn that they can talk to anyone, and even
more so, that they should.”
For more information and to stay up to date
on their project, visit them on Facebook at Argo
UMich, or email argoumich@gmail.com.
Susan LaMoreaux can be reached
at susanpl@umich.edu.
SUSAN
LAMOREAUX
Bloomberg 2016?
BRETT
GRAHAM
The University of Michigan-Ann
Arbor is testing new approaches
to recruit and enroll more high-
achieving,
low-income
students
from across the state. But will these
efforts be enough to attract and
retain students — most of whom are
the first in their families to attend
college? To illustrate low-income,
first-gen
student
experiences,
imagine Eve — the daughter of
factory
workers
—
graduating
high school as class valedictorian.
She is the oldest of three children
and her parents have combined
yearly incomes of $35,000. Eve has
been accepted to the University of
Michigan and she loves Wolverine
football.
When her financial aid package
arrives, Eve sees both scholarship
and work-study offers — neither
will have to be paid back. However,
she will need substantial tuition
loans over four years. This worries
her parents, but she is determined
to enroll in her dream college and
eventually attend medical school.
By early November of her first
year,
Eve
realizes
significant
differences between her and her
peers. New friends have travelled
overseas on multiple family trips and
everyone has plenty of extra money
to buy things like football tickets.
She will not be watching football in
the Big House. Her roommate, the
daughter of a cardiovascular surgeon
and a trial attorney, is surprised Eve’s
parents are blue-collar workers.
Others proudly announce they will
leave college with very little debt.
How can this be? Eve wonders.
But when she learns from her
sociology professor that 36 percent
of Michigan freshmen have family
yearly incomes more than $200,000,
she understands.
Eve
is
doing
very
well
in
her
classes,
especially
organic
chemistry,
but
is
feeling
self-
conscious and rather exotic. Did she
make the right decision to attend
a college where she feels so out of
place? Are there any other first-
gens? Does Michigan even recognize
students like her? Is there a place to
go and talk about her adjustment
difficulties?
To help address financial struggles
for students like Eve, Michigan has
recently announced a pilot two-year
scholarship called High Achieving
Involved Leader for qualified, low-
income Michigan students. HAIL
pays four years of tuition and covers
$60,000 of necessary fees. Students,
parents and guardians, high school
principals and counselors at 259
Michigan public schools (rural,
suburban and urban) all receieved
HAIL information last fall.
Another
hands-on
program
recognizing economic challenges is
a new LSA laptop computer policy.
Low-income LSA students can loan
laptops — at no charge — for the
duration of their four years of study.
This initiative will likely continue in
the future and could be a significant
resource for HAIL students and
other incoming freshmen.
We
hope
other
colleges
—
Engineering, Business and Nursing,
for example — initiate similar
policies because buying a computer
can be a major financial burden for
lower-income families.
We
celebrate
initiatives
to
help talented, low-income, first-
gen
students
pay
for
college,
but we wonder if the University
will also provide the necessary
social support structures. Will
the University assist low-income
students in feeling comfortable
on a campus where 89 percent
of students have parents with a
college degree, and likely much
higher household incomes?
Research
tells
us
that
economically
disadvantaged
students — both white students
and
students
of
color
—
on
predominantly
middle-and
upper-middle-class
campuses,
like Michigan, often feel isolated.
Attending a highly selective college
is the initial stage in the difficult
process of upward mobility —
widely encouraged and celebrated
in American culture. But this can
be very complicated for students
as
they
pull
away
from
the
working-class communities that
carefully nurtured them. Colleges
like Michigan become portals to
unfamiliar economically privileged
experiences
and
futures.
Will
HAIL recognize these well-known
facts and help students achieve a
sense of belonging — especially in
their first two years of college?
Could a new First Generation
Student
Office,
for
example,
provide highly visible recognition
that
low-income
students
are
present and supported on campus?
An office could offer first-gens
space to meet and help promote
academic and personal success.
Other universities have recognized
these first-gen challenges.
Five
years
ago,
Stanford
University established a Diversity
and First-Gen Office that helps
direct
first-gens
to
needed
resources (e.g. academic advising
and
career
planning).
Highly
selective campuses can feel quite
foreboding for those who have
grown up in the working and lower
classes. Parents and students look
to the University of Michigan,
with its considerable resources, for
leadership in providing essential
support networks for low-income,
first-generation students as they
pursue their American dreams.
Dwight Lang teaches in the Sociology
Department at the University of
Michigan-Ann Arbor and is faculty
adviser to the department-sponsored
undergraduate group “First Generation
College Students @ Michigan.” Candice
Miller, from River Rouge, Mich.,
is a sophomore in the College of
Literature, Science and the Arts.
Class diversity needs more than scholarships
DWIGHT LANG AND CANDICE MILLER | OP-ED
E-mail JoE at Jiovino@umich.Edu
JOE IOVINO
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