Opinion SHOHAM GEVA EDITOR IN CHIEF CLAIRE BRYAN AND REGAN DETWILER EDITORIAL PAGE EDITORS LAURA SCHINAGLE 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 — 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 CONTRIBUTE TO THE CONVERSATION Readers are encouraged to submit letters to the editor and op-eds. Letters should be fewer than 300 words while op-eds should be 550 to 850 words. Send the writer’s full name and University affiliation to tothedaily@michigandaily.com.