of the ways we have been called to 
be more helpful is spending more 
time with what it is students are 
expected to do in terms of financial 
aid.”

Democrats
Among the two Democrats left 

standing, Clinton and Sanders, 
both agree there should be changes 
made to the higher education 
system and tuition rates should 
be severely cut, but their plans 
to do so have several significant 
differences.

Nonetheless, 
Public 
Policy 

senior Max Lerner, chair of the 
University’s chapter of College 
Democrats, said he believes both 
candidates’ plans encompass core 
values

“I think that Democrats, for 

a while now, have shown that 
they are the party that cares for 
students,” Lerner said. “They 
are always fighting for bigger 
funding, and fighting for lower 
tuition and making sure that states 
have enough money to fund their 
universities.”

College Republicans did not 

respond to repeated requests for 
comment.

For Sanders, the main policy 

push is ensuring all students can 
attend college for free. As a senator, 
Sanders introduced the College 
for All Act, which would allocate 
$47 billion per year to eliminate 
undergraduate tuition and fees at 
public colleges and universities. 
His current plan would also cut 
student loan interest rates down to 
2.37 percent.

Sanders has said if elected 

president, he would also expand 
need-based financial aid and work-
study programs to move toward 
making college debt-free.

LSA 
sophomore 
Nicholas 

Kolenda, president of Students for 
Sanders, said he believes Sanders’ 
plan is unique based on its inclusive 
nature.

“It’s a slippery slope when you 

exclude people from public goods 
because they can’t pay for it,” 
Kolenda said. “We don’t exclude 
the top 1 percent from public 
growth because they can privately 
pay for college.”

This 
extensive 
plan 
would 

require funding of $74 billion each 
year. To achieve this, Sanders plans 
to tax a fraction of a percent on 
Wall Street speculation.

In contrast, while not planning 

to make college entirely free, 
Clinton’s New College Compact 
plan aims to reign in rising college 
debt and work with universities 
to hold them responsible for 
their tuition levels. She has also 
said she plans to expand work-
study programs. According to her 
website, Clinton’s College Compact 
will require families to make an 
“affordable and realistic family 
contribution” to the cost of college.

LSA junior Anushka Sarkar, 

outreach 
director 
and 
event 

coordinator 
for 
Students 
for 

Hillary, said she thinks Clinton’s 
plan is a much more feasible one in 
comparison to Sanders’.

“I am confident that she will be 

able to (cut tuition), and there is a 
difference between an idealistic 
policy and a pragmatic policy 
position,” Sarkar said. “Hillary 
can make it more affordable and 
refinance student loans — that’s 
realistic, that’s something you can 
hold the president accountable for. 
Free college is not.”

As well, under the Compact, 

the federal government would 
give grants to states that commit 
and cut interest rates on loans — 
as well as states investing in their 

own public institutions. Overall, 
Clinton’s plan is slated to cost about 
$350 billion over the course of 10 
years, which she has said she would 
raise by closing tax loopholes 
and expenditures for wealthy 
individuals.

Republicans
On the Republican side, the 

policy issue has received less 
of an emphasis, and the depth 
of candidates’ plans to combat 
student debt range. 

LSA 
sophomore 
Casey 

VanderWeide, member of Students 
for 
Rubio, 
said 
he 
believes 

Republicans like Rubio have a 
better 
student 
debt 
platform 

because of how their plans would 
be funded.

“Rubio’s plan is superior to the 

Democrats’ plan because it does 
not rely on other people’s money,” 
VanderWeide said. “Sanders’ Wall 
Street speculation plan does not 
guarantee a set amount of revenue. 
Investors will try to avoid this tax 
by trading overseas. Not only big 
investors will be affected by this 
new tax but also small investors.”

Rubio has laid out several 

efforts to modernize the current 
financial aid system that attempt 
to aid with student borrowing in 
his approach to student debt — one 
of the most comprehensive among 
the GOP — saying he will overhaul 
and modernize it. In particular, he 
plans to consolidate the multiple 
tax benefits written into the 
Internal Revenue Service code 
for students into one provision 
for 
post-secondary 
education, 

to help with applying to federal 
financial aid. He also plans to 
make all financial aid information 
available in one location to reduce 
the burden and time families spend 
searching for this information.

Last year, President Barack 

Obama’s 
administration 
made 

significant changes to FAFSA, the 
free application for federal student 
aid, in an attempt to make it easier 
to use, including opening up the 
application earlier and using a 
family’s income information.

VanderWeide said he thought 

Rubio’s particular attention to 
student debt and higher education 
stemmed from his background.

“I think Rubio, out of all the 

Republican 
candidates, 
has 

the most thought-out student 
debt 
platform 
because, 
when 

he graduated law school, he 
had $100,000 in student loans,” 
VanderWeide said. “Marco Rubio 
did not come from a family of 
money... He understands what 
students are going through because 
he has gone through the process.”

Rubio has also discussed several 

other main policy ideas to tackle 
student debt, including establishing 
income-based 
repayment 
for 

federal student loans — a partial 
system for which already exists 
under the Revised Pay As You Earn 
Plan, which debuted in December 
2015. As well, the senator’s plan 
includes a provision to allow 
students to apply for the “Student 
Investment Plans” from approved 
investors to help young Americans 
finance their education.

Kasich has also laid out several 

proposals to aid with higher 
education, largely based on his time 
as governor of Ohio where student 
debt is above the national average 
according 
to 
Forbes. 
During 

his time as governor, the state’s 
universities have stabilized tuition 
costs at their public universities, 
and 
increased 
funding 
to 

universities with high graduation 
rates under his creation of Ohio’s 
Task Force on Affordability and 
Efficiency. Whereas many states 
allocate funds to higher education 
institutions based off of the number 
of students who attend, schools 

in Ohio receive rewards for the 
number of students who graduate.

The 
Task 
Force 
presented 

recommendations 
such 
as 

incentivising students to take at 
least 15 credits a semester and 
encourage universities to build 
up their summer programs. In 
addition to encouraging students 
to stay on track to graduate in four 
years, Ohio has worked to keep 
tuition rates low and has gone as far 
as addressing the cost of textbooks.

During his campaign, Kasich 

has said he would like to encourage 
programs like that in place in Ohio 
to expand nationally — particularly 
his program which allocates funds 
based on graduation rather than 
enrollment. He has also said he 
intends to increase opportunities 
for students to receive college 
credits while still in high school to 
help reduce the cost of the student’s 
future tuition.

Among the other two candidates 

left in the GOP race — Cruz and 
Trump — neither have introduced 
significant policy plans, though 
both have mentioned the issue.

When he ran for the Senate in 

2012, Cruz stated that student loan 
debt should be a state issue rather 
than a federal government issue. 
During this same campaign cycle, 
he called for the abolishment of 
the U.S. Department of Education, 
reiterating that student debt policy 
decisions should be in the hands of 
state and local governments.

During 
his 
presidential 

campaign, he hasn’t expressed 
much beyond that on the topic, 
though he has noted that similar to 
Rubio, he graduated with $100,000 
in debt.

“I just paid off my student loans 

five or six years ago. Economic 
growth is critical to young people 
because if we want this generation 
to be able to pay off their loans 
and develop the skills to live the 
American dream, we’ve got to 
return to an environment where 
small businesses are growing 
and flourishing, and creating jobs 
and opportunities,” Cruz told 
theSkimm earlier this year.

Similar to Cruz, Trump has 

yet to lay out a concrete plan for 
higher education and student 
debt. However, he has claimed 
several times that the government 
unfairlyprofits from the billions of 
student loans.

When 
announcing 
his 

candidacy, Trump said, “People 
are tired... of spending more money 
on education than any nation in the 
world per capita.”

Other than that statement, 

Trump hasn’t said much else 
regarding his plans for debt should 
he be elected into office, though 
like Cruz he has suggested cutting 
the Department of Education.

The Republican frontrunner, 

has, however, drawn controversy 
over his own involvement in the 
higher education industry — his for-
profit college, Trump University, 
now the Trump Entrepreneur 
Initiative, is currently facing a legal 
suit for possible illegal business 
practices.

As many as a 25 percent of the 

students have requested a refund 
for their tuition costs to the 
University, according to CNN.

Regardless of who they’re voting 

for, students see higher education 
being discussed in the campaign as 
positive and with the potential for 
long lasting change.

“I think we’re at a crossroads,” 

LSA sophomore Eleonore Edgell 
said. 
“This 
election 
is 
very 

important because I think we 
have the potential to create policy 
within these four years that can 
create lasting impacts for the next 
twenty or fifty or a hundred years. 
Voting is really important.”

with my ex-husband.”

Another 
student 
monologue 

addressed depression by utilizing 
the metaphor of a Chinese finger 
trap toy. The student explained that 
the goal of a Chinese finger trap is 
to escape as quickly as possible.

“I am in a Chinese finger trap,” 

he said. “From age 12, I was not in 
control. I could not control my older 
sister’s anger, her hating school and 
hating life. Her punching holes in 
the wall the size of my head. I could 
not control my sister’s depression.”

The speakers of the three 

monologues underwent a lengthy 
process of practices and workshops 
in order to prepare for the event, 
which Doshi further highlighted 
by asking attendees to create 
poems from their mental maps.

The third monologue was from 

a speaker who compared her 

obsessive-compulsive disorder to 
sneezing.

“Sneezing is a universal truth,” 

she said. “Everyone turns and says, 
‘Bless you.’ Sneezing interrupts our 
daily lives. But despite this need, 
a sneeze is usually technically 
voluntary.”

If you can understand the nature 

of a sneeze, she continued, you can 
gain better understanding of the 
compulsions associated with OCD 
and Tourette syndrome.

“They are constant interruptions 

in your life with tensions and urges 
that simply must be satisfied,” 
she said. “For the last year, my 
Tourette’s has had a physical take 
on flexing my right jaw muscle. 
Just like a sneeze, I have to do it. 
We have to move from sympathy to 
empathy. There is no ‘bless you.’ ”

Price said that events such as 

the Mental Health Monologues are 
vital in continuing the dialogue of 
mental health on college campuses.

“I do a lot of work with 

“People 
need 
to 
take 

responsibility for their safety,” 
Brown said. “Just like we suggest 
with walking, going with another 
person or friend is advisable.”

Both Uber and Lyft have been 

called into question in Ann Arbor 
before. City Councilconsidered 
a measure in 2014 requiring 
Uber drivers to comply with 
the 
Michigan 
Limousine 

Transportation Act and purchase 
commercial vehicle licenses. The 

proposal did not garner enough 
votes to pass a first reading, as 
the five councilmembers voting 
against the bill cited unreasonable 
cost burdens on drivers.

Councilmember 
Zachary 

Ackerman (D–Ward 3), who did 
not have a seat on City Council in 
2014, but noted that city leaders 
still cannot pass effective, wide-
reaching legislation. 

“Should there be increased 

regulation to ensure safety of 
the rider? Of course,” he said. 
“Locally, 
we 
need 
direction 

from the state. Until then these 

services will operate in a gray area, 
which doesn’t work to anyone’s 
advantage.”

Ackerman 
also 
critiqued 

heavy scrutiny of ridesharing, 
citing it as an important mode of 
transportation for present and 
future students.

“I reject the premise that Uber 

or ridesharing can be blamed 
for this atrocity,” he said. “Jason 
Dalton was also an insurance 
broker. Should people be worried 
when they go in to buy insurance? 
No. This is a gun access issue. This 
is a mental health issue.”

conversation on women’s health 
and menstruation.

“We 
need 
to 
have 
more 

conversations about this topic 
because menstruation is a taboo 
subject and a girl has to feel 
embarrassed to ask for a feminine 
hygiene 
product,” 
Roberts 

said. “They should never feel 
embarrassed about a completely 
natural thing that happens in a 
woman’s body. I want to take the 
shame away from this issue.”

The recent push in legislation 

parallels a change in advertising 
for tampons, such as ads from 
U by Kotex poking fun at older 
commercials that avoided any talk 
of blood or the actual function 
of the products the commercials 
were trying to sell. Joanne Bailey, 
director of the Nurse Midwifery 
Service and professor of women’s 
health in the Women’s Studies 
Department at the University, said 
she sees the changes in legislation 
and advertising as a break in 
the taboo previously placed on 
menstruation.

“If we look at social media or 

advertisement, there’s been a real 
change in the messaging around 

feminine hygiene products. Even 
the name is kind of bizarre; it 
whitewashes it and doesn’t talk 
about what is going on,” Bailey 
said. “If we look at the changing 
language and openness around 
it, this indicates that, as a society, 
we are changing our perspectives 
as our ability to talk about it 
changes.”

LSA sophomore Ashley Wilson, 

social media director for Students 
for Choice, said she believes this 
legislation is key to opening up 
dialogue about the necessity of 
feminine hygiene products.

“Periods are not this secret, 

shameful thing. If these products 
became openly available at your 
local secretary of state, in public 
schools and courthouses, it would 
be much harder for our society to 
pretend like they do not happen,” 
Wilson said. “The sooner we 
put an end to all of the stigma, 
the sooner we have a healthier 
society that is more comfortable 
discussing reproductive health 
care without fear of alienation.”

Robert said she sees herself as 

a voice for young girls who worry 
about getting their period while 
in school, potentially taking away 
from their ability to focus while in 
class.

“I felt really passionate that 

these were free and available 
because oftentimes a girl’s period 
can start and she doesn’t know it, 
and you need exact change and 
the dispenser may not need work,” 
Roberts said. “Or they have to ask 
a friend or ask a teacher — and why 
should we make young women go 
through that?”

Bailey said she thought an 

increase of women in both the 
legislature 
and 
advertising 

companies, such as Roberts, is 
a testament to gender equality 
as more women are able to take 
leadership positions and break 
taboos on issues like menstruation.

“Fifty percent of the population 

are women, so it’s a huge marketing 
opportunity. It is a taboo that is 
breaking because more women 
are able to participate in the 
advertising and decision-making 
that is changing it,” Bailey said. 
“It feels completely invisible to 
men and it’s uncomfortable and a 
taboo topic, so it’s easy to keep it 
invisible, so it certainly is female 
lawmakers. You can’t imagine 
a man doing this. More women 
in power are challenging those 
questions.”

Members 
of 
College 

Republicans were not available for 
immediate comment. 

Facebook or replies on Twitter. 
Other anonymous users of the 
app provided him with ways of 
rethinking the situation based 
on how they had perceived it 
objectively, allowing him to see 
positives about himself and the 
situation that he possibly hadn’t 
seen before.

In a Q and A after the speech, 

University alum Dr. Neal Elkin 
asked about the demographics that 

the app is actually able to reach, 
and the challenge of getting data 
from a website where anonymity 
is so integral.

“Have you tracked topics that 

people are discussing — whether 
it’s bipolar disorder, depression, 
suicidality?” he asked.

In response, Morris noted that 

queries are organized by the topics 
to which they pertain, such as 
marriage, parenthood, or college, 
not specific mental disorders, 
also stressing that the app is not a 
substitute for getting professional 
help.

Greden said he thought forums 

such as the Morris’s keynote and 
the conference are another way 
to change the way students and 
faculty alike think about mental 
health issues like anxiety and 
depression.

“I’m really pleased to say, I think 

with accuracy, that the University 
of Michigan has been a leader in 
changing that trend,” Greden said. 
“This is the largest conference 
of its kind … it has gone on for 14 
years. The first year we started it, 
we only planned it for one year, 
and people wouldn’t let us quit.”

creative side.”

Schwendeman said she saw 

slam poetry as an authentic 
way for students to express 
themselves.

“I feel once we got to college, 

we 
wanted 
something 
more 

authentic and real and raw, and 
this is a really easy way to tell 
your story 100 percent honestly,” 
she said. “When I first went to a 
poetry slam, I was floored, like ‘I 
have to do that!’ because you just 
write your story down, and then 
you just get up in front of a mic and 
say it and that’s really powerful.”

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News
Friday, March 11, 2016 — 3

professionalism of the AAPD.

Councilmember 
Sumi 

Kailasapathy (D–Ward 1) said 
the 
commission 
fulfilled 
its 

civic duty and stressed that 
the independent police auditor 
should be immediately funded 
for the next fiscal year due to 
gaps in transparency during the 
commission’s review.

“This was a labor of love. It’s 

not that (the commission) didn’t 

think we don’t have the greatest 
police force, it’s because they 
believe in democracy,” Kalispathy 
said, noting the members of the 
commission 
committed 
hours 

of their time without a budget to 
write the report.

Kalispathy added that AAPD 

did not grant the commission full 
transparency during the drafting 
of the report, mentioning in 
particular their refusal to grant 
access 
to 
their 
“use-of-force 

forms,” a report commonly filled 
out by a member of the police 
department after an officer is 

accused of excessive force.

Councilmember Jack Eaton (D–

Ward 4) commended AAPD, and 
said increased civilian oversight 
is not necessarily a criticism of the 
department.

“I don’t think there’s anyone 

who’s a bigger fan of our police 
department than I am, so I want 
to emphasize that asking for an 
oversight body isn’t criticism of 
our police department or their 
staff,” Eaton said. “The police 
department 
shouldn’t 
police 

itself.”

HIGHER ED
From Page 1

HEALTH
From Page 1

BILLS
From Page 1

UBER
From Page 1

KEYNOTE
From Page 2

disabilities,” Price said. “Mental 
health is one piece of it. It’s getting 
people to understand and walk in 
your shoes. Sometimes the hidden 
disabilities are not as easy.”

POETRY
From Page 2

COUNCIL
From Page 1

