michigandaily.com
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Monday, April 4, 2016
ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-FIVE YEARS OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM
INDEX
Vol. CXXV, No. 102
©2016 The Michigan Daily
michigandaily.com
NEWS......................... 2A
OPINION.....................4A
CL ASSIFIEDS............... 5A
SUDOKU..................... 2A
ARTS.......................... 5A
SPORTSMONDAY..........1B
NEW ON MICHIGANDAILY.COM
Annual Red Cross 5K raises funds for charity
MICHIGANDAILY.COM/SECTION/NEWS
GOT A NEWS TIP?
Call 734-418-4115 or e-mail
news@michigandaily.com and let us know.
WEATHER
TOMORROW
HI: 32
LO: 19
Red Berenson will return for a 33rd
season behind the Michigan bench
» INSIDE
Back For More
Representatives
of prevention orgs
discuss goals,
challenges
By TIM COHN
Daily Staff Reporter
More than 100 anti-sexual
assault student activists from
14 different public and private
colleges and universities across
Michigan attended a conference
in the Michigan Union Saturday
aimed
at
connecting
student
activists
and
encouraging
organizational collaboration.
The event, hosted by the
University of Michigan’s Sexual
Assault Prevention and Awareness
Center, was the first of its kind
on campus. Organizers said it
offered a unique opportunity for
representatives
from
different
institutions to meet with other
student activists and share their
experiences of working for sexual
assault prevention organizations.
“This is the first time in history
that all of these schools have
come together.” Public Policy
senior Emma Zorfass, the event
coordinator, said. “We are trying
to use our collective activism to
make our respective communities
stronger. So we are doing a lot of
activities that involve networking,
coming up with different ideas.”
Each school’s representatives
participated in a Share Out session
about their work. Schools also
created informational guides about
their sexual assault prevention
organization to distribute, which
included
information
about
the number of volunteers, their
organizational structure and their
goals.
A focus of the Share Out was
facilitating a dialogue between
different types of institutions, such
as private Christian colleges like
Hope College in Holland, Mich.,
as well as commuter-heavy schools
like the University of Michigan
campuses in Flint and Dearborn.
Hope College junior Elena Galano
said the Christian mission of the
college is present in the sexual
assault prevention organization as
See PREVENTION, Page 3A
Community
members discuss
topics from Syria to
the environment
By BRANDON SUMMERS-
MILLER and ANDREW
HIYAMA
Daily Staff Reporters
TEDxUofM’s annual TED-
style conference, held on Friday
in the Power Center, focused on
change — both creating it and
responding to it.
The
conference
featured
more than 10 TED-style talks
from Ann Arbor community
members
including
Business
Administration
Prof.
Wayne
Baker, attorney Khawla Wakkaf
and LSA junior Sam McMullen.
Reciprocity was the focus
of Baker’s talk, in which he
examined the paradox of people
continually asking one another
for what they need. To examine
reciprocity he created and studied
a “reciprocity ring.” Participants
in the ring could ask for help and
others could pay it forward.
“When we first started doing
this, I thought that giving was
going to be the problem,” Baker
said. “That’s not true. Generosity
isn’t the problem — most people
are willing to help. The real
problem is getting people to ask
for what they need.”
Baker is currently working at
an Ann Arbor startup company to
create a reciprocity app, based on
his research with the reciprocity
ring. The app would allow users
to ask for help from other users
for various problems, Baker said.
“I think the app has real
potential to create a big, positive
impact on the world by spreading
the practice of paying it forward
far and wide,” he said.
Following Baker’s lecture the
audience was instructed to break
into groups of four to create
their own reciprocity ring. They
were then challenged to ask for
specific, tangible requests that
had to be delivered within an
allotted amount of time.
Engineering
senior
Emma
See TEDXUOFM, Page 3A
Event includes
parade with
puppets, visual
displays
By MADELEINE GERSON
Daily Staff Reporter
This weekend WonderFool
Productions
partnered
with local businesses and
schools, the University of
Michigan and the city of
Ann Arbor to celebrate the
10th
FestiFools.
Students,
families
and
community
members gathered to attend
a FoolMoon celebration on
Friday night and FestiFools
parade on Sunday afternoon in
downtown Ann Arbor, where
public art displays, music
performances and elaborate
costumes and puppets filled
Main Street.
FestiFools is an Ann Arbor
tradition founded by Shoshana
Hurand, Lloyd Hall Scholars
Program
former
student
and Mark Tucker, the UM
LHSP arts director, who was
inspired to create the event
by the art of cartapesta, also
known
as
papier
mâché,
during his travels to Italy.
Every
year,
if
festival
attendees are sure to see giant
paper mâché faces, glowing
animals
and
performances
like
the
Violin
Monster,
violinist Zachary Storey, who
has performed at the event
for the past five years. Well-
known as the Violin Monster
for his unique performance
and costume, he said he
appreciates the foolishness of
the parade, which is why he
returns year after year.
“I enjoy the complete and
utter foolishness,” he said.
“I return from my winter
migration
every
year
to
witness it.”
Ann Arbor resident Julie
Knick who attended FestiFools
for the first time this year, it’s
a one-of-a-kind event that can
only be found in a city like Ann
Arbor.
“I really enjoy local events,
which are unique to this area,”
Supporters plan to
ask administration
for change to
Wolverine Access
By KATHERINE CURRAN
Daily Staff Reporter
Wolverines
for
Preferred
Pronouns set up a table on the
Diag Friday afternoon to garner
support for a petition asking the
University of Michigan to put
pronoun preferences on class
rosters.
The petition addresses what
its supporters said they believe is
a common issue for transgender
students at the University, as
many
transgender
students
identitfy as one gender but are
listed as another on class rosters
and in the University’s records.
The petition charges that
transgender
students
at
the
University
must
currently
reach out to their professors or
GSIs on their own concerning
their identity, or risk being
misgendered in the classroom.
The founder of the initiative, LSA
junior Felix Boratyn, said the
group wants the administration,
specifically University Provost
Martha
Pollack
and
Kedra
Ishop, associate vice president
for enrollment, to create a space
on Wolverine Access to clarify
students’ gender in the Campus
Personal Information section.
Boratyn
said
though
From THE MICHIGAN DAILY
On
March
23,
North
Carolina legislators passed a
law
prohibiting
transgender
and
gender-nonconforming
individuals
from
using
bathrooms and locker rooms
that do not match their birth-
certificate-assigned sex. The law
has received loud and immediate
pushback because it promotes
blatant discrimination against
transgender people. Republican
lawmakers unanimously favored
the bill on the basis of safety,
claiming females should not be
forced to use the same bathroom
facilities as biological males.
However, it passed in North
Carolina is an unacceptable act
of discrimination that cannot
be
tolerated.
Legislators
in
North Carolina — and closer
to home, both legislators in
Michigan and administrators
on campus — must act to protect
the rights of transgender people
and uphold both Title IX of the
Education Amendments of 1972
and the 14th Amendment’s equal
protection clause.
On our campus in February
Standing for
transgender
students on
our campus
See FESTIFOOLS, Page 3A
See PRONOUNS, Page 3A
See OPINION, Page 4A
AMELIA CACCHIONE/Daily
LSA freshman Anna Krauss and LSA junior Raivynn Smith talk with a passerby about putting pronouns on class rosters
in the Diag Friday.
EMILIE FARRUGIA/Daily
Attorney Khawla Wakkaf shares her desire to alleviate suffering in Syria at the 7th Annual TEDxUofM Conference at the Power Center Friday.
OPINION
Groups visit
University to
talk sexual
assault work
CAMPUS LIFE
TedxUofM event emphasizes
creating change in society
Students petition in Diag
to use preferred pronouns
CITY
10th FestiFools
celebrates local
art, performers