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Thursday, June 2, 2016

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com NEWS

Warrior Scholar 

project helps 

students returning 

from service 

By KEVIN LINDER

Daily Staff Reporter

For the third summer since 

2014, the University of Michigan 
hosted 
the 
Warrior-Scholar 

Project, a week-long summer 
program that provides veterans 
with 
assistance 
during 
the 

transition from military life to 
higher education.

Founded at Yale University 

in 2012, the program expanded 
to both the University and 
Harvard University in 2014. This 
summer, it will be hosted by 12 
different 
universities 
across 

the country. In Ann Arbor, 
the program was hosted at the 
Mosher-Jordan Residence Hall. 
Students sleep, eat and study 
from 9 a.m. Sunday morning 
to late Saturday evening. This 
year’s cohort of 27 veterans at 
the University represented the 
largest group ever to participate 
in the program.

Upon leaving the service, 

one of the challenges that many 

veterans face when they leave 
the service — which the Warrior-
Scholar Project seeks to address 
— is a lack of preparation for the 
transition directly into a collegiate 
environment.

The veterans enrolled in the 

program take part in classes 
designed to improve critical reading 
and writing skills. After breakfast, 
students attend seminars led 
by volunteer professors from 
the University, and later in the 
day, they participate in reading 
classes in which they analyze 
the ideas and arguments made in 
challenging texts from authors 
such as Alexis 
de Tocqueville, 
Thucydides 
and Plato. The 
students 
also 

take 
writing 

classes, 
led 

by 
full-time 

tutors, in which 
they learn to 
effectively develop a thesis and 
present arguments.

The program is designed to 

help students who are planning 
to attend college in the future, but 
it’s also open to students who feel 
they need additional academic 
assistance following a couple of 
semesters of enrollment.

Program 
Director 
Ryan 

Pavel, a Marine Corps veteran 
and University alum, said the 
program is very humanities-
focused, yet is also designed to 
aid students with all types of 
interests and needs.

As the organization grows, 

there 
are 
plans 
to 
further 

incorporate STEM-based skills 
into the program. According to 
Pavel, Yale University and the 
University of Oklahoma offer 
additional week-long programs 
to students who want to pursue 
STEM degrees.

Pavel also said the work 

students do through the program, 

and 
the 
way 

the 
program 

is 
designed, 

prepare 
students for the 
challenges and 
expectations of 
fields 
outside 

of 
higher 

education 
as 

well.

“We 
are 
trying 
to 
start 

conversations about these study 
skills,” Pavel said. “Being a good 
student helps you anywhere. 
Knowing how to approach a 
complicated text helps you in 
anything; the skill of knowing 
how 
to 
approach 
and 
be 

GOVERNMENT

ALLISON FARRAND/Daily

Participant Riva Szostkowski hugs her English teacher Mary Beth Harris at the program’s closing dinner in 2014. 

North Carolina 
style legislation 

introduced in state 

senate

By CAITLIN REEDY

Daily Staff Reporter

The Michigan state legislature 

is 
attempting 
to 
join 
North 

Carolina in passing a bill that 
would 
require 
transgender 

people to use the bathroom that 
corresponds with the sex listed on 
their birth certificate. State Sen. 
Tom Casperson (R–Escanaba) is 
sponsoring the bill and is firmly 
set on legalizing it despite the 
apparent obstacles and media 
firestorm North Carolina is facing.

North Carolina, the first state 

to successfully restrict which 
public 
bathrooms 
and 
locker 

rooms transgender people use, 
sparked 
headline 
news 
and 

strong opposition from LGBTQ 
rights advocates, and the state 
is currently facing many legal 
battles regarding the bill. LGBTQ 
rights advocates filed a lawsuit 
against the law’s legality, and 
the federal government ordered 
North Carolina to abolish the law 
as it violates federal civil rights, 
leading to a lawsuit against North 
Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory (R) by 
the Department of Justice.

Despite 
President 
Barack 

Obama 
cutting 
billions 
of 

dollars in federal aid from North 
Carolina, Casperson will continue 
to advocate for the bill and wishes 
to stop children from sharing a 
bathroom with others who are 
“biologically different.” Casperson 
decided to introduce the bill after 
discovering that the State Board 
of Education stated in a proposed 
reccomendation 
that 
public 

schools should allow transgender 
students to use the bathrooms 
with which they identify, as 
well as being referred to by the 
pronoun of their requests.

This 
proposition, 
however, 

didn’t 
sit 
well 
with 
the 

Republicans in Lansing, including 

House Speaker Kevin Cotter, who 
also spoke out against the board’s 
recommendation. Cotter said in 
a statement that he is protecting 
the wishes of parents who may 
not have approved a gender switch 
concerning their child.

“Maybe there’s something there 

that’s just not normal,” Casperson 
said. “And normal’s not the right 
word. Maybe there’s something 
there that’s just not right, where 
we’re mixing these kids together.”

The proposed bill is already 

receiving 
backlash 
similar 
to 

the comments made in North 
Carolina. 
A 
public 
comment 

section 
already 
has 
7,000 

responses and comments, mostly 
in opposition to the measure. 
John Austin, president of the State 
Board of Education, is an active 
force against this bill. Austin said 
that the bill could violate federal 
civil rights and further isolate 
these transgender students who 
are already at-risk for suicide, 
depression and bullying.

The bill is also facing opposition 

from state Democrats. U.S. Rep. 
Dan Kildee (D–Mi.) released a 
statement condoning what he is 
calling the Anti-LGBT Bathroom 
Bill. Kildee pointed out that 
Casperson and other Republicans 
are willing to spend time and 
money on such a divisive issue 
rather than focusing attention 
on issues such as improving 
infrastructure, ensuring funding 
for the public schools and safe 
drinking water in Flint.

“Their ‘bathroom bill’ ... is 

discriminatory 
and 
bigoted,” 

Kildee said in a statement. “It 
seeks to divide Michiganders and 
deny people access to restrooms 
when they simply want privacy, 
safety and respect when using 
such accommodations. Michigan 
Republicans 
like 
Senator 

Casperson should spend less time 
bullying Michiganders and more 
time on the actual problems facing 
our state. This hateful bill flies in 
the face of Michigan values like 
dignity, equality and respect, and 
it should be promptly shelved and 
defeated.”

See VETERANS, Page 9
See BATHROOM, Page 8

Program prepares veterans for 
transition from service to school

Controversial new 
bathroom bill affects 
transgender students

“Being a good 
student helps 
you anywhere”

