3-News

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News
Wednesday, November 2, 2016 — 3A

JEREMY MITNICK/Daily

Ann Arbor resident Brie Clark, with the nonprofit organization Animal Equality, puts a Virtual Reality viewer on Engineering freshman Dylan Carleton on the 
Diag on Tuesday. 

ANIM AL EQUALIT Y

walked by and picked that up 
for him, and it was like nothing 
special happened; this may seem 
to be usual here, but it was rarely 
seen in some societies.”

He said his parents favor 

Democratic presidential nominee 
Hillary Clinton and often ask 
him about what the supporters 
for both candidates are like.

“People from other countries 

pay a whole lot attention to what 
the U.S. president says, and the 
president’s speech and action can 
fluctuate the global economic 
and political environment a lot,” 
Cheng said. “I think the success 
in this country counts on both a 
great education system and the 
diversity of foreign workers.”

Engineering sophomore Tony 

Li is originally from Beijing, but 
has lived in Calgary, Alberta, 
Canada, since the age of 7. During 
his senior year of high school, he 
said, he decided to take a leap and 
attend school in the United States 
because of the University of 
Michigan’s “stellar” engineering 
program.

“My family moved to Canada 

from China when I was 7, and 
I’ve lived there until I came here 
for university,” Li said. “The 
Canadian schools are OK schools, 
but just not engineering-wise.”

Li said he feels bad for students 

who can vote, most of whom are 
voting in their first presidential 
election.

“It’s not a desirable choice,” 

He said.

Thrust 
into 
the 
political 

atmosphere on campus during 
this year’s presidential primaries 
as a freshman, Li said he was 
especially shocked to see Trump 
emerge 
as 
the 
Republican 

nominee as opposed to someone 
more appealing such as Sen. 
Marco Rubio (R–Fla.) or Ohio 
Gov. John Kasich.

After 
watching 
the 
2015 

Canadian 
federal 
elections, 

Li said, he expected a more 
moderate 
candidate 
than 

Trump to emerge, similar to the 
newly elected Canadian Prime 
Minister Justin Trudeau of the 
Liberal Party or former Prime 
Minister Stephen Harper of the 
Conservative Party.

He said he initially wanted 

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I–Vt.) to win 
because he generally agrees with 
Sander’s 
democratic 
socialist 

policies since they are similar to 
the Canadian political system, 
but added he felt Sanders never 
really had a chance.

“I definitely care who wins, 

I’m here (in America) quite a bit,” 
he joked.

When he goes back home to 

Canada for breaks, he said, his 
friends will often poke fun at 
the U.S. presidential election; 
however, they intently keep up to 
date with the race.

“They’re still following the 

politics,” Li said. “America is a 
superpower and people do care 
about who’s going to lead and 
have that supreme power.”

Li added that he senses 

political tension among students 
on campus, particularly when 
he sees people having polarized 
political arguments.

“They all bring in their 

personal viewpoints, but I don’t 
think they’re taking anything 
from the other side,” Li said.

While he is interested in the 

outcome, Li said he probably 
won’t bother to watch the 
election results live.

“It’s pretty much decided from 

the polls; Trump does not have 
a chance,” Li said. “I’ll definitely 
check online once in a while that 
evening.”

While Li and Cheng are 

experiencing the presidential 
election up close as a byproduct 
of attending college in the United 
States, Jori Korpershoek, said he 
is currently studying abroad at 
the University semester partially 
because he wanted to experience 
the 
U.S. 
election 
firsthand. 

Korpershoek 
attends 
Leiden 

University College in The Hague, 
Netherlands.

He said he wants to have a 

greater understanding of why 
there is a surge of the alternative 
right-wing movement happening 
in 
the 
United 
States 
with 

Trump’s nomination, especially 
considering that candidates in 
the past, like 2012 GOP nominee 
Mitt Romney have been more 
moderate.

“If you have a two-party 

system, 
you 
would 
expect 

the candidates presented to 
the people to be relatively 
mainstream,” Korpershoek said. 
“I didn’t think Trump would win 
the primary.”

Korpershoek said he finds 

conservative 
philosophy 

intriguing, but added that he 
doesn’t think Trump embodies 
those principles.

“I think there’s something 

admirable 
about 
pure 

conservatism 
and 
I 
think 

Trump has very few of those 
qualities,” Korpershoek said. 
“I think what I’ve been trying 
to understand is, on the one 
hand, trying to sympathize 
with people who are voting for 
politicians like Trump, while at 
the same time also trying to find 
that balance between economic 
anxiety or if everybody is just 
like racist.”

Currently, Korpershoek said 

people in the Netherlands are 
talking more about the U.S. 
election than the forthcoming 
Dutch election in 2017.

“It’s pretty intriguing how 

there’s 
a 
relatively 
sizable 

percentage 
of 
people 
who 

follow the American election 
intensely,” Korpershoek said. “I 
couldn’t recognize other German 
politicians, for example, but I 
could tell you who Marco Rubio 
is and what John McCain looks 
like.”

For the most part, Korpershoek 

said he doesn’t sense a lot of 
tension on campus, but rather 
a general nervousness on both 
sides of the political spectrum.

“I kind of expected things to 

be tense, but I feel more of an 
apathy in most people I meet, 
rather than anger,” Korpershoek 
said.

INTERNATIONAL
From Page 1A

States — compared to 94 percent 
of Protestants.

She told the crowd she hopes 

these numbers bring light to 
issues with voter registration 
and negative perceptions and 
spark more involvement from the 
Muslim community.

“We don’t want to do research 

just for the sake of doing 
research, we want to do research 
that empowers the community,” 
Buageila said.

In her remarks, she focused on 

how to increase voter turnout in 
not only the Muslim American 
community, 
but 
also 
in 
all 

minority communities. Noting 
Islamophobia and the erosion of 
civil liberties is a main concern 
for Muslims, she emphasized 
that this should be a concern 
for all Americans, calling it an 
extension of the United States’ 
legacy of slavery and imperialism.

Buageila 
concentrated 
on 

increasing 
Muslim-American 

civil participation particularly 

through short-term strategies, 
long-term strategies and “Get 
Out and Vote” tactics. In practice, 
these strategies include educating 
the 
Muslim 
community, 

volunteering to work at the polls 
on Election Day and increasing 
mosque 
attendance. 
Despite 

some negative perceptions of 
mosques, Buageila said polls 
show 
that 
frequent 
mosque 

attendance is linked to greater 
civic engagement.

Khan, 
a 
lecturer 
in 
the 

department of Near East and 
Asian Studies at Wayne State 
University, 
continued 
the 

conversation 
by 
connecting 

Islamophobia 
to 
other 
anti-

progressive campaigns during 
American demographic shifts.

He 
said 
rapidly 
shifting 

demographics in the U.S., like the 
first year with a non-Protestant 
religious majority in 2010, has led 
to an unprecedented moral panic 
regarding the direction of the 
country.

Although 
the 
religious 

majority has changed, Khan also 
acknowledged the prominence of 
Islamophobia and questioned the 
real root of its increase, saying 

it does not solely come from the 
federal level.

“Washington has proven to 

be paradoxically fairly impotent 
when it comes to fairly moving 
the needle on anything,” Khan 
said.

To instead locate the source 

of Islamophobia at the local 
level, Khan researched six topics 
of 
law: 
voter 
identification, 

immigration, 
abortion 
rights, 

same-sex marriage, right to work 
and anti-Sharia law.

Through this research, he said 

he found restrictive legislation 
is overwhelmingly driven by 
Republicans, though only 13 
percent 
of 
total 
Republican 

lawmakers in the country work 
to pass such legislation. Khan 
said 80 percent of this small 
group 
supports 
voter-access 

laws, adding they display a desire 
to disenfranchise and restrict 
people from their rights as 
Americans to engage in civil and 
political matters.

Based on his findings, Khan 

said it is important for Muslims 
to increase their self-awareness 
and education on these areas 
of law, as well as to take part 

in more political engagement. 
For the broader community, 
Khan urged people to develop 
a contextual understanding of 
the Muslim community, as well 
as identify and integrate how 
wider 
legislative 
and 
policy 

concerns will impact the Muslim 
community.

“It is all connected, it is all 

related, it is all integrated,” Khan 
said.

LSA sophomore Mary Najjar, 

who attended the event for her 
Arab-American studies class, and 
said she thought many Muslim 
Americans feel conflicted about 
their political participation.

“I 
thought 
that 
it 
was 

interesting, I guess you almost 
kind of understand it, but, like, 
the Muslim community thought 
that there wasn’t anyone there to 
represent them so there was no 
point in voting because nobody 
is there for their interest,” Najjar 
said. “It is kind of a paradox 
where you have to vote to get 
their attention so they focus 
more on your issues, but also 
if they’re not focusing on your 
issues you wouldn’t want to get 
involved.”

LECTURE
From Page 1A

photography, investigative 
reporting 
and 
public 

service 
for 
University 

undergraduates.

“If 
you’re 
financially 

successful in life, those 
resources should go back 
to society,” Lipsey said in a 
video interview at the Daily 
in 2009. “Certainly the 
institution that educated 
you and allowed you to 
mature deserves support 
for the young people that 
are coming in.”

After graduating from 

the 
University, 
Lipsey 

served in the Air Force 
during the Korean War 
as editor of the Offutt, a 
Nebraska-based newspaper 
Air Pulse at Strategic Air 

Command Headquarters.

He 
then 
joined 
the 

weekly Sun Newspapers in 
his hometown of Omaha in 
1953, where he eventually 
became 
the 
paper’s 

publisher and owner. In 
1969, Lipsey sold the paper 
to Warren Buffett, but 
continued 
as 
publisher. 

During his tenure at Sun 
Newspapers, the paper won 
a Pulitzer Prize for local 
investigative reporting in 
1973. 

In 1983, Lipsey became 

publisher of The Buffalo 
News in New York at the 
request of Buffett, who 
also owned the paper. He 
remained in that position 
until his retirement in 
2012.

Lipsey is survived by 

his wife, Judith; daughter, 
Janet; son, Daniel; and two 
grandchildren.

LIPSEY
From Page 1A

the city’s strategy would be 
sufficient 
to 
mitigate 
the 

public health risks posed by 
the plume.

Vince Caruso, a founding 

member of a coalition of 
county-wide 
officials 
to 

combat the plume Allen’s Creek 
Watershed Group, said he is not 
confident the MDEQ will be 
able to adequately control the 
contamination even with new 
legal action, pointing to the 
agency’s handling of the Flint 

water crisis. He added that he 
believed the only way forward 
would be to petition for an 
Environmental 
Protection 

Agency superfund to bring 
federal intervention.

“I think we have good 

evidence the DEQ is not up to 
this effort,” Caruso said. “I 
think we need to move and I 
think the EPA has technology, 
they have scientists, they have 
large numbers of staff that 
can come in, they have the 
Department of Justice … they 
will go after the responsible 
party, and they’ve done that 
before.”

CITY COUNCIL
From Page 2A

viewed the day as a success.

CSG 
Communications 

Director Joe Shea, a Public 
Policy 
senior, 
echoed 

Shunnar, 
saying 
it 
was 

important for students to 
know what their elected 
officials are working on.

“We’re 
very 
passionate 

about making sure we are 
a resource for students, so 
the best way to do that is 
solicit feedback by any way 
possible,” he said.

The organization’s goal, 

Shunnar said, was to have 
students fill the board of 
suggestions 
with 
their 

opinions 
on 
recent 
CSG 

initiatives and future events 
they would like to see hosted 
by the assembly.

“If 
that 
board 
of 

suggestions gets filled and 
we’re able to see something 
consistent on that board, that 
will help us progress and do 
something students really 
want,” Shunnar said.

LSA freshman Brittany 

Jullie, 
who 
signed 
the 

banner, said she was glad to 
see the initiative.

“I think it’s a really good 

idea that people can raise 
suggestions with what they 
want to see happen,” she 
said.

Shunnar noted that the 

board also made it clear 
students weren’t completely 
familiar 
with 
assembly 

initiatives, 
because 
many 

students expressed concerns 
about problems the body is 
already working to fix.

“It’s nice that we’re able to 

be a little more transparent 
with 
what 
things 
we’re 

doing, because it’s different 
to send out an email than to 
talk to students,” Shunnar 
said. “We’re getting a lot of 
kids.”

She said she hopes to host 

another event similar to 
Diag Day, perhaps in another 
location, in the future.

“I think we may have 

one on North Campus, so 
just to change the scenery, 
obviously just getting a lot of 
student impact is important,” 
she said.

DIAG
From Page 1A

Eagle Scout, he said he was 
curious about understanding his 
surroundings through his map-
making skills.

“I think it’s definitely the boy-

scout effect,” he said. “I did a lot 
with maps and compasses as a 
kid, so as part of that I’ve really 
always enjoyed looking at maps 
to understand what was going 
on.”

Hill and his collaborators use 

open-source data, information 
that is freely available to the 
public, to create their maps. 
They combine different aspects 
of raw data to create intricate 
visualizations 
of 
certain 

phenomena. 
Some 
examples 

include “Detroit’s Digital Divide,” 
“Liquor, Parks and Homicide,” 
and 
“Detroit 
Neighborhood 

Coffee Shop Density.”

“A 
lot 
of 
the 
ideas 
for 

maps come from community 
conversations where people will 
have questions about something, 
and I’ll make a map for it,” 
Hill said. “I follow a lot of the 
conversations in urban planning 
and public health within the 
city, so I look for how research 
and data from other cities can be 
applied to Detroit.”

LSA senior Kyle Monagle, 

one of the approximately 30 
students in attendance for Hill’s 
presentation, said he was there to 
satisfy a requirement for a class 

in the Department of American 
Culture.

“We’ve been talking a lot about 

gentrification 
and 
pertinent 

problems the city is dealing 
with,” 
Monagle 
said. 
“I’m 

planning on living and working 
in Detroit after graduation, so I 
want to learn more about the city, 
which is why this talk sounded 
really interesting to me.”

In his presentation, “Giving 

Data Empathy,” Hill discussed 
the different ways maps make 
sense of social, political and 
economic phenomena. He noted, 
however, that statistics without 
context aren’t going to motivate 
lawmakers, voters or residents to 
enact change.

Hill said he believes it is 

necessary to help consumers 
relate to data on a more personal 
level. Through Detroitography, 
he hopes to empower Detroiters 
by giving them the tools to 
understand and tell the story of 
their neighborhoods themselves.

He noted that as part of the 

project, he organizes mapping 
workshops 
in 
libraries 
and 

community 
centers 
to 
help 

Detroit residents improve their 
data literacy, saying he believes 
the repair and preservation of 
any city must be grounded in the 
people living there.

“I am always looking for ways 

to collaborate with other people 
in the area,” Hill said. “For me, 
this project made sense because it 
is a way to keep the conversations 
about change in the city going.”

MAPS
From Page 1A

