3-News

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News
Monday, January 30, 2017 — 3A

outside the terminal a stream 
of people spontaneously joined 
from cars driving by and some 
travelers even delayed their 
flights to participate. The crowd 
then packed the entire arrivals 
area inside the terminal for 
a rally led by elected officials 
and 
local 
activists. 
Rep. 

Debbie Dingell (D–Mich.) told 
protesters their activism — in 
addition to legal action — was a 
key component in overturning 
Trump’s ban.

“We are trying to introduce 

legislation that will overturn 
the executive order,” she said 
to cheers from the crowd. 
“This is not about Republican 
or Democrat, we are here as 
Americans. There is no one 
who doesn’t care about national 
security … but we are standing 
for 
fundamental 
rights 
in 

the Constitution: freedom of 
religion, freedom of speech.”

Residents 
of 
cities 
with 

high concentrations of Muslim 
immigrants, like Dearborn and 
Hamtramck, 
also 
protested 

Sunday 
afternoon. 
Michigan 

hosts 
the 
second-highest 

population of Syrian refugees 
in the country, but resettlement 
programs across the state may 
be forced to close in light of the 
ban.

LSA freshman Ayah Kutmah, 

a 
first-generation 
Syrian 

American, 
said 
the 
protest 

allayed much of the anxiety she 
felt after the executive order, 
despite her relatives’ inability to 
join her in the United States.

“My family is devastated, 

but I don’t like to think of (the 
ban) as indefinite,” she said. 
“I have so much hope today, 

and I honestly think the more 
we show support like this for 
refugees 
and 
immigrants, 

the more representatives will 
listen.”

Elected officials attending 

the event included Dingell, Rep. 
Brenda Lawrence (D–Mich.), 
and Michigan Reps. Abdullah 
Hammoud 
(D–Dearborn), 

Yousef Rabhi (D–Ann Arbor) 
and Jim Ellison (D–Royal Oak). 
Rabhi condemned Trump and 
called for more representatives 
to fight for the protection of 
vulnerable citizens.

“This is fighting for the 

America we all love and fighting 
against 
an 
oppressive 
man 

who is now the president of the 
United States and pushing a neo-
fascist agenda,” he said. “My role 
is standing up every day for the 
refugees seeking safety in our 
country, for everyone who wants 
to make America home.” 

Waving to a line of cars 

honking 
on 
the 
airport 

concourse, state Rep. Rashida 
Tlaib 
(D–Detroit) 
paused 

chanting 
to 
criticize 
the 

“hypocrisy” of the ban.

“My family fled their homes 

overseas because of these kinds 
of policies, and now they’ll have 
to fight them here,” she said. 
“Here, now, though, I’m proud 
to be an American today.” 

Both University of Michigan 

President Mark Schlissel and 
Ann Arbor Mayor Christopher 
Taylor 
released 
statements 

this 
weekend 
promising 
to 

protect 
international 
and 

undocumented 
community 

members. Schlissel’s refusal to 
release information on students’ 
immigration statuses was one 
of a handful of statements 
from universities and colleges 
over the weekend affirming a 
commitment to international 
students. Taylor, too, stood in 

solidarity with immigrants and 
refugees, even accusing Trump 
and his supporters of having 
“polluted” the country’s honor.

Nursing senior Matt White 

applauded 
the 
University’s 

statement at the protest and 
pushed for even more action.

“I was very proud to see our 

University stand up on this 
issue,” he said. “But we need to 
work to protect all immigrants 
— students, faculty and staff — 
not just students.”

History 
Prof. 
Heather 

Thompson agreed, citing the 
protest’s place in a history of 
resistance 
against 
policies 

limiting 
immigrants’ 
rights. 

Amid chants of “no Trump, 
no KKK, no fascist USA,” 
Thompson warned of history 
repeating itself.

“The 
American 
people 

who 
care 
about 
refugees, 

immigrants, 
democracy 
and 

freedom are not going to put up 
with this and they never did,” 
she said. “They didn’t in the ’20s, 
they didn’t in the ’30s, not in the 
’50s and they’re not going to do it 
now. I remind Americans we’ve 
been here before, and fascism 
happens slowly when we don’t 
stand up.” 

Protest organizers connected 

Sunday’s action to a slew of other 
issues — most notably Trump’s 
order of a wall on the Mexican 
border — and assured larger and 
more coordinated campaigns 
were 
on 
the 
way. 
MMCC 

organizer 
Fatima 
Salman 

pointed 
to 
the 
immediate 

response the protest garnered 
from community members.

“Every community has joined 

along in the last day and we as a 
Metro Detroit community are 
a strong and unified front,” she 
said. “Refugees are welcome here, 
and they’ve always been welcome 
here and they always will be.” 

PROTEST
From Page 1A

Center. The project will be led by 
Jun Li, an associate computational 
medicine 
and 
bioinformatics 

professor, and Anna Gilbert, a 
mathematics professor.

The third project, the Intern 

Health Study, headed by Srijan 
Sen, a psychiatry professor, will be 
using data collected from mobile 
applications from over 1,000 
medical interns to determine the 
relationships between circadian 
rhythms, mood and sleep, as 
well as how they might lead to 
depression.

Sen 
explained 

the goal of the project is to find 
patterns that lead to depression so 
measures can be taken to identify 
at-risk individuals and provide 
treatment.

“Largely, the goal of the 

study is to capture data about 
people’s sleep, activity, their 
cardiac function and where 
they’re going, so we can predict 
before people really descend 
into the depths of depression 
that people are at risk in the 
first part,” Sen said. “The second 
part is to come up with some 
kinds of intervention to prevent 
depression.”

Alfred 
Hero, 
a 
professor 

of electrical engineering and 

computer 
science 
and 
the 

co-director of Michigan Institute 
for 
Data 
Science, 
explained 

the efficiency of the groups in 
analyzing big data stems from 
the fact that they are composed 
of so many different disciplines.

“All of the projects funded 

by MIDAS are funded in a very 
multidisciplinary manner and 
that’s where you can make 
progress on these problems, 
because it’s not just looking at 
biological processes and how 
to sample cells and how to do 
sequencing,” Hero said. “It’s 
really how do you analyze that 
data to be able to segment the 
population into these classes 
of susceptibility.”

RESEARCH
From Page 1A

The riots are viewed by 

many Malaysians as a dark 
spot in the country’s history. A 
racial divide between Chinese 
and Malays developed, which 
was intensified by the 1969 
Malaysian 
general 
election. 

After the election, many angered 
Malaysians attacked members of 
the Chinese-dominated majority 
party, as well as many civilians. 
The casualties of the riots were 

predominantly Chinese.

Singh, 
the 
director 
of 

Malaysian 
Cultural 
Night, 

echoed Radzi’s statements and 
said he felt some Malaysian 
people in his community felt 
uncomfortable with his choice 
of topic.

“Even when I was writing 

this play, I felt some resistance 
from some fellow Malaysians 
that did not want me to go 
through with this because they 
thought there were so many 
other aspects of Malaysian 
history I could talk about,” 
Singh said. 

Singh said he chose to write a 

play about the racial riots because 
he felt they were important to 
discuss and remember. When 
writing the play, he wanted to 
depict how Malaysia is truly 
an 
integration 
of 
different 

cultures. Singh’s play featured 
a traditional Malaysian dance, 
as well as a Chinese Umbrella 
Dance and Bhangra, a traditional 
dance 
originating 
from 

India, to represent Malaysia’s 
multicultural society.

MALAYSIA
From Page 1A

who later decided whether or 
not they wanted to advise and 
nurture the startup into a full-
fledged company. The Startup 
Competition 
advertised 
its 

event as being similar to the 
reality television show “The 
Voice,” as the panel of four 
judges began facing away from 
the contestants and turned 
around only when they wanted 
to add a contestant to their 
coterie of startups.

Sonali Vijayavargiya was one 

of the judges at the event as the 
founder and managing director 
of Augment Ventures, a firm 
that 
invests 
in 
technology 

and software companies. She 
said the Startup Competition 
provides not only a chance for 
industry leaders to identify 
budding 
companies, 
but 
to 

serve in mentorship roles.

“We 
are 
taking 
the 

investment 
background 
that 

we have and bringing it to the 
students so that they can build 
new businesses,” Vijayavargiya 
said. “I am really looking for 
opportunity as you know when 
I look at the new enterprises, I 
really like to see what kind of a 
problem they’re solving, what 
kind of a need they’re meeting 

and what it takes, what kind of 
technology and people, it takes 
to get to that point.”

Vijayavargiya was the first 

judge to turn around following 
the pitch and partner with a 
startup by the name of Cheruvu, 
which 
advertises 
itself 
as 

“Big Data for Small Farmers.” 
The team is made up of three 
graduate students who aim to 
build resilient and sustainable 
villages 
by 
employing 
data 

science to improve the decisions 
of small farmers.

ForzaMetrix was the first 

startup that had two judges 
turn around and vie for its 
stewardship. 
ForzaMetrix, 

whose three team members 
have experience in business, 
engineering and law, pitched 
itself 
as 
a 
company 
that 

can 
help 
optimize 
athletic 

performance through the use of 
workout tracking sensors and 
analytics. Both Scott Taylor, of 
the Michigan Small Business 
Development 
Council, 
and 

Jake Cohen, of Detroit Venture 
Partners, attempted to compel 
ForzaMetrix to enlist their 
mentorship. 

Taylor sold his company by 

highlighting how he feels he 
can help ForzaMetrix build 
a customer base, but Cohen 
rebutted by extolling his firm’s 
connections 
to 
professional 

sports teams and entertainment 

companies.

“(Detroit Venture Partners) 

has a lot of connections in the 
sports and entertainment world, 
as I work for Dan Gilbert, who 
owns the Cleveland Cavaliers,” 
Cohen said. “I would love to 
work with you.”

ForzaMetrix ultimately sided 

with Cohen.

One of the companies that 

elicited a quick turn of the chair 
was Find Your Ditto, an online 
service that aims to connect 
peoples who live with chronic 
illnesses and build support 
networks among its members.

Parisa Soraya, a master’s 

student of health informatics, 
said seeing Cohen turn around 
in his chair and select her as 
someone he wanted to mentor 
was an exciting experience.

“It was very relieving to 

be selected because you only 
have a minute and we had to 
figure out how to best present 
the venture quickly and to get 
someone interested,” Soraya 
said. “It was really nice, as 
Jake was our top choice and it 
worked out.”

Five more startups were 

chosen by the panelists, with 
the 
seven 
teams, 
such 
as 

Pakochi, Air Mail and FUNL, 
being left behind and unable to 
advance to the next round. The 
second round of the Startup 
Competition will be on Feb. 10.

STARTUPS
From Page 1A

Michigan has one of the 

highest numbers of refugees in 
the country, with over 2,000 
Syrian refugees and 8,015 refugees 
in total. Ann Arbor is often 
considered a “sanctuary city,” 
meaning the city’s police can 
only enforce immigration laws in 
criminal circumstances.

“Ann 
Arbor 
affirms 
the 

principles and hard fought rights 
enshrined in our Constitution,” 
Taylor wrote. “Among these rights 
are freedom of movement and the 
right to be free from unreasonable 
search and seizure. We will protect 
and honor these rights. We will 
not stop the innocent and demand 
to see their papers. We will 
confront the criminal and protect 
the innocent, without regard to 
citizenship 
or 
documentation. 

Count on it.”

The University of Michigan 

community has also been vocal 
in its opposition of the executive 
order. While President Schlissel 
wrote on Saturday that the 
University would not release the 
immigration status information 

of its students, a national petition 
gained traction among staff and 
faculty.

Titled 
“Academics 
Against 

Immigration Executive Order,” 
the petition is a platform for 
academics from across the country 
to denounce the order on the 
grounds that it is discriminatory, 
places an undue burden on those 
affected and hinders academic 
progress in the nation.

“The 
(Executive 
Order) 

significantly damages American 
leadership in higher education 
and research … From Iran alone, 
more than 3000 students have 
received PhDs from American 
universities in the past 3 years,” 
a clause of the petition reads. 
“The 
proposed 
EO 
limits 

collaborations with researchers 
from these nations by restricting 
entry of these researchers to 
the US and can potentially lead 
to departure of many talented 
individuals who are current 
and 
future 
researchers 
and 

entrepreneurs in the US. We 
strongly believe the immediate 
and long term consequences of 
this EO do not serve our national 
interests.”

Over 4,000 professors and 

academics 
had 
signed 
their 

names to the petition by Sunday 
morning, and over 60 of those 
names come from University 
professors and graduate students.

History Prof. John Carson said 

he found out about the petition 
earlier this weekend and signed 
it immediately. He told the Daily 
he felt the executive order was an 
attack on not only his personal 
values and those that the nation 
was built upon, but also to 
universities worldwide.

“It 
will 
have 
effects 
on 

the 
international 
scope 
of 

universities,” Carson said. “You 
can imagine this closing of 
the movement of people, and 
eventually the movement of ideas 
in the end.”

Carson’s fear of what this new 

immigration policy might bring 
is echoed in the final lines of the 
petition. 

“The 
unethical 
and 

discriminatory 
treatment 
of 

law-abiding, hard-working and 
well-integrated 
immigrants 

fundamentally 
contravenes 

the founding principles of the 
United States,” the petition 
reads. “We strongly denounce 
this ban and urge the President 
to reconsider going forward 
with this Executive Order.”

REACTIONS
From Page 1A

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