O

n Friday, Feb. 10, I saw a 
beautiful 
performance 

by the Budapest Festival 

Orchestra at Hill Auditorium. 
Before 
the 
show 

began, as I looked 
around at the sea of 
gray, elderly audience 
members surrounding 
me, 
I 
saw 
Mark 

Schlissel, 
president 

of the University of 
Michigan, sitting in the 
level below me.

On 
the 
previous 

night, I had attended 
a 
sit-in 
protest 
at 

the 
Michigan 
Union, 

organized by Students4Justice. 
As part of the protest, S4J wrote 
up a list of demands that it wants 
the administration to meet. The 
first demand reads as follows: 
“Acknowledge our humanity and 
address us-- Muslim, Jewish, 
Black, 
Arab, 
LGBTQ+, 
and 

other 
marginalized 
students 

on campus-- in person on 
Thursday, February 9, 2017 at 
the Michigan Union.”

Several administrators came 

and met with the organizers of the 
protest. But Schlissel never came. 
I was surprised that Schlissel did 
not attend this event, especially 
since the demands being made 
were very basic and fundamental: 
Recognize us, see us, treat us 
with the respect that human 
beings deserve.

And I’d like to deliberate 

here why Schlissel might not 
have attended the protest, a 
well-publicized 
event 
that 

attracted students, faculty and 
administrators alike. I saw a 
video of Schlissel confronting 
protesters, who were angry about 
the spate of racist and anti-Semitic 
emails, 
and 
the 
subsequent 

lack of a concrete, immediate 
administrative response, outside 
of his home the night before the 
sit-in at the Union. And in that 
confrontation, Schlissel said, “I 
feel helpless.”

So perhaps it is this helplessness 

that renders you silent, that 
kept you invisible on the night 
of a student protest and sitting 
in luxury seating at a classical 
musical concert on the very next 
night. Schlissel feels “helpless” 
to the demands being made by 
activist groups on campus.

President Schlissel, if I can 

address you here, you ought to 
know that you are not alone. Your 
students who make demands of 
you also feel helpless. And it is not 
actually an option for you to feel 
helpless and then to subsequently 
refuse to meet with the very 
students who are calling for 

change. That’s like me, as a young 
boy, crying because I’m hungry 
but then refusing to eat the food 
my parents give me. You cannot 

have it both ways. You 
cannot feel helpless 
and then refuse to 
engage your students, 
who know best what 
it means to live on 
this campus. They 
are the people who 
can help you feel 
less helpless. Their 
demand 
that 
you 

meet with them is 
an offer to help you 

feel less helpless, to 

help you take tangible actions 
to push our University forward.

Schlissel’s 
general 

unresponsiveness reminds me 
of something Angela Davis, 
the renowned revolutionary 
prison abolitionist and civil 
rights leader, once said. Davis 
was 
asked 
about 
violence 

within the Black nationalist 
movement. 
The 
reporter 

suggested that violence was the 
only way to achieve the goals 
stipulated by the movement. 
And Davis responded:

“When 
you 
talk 
about 
a 

revolution, most people think 
‘violence,’ without realizing that 
the real content of any kind of 
revolutionary thrust lies in the 
principles and the goals that 
you’re striving for, not in the way 
you reach them. On the other 
hand, because of the way this 
society’s organized, because of the 
violence that exists on the surface 
everywhere, you have to expect 
that there are going to be such 
explosions. You have to expect 
things like that as reactions. If 
you are a Black person and live 
in the Black community all your 
life, and walk out on the street 
every day seeing white policemen 
surrounding you. … And then 
you ask me, you know, whether I 
approve of violence, I mean that 
just doesn’t make any sense at all.”

In other words, Davis is saying 

one should not be surprised 
at violence perpetrated by the 
movement when violence has 
been perpetrated by the police 
and by the dominant white society 
against Black and brown societies 
for centuries in the United States. 
Violence is the norm. To only 
criticize it when it is perpetrated 
by Davis and her colleagues is 
racist and willfully ignorant.

And in this passage, too, 

Davis defines precisely the flaw 
in Schlissel’s refusal to respond 
to 
demands: 
Davis 
criticizes 

her interviewer for assuming 
violence comes only from the 

Black nationalists and not from 
the white supremacist United 
States 
government. 
Similarly, 

the idea that demands do not 
start a conversation presupposes 
that there are other options for 
these students to be taking up. It 
presupposes a sort of absolute 
innocence on the part of the 
administration, as if it has done 
nothing to perpetrate the need 
for demands.

Of 
course, 
these 
students 

understand that a demand is 
different from a request, from 
setting up a meeting with the 
president like other students — 
those students, for example, who 
do not feel as if their lives are 
threatened and their humanity 
silenced — might do. These 
students know what a demand is 
and their lived experience informs 
why demands are necessary.

Schlissel’s logic, then, does 

not even attempt to understand 
why demands must be made, 
why his students feel as if his 
administration does not recognize 
their humanity. Instead, you shy 
away from the demands, as if 
they aren’t necessary. As if these 
students ought to feel, of course, 
that a normal, egalitarian, calm 
conversation can happen.

So 
I 
ask 
you, 
President 

Schlissel, what reason has your 
office given these students to 
feel that way? What tangible, 
in-person, 
immediate 
action 

have you taken to defend these 
students? For example, you have 
not addressed police brutality 
in this country and you have not 
addressed that this might affect 
the experience and the perceived 
safety of marginalized students 
on this campus. You have not 
made your solidarity with these 
marginalized students publicly 
known; so, in turn, when activists 
literally came to your doorstep 
just to get you to make some 
public statement, to force you 
hand, you responded with a 
pathetic, hapless declaration of 
your own helplessness. 

And then, on the next night, 

when 
students, 
faculty 
and 

administrators protested at the 
Union, you were nowhere to be 
seen. What kind of a leader — 
specifically as someone who has 
repeatedly declared yourself to be 
a relentless advocate for diversity, 
equity and inclusion — disappears 
as your students march, sit and 
advocate their humanity? 

Please listen to your students. 

That is all.

N

atasha Bedingfield’s song 
“Pocketful of Sunshine” 
has unfailingly gotten 

me 
through 
many 

stressful situations I 
have experienced in 
my 18 years of living. 
Whether I was having 
a tough day at school, 
didn’t want to go 
to work or was in a 
fight with a friend, its 
melody always put me 
in a better mood that 
would keep me from 
exploding inside.

Recently, 
I’ve 

found that I haven’t had the same 
opportunities I once did to dance 
around and belt Bedingfield’s 
liberating words “take me away.” 
It is hard to find time to be alone, 
totally and completely in solitude, 
when 
living 
with 
400-plus 

freshman students in a college 
dorm. I was forced to welcome 
a new home that is incredibly 
different from my old home 42 
miles away.

Going into college, I thought 

I was prepared for it all. I knew 
the campus, the students and the 
culture. I was ready to come to 
school and get away from my life 
at home. I have found that one 
of the biggest challenges no one 
explicitly prepares you for is living 
in the dorms. College was my first 
time living away from home, and I 
had no idea all it would entail.

At 
college, 
the 
ability 
to 

separate school from home life 
gets increasingly difficult, and I 
find myself constantly thinking 
about classwork. I go home to 
people I go to school with and 
wake up next to them just to do it 
all again. Constantly living around 
people who can observe and hear 
my every move leaves little time 
for me to truly be myself, as I am 
constantly conscious of my actions 
and how they will resonate with 
the people who live in such close 
proximity to me.

No longer do I have time to 

come home, sit on the couch 

and watch TV. I am constantly 
moving and thinking about what 
assignment to do next. I pack my 

bag in the morning, 
knowing I won’t return 
until late at night. Then 
by 2 p.m., when all I 
want to do is watch an 
episode of “Friends” 
and relax, I am still 
sitting uncomfortably 
at the coffee shop table 
where I have been 
cemented for the last 
four hours. No longer 
can I shower alone in 
the bathroom, and I 

have to leave my “house” to get 
lunch. 

The transition from home life 

to dorm life can be a struggle that 
many students think they’ll know 
how to handle before coming to 
college, but it is hard to anticipate 
all the changes living in a dorm 
will bring. This struggle that 
many freshmen face is something 
that is not always recognized but 
is nonetheless valid.

I am struggling to find time 

to be in solitude. It is hard to 
always go home to someone in 
the room or someone down the 
hall. For me, being comfortable 
in any space is something that I 
value wholeheartedly. I long for 
moments when I can belt show 
tunes without any thought that I 
am disrupting others.

The experiences that I have had 

with communal living have taught 
me to truly never be embarrassed 
for who I am and what I am 
interested in. And, no, I still can’t 
bring myself to sing in the shower 
when I know other people are in 
there, but I commend the people 
who do. I am proud of the girl 
who showers to Beethoven, and 
definitely could learn a few things 
from her.

I have said it before and I will 

say it again: College is a growing 
experience. Having the ability to 
adapt to certain situations in this 
first transitional year is really 
something to be proud of yourself 

for. It is hard to move to a place 
you are unfamiliar with and have 
to find new outlets for expressing 
yourself because the resources are 
vastly different here.

Next year, I will have my own 

room, in an apartment with 
friends I know and love, and will 
be comfortable belting Natasha 
Bedingfield, even if they don’t 
appreciate it. The difference is 
that when you are surrounded 
by people whom you are familiar 
with, you are more comfortable in 
expressing who you are, no matter 
who that may be. The challenge of 
sharing a space with individuals 
you don’t know or share interests 
or backgrounds with is tough. It’s 
during these moments when I stop 
myself from singing Bedingfield’s 
catchy tunes and hum the lyrics 
quietly so only I can hear that I 
realize this struggle.

Living in a dorm presents 

freshmen 
with 
a 
unique 

opportunity to constantly be 
surrounded by their classmates. 
This 
often 
underestimated 

transition has presented me with 
lots of challenges that I thought 
I was prepared for. The struggle 
of moving away from home is 
often brushed off by the fact 
that students come to college to 
further their schooling. There is 
no way to be successful if we are 
not first comfortable in their living 
situation, which I have found 
to be the hardest adjustment. I 
think we should cherish these 
moments where we are constantly 
surrounded 
by 
others, 
and 

immerse ourselves in situations 
where we feel most comfortable. 
Finding the environment where I 
truly feel at “home” is going to take 
time, which is something I have 
had to recognize and embrace. 
And I hope that future Wolverines 
and current students know that 
this adjustment is normal and you 
are not alone in this struggle.

Opinion
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
4A — Wednesday, February 22, 2017

REBECCA LERNER

Managing Editor

420 Maynard St. 

Ann Arbor, MI 48109

 tothedaily@michigandaily.com

Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan since 1890.

EMMA KINERY

Editor in Chief

ANNA POLUMBO-LEVY 

and REBECCA TARNOPOL 

Editorial Page Editors

Unsigned editorials reflect the official position of the Daily’s Editorial Board. 

All other signed articles and illustrations represent solely the views of their authors.

Carolyn Ayaub
Megan Burns

Samantha Goldstein

Caitlin Heenan
Jeremy Kaplan

Max Lubell

Alexis Megdanoff
Madeline Nowicki
Anna Polumbo-Levy 

Jason Rowland

Ali Safawi

Kevin Sweitzer

Rebecca Tarnopol

Ashley Tjhung

Stephanie Trierweiler

EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS

Finding home away from home

MICHELLE PHILLIPS | COLUMN

Listen to your students

ISAIAH ZEAVIN-MOSS | COLUMN

Isaiah Zeavin-Moss can be reached 

at izeavinm@umich.edu.

Michelle Phillips can be reached at 

mphi@umich.edu.

ISAIAH 

ZEAVIN-MOSS

S

tudent health and safety is, 
without a doubt, one of the 
most pressing issues for 

students across the country. Rates 
of sexual assault and depression 
remain high: One in five women 
and one in 16 men are sexually 
assaulted during their college 
years, while one in four college 
students 
suffers 
from 
some 

type of mental illness. These 
are concerns that must be on 
all of our radars, regardless of 
the nature of our connection to 
these issues. Simply put, when 
anyone is struggling or is made 
to feel unsafe, that must matter 
to all of us. Our lives are woven 
together, and thus we must not 
be apathetic when a classmate 
or peer of ours suffers.

When we ran for Central 

Student Government president 
and vice president last winter 
semester, 
we 
promised 
to 

work our hardest to utilize the 
organization as a vehicle to 
advance a safer, more inclusive 
campus. More than 10 months 
later, with little more than one 
month remaining in our term, 
we are proud to report on the 
great progress that CSG has 
made in the area of student 
health and safety.

At 
the 
beginning 
of 
the 

year, in partnership with the 
Interfraternity 
Council 
and 

LSA Student Government, we 
established hydration stations in 
high-risk areas on the first five 
football Saturdays of the year. 
Additionally, on Sept. 17, 2016, as 
Michigan played Colorado at 3:30 
p.m., we hosted an alcohol-free 
tailgate, serving 1,500 students 
water and pizza throughout the 
afternoon. One goal of ours with 
this event was to provide students 
who might be unable to drink, 
or uninterested in drinking, 
before a football game with an 

alternative option to have fun. 
We also wanted to ensure that 
those who had been drinking had 
the opportunity to eat and stay 
hydrated throughout the day.

During our administration, we 

have likewise worked to advance 
student mental health, an issue 
that has received an increasing 
amount of attention over the 
past few years. In late October, 
we commissioned the first-ever 
CSG Mental Health Climate and 
Resources Task Force which is 
composed of nearly 20 student 
leaders 
from 
mental-health-

focused 
organizations 
across 

campus. The task force’s central 
goal is to draft and present to us 
a set of policy recommendations 
that will help to destigmatize 
mental illness, better the climate in 
classrooms and expand resources 
for both faculty and students. 
The task force will release its 
report shortly after Spring Break 
and we will work with the task 
force’s leaders and the University 
of Michigan administration over 
the next weeks and months to 
implement these suggestions.

To 
aid 
sexual 
violence 

prevention and awareness, we 
empowered University students 
to receive bystander intervention 
training about sexual violence and 
alcohol and other drug misuse. 
At the end of last semester, we 
launched a highly successful pilot 
funding policy that requires any 
student organization seeking to 
claim more than $1,000 from 
CSG’s 
Student 
Organization 

Funding Commission to send 
at least two authorized signers 
to one SAPAC- and Wolverine 
Wellness-led 
bystander 

intervention training. More than 
215 student leaders from 100-
plus student organizations have 
already completed the training. 
Going forward, we must ensure 

that students are receiving this 
education not just during their 
first few weeks on campus, but 
throughout their college career. 
We believe that this policy is a step 
in that direction.

This year, we’ve also committed 

CSG to addressing sexual assault 
prevention at the K-12 level. On 
Feb. 22, alongside students from 
Michigan State University, CSG 
is coordinating an advocacy day, 
the purpose of which is to meet 
with Michigan state officials to 
advocate for the implementation 
of a sexual education curriculum 
that 
encompasses 
sexual 

harassment and assault in public 
schools. We believe that a stronger 
K-12 sexual education curriculum 
is one way in which we can help 
reduce these high rates of sexual 
misconduct on college campuses.

Overall, we are both proud of 

the strides that our administration 
has made in the area of student 
health and safety and cognizant 
that much work still needs to 
be done. It will be up to future 
CSG administrations to lead the 
unending fight against alcohol and 
other drug misuse, the stigma 
around mental illness and the 
high rates of sexual assault. It is 
our hope that they will expand 
the bystander intervention policy 
that we set in motion, work 
to implement the task force’s 
recommendations and expand 
the scope of CSG’s state-level 
advocacy about K-12 consent-
based education, among other 
important initiatives. The work to 
holistically elevate student health 
and safety, of course, also falls to 
the individual student, who must 
continue to lead by example and 
forever exercise safe behavior.

Prioritizing student health and safety

DAVID SCHAFER AND MICAH GRIGGS | OP-ED

David Schafer and Micah Griggs are 

LSA seniors.

— Rebecca Solnit, author, historian and activist, speaking at 
Rackham Auditorium in her “Hope and Emergency” lecture.

“

NOTABLE QUOTABLE

Hope, for me, has meant a sense that 

the future is not yet written, and 
that we don’t actually know what 
will happen, but we may be able to 

write it ourselves. ”

MICHELLE
PHILLIPS

SUBMIT TO SURVIVORS SPEAK

The Michigan Daily’s Opinion section is seeking additions to Survivors 

Speak, a series of first-person accounts of campus sexual assault 
and its corresponding personal, academic and legal implications. 

Submissions will be due by March 10 at 11:59PM. 
Visit http://bit.ly/2kIeoMq for more information.

