Around 50 people gathered 

in the Vandenberg Room of the 
Michigan League on Thursday 
for 
the 
Communication 

Studies Department’s annual 
Howard R. Marsh Lecture 
in 
Journalism, 
delivered 

this year by investigative 
journalist Will Potter.

Potter’s talk, titled “From 

Protester 
to 
Terrorist: 

The Mechanisms of State 
Repression,” highlighted his 
own career as a journalist 
and the ways he discovered 
the United States government 
systematically 
discredits 

activist movements in order 
to protect corporate interests.

He said he became obsessed 

with investigating the FBI’s 
tactics after he was arrested 
for hanging leaflets against 
animal testing on doors. The 
FBI then offered him career 
help in exchange for becoming 
an informant.

“Two FBI agents came to 

my home, and they knew all 
about where I worked, and 
how my dad had to cosign 
for our apartment at the time 
because I didn’t have enough 
money, and I had a Fulbright 
(scholarship) 
pending, 
and 

my girlfriend at the time had 
some Ph.D. funding, and they 
said they could make all this 
go away, unless I helped them 
by spying on protest groups,” 
he said. “And they made a 

point of emphasizing you 
know, you have this upward 
career trajectory, you’re doing 
everything right, just make it 
all easier on yourself, or you’re 
going to be put on a domestic 
terrorist list. It scared the 
daylights out of me.”

The majority of Potter’s 

talk was spent breaking down 
his “10 easy steps to turn 
protesters 
into 
terrorists”: 

using the power of language, 

waging 
media 
campaigns, 

holding government hearings, 
dividing, 
conducting 

surveillance, advocating for 
disproportionate 
sentences, 

creating informants, passing 
laws against dissent, creating 
special prisons and expanding 
to the mainstream.

Many 
of 
the 
laws 

criminalizing dissent, Potter 
pointed 
out, 
were 
passed 

without the knowledge of 

many 
people, 
including 

lawmakers. 
To 
pass 
the 

Animal Enterprise Terrorism 
Act, which makes causing a 
loss of profits to an animal 
enterprise an act of terrorism, 
Congress used an obscure 
procedure called “suspension 
of the rules” to get the bill 
through with the minimum 
oversight possible.

“This is how a lot of bills 

Economic 
Prof. 
Edward 

Cho was teaching his Econ 
102 
class, 
macroeconomics, 

Thursday afternoon when a 
student raised his hand to ask 
a question. When called on by 
Cho, the student asked: “Do 
you like apples?” 

Cho appeared confused and 

the student reiterated, “What 
about a golden apple?” The 
doors at the back of the lecture 
hall then opened to reveal the 
other members of the Golden 
Apple committee, the graduate 
student instructors for the 
class and other members of 
the Economics department, all 
holding balloons and flowers.

This was how Cho was 

awarded the Golden Apple 
Award. 
After 
the 
award 

selection committee received 
a 
record-breaking 
1,136 

nominations this year, the 
committee members were very 
excited to present this award 
to Cho. 

Cho appeared overwhelmed 

with emotion when he realized 
that he would be the recipient 

michigandaily.com
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Friday, March 10, 2017

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Call 734-418-4115 or e-mail 
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INDEX
Vol. CXXVII, No. 42
©2017 The Michigan Daily

N E WS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

O PI N I O N . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

A R T S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

S U D O K U . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

CL A S S I F I E DS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

S P O R T S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

See AWARD, Page 3

Econ prof.
gets a taste 
of Golden
Apple 

ACADEMICS

Dr. Edward Cho given 
student-nominated award 
in Economics 102 lecture

MOLLY NORRIS
Daily Staff Reporter

JEREMY MITNICK/Daily

Investigative journalist Will Potter gives a lecture entitled “From Protestor to Terrorist - The Mechanisms of State 
Repression” in the Michigan League on Thursday. 

University professor lectures about 
repression of investigative reporting

50 gather at Michigan League to hear visiting prof. and journalist, Will Potter

ANDREW HIYAMA

Daily Staff Reporter

michigandaily.com

For more stories and coverage, visit

See POTTER, Page 3

The Michigan Legislature is 

currently addressing expansions 
and limitations to the Freedom 
of Information Act in Michigan 
through two bills: Senate Bill 
0069 and House Bill 4149.

FOIA, a federal law that took 

effect in 1967, allows individuals 
in Michigan to submit requests 
to access public information. 
Michigan has ranked poorly in 
issues of transparency, in part 
because of weak or absent state 
laws about public records and 
disclosures.

HB 
4149 
would 
expand 

FOIA requests to include the 
governor’s office and the state 
legislature. The Committee on 
Michigan Competitiveness is 
currently evaluating the bill in 
the House of Representatives.

In a phone interview, state 

Rep. 
Yousef 
Rabhi 
(D–Ann 

Arbor) said he believes the 
legislation is a priority and feels 
encouraged to see bipartisan 
support on the issue.

“We live in one of the 

worst states when it comes to 
transparency in government, we 

See FOIA, Page 3

Legislature
takes on 
new FOIA 
expansions

GOVERNMENT

Michigan ranks among 
last in state Freedom of 
Information Act laws

CALEB CHADWELL

Daily Staff Reporter

One former University of 

Michigan faculty member and 
one current University faculty 
member are joining together 
to bring a lawsuit against the 
University under the Michigan 
Elliott-Larsen 
Civil 
Rights 

Act, making claims of racial 
discrimination and harassment. 

The 
Elliott-Larsen 
Civil 

Rights Act, passed in 1976, 
prohibits discrimination based 
on “religion, race, color, national 
origin, age, sex, height, weight, 
familial 
status, 
or 
marital 

status,” in employment and 
education, among other areas.

The 
plaintiffs 
— 
Scott 

Kurashige, 
an 
assistant 

professor in the History and 
American Culture Departments 
from 2000 to 2014, and Emily 
Lawsin, 
a 
lecturer 
in 
the 

Women’s Studies and American 
Culture 
Departments 
since 

2000 –– are seeking over 
$25,000 in damages in the form 
of lost salaries and emotional 

harm. Kurashige and Lawsin 
have been married since they 
began teaching at the University 
in 
2000, 
and 
are 
being 

represented by attorney Alice 
Jennings and Carl Edwards of 
the Detroit law firm Edwards & 
Jennings, PC. 

According to Jennings, the 

University violated the Elliott-
Larsen Act in multiple ways, 
including discrimination based 
on the plaintiffs’ marriage.

“The 
primary 
issue 
is 

disparate treatment,” Jennings 
said. “They have been treated 
differently than others who 
are 
not 
similarly 
situated 

for racial reasons. Secondly, 
there’s an issue of hostile 
work 
environment, 
meaning 

that individual is made to feel 
different in a way that is painful 
both intellectually as well as 
emotionally.”

The 
lawsuit 
claims 
both 

Kurashige and Lawsin were 
consistently passed over for 
promotions and raises, despite 
each receiving high acclaim in 
their respective fields. 
 

 

Current and 
former profs
file lawsuit 
against ‘U’

Students4Justice demands center 
dedicated to minorities, justice

See LAWSUIT, Page 3

Students4Justice
Center

Baker-Mandela
Center

provides a 
space for 
activists to 
work

created 
alternative 
anti-racist 
curriculums 

facilitated 
dialogue on 
campus about 
social issues

provided space 
for students to 
plan anti-racist 
events

organizes 
social justice 
literature for 
activists

archives past 
University 
activism work 
physically and 
online

DESIGN BY AVA WEINER

ADMINISTRATION

Scott Kurashige and Emily Lawsin sue 
under the Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act

ANDREW HIYAMA

Daily Staff Reporter

S4J wants activism space separate from Trotter, similar to former Baker-Mandela Center

In response to the racist and anti-

semitic email hackings last month, 
the University of Michigan student 
organization 
Students4Justice 

published a public list of demands for 
University President Mark Schlissel, 
one of which was the creation of 
a physical space for students of 
color on campus to organize and 
enact social change. The request 
has since gained traction. S4J Core 
Organizer Lakyrra Magee, LSA 

junior, has confirmed the group has 
found a temporary space for student 
activists to work, but has no official 
funding or physical center as of yet.

In its demands, S4J said the new 

activism center should be separate 
from the Trotter Multicultural 
Center and should be specifically 
for students of color — allowing 
students 
access, 
with 
special 

recognition toward minorities. 

Magee said S4J wants the 

center’s budget to include a library 
for social movement literature for 
activists. She also said the use of 
the library as an archive for the 

University’s activism history is 
crucial to the group’s plan.

“We also want archived past 

University work, so we want it to 
have access to previous movements 
from students, both online and 
in paper and news articles and 
things like that, that documents 
all of the activism that’s happened 
throughout 
the 
years 
at 
the 

University of Michigan,” she said. 
“We also just want it to be a space 
for students to get together in order 
to better prepare themselves to do 
said work.”

S4J Core Organizer Vikrant 

Garg, a Public Health student, 
said a new activism center would 
spark more social innovation on 
campus. He cited institutions such 
as the Sexual Assault Prevention 
and Awareness Center, minority 
cultural lounges and others as ideas 
that have been created by students.

“If you think about it ideologically, 

what a student activist center would 
be would be a center that really 
fosters a lot of what has made this 
University better over time,” Garg 
said. “There are so many things that 
have been created at this University 

MATT HARMON
Daily Staff Reporter

See CENTER, Page 3

