The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News
Monday, March 27, 2017 — 3A

and Tobago, and she believes
immigration is a topic that
affects all Americans.

“Unless
you’re
Native

American, you’re an immigrant
or a descendant of immigrants,”
she said.

U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell (D–

Mich.) was in attendance and
thanked the spirited marchers
for uniting to fight for the
rights of all Americans, urging
them to not be divided by hate
and fear.

“We’re in the rain and cold

because
we’re
protecting

the
constitution,”
Dingell

exclaimed
to
the
cheering

crowd.

Dingell promised to advocate

for immigrant rights when she
returned to Washington, D.C.

LSA freshman Lin Wang came

to lend his support because he
felt it was important for him to
stand up for immigrant rights.

“I’m the son of immigrants

so I feel like we should stand
and
support
them,”
Wang

said. “With everything that’s
going on in politics, it’s not
representative of what America
stands for.”

The
crowd
consisted
of

UM students, professors, Ann
Arbor residents and students
from as far as Albion. Among
them was six-year-old Allegra

Graf, daughter of Art & Design
professor Roland Graf. Her
father is of Austrian heritage,
and her mother, who is from
Brazil, gave birth to Allegra in
Vienna. Andréia Graf explained
she brought Allegra and her
other daughter, Vida, who is
three years old, to the march
to help the girls understand the
issues the country is facing.

When asked why she joined

the march, Allegra — holding up
a homemade sign that read “Not
nice Mr. Trump” — said, “Because
Donald Trump is not letting all
the people from different lands
live here.”

Bystanders stopped to watch

the
procession
march
down

Liberty Street before turning
onto State Street to get to the
Diag, some even joining in with
the protesters’ chants: “No hate,
no fear, immigrants are welcome
here” and “No cooperation with
Trump’s deportation.”

Before and after the march,

speakers shared their stories with
the marchers. Volunteers from
Stop Trump Ann Arbor spoke
as well, discussing their efforts
to help victims of detentions
and deportation. Art & Design
senior Keysha Wall spoke on
the importance of action in the
current political climate.

“We’ve won the freedom for

Yousef, who’s a father of four
in Ann Arbor who was being
held in Kalamazoo,” they said.
“We’re also working to get bond

for another Ann Arbor resident.
We are saying no cooperation
with ICE whatsoever. Ann Arbor
needs to become a sanctuary city
and U of M needs to become a
sanctuary campus.”

Signs
that
read
“families

have no borders” and “without
immigrants,
Trump
couldn’t

have as many wives” were on
display, including one that read,
“immigrants
make
America

great” held by a man wearing
a
black-and-white
prisoner

jumpsuit and sporting a papier-
mâché mask of Trump’s head
with a grumpy expression.

Other students, however, have

met Trump’s ban with mixed
reactions. Engineering freshman
Lincoln Merrill, publicity chair
of the University of Michigan’s
chapter of College Republicans,
told the Daily in a January
interview that while many people
have labeled the order a ban on
Muslims, the title ignores many
Muslim countries that were not
affected.

“To
be
clear,
President

Trump’s
immigration
order

is not a ‘Muslim ban,’ nor is it
a ban on anyone or anything,”
Merrill said. “If the people
calling this order a ‘Muslim
ban’ were correct, that would
imply that immigration from
around
50
Muslim-majority

countries would be terminated
and that a religious test would
be implemented to enter the
country.”

MARCH
From Page 1A

superintendent of the U.S. Naval
Academy, leading an ROTC
commissioning ceremony.

The
University’s
history

consists of a number of famous
speeches and moments that
occurred before images could
be captured on high-quality
film. Music, Theatre & Dance
Prof. Malcolm Tulip said his
multimedia presentation during
commencement
will
feature

current
University
faculty

reading the words of past
speeches. He said the project
will
highlight
the
current

graduates and the 200 years of
academia before them.

“For years now, we have

become used to seeing great
speeches and events on video,”
Tulip said in the press release.

“In the early days of the
university this documentation
did not exist or was lost. This
project
assembles
a
series

of excerpts from significant
speeches from the university’s
past.
In
seven
minutes,

graduating students and their
families will gain a sense of
their place in the university and
nation’s history.”

Though there is a large

emphasis on the bicentennial
and
the
University’s
past,

Interim Provost Paul Courant
said in the release the ceremony
will not lose sight of its main
focus: the current graduates.

“Graduation, as always, is

principally about the academic
achievements of the students
who are graduating,” Courant
said. “We are pleased and
proud to honor them and their
achievements.”

In lieu of the typical honorary

degrees
presentation
at

commencement, the University
will present ten Bicentennial
Alumni
Awards.
Schlissel

said the awards showcase the
positive impact past graduates
have had in their fields and
beyond.

“The alumni awards give

us a very special opportunity
to recognize individuals from
our more recent past who can
inspire our community through
their
outstanding
ongoing

work,” Schlissel said.

Two
of
the
Bicentennial

Alumni Award recipients, Music,
Theatre & Dance graduates Benj
Pasek and Justin Paul, were
recently awarded “Best Original
Song” Oscars for their work on
the song “City of Stars,” featured
in the movie “La La Land.” The
songwriting duo will also stage
a musical performance for the
commencement
ceremony,

featuring Music, Theatre &
Dance students.

COMMENCEMENT
From Page 1A

provoking
central
questions

around identity and representation
on campus, the party’s sweeping
success is truly unprecedented.
Sarkar and Jawad are the first
female candidates elected on the
same ticket in the last decade, and
the first women of color voted into
office since at least 1993.

eMerge’s campaign stood on

three pillars of voice, opportunity
and
momentum,
and
Sarkar

and Jawad often cited their
positions in CSG and other
student organizations to present
a ticket backed by experience.
Platform points were divided
into more concrete “initiatives”
— such as Wi-Fi on the Diag and
a student mentorship program
— and long-term “advocacy”
issues such as improving testing
accommodations
and
food

insecurity
support.
The
two

also plan on lobbying for the
reduction of the number of exams
a student can take in one day
from four to three, as well as the

expansion of in-state tuition from
undocumented undergraduates to
include undocumented graduate
and non-traditional students.

Upon recieving the official tally,

Jawad said she was overcome with
emotion.

“I cried,” she said. “I couldn’t

believe the overwhelming victory,
to see all of our (representatives)
elected, to be the first women of
color ever elected to this position,
and
just
the
overwhelming

amount of support we got from
the community. We just made
history.”

Both women agreed they would

balance their short-term and long-
term goals rather than focus on one
aspect of their platform in their
first days in office—the assembly is
expected to be seated on April 4—
but singled out a handful of issues:
Sarkar named lobbying University
Health Services to accept students’
Medicaid coverage as among
her priorities, while Jawad said
providing free phone and laptop
chargers for student use will be an
immediately achievable initiative.

Movement’s candidates pitched

greater student engagement in the

student governing body, but much
of the attention on the party was
fueled by a controversial music
video it released two weeks ago.
The video, featuring a rap written
and performed by Rosen, attracted
more than 20,000 views. Many
students found the video offensive:
The only scene with female
students appeared in a sexualized
context, and Rosen — who is white
— compared himself to Black
inventor
George
Washington

Carver. Though Rosen apologized
and promised to take the video
down, clips are still featured on
the party’s Facebook page and
continue to incite debate.

eMerge
also
filed
two

complaints
to
the
University

Elections Commission against the
video for featuring what it alleged
to be unauthorized endorsement
by football coach Jim Harbaugh.
Both complaints were eventually
dropped.

Rosen congratulated eMerge on

their victory, and said Movement’s
supporters would “continue to
have fun.”

EMERGE
From Page 1A

administration of President Donald
Trump. Trump has so far taken a
hardline stance against China, by
taking a jab at their currency policy,
blaming the country for the loss of
manufacturing jobs in the U.S. and
breaking diplomatic precedent by
calling the president of Taiwan,
a region that Beijing considers a
renegade province.

Gene Ma, chief China economist

at
Institute
of
International

Finance, expressed concern about
the upcoming meeting between
Trump and Chinese President
Xi Jinping in April, explaining
Trump’s erratic behavior may
confound the more reserved Xi.

“I’m very cautious that these

two need to really try very hard to
find common ground,” Ma said. “I
don’t think President Xi Jinping
will play golf … I’m afraid President
Xi Jinping will talk based on a
script through an interpreter, (but)
President Trump will lose patience
after five minutes.”

Engineering graduate student

Xiran Bai said she found the
interaction between Ma and the
venture capitalists on the panel
interesting because while Ma
was pessimistic about U.S.-China
relations, the venture capitalists’
outlooks were positive.

Bai said she sees truth in both

sides of the argument, referring
to Trump’s most recent executive
order banning immigrants and
refugees from six Muslim-majority
countries.

“The (executive) order from

President Trump, it can happen to
us,” Bai said. “But from a business
standpoint, everybody wants to
make money, so that’s probably not
going to be effective.”

When asked about anti-Chinese

sentiment in the United States,
Dwight Carlson, CEO of Coherix,
an Ann Arbor-based 3-D machine
vision company, said unions in
Michigan were actually welcoming
of Chinese companies investing in
the state.

“Chinese
companies
are

developing a very good relationship
when they purchase (American)

companies,” Carlson said. “The
labor
unions
recognize
that

Chinese companies invest and
therefore increase the number of
jobs.”

Harry Man, a partner at Matrix

Partners China, a private equity
investment firm, addressed the
concerns of Chinese “copycats”
of American online services — for
example, Baidu to Google and Sina
Weibo to Twitter. Man said this
is because everyone’s needs are
relatively the same, and Chinese
companies are starting to create
innovative services of their own.

“A lot of people like to say that

Chinese companies are copying
what’s happening in the US,
(but) it just so happens that in
the initial 15 to 20 years of the
development of internet space,
creativity, the majority started
from the U.S.,” Man said. “But in
the last 2 to 3 years, we’ve been
seeing a clear trend of more and
more local creativity being done
in China.”

FORUM
From Page 1A

Read more online at

michigandaily.com

Read more online at

michigandaily.com

said he likes Gorsuch and favors
justices who closely adhere to
the Constitution.

“We need to have more strict

constructionism on the Supreme
Court, especially to fill that gap
that Scalia left,” Zalamea said.
“It’s really essential to have
somebody who is traditional in
that sense, somebody who really
sticks to what this country was
founded on.”

Conversely,
LSA
junior

Rowan Conybeare, chair of the
University’s chapter of College
Democrats, said she believes
strict constructionism restricts
how the Constitution can be
interpreted
during
changing

times
and
with
changing

opinions.

“I think it’s very limiting,”

Conybeare
said.
“Obviously,

people’s opinions and times
change and I think the more
liberal justices interpret the
Constitution differently with
the changing opinion — I’m not

trying to say we should change
the Constitution, but just the
interpretation.”

In
a
similar
vein,
LSA

sophomore Brad McPherson,
co-founder of Progressives at the
University of Michigan, said he
believes a strict interpretation
of the Constitution inhibits
advancement.

“To me ‘originalism’ sounds

like ‘preventing progress,’ ”
McPherson said. “Even when
it passes the normal legislative
means, (Gorsuch) uses the court
basically to stop what he views
as overreach, essentially — I
think that’s wrong.”

Zalamea
contested

arguments such as these and
said the document does not
inhibit progress, but simply
reinforces values and rights,
like the Second Amendment,
that he feels are invaluable
to democracy in the United
States.

“It’s
absolutely
not
an

impediment to progress at all
to say that we need to stick
strictly to the Constitution,”
Zalamea said. “Our country
was founded on great values,

founded under God and the
Bill of Rights, and that’s
something we need to stick
to.”

Another point of contention

for liberals is the blockage
of
then-President
Barack

Obama’s
nomination
of

Judge Merrick Garland by
Senate
Republicans
last

year following the death of
conservative Justice Antonin
Scalia.

McPherson said he feels

Republicans stole the court
seat
from
Democrats
and

considers the appointment of
Gorsuch illegitimate.

“To me, the entire choice of

Neil Gorsuch is illegitimate,
because the Republicans stole
that Supreme Court seat,”
McPherson said.

Conybeare agreed and said

she believes it is not out of
the norm for a president to
nominate justices at the end
of their terms, despite what
Republicans claimed in order
to justify their actions.

“I

SCOTUS
From Page 1A

Read more online at

michigandaily.com