The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News
Friday, March 31, 2017 — 3

campus.

Garg said the demands posed 

by Students4Justice will work 
as a checklist for what the 
University needs to fulfill.

“We will continue to do 

everything necessary to fulfill 
the demands from September, 
reintroduced during the sit-in,” 
Garg said.

LSA 
freshman 
Charde 

Madoula-Bey, an organizer of a 
police brutality protest, agreed, 
saying activism will end when 
the University makes tangible 
improvements, not when the 
activists become tired.

“Because of the lack of 

change, I believe that activism 
is always needed when the 
demand for justice is not met, 
so until there is a change in the 
social climate towards minority 
groups on campus, I promote all 
activism,” she said.

While 
political 
activism 

is usually seen in a positive 
light, especially when dealing 
with 
younger 
generations, 

LSA freshman Tiana Brandon, 
finance chair of S4J, said though 
the organization will be working 
hard to fulfill its long-term goals, 
she hopes nothing will warrant 
a political protest in the future.

“I am sure, based on the 

current 
behavior 
already 

portrayed by the incoming class 
of 2021 and all of the political 
turmoil in the country, that 
something else will happen 
and a similar protest will take 
place,” Brandon said. “However, 
I would like to stay hopeful that 
an event will not occur that 
requires such response.”

Madoula-Bey 
agreed 
and 

said, though activism is positive, 
it is also an indication of large-
scale issues, which she said are 
becoming more prevalent on 
campus.

“As far as any shift in the 

political climate, specifically on 
campus, the climate has become 
negative,” Medoula-Bey said. 
“The racism and discrimination 
has 
been 
becoming 
more 

blatant since the election. But 
for minority groups, there has 

been a prevailing mood of hope 
amongst our communities.”

As expressed in many of the 

protests, the current power 
ratios 
in 
Washington, 
with 

President Donald Trump in the 
White House and a conservative-
controlled Congress, can be 
a major obstacle or cause for 
discouragement among young 
activists.

However, 
Engineering 

senior Keanu Richardson, who 
organized the protest outside 
University 
President 
Mark 

Schlissel’s home following the 
racist and anti-semetic emails 
sent to students, said now is not 
the time to give up or ignore the 
issues.

“The change we want to see 

on campus probably won’t be 
seen by anyone who’s on campus 
right now,” Richardson said. 
“But now’s not the time to get 
discouraged, but motivated to 
make sure that this campus is 
better for future generations.”

Richardson 
added 
change 

does not have to come from 
large-scale protests. He said the 
personal relationships he has 
formed have been some of the 
most conducive to change.

“I will say that students 

need to stop equating people 
to 
institutions,” 
Richardson 

said. “President Schlissel isn’t 
a bad guy. He’s very genuine 
and wants to help, but he also 
understands the limitations that 
he has in his role as a leader of an 
institution. I would say that the 
same goes for a lot of members of 
administration.”

Moving forward, Richardson 

said he hopes student activism 
can be more aware of its context 
within a nation that is inevitably 
more diverse than our campus. 
He said ignorance can be avoided 
by becoming more “teachable.”

“You have people who have 

convinced 
themselves 
that 

change is happening because 
of a bubble they created,” 
Richardson said. “If I unfriend 
or block everyone who has a 
different opinion than me, then 
all I’m going to see are people 
rallying toward my cause. I’ll 
convince myself that the world is 
changing because I’ve severely 
limited who’s in my world, and 
now I can only see what I want 

to see.”

Madoula-Bey, 
who 
has 

planned an April march and 
speak 
out 
against 
human 

trafficking, said she doesn’t 
see student activism waning 
anytime 
soon, 
considering 

the number of issues — such 
as climate change and lack of 
minority voice — she would like 
to see addressed.

Regardless of the purpose 

or 
the 
agitator 
or 
even 

effectiveness, 
Delekta 
said 

the recent student activism is 
inherently positive, and hopes it 
continues.

“I love to see so many 

students 
engaging 
in 
their 

civil 
freedoms 
to 
express 

their opinions,” Delekta said. 
“Insofar as protests that do 
not infringe on the freedoms 
of others, I think that student 
protests are an inspiring symbol 
of the political activism within 
our generation.”

On the other side of the 

debate, 
more 
conservative 

students participate in forms 
of 
activism, 
despite 
being 

an ideological minority on 
campus.

LSA 
sophomore 
Ashley 

Calcagno, 
who 
signed 
the 

#NotMyCampus 
petition, 

explained her perspective of 
campus as a conservative.

“Part 
of 
attending 
the 

University of Michigan, as a 
conservative, is understanding 
that 
you 
are 
entering 
an 

environment 
where 
the 

majority of your peers have 
differing political ideologies,” 
she said.

Calcagno 
added, 
while 

protests 
often 
facilitate 

awareness, 
they 
don’t 

necessarily bring about change. 
For Calcagno, the role of the 
University is not to behave as a 
political actor.

“As for the future, I would 

like to see the University 
continue 
to 
work 
toward 

equally including the feelings 
and emotions of people on both 
sides of the political spectrum,” 
she said.

Regardless, Calcagna said 

if need arises, an appropriate 
response to any bias furthered 
by the University should be 
expected.

ACTIVISTS
From Page 1

Terrence McDonald, director 

of the Bentley, spoke to nearly 
100 attendees at the Gerald R. 
Ford Library on Thursday about 
the significance of the digital 
documentation of the Daily.

In an interview beforehand, 

McDonald said the digitization 
project involved partnerships 
across multiple units at the 
University, including the Bentley, 
the IT department of the Harlan 
Hatcher Graduate Library and 
the Student Publications. The 
resulted is an archive that holds 
huge implications for future 
understanding of the University.

“A great university, to stay 

great, has to maintain a high level 
of 
historical 
consciousness,” 

McDonald said. “We have a 
great history; certain members 
of our community know about 
that history, but the world 
beyond that needs to know more 
about that.”

Though 
the 
project 
was 

completed last October, the data 
was originally only released to 
faculty and students involved 
in bicentennial-themed courses 
last December.

“The idea of digitizing the 

Daily was, to begin with, a way 
of getting the story out; that 
is, the digital initiative of the 
Daily is already crafting more 
scholarship on the history of 
the University of Michigan in 
the last three months with its 
very limited release than we’ve 
produced than in the previous 
multiple years,” he said.

McDonald, 
who 
has 
27 

students in his bicentennial-
themed course “22 Ways to 
Think about the History of The 
University of Michigan,” said 
his students have already made 
great use of the archives in their 
research.

“The 
Daily, 
because 
of 

its 
editorial 
independence, 

its daily publication and its 
journalistic 
ambition 
— 
it’s 

just a phenomenal newspaper 
of record of the history of the 
University,” McDonald said.

At the release, McDonald 

introduced Kemp, who spoke 
about the significance of the 
archives with regard to his 
extensive 
family 
background 

with the University and the 
memorializing of students’ time.

“It’ll allow a lot of people that 

had great memories at Michigan 

to be able to have tangible 
evidence of that by getting a 
Michigan Daily article about 
it,” Kemp said. “Once you get to 
Michigan, you build memories 
that will last you a lifetime, you 
make friends that will last you a 
lifetime.”

Kemp spoke of his foundation’s 

generosity for the program as a 
form of repayment for what the 
University has given his family.

“For four generations, our 

family members have received 
the many benefits of being 
University of Michigan people,” 
Kemp 
said. 
“I 
really 
don’t 

want you to remember, I don’t 
want you to note or recollect 
everything I said today. I just 
want you to remember all of 
those things I described. If 
you 
insist 
on 
remembering 

something I said, then let me ask 
that you remember the last two 
words: Go Blue.”

Afterward, Schlissel spoke, 

musing 
on 
his 
time 
as 
a 

student journalist at Princeton 
University. Schlissel credited 
his 
experience 
reporting 
as 

preparation 
for 
his 
career 

as 
University 
president. 

Princeton’s student publication, 
the 
Princetonian, 
recently 

digitized its archives, something 
Schlissel noted has allowed him 
to reflect on his time as a college 
student and hopes the Daily’s 
archives will do the same.

“The 
new 
archives 
we’re 

celebrating tonight represent 
an 
important 
milestone 
in 

University of Michigan student 
journalism,” Schlissel said. “In a 
place like the U of M, a chronicle 
of our university is also a record 
of 
the 
larger 
society. 
This 

project exemplifies the culture 
of innovation that is thriving 
throughout our university.”

Schlissel 
then 
performed 

the first official online search 
of the Daily’s digital archives, 
searching for a column written 
by former Daily columnist Haya 
Alfarhan titled, “Sit with your 
differences.”

“When privileged individuals 

are unwilling to interrogate 
their 
internalized 
biases 

because 
it 
makes 
them 

uncomfortable, 
it 
forces 

students 
with 
marginalized 

identities to trigger themselves 
emotionally to make a point,” 
Alfarhan wrote in the column. 
“Privileged comfort comes at the 
cost of triggering marginalized 
students. Students who trigger 
themselves to do so because 
these topics consume their lives 

and a lack of discourse in class 
is genuinely painful for them … 
Yes, professors should be able to 
facilitate their class discussions 
better, but it’s also students’ 
responsibility 
to 
engage 

wholeheartedly.”

Following Schlissel’s remarks, 

a panel spoke, consisting of LSA 
senior Shoham Geva, editor-in-
chief of the Daily for the 2016-
2017 academic year, Neil Chase, 
executive editor of The Mercury 
News in addition to being chair 
of 
the 
Student 
Publications 

Board and Philip Power, founder 
of The Center for Michigan, a 
nonprofit organization aimed 
at curing statewide political 
culture.

The panelists — moderated by 

McDonald — discussed a number 
of topics, primarily challenges 
in the field. Power experienced 
issues with regard to coverage 
of the Dean of Women and the 
Vietnam War; Chase, however, 
experienced financial barriers 
when the Daily shifted from 
being a paid publication to 
free 
distribution 
under 
his 

tenure 
and 
Geva 
discussed 

the challenges she faced with 
diversity 
and 
entering 
the 

digital age. 

Power 
highlighted 
the 

entrepreneurial 
attempts 
of 

nonprofit journalism.

“The Daily is what honed 

our interest and our capacity 
to take complex things and put 
them into sensible pros and 
argumentative politics,” Power 
said. “There is not enough 
money 
in 
the 
philanthropic 

ecosystem to fund and sustain 
nonprofit 
journalism 
in 
the 

scope and intensity that we need 
in order to save this country.”

Ultimately, 
the 
panelists 

concluded with a discussion of 
maintaining public engagement 
in current political context.

Micheline 
Maynard, 
Daily 

alum 
and 
Knight-Wallace 

fellow for 1999-2000, said in 
an interview after the event 
the 
archives 
serve 
multiple 

purposes that will be beneficial 
to many communities.

“This is going to be an 

incredibly 
valuable 
resource 

for those of us who write books, 
those of us who are interested in 
journalism and especially those 
of us who were born in Ann 
Arbor, because this is a tool for 
us to look back on our town,” 
Maynard said. “It’s very rare to 
find an archive this complete 
and that goes back as far as it 
does.”

BENTLEY
From Page 1

revenues from the state to 
businesses. 
Withholding 

tax 
capture 
revenues 
are 

the 
income 
taxes 
paid 
by 

businesses to the government 
on behalf of the businesses’ 
employees by taking a portion 
out of employees’ paychecks. 
If the business overestimates 
the amount of this income tax, 
employees are refunded every 
year when they file their taxes. 
Under the bills, the money 
withheld 
from 
employees’ 

checks would stay with the 
businesses rather than going to 
the state.

The program is capped at 

a maximum value of $250 
million, representing at most 
15 agreements with a company 
per year.

The 
five 
opposing 
votes 

in the Senate were all from 
Republicans. In an interview 
with the Detroit Free Press, one 
of them, Sen. Patrick Colbeck 
(R–Canton), argued the bills 
would benefit too few people.

“This is a case that we need 

to be pursuing broad-based 
tax 
incentives 
that 
benefit 

everybody, not these targeted 
benefits that benefit 15-some 
odd companies,” Colbeck said. 
“I’m tired of the business 
being prioritized over the best 
interests of everybody.”

In a statement last week, Gov. 

Rick Snyder was tentatively 

supportive of the bills.

“Both 
packages 
are 

addressing areas that need to 
be addressed,” he said. “There 
still may be some issues that 
can be improved, but I won’t 
want to get into too many 
specifics. And I think there’s 
a need for a tool in the tool 
box 
for 
potentially 
large 

manufacturers, 
particularly 

where they pay above average 
wages.”

State Rep. Yousef Rabhi (D–

Ann Arbor) strongly opposed 
the bill, states businesses in the 
state have already been given 
enough.

“The 
net 
amount 
that 

the state is taking in from 
businesses 
is 
miniscule 

compared 
to 
what 
people 

are paying in income tax and 
sales tax and all that,” he said. 
“We’ve given them a repeal of 
the Michigan Business Tax, a 
reform of the personal property 
tax, and we’ve given, given, 
given to businesses and I feel 
like the whole argument behind 
this is ridiculous. If businesses 
can’t create jobs after we’ve 
given them all this other stuff, 
then I don’t know what else it’s 
going to be.” 

Calling the bill “corporate 

welfare,” Rabhi argued the 
money the state would lose 
from the bill could be more 
effectively spent by the state 
itself.

“We have to be able to pay 

our bills as a state,” he said. 
“That’s 
$250 
million 
that 

could’ve gone to schools, that 
could’ve gone to police and fire, 
that could’ve gone to creating 
jobs in infrastructure. We can 
create jobs with that money 
if we actually invest it in our 
public infrastructure, which, 
that’s where the money’s going 
to be coming out of.” 

Rowan 
Conybeare, 
chair 

of College Democrats, Public 
Policy junior said she supports 
the bill if it follows through. 

“If the bill delivers on its 

promise 
of 
creating 
well-

paying jobs, then it should be 
an effective bipartisan effort,” 
Conybeare said. 

President 
of 
College 

Republicans Enrique Zalamea, 
an LSA junior, did not respond 
to requests for comment.

TAX
From Page 1

the Deir Yassin massacre, a 
1948 attack by Zionist military 
forces 
on 
the 
eponymous 

Palestinian village that left 
over 100 people dead in their 
homes.

Henry 
Herskovitz, 
a 

member of the board of 
directors 
for 
Deir 
Yassin 

Remembered 
and 
later, 
a 

self-described “former Jew,” 
stirred controversy in 2014 
when he campaigned for the 
release of Ernst Zundel from 
prison, who was sentenced by 
a German court to five years 
in prison for inciting racial 
hatred through literature he 
published. 

Zundel, 
along 
with 

co-author 
Eric 
Thompson, 

wrote a book entitled “The 
Hitler We Loved and Why,” 
published in 1977.

Though Herskovitz himself 

has not expressed such strong 
pro-Nazi sentiment, he does 
question the existence of the 
Holocaust. In a July 2016 
video posted on the Deir 
Yassin Remembered website, 
Herskovitz 
explained 
his 

doubts.

“Why do I support open 

debate on the Holocaust?” 
he asked. “Because I want to 

know what happened and why 
it happened. Because I resent 
manipulation, 
and 
I 
feel 

manipulated and threatened 
when decent people like Ernst 
... are locked up for expressing 
what they believe … If I say 
passenger jets did not bring 
down the two World Trade 
Centers, I don’t go to prison. 
But when I ask for a single 
wartime photo of a homicidal 
gas chamber, in Israel and a 
dozen other countries, I put 
myself at risk for prison time.”

A member of the Beth Israel 

congregation, who wished to 
remain anonymous for fear 
of harassment by Deir Yassin 
Remembered, said the group’s 
apparent concern with the 
Israeli-Palestinian 
conflict 

and Israeli apartheid were 
superficial.

“That 
is 
the 
nominal 

organization to which they 
are affiliated, but that is 
ancillary to their primary 
motivation,” the member said. 
“Their primary motivation is 
a deep anti-Semitism, in the 
same way as the Ku Klux Klan 
claims to be defending white 
rights.”

Devin 
Jones, 
a 

representative 
of 
Students 

Allied 
for 
Freedom 
and 

Equality 
–– 
a 
student 

organization that opposes the 
Israeli apartheid, similarly 

to DYR -– agreed that DYR’s 
engagement with the Israeli-
Palestinian conflict was not 
serious.

“Firstly, 
I 
think 
that 

any group that denies that 
Holocaust participates in hate 
speech and contributes to anti-
Semitism by denying one of 
the worst genocides in human 
history,” Jones said. “Thus, if 
the SPLC found evidence that 
DYR has denied the Holocaust 
then their listing as a hate group 
is justified.”

Jones continued to say that 

DYR’s anti-Semitism did more 
to hurt the BDS movement than 
help it.

“Any type of racism, including 

anti-Semitism, is not allowed 
in the movement. It directly 
violates the principled approach 
that BDS takes to end Israeli 
state racism and apartheid,” 
he said. “Additionally, many 
Jews support BDS, including 
Jewish Voice for Peace, and any 
anti-Semitism and Holocaust 
denial that occurs by groups 
supporting BDS excludes Jews 
from being able to stand in 
solidarity 
with 
Palestinians 

and ending Israeli apartheid. 
Thus, DYR cannot fully support 
BDS until they renounce anti-
Semitism and holocaust denial.”

The synagogue has asked 

that people not engage with the 
picketers. 

GROUP
From Page 1

The net amount 
that the state is 
taking in from 

businesses 
is miniscule 

compared to what 
people are paying 

in income tax