The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News
Monday, September 25, 2017 — 3A

October 9, 2017

for this.”

The initiative allows people aged 

21 and over to purchase and possess 
up to 2.5 ounces of marijuana or 15 
grams of marijuana concentrate 
and grow up to 12 marijuana plants 
in their homes for personal use. 
If passed, municipalities would 
be permitted to ban marijuana 
retailers and businesses within 
their 
jurisdictions, 
and 
public 

consumption and driving under the 
influence of marijuana would be 
forbidden.

If the initiative makes it onto the 

ballot in 2018, Hovey feels confident 
it will pass. National support for 
recreational marijuana is at 61 
percent, according to a CBS poll 
from April of this year, and Hovey 
says the numbers in Michigan 
are about the same. A Michigan 
Daily poll of 71 randomly selected 
students found that 72 percent of 
respondents would support such an 
initiative, with 13 percent opposed 
and 15 percent unsure. 96 percent 
of respondents said they supported 
medicinal 
marijuana, 
with 
4 

percent unsure.

Hovey said the group’s primary 

motivations for pushing to legalize 
recreational marijuana are the 
ineffectiveness 
of 
the 
current 

marijuana laws and the resources 
wasted on enforcement of these 
laws.

“We firmly believe that, just 

like with alcohol, the prohibition 
of marijuana has been a massive 
failure,” he said. “One, it hasn’t 
stopped people from using. Two, 
it unnecessarily is a waste of law 

enforcement resources and it puts 
tens of thousands of people into 
the criminal justice system every 
year for using what is essentially a 
plant that has been found to be less 
harmful than tobacco, less harmful 
than alcohol.”

Fifty-nine percent of respondents 

to the Daily’s survey said they had 
used marijuana for recreational 
purposes at least once in the past. 
The same percentage –– though not 
necessarily the same respondents –– 
said the legalization of recreational 
marijuana would not increase their 
likelihood of using. Thirty-one 
percent said it would, and 10 percent 
said they were unsure.

LSA senior Enrique Zalamea, 

president 
of 
the 
University’s 

chapter of College Republicans, 
said he supported the legalization 
of recreational marijuana both for 
ideological and practical reasons.

“My 
main 
reason, 
coming 

from a conservative background, 
in supporting recreational use 
is mainly because I don’t believe 
that the government should tell 
individuals what they can and can’t 
do in certain regards, especially if 
this is a plant that has been used for 
medical purposes,” Zalamea said. 
“There’s not very much scientific 
background that it does cause heart 
attacks or cause all of the different 
medical complications that people 
make it out to.”

Additionally, he said, the state 

could save a substantial amount 
of money if it did not have to 
enforce the current prohibition on 
recreational marijuana.

“There’s such a huge cost that’s 

incurred when you try and police 
marijuana and enforce the illegal 
aspect of marijuana. We could 

use the kind of money that states 
spend on enforcing small amounts 
of marijuana to keep real criminals 
in prison, for infrastructure, for 
education.”

And 
funding 
infrastructure 

and education is precisely what 
the proposal would do. In addition 
to the state’s 6 percent sales tax, 
there would be a 10 percent excise 
tax levied on the sale of marijuana. 
Thirty percent of the revenue from 
that tax would go to counties and 
municipalities 
with 
marijuana 

retailers, 35 percent would go to 
the state’s school aid fund for K-12 
education, and 35 percent would go 
to the state’s transportation fund, 
which funds repairs of roads and 
bridges.

Though passage of the law 

would be a radical change for most 
of the state, marijuana possession 
has been decriminalized in Ann 
Arbor since 1972. Public Policy 
senior Rowan Conybeare, chair of 
the University’s chapter of College 
Democrats, said she thinks the 
disparity 
between 
Ann 
Arbor 

and the rest of the state, and the 
discriminatory enforcement of the 
law, is unfair. 

“It’s 
a 
low-level 
drug. 
It’s 

decriminalized in Ann Arbor –– 
you get a $25 fine and that’s it,” 
Conybeare said. “And it’s crazy 
that in other places people are 
getting arrested and incarcerated. 
I think it’s also important to look 
at the racial disparities. We’re 
destabilizing these people’s lives for 
a low-level crime when other people 
are just getting off with it.”

Rabhi 
agreed, 
adding 
the 

illegality 
of 
marijuana 
pushes 

people to use it in less-than-safe 
conditions.

“People use marijuana now. The 

prohibition on pot is not working 
in the way that people are thinking 
it’s working,” Rabhi said. “What 
it’s doing is pushing people into the 
shadows who are going to be using 
marijuana anyway, which can lead 
to unsafe conditions for marijuana 
usage. By bringing it out of the 
shadows, we can make sure that 
people are using safe quantities, 
that what they are using is as pure as 
possible and as low of a health risk 
as possible.”

Though the ballot initiative 

appears to be on the brink of 
success, at least in terms of clearing 
the bar of required signatures, it 
isn’t without opposition. Keep Pot 
Out of Neighborhoods and Schools 
is a coalition that emerged to oppose 
the initiative. Gary Gordon, an 
attorney for the group, did not 
respond to requests for comment. 
At a May meeting of the Board of 
State Canvassers reported by the 
Detroit News, however —where 
the wording of the initiative was 
approved by the board — Gordon 
spoke in opposition to the bill’s 
provision allowing homegrown 
marijuana.

“They don’t have to be licensed 

and they are not taxed,” he said. 
“There’s not regulation at all on 
that.”

According to a press release 

from 
the 
group, 
they 
are 

“committed to making certain 
every 
citizen, 
especially 
our 

kids, are protected from the 
unregulated 
proliferation 
of 

pot being made available across 
Michigan.”

PETITION
From Page 1A

have considered it, but I just 
thought that was the best way at 
the time.”

According to Austin McCoy, 

Michigan Mellon Humanities 
Postdoctoral 
fellow, 
tweeting 

pictures of racially charged flyers 
found on campus is just what 
you shouldn’t do –– a lesson he, 
too, learned the hard way after 
posting pictures of racist flyers he 
found.

“We posted them on social 

media, mostly as a way to raise 
awareness of what’s going on. 
Like, ‘This happened, here’s 
proof.’ But then, three hours, I 
just started getting all kinds of 
nasty tweets that were either 
reinforcing the messages on 
the flyer, or just attacking me 
personally,” McCoy said. “But 
then I was like, ‘Okay, I see what 
they’re doing. They’re basically 
using us trying to raise awareness 
around this to basically hijack it. 
They’re trying to demonstrate 
what they’re doing through what 
we post.’ And that’s when I was 
like, ‘Okay, we just can’t reproduce 
any of their fliers online.’ “

And the public incidents of 

racism on campus have only 
grown 
more 
frequent 
since 

students returned to campus. 
Days before school commenced, 
racially charged writing was 
found on the Rock. On Sept. 17, 
racial slurs were found written 
on the dorm name tags of 
several Black students in West 
Quad. Hours earlier, graffiti was 
found on a mural downtown. 
During a protest of the incidents 
Wednesday 
night, 
a 
man 

observing got out of his car and, 
after shouting profanities and 
racial slurs at students, got into a 
physical altercation with at least 
one student.

The 24-year-old man, who 

was not affiliated with the 
University according to Diane 
Brown, Division of Public Safety 
and Security spokesperson, was 
arrested for disorderly conduct 
and 
later 
released 
pending 

warrant authorization.

“When the investigation is 

completed, it will be submitted 
to 
the 
Washtenaw 
County 

Prosecutor’s Office for review 
and 
authorization 
of 
any 

charges,” Brown wrote in an 
email interview. “That should 
take a few days to a few weeks.”

But more often than not in 

these incidents, the perpetrators’ 
identities 
go 
completely 

unknown. 
Though 
DPSS 

opened an investigation into 

the vandalism at West Quad, 
nothing so far has come of it –– 
perpetrators have not been found 
for any of the racially charged 
graffiti, posters or emails this 
year or last.

Investigations were opened 

into some other incidents as 
well. 
When 
an 
anonymous 

source sent out a series of 
emails to Computer Science and 
Engineering 
undergraduate 

students, threatening to kill 
Black 
and 
Jewish 
students, 

and “spoofing” the emails to 
make them appear to be sent 
by a University professor, DPSS 
opened an investigation to find 
the source, partnering with the 
FBI.

“Spoofing 
incidents, 

particularly with email, can 
be very complex and difficult 
to investigate,” Brown wrote. 
“Often 
these 
investigations 

require 
the 
involvement 
of 

federal partners to work with 
foreign governments to follow 
the international trail.”

Sol Bermann, the University’s 

interim 
chief 
information 

security officer, agreed on the 
difficulty of catching the people 
responsible for emails like the 
ones that were sent.

“It is very difficult to catch the 

perpetrators of these sorts of acts 
because of the wide availability 
of anonymous IT services, like 
email,” Bermann wrote in an 
email interview.

Bermann explained how the 

University goes about finding 
and fixing holes in its online 
network.

“The 
university 
routinely 

monitors 
and 
responds 
to 

reports of new vulnerabilities 
along with information from 
intelligence sources and the 
U-M IT community,” Bermann 
wrote. 
“We 
determine 
the 

risk of any vulnerability that 
could contribute to a serious 
IT security incident, looking at 
factors such as whether exploit 
code 
is 
available, 
whether 

exploits are occurring, if U-M 
systems are at risk, and more. 
Alerts, advisories and notices 
are then sent to the IT Security 
Community and other IT groups. 
Ultimately, 
online 
security 

begins with every student, staff 
and faculty member.”

The DPSS-FBI investigation, 

however, remains open. For 
Thomas 
and 
many 
other 

students, that fact doesn’t inspire 
confidence in the ability of the 
University to protect them from 
such attacks.

ONLINE
From Page 1A

has been serving the University 
since 1982. In 1992, it became 
the University’s official retailer, 
taking over a space in Yost Ice 
Arena. 

M Den owner Scott Hirth said 

they are currently working to 
further expand their retail space.

“We’ve been doing this a long 

time and we’ve been trying to 
address all parts of the Michigan 
market,” Hirth said. “We just 
were able to take over the space 
above the Victors Collection, so 
there’s about 4,500 square feet 
that is under construction right 
now that is going to become a new 
expanded women’s department.”

Hirth says this new space should 

be completed by homecoming 
weekend on Oct. 27 and will be 

revolutionary to the collegiate 
apparel market for women.

“It’s going to be the biggest 

women’s department in all of 
college campuses,” Hirth said. 
“It’s 
the 
women’s 
segment 

of the market that, frankly, 
manufacturers 
haven’t 
done 

a good enough job on. That’s 
changing, and it’s not as good as 
it needs to be yet but it’s certainly 
moving in the right direction.”

The M Den has also recently 

begun to bring in bigger brands, 
including the University’s switch 
to Nike and Pink by Victoria’s 
Secret, the newest addition.

“The key driver to us doing 

that expansion is the arrival of 
Pink,” Hirth said. “For college-
aged women, that brand is highly 
sought after. And if you’ve seen 
the product, it’s great product.”

“It’s gonna be like nobody has 

seen before,” Hirth added.

The M Den is not the only 

retailer conscious of the failure to 
provide equal quantities of sports 
apparel to women. A League of 
Our Own, a company founded by 
LSA sophomore Gabrielle Gedeon 
and 
Engineering 
sophomore 

Lauren 
Reynolds, 
produces 

University-inspired athletic hats 
that are designed specifically for 
women.

“I created a brand of hats 

because I realized that there is 
such a demand for ball caps for 
women and there aren’t really 
well-fitting 
hats 
out 
there,” 

Gedeon said. “It’s a relaxed fit, it’s 
not as structured as a man’s hat.”

Gedeon and Reynolds were 

roommates last year at South 
Quad, where the idea initially took 
off.

“I never used to wear hats 

until I saw this lady come in with 
her big box of hats,” Gedeon said 

describing her first encounter with 
Reynolds. “She got me a Michigan 
hat and I’m obsessed with it, and I 
wanted to create my own. I knew 
what people were looking for.”

A League of Our Own is not 

just a hat company. According to 
their website’s mission statement: 
“Baseball caps are usually made 
for the male audience, A League 
of Our Own has tailored hats 
just for women. Our feminine 
design starts with college women 
who are in a position to evoke 
change. We strive to influence 
and empower our community to 
create the lives that they want to 
lead.”

Reynolds added their focus is 

to empower women and disrupt 
the male-dominated realm of 
sports.

GAMEDAY
From Page 1A

that would require a $5 student 
membership fee each semester 
in order to provide funds for 
the 
scholarship 
Leadership 

Engagement 
Scholarship, 
Joe 

Shea, former CSG communications 
director, expressed his support for 
the resolution.

“The idea behind this resolution 

is one of solidarity,” Shea said 
in January. “As students, we 
understand how expensive it is 
just to go here … I try to remember 
that for some people at this 
university, it is simply not possible, 
and that is where something 
like the Leadership Engagement 
Scholarship comes into play.”

This $5 fee faced some backlash, 

however, 
as 
several 
students 

and administrators felt it was 
contradictory to the scholarship’s 
purpose. When the resolution 
was originally introduced, Andy 
Snow, former Rackham student 
representative, 
articulated 
his 

displeasure with the idea of a 
student fee.

“At the end of the day, I don’t 

care that it’s generally going to 
help students who need money — 
I see the student fee as basically 
a regressive tax for students the 
most, in general, and I do find it 
massively, massively insulting that 
we just act like financial aid covers 
it,” Snow said in January. “People 
take out loans and pay, not only 
that fee, but finally pay back quite a 
bit when they finally get the money 
to do it, so without reducing where 
people pay, I will not be able to 
support this.”

Those 
organizing 
the 

scholarship hope to have its funds 
available by the fall of 2018. These 
funds, however, will no longer 
come from the student fee. Griggs 
stated while this method has been 
discontinued, 
fundraising 
and 

advocacy events will continue to 
be utilized to raise both the monies 
and advocacy.

“In 
the 
past 
we’ve 
done 

fundraising on campus,” she said. 
“We participated in Giving Blue 
Day and that was really successful, 
and we’ve also done fundraising 
and 
received 
donations 
from 

alumni, students, people who 

were heavily involved in student 
organizations on campus while 
they were students here. We use 
a plethora of channels to increase 
funding for the scholarship.”

As an endowed scholarship, 

one with large contributions and a 
permanent establishment, Griggs 
foresees a long future of success 
in 
helping 
students 
achieve 

their goals through leadership 
and campus involvement. She 
also thinks having students at 
the forefront of the scholarship, 
specifically 
by 
spreading 
the 

word and helping to organize 
fundraising, 
the 
scholarship 

will be one that will continue to 
provide assistance for those who 
need it most.

At the end of the 2016-2017 

school year, and at the end of 
Schafer and Griggs’ terms as CSG 
President and Vice President, 
Schafer, in an interview with the 
Daily, spoke of his pride in the 
initiative and his optimism that 
its success will continue to affect 
students in a positive way. 

SCHOLARSHIP
From Page 1A

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