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Wednesday, October 25, 2017— 3A
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Liz Barry, Special Council to the President, speaks about ongoing projects of the President at the CSG
meeting in the Union Tuesday.
“I
find
myself
consistently
disappointed by the hero-worship
within
the
Democratic
Party
because it distracts from the policy
issues that actually affect people’s
lives,”
Stehlin
said.
“Former
presidents often do release books,
(but) Hillary was not a former
president. She was a presidential
nominee who failed to win the
election.”
Prior to the event, Engineering
freshman Simrun Buttar said while
she was a bit swayed by the price of
attending, Clinton has been one of
her role models since long before the
2016 election.
“I think especially with this
past election, so many events were
skewed in ways that the general
public wasn’t really made aware
of, like the way things actually
happened,” Buttar said. “I think,
especially in Michigan itself, it
was such a pivotal state in the last
election that in being a swing state,
she can maybe help things for the
future.”
Similarly, LSA freshman Brett
Zaslavsky said he had been looking
forward to the event due to the fact
Clinton would be spending time in a
state she lost in the election.
“It’s not every day that a former
presidential candidate comes onto
campus, particularly not one with
the historical significance that
Hillary Clinton has,” Zaslavsky said.
“It was an election with tremendous
consequences whatever side you’re
on, and to be able to hear such a
firsthand and unique perspective I
think is a special opportunity.”
Nevertheless,
the
audience
applauded
for
Clinton
when
she took the stage. Clinton first
addressed some of the main points
of her book, including the double-
edged sword of being a woman in
politics.
“The only way we will get sexism
out of politics is to get more women
in them,” Clinton said, but she also
noted one caveat: “Women are seen
favorably when we advocate for
others but unfavorably when we
advocate for ourselves.”
A substantial part of Clinton’s
talk was focused on addressing
Russian
interference.
Clinton
noted a necessity to demand
evidence among media filled with
“alternative facts,” especially with
regard to critically considering the
issues with cyber interference.
Clinton received applause when
she called Russian interference in
the election “more than alarming.”
“The administration is doing
virtually
nothing
to
prevent
future attacks. … If you are an
American, this should alarm you.
It is shameful,” Clinton said. “The
president swore an oath to faithfully
execute the law and defend our
constitution, and he should start
doing his job, and the rest of us
have to keep up the pressure.”
While the election was nearly
a year ago, Clinton listed several
next steps for the American
public, particularly with regard
to cyber safety and demanding
transparency
from
those
in
office.
“I know when it comes to
Russia, we’ve got to get serious
about
cybersecurity,”
Clinton
said. “Beyond that, we must insist
on truth and accuracy, and hold
elected leaders and the press
accountable. … We must summon
the courage to stand up for human
rights and democracy.”
In the Q&A portion of the
evening, moderator and English
professor Anne Curzan took
questions from the audience,
many of which primarily focused
on Clinton’s personal experience
writing the book and her advice
for the future.
When discussing her decision
to
write
the
book,
Clinton
said after the election she was
“devastated and shocked.”
However,
touting
again
the negative impact Russian
interference
held
in
the
election,
Clinton
noted
the
novel experience of having to
circumvent this contemporary
issue.
“It’s
so
unprecedented,”
Clinton said. “It’s hard if you
have never lived in the midst of a
propaganda campaign.”
Clinton
noted
technology
companies were slow to accept
responsibility for the breach
of cyber security, to applause
from the audience. She then
emphasized that the acceptance
of this information by the public
was accompanied by denial and a
question of the legitimacy of the
reports.
However, Clinton’s tone turned
hopeful when addressing different
types of leadership in position of
power.
“If we get more people who
put country before party, I think
… some positive changes could
actually come about,” Clinton
said. “The cooperation between
the parties has really deteriorated
to the great harm of our nation
and getting things done.”
Noting a need for women in
leadership roles, Clinton said
women should be prepared for
character attacks, criticism and
questions. However, she cited the
importance of encouraging girls
from a young age to succeed and
gave advice for young women
looking to lead.
“Don’t become so closed off,
so bitter, so cynical that you can’t
remain open to the people you
need, the people you’re trying to
represent,” Clinton said.
Eastern Michigan University
alum Asia David said she looked
to Clinton for ways to improve the
future.
“I
supported
Hillary
in
the primary and the general
election,” David said. “We need to
understand what happened in that
election and … also maybe get tools
for what we can do next time.”
After the event, Public Policy
graduate student Ammara Ansari,
who was previously an organizer
for the Clinton campaign, said
she admired the honesty Clinton
demonstrated
throughout
the
evening.
“After almost a year of the
election,
it’s
good
to
know
that she’s still around,” Ansari
said; however, Ansari did not
think Clinton was completely
comprehensive in her talk. Ansari
said, having worked on Clinton’s
campaign, she wanted to know
more of the former Secretary of
State’s personal experiences in
this aspect of her presidential
run. “I wanted to know what she
thought of her (campaign) staff.”
Wayne
State
University
sophomore Robert Swetlic said he
appreciated Clinton’s tasteful and
humorous demeanor, particularly
with regard to “alternative facts.”
“I
especially
liked
her
comments about fake news. As
someone who considers himself
very active politically and in
the realms of communication
in journalism, I think it’s really
important that we don’t let the
conversation about fake news and
propaganda die, and I like that she
was really hitting on that, as well
as telling us a more personal view
of the election,” Swetlic said.
CLINTON
From Page 1A
patient side, where the mental
health problem makes it difficult
to go out there and try to do the
things you need to do to find
employment.”
“But then there’s also the
employer’s side, and on the
employer’s
side
people
with
mental
health
problems
are
sometimes discriminated against
in employment situations, because
employers worry about people
with a history of mental illness.
Our job is to try and help people
with mental health problems be
more active in trying to find work,
and also be more successful in
sustaining work over time,” he
added.
TIDL has numerous projects
they are working on to help
achieve their goal of a world
where mental health issues do
not prevent people from finding
and keeping employment, as well
as bettering the treatment these
people receive. For example,
Himle is the principal investigator
of a project called Reaching
Independence through Successful
Employment, which is funded by
the National Institute of Mental
Health.
RISE, which has locations in
Detroit and Los Angeles, focuses
on helping people with anxiety-
related barriers to finding and
keeping work. They have placed
the intervention program in a
vocational service center, and are
working on training vocational
service
professionals
at
the
center to deliver mental health
interventions focused on work in
their employment agency.
“Most mental health treatments
are developed in university towns,
or areas where people are highly
educated, or large cities, often
with mostly white, educated
participants helping to evaluate
and design the new mental health
treatment,” Himle said. “But in
our case, we often do the design
and development as well as the
initial testing of new mental health
interventions
in
underserved
communities, for later use by the
broader population.”
He added hosting the sessions
in Detroit allows the researchers
to form better relationships with
the group.
“If we develop a treatment in
Detroit, it will always have a sort
of home-field advantage — it will
have a foundation that fits well
with that group. It doesn’t mean
that a person in Ann Arbor might
not find that intervention useful,
but the idea is to develop that
intervention in an underserved
urban and rural areas. Treatments
often fit best with the people
they’re initially developed with,
and we would like turn that
typical pattern around.”
Addie
Weaver,
another
co-director of TIDL, is the
principal investigator of another
project,
Raising
Our
Spirits
Together. Weaver, who grew up in
a rural area of Pennsylvania, feels
a personal connection to the work
TIDL does.
“I had first-hand experiences
where I saw friends and family
members in need of mental or
physical health care that had a lot
of difficulty,” Weaver said. “There
just really weren’t treatment
options available, so it required
substantial travel and substantial
resources in terms of having the
right type of insurance, having a
job that allowed you to take time
off to address your needs, or being
able to arrange childcare support.
And really the underlying issue is
that there just aren’t a lot of mental
health providers in rural settings.”
ROST, which is funded by
the National Institute of Mental
Health via a Mentored Research
Scientist
Career
Development
Award Weaver received, and has
an intervention site located in
Hillsdale, is focused on providing
more
accessible
depression
treatment to those in rural areas.
“What kept coming up was
that many times when someone
is feeling down or depressed,
they are very likely to seek
support from their clergy. So we
started to talk about creating
and developing an intervention
for depression that could be
delivered in the church setting in
rural communities,” Weaver said.
Weaver and her team have
found there is large community
interest in this initiative, both
among the clergy and those
afflicted
by
mental
health
problems, as well as the general
community as a whole. She will
be using her grant to engage in
community-based participatory
research
to
adapt
and
test
behavioral therapy for depression
in the church setting.
LAB
From Page 1A
controversial occurrences on
campus had vanished.
LSA
sophomore
Kevin
Keegan, one of the students
who attended the event, was
intrigued by this notion.
“There’s still limited stories
that are accessible about LGBTQ
people and definitely as thinking
about the erasure of stories as a
form of discrimination and how
that can allow discrimination
to continue by erasing the
hardships of the past,” Keegan
said.
While much of what Retzloff
described was negative, as time
progressed there were certain
landmarks
that
made
the
University notable in terms of
being one of the first to recognize
and accept LGBTQ people.
In 1984, University President
Harold Shapiro instituted a policy
statement that the University
could not discriminate based on
sexuality.
“The experience of queer
people at Flint and Dearborn in
the 1980s were worlds away from
what was available here in Ann
Arbor,” Retzloff said.
There were many people who
were active in contributing to
LGBTQ history, Retzloff said,
including
Nancy
Wechsler,
the first openly LGBTQ City
Councilmember in Ann Arbor.
Retzloff included a picture
of himself with a friend making
a poster for the first gay and
lesbian awareness day at the
University in 1988. He noted
this was a pivotal moment as
a gay man and it was then that
he was empowered through
documenting the history.
He also spoke on the creation
of
the
then-named
Human
Sexuality Office in the ’60s. He
explained the students had to
petition the University for an
office space like other student
organizations. The University
did not want to have a name
that specifically dealt with
“gay” or “lesbian” students
when they agreed upon the
establishment of the office.
The Midwest, and Michigan
in particular, offers a different
narrative of LGBTQ history,
which Retzloff studies. While
cities like New York and
San Francisco have a well-
documented
history,
social
change within the LGBTQ
movement also comes from
areas like the Midwest and
often get overlooked. Retzloff
is currently writing a book on
Detroit as a “gay city.”
When asked about how he
felt impacted by this work,
David Hutchinson, a Ph.D.
candidate
in
the
History
Department, said it is vital to
learn about the University’s
relationship with activism.
“I
think
it’s
important
to learn about how queer
students in the past navigated
the very halls that we walked
through today to understand
how it is we are able to make
up our lives that we live now,”
he said.
Jennifer
Jones,
LSA
collegiate postdoctoral fellow
in the History Department,
also enjoyed hearing about
the Midwest’s role in LGBTQ
history.
“I love the way in which the
talk says yes there was violence,
yes there was discrimination,
but there was also opportunity
to forge connections and build
community and create lives,”
Jones concluded.
MAIZE
From Page 1A
Read more at MichiganDaily.com
from
communities
that
could
benefit most from listening to
Cox — Black women and Black
transgender women — may not
have the opportunity to attend the
event because of a limited amount
of tickets. The tickets for the live
event at Rackham Auditorium,
which can fit about 1,000 people,
are sold out, and the live-streaming
locations are also at full capacity. As
a way to ensure that Black women
and Black trans women can listen to
Cox’s presentation, some students
are giving away their tickets. One
of these students is Public Health
student
Vikrant
Garg,
whose
Facebook post offered tickets to
members of those communities
who were interested in attending
the event.
LSA junior Mayah Wheeler is
one of the students who was not
able to receive tickets to the live
event. Wheeler explained the lack
of availability was unfortunate
because there are not many Black
transgender
women
who
are
prominent social figures, and she
felt it would be valuable to hear
what Cox had to say.
“It’s important to see people who
look like you creating social change
because a lot of the time, especially
for Black women and Black trans
women, there aren’t many figures,”
Wheeler said. “The way that Black
women are represented in the
media is ultimately a negative
image, so if we have activists who
are working to change that image it
should be accessible.”
Wheeler was pleasantly surprised
to hear about Garg’s actions and
talked about how, as a Black woman
on campus, sometimes it’s hard to
remember she has the support of
other communities.
“I think that giving the tickets
away is really nice and really
thoughtful,” Wheeler said. “It’s a
horrible thing that you don’t expect
people to support you, but being
Black on this campus, you don’t
expect it because of the way that
a lot people act and what a lot of
people do — you just don’t expect
people to care.”
Garg
also
pointed
out
the
multiple obstacles that made it
difficult to get tickets to the event,
such as limited seating capacity and
institutional inaccessibility.
“It really depended on who
was able to get there and reserve
at the right time. When you talk
about institutional access, there
are people who don’t have access
to the University as a whole,” Garg
said. “For instance, Black student
involvement is less than 4 percent,
so if you’re looking at institutional
access, U of M is highly inaccessible
to Black people as a whole, let alone
people with multiple marginalized
identities.”
In the future, Wheeler hopes the
University can offer Black students
a chance to access events like these
slightly ahead of time.
TICKETS
From Page 1A
Read more at MichiganDaily.com
have libraries and museums and
the department of history,” he said.
“But it’s equally as important to
learn from the past. Right now, we
have a building that’s named after
someone who, if he were here today,
would have believed that thousands
of people who have walked these
grounds are unfit to be members of
society.”
CSG members discussed the
distinction between controversial
science
and
ideology
which,
presently, is no longer appropriate
to preserve.
Members affirmed the ideology
of C.C. Little’s work is against what
the University stands for as an
institution, and the act of changing
the
name
would
demonstrate
solidarity with the beliefs of the
current administration.
“One of the big things that I
find extremely troubling about
this situation is how normalized
the name is within the campus
community, so a lot of the times,
students don’t even realize that
buildings are named after vice
presidents, let alone the history
there,” said CSG Vice President
Nadine Jawad, a Public Policy
senior.
Engineering
sophomore
Zeke Majeske claimed since the
building’s name does not hold
significance to the vast majority of
the student population, this action
would ultimately be ineffective.
He
also
pointed
out
the
connection between C.C. Little
and Planned Parenthood founder
Margaret Sanger, who were both
part of the eugenics movement
but are not both condemned by
University students today.
He attempted to amend the
language of a section of the
resolution that connected C.C.
Little to the rhetoric which inspired
Nazism, arguing Little’s actions
historically preceded and thus were
not linked to the rise of Hitler. He said
C.C. Little was speaking in a scientific
context and Nazism appropriated
that thinking. However, the other
members did not join Majeske in his
amendment and it failed.
The original resolution eventually
passed, with 25 in favor and four
against renaming the C.C. Little
Building.
Majeske later said in an interview
with The Daily he had concerns with
the lack of historical context in the
resolution.
CSG
From Page 1A
Read more at MichiganDaily.com