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Friday, November 3, 2017 — 3A
and McFarland’s accounts —
according to the roommate, no
one had ever insulted Mansour
despite
McFarland
admitting
to having called Mansour the
expletive. He also said he never
heard a friend say the anti-gay
chants,
despite
McFarland’s
insisting another friend said
the slurs. The roommate did,
however, admit to urinating in
Mansour’s dog’s bowl.
The witness also said the
incidents in which the door was
knifed — also insisting it was
the night before the Michigan
State game — were caused by
a friend from New York that
had a schizophrenic episode
after drinking and going off his
medication.
On
the
conflicting
dates,
Conlin said he could not see a
beneficial reason for Mansour to
lie. He also said he plausibly could
not see how many people could
be involved and for the witness’s
friend to have that burst of energy
after being intoxicated since the
afternoon.
Business junior Serena Brown
attended the hearing in support
of Mansour.
“(My friends and I) are in the
same section as Matthew,” she
said. “I came to show support to
someone who is really sweet.”
Mansour later told the Daily he
was relieved by the verdict.
“I am glad that I am able to
move back into my apartment, go
back to my bed,” he said. “(I am
sad) that there were lies made in
the court today but the judge saw
through that pretty clearly and I
am glad that he gave me the PPO.”
Arnold Reed, who is the father
of LSA senior Arlyn Reed, one
of Mansour’s friends, said he
has known Mansour for many
years and never known him to
participate in unruly behavior.
“We are very, very happy,”
he said. “(Mansour) is a good,
nice kid ... I am not happy for
(McFarland) ... but he has to come
to justice and understanding.”
HEARING
From Page 1A
“One of the things (the Fair
Elections
Legal
Network)
noticed in trying to help remove
these barriers to registration
for
voting
for
underserved
populations was that students
were obviously a very big part
of that,” Burns said. “Back in
2012 we started the Campus
Vote Project to have the biggest
impact on that.”
The Campus Vote Project
aims to address the issue by
focusing on voter registration,
voter
education
and
voter
turnout efforts all in a non-
partisan or politically-neutral
way. Last year, the organization
started a program to train
colleges to increase these efforts.
According to Burns, they took
about 100 statements of interest
from campuses that wanted
to participate and ran those
schools through an educational
program on how to get students
to register and turn out to vote.
This year, after reviewing
feedback and looking at the
progress each campus made, the
Campus Vote Project gave the
designation of ‘Voter Friendly
Campus’ to 83 institutions. The
University of Michigan is not
included on this list.
“We’re
below
average,
Michigan is right now”
It’s not just local elections
that
are
forgotten
at
the
University. Turnout numbers for
the 2016 presidential election,
while
significantly
higher,
were still low among students.
According
to
the
National
Study of Learning, Voting and
Engagement report, only 44.7
percent
of
the
University’s
students voted last fall, and only
68.2 percent were registered.
Professor Edie Goldenberg, a
former dean of LSA and director
of the Ford School of Public
Policy, said she is concerned
about these figures. At a plenary
session of the Michigan Political
Science Association last week,
she participated in a panel
of students and faculty from
schools all over the state on the
topic of how to increase student
voting.
“Both
Oakland
University
and Wayne State University
have higher voter turnout rates
than University of Michigan and
Michigan State,” Goldenberg
said. “It’s our hope that we can
make our numbers improve and
become more respectable. We’re
below average, Michigan is right
now, based upon our 2016, our
2014, and our 2012 numbers
… for large public universities.
And Michigan doesn’t like to be
below average in anything.”
This
low
turnout
might
not be entirely students’ fault.
According
to
Goldenberg,
Michigan’s
voting
laws
are
unfriendly compared to other
states’. Michigan is classified
by voting advocacy group Rock
the Vote as a “blocker,” the
category of states that make it
most difficult for their residents
to vote. Michigan doesn’t have
same-day registration, online
registration — all things that
make it easier for people, and
especially students, to vote.
“Obviously it’s not the only
reason, because Wayne State
and Oakland did it, and they’re
in Michigan also,” Goldenberg
said. “The Wayne State Student
Government is very active; our
student government has been
very active. But we’re all working
together now on this Big 10
Voting challenge, and I think
that Michigan will do much
better going forward because we
have support from the President
on down, really.”
The Big 10 Voting Challenge,
an initiative started by University
President Mark Schlissel, has
turned voter turnout into a
competition among the fourteen
schools in the Big 10 Conference.
The winner will be determined
based on which school has the
highest turnout rate in the 2018
midterm elections.
This is just one way the
University is working to change
the voting narrative on campus.
Goldenberg is also working
with a group of about forty
students and faculty on the Turn
Up Turnout initiative, which
partners with TurboVote to get
students registered quickly and
runs workshops for college and
high school students to promote
voter education, and also puts a
tab for registration on Wolverine
Access.
“We set up tables at every
orientation session this summer
for new students and we helped
them access TurboVote and
get signed up,” she said. “This
means that in the mail, they’ll
receive a voter registration card
that is partially filled out, along
with a stamped envelope. It also
will provide them with election
reminders (for wherever they
register). We helped provide
access to about 15,000 students
this summer, and we’ve been
looking for opportunities to
table since then.”
One of the things Goldenberg
and the Turn Up Turnout team
have discovered is that certain
groups of students are more
likely to vote than others. STEM
students, for example, vote at
an even lower rate than that of
the entire University. Music,
Theatre & Dance junior David
Kamper,
a
science
student
himself, is working with Turn
Up Turnout and science policy
organization
314Action
to
develop programs that will
directly target the University’s
students in the sciences to show
them how important their vote
is.
“Science students are among
the worst student voter turnout,
just due to classes and the
questions about applicability,”
Kamper said. “One of our
initiatives we’re gonna really
hit hard come January 2018 is
‘From Lab to Booth,’ where we
get scientists in the community
and scientists in the University
to get out of the lab and back into
the voting booth.”
Kamper is still registered
to vote at home in Minnesota,
but plans on changing his
registration to Ann Arbor for
next year’s midterm elections.
“Voting and understanding
issues goes completely beyond
just voting for president every
four years.”
Even with the increased rates
of registration Goldenberg and
her team are trying to promote,
many students like Kamper are
choosing to register in their
hometowns. This only furthers
the lack of student involvement
in Ann Arbor politics.
Proving this point, Enrique
Zalamea, an LSA senior and
president of the University’s
chapter of College Republicans,
is registered in New Jersey. He
said, though, his organization
has done work for local elections
in the past. While they are
not campaigning for any City
Council candidates this year
(there are no Republicans on
the ballot), they have canvassed
for
gubernatorial
candidates
and state Senate candidates.
Zalamea thinks part of the
reason students are so inactive
when it comes to local elections
is because local officials aren’t
reaching out to them.
“I suppose you can take a
look at it in terms of the lack of
inaction from college students
in local level politics might be
because people from that level
don’t reach out to us,” Zalamea
said. “The Colbeck for Governor
campaign reached out to us …
If anyone from the local City
Council wanted to come speak
to us, then we’d be more than
happy to, if they wanted us to
volunteer for us or canvass, we’d
be more than happy to do that as
well. It’s been kind of silent on
their part.”
Public Policy senior Rowan
Conybeare,
chair
of
the
University’s chapter of College
Democrats, is also registered
to vote elsewhere. She said her
group has also not officially
helped
with
any
Council
campaigns this year, though
they have been contacted about
supporting ballot initiatives.
“We have been reached out
to on a few ballot initiatives that
are going up,” Conybeare said.
“We have not endorsed any. But
if someone reaches out to me and
asks if they can come talk about
a city issue, we always work with
them to inform our members
and get the word out.”
This idea of “getting the word
out” seems to be both the most
important and most challenging
piece of the puzzle for those who
are involved in city politics. LSA
senior Jeremy Glick sits on the
City Council Student Advisory
Committee, and he said the
committee
is
talking
about
not just how to get students
registered, but how to get them
informed.
“This is obviously something
we’re taking on with this new
registration challenge, but it’s
something we’ve also talked
about as well — about informing
students of what’s going on
at a local level,” Glick said.
“Especially when things like
rent prices, where buildings are,
how many units are available are
so important to us as students
are really formed at the council
level … One of the biggest things
I wish students would realize,
especially those who aren’t
from Michigan, or from this
part of Michigan, is that voting
and understanding issues goes
completely beyond just voting
for president every four years.”
LSA junior Sam Weinberg is
another member of the small
minority of students involved
in local politics. Serving as the
field director for Jared Hoffert’s
City Council campaign in Ann
Arbor’s 2nd Ward, Weinberg
echoed Glick’s message.
“I think there’s a lot of focus
— by all people but especially
young people — to focus on a
higher voter turnout in national
elections
rather
than
state
elections,” Weinberg said. “But
a lot of change can occur in
local elections, which I think is
underappreciated … I just wish
voter turnout was a lot higher.”
“I don’t think students
realize how much power they
have in town.”
Among
City
Council
candidates
themselves,
the
views on student involvement
are mixed.
Ann Arbor resident Diane
Giannola, currently running for a
Ward 4 seat on City Council, told
The Daily in a video interview
last week that she doesn’t feel
most of the city’s issues actually
apply to students.
“There’s only specific items
that are relevant to students,”
Giannola said. “I think people
make too big of a deal about
students not voting, because
I think most students still
have their licenses at their
home address, which is where
they’re politically involved… I
understand that students don’t
care about it. There’s nothing
that’s gonna get them out to vote.
But they can have a big impact
on those things that are right
around campus. But they have to
want to have an impact. We can’t
make them come out to vote.”
ELECTION
From Page 1A
leader of the resistance for all 14 …
but I’m tired of being the leader of
the resistance. It is time for us to
start setting the agenda.”
Rowan Conybeare, a Public
Policy senior and the chair of College
Democrats, said the attendance
at recent events for gubernatorial
candidates is encouraging and
could be a sign that Democrats will
win back seats in 2018.
“I’m really excited that the
various gubernatorial candidates
have wanted to come speak with us.
She is our third,” Conybeare said.
“I think we need to be careful, but
I think it could be indicative of the
democratic wave that everyone is
talking about in 2018. I do not think
it is a given. I think that students,
Democrats and Michigan as a whole
need to work just as hard as we
would have if we had won in 2016.”
An issue at the center of the
race is preventing post college
brain drain. In an interview with
the Daily, Whitmer discussed the
importance of making college more
affordable and, at some point, free.
“One of the things that I worked
on as a senate Democratic leader,
I authored a plan that I called
the Michigan 2020 plan which
would’ve provided free four-year
college for every Michigan student,”
Whitmer said. “That was something
that I’ve always been a champion
of and I know what that means
for young people pursuing their
dreams. … I think if we create those
opportunities here, that’s one of the
most important things we can do to
keeping young talent in Michigan.”
Following
the
monologue,
Whitmer spent majority of the
event answering questions from the
audience. In many of the questions,
especially
when
compared
to
Democratic
candidate
Abdul
El-Sayed, Whitmer emphasized
the amount of experience she
has in state government and how
that gives her a leg up on other
candidates.
Read more online at
michigandaily.com
Read more online at
michigandaily.com
CAMPAIGN
From Page 1A