Live Zero Waste is an 

online platform that provides 
resources and tools for those 
interested in living a waste-
free lifestyle, started by LSA 
senior Samuel McMullen and 
his older sister, University 
of 
Michigan 
alum 
Lydia 

McMullen, in 2016. The Live 
Zero Waste team has recently 
grown and is now composed of 
six students who are working 
to increase the initiative’s 
presence online, on campus 
and in the greater Ann Arbor 
community.

Samuel 
first 
pledged 
to 

live “zero waste”, a lifestyle 
that entails generating no 
disposable waste and reusing 
resources, during the summer 
of 
2015. 
His 
sister 
was 

writing a paper on renewable 
energy policy in Beijing as a 
side project for the Natural 
Resources Defense Council, 
and she brought him along as 
a research assistant. Together, 
they gave a presentation on 
how living zero waste benefits 
the environment.

In 
researching 
for 
the 

presentation, Samuel started 
to learn how the vast majority 
of waste is caused by the 
production chain that yields a 
purchased good.

“We started looking at the 

numbers and how much trash 
you can save not downstream 
but upstream of where you 

are,” he said. “By not buying 
this 
thing 
you 
prevented 

all the trash that went into 
making it.”

As part of the presentation, 

both Lydia and Sam pledged to 
live zero waste for a year.

“Part of her presentation 

training was to make a promise 
and a request,” Samuel said. 
“We 
decided 
our 
promise 

would be that we would do 
zero waste for a year, and our 

request was that other people 
join for like some amount of 
time if they wanted to. At the 
NRDC we got our first round 
of pledges.”

After pledging to live zero 

waste themselves and learning 
more about the lifestyle, the 
McMullen 
siblings 
became 

invested in educating other 
people and enabling them to 
lead more sustainable lives.

“After 
we 
did 
that 

presentation we thought, ‘This 
is a pretty good idea, let’s work 
with it and make it a process 
where people can pledge and 
we’ll help them out,’” he said. 
“A lot of the struggle with 
zero waste is finding other 
resources and figuring out 
what it actually means.”

Throughout the following 

year, the two worked on 
developing 
the 
Live 
Zero 

The University of Michigan 

was ranked No. 1 in research 
and 
development 
spending 

among 
all 
U.S. 
public 

universities by the National 
Science Foundation, marking 
the 
University’s 
seventh 

consecutive year holding this 
title. Following the University 
is University of California, San 
Francisco, and University of 
Washington, Seattle.

In the 2016 fiscal year, the 

University spent $1,436,448 
dollars 
in 
research 
and 

development, surpassing UCSF 
by more than $100,000.

LSA 
junior 
Gaby 
Fabré 

works with research in the 
political science department, 
and expressed her appreciation 
of the research opportunities 
available 
for 
students 
on 

campus.

“Research 
is 
important 

because it allows for both 
individuals and communities 
to take that extra step forward 
in providing an understanding 
of a bigger picture in the grand 
scheme of things. It also opens 

michigandaily.com
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Friday, December 1, 2017

ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-SEVEN YEARS OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM

GOT A NEWS TIP?
Call 734-418-4115 or e-mail 
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INDEX
Vol. CXXVII, No. 40
©2017 The Michigan Daily

N E WS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

O PI N I O N . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

A R T S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

S U D O K U . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

CL A S S I F I E DS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

S P O R T S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

See RESEARCH, Page 3

‘U’ receives 
recognition 
in research
endeavors

RESEARCH

University places first for
its efforts in research 
development and spending

KATHERINA SOURINE

Daily Staff Reporter

ALEC COHEN/Daily

LSA senior Samuel McMullen and Ross senior Debbie Cheng share their reasons for becoming more environmentally 
friendly in Ross Tuesday.

Student, alum launch online platform 
to help others live a waste-free lifestyle

McMullen siblings started the website based on their own waste-free experiences

MAEVE O’BRIEN
Daily Staff Reporter

michigandaily.com

For more stories and coverage, visit

See PLATFORM, Page 3

Three 
Michigan 

representatives 
are 
now 

calling for their colleague, U.S. 
Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., to 
resign following allegations of 
sexual harassment.

U.S. 
Rep. 
Dan 
Kildee, 

D-Mich., 
was 
the 
first 

Democratic congressman from 
Michigan to urge Conyers step 
down from the seat he first 
won in 1964, telling CNN the 
people cannot tolerate an act 
that is an abuse of power. 

“I 
think 
Congressman 

Conyers should resign,” Kildee 
said on CNN. “No person … 
should have to tolerate what 
has been alleged.”

Kildee is now joined by U.S. 

Reps. Debbie Dingell, D-Mich., 
and Sander Levin, D-Mich., in 
that request, according to the 
Detroit Free Press.

Many other members of 

Congress 
have 
called 
for 

Conyers’s resignation as well, 
including 
House 
Speaker 

Paul Ryan, R-Wis., and House 
Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, 
D-Calif. Conyers, the longest 

See CONYERS, Page 3

MI Dems, 
Pelosi call 
for Conyers
resignation

GOVERNMENT

Statements by Kildee, Levin 
and Dingell follow sexual 
harassment allegations

CARLY RYAN

Daily Staff Reporter

During a panel of local 

elected 
officials 
in 
the 

weeklong 
#StopSpencer 

campaign, 
officeholders 

discussed how to combat hate 
speech and white nationalism 
without providing a platform 
for a negative ideology, a 
conversation that was held as 
park of a teach-in. The teach-
in was just one event of their 
“Week of Action” protesting 
the University of Michigan’s 
consideration to allow white 
supremacist Richard Spencer 
to speak on campus if a safe 
venue and time is found.

Many students expressed 

their frustration regarding 
how to proceed in the face of 
deciding between protesting if 
Richard Spencer were to visit 
and therefore providing him 
with a platform or allowing 
Spencer to spread his ideas 
without resistance.

“This is the tip of the 

iceberg,” 
said 
state 
Rep. 

Yousef Rabhi, D-Ann Arbor in 
response. “Richard Spencer is 
the tip of the iceberg. Richard 
Spencer is just a mouthpiece.”

Rabhi cited the fact that 

Ann Arbor is the fourth 
highest metropolitan city in 
terms of racial segregation.

“This 
is 
real 
and 
it’s 

happening here,” Rabhi said. 
“I hope we stop Spencer, but I 
hope it doesn’t stop there.”

Many 
elected 
officials 

such as Washtenaw County 
Commissioners Felicia Brabec 
and Jason Morgan, and Rabhi, 
argued for students to stand 
strong and not provide a 
platform for Spencer’s hate 
speech. The officials argued 
students need to find a way 
to be heard without giving 
a voice to white supremacy, 
whether by forcing Spencer 
to speak to an empty room of 
people, or offering alternative 
rallies 
preaching 
positive 

ideologies.

State 
Rep. 
Abdullah 

Teach-ins 
emphasize 
safety while 
protesting

Students strike, 
conduct sit-in to 
protest Spencer

See TEACH-INS, Page 3

AYUSH THAKAR/Daily

HALEY MCLAUGHLIN/Daily

CHUN SO/Daily

DANYEL THARAKAN/Daily

CAMPUS LIFE

WEEK OF ACTION

Events Thursday focused on protester 
rights, safety for possible Spencer visit

ZOE BAXTER 
& GRACE KAY

For the Daily

Week of action against white supremacist 
Richard Spencer closes with strike on class

On Thursday, students across 

campus participated in a strike 
as part of the #StopSpencer 
week of action. The event, hosted 
in part by Students4Justice — a 
student 
organization 
whose 

mission is to hold the University 
of 
Michigan 
administration 

accountable for inequities on 
campus — consisted of class 
cancelations, accommodations 
and a student sit-in.

On Nov. 23, Students4Justice 

and other organizers called 
for faculty, graduate student 
instructors, research assistants 
and staff to cancel classes 
Thursday 
to 
pressure 
the 

administration to deny Richard 
Spencer’s request to speak on 
campus, following its decision 
to consider allowing him to 
speak if a safe time and venue is 
found.

“The 
recent 
decision 
to 

‘begin discussions with Richard 
Spencer’s group to determine 
whether he will be allowed to 
rent space’ on the University 
of 
Michigan’s 
campus 

demonstrates, 
as 
we 
have 

learned time and time again, the 
administration’s refusal to truly 
prioritize the needs and safety 

of its students,” the statement 
read. “Though President Mark 
Schlissel stated ‘if we cannot 
assure a reasonably safe setting 
for the event, we will not allow 
it to go forward,’ Spencer’s 
history shows us there is no 
‘safe’ setting possible when 
white supremacists and neo-
Nazis are given permission to 
come to college campuses.”

The 
groups 
explained 

that 
marginalized 
students 

on campus are in danger of 
hate crimes on campus every 
day; they fall victim to racist 
flyering, graffiti and slurs. They 
explained students come to the 
University to learn and when 
individuals like Spencer are 
allowed to convene on campus, 
there is a “barrier” to their 
existence and education.

“We ask that you stand in 

solidarity with us, marginalized 
folx 
across 
campus 
and 

the broader community, by 
canceling 
class, 
discussions, 

labs and any other academic 
obligations on Thursday, Nov. 
30, 2017,” the statement read.

On 
Tuesday, 
LSA 
Dean 

Andrew Martin and Elizabeth 
Birr Moje, dean of the School of 
Education, announced classes 
would not be canceled Thursday 
in response to the ongoing 
activities opposing Spencer.

Martin and Moje wrote in 

ANDREW HIYAMA 

&KATE JENKINS
Daily Staff Reporters

See STRIKE, Page 2