Hammoud, D-Dearborn, said 
students should use this issue 
as an opportunity to bring 
strong civil rights leaders to 
the University to overpower 
Spencer’s ideas with powerful 
representatives 
of 
racial 

equality.

Ann 
Arbor 
City 

Councilmember 
Zachary 

Ackerman, D-Ward 3, echoed 
this sentiment, stating the 
community should be focused 
on positive action rather than 
constant criticism.

“We need to focus on 

the benefits we can bring,” 
Ackerman said. “We need to 
stop being hyperfocused on 
the ‘alt-right’ failures and 
instead what we can do to 
make it better because the 
‘alt-right’ is more focused 
on us than Trump or his 
failures.”

Throughout the panel, the 

elected officials highlighted 
the importance of the voice of 
the student body.

“I believe that we can keep 

our idealism and passion. 
Hopefully we can bring them 
along or push them along,” 
Morgan 
said, 
regarding 

the importance of young 
perspectives 
in politics.

In a room 

where 
every 
seat was 
filled 
and 
several 
students 

were 
forced 
to 

stand, Brabec said 
she was encouraged 
to see how many 
students had come 
out 
in 
response 

to 
the 
situation 

despite the stress of 
finals.

LSA 
freshman 

Amy Ransom said 
she has participated in the 
week of action because she 
believes it is more important 
than everyday work.

“It’s important that no 

matter what is going on in 
our lives — finals or papers — 
we all participate and stand 
against this issue,” Ransom 
said.

Morgan said Spencer is 

representative 
of 
a 
much 

larger issue. In the past year, 
racist posters and graffiti 
have been found in multiple 
instances on campus.

“We are not as progressive 

as we should be,” Morgan 
said. “We should be the most 

progressive.”

Students and officials alike 

agreed 
the 
#StopSpencer 

campaign was nowhere near 
over and they would continue 
to discuss ways to combat his 
impending visit.

Earlier 
in 
the 
evening, 

the second teach-in of the 
Week of Action for Protest 
Safety Training was held 
in an East Quad Residence 
Hall classroom. The event 
was hosted in part by the 
Non-Compliance 
Collective, 

an Ann Arbor-based group 
which, 
according 
to 
its 

Facebook page, aims to “reject 
all compliance with the rules, 
regulations, and norms that 
any person or system intends 
to impose on our bodies, 
minds, or beings.”

The teach-in emphasized 

ways 
to 
stay 
safe 
and 

be 
prepared 
at 
protests. 

Attendees were advised to 
take 
several 
measures 
to 

protect themselves. Among 
other steps, they were advised 
to use a fake name while 
protesting and to not take 
photos or record any aspect of 
the protest.

Before the event began, 

attendees were asked basic 

questions, such as if 
they were students or 

police 

to 

ensure 
the 
safety 

of everyone in 
attendance. 
The 

speakers stressed that if 

a protester is going to talk to 
someone about their protest 
participation, it should be 
someone they trust.

Speakers 
told 
audience 

members to consider how 
far they would be willing to 
go to protest. For example, 
attendees 
were 
asked 
to 

consider if they would be 
willing 
to 
get 
arrested. 

Though the speakers noted 
it would be inconvenient to 
get arrested, they explained 
sometimes arrests and the 
attention they draw may serve 
to help the cause.

Additionally, 
speakers 

advised 
attendees 
to 
not 

bring their cell phones to the 
protests, but if they must, to 
disable the fingerprint and 
face 
recognition 
features, 

establish a strong passcode 

and encrypt data so the police 
do not have access to personal 
information in the event of an 
arrest.

Speakers also emphasized 

creating an affinity group — 
a small group of trustworthy 
people, with whom protests 
can be planned. 

Finally, 
the 
speakers 

discussed what the police 
strategies 
were 
like 
at 

University 
of 

Florida, which 

ultimately 
allowed 
Spencer 
on 
campus 

after 
facing 

a 
lawsuit, 

and how to be safe around the 
police. They also went over 
the basic booking process so 
the attendees will be prepared 
in case of being arrested and 
basic 
medical 
procedures, 

such as giving someone with 
symptoms of hypothermia a 
jacket, and help for protecting 
their identity and avoiding 
a 
higher 
police 
presence. 

To conclude, the speakers 
stressed the importance of 
these procedures is so the 
protestors are able to take 
care of each other and get 
their message across in the 
most impactful way possible.

In cooperation with the 

teach-in’s advice to engage 
in self-protection measures, 
after 
the 
event, 
student 

attendees asked to remain 
anonymous.

“I think it’s important to 

give people, protesters, the 
idea that this a big deal,” a 
student said. “It is important 
to have knowledge of this 
matter, particularly because 
the other side has knowledge 
on 
that 
matter 
and 
so 

everything about this is all 
about information and so 

the more information 

you have the more 
successful 
you’ll 

be.” 

Another student 

emphasized 
the 

importance 
of 

ensuring 
safety 

and strategy while 

protesting, 

reiterating 

the 
key 

concepts 
put forth 
in 
the 

event.

“This 

is important 
because 
it’s 

a 
reality 

that 
might 

happen, 
the 

protest, 
and 
if 
you 

choose 
to 

participate 
in it or not 
you want to 
know 
how 

to stay safe 
and 
keep 

others 
safe 

so it’s just a logical way 
to protest — not just on 
a whim, but have a plan 
going into it,” the student 
said.

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News
Friday, December 1, 2017 — 3

ALEC COHEN/Daily

Professor K. Rivet Amico, Health Behavior and Higher Education research 
associate, speaks at the World AIDS Day Panel in the School of Public Health 
Thursday.

AIDS AWARE NESS

currently 
serving 
member 

of Congress, is considered a 
prominent civil rights activist, 
and some worry these allegations 
will discredit the advancements 
he has made for the Civil Rights 
movement. However, Pelosi stood 
by a zero tolerance perspective 
regardless of the consequences.

“The 
allegations 
against 

Congressman 
Conyers, 
as 

we’ve heard more and more 
since 
Sunday, 
are 
serious, 

disappointing and very credible,” 
she said. “It’s very sad. A brave 
woman came forward. … Zero 
tolerance means consequences 
for everyone — no matter how 
great a legacy is no license to 
harass or discriminate.”

However, Conyers’ attorney, 

Arnold Reed, argued members 

of Congress should hold no stake 
in whether or not Conyers leaves 
office, but rather it should be the 
choice of his constituents.

“It is not up to Nancy Pelosi, 

Nancy Pelosi did not elect Mr. 
Conyers,” Reed said in a press 
conference, according to NBC. 
“And she sure as hell won’t be 
the one to tell the congressman 
to leave.”

Fellow longtime member of 

the Congressional Black Caucus, 
U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn, D-S.C., 
and U.S. Rep. Bill Huizenga, 
R-Mich., also agreed Conyers 
should step down. Still, the rest 
of 
Michigan’s 
congressional 

delegation has yet to make a 
statement on Conyers since last 
week’s allegations.

Conyers has already stepped 

down from his seat as the 
ranking member of the House 
Judiciary Committee, and was 
hospitalized Thursday morning 
due to to stress.

CONYERS
From Page 1

unnecessarily defensive.

LSA senior Hoai An Pham, 

the press coordinator for the 
Stop Spencer at the University 
of Michigan coalition, said 
Martin’s disinclination to send 
the message that Spencer’s 
trolling matters was akin to 
calls to ignore Spencer and his 
followers. She said this would 
only allow Spencer’s ideas to 
flourish.

“I think what a lot of people 

have been saying is, ‘Why 
don’t you just ignore him? 
Why don’t you just ignore this 
and let him do his thing?’ Are 
we supposed to just ignore 
actual Nazis when anything 
has happened? Do we just say, 
‘Oh, it’ll solve itself?’ ” Pham 
said. “Let’s look at everything 
else that has happened in 
history. We can look at what 

happened with Hitler, we 
can look at slavery — a lot of 
people sat there and said we’re 
going to let this happen, but 
if everybody had done that, if 
everyone had said, ‘Let’s just 
let them do their thing,’ it 
never would have ended.”

Students also noted Martin 

wasn’t answering questions 
directed 
at 
him, 
instead 

letting Dillard answer for him.

“We’ve asked you questions 

explicitly, and she answers,” 
one student said. “Not saying 
that she has to or you’re making 
her, but I’m just saying that 
you’re not saying anything. 
And it’s frustrating.”

Following a long silence, 

Martin 
answered, 
“What 

questions can I address?” to 
audible expressions of further 
frustration from students.

After Martin said there 

wasn’t anything happening 
on campus Thursday that 
put students in any physical 

danger, 
students 
said 
the 

administration 
didn’t 

correctly 
understand 
their 

concerns or what they were 
protesting.

“So you think people are 

lying? 
You 
think 
people 

are 
lying 
that 
they 
feel 

unsafe? That’s what is really 
frustrating — that people here 
are literally telling you they 
feel unsafe and you’re saying 
that you don’t think it’s true,” 
a student replied.

Pham said the issue was 

also bigger than just Spencer’s 
request.

“I think that what the 

administration 
don’t 

understand is that this entire 
week was not only to stop 
Spencer, but to stop white 
supremacy and to stop the 
white supremacy that already 
exists on this campus,” she 
said. “We do not feel safe 
in classrooms where people 
wake up in the morning and 
there’s the n-word written 
on their door decorations. 
They need to understand that 
it’s not us just doing this for 
fun. We don’t have a choice 
as students when we have to 
protest our own fundamental 
human rights.”

After one student started 

speaking through a bullhorn, 
Martin and Dillard left the 
room. It was symbolic, a 
student said, that they could 
step out while the students 
were still there protesting.

STRIKE
From Page 2

CHUN SO/Daily

Waste platform, which aimed 
to 
provide 
resources 
and 

information for other people to 
join the zero waste movement. 
In the spring of 2016, Samuel 
was chosen to give a TED Talk at 
the TEDxUofM event about his 
journey and living zero waste. The 
talk helped to publicize Live Zero 
Waste on campus and catalyze the 
development of the website.

The 
McMullen 
siblings 

continued to run and grow the 
platform by themselves until fall 
2017, when Samuel enrolled in an 
entrepreneurship course in which 
students form groups and create 
something based on an idea. It 
was here that McMullen met 
Business senior Debbie Cheng, 
along 
with 
four 

other students, to 
help cultivate Live 
Zero Waste.

“I looked on his 

website, I saw the 
TED Talk, and I 
was really amazed 
by it,” Cheng said. 
“I wanted to be 
part of it because 
(Sam) was super 
proactive 
and 

passionate 
about 

it 
and 
I 
really 

saw 
that 
we 

could really make 
something big on 
campus and around the globe.”

Cheng works on the business 

development side of Live Zero 
Waste, reaching out to local 
businesses such as Lucky’s Market 
and Roo’s Roast to advertise 
the brand. Two other students 
work on developing the website 
and a mobile application, while 
another student, who is from 
France, brings an international 
perspective, as European culture 
and institutions are more zero-
waste friendly.

Engineering 
junior 
Brett 

Swiecicki is one of the members 
working 
to 
create 
a 
mobile 

application 
which 
will 
allow 

people to share their experience 
going 
waste-free 
and 
access 

helpful resources. by allowing 
users to post to the app when they 
make a change. The application 
would help involve millennials in 
the movement, Live Zero Waste’s 

target audience.

“The main motive to develop 

the app was so that it would be 
easier for users to maintain track 
of their progress and have easier 
access to educational content on 
a variety of different platforms,” 
Swiecicki said.

The application would ideally 

involve a social media aspect in 
which people could post when 
they’ve made progress toward 
living waste-free for their friends 
to see.

“It really relies on having a 

network effect to be successful,” 
Cheng said. “Once you have your 
friends doing it makes it a lot 
easier to try it.”

The McMullens and Cheng 

hope Live Zero Waste can help 
increase awareness and action 
among students and community 
members who may already be 

environmentally 
conscious, 
but 

don’t 
know 
how 

to 
change 
their 

lifestyles to reflect 
their beliefs.

“Mostly 
it’s 

getting 
the 

awareness 
that 

your 
purchasing 

decision 
causes 

a 
huge 
network 

effect 
that 
most 

people don’t think 
about,” 
Samuel 

said. “I didn’t think 
about it.”

Going 
forward, 

the team hopes to use the 
University community as a launch 
pad for Live Zero Waste.

“The local community here is 

our first step,” Cheng said. “Once 
we’ve got the website and the 
mobile application off the ground, 
which we’ve made a lot of good 
strides, but we want to improve it 
more, we can reach a bigger area.”

Even if only for a short period 

of time, Live Zero Waste hopes 
to encourage people to try out 
a waste-free lifestyle so they 
have heightened awareness of 
consumption habits and make 
more sustainable choices in the 
future.

“It’s really just about getting 

over the hump rather than trying 
to just focus on a few people doing 
it for like years and years and 
years,” Cheng said. “It’s let’s try 
to get them to do it for a day, then 
a week, a month, a year.”

PLATFORM
From Page 1

up an academic dialogue in 
order to achieve that goal,” 
she wrote in an email.

The 
federal 
government 

accounts for 54.8 percent of 
the University’s expenditure 
for research and development, 
while other sources include 
state and local government, 
institution funds, businesses 
and nonprofit organizations.

LSA 
freshman 
Annika 

Mursten 
works 
with 

UROP, 
investigating 
small 

screen 
media 
and 
scroll 

culture, 
focusing 
largely 

on social media businesses 
like BuzzFeed as well as 
individual 
consumption 
of 

this media. She expressed 
enthusiasm 
for 
continuing 

her work next semester, and 
has continued to expand her 
interests in behavioral and 
social research.

“Whether 
we 
notice 
it 

or not, while watching our 
favorite pizza and late night 
snack videos, we are absorbing 

heavy 
product 
placement 

and advertising,” she said. 
“Overall, I am very thankful 
to be participating in research 
and I know that I wouldn’t be 
able to have this experience at 
any other place.”

LSA 
senior 
Jensyn 

VanZalen 
works 
with 

the 
Extracorporeal 
Life 

Support 
Program 
and 

researches 
extracorporeal 

membrane 
oxygenation 

there, 
investigating 
the 

development 
of 
artificial 

placenta, 
cardiopulmonary 

resuscitation 
and 
neonatal 

artificial 
lungs. 
She 

recognized the value of having 
undergraduate 
involvement 

in research at the University, 
especially 
in 
collaboration 

with research professionals, 
all at different stages within 
their own careers.

“I would love to see U-M 

research 
to 
continue 
to 

reach out to more of the 
undergraduate 
population 

to get involved, because I 
can attest to how invaluable 
my 
experience 
has 
been, 

being involved in research,” 
VanZalen said. 

RESEARCH
From Page 1

TEACH-INS
From Page 1

It’s important that 

no matter what 
is going on in our 

lives - finals or 
papers - we all 
participate and 

stand against this 

issue

Are we supposed 

to just ignore 

actual Nazis when 

anything has 
happened?

The main motive 

to develop the 

app was so that it 
would be easier 

for users to 

maintain track of 

their progress

