One 
LSA 
freshman, 
who 

requested to remain anonymous, 
said he has paid almost $200, 
and will pay about another $400 
in courts costs and up to $1,000 
in probation fees. He also has to 
complete five days of community 
service, and though the student 
foresees a judge accepting his 
plea and giving him six to 12 
months of reporting probation, 
combined with regular drug 
and 
breathalyzer 
tests, 
the 

repercussions aren’t over.

This student has received 

two 
MIPs 
while 
attending 

the University. He grew up 
in Michigan and noted MIPs 
were treated differently in his 
hometown.

“I am from Michigan, and have 

been dealing with the old laws 
since I started drinking in high 
school senior year. In my county, 
one that hasn’t voted a Democrat 
into office since the 1800s, the 
consequences of a MIP were 
much higher than in Washtenaw,” 
he said.

Under previous law, those 

convicted of a MIP could have 
faced heavy fines, community 
service, enrollment in an alcohol 
education program or jail time 
if probation is violated. Now, the 
civil infraction carries a $100 
fine and no court appearance for 
violators, on par with a traffic 
ticket.

New Year’s Day new laws 

governing Minor in Possession 

of Alcohol offenses went into 
effect in Michigan, changing the 
crime from a misdemeanor to a 
civil infraction and reducing the 
penalties for underage across the 
state. The legislation first passed 
the Michigan Senate in the spring 
of 2016 and was signed by Gov. 
Rick Snyder in December 2017.

A blood alcohol content of 0.02 

or above for anyone under 21 years 
old constitutes a violation under 
the law. Though the first offense is 
now a civil infraction, the second 

offense remains a misdemeanor 
punishable by 30 days in jail, a 
$200 fine and a driver’s license 
suspension.

The legislation was sponsored 

by state Sen. Rick Jones, R-Grand 
Ledge, a former policeman. In 
an interview with the Detroit 
Free Press earlier this month, 
Jones said he wants to give young 
people a chance to make a mistake 
without obtaining a criminal 
history.

“As a former police officer, I 

would never try to put something 
in a law that would encourage 
young people to drink. But when 
college students go out to drink, 
they don’t think about committing 
a misdemeanor,” Jones said.

College 
towns 
consistently 

rank among the top districts 
for MIP citations in the state 
of Michigan. According to the 
Michigan State Police, 4,408 
people were charged with an MIP 
in 2016. From 2009-2013, a total 

University of Michigan student 

organization Michigan Pakistanis 
held a vigil Thursday night to 
honor Zainab Ansari, an eight-
year-old girl who was raped and 
murdered in Kasur, Pakistan last 
week. Around 25 students gathered 
on the Diag, which was adorned 
with candles in the shape of the 
Pakistani flag.

Ansari went missing Jan. 4 after 

leaving her home to attend Quranic 
studies. Police officials found her 
body five days later in a trash can. 
Her abuse and murder have set off 
protestsand riots across Pakistan, 
calling for the government to take 
more action to prevent similar 
crimes like this.

LSA senior Muneeb Shaikh, 

president of Michigan Pakistanis, 
noted how Ansari’s murder is not a 
unique case in in Pakistan. She was 
the eighth child who was raped and 
murdered in Kasur this year.

“This is part of a larger problem 

plaguing Pakistan right now,” 
Shaikh said. “There have been 
multiple documents of incidences 
of rape and murder to young girls.”

The vigil began with Shaikh 

michigandaily.com
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Friday, January 19, 2018

ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-SEVEN YEARS OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM

GOT A NEWS TIP?
Call 734-418-4115 or e-mail 
news@michigandaily.com and let us know.

INDEX
Vol. CXXVII, No. 58
©2018 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 VIGIL, Page 3

Brutally 
slain child 
lamented in 
Diag vigil 

CAMPUS LIFE

Student organization 
honors life and memory 
of 8-year-old Pakistani

ELIZABETH LAWRENCE

Daily Staff Reporter

New MIP law takes effect is expected to
correct discrepancies in enforcement

State legislature reduces penalties for minors caught in possession of alcohol

MAEVE O’BRIEN
Daily Staff Reporter

michigandaily.com

For more stories and coverage, visit

See MIP, Page 3
Professor of linguistics at 

Massachusetts 
Institute 
of 

Technology, Michel DeGraff 
thinks Haiti needs a paradigm 
shift. 

On 
Thursday 
night, 

approximately 75 people came 
to the Michigan League to hear 
DeGraff discuss prejudice and 
racism in linguistics at the 
Inaugural Martin Luther King 
Jr. Commemorative Lecture, 
held by the Department of 
Romance 
Languages 
and 

Literatures. 
His 
speech, 

titled “Can Our Black Lives 
Matter If Our Languages Do 
Not Matter?” focused on the 
suppression of Haitian Creole 
language in his native Haiti.

“As linguists, as scholars, 

the question for us is where is 
there injustice in this world 
today?” DeGraff said. “MLK 
Day should not be a celebration. 
It should be a call to action. It 
should be a day of passion.”

As director of the MIT-

Haiti Initiative – a nonprofit 
promoting 
STEM 
learning 

taught in Haitian Creole – 

See LINGUISTICS, Page 3

MIT prof. 
examines 
racism in 
linguistics

CAMPUS LIFE

Michel DeGraff points 
to stigmas of language 
as barriers in society

LEAH GRAHAM
Daily Staff Reporter

On 
Thursday 
afternoon, 

Michigan 
State 
University 

announced white supremacist 
Richard Spencer would be 
permitted to speak at the 
university on March 5. This 
decision comes as part of a 
lawsuit against MSU after 
it initially denied Spencer’s 
request to rent space at which 
to 
speak, 
citing 
security 

concerns in the wake of 
the 
white 
supremacist, 

“Unite the Right,” rally in 
Charlottesville, Virginia, in 
which one woman was killed. 
Kyle Bristow, an attorney 
representing Spencer’s team, 
dubbed the decision a victory 
for the “alt-right.”

“This is a resounding First 

Amendment victory for the 
Alt-Right,” Bristow said in 
an interview with the Detroit 
Free 
Press. 
“Left-wing 

censorship of right-wing ideas 
in academia is unacceptable.”

 

In 
a 
statement, 
MSU 

president Lou Anna Simon 
reaffirmed the university’s 
rejection of Spencer’s message 
and said the arrangement of 
the event was intended to 
minimize risk.

“This 
agreement 
was 

based 
on 
the 
university’s 

requirement that the event 
occur on a date and at a 
venue that minimizes the 
risk of violence or disruption 
to 
campus,” 
Simon 
said. 

“The security of our campus 
community remains our top 
priority and all appropriate 
security measures will be 
taken in connection with the 
event. Michigan State rejects 
this 
group’s 
divisive 
and 

racist messages and remains 
committed 
to 
maintaining 

a 
diverse 
campus 
and 

supporting an inclusive, just 
and democratic society.”

MSU 
and 
Spencer’s 

lawyers agreed to a two-hour 
speaking time from 4:30 p.m. 
to 6:30 p.m. in the Pavilion 
for Agriculture and Livestock 

MSU settles 
with Spencer 
to proceed 
with speech

Poet Claudia Rankine, dramaturg 
P. Carl talk racial themes in theater

See SPEECH, Page 3

JOSHUA HAN/Daily

Claudia Rankine discusses ways that contemporary theater and performance can catalyze and promote social justice in American at the Michigan Theater Thursday 

ROSEANNE CHAO/Daily

ADMINISTRATION

Parties agree to host two-hour event 
on first day of university’s spring break

REMY FARKAS
Daily Staff Reporter

Rankine’s “The White Card” strives to promote lasting conversations on race

Nearly every seat in the Michigan 

Theater’s main auditorium was 
filled Thursday night to hear poet 
and 
essayist 
Claudia 
Rankine 

discuss her transition from print 
to the stage, as part of the Penny 
Stamps Speaker Series.

Rankine was joined onstage by P. 

Carl, an accomplished theater artist, 
who collaborated with Rankine 
to bring her new play, “The White 
Card”, to the Emerson Paramount 

Center in Boston. The play is set to 
premiere on Feb.4.

“The White Card” follows the 

story of Charlotte Cummings, a 
Black artist who visits the home of 
two white prominent art dealers in 
New York City. The tensions that 
unfold around the dinner table 
when Charlotte arrives reflect 
Rankine’s interest in unpacking 
racism in everyday life.

Rankine also spoke about being 

on tour for her New York Times 
best-seller “Citizen: An American 
Lyric,” a collection of poetry that 
reflects racial aggressions in the 

21st century. Rankine noted her 
experience during question and 
answer sessions following her book 
readings were what inspired her 
play.

“The beginning of the process 

really began as I toured with 
‘Citizen’, I got to the point where 
the reading of ‘Citizen’ at these 
readings was the least interesting 
part for me,” Rankine said. “What I 
really wanted to hear was what the 
audience wanted to say.”

According 
to 
Rankine, 
the 

dynamic of these conversations 
elicited the central question of “The 

White Card”.

“That idea, how do you stage 

a conversation around race that 
continues, that doesn’t get shut 
down because of good manners 
or is able to ride the tide of good 
manners, and still come back to the 
questions on the table,” Rankine 
said. “That became the generator for 
‘The White Card’.”

Both Rankine and Carl grappled 

with the challenge of engaging 
theater attendees and maintaining 
an honest discourse of whiteness 
in America while working on “The 

SHANNON ORS
Daily Staff Reporter

See POET, Page 3