Opinion
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
4— Tuesday, January 23, 2018

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EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS

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Sarah Khan

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Anu Roy-Chaudhury

Ali Safawi

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Kevin Sweitzer

Rebecca Tarnopol

Stephanie Trierweiler

Ashley Zhang

M

y first class of the 
winter semester was 
an 8:30 a.m. physics 

class. I sat in the middle row — 
toward the right side — and sipped 
my coffee, hoping that the caffeine 
would kick in soon so I could make 
it through that first day. After the 
lecture ended, I started packing 
my notebook away and took stock 
of the room. There were only 
about 15 people in the class, all 
of whom were men, which was 
strange to me. There usually is not 
a high representation of women in 
most of the physics classes I have 
taken, but this is the first time 
that I had a class exclusively with 
men. It was almost as if, when I 
stepped through the door of that 
classroom, I had been transported 
back in time.

This got me thinking about 

other classes I have taken as 
a physics student. There were 
always more men than women 
in these classes, and my major 
definitely lacks diversity with 
respect to gender. In recent years 
there has been a big push to get 
women into STEM fields, and 
there has been progress, but what 
more can be done?

To answer this question, I 

wanted to understand some of 
the experiences women have 
to go through in their scientific 
careers. On Tuesday, Jan. 16 I 
sat down to talk with Christine 
Aidala, an associate professor 
in the department of physics, 
about her experiences and her 
journey to where she is now. 
Aidala’s research is focused on 
nucleon structure and quantum 
chromodynamics, the theory of 
the strong nuclear force.

We started our conversation 

talking about her undergraduate 
experience. Aidala attended Yale 
in the late ‘90s. When I asked 
her if there were any programs 
that promoted women in science, 
she said she was never aware of 
any, and it just wasn’t something 
that was talked about at the time. 
There weren’t many women in her 
classes either.

“I was definitely in the minority 

in a lot of my classes,” Aidala said. 
“It was more extreme among 
the faculty. There was only one 
woman who was in the faculty in 
the physics department, and there 
were over 50 faculty total.”

During this time, it was no 

surprise that women were the 
minority in undergraduate science 
and engineering programs. It 
was also common to have few, if 
any, women mentors within your 
own department. According to 
the National Science Foundation 
and their 2016 indicators report, 
in 1993 only 9.7 percent of 
full professors of science and 
engineering in the United States 
were women. It is better now, 
but still not amazing. According 
to the same report, women held 
only 24.2 percent of these full 
professor positions in 2013. I hope, 
as do many people in science, 
that this trend will continue as 
younger women in science and 

engineering rise to positions of 
greater leadership.

However, it is hard to close 

this gap if women feel that 
they are in an unwelcoming 
environment. Aidala said that the 
physics department at Yale was 
overall supportive of its students, 
no matter what gender, but 
sometimes it just takes one bad 
experience or one awful person to 
make you feel uneasy.

“I had issues with harassment by 

one engineer, 20 years older than 
me, in the physics department,” 
Aidala said. “I was fortunate that 
a senior professor saw what was 
going on, intervened and helped 
me. I didn’t say anything to him 
directly because it gets tricky to 
figure out what to say and when.”

When Aidala was telling me 

this story, I began to realize how 
hard it would be for someone 
to speak out against this type 
of behavior. This past year has 

seen a great wave of women 
sharing their experiences and 
people coming together to back 
up these women. This amount 
of support was not present while 
Aidala was an undergrad, and 
without it, it’s hard to know 
where to turn if incidents occur. 
Part of the barrier to entry of a 
scientific field can be that feeling 
of not belonging because of an 
experience such as this one.

When you do have support, 

however, it can boost your 
confidence and make you feel 
accepted. 
When 
Aidala 
was 

in her Ph.D. program, she and 
her husband wanted to start a 
family. She was not sure what 
the reaction would be from 
people she worked with when 
she told them that she was 
pregnant. Except for one person 
who explicitly told her she was 
ruining her career, she received 
a great amount of support from 
everyone. This made it easy to 

brush off the negative comments.

“When I told my senior 

professor in my thesis group, 
he said, ‘This will be a first 
for the Department of Energy 
group!’” Aidala said. “It was as 
if the group was having a baby. 
It was unexpected, but it 
was a really unambiguous 
expression of support.”

In the final minutes of our 

interview, I asked Aidala if she 
thought that the University of 
Michigan is currently doing 
enough to accept women into 
scientific fields or if there was 
more to be done.

“I think there should be a place 

to study physics here for everyone 
who wants to,” Aidala said. “I 
think we can always do more 
to be welcoming of everyone, 
and not just in physics, but 
everywhere,” Aidala said, noting 
that an accepting environment 
will lead to more women, or 

anyone for that matter, pursuing 
scientific research.

Exposing young students to 

women scientists and creating 
programs to inspire young women 
to pursue science are great ways to 
increase representation in STEM 
fields, but there is something that 
every single person can do. Treat 
everyone with respect. Every 
professor, every graduate student, 
even every undergraduate student 
currently studying a scientific 
field needs to make an effort to 
welcome more women into their 
area of science. Reach out; be 
interested in what someone has 
to say and respect boundaries. 
Offer your own support, because 
while big university programs are 
a great resource, it all comes down 
to individual interactions and 
connections between people.

Respect will draw more women into STEM

ROBERT DALKA | COLUMN

Robert Dalka can be reached at 

rpdalka@umich.edu.

I 

was first introduced to the 
concept of a cooperative while 
researching campus life at 

various universities during high 
school. I stumbled upon the website 
of the University of California-
Berkeley’s Lothlorien, which seemed 
nothing short of magical: a house in 
which roughly 60 students cook and 
share living space with one another, 
refer to themselves as “elves,” hang 
out in their very own tree house and 
contribute to a communal mural.

Since coming to the University 

of Michigan, I’ve gotten more 
familiar with the sizes, forms and 
functions of cooperative businesses 
and organizations. Many co-ops 
are nestled throughout Ann Arbor, 
like 
the 
People’s 
Food 
Co-op 

grocery store, the University of 
Michigan Credit Union and the 
16 student houses operated by the 
Inter-Cooperative 
Council. 
The 

ICC also hosts the North American 
Students of Cooperation conference 
each year, in which members from 
student housing co-ops across the 
continent stay in Ann Arbor for 
a weekend, hold workshops and 
discuss issues pertinent to the 
cooperative movement.

According to the ICC’s website, 

co-ops exist in a range of sectors 
and are alike in being “owned and 
operated collectively, for the mutual 
benefit of their members.” Housing 
co-ops specifically run on principles 
such as affordability, democratic 
membership 
and 
participation, 

sustainability, political engagement, 
individual 
contribution 
and 

community-building.

I’m now closing out my second 

year living at Vail, a stucco Kerrytown 
home framed by several porches 
on the outside, a maze of hallways 
on the inside and a backyard fondly 
described by house members as a 
jungle. As I search the web of housing 
options for my first post-university 
home in Cincinnati, I can’t find too 
many intentional communities in 
the area.

And though I’m disappointed, 

I’m not surprised. Co-ops are a niche 
housing option and account for only 
about one percent of all housing 
units in the United States. They’re 

more common in some major cities, 
such as New York City and Chicago, 
but much harder to find in other 
areas. Moreover, public knowledge 
of cooperative living is lacking; ICC 
houses aren’t well known as a living 
option among most students even 
here in Ann Arbor, where they’ve 
existed since the 1930s and housed 
over 20,000 people.

Cooperative housing models lie 

on a spectrum of affordability and 
degree of shared space and co-living 
situations somewhat overlap with 
housing co-ops in style. I believe 
the ICC and other student housing 
co-ops set an example by consciously 
intersecting 
a 
commitment 
to 

affordability 
and 
intentional 

community building. This, in turn, 
creates a uniquely sustainable and 
enjoyable kind of living environment 
that should expand beyond the realm 
of college campuses, for people of 
any age.

Firstly, co-ops offer an affordable 

alternative to typical living situations, 
like apartments or dorms. According 
to MLive, rent for off-campus 
housing in Ann Arbor averages at 
$1,085 per month for a four-bedroom 
unit to $1,402 per month for a studio 
apartment. Co-ops are by far the 
cheapest housing option for students 
living in Ann Arbor itself, mitigating 
their need to commute from a 
nearby town with lower average 
rent like Ypsilanti.

They essentially keep costs low 

through member ownership, as 
opposed to paying rent to an external 
landlord, and pooling resources for 
bulk food and amenities. My house 
charges have averaged around $600 
per month. This encompasses rent 
for a fully furnished room, utilities 
and a meal plan that includes several 
dinners per week and guff (general 
unspecified free food) items.

It goes without saying that 

affordability is meaningful for college 
students. But for anyone who is of 
lower socioeconomic status, or unable 
to afford steep rent in areas with a 
high cost of living or simply looking to 
save money, this setup gives them an 
incomparable opportunity and relief.

Secondly, co-ops tap into people’s 

fundamental need to be social and 

spend time with one another. The 
spirit of shared experiences and 
inclusion I have seen in the co-ops 
has completely altered my experience 
as an upperclassman. Living in a 
co-op has given me a network of 
friends with shared interests and 
an integrated support system. Lara 
Moehlman’s piece in the Daily on ICC 
culture and history further illustrates 
how the structure and traditions 
of co-ops establish a sense of home 
within a large college campus.

I’ve 
loved 
studying 
with 

housemates in our peach-colored 
living room, discovering our bin of 
nutritional yeast and sprinkling it 
on our shared dinners, hosting open 
mics where friends show off their 
musical talent, hugging our giant 200-
year old oak tree, munching on guff 
berries, beautifying our home during 
“work holiday,” exploring other 
members’ rooms during themed 
in-house progressive parties and 
impromptu swims at the docks along 
the Huron River.

My visits to other co-ops have felt 

just as special — lounging in Owen’s 
hammocks, petting cats at Ruths, 
fetching free Zingerman’s bread for 
Linder, hula hooping at Debs, playing 
in Black Elk’s ball pit and grooving at 
Truth’s pajama parties.

These 
kinds 
of 
experiences 

thrive when people pool resources 
and space, build a mindset of 
interdependence, work to further 
a shared purpose and develop a 
common culture. For example, 
Vail focuses on sustainability, with 
vegetarian meals, a compost pile 
and a garden. Many members are 
politically active and our basement 
serves as a music venue for local 
artists

Other ICC co-ops come together 

with 
different 
missions 
and 

atmospheres, but their common 
emphasis 
on 
affordability 
and 

community can set an example for 
future homes in the U.S. These kinds 
of cooperative lifestyles should be 
available to people of all ages — I 
hope to find more of them cropping 
up soon.

Bring co-ops beyond the realm of college

STEPHANIE TRIERWEILER | COLUMN

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national, state and campus affairs.

Stephanie Trierweiler can be 

reached at strier@umich.edu.

T

he Thursday before last, 
President 
Trump 
met 

with lawmakers in the 

Oval Office to discuss a bipartisan 
immigration plan. The plan involved 
cutting the visa lottery in half, with 
the rest going to underrepresented 
countries in Africa and Temporary 
Protective 
Status 
nations 
such 

as Haiti. Sources who attended 
the meeting have confirmed the 
president 
made 
the 
following 

statements: In reference to the people 
from Africa included in the plan, 
Trump stated: “Why do we want all 
these people from ‘shithole countries’ 
coming here?” Furthermore, Trump 
specifically targeted people from 
Haiti when he said, “Why do we need 
more Haitians? Take them out.”

To say that these statements 

are 
“insensitive” 
is 
a 
gross 

understatement. A better description 
would be deplorable, disgraceful, 
shameful and, not to mention, 
inaccurate. The entire incident 
is reflective of an administration 
with failing character. It is 
reflective of a current mindset 
in this country that is racist, 
uninformed and narrow-minded.

Over the past year, I have noticed 

a disturbing pattern on the news. 
Every day, there is a new story about 
President Trump, and it is always 
something more shocking than the 
previous day. It makes watching the 
news feel like more of a reality TV 
show than “Keeping Up with the 
Kardashians,” and the shock value 
of his recent comments about Africa 
and Haiti undoubtedly boosted 
ratings. However, the presidency 
was not created for the purpose of 
entertainment. The president of the 
United States is regarded as the most 
powerful leader in the modern world. 
We are treating this presidency like 
our very own reality TV show.

Enough is enough. The American 

people are not an audience of viewers. 
The 
consequences 
of 
Trump’s 

behavior are vast, and someone needs 
to hold him accountable before it is 
too late.

The first step in holding the 

president 
accountable 
for 
his 

dangerous behavior requires being 
informed enough to dispel his never-
ending spout of lies. As Africa and 
Haiti are his most recent targets, let’s 
use them as an example. It is unclear 
how the president himself determines 
whether or not a country is a shithole. 
However, if we look at some basic data 

on global development, his ignorance 
on the matter becomes pretty clear. 
The president probably doesn’t know 
that, according to Business Insider, 
“six of the world’s 10 fastest growing 
economies of the past decade are in 
sub-Saharan Africa.” Additionally, 
Botswana serves as a stark example 
of Africa’s economic and political 
advances. According to the World 
Bank, “Since gaining independence 
from the United Kingdom, Botswana 
has been one of the world’s fastest 
growing economies, averaging 5 
percent per annum over the past 
decade.” It also has “a stable political 
environment with a multi-party 
democratic tradition.” This is a pretty 
far cry from Trump’s self-described 
“shithole,” wouldn’t you say?

Moving on to the people of 

Haiti, who the president doesn’t 
think contribute to his America. 
In 2010, a devastating earthquake 
struck the people of Haiti, which 
led to the displacement of 1.5 million 
people. Hundreds of thousands of 
earthquake victims sought refuge in 
the United States under a temporary 
visa that is set to expire on Jan. 22. 
Currently, Haitians account for less 
than 2 percent of the U.S. foreign-
born 
population, 
but 
President 

Trump doesn’t think that we need 
any more and wants to “take them 
out” of the country. Once again, 
it is unclear exactly what the 
president’s problem with Haitian 
people is, but one can assume there 
is prejudiced undertones.

I wonder if the president knows 

that Haiti, as a former slave colony, 
was the site of the first successful 
modern slave rebellion. Or about 
the huge contribution that Haitians 
made to the United States when 
Thomas Jefferson was able to 
acquire the Louisiana Territory — 
which comprises one-fourth of our 
nation’s continuous land mass — 
from Napoleon because the French 
general, among other woes, was 
unable to subdue Haitian troops 
trained by Toussaint L’Ouverture, 
a Black Haitian general. Without 
Haitian people, this country would 
not be as powerful as it is today. As 
we are a nation built by the hands of 
immigrants, this should come as no 
surprise; apparently our president 
isn’t educated on how his privilege 
came about.

Of course, President Trump 

didn’t just become a racist. It has 
been a disturbing part of his career. 

During the 2016 election, it was 
building a wall to keep out Mexican 
immigrants. Last year, it was the 
Islamophobia-filled 
Muslim 
ban. 

Now, it is his rhetoric against the 
people of Africa and Haiti. And that is 
just a brief history of people who have 
been targeted by the ignorant, unwise 
bigot who is our president. A quick 
Google search will turn up dozens 
more alarming incidents of racism, 
sexism and xenophobia. The list goes 
on and on.

With the Trump administration, 

every day is a new story. Our 
president is a former reality star, and 
his politics have become a reality TV 
show. The proof is in the numbers: 
The first quarter of 2017 was CNN’s 
most-watched quarter in 14 years 
and MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow held 
the number one spot for the 25-54 
age demographic at 9 p.m. in March. 
Recently, “Keeping Up With the 
Kardashians” just celebrated its 14th 
season along with a boost in ratings 
that likely stems from all of those Kylie 
Jenner pregnancy rumors. Clearly, 
the American public thrives on being 
entertained. Except in the case of the 
Trump presidency, the consequences 
of entertainment oftentimes involve 
people’s lives. This is most alarming 
to me. Who is going to start taking 
his words more seriously? How many 
more seasons will President Trump 
be renewed for?

To me, the way that the President 

spoke about the people of Africa and 
Haiti reflects deep-rooted racist 
values that are inherent among his 
followers, one of the most outspoken 
of which is Richard Spencer, an alt-
right white nationalist. As a student at 
the University of Michigan, I cannot 
help but think about the possibility 
that Richard Spencer will be allowed 
to speak on our campus. To me, it 
shouldn’t even be a question: free 
speech or not, there is no room for 
hate speech on this campus. Yet, the 
debate still continues in a manner 
that is eerily similar to the presidency. 
Again, I ask: Who is going to stand up 
and condemn racism once and for all?

At the time of this writing, it is 

Martin Luther King Jr. weekend, and 
I cannot help but wonder what Dr. 
King would have to say about all of 
this. To quote him, “Our lives begin 
to end the day we become silent about 
things that matter.”

Carli Cosenza can be reached at 

carlyc@umich.edu.

Keeping Up With the Trumps

CARLI COSENZA | COLUMN

ILLUSTRATION BY JULIA LAUER

