people can’t give it back to you 
in the wrong form,” French 
said.

Lecturer 
Anne 
Berg 

explained how the Nazi party 
used 
fabricated 
scientific 

claims 
to 
promote 
and 

encourage racism in Germany 
and compared this to the 
current eugenics argument. 
In this respect, she admitted 
society 
today 
is 
not 
too 

different from Nazi Germany.

This 
past 
fall, 
protests 

broke out across campus as 
students groups called on the 
University to change the name 
of C.C. Little building and bus 
stop, as their namesake was a 
former University president 
and President of the American 
Eugenics Society. 

“Nazis were lucky that they 

had so much of a rich history of 
scientific evidence and visual 
legacies to draw on to build a 
racial state that thankfully has 
not yet been paralleled,” Berg 
said.

Associate professor Rudolph 

“Butch” 
Ware 
highlighted 

the roots of racism from an 

Islamic perspective in 18th 
century Africa. Despite the 
fact literacy rates were higher 
in regions of Africa than in 
any part of Europe, African 
people were nonetheless seen 
as slaves. Ware cited classical 
Islamic teachings that racism 
stems from pride, and urged 
the audience to set their pride 
aside and engage in dialogue 
to 
understand 
how 
white 

supremacy has occurred and 
what it has done.

Several 
speakers 
also 

focused 
on 
the 
historical 

inaccuracies from a national 
perspective. 

Assistant professor Matthew 

Spooner referenced the Haitian 
revolution and Rebecca J. Scott, 
a Charles Gibson Distinguished 
University professor of history, 
discussed the Reconstruction-
era government of Louisiana to 
highlight the lack of historical 
knowledge many hold, and how 
this ignorance warps views of 
current social problems.

“If we can’t understand the 

past, we will be blind to the 
present,” Spooner said.

information can be found on 
the panel.

According to Elliott Rains, 

the 
MDining 
Marketing 

Coordinator, students wanted 
something 
that 
wasn’t 

necessarily water, other than 
soft drinks.

“We want a good middle 

ground that will satisfy people, 
fit the need of students and is 
also health conscious,” he said.

The University is joining 

in a national movement as 
more Americans are ditching 
sugary drinks for healthier 
alternatives, according to the 
Huffington Post.

“We’ve realized that sugary 

beverages aren’t the way to 
go, but we still like things 
carbonated,” Dana Ferrante, 
Bevi’s 
marketing 
content 

writer said. “So this sparkling 
water trend or unsweetened 
flavored water is definitely in 

right now.”

The healthy drink craze is 

not the only trend Bevi pursues. 
The company also prides itself 
on being ecologically friendly, 
as they reported having saved 
15 million plastic bottles in 
2017.

Business sophomore Victor 

Mahdavi interned at a start-up 
in Cambridge, Mass. that used 
a Bevi machine.

“Some of the appeal was … 

not having to bring a plastic 
water bottle, which would lead 
to waste,” said Mahdavi. “(The 
machine) looks really cool. It 
would add some tech-savviness 
to the dining hall.”

MDining will be gauging 

students’ 
reaction 
to 
Bevi 

with comment cards near the 
machine.

“We’re looking for student 

feedback,” 
said 
Haas. 
“If 

there’s a lot interest from 
students across campus, then 
we would consider keeping it 
and bringing Bevi into more 
locations next fall.”

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News
Thursday, February 22, 2018 — 3

DANYEL THARAKAN/Daily

Mayor Christopher Taylor participates in a conversation with students about public policy in Weill Hall Wednesday. 

M AYOR TAYLOR ON POLICY

Pan wants to analyze the 

effects of genetic mutations on 
obesity, specifically in children, 
in search of ways to reverse it. He 
will be conducting the bulk of his 
experiments on mice to model the 
potential in humans. Though he 
cannot specify the details of the 
study, Pan noted England has a 
large database of sequenced DNA 
from morbidly obese children that 
he will be using in his research.

“I will be using that database 

and going after some of those 
genes to figure out what those 
genes are doing and whether 
we can reverse it and see if mice 
with this mutation can be cured 
with a drug or virus or some 
other treatment,” Pan said. “I 
hope to better understand the 
interface between human disease 
and basic science research to use 
translational research to create 
new therapies for human disease.”

Martin Myers, professor of 

internal medicine and molecular 
& integrative physiology, acted 
as Pan’s doctorate adviser and 
scientific mentor at the University. 
Myers helped train Pan as a 
scientist and worked with him 

throughout his research.

“As his PhD mentor, I know 

how 
smart, 
energetic, 
and 

talented 
Warren 
is,” 
Myers 

wrote in an email interview. 
“Not only does he deserve the 
award because of his talent and 
accomplishments, but also he 
will use the opportunity to learn 
more about translating his basic 
research expertise to the study of 
human disease. He defines what it 
means to be a self-starter!”

The 
Gates 
Cambridge 

Scholarship is given to students 
with high academic ability and 
the dedication to making the 
world a better place, according to 
ONSF Director Henry Dyson.

“The 
Gates 
Cambridge 

Scholarship 
is 
looking 
at 

leadership 
potential 
and 

demonstrated 
commitment 
to 

improving to the lives of others,” 
Dyson said. “Warren’s research 
in obesity genetics is an obvious 
fit for that, he is an exceptionally 
well qualified applicant.”

Garth 
Strohbehn, 
Gates 

Cambridge alum and a chief 
medical resident at Michigan 
Medicine, 
worked 
with 
Pan 

to prepare and apply for the 
program.

“I’m thrilled for him to have 

this 
tremendous 
experience,” 

Strohbehn said. “He’s obviously 
a talented person who’s worked 
exceptionally 
hard 
for 
this 

opportunity –– it’s great to see 
it paying off in this way. It’s 
a really cool step forward for 
his research and for him as a 
developing 
intellectual. 
The 

Gates community is an incredible, 
multidisciplinary 
one 
full 
of 

brilliant people and so he’s going 
to develop even more as a thinker. 
It’s going to be an incredible 
experience.”

Yiran Liu, winner of the 

inaugural 
Knight-Hennessy 

Scholarship, 
graduated 
from 

the University in 2017 with a 
bachelor’s degree in cellular and 
molecular biology. Yiran hopes 
to obtain a doctorate in cancer 
biology but has a diverse range of 
research experiences and an open 
mind. 

“It’s really a huge honor to 

receive this scholarship,” Liu 
said. “I was not expecting at all 
so it’s very humbling to feel that 
I have the opportunity to become 
part of this community. When I 
went to the immersion weekend, 
I met so many people. These 
people were so grounded, kind, 
compassionate and empathetic 
and their work was driven by 
some kind of passion or need 

to make a difference in the 
community and the world and it 
is an honor to imagine myself in 
that community in grad school.”

According to Dyson, Knight-

Hennessy is the newest of the 
major scholarships, comparable 
to the Rhodes, Marshall and Gates 
Cambridge. He categorized this is 
a truly global scholarship with a 
49-student cohort, and 63 percent 
of 
which 
are 
international, 

according to a Knight-Hennessy 
press release. Dyson said Knight-
Hennessy 
understands 
the 

solutions to today’s problems 
are multi-disciplinary, thus the 
scholarship is offered to those 
pursuing a law, medical, doctorate 
and a multitude of other degrees.

“What I think makes Yiran 

really stand out as a candidate 
is 
that 
she 
is 
exceptionally 

well qualified in terms of her 
research credentials. She really 
is as good as any biomedical or 
STEM researcher and I think she 
belongs in that company and her 
leadership 
accomplishments… 

and (her work with) social justice 
and campus climate issues and 
how she wants to combine them 
in the future really makes her 
stand out,” Dyson said. “We have 
exceptional leaders in these areas 
but we rarely see them combined.”

ONSP
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MDINING
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TEACH-IN
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be as high here as it needs to be on 
the coasts in order for our people 
to achieve the same standard of 
living.”

If a $15 minimum wage was 

only enacted in the city of Detroit, 
rather than the entire state, Hopp 
said he worries businesses might 
flock to the metro area to escape 
the high labor costs, harming 
surrounding areas. 

“But 
I 
think 
city-level 

minimum wages are tricky,” 
Hopp said. “While they may 
help workers at restaurants and 
hotels that can’t move out of the 
city, they serve as an incentive for 
factories, landscaping businesses 
and any other business that can 
relocate to move to the suburbs to 
do so.”

Despite these qualms, Hopp 

said he could foresee many 
positives of a statewide minimum 
wage increase, provided it is 
incremental.

“In contrast, a plan to increase 

the Michigan minimum wage in 
stages over time would benefit 
people 
who 
are 
struggling 

financially, help stem the tide 
of rising income inequality and 

do so with minimal harm to the 
economy or job market,” Hopp 
said.

Teia 
McGahey, 
a 
2017 

University 
of 
Michigan-

Dearborn alum and organizer 
for the Lecturers’ Employee 
Organization, 
said 
she 
first 

became involved with Detroit’s 
division of Fight for $15, D15, 
through the Social Justice League 
on Dearborn’s campus. After 
graduation, she worked as an 
organizer for Jobs With Justice, a 
nonprofit that fights for workers’ 
rights, until accepting a position 
with LEO a couple months ago.

“The first prong of a better 

future is first getting people what 
they need, and I think that’s what 
a lot of the D15 efforts focused 
on,” McGahey said. “Making 
sure people can eat, making sure 
people have adequate housing, 
adequate health insurance, those 
sorts of things that we need to 
just survive.”

Many champions for a higher 

minimum wage argue minimum 
wage has not been adjusted 
properly for inflation. A 2016 
report by Pew Research Center 
stated the $7.25 federal minimum 
wage had lost about 9.6 percent 
in 
purchasing 
power 
since 

its adoption in 2009. In 2015, 

The Economist reported that 
given the United States’ wealth 
compared to other countries, it 
would expect a minimum wage 
of $12.

Sociology 
lecturer 
Ian 

Robinson, who has worked on 
a team to analyze Washtenaw 
County’s wages, said though 
a $15 minimum wage might 
induce productivity losses, the 
magnitude of these effects are 
currently relatively unknown.

“If 
we 
had 
adjusted 
the 

minimum wage for productivity 
growth since the mid-1970s, it 
would now be at about $18 an 
hour,” Robinson said. “From the 
end of World War II through to the 
mid-’70s, the minimum wage did 
tend to keep up with productivity 
growth. In those 30 years, we had 
very low unemployment.”

While others share fears of the 

possible loss of productivity and 
lower employment related to a 
higher minimum wage, Robinson 
said much of this is offset by 
increased purchases from the 
lower class.

“Even if some jobs are lost in 

some sectors, the higher wage 
for millions of low-wage workers 
means 
increased 
purchasing 

power for working class people 
as a whole,” Robinson said. “That 

group will spend more money, and 
that extra spending will create 
more jobs. Maybe not in fast-
food, but from a macroeconomic 
point of view, the important 
questions are how many jobs are 
there and how well do they pay. 
If more money is spent on better 
paying jobs, that’s more good 
paying jobs in the economy.”

While Hopp said job loss is an 

undeniable counterpart of raising 
minimum wage, he has seen 
minimal negative impacts with 
small increases in places such as 
Seattle. However, a rapid increase 
to a $15 minimum is uncharted 
territory, so Hopp recommends 
proceeding cautiously.

“No one doubts that increasing 

wages decreases jobs,” Hopp said. 
“But we’ve had a lot of experience 
with small increases in the 
minimum wage that show very 
little impact on unemployment. 
We don’t have much data on 
large increases and so need to be 
cautious. The policies in Seattle 
and other places who are pushing 
minimum wages up at a faster 
pace look encouraging so far. But 
we’ll know more in a few years 
when we’ve had time to study the 
impacts.”

Among 
low-wage 
workers, 

McGahey note dstudents are 

especially susceptible to unfair 
wages.

“I think in every job I’ve had 

I’ve been underpaid, but that’s so 
many of us right now too, because 
we are an exploitable group of 
people,” McGahey said. “Students 
just need whatever we can get, so 
it’s really easy to pay us less than 
we deserve.”

As prices, especially rent costs, 

continue to soar in Ann Arbor 
and other cities, affordability 
becomes an even more pressing 
issue for many students. With the 
University’s median income of 
parents of students at $156,000, 
about three times the median 
income of Michigan households, 
LSA senior Zoe Proegler finds 
economic inequality on campus 
hard to ignore.

“Affluence is incredibly visible 

on our campus, from the clothes 
people wear to the places they 
live and eat to the ways they talk 
about socializing, vacations and 
more,” Proegler said. “I think 
after spending four years in that 
kind of environment, especially as 
someone who does occasionally 
have to worry about money, it was 
almost a given that I was going to 
be at least aware of the economic 
inequality discourse taking place 
on campus.”

In support of a $15 minimum 

wage in Michigan, Proegler said 
she especially sees a need for 
higher wages in expensive areas 
like Ann Arbor, Detroit, Lansing 
and Grand Rapids.

“A $15 minimum here would 

not only make achieving a livable 
income for working students 
possible, but would do a great 
deal to cut down on the growing 
wealth inequality in the county 
and help address the problem of a 
lack of service and food industry 
workers — or very long commutes 
— in cities like Ann Arbor,” 
Proegler said.

No matter the wage proposal, 

Brown takes issue with the 
process 
of 
minimum 
wage 

increases. He hopes the often 
politically-motivated 
method 

becomes more systematic and 
fair.

“In 
an 
ideal 
world, 
the 

legislators would agree on the 
‘right’ minimum wage for 2018 
and then have that value change 
smoothly 
and 
mechanically 

based on growth in average 
wages,” Brown said. “The current 
pattern –– no change, followed by 
big jumps –– reflects a political 
inability or unwillingness to 
agree on a more orderly process.”

WAGES
From Page 1

with better resources, versus the 
underfunded school with a higher 
population of Latino and African-
American students.

“I had to make a choice: either 

live my values, when I know how 
harmful these schools can be, or 
was I going to use my privilege 
to get my daughter away from the 
kids who live next door to me” she 
said. “I decided that no child was 
worth less than my child.”

Jones 
explained 
this 

segregation is not occurring in 
remote locations far away from 
the University students she was 
addressing.

“Michigan schools are the 

second most segregated in the 
country,” she said. “Michigan 
schools have the worst test scores 
for Black kids in the country.”

She also explained the obvious 

problem of underrepresentation 
at the University.

“You look at the flagship 

university, 
the 
University 
of 

Michigan, and it is 5 percent black 
and 30 miles away from a majority 
Black city,” she said.

Jones posed the question of 

which children should be left 
behind in the educational system. 
She gave an example of an African-
American college student, Alicia, 
who was forced behind because 
of the broken educational pipeline 
within the American system.

“Alicia 
was 
part 
of 
the 

Tuscaloosa 
education 
system 

and she spent 13 years in entirely 
segregated schools that looked 
like her grandfather’s,” she said. 
“When Alicia took the ACT, she 
got a 16 … When I asked Alicia if 
she was going to take it again she 
responded, ‘Why? I can’t make up 
for everything, I haven’t had in 
time for this test.’”

Jones ended her talk by saying 

all students should have equal 
opportunities to go to schools 
which provide them with the 
resources necessary for success.

“You shouldn’t have to be an 

exceptional child in this country 
to get a quality education,” she 
said.

The 
presentation 
then 

shifted to a series of smaller 
presentations 
from 
students 

and 
University 
alumni. 
The 

presentations focused on the 
underrepresentation of Black and 
Latinx teachers, the financial 
burden of education for students 
of color and how Students of Color 
of Rackham — a graduate student 
organization — has made its voice 
heard on campus.

SCOR President Rosalyn Kent 

explained 
the 
overwhelming 

burden 
students 
of 
color 

experience 
in 
institutions 
of 

higher education, as they must 
balance their school work and 
while confronting racial issues on 
campus.

“We have to produce this 

scholarly work and be responsible 
for the hateful acts that happen 
around us and make sure we don’t 
drown in that hate,” Kent said.

The presentation ended with 

a Q&A session between Hannah-
Jones and Tabbye Chavous, the 
director of the National Center for 
Institutional Diversity.

Chavous’ 
first 
question 

addressed 
how 
to 
prepare 

students of color for an integrated 
context. Jones responded though 
integration would take careful 
planning and time, it’s vital for the 
future success for the country

“I’m pushing for a radical 

rethinking 
of 
our 
education 

system. It has to be that the 
curriculum is reflective of all 
children 
and 
all 
American 

history,” Jones said. “I’m not 
pushing for small numbers of 
Black children in white schools 
and forced assimilation.”

Jones also spoke about the lack 

of resources that schools with 

majority Black or Latino students 
have compared to white students.

“The 
difference 
is 
the 

concentration of poverty. Ninety 
percent of the parents in my 
daughter’s school cannot make 
up for the difference of what they 
do not get within the school” she 
said. “I wish we could disentangle 
race and resources.”

Rackham student Kayla Fike 

explained the necessity in coming 
to events like these to understand 
ones personal role in these issues.

“I think it’s valuable to come to 

these events because it helps us to 
see where our individual choices 
actually do make a difference and 
uphold inequality. 

HANNAH-JONES
From Page 1

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