struggles equally but differently. We all have daily obstacles and challenges that we face whether it shows on our face or not, whether it’s apparent or hidden.” Dean’s Fellow Sean Smith, a University alum, also took the stage to speak, highlighting the adjustments he had to make when he came to the University. He explained while the University presented the same kind of diversity as in New York City, groups seemed to be clustered racially with “invisible force fields,” between these different cultures. “The first year I was here I didn’t really challenge that, and I went home that summer and I felt bad,” Smith said. “When I came back in the fall of 2015, I shopped around looking for a community, and I found pockets of like-minded people, but something was still missing.” Smith presented “five practical points” to encourage breaking down barriers between groups, including being present and engaging with surroundings, challenging norms to enter new spaces, having the ability to discern feelings of discomfort and being intentional in making plans rather than suggestions. He also argued that the present is the most convenient time to make change, as “you don’t need a credential to treat someone decently.” Other performances included those from dance groups Brazilian Zouk, Arabesque and Female Gayu, a presentation by Public Policy senior Ibrahim Ijaz on Arab calligraphy, as well as multiple vocal and spoken-word performances. LSA sophomore Ceren Ege presented a spoken-word poem titled, “By Blood,” which illustrated experiences being raised in a Muslim community and spoke to her belief in the importance of challenging the assumption that people agree with every aspect of their cultural identity. “As soon as my cherry red cheeks could speak my mother told me to repeat after her that I had been given the greatest gift of all and that that was family and that I would never love anyone more than my family,” Ege said. “I didn’t agree and I told her that expecting people to get along just because they’re in the same family is like expecting different types of fish to get along just because they’re in the same tank.” LSA junior Mariam Reda, co-founder of Redefine, helped organize the event and highlighted her excitement promoting social acceptance through creative, student-led presentations and performances. “The purpose of Redefine itself is to promote social acceptance through the creation and exhibition of original student talent,” Reda said. “(Looking around) I see so many different people of varying identities just coming to appreciate the same thing which I feel so happy about and I feel that we’re really making an impact and promoting the fact that dialogue doesn’t solely have to be through speech, it can be through creativity as well.” destinations in Ann Arbor, including the University Hospital, Central Campus and the Blake Transit Center. The parking lot is being constructed by the Michigan Department of Transportation, which is working with AAATA to bring this project to fruition. AAATA CEO Matthew Carpenter accredited the idea for the service to MDOT. “The Michigan Department of Transportation approached us with this idea,” Carpenter said. “They have been working to improve U.S. 23 for several years, most of that work on their end has been done with their flex lane system, which seems to be working quite well. It was really their initiative and I think they should get credit for that.” AAATA is in the process of waiting for funds for a two-year pilot program of the service. They applied through the federal congestion and air mitigation grants, requesting $579,500 for each year. Carpenter said they have no intention of using local funds, and if the federal funding doesn’t follow through, the service will likely not be offered. “Because the riders from this service are not going to be from Ann Arbor, or residents from Ann Arbor primarily, it’s very important to us that our local taxpayers understand that we’re not using any of our locally- generated funds to pay for this service,” Carpenter said. “This service is going to be funded by an outside grant, or some other outside source of funding, or it’s probably not going to happen.” Carpenter predicted the major benefits of the service would be improving access to Ann Arbor even through heavy traffic congestion, which U.S. 23 is known for. It would also allow access for people unable to drive in that area. The two major risks in creating the service, he said, are it being either too popular or not popular enough. Those risks are the reason the service would start out as a temporary program. “One risk is that it works and one is that it doesn’t,” Carpenter said. “If it’s not very popular and not many people use it, we’d probably just have to bring it to a close. Another possibility is that it’s far more popular than we’ll be able to afford. We call that the ‘victim of our own success’ risk.” Another challenge AAATA faces is, as Carpenter noted, few similar services exist to predict rider estimates. “One of the challenges we have, and one of the reasons we want to do this as a pilot project, is there are very few similar services out there in Michigan, so it’s hard for us to draw comparisons with another service,” Carpenter said. “It’s a very new creature, and for that reason the ridership is unknown.” Many of the customers of this service could be University employees, like Briscoe. The University’s most recent data showing the numbers of faculty and staff living in or around Whitmore Lake found 644 living in Whitmore Lake, 850 in Pinckney, 719 in South Lyon and 668 in Brighton. The service could be advantageous for the University as well. Stephen Dolen, the University director of Logistics, Transportation and Parking, said he has a close working relationship with AAATA in terms of discussing initiatives. He said he is in support of this proposed service because the University aims to reduce the demand for parking spaces in any way it can. Presently, they do this through vanpool programs or trying to park people remotely and bus them to campus. Because some of the employees from the targeted area drive their car to work each day, if the service succeeded, they would not need to use parking as often. “We would help to promote it as best we can,” Dolen said. “We do everything we can to try and discourage single occupancy vehicle trips to campus. We’d rather use land for academic, research or health care missions of the University than we would to build parking.” The buses used would not be typical urban transit buses; they would be highway coaches similar to those used for AAATA’s AirRide service between Ann Arbor and the Detroit Metropolitan Airport. Further, they would allow passengers Wi-Fi access. Carpenter said they included Wi-Fi in the proposal to attract those who may be wary of riding buses. “Part of it is an experiment to see if that attracts people out of their cars,” Carpenter said. “This is a new service and some people are going to be a little unfamiliar. So Wi-Fi gives you the opportunity to make better use of your time while you are commuting. One of the benefits travel by bus has is you don’t have to pay attention to the road.” However, driving to work still has its conveniences. Briscoe said one of the drawbacks of using the service would be not having a car available for emergencies. “I guess in the event of an emergency, having no car accessible throughout the day (would be difficult),” Briscoe said. “For example, my daughter called me to come home sick yesterday and I had to leave at like 11 a.m., so I don’t know if there is a proposed fix for issues such as that.” Nevertheless, Carpenter is optimistic about the widespread positive effect the service might have. “Let’s say there’s a nurse that might use this service to get to the hospital,” he said. “Does it benefit her? Yes. Does it benefit the hospital? Yes. Does it benefit the patient whose surgery can be scheduled that much faster because they don’t have a labor shortage of nurses? Yes. It benefits a great number of people.” food distribution event being held this week in conjunction with the Food Access Task Force and Maize & Blue Cupboard. The issue of food insecurity is one that has been addressed throughout this year’s assembly, and is actively being combated by CSG, according to Sarkar. “The importance of this event is that it supports the research that needs to be done about food insecurity on campus,” Sarkar said. “We want to de-stigmatize the event that’s happening.” Additionally, numerous representatives in the assembly commented on the pervasiveness of the upcoming CSG election, in which students can begin voting on Wednesday. During the past months, issues arose regarding the election code and appropriate endorsement standards for the respective parties running, and they are continuing to be discussed while polls are open to students. LSA junior Seth Schostak informed the assembly of his efforts to determine what the students want to see in terms of changes made by CSG. Schostak told fellow representatives of the importance of listening to student concerns instead of simply counting them as a signature on a petition, which was met with applause and snaps from the assembly. “Ask for input if you guys are campaigning,” Schostak said. “Don’t just try to get information out of people. Try to do something for them if they’re taking the time to talk to you.” The assembly was then introduced to a new resolution, which will overhaul the operating procedures of the assembly. Due to the fact that a new assembly will be installed in the coming weeks, much of the conversation surrounding this resolution rested on the idea that a new assembly would be taking over responsibility for its passing. The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com News Wednesday, March 21, 2018 — 3A CAMERON HUNT /Daily Lydia Davis reads several pieces of her short stories at UMMA for the Helen Zell Writers Program Tuesday. SPE AK ABLE BUS From Page 1A FAIR From Page 1A Read more at MichiganDaily.com determined that adjusting the timeline to winter semester supports first-year student success by providing the opportunity to fully engage in curriculum and communities,” Harper said. Dean of Students Laura Blake Jones and a team representing the Greek life community will monitor the transition. “In partnership with our Greek Life community student leaders, we are committed to working together to develop an implementation plan that ensures this recruitment timeline adjustment strengthens our entire community,” Jones said. IFC reinstated social activities this January, but also mandated the removal of hard alcohol from all events. Twenty- seven chapters received specific action plans drafted by IFC executives and the Office of Greek Life. Since November, administrators from University President Mark Schlissel to E. Royster Harper, vice president for student life, to the Board of Regents repeatedly emphasized the council’s self-regulated efforts. “I want to applaud you for all the work that you’re doing along with other students to provide a safer environment in our fraternities and sororities,” Regent Denise Ilitch, D, told IFC president Sam Finn, a Public Policy junior, at a February board meeting. “I can’t tell you how many of the headlines that we read across the country where students are harmed and unfortunately, it’s tragic. Some students have died over hazing and drinking. It’s a real issue on campus.” According to the press release, this change is part of a larger five-year plan in coordination with the University’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion efforts for first-year students. The Division of Student Life already hosts a wide range of workshops and community-building activities focused on improving academic and relationship success, but the new initiative will focus on increasing engagement in these programs. Harper told the Record it’s the University’s responsibility to help incoming students transition into college. Aside from delaying the Greek life rush process, the University plans on expanding Michigan Learning Communities throughout more schools and colleges and developing additional theme communities in residence halls. They will also increase the scope of the seven- week goal-setting course titled Making the Most of Michigan, which is taught in the residence halls, and prioritize University Career Center programs that focus on first-year students. Additional programming is also planned, such as expanding the Intercultural Development Inventory program, geared toward helping students build intercultural competence, to the College of Engineering, Rackham Graduate School, School of Education and the School of Kinesiology. RUSH From Page 1A across the country, and the Cold War prompted the federal government to invest money into the education system, African-American students continued to be disadvantaged by the underlying structure that shut down school districts and allocated funds for white students to attend schools in richer, segregated areas. Anderson also went on to credit the War on Drugs as another response of white rage to the advancement of African-American citizens. The previous shift in mass funding to public schools was reallocated to correction facilities with a disproportionately higher number of Black men incarcerated compared to white men — destabilizing Black families and communities in the process. This was done even though many of the crimes were clearly fabricated. As a former International Studies major and admirer of Anderson, University alum Brianna Allen said she came to the talk to follow up with current events through the lens of race. She expressed her dismay with the severity of the false accusations against members of the African- American community. “You just see how much people want to bring down the African-American community,” Allen said. Anderson linked the spike in the incarceration rate of black men with voter suppression of the African-American community. She explained factors like gerrymandering, underequipped polling places and bans on former felons from voting all contribute to lower African-American voter turnout, and in doing so, impede the full participation of the Black community in democracy and society. Anderson ended her talk on a more optimistic note of hope, citing former President Barack Obama’s historic 2008 campaign inspiring an extra 15 million people to turn out and vote. She explained that the trend of voter suppression is slowly disintegrating because those who were previously suppressed persevered and showed up at the polling places. According to Anderson, the right way to move forward from voter suppression is to embrace the new people showing up at the polls. “(If they show up they) have a stake in the government, value participating politically, and don’t feel alienated,” she said. University alum Catherine Lebar expressed how Anderson’s hopefulness resonated with her the most. “She still has a positive vision for the future and this is what I think we should be spreading,” Lebar said. Anderson also explained another way to counteract the long-term disenfranchisement of African Americans is by dissecting the prevailing narrative that white people built the U.S. “The narrative most folks have is that it’s a white nation and whites only built America,” she said. “As a nation of merit, so much of who we are is based on we worked hard for this, we earned this, so having this type of conversation is difficult … (It) feels like you’re attacking someone’s foundational sense of self and identity.” DIVERSITY From Page 1A WHITE RAGE From Page 1A “The narrative most folks have is that it’s a white nation and whites only built America.” “If it’s not very popular and not many people use it, we’d probably just have to bring it to a close.” “(Looking around) I see so many different people of varying identities just coming to appreciate the same thing...”