michigandaily.com
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Tuesday, April 10, 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.

Check out the 
Daily’s News 
podcast, The 
Daily Weekly 

INDEX
Vol. CXXVII, No.108
©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
michigandaily.com

For more stories and coverage, visit

CRIME

After a third-degree sexual 

assault in South Quad Residence 
Hall 
at 
the 
University 
of 

Michigan 
was 
alerted 
last 

Friday, some residents were 
concerned about the two-day 
delay in the crime alert. The 
assault, which took place on 
March 27 and was reported 
to DPSS on April 4, was not 
reported to the entire student 
body via a crime alert until 3:40 
p.m. on April 6.

LSA 
freshman 
Cassandra 

Ritter, a South Quad resident, 
said she was confused as to why 
the crime alert was delayed 
seeing as though it impacted the 
immediate safety of residents.

“I took issue with the fact 

that this incident was reported 
on April 4th, and we didn’t get 
any notification about it until the 
6th, and all of (the previous DPSS 
crime alerts) were reported a 
couple of hours after, and some 
of them even an hour after,” 
Ritter said. “I don’t understand 

why this incident, they didn’t 
let us know until two days after, 
even though this is something 
that directly affects us because it 
happened in our dorms.”

Melissa Overton, University 

deputy chief of police, said 
the delay was due to lack of 
information from the initial 
report and could not be avoided.

“We had to do some further 

investigation 
based 
on 
the 

original information we had,” 
Overton said. “We were trying to 
determine exact location, things 
like that. It just depends on 
what’s originally reported to us.”

According to Overton, this 

was not due to doubt of the 
victim’s account but to ensure 
the accuracy of the crime alert.

“The way we evaluate (a 

case) for a crime alert is we 
determine at the time, with all 
the information that we have, 
whether or not we deem it to be 
a public safety threat,” Overton 
said. 

Crime alert 
delay due to 
detail issues, 
UMPD says

Sandra Levitsky talks power of 
optimism at Golden Apple lecture

DANYEL THARAKAN/Daily

Sociology professor Sandra Levitsky, recipient of the 2018 Golden Apple Award, gives her ‘last lecture’ on “Sociology and the Political Power of Optimism” at the 
Golden Apple Awards ceremony in Rackham Auditorim Monday. 

South Quad residents express concerns 
for lack of timely info on sexual assault

ZAYNA SYED

Daily Staff Reporter

Award-winning prof. says social change occurs through examination of status quo

In her last lecture, Sandra 

Levitsky, an associate professor 
in the Sociology Department, 
presented “Sociology and the 
Political Power of Optimism.” 
That 
is, 
the 
topic 
outlined 

her “ideal last lecture” — an 
annual event held Monday evening 
for this year’s Golden Apple 
Award Ceremony and recipient, 
Levitsky. 

Levitsky is the 28th recipient of 

the prestigious, student-selected 
faculty award and was chosen out 
of nearly 700 nominees. Each year, 
the Golden Apple Award Ceremony 
offers the honoree an opportunity 
to present their “last lecture” to 
students and other individuals 
who appreciate their work. Along 
with her lecture, attended by over 
a hundred University of Michigan 
community members in Rackham 
Auditorium, Levitsky also decided 
to donate to the American Civil 
Liberties Union.

Before Levitsky took the stage, 

LSA junior Kyle Riebock, Golden 

Apple Award Committee president, 
welcomed the audience and spoke 
to the quality of Levitsky’s role 
as a professor and as a mentor 
for students at the University. 
Riebock also noted her work 
with Sociology Opportunities for 
Undergraduate Leaders, which 
helps 
first-generation 
students 

academically and professionally, 
and her research on various social 
issues.

“Professor Levitsky is truly a 

wonderful example of a professor 
deserving of this award,” Riebock 
said. 
“When 
the 
committee 

surprised her, I was really able to 
hear a lot of heartfelt sentiments 
from her student and peers that 
truly moved me … Her research 
investigating social needs and 
inequality is truly inspiring and 
impactful.”

Riebock also praised the legacy 

Levitsky has created so far and 
expressed his desire to follow in 
her footsteps.

“As a future teacher myself, if 

my legacy inside and outside of the 
classroom can amount to even half 
of the legacy Professor Levitsky 

AMARA SHAIKH
Daily Staff Reporter

A Black LSA sophomore 

has to think twice before any 
decision they make: once as 
an individual, and again as a 
member of the Black community. 
For this reason, the subject of 
this interview requested his 
name not be used in this article. 
He has to consider the impact of 
his words on how people view 
him as a Black person, he said.

“I have to be mindful that 

I’m a student, but I’m also Black 
here,” he said. “Sometimes the 
intersection of that, it becomes 
a double workload. So, a lot of 
times I feel uncomfortable even 
voicing my opinion on certain 
things because I don’t want to 
be perceived as a radical, or 
against white people.”

This idea of living a double 

life, or as this student put it, 
“thinking with your regular 
eyes and with the mind of a Black 
person as well,” is encapsulated 
in activist W. E. B. Du Bois’s 
term “double consciousness.” 
According to the sophomore, 
this 
double-consciousness 

permeates every aspect of his 
life, even in something as simple 
as a white female student asking 
to call an Uber from his phone 
when he was with his friends at 
a Black fraternity house.

“I had to think consciously 

about it,” he said. “I had to think 
with two minds. I want to help 
her, so I’m going to allow you to 
order the Uber from my phone, 

but I also have to keep in mind 
that if you’re in this house with 
a lot of Black men, you could 
try to flip this into something 
that completely did not happen 
because you’re drunk, and they 
would 
believe 
you 
because 

you’re a drunk white woman 
and we’re Black men.” 

This caution, this obligation 

to constantly think about one’s 
race and these ways of thinking 
are shared by many members 

of the Black community at the 
University of Michigan. Early 
experiences of racism created 
them, 
and 
the 
continued 

racism they experience at the 
University engrain them deeper 
in Black students’ minds.

Large-scale, 
more 

publicized racist incidents have 
plagued 
and 
continue 
to 

plague 
the 
University, 
the 

most 
recent 
one 
being 
a 

student posting a blackface 

Snapchat 
mocking 
the 

#BlackLivesMatter movement. 
50 years after the first Black 
Action 
Movement 
began 

with students taking over the 
Fleming 
Building 
following 

the 
assasination 
of 
Martin 

Luther King, Jr., racism still 
pervades in social interactions, 
in classrooms, at parties, on the 
street and more.

More than a dozen Detroit 

high schoolers descended on 
the University of Michigan’s 
campus Monday afternoon for 
more than an average Campus 
Day tour. Members of PILOT, 
a 
student 
organization 
that 

works with first-generation and 
underrepresented 
students, 

showed the prospective students 
around 
campus 
on 
Monday 

as 
part 
of 
Dreams2Reality, 

an 
event 
offering 
college 

planning 
assistance 
and 

empowerment to high school 
freshmen and sophomores from 
underrepresented 
minority 

backgrounds.

LSA 
freshman 
Ihunanya 

Muruako is PILOT’s financial 
director and a Dreams2Reality 
committee member. She said 
one of the goals of the program 
is helping the students learn 
more about social justice while 
helping them “get accustomed to 
college.”

“We just hope that a lot of 

the conversations that we have 
are more in-depth and get them 
thinking 
about 
themselves,” 

Alum talks 
ambitions,
diversity at 
University

CAMPUS LIFE

Dreams2Reality program 
helps underrepresented 
minorities navigate ‘U’

LEAH GRAHAM
Daily Staff Reporter

CHRISTINE MONTALBANO/Daily

Black students recount incidents of 
racism, discrimination on ‘U’ campus

Patterns of bigotry emerge in the classroom, social environments, say student accounts

ELIZABETH LAWRENCE

Daily Staff Reporter

See DISCRIMINATION, Page 3

See APPLE, Page 3

See SYRIA, Page 3
See PILOT, Page 3

On 
Monday 
morning, 
the 

names of 1,000 men, women and 
children who have been killed 
in Syria by President Bashar 
al-Assad’s regime were written 
in chalk across the Diag at the 
University of Michigan. These 
represented only a fraction of 
the more than 400,000 Syrians 
who have been killed during 
the conflict, now in its eighth 
year. While the demonstration 
was motivated by the conflict in 
general, the chemical attack in 
Douma, Syria on Sunday was 
a call to action according to 
LSA freshman Basil Alsubee, 
who 
participated 
in 
the 

demonstration.

“It is a response to the overall 

situation for the past couple 
years, but I think that what 
happened 
on 
Sunday 
really 

triggered this sense of, ‘We 
have to demonstrate,’” Alsubee 
said. “Sometimes we get a little 
complicit, and we start taking it 
for granted that humanitarian 
crises that are happening abroad 
are just going to happen. 

Victims of 
Syrian war 
written in 
Diag chalk

CAMPUS LIFE

Students organize to write 
names of 1,000 victims on 
Diag following attacks 

MOLLY NORRIS
Daily Staff Reporter

Read more at 
MichiganDaily.com

