Opinion
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
4A — Monday, April 16, 2018

Emma Chang
Joel Danilewitz
Samantha Goldstein
Elena Hubbell
Emily Huhman
Tara Jayaram

Jeremy Kaplan
Sarah Khan
Lucas Maiman
Magdalena Mihaylova
Ellery Rosenzweig

Jason Rowland
Anu Roy-Chaudhury
Alex Satola
Ali Safawi
 Ashley Zhang
Sam Weinberger

DAYTON HARE
Managing Editor

420 Maynard St. 
Ann Arbor, MI 48109
 tothedaily@michigandaily.com

Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan since 1890.

ALEXA ST. JOHN
Editor in Chief
 ANU ROY-CHAUDHURY AND 
ASHLEY ZHANG
Editorial Page Editors

Unsigned editorials reflect the official position of the Daily’s Editorial Board. 
All other signed articles and illustrations represent solely the views of their authors.

EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS

Dear Me

LUCAS DEAN | COLUMN

JULIA COHN | COLUMN

C

oming 
to 
college, 
everyone 
echoed 
a 
similar 
mantra: 
“Cherish every moment, you 
only have one freshman year.” 
In the weeks before I finally left 
for Ann Arbor, I was wrought 
with anxiety and apprehension 
by the thought of going to 
college and leaving everything 
I knew behind. After unpacking 
my dorm room and hugging my 
parents goodbye, I knew, very 
rationally, that I was turning a 
new page in my life. Adulting, 
growing up, maturing, however 
you want to frame it. I was 
heading down a new path in my 
life.
With two weeks of the 
school year remaining, I get 
a little choked up every time 
I think about leaving the 
University of Michigan, a place 
that has truly become my new 
home. Looking back at my 
first few weeks to my last, the 
contrast is humorous. I want to 
pay homage to the parts of my 
freshman year at the University 
that made it so special.
My first few weeks of class, I 
had to use the Google Maps app 
to get from building to building. 
Being 
both 
directionally 
challenged and in a whole new 
environment is quite possibly 
the worst combination. Sadly, 
Maps wasn’t able to lead me 
to shortcuts, no matter how 
advanced the newest update 
may appear.
First 
semester, 
I 
had 
to walk from South Quad 
Resident Hall to the School 
of Public Health three times 
a week. For those of you who 
are geographically savvy, this 

is typically a 15-minute walk, 
but for the first three weeks 
of classes, it took me almost 
exactly 20 minutes to get to 
class. Maps was like my baby 
blanket, and I was too scared 
to go in any other direction 
other than where Siri directed 
me. Eventually, when heading 
to class with a friend one 
day, she looked at me wildly 
when I told her I had never 
cut through the Diag. Like, 
literally, I had never walked 
through the Diag to get to 
class. Finally being able to 
understand the intersecting 
paths around the emblematic 
‘M’ on the Diag was a life-

changing experience.
One fundamental part of the 
University’s character is the 
people that you meet here. I 
know, not everyone is great; it’s 
not a perfect place. But coming 
to this school, I never could 
have fathomed what it was like 
to be surrounded by so many 
smart, passionate and engaging 
students. There’s a competitive 
spirit to the University that 
challenges each student to 
become the best they can be. 
And believe me, there were, 

are and will be so many times 
when I will sigh in frustration 
believing that I am the dumbest 
person on campus. But having 
the opportunity to learn in 
an 
academically 
rigorous 
environment surrounded by 
peers who foster ambition and 
achievement is an unparalleled 
experience. No matter how 
hard the classes may seem, 
your 
classmates, 
professors 
and the campus environment 
are teaching students to grow 
and achieve more than they 
have believed.
Another fundamental part 
is the school spirit and our 
glorious game days. To be 
completely transparent, I am 
not a football person, but I love 
U-M game days with all of my 
heart. There is something so 
incredible 
about 
thousands 
of students, dressed in maize 
and blue, singing “Hail to the 
Victors” and willing a win 
out of our team. Win or lose, 
there is always unprecedented 
pride toward our team and our 
school. The student body feels 
as one unit, united by the spirit 
of the University of Michigan.
To the future Wolverines: 
Don’t take your freshman year 
for granted. Of course, it will 
be hard, and the University 
won’t feel like home with the 
snap of your fingers. But hold 
tight to the little moments, 
cut through the Diag and 
sing “Hail to the Victors” like 
it’s the last game day of your 
senior year.

G

raduating 
high 
school, I thought 
college would be a 
simple continuation of what I 
had been doing, but, you know, 
different. That wasn’t right 
at all; well, for the most part, 
anyways. My first semester was 
through the Summer Bridge 
Scholars Program and in a way 
it was like high school. We had 
predetermined classes at set 
times and we all got to know 
each other pretty well. Classes 
started at 8:30 every morning 
and there were two lunch 
periods. We were all done by 
4:30 p.m. and after classes 
we would meet up to play 
basketball, bet on video games 
or maybe watch a movie. Kind 
of like high school but, you 
know, different.
As I conclude my second year 
at the University of Michigan, I 
would like to reflect back on my 
time here, what has led me up to 
this point and what I wish I had 
done differently (thanks for the 
idea, Writing 350). If I could write 
a letter to my high school self, 
reminiscing on how I screwed 
up or the times I didn’t know 
any better, it would probably 
start with something along the 
lines of “Dear Me, you have no 
clue what you’re getting into,” or 
maybe more like “Dear Dumbass, 
please try harder,” or possibly 
even “Dear Idiot, if you don’t put 
110 percent effort into the coming 
months you are absolutely going 
to regret it.” After that first 
summer, I was overconfident, 
unprepared and just straight-up 
not ready for college.
Flash 
forward 
to 
fall 
semester freshman year and 
I actually had to pick my own 
classes (which I had never done 
before) and basically decide 
what I wanted to do with the 
rest of my life. Or so I thought. 
Ambitious as ever, I signed 
up for the earliest class times 
and, as a hopeful Engineering 
transfer, thought it would be a 
splendid idea to take all the core 
classes at once (Engineering 

100, Chemistry and Calculus). 
To top it off, I also took the 
LSA language requirement as 
I was still an LSA student and 
had not yet been accepted into 
the College of Engineering. I 
scheduled my classes back-to-
back-to-back-to-back, figuring 
I would just get them all out 
of the way, do homework for a 
little bit afterward and hang 
out for the rest of the day. 
Spoiler alert: that is not how 
college works.

I 
wish 
someone 
would 
have given me a reality check 
about what college was really 
like. Being a first-generation 
student, I wasn’t able to consult 
my parents in regard to how I 
was supposed to go about the 
whole college thing. I didn’t 
have many friends in college 
either, and I was afraid to ask 
those who were. In high school, 
I never thought very highly 
of those who dropped out of 
college, but I wish I had taken 
the time to ask why they did. 
After that fall semester I was 
seriously considering taking 
some time off myself. After that, 
I was a little more sympathetic 
to those who did decide to take 
a break from school. College 
sucked, man.
I have now been able to 
settle into college and I feel 
much more confident in my 
ability to manage the work 
involved, but if it hadn’t been 
for the high expectations of 
my family and friends, I might 
be flipping burgers for a living 
right now. I thought I was 

alone in my situation, but I later 
found out that this was not the 
case. In fact, according to the 
First Generation Foundation, 
“Nationally, 
89 
percent 
of 
low-income 
first-generation 
students leave college within 
six years without a degree” 
and, “More than a quarter leave 
after their first year.” Feeling 
unable to finish college has 
become a pretty significant 
problem facing first-generation 
students and, for me personally, 
it was due to the lack of 
preparation for college. I guess 
it would seem I managed to 
dodge a pretty large bullet.
If I could write a letter to 
myself, knowing what I know 
now, it would probably look 
something like this:
Dear idiot, dumbass me,
First and foremost, you are 
done with high school. It’s over. 
Please don’t go out partying 
if you have homework to do. 
Yes, even if it’s the weekend 
and all your friends are going. 
Stop procrastinating and do 
not prioritize a social life 
over school because you are 
really going to kill my GPA, 
dude. 
Second, 
please 
take 
a 
more 
manageable 
course 
load, especially in your first 
semester, because you will 
have me considering dropping 
out, for goodness sake. And 
last, but definitely not least, 
sit down and take some time 
to think about your future. 
Plan out what classes you 
need to take and how you are 
going to go about taking them. 
Talk to an advisor if you need 
to (just do it, man) — they are 
way smarter than you. Oh, and 
that calendar/schedule thing 
that you thought you were too 
good for? Well use it, idiot: it’s 
so much more helpful than you 
know.
Sincerely,
You, on a come up.

Lucas Dean can be reached at 

lbdean@umich.edu.

An homage to freshman year

ALI SAFAWI | COLUMN

An open letter to CSG
D

ear 
Central 
Student 
Government leaders,
As you take your new 
seats as representatives of our 
campus community, I would first 
like to congratulate you on your 
election and to wish you the best. 
I hope that you are able to meet 
the numerous challenges, both 
old and new, with practicality 
and grace. I am sure the new CSG 
administration 
and 
assembly 
will make positive change. With 
that being said, allow me to offer 
my suggestions as to how CSG 
can address the growing mental 
health crisis on our campus.
All of you ran with parties 
whose platforms and campaigns 
dedicated significant time to 
mental 
health. 
For 
instance, 
MVision, 
whose 
candidates 
won the presidency and vice 
presidency, as well as a plurality 
of assembly seats, ran a campaign 
focused 
on 
recognizing 
the 
concerns of students with mental 
health conditions as well as 
other “invisible identities.” Both 
MVision and the runner-up party 
MomentUM also endorsed a goal 
of reducing the student to mental 
health professional ratio from 
1,200 -to-1 to 1,000-to-1. I am 
assured that you all believe that it 
is a serious issue. Yet, realizing an 
issue’s seriousness is only the first 
step in taking concrete actions.
There are three interrelated 
issues I would like to see CSG take 
on: One, access to mental health 
care; two, substance abuse; and 
three, sources of chronic stress.
While hiring more mental 
health providers and opening a 
Counseling 
and 
Psychological 
Services center on North Campus 
are both worthy goals, more needs 
to be done to ensure equitable 
access to care on our campus. 
First, 
the 
current 
mental 
health system, focused on CAPS 
and the University Health Service, 
requires students to travel to 
receive care. This may not seem 
like a significant issue for routine 
care, such as biweekly counseling 
sessions, but forcing students to 
travel to seek care at the Union 
or UHS could cause issues in 
situations of trauma and crisis. 
Let’s take a hypothetical but all 
too probable situation of a student 
in a dorm — say, Couzens —who 
is in the middle of an emotional 
crisis. Yes, residence advisers 
are given basic training in crisis 
management, but that may not be 
enough. Now imagine having the 
student in crisis, who could really 
benefit from a face-to-face session 
with a psychologist or social 
worker, walk to CAPS. Add to that 

the potential for bad weather or 
the fact that emotional crises do 
not solely occur during the open 
hours of CAPS and you end up 
with a detrimental situation for 
the student already in a bad place.
I would ask CSG to work with 
the Residence Halls Association, 
University Housing and CAPS to 
assign mental health professionals 
to each dorm to make it easier 
for students on campus to access 
care. While many students live off 
campus, the University has more 
power to implement initiatives in 
the dorms. We already have the 
staff for this change, we just need 
to put them in new offices. I realize 
that the logistics of such a policy are 
more complex than I have laid out, 
but I believe such a change, which 
would decentralize the mental 
health system on campus, is both 
achievable and worth the effort.
Second, CSG can play an 
important role in addressing 
substance 
abuse 
on 
campus, 
especially related to prescription 
drugs. I have noticed almost all 
of the substance abuse education 
we get as University students is on 
alcohol. While attention to alcohol 
abuse is merited — 20 percent of 
college students suffer from it — 
there are other forms of substance 
abuse on campus that pose a 
danger to students.

Since the release of Netflix 
documentary “Take Your Pills,” 
there has been a new focus on the 
nonprescription use of central 
nervous 
system 
stimulants 
such as Adderall and Ritalin by 
college students. A survey by 
The Michigan Daily found 24 
percent of University students 
use Adderall, whereas only 8.95 
percent have a prescription for it. 
Ignoring for now the academic 
consequences of nonprescription 
Adderall use, there is a real mental 
health danger to students. For 
instance, there are documented 
cases of Adderall abuse driving 
students to suicide.
Another prescription drug, 
Xanax, also causes me concern. 
According to the most recent 
data from the Centers for Disease 

Control and Prevention, Xanax 
is the fourth leading cause of 
drug overdose deaths in the 
U.S. Per an investigation by the 
CUIndependent, students at the 
University of Colorado Boulder, 
a 
similarly 
prestigious 
state 
university, use Xanax often in 
combination with alcohol to deal 
with anxiety and panic attacks, 
even without a prescription. While 
I am not aware of any studies on 
the prevalence of nonprescription 
Xanax use on campus, I suspect it 
would be comparable to Adderall.
While prescription drugs like 
oxycodone carry a stigma and sense 
of danger owing to the opioid crisis, 
I feel the same cannot be said about 
Adderall and Xanax. I encourage 
CSG to work with the University on 
a public health education campaign 
about the dangers of using these 
drugs 
without 
a 
clinician’s 
supervision and about campus 
resources for those looking to break 
their addiction.
Third, the University must 
enter a culture shift to reduce the 
dog-eat-dog academic environment 
that breeds so much stress in 
students. Academic stress is one 
reason why students turn to 
Adderall and Xanax. I remember 
nearly pulling my hair out with 
worry over my first organic 
chemistry exam. This should not be 
happening. While a culture shift 
will take longer than one CSG 
term, it is critical that we begin 
a dialogue on how our academic 
environment is directly affecting 
mental health in negative ways.
Another stressor that needs 
attention is the recurrent racist 
incidents on campus. It is not 
enough to declare racism or other 
prejudice has no place on this 
campus. Last year, students of color 
found strong allies in former CSG 
President Anushka Sarkar and 
Vice President Nadine Jawad. I 
hope current CSG President Daniel 
Greene and Vice President Izzy 
Baer will continue in that mold.
Let’s prevent mental health 
problems from developing in the 
first place.
Granted, 
there 
are 
many 
serious issues on our campus, 
however, mental health is one 
that touches the lives of all 
students one way or another. I will 
continue to advocate for better 
mental health services on campus 
and look forward to having allies 
in CSG.
Warmest regards,
Ali Safawi

Julia Cohn can be reached at 

julcohn@umich.edu.

Ali Safawi can be reached at 

asafawi@umich.edu.

Spoiler alert: that 
is not how college 
works. 

I get a little 
choked up every 
time I think about 
leaving.

CONTRIBUTE TO THE CONVERSATION

Readers are encouraged to submit letters to the editor and op-eds. 
Letters should be fewer than 300 words while op-eds should be 550 
to 850 words. Send the writer’s full name and University affiliation to 
tothedaily@michigandaily.com.

NATALIE BROWN | CONTACT CARTOONIST AT NGBROWN@UMICH.EDU

Yet, realizing an 
issue’s seriousness 
is only the first 
step. 

