The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com 
Fall 2018 — 7C

An homage to 
freshman year 

Coming 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 where I will sigh 
in frustration 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.

JULIA COHN
Columnist

Environmental “slack-tivism” in 2018

It’s 2018 and this year we 
celebrated the 48th anniversary 
of Earth Day, a global day of 
recognition 
for 
environmental 
protection. It also marks day zero 
of the Environmental Protection 
Agency “strengthening” the quality 
of science it uses to write new 
environmental rules, a decision 
made by EPA Administrator Scott 
Pruitt. “Strengthening” in this 
case means narrowing the scope of 
science available to the EPA to only 
findings that are reproducible and 
authentic, which may potentially 
violate the EPA’s pledge to use the 
best available science.
Recently, I was reminded by 
a CNN push notification that the 
health of my environment, as 
well as the integrity of my right 
to take action, is deteriorating. 
I immediately felt there was no 
legitimate way for me to express my 
disdain for political decisions like 

this one. After reading, I interrupted 
my 
friend’s 
final-paper-writing 
trance so she could commiserate 
with me in anger about the article. 
“Wow,” she sighed, “you should 
share that article on Facebook.”
This is “slacktivism,” or the 
watered-down support for an issue 
that requires only the most minimal 
effort, such as expressing opinions 
on social media. This is how our 
generation takes action. Is it true 
that millennial Wolverines are 
lazily riding a ski lift up the activism 
mountain, while generations before 
us trekked and trudged to reach the 
top of it? It is possible we come off 
as [COPY: confusing, maybe should 
say “it is possible we appear to them 
to be”] the pre-cooked meals in 
the freezer section of Kroger that 
require minimal effort to enjoy – 
just two minutes of “labor.” We are 
to past generations of activists as 
EasyBib is to handwriting an APA-
style reference.
Activists across the world gather 
annually on Earth Day in an attempt 

to harness the power necessary to 
keep the passion alive and stand up 
against environmental injustice. But 
what classifies as standing up for the 
Earth? Standing up for the Earth in 
2018 is quite different than it was in 
1970, especially on the University 
of Michigan campus – but how 
different?
“Slacktivism” on our campus, 
unfortunately, casts a shadow on 
our school’s unparalleled legacy of 
student-driven action. In March 
1970, U-M students organized a 
four-day-long series of events that 
revolved around taking action 
toward 
bettering 
their 
dirty 
surroundings. 
This 
“teach-in” 
served as a precursor to the first 
Earth Day just one month later. 
Before 
1970, 
the 
environment 
was degrading nationwide; the 
Cuyahoga River in Ohio was so 
polluted that it ignited and Santa 
Barbara was suffering after a 
massive oil spill. Locally, the Huron 
River’s wildlife populations were 
dropping like flies because its flies 
were 
drinking 
poisoned 
water. 
The 1970 teach-in let 
students take action in a way 
that had never been done 
before. Young adults our age 
attended conferences hosted 
by politicians in an attempt 
to gain perspective on the 
issues. They enrolled in the 
brand new environmental 
law major and walked along 
the Huron River to protest 
its deterioration. They took 
sledgehammers to a vehicle 
in the Diag that was facing 
a “trial and execution” for 
its pollution crime. They 
visited a former Ann Arbor 
Coca-Cola bottling plant 
and dropped off thousands 
of cans that were, at the 
time, non-returnable. They 
then picked up that mess of 
cans with their own hands.
Our generation has a 
slightly different way of 
expressing disgust for the 
state of the environment 
and its policies, as shown 
by my friend’s suggestion to 

Facebook “share” the Pruitt article. 
We use our own two hands to type 
outraged, 
opinionated 
streams 
of consciousness onto Facebook, 
letting the world know our true 
opinions about who is responsible 
for polluting what, and how John 
Appleseed should be paying for its 
clean-up. We retweet digs at Pruitt 
that criticize his tactics, question 
his motives, and press for answers 
about the future of the EPA. 
However, we need to start doing the 
action ourselves — the criticizing, 
the questioning and the pressing for 
answers.
We’ve picked a bad time for 
action to shift to inaction, for 
correspondence with state senators 
to turn into retweets and Facebook 
shares. I say “bad time” because 
as a country, we exist in quite a 
tumultuous 
environment, 
both 
environmentally 
and 
politically. 
Just this past year, humans’ actions 
resulted in the inability to coexist 
with certain species and a climate 
disaster in Puerto Rico. The U.S. 
was one of the only countries to 
withdraw from the Paris agreement 
and remove itself from the pact to 
reduce greenhouse gas emissions. 
Not to worry — if all feels hopeless 
and degradation seems inevitable, 
check 
out 
the 
University’s 
sustainability website, and explore 
the huge progress the University 
has made to better the Earth and 
work toward our 2025 campus 
goals. We’ve already succeeded in 
applying 40 percent less chemicals 
to the green of our campus, but we 
need to focus on recycling to reduce 
waste sent to landfills and walking 
or busing to class to reduce our 
carbon footprint.
April 22, 2018 has come and 
gone, sweeping like a whirlwind 
over our country and hitting Ann 
Arbor especially hard. The 48th 
anniversary of Earth Day should 
serve 
as 
our 
push-notification 
reminder to wake up and smell the 
roses, both figuratively and literally. 
We are now in the same position as 
the 1970 U-M undergraduates that 
spoke up for what they believed in 
and inspired a national movement. 
SARAH NEFF
Wardrobe Malfunction, Sarah Neff can be reached at sane@umich.edu

JULIA MONTAG
Columnist