Five speakers shared their 

research in regulating false 
information online to a crowd 
of approximately 50 students 
and faculty members Tuesday 
night at Rackham Assembly 
Hall. The panel, titled “Catching 
Fake 
News,” 
was 
part 
of 

the University of Michigan 
Dissonance Event Series, which 
focuses on the intersection of 
technology, 
privacy, 
policy, 

security and law.

Panelists 
included 
Mark 

Ackerman, 
a 
School 
of 

Information professor, Ceren 
Budak, a School of Information 
assistant professor, Engineering 

professor Rada Mihalcea and 
Fredrik 
Laurin, 
a 
Knight-

Wallace fellow. The panel was 
moderated by Brendan Nyhan, 
a professor in the Ford School of 
Public Policy.

Nyhan opened the event 

by sharing the history of fake 
news. He said fake news is now 
more widely read than ever 
before. Nyhan also said humans 
struggle to handle the volume 
of content they are exposed to 
daily, so machines can be used 
to help ease the issue of volume.

“‘What should we do about it?’ 

is the values question implicated 
here,” Nyhan said. 

Pulitzer 
Prize 
winning 

author 
Heather 
Ann 

Thompson spoke at Literati 
Bookstore on Tuesday night 
as a part of the Sweetland 
Writing Center’s Writer to 
Writer series. As part of the 
series, the center brings in a 
renowned author monthly to 
speak about their work, their 
process and their advice to 
younger writers studying at 
the University of Michigan 
and in the surrounding area.

Thompson 
works 
as 
a 

historian at the University 
in the Departments of Afro-
American 
and 
African 

studies and History as well 
as the Residential College. 
Additionally, Thompson is a 
critically-acclaimed 
author 

with more than 20 awards 
including a Bancroft Prize 
and Pulitzer Prize for her 
book “Blood in the Water: 
The Attica Prison Uprising of 
1971 and its Legacy.” Since its 
release, Thompson has been 
on a neverending press tour for 
“Blood in the Water”, including 
an interview on “The Daily 
Show with Trevor Noah.”

Shelly Manis who works 

at 
the 
Sweetland 
Writing 

Center and runs the Writer to 
Writer Series, conducted the 
interview with Thompson at 
Literati and organized for it 
to be broadcasted live on the 
student radio station WCBN.

Thompson 
first 
revealed 

that she never viewed writing 
as her calling, nor did it come 
naturally to her, which was 
rather discouraging as she 
began to work in her field of 
study.

“Writing is hard and it feels 

like your identity is always 
on display when you try to 
convey something on paper,” 
Thompson said.

Thompson explained that 

once she found “a passion 

for what I wanted to write 
about,” the process seemed to 
flow. She set out as a writer to 
kindle that same passion in her 
readers because the issues that 
she covers are so important to 
surround with conversation. 
She writes in an “accessible” 
manner so that anyone can 
learn from her research.

“I 
wanted 
my 
random 

relatives in Kansas to pick this 
up and go, ‘Oh, this is a page 
turner,’” Thompson remarked.

“Blood 
in 
the 
Water” 

chronicles 
a 
1971 
prison 

uprising at Attica Correctional 
Facility 
in 
New 
York. 

Prisoners had been trying 
to improve their conditions 
legally 
by 
petitioning 
the 

government, but they were 
met with extreme resistance. 
As 
a 
result, 
the 
inmates 

staged an uprising, taking the 
prison guards hostage and 
negotiating with the state.

The 
University 
of 

Michigan’s Central Student 
Government 
met 
Tuesday 

to introduce and discuss a 
proposal 
of 
the 
executive 

team’s new liaison program 
to be integrated within all 
campus organizations.

The mission of the program 

is 
to 
provide 
a 
platform 

for 
students 
and 
their 

organizations to externally 
address 
possible 
issues 

within their groups. It also 
aims 
to 
foster 
a 
greater 

connection between campus 
organizations.

According to LSA senior 

Sena Adjei, CSG senior policy 
advisor, this initiative came 
about after concerns arose on 
how to make the campus more 
connected 
and 
make 
CSG 

more visible campus-wide.

“This is the exec team’s 

best answer to one of the 
most serious ills that campus 
has seen,” Adjei said. “The 
University of Michigan is such 
a big campus and exists in a 
bunch of completely isolated 

michigandaily.com
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Wednesday, November 28, 2018

ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-EIGHT YEARS OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM

“Unappointed” committee holds 
discussion on academic freedom

AARON BAKER/Daily

Louis Evans, professor of History, speaks at the Unappointed Advisory Committee on Academic Freedom teach-in at the Michigan League Tuesday. 

CAMPUS LIFE

ALEX HARRING
Daily Staff Reporter

Panelists aimed to contextualize recent discipline of Prof. Cheney-Lippold

The 
Unappointed 
Advisory 

Committee on Academic Freedom 

held 
a 
panel 
discussion 
and 

general 
assembly 
on 
Tuesday 

evening to discuss the history of 
noncompliance, divestment and 
boycott 
at 
the 
University 
of 
Michigan 

in an effort to contextualize 

the recent disciplining of Prof. 
John 
Cheney-Lippold 
and 

Graduate Student Instructor Lucy 
Peterson’s refusal to write an 
academic recommendation for a 
student to study abroad in Israel. 

The panelists were introduced by 
Deirdre de la Cruz, director of the 
Doctoral Program in Anthropology 
and History, who emphasized 
the teach-in as an analysis of the 

KATHERINA SOURINE

Daily Staff Reporter

See CSG, Page 3A

CSG forms 
a plan for 
student org 
integration

STUDENT GOVERNMENT

Initiative proposed after 
concerns over CSG 
visibility, campus bubbles

PARNIA MAZHAR

Daily Staff Reporter

MILES MACKLIN/DAILY

Dr. Heather Ann Thompson reads from her Pulitzer Prize winning book Blood in the Water to the crowd at Literati 
Bookstore Tuesday night. 

Author Heather Ann Thompson 
speaks at Writers to Writers series

Pulitzer Prize winner discusses the challenges and joys of historical writing 

MELANIE TAYLOR

Daily Staff Reporter

“I didn’t realize 
academia was a 

career for me” 

Statement Magazine profiles 

the different paths that led 
social scientists into their 

current careers

» Page 4B

This 
month, 
a 
team 
of 

political 
scientists 
known 

as the Bright Line Watch 
released 
a 
study 
showing 

that Republicans, Democrats 
and independents are all more 
likely to support candidates 
that respect independent legal 
investigations. 
Bright 
Line 

Watch works to monitor the 
state of U.S. democracy and any 
potential threats it faces.

Brendan Nyhan, a professor 

in the Ford School of Public 
Policy at the University of 
Michigan and a co-director 
of the Bright Line Watch 
team, co-authored the study 
along with five other political 
scientists. 

The 
study, 
called 

“Party, 
policy, 
democracy 

and 
candidate 
choice 

in 
U.S. 
elections,” 
was 

conducted 
in 
late 
October 

and 
involved 
surveying 

962 
online 
participants 

about their preferences for 
candidates’ 
policy 
positions 

in a hypothetical upcoming 
election.

See COURT, Page 2A

University 
study looks 
into court 
hearings 

GOVERNMENT

Research shows bipartisan 
support for independent 
legal investigations

MAEVE O’BRIEN
Daily Staff Reporter

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. CXXVIII, No. 39
©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 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

S P O R T S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
michigandaily.com

For more stories and coverage, visit

statement

THE MICHIGAN DAILY | NOVEMBER 28, 2018

See ACADEMICS, Page 3A

See PULITZER, Page 3A

Panel talks 
strategies 
to navigate
fake news

University faculty discuss difficulties 
conducting research, analysis on topic

Read more at 
MichiganDaily.com

