On Jan. 23, U.S. Reps. Debbie 
Dingell, D-Ann Arbor, and Fred 
Upton, R-St. Joseph, introduced 
emergency legislation called the 
Pay Federal Workers Act allowing 
states to make unemployment 
benefits available for these unpaid 
federal workers during government 
shutdowns. 
The federal shutdown also means 
several agencies in Washington, 
D.C., have been closed indefinitely. 
This has caused a backup in 
workflow, especially as it pertains 
to the reception of proposals from 
lobbyists to legislators.
Cynthia 
Wilbanks, 
vice 
president of government relations 
at the University, spends her time 
working closely with lobbyists both 
locally and in Washington, D.C. She 
has found members of Congress are 
still present during this situation, 
but some agencies are closed.
“The members of Congress are 
still quite accessible,” Wilbanks 
said. “We have not experienced a 
delay or any particular issues with 
respect to members of Congress. 
Their offices are open. … Some 
of the agencies, however, are not 
considered essential, so they are 
being impacted if they were not 
funded in the regular appropriation 
cycle.”
Wilbanks recalled one employee 
telling her how sometimes there 
is no one in certain departments 
to receive their project in grant 
proposals. She advised her to still 

observe deadlines in the hopes 
that when the government does 
reopen, they recieve responses to 
their work as close to on schedule 
as possible.
“I was advising one faculty 
member, she was working on 
a proposal that needed to be 
submitted, and her agency —the 
agency that she’s submitting it 
to — is technically not working,” 
Wilbanks said. “And I said, ‘Don’t 
miss the deadline,’ because the last 
thing you want is not submitting it 
on time.”
One of the main priorities in 
Wilbanks’ division is research. 
The University is the largest 
public research university and has 
been impacted by the shutdown. 
Wilbanks is helping her staff work 
around the shutdown, though the 
longer the uncertainty continues, 
the harder it is for her staff to 
continue their projects.
“The shutdown is certainly 
problematic — it leaves a lot 
of 
uncertainty,” 
Wilbanks 
said. “Most of our researchers 
and 
administration 
itself 
are 
considering how to bridge the 
current situation with(out) the 
support that keeps many of these 
programs and projects going, but 
by now, I’m pretty sure that just 
in any course of action that we 
might think about the course that 
says, ‘Well, we’ll be shut down for 
another 30 or 60 days’ will start 
to have ripple effects and impact a 
number of people at the University. 
It’s just hard to know which ones.”

After the boy was found 
guilty 
and 
sentenced 
by 
a 
Black 
judge, 
Forman 
recognized 
what 
he 
saw 
as 
an 
African-American 
jurisdiction 
incarcerating 
their own. 
Forman 
stated 
that 
in 
D.C. at the time of this 
trial, 40 percent of judges 
in the Supreme Court were 
African-American, the City 
Council and police force were 
primarily Black, the mayor at 
the time was Black, as well as 
the chief prosecutor.
“Even 
with 
all 
that 
representation 
of 
local 
government, we were doing 
the same thing that everyone 
else was doing around the 
country,” 
Forman 
said. 
“Passing 
the 
same 
laws, 
enacting the same policies, 
with 
the 
same 
results. 
I 
told you that one third of 
young Black men were under 
criminal justice supervision 
nationally, at the time in D.C., 
it was one in two.”
Forman spoke about his 
research reading constituent 
letters 
from 
African 
Americans 
to 
government 
representatives 
regarding 
drug and crime concerns in 
their neighborhoods during 
the 1960s and ’70s. Forman 
attained 
the 
letters 
from 
retired local politicians who 
saved these papers.
“The 
generation 
of 
people 
that 
are 
receiving 
these letters are the first 
generation of Black elected 
officials to be elected in any 
number in this country since 
Reconstruction,” 
Forman 

said. “All of them remember 
the long history of under-
enforcement 
and 
under-
protection of the law that’s 
been a hallmark of the Black 
experience in this country 
since slavery.”
Forman spoke about the 
rise 
in 
heroin 
addiction 
in the 1960s and how the 
government responded with 
increasing the presence of law 
enforcement. 
According 
to 
Forman, when David Clarke, 
one of two white members 
of the original city council, 
received concern about heroin 
addiction in public spaces, 
the problem was sent to the 
police 
department, 
where 
law 
enforcement 
response 
trumped 
a 
public 
health 
response.
Forman attributed Clarke’s 
response to the epidemic as a 
“constraint of imagination,” 
a 
constraint 
that 
Forman 
characterized as stigmas and 
stereotypes surrounding the 
Black community.
“Because, 
of 
course, 
if 
the problem is addicts in 
public space, you would send 
people 
whose 
only 
tools 
are handcuffs, and the only 
place they can take you is 
the local jail where there is 
no treatment,” Forman said. 
“And David Clarke wasn’t a 
bad guy, but his imagination 
was constrained.”
Forman 
acknowledged 
a 
history 
of 
white-
dominated 
governments 
which increasingly led to 
unfavorable decisions toward 
African Americans passed in 
the government.
“Institutionalized 
white 
supremacy 
in 
government 
and law and policy for over 85 
percent of American history 

and that has an impact that 
manifested itself in decisions 
up and down the government, 
decisions 
to 
systematically 
deprive Black communities 
and 
Black 
citizens 
of 
resources,” Forman said.
Forman mentioned the past 
decisions made in government 
which 
resulted 
in 
law 
enforcement’s dependency to 
respond to disparities present 
in the Black community.
“The communities that were 
asking for protection, that 
these newly elected officials 
were elected to represent, 
lacked 
the 
resources 
to 
protect themselves so they 
were unduly reliant on the 
state, they were unduly reliant 
on police and prosecutors 
for protection,” Forman said. 
“It’s those tiny decisions that 
are individual bricks that 
collectively have built up the 
prison nation that we have 
become.”
Public 
Policy 
junior 
Lena Dreves said she found 
Forman’s 
analysis 
of 
the 
system as a whole particularly 
interesting.
“I think it’s really important 
how he really constructively 
criticized 
each 
actor 
and 
piece in a way where he’s not 
putting all the blame on one 
piece of the entire system,” 
Dreves said.
Forman went on to discuss 
the solutions he sees to the 
problem of mass incarceration 
in the United States, including 
action on a local level.
“It is tempting to look at 
speeches of presidents and 
acts of Congress, but it is just 
as crucial to look at acts at 
the local level,” Forman said. 
“Even though what happens 
in Washington gets so much 

attention, 
actually 
what 
happens in states and counties 
and cities is more important 
for 
pushing 
back 
against 
mass 
incarceration 
than 
anything that’s happening in 
Washington, D.C. And so we 
can’t let the media attention 
drive our activism and drive 
our analysis of the problem or 
of the solutions.”
The right to serve on a jury 
has been central to the civil 
rights struggle in the United 
States, and Forman suggested 
voting on a jury is crucial to 
making change.
“Understand the power you 
can have as a juror … Use the 
jury box as a site of politics,” 
Forman said.
Public Policy senior Drea 
Somers said individuals who 
work together can play a role 
to alter the structure of an 
institutionalized system.
“Movement 
building 
is 
super 
important,” 
Somers 
said. “It is a lot of hard 
work. … Mass incarceration 
is a daunting system, but 
with a few good people and 
intentional work, we can all 
chip away at the structure.”
Forman 
concluded 
the 
lecture with a quote from his 
father, an advocate during the 
civil rights movement, who 
worked with Martin Luther 
King Jr.
“What 
you 
have 
to 
understand is that we were 
fighting knowing that the 
change may not take place 
in our lifetime. … We were 
fighting for 10,000 days from 
tomorrow,” 
Forman 
said. 
“And we were fighting for 
freedom because fighting for 
freedom in an unjust system 
is what makes you human.”

The 
evening 
included 
a 
presentation, 
traditional 
dance performances from the 
Yemeni Students’ Association 
and 
the 
Iraqi 
Student 
Association 
among 
other 
events.
Business junior Sikander 
Khan, the director of strategy 
and 
operations 
for 
Paani, 
explained 
how 
the 
event 
developed after the various 
organizations realized they 
all had common challenges 
with 
sanitation 
in 
their 
respective countries.
“We 
found 
a 
bunch 
of 
different 
cultural 
organizations 
that 
all 
struggle 
with 
the 
same 
common 
struggle, 
which 
was sanitation conditions,” 
Khan said. “So we reached 
out to these different orgs 
and they were very excited 
about working together to 
raise awareness about these 
humanitarian 
crises 
going 
on and just bringing people 
together to experience their 
culture.”
The event began with a 
presentation about Paani and 
how their original mission 
of building wells in Pakistan 
developed into a wider effort 
to make use of all University 
resources to tackle the issue. 
One of these efforts was 
establishing a public health 
curriculum 
in 
Pakistan 
to 
teach 
children 
about 
sanitation. It also touched 
on the intersectionality of 
the 
sanitation 
issues 
and 
how it impacts countries and 
individuals all around the 
world — specifically Yemen, 
which has a total population 
of 28 million people, with 
19 million of those people 
without access to water.
LSA 
freshman 
Shanmin 
Sultana, director of internal 
affairs for Paani, elaborated 
on the intersectionality of 
the 
sanitation 
issue 
and 
discussed 
how 
Paani’s 
mission expanded.
“Initially, we were very 
focused 
on 
Pakistan, 
but 
we noticed a lot of other 
countries, especially in the 
Middle East and in South 
Asia, 
were 
also 
suffering 
from water crises like us,” 
Sultana said. “We wanted to 
come together and highlight 
that this water crisis is not 
just central to Pakistan, it’s 
a universal crisis in many 
countries. We wanted to show 
that while we stand primarily 
in Pakistan, we stand in 
solidarity 
with 
all 
these 
countries that are suffering 
with 
sanitation 
related 
crises.”
After 
the 
presentation, 
the event began to showcase 
traditional dances performed 
by 
the 
Yemeni 
Students’ 
Association and the Iraqi 

Student 
Association. 
The 
event also included a “best 
dressed” competition, which 
allowed attendees to show off 
cultural clothing.
LSA 
sophomore 
Alana 
Phillips heard about the event 
through a friend. She said 
she appreciated the chance 
to learn more about different 
student groups and cultures.
“I think it’s a good way 
for people to learn about 
different cultures, different 
experiences 
that 
link 
together different parts of the 
world that can get overlooked 
sometimes,” Phillips said. “It 
brings out the good things.”
Khan 
also 
emphasized 
another important aspect of 
the event was showcasing 
the positive aspects of each 
country because many have 
been demonized by popular 
media. He hoped the event 
would offer others the chance 
to learn more about different 
cultures.
“By 
bringing 
all 
these 
different 
people 
together 
who kind have been pushed 
to the side culture wise and 
human wise, it just gives us 
a good opportunity to come 
together,” Khan said.
LSA junior Mehrin Ahmed, 

Bangladeshi 
Students 

Association marketing chair, 
echoed Khan’s sentiment and 
discussed how even though it 
is important to acknowledge 
the challenges their countries 
face, it is also important to 
celebrate their beauty.
“We don’t want to dismiss 
the issues,” Ahmed said. “We 
know they exist and we’re 
here to shed light and bring 
awareness, 
but 
also 
have 
the positive on the sidelines 
and show that despite these 
challenges, 
despite 
the 
struggles we face, we’re still 
here. Our vibrance — it’s 
outshining everything.”
Moving forward, Phillips 
hopes the University will 
support more events hosted 
by communities of color and 
encourage more students to 
attend them.
“They can bring the events 
to light,” Phillips said. “Also 
encouraging 
them 
(the 
events) to be in spaces where 
more kids are going to see 
them, where students are 
going to see them, because we 
get overlooked when they’re 
not in spaces you’re going to 
see other students here at the 
University.”
Ahmed also touched on the 
importance of representing 
different 
communities 
on 
campus 
and 
encouraged 
ongoing team work.
“We exist,” Ahmed said. 
“Not just our struggles and not 
just the things we celebrate, 
but solely our existence does 
not get the traction we’d hope 
for on this campus. We’d hope 
that a community like this 
would bring people together 
in a comfortable manner.”

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News
Friday, January 25, 2019 — 3

INEQUALITY
From Page 1

CULTURE
From Page 1

PE NNY STAMPS SPE AKE R SE RIES

Marisa Morán Jahn speaks at “Unraveling Power Through Art, Play, and Hijnks” for the Penny W. Stamps speaker series at the Michigan Theater 
Thursday afternooon.

DANYEL THARAKAN/Daily

SHUTDOWN
From Page 1

But 
many 
pre-professional 
organizations 
require 
intensive 
application processes that make 
membership extremely exclusive. 
Competitive 
admissions 
are 
especially prevalent in business-
oriented, 
pre-professional 
organizations, including consulting 
groups, 
investment 
firms 
and 
business fraternities. Applications 
often require written supplements, 
interviews and multiple rounds of 
“cuts,” yielding an extensive process 
of new member selection.
A 
growing 
sentiment 
of 
frustration has developed among 
portions of the student body due to 
the highly selective nature of these 
clubs, which reject a majority of 
initial applicants before welcoming 
new members.
LSA 
junior 
Andrew 
Levey 
discussed how his own experience 
with rejection from a campus 
consulting firm led him to create 
Alliance Consulting Group, an 
organization dedicated to providing 
all students with an opportunity to 
learn about consulting.
“I tried to become interested 
in the consulting industry in the 
beginning of my sophomore year,” 
Levey said. “I applied to a lot of the 
Ross consulting clubs to see if I could 
learn about the industry and get 
some real-world experience doing 
so, and I found that these clubs are 
really, really hard to get into if you 
don’t know anything about what’s 
called a case interview.”
In a case interview, an applicant 

is presented with a hypothetical 
business 
scenario 
that 
the 
interviewee 
must 
assess 
and 
propose a solution to. Consulting 
clubs often utilize this interview 
style to assess potential members.
Levey went on to discuss how 
Alliance Consulting combats a 
culture of exclusivity by focusing 
on new member education and 
developing skills for consulting, 
including how to complete a 
successful case interview.
“I thought it was unfair that 
people who don’t know about an 
industry are assessed on a learned 
skill they don’t know,” Levey said. 
“I felt that there needed to be a club 
on campus for students who, even if 
they don’t know what consulting is, 
if they want to become interested in 
it, they can have the opportunity to 
do so.” 
Business junior Thejas Suvarna, 
president of APEX Consulting 
Group, one of the most selective 
consulting groups, stated that in an 
effort to provide all students with an 
equal opportunity to succeed in the 
recruitment process, case interview 
workshops are held to explain what 
they are and provide applicants 
with examples of how to approach 
problems. APEX Consulting Group 
focuses 
on 
offering 
pro-bono 
consulting for local Ann Arbor 
businesses and is known to have 
selective membership.
“At the end of the day, we really 
emphasize that while there’s a 
formal name to this case interview, 
really it’s just a way to gauge your 
thought process and see how you 
break down a problem, and those 
are inherent traits people will have,” 

Suvarna said.
“We do so much work with 
clients and we have to manage 
those relationships,” Suvarna said. 
“Clients give us their personal 
information. We have to make sure 
that we’re respecting their privacy 
and serving them a purpose and 
doing a good job, and it’s not feasible 
for us to do that well with a club 
that’s too big for us to manage.”
Suvarna went on to discuss the 
firm’s applicant selection process 
is based on anonymity to ensure a 
more holistic process at large.
“Our 
application 
process 
is 
completely anonymous,” Suvarna 
said. “We go through and read the 
responses to our essays because, for 
us, what is most important is, ‘Did 
these people do their homework and 
learn about what APEX has to offer? 
Is there a legitimate reason that they 
want to be in APEX, to contribute to 
the community rather than to just 
use it as a step to the next thing?’ 
That all comes first.”
Ed Huebner, assistant director 
of Counseling and Psychological 
Services, noted the positive aspects 
of selective clubs, as they instill a 
strong sense of community among 
members within a large campus.
“I think the idea goes back to 
connection and feeling a sense 
of belonging — and that could be 
belonging to a group, a club, an 
organization or a department,” 
Huebner said. “There’s a sense of 
identity that can come from feeling 
like, ‘This is my group, this is my 
connection, these are my people, 
and from that there’s a closeness 
that we feel.’”
Huebner discussed how the 

feeling of belonging contributes 
to the mental health of students 
on campus, both positively and 
negatively.
“For a lot of our students that 
come in, this can be a very big 
place,” Huebner said. “So that idea 
of, ‘Who can I connect with and feel 
belonging with?’ on campus ends 
up being a really big factor when it 
comes to their mental health.”
Norm Bishara, the associate dean 
for undergraduate programs at the 
Ross School of Business, provided 
an email statement on behalf of 
the Business School discussing 
how success on a college campus 
goes beyond admission to any one 
organization.
“The clubs provide benefits to 
students by creating opportunities 
for 
leadership 
and 
real-world 
experiences, 
offering 
fellowship 
and a like-minded community, and 
creating positive impact,” Bishara 
wrote in the email. “… We recognize 
that the student leaders of some 
clubs have implemented competitive 
application processes. While clubs 
and student organizations are an 
important part of the Michigan 
Ross experience, student success is 
independent of participation in any 
single club or activity on campus.”
Business junior Jack Geiger, vice 
president of clubs for the Bachelor 
of 
Business 
Administration 
Council, 
said 
the 
competitive 
nature of business-oriented clubs 
is appropriate, given the rigorous 
work students participate in once 
admitted.

Read more online at 
michigandaily.com

Read more online at 
michigandaily.com

COMPETITION
From Page 1