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Wednesday, January 30, 2019 — 3A

LANGUAGE
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ARCHITECTURE
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LIBRARY 
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After Ann Arbor residents 
voted in November to approve 
Proposal A, an amendment 
to 
the 
city 
charter 
that 
required the city to retain 
ownership 
of 
the 
Library 
Lot, 
City 
Administrator 
Howard Lazarus sent a letter 
to Core Spaces in December 
terminating 
their 
purchase 
agreement.
The 
council 
voted 
8-1 
to settle the lawsuit with 
Bannister and Kailasapathy on 
Jan 22. This final settlement 
will require the city attorney 
to 
sign 
additional 
legal 
documents, preventing the city 
from selling the development 
rights of the Library Lot.
Upon Taylor’s suggestion, 
Bannister recused herself from 
the vote, as she was a plaintiff 

in the lawsuit. Councilmember 
Jeff Hayner, D-Ward 1, was the 
only no vote on approving the 
settlement. 
Councilmember 
Chip Smith, D-Ward 5, was not 
present for the meeting.
Hayner 
explained 
his 
reasons for voting no on the 
settlement, stating he was 
unsure of the council’s ability 
to invalidate a contract. He 
questioned 
the 
necessity 
of City Council to approve 
contracts like the one the city 
was engaged in with Core 
Spaces.
“I would like this body to 
take a look at its rules,” Hayner 
said. “I don’t think it’s proper 
that a body reserve the right 
for itself to waive the final 
review of a contract.”
Councilmember Jack Eaton, 
D-Ward 4, expressed concerns 
similar to Hayner’s but voted 
yes to approve the settlement. 
Councilmember Ali Ramlawi, 

D-Ward 5, also voted yes on 
the settlement but wanted to 
clarify that his vote was only 
in agreement with affirming 
procedural 
requirements 
stipulated by the city charter 
and was not a vote to prevent 
the 
development 
by 
Core 
Spaces.
“I would like to go on 
record saying I was under the 
impression that that’s what 
the lawsuit was about — it 
was not about preventing the 
construction 
of 
a 
building 
but about the procedures of 
a whole process,” Ramlawi 
said. “And if we are going to be 
consistent up here, we have to 
respect that principle.”
After the vote, Bannister 
read a prepared statement 
thanking the city attorney for 
recommending settlement of 
the lawsuit and the council for 
approving the settlement.
“When Sumi Kailasapathy 

and I filed our complaint last 
June, we did not take that 
matter lightly,” Bannister said. 
“We did so because we believed 
that when City Council votes 
to approve a contract, that 
contract must be available for 
our review.”
Bannister 
ended 
her 
comments by declaring her 
hope for the city to follow 
proper procedures, as written 
in the city charter, when 
approving contracts in the 
future.
“By settling this case, we are 
acknowledging that the voters 
amended the city charter in 
November and we are agreeing 
that the city will not proceed 
with the sale of the Library 
Lot to Core Spaces,” Bannister 
said. “I hope we will also agree 
that going forward, that the 
city will approve contracts only 
when the contracts are written 
and available for review.”

and we have to be vigilant. Just 
like everything in Housing, 
it’s a 24-hour operation: once 
we’ve done each corner of the 
building, we start over again to 
maintain safety.”
Walsh also said while the 
University 
has 
been 
doing 
a good job, she had to make 
sacrifices for her wellbeing and 
not attend her classes or club 
meetings due to the slippery 
sidewalks and roads last week. 
She 
noted 
her 
professors 
were accommodating of her 
situation. 
“I had to skip class on 
Wednesday [last week], the day 
it was really icy out, and there 
were a few club mass meetings 
I didn’t get to go to on Tuesday 
night of last week,” Walsh said.
Walsh 
is 
one 
of 
many 
students who lives on North 
Campus and takes the buses 
every day. On Monday, a Blue 
Bus slid off of Fuller Road and 
crashed into a tree. She said 
the bus crash scared her, as 
she is already injured, and it 
made her think about other 
students and faculty who have 
to drive longer distances to get 
to campus.
“When one of the girls said 
she had felt herself jolt when 
the bus crashed, that was a 
little scary, because I’m not 
looking to get any more hurt,” 
Walsh said. “It definitely was 
concerning, especially with all 
of the professors and students 
that drive to school. It made me 
think that we should probably 
not expect everyone to have to 
endure all of those conditions.”
According to First District 
of the Michigan State Police, 
which includes Clinton, Eaton, 
Ingham, Hillsdale, Jackson, 
Lenawee, Livingston, Monroe 
and 
Washtenaw 
Counties, 
there were a total of 117 crashes 
in the district on Monday.
The Division of Public Safety 
& Security issued a warning on 
Sunday about especially snowy 
and slippery roads on Monday 

and Tuesday. Similarly, the 
Ann Arbor Police Department 
advised 
city 
members 
and 
students 
to 
avoid 
driving 
during the snow and spend 
minimal 
amounts 
of 
time 
outside.
LSA 
sophomore 
Shelby 
Alston commutes 90 minutes 
each way, five days a week. She 
drives an hour every day and 
then parks 30 minutes away 
from campus as part of the free 
parking program. Alston said 
she often has to decide whether 
her safety or a class is more 
important.
“It’s 
been 
really 
tough, 
especially since, you know, 
every school from my house 
to the University is closing, 
and I know it’s going to be a 
dangerous drive and I find 
myself in my head weighing my 
options and sort of choosing 
between safety and a grade,” 
Alston 
said. 
“It’s 
really 
unfortunate sometimes to have 
to make those decisions.”
Alston 
noted 
that 
Perry 
Samson, professor of climate 
and 
space 
sciences 
and 
engineering, live streamed his 
lectures and enabled students 
to continue to interact even 
if they were watching from 
home. She said she wishes the 
University would implement 
more classes like Samson’s.
“I think the main issue (is) 
that they either need to be more 
lenient in their (attendance) 
policies or they need to have 
more classes that do things 
live streaming,” Alston said. 
“I thought it was amazing. He 
took a video of himself, had the 
audio streaming, and if we had 
any questions, we could type 
it in an anonymous platform 
and his GSIs would tell him. 
It was still interactive, and 
I wasn’t stressed because if 
there was snow, I could still 
attend lecture and still get 
the valuable teaching that I 
wanted. Because it’s not that 
I don’t want to go — I want to 
hear what my teacher has to 
say. Lecture is valuable, you 
know?”
A 
Public 
Policy 
junior 

who 
requested 
to 
remain 
anonymous due to the small size 
of her class said her professor 
is requiring the class to log 
onto an online Canvas chat on 
Wednesday to participate in a 
class discussion at the normal 
8:30 a.m. start time, ending at 
9:50 a.m. as usual. 
“She did make it very clear 
that if we do not have internet 
or do not have access to internet 
that she will excuse us from 
class — we just have to let her 
know,” the student said. 
The student expressed their 
understanding that the online 
discussion is being used to 
avoid falling behind in class 
material.
“I understand where the 
professor is coming from,” the 
student said. “We only have 
only so many class periods 
throughout 
the 
semester 
to meet and getting behind 
even one can be difficult for 
a professor to make up, so I 
understand where Professor 
Lin is coming from.”
While 
the 
professor 
said the grades of students 
without internet will not be 
penalized, the student said 
those people will be inherently 
disadvantaged by missing the 
class material. 
“It is just a little bit difficult 
when some students, if they do 
not have access to internet, they 
are now missing out on a class 
period that the rest of the class 
gets to enjoy,” the student said. 
“Also with it being on a chat 
based site and not even a video 
chat, we are missing out on 
face-to-face interactions with 
our other students regarding 
information that could be used 
later in the class, so to me it 
feels like I might be missing out 
on a particular environment 
that I could learn better in.”
The 
student 
has 
never 
participated in an online class 
and said she is worried about 
being evaluated on this basis.
“It’s going to be a big group 
chat from my understanding 
— like I said, I’ve never used it 
before,” the student said. “I’ve 
never had a professor use this 

thing on Canvas, so I’m not 100 
percent sure what its going to 
look like, which is also kind of 
nerve wracking.” 
The student said the online 
chat hinders the quality of 
discussion because students 
cannot speak face-to-face.
“I feel like I learn better 
in an environment where I 
can see my peers around me 
and by forcing us to have this 
discussion online, it seems 
like it can hinder the very 
collaborative 
environment 
that the Ford School likes to 
promote, and so this just feels 
like we might be losing valuable 
time that we could be spending 
in the classroom discussing 
this stuff,” the student said.
Northwood III Hall Director 
Stephanie Pocsi said in an 
email that students with meal 
plans can order Dining To-Go 
Meals 
on 
Wednesday 
and 
Thursday for either lunch or 
dinner, which will be delivered 
to 
students’ 
buildings 
or 
community centers.
“The meal will be delivered 
to the (Community Center) 
according to the type of meal,” 
Poscsi said. “Lunch will be 
delivered around 12 p.m. and 
dinner around 5 p.m. as long as 
the weather allows. The dining 
halls will still be open; we just 
wanted to offer an option so 
folks didn’t feel that they had to 
either walk through the winter 
weather or not eat.”
University 
buildings 
and 
local Ann Arbor businesses 
such 
as 
Espresso 
Royale 
will 
close 
on 
Wednesday 
and Thursday. Libraries will 
reopen on Friday at 8 a.m. 
The Ross School of Business 
will be locked from midnight 
Wednesday and will reopen 
at 7 a.m. Friday, but faculty 
and staff will be able to enter 
the building. Ann Arbor trash 
and recycling services will 
be delayed for two days. The 
Winter 
Engineering 
Career 
Fair, which was scheduled 
for Wednesday, as well as 
any related interviews and 
recruiting events, have been 
canceled.

According to the LSA website, 
more than 40 languages are 
offered across LSA to fulfill 
the 
language 
requirement. 
The 
number 
of 
language 
courses one must take can be 
minimized for some languages 
by 
completing 
a 
placement 
exam, which, depending on 
how well the student performs 
on it, can exempt students 
from as many as all four 
semesters of the requirement. 
Advanced 
Placement 
credit 
for language courses, among 
other examinations, can also 
aid 
students 
in 
expediting 
the process of completing the 
requirement.
LSA 
last 
reviewed 
the 
language 
requirement 
in 
2004 
and 
upheld 
its 
original 
requirements. 
As 
fewer 
institutions 
require 
undergraduate students to take 
courses in a language other 
than English for two or more 
semesters, LSA continues to 
instill language proficiency of 
four semesters in its students. 
Angela Dillard, the associate 
dean 
for 
Undergraduate 
Education in LSA, wrote in an 
email to The Daily that despite 
other universities’ decisions to 
cut down language departments, 
LSA still believes strongly in 
the benefits of the language 
requirement. 
“Many of us are concerned 
that 
some 
institutions 
have 
begun to eliminate language 
study departments, and to offer 
less and fewer opportunities for 
second language acquisition,” 
Dillard wrote. “LSA remains 
committed 
to 
the 
two-year 
language 
requirement 
and 
to offering a wide range of 
opportunities, 
including 
those in less commonly taught 
languages.”

Students 
have 
expressed 
concerns over the LSA language 
requirement since its conception, 
particularly in terms of its four-
semester length and hefty time 
commitment. Many languages 
are recitation courses, meaning 
they are taught four days a week, 
limiting students’ ability to 
schedule other classes.
Four 
semesters, 
or 
two 
years, are oftentimes only the 
prerequisites 
to 
pursuing 
a 
major or minor in a language. 
In the Romance Languages and 
Literatures 
Department, 
for 
example, five semesters of the 
student’s respective language 
must be completed before they 
can begin working toward the 
major or minor. Some students 
opt for this route, but those who 
are on pre-professional tracks or 
wish to explore other interests 
are boxed into taking a language 
for at least half of their college 
career.
LSA 
freshman 
Natalie 
White is currently enrolled in 
French. After completing four 
years of French in middle and 
high school, she placed into 
French 103, of second-semester 
equivalency. White, who is on a 
pre-medicine track, expressed 
frustration with the fact that 
both her major requirements 
and pre-professional track pose 
a heavy course load, and her 
foreign language requirements 
require the same, if not more, 
time and attention.
“I have a whole major I 
need to finish, and pre-med 
prerequisites I need to finish, 
and now I need to take three 
semesters of this language,” 
White said. “It’s been really 
frustrating because (French is) 
not a low-credit class.”
The 
intense 
hours 
and 
extensive 
course 
work 
surrounding 
the 
language 
requirement 
cause 
some 
students 
to 
question 
the 
purpose of the requirement, and 
whether or not the language 
skills 
they 
acquire 
through 
LSA will help them in the long 
run. The demands of French, in 
addition to her other academic 
commitments, 
have 
pushed 
White to consider transferring 
out of LSA in order to avoid the 
language requirement.
“I really love the school of 
LSA, but if I switch into another 
school I wouldn’t have to take 
this language requirement … 
it’s gotten to that point,” White 
said.
While some students have 
strong opinions against the 
LSA 
language 
requirement 
and 
its 
effectiveness, 
LSA 
administrators and many faculty 
members voice their support for 

the requirement, citing lifelong 
skills that learning a language 
can bring to students.
“LSA’s language requirement 
seeks to prepare students for a 
world that has been profoundly 
transformed by the forces of 
globalization,” the LSA website 
states. 
“Learning 
a 
second 
language provides both a deep 
awareness of linguistic and 
cultural differences and a means 
to bridge them.”
Echoing 
the 
mission 
of 
cultivating cultural awareness 
amid 
globalization, 
Hartmut 
Rastalsky, language program 
director 
for 
the 
Germanic 
Languages 
and 
Literatures 
Department, praised the LSA 
language requirement and its 
ability to create well-rounded 
and cultured students. 
“(Language) 
provides 
students 
with 
intercultural 
skills that will be invaluable 
to them both globally and 
locally, in their professional and 
personal lives,” Rastalsky said. 
“Learning a foreign language 
makes students more aware of 
how their own language works, 
and thus helps them to become 
better and more creative.”
Dillard further emphasized 
the advantages of achieving 
proficiency 
in 
a 
foreign 
language. 
“Language study is (and ought 
to remain) a cornerstone of an 
education in the liberal arts 
and sciences,” Dillard wrote. “It 
gives students a value skill, an 
important way of understanding 
and navigating the world, and a 
competitive edge.”
While 
acknowledging 
the 
importance of having knowledge 
in 
a 
language 
other 
than 
English, White noted the lack 
of enthusiasm and participation 
that exist in the requirement-
level language courses.
“I get the point of having to 
take a foreign language because 
the U.S. is so ignorant to 
understanding other languages, 
but at the same time it should be 
a choice,” White said. “There’s 
nothing worse than sitting in a 
foreign language class and no 
one wants to be there.”
LSA junior Yosef Gross is 
majoring in Spanish and also 
taking courses in Yiddish, but 
placed out of the language 
requirement after taking the 
placement exam. Continuing to 
take languages for fun, Gross 
stressed the importance of using 
language to communicate with 
people from different cultures.
“I think taking a language 
can be a very eye-opening 
experience, because when you 
communicate 
with 
someone 
in their native language … it’s 
like you’re making an effort 
to meet them where they are,” 
Gross said. “A lot of times it can 
lead to more meaningful and 
productive conversations.”
LSA senior Holly Wood is 
currently 
in 
a 
second-year 
Indonesian 
language 
course. 
After 
a 
self-proclaimed 
embarrassing placement exam 
experience 
with 
Mandarin 
Chinese, 
Wood 
decided 
to 
take Indonesian instead. She 
wrote in email to The Daily 
she 
recognizes 
the 
intense 
nature of the requirement but 
understands the overarching 
benefits as well.
“While it is annoying to have 
a language as a requirement, I do 
think it is important for students 
to learn different languages 
and cultures,” Wood wrote. “I 
support the (two) year language 
requirement, especially because 
these 
language 
classes 
get 
students interested in a lot of the 
(culture) on campus.”
To petition the LSA language 
requirement, students must go 
through the Office of Academic 
Standards and Opportunities’ 
Academic 
Standards 
Board, 
which reviews student petitions 
and provides the students with 
substitution culture courses 
if they prove their inability 
to learn a language. Prior to 
petitioning, a student must 
attempt a foreign language 
course, exert a “good-faith” 
effort in the course (including 
near-perfect attendance and 
strong participation), and then 
consult their foreign language 
instructor for assistance in 
seeking an alternative. Students 
can 
find 
the 
information 
regarding the petition process 
if they speak to someone at the 
Office of Academic Standards 
and Opportunities.

“It’s an opportunity for our 
existing fellows and our visiting 
fellows to bring what they’re 
working on to the table within 
a 30-minute to an hour speech,” 
O’Hair said.
Jessica 
Walker, 
an 
LSA 
collegiate fellow in American 
culture, said Wilson’s talk was 
beneficial to her research.
“That notion that architecture 
is an extension of this notion 
of reason, that’s separated by 
Europeans and those who aren’t, 
I think is important to my work,” 
Walker said. “I work on kitchen 
and domestic spaces, and I think 
those also are designed with a 
similar type of, ‘They tell you 
how to cook in whatever nation 
you’re in, and that tells you how 
to be the right class, be a normal 

person, belong to a group,’ food is 
very important to that. So I will 
take that with me especially.”
Wilson 
said 
the 
most 
important discovery she made 
through her research relates to 
the long-standing and intense 
nature of racism in the United 
States’ foundation.
“For me, the biggest revelation 
is that the challenges that the 
United States’ face have their 
DNA back to the founding in 
original 
colonial 
history 
of 
the nation,” Wilson said. “It’s 
not new. At all. So that’s been 
interesting for me at least.”
For Keith Mitnick, an associate 
professor of architecture and 
Institute for the Humanities 
fellow, 
details 
of 
Jefferson’s 
disdain for Black intellect 
 — 
saying the poems of Phillis 
Wheatley, a reknowned African-
Amerian poet, were below the 
dignity of criticism and claiming 

African Americans lacked the 
ability to appreciate beauty or 
comprehend the law, according 
to Wilson’s research — came as a 
surprise.
“A lot of it surprised me,” 
Mitnick 
said. 
“I’m 
from 
Philadelphia, so I grew up with 
a lot of this kind of architecture 
from that period, and Thomas 
Jefferson’s 
always 
celebrated 
as the founding father of this 
idealistic view for a radical 
country that’s departing from 
the English model, and yet you 
find 
out 
how 
deeply-seated 
racism is in our culture, so the 
fact that it’s actually ingrained in 
forms of our architecture is both 
sobering and important to think 
about.”
Wilson later expanded on 
the economic complications of 
slavery and how it relates to core 
American values.
“I think that it’s a complicated 

moral bind that people found 
themselves in. Some of the 
wealthy elites, they let their slaves 
free, because they recognized 
that they can’t say, ‘I believe in 
freedom and yet I hold another 
human in bondage,’” Wilson said. 
“Others, like Jefferson, were 
financially dependent, because 
not only do the slaves work, they 
have value. They’re worth money, 
so it’s like land. So there was this 
huge investment in slaves as 
property, essentially, as well as 
the labor that slaves did in order 
to build the wealth of people. So 
the complexity of the history of 
the slavery and its intertwined 
relationship to American ideas 
of freedom and to mercantile 
and industrial capitalism. It’s 
fascinating and there’s so many 
great scholars and artists doing 
work on the topic. Still much to 
know.”

“They stood by Detroit and 
Detroiters 
stood 
by 
them,” 
Grimm said.
Grimm 
also 
pointed 
out 
Faygo is now owned by National 
Beverage, 
which 
is 
highly 
profitable, despite declining soft 
drink sales, because it produces 

popular sparkling water brand 
La Croix.
Commenting 
on 
the 
presentation, Bandyke said he 
appreciated Grimm’s enthusiasm 
for his research on Faygo. Not 
every author, Bandyke said, can 
fill up their presentation time 
and successfully engage the 
audience.
“You have the feeling that 
this guy just could have talked 

for twice as long and have 
commanded your attention 
for that long,” Bandyke said. 
“Not every author has that 
passion that he does for the 
subject 
matter. 
It’s 
really 
impressive.”
Ann Arbor resident Kathie 
Wilder said she found Grimm’s 
talk very informative, and was 
particularly struck by Faygo’s 
inclusive hiring practices in the 

1960s.
“I thought they were way, 
way ahead of the times,” Wilder 
said. “They were pathfinders, I 
thought.”
Wilder added that as a non-
Michigan native, she was excited 
to taste some of the flavors 
Grimm mentioned.
“I’ll have to try some of these 
unique flavors,” Wilder said.

FAYGO
From Page 2A

SNOW
From Page 2A

