The 
proposed 
process 
would have the outgoing 
SOFC chair nominate at least 
two individuals to take their 
place. Further, the chair of 
the Executive Nominations 
Committee would vet the 
nominees and present them 
to the Assembly, who would 
vote to confirm the position. 
Prior 
to 
last 
week’s 
CSG 
meeting, 
in 
which 
the 
Assembly 
discussed 
the veto of the resolution, 
Greene released a statement 
describing his decision to 
veto. According to Greene, if 
certain changes were made to 
the resolution, then he would 
highly consider approving it.
“There’s a few changes 
(I’d like to make),” Greene 
said. “One is who does the 
nomination of the successor 
to the SOFC chair. Another 
concern 
was 
about 
this 
philosophy or idea of business 
not carrying over to the next 

assembly… and there was 
also the big question that 
sometimes — not always — the 
outgoing SOFC chair becomes 
treasurer, and so if the SOFC 
chair is nominating their 
successor, do they nominate 
themselves if they’re not a 
graduating senior?”
In his report to the council, 
Majeske described his issue 
with Greene’s handling of the 
resolution. 
“He claimed further that 
the 
resolution 
contained 
certain provisions that it did 
not, as well as contradicting 
his previous statements and 
claiming that if one seemingly 
insignificant 
change 
was 
made, he would be in favor of 
the resolution,” Majeske said.
In 
addition, 
Majeske 
claims, 
in 
Greene’s 
introduction of the vetoed 
resolution, the president led 
people to believe the interests 
of SOFC were not taken into 
consideration when writing 
the resolution. 
According to Greene, he 

spoke to Anthony Garvey, the 
current chair of SOFC, and 
Nico Beltramo, the former 
chair, and both agreed with 
Greene’s 
concerns 
with 
the SOFC resolution. Both 
members also approved of 
the veto statement Greene 
released.
“The veto statement went 
through a vetting process 
by 
the 
communications 
director, the student general 
council, 
the 
individuals 
who helped me author the 
letter, and no one took issue 
with what is in the public 
veto statements,” Greene 
said. “I believe that the 
issues the representative 
is 
concerned 
about 
are 
political in nature in the 
sense 
that 
it’s 
different 
interpretations and analysis 
of what’s written there, not 
matters of facts of what’s 
physically there.”
After further discussion, 
Speaker of the Assembly 
and 
Rackham 
student 
Austin Glass stated that 

the first issue was resolved 
and would no longer be 
discussed by the Assembly. 
The second issue Majeske 
focused on pertained to 
the 
nomination 
process 
for new members of the 
Assembly. Specifically, he 
believes Greene engaged in 
unethical behavior, which 
resulted in the confirmation 
of Saveri Nandigama as CSG 
chief of staff.
The 
president 
came 
to 
the 
Executive 
Nominations 
Committee 
with recommendations for 
three candidates for the 
CSG positions of treasurer, 
chair of a commission and 
COS. The committee gave 
positive recommendations 
on two of the nominees, 
but did not give a positive 
recommendation to the COS 
position. 

Despite weather delays, 
funeral services carried 
on with a liturgy from Rev. 
Terrence Kerner, who said 
John Dingell wished for a 
celebratory yet respectful 
service. 
Kerner 
said 
John Dingell was about 
fighting for the ordinary 
man, and shared stories 
from constituents whose 
lives 
were 
bettered 
by 
his policies. “But I think 
when a common man knew 
John Dingell, he probably 
felt he was uncommon,” 
Kerner said.
In 
a 
lighthearted 
eulogy, Biden said John 
Dingell was one of the few 

politicians he looked up to 
as an outspoken champion 
of health care and labor 
rights. He said it was John 
Dingell’s belief that every 
single 
person 
deserves 
dignity that made him a 
successful legislator.
“Dignity was how John 
walked,” 
Biden 
said. 
“Dignity was how John 
talked. Dignity was how 
John carried himself. And 
more than that, it was how 
he treated everyone — and 
I mean everyone.”
Thursday, more funeral 
services 
will 
be 
held 
in 
Washington, 
D.C., 
where former President 
Bill Clinton and former 
Speaker John Boehner are 
expected to speak.

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News
Wednesday, February 13, 2019 — 3A

Elgass explained the team 
aims to better sexual health 
and literacy on campus and 
beyond. She said BusyBox was 
born when members of the 
team recognized a gap in the 
sexual-health market.
“What we found talking 
to friends and people around 
campus and customers, in 
general, is that these products 
are 
very 
widely 
available, 
but a lot times people feel 
uncomfortable buying them,” 
Elgass said. “As a result, it can 
be a barrier for people using 
these supplies.”
Smolinski 
described 
the 
contents of the box, which 
includes safe-sex items as 
well as pamphlets discussing 
relevant sexual health topics. 
“(These products include) 
internal 
and 
external 
condoms, personal lubricant, 
dental dams and pregnancy 
and UTI tests,” Smolinski 
said. “It also comes with 
BusyBox-made 
infographics 
with topics such as consent, 
healthy relationships, gender 
and sexuality, and emergency 
contraception.”
Carter said the team set 
out to better the way college 
students purchase and use 
sexual 
and 
reproductive 
health products.

“We want to foster people’s 
ability 
to 
have 
safe 
and 
consensual and pleasurable 
and 
informed 
sexual 
experiences,” 
Carter 
said. 
“We want to market towards 
anyone 
out 
there 
who 
is 
having sex or thinking about 
having sex soon and wants to 
be prepared for it.”
Elgass 
echoed 
Carter’s 
thoughts, and added that they 
want to encourage people’s 
confidence surrounding sex 
while making sure they stay 
safe. 
“We are trying to be that 
middle ground of, ‘Yeah, you 
should be having sex in the 
way you want to have sex 
and that is a great thing, but 
also be doing it safely and be 
prepared,’” Elgass said. “Our 
product is designed to make 
you confident and prepared 
so it’s not something that you 
should be ashamed of in any 
way.”
To appeal to individuals, the 
process is catered to customers, 
allowing them to select items 
each month, Smolinski said. 
“It is all tailored to the user, 
so they have an online profile 
where they click and choose 
what they want in their box 
and it comes to them either 
once a month, every other 
month or every two months,” 
Smolinski said.
Smolinski 
also 
described 

how the supplies come in a 
discreet, unlabeled white box 
in order to keep a customer’s 
personal and sexual health 
private. Additionally, since the 
box is customizable, it is not 
geared towards a particular 
gender and the products can 
be used for anyone.
LSA 
sophomore 
Soraya 
Zrikem said the customizable 
aspect 
of 
BusyBox 
might 
be 
something 
especially 
appealing for customers. 
“I think that a lot of people 
do value privacy and what 
they want to be buying and I 
think that would be totally 
valuable,” Zrikem said. “With 
any of these services, if it is 
something as personal as your 
sex life, you would want to 
customize it… that definitely 
makes it more attractive.”
Zrikem 
added 
that 
the 
privacy of BusyBox is also a 
draw, as many people might 
be anxious when going into a 
store to buy sex items. 
“I don’t know how taboo 
buying condoms and lube and 
stuff is as an adult, but for 
people who are uncomfortable 
with that… they don’t have to 
deal with the embarrassment 
or social anxiety that can 
come along with doing those 
things,” Zrikem said.
However, 
Zrikem 
questioned the service being a 
subscription, worrying people 

might get the supplies but not 
use them.
“I feel like it would be 
more successful if it weren’t 
a subscription,” Zrikem said. 
“I feel like people’s sex lives… 
they aren’t as regular, like 
your period or shaving… It 
would require people to know 
how much they’d be having 
sex. ”
This project is a years in the 
making, and has recently put 
up pre-order opportunities 
on their website, according to 
Elglass. 
“This past year was about 
taking the idea and developing 
the 
plans 
and 
getting 
inventory,” Elgass said. “We 
just launched our pre-orders 
so our website is now live and 
you can preorder your box 
for the beginning of March — 
right around spring break is 
when we’ll start shipping.”
When 
asked 
about 
the 
future of BusyBox, Mason said 
she is excited to see where 
the first year of their startup 
business is going to take her 
and her teammates.
“This is a really exciting time 
for us to see how much we can 
grow in the first year.” Mason 
said. “Ideally I would love to 
do this full time … I hope that 
we are able to be successful 
and keep that success going for 
years to come.”

DINGELL
From Page 1A

VIRTUAL 
From Page 1A

WHITMER
From Page 1A

“Are we in some 
ways impeding 
their opportunities 
to tell their own 
stories? But, 
around a series 
of VR projects, 
those questions 
become even more 
powerful.

BUSYBOX
From Page 1A

Justin 
Schell, 
director 
of the Shapiro Design Lab, 
has seen a spike in interest 
in 
the 
incorporation 
of 
virtual reality in all types 
of classrooms.
“Virtual 
reality 
was 
something that more people 
were interested in using 
on central campus,” Schell 
said. 
“Different 
faculty 
wanted to use it to explore 
and add it as part of their 
classes. It ranges from fully 
immersive 
headsets 
like 
Oculus and HTC Vive and 
PlayStation, to more lo-fi 
VR like Google Cardboard. 
There’s 
been 
interest 
from 
American 
culture 
and history classes; film, 
television and media studies 
classes — all the way to 
electrical engineering and 
computer science.”
English 
professor 
Sara 
Blair 
took 
her 
How 
to 
Read 
Images 
class 
to 
the design lab to create 
a dialogue pertaining to 
the way in which images 
shape societies’ “collective 
experience.” In this setting, 
students were immersed in 
a video experience related 
to the Syrian civil war and 
refugee crisis.
“One of the longstanding 
concerns about imaging and 
particular photography is 
wondering 
what 
damage 
or injury we might do to 
other people by capturing 
them in photographs and 
sharing 
and 
responding 
to their experience from 
a 
distance,” 
Blair 
said. 
“Are 
we 
appropriating 
the experience? Are we in 
some ways impeding their 
opportunities to tell their 
own stories? But, around 
a series of VR projects, 
those 
questions 
become 
even more powerful: What 
does it mean to try to know 
the experience of refugees 
or people who have been 
traumatized 
by 
wars 
or 
subject to disasters either 
human or natural? What 
kind of knowledge do we 
get?”
Lisa Nakamura, director 
of 
the 
Digital 
Studies 
Institute, brings many of 
her classes including The 
Internet is a Trash Fire to 
the Design Lab to use virtual 
reality as a way to relate to 
marginalized people, and 
thus create a greater scale 
of understanding.
“I 
was 
originally 
interested in virtual reality 
because there is so much 
journalism about how it 
can create more empathy,” 
Nakamura 
said. 
“People 
who don’t understand or 
want to feel more kind to 
refugees, the blind, people 
of color can now experience 
life 
through 
their 
point 
of view and stand in their 
shoes. Studies even show 
that having a female avatar 
in a video game can be 
empowering because you 
see yourself there.”
However, 
one 
of 
Nakamura’s 
students, 
LSA 
sophomore 
Riley 
McMahon, had a negative 
experience with the device 
when someone over virtual 
reality 
used 
derogatory 
terms in an attempt to have 
a conversation with her.
“I 
was 
a 
little 
uncomfortable 
using 
the 
device and talking to people 
I didn’t know,” McMahon 
said. “He got angry that I 
wasn’t conversing with him 

and started swearing.”
Nakamura acknowledges 
this risk when working with 
virtual reality and decided 
to use the experience to 
generate 
a 
conversation 
about 
the 
negatives 

spawned 
by 
the 
certain 
affordances 
the 
internet 
provides.
“It became an interesting 
lesson on how the internet 
can 
be 
toxic 
and 
not 
necessarily a kind place,” 
Nakamura said.
The 
Shapiro 
Design 
Lab is not just used by 
humanities professors, but 
by 
humanities 
students 
as 
well. 
Jeff 
Edelstein, 
recent graduate from the 
School of Education, has 
used Shapiro’s VR within 
his own work regarding 
students with disabilities 
and the ways in which they 
are represented in video 
games.
“I 
worked 
with 
the 
Shapiro 
Design 
Lab 
in 
partner with a group I ran 
called 
Disability 
Culture 
at U-M,” Edelstein said. 
“VR is still relatively a new 
thing; they are still finding 
new ways to make it work. 
One great game is ‘Moss.’ 
You are able to choose 
a 
mouse 
character 
that 
communicates with you via 
American Sign Language. It 
helps start a conversation 
related to inclusivity and 
representation in gaming.”
VR is not just a tool for 
STEM 
fields, 
Nakamura 
said. It can be applicable 
to any type of classroom 
setting, even those in the 
humanities. She hopes to 
see a rise in this technology, 
a technology she believes 
can help create a new story.
“I 
think 
our 
students 
should 
be 
using 
the 
latest technology in our 
humanities 
classes,” 
Nakamura 
said. 
“North 
Campus has a lot of that, 
and we take it for granted. 
People 
doing 
arts 
and 
literature and media should 
get the same access. It is a 
new kind of storytelling, 
and a new kind of medium, 
where I feel like people 
who are more interested in 
the humanities are able to 
talk about how it works on 
emotions and what visual 
traditions it’s in, and what 
kind of experiences you 
can have there, which is 
different than using it as 
just a tool. We’re talking 
about it more as an object to 
study, as well as a tool.”

Read more online at 

michigandaily.com

CSG
From Page 1A

The 
Michigan 
Section 
of 
the 
American 
Society 
of 
Civil 
Engineers 
gave 
Michigan a D+ grade in 
infrastructure overall and 
a D- grade for state roads in 
their Infrastructure Report 
Card, with only 18 percent 
of roads being considered in 
good 
condition.. 
Whitmer 
asked Michiganders to share 
their personal experiences 
with what she called an 
“infrastructure crisis.”
“We 
need 
to 
act 
now 
though, before a catastrophe 
happens, 
before 
the 
situation 
becomes 
truly 
unrecoverable,” 
Whitmer 
said. “To everyone at home 
who is tuning in: Share 
your stories about what the 
infrastructure crisis means 
to you. Take a picture of your 
damaged car or your repair 
bill or a pothole outside 
your house and post it with 
#FTDR.”
Whitmer 
further 
expressed 
concerns 
over 
education. A report from 
researchers 
at 
Michigan 
State University released in 
January found Michigan’s 
public school financing was 
nearly 20 percent lower than 
it was in the 1990s, a drop in 
funding unparalleled in any 
other state in the country. 
Whitmer said the money in 
the state budget typically 
used for K-12 funding has 
been used to fill other areas 
of the state budget. She 
blamed the government, not 
the educators or students, 
for 
allowing 
Michigan’s 
education system to falter.
“I want to send a message 
to all the devoted educators 
across Michigan: You’re not 
failing us. We have been 
failing you,” Whitmer said. 
“Our 
educators 
and 
our 
kids deserve our support, 

not a funding crisis that 
undermines the work in the 
classroom, that weakens our 
schools and compromises the 
education.” 
Whitmer laid out her plans 
that included three separate 
pathways for high school 
graduates. For those already 
in the workforce, Whitmer 
detailed 
her 
“Michigan 
Reconnect” 
plan, 
which 
will teach already employed 
individuals new skills to 
adjust 
to 
the 
changing 
workplace. 
Her 
“My 
Opportunity” 
scholarship 
program offers two years 
of 
community 
college 
free 
to 
graduating 
high 
school seniors seeking an 
associate’s degree. The third 
pathway would be another 
scholarship under the “My 
Opportunity” program, but 
would give two years free to 
students attending a public 
four year institution. 
In response to President 
Donald Trump’s new health 
care plans, Whitmer said 
she wrote to the president to 
defend the Affordable Care 
Act. She personally thanked 
Attorney 
General 
Dana 
Nessel for leading the fight. 
Whitmer 
ended 
her 
address 
by 
promising 
to 
work with both parties. She 
believes working together 
is the best way to help 
Michigan. 
“The enemy is not the 
person 
across 
the 
aisle,” 
Whitmer said. “The enemy is 
apathy, the enemy is extreme 
partisanship. The enemy is 
self-interest. When we stand 
together as Michiganders … 
we can get the job done for 
the people of our state. 
One 
of 
Whitmer’s 
administration’s 
priorities 
is 
addressing 
hazardous 
water conditions, she said. 
Even though Flint water was 
tested and found to have its 

lowest levels of lead since 
before the water crisis, other 
contaminants such as PFAS 
are polluting the Great Lakes 
and the state’s rivers. 
In order to support the next 
generation of entrepreneurs 
in 
the 
region, 
Whitmer 
made a promise to connect 
small 
businesses 
with 
contracting 
opportunities. 
She said promoting economic 
development 
in 
Michigan 
meant 
supporting 
in-state 
investment.
In her speech, Whitmer 
noted 
her 
filing 
of 
an 
executive directive to ban 
the use of private emails 
for governmental purposes. 
She also extended the use 
of Freedom of Information 
Act requests to the executive 
department 
of 
the 
state 
government. Whitmer also 
filed 
executive 
directives 
in 
January 
prohibiting 
employers 
from 
asking 
all 
applicants 
what 
their 
past salaries were as well 
as 
a 
directive 
banning 
state 
government 
from 
discriminating 
based 
on 
gender identity or sexual 
orientation.
State 
Rep. 
Matt 
Hall, 
R-Emmett, told The Daily he 
was concerned Whitmer did 
not offer a payment plan for 
any of her initiatives.
“I thought there were a 
lot of good sounding ideas,” 
Hall said. “However, I want 
to see how we’re going to 
pay for it before I decided 
whether I want to support 
the proposals. I think that 
anytime you’re promising 
large expansions of new 
government 
programs, 
you have to also identify 
how you’re going to pay 
for it and I did not hear 
anything from the governor 
about how she intends to 
pay for these programs. 
I will say that makes me 

very concerned that she’s 
proposing 
enormous 
tax 
increases. The last time 
Michigan was a high tax 
state, we led the country in 
job loss.” 
Despite 
some 
worries 
from Republican legislators, 
Michigan’s 
Democrats 
seemed to leave the address 
with largely positive feelings. 
Minority Floor Leader Yousef 
Rabhi, D-Ann Arbor, told The 
Daily he was overall very 
satisfied 
with 
Whitmer’s 
speech. 
“I thought it was amazing,” 
Rabhi said. “It was great to 
have an opportunity to listen 
to a speech where I actually 
wanted to stand up for a good 
chunk of it and it was just so 
cool to hear her talk about the 
skills gap and how we’re going 
to address it. Talking about 
funding for our education, 
community 
colleges 
and 
higher education and then 
our environment. The fact 
that she talked about clean 
water and the work we need 
to do in that category. There’s 
so much that this governor 
is passionate about that she 
outlined in the speech and 
I am just so excited to work 
with her and get some of this 
stuff done.” 
Paul Ajegba, director of 
the 
Michigan 
Department 
of Transportation, told The 
Daily 
he 
was 
especially 
pleased with her plans to 
improve the workplace. 
“I was in the meetings 
that 
she 
mentioned 
with 
all the executives,” Ajegba 
said. “There was a common 
theme Michigan workforce, 
the supply is not meeting the 
demand, which means a lot of 
these companies are going to 
out of state because we’re not 
producing enough workforce 
to meet that demand. I think 
she did an outstanding job 
today.” 

