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INDEX
Vol. CXXVIII, No. 72
©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 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
michigandaily.com
For more stories and coverage, visit
GOVERNMENT
SAM SMALL
Daily Staff Reporter
Forum on carceral state highlights
impact of mass incarceration in US
Changes to ‘U’’ policy on felony disclosure subject of town hall meeting
Residents
share FRA
concerns on
train station
ANN ARBOR
City’s preferred site in
proposed plan for Amtrak
relocation faces scrutiny
RACHEL LEUNG
Daily Staff Reporter
See DISPLACED, Page 3A
Follow The Daily
on Instagram:
@michigandaily
Series looks
at imagery
of displaced
kids’ lives
Speaker addresses status
of youth in photography of
the global refugee crisis
Speaker series talks repre-
sentation of displaced children
Tuesday night at the Benzinger
Library in East Quad, around 30
students from the class run by the
Residential College, Displaced
Children in an Uncertain World,
gathered for a discussion run
by David Choberka, manager of
academic outreach and a teacher
at the University of Michigan
Museum of Art.
The class, run by Residen-
tial College lecturer Elizabeth
Goodenough, is a half-semester,
interdisciplinary
mini-course
that aims to explore how differ-
ent types of mediums such as
contemporary film, global media,
classical literature and autobiog-
raphies represent children suf-
fering from displacement, war
and family separation.
Ultimately, the class aims
to encourage students to think
about storytelling through both
visual and verbal media. Good-
enough explained more specifi-
cally that the class aims to show
how those works of arts influence
their understanding of contem-
porary events and ancient stories.
CHLOE O’NEIL
For The Daily
Read more online at
michigandaily.com
On Feb. 14, 2018 — one
year ago today — a young
gunman
opened
fire
at
Marjory Stoneman Douglas
High School in Parkland, Fla,
leaving 17 people dead. This
shooting was not the first of its
kind. At this point, the United
States had seen a number of
other school shootings. And
since Parkland, a wave of
activism and media attention
has gripped the nation as
students
from
Marjory
Stoneman Douglas publicly
demand stricter gun control.
A month after the shooting,
thousands
of
students
nationwide walked out of
their
schools
to
protest
gun violence. Students in
Washtenaw County held a
rally hosted by the newly
formed
Washtenaw
Youth
Initiative, an activist group of
high school students formed
in reaction to the Parkland
shooting.
Zaynab Elkolaly, a senior
at
Washtenaw
Technical
Middle College and member
of the WYI executive board,
reflected
on
the
reasons
the
Parkland
shooting
garnered so much attention.
She specifically noted how
Marjory Stoneman Douglas’
status as a predominantly
white, wealthy school drew
more sympathy.
michigandaily.com
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Thursday, February 14, 2019
ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-EIGHT YEARS OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM
Gun control
activists
reflect on
Parkland
Youtube star Demetrius Harmon
discusses Black mental health
GOVERNMENT
A year after deadly school shooting,
students look at impact of advocacy
ELIZABETH LAWRENCE
Managing News Editor
Internet celebrity talks issues of acknowledging emotional well-being in community
MELANIE TAYLOR
Daily Staff Reporter
Internet
celebrity
Deme-
trius Harmon spoke to an
overflowing
auditorium
of
University
students
at
Weiser Hall regarding men-
tal health in communities of
color Wednesday as a part of
NAACP Week and Black His-
tory Month. Harmon, known
to his fans as Meech, has found
fame on Vine, YouTube, Twit-
ter and other social media plat-
forms. He now owns a clothing
label that advocates for mental
health awareness.
Harmon began by discuss-
ing the stigma associated with
talking about mental health
problems.
“That pressure, sometimes it
can make diamonds and some-
times it could make you dust,”
Harmon said.
Harmon focused on how the
Black community can place
rigid requirements on its mem-
bers, making them doubt how
they carry themselves and the
things they choose to do with
their time. Harmon explained
that many people put on a
facade of strength because
they feel it is expected of them.
KEEMYA ESMAEL/Daily
Social media personality Demetrius Harmon speaks to fans about what it means to be Black, and how it impacts mental health and self-love in
Weiser Hall Wednesday.
Protect
A2
Parks,
an
environmental advocacy group,
claims emails recently obtained
from
the
Federal
Railroad
Administration through the
Freedom of Information Act
reveal concerns over the cost of
the ongoing Ann Arbor Amtrak
station project.
Protect A2 Parks has been
monitoring
plans
for
the
delayed Ann Arbor Amtrak
station since early 2010. The
group opposes the use of Fuller
Park, the city’s preferred site
for the new train station —
they disagree with the use of
park land for the new Amtrak
station.
In
October
2017,
Members of Protect A2 Parks
even gathered in Fuller Park to
protest the new train station.
They asserted their support for
train stations as well as parks,
but questioned why the Amtrak
station could not be built on the
current Depot Street location,
where the train station has
been located since its opening
in 1983.
RUCHITA IYER/Daily
Artist Martin Vargas speaks at the Carceral State roundtable discussion on criminal justice and imprisonment in the Hatcher Wednesday.
See PARKLAND, Page 3A
See HARMON, Page 3A
Read more online at
michigandaily.com
On Wednesday night, spokes-
people from the Carceral State
Project hosted a town hall dis-
cussion for students, faculty
and community members to
debate the University of Michi-
gan’s recently announced policy,
which states that affiliates who
are charged or convicted of a
felony have to report it within
a week. The policy has sparked
controversy on campus. The
town hall discussion on the
change followed a roundtable
discussion hosted by the Car-
ceral State Project about the
intersection of incarceration in
America and everyday life.
Adam, a formerly incarcer-
ated individual who declined
to provide his last name, spoke
during the town hall. A potential
candidate for graduate school at
the University, he spent three
years in prison due to a nonvio-
lent, internet-based sex offense
that occurred a decade ago. Since
leaving prison, he obtained a
bachelor’s degree in social work
at another institution, but said he
was worried about how the new
policy will impact the potential
to further his education at the
University.
“I am fearful about this whole
thing in a number of different
respects,” Adam said “...Even if I
was to get admitted, at the end of
the road… would I even be able to
get employed? Because thus far,
having graduated almost a year
ago, I have not been able to get
into my field.”
Multiple students and faculty
also brought up questions and
concerns about how the policy
will unfairly target minorities
who are already underrepre-
sented at the University. Some
attendees said the policy could
discourage them even more from
applying to study and work here.
LSA sophomore Zoey Horow-
itz, who works with the Prison
Creative Arts Project, said the
policy would affect not only
potential students and faculty,
but all people at the University.
“We’re not only shutting out
a lot of job opportunities, but
even for those who have not been
affected by the criminal justice
system, we are stopping a lot of
learning before it can happen,”
Horowitz said.
University spokesman Rick
Fitzgerald attended the event
and defended the University’s
policy to The Daily.
“The policy speaks for itself,”
Fitzgerald
said.
“There’s
an
extensive Q & A posted on the
HR website to try to bring some
clarity to a lot of these ques-
tions, we’ve heard many of these
questions and tried to respond
to them in that way through the
context of the policy.”
In an email sent to The Daily
after
the
event,
Fitzgerald
emphasized that the policy did
not apply to a person’s previous
criminal history.