Student activists joke it’s the new 

Tinder. With the heavily detailed 
profiles, including pictures taken from 
Facebook, information on their family 
and details about their education, 
Canary Mission provides paragraphs-
long biographies about fellow activists 
— data that simply cannot be found on 
Tinder. But instead of a dating app, it’s 
a site some students and professors feel 
could derail careers and aspirations.

Canary Mission is an anonymous 

blacklist created in April 2015 that 

publishes 
political 
dossiers 
on 

student activists, professors and 
organizations. The website reads, 
“IF YOU’RE RACIST, THE WORLD 
SHOULD 
KNOW,” 
claiming 
to 

document “people and groups that 
promote hatred of the USA, Israel 
and 
Jews 
on 
North 
American 

college campuses.” There are more 
than 2,000 people listed on Canary 
Mission’s website. 

When asked for comment on how 

the website chooses who to place on 
the blacklist, Canary Mission referred 
The Michigan Daily to its ethics policy 
without additional comment.

However, 
the 
site 
has 
been 

criticized for using “McCarthyesque” 
tactics to silence freedom of speech, 
with opponents saying it’s designed to 
deter its subjects from advocating for 
Palestine.

Associate Professor Samer Ali, 

director of the Center for Middle 
East and North African Studies and 
the Islamophobia Working Group, 
researches scapegoating and stigma. 
He called Canary Mission an example 
of both of these. 

“It’s 
a 
complete 
surveillance 

operation,” Ali said. “You’re going 
to feel like you’re being watched, 
targeted. The explicit purpose of 
Canary Mission is to make it difficult 

for people to graduate and find jobs, 
internships or apply for funding 
because any employer who googles 
them, some of what they’ll find are 
these blacklists.” 

While Canary Mission states its 

focus lies calling out student activists, 
it also profiles notorious anti-Semites, 
such as Richard Spencer. Activists 
express 
frustration 
that 
Canary 

Mission groups them with neo-Nazis 
like Spencer. Public Policy junior Arwa 
Gayar is profiled on Canary Mission 
and said the website’s decision to 
group her with staunch anti-Semites 
underscores its problems. 

On Thursday afternoon at 

Rackham 
Graduate 
School, 

Gérard Mourou, 2018 Nobel Prize 
laureate in physics and founder of 
the University of Michigan Center 
for Ultrafast Optical Science, 
discussed his research on laser 
physics. Mourou and fellow Nobel 
Prize laureate Donna Strickland, 
who was unable to attend the 
event, each won a quarter of the 

prize for their work on chirped 
pulse 
amplification. 
Arthur 

Ashkin, 
developer 
of 
optical 

tweezers, will claim the remaining 
half of the prize.

Engineering 
Dean 
Alec 

Gallimore kicked off the event, 
titled “Passion for Extreme Light,” 
by 
acknowledging 
Mourou’s 

accomplishments and work at the 
University. Mourou holds the title 
of professor emeritus in electrical 
engineering and computer science, 
having taught at the University for 

16 years before retiring in 2004.

Gallimore also noted some of 

the innovations that have emerged 
from CUOS, which he said will 
soon be renamed the Gérard 
Mourou Center for Ultrafast 
Optical Science. CUOS is the 
birthplace of IntraLASIK eye 
surgery and houses the world’s 
most intense laser, HERCULES.

“During his time at Michigan, 

he 
founded 
the 
Center 
for 

Ultrafast Optical Science, where 
he served as director for more 

than 14 years,” Gallimore said. 
“Since its beginning, more than 
250 
graduate 
students 
have 

produced roughly 170 patents, 
five startup companies and over 
5,000 scientific publications, the 
safer, bladeless version of LASIK 
eye surgery was developed, and 
HERCULES, the world’s most 
intense laser, was born.”

Thursday afternoon, the Ford 

School of Public Policy hosted a 
policy talk about racial bias and call-
driven policing titled “911, What is 
your prejudice?” The event featured 
panelists who shared their thoughts 
on the topic and answered questions 
from the audience.

David 
Thacher, 
associate 

professor of public policy, hosted 
the panel and asked the panelists to 
spend 10 minutes answering what 
authorities should do when dealing 
with racially-biased calls.

Panelist Jessica Gillooly, Public 

Policy doctoral candidate, began by 
sharing her experiences working 
with the 911 operators’ office in 
Washtenaw County. She told the 
audience the struggle of having 
to discern the legitimacy of a 
suspicious-person call, sharing a 
story of a woman who called the 
police on another woman at the 
park.

“About a year into working as 

a 911 call taker, I took a call on a 
late fall afternoon from a woman 
in a park,” Gillooly said. “She was 
calling on a Black woman who was 
standing near a grill, quote ‘maybe 
cooking drugs.’ 

michigandaily.com
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Friday, March 1, 2019

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INDEX
Vol. CXXVIII, No. 85
©2019 The Michigan Daily

N E WS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

O PI N I O N . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

CL A SSIFIEDS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6

S U D O K U . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

A R T S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

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

For more stories and coverage, visit

ADMINISTRATION
1U meeting 
establishes 
structure for 
new coalition

Canary Mission blacklists faculty, 
students for pro-Palestine views

Representatives discuss leadership, 
objectives at second campaign meeting 

Website collects information on activists, accuses them of anti-Semitism

ZAYNA SYED

Daily Staff Reporter

Counseling and Psychological 

Services is opening a Wellness 
Zone on North Campus in Pierpont 
Commons, giving students a space 
to decompress from the stress of 
school work. In the wellness zone, 
students will be able to enjoy a 
multitude of activities with the goal 
of self-care.

This will be the only Wellness 

Zone open to undergraduates this 
year, as the original Wellness Zone 
in the Michigan Union has been 
closed for the building’s renovation. 
A 
Wellness 
Zone 
specifically 

for graduate students opened in 
Munger residence hall in November. 

Christine 
Asidao, 
associate 

director of community engagement 
and outreach at CAPS, emphasized 
the importance of the wellness 
zone being extremely accessible to 
students.

“I think one of the messages we 

want to make sure students really 
hear is that self-care and well-being 
is really accessible,” Asidao said. 
“This is a space that they can go 
over there, swipe their card, get into 
the space and be able to just choose 
things that will help them do better.”

Wellness 
Zone in the 
works for 
Pierpont

CAMPUS LIFE

CAPS to build mental 
health center on North 
Campus to improve access

NOAH FISHER

For The Daily 

2018 Noble Prize Laureate discusses 
laser physics, high-intensity optics

Founder of University’s Center for Ultrafast Optical Science shares research

Policy talk 
examines 
racial bias 
in policing 

GOVERNMENT 

Panelists at “911, What is 
your prejudice?” event 
look at call-driven policing 

ALYSSA MCMURTRY 

Daily Staff Reporter

See PREJUDICE, Page 3

See CANARY, Page 2
See 1U, Page 3

Follow The Daily 
on Instagram, 
@michigandaily

On 
Thursday 
afternoon, 

representatives 
from 
the 

recently 
formed 
One 
University 

Campaign met for their second 
coalition 
meeting 
at 
the 

University of Michigan’s Flint 
campus, discussing a number 
of 
resolutions 
regarding 

the future leadership and 
objectives of the campaign. A 
satellite conference was held 
on the University’s Dearborn 
campus, and in Ann Arbor 
at the Lecturers’ Employee 
Organization and Graduate 
Employees 
Organization 

offices.

The 
One 
University 

Campaign, which was founded 
last semester, aims to promote 
equity, specifically in funding 
and opportunities provided 
to 
students, 
between 
the 

University’s campuses. Both 
the lecturers’ and graduate 
students’ unions have taken 
an active role in promoting 
the University’s policies of 

diversity, equity and inclusion 
across the three campuses.

LEO 
President 
Ian 

Robinson, a member of the 
1U 
campaign, 
explained 

promoting 
the 
campaign’s 

goals would serve to increase 
equity of funding and student 
opportunities between Ann 
Arbor, Dearborn and Flint.

“You can make a really 

big difference in Flint and 
Dearborn, in terms of amount 
of money there is available 
per student, with transfers 
from Ann Arbor or from 
Lansing that look pretty small 
by comparison to the overall 
budget we have here in Ann 
Arbor,” Robinson said.

Robinson also emphasized 

negotiations with the Board 
of Regents and administration 
have been difficult — despite 
the 
Ann 
Arbor 
campus’s 

endowment 
and 
revenue 

from tuition, many University 
leaders 
are 
reluctant 
to 

reallocate funds to Dearborn 
or Flint.

BEN ROSENFELD
Daily Staff Reporter
Design by Michelle Fan

ALICE TRACEY
Daily Staff Reporter

MADELINE HINKLEY/Daily

Nobel Laureate and engineering professor Gérard Mourou speaks at a lecture and celebration in Rackham Auditorium Thursday afternoon.

Read more online at 

michigandaily.com

Read more online at 

michigandaily.com

See WELLNESS, Page 3

