On Tuesday, a coalition of left-
leaning
organizations
hosted
a teach-in titled “Umich is
Complicit in East Quad Residence
Hall” to highlight what they called
the University of Michigan’s
history of inaction against white
supremacy. The event was held
in response to Young Americans
for Freedom’s invitation to Ben
Shapiro, a conservative political
commentator, to speak at the
University. Shapiro addressed
a crowd of more than 1,000
students at Rackham Auditorium
on Tuesday.
According to LSA sophomore
Mani Samei, a student organizer
with the Michigan Student Power
Network, one of the organizations

co-hosting the event, the teach-in
sought to tie Shapiro’s speech to a
larger trend of white supremacy
on campus and raise awareness
about the #UMichisComplicit
campaign.
“So we were like, okay, we
can use this opportunity and
the
thing
that’s
happening
on campus to galvanize some
energy towards kicking off this
campaign that folks have been
talking about for a little while, the
#UMichisComplicit
campaign,
to sort of bring more popular
consciousness on campus just
the fact that this University is
founded on white supremacy and
continues to further that,” Samei
said.

The
University
of
Michigan’s
Wallace
House
held an event titled “Prisoner:
My 544 Days in an Iranian
Prison” on Tuesday in the
Lydia Mendelssohn Theatre.
The
event
featured
Jason
Rezaian, a Global Opinions
writer for The Washington
Post, to discuss his new book
“Prisoner,” which describes
his 18-month experience in an
Iranian prison.
“Prisoner”
chronicles
Rezaian’s time spent in Evin,
an Iranian prison, known
for its poor conditions and

its housing of the country’s
political
prisoners.
During
the
event,
Bill
McCarren,
executive
director
of
the
National
Press
Club,
a
professional organization for
journalists,
explained
how
the book also highlights the
people and culture of Iran, as
well as issues with freedom of
the press globally.
“I think it will change what
you think about the region,”
McCarren said. “It will change
what you think about Iran and
it will change what you think
about journalism.”
The majority of the event
was a Q&A session between
McCarren and Rezaian. After

anecdotes
about
Rezaian’s
interests in sports, the two
dove into questions about
Rezaian’s
imprisonment
experience in a country he
called home for several years
of his life.
Rezaian was born in the
U.S. to an Iranian father and
grew up in California before
moving to Iran for part of his
adult life to pursue journalism.
From
2012
through
2016,
Rezaian served in Iran as the
Tehran bureau chief for The
Washington Post.
In July 2014, Rezaian and
his wife, Yeganeh Rezaian,
were in their home in Iran,
getting ready to attend his

mother’s birthday party. After
entering
the
elevator,
the
journalist was confronted at
gunpoint by a member of the
Iranian Revolutionary Guard
Corps.
Rezaian
described
how
after having his apartment
ransacked, the IRGC took the
couple into custody. Yeganeh
remained in prison for 72
days and Rezaian remained in
prison for 544 days.
“I’m glad that my experience
ended after 544 days,” Rezaian
said. “At the same time, this
should have never happened
in the first place. But I realize
it could’ve been much worse.”

The
University
of
Michigan Central Student
Government met Tuesday
night to discuss a resolution
to recommend revising the
current University sexual
misconduct
policy
and
debated
changing
their
weekly meeting time.
LSA
freshman
Emma
Sandberg
and
LSA
sophomore Josiah Walker
proposed a resolution to
the
Student
Assembly
regarding the revision of
the
University’s
sexual
misconduct
policy.
In
their presentation of the
resolution,
Sandberg
and
Walker explained the recent
changes to the policy in
which a cross-examination
is now required in sexual
misconduct
cases.
They
said this change may cause
emotional trauma to the
survivor, as the survivor
will
be
required
to
be
directly questioned by the
alleged perpetrator in the
examination.

michigandaily.com
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Wednesday, March 13, 2019

ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-EIGHT YEARS OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM

Organizers
host teach-in
on racism in
history of ‘U’

Ben Shapiro discusses government
compulsion, conservative values

See RACISM, Page 3A

ALEXIS RANKIN/Daily
Political commentator Ben Shapiro speaks about conservative values with a sold out crowd at Rackham Auditorium Tuesday evening.

CAMPUS LIFE

Activist groups look at implications of
legacy of white supremacy on campus

Political commentator draws capacity crowd to event at Rackham Auditorium

MADELINE MCLAUGHLIN &
JONATHAN WONG
Daily Staff Reporter & For The Daily

See CSG, Page 3A

CSG reviews
misconduct
policy after
court ruling

STUDENT GOVERNMENT

Representatives consider
changing weekly meeting
times to Sundays at 4 pm

BARBARA COLLINS
Daily Staff Reporter

Formerly imprisoned Washington Post
journalist recounts experiences in Iran

Wallace House invites reporter to share story of 18-month incarceration

PARNIA MAZHAR
Daily Staff Reporter

See SHAPIRO, Page 3A

The University of Michigan
History
Department,
in
collaboration with the History
Club, hosted an event on Tuesday
called “When Provocateurs Dabble
in History: Ben Shapiro and the
Enwhitenment,” coinciding with
Ben Shapiro’s speech on campus.
Anne Berg, assistant director
of
Undergraduate
Studies
for
the History Department and the
History Club’s adviser, introduced
the event, which focused on the
title of Ben Shapiro’s upcoming
book, “The Right Side of History:
How Reason and Moral Purpose
Made the West Great.”
“There were some suggestions
in here that there is a wrong side of
history, as the History Club pointed
out in their message, that the West
is great, and that there’s a causal
inference that reason and moral
purpose made it so,” Berg said.
At the same time as this event,
Shapiro
spoke
in
Rackham
Auditorium to an audience of
more than 1,000 people. The
conservative political commentator
acknowledged the History Club’s
event in his on-campus speech.
See PANEL, Page 3A

Panel talk
examines
Shapiro’s
new book

CAMPUS LIFE

Faculty reflects on impact
of author’s provacative
historical interpretations

JULIA JOHNSTON
For The Daily

GOT A NEWS TIP?
Call 734-418-4115 or e-mail
news@michigandaily.com and let us know.

INDEX
Vol. CXXVII, No. 86
©2019 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 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
michigandaily.com

For more stories and coverage, visit
Follow The Daily
on Instagram,
@michigandaily

Statement

See IRAN, Page 3A

Conservative
political
commentator Ben Shapiro was
met with a standing ovation
upon
taking
the
stage
of
Rackham Auditorium Tuesday

evening. Looking out onto the
crowd, he thanked the Young
Americans for Freedom and
the University of Michigan
for hosting him, as well as
the protest group Shut Down
Shapiro at Rackham Auditorium
for their interest in his visit.
According to the University’s

chapter of Young Americans
for Freedom, a conservative
student
group
on
campus
seeking to educate students on
right-wing ideologies, tickets
reserved for students sold out
in under two minutes and were
resold for up to $200.
Shapiro is editor in chief of

the Daily Wire, a conservative
news and opinion website, and
host of “The Ben Shapiro Show,”
a daily news podcast. He has
been recognized as a prominent
voice
for
conservative
millennials nationwide.

the

KELSEY PEASE/Daily
Lecturer Anne Berg speaks at the panel titled “When Provocateurs Dabble in History: Ben Shapiro and the Enwhitenment” at Tisch Hall Tuesday evening.

ZAYNA SYED
Daily Staff Reporter

Creative Writing Issue