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

