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INDEX
Vol. CXXVIII, No. 101
©2019 The Michigan Daily
N E WS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
O PI N I O N . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
S P O R T S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
S U D O K U . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
CL A S S I F I E DS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
A R T S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 B
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RESEARCH
LEAH GRAHAM
Daily News Editor
Final Carceral State Project symposium
of the year talks strategies, hopefulness
Last panel focuses on ways to encourage reform in criminal justice system
Students,
AEI host
live taping
of podcast
CAMPUS LIFE
‘Ordered Liberty’ records
episode on campus, tackles
conservatism and ideology
KENDELL LEWIS
Daily Staff Reporter
See PHOTO , Page 3A
Follow The Daily
on Instagram:
@michigandaily
Alum’s work
on algorithm
led to black
hole photo
Engineering grad Katie
Bouman produced method
to create historic image
EMMA STEIN
Daily Staff Reporter
LSA
sophomore
Nisreen
Khokhar is currently enrolled
in Arabic 402 and has taken
various Arabic courses at the
100 and 200-levels throughout
her college experience. Like
Arabic
language
students
across the nation, Khokhar
and others in the University
of Michigan’s Department of
Middle East Studies currently
go
back
and
forth
about
whether or not the University
should be teaching Modern
Standard Arabic or informal
Arabic dialects, like Egyptian
or Levantine.
“Honestly, I would love more
exposure to dialect, but at the
same time, because there’s
so much difference (between
MSA and dialect), that I think
MSA tends to be what foreign
language students learn in
general,” Khokar said. “I think
the fact that (the department
teaches) both in the first
two years is actually pretty
great because it gives you an
introduction.”
Arabic is characterized as
a diglossic language, meaning
that it has formal and informal
registers that are used in
different
circumstances.
MSA and Classical Arabic —
known as Fush’a — are used
in newspapers, books, official
documents and other formal
correspondences,
while
informal Arabic — known as
Ammiya — is typically present
in music, pop culture and
spoken
among
family
and
friends. MSA is first learned in
school, while Ammiya is most
Arab speakers’ vernacular.
Between 2006 and 2009,
enrollment in Arabic language
programs grew by 47 percent
across
U.S.
universities,
sparking
increased
debate
about
whether
to
teach
colloquial Arabic dialects in
addition to MSA. Currently
in the department, the first
two years of coursework are
focused on both MSA and
dialect, but the curriculum
shifts exclusively to MSA in the
levels that follow.
michigandaily.com
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Thursday, April 11, 2019
ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-EIGHT YEARS OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM
Curriculum
for teaching
Arabic draws
controversy
Trotter to Trotter Community Walk
celebrates history, new building
ACADEMICS
Students, faculy join nationwide debate
over instruction on informal dialects
LIAT WEINSTEIN &
DANIELLE PASEKOFF
Daily Staff Reporters
Multicultural center set to open on State Street following years of advocacy by students
Wednesday afternoon, more than
50 University of Michigan student
leaders, staff and faculty gathered in
the Trotter Multicultural Center on
Washtenaw Avenue one final time
for the Trotter to Trotter Commu-
nity Walk ahead of the grand opening
of the new building on State Street
Thursday morning. Mingling over
food and drinks, attendees acknowl-
edged the work of past activists and
reminisced over memories in the
Washtenaw building before walking
down South University Street and
through the Diag to the new building
on State Street.
According to Vice President for
Student Life E. Royster Harper, the
initiative to move the Trotter Cen-
ter from Washtenaw Avenue to a
more central location was the result
of over a decade of student activism.
Harper explained students of color
pointed out the original location of
the Trotter Center on the periphery
of campus seemed to reflect com-
munities of color being on the
periphery of the University as
well. The Washtenaw location’s dis-
tance from the center of campus also
posed accessibility and safety issues,
Harper said.
According to Harper, University
efforts to move the Trotter Center to
State Street began four years ago.
“I think this is a powerful and
emotional experience for a lot of peo-
ple who love the University, who want
the University to be a place where
everyone feels they have a home and
they belong,” Harper said. “So I think
what’s wonderful about the new loca-
tion is that it’s in the heart of cam-
pus… So what we’re saying is that’s in
the heart of who we are, what we do
and what we’re committed to … For
me, the new Trotter is about a new
beginning on our campus with each
other and for each other.”
ALEC COHEN/Daily
LSA sophomore Cristina Guytingco speaks on the importance of bringing together communities of color during the conclusion of the Trotter to
Trotter Community Walk at the new Trotter Multicultural Center Wednesday.
When
astronomers
announced
on
Wednesday
they had captured the first-
ever photo of a black hole,
an
international
team
of
scientists
said
they
had
seen
the
“unseeable.”
Collaborating with more than
200 researchers across the
world,
the
Event
Horizon
Telescope project used data
from eight radio telescopes
in six locations provided the
input necessary to compile
the photo. Katie Bouman, a
University of Michigan alum
and postdoctoral fellow at
MIT, created an algorithm as
a graduate student that helped
make the groundbreaking feat
possible.
Now an assistant professor
at
the
California
Institute
Of Technology, Bouman got
her start at the University,
graduating with a B.S.E. in
Electrical
Engineering
in
2011. Following the project’s
achievement, Bouman’s name
was trending nationally on
Twitter Wednesday night.
See ARABIC, Page 3A
See TROTTER, Page 3A
The Carceral State Project
hosted its last event of the aca-
demic school year on Wednes-
day night to discuss the future of
the carceral state and concrete
actions people can take to change
the system. The event was part
of its symposium series and was
cosponsored by Afro-American
Studies, History and the Residen-
tial College, drawing in a crowd
of approximately 100 community
members and students and fea-
tured a panel of five speakers.
Amanda
Alexander,
execu-
tive director at the Detroit Jus-
tice Center and a senior research
scholar at the University of
Michigan Law School, moderated
the event. Alexander began the
roundtable by asking the panel-
ists what true community safety
looks like and how their defini-
tions relate to the current carceral
state.
Panelist PG Watkins, an orga-
nizer at No New Jails, said they
feel most safe when the people
around them are safe and have
all their necessities, such as food
and shelter, taken care of. Wat-
kins noted many people resort to
crime in order to provide for their
families.
“So to me, when I think about
the times I felt most safe, or what
could make me feel safer when I
don’t feel safe, is really a lot about
like knowing who’s around me,”
Watkins said. “Feeling a sense
of connectivity and community.
Something that I talk about is like,
I can feel safe when I know all my
basic needs are met and the peo-
ple around me have their needs
met. You know, everything’s
taken care of, there’s no reason to,
ideally, there’s no reason to cause
harm or hurt each other because
everything that we need is there
for us.”
Watkins continued by saying
their idea of safety is completely
separate from the carceral state.
Watkins discussed how, if every-
body supports their communities,
the effort to make sure everyone
has their basic necessities covered
will expand to larger society.
“In my ideal world in the world
that I try to practice and be in
community with every day is
disconnected from the carceral
state,” Watkins said. “But I do
think it starts with us. Focus-
ing really hyper local, like on our
blocks, in our neighborhood, is
how can we make sure that we
are good with each other, and that
will echo out.”
Panelist Korbin Felder, pro-
gram
associate
at
America
Friends Service Committee, dis-
cussed how different people have
varying relationships on safety
and the carceral state. He said
regardless of his own opinion,
many people feel the criminal
justice system reduces crime and
are not in favor of getting rid of it
completely.
See CARCERAL , Page 3A
See PODCAST , Page 2A
KARTIKEYA SUNDARAM/Daily
Michael J. Steinberg, public interest/public service faculty fellow at the University of Michigan, speaks at the Carceral State roundtable in
Hatcher Graduate Library Wednesday afternoon.
“The
Ordered
Liberty”
podcast co-hosts David French
and
Alexandra
DeSanctis
stopped at Weill Hall at the
Ford School of Public Policy
to record a live episode on
Wednesday night. While their
main focus was conservatism
on campus, they also touched on
populism, abortion, democratic
socialism
and
free
speech.
The University of Michigan’s
American Enterprise Institute’s
Executive Council, along with
the National Review Institute On
Campus and Young Americans
for Freedom at the University
of
Michigan,
sponsored
the
segment titled “Liberty with
Integrity: How consistency and
civility are inseparable from the
conservative case for freedom.”
The podcast covers religion,
culture and politics. French is a
veteran and an attorney, as well
as a senior fellow at NRI, and
DeSanctis is a staff writer for
National Review.
After making jokes about
Michigan State and Ohio State,
French introduced the main
topic.
CLAIRE HAO
Daily Staff Reporter