About 50 people gathered 
Friday night in the Forum 
Hall of Palmer Commons 
for the 2019 Mental Health 
Monologues, 
sponsored 
by 
the 
University 
of 
Michigan’s 
chapter 
of 
Active Minds. This is the 
fourth year Active Minds, 
an 
organization 
dedicated 
to raising awareness about 
mental health among college 
students, has put on the 
show. Students and alumni 
prepared monologues about 
their personal struggles with 
mental health.
Nursing 
junior 
Laura 
Halprin was an organizer 
of the event. She said the 
purpose of the event was to 
humanize to the broad issue 
of mental health by allowing 
people to share their stories. 
“It’s supposed to put real 
faces behind real stories,” 
Halprin said. “As students I 
think it’s really empowering 
to put faces to what we maybe 
just hear in the media.”
Halprin hoped the event 
would 
educate 
people 
on 
what mental health looks like 
and help get rid of the stigma 
often associated with it.
“It 
makes 
things 
more 
personalized and normalized 
for 
the 
experiences 
that 
many people have,” Halprin 
said. “For people who don’t 
necessarily identify as having 
a mental illness, it really 

helps open their eyes to what 
others around them may be 
experiencing and how they 
could potentially play a role 
in helping that.”
LSA junior Jessica Kolbe 
also organized the event, 
and was one of the speakers. 
She wrote an eight-minute 
monologue and performed 
it for the audience, and said 
she wanted her story to help 
normalize her illness.
“I’m just hoping to educate 
people, 
because 
with 
my 
disorder, 
I 
have 
bipolar 
disorder, it’s very stigmatized 
and people fear it a lot,” Kolbe 
said. “So if I can like help 
normalize it, it would just be 
really great. And it’s also just 
empowering to like be there, 
standing in front of other 
people and be like, ‘Yeah, I do 

have this, and I’m a perfectly 
functioning human being.’”
In her monologue, Kolbe 
recounted the details of her 
journey with mental illness 
that led her to where she is 
today. She reflected on how 
far she has come.
“There are no cures for my 
struggles so I will have to 
fight my disorders for the rest 
of my life,” Kolbe said. “But I 
know I will be okay. Life gets 
worse, but it also gets better. 
I have the tools to persevere 
and I will use them.”
Kolbe 
finished 
her 
monologue by discussing her 
hope for the future.
“Although 
there 
is 
no 
happily ever after in this 
story, there are happy times 
in store for me, and I will 
continue to live so I can 

experience them,” Kolbe said.
Engineering freshman Ben 
Firstenberg 
attended 
the 
event to support his friend, 
LSA freshman Jordy Garcia, 
who was one of the speakers. 
Firstenberg hopes the event 
will showcase the seriousness 
of mental illness, as well as 
how it can affect a person’s 
overall health.
“I also think it’s important 
because 
mental 
health 
is 
an important issue today,” 
Firstenberg said. “And I think 
a lot of people should be aware 
of how their mental health 
can 
affect 
their 
physical 
health and their overall well-
being.”

Democratic 
lawmakers 
in 
both chambers of the Michigan 
Legislature proposed a series of 
bills Wednesday that would enact 
protections for LGBT couples when 
adopting children.
The lawmakers behind House 
Bills 4469-4472 and Senate Bills 
272-275 hope to allow same-sex 
parents to adopt their partner’s 
biological or adoptive child, further 
protect same-sex couples from 
discrimination when adopting and 
hold adoption agencies accountable 
for discrimination.
State Sen. Jeff Irwin, D-Ann 
Arbor, told The Daily he and his 
colleagues proposed the package 
of bills because former Gov. Rick 
Snyder 
signed 
bills 
allowing 
faith-based 
adoption 
agencies 
to 
discriminate 
against 
LGBT 
individuals.
“In 
some 
cases, 
(adoption 
agencies) were using their religious 
beliefs as a rationale to deny adoption 
to certain parents, particularly 
LGBT parents … and parents who 
may be out of the mainstream in any 
number of other ways,” Irwin said. 

michigandaily.com
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Monday, April 22, 2019

ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-EIGHT YEARS OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM

WACWA to 
finalize deal 
with local 
coffee chain

BUSINESS

Following demonstration 
from baristas, union and 
employers discuss contracts

Active Minds hosts fourth annual Mental 
Health Monologues, raises awareness

Event draws attention to illness, educates community on its stigmatization

ANNABEL KELLY
Daily Staff Reporter

Swept away
 Michigan baseball sweeps 
Sunday’s doubleheader 
against Northwestern, 
showing signs of promise as 
the postseason nears 

» Page 1B

Members of the Washtenaw 
Area 
Coffee 
Workers 
Association are finalizing an 
agreement with the owners of 
Mighty Good Coffee as the local 
chain prepares to shutter its 
retail operations by the end of 
the summer.
Workers 
celebrated 
the 
forthcoming agreement at a 
meeting with customers and 
supporters at The Grotto in 
downtown 
Ann 
Arbor 
on 
Friday. Alec Hershman worked 
as a barista at Mighty Good’s 
Main Street store, which closed 
Friday. He clarified that the 
agreement between the two 
parties is still in the works.
“Currently we’re negotiating 
for a cessation contract, so that’s 
still in process and we hope 
that we’re coming close to an 
agreement,” 
Hershman 
said. 
“The employer and our union 
are negotiating in good faith 
to try and find a reasonable 
solution for the workers that 
have been laid off.”

Democrats’ 
bill to help 
process in 
adoptions

GOVERNMENT

Lawmakers aim to prevent 
discrimination against 
same-sex couples adopting

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

INDEX
Vol. CXXVIII, No. 105
©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 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 B
michigandaily.com

For more stories and coverage, visit

Read more at 
MichiganDaily.com

Read more at 
MichiganDaily.com

Read more at 
MichiganDaily.com
CARTER FOX/Daily
LSA freshman Jordy Garcia performs “When I Was...” at the Mental Health Monolougues ar Palmer Commons Friday 
night.

Follow The Daily 
on Instagram, 
@michigandaily

LEAH GRAHAM 
Daily News Editor

When Taubman junior Juan 
Muñoz graduated high school 
in 2013, he was unsure how 
to navigate higher education 
financially. Although he resides 
in Michigan, his status as an 
undocumented individual has 
made — and continues to make 
— his ascent into public higher 
education rocky.
The University of Michigan 
has a route for students who 
do not meet the traditional 
residency guidelines to receive 
in-state tuition, according to 
University 
spokesperson 
Kim 
Broekhuizen. In an email to The 
Daily, she wrote that the policy, 
which is called the Attendance 
and Veterans pathways, was 
added in 2014. It allows students 
who 
attend 
middle 
school 

in Michigan for two years, a 
Michigan accredited high school 
for three years and enroll in the 
University within 28 months of 
high school graduation to receive 
in-state tuition. 
This pathway was the result 
of advocacy by the Coalition 
for 
Tuition 
Equality, 
which 
fought for the right of resident 
undocumented 
students 
to 
receive in-state tuition since 
October 2011. The Board of 
Regents 
approved 
the 
new 
guidelines in July 2013, and they 
were put into place in 2014. 
Broekhuizen wrote the 28 
month transition time may have 
been the standard amount of time 
students waited to apply to the 
University in 2014.

SCOPE looks 
at ‘U’ tuition 
appeals steps, 
policy impact 

Students, faculty discuss nature of 
imposter syndrome at the University 

Undocumented students reveal issues with 
paths for meeting in-state residency

ALEX HARRING
Daily Staff Reporter

Daily surveys 400 undergrads, finds most compare their academic ability to peers

This past semester, The Mich-
igan Daily conducted a survey 
which received close to 400 
responses about the nature of 
imposter syndrome at the Uni-
versity of Michigan. Imposter 
syndrome refers to a psychologi-

cal pattern in which an individual 
dismisses their accomplishments 
and fears being exposed as lack-
ing or just simply a “fraud.” The 
survey included questions that 
asked students to self-report 
their demographics. Demo-
graphics questions that had the 
most significant results included 
income and gender, while oth-

ers such as race did not provide 
conclusive data. The survey was 
intended to gauge how students 
perceived themselves in relation 
to the rest of their peers at the 
University in their respective 
fields of study.
Originally, LSA senior Ciara 
Hancock wanted to attend Alma 
College to train as a cheerlead-

er. In her rural, predominantly 
white, hometown of Charlotte, 
Michigan, Hancock outlined 
two distinct post-high school 
paths: either belonging to the 
top 10 percent that transition 
to college, or falling within the 
other 90 percent that attend a 
trade school. 

JACK SILBERMAN/Daily

SAMANTHA SMALL 
Daily Staff Reporter

Read more at 
MichiganDaily.com

MICHAL RUPRECHT
Daily Staff Reporter

See IMPOSTER, Page 2A

