“Dr. 
Harper 
has 
done 
this through an innovative 
student-centered 
approach 
that has been modeled at 
other 
higher 
education 
institutions throughout the 
nation.”
Panhellenic 
Association 
president Taylor Fegan, LSA 
senior, said working with 
Harper on FSL matters was 
a privilege. 
“Working with VP Royster 
Harper has been one of the 
best aspects of my term 
as president,” Fegan said. 
“She is dedicated, kind and 
one of the biggest student 
supporters 
on 
campus. 
In working with her, it is 
so 
clearly 
apparent 
that 
she loves the University 

of 
Michigan, 
but 
more 
importantly she loves the 
University 
of 
Michigan 
students.”
Izzy Baer, former vice 
president of Central Student 
Government, echoed those 
sentiments as she looks back 
fondly on her time working 
with Harper. 
“(Harper) made herself 
extremely accessible to the 
CSG executive team through 
our term,” Baer said. “More 
so, Royster always ensured 
that student decisions and 
actions were autonomous, 
she worked hard to advocate 
and advise, while always 
maintaining student voices.”
Harper was also known 
for being a champion of 
diversity. She helped create 
the new Trotter Center on 
Central Campus and is on 
the executive board of the 

Ann Arbor branch of the 
NAACP. 
Baer 
said 
Harper’s 
commitment to equity and 
inclusion made a mark on 
the University.
“Her 
commitment 
to 
diversity and inclusion on 
campus 
reverberated 
to 
every corner of campus,” 
Baer said. “I hope to see the 
new VP prioritize revising 
our 
sexual 
misconduct 
policy, 
expanding 
mental 
health resources on campus 
and 
continuing 
Royster’s 
legacy with a commitment 
to DEI.”
Cardona also discussed 
how having a vice president 
of 
Student 
Life 
who 
prioritizes 
diversity 
is 
essential.
“A 
commitment 
to 
diversity, 
equity 
and 
inclusion is a priority for 

the University of Michigan. 
As such, it is important to 
continue the work of Dr. 
Harper and other leaders 
across 
the 
campus 
of 
supporting all students in 
intentional ways as part 
of our efforts to foster an 
inclusive campus climate,” 
Cardona 
told 
The 
Daily. 
“Additionally, it is important 
that all members of the U of M 
community, including those 
who are underrepresented, 
are 
provided 
equal 
opportunities to thrive and 
excel.” 
Along 
with 
student 
organizations, 
Harper 
oversaw 
the 
University 
Health 
Service. 
Earlier 
this month, Harper, along 
with other administrators, 
responded to the student 
backlash 
over 
an 
added 
fee for testing for sexually 

transmitted infections. The 
University 
then 
reversed 
its 
policy 
after 
students 
created an online petition 
demanding the University 
eliminate STI testing fees. 
“You 
have 
helped 
us 
understand 
just 
how 
important it is to maintain 
confidentiality 
in 
this 
process all the way through 
how those tests are paid 
for,” Harper wrote in an 
email explaining the policy 
reversal to students. “We 
would 
never 
want 
the 
payment process for these 
important 
medical 
tests 
to stand in the way of any 
student accessing important 
medical services or testing.”

“We’ve done some small 
pilot 
studies 
with 
other 
indications, 
including 
social 
anxiety in adults on the autism 
spectrum,” Doblin said. “We’ve 
done work with MDMA for 
anxiety associated with life-
threatening illness.”
After dedicating his life to 
researching psychedelic drugs, 
Doblin spoke on the progress 
made since he was inspired to 
start MAPS. 
“The FDA is now going to 
create guidance and documents 
if you want to do psychedelic 
research,” Doblin said. “This 
idea of trying to bring our 
different selves together — 
bring the psychedelics out into 
the open — it’s working and 
what we’re doing is making 
MDMA into a medicine.”
LSA junior Nick Lemaster 
expressed his own long-term 
interest in the topic, as he was 
originally inspired by a pilot 
study that used Psilocybin to 
minimize withdrawal effects 
of alcoholism.
“I just think it’s a fascinating 
new 
frontier 
of 
research 
in terms of psychological 
treatment,” Lemaster said. 
“It’s an avenue that hasn’t 
been explored much, and it’s 
also an experience that hasn’t 
been researched much.” 
LSA senior Briana Johnson 
spoke on the potential to 
embrace this new type of 
therapy. 
“Keeping 
your 
options 
open and not turning away 
from things that people say 
are inherently bad or add to 
the degradation of society, 
you 
shouldn’t 
turn 
your 
back on things that could 
potentially 
help 
people,” 
Johnson said. “As more and 
more people start to see 
that it’s beneficial, it might 
be more mainstreamed and 
have the potential to be more 
regulated.”
Rackham 
student 
Nick 
Denomme presented research 
on the history and discovery 
of LSD and its key role in 
understanding the function 
of serotonin in the brain and 
mental illnesses. 
“The 
remarkable 
effects 
of LSD evolved our thinking 
about neurochemistry and the 
etiology of mental illness,” 
Denomme 
said. 
“These 
discoveries really helped us 
steer psychiatry away from 
psychogenic 
models 
and 
develop chemical models of 
mental illness.” 
Katrin Preller, a researcher 
at Yale University, presented 
her work on the therapeutic 
potential 
of 
the 
psilocybin 
mushrooms, 
or 
magic 
mushrooms. 
“Alterations 
in 
social 
cognitions are core symptoms 
of many psychiatric disorders,” 
Preller said. 
Preller 
described 
the 
profound 
impact 
social 
rejection and exclusion has on 
psychiatric patients. She also 
explained the potential for 
Psilocybin to lessen this. 
“Psychedelics 
reduce 
the 
processing 
of 
negative 
information — under Psilocybin 
they report reduced feelings of 
being socially excluded,” Preller 
said, 
referring 
to 
patients 
in a study with borderline 
personality disorder.
Rackham 
student 
Emma 
Trammel 
emphasized 
the 
importance 
of 
increasing 
public 
awareness 
in 
her 
presentation. 
“So often we have these 
science 
conferences 
that 
just aren’t accessible to the 
general public, so it’s just 
scientists telling scientists 
about what they did, when 
what we really need to focus 
on is telling the general 
public about the work that 
we’re doing so that they trust 
that we know what we’re 
doing and they have reason to 
support us,” Trammel said. 
LSA 
senior 
Christopher 
Fields, 
who 
attended 
the 
symposium, 
expressed 
his 
excitement at the prospect of 
exploring this new field. 
“The 
therapeutic 
use 
of 
psychedelics 
halted 
and 
became a standstill in the late 
60s,” Fields said. “The fact that 
U-M is hosting this event is a 
huge indicator of revamping 
psychedelic research.” 

That 
same 
year, 
26 
percent said they had used 
marijuana at least once in 
the last 30 days.
Schulenberg also noted 
the 
dramatic 
increase 
in 
vaping 
nicotine 
and 
marijuana 
among 
college 
students, 
particularly 
among the percentage who 
said they had done so at least 
once in the previous year.
“For both of those, annual 
use increased,” Schulenberg 
said. “Both of those doubled 
or more than doubled in just 
one year, and we hardly ever 
see that happen as we track 
substance use.”
Among college students, 
the 30-day prevalence of 
vaping marijuana rose from 
5.2 percent in 2017 to 10.9 
percent 
in 
2018. 
Vaping 
nicotine increased as well, 
with 
30-day 
prevalence 
going from 6.1 percent in 
2017 to 15.5 percent in 2018 
in “one of the largest one-
year proportional increases 

for any substance over the 
past 40 years.”
Vaping 
nicotine 
also 
increased 
among 
non-
college respondents, going 
from 7.9 percent in 2017 
to 12.5 percent in 2018. 
Schulenberg 
said 
it 
was 
rare to see higher nicotine 
use among college students 
compared 
to 
non-college 
youth, adding that people’s 
perception of harm tended 
to 
impact 
usage 
levels. 
Historically, 
according 
to Schulenberg, when the 
survey 
recorded 
higher 
levels of perceived harm 
associated 
with 
using 
a 
substance, prevalence levels 
tended to be lower. 
“And it depends how you 
think about it, but people 
risking their health is bad,” 
Schulenberg said. “The good 
news is, for example, binge 
drinking 
among 
college 
students is at a record low. 
That’s for the first time ever 
below 30 percent, so there’s 
a significant drop, just in the 
past year in binge drinking 
among college students.”
LSA senior Eric Terbush 

is 
a 
member 
of 
Green 
Wolverine, 
a 
student 
organization that promotes 
knowledge 
of 
the 
legal 
aspects 
of 
the 
cannabis 
industry. Terbush said while 
the increase in cannabis 
consumption among college 
students 
was 
statistically 
significant, 
it 
should 
be 
considered 
alongside 
the 
“displacement 
of 
alcohol 
consumption.”
“I think that overall ease of 
access to cannabis, increased 
interest 
in 
personal 
health and perceptions of 
cannabis’s safety are all key 
elements in the increase in 
consumption among college-
age demographics,” Terbush 
said. 
“The 
real 
question 
is if this displacement is 
an 
overall 
net 
positive 
or 
negative 
on 
student 
health. While alcohol has a 
measurable death toll, the 
social costs of cannabis are 
much more opaque. I think 
this study overall confirms 
longer trends in substance 
abuse.”
Schulenberg 
said 
researchers 
were 
still 

trying to figure out if the 
decrease in binge drinking 
was associated with the 
increased 
use 
of 
other 
substances like marijuana.
“Scientists 
are 
asking 
that 
more 
and 
more,” 
Schulenberg 
said. 
“They 
call 
it 
substitution. 
It’s, 
‘OK, 
well, 
they’re 
going 
to get high on something,’ 
so, first they’ll want to use 
something 
that’s 
readily 
available, 
and 
basically, 
marijuana is always readily 
available. Perhaps there’s 
more opportunity to use it, 
and perhaps the perception 
is it’s not such a big deal, 
and 
maybe 
people 
are 
substituting. The research 
is not there yet, so we don’t 
know, but it’s definitely a 
good hypothesis.”
L.J. 
Horowitz, 
Green 
Wolverine 
President 
and 
Kinesiology 
senior, 
said 
increased use of marijuana 
should 
be 
viewed 
as 
beneficial.
“The increase in marijuana 
use among college students 
should be noted as a positive 
for 
both 
the 
cannabis 

industry and society as a 
whole,” Horowitz said. “It 
is imperative for readers to 
know that the report, more 
importantly, 
indicates 
a 
significant drop in abuse of 
other illicit drugs — alcohol 
and opiates — due to using 
cannabis as a substitute.”
Schulenberg added that 
the 
study 
also 
found 
a 
decrease in reported usage 
of 
narcotics 
other 
than 
heroin, saying that public 
health efforts to combat the 
opioid epidemic may prove 
effective in curbing other 
addiction crises.
“We’re seeing declines in 
that among, not just college 
students, but also same-age 
people who are not in college, 
and 
that’s 
great 
news,” 
Schulenberg said. “I mean, 
these can be horrible drugs, 
so what I want to say is that 
public 
health 
campaigns, 
getting information out, can 
turn things around. We can 
be proactive and turn things 
around, and I think that 
applies to the vaping.”

“I believe that Michigan 
Political Consulting offers 
a 
niche, 
yet 
incredibly 
valuable, 
opportunity 
to 
Michigan 
students,” 
Freedman said. “I think 
political consulting would 
give 
students 
access 
to 
a 
variety 
of 
political 
perspectives, offices, causes 
and operations compared to 
one internship or job.” 
The group works with 
various Michigan campaigns, 
including Senator Elizabeth 
Warren’s 
presidential 
campaign, 
Jon 
Hoadley’s 
congressional campaign for 

Michigan’s 60th district and 
Alberta Griffin’s state House 
campaign 
for 
Michigan’s 
61st district. Hoadley is a 
Democrat, first elected to 
the House of Representatives 
in 2014. Griffin is also a 
Democrat 
and 
served 
a 
previous term in the state 
House, before being defeated 
in 2018. 
MPC 
Recruitment 
Co-Chair and LSA junior, 
Taylor 
Smith, 
said 
the 
group has to adapt to each 
campaign’s specific requests, 
but in general MPC works 
on social media, polling, 
fundraising and more. 
“Every client will have 
a different set of needs,” 
Smith said. “But the work 

generally includes making 
social media posts for them, 
doing graphic design, data, 
polling, fundraising — a lot 
of different things.”
Burnstein 
talked 
specifically 
about 
MPC’s 
work 
for 
the 
Warren 
campaign and how they got 
connected. 
“We got in touch with 
someone from the Warren 
campaign,” Burstein said. 
“She expressed an interest 
in working with us, and she 
connected us to the youth 
political director. He was 
keen on having us set up 
student 
groups 
on 
other 
campuses across the state of 
Michigan.”
Though 
MPC 
says 

they’re 
a 
non-partisan 
group, 
the 
majority 
of 
their current clients are 
Democratic 
campaigns. 
Burnstein emphasized that 
the group is happy to work 
with both Republican and 
Democratic 
campaigns, 
but 
acknowledged 
the 
difficulty of finding an 
ideologically 
diverse 
membership. 
“By the nature of being in a 
college town, it begets a lot of 
progressive and democratic 
voices, which is the main 
composition of our executive 
board, 
unintentionally, 
of 
course,” Burnstein said. “I 
think it has been difficult 
recruiting 
students 
with 
non-mainstream voices and 

views.”
Freedman agreed having 
a 
group 
with 
diverse 
perspectives and ideologies 
is 
important 
in 
political 
organizations. 
“It is absolutely vital to 
incorporate 
individuals 
from all political ideologies 
at 
one 
table,” 
Freedman 
said. “Executing effective 
political 
leadership 
and 
best representing those who 
elect an official is done with 
a diverse representation of 
ideologies present.” 
The 
group 
hopes 
to 
grow this semester while 
providing 
quality 
work 
for their clients. They are 
receiving applications until 
Sept. 1.

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News
Friday, September 13, 2019 — 3

Read more at 
MichiganDaily.com

STUDY
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KEEMYA ESMAEL/Daily
Self-identified cyborg artist Moon Ribas performs her cyborg art movement in the Michigan Theater Thursday evening. 

C YBORG ARTIST

PSYCH
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CONSULTING
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RETIRE
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