“The movement is greater 
than those two men, and, at 
the same time, the movement 
needed 
those 
two 
men,” 
Suleiman said. “And we often 
do ourselves a disservice by 
trying to create the perfect 
hero … that rises victorious 
above the rest and had the 
perfect 
diagnosis 
and 
the 
perfect role to play. And so, this 
is the picture that we come to … 
This is the picture that deeply 
haunts America.”
LSA freshman Salik Aslam 
attended 
Suleiman’s 
lecture 
and told The Daily after the 
talk that he found it interesting 
how people often create a 
singular portrayal of a public 
figure based on their defining 
moments when, in fact, their 
legacies 
are 
much 
more 
complex. 
“I 
liked 
the 
one 
point 
that (Suleiman) made about 
how they froze Malcolm X’s 
transformative moment … and 
they froze Martin Luther King 
at his ‘I have a dream’ speech,” 
Aslam said. “I realized that, 
when I thought about Martin 
Luther King, I had him frozen 
in that speech, too.”
Suleiman 
also 
challenged 
the common belief Malcolm X 
promoted violence among his 
supporters. He argued Malcolm 
X did not turn to violence 
because he believed it was 
convenient or desirable, but 
because he found it hypocritical 
that African Americans were 
urged to remain peaceful even 
when they were the subjects of 
continued violence and hatred 
for much of the nation’s history. 
“Malcolm 
said, 
‘I 
don’t 
favor 
violence,’” 
Suleiman 
said. “‘If we could bring about 
recognition and respect for our 

people by peaceful means, well 
and good. Everybody would like 
to reach (Malcolm’s) objectives 
peacefully. But I’m also a 
realist. And the only people in 
this country who are asked to 
be nonviolent are black people.’ 
And so, Malcolm’s point was 
the point that ... if you don’t 
have an established critique of 
the oppression, you don’t get to 
critique the resistance.”
In his lecture, Suleiman 
also 
emphasized 
the 
need 
for 
Americans 
to 
become 
uncomfortable 
with 
their 
history and their previously-
held beliefs about racism and 
the Civil Rights Movement 
in order to create tangible 
change. He related this need 
for discomfort with Executive 
Order 13769, also known as 
the 2017 Muslim Ban, arguing 
many 
Americans 
felt 
they 
couldn’t live with themselves 
knowing 
they 
tolerated 
a 
“blatant violation” of human 
rights with the Muslim Ban. 
“You 
cannot 
simply 
say 
this is not right, but you had 
to actually move to action,” 
Suleiman 
said. 
“Martin 
understood that America … had 
to be moved to a point where it 
had to be uncomfortable with 
itself.”
The 
post-lecture 
panel, 
featuring Abdul Khabeer and 
Ward, expanded upon some 
of Suleiman’s previous points 
and discussed their relation to 
African Americans and Islam 
today. 
Abdul Khabeer said it is 
important 
to 
know 
where 
activists like Malcolm X and 
Martin Luther King Jr. came 
from and what perspectives 
they were originally exposed to 
in order to better understand 
their 
ideologies. 
She 
highlighted the international 
aspect of the Universal Negro 
Improvement 
Association, 

where Malcolm X’s parents 
were active members, to show 
Malcolm X’s philosophy did 
not exist in a vacuum and was a 
product of the environment he 
was raised in. 
“I 
think 
what’s 
always 
important 
to 
think 
about 
these people coming out of 
communities,” Abdul Khabeer 
said. “And, specifically, I was 
thinking about his parents 
… and their relationship to 
the UNIA as organizers and 
leaders in that group.”
Ward 
also 
touched 
on 
the idea of allyship, noting 
that white people who see 
themselves as allies should 
understand the ways racism 
has hurt society at large. 
“Rather than try to help 
black people or people of 
color, recognize that you too 
have been dehumanized by 
racism,” Ward said. “You too 
have been dehumanized — 
not in the same way, not to 
the same magnitude per se, 
but that your own humanity 
is corrupted. Acting against 
racism, 
against 
broader 
structures 
of 
oppression 
… you can see yourself as 
co-liberated.”
Suleiman 
echoed 
Ward’s 
point and added that in order 
to be an effective activist, you 
have to dedicate yourself to all 
aspects of a cause rather than 
support it half-heartedly.
“Activism is not showing up 
to 20 protests a year, copping 
a selfie and putting it on your 
social media with a really 
cool profile picture and a lot 
of hashtags,” Suleiman said. 
“Study one or two issues 
that you can really have a 
meaningful impact. Immerse 
yourself, learn from the issues, 
be present in other things that 
speak to your convictions. Be 
present. Show support. But 
immerse yourself deeply.”

doesn’t know if she should search 
for housing now or to wait until after 
the recruitment process is over next 
semester. 
“I’ve heard a lot of kids sign their 
leases first semester, so it worries me 
about like what if I drop (recruitment)?” 
Ceritano said. “Then it’s a concern 
for me to find a house to live in. But if 
I don’t (drop), it doesn’t really matter, 
because you live in your sorority house 
your sophomore year. It’s all just a bit 
concerning.”
Ceritano said she hasn’t heard 
anything 
from 
the 
Panhellenic 
Association, individual sororities, the 
Office of Fraternity and Sorority Life or 
University Housing regarding what she 
should do.
“No one has given any advice or 
anything,” Ceritano said. “I feel like it’d 
be good to have some advice on how to 
handle this from the housing office or 
maybe people who do leases. I don’t 
really know how to find it.”
LSA freshman Margaret Barber said 
she’s excited to begin the recruitment 
process at the University and would 
like to live in a sorority house. Barber 
said she intends to have a backup 
plan, but she’s not rushing into any big 
decisions. 
“I’m taking the time to adjust to 
everything, but I was thinking of trying 
to come up with a backup plan when 
my friends who aren’t rushing start 
researching (housing),” Barber said. “I 
could also research with them some 
possibilities if rush doesn’t work out. 
Right now, I don’t have any idea.”
Similar to Ceritano, Barber said 
many of her friends who plan to take 
part in recruitment don’t know what 
they will do yet. However, she claimed 
there’s been talk of a safety net for 
students who may, for any reason, 
drop out of the recruitment process or 
who do not get a bid from a sorority or 
fraternity. 
“It’s kind of up in the air,” Barber 
said. “But we had a bay-area Michigan 
send-off thing, and there were school 
housing coordinators talking to us, and 
one said that they would help us out 
if you plan on rushing and it doesn’t 
work out, that there’d still be housing 
available.” 
In a statement to The Daily, Nicole 
Banks, assistant dean of Students and 
interim director of Fraternity and 
Sorority Life, said the University’s office 
of Fraternity and Sorority Life has 
engaged with stakeholders inside and 
outside the University in anticipation 

of this shift. Banks explained there 
is a team of staff, students and 
representatives dedicated to finding 
housing for students interested in 
recruitment, all in collaboration with 
University Housing. 
“After 
extensive 
research 
and 
review of multiple years of data, the 
team concluded that there is ample 
availability of housing well into the 
winter semester,” Banks wrote. “The 
Dean of Students office will also 
provide support to students searching 
for housing and FSL is teaming up 
with the First Year Experience and the 
Beyond the Diag program to promote 
information about taking time to sign 
your lease, among other opportunities.”
FSL 
advised 
students 
against 
signing a lease preemptively. 
“If a student is interested in joining 
a fraternity or sorority with a housing 
requirement, they should wait to sign 
a lease until after recruitment has 
ended,” Banks wrote. 
Despite this advice, LSA junior 
Michael Smith, vice president of the 
fraternity Delta Tau Delta, explained 
most students usually sign their 
leases by November because available 
housing during the winter semester is 
typically limited, expensive or far from 
campus. 
If current freshmen decide to 

sign leases in the fall semester, Smith 
explained winter recruitment can 
cause problems for fraternities and 
sororities on campus that have come to 
rely on sophomore tenants to fill their 
chapter’s house. 
“The following year runs into 
complications because we can’t just 
have an empty house,” Smith said. “So, 
we have to have people living there 
more years than they were expecting, 
as juniors or seniors which has become 
uncustomary at Michigan, or we just 
have a severe lack of tenants.”
According to Smith, the Delta Tau 
Delta house is owned by a board of 
alumni that maintains the property. 
Without enough occupants in the 
house the chapter’s future could be 
jeopardized, Smith said. 
“Without a sufficient number of 
tenants, they don’t have the money to 
maintain the property,” Smith said. 
“Ultimately, that could result in our 
chapter losing its national charter, and 
just ceasing to exist on campus, because 
we’re not financially viable anymore.”
Interfraternity Council President 
and LSA junior Nick Wasik did not 
respond to requests for comment 
by time of publication. Panhellenic 
Association President and LSA senior 
Taylor Fegan declined to comment. 

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News
Wednesday, September 18, 2019 — 3A

Therefore, 
violations 
in 
the 
treatment 
of 
the 
aforementioned animals are 
not required to be included 
in a school’s annual report 
to the U.S. Department of 
Agriculture.
PETA used the amount 
of 
funding 
each 
school 
received from the NIH to 
estimate the budget of each 
laboratory and predict how 
many undocumented small 
animals 
the 
laboratory 
uses to experiment on. The 
University 
of 
Michigan 
received approximately $552 
million in funding from the 
NIH in 2018. 
The University reported 
zero violations in 2018, but 
PETA claims the ranking 
is 
valid 
through 
their 
independent 
investigation 
and the records they obtained 
from an unidentified source. 
“Records obtained by PETA 
reveal numerous incidents of 
neglect and incompetence in 
the university’s laboratories.”
Laboratories 
at 
the 
University 
are 
primarily 
investigated 
internally, 
therefore it is difficult to 
determine the validity of 
PETA’s 
claims 
without 
knowing exactly how their 
records were obtained. 
In the statement, PETA 
explained 
their 
findings 
regarding 
the 
University’s 
treatment of the animals used 
for testing.
“Painful tumors in mice 
weren’t adequately monitored 
and were allowed to develop 
past protocol limits, several 
mice died of dehydration when 
a water system malfunctioned 
and no one noticed, and 
numerous mice and rats died 
after 
experimenters 
failed 
to follow procedures used to 
prevent contamination during 
experimental 
surgeries,” 
the statement reads. “Living 
mice and rats were found in 
coolers after workers failed to 
ensure that the animals were 

dead before discarding their 
bodies.”
In 
regard 
to 
PETA’s 
allegations 
against 
the 
University, 
Mary 
Masson, 
director of public relations 
at Michigan Medicine, wrote 
in an email interview with 
The Daily the concerns were 
remedied.
“These 
issues 
were 
corrected immediately upon 
discovery by our animal care 
team,” Masson wrote. “In the 
interest of full transparency, 
the U-M also self-reported 
each event to the National 
Institute of Health’s Office of 
Laboratory Animal Welfare 
(OLAW) and our accrediting 
body, AAALAC International. 
Both OLAW and AAALAC 
reviewed these matters and 
found that U-M took all 
necessary steps to self-report 
and correct these isolated 
incidents.”
Additionally, 
PETA 
advocates for alternatives to 
animal testing, such as human 
tissue and cell-based research 
methods as well as computer 
simulations, claiming these 
methods 
provide 
equally 
applicable results.
“NIH has noted that 95% of 
all drugs that are shown to be 
safe and effective in animal 
tests fail in human trials 
because they don’t work or 
are dangerous,” PETA wrote 
in their report.
Jim Newman, director of 
strategic 
communications 
for Americans for Medical 
Progress, wrote in a statement 
to The Daily animal testing is 
both ethical and necessary. 
“Groups 
like 
PETA 
frequently 
claim 
that 
animal studies are no longer 
necessary,” Newman wrote. 
“This is simply not true. No 
alternative including tissue 
samples, organs-on-a-chip or 
computer models can mimic 
a living, breathing organism. 
Nor 
can 
any 
alternative 
fully mimic the countless 
diseases 
that 
can 
impact 
humans 
and 
animals. 
By 
suggesting otherwise, animal 
rights groups are ignoring 

basic facts and logic. More 
importantly, 
making 
these 
claims 
endangers 
public 
health 
because 
doing 
so 
causes well-meaning people 
to reject a crucial scientific 
method 
that 
saves 
both 
human and animal lives.” 
At the University, students 
have 
the 
opportunity 
to 
work 
in 
laboratories 
that 
perform 
animal 
testing. 
Students are required to go 
through 
numerous 
online 
and 
in-person 
trainings 
before they are permitted 
to 
participate 
in 
these 
laboratories. 
Johanna 
Buschhaus, 
Engineering Ph.D. candidate, 
has 
been 
working 
in 
laboratories at the University 
since she was a sophomore 
in high school and has been 
doing cancer research for 
four years involving mice and 
rats.
“My experience has been 
super positive,” Buschhaus 
said. “I have my own animals, 
so it’s really important to me 
that the animals I work with 
are never going to be hurting.”
Buschhaus also explained 
for the past year in her 
laboratory, they have had 
a veterinary resident also 
working to identify ways to 
improve the treatment of the 
animals. For example, once 
a tumor is discovered in a 
mouse, they are required to 
examine that mouse three 
times a week.
Ultimately, in the press 
release, PETA Senior Vice 
President Kathy Guillermo 
called students at U-M to 
action.
“Students live and work on 
university campuses for years 
without knowing that animals 
are being neglected, burned, 
poisoned, crippled, blinded, 
and tormented in a host of 
other ways right under their 
noses,” Guillermo said. “As 
the school year begins, PETA 
is asking caring University of 
Michigan students to speak 
out against the abuse of 
sensitive, sentient beings in 
their midst.”

PETA
From Page 1A

RECRUITMENT
From Page 1A

 
“Corporate 
entities 
were successful at gaining 
personhood 
rights 
— 
constitutionally 
protected, 
inalienable rights,” Coleridge 
said. ‘“Only human beings 
should 
have 
inalienable 
rights.” 
He mentioned the court 
case Pennsylvania Coal Co. v. 
Mahon (1922), which found 
private property subject to 
public use if corporations 
deemed the land a loss of 
profits. He said the coal 
company was digging under 
people’s 
homes 
for 
oil, 
causing them to sink. Action 
was eventually taken, but did 
not go in favor of the people. 
“So there was a law passed 
that said, ‘you can’t dig 
where there are homes,’ and 

the coal company said ‘no, 
that potentially lost profits,’” 
Coleridge said. “‘And if you 
want those homes not to 
sink, then you have to give us 
just compensation for that.’” 
Recent 
University 
alum 
Hoai An Pham works with 
Planned 
Parenthood 
in 
Washtenaw 
County. 
She 
spoke regarding how the 
organization 
is 
trying 
to create an image of an 
unbiased healthcare center.
“Sometimes 
people 
only think that we’re an 
abortion clinic,” Pham said. 
“(We’re) reforming the idea 
of Planned Parenthood as 
just a healthcare clinic. As a 
healthcare center, we aren’t 
trying to politicize abortion, 
but 
abortion 
has 
been 
politicized for us.”
Pham asked how many 
audience members received 
their 
healthcare 
through 
their jobs, and the majority 

of audience members raised 
their hands. 
 “A lot of times corporations 
actually become the source 
of healthcare,” Pham said. 
“The issue with that is that, 
when you get healthcare 
from your job, if your getting 
good healthcare from your 
job, then you might have to 
stay in that, even if you don’t 
like it.” 
Meg 
Berkobien, 
a 
member 
of 
the 
Huron 
Valley Democratic Socialist 
Association explained her 
organization’s definition of 
democracy. 
“Our working definition 
is that it’s shared power,” 
Berkobien said. “That it’s 
built through mutual aid, 
solidarity and really coming 
together as comrades, to 
think about a different vision 

MONEY
From Page 1A

Read more at 
MichiganDaily.com

“Healthcare cost is the number 
one cost as you get older,” Oh said. 
“If you let it run out of control, 
I promise you, you can choose 
bond fund one versus bond fund 
two. It’s not going to matter in the 
scheme of things. The healthcare 
cost mismanagement is going to 
override everything else.”
Oh told attendees that if their 
financial advisors are not already 
aware of their long-term health 
considerations, they should be. 
Oh, who has consulted on a myriad 
of financial considerations, said 
health insurance is just another 
component.
According to Oh, most of 
the country is under-informed 
on the details of Medicare and 
he said anyone who believes 
Medicare does not affect them 
is overlooking the potential for 
increased premiums on their 
private plans when uninsured 
people 
walk 
out 
on 
their 
healthcare bills.
“Your neighbor just foreclosed 
on their house,” Oh said. “Guess 
what? It’s not only their problem 
now. It’s your problem. Why? 
Your house just dropped in value, 
like it or not. Just like (when 
people) don’t understand health 
insurance or leave an unpaid bill 
with a healthcare provider, guess 
who pays: the insured.”
The event featured a Q&A 
session, in which Oh answered 
specific 
questions 
addressing 
individuals’ 
Medicare 
experiences. He admitted the 

process is complicated and blamed 
the disjointed taxation processes 
which support Medicare and 
Medicaid separately as a reason 
why plans that work in European 
countries cannot work in the 
United States.
Oh 
also 
took 
issue 
with 
Americans’ 
dependence 
on 
the 
internet 
for 
Medicare 
explanation. He said much of 
what is posted online muddles 
definitions, spreads falsehoods 
and confuses even experts such 
as himself.
“We 
get 
hit 
with 
140 
characters, 
and 
suddenly 
everything goes to mush and 
the terms get wrongly used, and 
then you get biased parties using 
terms wrongly for their own 
design,” Oh said. “It’s easy to get 
confused, and you’ll get that over 
and over and over — on financial 
topics especially.”
Kalamazoo 
resident 
Diane 
Gregory 
attended 
the 
talk 
because of the confusion related 
to Medicare. She said her primary 
problem is with phone salesmen 
who try to convince her Medicare 
works a certain way — she has no 
idea if they’re telling the truth.
“I’m getting inundated by 
these calls, but I don’t answer any 
of them because they’re selling 
something, and it’s sort of like 
if you don’t know enough to be 
wary of those things, then any 
salesman can come and con you 
into something and tell you it’s 
the best thing for you when it’s 
not,” Gregory said.
Many 
people 
with 
Oh’s 
expertise 
charge 
hundreds 
of dollars an hour for private 

consulting. Oh said he speaks in 
public for free because he believes 
those who most need Medicare 
advice are those who cannot pay 
those consulting fees.
Oh 
implored 
audience 
members to take the information 
they learned and disseminate it 
within their own communities. 
He also provided attendees with 
links to a Facebook group and 
a Youtube channel for future 
reference and further detail.
“There’s resources for this 
information, and that marginal 
information is enormous to the 
people most in need,” Oh said. 
“And these exceptions are in their 
favor.”
Ann Arbor resident Rosemarie 
Russell said she came to hear Oh 
speak because she was curious 
about Medicare but wasn’t sure 
exactly which issues she needed 
guidance on. She said she felt far 
more informed about her options 
following the presentation.
“It 
helps 
us 
know 
what 
questions to ask,” Russell said. 
“You need a lot of information to 
know what questions to ask.”
Gregory, like Russell, said she 
appreciated the event because she 
learned a lot.
“He touched on a lot of good 
subjects which I think are of 
(importance) in a lot of people’s 
minds, but, like he said, you 
almost have to go to something 
like this to have that level of 
awareness be raised in your 
mind so that you do know to look 
further into it,” Gregory said.

MEDICARE
From Page 1A

ACTIVIST
From Page 1A

Read more at 
MichiganDaily.com