life?”
Common said much of his 
conviction to do good is also 
rooted in his spirituality. Pointing 
to his heart, he said he believes 
God gives everyone a purpose, a 
value he said keeps him grounded 
in all the decisions he makes. 
“I take my time to pray, I take 
my time to take it in,” Common 
said. “And if it don’t feel right 
for me right here, no matter 
what my manager says, what my 
agent says, what my mother says, 
knowing what my core purpose is 
and my function is, then I don’t do 
it. And I don’t let anything sway 
me away.”
Speaking on the role of business 
in his work, Common compared 
business to an “amplifier” which 
gives his music a platform to 
have widespread impact. He 
also encouraged the audience to 
maintain integrity and pursue 
their 
passions 
regardless 
of 
monetary temptations. 
“It’s nothing to profit and get so 
much money but lose your soul for 
that,” Common said. “No matter 
how much money you gain, if you 
lose yourself in it, that’s a recipe 
for unhappiness.”
DeRue then posed a question 
from a student to Common about 
how to navigate race relations 
in 
an 
increasingly 
divided 
United States. To much audience 
applause, 
Common 
said 
the 
country needs to first recognize 
the suffering of Black Americans. 
“America, white America, and 
especially the ones in government 
who hold a lot of the keys to what 
history, what the conversation 
is about, need to acknowledge 
the 
pain, 
enslavement, 
the 
dehumanizing of black people in 
America,” Common said. 

“It does feel to me like we 
sometimes make a mistake 
in government in saying or 
arguing that there is this 
wonderful solution to solve 
all of these problems,” Patrick 
said. “And when we consider 
a challenge as profound as 
climate change, we need to be 
doing a lot of different things 
simultaneously.” 
Innovation, 
Patrick 
emphasized, 
needs 
to 
be 
fostered in such a way where 
failure is not penalized but 
instead seen as a step toward 
an improved world. 
“I think there is also an 
appetite for innovation in 
government,” Patrick said. 
“But successful innovation, 
I think, requires that you 
raise 
your 
tolerance 
for 
failure. And politics punishes 
failure.” 
One key area Patrick said 
needs to be improved upon 
was 
resource 
efficiency 
and waste. He highlighted 
infrastructure as oftentimes 
being outdated and therefore 
severely inefficient for cities. 
“If 
you 
think 
about 
something 
like 
water 
for 
example, 
we 
have 
water 
pipes 
under 
the 
city 
of 
Boston — wooden ones — 
not all of them, but wooden 
water pipes in active use,” 
Patrick said. “The amount 
of waste that happens in 
that piping … When we talk 
about massive investment in 
infrastructure, what comes 
to mind is roads and bridges. 
And that’s important. But 
there 
is 
an 
underground 
infrastructure 
that 
needs 
massive restructuring.” 
On the topic of raising 
more 
awareness 
about 

climate 
change, 
Patrick 
emphasized 
the 
idea 
of 
continuous 
improvement 
within companies.
“We have to make the case 
that we have a better idea 
for how to fuel the kind of 
society we want to live in and 
frankly the expectations that 
we have,” he said. “Without 
having the only option be 
shaming the folks who — 
I’m not saying don’t use it, 
just not having it as the only 
option — shaming the folks 
who perpetuate what we 
have always done.”
Patrick now works at Bain 
Capital in impact investing 
where capital is invested in 
organizations 
addressing 
societal and environmental 
issues. Through this, he can 
help provide the capital for 
forward-thinking companies 
to innovate and build their 
ideas out. 
“We 
invest 
in 
lower 
middle-market 
companies, 
so these are positive cash 
flow companies where we 
can generate both a financial 
and 
a 
measurable 
social 
or environmental impact,” 
he said. “We chose three 
of what we call ‘thematic 
purposes’: 
sustainability, 
health and wellness, and 
education. … We invest in 
companies where executive 
teams are trying to take 
their companies from where 
they are to where they need 
to be.”
The end of the conversation 
focused 
on 
politics 
and 
activism, and how the two 
play a part in battling climate 
change. Though Patrick is 
glad to see younger people 
participating 
in 
activism, 
he also has doubts about 
how long they will continue 
advocating for people and 
purposes, he said.

“A whole lot of folks who 
haven’t been engaged a lot, 
a lot of them young, come 
out and show up — they’ve 
taken to the streets,” he said. 
“Now, I said at some risk at 
an earlier meeting … that a lot 
of those folks strike me as not 
having the longest attention 
span, or they’re caught up 
in the celebrity culture we 
have right now where you get 
a person elected, and once 
they’re elected you go back to 
what you were doing instead 
of organizing.” 
Following 
the 
event, 
Rackham student Rebecca 
Lowy said she agreed with 
Patrick’s push for innovation, 
emphasizing 
the 
issue 
of 
fossil fuels.
“I really liked his comment 
that the Stone Age didn’t 
end because they ran out of 
stones,” Lowy said. “That’s 
very relevant to what we’re 
facing right now with fossil 
fuels. 
We 
don’t 
need 
to 
deplete them to move on to 
something bigger and better 
and better for our future.”
Rackham student Shanea 
Condon said she came to 
the event because she was 
interested 
in 
hearing 
a 
political 
perspective 
on 
environmentalism. 
Condon 
agreed with Lowy, saying 
she 
appreciated 
Patrick’s 
perspective the government’s 
role in technology. 
“We need to have more 
patience and grace for failure, 
especially 
with 
planning 
for innovation and trying to 
understand how technology 
can improve,” Condon said. 
“How politics doesn’t really 
make space for that and how 
we need to have patience for 
each other. Not only with 
innovating, but also with 
getting people to jump on 
board with innovation.”

LSA freshman Nicholas 
Cemalovic was surrounded 
by Dylan’s music in his 
childhood.
“(My parents) would play 
it, and there’s this psych 
phenomenon where the more 
you’re exposed to a stimulus, 
the more you’re likely to enjoy 
it,” Cemalovic said. 
Aside 
from 
his 
music, 
students are also intrigued 
by Dylan’s background and 
influence in music culture. 
His music was not only used 
for entertainment but also 
for social change. According 

to Biography.com, in 1965, he 
introduced electronic music 
into his folk style, causing 
controversy 
in 
the 
music 
world. In 1989, Dylan was 
inducted into the Rock & Roll 
Hall of Fame.
LSA 
junior 
Vincenzo 
Convertino started listening to 
Bob Dylan in high school and 
will be attending the concert. 
Convertino 
is 
particularly 
interested in Dylan’s influence 
on other artists.
“He also wrote a lot of 
famous songs by other artists 
— I think that’s pretty cool 
about him,” Convertino said. 
Of the many songs he wrote, 
“All Along the Watchtower” 
has 
had 
a 
long 
history, 

including 
immense 
success 
from 
the 
Jimi 
Hendrix 
Experience version.
Cemalovic also expressed 
interest 
in 
Dylan’s 
music 
history and life. 
“You can pinpoint different 
things in American history,” 
Cemalovic said. “He was very 
anti-war and wrote a lot of 
music that centered around 
counter-culture.” 
Tickets for the concert went 
on sale on Sept. 20, including 
a select number of discounted 
student tickets, which sold 
out the same day they were 
released. However, full price 
tickets are still being sold 
through the Michigan Union 
Ticket Office.

“Our founding fathers, they 
were the first group of men 
to 
found 
an 
Asian-American 
fraternity because they wanted 
to join a traditional IFC fraternity 
but they weren’t allowed. This was 
back in 1929.” 
Like the Interfraternity Council 
and the National Panhellenic 
Conference, NPHC and MGC are 
supported primarily by the Office 
of Fraternity and Sorority Life. In 
addition to helping organizations 
with operations and events, FSL 
has been trying to help raise 
awareness 
about 
CBFOs 
on 
campus and within the Greek life 
community. 
“FSL staff works with the 
councils and chapters to affirm the 
cultural significance and unique 
histories of their fraternities and 
sororities, and support their inter/
national and campus initiatives,” 
FSL wrote in a statement to The 
Daily. “The staff also helps to 
provide context and education 
about CBFOs to other campus 
partners who may interact with 
NPHC and MGC chapters during 
any of their various campus events 
and projects. Additionally, FSL 
consults with national speakers 
and experts to work with NPHC 
and MGC on topics through 
the specific lens of culturally-
based 
fraternal 
organizations 
including 
recruiting 
and 
community-building strategies at 
predominantly white institutions, 
and risk management education.” 
LSA senior Chyanne Laldee, 
who is president of NPHC and a 
member of Sigma Gamma Rho 
Sorority Inc.’s Iota Psi chapter 
said the council is grateful for the 
support they have received from 
FSL. 
“They have been a constant 
support system to help voice 
concerns of our communities and 
provide the efficient amount of 
support to help our community 
as well,” Laldee wrote in an email 
interview with The Daily. “They 
have been a constant advocate for 
the NPHC and we wouldn’t have 
gained a lot of the things we have 
without them advocating for us in 
different ways.”
LSA 
senior 
Silan 
Fadlallah 
agreed, saying FSL offered a 
welcoming 
and 
encouraging 
support 
system 
during 
the 
founding of the Zeta chapter of 
sorority Epsilon Alpha Sigma, the 
first and only Arab sorority in the 
country, which started its chapter 
at the University in 2018.
“MGC does a great job of 
supporting us, and especially our 
advisor, Courtney, and the larger 
MGC community,” Fadlallah said. 
“I could not have asked for more, 
especially from the organizations 
themselves.”

According 
to 
some 
CBFO 
representatives, 
while 
support 
from FSL and fellow council 
members 
has 
been 
excellent 
and open-minded, support from 
the 
University’s 
administration 
has been lacking in areas like 
recognition. Additionally, CBFO 
representatives said they don’t 
have as much money as other Greek 
organizations.
University 
spokesman 
Rick 
Fitzgerald 
clarified 
that 
no 
fraternal 
organizations 
receive 
funding from the University.
“No fraternities or sororities 
in any of the councils receive any 
U-M funding,’ Fitzgerald wrote 
in an email to The Daily. ‘The four 
councils all receive comprehensive 
advising and support from the U-M 
Office of Fraternity & Sorority 
Life.”
LSA junior Dipita Das, a member 
of the Beta chapter of Sigma 
Lambda Gamma, said that because 
MGC and NPHC organizations 
were founded more recently, they 
lack the donors and funds many 
IFC and Panhel organizations have. 
Often, she said, MGC organizations 
will run small fundraisers or apply 
for grants to put on cultural events. 
She said financial restrictions 
and the limitations on grant 
applications make it even more 
difficult to put on these events.
“The University claims, ‘Oh 
we’re so diverse,’” Das said. “Well, 
if you’re so diverse, why aren’t 
you allowing us to hold different 
events to express our cultures and 
identities? Why are there all these 
guidelines on how to be cultured?” 
One 
key 
issue 
CBFO 
representatives brought up was the 
publicity of their organizations. 
According to Soto, some students 
might not join CBFOs simply 
because they do not know of the 
organizations or that they are 
present at the University. 
“I would really love to see 
multicultural Greek life and the 
Divine Nine promoted more on 
campus. ... A lot of people don’t 
know we exist,” Soto said. “So, they 
end up either pushing off Greek 
life and not thinking about it, or 
joining Panhel and maybe realizing 
later that there are multicultural 
orgs and wishing they had known 
sooner. I think promotion is a big 
thing, because we do a lot of great 
things for the community, but with 
the smaller councils, not everyone 
gets to know about what we do.”
Engineering senior Cryserica 
Jeter said the Nu chapter of Delta 
Sigma Theta sorority, Inc., of which 
she is a member, also receives less 
recognition for their community 
work 
from 
the 
University 
administration 
than 
IFC 
and 
Panhel organizations do.
“If you asked the president if 
he knew about MGC and NPHC 
organizations, he probably doesn’’,” 
Jeter said. “But he probably knows 
a good amount of IFC and Panhel 

organizations, just because it takes 
an extra effort to get to know 
minority groups on campus and to 
actually figure out what they stand 
for. ... I don’t feel like other people 
that don’t identify as minorities 
are actually trying to do that, or 
trying to fight for us to get space 
on campus, or even remember us as 
leaders.” 
Within Greek life, collaboration 
between the four councils has 
not always been the norm, not 
only because of their differing 
sizes but also because NPHC and 
MGC serve different purposes 
as CBFOs. But with a larger push 
for diversity, equity and inclusion 
within Greek life, some MGC and 
NPHC leaders have been noticing 
improved efforts for collaboration 
and understanding between the 
four councils. In addition to all 
prospective Greek life members 
having to complete a training 
module 
about 
each 
council’s 
history, Jeter said IFC and Panhel 
organizations are often open to 
hearing NPHC’s own concerns.
“We have a lot of meetings as 
leaders with Panhel and IFC,” 
Jeter said. “So throughout those 
meetings we’re able to express 
our concerns, and they’re open to 
things that they probably didn’t 
even know about because they’re 
not a part of our communities. And 
within that we can collaborate 
more and invite them to more of 
our events so they can get to know 
more about what we’re struggling 
with, to help us in any way possible, 
and vice versa.” 
Soto, however, said it was 
sometimes difficult to bring up 
these concerns because of the 
difference in membership size in 
CBFO councils versus IFC and 
Panhel. 
“I know that our needs and 
our wants are very different from 
IFC and Panhel, and being much 
smaller — both of us are — it can 
be difficult to voice our concerns 
whenever we’re in spaces with all 
four councils, just because of the 
number of them when it comes 
to IFC and Panhel,” Soto said. “I 
know that we do things among the 
councils that are equal, but I don’t 
think they’re always equitable, 
because 
our 
needs 
are 
very 
different.” 
Das 
said 
similarly 
NPHC 
and 
MGC 
mainly 
collaborate 
with each other because of their 
shared 
experiences 
and 
their 
emphasis on multiculturalism. The 
organizations invite each other to 
their events and often share similar 
goals and values. 
“Just being people of color in 
both organizations, we have that 
bond, like, ‘Oh, I understand where 
you’re coming from, here is some 
support,’” Das said.

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News
Friday, September 27, 2019 — 3A

Read more at 
MichiganDaily.com

The major academic goals 
of the project, he said, are 
to improve the quality of 
on-campus teaching through 
the use of XR and integrate 
XR 
into 
online 
curricula. 
Additionally, Nelson said the 
initiative was created in hopes 
of prompting public-private 
partnerships with the goal of 
developing 
new 
XR-related 
technologies.
Nelson said he has been 
working 
with 
professors 
across disciplines to increase 
the 
quality 
of 
education 
through XR. As an example 
of this, he noted a School of 
Nursing course utilizing XR to 
give students the opportunity 
to 
experience 
high-risk 
hospital situations without the 
actual risk.
“I would love to see really 
interdisciplinary engagement, 
so students from Engineering, 
students from Art & Design and 
architecture and humanities,” 
Nelson said. “It really brings 
different skill sets to the table 
to either build new content 
or curate these experiences. 
Building upon that expertise 
is what Michigan is known 
for. It’s really cross-discipline 
and interdisciplinary research 
and learning, and taking that 
to the next level in the student 
experience.”
The interdisciplinary goals 
for the initiative span beyond 
STEM, Nelson said. While he 
noted XR is typically associated 
with the technological and 
scientific fields, he said he 
sees 
opportunities 
for 
all 
disciplines to benefit from XR.

Specifically, 
Nelson 
said 
an English professor could 
use this technology to create 
a scene from a novel to show 
how the characters experience 
empathy. He pointed to this 
collaboration 
as 
one-way 
humanities scholars have used 
XR to improve education.
Currently, 
a 
team 
of 
University professors led by 
the School of Information 
are working on creating a 
graduate 
certification 
for 
XR technology. Nelson said 
there will be a fellowship 
for both undergraduate and 
graduate students to work on 
projects involving XR at the 
University.
Since 2018, the student-led 
Alternative Reality Initiative 
has been exposing students 
to XR. Nelson lauded the 
ongoing 
commitment 
of 
students already involved with 
this technology and said the 
initiative is building off their 
work.
Business 
junior 
Michael 
Zhang, ARI president, said 
he is excited to see how XR 
technology will change how 
classes 
are 
taught. 
Zhang 
also serves as president of 
the Inter-Collegiate XR, a 
community 
of 
school 
XR 
student organization leaders 
in 
20 
North 
American 
universities.
“Traditionally, 
students 
learn using 2-D outlets like 
textbooks and worksheets,” 
Zhang said. “Now, with XR 
technology, 
we’ll 
be 
able 
to learn not only with 2-D 
elements but also with 3-D 
representations 
of 
material 
that we’re learning in 2-D.”
ARI Vice President Matthew 
Kosova, Engineering junior, 
said he hopes more people 

will use XR as the technology 
becomes more accessible in 
terms of ease of use and cost. 
“The 
technology 
has 
reached a point where prices 
are becoming better and the 
hardware is becoming easier 
to use,” Kosova said. “Now, 
it’s up to a diverse group of 
talented creators to design 
new applications, design new 
use cases for this technology, 
and that’s why XR technology 
essentially relies on the fact 
that there is a diverse pool of 
people using their respective 
backgrounds and interests to 
discover what are the future 
uses of XR technology.”
In the near future, Nelson 
said the initiative is planning 
an XR speaker series and 
hackathons 
to 
generate 
student interest. He said the 
new initiative supports the 
University’s role as a research 
institution 
as 
well 
as 
a 
commitment to enhancing the 
public good.
With the student work done 
in the past, Nelson said much 
of his work at the beginning 
stages of the initiative is 
to gauge the work that has 
already been completed on 
campus in the field of XR and 
looking for ways to bolster that 
work with the new resources 
from the initiative.
“I’’m spending this these 
early days understanding what 
work has already been done,” 
Nelson said. “Who are the 
people that are experimenting 
and experts in this space? 
What sort of resources do we 
have? What do we need? And 
helping pull that together and 
shine a light on all the great 
things already being done and 
how we take that to the next 
level as we go forward.”

DYLAN
From Page 1A

GOVERNOR
From Page 1A

REALITY
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FRATS
From Page 1A

COMMON
From Page 1A
In addition, Common shared he 
believes Black Americans should 
also strive to heal for themselves.
“We owe it to ourselves to not 
carry the weight of oppression,” 
Common said. “We owe it to 
ourselves to not carry the weight 
of that hatred … I’ve got to forgive, 
because if I carry this with me, 
I’m not going to be the best human 
being I can be.”
To 
close, 
Common 
urged 
students in the audience to pursue 
their dreams in ways that better 
other people.
“Love for God, love for self, and 
love for others as self — if we can 
apply that each and every day, we 
will all be bettering the world,” 
Common said. 

Norman Bishara, Business School 
associate dean for undergraduate 
programs, explained the school 
brought in Common as the speaker 
for the event as part of their focus on 
integrating the arts and humanities 
in business. 
“I think you can judge from the 
reactions of our students that they 
were engaged, that they learned a 
lot and also got a lot to think about,” 
Bishara said. “In classes, students 
are talking about the role of business 
in society, so it’s really important for 
students to appreciate how all these 
different things come together.”

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