Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South 
Bend, Ind., has called for bipartisan 
support 
of 
the 
impeachment 
inquiry. Buttigieg said he still 
supports the impeachment inquiry, 
which is largely supported by 
Democrats, with one Independent 
— Rep. Justin Amash of Grand 
Rapids — backing the effort.
“Well, it’s a mistake on the part 
of Republicans, who enable the 
president whose actions are as 
offensive to their own supposed 
values as they are to the values 
that we all share,” Buttigieg said. 
“It’s also about the presidency 
itself, because a president 10 years 
or 100 years from now will look 
back at this moment and draw the 
conclusion either that no one is 
above the law or that a president 
can get away with anything.”
In response to Trump’s call for 
an investigation into Joe Biden’s 
son Hunter, Cooper asked former 
Vice President Joe Biden about the 
appropriateness of a president’s 
family having foreign business 
entanglements. 
Biden 
referenced 
his 
son’s 
statement, which was released 
Tuesday morning, and dismissed 
the importance of this topic. 
“My son did nothing wrong, I 
did nothing wrong. I carried out 
the policy of the U.S. government 
by rooting out corruption in 
Ukraine,” Biden said. “What we 
have to do now is focus on Donald 

Trump. He doesn’t want me to be 
the candidate. He’s going after 
me because he knows, if I get the 
nomination, I will beat him like a 
drum.”
Another hot-button issue — and 
a conversation continued from the 
last three debates — was health 
care. Warren and Sen. Bernie 
Sanders of Vermont continued 
their joint effort in emphasizing 
the push for Medicare for All, 
while moderate candidates such as 
Buttigieg and Sen. Amy Klobuchar 
of 
Minnesota 
criticized 
such 
proposals.
In discussing her Medicare For 
All plan, Warren suggested taxes 
would be proportionally applied 
to corporations and the wealthy, 
while not directly addressing if it 
would affect the middle class. In 
contrast, Sanders acknowledged 
there would be tax increases for 
the middle class.
“I do think it is appropriate to 
acknowledge that taxes will go 
up. They’re gonna up significantly 
for the wealthy and for virtually 
everybody,” Sanders said. “The tax 
increase will be substantially less 
— substantially less — than what 
they were paying for premiums 
and out-of-pocket expenses.”
Klobuchar argued Warren was 
not being honest about the true 
price of her health care plans. 
“At least Bernie’s being honest 
here and saying how he’s going to 
pay for this,” Klobuchar said. “I 
think we owe it to the American 
people to tell them where we will 
send the invoice.”

Klobuchar said the best way to 
tackle affordable healthcare is to 
build off Obamacare. 
“The difference between a plan 
and a pipe dream is something 
that you can actually get done. 
And we can get this public option 
done,” Klobuchar said. “I believe 
the best and boldest idea here is 
to not trash Obamacare but to 
do exactly what Barack Obama 
wanted to do from the beginning 
and that’s have a public option that 
would bring down the cost of the 
premium and expand the number 
of people covered and take on the 
pharmaceutical companies.”
Biden took the mention of 
the Affordable Care Act as an 
opportunity to highlight his role in 
the implementation of the plan. 
He 
claimed 
proponents 
of 
Medicare for All plan are not 
transparent about its costs and the 
long process of implementation. 
“I think it’s awfully important 
to be straightforward with (the 
American public),” Biden said. 
“The plan is going to cost at least 
$30 trillion over 10 years. That 
is more on a yearly basis than the 
entire federal budget.”
The 
group 
also 
discussed 
the 
threat 
of 
automation 
to 
American jobs, with entrepreneur 
Andrew Yang advocating for his 
cornerstone policy of a $1,000 
stipend 
a 
month, 
known 
as 
universal basic income. 

The survey also provided 
findings regarding bystander 
intervention. 
According 
to 
the survey, out of 15.3 percent 
of students who witnessed a 
situation they believed could 
have led to sexual assault, 
75.2 percent took some type 
of action, with 44.9 percent 
directly intervening. 
Aloisi explained intervening 
in situations involving sexual 
assault can be hard. She said 
this statistic was impressive.
“I was really happy to see 
that the statistics were going 
on an upward trend for people 
that were being bystanders and 
bystander intervention,” Aloisi 
said. “I think that was a really 
surprising statistic for me, 
just because it is very hard to 
intervene.”
The DPSS report contradicts 
the Campus Climate Survey
According 
to 
the 
DPSS 
report, the number of reported 
on-campus sexual assaults at 
the University of Michigan has 
increased significantly. Forty-
five rapes were reported in 
2018, compared to the 18 rapes 
reported the year before. 
According to Heather Young, 
DPSS Director for Strategic 
Communications, one of the 
reasons for the increase could 
be due to survivors feeling 
more comfortable reporting 
assaults to the police as a result 
of the Me Too movement. 
“It’s hard to say definitively, 
but there are a couple of things 
that are a national trend that 
I think could help contribute 
to that increase,” Young said. 
“The first thing would be the 
Me Too movement. And this 
is actually documented in a 
government report that has 
shown that survivors of sexual 
assault were more likely to tell 
the police of the incident in 
2017 than in the previous year. 
We’re seeing that in general, 
police stations do have a long 
struggle to make sure that 
survivors of sexual assault 

report such crimes, but this 
report suggests the Me Too 
movement has helped take 
reporting sexual assault to law 
enforcement and people feel 
more comfortable reporting to 
law enforcement.”
Aloisi also believes the Me 
Too movement influenced the 
increase in reports, along with 
individuals in the University 
community 
sharing 
their 
stories.
“Looking around us, and 
seeing what the world’s been 
doing with sexual assault, a 
lot of people have been coming 
forward, and I think that 
probably has a big influence 
on why people are choosing to 
come forward,” Aloisi said. “It 
can seem almost like healing 
when you see someone else 
who’s experienced the same 
thing be brave and come out 
and tell their stories. It almost 
influences a person to want to 
do the same thing.”
Young also believes DPSS’s 
efforts 
to 
communicate 
resources to students could 
have brought about the increase 
in reports of on-campus rapes. 
“From 
our 
end, 
this 
is 
hard 
to 
measure, 
but 
we 
do invest in our staff and 
in 
our 
communications 
to 
our 
community 
about 
the 
importance 
of 
reporting,” 
Young said. “And we’ve worked 
really hard to make it more 
comfortable for survivors.”
Aloisi said while there is 
always more work to be done, 
she thinks the University is 
doing a good job.
I think that we can always 
do 
more, 
there 
is 
always 
progress to be done, but I think 
Michigan is doing a good job,” 
Aloisi said. “I think people 
don’t really know how difficult 
of a process it is to work with 
the court system and the legal 
system surrounding Title IX … 
This University is here for us.”
University resources
Some of these resources 
available to survivors include 
a special victims unit, which 
specifically serves victims of 
interpersonal violence, such 
as sexual assault, domestic 

violence, dating violence or 
stalking. 
The 
University’s 
police department has also 
engaged with the Start by 
Believing 
campaign, 
which 
aims to raise awareness about 
sexual assault and its victims.
According to Young, the 
Ann Arbor Police Department, 
Eastern Michigan University, 
St. Joseph’s Mercy Hospital, 
Michigan 
Medicine, 

University 
Health 
Services, 
the prosecutor’s office and 
the sheriff’s office have all 
followed 
DPSS’s 
lead 
and 
adopted the Start by Believing 
campaign as well. 
Another one of the ways 
DPSS fosters communication 
with 
students 
in 
different 
communities in Ann Arbor 
is via the work of the DPSS 
Student 
Advisory 
Board, 
a student-led group at the 
University that speaks with 
DPSS 
representatives 
to 
shed light on campus safety 
concerns and offer feedback 
on DPSS’s efforts to address 
different issues in the area.
Stephen 
Bonesteel, 
vice 
chair of the DPSS Student 
Advisory 
Board 
and 
LSA 
senior, 
encourages 
students 
to take advantage of the many 
resources available to them.
“I just would encourage 
a message to be voiced that 
DPSS and their Special Victims 
Unit 
is 
really 
fantastic,” 
Bonesteel said. “We work with 
SAPAC every day, and there’s 
just numerous resources if 
people don’t want to go all 
the way with a formal report 
and 
investigation. 
DPSS, 
our officers in the Special 
Victims Unit … They’re here 
for everybody and they’re here 
for you … just to make sure that 
message is heard.”
Bonesteel 
emphasized 
the 
importance 
of 
these 
resources, noting that relying 
on statistical reports is not 
enough, 
particularly 
when 
dealing with sensitive issues 
like sexual violence.

Those lucky enough to 
book a reservation will also 
earn seats close to the field 
for the game, according to 
Airbnb. 
According to the listing, the 
stay will include the complete 
tailgating 
experience 
— 
minus the back of a pickup 
truck. 
Accommodations 
include a “football lounge” 
where guests will be able 
to watch some of the most 
historical 
football 
rivalry 
games in college football. 
It will also include space 
for four friends to join the 
revelry during the day, along 
with access to a lakefront 
camping space with a grill, 
fire pit, cornhole toss and 
other tailgating festivities. 
Jerry Hissem, Airbnb host 
and pilot of the blimp, said 
he wants to give fans an 
unforgettable experience.
“The blimp has always 
been about the fans and 
giving them a better way 

to experience the game,” 
Hissem 
said. 
“We’re 
continuing this tradition by 
giving fans an experience 
they’ll never forget by listing 
the blimp on Airbnb.”
The guests will also get 
a 
tour 
of 
the 
Goodyear 
facilities, 
located 
in 
Mogadore, Ohio, to meet 
the crew and learn about 
the blimp’s 100 year history 
and more than 60 years of 
providing aerial coverage of 
college football games. Guests 
will have exclusive access to 
the blimp’s 312-yard hangar, 
where it will remain during 
the 
booking. 
The 
guests’ 
sleeping quarters are located 
in the aircraft’s gondola, 
which is complete with a bed, 
couch and a lounging corner. 
They will also receive official 
University football gear to 
wear to the Notre Dame 
football game on Oct. 26.
Kinesiology senior Claire 
DiFranco is a long time 
Michigan football fan and 
said the idea is very exciting 
and unique.
“I think this would be an 
experience like no other and 

the price is very reasonable,” 
DiFranco 
said. 
“I 
would 
totally consider doing this 
before the game … I think it’s 
a really cool idea and it’ll be 
very popular for the alumni 
crowd.”
Shortly after the stay, the 
blimp will be retired and 
inducted into the College 
Football Hall of Fame, where 
it will be the first non-player 
or coach to be given this 
honorable distinction.
YouTuber 
Levi 
Kelly 
frequently stays in unusual 
Airbnbs and announced he 
plans on making a reservation 
for the blimp when they 
become available.
“I actually have a Youtube 
channel 
basically 
around 
unique Airbnb’s,” Kelly said. 
“I stay in some like tiny 
homes, container homes, or 
anything that’s special and 
do reviews on them. So when 
I saw that the blimp was up 
for 
grabs, 
I 
immediately 
wanted to book it.”

According to Swartz, any 
action other than dismissing the 
case was void. Swartz’s decision 
reversed 
the 
Washtenaw 
County’s 22nd Circuit Court 
Sept. 30 order, which delayed 
taking Reyes off life support 
indefinitely 
and 
allowed 
the family to seek out other 
treatment facilities. 
At the hearing on Tuesday 
morning, 
Swartz 
said 
he 
sympathized with Reyes’ family 
but only had the power to 
dismiss the case.
“I have no authority to do 
anything,” Swartz said. “My 
hands are tied.”
Mary Masson, director of 
public relations for Michigan 
Medicine, wrote in a statement 
to The Daily that a brain 
examination Tuesday revealed 
Reyes had no detectable brain 
activity and could no longer 
legally remain on life support. 
“Further 
testing— 
including 
an 
electrical 
encephalogram (EEG) and 

a cerebral blood flow study 
— 
detected 
no 
electrical 
activity and no blood flow 
to Bobby’s brain,” Masson 
wrote. “By law in Michigan, 
an 
individual 
is 
dead 
who has sustained either 
irreversible 
cessation 
of 
circulatory and respiratory 
functions 
or 
irreversible 
cessation of all function of 
the entire brain, including 
the brain stem. Continuing 
medical interventions was 
inappropriate after Bobby 
had suffered brain death 
and violates the professional 
integrity 
of 
Michigan 
Medicine’s clinicians.”
After the Sept. 30 ruling, 
Reyes’ family and his team at 
Michigan Medicine contacted 
nearly 20 hospitals in order to 
arrange a transfer for Reyes 
to 
receive 
alternate 
care. 
According 
to 
Masson, 
all 
facilities declined to take Reyes 
as their patient. 
After the hearing, William 
Amadeo, 
the 
attorney 
representing Reyes’ family, said 
Michigan Medicine’s reputation 
as a top hospital has made other 

facilities around the country 
reluctant 
to 
question 
the 
University’s decisions. 
“Whenever 
any 
qualified 
(facility) makes a ruling, it’s 
hard to find a facility to counter 
that,” Amadeo said.
Amadeo noted there were 
three physicians at hospitals 
around 
the 
country 
who 
believed Reyes had a chance of 
survival if allowed to remain 
on life support. He said the case 
should have been filed in the 
Court of Claims, rather than 
the circuit court, and requested 
a 48-hour stay from Swartz 
in order to file in the Court of 
Claims. 
After the hearing, Amadeo 
told The Daily the attorneys 
were 
working 
to 
file 
an 
emergency appeal in the Court 
of Claims in Lansing. When 
the Court of Claims declined 
Amadeo’s request to file the 
claim 
electronically, 
the 
attorneys drove to Lansing to 
file it in person. 

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News
Wednesday, October 16, 2019 — 3A

DEBATE
From Page 1A

ASSAULT
From Page 1A

LIFE SUPPORT
From Page 1A

BLIMP
From Page 1A

Read more at 
MichiganDaily.com

Read more at 
MichiganDaily.com

Approximately 
50 
people 
gathered in the Vandenberg 
Room at the Michigan League 
Saturday to discuss the ongoing 
role Hinduism plays in casteism 
both in India and abroad. The 
event, “Dismantling Casteism 
and Racism: A Symposium,” 
was organized by the Asian/
Pacific 
Islander 
American 
Studies Program and several 
other University of Michigan 
organizations in cooperation 
with the Michigan chapter of 
the Ambedkar Association of 
North America. 
The symposium aimed to 
celebrate and continue the 
work of B.R. Ambedkar, a Dalit 
Indian 
statesman 
famously 
known as the Architect of 
India’s Constitution. Dalits, 
otherwise 
known 
as 
the 
Untouchables, are considered 
excluded or at the lowest level 
of the Hindu caste system 
and 
face 
discrimination 
and violence in South Asian 
communities. 
Ambedkar 
sought to fight caste-based 
discrimination 
through 
activist and legal processes, 
becoming a leader for the 
movement in opposition to 
casteism. 
Manan 
Desai, 
assistant 
professor 
of 
Asian/Pacific 
Islander studies and American 
culture, moderated the panel, 
providing opening remarks on 
the importance of analyzing 
the complacency that gives 
rise to Hindu oppression of 
different ethnic groups. 
“For those of us who have 
historically 
enjoyed 
the 
privileges — the generational 
privilege approved of being 
the right color, or holding 
privileged caste and racial 
identities — it is an important 
time to consider what it truly 
means to commit to dismantling 
the institutionalized forms of 
oppression,” Desai said. “What 
are the harsh truths that we 

need 
to 
hear 
internalized 
and be mobilized by? While 
progressive-minded 
South 
Asians might challenge white 
supremacy, in what ways can 
they or we turn a blind eye to 
Hindu fundamentalism, which 
is responsible for the ongoing 
atrocities and lynchings of 
Dalits and Muslims?”
Desai introduced the panel’s 
first speaker, Kancha Ilaiah 
Shepherd, who is the current 
director of the study of social 
exclusion and inclusive policy 
at Maulana Azad National 
Urdu University in Hyderabad, 
India. 
Shepherd 
explained 
activists and South Asians in 
the United States influence 
protests and debates in India.
“It 
is 
very 
significant 
that in America, whatever 
happens makes news in India,” 
Shepherd said. “And whatever 
happens here impacts our lives 
on almost (a) daily basis. It is 
in this situation where India 
is going through a crisis with 
the coming of the most rapid 
anti-human forces in power. 
This battle has to carried to 
(a) logical end … therefore 
this conference is very, very 
important.”
Shepherd, 
a 
member 
of 
the Sudra caste, commented 
on 
Ambedkar’s 
legacy 
in 
supporting those like him who 
were members of a lower caste. 
He 
described 
Ambedkar’s 
philosophy 
that 
underlying 
beliefs in Hinduism support 
caste discrimination.
“Annihilation 
of 
caste, 
or 
destruction 
of 
caste, 
as Ambedkar said, is not 
possible without dismantling 
or destroying Hinduism as 
a religion … Hinduism does 
not reform, does not change 
because 
of 
the 
structural 
problems 
in 
the 
religion,” 
Shepherd said.
These problems, as Shepherd 
argued, 
include 
Hinduism’s 
theory of the origin of human 
existence. 
He 
described 
Buddhism and Christianity as 

religions that both function 
as a “spiritual democracy” in 
which divine forces create 
all humans indiscriminately. 
Hinduism, Shepherd claims, is 
a system of “spiritual fascism” 
inasmuch as it alleges God 
only 
created 
Indians 
and 
created each caste from a 
different part of the human 
body, establishing a system 
of inequality inherent to the 
religion.
Shepherd 
continued 
his 
criticism 
of 
Hinduism 
by 
arguing 
other 
countries 
prospered 
because 
“dignity 
of 
labor” 
was 
integral 
to 
their religions. He described 
how Brahmins — considered 
high caste citizens — lack 
this sentiment and enjoy the 
production of other castes.
“Brahmins never worked in 
the field in production from 
childhood onwards,” Shepherd 
said. “But they consume the 
best food. They drink the milk 
of both cows and buffalos and 
abuse buffalo and bison … 
therefore Ambedkar said, ‘All 
this philosophy needs to be 
rooted out.’ Then caste begins 
to dismantle.” 
The 
symposium 
featured 
four 
other 
speakers, 
including activist Thenmozhi 
Soundararajan and three other 
speakers from universities in 
the United States. 
Rackham student Shalmali 
Jadhav came to the event 
because her research centers 
upon the intersection of racism 
and casteism, and Desai, one of 
the organizers, is her adviser. 
Jadhav expressed appreciation 
for the decision to include both 
a researcher and a professor in 
the discussion.
“I think it’s always really 
important for researchers and 
activists to be in conversation 
so that researchers can provide 
the kind of frameworks that 
activists need and also figure 
out how to make their research 
relevant to the ground reality,” 
Jadhav said.

ARJUN THAKKAR
Daily Staff Reporter

Event celebrates work of Dalit Indian statesman B.R. Ambedkar

Symposium discusses efforts to 
eliminate casteism, racism

Read more at 
MichiganDaily.com

Read more at 
MichiganDaily.com