“The term ‘Asian American’ 
was first used in the 1960s for 
very specific political purposes,” 
Borja said. “Japanese Americans, 
Chinese 
Americans, 
Filipino 
Americans and other people’s 
Asian ancestry decided that it 
was politically advantageous for 
them to unite under that political 
category, and we can’t ignore 
that this category continues to 
be politically contested — that 
they are continuing to grapple 
about the boundaries of this 
category.” 
Matthew Stiffler, a lecturer 
in 
American 
Culture 
and 
researcher at the Arab American 
National Museum in Dearborn, 
Mich., commented on the idea 
of identity further by describing 
a similar struggle for ME/
NA-identifying individuals. He 
explained how the umbrella 
term ME/NA is a relatively new 
concept, and the countries that 
fall under this term are still 
developing. 
“To think of ME/NA as a 
rallying identity for people in the 
United States … (is) a very recent 
history,” Stiffler said. “Where it 
comes from the need to have an 

identity is recent. Where we’re 
at as a nation, (ME/NA) boxes 
matter.”
The discussion then moved 
to why checkboxes exist, what 
data is collected and where the 
University is going in terms of 
demographic data collection. 
Traci Buckner, lead analyst 
at University Human Resource 
Records 
and 
Information 
Services, spoke about the ways in 
which federal requirements play 
into how the University handles 
demographic 
information 
regarding faculty and staff. The 
office of UHRRIS follows the 
federal guidelines in collecting 
demographic 
data, 
but 
the 
process can be complicated 
when a faculty or staff member 
does not disclose their ethnicity. 
Paul 
Robinson, 
associate 
vice provost at the Office of 
the Registrar, discussed the 
extended ethnicities initiative 
for both students and faculty 
at the University that allows 
students 
to 
update 
their 
identities in Wolverine Access 
according to their specific racial 
and ethnic identities. 
“In the last several months, 
we 
enabled 
our 
students’ 
systems and HR systems to be 
able to capture some data of 
ethnicities,” Robinson said. 

Ravi Pendse, vice president 
of 
information 
technology 
and chief information officer 
at the University, reminded 
the 
audience 
that 
while 
demographic data collection is 
essential to representation, the 
University must also respect 
students’ rights to information 
and data privacy. 
“All 
of 
that 
information, 
powered by data that we all 
generate, has to be somewhere 
work has to be analyzed, has 
to be protected, has to be 
thoughtfully used,” Pendse said. 
“I’m a director here saying that 
we must make available to our 
entire campus for students first, 
a data dashboard that students 
can look at and see what data 
we are collecting on them, and 
why.”
Rackham student Alyssa Park 
told The Daily she attended the 
event because of her interest in 
the desegregation of data around 
Asian American students and 
erasure of specific ethnic groups 
who fall under the pan-Asian 
identity.
“Something that really stuck 
out to me in this event is the 
power of data and the actions 
that can be taken from what we 
find out or what we choose to 
find out,” Park said. 

The 
modern 
division 
of 
the 
Kashmir 
region 
came 
about following the partition 
of British India into India 
and 
Pakistan 
in 
1947, 
which displaced millions of 
people along religious lines, 
including 
the 
Kashmiris, 
Trisal 
explained. 
Since 
the implementation of the 
Indian Constitution in 1950, 
which gave Kashmir semi-
autonomy, there have been 
Kashmiri 
movements 
for 
self-determination often met 
with violent responses by the 
Indian government. 
On Aug. 5, the Parliament 
of 
India 
repealed 
Articles 
370 and 35A in the Indian 
Constitution, 
taking 
away 
Kashmir’s autonomy. Trisal 
explained this decision was 
announced 
amid 
a 
total 
communications blackout and 
a military lockdown of the 
region, both of which are still 
ongoing. 
“What 
was 
so 
shocking 
about this act is that overnight 
these protections were taken 
away,” Trisal said. “I think 

it’s important to point out the 
decision flew in the face of 
international norms.”
In 
addition 
to 
other 
complications, 
the 
blackout 
has caused a medical crisis 
in the region as hospitals 
struggle to coordinate and 
people are unable to call for 
help. Thousands of Kashmiris 
have 
also 
been 
allegedly 
tortured and detained without 
trial or due process since the 
crackdown began.
“I consider it war, that the 
Indian government went to 
war 
with 
the 
Kashmirian 
people,” 
Mir 
said. 
“You’re 
looking at thousands upon 
thousands of unmarked graves 
that exist in the Kashmir 
valley, disappearances, arrests 
— all these things the Indian 
army had the rights to do 
without repercussions.”
Trisal 
and 
Mir 
urged 
the audience to continue to 
inform themselves and others 
of the situation in Kashmir 
by attending similar events, 
engaging 
in 
social 
media 
campaigns 
and 
contacting 
legislators. 
Paani 
co-founder 
Omar 
Ilyas, 
a 
University 
alum, 
explained 
the 
organization 
intentionally 
worked 
to 

empower 
the 
voices 
of 
Kashmiris, who he said often 
go unheard in the discussion 
about the Kashmir crisis. 
“A 
lot 
of 
different 
information come out from a 
lot of different news outlets, 
and each of them have their 
own sort of bias. But something 
you don’t hear often is the 
perspective from Kashmiris,” 
Ilyas said. “We wanted to 
create a space that upholds 
and focuses on the Kashmiri 
narrative, where Kashmiris 
are able to speak on behalf of 
their own people instead of 
where people are speaking on 
behalf of them.”
LSA senior Humza Hemani 
told The Daily he came to the 
teach-in specifically to hear 
Kashmiri perspectives on the 
issue. 
“I actually wasn’t going to 
come until I found out they 
were making an effort to make 
it Kashmiri viewpoints rather 
than Pakistani ones,” Hemani 
said. “I’ve seen the propaganda 
from the Pakistani side, from 
the Indian side, but I feel like 
this is a viewpoint that has 
more legitimacy to it.”

Based on the responses, 
an algorithm finds another 
person who it deems the 
best fit for each individual 
participant 
and 
the 
two 
receive each other’s email 
as their match. Once that 
information is sent out, it is 
up to the students to decide 
how to proceed, as there is no 
requirement for participants 
to communicate with their 
matches.
Michielssen 
noted 
the 
service 
is 
only 
open 
to 
undergraduate students, so 
any graduate students or 
alumni who attempt to fill 
out the questionnaire will 
be disqualified. Only a valid 
University email is required 
to fill out the form, but the 
software filters out non-
undergraduate emails. 
LSA senior Beatrice Kelly-
Andrews said she found the 
questions in the survey to be 
similar to those found in a 
compatibility test. While she 
is not seriously looking for a 
relationship, Kelly-Andrews 
said she is interested to see 
what the creators deemed 
important for a match and 
who the algorithm finds for 
her. 
“I would sort of love to meet 
the person who someone else 
says is perfect for me and 
see what aspects of myself 
from the survey are found in 
other people that make them 
‘perfect,’” 
Kelly-Andrews 
said. “I’m also not looking 
for love or a relationship, so 
I would absolutely reach out 
to them and be like, ‘Hey, 
want to grab coffee and hang 
out?’ Like, maybe you’re my 
best friend, maybe you’re my 
arch nemesis, maybe you’re 
just a cool person, but I sort 
of need to let them know I’m 
not looking to date them.”
To come up with the 
questions, 
Michielssen 
said she and her group of 
co-creators 
researched 
compatibility. 
The 
group 
used their findings to draft 
questions related to issues 
important to a successful 
relationship, 
while 
also 
keeping 
the 
questions 
engaging for students.
LSA junior Nick Cassar, 
who is also a student in 
Psychology 223 but not a 
member of this group, took 
the questionnaire and said he 
would be interested to meet 
the person who matches 
with him.
Cassar said he found the 
questions about sexual habits 
important, as they relate to 
healthy relationships.
“It would still be really 
cool to see this person (who) 
is clearly a lot like me, their 
answers 
were 
extremely 
similar 
to 
mine,” 
Cassar 
said. 
“I’m 
actually 
in 
a 
relationship, so I’m definitely 
not looking for the love of my 
life, but, hey, maybe in 20 
years I can go back to this 
person and marry them.”
This type of service is 
not a new phenomenon on 

college campuses. According 
to The Harvard Crimson, 
Datamatch, a matchmaking 
system created by Harvard 
University 
students 
in 
1994, expanded to Brown, 
Columbia 
and 
Wellesley 
Universities in 2018.
In 
2017, 
students 
at 
Stanford University created 
an algorithm, named the 
Stanford Marriage Pact, to 
match students. Michielssen 
said the Stanford Marriage 
Pact was her team’s original 
inspiration, 
though 
the 
questionnaire was private, 
so all the questions her team 
asks are original.
LSA 
junior 
Kendall 
Johnson 
said 
she 
felt 
the 
questionnaire 
was 
a 
better avenue for finding 
a relationship than dating 
applications like Tinder, but 
she does not like the fact she 
will only receive one person 
back as a match. Johnson also 
said she recognized there 
may be issues if students who 
took the survey looking for a 
relationship were matched 
with students who took it for 
entertainment.
“Even 
when 
you’re 
on 
Tinder, you don’t know who’s 
that serious about it and 
who’s not, and that’s just part 
of the dating experience,” 
Johnson said. “You’re not 
always going to find someone 
who’s looking for the same 
thing as you, and you just 
have to be able to handle 
that and bounce back and be 
cool with it. So, obviously, if 
someone was really hoping 
to find their future partner, 
hopefully they find them, 
but they can’t be that upset if 
they don’t.”
Kelly-Andrews 
said, 
if 
anything, 
the 
matching 
service was the opposite of 
Tinder because participants 
know they have something 
in common with their match 
but have not had a chance to 
talk to them. On Tinder, there 
is an immediate opportunity 
for 
discussion 
but 
no 
guarantee 
of 
similarities. 
Johnson noted Tinder is 
heavily based on photos and 
physical features, while the 
questionnaire is focused on 
personality, 
which 
could 
provide 
the 
opportunity 
for 
more 
meaningful 
connections.
However, others, like LSA 
sophomore Patrick Potoczak, 
still 
find 
at 
least 
some 
knowledge about physical 
appearance 
important. 
Though 
he 
said 
he 
can 
understand 
the 
value 
in 
not having any information 
about looks in the matching 
system, 
he 
said 
physical 
attraction is necessary for 
relationships to succeed.
“I 
think 
physical 
appearance 
is 
very 
important, so I’m curious 
to see how that would be or 
what the general consensus is 
to see if personalities match, 
but appearances do not,” 
Potoczak said. “My biggest 
concern is that, number one, 
I’m just going to get matched 
with my friend or someone I 
already know, and then my 

second biggest one is that I 
won’t be physically attracted 
to the person because of 
their appearance.”
While Michielssen said the 
Pact’s website did poke fun 
at Tinder and the awkward 
situations students can find 
themselves in, her team was 
not trying to brand their 
service as an alternative for 
the application.
The 
purpose 
of 
the 
service, Michielssen said, is 
actually to give participants 
a backup plan so they can 
focus on their academics and 
careers. Then, if they do not 
have a significant partner in 
the future, they can go back 
to their Michigan Marriage 
Pact match. 
“It’s not really a dating 
service, and it isn’t meant to 
set people up with a match 
right 
away,” 
Michielssen 
said. “Its main intent is just 
to provide people with a 
backup plan so that if they 
both end up single in 20 
years, then that’s the person 
that they get married to.” 
Barstool Sports, a sports 
and 
pop 
culture 
blog, 
featured the questionnaire 
in a story on its University 
of 
Michigan-focused 
Instagram 
account. 
According to Michielssen, 
 
the 
account 
owners 
wrote in the post that the 
questionnaire creators were 
lonely 
computer 
science 
students, but noted her and 
her group members were 
neither lonely nor majoring 
in computer science.
The link has also gained 
traction by circulating in 
group chats for fraternity 
and sorority life and other 
organizations 
on 
campus, 
as well as through word 
of mouth. Kelly-Andrews, 
who is not on social media, 
said she heard about the 
questionnaire 
from 
her 
roommates and sent it to 
many people she knew in 
addition to a group chat for 
students in her major.
She 
also 
noted 
the 
importance 
of 
having 
a 
diverse set of participants. If 
the majority of respondents 
are one gender and looking 
for the opposite gender, she 
explained, then it would 
be more difficult for the 
algorithm to find the people 
in that group a match.
“I filled it out, and then I 
realized I was sort of scared 
that if, depending on how 
small it got, it would just 
be my friend group and my 
friends’ friend groups and 
some 
computer 
science 
majors,” 
Kelly-Andrews 
said. “If (the creators) are 
looking to make people fall 
in love, I think they have a 
responsibility to make sure 
everybody has an option to 
be in love, or meet a friend or 
ghost someone new.”
Michielssen 
said 
her 
team has seen more female 
participants than male so 
far. She said they are hopeful 
this will even out over time 
and have recently noticed an 
uptick in heterosexual males 
completing the form.

“The Supreme Court must 
protect the rights of these 
individuals, and including the 
protection of sexual orientation 
under Title VII is a necessary 
step in the work to achieve full 
LGBTQ+ 
equality. 
Without 
such protections, LGBTQ+ folks 
will be discriminated against, 
targeted, and forced to choose 
between living authentically and 
making a living for themselves 
and their families.”
LSA senior Alyson Grigsby, 
co-chairwoman 
of 
the 
Coalition for Queer and Trans 
People of Color, also said she 
was worried that the if the 
Supreme Court decides not 
to protect sexual orientation, 
it could lead to members of 
the LBGTQ community being 
unable to be comfortable in the 
workplace. 
“(It 
would) 
affect 
me 
depending on … how I would 
choose to present myself to 
work or my partner,” Grigsby 
said. “Am I fully able to be 
authentic in the workplace?”
Grigsby 
also 
added 
the 
decision could impact how 
LBGTQ 
members 
present 
themselves 
in 
their 
work 
environments. 
“Even 
with 
things 
like 
presentation, 
depending 
on 

where you work at,” Grigsby 
said. “Your gender presentation 
— that could get you potential 
discrimination.” 
Mark 
Chung 
Kwan 
Fan, 
the 
assistant 
director 
for 
engagement for the Unversity’s 
Spectrum Center, explained 
how students who have felt 
adversely affected by LGBTQ 
discrimination can turn to the 
center’s resources. 
“The Spectrum Center is 
professionalized in being able 
to support (students) no matter 
what type of concern they are 
going through,” Chung Kwan 
Fan said. “They might be going 
through, let’s say a financial 
concern, 
because 
maybe 
they’ve been disowned by their 
family, right? We can help with 
that. Looking for resources, 
a transition of sorts, we work 
hard to get help with that. One 
of the things that we do here is 
to be able to make bridges and 
gaps between resources.” 
Chung 
Kwan 
Fan 
added 
these national issues often 
impact 
students’ 
day-to-day 
lives, and the Spectrum Center 
can help students navigate 
these difficulties on campus.
“So when those national 
issues are happening right 
now, whether that is work 
discrimination and women’s 
condition or whether to (it 
is) be able to use different 
bathrooms, 
or 
being 
fired 

because of your identities, all 
of those things, we are able 
to help typically in regards to 
how they can navigate campus, 
especially, when these national 
issues are happening,” Chung 
Kwan Fan said.
LSA senior Konrat Pekkip, 
co-chair 
of 
Stonewall 
Democrats, noted the impact 
of the Supreme Court decision 
will 
disproportionately 

affect 
LGBTQ 
members 
in 
underprivileged communities. 
“Institutionalized 
homophobia is a lot more of 
an issue when it intersects 
with poverty,” Pekkip said. 
“It probably won’t affect me 
personally, 
because 
I 
am 
very 
privileged, 
because 
I 
have a degree, or I will have 
a degree, from the University 
of Michigan. Overall, I’m in 
an economically secure place. 
But a lot of people are not as 
privileged as I am.”
Pekkip 
hopes 
people 
will look beyond their own 
communities 
to 
understand 
long-term effects. 
“I 
think 
it’s 
not 
only 
important 
to 
think 
about 
the people you know in your 
personal life and how they can 
be affected but think about 
the broader picture and think 
about those people who you 
don’t interact with,” Pekkip 
said.

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News
Friday, October 25, 2019 — 3A

Read more at 
MichiganDaily.com

The event was sponsored 
by the TAMID group, a 
club 
that 
helps 
business 
students 
connect 
with 
Israel’s economy. Shalena 
Srna, assistant professor of 
marketing at the Business 
School, 
moderated 
the 
event. Lieberman, a former 
TAMID 
group 
member, 
shared insights about the 
fundamentals 
of 
starting 
a business and how the 
company has fared through 
rapid changes.
He started the newsletter 
as a senior in 2015 with Austin 
Reif, a 2017 University alum 
. Currently, Morning Brew 
has an audience of more than 
a million subscribers. 
Lieberman said Morning 
Brew is coming out with 
new ways to share business 
content all the time, noting 
the 
company 
currently 
offers four products: the 
core newsletter, the retail 
newsletter, 
the 
emerging 
technology newsletter and a 
podcast.
“Basically, for the first 
two and a half years of being 
full time in this business, we 
did one thing: We just sent 
out our daily newsletter, and 
we did it extremely well,” 
Lieberman said. “I think 
focus is the biggest thing. A 
lot of people would say that 
it isn’t very sexy to send 
out one email newsletter 
every single day for two 
and a half years. People 
think it probably can get 

monotonous and email is not 
like an exciting technology, 
but often in my view is that 
what is sexy is building 
love. With an audience that 
you can then parlay into 
other things, there are so 
few media companies in the 
world right now that have 
actually built deep loyalty 
with their audience.” 
When Lieberman attended 
the University, he said he 
expected to go into finance. 
After graduation, he got a job 
at Morgan Stanley. However, 
he was working on Morning 
Brew at the same time and 
said he found he enjoyed 
that more than his day job at 
Morgan Stanley. Ultimately, 
he decided to leave Morgan 
Stanley and go all in with 
Morning Brew. 
Lieberman said he is OK 
with being uncomfortable as 
long as he enjoys what he is 
doing.
“I 
think 
it’s 
this 
perspective that was forced 
upon me, that life is so 
precious that kind of got 
me thinking: I actually am 
more scared by not being 
uncomfortable,” Lieberman 
said. 
Business freshman Avery 
Bradshaw said hearing about 
Lieberman’s success made 
her more confident about her 
education at the University.
“My favorite part about 
this event as a new member 
of 
TAMID 
was 
hearing 
about the immense success 
that Alex Lieberman has had 
in his business,” Bradshaw 
said. “As a student at the 
University of Michigan and 

a member of TAMID, it 
was really reassuring that 
this institution and all the 
opportunities available will 
only lead students to success 
in the future.”
Lieberman said he focuses 
on the creative aspect of 
the newsletter while his 
co-founder, Reif works on 
the 
analytical 
elements 
of Morning Brew. He said 
storytelling is the secret 
to his success at Morning 
Brew, adding that making 
complex topics relatable to 
the readers is a top priority.
“To 
me, 
understanding 
how 
to 
teach 
something 
makes you hypersensitive 
to good storytelling, and 
how to distill things that 
are complex in a simple way 
that, at the end of the day, at 
the heart of Morning Brew, 
think about what we do,” 
Lieberman said. 
Business 
freshman 
Richard Shu said he enjoyed 
learning about the process of 
entrepreneurship.
“I 
really 
liked 
how 
Alex 
talks 
about 
his 
process 
in 
going 
into 
entrepreneurship,” Shu said. 
“Entrepreneurship 
seems 
like a really far off goal that 
not everybody — but a lot of 
people — go into and there 
are a lot of failures, and 
seeing somebody who was 
successful in it talk about his 
thought processes behind it, 
I thought that was extremely 
insightful.”

PAANI
From Page 1A

SCOTUS
From Page 1A

BUSINESS
From Page 1A

DATING
From Page 1A

DEI
From Page 1A

Read more at 
MichiganDaily.com

