Students 
have 
a 
love-
hate relationship with their 
Michigan 
Marriage 
Pact 
matches. 
The 
results 
of 
the 
questionnaire, 
which 
was 
developed by University of 
Michigan students for a class 

project, were released Tuesday 
evening. The pact used an 
algorithm 
to 
find 
students 
their future spouse, and the 
match-ups generated a flurry 
of discussion on campus and 
online groups.
After 
being 
open 
to 
undergraduate 
students 
at 
the University for 21 days, 
the questionnaire closed last 

week with more than 7,000 
participants, 
meaning 
more 
than one out of every five 
undergraduates 
completed 
the survey. LSA junior Elien 
Michielssen, one of the creators 
of the pact, said her team never 
thought 
their 
class 
project 
would gain this much traction 
among students.
“Hearing people talk about 

something that you created 
without 
knowing 
that 
you 
created 
it 
is 
really, 
really 
cool,” Michielssen said. “If 
you haven’t taken it, you know 
someone who’s taken it, or 
you log into Facebook and 
see all the memes, so I think 
it’s something that’s brought 
campus together.”

Four student veterans 
from the University of 
Michigan 
spoke 
to 
a 
crowd of 20 people at 
the 
Michigan 
League 
Thursday morning. 
The 
event 
was 
sponsored by the Office 
of Veterans Affairs and 
moderated 
by 
Philip 
Larson, 
the 
program 
director of Veterans and 
Military 
Services, 
for 
Veterans Week sponsored 
by the University. The 
event 
consisted 
of 
a 
discussion with Larson 
followed by a Q&A with 
the audience. 
Larson 
started 
off 
the 
conversation 
by 
introducing the panelists 
and 
asking 
them 
how 
the military helped them 
prepare for college life. All 
of the panelists discussed 
how the military helped 
them 
learn 
skills 
for 
collegiate success. 
Panelist 
Jennifer 
Phillips, an LSA freshman, 
is part of the National 
Guard. She participated 

in basic training this past 
summer before starting 
her classes. Phillips shared 
that doing basic training 
for the National Guard 
made her more mature 
and made her stand out 
among her classmates. 
“Being a freshman and 
18 years old along with 
all the other freshmen 
here, I’m in the same age 
group 
and 
everything, 
but all of my professors 
have talked to me outside 
of class and asked, ‘How 
are you so different?’” 
Phillips said. “And that’s 
kind of when I told them 
like, ‘Oh yeah I’m in the 
army, this summer I went 
to basic training, and I 
really matured there, and 
I kind of realized what’s 
important.’”
Panelist Scott Reel, a 
Rackham student, served 
in the Marine Corps as 
a journalist and had to 
interact with all ranks 
of military officers. Reel 
said he became skilled 
in 
communicating 
and 
working with a deadline 
through his work.

Public Policy junior Ben 
Gerstein, 
Central 
Student 
Government 
president, 
wrote a letter to members 
of Michigan’s congressional 
delegation 
in 
support 
of 
the Higher Education Act, 
which seeks to make college 
tuition more affordable for 
students. In the letter, Gerstein 
stated that his constituents 
— 
University 
of 
Michigan 
students — are almost all in 
agreement regarding college 
affordability.
“While 
representing 
the 
various 
viewpoints 
of 
my 
constituents is a tempestuous 
endeavor, 
there 
is 
one 
issue where there is nearly 
unanimous 
consensus; 
the 
paramount saliency of college 
affordability,” Gerstein wrote 
in his letter.
Advocating for the students 
on both the state and federal 
levels was one of the priorities 
that Gerstein laid out at the 
beginning of his term. 
In his letter, Gerstein wrote 
in support of the provisions 

of the bill that seek to create 
tuition-free 
community 
college, increase Pell Grants 
and 
allow 
undocumented 
students access to federal aid. 
In his conclusion, Gerstein 
wrote that on behalf of the 
students of the University of 
Michigan-Ann Arbor, he looks 
forward to their support on the 
Higher Education Act and the 
College Affordability Act.
Some students are in favor 
of 
Gerstein’s 
lobbying 
of 
the 
federal 
representatives. 
LSA junior David Carpenter 
was supportive of Gerstein’s 
letter and applauded CSG for 
addressing the issue.
“Regardless of where you 
come from, regardless or not 
if you’re the individual that’s 
putting up the cost and in 
fellows education, it really 
does affect every single student 
that goes to the University of 
Michigan, and all the students 
that want to maybe want to 
come to the University of 
Michigan but are restricted by 
costs or by having to work and 
or other things,” Carpenter 
said.

Angie 
and 
Dan 
Bastian, 
husband and wife co-founders 
of kettle corn snack company 
BOOMCHICKAPOP, 
delivered 
the keynote speech to students 
and 
faculty 
in 
Robertson 

Auditorium at the 2019 Michigan 
Marketing 
Symposium 
on 
Thursday. The talk, moderated by 
Business lecturer Marcus Collins, 
focused on how the company 
disrupted the snack industry to 
fit with the symposium’s overall 
theme of disruption. 
BOOMCHICKAPOP 
started 
in 
the 
Bastians’s 
Mankato, 

Minnesota, garage in 2001 to 
pop kettle corn for carnivals, 
local markets and events. The 
company was acquired in 2017 by 
Conagra Foods for $250 million. 
The couple began popping kettle 
corn to build a college fund for 
their two daughters, then 3 and 5 
years old.
“We were trying to figure out 

if there was a solution to creating 
a college fund for our kids outside 
of what we were doing,” Dan 
Bastian said. “It was an $8,000 
investment, you got a kettle, you 
got a tent. So, we set it up outside, 
turned on the kettle and started 
schlepping the corn.”

michigandaily.com
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Friday, November 15, 2019

ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-NINE YEARS OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM

GOT A NEWS TIP?
Call 734-418-4115 or e-mail 
news@michigandaily.com and let us know.

INDEX
Vol. CXXIX, No. 29
©2019 The Michigan Daily

N E WS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

O PI N I O N . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

CL A SSIFIEDS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

S U D O K U . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

A R T S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

S P O R T S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 B
michigandaily.com

For more stories and coverage, visit
Follow The Daily 
on Instagram, 
@michigandaily

See COMMIS-

SONIA LEE
Daily Staff Reporter

ALEC COHEN/Daily
Angie and Dan Bastian, co-founders of BOOMCHICKAPOP, give the keynote speech at the 2019 Michigan Marketing Symposium in Robertson 
Auditorium Thursday.

DESIGN BY MICHELLE FAN

See VETERANS, Page 3A

See CSG, Page 3A
See PACT, Page 3A

Popcorn snack company founders 
 
speak on disrupting industry model

Will Sparty?
A desperate Michigan 
State team comes to town, 
searching for an upset win 
and a return to its identity. 
» See Page 1B

BOOMCHICKAPOP creators reflect on dieting, marketing products

Former service members discuss 
journey from armed forces to ‘U’

Ben Gerstein urges support for bill to 
make college tuition more affordable, 
increase availiability of Pell Grants

JASMIN LEE
Daily Staff Reporter 

JULIA FANZERES
Daily Staff Reporter 

Student Veterans 
Panel talks careers, 
transition between 
military & college

CSG president 
writes letter in 
favor of Higher 
Education Act

Campus lovesick over results from 
Michigan Marriage Pact questionnaire

Relationship survey provides matches for some, disappointment for others

ALEX HARRING 
Daily Staff Reporter

See POPCORN, Page 3A

