michigandaily.com
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Wednesday, November 20, 2019

ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-NINE YEARS OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM

The Diag was occupied by 
more than 30 students Tuesday 
night participating in the first 
“One Night Without a Home” 
sleep-out in Ann Arbor. The 
event, hosted by the Shelter 
Association 
of 
Washtenaw 
County, as well as student 
activist organizations MReach 

and CURIS - Public Health 
Advocacy, comes as one of many 
organized by SAWC this week 
as a part of the National Hunger 
and Homelessness Awareness 
Week. 
The 
event, 
which 
accompanied 
other 
“Nights 
Without a Home” held across 
the country, featured speeches 
from University of Michigan 
student organizations The Dot 

Org and Poverty Solutions, 
testimonials 
from 
former 
SAWC clients, activities to help 
students confront the realities of 
homelessness and a candlelight 
vigil held in honor of lives lost to 
homelessness. Over the course 
of the evening, attendees were 
invited to confront their biases 
toward 
people 
experiencing 
homelessness.
Sarah Papsal, SAWC Director 

of 
Development, 
said 
the 
event is meant to “simulate 
homelessness” to the fullest 
extent possible in a single night. 
Papsal explained that while 
students may never understand 
what it is like to go weeks 
without a shower or clean 
clothes, they can empathize 
with the fear of spending a 
night alone in the cold.
The 
School 
of 
Public 
Health 
held 
a 
lecture 
Tuesday evening addressing 
Michigan’s 
investigations 
and response to per- and 
polyfluoroalkyl 
substances 
(PFAS) contaminating sources 
of drinking water. The keynote 
speaker at the lecture was 
Betsy Wasilevich, a senior 
epidemiologist at the Michigan 
Department of Health and 
Human Services. The audience 
consisted of about 30 people, 
including students and faculty 
members. 
The lecture started off with 
Wasilevich introducing PFAS 
and talking about a few of its 
sources. 
“PFAS is a group of chemicals, 
over a thousand analytes of 
these types of chemicals, they 
are incredibly stable, have a 
generally long half-life, they 
break down slowly and they 
bioaccumulate,” 
Wasilevich 
said. “We all have some level 
of exposure to PFAS. Teflon 
coating, fire-fighting foams, 
food packaging. It is also in the 
water.”
Wasilevich 
highlighted 
the challenges in addressing 
PFAS, which is an emerging 
contaminant. 

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INDEX
Vol. CXXIX, No. 31
©2019 The Michigan Daily

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

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

CL A SSIFIEDS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6

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

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

S P O R T S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
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The FemDems and JustDems, 
two issue committees of the 
University 
of 
Michigan’s 
chapter 
of 
the 
College 
Democrats, hosted a panel titled 
“Rethinking Public Policy in 
an Age of Mass Incarceration” 
Tuesday night. 
The 
panel 
consisted 
of 
Francine 
Banner, 
associate 
professor of Sociology at U-M 
Dearborn, and Mark Fancher, 
a staff attorney for the Racial 
Justice Project of the ACLU of 
Michigan. They discussed the 
issue of mass incarceration and 
the policies and factors that 
contribute to it, specifically 
those that harm women and the 
Black community. The panel 
was attended by a group of about 
50 students and community 
members at the Ford School of 
Public Policy.
LSA senior Emma Rooney, 
the co-chair of JustDems, told 
The Michigan Daily they invited 
Banner and Fancher due to their 
previous experience with the 
criminal justice system.
“Banner taught in prison 
systems, and Mark Fancher has 
experience with the ACLU and 
doing direct court cases, and 
we wanted to focus on policies,” 
Rooney said. 

Panelists 
talk policy 
approach 
to justice

CAMPUS LIFE
Sleep-out organizers seek to draw 
attention to homelessness in A2

Activities, vigil highlight experiences of people dealing with housing insecurity

Official 
examines 
response 
to PFAS

RESEARCH

Follow The Daily 
on Instagram, 
@michigandaily

JULIA SCHACHINGER/Daily
Students participate in the first sleep-out to raise awareness about homelessness Tuesday evening.

MELANIE TAYLOR
Daily Staff Reporter

statement

See PFAS, Page 3A

PETER HUMMER
For The Daily

Event examines impact 
of mass incarceration on 
prisoners, communities

Epidemiologist reflects 
on state’s handling of 
‘forever chemicals’

NAVYA GUPTA
For The Daily

Saudi 
Arabian 
journalist 
Safa Al Ahmad gave a talk 
after accepting the Wallenberg 
Medal from President Mark 
Schlissel Tuesday night. She 
spoke in Rackham Auditorium 
to a crowd of a few hundred 
community 
members 
and 
students. 
The Wallenberg Medal is 
named after 1935 University 
of Michigan graduate Raoul 
Wallenberg, who saved more 
than 80,000 lives in Nazi-
occupied Hungary during World 
War II. The award is given to 
those who “demonstrate the 
capacity of the human spirit 
to stand up for the helpless, 
to defend the integrity of the 
powerless, and to speak out 
on behalf of the voiceless.” Al 
Ahmad is the 27th recipient 
of the award, joining notable 
recipients 
like 
Elie 
Wiesel, 
Archbishop Desmond Tutu, and 

the Dalai Lama.
“If I’m going to be honest, 
this 
completely 
feels 
like 
imposter syndrome,” Al Ahmad 
said. “I don’t know why I was 
chosen … all I can say is that I’m 
overwhelmed and honored, and 
I hope I deserve it.”
As 
a 
journalist 
and 
filmmaker, 
Al 
Ahmad 
has 
produced documentaries about 
the uprisings in the Middle 
East. She said her reporting on 
the complexities of the conflict 
in areas of Yemen has put her 
in great danger, yet she has 
continued to cover this area. 
“It’s constantly keeping me 
on my toes as a storywriter,” Al 
Ahmad said. “You never think 
‘Oh, that’s it. I’ve seen it all in 
Yemen.’ You have not and you 
never will. So, on a personal, 
selfish level, I find it’s really 
important to keep engaged and 
interested, intrigued by a story.”

Solomon Rajput, a 27-year-old 
medical student at the University 
of Michigan, began his campaign 
for U.S. Congress about a month 
ago. He spoke about his campaign 
Tuesday night at a town hall 
event he co-hosted with the 
Young Democratic Socialists of 
America.
LSA junior Elias Khoury is the 
president of YDSA and helped 
organize the event. After hearing 

about Rajput’s campaign, Khoury 
said he wanted to get involved. 
Khoury was interested in the 
fact that Rajput is a primary 
challenger to incumbent U.S. Rep. 
Debbie Dingell, D-Ann Arbor.
“I reached out to Solomon, 
who was accessible and easy to 
get in touch with,” Khoury said. 
“We were talking back and forth, 
and eventually we got him to 
come to one of our meetings, and 
he did a little presentation about 
what his canvas is all about. The 
vast majority of our membership 

were, more or less, on board. So, 
since then, we’ve been working 
pretty closely with him, and we 
decided it would be a nice idea to 
put this town hall together.”
Rajput began by speaking 
about his reasons for running. 
Currently, Rajput is taking a leave 
of absence from the University 
of Michigan Medical School in 
order to pursue his campaign. He 
said the main reason he got into 
the race was because of climate 
change, noting he has always 
been passionate about climate 

issues and wants to become a 
doctor in a green world.
“The number one reason why 
I got into this race was because 
of this little thing called climate 
change,” Rajput said. “It might 
kill us all if we don’t figure out 
what to do. … This baby step 
approach where we have a 90 
year plan and we do something 
this year and then re-evaluate in 
50 years when everyone else is 
dead, it’s not going to happen.”

Safa Al Ahmad receives award for 
BBC documentary on uprisings 

Journalist 
wins medal 
for film on 
Middle East

U-M medical student running for 
Congress holds town hall meeting

Solomon Rajput discusses policy priorities, decision to challenge Rep. Dingell

See MEDAL, Page 3A

CLAIRE MEINGAST/Daily
Medical School student Solomon Rajput speaks about his plan to challege U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell in the 2020 elections during a town hall at Palmer Commons Tuesday 
evening.

 BRAYDEN HIRSCH 
For The Daily

IULIA DOBRIN
Daily Staff Reporter 

See PANEL, Page 3A

See SLEEP-OUT, Page 3A

See CANDIDATE, Page 3A