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Thursday, November 21, 2019 — 3

Arab Student Association, Period 
host panel on reproductive health

Panelists focus on own experiences, discuss stigmatized issues as part of Focus Week

BRAYDEN HIRSCH 
For The Daily 

Through an effort to end 
the stigma around periods, 
the Arab Student Association 
and Period collaborated to 
hold a panel where four people 
from 
various 
backgrounds 
were given the opportunity 
to talk about their encounters 
with reproductive health on 
Wednesday. About 30 students 
attended the event. ASA is 
currently holding a week-long 
program called Focus Week, 
where the goal is to talk about 
the stigmatized issues facing 
their communities. 
Public Policy senior, Arwa 
Gayar, co-president of ASA, 
played a large role in putting 
the panel together. 
“We 
thought 
that 
this 
was particularly important 
because 
menstrual 
health 
and 
reproductive 
health 
are seen as taboo in our 
culture, but it really affects a 
woman of color, particularly 
Arab 
refugees, 
and 
they 
are 
disproportionately 
marginalized, not just from 
their identity, but also their 
status 
as 
immigrants 
and 
refugees,” Gayar said. “So 

understanding their access 
to 
reproductive, 
menstrual 
health and is very important 
to look at it through the lens 
of those identities.”
The 
panel 
consisted 
of 
four 
women 
of 
varying 
backgrounds. Public Health 
graduate 
student 
Ashley 
Rapp discussed her point-
of-view on menstrual and 
reproductive health of her 
family from Iraq and being the 
founder of Period.
“Primarily, at least for a 
lot of the people that came to 
America, one of our biggest 
issues is that even though 
people are coming through, 
they’re able to access things 
like food stamps, and different 
things like that,” Rapp said. 
“There’s a lot of difficulty 
that even some of my relatives 
are 
having 
with 
having 
access to, you know, things 
that are more than that. So 
that’s going to be things like 
menstrual products, but also 
different things to help their 
reproductive care.”
Another 
organization 
that played a large role in 
the planning of this panel 
was Period. Period is an 
organization centered around 

service 
and 
education 
for 
women. Public Health junior 
Swathi 
Komarivelli 
also 
helped plan this event. The 
panel 
was 
a 
continuation 
of 
Period’s 
product 
drive 
where they collected over 
15,000 products for people in 
Southeast Michigan. 
“We just want to have this 
panel because we want to have 
an educational background 
behind the drive,” Komarivelli 
said. “Most people realize that 
they face disparate conditions, 
but, going into specifics was 
the idea behind this.”
Each member on the panel 
was given the opportunity 
to 
talk 
about 
challenges 
they have faced in terms of 
menstrual and reproductive 
health. Public Health senior 
Umaima Abbasi is a green 
card holder and was able to 
tell her story as well. 
“I do have some experiences 
like when you’re going around 
the healthcare system, so I 
actually was uninsured up 
until two weeks ago… But 
it’s kind of hard to navigate 
around a system that wasn’t 
initially created for you to 
be here,” Abbasi said. “So 
three weeks ago, I got a really 

terrible 
bacterial 
infection 
and I didn’t know how to go 
about it, like I didn’t know 
where I can find care, and also 
culturally competent care.” 
LSA senior Tala Al-Saghir, 
president of Students Organize 
for Syria, was another member 
of the panel. Al-Saghir is 
currently applying to medical 
school and was able to provide 
more of a medically-based 
perspective on the importance 
of menstrual and reproductive 
care.
“For a lot of refugees, 
the primary needs, like the 
emergency needs are shelter, 
water, food and education 
for their children,” Al-Saghir 
said. 
“So 
you 
see 
that 
reproductive health and a lot 
of health issues overall just 
kind of get pushed to the side.” 
LSA senior Ayah Kutmah 
talked about the importance 
of normalizing some of these 
tough, yet important topics. 
“Breaking 
that 
cultural 
stigma is very hard, but it 
can 
definitely 
start 
with 
having those uncomfortable 
conversations, 
especially 
within communities that you 
identify with,” Kutmah said.

Overseeing 
the 
Vision 
Zero 
project, 
City 
Transportation 
Manager 
Eli 
Cooper 
coordinated 
the event, which was one 
of three total open houses 
planned. Larcom’s lobby 
presented two interactive 
displays. One wall hosted 
posters of five Ann Arbor 
locations; 
underneath 
each, 
community 
members 
ranked 
how 
they prioritized the four 
transportation options of 
biking, 
walking, 
transit 
and vehicle. 
“These 
specific 
(locations) are similar to 
other roads in the city — or 
streets — that have similar 
characteristics,” 
Cooper 
said. 
“The 
opportunity 
is to gain a general sense 
of what the public feels 
about the priorities for 
the various modes by the 
different 
characteristics 
for the corridors.”
Across 
from 
the 
ranking posters, AECOM 
Transportation 
Planner 
Sarah Lagpacan facilitated 
an activity to find out 
what community members 

consider the city’s safest 
biking 
areas. 
A 
wall-
length poster displayed a 
map of Ann Arbor streets, 
highlighting 
biker-
friendly areas in green. 
Markers were provided for 
community 
members 
to 
draw in where they felt this 
network needs to expand. 
“We’re not going into 
this with any expectations 
of what we’ll hear but 
really wanting to see what 
people say,” Lagpacan said. 
Through the project, the 
city is looking to provide 
a guiding document for 
Ann 
Arbor’s 
current 
transportation 
policies 
by the summer of 2020. 
If successful, Ann Arbor 
will be the first Vision 
Zero City in Michigan, 
joiningAustin, New York 
City, 
Philadelphia 
and 
others. To qualify, each 
city must have a clear 
goal to eliminate traffic 
fatalities 
and 
severe 
injuries, an official public 
commitment by the mayor 
to Vision Zero and key city 
departments 
engaged 
in 
the effort. 
“Transportation 
as 
a 
system responds to the 
demands of the users and 
by 
engaging 
with 
our 
citizens that are the folks 

traveling around the city,” 
Cooper said. 
Using both transit and 
biking, Valdez has plans to 
follow upcoming changes 
in the Vision Zero project.
“A lot of times you find 
out as the thing is being 
built or not really informed 
along 
the 
way,” 
Valdez 
said. “I’m just trying to get 
more informed during the 
planning stages and find 
out what exactly is going 
on.”
Keeping 
community 
members engaged in the 
project is exactly what 
Cooper aims to do.
“It’s not that we have a 
group of planners off in an 
office figuring out what’s 
best,” Cooper said. “We’re 
actually listening to what 
the publics’ interest and 
values 
are, 
where 
they 
would like to see progress. 
The open house allows 
people to come in and learn 
about the project, where 
we are in the process, but 
we 
are 
also 
collecting 
information 
from 
them 
that we will use to shape 
the 
direction 
of 
where 
we’re going.”

TRANSPORTATION
From Page 1

Read more at 
MichiganDaily.com

Daniel 
Genkin, 
electrical 
engineering 
and 
computer 
science 
assistant professor, also 
worked on the project and 
pointed out most people 
think 
of 
sound 
rather 
than light in regards to 
a 
microphone, 
Genkin 
said the vulnerabilities in 
virtual assistants that let 
light commands control 
them 
could 
potentially 
create a serious safety 
issue.
“The 
system 
that 
responds 
to 
sound 
actually 
delivers 
the 
system that responds to 
sound and light,” Genkin 
said. 
“Every 
time 
you 
have this gap, you have a 
security problem … When 
you think about those 
gaps, and where we need 
to map them out, then we 
need to think, what are 
the implications and how 
do we close them?”
Using light commands, 
an 
individual 
could 
easily 
have 
access 
to 
unlock doors, go online 
shopping 
using 
the 
target’s 
information 
or 
unlock and start a vehicle 
connected to the target’s 
device, Cyr said.
LSA 
sophomore 
Kat 
Black uses an Amazon 
Alexa at home. She said 
the results of the study 

show light commands can 
be a serious threat. 
“There 
have 
been 
several times where our 
Alexa at home kind of 
malfunctioned and that 
was unprompted,” Black 
said. “I think if someone 
is deliberately trying to 
alter its functioning, it’s 
very possible.”
Cyr 
said 
the 
team 
reached out to Amazon 
and 
Google 
to 
inform 
them 
of 
the 
security 
issues 
light 
commands 
may cause. They also plan 
to reach out to Facebook 
and 
other 
microphone 
manufacturers 
to 
help 
them find ways to fix this 
vulnerability. 
“Our goal is to make 
sure that people know 
what can be done to the 
sensors 
currently 
and 
then to find solutions so 
that people can trust the 
sensors,” Cyr said.
As for now, Cyr said 
those who have a virtual 
assistant in their home 
should keep them away 
from windows and areas 
where 
they 
could 
be 
easily accessible from the 
outside.
The research team also 
included EECS professor 
Kevin Fu and postdoctoral 
student Sara Rampazzi 
from the University as 
well as Takeshi Sugawara 
from the University of 
Electro-Communications 
in Tokyo. 

HACKING
From Page 1

“The reality is, when 
you are out in public, you 
do not necessarily expect 
to 
be 
identified 
and 
tracked across a series 
of 
cameras,” 
Calabrese 
said. “And you do not 
expect that record to be 
kept indefinitely. It is a 
different type of use of 
the technology. And it 
changes our assumptions 
about what privacy looks 

like 
for 
the 
average 
citizen.”
Despite the cautionary 
commentary provided by 
Calabrese earlier in the 
lecture, he also pointed 
out the benefits of the 
technology. 
“You 
can 
imagine 
that maybe there is a 
photo that might be held 
somewhere in your social 
network 
that 
can 
be 
cross-referenced to find a 
missing child,” Calabrese 
said.
Calabrese 
explained 
facial 
recognition 

technology 
also 
has 
everyday 
implications. 
For 
example, 
social 
media platforms use it 
to suggest friends and 
make connections based 
on images uploaded by 
users. 
When 
talking 
about how the ordinary 
citizen 
is 
impacted 
by 
the 
technology, 
Calabrese emphasized the 
importance of regulation 
and consent.
“The first thing we need 
to talk about is consent… 
it can be so easy to create 
a face template from a 

photo,” 
Calabrese 
said. 
“After consent is obtained, 
transparency 
will 
then 
allow 
people 
to 
know 
what facial recognition 
will be used for.”
For 
the 
second 
half 
of 
the 
talk, 
Shobita 
Parthasarathy, professor 
of 
Public 
Policy 
and 
Women’s 
Studies 
and 
director of the Science, 
Technology 
and 
Public 
Policy 
program, 
joined 
Calabrese to talk about 
accuracy and bias of the 
technology. 
He 
explained 
the 

accuracy 
of 
facial 
recognition 
technology 
can vary depending on 
the conditions upon the 
capturing of the image, 
especially if the subject 
is within complete field 
of view or if lighting 
conditions are optimal. 
Parthasarathy 
also 
noted facial recognition is 
less accurate for people of 
color.
“I think it is important 
to 
point 
out 
that 
the 
technology 
is 
most 
accurate among white men 
and then it degrades in 

accuracy,” Parthasarathy 
said. 
In an interview with 
The Daily, LSA sophomore 
Sujin Kim explained the 
relevance of the lecture 
to University of Michigan 
students.
“I 
think 
addressing 
the 
relevant 
bias 
in 
the technology is very 
important,” Kim said. “It 
addressed 
the 
inherent 
bias of the technology 
that someone might not 
necessarily know about if 
it wasn’t brought to their 
attention.”

TECHNOLOGY
From Page 1

Posters reflected similar 
messages, and one poster 
had a quote from a fireside 
chat given by University 
President Mark Schlissel 
earlier in the year: “We 
thought… it might be less 
traumatizing to have a peer 
ask questions of another 
peer.” 
Similar messages were 
written in chalk around the 
Diag.
 The activists chanted 
various 
slogans, 
such 

as: “Join the chain, this 
policy’s 
insane,” 
“We 
reject the administration’s 
disrespect,” “Say it loud, 
say it clear: no perpetrator 
is our peer,” and “Hey hey, 
ho ho, direct questioning 
has got to go.”
LSA junior Elyas Perry 
said he joined the chain in 
part because of his friend 
who has suffered similar 
trauma.
“I’ve 
experienced 
firsthand how neglectful 
some of these policies that 
the 
University 
has 
can 
be,” Perry said. “With the 
addition of this policy here, 

where 
perpetrators 
can 
actually 
cross-examine 
victims face-to-face. I have 
a little bit more perspective 
on how damaging that can 
be.” 
One of the protesters’ 
primary demands was to 
require attorneys to conduct 
the 
cross-examination, 
not the respondents and 
claimants 
themselves. 
Previous responses to the 
issue from administration is 
that it raises issues of equity 
and 
accessibility 
with 
students unable to afford 
attorneys. In an interview 
with 
The 
Daily 
earlier 

this 
month, 
E. 
Royster 
Harper, vice president for 
student life, said bringing 
in attorneys would create 
mini-court 
scenes 
on 
campus and the “last thing” 
administration wants to do 
is perpetuate the broken 
system of handling sexual 
misconduct cases. 
To resolve this problem, 
the 
protestors 
believe 
the 
University 
has 
a 
responsibility 
to 
cover 
hourly attorney costs for 
the duration of the cross-
examination, rather than 
turning 
to 
peer-to-peer 
questioning. 

“Unfortunately, when you 
have 
cross-examination 
in 
university 
sexual 
misconduct cases, it will be 
like a courtlike procedure. 
There’s nothing we can do 
about that,” Sandberg said. 
“All they can do is try to 
make the procedure as good 
as it can be and the current 
policy that they have is 
unimaginable. 
Anything 
would be better than the 
current policy.”
Medical student Solomon 
Rajput, who is currently 
challenging 
U.S. 
Rep. 
Debbie 
Dingell, 
D-Ann 
Arbor, 
for 
her 
seat 
in 

Congress, 
attended 
the 
event and said the turnout 
shows the importance of 
challenging 
the 
sexual 
assault policy.
“There 
are 
so 
many 
people 
who’ve 
decided 
they’re going to take the 
time out of their busy 
schedule in order to take a 
stance on this issue,” Rajput 
said. “You can’t just do 
what’s convenient or what 
is going to be polite in order 
to see the change that you 
want to happen.”
 Claire Hao contributed 
to this story.

CHAIN
From Page 1

The event was moderated 
by Business junior Riya 
Gupta 
and 
LSA 
junior 
Shivani 
Bhargava, 
who 
asked the panelists two 
questions, and then opened 
the 
floor 
for 
audience 
questions. The questions 
were centered on problems 
challenging 
sustainability 
and how much individuals’ 
decisions, such as to be 
vegan or vegetarian, have 
an impact on the food 
industry.
Lilly Shapiro, Sustainable 
Food 
Systems 
Initiative 
project 
manager, 
echoed 
other 
panelists 
about 
the current level of food 
production and the excess 
that goes to waste.
“We grow more than 
enough food to feed the 
world and we do not need 
more industrial farming to 
feed the world,” Shapiro 
said. “The issues are equity 
and distribution. The issue 
is not production.”
On the topic of individual 
impact, the panelists agreed 
individual actions can make 
a difference. Shapiro also 
explained individuals are 
only one part of the puzzle, 

and there needs to be a 
focus on sustainability from 
leaders in the industry as 
well.
Jeremy 
Moghtader, 
program 
manager 
for 
the Campus Farm at the 
University, spoke of human 
behavior tendencies to do 
what 
is 
convenient 
and 
encouraged 
industry 
to 
use this psychology for the 
better.
“You design a system 
that makes it so that people 
follow the path of least 
resistance to the better 
outcome,” Moghtader said. 
“It’s both about personal 
choice and the environment 
in which we make those 
personal choices.”
The event concluded with 
an exercise to physically 
represent individual’s daily 
greenhouse 
gas 
carbon 
footprint. The organizers 
gave each audience member 
a balloon and asked them to 
blow air into it to correspond 
to how damaging foods they 
eat are to the environment. 
The 
organizers 
posted 
common food items on the 
board, and the equivalent 
puffs of air for each one. 
LSA 
junior 
Elana 
Weberman 
said 
she 
liked 
how 
the 
activity 
represented 
personal 

consumption habits.
“It’s really important to 
participate in events that 
U of M puts on that focus 
on sustainability because 
there’s so much that we can 
do and continue to learn 
about,” Weberman said. “In 
order to make a difference 
in the field of sustainability, 
it’s important for every 
individual to do their part. 
Also it’s really important to 
have this cultural change, 
these behavioral changes 
where people come together 
to make a difference.”
Gupta said she learned 
so much in organizing the 
event and was very happy 
with 
the 
turnout. 
She 
emphasized 
the 
balloon 
activity seemed to have an 
impact on attendees. 
“We really wanted to find 
something that’s relevant to 
the U-M community right 
now that students really 
care about and the Ann 
Arbor 
community 
could 
really care about,” Gupta 
said. “Sustainable business 
is something our whole 
team was excited about. 
We just dove headfirst into 
it. We think it’s a really 
relevant topic that needs to 
have more awareness built 
around it.”

FOOD
From Page 1

