T

he Saline School District 
was recently dealt a blow 
when racist incidents 
within the community made local 
and national headlines. The first 
was the discovery of a student 
Snapchat group that contained 
racial slurs and epithets like 
“White Power” and “The South 
Will Rise Again.” Students of 
color within that group chat 
reportedly 
felt 
marginalized, 
“unsafe” 
and 
“frustrated.” 
The second occurred at the 
community response to this 
development: 
At 
a 
district-
wide meeting regarding issues 
of diversity and inclusion, a 
Mexican parent was voicing 
concerns about these race-based 
incidents when another parent 
coarsely asked why he didn’t just 
“stay in Mexico.”
The 
occurrence 
of 
these 
incidents, to some community 
members, 
wasn’t 
surprising. 
But for many, it served as 
a 
community 
awakening 
to an underlying culture of 
nonchalance regarding issues 
of race, ethnicity and other 
identities among both students 
and parents. These incidents 
speak 
to 
the 
unfortunate 
spreading of racist, unwelcoming 
language that is unbecoming 
of any community, especially 
a 
school 
district. 
Students 
shouldn’t 
need 
to 
worry 
about surface threats or racist 
messages. They shouldn’t feel 
ostracized in an educational 
environment 
by 
their 
peers 
or adults in the community. 
Educational 
institutions 
and 
teachers, the enactors of the 
educational mission, should be 
bound — by the nature of the 
institution of education — to care 
for students’ complaints, level of 
comfort and overall well-being.
I’ll admit this is strange to 
think about as I’ve always been 
a believer that individuals should 
take personal responsibility for 
their actions. (My mantra, ever 

since my stints with bullying 
in middle school, has always 
been: If you have a problem, 
figure it out.) However, this idea 
isn’t functional in educational 
settings, even if it applies to life. 
Educators have important roles 
in the lives of their students as 
teachers, leaders and caretakers: 
They should take the personal 
experiences of students seriously, 
especially those dealing with 
borderline 
malicious 
things 
like what went on in Saline. 
Otherwise, 
the 
mission 
of 
educating 
students 
becomes 
seriously jeopardized. How can 
some students be expected to 
learn in an environment in which 
they aren’t treated as equals?
I internalized this idea at 
the New England Literature 
Program (NELP). This was a 
spring 
semester 
educational 
program, 
offered 
by 
the 
University of Michigan, during 
which participants study English 
literature in the woods of New 
Hampshire, 
isolated 
from 
society and functioning as a 
transcendental commune. Before 
one of the trips we took outside 
our cabin grounds, we had a 
discussion about the politics 
of New Hampshire residents 
and the chance we’d see “Make 
America Great Again” signs and 
other things that are inconsistent 
with our transcendental bubble. 
At the time, I thought this was 
a 
conversation 
appropriate 
for sheltered individuals who 
couldn’t fathom the existence of 
a politwically diverse population, 
or that someone might have 
matured into their politics by 
different and parallel means. I 
wrote in my journal that I was 
surprised that a “talk-around like 
this even needs to be done.”
There were some other acerbic 
bits of writing about this matter 
that were passionate and which 
I held true to my beliefs. But I’ve 
changed my mind on the matter, 
especially in light of these events 

in Saline and discussions had 
with fellow Daily members on the 
Editorial Board. Conversations 
like the one I had at NELP — like 
the one Saline held in response 
to the racist social media posts 
— are a necessary response to 
student experiences. They are 
not indicative of some sort of 
cultural deficiency or emotional 
weakness, rather, they’re an 
appropriate 
product 
to 
the 
cultural artifacts of this time.
Saline 
recently 
held 
an 
inclusion rally in solidarity 
with the students who felt 
marginalized 
from 
these 
mean-spirited 
messages. 
I 
commend the intention to make 
a communal effort to right 
these wrongs. To be clear, the 
school district doesn’t need 
to 
adopt 
politically 
correct 
language and get sucked into 
a race to the bottom, driven 
by identity politics. (I talk 
about the negative influence of 
identity politics on educational 
institutions 
like 
universities 
in my last column. Political 
correctness stymies free speech 
and debate because it invalidates 
ideas 
and 
individuals 
who 
don’t agree with the accepted 
dogma). This “inclusion rally” 
probably falls into the category 
of 
meaningless 
politically 
correct 
demonstrations, 
but 
it can serve as a step in the 
right direction. The school 
district needs to — rather 
than re-educate — re-engage 
students in the mission of 
educational 
community-
building by incorporating the 
values that make a community 
a virtue: trust, tolerance and 
work. An incident like this 
shouldn’t muzzle the victims, 
but encourage them to create 
useful change. I’m glad it is and 
hope it continues to be the case 
in Saline.

Neil Shah can be reached at 

neilsh@umich.edu.

I

t’s no secret that Ann Arbor 
is a bastion for pizza lovers. 
Smaller places — like New 
York Pizza Depot (NYPD) or Joe’s 
Pizza — offer some great options for 
paper-thin New York-style pizza, 
while places like Pizza House and 
Cottage Inn fulfill every other pizza 
lover’s desire. Everyone has their 
favorite place, memories of nights 
with friends and delicious pizza 
attached to each one. I was shocked 
when I heard that my sacred pizza 
place, South U Pizza, was being shut 
down this past December.
I was waiting for my red-eye 
flight back home for Christmas 
when my boyfriend texted me the 
bad news. My eyes welled up with 
tears, not only due to the countless 
memories I had made there but 
for the loss of their buffalo chicken 
pizza, which was lathered in a pool 
of buffalo sauce and grease so thick 
it soaked through their paper plates. 
I mourned the death of the best pizza 
I ever had.
It was only after the loss of this 
great pizzeria that I realized how 
nostalgic a pizza pie can be. Most 
American childhoods are marked 
by this universally beloved Italian 
food, steaming on table tops at 
birthday parties and sleepovers. 
Even former President Barack 
Obama isn’t immune to the greasy 
goodness of a Little Ceasar’s Pizza, 
albeit on a sterling silver plate 
rather than a paper one.
It was way back in 2011 when 
Obama made his way to Detroit, 
a pizza mecca in its own right, for 
a pizza party fundraiser. Hosted 
by Denise Ilitch, the daughter of 
Little Ceasar’s founders Mike and 
Marion Ilitch, guests dished out 
$10,000 for dinner and a photo 
with the president. The cocktail 
reception, and the chance to talk 
to the president, set guests back 
another $30,000. These numbers 
are paltry compared to the 
millions of dollars Ilitch, the local 
philanthropist, 
businesswoman 
and 
University 
of 
Michigan 
Regent, spent to host it at her home 
in Bingham Farms.
Obama 
repaid 
Ilitch’s 
generosity in 2016, with an invite 
not to a pizza party, but to his final 
state dinner alongside celebrities 
like Gwen Stefani, Rachel Ray, 
Jerry Seinfeld and Chance the 
Rapper. It was her third time in 
the Obama White House after two 
visits with her family’s Stanley 
Cup-winning Detroit Red Wings. 
While Ilitch’s political bona fides 
and connections may seem hard to 
beat, her position is hardly unique 
among her fellow regents.

University 
Regent 
Mark 
Bernstein (D) represents another 
famous 
Michigan 
pedigree, 
appearing on my television at least 
three times during the Super Bowl 
in his family’s famous Sam Bernstein 
Law Firm commercials. University 
Regents Paul Brown (D), Michael 
Behm (D), Katherine White (D) and 
Jordan Acker (D) are also prominent 
Democratic lawyers with more 
accolades and accomplishments to 
count. But the political influence of 
the University’s Board of Regents 
isn’t limited to the Democratic party.

University Regent Ronald Weiser 
(R), the sole Republican on the 
board, served as ambassador to the 
Slovak Republic under George W. 
Bush and chairman of the Michigan 
Republican Party from 2009-2011 
and 2017-2019. In this position, he 
oversaw the red wave that flipped 
Michigan’s legislature and helped 
them maintain their death grip on it 
in the 2018 elections. After working 
to raise $1 billion for President 
Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign as 
national finance chairman of the 
RNC, he is now serving in the same 
role for the re-election campaign 
of Stephen King’s arch-nemesis, 
Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine. Even 
Regent Shauna Ryder Diggs (D), a 
Grosse Pointe dermatologist with 
her own line of skin-care products, 
holds great political power as 
one of Michigan’s 17 Democratic 
superdelegates.
Elected 
by 
millions 
of 
Michiganders to serve their eight-
year terms, the Board of Regents is 
no ordinary school board. Besides 
the power they hold as individuals, 
regents manage the school’s roughly 
$12 billion endowment, investing 
in new programs, buildings and 
the stock market. The school’s 
Wall 
Street 
investments 
have 
proven controversial in the last few 
years. Last year, the University’s 
Central 
Student 
Government 
passed a resolution to investigate 
withdrawing 
money 
from 
businesses that work with Israel, 
citing their violations of international 
law against Palestinians. The regents 

denied it to maintain the strength 
of the investment portfolio. This 
isn’t the only time regents have 
prioritized the wishes and futures of 
donors over those of their students.
Written in chalk on buildings 
and sidewalks around campus are 
various mantras calling for the 
regents to divest the more than $1 
billion the University has invested 
in gas and oil companies, reminders 
of the Global Climate Strike this 
past September. The University 
and the Regents have ignored these 
demands and had climate protesters 
arrested at sit-ins, ensuring the 
University maintains its spot near 
the bottom of Big Ten schools when 
it comes to reducing emissions. Their 
staunch refusal has baffled teachers 
and students who expect better from 
what they thought was Michigan’s 
most 
elite 
and 
progressive 
institution.
Long seen as a role model for the 
state, the Regents’ refusal to act 
sends a message that inaction on 
this existential threat to humanity 
is fine by them. Coming from a 
group of people who have helped 
elect presidents and countless 
other government officials in 
both major political parties, this 
message is beyond worrisome 
with implications reaching far 
beyond Ann Arbor.
In an America where Citizens 
United all but ensures elections go 
to whoever has the biggest bank 
account, the positive influence 
of wealthy donors like Ilitch and 
Weiser is going to be essential in 
getting Michigan and the nation 
back on track to keep our climate 
liveable. If the Regents don’t vote 
for this essential progress in their 
official roles, then they are unlikely 
to push other people, many who rely 
on their financial support, to do the 
same.
While the Regents recently 
took a small step in the right 
direction by voting down a $50 
million investment in gas and 
oil company Vendera Resources, 
they still have a long way to go 
before they prove themselves 
to be leading us in the right 
direction. With Earth’s climate 
quickly 
reaching 
a 
tipping 
point, the Regents are shirking 
their responsibilities to their 
students 
to 
strengthen 
the 
money-making 
machine 
the 
University has become. While 
South U and their iconic buffalo 
chicken pizza may be doomed, 
our world doesn’t have to be.

S

tress is a commonality 
that 
underpins 
the 
experience of students. 
Our lives are filled with a 
multiplicity 
of 
influences, 
whether we actively recognize 
them or not. The most obvious 
and 
trendy-to-criticize 
influence is social media. The 
vast majority of students on 
campus utilize some form of 
social media, with YouTube, 
Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter, 
Facebook and Whatsapp being 
some of the most popular 
platforms for young people. 
Our 24/7 access to social media 
serves as a constant connection 
to influences and an inherent 
comparison to others.
But 
the 
pressure 
goes 
beyond 
the 
media. 
“Flex 
culture,” or the desire to show 
off aspects of your identity 
like your physique, belongings 
or 
social 
connections, 
is 
apparent both on social media 
and while crossing the Diag. 
While 
cultural 
structures 
add pressure to a student’s 
role, this is only one factor of 
high expectations. Mounting 
assignments, essays and exams, 
job and internship applications, 
on-campus employment, degree 
and 
credit 
requirements, 
budgeting and student debt 
are daily challenges many of 
us face. There are explicit and 
implicit expectations students 
are pressured to meet; While 
the 
narrative 
of 
“leaders 
and 
best” 
is 
aspirational 
and motivating, the looming 
pressures of resume building 
and 
constant 
productivity 
almost certainly add anxiety to 
student experiences.
Living in Ann Arbor poses 
specific challenges as students 
transition 
from 
on-campus 
housing to living off-campus. 
The housing market is lacking in 
providing an adequate amount 
of reasonably priced proper 
living 
spaces, 
while 
high-
rises multiply and the student 
and 
working 
population 
grow. 
Renting 
practices 
are complicated by limited 
space and a short time frame 
of 
contract 
signing, 
which 
can 
expose 
vulnerabilities 
landlords tend to exploit.
There is also a noticeable 
lack of access to healthy food 
close to Central Campus; While 
you can get basic staples at 

convenience stores, to get an 
adequate amount of fresh fruit, 
vegetables and protein, students 
must travel far off-campus. 
This task is straightforward 
for students with cars or the 
financial freedom to get their 
groceries delivered to their 
door, but those who don’t 
have 
those 
resources 
must 
rely on public transportation. 
The flaws in housing, access 
to nutritious food and other 
challenges stand in the way 
of students relieving stress in 
their daily lives.

Education burnout is an 
experience shared by many 
college 
students 
striving 
for degrees. This manifests 
when the stress of school and 
time management becomes 
unbearable, draining us of 
any motivation to complete 
daily 
responsibilities, 
at 
times even bleeding into our 
health and well-being. While 
it may seem obvious, self-
care is crucial to avoid this. 
Audre Lorde, an influential 
activist and powerful orator, 
said, “Caring for myself is 
not 
self-indulgence. 
It 
is 
self-preservation, and that is 
an act of political warfare.” 
Focusing on personal well-
being is a challenge when 
students are already dealing 
with the stress of standards, 
influences, 
pressures 
and 
expectations. 
Tales 
of 
downing 
one’s 
caffeinated 
beverage 
of 
choice 
and 
pulling 
all-nighters 
before 
exams 
are 
common. 
The 
caricature of undone laundry, 
dirty 
dishes 
and 
chaotic 
living spaces are a reality for 
many. Our well-being is often 
put aside in order to prioritize 
productivity — yet this very 
act makes us less productive.
There are industries that 
directly profit by advertising 

to those who experience high 
stress 
without 
pinpointing 
the cause. Face masks and 
essential oils can help the 
symptoms, 
but 
we 
must 
address the disease itself. 
This 
commercialized 

approach 
to 
self-care 
is 
certainly beneficial to some 
but is impractical for students 
who have little free time and 
extra cash to spend. Because 
of this quixotic presentation 
of self-care in the media, 
many do not take it seriously. 
The luxury of taking time 
out of packed schedules to 
do menial tasks seems like 
a joke. It is portrayed as an 
expensive hobby rather than 
a fundamental aspect of our 
well-being — an unrealistic, 
romanticized ideal that is 
nonsensical to integrate into 
our daily lives.
Educating ourselves on the 
variety of forms of wellness 
beyond eating healthy and 
exercising shouldn’t be seen 
as a luxury, but as a mandatory 
element for our success. This 
includes 
practicing 
good 
hygiene for its positive effects 
on mental health, developing 
spirituality and maintaining 
a clean living space. For those 
who struggle with mental 
illness, these tasks can be 
daunting, 
and 
additional 
resources 
like 
Counseling 
and Psychological Services 
(CAPS) may be helpful — it 
has been beneficial for me.
Our success should not be 
defined by how many hours we 
study or how long our resumes 
are. Instead, we must recognize 
that self-care is fundamental 
to not only maintain our well-
being and happiness but to 
our academic and professional 
pursuits as well. When we 
invest in ourselves, we are 
better able to be present and 
productive 
while 
working. 
Activist Maya Angelou said it 
best: “My mission in life is not 
merely to survive, but to thrive; 
and to do so with some passion, 
compassion, some humor and 
some style.” Leaders and best, 
it is time that we do not simply 
survive 
the 
pressures 
and 
expectations of our lives. It is 
time to thrive.

Opinion
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
4 — Tuesday, February 18, 2020

Alanna Berger
Brittany Bowman
Zack Blumberg
Emily Considine
Cheryn Hong

Krystal Hur
Ethan Kessler
Mary Rolfes
Michael Russo

Timothy Spurlin
Miles Stephenson
Joel Weiner
Erin White 
Lola Yang

ERIN WHITE
Managing Editor

Stanford Lipsey Student Publications Building
420 Maynard St. 
Ann Arbor, MI 48109
 tothedaily@michigandaily.com

Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan since 1890.

ELIZABETH LAWRENCE
Editor in Chief
EMILY CONSIDINE AND 
MILES STEPHENSON
Editorial Page Editors

Unsigned editorials reflect the official position of The Daily’s Editorial Board. 
All other signed articles and illustrations represent solely the views of their authors.

EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS

NEIL SHAH | COLUMN

The role of the educator in light of Saline

RILEY DEHR | COLUMN

The Regents are taking your money and your future

Riley Dehr can be reached at 

rdehr@umich.edu.

ELIZABETH COOK | COLUMN

Why you aren’t thriving

Elizabeth Cook can be reached at 

elizcook@umich.edu.

Our well-being is 
often put aside in 
order to prioritize 
productivity.

The Regents are 
shirking their 
responsibilities to 
their students.

MADELYN VERVAECKE | CONTACT CARTOONIST AT MIVERVAE@UMICH.EDU

