Nia and Ness performed 
their stories of coming out, 
and how people reacted to 
their love. They expressed the 
anxiety of needing to come out 
to people time after time and 
the anger with which people 
responded.
“Everyone’s eyes seem to 
ask, ‘How dare you two Black 
women be happy?’” Ness said. 
“‘How dare you two Black 
women be happy on your own? 
How dare you two Black women 
be happy together? How dare 
you two Black women be happy 
without us?’”
The 
pair 
addressed 
the 
stereotypes pushed upon them 
due to their race. Ness spoke of 
how their bodies came with a 

price, and they were paying the 
price every day. She expressed 
how every moment alive is 
spent fighting, not only against 
stereotypes but also against 
traumas, 
whether 
personal, 
ancestral or cultural. 
“We see our ancestors,” Ness 
said. “We close our eyes and 
we hear them speak. They tell 
us not much has changed since 
they were in chains. We feel the 
tension, the pain in our bodies 
weighing us down the way they 
were weighed down.”
Ness 
spoke 
about 
the 
oversexualization of young 
Black girls. She explained to 
the group that Black girls are 
viewed by society as sexually 
available, regardless of age. 
Younger girls are being made 
to act as though they are 
twice their age because this 
is the way the world sees 

them, Ness said.
“She’s still here in her body, 
a body becoming increasingly 
desired, but only if covered in 
white skin,” Ness said. “She’s 
worn the same outfit as a white 
woman with the same build 
and been told to take it off 
because it’s too sexy on her. 
But the white woman? She was 
praised.”
Mid-performance, 
Ness 
held the floor to herself and 
expressed 
how 
much 
she 
wanted to be happy and how 
difficult this can be. She spoke 
of how much of a challenge 
this was for her after she had 
come out. She said she had 
learned to keep joy in and not 
to express it, which caused her 
great pain. 

“In 2018, we hosted parties 
at the polls on Central and 
North Campus, and that was 
an opportunity for students 
to really engage with us, get 
some food, get some swag, 
have conversation and get 
some information around what 
they would be voting on if they 
weren’t yet fully informed to 
that end,” Byrnes said. 
“This 
year, 
for 
the 
presidential 
primary 
on 
March 10, with changes in 
our state voting laws with 
Proposal 3, we’ll be able to not 
only give student information 
on who and what will be on 
the ballot — of course in a way 
that’s non-partisan — but we’ll 
also be able to direct them to 
the city clerk’s office if they 
haven’t yet registered because 
they will be able to register in 
person up to and on the day 
that they’ll be voting.”
Byrnes 
highlighted 
the 
the support from President 
Mark Schlissel’s office, which 
streamlines her team’s work 
through the Office of New 
Student Programs. 
“It’s opened a lot of doors for 
us, which has been wonderful, 
so I think that’s an important 

piece of our reach,” Byrnes 
said. “It’s really empowered 
and enabled us to work directly 
with the Office of New Student 
Programs, talking with new 
and transfer students in the 
summer months as they’re 
first coming in the campus, 
really focusing on kind of 
weaving voting and broader 
democratic engagement to the 
student experience from day 
one.” 
Organizations 
such 
as 
WeListen, 
a 
student-run 
group that brings together 
voices from various political 
backgrounds on campus, have 
promoted discussion on a wide 
variety of topics and political 
engagement 
to 
encourage 
informed voting. 
According to LSA junior 
Caroline Martin, WeListen’s 
vice president of outreach, 
the 
organization 
tries 
to 
facilitate real conversations 
in 
a 
politically 
divided 
environment. 
Martin 
said 
a part of this process is 
educating students on political 
issues and emphasizing the 
importance of voting as a civic 
duty. 
“No matter where you fall 
on the political spectrum, 
voting is a privilege, a right, 
civic duty, fundamental pillar 
of democracy,” Martin said. 

“WeListen 
is 
adamant 
to 
provide neutral resources that 
allow you to make actionable, 
informed decisions.”
At the Law School, Michigan 
Voting 
Project, 
a 
student-
led organization previously 
known 
as 
the 
Michigan 
Election Law Project, brings 
together law students studying 
voting law and professors to 
engage the student body. 
Casey Wright, Law School 
student and Voter Registration 
Chair, said the group used to 
be focused solely on bringing 
law 
students 
opportunities 
to learn about voting law, but 
has evolved to include more 
groundwork and encourage 
volunteer opportunities and 
organizing at the polls. 
“Some people come into 
this with a lot of personal 
knowledge and background 
about election law, and what 
current voting rights efforts 
look like across the country,” 
Wright said. “Some people, 
like me, are just interested 
in 
voting 
rights 
and 
are 
passionate about it and want 
to learn about it. I don’t come 
from any formal voting-related 
background, but it’s really 
cool to see what other people 
are doing, and the professors 
from the Law School are really 
experts in this field.”

Wright 
said 
while 
law 
students usually have already 
had experience with voting, 
MVP 
helps 
students 
who 
might want to switch their 
registration 
to 
Michigan 
or help them get access to 
absentee ballots. 
“We want to make sure that 
people know that they can 
switch their registration to 
Michigan if they want to, so 
that’s been a big priority for 
us especially since Michigan 
is a swing state and its 
very important in national 
elections,” Wright said. “There 
are a lot of very important 
local ballot initiatives that 
affect students and graduate 
students, so we want to make 
sure that people know that 
they can register to vote in 
Michigan while they’re here 
at school.”
Wright said MVP has been 
facilitating voter registration 
at the Law School and making 
sure people know when the 
election will take place in 
preparation for the primary. 
Looking ahead to the general 
election, Wright said they are 
working with the Office of 
Student Life to help students 
avoid 
having 
to 
choose 
between classes and voting. 
“Missing 
class 
for 
law 
students can be especially 

challenging,” 
Wright 
said. 
“We’re 
working 
with 
our 
Office of Student Life to see 
what sorts of options we have 
in terms of getting our classes 
recorded 
and 
just 
making 
sure that even if people have 
a really packed class schedule 
on Tuesdays, that they will 
not have to sacrifice their 
ability to get to the poll before 
it closes.”
LSA freshman Nick Schuler, 
College Republicans freshman 
chair, 
said 
registration 
efforts have begun within 
the organization. He noted an 
event the group held last week, 
during which a representative 
from 
the 
Trump 
Victory 
Organization came to help 
members get registered. The 
critical work, however, will 
begin next year in preparation 
for the general election, he 
said. 
“Next year we’re certainly 
going to be ramping up our 
voter registration and get out 
the voter efforts,” Schuler said. 
“We’re doing that through the 
statewide Republican National 
Committee — they help us out a 
lot — and as well the statewide 
campus Republicans. We’re 
just looking to get Republicans 
registered, especially in a state 
like Michigan.”
Schuler said he believes 

student Republican turnout 
will be even greater than in 
2016 because of the political 
environment 
surrounding 
impeachment.
“I 
think 
that 
among 
Republicans 
the 
turn 
out 
is going to be higher due to 
impeachment and Republicans 
know that it was an unfair, 
purely partisan process,” he 
said. “Republicans are going 
to be fired up, and they’re 
going to want to send a 
message to Nancy Pelosi and 
the Democrats that what they 
did was wrong.”
LSA student Rose Sickrey 
has just registered to vote in 
Ann Arbor and plans to cast 
her ballot for Sen. Bernie 
Sanders, I-Vt.
“I’m voting for him because 
of 
his 
feminist 
stances, 
universal 
health 
care 
and 
taxing the ultra-wealthy as 
proportionately as us normal 
people are taxed. The fact 
that I paid more in federal 
taxes last year than Amazon 
is gross,” Sickery said. “I will 
be voting for Bernie Sanders 
because the U.S., even if 
kicking and screaming, needs 
to be dragged into the 21st 
century.”
Reporter Katherina Sourine 
can be reached at ksourine@
umich.edu.

In light of the coronavirus 
outbreak, some students at the 
University 
have 
rescheduled 
or 
altered 
their 
trips. 
LSA 
sophomore Charlotte Falk was 
planning to travel to Milan for 
part of her spring break. One 
person on the trip with Falk was 
traveling with her grandmother 
and originally changed her plans 
because of the heightened risk 
for older people. However, Falk 
said their entire friend group 
ultimately decided to cut Milan 
from their itinerary. 
“Initially 
she 
made 
that 
decision 
because 
she 
was 
traveling with her grandma, and 
since coronavirus affects older 
people more, it was definitely 
more of a health risk, but the 

rest of us were still planning on 
going,” Falk said. “Literally, day-
to-day, as the stories increased, 
we decided it was in our best 
interest not to go, not only for 
safety concerns but at a certain 
point, it came down to a city that 
was only half-functioning.” 
Falk said they only decided 
to 
cancel 
their 
Milan 
trip 
on Tuesday, and have been 
scrambling to plan a new trip 
to Lisbon, Portugal, over the 
last two days. She said she was 
frustrated by the cost burden of 
having to plan a new trip. She 
didn’t have flight insurance to 
cover the expense, and flight 
prices increased as it got closer 
to their planned vacation date.
“Everything’s been a really 
quick turnover,” Falk said. “It’s 
super 
frustrating, 
especially 
wanting to visit friends that 
were already studying abroad 

there, but their entire plans are 
rocked anyway too. I feel like 
we’re all scampering at the last 
minute.”
LSA junior Aashika Shetty, 
who is currently studying abroad 
in London, said she originally 
had plans to travel to Milan. 
However, Shetty and her friends 
have all decided to cancel their 
trip because of the health risks. 
Shetty also said people she 
knows currently studying in 
Milan have had school canceled 
indefinitely due to the outbreak.
“We all made the decision that 
it’s probably just safer not to go,” 
Shetty said. “For me, it’s not a big 
cost to have a flight from London 
to Milan, so I’m not losing that 
much money. It’s better to not go 
than go, and I think it was also 
for peace of mind, too.”
Reporter Francesca Duong can 
be reached at fduong@umich.edu.

Meanwhile, Larson started this 
election cycle as a Pete Buttigieg 
supporter, 
then 
switched 
his 
support to Biden.
“I still like Pete Buttigieg as a 
candidate,” Larson said. “But the 
reason that Joe Biden specifically 
appealed to me (was through) 
having 
conversations 
with 
Andrew … and other members of 
the Biden organization, getting to 
know them and really digging into 
the policies.”
While all the groups hope to 
get voters for their respective 
candidate, their target audience 
varies. According to Schaeffler, 
Students for Biden focuses on 
students, helping them navigate 
absentee voting and encouraging 
civil engagement. 
On the other hand, according 
to LSA freshman Sonya Love, 
a 
field 
captain 
for 
Students 
for Warren last semester, her 
organization works closely with 
Washtenaw for Warren, which 

focuses on residents across the 
county. Students for Warren is 
also directly affiliated with the 
national Warren campaign.

Love said she worked to create 
plans for various field events. She 
said she has been a supporter of 
Warren since the beginning of 
summer 2019.
“I’m just really drawn to her 
message,” Love said. “I really am 
inspired by the positive change 
that I think she would bring to this 
country as president. It’s also just 
cool to meet like-minded people.”
Love 
said 
she 
has 
been 
attending Students for Warren 
meetings since the group first 
formed and has also participated 
in phone banking sessions.
“It’s 
palpable 
how 
excited 
people are about Warren as a 
candidate,” Love said. “They’re 
excited to make change in every 
way they can.”
Students for Bernie is a student 
organization 
affiliated 
with 
the 
national 
Bernie 
Sanders 
campaign, which recently opened 
a campaign office in Ann Arbor. 
The 
national 
campaign 
has 

provided resources, including two 
paid staffers and weekly call-in 
checks to help guide the group. 
LSA 
sophomore 
Anna 
Nedoss, 
Students 
for 
Bernie 
organization chair, told The Daily 
the national Sanders campaign 
putting resources into student 
organizations demonstrates an 
investment in college voters.
“The support that we get from 
the campaign is super valuable,” 
Nedoss said. “They help us do a lot 
of ‘get out the vote’ initiatives, so 
we actually are working directly 
with people who are paid by 
the campaign to come help us. 
That’s how much the campaign 
is really emphasizing student 
voter turnout and just the student 
demographic.”
LSA freshman Porter Hughes, 
co-founding 
member 
and 
communications 
director 
of 
Students for Bernie, said he works 
to spread the word about the 
senator through social media in 
addition to the tabling and phone 
banking events. Hughes said he 
went through training over the 
summer with the national Sanders 

campaign to prepare to lead 
Students for Bernie.
“Over the summer, they taught 
us a lot about how to organize on 
campus, things of that nature,” 
Hughes said. “And then we also 
brought in other groups or other 
people from our group to help join 
the leadership team and just like 
our general membership.” 
Hughes emphasized his support 
for Sanders, saying his policies 
will allow everyone to have equal 
opportunities for success. 
“We really believe in Senator 
Sanders’s mission: to transform 
our 
country, 
transform 
our 
politics to something that makes it 
possible for everybody to have the 
same opportunities,” Hughes said. 
“This is the kind of world that we 
need to live in and Sanders fulfills 
that vision and we are very happy 
to assist him.”
Students for Pete was founded 
by LSA senior Jessica Kosticak to 
bring together U-M students who 
support Buttigieg for president. 
Business freshman Jay Rubin 
said he found out about Students 
for Pete at the beginning of the 

year. Rubin said he is supporting 
Buttigieg because he believes 
Buttigieg is the most electable and 
the candidate best suited to beat 
President Donald Trump.
“When you look at the other 
candidates, I believe Pete is the 
best candidate because Sanders 
and Warren are way too far left 
and aren’t electable candidates,” 
Rubin said. “Klobuchar does not 
have enough support, Biden is too 
old and Bloomberg just entered 
the race too late. Combined with 
Pete’s well-spoken tendency and 
the fact that he’ll bring stability 
to the White House that we lack 
during the Trump presidency, I 
also believe he is the best candidate 
and he has a proven track record 
of success with being the mayor of 
South Bend, Indiana.”
Rubin also said he thinks 
supporting Buttigieg on Super 
Tuesday is the next step to 
making sure he wins the Michigan 
Democratic primary.
“With Super Tuesday coming 
up, it’s definitely encouraged us to 
do our best to ensure that Pete does 
get a lot of votes and ultimately, 

hopefully, the nomination,” Rubin 
said. “We all believe in Students 
for Pete that Pete is the best 
candidate. While we respect every 
other candidate, we do believe 
that Pete has the best chance to 
win the White House back and 
the primaries are just one way to 
achieve that.”
Beyond 
political 
affiliations 
and hopes for their candidate, 
however, student organizers aim 
to get more people to the polls. 
Larson said one of his priorities is 
increasing political participation.
“Even more than just promoting 
Joe Biden, we want to make sure 
that students most importantly, 
are civically engaged, whether 
they be Biden supporters or Trump 
supporters or nonvoters,” Larson 
said. “I think it’s really important 
that we have people, whether they 
be on any side of the political 
aisle, supporting any candidate 
or no candidate, to be willing to 
have open conversations.”
Reporters Iulia Dobrin and 
Jasmin Lee can be reached 
at 
idobrin@umich.edu 
and 
itsshlee@umich.edu. 

Stinar 
explained 
Deluca 
trusted and looked up to 
Coach Bill Johannesen like a 
father and was disappointed 
in his response.
“How did the University 
of Michigan coach, father 
figure Johannesen respond?” 
Stinar questioned. “Tad was 
removed from the wrestling 
team, Tad’s scholarship and 
financial aid was revoked. 
Tad’s personal letter that he 
wrote in 1975 was read to the 
rest of his wrestling team.”
In 
a 
statement 
from 
University spokesman Rick 
Fitzgerald, the University has 
hired 
outside 
investigators 
Steptoe & Johnson to uncover 
the facts of the case. 
“The 
university 
engaged 
a firm with deep expertise 
to conduct an independent, 
thorough, 
and 
unflinching 
review of the facts – wherever 
they may lead,” the statement 
reads. “Through the work 

of 
this 
independent 
firm, 
there will be a full, public 
accounting 
of 
the 
harms 
caused by Anderson as well 
as the institutional failings 
that allowed him to keep 
practicing.” 
Stinar then described the 
letter Deluca sent in 2018 
to Athletic Director Warde 
Manuel. 
Stinar 
alleged 
Manuel ignored the letter. 
“Tad’s 2018 letter to the 
athletic 
director 
at 
the 
University 
of 
Michigan 
includes very, very serious 
statements,” 
Stinar 
said. 
“After receiving this letter 
athletic 
director 
Warde 
Manuel and Pamela Heatlie, 
who is affiliated with the 
academic and faculty Affairs, 
sat on this letter for numerous 
months, because it got lost in 
a stack of paperwork. This 
letter was received in the heat 
of the Nassar investigation. 
The University of Michigan 
sat on this letter for months, 
and just like Tad’s 1975 letter, 
it was ignored.”
After 
Manuel 
received 

the 
letter 
in 
2018, 
the 
University police conducted 
an 
investigation 
into 
the 
allegations. 
However, 
the 
Washtenaw 
County 
Prosecutor’s office did not 
pursue 
criminal 
charges 
because Anderson had died in 
2008 . 
Hrovat 
described 
how 
his teammates warned him 
about Anderson before he 
had to go in for his physical 
as a freshman and the impact 
of knowing what was about 
to happen had on his mental 
state. 
“When your team is telling 
you when you go in there, that 
you’re going to be touched 
inappropriately, and things 
are gonna get weird,” Hrovat 
explained. “Just going into 
it, that mental psyche was 
something I couldn’t deal with 
at the time. You know, that’s 
what has stuck with me for 
the last 20-plus years, to have 
to go into a room knowing that 
you’re going to encounter this 
… and that’s why it’s always 
been in the back of my mind 

that this wasn’t right.”
Evashevski commented on 
the prevalence of the abuse 
perpetrated by Anderson.
“It happened to me, it 
happened to them, it happened 
to just about everyone I knew,” 
Evashevksi said. 

Hrovat 
described 
his 
experience as a male athlete 
who was sexually abused. 
He said the culture within 
athletics for males to push 
through any obstacles they 
face 
contributed 
to 
the 
environment of silence. 
“As athletes in combat sport, 
an individual sport, we’re 
taught our whole lives that, 
you know, this is on us, you 
know, be tough, push through 
it,” Hrovat said. “And make no 
excuses because everything’s 
in your hands...It’s really hard 
to look at yourself as a victim, 
right? Because you’re not a 
victim on the mat. It’s in your 
hands, right? But it’s hard to 
separate.”
Deluca said he often blamed 
himself for his losses on the 

mat, and that blame carried 
over to his interactions with 
Anderson. 
“If I won, it was my fault, 
if I lost, it was my fault,” 
Deluca said. “So, in 1975 I lost 
everything, and it was my 
fault.”
Stinar 
concluded 
by 
explaining the next steps the 
alleged survivors were taking 
legally. He noted a lawsuit 
has not yet been filed but they 
have a meeting scheduled 
with the general counsel of 
the University in the near 
future. 
“At this point, our three 
goals are to uncover the truth, 
and that will be through 
the documents that we’ve 
obtained, as well as speaking 
to other victims and other 
individuals willing to come 
forward and speak up,” Stinar 
said. “Number two is to allow 
a safe platform for victims 
to call into, to communicate, 
to share their story… and 
then number three is holding 
the University of Michigan 
accountable. 
And 
number 

three, 
there’s 
different 
pathways to go down. And at 
this time, the first step is to 
meet with the University.”
The University statement 
recognized the courage of the 
men who told their stories and 
requested others who have 
been negatively impacted by 
Anderson to come forward. 
“The 
three 
brave 
men 
who came forward today to 
share their stories delivered 
a 
powerful 
message,” 
the 
statement reads. “We want to 
encourage everyone harmed 
by Robert E. Anderson or 
who has evidence of his 
misconduct to come forward. 
At the University of Michigan 
we want to hear your voices.”
The 
allegations 
against 
Anderson 
come 
after 
the 
University 
placed 
Provost 
Martin 
Philbert 
on 
leave 
due to multiple allegations 
of sexual misconduct and 
allegations against University 
EECS Professor Jason Mars.
Daily News Editor Emma 
Stein 
can 
be 
reached 
at 
enstein@umich.edu

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News
Friday, February 28, 2020 — 3

ALLEGATIONS
From Page 1

CAMPAIGN
From Page 1

REGISTRATION 
From Page 1

SAPAC
From Page 1

CORONAVIRUS
From Page 1

Read more at 
MichiganDaily.com

