D

rinking, 
Greek 
life 
and one-night stands 
— when you think of 
college social life, these are 
probably the first things to 
come to mind. What you might 
not think about is how these 
quintessential undergraduate 
experiences work to exclude 
minority students. The fact 
is 
that 
college 
campuses 
create an environment that 
is inherently unhealthy for 
LGBTQ+ students.
It’s 
no 
secret 
college 
students drink — a lot. Four 
out of five students consume 
alcohol, and about half binge 
drink. With such a presence, 
it 
is 
difficult 
for 
at-risk 
students to avoid developing 
a 
dependency 
on 
alcohol. 
Many groups of people are at 
increased risk, of course, but 
perhaps the most predisposed 
group 
is 
the 
LGBTQ+ 
community. An estimated 25 
percent of LGBTQ+ people 
suffer 
from 
alcoholism, 
compared to 5 to 10 percent of 
the general population. While 
it’s no secret minorities are 
at higher risk for substance 
abuse, queer people have a 
unique social position that 
makes it harder for us to 
both avoid alcohol in the 
first place and to get treated 
for alcoholism after the fact. 
Before the mainstream gay 
rights movement, gay bars 
were the only place LGBTQ+ 
people could meet and be 
themselves, and to this day 
they 
are 
practically 
the 
only 
social 
establishments 
catering specifically to queer 
folks. Alcohol is central to 
the community’s social life. 
After dependency forms, it is 
harder for LGBTQ+ people to 
get help for their addictions 
as 
many 
lack 
supportive 
families. 
Furthermore, 
faith-based rehab programs 
are 
hardly 
a 
welcoming 
environment, whether they 
scare people away by their 
religious nature inherently or 
prevent LGBTQ+ attendance 
outright.
It is also nothing new that 
colleges have a problem with 
sexual misconduct. Anyone 
can be the victim of sexual 

assault 
and 
harassment, 
though we often see women as 
being most affected. However, 
this is another issue that 
profoundly impacts LGBTQ+ 
people, not just heterosexual 
women. 
Three 
in 
four 
LGBTQ+ 
college 
students 
reported experiencing sexual 
harassment, and trans and 
genderqueer 
students 
had 
the highest rates of rape 
(it is worth noting that one 
of the campuses surveyed 
for this data was Michigan 
State 
University, 
just 
an 
hour away from us). While 
this victimization is a result 
of bigotry not exclusive to 
campus life, colleges have 

become a vessel for this 
sexual mistreatment. Even 
consensual sexual behavior 
on campus is often harmful 
to 
LGBTQ+ 
students; 
college hookup culture is 
incredibly 
heteronormative 
and reliant on gender roles, 
making it difficult for people 
to 
participate 
without 
replicating 
these 
roles 
in 
what is essentially a form 
of censorship of queerness 
mandated by college society.
Greek life is perhaps the 
epitome of gender conformity 
on 
campus. 
Fraternities 
enforce 
hypermasculinity 
upon 
their 
members, 
creating 
an 
environment 
of, among other unsavory 
elements, misogyny, sexual 
assault, 
alcohol 
abuse 
and homophobia. Each of 
these facts either directly 
victimizes 
queer 
people, 
through 
aspects 
like 
misogyny and homophobia, 
or indirectly targets them 
because of disproportionate 
risks 
they 
face, 
such 
as 
through sexual assault or 

alcohol 
abuse. 
Sororities, 
while 
less 
notorious, 
are 
fundamentally 
linked 
to 
their male counterparts in 
upholding this standard by 
promoting hyper-femininity 
and 
placing 
it 
opposite 
masculinity. 
Both 
sides 
of the Greek life coin are 
predisposed to discriminate 
against 
gender 
non-
conforming people, whether 
gay, trans or simply presenting 
in a non-conforming manner. 
Once again, LGBTQ+ people 
are 
both 
implicitly 
and 
explicitly kept out of these 
institutions: 
implicitly 
by 
knowing that Greek life has 
no space for non-conforming 
individuals, and explicitly by 
nondiscrimination 
policies 
that ignore or ban gay and 
trans people.
All of this adds up to a hostile 
environment 
for 
LGBTQ+ 
people, and it has tangible 
effects 
on 
our 
education. 
One-fifth of all anti-LGBTQ+ 
harassment 
and 
violence 
occurs on college campuses, 
and 
the 
fear 
of 
physical 
safety this violence creates 
often leads to absenteeism, 
falling grades and increased 
chances of dropping out. In 
one survey, 33 percent of 
LGB and 38 percent of trans 
students seriously considered 
leaving their college because 
of how poor the campus 
climate was. LGBTQ+ high 
school students are less likely 
to intend to go to college the 
more harassment they face. 
As of 2015, the odds of a 
queer woman completing her 
bachelor’s degree were only 
one in four (the odds were 
double that for queer men, 
however). LGBTQ+ centers 
and inclusion orientations can 
only do so much for us when 
campus society is built in a 
way that inherently others 
LGBTQ+ students. Though it 
will be hard to dismantle such 
baked-in biases, I believe it is 
worth it, as success in college 
will pose us for success in 
making LGBTQ+ lives safer in 
the rest of the world.

I

n 
1848, 
Karl 
Marx 
— 
influential German political 
theorist — published the 
Communist 
Manifesto 
with 
co-author 
Friedrich 
Engels 
in the face of groundbreaking 
class struggle. The Manifesto, 
which outlined the system of 
communism in order to save 
the growing and increasingly 
impoverished 
working 
class, 
sought to close the dramatic gap 
between everyday proletarians 
and the exploitative bourgeoisie 
and make society work for all.
Almost two centuries later, 
Democratic 
presidential 
candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, 
I-Vt., 
a 
self-proclaimed 
“democratic socialist,” is quickly 
building a revolution resting on 
those same principles. In a once-
crowded field of candidates that 
has 
considerably 
narrowed, 
Sanders has emerged as the 
front-runner for the nomination, 
drawing considerable support 
from young people across the 
country who want a “tax on 
extreme wealth,” a Green New 
Deal, Medicare for All, student 
loan debt forgiveness and more.
Places like Ann Arbor with 
large 
student 
populations 
are ground zero for Sanders 
supporters. Young Democrats 
adore this political movement 
and might just propel the senator 
to 
become 
the 
Democratic 
standard-bearer. 
But there’s something really 
concerning 
happening 
with 
those who are “feeling the Bern.” 
Sanders 
supporters 
across 
this country might be strong 
in numbers and proud to cast 
their vote for the democratic 
socialist, but a politician with 
such radical ideas shouldn’t be 
polling at even half of where he 
stands right now. 
After spending months on 
one of the most politically active 
college campuses in the country, 
it’s become clear that Sanders’s rise 
to prominence is being fueled 
by young people’s growing 
disconnect to the true reality of 
American life. Millennials and 
Gen Zers desperately need to 
stop feeling the Bern and take 
the time to understand what 
has made America — a place 
where 
anybody 
can 
work 
their way up to success — the 
most respected country in the 
world.
Although Sanders and his 

supporters are determined to 
unite “around an agenda that 
works for all of us, and not 
just the billionaire class,” as 
the senator said at the recent 
Nevada Democratic debate, the 
problem is that the Sanders 
revolution 
is 
completely 
missing the point. America is 
already prospering, and not 
just for the billionaire class. 
People of all walks of life are 
thriving, whether Sanders’s 
most 
passionate 
supporters 
want to recognize that fact or 
not.
While 
Marx’s 
Manifesto 
resonated in a time when 
the 
proletariat 
faced 
unprecedented struggles, the 
Sanders movement really has 
no struggles to talk about, 
other 
than 
ones 
that 
are 
ultimately baseless. A recent 
Gallup poll released in the 
midst of Sanders’s surprising 
ascent found that 89 percent of 
Republicans feel they’re better 
off than they were three years 
ago. When aggregated with 29 
percent of Democrats, that’s 60 
percent of all Americans that 
feel they’re better off now. And 
this isn’t all. Gallup mentioned 
in another poll that 63 percent 
of Americans consider our 
economy 
to 
be 
“excellent” 
or “good,” while the pollster 
also indicated that 61 percent 
say the American economy is 
improving.
Do 
these 
figures 
seem 
to indicate a system where 
everybody but the billionaire 
class is suffering, as Sanders 
tells us? I don’t think so. In 
fact, 
ordinary 
people 
are 
going to work in near-record 
numbers and our economy is 
expanding at full speed. And 
this expansion has nothing to 
do with a stock market that has 
repeatedly hit record highs. 
It’s all about the major strides 
that everyday Americans are 
making all of the time.
Last September, the Bureau 
of Labor Statistics found that 
the unemployment rate of 3.5 
percent was at its lowest point 
since 1969 — 50 years ago at the 
time of the report. The Bureau 
recorded the rate to be close 
by, at 3.6 percent, as of early 
February.
Beyond 
this, 
figures 
reveal that the working class 
in 
particular 
(especially 

historically 
disadvantaged 
groups) has prospered beyond 
belief over the past decade. 
Since 2009, according to the 
Bureau, the bottom 10 percent 
of Americans have seen their 
earnings grow by almost 5 
percent, compared to only 3 
percent for the top tenth. By this 
measure, our country is actually 
seeing a decrease in inequality, 
simply as a result of market 
forces. Earnings growth for 
workers has also outpaced 
that of managers over the 
same period, while the same 
trend holds for people who 
don’t hold bachelor’s degrees 
compared to those who hold 
bachelor’s degrees or higher.
The truth, as harsh as 
it may be for those who are 
feeling the Bern, is that our 
nation is indisputably working 
not just for billionaires — it’s 
working for every American 
that has the will and ambition 
to carve out a successful life. 
Young people need to take 
the time to realize as soon 
as possible that a Sanders 
presidency would wreak havoc 
on everything that has made 
our country great already.
While 
Sanders 
has 
won 
some of the early battles, the 
war is far from over, with the 
critical Super Tuesday contests 
still 
looming 
ahead. 
Many 
Americans 
have 
convinced 
themselves 
that 
Sanders 
has a clear path toward the 
nomination and is essentially 
unstoppable, but at a time 
when America is doing better 
than ever, I have hope that a 
candidate who truly supports 
the core values of this nation 
will prevail.
The 
Democratic 
primary 
comes to Michigan on Tuesday, 
March 10. On that day, when 
millions across the country will 
be casting their ballots, I urge 
every voter to reject an agenda 
of democratic socialism that 
would completely reverse the 
progress millions of ordinary 
Americans are enjoying. In 
the end, Democrats have an 
uncompromising 
obligation 
to nominate a candidate that 
will build on, not dismantle, 
the profound success that has 
defined the United States.

Opinion
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
4 — Friday, February 28, 2020

Alanna Berger
Zack Blumberg
Brittany Bowman
Emily Considine
Cheryn Hong

Krystal Hur
Ethan Kessler
Zoe Phillips
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
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ELIZABETH LAWRENCE
Editor in Chief
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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

EVAN STERN | COLUMN

Why young Sanders supporters should stop “feeling the Bern”

VARNA KODOTH | COLUMN

How to make a large lecture hall accessible

Campus social life through queer eyes

RAY AJEMIAN | COLUMN

Ray Ajemian can be reached at 

rajemian@umich.edu.

A

s students at a huge public 
university, it’s easy to go 
through all four years 
at the University of 
Michigan 
unnoticed 
by 
professors. 
It’s 
possible to just attend 
the lecture, submit your 
assignments on Canvas, 
show up to exams 
and slide by without 
forming 
connections 
with University staff 
and faculty. 
For 
me, 
one 
of 
the 
most 
difficult 
transitions from high school to 
college was adapting to giant 
lecture halls. Introductory level 
courses in 1800 CHEM (the largest 
lecture hall in the Chemistry 
Building) filled with over 300 
students are a major change as 
my largest class in high school 
contained a maximum of 25 
students. In terms of learning, it 
didn’t impact me negatively; I’ve 
enjoyed the lecture slides format. 
But I faced the most trouble when 
it came to asking questions. In 
particular, 
women 
in 
large 
STEM courses and majors often 
discuss how difficult it is to feel 
comfortable asking questions. This 
includes questions related to either 
course content or general inquiry 
about professional development. 
It’s particularly intimidating to 
approach 
your 
distinguished 
professor and ask them questions 
about their career path, your 
trajectory and advice on entering a 
field in front of 300 students.
This is why office hours exist, to 
answer all questions ranging from 
course content to getting to know 
your professor on a professional 
level. However, most students 
tend to attend office hours the 
week before the exam, which is 
typically an opportunity to ask 
questions related to the upcoming 
exam. Then, assuming the office 
hours experience is useful for 
exam material, the typical student 
doesn’t visit the professor until 
the next office hours opportunity 

immediately before the next exam. 
“Students don’t come to office 
hours because they don’t think 
they are worthy of 
the professor’s time, 
or they have attended 
an office hour and the 
faculty member was 
not very welcoming,” 
says 
Katherine 
Merseth, 
a 
senior 
lecturer at Harvard.
It’s understandable 
that 
amid 
all 
the 
extracurricular 
activities, 
a 
full 
semester course load, job hours 
and other time commitments, 
it seems near impossible to add 
attending office hours to the “to-
do list.” However, to be able to 
find a mentor who you identify 
with, whether it be in terms of 
social identities, passions, life 
experiences or career interests, 
truly adds to the undergraduate 
experience. While professors and 
faculty members are just as busy 
as they appear to be with research 
and side projects, they chose to 
work at an academic institution 
like the University of Michigan 
because they look forward to 
interacting with the University’s 
high-achieving student population. 
Therefore, it’s essential to the 
University student experience to 
attend weekly office hours and 
engage with professors beyond the 
classroom to foster connections 
that support your professional and 
personal development. 
From 
the 
professor’s 
end, 
professors should work to be 
more approachable and to create 
an atmosphere that encourages 
students to attend office hours or 
make one-on-one appointments 
with their professors to talk about 
their research interests or side 
project ideas. Currently, office hours 
take the form of a Q&A session. To 
add a more conversational tone 
to the office hours experience, 
connect course material to real-
world applications in the field. In 
doing so, the office hour session 

transforms from a formal Q&A 
session into an open discussion on 
ways in which the material is useful 
to students pursuing careers related 
to the course or major. Additionally, 
today, office hours often take place 
in the confinements of the four 
white walls of the professor’s office. 
What scares students away from 
attending office hours are the tall 
bookcases and sitting before an 
accomplished professor with their 
large desk looming over the room. 
This is precisely what makes an 
online interface like Piazza seem 
like a more approachable forum 
for “dumb” or “basic” questions. In 
previous courses in which office 
hours appeared more accessible to 
me, professors booked conference 
rooms or neutral spaces like a table 
in the open common area to make 
students feel more comfortable with 
approaching the professor with any 
question. While professors often 
mention that students are welcome 
to stop by and say hello on the 
syllabus day of the lecture, it may be 
helpful to consistently mention that 
it is more than OK to attend office 
hours just to say hello and introduce 
yourself.
As students at the University, 
we’re privileged with so many 
resources accessible to us, and 
professors are one of them. The 
breadth of specialized knowledge 
each U-M faculty member holds is 
accompanied by life experiences 
and on-the-job learned skills. This 
is the benefit of human-to-human 
interactions: There’s a level of 
personal touch that an encyclopedia, 
YouTube video and Google search 
cannot provide. Professors are 
bursting with so much “insider” 
material to share, so find time in 
your four years to prioritize finding 
mentors and networking with 
experts in your field of interest. 
At the end of the day, these very 
same professors and faculty were 
also students trying to navigate the 
undergraduate experience.

Varna Kodoth can be reached at 

vkodoth@umich.edu.

Evan Stern can be reached at 

erstern@umich.edu.

VARNA 
KODOTH

CASEY RHEAULT | CONTACT CARTOONIST AT CRHEAULT@UMICH.EDU

Greek life is 
perhaps the 
epitome of gender 
conformity on 
campus. 

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