michigandaily.com
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Tuesday, March 10, 2020

ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-NINE YEARS OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM

As Michigan gears up for the 
March 10 Democratic primary, 
University of Michigan students 
are comparing the positions 
of front-runners former Vice 
President Joe Biden and Sen. 
Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. on issues 
relating to higher education. 
Affordability 
of 
four-year 
colleges 
and 
universities 

has been an important topic 
throughout 
the 
primary. 
Both 
candidates’ 
platforms 
include measures to increase 
affordability and reduce student 
loan debt, focusing heavily on 
the expansion of Pell grants, 
a federal subsidy provided to 
students 
from 
low-income 
families. 
According 
to 
Biden’s 
published positions on higher 
education, Biden thinks college 
should be used as a pathway 
for people to move into the 

middle class. To make college 
more affordable, he promises 
to double the maximum value 
of Pell grants in order to 
offer additional financial aid 
specifically towards low-income 
and middle-class students. 
Biden’s platform also says 
he 
wants 
to 
further 
loan 
forgiveness for people working 
in public service and continue 
programs such as the Public 
Service 
Loan 
Forgiveness 
program, which forgives debt 
to students entering public-

service related careers. His 
platform 
also 
discusses 
promoting 
an 
income-based 
student loan repayment plan 
and protecting GI benefits for 
veterans and their families. 
LSA 
freshman 
Andrew 
Schaeffler, 
co-founder 
of 
Students for Biden at U-M, 
believes Biden’s policies on 
increasing Pell Grants would 
directly 
impact 
University 
students by increasing access to 
education. 

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INDEX
Vol. CXXIX, No. 75
©2020 The Michigan Daily

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

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

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

S U D O K U . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

S P O R T S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

A R T S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
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A2 talks 
multiple 
languages 
on ballots

CITY

 JULIA FORREST 
Daily Staff Reporters

Students compare 2020 candidates, 
policy positions on higher education

‘U’ political organizations discuss funding for public schools, community colleges

GOVERNMENT

Follow The Daily 
on Instagram, 
@michigandaily

With 
the 
2020 
election 
approaching, 
United 
States 
immigrants 
and 
naturalized 
citizens make up one-tenth of 
eligible voters in the United 
States. The number of U.S. 
immigrants 
and 
naturalized 
citizens eligible to vote has 
grown by 93 percent since the 
year 2000, making about 23 
million 
immigrants 
eligible 
to vote. However, more than 
5 million of those immigrants 
have 
Limited 
English 
Proficiency, making it more 
difficult for them to vote since 
ballots are often written only in 
English. 
Carolyn Chen, LSA junior and 
field director for the University 
of Michigan chapter of College 
Democrats, spoke to The Daily 
about the issue of English-only 
ballots for those with LEP. 
“English-only ballots are an 
issue because without having 
multiple languages, there is 
covert disenfranchisement by 
pushing away underrepresented 
minorities from the polls,” Chen 
said. “If people are not able to 
understand a ballot, they are 
unable to vote.”

EMMA RUBERG 
& FRANCESCA DUONG
Daily Staff Reporters

DESIGN BY HIBAH MIRZAl

Bernie makes strong 
efforts to reach out 
among Muslim, Arab 
American communities 

EMMA RUBERG
Daily Staff Reporter

City administrators 
comment on Limited 
English Proficiency 
challenges on voting

Bernie Sanders, the Vermont 
senator hoping to win the 
Democratic 
presidential 
nomination, 
has 
made 
an 
extensive effort to reach out 
to 
the 
Muslim 
community, 
garnering large support. Arab 
American and Muslim groups on 
various social media platforms 
use 
#Muslims4Bernie 
and 
#InshallahBernie to show their 
support. Many in the Muslim 
community 
have 
taken 
to 
referring to Sanders as “Amo 
Bernie,” 
meaning 
“Uncle 
Bernie.”
At 
a 
campaign 
event 
in 
Dearborn on Saturday, Sanders 
addressed 
members 
of 
the 
area’s 
large 
Arab 
American 
and Muslim communities. He 
discussed the need to focus on 
what unifies people, rather than 
what divides them.
“Every person in this room, it 
doesn’t matter if you’re Christian, 
Muslim, Jewish, whatever you 
may be, you have the same 
dreams 
and 
aspirations,” 
Sanders said on Saturday. “Last 
I heard, everyone needs health 
care as a human right. Last I 
heard, everyone wants their kids 
to get a quality education.”

Sanders 
garners 
minority 
support 

ASHA LEWIS/Daily
Presidential candidate Joe Biden hosts a rally at Renaissance High School in Detroit.

Biden speaks in 
Detroit ahead 
of primary day

IULIA DOBRIN 
& ANGELINA LITTLE
Daily Staff Reporters

Whitmer, Booker and Harris support 
presidential hopeful at Michigan rally

Cheers of “Let’s go, Joe” filled 
the gym of Renaissance High 
School in Detroit on Monday 
night, the eve of the Democratic 
primary, as supporters gathered to 
rally for presidential hopeful Joe 
Biden. Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Cal., 
Sen. Cory Booker, D-NJ, and Gov. 
Gretchen Whitmer joined Biden 
on the stage in a final push for his 
election before Tuesday. 
Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan 
opened the rally in support of 
Biden, referencing the former 
vice president’s commitment to 
helping rebuild Detroit’s economy 
following its 2014 bankruptcy. 
“He got us new buses, he got 
us housing ... When the rest of the 
country had written us off, he was 
there,” Duggan said. 
Lt. 
Gov. 
Garlin 
Gilchrist 
explained his support for Biden 
using three factors: his record, 
his results and his relationships. 
Gilchrist said he voted for Sen. 
Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., in 2016, 
receiving a mixed response from 
the crowd, but explained he 
believes these three qualities set 

Biden apart. 
“The 
difference 
is 
nobody 
with the records, results and 
relationships of Joe Biden was on 
the ballot and what we need in 
2020 is somebody who is gonna 
have a vision that includes all of 
us,” Gilchrist said. “When Joe 
Biden looks to build a coalition, 
he doesn’t look away from any 
person, he doesn’t look away from 
any community, instead, he looks 
to empower people to help make a 
difference.”
Biden’s record resonated with 
some 
University 
of 
Michigan 
students in attendance as well, 
including 
Information 
junior 
Harrison McCabe, who said he 
finds Biden the most trustworthy 
of 
the 
remaining 
Democratic 
candidates. 
“I trust Joe,” McCabe said. “He 
has a record of getting things done, 
and he’s the most ‘get-it-done’ 
person left in this race.”
LSA freshman Kenny Larson, 
who is involved with Students for 
Biden at the University, said he felt 
a sense of coalition while waiting 
in line for the doors to open to the 
rally.
“Just based on what we’ve seen 
walking through here, this rally 

reflects a really diverse coalition of 
voters, whether that be across age, 
race, ethnicity, sexuality,” Larson 
said. “I think that really speaks 
to sort of Joe Biden’s message of 
unity.”
Whitmer spoke to this coalition 
in her speech in support of Biden, 
pointing to the diversity of the 
crowd.
“What I love about Joe Biden, 
though, is he knows how to 
build a coalition,” Whitmer 
said. “I’m ridin’ with Biden and 
everyone else has a seat too. It 
takes coalitions to win. And 
this campaign looks like this 
country and it looks like this 
city.”
LSA 
freshman 
Adam 
Grimes, who is a member 
of Students for Biden and 
attended Sunday’s rally for 
Sanders, felt that the crowd 
at the Biden rally was more 
diverse and indicative of a 
stronger coalition to beat 
Trump. 
He 
pointed 
to 
Biden’s victories in Southern 
states as evidence of his 
ability to turn key states 
democratic. 

See EDUCATION, Page 3

See SANDERS, Page 3
See LANGUAGE, Page 3

“Bernie’s 
crowd 
yesterday 
actually made me a little bit nervous,” 
Grimes said. “It was just the same 
young, generally white voters that 
he’s been getting and that’s not 
what’s gonna win the election against 
Trump.” 
Booker mentioned this sense of 
unity while also appealing to Detroit 
natives, speaking about his mother’s 
roots in Detroit and his grandfather 
being a United Auto Workers 
assembly line worker.
“This party is not the party of ‘me,’ 
it’s the party of ‘we,’” Booker said. 
“It’s the party that believes in this 
radical concept — I don’t know if y’all 
ever heard of it — it’s called science.”
Booker 
listed 
other 
issues 
important to the Democratic party 
as well, such as civil rights, voting 
rights, women’s rights and worker’s 
rights. Harris, taking the stage after 
Booker, spoke more to some of these 
central party issues.
“Michigan: Justice is on the ballot 
in 2020,” Harris said. “Economic 
justice is on the ballot in 2020. 
Reproductive justice is on the ballot 
in 2020. Healthcare justice is on the 
ballot in 2020, environmental justice 
is on the ballot in 2020, racial justice 
is on the ballot in 2020, 
and Joe Biden is on the 

ballot in 2020.”
Biden came out after Kamala’s 
introduction, thanking those who 
spoke before him. He specifically 
thanked Whitmer, citing one of her 
campaign’s catchphrases.
“When I hear that great line you 
say, ‘Let’s fix the damn roads’ — let’s 
fix this country,” Biden said. 
He began his speech by talking 
about how just over a week ago, the 
press and Congress had declared 
the campaign “dead,” a ruling that, 
according to Biden, was overturned 
by South Carolina and Super Tuesday 
primary results. 
A 
few 
minutes 
into 
his 
speech, 
Biden 
was interrupted by Anti-NAFTA 

protesters, who had large banners 
and began chanting. Biden responded 
with, “This is not a Trump rally,” 
telling people in the crowd to let the 
protesters go. The protesters were 
quickly escorted outside, after which 
the crowd resumed chants of “Let’s 
go, Joe.” 
Soon after, about 25 protesters 
from Sunrise Movement, a climate 
activist group that endorses Sanders, 
and 
Black 
Youth 
Project 
100 
(BYP100), a Black youth organization 
dedicated to social justice issues, 
disrupted the rally with the chant 
“Joe must go.” They carried banners 
reading “Green New Deal Now” and 
“Green Jobs For All” as they marched 
and chanted. 
Allie Lindstrom, midwest trainer 
and co-founder Sunrise Ann Arbor 
Hub, said they hoped to interrupt the 
rally and ask Biden questions about 
his ability to appeal to youth voters. 
“My intention was to call attention 
to the fact that Joe Biden does not 
have widespread youth support and 
many of the policies that excite young 
people and excite new voters — he 
has not spoken (about), he has not 
committed to any change, and we 

See BIDEN, Page 3