Over 700 community members 
gathered in the University of 
Michigan Diag on Sept. 18 to 
participate in the second annual 
Entheofest, a festival dedicated 
to 
the 
decriminalization 
and 
awareness 
of 
entheogens, 
or 
psychedelic substances. The event 
brought 
together 
people 
and 
organizations from all over the 
Ann Arbor area, fostering a sense 
of community through a variety 
of performances and educational 
booths.
This 
September 
marks 
the 
two-year anniversary of the Ann 
Arbor 
City 
Council’s 
decision 
to 
decriminalize 
psychedelics, 
declaring it “the lowest priority” for 
law enforcement. The Washtenaw 
County Prosecutor’s Office also does 
not charge individuals for the use, 
growth or possession of entheogenic 
plants. According to an MLive 
article, 
City 
Council 
members 

were “swayed by arguments about 
medical and spiritual benefits of 
using psychedelics, including for 
mental health treatment” in 2020, 
when they made their decision.
Though the state of Michigan 
has not decriminalized psychedelic 
substances statewide, the city of 
Detroit officially decriminalized 
entheogens in November 2021, with 
Hazel Park following in March 2022. 
According to Bridge Michigan, only 
14 cities nationwide have passed 
similar policies by March, and 
Oregon is currently the only state to 
have decriminalized entheogens for 
medical purposes. 
Julie Barron, president of the 
Michigan Psychedelic Society and 
board member of Decriminalize 
Nature Michigan, has been involved 
with Entheofest since its inception, 
one year ago. Barron was beaming as 
she talked Sunday about the success 
of this year’s event. Barron told The 
Michigan Daily that hosting public 
events like Entheofest promotes a 
sense of inclusion in the community.
“We want to honor our sacred 

plants and fungi,” Barron said. “We 
want to create a space of diversity 
and equality in the space. Our event 
is really just to continue the forward 
motion of the work already done. 
It’s really to make sure we take time 
and honor the community and the 
plants.”
Keynote 
speaker 
Moudou 
Baqui, who is also a key leader in 
the Decriminalize Nature Detroit 
campaign, emphasized the less 
obvious benefits of psychedelics, 
such as healing trauma and helping 
those with mental health concerns. 
His speech spoke to the importance 
of keeping psychedelic substances 
under the jurisdiction of activists 
rather than the government.
“How do (psychedelics) stay in 
the hands of people? By avoiding 
the mistakes that we made in the 
previous movement of cannabis,” 
Baqui said. “We allowed people to 
convince us that legalization was the 
smart way which was really signing 
us up to enter into a legal structure.”
Based on previous research, 
Baqui said there is potential for 

increased health benefits from 
improving access to psychedelics 
for individuals experiencing mental 
health concerns, the elderly and 
those healing from trauma. 
“When 
we 
do 
mushrooms, 
sometimes I’m dealing with a 
kid that’s got memories of police 
repression or drive-bys or memories 
of friends dying on the street, so we 
do it with a deeper level of healing,” 
Baqui said.
Matt Strang, another member 
of the Michigan Initiative for 
Community 
Healing, 
attended 
Entheofest for the second time 
on Sunday. Strang said he was 
happy with how the event seemed 
to attract more visitors and felt 
more welcoming to him this year 
compared with 2021.
“I like how (Entheofest) is 
maturing and changing,” Strang 
said. “People are kind of learning as 
we go.”
Daily News Reporter Isabella 
Kassa can be reached at ikassa@
umich.edu.

If Trevor Noah could have any 
wish granted, he would not wish for 
more money, success or even more 
wishes.
Instead, he told University of 
Michigan students that he would 
wish for something “crazy.”
“I wish that the world would 
have this weird system where at 
any time, in any place, you could be 
snapped out of your body and you’d 
have to live in somebody else’s for an 
indeterminate period of time,” Noah 
said. “I wonder how they would treat 
(other) people knowing that they 
might be them on any given day.”
Noah, 
a 
38-year-old 
South 
African comedian and host of The 
Daily Show, presented life advice 
— and humor, of course — to U-M 
engineering students while talking 
about his 2016 autobiography “Born 
a Crime.” He gave the equivalent of 
an intimate “fireside chat” from the 
stage of a packed Hill Auditorium 
and returned to Hill after sunset to 
perform stand-up. The comedy show 
was a stop on his ongoing “Back to 
Abnormal” world tour and marked 
the first time Noah has appeared live 
at the University.
Following the fireside chat, which 
was exclusively for engineering 
students, Noah hosted a comedy 
show at the Hill Auditorium that 
drew over 3,000 attendees, of which 
over 1,100 were U-M students. The 
show featured a comedic take on 
U.S. and U.K politics, the COVID-
19 pandemic and the upcoming 
live-action remake of Disney’s “The 
Little Mermaid.” 
Engineering freshmen in 2021 
and 2022 were asked to read 
Noah’s “Born a Crime” as a part of 
the Common Reading Experience 
program before stepping foot on 
campus and starting their first 
courses. Since 2013, the program 

was created to give new students an 
easy way to start conversations with 
their peers. The literary selection has 
changed from year to year, but for 
the past two summers, engineering 
students have started their time as 
Wolverines by reading Noah’s book 
about growing up in South Africa 
during apartheid. 
Friday’s talk was specifically 
reserved for engineering students 
who filled up the main floor and 
mezzanine of Hill Auditorium — over 
2,000 seats total. At the talk, Alec 
D. Gallimore, the Robert J. Vlasic 
dean of engineering, introduced 
Sita Syal, an assistant professor of 
mechanical engineering, who led the 
conversation with Noah.
Gallimore spoke to the crowd 
about why the College of Engineering 
wanted to bring Noah to campus 
to talk to students. He mentioned 
that Noah speaks eight different 
languages — English, Xhosa, Zulu, 
Tsonga, Southern Sotho, Tswana, 
Afrikaans and German — and was 
listed as one of Time’s 100 Most 
Influential People in 2018.
“The 
Common 
Reading 
Experience creates an opportunity 
for class bonding and thought-
provoking discussions even before 
the students arrive on campus,” 
Gallimore said. “Our aim is to 
compliment our technical excellence 
with insights from other disciplines 
such as the humanities and the arts 
and broaden the understanding 
of equity as we cultivate the 
global perspective we call this 
comprehensive approach to our 
work: People-first Engineering.”
Syal asked how Noah strikes 
a balance between humor and 
social sensitivity when discussing 
controversial topics in his comedy 
routines. Noah said he uses comedy 
to 
overcome 
the 
day-to-day 
challenges that come with “being 
human” and to contextualize his 
individually lived experiences.

The University of Michigan 
published its first climate action 
report detailing the University’s 
progress toward its sustainability 
and 
carbon 
neutrality 
goals 
during the 2022 fiscal year on 
Sept. 23. 
In a press release obtained 
by The Michigan Daily, Interim 
University President Mary Sue 
Coleman 
said 
the 
University 
will continue its commitment 
to its carbon neutrality goals 
and collaborate with various 
stakeholders to achieve them. 
“Carbon neutrality is at the 
heart of what we do; in planning 
and 
powering 
our 
buildings, 
deploying our buses, pursuing 
leading research, and making 
investments to fund such work,” 
Coleman wrote. “I look forward 
to building on our progress 
and learning from like-minded 
partners and communities as we 
pursue a more sustainable world. 
Together, we can take meaningful 
climate action.” 
According to the report, the 
University has reduced its total 
greenhouse gas emissions by 25% 
from 2010 to 2022, achieving a 
goal to do so three years early. 

This includes a 4% reduction in 
emissions in the past fiscal year. 
The 
report 
also 
said 
the 
University is on track to reduce 
both scope one and two emissions 
by 50% by 2025. This is in line 
with 
the 
Intergovernmental 
Panel 
on 
Climate 
Change’s 
recommendation 
to 
reduce 
emissions by 45% by 2030. 
The 
University’s 
carbon 
neutrality plan — which was 
released 
in 
March 
2021 
— 
highlights three kinds of carbon 
emissions and unique timelines 
to reduce each type. Scope one 
includes direct carbon emissions 
from University facilities, which 
the University is working to 
eliminate 
entirely 
by 
2040. 
Scope two entails off-campus 
purchases of electricity, which 
the University hopes to achieve 
net-zero emissions by 2025. Scope 
three includes indirect carbon 
emissions from food and travel. 
The University said they are 
working to define its goal and 
timeline for scope three emissions 
reduction by 2025.
The 
University’s 
carbon 
neutrality plan came as a result of 
continued student and community 
activism to push the University to 
take more aggressive action on 
climate change and go beyond the 
recommended emission reduction 

targets. Throughout the two-
year process of creating the plan, 
the President’s Commission on 
Carbon Neutrality engaged in 
extensive research by a group 
of faculty, students and other 
advisors starting in 2019.
In the past year, the University 
identified 50 energy conservation 
projects to finance through its 
Revolving Energy Fund, which 
in total, is estimated to reduce 
carbon emissions by over 5,600 
metric tons per year. They also 
issued $300 million in green bonds 
and unveiled plans for geothermal 
heating and cooling systems. The 
University also released the U-M 
Emissions Reduction Dashboard 
this year, where members of the 
campus community can track 
carbon neutrality progress. 
In a statement, the University 
highlighted its key priorities for 
climate action in the upcoming 
fiscal year. 
“In 
the 
year 
ahead, 
key 
priorities 
include 
finalizing 
a 
renewable-power 
purchase 
agreement, initiating on-campus 
solar 
energy 
projects 
and 
partnering 
with 
like-minded 
institutions, 
consortia 
and 
community 
stakeholders,” 
the 
statement read. 

The University of Michigan 
Board of Regents met on Sept. 
22 at the Alexander G. Ruthven 
Museums Building to discuss 
enrollment rates at the University 
of Michigan-Flint, new residence 
halls and dedicating the tunnel 
at Michigan Stadium to former 
football coach Lloyd Carr.
The meeting marked Interim 
University President Mary Sue 
Coleman’s last meeting before 
President-elect Santa Ono takes 
office on Oct. 13. She opened the 

meeting by addressing challenges 
at U-M Flint, including a 30% drop 
in enrollment since 2014. Coleman 
announced a strategic plan to 
improve U-M Flint and to extend 
Flint Chancellor Debasish Dutta’s 
appointment until June 2026.
“The work begins tomorrow 
morning when (Dutta) will host (a) 
town hall meeting,” Coleman said. 
“It will be driven by comprehensive 
data, including labor and student 
market 
demand 
for 
academic 
programs. It is critical that the 
Flint campus align its programs 
with the needs of our state’s 
workforce.”
The town hall meeting will 
take place Sept. 23 at 10 a.m. at the 

U-M Flint Riverfront Conference 
Center. Strategic planning will 
continue through the fall and 
winter semesters under Ono’s 
presidency. 
In anticipation of an increased 
demand 
for 
student 
housing, 
Coleman 
proposed 
naming 
a future residence hall after 
former Vice President of Student 
Life Dr. E. Royster Harper. The 
board approved the renaming 
unanimously. It will be the first 
University of Michigan building to 
be named after a Black woman.
Athletic Director Warde Manuel 
also proposed a dedication, asking 
the Board of Regents to name 
the players’ tunnel at Michigan 
Stadium for former U-M football 
coach Lloyd Carr, who was present 
at the meeting. 
“There is something that’s so 
appropriate about naming this 
tunnel after (Carr),” Regent Mark 
Bernstein (D) said. “When you 
go through a tunnel, particularly 
the tunnel at the football stadium, 
The Big House, you emerge in 
this majestic and formative place, 
and that’s what (Carr has) done 
for countless numbers of student 
athletes and students on campus.”
The 
board 
approved 
the 
proposal unanimously. 

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INDEX
Vol. CXXXII, No. 93
©2022 The Michigan Daily

NEWS............................1

A R T S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

STATEMENT.............. . . . . . . . 5

M I C . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7

O P I N I O N . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9

S P O R T S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 1
michigandaily.com

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michigandaily.com
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Wednesday, September 28, 2022

ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY TWO YEARS OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM

 ISABELLA KASSA
Daily Staff Reporter

Read more at MichiganDaily.com

Board of Regents approve transformative 
plan for Flint Campus

Trevor Noah talks 
innovation, equity with 
engineering students

University publishes first climate action 
report on sustainability progress, priorities 

RONI KANE & 
SHANNON STOCKING
Daily News Editors

SAMANTHA RICH
Daily Staff Reporter

Read more at MichiganDaily.com

RILEY HODDER & 
MATTHEW SHANBOM
Daily Staff Reporter

The Daily Show host gives fireside chat, 
stand-up comedy performance

Mary Sue Coleman present at her last meeting to talk new dorms, Michigan Stadium
UMich reaches benchmark of 25% reduction of greenhouse gas emissions 

ANN ARBOR

ADMINISTRATION
ADMINISTRATION

Shelly Smith (right) and Sarah Nuñez-Bida (left) help festival attendees enter a drawing to win books about psychedelics at Entheofest in the Diag Sunday afternoon.

Entheofest returns to Ann Arbor to spread 
awareness of psychedelic decriminalization
Activists host second annual celebration of entheogenic plants

Read more at MichiganDaily.com

JEREMY WEINE/Daily

Interim President Mary Sue Coleman speaks at her final Regents meeting Thursday evening.
HANNAH TORRES/Daily

CAMPUS LIFE

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