When Ji Hye Kim founded 
Miss Kim, a Korean restaurant 
on North Fifth Ave., she had her 
eyes set on giving back to the 
Ann Arbor community. Now, 
with a new sliding scale payment 
program, Kim is fighting food 
insecurity, one meal at a time.
The restaurant will be offering 
its 17 most popular dishes at four 
different price points ranging 
from free to 1.5 times the regular 
price when ordered online and 
by phone, giving customers the 
opportunity to pay what they 
can for their meals. Those who 
choose the “Pay It Forward” 
price will be helping to pay for 
several other people’s meals. 
The 
payment 
program 
is 
being funded by RAISE, High 
Road Restaurants’ newest grant, 
which awards $5,000 to grantees 
and should be self-sustaining 
with profits from the sliding 
scale menu.
Kim, 
chef 
and 
managing 
partner of Miss Kim, told The 
Michigan Daily that she opted 

to use the grant money to fund 
the sliding scale menu rather 
than donating a fixed amount of 
food because she believes it will 
benefit more people and allow for 
the program to run for a longer 
period of time.
“If you cannot afford anything, 
there is an option for you to get 
the meal for free, but if you can 
afford something, then you can 
get the meal at 50%,” Kim said. 
“Our food cost is about 25%, so 
that means that if somebody pays 
half, I can feed two more people 
with that.”
Hannah Uebele, co-President 
of the University of Michigan 
chapter of FeelGood, a student 
organization 
dedicated 
to 
ending global hunger, said she 
hopes Miss Kim’s generosity 
will inspire other Ann Arbor 
restaurants 
to 
begin 
similar 
programs.
“I’m really excited to see what 
happens because I think it’ll be 
a little indicative of the culture 
that we have in Ann Arbor … 
I’m really interested to see how 
many people would take that 
initiative 
to 
(Pay-It-Forward) 
versus how many people who 

tap into a discounted price,” 
Uebele said. “I think it’s going 
to be really exciting, especially 
because, depending on how it 
turns out, it might inspire some 
other businesses to take a similar 
strategy.”
Food insecurity is a prevalent 
issue 
across 
the 
country 
and an even bigger issue on 
the 
University 
of 
Michigan 
campus. 10.2% of Americans 
face food insecurity, and, at the 
University, more than 30% of 
students struggle to find enough 
nutritious food every day.
Food 
insecurity 
has 
a 
disproportionate impact on low-
income communities of Color and 
has consequences on mental and 
physical health as well as school 
and work performance. As people 
develop health issues and chronic 
disease due to food insecurity, 
their medical expenses increase, 
perpetuating 
the 
cyclical 
relationship between poverty, 
health and food insecurity.
With U.S. inflation reaching a 
record high in July — the largest 
increase in over 40 years — prices 
of food have increased across the 
nation. In the past year, food 

prices in the state of Michigan 
have increased by 13.9%.
Uebele said she has witnessed 
the effects of food insecurity 
firsthand and said it can have 
social implications, especially for 
students. She hopes Miss Kim’s 
pricing strategy will alleviate 
students’ 
social 
stress 
when 
eating out.
“As a University student, so 
many social events, or going 
out with friends, center around 
food,” Uebele said. “If someone’s 
unable to participate in that or 
feels the strain of those kinds of 
events, then this is an excellent 
way to address that specific 
concern because (they’ll) be able 
to go out with friends and not 
have it be as big of a deal to get 
their friends to go to somewhere 
that is affordable to them.”
In an email to The Daily, 
Kareem Rifai, LSA senior and 
CSG spokesman, wrote that LSA 
senior Noah Zimmerman, CSG 
President, and LSA Senior Jackie 
Hillman, CSG Vice President, 
are committed to fighting food 
insecurity at the University.

“You can look things up on your 
phone,” “Don’t forget about side 2 of 
your ballot” and “You don’t have to 
vote for everything” are three pieces 
of advice Ann Arbor residents will 
see when voting at the pop-up City 
Clerk’s office at the University of 
Michigan Museum of Art (UMMA) 
this fall. Painted in large block letters 
on the wall of the Irving Stenn, Jr. 
Family Gallery, the voting space 
is just one part of UMMA’s Vote 
2022: Midterms Matter exhibit, 
transforming the museum into a 
polling and voter registration site 
from Sept. 27 to Nov. 8. For students 
living on North Campus, a second 
pop-up City Clerk’s office will open 
at the Duderstadt Center on Oct. 12.
The gallery marks the second 
time UMMA has hosted polling and 
voter registration, the first being 
during the 2020 General Election. 
Stephanie Rowden and Hannah 
Smotrich, associate professors at the 
School of Art & Design, co-founded 
and co-led the Creative Campus 
Voting 
Project, 
a 
nonpartisan 
initiative through the Art & Design 
School. The project aims to use 
creative action research to increase 
college-age voter participation. In 
collaboration with UMMA, the Ann 
Arbor City Clerk’s Office and non-
partisan student organizations such 
as Turn Up Turnout, Rowden and 
Smotrich spearheaded the initiative 
to create a pop-up satellite’s office at 
the UMMA.
Ann Arbor City Clerk Jacqueline 
Beaudry said although she worked 
closely with Turn Up Turnout during 
the March 2020 primary elections 
to increase student registration at 
City Hall, the city hoped to find a 
more convenient spot on campus 
for students to register and vote for 
the presidential elections. She said 
Rowden and Smotrich’s proposal 
for a clerk’s office at UMMA helped 
students feel more comfortable 
navigating the election.
“The lesson for us is that (UMMA) 
felt really comfortable,” Beaudry 
said. “If you’re brand new on campus, 
you’re a freshman, you’ve never 
voted before or just turned 18, it isn’t 
a scary bureaucratic experience. It 

was more of a ‘Come on in, this is for 
you.’”
Briannon Cierpilowski, education 
program coordinator at UMMA and 
project manager for the Midterms 
Matter exhibition, said while voting 
often seems like an intimidating 
process to young people who may 
be disenfranchised by the political 
system, the gallery urges voters to 
understand that their voice matters.
“There’s wonderful implications 
of putting a voting hub in the most 
prominent, visible gallery in the 
campus art museum,” Cierpilowski 
said. 
“Make 
(voting) 
beautiful, 
make it congratulatory and fun, 
and, especially for the younger 
generation, get people interested.”
Voters 
strolling 
through 
the 
gallery will pass by a floor-to-
ceiling rainbow collage of “I vote” 
buttons pinned to the wall, built as 
a backdrop for post-voting photos. 
A do-it-yourself button press is set 
up near the front door, along with a 
stand full of free, pre-made buttons 
for the taking. Students can also pick 
up a “Know your ballot” miniguide 
and “Vote Early” laptop stickers 
designed by Art & Design students 
before heading into the voting and 
registration spaces, both of which are 
designed by Rowden and Smotrich.
“We really thought about all of 
the graphics that are visible not only 
inside the space, but outside the 
space,” Rowden said. “(UMMA) also 
happens to be in the center of campus 
and I think there’s something 
really important about centering 
this experience in the heart of 
students’ lives, literally. We’re not 
telling people to vote in Ann Arbor 
necessarily. We’re just explaining 
what’s possible for them.”
UMICH Votes — a coalition 
of 
U-M-affiliated 
organizations 
that support voter engagement on 
campus, such as UMMA and Turn 
Up Turnout — employed a number 
of student fellows to help visitors 
navigate the exhibit.
Public Policy junior Hannah 
Jatsch, a UMICH Votes fellow, 
said her role at the exhibit is to be a 
nonpartisan resource for those who 
have questions about the voting 
process and to encourage students to 
exercise their right to vote.

Content warning: This article 
contains 
descriptions 
of 
violence 
against women
Roughly 150 members of the 
University of Michigan and Ann 
Arbor Iranian communities gathered 
on the Diag Saturday for a vigil held in 
memory of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-
old woman who died on Sept. 16 while 
in custody of the morality police of 
the Islamic Republic of Iran. Amini’s 
death sparked protests against police 
brutality across Iran and around the 
world. In Ann Arbor, attendees held 
photos of Amini, chanted slogans in 
Farsi, the official language of Iran, 
and demanded an expansion of 
Iranian women’s rights. 
Amini was arrested in Tehran 
after being accused of not properly 
covering her hair with a hijab and was 
subsequently taken to a “re-education 
center,” where people are taken 
if they fail to comply with the 
Islamic Republic’s rules of modesty. 
According to Amini’s family, the 
police mistreated Amini by allegedly 
beating her, which caused her to fall 
into a coma and subsequently die.
Thousands of Iranians across 
several major cities took to the streets 
after a photo and video of Amini lying 
unconscious in a hospital bed with 

severe injuries began circulating 
on social media. The protesters are 
demanding an end to violence against 
women and to lift the mandate 
requiring that all women wear hijabs. 
As of Sunday, at least 41 people have 
been killed during the protests.
Saturday in Ann Arbor, a student 
at the University addressed the 
crowd, decrying the circumstances 
surrounding Amini’s death. The 
student 
requested 
to 
remain 
anonymous due to fear of retaliation 
from the Iranian government and 
will be referred to in this article as 
Alex. 
“They murdered her for a piece 
of cloth around her head,” Alex said. 
“This is not moral, and her death was 
unjust. She was only 22 years old. We 

are here to stand in solidarity with all 
the people in Iran protesting.”
Attendees chalked the names 
of protestors who lost their lives to 
this cause on the ground of the Diag 
and 
chanted 
“Jin-Jiyan-Azadi,” 
which translates to “Women, Life, 
Freedom.” 
Revolutionary 
poems, 
chants and songs, such as “Yare 
Dabestanie Man” — translated as 
“My School Friend” — were played 
as attendees sang along. Many of 
the attendees wore masks to protect 
their identity and asked not to be 
photographed or interviewed for 
fear of retaliation from the Iranian 
government if they were to visit Iran 
in the future. 

The Institute for Research on 
Women and Gender hosted an event 
Wednesday to discuss the history 
of abortion access for University 
of Michigan students and context 
surrounding a critical vote this 
November for reproductive rights. 
Held in Palmer Commons, the event 
centered around Rackham student 
Rianna 
Johnson-Levy’s 
report 
for the History and Women’s and 
Gender Studies department.
Dean of Students Laura Blake 
Jones and Christine S. Asidao, 
associate director of community 
engagement 
and 
outreach 
for 
Counseling 
and 
Psychological 
Services (CAPS), also spoke at the 
event, describing the current role of 
the University in providing medical 
and emotional care support in 
reproductive services. 
Johnson-Levy’s 
report, 
titled 
“Before Roe: The University of 
Michigan’s Task Force for Problem 
Pregnancy Counseling”, outlines 
the history of pregnant people on 
the University’s campus since Roe 
v. Wade was first passed in 1973, 
legalizing abortions in the United 
States. Johnson-Levy said she was 
compelled to do her research after 
the Supreme Court overturned Roe 

v. Wade to inform people about what 
the University could do to support 
pregnant people in a post-Roe era.
“While abortion is still legal 
in Michigan, this history is our 
precedent for the current moment,” 
Johnson-Levy 
said. 
“Before 
Roe, 
University 
of 
Michigan 
administrators 
and 
staff 
acted 
courageously to ensure student 
access to safe, legal and affordable 
abortions.”
Johnson-Levy 
began 
the 
discussion 
of 
her 
report 
by 
highlighting the Task Force for 
Problem Pregnancy Counseling, 
an organization that established 
campus-wide pregnancy counseling 
and 
abortion 
referral 
services. 
The task force was formed in the 
years leading up to the 1973 Roe 
v. Wade decision and was led by 
staff members working within the 
University’s Office of Religious 
Affairs. The task force was designed 
to 
support 
students 
in 
their 
decisions regarding pregnancies 
and reproductive rights as well 
as inform them about available 
services.
In the few years before the 
legalization of abortion in 1973, 
the task force directed students to 
reproductive health clinics in the 
state of New York — where abortion 
was legalized in 1970. Johnson-
Levy said the task force played a key 

role in assisting patients in finding 
resources and travel expenses. 
“The Office of Religious Affairs 
would quickly recruit counselors 
from across the university to join 
the effort and eventually would 
collaborate 
with 
local 
social 
services, 
organizations, 
medical 
clinics and women’s groups in Ann 
Arbor,” Johnson-Levy said.
Johnson-Levy 
said 
the 
task 
force originated through the Clergy 
Consultation Service on Abortion 
(CCS), 
a 
similar 
organization 
based in New York. CCS saw the 
issue regarding the illegality of 
abortion as an issue of inequality, 
as therapeutic abortions were only 
accessible to white, rich privileged 
women.
“Therapeutic hospital abortions 
were only available for those 
deemed worthy in cases determined 
medically necessary by hospital 
boards,” Johnson-Levy said. “The 
clergy found through a study that 
women’s 
access 
to 
therapeutic 
abortion had more to do with her 
respectability and the networks 
she was a part of — whether she 
was white, rich, privileged and 
married … This left single women, 
the poor and women of Color to 
seek abortions from those operating 
without oversight or legal approval.”

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INDEX
Vol. CXXXII, No. 94
©2022 The Michigan Daily

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

A R T S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

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

O P I N I O N . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

S P O RT S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 0

STATEMENT................INSERT
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U-M students, faculty explore history of 
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UMMA opens voting, 
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Midterms Matter exhibit

 Iranian community members of Ann 
Arbor host vigil to mourn Mahsa Amini

VARSHA VEDAPUDI
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Read more at MichiganDaily.com

City partners with UMich for second 
time to increase student turnout

Attendees discuss context on reproductive rights ballot in November election
Protests erupt around the world for women’s rights, end to oppression

BUSINESS

NEWS
CAMPUS LIFE

Miss Kim is fighting food insecurity, one 
piece of tteokbokki at a time

The Korean restaurant launches sliding scale payment program

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