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<h2>This magic moment</h2>
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Source: https://michigantoday.umich.edu/feed/

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<title>Michigan Today</title>
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<title>What’s the story?</title>
<link>https://michigantoday.umich.edu/2024/05/18/whats-the-story/</link>
<comments>https://michigantoday.umich.edu/2024/05/18/whats-the-story/#respond</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Deborah Holdship]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Sat, 18 May 2024 11:38:57 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Columns]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Editor's Blog]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://michigantoday.umichsites.org/?p=44827</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Storytellers know there's always more to the tale than the page can contain. ]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<h2>‘The Michigan’</h2>
This month, I faced the curious task of writing a story about someone else’s story. Jon Fish, BA ’95, is a longtime producer at ESPN. He just completed a <a href="https://michigantoday.umich.edu/2024/05/17/the-michigans-mighty-comeback/">documentary about a fellow alum, Mike Legg,</a> a hockey legend from the Class of ’97. He wondered if I’d be interested in writing about it.
For the uninitiated, Legg galvanized the Wolverines during a post-season run-up to the 1996 NCAA championship when he scored a momentum-changing goal by pulling a move no one had ever seen on national television. That hockey team would capture the Michigan program’s first national title in 32 years. Since retiring from the pros, Legg has been a firefighter and youth coach living in Vancouver, British Columbia.
I was “today years old,” as the kids say, when I first learned of Legg and ‘the Michigan,’ his famous lacrosse-inspired move that bedevils any goalie who confronts it. That said, as soon as I connected with documentarian Fish and watched his eight-minute short about Legg and his legacy I was all in. Fish’s piece is a “pure origin story” about a magical moment that transcends athletics.
<iframe class="fluid" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/7TPk4RGqwVo?wmode=transparent&rel=0&feature=oembed&rel=0" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen title="Mike Legg - 'The Michigan Goal' - Full Sequence - March 24, 1996 (High Quality)"></iframe>
<h2>A surprise to everybody</h2>
As a history major, sports fan, documentarian, and Wolverine, Fish hit the jackpot when he convinced the powers-that-be at ESPN to let him pursue the piece. The story was not just about a mesmerizing move some 30 years ago, he told them. It’s about a move that made a comeback some 30 years after the fact. He was proved right in the days before Christmas 2023, when NHL players Connor Bedard and Trevor Zegras pulled ‘the Michigan’ within hours of each other.
“This is not just something that happened in a game,” Fish says. “There’s a real story arc here. It was done, it went away, and now it’s back. And here are the reasons why.”
For me, what started as a print piece evolved into an <a href="https://michigantoday.umich.edu/category/topics/podcast/">audio feature</a> because words on a page could not adequately convey the boundless enthusiasm Fish felt about the doc he’d just completed. His voice captured a range of moods in the telling: awe, wonder, curiosity, and passion. Mostly it was pure joy at meeting a fellow alum he’d cheered at Yost decades ago, one who shared a similar campus timeline and all the sentimental context that brings.
Researching the piece reconnected Fish with colleagues, alumni, and current staff from Michigan Athletics and WOLV-TV, WCBN, and the Michigan Daily. Sportswriter and Michigan grad John Bacon appears in the piece, as does former coach Red Berenson.
The Emmy-winning documentarian relishes the proximity his job affords to the athletes he admires. But nothing will compare to the four hours he spent with a classmate driving to their Canadian location in Jasper, Alberta. “There was a lot of ‘I remember this; do you remember that?'” Fish says.
“We had just come out of the Desmond Howard era and we had the Fab Five,” he recalls. “There was a lot of cool stuff going on at Michigan when we were there. Telling Mike’s story has been really, really special. He’s the best. He’s really the best.”
(Lead image of Fish and Legg by Dale MacMillan, courtesy of ESPN.)
 
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<item>
<title>Michigan’s affirmative action debate</title>
<link>https://michigantoday.umich.edu/2024/05/17/michigans-affirmative-action-debate/</link>
<comments>https://michigantoday.umich.edu/2024/05/17/michigans-affirmative-action-debate/#comments</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[James Tobin]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Sat, 18 May 2024 01:25:07 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Heritage/Tradition]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[ACLU]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[affirmative action]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[BAM]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Black Action Movement]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Carl Cohen]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Faculty]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Lee Bollinger]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Supreme Court]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://michigantoday.umichsites.org/?p=44678</guid>
<description><![CDATA[To settle the Black Action Movement strike in 1970, the University promised enough financial aid to raise Black enrollment to 10 percent. The aid promise was kept. But Black enrollment rose only by small increments through the 1980s. So Black students and their supporters insisted that U-M do more. (Part 2 of a 2-part series.)]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<h2>‘A blueprint for fundamental change’</h2>
To settle the <a href="https://bentley.umich.edu/search_gcse/?q=Black+Action+Movemebt">Black Action Movement</a> strike in 1970, the University promised enough financial aid to raise Black enrollment to 10 percent. The aid promise was kept, but Black enrollment rose only by small increments through the 1980s. So, Black students and their supporters insisted that U-M do more.
<aside class="callout right">This story completes the two-part feature <a href="https://michigantoday.umich.edu/2024/03/22/thirteen-days-in-1970-the-bam-strike/">Thirteen days in 1970</a></aside>In 1988, President James J. Duderstadt introduced the Michigan Mandate, “a blueprint for fundamental change in the ethnic composition of the university community.” Its thesis: Cultural diversity and a high-quality education were intimately linked.
His focus on diversity was partly a response to the Supreme Court’s 1978 decision in a landmark affirmative-action case, University of California Regents v. Bakke. The Court struck down racial quotas in admissions. But Justice Lewis Powell’s opinion left an opening for affirmative action advocates — he said a university pursuing “student body diversity” could use race as one factor in admissions decisions.
Earlier advocates for affirmative action had aimed to compensate for past racism. Now, the central argument was that affirmative action helped white students as well as Black students.
By 1995, the enrollment of all students of color rose to 25.4 percent — 8.9 percent Black, 11.3 percent Asian, 4.5 percent Hispanic/Latino, and 0.7 percent Native American.
<h2>Carl Cohen’s challenge</h2>
<div id="attachment_44683" style="width: 203px" class="wp-caption alignright"><a href="https://michigantoday.umich.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/89/2024/05/BAM-AffirmativeAction-1-Carl-Cohen-at-blackboard-1.jpg"><img fetchpriority="high" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-44683" class="size-medium wp-image-44683" src="https://michigantoday.umich.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/89/2024/05/BAM-AffirmativeAction-1-Carl-Cohen-at-blackboard-1-193x300.jpg" alt="Black and white image of professor pointing to chalk board." width="193" height="300" srcset="https://michigantoday.umich.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/89/2024/05/BAM-AffirmativeAction-1-Carl-Cohen-at-blackboard-1-193x300.jpg 193w, https://michigantoday.umich.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/89/2024/05/BAM-AffirmativeAction-1-Carl-Cohen-at-blackboard-1-658x1024.jpg 658w, https://michigantoday.umich.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/89/2024/05/BAM-AffirmativeAction-1-Carl-Cohen-at-blackboard-1-768x1195.jpg 768w, https://michigantoday.umich.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/89/2024/05/BAM-AffirmativeAction-1-Carl-Cohen-at-blackboard-1-987x1536.jpg 987w, https://michigantoday.umich.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/89/mc-image-cache/2024/05/BAM-AffirmativeAction-1-Carl-Cohen-at-blackboard-1.jpg 1000w" sizes="(max-width: 193px) 100vw, 193px" /></a>Carl Cohen in the classroom. (Image courtesy of U-M’s Bentley Historical Library.)</div>
Then, Carl Cohen, a popular philosophy professor and past chair of the faculty senate’s Advisory Committee on University Affairs, took aim at Michigan’s admissions procedures.
Cohen had chaired the state’s branch of the American Civil Liberties Union and was a strenuous advocate for civil rights for people of color. He believed that racial discrimination of any kind violated the U.S. Constitution’s equal protection clause. “[O]ur constitution is and must be color-blind,” he wrote. “The principle that a person’s race or color is simply not relevant in the application of the laws ought never to be sacrificed . . . even for the sake of some needed and hoped-for benefits.”
“Wanting racial justice,” he would write later, “the advocates of preference to achieve [racial] balance end up producing racial injustice . . . For decades, we have struggled to reduce interracial tension and distrust; now we engender distrust and exacerbate tension with deliberate racial favoritism.”
Cohen obtained data showing the University’s thresholds for grades and scores on aptitude tests were lower for Black applicants than for whites. He found that unacceptable on constitutional grounds. If a university gave a preference to some students “simply by virtue of race,” he wrote, then “what is given to some by race must be taken from others by race.”
He shared his findings with state legislators. Some objected, and they invited white students rejected by U-M to file suit.
Lee Bollinger, former dean of Michigan Law, had succeeded Duderstadt as president in 1997. So the two plaintiffs who stepped forward — Jennifer Gratz, rejected for admission as an undergraduate, and Barbara Grutter, rejected by the Law School — named him the target of lawsuits.
<h2>The University’s defense</h2>
<aside class="callout right">“For decades, we have struggled to reduce interracial tension and distrust; now we engender distrust and exacerbate tension with deliberate racial favoritism.” — Carl Cohen</aside> From Bollinger down, many at U-M mounted a vigorous defense.
Among them was Patricia Gurin, a psychology and women’s studies professor. With several colleagues, she conducted studies purporting to show the value of a diverse student body on the student population as a whole. They noted that 90 percent of white students and 50 percent of Black students entering U-M in the early 1990s had grown up in racially homogeneous neighborhoods and attended racially homogeneous high schools.
Among other findings, Gurin’s group showed that when students of any ethnicity went to college on an ethnically diverse campus, they became more active and engaged thinkers.
“By enriching the educational environment with diverse perspectives, backgrounds, and experiences,” Gurin wrote, “we prepare students for active participation in a democratic society and a globalized world.”
<aside class="callout left">“If we foster integration today, we are more likely to reach a color-blind society in the future. But if we insist on rigid, unflinching color-blindness today, our society will become less integrated, not more.” — Jeffrey S. Lehman</aside>Another key advocate was Jeffrey S. Lehman, dean of the Law School during the litigation. He came to invoke the word integration as a better ideal than diversity since “integration does a better job of capturing the special importance to our country of undoing the damaging legacy of laws and norms that artificially separated citizens from one another on the basis of race. The enduring scars left by that history pose the greatest challenge to our nation’s prosperity and, for many, to its democratic legitimacy.”
Lehman argued that affirmative action to promote diverse student bodies is justifiable chiefly because it makes for a healthier and more legitimate democracy. Lehman said he respected the color-blind ideal professed by Grutter, Gratz, and their supporters. But it must be balanced, he said, by the ideal of integration — of breaking down barriers between races. “If we foster integration today, we are more likely to reach a color-blind society in the future. But if we insist on rigid, unflinching color-blindness today, our society will become less integrated, not more.”
<h2>‘The real issue at hand’</h2>
Carl Cohen himself reported that a friend, Terrance Sandalow, former dean of the Law School, put the argument for integration in stark terms. Sandalow urged Cohen to visit Detroit’s criminal courts: “And now imagine, Carl, that all the judges are white, and all or most of the prosecuting attorneys are white, while the defendants, 95 percent of them, are Black. Do you think, Carl, that we can maintain a peaceful and harmonious society in the face of such gross racial imbalance?”
“The real issue at hand,” wrote Nicholas Lemann, who covered the Michigan debate for the New Yorker, “is also the most fundamental one: the way American higher education sees itself.”
Institutions like Michigan see their mission as “training students to go forth and improve the world,” Lemann said, so the campuses must be “centers of interracial understanding.” They had no obligation to set a “blind, objective standard for admission.”
On the other side were those who, like Gratz and Grutter, saw the universities as gatekeepers of professional advancement. They believed universities — especially public universities —must be strictly color-blind in issuing tickets to pass through that gate.
<h2>Split decision</h2>
<div id="attachment_44681" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignright"><a href="https://michigantoday.umich.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/89/2024/05/BAM-AffirmativeAction-3-Gratz-and-Grutter-in-Washington.jpg"><img decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-44681" class="size-medium wp-image-44681" src="https://michigantoday.umich.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/89/2024/05/BAM-AffirmativeAction-3-Gratz-and-Grutter-in-Washington-300x169.jpg" alt="Two caucasian women amid a crowd speak into a cluster of microphones." width="300" height="169" srcset="https://michigantoday.umich.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/89/2024/05/BAM-AffirmativeAction-3-Gratz-and-Grutter-in-Washington-300x169.jpg 300w, https://michigantoday.umich.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/89/2024/05/BAM-AffirmativeAction-3-Gratz-and-Grutter-in-Washington-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https://michigantoday.umich.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/89/2024/05/BAM-AffirmativeAction-3-Gratz-and-Grutter-in-Washington-768x432.jpg 768w, https://michigantoday.umich.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/89/2024/05/BAM-AffirmativeAction-3-Gratz-and-Grutter-in-Washington-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://michigantoday.umich.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/89/mc-image-cache/2024/05/BAM-AffirmativeAction-3-Gratz-and-Grutter-in-Washington.jpg 1920w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /></a>Plaintiffs Barbara Grutter (left) and Jennifer Gratz in Washington, D.C. (Image courtesy of U-M’s Bentley Historical Library.)</div>
The Gratz and Grutter cases rose to the U.S. Supreme Court. In 2003, the justices ruled against Michigan in Gratz v. Bollinger, saying the undergraduate admissions system, which awarded points to applicants of color, used race in a way that was unconstitutionally mechanistic. In Grutter v. Bollinger, they ruled in the Law School’s favor, saying it was constitutionally permissible to weigh an applicant’s race as one factor in a holistic assessment.
In its Grutter opinion, the Court recognized the force of Gurin’s and other studies showing that “such diversity [in a law school’s student body] promotes learning outcomes and better prepares students for an increasingly diverse workforce, for society, and for the legal profession . . . The path to leadership must be visibly open to talented and qualified individuals of every race and ethnicity.”
In the aftermath of the rulings, Michigan voters approved a 2006 ballot initiative to enforce race-neutral admissions at the state’s public universities.
After that, despite the University’s efforts to maintain a diverse student body, Black enrollment fell to roughly five percent.
<h2>Pursuing diversity within the law</h2>
In 2023, the Supreme Court further narrowed universities’ abilities to consider race in admissions, effectively overruling the Grutter decision.
President Santa J. Ono responded by reaffirming U-M’s commitment to pursuing diversity within the law. He said, in part: “We believe racial diversity benefits the exchange and development of ideas by increasing students’ variety of perspectives, promoting cross-racial understanding, and dispelling racial stereotypes. It helps prepare students to be leaders in a global marketplace and increasingly multicultural society.”
(Sources included Carl Cohen, A Conflict of Principles: The Battle Over Affirmative Action at the University of Michigan (2014) and Patricia Gurin et al., Defending Diversity: Affirmative Action at the University of Michigan (2004). The lead image shows supporters of affirmative action demonstrating on the Diag in 1998. Image courtesy of U-M’s Bentley Historical Library.)
]]></content:encoded>
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<slash:comments>3</slash:comments>
</item>
<item>
<title>Hey Siri, are we cool?</title>
<link>https://lsa.umich.edu/lsa/news-events/lsa-magazine/spring-2024/hey-siri-are-we-cool.html</link>
<comments>https://lsa.umich.edu/lsa/news-events/lsa-magazine/spring-2024/hey-siri-are-we-cool.html#respond</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Lara Zielin]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Sat, 18 May 2024 01:25:06 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Education & Society]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Research News]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[AI]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[artificial intelligence]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[LS&A]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[SIRI]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://michigantoday.umichsites.org/?p=44811</guid>
<description><![CDATA[AI is developing rapidly, and there’s no consensus on what that means. Some think it will lead to human extinction. Others point out that it could help address medicine shortages or plan vacations. So what do humans do with all this? LSA faculty and alumni experts weigh in on what to make of AI’s changing landscape.]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[AI is developing rapidly, and there’s no consensus on what that means. Some think it will lead to human extinction. Others point out that it could help address medicine shortages or plan vacations. So what do humans do with all this? LSA faculty and alumni experts weigh in on what to make of AI’s changing landscape.]]></content:encoded>
<wfw:commentRss>https://lsa.umich.edu/lsa/news-events/lsa-magazine/spring-2024/hey-siri-are-we-cool.html/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
</item>
<item>
<title>Managing screen time by making phones slightly more annoying to use</title>
<link>https://news.engin.umich.edu/2024/05/managing-screen-time-by-making-phones-slightly-more-annoying-to-use/</link>
<comments>https://news.engin.umich.edu/2024/05/managing-screen-time-by-making-phones-slightly-more-annoying-to-use/#respond</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[UMC Admin]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Sat, 18 May 2024 01:22:48 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Innovation]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Research News]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Science and Technology]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[cell phone]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[College of Engineering]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Michigan Engineering]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[research]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://michigantoday.umichsites.org/?p=44773</guid>
<description><![CDATA[The best way to help smartphone users manage their screen time may be to make phones progressively more annoying to use, according to new U-M research. Delaying a phone’s swiping and tapping functions forces users to think harder, making it easier for them to consider whether to keep scrolling.
]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[The best way to help smartphone users manage their screen time may be to make phones progressively more annoying to use, according to new U-M research. Delaying a phone’s swiping and tapping functions forces users to think harder, making it easier for them to consider whether to keep scrolling.
]]></content:encoded>
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<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
</item>
<item>
<title>Michigan Stadium to begin alcohol sales this football season</title>
<link>https://michigantoday.umich.edu/2024/05/17/michigan-stadium-to-begin-alcohol-sales-this-football-season/</link>
<comments>https://michigantoday.umich.edu/2024/05/17/michigan-stadium-to-begin-alcohol-sales-this-football-season/#comments</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[UMC Admin, Hanna Quinlan]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Fri, 17 May 2024 23:41:21 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Athletics]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Campus Life]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[alcohol sales]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Crisler Center]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Michigan athletics]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Michigan Stadium]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Yost Ice Arena]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://michigantoday.umichsites.org/?p=44783</guid>
<description><![CDATA[The University of Michigan athletics department will begin selling alcohol at Michigan Stadium with the 2024 football season, after carefully reviewing previous alcohol-sale rollouts and fan experiences at Yost Ice Arena and Crisler Center.]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<h2>Cheers</h2>
The University of Michigan athletics department will begin selling alcohol at Michigan Stadium with the 2024 football season, after carefully reviewing previous alcohol-sale rollouts and fan experiences at Yost Ice Arena and Crisler Center.
The Board of Regents voted May 16 to implement a Class C liquor license at the Big House, starting Aug. 31 with a home football game against Fresno State.
In October 2023, regents voted to ask the Michigan Liquor Control Commission for liquor licenses at three U-M athletic venues: Michigan Stadium, Yost Ice Arena and Crisler Center. The board also voted to implement licenses for Crisler and Yost—which began in February—and to review the rollout of alcohol sales at those two venues before considering implementation at Michigan Stadium.
Part of the implementation process included the athletic department collaborating and regularly meeting with campus partners—including the Office of Student Life, Division of Public Safety and Security, Risk Management and Government Relations—to ensure a safe and responsible rollout of alcohol sales at Crisler and Yost.
There have been no reported behavioral issues related to drunken behavior or medical responses related to alcohol at either venue since the implementation.
Information gathered from this review helped inform best university practices at the first two venues, and guide the expansion of alcohol sales to Michigan Stadium.
The athletic department also has implemented procedures to ensure compliance with Michigan laws and state Liquor Control Commission rules and regulations, as well as U-M policies related to alcohol.
To ensure a safe and enjoyable experience, regulatory features also include requiring all patrons to show ID at every purchase, and limiting each transaction to two alcoholic beverages per legal-drinking-age guest.
In addition, the athletic department has been collaborating with the Office of Student Life on responsible alcohol consumption messaging at each of the venues.
Michigan Athletics will use the alcohol-sale revenue for operational expenses, with a portion going to the university to help fund campus research projects.
]]></content:encoded>
<wfw:commentRss>https://michigantoday.umich.edu/2024/05/17/michigan-stadium-to-begin-alcohol-sales-this-football-season/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
<slash:comments>21</slash:comments>
</item>
<item>
<title>Researchers create human aortic aneurysm model</title>
<link>https://www.michiganmedicine.org/health-lab/researchers-create-human-aortic-aneurysm-model-advance-disease-understanding-treatment-testing#msdynttrid=2yPGtHgsAXoCq0ZSG4DKp_Dk8k4luJPYxcPXRKMOlQ0</link>
<comments>https://www.michiganmedicine.org/health-lab/researchers-create-human-aortic-aneurysm-model-advance-disease-understanding-treatment-testing#msdynttrid=2yPGtHgsAXoCq0ZSG4DKp_Dk8k4luJPYxcPXRKMOlQ0#respond</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[UMC Admin]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Fri, 17 May 2024 23:33:47 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Innovation]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Research News]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Science and Technology]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[heart disease]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Michigan Medicince]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://michigantoday.umichsites.org/?p=44777</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Using human cells in laboratory rats, Michigan Medicine researchers have developed a functional model of thoracic aortic aneurysm, creating new opportunities for understanding disease development and treatment. No treatments currently exist for the condition, which is a weakening and bulging at the body’s largest blood vessel in the chest.
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<content:encoded><![CDATA[Using human cells in laboratory rats, Michigan Medicine researchers have developed a functional model of thoracic aortic aneurysm, creating new opportunities for understanding disease development and treatment. No treatments currently exist for the condition, which is a weakening and bulging at the body’s largest blood vessel in the chest.
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<title>‘The Michigan’s’ mighty comeback</title>
<link>https://michigantoday.umich.edu/2024/05/17/the-michigans-mighty-comeback/</link>
<comments>https://michigantoday.umich.edu/2024/05/17/the-michigans-mighty-comeback/#comments</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Deborah Holdship]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Fri, 17 May 2024 22:49:09 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Athletics]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Podcast: "Listen in, Michigan"]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[1996 NCAA champions]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[hockey]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Mike Legg]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Red Berenson]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[the Michigan]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[U-M]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[University of Michigan]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Wolverines]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://michigantoday.umichsites.org/?p=44752</guid>
<description><![CDATA[A new ESPN documentary from Jon Fish, BA ’95, documents the trajectory of Mike Legg's heart-stopping play that secured the 1996 NCAA title for Red Berenson's Wolverines. After fading into obscurity for nearly three decades, Legg's move ‘the Michigan’ is back with a vengeance, changing the game at every level.]]></description>
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Podcast Transcript
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Episode 60: ‘The Michigan’s’ mighty comeback
Hi, I’m Deborah Holdship, editor of Michigan Today.
In this episode of Listen in Michigan, my guest is sports documentarian and storyteller, Jon Fish, a class of 95 history major and longtime ESPN producer who has brought us many an entertaining College Game Day program and other compelling packages about our favorite athletes.
Jon’s latest passion project comes out just in time for Stanley Cup season as he profiles one of Michigan’s most beloved sports legends, hockey’s Mike Legg. For the uninitiated, Legg earned his spot in U-M lore back in 1996 – on TV — when he pulled a wild, never-before-seen-move that set the Wolverines on course to win Red Berenson’s first national championship in 32 years.
Legg’s dazzling game-changer, dubbed THE MICHIGAN, involves scooping the puck onto the stick and using centrifugal force to tuck it under the net’s crossbar to score a goal. It’s a fast, swirling move that you have to see to believe, not ideal in an audio format, but Jon’s enthusiasm for the move and its ultimate impact, is worth the listen. I promise.
Now, what’s weird about the MICHIGAN is that it burned really bright at first, and then all-but disappeared…
And now, the move is back with renewed vengeance — transforming the sport itself. Thanks to Legg, hockey is no longer played solely on the ice. Think about that for a second.
Fish, an avid hockey fan – and Mike Legg fan, they were on campus at the same time — sensed there was a story in the move’s disappearance and subsequent return. And, he was right of course!
He found Legg in Vancouver, where he’s been a firefighter for about 18 years. Though long-since retired from his seven years in the pros and the Finnish elite division, Legg is a beloved youth coach who’s delighted to teach the Michigan to anybody with a stick and a pair of skates.
OK – let’s get to Fish, a storyteller who favors the sports story behind the story, especially when it’s about a fellow alum he used to watch at Yost. His 30-minute piece on the MICHIGAN will be all over ESPN throughout the playoffs.
So, here’s Jon, to answer my first burning question: Why is the play called “THE MICHIGAN” and not “THE LEGG?”
JON FISH:
I asked the same question. What do you call it? I asked Mike Legg, what do you call it? I think the best I can see is the fact that everybody knew some guy from Michigan pulled it.
When Mike pulled this move, this was in a really, really big-stage game. This was you’re losing to Minnesota at Michigan State and you have a team that can win a national title and yet you’re getting outshot and outplayed. So when he pulls it and Michigan then responds and then goes on to win that game and then win the semifinal and then win the title, it’s almost just become “the Michigan” versus remembering, you know, the Legger or as Bill Armstrong called it the High Rap or the Do It. You know, people had different names for it.
But I think just because like bright yellow jersey and says Michigan it’s just become the Michigan. It’s now officially branded to the state, the school, the name, the name, and so everybody calls it the Michigan and I think a lot of it comes down to ultimately is this was a national TV game. This was a huge stage and that’s kind of why it got the name.
DH: I love it. It’s just so fun to watch.
JF: It’s mesmerizing.
DH: Yeah. So how would you physically describe the move itself?
JF: When Mike and Bill first did it, they would bend down and use kind of leverage to put the blade of the stick to get the puck up on its edge and then scoop it up. And then you’re using basically centrifugal force to keep the puck against the blade of the stick and around and underneath the crossbar. Because the rule is you cannot go over the crossbar. If you go over the crossbar, it’s what they call high sticking in hockey. But if you keep it under the crossbar, then you can do it, so you tuck it in
That’s how it was done.
Now the guys have gotten so good at it, and the sticks are so flexible now. Back when Mike was doing it, those sticks were like wooden pieces of lumber. I mean, maybe a little bit of flex, but I played with them and I have them in the basement. My son laughs at them. People make chairs out of old sticks, you know, but now they’re like carbon flex, synthetic composite, you know, bendable things that it’s unibody shape, poured, molded so that now the sticks can do anything.
And a lot of the NHL guys have gotten so good at it that they literally can do it on the fly: Scoop it up with their blade and do it. So it’s kind of advanced and you’ve seen advancements from there. You’ve seen guys scoop it up and pass it over to the park to a teammate who bats it in. Trevor Zegras pulled it off. So the NHL guys have gotten so good and are so adept at it that it’s really changing the the sport of hockey itself.
The very cool thing about this, this particular move is it’s not just a college hockey move or a pro hockey move. It’s hockey in general.
It happened in 96 and then it disappears. And I really couldn’t figure out why. I mean you’d see it in isolated places in. Far reaches of the hockey world, you’d see it in the Quebec Major Juniors, you’d see it maybe in Europe you’d see grainy footage like Bigfoot, you know of this thing. But it wasn’t something that you saw.
It’s like releasing a song 25 years ago. And people think it’s awesome at the time, but then it kind of goes away. But then two and half decades later the song’s a hit again.
So it’s it’s almost it’s it’s it’s a hard thing to wrap your head around.
It was a confluence of circumstances where – Andrei Svechnikov who plays for the Carolina Hurricanes. When he’s a kid in Siberia – and this guy Mikael Granlund pulls this move in 2011 and at the time Svechnikov is he is a little roughly 11 years old. So he then teaches himself how to do it well.
Flash forward to 2019 and he pulls it off in the NHL. And once he did that, it was like October of 2019, EA Sports sees it and says “Oh my God we gotta put this in the video game,” and then what happens? COVID happens and the world shuts down. So now you have all these athletes with this time on their hands.
Hockey guys, they can’t get into the rink. What are they doing? They’re messing around with the puck. Ohh, I saw this cool move by Svechnikov. Ohh wait, there’s this move in the EA Sports game. Ohh wait. EA Sports puts Mike Legg in the game. Hey wait a second, there’s this YouTube/Instagram influencer named Zac Bell up in Canada. And he’s messing around at the side of the road, flipping the puck around. I wanna be like Zac Bell. How does Zac Bell do that? Let’s pick the puck up.
So all of a sudden, all these kids learn it over COVID, right? And they’re practicing. They have the time on their hands to do it because you’re not at practice. You can’t go to the rinks. You’re not even in school. So you’re just like in between your zoom classes, you’re like teaching yourself stuff. And then suddenly we have this generation of hockey guys that are like, “hey, we can do really cool things with the hockey puck” and come out of COVID and now it’s everywhere. Because at the time when Svechnikov pulled it in 2019, Connor Bedard, who’s the biggest star in the NHL right now, he’s 14 years old. That’s exactly when you are teaching yourself how to do things like this with the puck.
And it’s really changed the game because the sport’s become much more creative. It’s thinking outside of the box. It’s not just pass the puck on the ice from one taped blade to another taped blade and shoot the puck and score.
In many ways Mike’s goal, you know, opened that up visually and creatively and you have players that weren’t even born when this happened that are stars in the NHL that can do this with the flick of a wrist, and it’s incredible. And the sport of hockey is now benefiting from it. So, and it’s in video games and it’s in social media. And if you’re, you know, in the hockey world, it’s a big thing.
It’s broken through now because every time someone scores one of these goals, it goes viral and it doesn’t matter what you’re a fan of if you’re a fan of sport at all, to see this move happen so sensational.
It’s a pure sports story and it’s a pure origin story and people love origin stories because there is an arc to it. It’s not just something that happened in a game; there’s a real story arc to — it was done, it went away and now it’s back. And here are the reasons why. And here’s how it happened and. Here is the person that got you from point A and the other person that got you from point A to to to now.
You have Red Berenson, who’s basically the hockey equivalent of a Bo Schembechler, a very old-school traditional but an innovator. Berenson was the first hockey player professionally to wear a helmet. Here’s a guy, he’s the first guy to go from college to pro. So an innovator, even though he comes from that old world school and so Berenson has to sign off on it. Legg has to have the the hutzpah to pull it off in that moment. And then the referees have to call it a goal.
It’s almost like if you if you looked at it from a 10,000 foot view and you say, OK, this is going on now, it’s almost mind blowing. That this happened and how it’s changed the sport now it’s just crazy.
Can’t imagine being an athlete who created a play and that it’s not necessarily named after him, but everyone knows he’s the guy.
He learned it from Bill Armstrong. He immediately gives Bill credit for that. We interviewed Bill for this as well as Mike. I think it’s amazing to them that all these years later it’s suddenly become part of the fabric of the game when back in the day when they first did it, it wasn’t really looked that fondly upon by some of the hockey purists.
I think they’re both very low-key about it. Mike is the nicest guy in the world. He’s very low-key. I just think that he just gets joy it and then it makes people happy and I think Bill feels the same way that it just to see this having changed the game, it’s very
The only thing I can compare this to is that once did a story on the man who invented the jump shot for basketball — Kenny Sailors who basically would play against his brother and his brother was was taller than him so he would jump to get elevation on the shot. It’s now so commonplace when you play basketball. It’s like someone invented the jump shot like. How who? Yeah, there is like there’s like pictures from Life magazine from 1943 of him clearly elevating, clearly shooting a jump shot. So it’s of that level.
There’s about two or three. It’s the Fosbury Flop. When you used to do the high jump, used to scissor kick, you’d run up and then you’d put one leg and then you put the other to get over.
Now if you watch High Jump, you run up to the bar, you turn your back to the bar and you jump. Oh, OK. And that’s called the Fosbury Flop, was invented by a man named Dick Fosbury in the 60s. He would go on the winning gold medal.
You couldn’t imagine high jumping without the Fosbury flop. You certainly couldn’t play basketball without the jump shot. And now the Michigan is kind of reaching that where you see it
In the days before Christmas you had Connor Bedard and Trevor Zegras pull them off some within hours of each other in the NHL. And that’s really when people around the office were like, I guess it really is a thing. I’m like, ohh it’s a thing…
DH: Guess we’ll let you do that story
JF: Exactly.
We went out and interviewed Mike and we thought maybe it would be a five or six minute piece and now it’s growing into 1/2 hour documentary. So it’s really incredible and it’s a real tip of the cap to. Um, you know, the management at ESPN and say, you know what, this is a really cool story. Let’s do it.
So yeah
DH: And he’s a great character, you know, doing it. Wonderful job, being a good person, still working with kids and doing hockey.
JF: He’s the best. He’s really the best. He’s an incredible alum of the university.
You know, that’s been kind of fun because we’re basically classmates. I’m class of 95, he’s class of 97. So it’s really fun because … degrees of separation and did you know people and we’re remembering things from the same time frame and we lived them at the same time and that’s why this story for me has been so special because unlike the stories that I do where I’m doing current athletes who are living Michigan at a different time in this in this sphere, but for me to be able to do it, to tell Mike’s story, someone I knew so well, someone that had such an impact in the university at a time when I was there – it’s super cool because it’s like: I remember that. Do you remember this? And I remember this.
When we drove to shoot that open, we’re in the car for four hours, just like sharing stories, you know? So it’s great.
DH: So did you guys know each other in school at all?
JF: We didn’t. I didn’t know him. I didn’t know any of the hockey guys. I just, we were in different, you know, different worlds. Obviously, he was very busy as a student athlete, an absolutely incredible hockey player on an incredible hockey team. And it was a great, it was a magical time to be at Michigan. There was a lot of cool stuff going on at Michigan at the time. We had just come out of the Desmond Howard and we had the Fab 5 and I mean that time period in the early 90s of the University of Michigan is really a special time in the school’s athletic history.
Even something like tracking down the video. I had to track down the WOLV guys. And I was like, I didn’t realize that you started in South Quad in 1994. I would have gone and worked with you if I’d known it existed. Instead, I was at WCBN … even tracking down those guys has been a lot of fun because I’ve just been able to kind of call people and touch base or call my buddy who I work with at ESPN who worked for the Daily and he’s he said to me “Oh yeah I used to cover the hockey team and I remember Red coming up into the stands” and have a conversation with him and so it’s.
It’s really been nice, a nice way to reconnect with people that that you knew from Michigan or didn’t know or knew people in common.
Telling Mike’s story has been really, really special. He’s just so down to earth and such a great guy and such an amazing hockey player, and to be able to tell his story has been incredible. Anytime I get a chance to do any of the stories I do, I’m always very cognizant of the fact that people are opening themselves up. To me as a producer, I wanna make sure that I get it right and to tell Mike Legg’s story right and to tell the story of the Michigan goal right.
It’s been nice to be able to do that and for them to have the trust and the, you know, the university’s been great and the hockey program has been great to help us out. You know, the people associated – John Bacon’s been wonderful. There’s been a lot of people that are associated with the school that have really been able to reconnect and this is just such a great story because it’s just such a pure sports story.
DH: Yeah
JF: ALL SPORT. And that’s really nice because it’s sports for the sports fan about a magical moment and a magical moment that has changed one of the big four sports that the world plays.
The fact that it’s taken so long in this particular case for it to catch on … Is amazing, and a lot of that is due to the world we now live in, social media, the phone, everything’s everywhere quickly.
The story behind the game has always been more interesting to me and that’s you know, listen, I’m a big sports fan. It does mean something for me when teams win or teams that I root for win. But I was always more interested in who the person was, why and what their motivation was, and where they came from than their day-to-day, he’s got six goals and his plus minus is, you know, -1 or…
Some people really get into that. It was just never something that interested me.
I grew up in Lexington, Mass, with birthplace of American history. Like that’s.. History and the kind of documentary background, stories of why things happened and when they happened and how they happened, that’s just always been a fascination for me. And I’ve just kind of taken that to sports because I always love sports.
Like I’m an alum and he’s an alum and we’re an alum at the same time. And it’s funny when we went up to he’s a firefighter in Vancouver and originally we were going to film the open — I had this big, I mean I imagined this cool visual and we’re gonna fly helicopters up into the mountains outside of Vancouver. But then internally they’re kind of like do we really need you know like helicopter and risk management and that stuff like. So ultimately we decided to go to. Jasper, Alberta, which is 4 hours west of Edmonton, it’s there’s a rank and there’s the mountains. And I said well that’s exactly what we needed. So we went out And so it’s just fun to be two alums.
DH: Well yeah. And then you get to see your like right there while he’s doing it.
JF: Yeh, because that’s. That’s my job is to tell the camera crew, like, get this, get that, that type of stuff.
DH: So did it just bedazzle you even more? I mean it’s just so cool.
JF: It’s mesmerizing. We must have had him pull at least 400 of them in a row. You know, like, I can’t really tell you how many he pulled. But he just can pull it over and over and over again.
DH: I love that.
JF: It’s an amazing thing. That’s Mike Legg!
DH: Well, be ready to get mesmerized at ESPN this hockey season, by Fish’s doc and the playoffs themselves. Whatever you do, keep an eye out for the guys who pull the MICHIGAN. OK, that’s it for now. Thanks for listening. And till next time, as always, GO BLUE.
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<h2>This magic moment</h2>
<div id="attachment_44758" style="width: 235px" class="wp-caption alignright"><a href="https://michigantoday.umich.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/89/2024/05/Legg-bhl_BL020962_BL020962_bl020962.jpeg"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-44758" class="size-medium wp-image-44758" src="https://michigantoday.umich.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/89/2024/05/Legg-bhl_BL020962_BL020962_bl020962-225x300.jpeg" alt="Mike Legg in maize hockey jersey in 1995." width="225" height="300" srcset="https://michigantoday.umich.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/89/2024/05/Legg-bhl_BL020962_BL020962_bl020962-225x300.jpeg 225w, https://michigantoday.umich.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/89/2024/05/Legg-bhl_BL020962_BL020962_bl020962-769x1024.jpeg 769w, https://michigantoday.umich.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/89/2024/05/Legg-bhl_BL020962_BL020962_bl020962-768x1023.jpeg 768w, https://michigantoday.umich.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/89/mc-image-cache/2024/05/Legg-bhl_BL020962_BL020962_bl020962.jpeg 1047w" sizes="(max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px" /></a>Legg, the student-athlete, circa 1995. (Image courtesy of U-M’s Bentley Historical Library.)</div>
Once in a great while, an athlete comes along and changes a sport forever. There’s Kenny Sailors, an American basketball player who “invented” the jump shot in the early 1940s. And what about Olympic gold medalist and high jumper Dick Fosbury who introduced the “Fosbury Flop” to his chosen sport? Well, Michigan fans have their own sports legend to celebrate in hockey’s Mike Legg. He’s the Wolverine who galvanized the 1996 team to win the NCAA national championship after dazzling the crowd with his heart-stopping play, “the Michigan.”
Fans surely recall the dramatic matchup with Minnesota at Michigan State when the Wolverines, projected to take the national title, were nearly ousted from contention by a Gophers squad that was outshooting them 13-3. Desperate to shift the momentum, Legg decided to pull an unorthodox move from his arsenal, taught to him by Western Michigan’s Bill Armstrong. During warmups prior to the game, Legg checked in with Coach Red Berenson and game officials. He explained what he planned to do and asked whether it would be legal should he score.
“Mike would bend down and use leverage on the blade of the stick to get the puck up on its edge and then scoop it up,” says Jon Fish, BA ’95, a producer at ESPN. He recently wrapped a 30-minute documentary on the move and the player who popularized it. “Then he’d use centrifugal force to keep the puck against the blade of the stick so he could flip it around and underneath the crossbar to tuck it in the net.”
The officials gave Legg the green light. He pulled the move. To say the crowd went wild is an understatement. The momentum of that game took the Wolverines on to victory over Minnesota and then to <a href="https://mgoblue.com/news/2016/3/25/kornacki-reds-first-champs-recall-winning-it-all-in-cincinnati">the hockey program’s first national championship in 32 years</a>. Hockey players at every level of the sport began trying it themselves.
“Everyone knew that a guy from Michigan pulled the move,” Fish says, explaining why such names as the “Do It” or the “High Rap” never caught on.
<h2>See ‘The Michigan’ on ESPN in May and June</h2>
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<h2>‘Oh, it’s a thing…’</h2>
Hockey purists dismissed the unusual lacrosse-type move and forced it into relative obscurity for two-and-a-half decades. Then, a confluence of circumstances brought it back to the ice with a vengeance, so much so that in December 2023, the NHL’s Connor Bedard (Chicago Blackhawks) and Trevor Zegras (Anaheim Ducks) pulled the Michigan within hours of each other. Fish’s ESPN colleagues, dubious about his story pitch at first, were forced to admit “that it really is a thing” to which Fish replied, “Oh, it’s a thing.”
His documentary, airing on ESPN in May and June tracks the Michigan’s life cycle in what Fish describes as a “pure origin story.” Its universal theme should captivate viewers of all kinds, whether they enjoy sports or not, he says.
“People love origin stories. This is not just something that happened in a game; there’s a real story arc here. It was done, it went away, and now it’s back. And here are the reasons why.”
<h2>The high rap?</h2>
<div id="attachment_44756" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><a href="https://michigantoday.umich.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/89/2024/05/Legg-Pulls-The-Michigan.jpg"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-44756" class="size-medium wp-image-44756" src="https://michigantoday.umich.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/89/2024/05/Legg-Pulls-The-Michigan-300x200.jpg" alt="Hockey player scores goal, dressed in maize. Outside on a rink surrounded by pines and mountains." width="300" height="200" srcset="https://michigantoday.umich.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/89/2024/05/Legg-Pulls-The-Michigan-300x200.jpg 300w, https://michigantoday.umich.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/89/2024/05/Legg-Pulls-The-Michigan-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https://michigantoday.umich.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/89/2024/05/Legg-Pulls-The-Michigan-768x512.jpg 768w, https://michigantoday.umich.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/89/mc-image-cache/2024/05/Legg-Pulls-The-Michigan.jpg 1500w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /></a>Legg pulled the move hundreds of times while they were shooting the documentary, much to Fish’s delight. (Image credit: Dale MacMillan, courtesy of ESPN.)</div>
As Fish tells it, an 11-year-old Andrei Svechnikov, who now plays for the Carolina Hurricanes, was living near Siberia when he saw Mikael Granlund of the senior Finnish national team pull the move in 2011. Bedazzled, Svechnikov taught himself the move and pulled it himself as an NHL player in 2019. Bedard, arguably the biggest star in the NHL today, was 14 when he saw it, “exactly the age when you start teaching yourself how to do things like this with the puck,” Fish says. EA Sports put the move into a video game, added Mike Legg, and the legend took hold.
When the 2020 COVID pandemic hit and the world shut down (five months after Svechnikov’s goal for Carolina), aspiring hockey pros spent their time perfecting the move in driveways, in basements, and on the outdoor ice. Social media’s “Hockey Jedi” Zac Bell posted clips of himself pulling the Michigan on the side of the road, inspiring even more housebound athletes. Once COVID restrictions were finally lifted, the players brought it to the rinks and, ultimately, the NHL.
“A lot of the NHL guys have gotten so good at it that they literally can do it on the fly,” says Fish. It helps that modern-day sticks are made of more flexible material than the ‘90s-era equipment Legg was using, he says. “The players are so adept that it’s really changing the sport of hockey itself. It’s opened up the game creatively and visually.”
<h2>Do it</h2>
Fish’s 30-minute documentary will air on ESPN multiple times leading up to the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs Finals. If you’re reading this before 8:59 a.m. on Saturday, May 18, you can catch the first airing at 9 a.m. on ESPN2.
<div id="attachment_44757" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignright"><a href="https://michigantoday.umich.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/89/2024/05/Legg-Crew-ESPN-documentary.jpg"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-44757" class="size-medium wp-image-44757" src="https://michigantoday.umich.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/89/2024/05/Legg-Crew-ESPN-documentary-300x200.jpg" alt="Cameraman and producer point camera at hockey player wearing maize jersey, no. 15." width="300" height="200" srcset="https://michigantoday.umich.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/89/2024/05/Legg-Crew-ESPN-documentary-300x200.jpg 300w, https://michigantoday.umich.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/89/2024/05/Legg-Crew-ESPN-documentary-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https://michigantoday.umich.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/89/2024/05/Legg-Crew-ESPN-documentary-768x512.jpg 768w, https://michigantoday.umich.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/89/mc-image-cache/2024/05/Legg-Crew-ESPN-documentary.jpg 1500w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /></a>Hockey fan Fish produces an ESPN documentary with fellow alum Mike Legg. (Image credit: Dale MacMillan, via ESPN.)</div>
For this longtime producer who favors the story behind the story, his piece on the Michigan and Legg is a career high. Though they never met as classmates, the two Wolverines were on campus at the same time and shared many of the same memories and experiences. Researching the piece reconnected Fish with colleagues, alumni, and current staff from Michigan Athletics and WOLV-TV, WCBN, and the Michigan Daily. Sportswriter and Michigan grad John Bacon appears in the piece, as does former coach Berenson. A number of professional hockey players also weigh in.
“This is a sports story for the sports fan about a magical moment that has changed one of the big four sports that the world plays,” Fish says.
Legg played seven years in the pros and the Finnish elite division. Today he lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, where he has been a firefighter for nearly 20 years. He stays active in hockey by coaching local youth teams. He is humble about his contribution to the sport, Fish says, which is amazing in light of its impact.
<div id="attachment_44755" style="width: 210px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><a href="https://michigantoday.umich.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/89/2024/05/Mike-Legg-Catching-Air-The-Michigan.jpg"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-44755" class="size-medium wp-image-44755" src="https://michigantoday.umich.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/89/2024/05/Mike-Legg-Catching-Air-The-Michigan-200x300.jpg" alt="Hockey player catches air. Dressed in maize jersey on an outside rink rimmed by pines." width="200" height="300" srcset="https://michigantoday.umich.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/89/2024/05/Mike-Legg-Catching-Air-The-Michigan-200x300.jpg 200w, https://michigantoday.umich.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/89/2024/05/Mike-Legg-Catching-Air-The-Michigan-683x1024.jpg 683w, https://michigantoday.umich.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/89/2024/05/Mike-Legg-Catching-Air-The-Michigan-768x1152.jpg 768w, https://michigantoday.umich.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/89/mc-image-cache/2024/05/Mike-Legg-Catching-Air-The-Michigan.jpg 1000w" sizes="(max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px" /></a>Legg helped open the game visually and creatively to the point that hockey is no longer played solely on the ice. (Image credit: Dale MacMillan, courtesy of ESPN.)</div>
“Telling Mike’s story been really, really special. He’s just so down-to-earth and such a great guy. And he’s such an amazing hockey player,” Fish says.
The documentarian relishes the proximity his job affords to the athletes he admires. He’s won multiple Emmys and is a producer on the popular “College Game Day” program, which brings him back to campus during football season. His picturesque sequences with Legg were shot at an outdoor rink in Jasper, Alberta, with mountains and pine trees in the background. Fish estimates Legg pulled the move hundreds of times for his ESPN camera crew.
“It was mesmerizing,” he says, allowing his inner fan to come out. “I mean, that’s Mike Legg!”
For updates on more airings, check @jonfish2 on Twitter and Instagram. 
(Lead image by Dale MacMillan, courtesy of ESPN.)
 
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<slash:comments>4</slash:comments>
</item>
<item>
<title>I can see clearly now. Can you?</title>
<link>https://michigantoday.umich.edu/2024/05/17/i-can-see-clearly-now-can-you/</link>
<comments>https://michigantoday.umich.edu/2024/05/17/i-can-see-clearly-now-can-you/#comments</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Victor Katch]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Fri, 17 May 2024 20:30:44 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Columns]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Health Yourself]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[eye diseases]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[eye health]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Faculty]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Health]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Kellogg Eye Center]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[nutrition]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://michigantoday.umichsites.org/?p=44710</guid>
<description><![CDATA[To see or not to see: That is the question for Victor Katch... and us. ]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<h2>To see or not to see</h2>
When I was in college in the mid-1960s, my basketball coach forced me to see an eye doctor for glasses. Apparently, I was constantly squinting on the court. Sure enough, I needed glasses (contacts were unavailable for my Rx). No big deal, I thought. Oh, boy, was I wrong! Playing basketball with glasses was/is a miserable experience. I experienced headaches, sweat dripping into my eyes, injuries to my nose, and blurry vision. It seemed like every year, I had to return to get a new, more powerful Rx. And the cost was ridiculous – examinations, lenses, frames, and coatings were out-of-this-world.
I still wear glasses today, and they’re more expensive than ever, particularly designer frames that fit better, have thinner lenses, and don’t break. And now I need four pairs: regular wear, sunglasses, driving glasses, computer glasses, and, oh yes, golf glasses. I know that’s five, but I don’t really need golf glasses. That said, they do help with reading the greens (without them, my putting would be really bad instead of just bad!). To complicate matters, now I need surgery to replace a lens since I appear to have cataracts. I’m not alone. The number of people who wear glasses increases year after year. Reasons range from airborne pollution to genetic mutations. The latest data reveal that more than 75% of people over age 55 wear eyeglasses.
<h2>Anatomy of an eye</h2>
<div id="attachment_44744" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><a href="https://michigantoday.umich.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/89/2024/05/Health-Eye-Anatomy.png"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-44744" class="size-medium wp-image-44744" src="https://michigantoday.umich.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/89/2024/05/Health-Eye-Anatomy-300x185.png" alt="Inside the eyeball -- a graphic" width="300" height="185" srcset="https://michigantoday.umich.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/89/2024/05/Health-Eye-Anatomy-300x185.png 300w, https://michigantoday.umich.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/89/mc-image-cache/2024/05/Health-Eye-Anatomy.png 703w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /></a>(Image courtesy of Victor Katch.)</div>
Your eye includes the cornea, the clear front window that transmits and focuses light into the eye. It acts like a windshield and partly bends light as it enters the eye. Tear fluid keeps the cornea lubricated.
The sclera is the white part of the eye that forms the general eyeball shape and structure. The conjunctiva is the thin layer that covers the sclera and lines the eyelids inside.
The aqueous humor is a fluid that fills the anterior chamber of the eye and helps maintain its shape.
The iris contains the muscles that control pupil size and is also responsible for eye color. The pupil is the black circle inside the iris. It is like an adjustable window to the eye inside. It widens and narrows to control how much light enters the eye.
The lens focuses light that enters the eye and directs it to the back of the eye.
The vitreous humor is the clear, gel-like fluid that fills the space between the lens and retina. The retina is the thin layer of light-sensitive cells at the back of the eyes that converts light into electrical signals. It contains rods, which help see in low light, and cones, which help see colors.
The macula, a small area of the retina, is critical to vision. It is responsible for the center of the visual field and helps you see color and fine details. The optic nerve connects the retina to the brain. It transmits signals from the eye, with connection points linking to multiple brain areas.
The external muscles control the eye’s position, alignment, and movement and contribute to its shape. This enables the ability to switch one’s focus between near and far objects.
<h2>How the eye works</h2>
<div id="attachment_44743" style="width: 308px" class="wp-caption alignright"><a href="https://michigantoday.umich.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/89/2024/05/Health-how-the-eye-works-image005.png"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-44743" class="size-medium wp-image-44743" src="https://michigantoday.umich.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/89/2024/05/Health-how-the-eye-works-image005-298x300.png" alt="Graphic of three eyeballs with different conditions." width="298" height="300" srcset="https://michigantoday.umich.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/89/2024/05/Health-how-the-eye-works-image005-298x300.png 298w, https://michigantoday.umich.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/89/2024/05/Health-how-the-eye-works-image005-150x150.png 150w, https://michigantoday.umich.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/89/mc-image-cache/2024/05/Health-how-the-eye-works-image005.png 509w" sizes="(max-width: 298px) 100vw, 298px" /></a>(Image courtesy of Victor Katch.)</div>
“Seeing” requires light from the outside world. The eye allows light to enter and pass through a series of clear components and sections, including the cornea, aqueous humor, lens, and vitreous humor. Those structures bend and focus light, adjusting how far the light will travel before it comes into focus on the retina. Eye muscles can make subtle changes to eye shape, moving the focus point so it lands at the “correct” location on the retina. When light lands on retina cells, they send signals to the brain – like coded messages describing the color, intensity, and other relevant details about the light. The brain decodes and processes these signals and uses them to “build” the image you perceive.
<h2>Making a spectacle</h2>
The major reasons why humans need glasses include refractive errors that can occur when the eye shape or structure prevents light from focusing on the retina the way it’s supposed to. The following are the major refractive errors.
<ul>
<li>Astigmatism — People with astigmatism, like me, have an irregular curve to their cornea that bends light abnormally. This prevents light from focusing on the retina with precision. Without a pinpointed focus on the retina, objects viewed at certain distances appear blurred. About 14% of children and 40% of adults have an astigmatism. Common symptoms include poor night vision, squinting to focus, blurry vision, headaches, and eye strain.</li>
<li>Hyperopia (farsightedness) — The eyes focus light on a point past the retina (see “How the eye works” image). This makes close objects and text appear blurry while faraway objects appear clear. About 5% of children and 31% of adults have hyperopia. Common symptoms include difficulty seeing up close, headaches (especially when reading), and eye strain.</li>
<li>Myopia (nearsightedness) — The eyes focus light on a point in front of the retina. This makes distant objects look out-of-focus while close objects look clear. About 12% of children and 27% of adults are nearsighted. Common symptoms include difficulty seeing far away, squinting to focus, and eye strain.</li>
<li>Presbyopia — Similar to hyperopia, close-up objects and text appear blurry, but unlike hyperopia, it occurs naturally with aging as the eye lens loses its flexibility and functionality. Roughly 1.8 billion people in the world have presbyopia. Common symptoms include headaches, eye strain, holding reading materials farther away to read them, and difficulty seeing materials up close.</li>
</ul>
<h2>Other eye disorders and diseases</h2>
The major causes of vision loss include age-related eye diseases such as macular degeneration, cataracts, diabetic retinopathy, and glaucoma. Other common eye disorders include amblyopia and strabismus.
<div id="attachment_44742" style="width: 219px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><a href="https://michigantoday.umich.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/89/2024/05/health-yourself-age-related-macular-degeneration.png"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-44742" class="size-full wp-image-44742" src="https://michigantoday.umich.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/89/2024/05/health-yourself-age-related-macular-degeneration.png" alt="An image depicting what it is like to have macular degeneration -- cloudy and distorted." width="209" height="186" /></a>(Image courtesy of Victor Katch.)</div>
Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is an eye disorder that results in distorting central vision, which is necessary to see objects clearly and to execute common daily tasks such as reading and driving (see AMD image). AMD affects the macula, the central part of the retina that allows the eye to perceive fine details. About 1.8 million Americans aged 40 and older are affected by AMD. An additional 7.3 million are at substantial risk of developing it. AMD is the leading cause of permanent impairment of reading and fine or close-up vision among people aged 65 years and older.
There are two forms of AMD: wet and dry. Wet AMD is when abnormal blood vessels behind the retina start to grow under the macula, ultimately leading to blood and fluid leakage. Bleeding, leaking, and scarring from these blood vessels cause damage and rapid central vision loss. An early symptom of wet AMD is that straight lines appear wavy.
AMD occurs when the macula thins over time as part of the aging process, gradually blurring central vision. The dry form is more common and accounts for 70-90% of AMD. The dry form progresses more slowly than the wet version. Over time, as less of the macula functions, central vision gradually declines. Dry AMD generally affects both eyes. <a href="http://www.healthline.com/health/drusen">Drusens</a> are among the most common early signs of dry AMD. They are small yellow deposits of fatty proteins (lipids) that accumulate under the retina and appear as tiny pebbles of debris that build up over time.
<div id="attachment_44741" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignright"><a href="https://michigantoday.umich.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/89/2024/05/Health-Yourself-Cataracts-image007.png"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-44741" class="size-medium wp-image-44741" src="https://michigantoday.umich.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/89/2024/05/Health-Yourself-Cataracts-image007-300x73.png" alt="Close-up of eyeball with cataract." width="300" height="73" srcset="https://michigantoday.umich.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/89/2024/05/Health-Yourself-Cataracts-image007-300x73.png 300w, https://michigantoday.umich.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/89/mc-image-cache/2024/05/Health-Yourself-Cataracts-image007.png 591w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /></a>(Image courtesy of Victor Katch.)</div>
Cataract represents eye clouding (of the lens) and is the leading cause of blindness worldwide. Cataracts can occur at any age due to a variety of causes and can be present at birth. An estimated 30+ million Americans aged 40 and older have a cataract in one or both eyes.
Diabetic retinopathy (DR) is a common complication of diabetes and is the leading cause of blindness in American adults. It results from progressive damage to the retina’s blood vessels. Diabetic retinopathy usually affects both eyes.
<aside class="callout right">Good eye health starts with obtaining the necessary nutrients proven to protect the eyes. Regular consumption of green leafy vegetables (spinach, kale, Swiss chard); salmon, tuna, and other oily fish; eggs, nuts, beans, and other nonmeat protein sources; and lots of citrus fruits provide valuable nutrients the eyes need.</aside>
Glaucoma is a group of diseases that can damage the eye’s optic nerve and usually results in vision loss and/or blindness. Glaucoma most often occurs when the normal fluid pressure inside the eyes slowly rises. Symptoms include severe headaches, severe pain, nausea or vomiting, blurred vision, and eye redness. There are two types of glaucoma — open angle and closed angle. Open angle represents a chronic condition that progresses slowly over a long period of time while angle closure can appear suddenly and is often very painful.
Amblyopia (lazy eye) is the most common cause of vision impairment in children. It occurs when the vision in one eye degrades because the eye and the brain don’t work together properly. Conditions leading to amblyopia include an imbalance in the positioning of the two eyes (termed strabismus) and more nearsighted, farsighted, or astigmatic issues in one eye than the other.
Dry eye disease (DED) occurs when tears cannot adequately lubricate the eyes. Mostly, DED occurs if not enough tears are produced, or are of poor quality. Tear instability leads to inflammation and damage of the eye’s surface. Dry eyes feel uncomfortable, sometimes stinging or burning. Blurred vision and eye fatigue are also symptoms. DED can be chronic or may only occur in certain situations, such as on an airplane, in an air-conditioned room, or after looking at a computer screen for a long period of time.
<h2>Optometrists, ophthalmologists, and opticians, oh my!</h2>
Optometrists perform eye exams and vision tests, detect vision problems, and prescribe corrective treatments such as glasses, contact lenses, and medications. Optometrists complete four years of professional training after college to earn a Doctor of Optometry degree (O.D.). They also may complete additional training or specialty fellowships.
Ophthalmologists complete medical school, followed by a one-year internship and three-year residency. Ophthalmologists address all medical and surgical eye issues and can treat eye-related issues due to complex medical conditions. They also provide pre- and post-surgical care, much like a primary-care eye doctor.
Opticians fill prescriptions written by optometrists and ophthalmologists; they help individuals choose and fit eyeglass frames.
<h2>Take care of your eyes</h2>
<ul>
<li>Good eye health starts with obtaining the necessary nutrients proven to protect the eyes. This includes omega-3 fatty acids; antioxidants like lutein and zeaxanthin as well as other carotenoids; and zinc, vitamin C, and vitamin E. Regular consumption of green leafy vegetables (spinach, kale, Swiss chard); salmon, tuna, and other oily fish; eggs, nuts, beans, and other nonmeat protein sources; and lots of citrus fruits will ensure adequate intake of all the nutrients the eyes need.</li>
<li>Quit smoking to decrease the risk of getting cataracts and damaging the optic nerve.</li>
<li>Wear sunglasses to protect the eyes from the sun’s ultraviolet (UV) rays. Too much UV exposure boosts the chance of developing cataracts and macular degeneration.</li>
<li>Use safety eyewear when needed.</li>
<li>Look away from the computer screen. Stop staring at your phone.</li>
<li>Visit an eye doctor regularly.</li>
</ul>
  
  
References
<ul>
<li>Baird, P.N., et al, “Myopi.” Nature Reviews Disease Primers. 2020 Dec 17;6(1):99.</li>
<li>Baranwal, N., et al, “Sleep physiology, pathophysiology, and sleep hygiene.” Progress in Cardiovascular Diseases. 2023 Mar-Apr;77:59-69.</li>
<li>Bentley, S., et al, “Public health and Indigenous eye health: More work to be done in optometry.” Clinical and Experimental Optometry. 2023 Mar;106(2):107-109.</li>
<li>Buscemi, S., et al, “The effect of lutein on eye and extra-eye health.” Nutrients. 2018 Sep 18;10(9):1321.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.nei.nih.gov/learn-about-eye-health/eye-conditions-and-diseases">Eye conditions and diseases</a>. National Eye Institute.</li>
<li>Ivanov, I.V., et al, “Ultraviolet radiation oxidative stress affects eye health.” The Journal of Biophotonics. 2018 Jul;11(7):e201700377.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.nei.nih.gov/learn-about-eye-health">Learn About Eye Health.</a> National Eye Institute.</li>
<li>O’Leary, F., Campbell, M., “The blood-retina barrier in health and disease.” The FEBS Journal. 2023 Feb;290(4):878-891.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.umkelloggeye.org/conditions-treatments/anatomy-eye#:~:text=Light%20passes%20through%20the%20front,and%20then%20to%20the%20brain.">Kellogg Eye Center, University of Michigan</a>.</li>
</ul>
(Lead image credit: Michigan Photography.)
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</item>
<item>
<title>Leveling up in Floodtown</title>
<link>https://michigantoday.umich.edu/2024/05/17/leveling-up-in-floodtown/</link>
<comments>https://michigantoday.umich.edu/2024/05/17/leveling-up-in-floodtown/#comments</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Ricky Rood]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Fri, 17 May 2024 18:06:12 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Climate Blue]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[climate change]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[dams]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[flood]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Great Lakes]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Michigan]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[weather]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://michigantoday.umichsites.org/?p=44691</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Ricky Rood is taking us to Floodtown, where water levels are rising and 'cryin' won't help you.']]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<h2>Storytime</h2>
I have arrived at the point where I want to use the rules and tools I described in the<a href="https://openclimate.org/storylines-and-scenarios-for-a-warming-climate/"> previous columns</a> to see if I can write a story.
In the <a href="https://michigantoday.umich.edu/2024/04/26/scenes-from-a-warming-climate/">last entry</a>, I created an imaginary place, Floodtown. It has been the site of recurrent floods in the last 15 years. Floodtown is a coastal community. Many of us immediately think of the seacoast, but we are on the coast of the Great Lakes. Floodtown is in the Detroit Metro Area on the Detroit River, which serves as the outflow of Lake St. Claire.
And here is our problem: How do we manage excess water in Floodtown as Earth warms?
<h2>Look around</h2>
The first action we take is to <a href="https://michigantoday.umich.edu/2023/12/08/on-the-surface/">look at the surface</a> around us. The goal at this early point is to get the lay of the land. Many aspects of geography could be described, but in this first look, we identify where there is land and where there is water. The presence of large lakes near Floodtown means, among other things, that there is an available water supply for the atmosphere.
<div id="attachment_44694" style="width: 391px" class="wp-caption alignright"><a href="https://michigantoday.umich.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/89/2024/05/20240515_Great_Lakes_levels_Army_Corps.png"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-44694" class=" wp-image-44694" src="https://michigantoday.umich.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/89/2024/05/20240515_Great_Lakes_levels_Army_Corps-300x152.png" alt="Graphic depicting the Great Lakes System Profile -- lake depths." width="381" height="193" srcset="https://michigantoday.umich.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/89/2024/05/20240515_Great_Lakes_levels_Army_Corps-300x152.png 300w, https://michigantoday.umich.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/89/2024/05/20240515_Great_Lakes_levels_Army_Corps-1024x518.png 1024w, https://michigantoday.umich.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/89/2024/05/20240515_Great_Lakes_levels_Army_Corps-768x389.png 768w, https://michigantoday.umich.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/89/mc-image-cache/2024/05/20240515_Great_Lakes_levels_Army_Corps.png 1500w" sizes="(max-width: 381px) 100vw, 381px" /></a>This image from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers shows the elevation and average lake levels from Lake Superior to the Atlantic Ocean. Click on the image to enlarge.</div>
Another aspect of geography that helps us define the region we need to consider is a profile of the average lake level above sea level. Lakes Superior, Michigan-Huron, and Erie are all pretty close to the same. Lake Ontario, downstream of Niagara Falls, is more than 300 feet lower. With the Moses-Saunders Dam in place, Lake Ontario is extended down the St. Lawrence River. Then we have the relatively small Lakes Saint Lawrence, Saint Francis, and Saint Louis before we get to Montreal, the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, and the Atlantic.
There is a point to make here: Our biggest lever to control lake levels is the Moses-Saunders Dam, and this is not a very strong lever. The amount of water upstream of Niagara Falls is enormous compared to Lake Ontario and the Upper Saint Lawrence River.
If one sought to lower water levels and throw open the spillways on the Moses-Saunders Dam, all those small lakes downstream and in Montreal would flood. Lake Ontario levels would reduce slightly, but upstream of Niagara Falls, in Floodtown, we’d see very little change. Because of this geography and engineering, our ability to manage high lake levels by increasing water flow downstream is limited, and many bad potential outcomes arise from that action. This regional constraint shows the critical role of regional partners, regional plans, and regional strategies.
<h2>All weather is local</h2>
We always need to know about the local weather. Experts on weather and climate can provide information, but a good practice is to interview people. Some may have experienced floods; others may serve as emergency managers and mayors. Those concerned with flooding will likely mention severe spring and summer thunderstorms and massive, wet winter storms. As we develop our storylines for scenarios, we now understand we must <a href="https://michigantoday.umich.edu/2024/02/23/stormy-weather/">choose some storms</a>.
Lake effect precipitation is another notable weather feature that is hugely important in many areas east of the lakes. The lake effect is on the eastward side of the lakes because the <a href="https://michigantoday.umich.edu/2024/03/21/order-from-disorder/">weather is organized</a> and predominately moves from west to east.
Next, we need to identify a vulnerability or two. Floodtown suffered massive chronic flooding from 2017-20, when lake levels were at record and near-record highs for months. This was also a time of persistent and heavy precipitation. We can analyze what happened during these events and use it to inform future events.
<h2>It’s complicated</h2>
It is now appropriate to consider the rule of complexity — there is no one thing climate change will do. Indeed, for Floodtown, a comprehensive plan would need to consider windstorms and droughts. Because of chronic flooding, it is deemed a higher risk, and we have deliberately limited ourselves to flooding to help manage complexity. If other vulnerabilities need to be evaluated, it is better to do them in a parallel exercise and then determine their importance relative to flood.
Even limiting ourselves to flooding, there are multiple ways floods occur. Each may require a different management strategy.
We manage multiple paths to flooding by writing plausible stories that serve as scenarios. A well-designed set of scenarios will span various outcomes and provide a foundation of use cases for how Floodtown needs to respond.
We require the stories to be plausible, a word open for interpretation. One aspect of plausibility comes from starting with a known vulnerability. Another element of plausibility is that our scenarios are consistent with the laws of physics. One way to do this is to think about types of weather events, often storms, that caused damage in the past. Weather systems form the way they form because <a href="https://michigantoday.umich.edu/2024/02/23/stormy-weather/">they obey the laws of physics</a>. The same types of weather events are likely to occur in the future, but with different characteristics because they occur in a climate hyped up on heat.
<h2>Let’s engage</h2>
We are now at a place to create our scenarios about flooding in Floodtown.
What we know best about climate change is that it has warmed and will continue to warm. When addressing a problem in a particular place, local stakeholders like to start by asking: What has changed? They want to know, first, what has changed for them, not a sweeping statement for the globe, the country, or even Michigan. The figure here shows the temperature change for the counties comprising Southeast Lower Michigan.
<div id="attachment_44693" style="width: 391px" class="wp-caption alignright"><a href="https://michigantoday.umich.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/89/2024/05/20240515_Annual_Temperature_Southeast_Michigan.png"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-44693" class=" wp-image-44693" src="https://michigantoday.umich.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/89/2024/05/20240515_Annual_Temperature_Southeast_Michigan-300x200.png" alt="Graph with white circles and a red line indication annual temperature departures in southeast lower Michigan." width="381" height="254" srcset="https://michigantoday.umich.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/89/2024/05/20240515_Annual_Temperature_Southeast_Michigan-300x200.png 300w, https://michigantoday.umich.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/89/2024/05/20240515_Annual_Temperature_Southeast_Michigan-1024x683.png 1024w, https://michigantoday.umich.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/89/2024/05/20240515_Annual_Temperature_Southeast_Michigan-768x512.png 768w, https://michigantoday.umich.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/89/mc-image-cache/2024/05/20240515_Annual_Temperature_Southeast_Michigan.png 1200w" sizes="(max-width: 381px) 100vw, 381px" /></a>Click on the image to enlarge. (Image courtesy of Ricky Rood.)</div>
Looking at the red line, you’ll note an upward trend starting about 1980 or 1990. This is perhaps even more noticeable if you look at the circles for the cooler years. There has been a clear upward trend since 1990, except for one year. We will return to that one colder year later in the story, but rest assured, that one year does not tell us global warming is bogus.
At this point, with the perceived increase in flooding and observed temperature trends, officials in Floodtown should be ready to discuss climate change. They may wonder if this much warming has increased flooding in the past 15 years; what will happen in another 15 years?
They are likely to be more interested in what is happening in the state and the Great Lakes Basin. They may begin to identify other vulnerabilities they face. And, of course, they are asking: How can we fix this?
If we look at temperature numbers, we see that from 1951-2020, the yearly average in the Great Lakes Basin has increased by 2.3°F. We can frame the future in a couple of ways: We can look at the temperature trend since 1990 and simply extend it another 30 years, or we can consider the guidance provided by climate models. In no case is it responsible to ignore these trends.
When we look forward, we expect that in the 2040-59 time frame,<a href="https://glisa.umich.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Climate_Change_in_the_Great_Lakes_Presentation.pdf"> average temperatures will be 3° – 6° F warmer</a>. If you are a planner in Floodtown and have been convinced that a warming of 2.3° F has contributed to recent increases in flooding, then another 3°- 6° F warming puts you on high alert.
I will end this entry by introducing the rule of complexity. Temperature is directional. On average, it is going up. We are, however, interested in floods. That draws our attention immediately to precipitation and, if we think a little bit more, to evaporation from the surface. We now have to think about things that are conditional.
Next: The floods are coming … and “cryin’ won’t help you, prayin’ won’t do you no good.”
(Lead image: OPG’s RH Saunders Generating Station on the Saint Lawrence River via Wikipedia.)
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<title>Resilience, determination, commitment, and commencement</title>
<link>https://michigantoday.umich.edu/2024/05/17/resilience-determination-commitment/</link>
<comments>https://michigantoday.umich.edu/2024/05/17/resilience-determination-commitment/#comments</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Santa J. Ono]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Fri, 17 May 2024 15:36:18 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Columns]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[President's Message]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Brad Meltzer]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[commencement]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Faculty]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[U-M Flint]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://michigantoday.umichsites.org/?p=44669</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Let's celebrate our newest Michigan alumni, some extraordinary faculty, and the new permanent chancellor at UM-Flint.]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<h2>May 2024</h2>
Dear alumni, friends, and supporters:
As we close another academic year, I am filled with a sense of immense pride and optimism. The resilience, determination, and commitment of our community continues to inspire and move us forward as a great university.
I want to extend my heartfelt congratulations to all of our recent graduates from the Ann Arbor, Dearborn, and Flint campuses. We’re incredibly proud of our most recent alumni, and we’re excited to see all that they will achieve as they set out into the world.
<h2>‘Unleash your kindness’</h2>
Our spring commencement on May 4 was a celebration of everything our students have accomplished so far. <a href="https://record.umich.edu/articles/speaker-shares-how-magic-provides-insight-to-shape-lives/">In his address, commencement speaker Brad Meltzer,</a> a proud Michigan alumnus and parent of a graduate, shared messages that resonated deeply with all of us. He encouraged our graduates to embrace their unique paths, to remain open to change and growth, and to understand the power of empathy and kindness in transforming lives. I encourage everyone to watch his address to experience the magic and motivation of his words.
While we celebrate the achievements of one remarkable group of students, we also look with anticipation to the future and our next class of proud Wolverines. On the admissions front, this year has been truly unprecedented. We received a record-breaking number of more than 105,000 undergraduate applications for the fall. This rise spans all categories, including significant increases in applications from first-generation students, in-state, out-of-state, and international students, as well as students of color and those from low-income backgrounds. This surge in interest is a testament to the University of Michigan’s enduring appeal and the global reputation we’ve built for academic excellence and transformative education.
<h2>A common agenda for well-being</h2>
With another academic year behind us – and a summer full of sunshine ahead – it is an opportune moment to pause and reflect, to assess not only our achievements, but the state of our well-being.
The well-being of our staff, students, and faculty is and remains one of my highest priorities as president of this university.
That’s why I was so pleased to see human health and well-being as one of the critical impact areas of the campus vision that we created together, and that we launched last month. In addition, we have established a <a href="https://wellbeing.umich.edu/progress/common-agenda/">Common Agenda for Well-being</a> which will guide our work together in using policy and systems-level approaches to lead us toward becoming a health-promoting university.
<iframe loading="lazy" class="fluid" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/jhe0G3R-S4s?start=1&wmode=transparent&rel=0&feature=oembed&rel=0" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen title="President Ono's monthly message - May 2024"></iframe>
<h2>Faculty kudos</h2>
Our critical mission to prepare the next generation of Leaders and Best would not be possible without our world-class faculty. Twelve members of our faculty and staff were recently honored as fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, recognizing their extraordinary academic achievements. Additionally, four others were selected to join the American Academy of Arts and Sciences for their significant contributions to scholarly and professional fields. Earlier this month, six U-M professors were inducted into the National Academy of Sciences for their distinguished achievements in original research. These accolades reflect the breadth and depth of our university’s commitment to advancing knowledge and contributing to the betterment of society.
<h2>Flint’s future</h2>
Lastly, I am thrilled to share important news about the future of the University of Michigan-Flint campus. After a comprehensive and deliberative search, which included input from stakeholders across the community and numerous qualified applicants from across the nation, our Board of Regents recently appointed Dr. Laurence Alexander as the new permanent chancellor of UM-Flint. Dr. Alexander joins us from the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, where he served as chancellor. A former journalist, attorney, and First Amendment scholar, Dr. Alexander brings more than three decades of professional and academic experience as a distinguished professor, administrator, and university leader. His visionary leadership and extensive experience will undoubtedly guide UM-Flint to further success.
As we look ahead, we are filled with anticipation and excitement. The achievements of our graduates, the addition of Dr. Alexander to our leadership team, the recognition of our faculty, and the record levels of interest from prospective students all point to an institution that is strong, vibrant, and well-positioned going forward.
Thank you all for your support and dedication to the University of Michigan.
With warm regards,
Santa J. Ono 
President, University of Michigan
(Lead image: Erin Kirkland, Michigan Photography)
]]></content:encoded>
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