The Michigan Review - Journal of Campus Affairs

Circuit Court to UM: Not So Fast

On September 23, the United States’ Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals amplified an already contentious dispute over whether or not colleges are restricting free speech. Early last spring, interest group Speech First alleged that a University of Michigan program was, in fact, violating First Amendment principles. In siding with the interest group, the Court quashed […]

Slices of Change: Samantha Power’s Insight from the U.N. to U-M

On Wednesday, September 25, former U.S. Ambassador to the UN Samantha Power gave a talk to Michigan students and faculty. Presenting as part of the Weiser Diplomacy Series from various foreign policy experts, Power gave thoughtful advice to both the diplomatic community and the college crowd. The lecture, structured around her new book The Education […]

9/11 Through a Freshman’s Eyes

On this year’s anniversary of the September 11th attacks, Young Americans for Freedom (YAF) planted 2,977 American flags on the Diag to commemorate each life lost. YAF Chairman Lincoln Ballew described the importance of her organization’s work: “The purpose of the event,” said Ballew, “is a memorial for the people whose lives were lost and […]

Slices of Change: Samantha Power’s Insight from the U.N. to U-M

9/11 Through a Freshman’s Eyes

The Academy in Crisis

The humanities departments of America’s universities are dominated by a rigid ideology. Putting a label on this ideology is tricky, but it can be expressed as a complementary blend of political correctness, postmodernism, postcolonialism, Marxism, and intersectional identity politics. For the sake of convenience, I will refer to this blend of ideas as “progressive” ideology. […]

A Champion is Born: The Ben Flanagan Story

On June 6th, 2018, one lap remained on Hayward Field Track in Eugene, Oregon. This was not just any lap: it was the lap to determine who would be the 10,000 meter NCAA Champion. By the last lap, after the size of the lead pack winnowed down, Michigan’s Ben Flanagan found himself closing in on […]

Thank You, Blake

When I first came to campus, I had to meet new people. As a freshman, this can become a tedious task, and I quickly became overwhelmed by the new names that seemed to fly past me. It was stressful at times, but the opportunity to get to really know people is always a treat. Generally, […]

Receding Expectations: Michigan Football in Review

“We bow to no man. We bow to no program. We are Michigan.” These words, uttered all season long in the calming cadence of James Earl Jones, linger now as a sardonic mockery of our program’s state of affairs. As Michigan fans, we unrealistically expect greatness in our athletic endeavors, ignoring the staunch unlikelihood […]

Inherent Vice: Adam McKay’s Vice struggles to find a message in muddling Biopic

In February of last year, I attended the AEI Eastern Policy Summit at the University of Virginia, which was a weekend filled with great speakers and fascinating discussion and debates. On the first night, Dick and Lynne Cheney came and talked about Lynne’s book on James Madison. I was shocked at their charm and camaraderie, […]

The Debasement of Political Satire

Monty Python was a popular—and brilliant—mid-1900s British sketch comedy troupe. Recently, I’ve been watching clips of their eponymous TV series, Monty Python’s Flying Circus, which satirizes British culture. Their political sketches, such as Party Political Broadcast and The Ministry of Silly Walks, critique politicians and excessive bureaucracy, respectively, and are pretty funny. More importantly, they […]

Bending Realities: ‘Westworld’ and Our Conception of Free Will

“Have you ever questioned the nature of your reality?” Oh many times, Jeffrey Wright, many times—perhaps more now than ever before. I never thought a show could bring out this feeling in me, but it turns out that a TV addiction has its perks. ‘Westworld’, a show I was unfamiliar with a mere month ago, […]