The Michigan Review - Journal of Campus Affairs

Letter from the Editor: Welcome to the Review

Dear Readers, I would like to start by thanking our readers and all of those who have supported The Michigan Review since its inception. I would like to thank our e-board, Editorial Editors Neil Shah and Frances Smith, Publisher Sam Wallace, and Executive Editor Cameron Derwin for all of their hard work. I look forward […]

Public Flagship or Ivy League Transplant? U-M Must Make a Decision

“I would like to keep the majority of undergrads from Michigan.” These words were uttered by University of Michigan President Mark Schlissel while addressing the school’s shifting demographic makeup: 51 percent of students are from the state of Michigan, while 49 percent are from outside the state. As recently as 2009, the split was 56 […]

Meet LSA Student Government Candidates Brian Wang and Mary McKillop

For the first time in nearly seven years, the election for LSA Student Government President and Vice President is contested. Throughout my time at the University of Michigan, our student body has struggled to care about student government elections. For Central Student Government elections last year, only 23.9 percent voted, which was an increase from […]

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. […]

Facebook’s Senseless Appeasement

Around the time I became Social Media Editor of The Michigan Review, a social media pioneer was taking the witness stand in Congress: Mark Zuckerberg, a self-made man who created Facebook in his college dorm. Facebook was under fire for allowing Cambridge Analytica to nab users’ data via a set of quizzes. These quizzes allowed […]

When Students Become Warriors: Rethinking Our Role in the National Battle

My dad winces bodily when ideas bother him. His eyes crinkle and the skepticism travels down his crow’s feet, tightening the corners of his mouth. It’s happening now as I watch him in the rear-view mirror, his tension radiating to press against the lull of the highway as I wait, expectant. Although it feels longer, […]

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, […]