In April 2021, the Ann Arbor City Council adopted a resolution directing the city administrator to implement an unarmed public safety response program team. The resolution argued that an unarmed response team could better assist individuals facing mental health crises and human services challenges, like homelessness and substance abuse, as compared to police officers. Over two years later, The Michigan Daily spoke with city officials and community activists to understand Ann Arbor’s progress toward this goal.

In an interview with The Daily, City Administrator Milton Dohoney said the city has already completed the community engagement process, which sought to collect feedback from an array of stakeholders through group discussions and interviews. Dohoney said the city staff would soon submit final recommendations to the City Council based on the findings and expects City Council to follow up with a contract-bidding process to determine who would implement the program.

“Ultimately, we want the City Council to act upon the recommendation that we make,” Dohoney said. “Then we would go forward with an RFP and that would be seeking a vendor or contractor that would actually implement the unarmed response program. So conceptually, it’s not a program that the city will be doing itself. We will contract with someone external to the city government to run.”

Previous police reform advocacy and actions

In November 2014, police officer David Ried fatally shot Aura Rosser, who had been suffering from a mental health crisis, in Westside Ann Arbor while responding to a call about a domestic dispute. Brian Mackie, Washtenaw County Prosecutor at the time of the shooting, said the use of force was justified as officers reported that Rosser was holding a knife and refused to drop it. Mackie’s decision not to bring charges against the officer responsible for Rosser’s death was met with backlash from Ann Arbor community members who believed Rosser should have recused himself from the case due to the close relationship between local prosecutors and the police. 

The incident happened only three months after the police shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., prompting nationwide protests against police brutality. Soon after, the  Washtenaw County Sheriff’s Office held a community forum intended to build trust between law enforcement and civilians and prevent similar events from taking place in Washtenaw County. 

In 2019, the city established the Independent Community Police Oversight Commission to increase the transparency of the Ann Arbor Police Department. In an interview with The Daily, Lisa Jackson, one of its founding members, said the process of establishing the police oversight framework as well as the continuous accounts of negative interactions with law enforcement have pushed her to focus more on alternatives to policing. 

“I think the police have the ability to improve,” Jackson said. “But I think that trying to change police culture, overall, will take decades, and I think it will take a very special person to do that. In the interim, there are people who deserve care and safety who will never ever call the police.” 

Ann Arbor is not the first city to explore the possibility of establishing an unarmed team as an alternative to police for responding to mental health crises. In 1989, Eugene, Ore. became one of the first cities to deploy mental health professionals instead of police officers to assist people experiencing mental health issues. Since then, other cities including San Francisco and Oakland, Calif. have sought to model Eugene’s program.  

Councilmember Erica Briggs, D-Ward 5, was one of the council members who initially introduced the resolution to create an unarmed response team in Ann Arbor. In an interview with The Daily, she said the funding the city received through the American Rescue Plan Act made this vision financially possible. In April 2022, the City Council voted to allocate $3.5 million from the ARPA fund for a pilot of the unarmed crisis response team. 

“Before I got into City Council in 2020, there was already significant community advocacy around the idea of developing an unarmed crisis response,” Briggs said. “As folks are doing research around ‘What are the models for having mental health responses?’ unarmed crisis response is something that has emerged from research across the nation, and so especially when we had access to additional funds to the ARPA funding, this (seemed) like the appropriate time for us to begin exploring what that would look like in our community.”

Leveraging the existing community resources

In August 2022, Ann Arbor launched a program called “Supportive Connections,” which connects people to social services in hopes of addressing underlying factors in crime including substance abuse and mental health issues. Dohoney said that while the program was developed independently of the unarmed crisis response team, it still provides important insight on how to provide social services without police involvement.

“Ann Arbor is attempting to serve its residents in a variety of ways with different approaches,” Dohoney said. “So we created Supportive Connections to help people stay out of the judicial system, to help connect them to services. The response program that we’re working on setting up hopefully will be a model that will respond and help people resolve issues in a manner that doesn’t require the police department to do.”

Karen Field, program director of Supportive Connections, told The Daily in an interview that while it is a small program, they face very high demand.

“We have a case manager and myself,” Field said. “There are two people. We started taking referrals since November and we have had 66 participants referred to the program. We can provide assistance such as mental health treatments, substance abuse treatments, and we have funding for some other things such as identification and school fees.”

Field said the most frequently cited need is housing, but Supportive Connections does not run its own shelter due to limited funding. According to Field, this means people still need to apply through the county’s system, which is experiencing a backlog, to access temporary housing. 

Community expectations of the program

In a city survey conducted at the end of 2022, 93.1% of respondents indicated that they support the creation of the unarmed response team. In addition, 62.9% of the respondents said that they would prefer to access the team through a phone number different from 911. 

Dohoney said while the details of the program are still in the works, he has set out general expectations based on the community engagement process and the city’s capacity.

“The response team will be led by a contractor, and their staff and the city government will figure out what their role is,” Dohoney said. “In fact, I would be a little surprised if the unarmed response program is going to dispatch people walking through downtown. It would be more likely to be that people call and say ‘I have a situation, can you send an unarmed response?’ ”

William Lopez, assistant professor at the School of Public Health and a member of Coalition for Re-Envisioning Our Safety, a community organization raising awareness about the benefits of an unarmed response team, told The Daily in an interview that he hopes to see organizational separation of the unarmed team from the police department. Lopez said one step toward achieving this is having a phone number independent from 911 to request an unarmed crisis response.

“Armed officers inherently escalate the risk of firearm violence over the absence of an armed officer,” Lopez said. “And lots of the officer training is responding with force to dangerous situations. In cases where the situation isn’t dangerous, it may be easy to interpret it as dangerous and therefore respond with violence.”

Councilmember Linh Song, D-Ward 2, another councilmember involved in the initial proposal, told The Daily in an interview that she was inspired by the unanimous support for this program from two city councils and she is eager to see an unarmed team come to fruition.

“It wasn’t a controversial program when it came to the council table,” Song said. “Both our police chief(s) at the time, and now our interim police chief supports this too. I think we’ve kind of exhausted ourselves talking about it, and we’re really, really ready to implement it.”

Daily Staff Reporter Chen Lyu can be reached at lyuch@umich.edu. 

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“Offense wins games, but defense wins championships.”

This adage in the sporting world can be applied to numerous championship teams and moments — title-winning interceptions, other-worldly chasedown blocks and clutch pitching performances, to name just a few.

But for the Michigan baseball team to achieve its Big Ten Championship dream, ever-more faint after getting swept by Ohio State, that cliché will have to be flipped.

With their season on the line in Omaha — on the heels of conjuring just 10 total runs against the Buckeyes  — the Wolverines’ hitters will need to raise their game to have any semblance of hope at clinching that automatic NCAA Tournament bid by Sunday afternoon.

And look no further than Michigan’s 2022 Big Ten Tournament Championship run to reinforce that necessity.

“Michigan last year was in a similar position, and clicked and fired on all cylinders at the right time,” Michigan coach Tracy Smith said May 13.

While the comparisons are far from identical between this and last season’s squads, they both faced their seasons hanging in the balance with elimination from the Big Ten Tournament.

Yet unlike this year, Michigan began building its momentum at the plate in its final Big Ten regular season series against Rutgers. The Wolverines won the series against the surging Scarlet Knights, scoring nine runs in each of their wins before losing 18-12 in a wild series finale.

They then carried that momentum in the batters’ box from the Atlantic Coast to the banks of the Missouri River.

Finishing the season with a combined 7.00 ERA, Michigan’s pitching staff was not in position to win games solely at the mound. So the gameplan was simple: outscore the opponent.

The Wolverines did just that, scoring at least seven runs in all four of their victories, with 10 runs in three of those games.

However, in their lone loss against Iowa, they mustered just three runs — showing the perils if the lineup could not produce with shaky pitchers behind them.

For this year’s squad to replicate the same celebration dogpile on Memorial Day Sunday, the recipe from a season ago will need to be followed to a tee.

The pitching staff, which maintains a 5.93 combined ERA, is down its second starter for the season in junior right-hander Chase Allen. And Michigan is still searching for multiple other arms deep in its bullpen to get important outs late in games.

“If and when we do damage in the Big Ten Tournament, (other bullpen arms are) going to have to be a big part of that,” Smith said. “Some guys are going to step up and surprise you that maybe haven’t pitched in a month.”

The problem is — none of those arms have proven capable of filling the void.

The search for production from the bullpen carried over into Tuesday’s midweek game against Xavier, which almost served as an audition for many of the Wolverines’ pitchers hoping to get more outings.

But the mass audition turned into a near-catastrophe: a 14-2 blowout loss. Seven of the eight arms that pitched gave up at least one earned run, with promising junior right-hander Ryan Zimmer getting tagged for six earned runs.

Not much went Michigan’s way in the center of the diamond against Ohio State either, as the Wolverines’ staff yielded at least five earned runs to the Buckeyes’ bats in each of the three games in Columbus.

With the instability and limited upside of Michigan’s pitchers to endure an entire tournament run — requiring between four and six games to win it all — the onus falls on the offense to take the burden.

Turning things around at the plate for the Wolverines lineup starts with competitive at-bats. That doesn’t necessarily require getting on base — working pitch counts up, advancing runners, or forcing the opposing defense to make a nice fielding play can also kickstart the offensive play.

Poor strikeouts do not fall under that umbrella. Michigan has been plagued by the strikeout bug at various points all year, striking out 47 more times than its opponents across the season. This phenomenon was magnified on Saturday, as the Wolverines struck out 17 times in the 7-2 loss.

“I was just disappointed with our approach and I think (Saturday), we struck out 17 times, which I can’t remember (the) last time something like that happened,” Smith said May 20. “So it’s unacceptable. It’s not characteristic of this group.”

While 17 strikeouts in a game is extreme, the performance is emblematic of Michigan’s hot-and-cold offense. To get hot again, the Wolverines will have to convert the opportunities that have evaded them with runners on base. They have left an average of 7.71 runners on base per game, correlating with the third-lowest slugging percentage in the Big Ten.

These statistics paint a grim picture of Michigan’s fate in Omaha. But it’s not too late. 

There is a chance for the Wolverines to correct it, if they’re able to stack strong plate appearances on top of each other to lead their potential charge at a Big Ten title.

After all, every team enters the Big Ten Tournament with a blank slate.

“It’s everybody’s new season,” Smith said. “Everybody’s 0-0. So it doesn’t really mean what happened the game before the series or even the entire season before because everybody’s rolling into that tournament 0-0.”

That “new season” provides Michigan its final chance to redeem itself, once and for all. And that starts from the top with its biggest hitters — who still have the memories of last year’s magical run fresh in their minds — bringing a contagious energy to the talented underclassmen.

The walls outside the Wolverines’ home locker room at Ray Fisher Stadium feature signage that reads, “You’ll never get hot if you don’t know the cold.”

The 2023 Michigan baseball team has seen nearly every degree imaginable: head-scratching losses, comeback victories, heartbreaking injuries and memorable career performances.

On the precipice of their season ending as early as Wednesday night in the double-elimination bracket, the Wolverines will have to emerge from the depths of their worst week of the season with by far their best — finally putting the puzzle pieces together to extract their winning formula.

And just like last year, that equation will rely on the bats getting hotter than ever before.

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In a tight Big Ten conference, the Michigan baseball team needed a big series to claim a prime position heading into the Big Ten Tournament. But when the Wolverines needed to come through most, they couldn’t muster the strength to make the difference.

In its final regular season series, Michigan (26-26 overall, 13-11 Big Ten) was swept by Ohio State (31-25, 9-15), losing by lopsided scores of 7-3, 9-5 and 7-2, respectively. And while blowing its opportunity to move up in the Big Ten standings, one phrase summarized the Wolverines’ weekend: What can go wrong will go wrong.

In Friday’s opener, Michigan was bludgeoned early and often. Usually with junior left-hander Connor O’Halloran on the mound, the Wolverines feel it can beat anybody in the nation. On Friday, however, O’Halloran’s uncharacteristic performance was a large reason why Michigan dropped its series opener to the Buckeyes.

Far from his usual self, O’Halloran only pitched 4.1 innings. And in those innings, he allowed five runs and seven hits. By the time he exited the ballgame, the Wolverines were dug into a 5-1 hole. And due yet another inconsistent offensive performance, the Wolverines could not climb back out of it.

“(We have to) pitch the baseball better and certainly throw strikes,” Michigan coach Tracy Smith said. “It all starts on the mound (and) we just haven’t done a good job of that.”

The lone bright spot of Friday’s game was senior designated hitter Jimmy Obertop. Obertop knocked in all three runs for the Wolverines via two home runs in the second and sixth innings, respectively.

But otherwise, the offensive production was disastrous, as Michigan left nine runners on base. Similar to the Xavier loss earlier in the week, the Wolverines proved unable to produce with runners in scoring position, yet again — even blowing a bases-loaded opportunity in the third inning. Once again, Michigan’s own offensive miscues shot itself in the foot.

“I was disappointed,” Smith said of the Wolverines’ offense. “I was just disappointed with our approach. It’s unacceptable (and) not characteristic of this group. … Our offensive approach has to be way better.”

And unfortunately for Michigan, its difficulties continued on Saturday en route to another dominant performance by Ohio State. This time, however, the offense improved, and the loss instead was attributed more to the pitching. Due to the loss of junior right-hander Chase Allen, the Wolverines once again employed senior right-hander Noah Rennard on the mound, forcing him to play out of his role as a reliever for another weekend.

In the loss, Rennard’s true role showed. Rennard lasted just four innings and, in a lackluster performance, Michigan quickly fell behind, 4-0, after just two innings of play. Although the Wolverines returned with two runs of their own off of a two-run home run from senior second baseman Ted Burton in the top of the third inning, they simply couldn’t keep the momentum rolling. 

Similar to Friday’s contest, Michigan’s offense couldn’t capitalize after holding the Buckeyes to scoreless innings. And eventually, the Wolverines paid for it in the form of home runs by center fielder Trey Lipsey and right fielder Mitchell Okuley to extend Ohio State’s lead to 6-2 in the fifth and sixth innings, respectively. A triple from Lipsey later in the sixth inning only put the game further out of reach for Michigan and, despite a small rally in the ninth inning, the Wolverines came up short once again.

Michigan came into this series controlling its own destiny. Leave Columbus with a sweep, and its prospects would have looked much better heading into postseason play starting next Tuesday.

But because the Wolverines failed to do what they hoped due to their own vices, they’re on the wrong side of a tough conference bracket.

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Throughout all of its success this season, the Michigan men’s lacrosse team rode on the backs of its calm and calculated offense. Yet, in the NCAA Tournament quarterfinals, that production was nowhere to be found. 

In their 15-8 loss to the Blue Devils on Saturday, the Wolverines’ offense put forth what many would call an uncharacteristic performance. For the majority of the season, Michigan had been able to put up double-digit points against almost all of its opponents.

Against Duke, however, that was not the case. 

Instead, the formerly third-ranked team in the nation for shooting floundered in the face of the Blue Devils’ aggressive defense. 

“They did a good job scouting; they did a good job of changing up what they were doing, at least defensively,” senior midfielder Jacob Jackson said. “So, they were pretty well prepared, and we could see that.”  

However, what the Wolverines didn’t see coming was junior attacker Michael Boehm’s performance — or rather, lack thereof. 

Having shattered records, been awarded Most Valuable Player of the Big Ten Tournament and recently named an honorable All-American, Boehm successfully created a name for himself in the lacrosse world — a name that the Blue Devils knew. 

And so, each time Boehm gained possession of the ball, Duke defenders swarmed him. 

Yet, despite the mass of defenders that Boehm battled each time, he managed to still rocket six shots at the cage. Unfortunately for Boehm, none of those would hit the back of the net, leaving him unable to score a single goal against the Blue Devils. 

With one of their star players neutralized, the Wolverines would have to fight even harder to come out on top. 

Michigan increased its effort, totaling 38 shots from a multitude of players throughout the game. However, rarely any of them resulted in a goal. 

With just under two minutes left in the match, senior midfielder Michael Cosgrove dodged through Duke’s defense to create an open lane to score. Pivoting and hurling the ball, the Wolverines’ sideline watched anxiously, looking defeated as the ball sailed wide and missed the net. 

It was shots like these that left Michigan’s hope of a comeback in shambles. 

“We were getting contested shots early, which our aim wasn’t right, or we didn’t get all our mustard on it,” Michigan coach Kevin Conry said. “I think you have to give a lot of credit to Duke’s defense for putting us in those situations. And their goaltender, he played really, really well. We just weren’t as crisp as we could have been, and a lot of that had to do with Duke’s pressure.”

Indeed, it was evident that the Wolverines allowed pressure from the Blue Devils to get to them. 

Out of their 22 shots on goal, 14 were saved by Duke’s goalkeeper. Yet, many of the remainder of Michigan’s shots were taken prematurely — an unexpected move by its typically steady and purposeful offense — culminating in many high and wide shots. 

And so, weighed down by the pressure of Duke’s powerful and aggressive defense — and missing the vital contributions of key players — the Wolverines’ offense ultimately crumbled. And with an already tired defense, they were unable to make a comeback, ending their season. 

Michigan’s mighty offense helped the team’s reputation soar, propelling the Wolverines through the best season the program has ever seen. 

But in Michigan’s case, the Wolverines could only fly so far before they fell — and when their offense fell, it brought the whole team with it.

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The clock struck midnight on the Michigan men’s lacrosse team’s season in Albany on Saturday. 

During an uphill battle in the pouring rain, the Wolverines (10-7 overall) fought to sustain their season but ultimately came up short, losing 15-8 to the No. 1 overall seed Duke (15-2).

The Blue Devils, a team with three First-Team All Americans to Michigan’s none, seemed to be an insurmountable opponent, but the Wolverines had been upsetting top teams since March. Comfortable within its role as an underdog, Michigan fought valiantly, knotting the score up at two each as the first quarter ended. 

Although Duke’s First-Team All American and Tewaaraton Award favorite attacker Brennan O’Neill hit two quick goals to put Duke ahead early, the Wolverines responded, netting two goals of their own from junior midfielder Isaac Aronson and graduate attacker Bryce Clay, including one on penalty time.

“When you have a Tewaaraton finalist just playing at a high level, it doesn’t matter what you do Xs and Os,” Conry said. 

Going into the second quarter, Michigan was right where it wanted to be — on par with the No. 1 team in the country — but a three goal run by the Blue Devils in the first four minutes seemed to take some air out of the Wolverines. Duke would go on to score another two goals towards the end of the half, with O’Neill contributing an additional two goals.

“Sometimes you’ve got guys on the other team that are just that talented, just that good,” senior midfielder Jacob Jackson said. “(O’Neill) got the better of us.” 

On the other end of the field, the Blue Devils’ defense was aggressive and suffocating. While it would go on to earn Duke a whopping five minutes of penalty time, the Wolverines certainly felt the pressure, committing a number of turnovers. Senior attacker Josh Zawada capitalized off of one of the man-up opportunities, however, and Jackson contributed a goal as well to bring the score to 7-4 going into halftime. 

“We were getting our shots, but they were contested,” Michigan coach Kevin Conry said. “And (their) goaltender played great. … We thought we had great looks, and he ended up swallowing up on us.” 

The third quarter found the Wolverines digging themselves deeper into the hole. Although graduate defenseman Andrew Darby and the Michigan defense better contained O’Neill, the rest of the Blue Devils took advantage of the opportunities presented to them, slamming home another four goals. On the Wolverines’ offensive end, however, Michigan’s star attacker, junior Michael Boehm, didn’t attempt a single shot, leaving the Wolverines in dire straits. 

Early in the fourth quarter, though, Zawada was once again able to connect, bringing Duke’s lead back to four points. But the Blue Devils and O’Neill were not going away easily. O’Neill flipped a shot over his shoulder, while facing away from the goal, to send Duke on a four goal run that Michigan could not come up with an answer for. With no goals from two key pieces of the three-headed attack that the Wolverines had built their fantasy season on, Michigan surrendered to the Blue Devils.

“(Duke was) built to win a national championship right now,” Conry said. “And we aren’t yet. But we have established a really great framework.”

This NCAA Tournament run came off the backs of a team that shocked the country, beating Ohio State twice in one week, Maryland twice in the season, and emerging Big Ten Champions after going 0-5 in conference play just one year before. The first round knockout of No. 8 Cornell only reinforced what the Wolverines had been saying all season – “Why not us?”

“If you would have told me last year that this year we were going to lose in the quarterfinals to Duke, I would have been ecstatic,” Jackson said. “Especially after the year we had. But I don’t think there’s any going back from this season.”

“When you look at the season that we had, we almost became America’s team, the Cinderella story,” Conry agreed. “The problem with that in the future is that everybody knows who you are. We don’t sneak up on anybody.

“We’re not going to be Cinderella anymore. The ball is over.”  

Although the curfew on the Wolverines’ season may have come sooner than they would have liked, this season sets an unforeseen precedent in the history of Michigan lacrosse. Although they won’t be Cinderella anymore, Michigan has the opportunity to become something even better — a great program, not just a historic team.

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On Friday, a glimpse of hope shone through for the No. 7 Michigan men’s tennis team after it captured the doubles point. But all efforts were quickly dimmed by No. 2 TCU’s dominance on the singles courts. With three different courts going to tiebreaker rounds in the first set, and the Wolverines subsequently losing all of them, a comeback was an insurmountable task for Michigan to pull out the miraculous victory to continue in the NCAA Tournament. 

Not only does this loss mean the departure from the tournament, but, arguably worse for the Wolverines, the end of fifth-year Andrew Fenty, fifth-year Patrick Maloney and senior Ondrej Styler’s careers. All three were selected for the NCAA Individual Tournament, which gives a small insight into the production they gave to Michigan this year. With their departures comes the cost of irreplaceable skill and leadership.

“On paper we’re going to be lacking some talent,” sophomore Gavin Young said. “I think it’s really going to come down to how gritty of a team we are and how deep we dig down. This team next year is going to have the same amount of heart and the same amount of belief. And with that belief and grit we can really make a run.”

Transposing that belief and grit to the Wolverines is Young who is stepping into a leadership role in the youth-filled team — and for good reason. The 6-foot-4 Apple Valley, Minnesota, native has a very deep skill set that has developed over his last two years with Michigan. He’s the other half of the doubles duo with Fenty selected in the NCAA Individual Tournament and is an alternate for the singles. Boasting a 22-12 singles record and 27-8 doubles record this season, it’s clear that he is a great candidate to lead this program back to another NCAA tournament.

Along with established veterans of the program — junior Nino Ehrenschneider, sophomore Will Cooksey and junior Jacob Bickersteth — Young is ready to overcome the deficit left by the departing stars of the program. 

Even with the returning members of the team, there will be quite a challenge for the new generation of leaders. The combination of motivated youth along with leaders ready to take control is a great sign for the team, but isn’t going to come without hard work.

Young still has good reason to be excited about next year’s team. Freshman Bjorn Swenson, freshman Mert Oral and freshman Nicholas Steiglehner were all high school stars, and are ready to make a name for themselves on the big stage. With a couple more incoming recruits, Michigan is poised to make another deep run in both the Big Ten and NCAA Tournaments. 

“It’s going to be a great opportunity for some of the young guys to step up and show what they have,” Young said. “It’s going to be really cool to see what some of these younger guys can do. … We’ll be back for sure.”

With Young’s leadership and a willing and ready roster, the Wolverines have a very exciting future ahead of them. Whether it’s the older established leaders of the team or the newcomers with everything still to prove, Michigan has all the right tools to return to the high caliber of tennis it played this year. And, with the right combination of talent and hard work, the Wolverines could take another shot at it all.

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After a hard-fought match against Southern California, the No. 7 Michigan men’s tennis team made its way to Lake Nona, Florida to continue its quest for a national title in the NCAA quarterfinals.

However, the Wolverines (27-5) season ended after falling to No. 2 TCU (26-2), 4-1. The Horned Frogs got the better of Michigan, as the latter failed to win meaningful points and capitalize on its early advantages.

The Wolverines started off strong in doubles, as senior Ondrej Styler and junior Jacob Bickersteth broke early en route to a 6-2 victory over TCU’s Lui Maxted and Sander Jong.

The remaining two doubles matches went to tiebreakers, where senior Patrick Maloney and junior Nino Ehrenschneider persevered against the Horned Frogs’ Sebastian Gorzny and Pedro Vives, 7-6 (5).

With this win, Michigan captured the doubles point, and took an early advantage. And similar to  the majority of the season, the Wolverines hoped to increase their lead.

“Doubles was great,” Michigan coach Adam Steinberg said. “We had great energy and we played well. I was so happy to see that in our doubles. We didn’t lose the doubles point in the NCAA tournament, (and) the guys deserve a lot of credit for that.”

However, singles turned the tide for the rest of the match. Many matches, though, were deadlocked early on.

One such match was between Jong and Ehrenschneider, which went to a first set tiebreaker. There, Jong got out to an early lead, and eventually won the set. And from there, he beamed through the second set, winning the match, 7-6 (4), 6-1.

Maloney was also stride for stride in a tough battle, as he and TCU’s Luc Fomba couldn’t break each other for the majority of the first set. Then, Fomba finally broke Maloney’s serve, winning the first set. Afterwards Fomba cruised, winning the second set and defeating Maloney, 7-5, 6-3.

Fifth-year Andrew Fenty faced similar challenges to Ehrenschneider, as he fell in a first-set tiebreaker. From there, his opponent made quick-work in the second set, winning the match, 7-6 (4), 6-1. 

“That first set was very tough,” Young said. “It would’ve been really nice to get that first set under my belt… (and) it could have gone either way. I think that if I was able to somehow pull out that first set it would’ve been a different outcome. Credit to those guys, they came out with a lot of heart and were ready to fight.” 

With Young’s defeat, the Horned Frogs picked up four straight singles match victories, taking care of a Wolverine team that couldn’t attain the most important points at the right moments.

In three separate singles matches, Michigan failed to claim a first-set tiebreak win, and lost momentum going forward. In the blazing Florida heat, TCU outworked the Wolverines as the latter struggled.

“Obviously, we’re extremely disappointed,” Steinberg said. “Our goals are to win a national championship but I also told the guys that there’s so much to be proud of.”

With the season over, Michigan now can look back at its efforts. Throughout the year, the Wolverines dominated their opponents and proved to be a threat for a National Championship. However, with an offseason to prepare ahead, their goal will remain unchanged as they chase the elusive title.

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University of Michigan and Ann Arbor community members are mourning the news that local breakfast staple Angelo’s will close its doors at the end of this year. The restaurant, owned by husband-wife duo Steve and Jennifer Vangelatos, first opened in 1956 under the management of Steve Vangelatos’s father, Angelo. Since then, the business has not only expanded to include an in-house bakery and Angelo’s on the Side, an adjacent location exclusively for takeout and coffee, but has also grown into a beloved classic for students, alumni and Ann Arbor residents alike. 

Rising LSA junior Rachel Cohn, a frequent Angelo’s customer, said she was saddened to hear the news of its closing because it is her and her friends’ go-to breakfast spot.

“Me and my friends, that was our one brunch spot that we always went to,” Cohn said. “(Angelo’s) just meant a lot to us, so it’s a little bittersweet.”

For homesick college students, a family-run diner like Angelo’s can be just what they need. Cohn said she believes Angelo’s is a favorite among U-M students in part because it feels like a homemade breakfast.

“The vibes of (Angelo’s) are very wholesome and I think some of the other brunch spots in Ann Arbor just have very different vibes and feel,” Cohn said. “Angelo’s feels more like I’m getting a homemade breakfast at my house with my friends.”

Rising LSA junior Madison Brown said she believes it is this comforting energy that makes Angelo’s stand out among Ann Arbor’s many restaurants.

“(Angelo’s) is your quintessential college diner, and I don’t think there is really something similar on campus,” Brown said. “It has this charm about it that doesn’t really have to do with flashy decor or a more modern or millennial style. It is its own little thing.”

Angelo’s is set to close in December following a $4.5 million purchase by the University of Michigan of 1100 Catherine Street, which includes the restaurant, as well as two residential apartments. The University plans to use this land to expand the Michigan Medicine campus. 

In an interview with The Michigan Daily, Steve Vangelatos said he made the decision to sell the property to the University because of a promise he made to his wife when they got married. 

“I’ve been working seven days a week for 43 years,” Vangelatos said. “I promised my wife when we got married that if she allowed me to work as much as I needed to work to make this place successful that someday I would stop working. And there was nobody that wanted to take the restaurant over and so that resulted in selling the property.”

Helping Vangelatos run this brunch spot is a team of dedicated staff. Amy Marzka, long time Angelo’s employee, told The Daily the staff is sad to see the restaurant close but recognizes how much Vangelatos dedicated to its operation.

“Everyone is sad to see the place go,” Marzka said. “But we’re happy for the owner because he has worked so hard.”

At the University’s Board of Regents meeting on May 18, Geoffrey Chatas, U-M executive vice president and chief financial officer, said the purchase made sense as the University already owns the surrounding land and could give the Vangelatos family time to close the business.

“The University has been presented with an opportunity to purchase property from the Vangelatos family who, for decades, have been running Angelo’s, a beloved icon in Ann Arbor,” Chatas said. “When the family approached the University about the possibility of selling (the property), they explained that they want to close the business on their own terms … The property makes sense for the University to acquire since it will further the University’s options for development in the Catherine Street area.” 

The sale is set to close no later than March 31, 2024 to give Vangelatos time to close Angelo’s and vacate the property. Vangelatos said the restaurant will likely close on December 23 — like they do every year — but this time, come January, they will not reopen their doors.

“I feel like it’s going to be like we usually do every other year,” Vangelatos said. “We’ve closed on December 23 (for) the holidays and we usually would reopen either January 1 or January 2. It’ll be just like that this year, except we’re not going to reopen in January.”

Vangelatos said he would consider the possibility of reopening Angelo’s in a new location if he was able to find someone else to run it.

“I would definitely consider doing that if it was somebody that I knew would be willing to put the work in and I thought could maybe be successful,” Vangelatos said. “It’s possible, (but) it won’t be somewhere that I will be running or that I want to be really involved in.”

At the regents meeting, University President Santa Ono recognized how much the U-M community would miss Angelo’s.

“I must say that thousands of Wolverines will miss that wonderful place for brunch and for other meals,” Ono said.

Although Angelo’s has fans throughout Ann Arbor, it holds a special place in the hearts of many U-M students. Vangelatos said he is grateful for all that the University and its students have done for him, but it is time for him to end this chapter of his career.

“I really appreciate the University of Michigan and the students and, I mean, they’re a big part of our success here and then the whole town of Ann Arbor really,” Vangelatos said. “I was very fortunate to be in this position … (but now I want to focus on) spending time with my wife and my family.”

Summer News Editor Rebecca Lewis can be reached at rebeccl@umich.edu. Summer Managing News Editor Mary Corey can be reached at mcorey@umich.edu.

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The University of Michigan Board of Regents met at the U-M Dearborn Fairlane Center South on Thursday to approve faculty promotions, a land purchase for the expansion of the University’s campus and housing and ratify the 2025-26 academic calendar. The regents also discussed the current state of contract negotiations with the Graduate Employees’ Organization and University House Officers Association.

University President Santa Ono began the meeting by thanking Domenico Grasso, chancellor of the U-M Dearborn campus, and the staff at U-M Dearborn for hosting the meeting. The meeting continued with University Provost Laurie McCauley recommending promotions for 279 faculty to acknowledge their contributions to the University’s educational mission. The regents unanimously approved all promotions.

“The University of Michigan’s essential work of challenging the present and enriching the future is only possible through the efforts of our faculty who create, preserve and pass on knowledge to the next generation of citizens and leaders,” McCauley said. “Today we are bringing forward 279 recommendations for promotion. This includes 153 instructional track promotions for (the board’s) review and approval. In addition, there are 118 recommendations for promotion for clinical faculty and eight for research faculty. Each of these has been carefully reviewed at the department, school, provost and presidential level.”

Geoffrey Chatas, U-M executive vice president and chief financial officer, officially proposed that the University purchase 1100 Catherine Street — home to Ann Arbor’s classic brunch spot, Angelo’s, as well as two residential apartments — for $4.5 million to expand the University’s campus. Chatas acknowledged the impact of Angelo’s on the Ann Arbor community and the family’s decision to close the business.

“The University has been presented with an opportunity to purchase property from the Vangelatos family who for decades have been running Angelo’s, a beloved icon in Ann Arbor,” Chatas said. “When the family approached the University about the possibility of selling (the property), they explained that they want to close the business on their own terms. We appreciate them trusting us with the property. They have made an incredible contribution to the Ann Arbor community and we respect their decision to close the business now.”

The regents approved the purchase unanimously. They also unanimously approved the purchase of 49 properties from Regent Ron Weiser (R), at no profit to him, to carry out phase two of the University’s residential development program. Chatas said the University will honor the current leases for these properties and continue to rent them out until construction begins.

“The University intends to minimize the disruption to the housing market by honoring the existing contracts of any tenants currently living at any of the 49 properties and continuing to lease to tenants as long as reasonably practicable until the future Phase Two construction is underway,”Chatas said. “The University will acquire the properties as described for up to $75 million.”

The regents unanimously approved the Ann Arbor campus’s academic calendar for the 2025-26 academic year. The calendar follows the same model as the 2020-21 through 2024-25 academic calendars and includes the new extended winter break, which was approved by the regents at their February meeting.

McCauley then provided an update to the regents on the current state of contract negotiations between the University and the Graduate Employees’ Organization. According to McCauley, the University offered a 12.5% raise, making the complete set of counterproposals one of the largest ever offered to GEO .

“Last week, the University’s negotiating team delivered a comprehensive package to GEO in response to all outstanding issues,” McCauley said. “This package includes the fourth salary proposal from the University: 12.5% over three years on the Ann Arbor campus and 6.75% in total raises at U-M Dearborn and U-M Flint. This is one of the largest packages proposed to the union in its 50-year history. The union has yet to make a counter offer on salary.”

McCauley also said the University has filed for the Michigan Employment Relations Commission to begin the process of fact finding. In the fact-finding process, a state-appointed official investigates the labor dispute and offers non-binding recommendations to both parties in order to settle the dispute. McCauley said the University hopes to come to an agreement that is beneficial to both parties through this process.

“The University filed for fact finding yesterday,” McCauley said. “We hope (it) will aid in coming to a mutual agreement. Over our five-decade relationship with GEO, we have consistently arrived at agreements that support grad student career success. We hope that more frequent and collaborative bargaining will result in a mutually beneficial contract soon.”

Marschall Runge, the University’s executive vice president for medical affairs, shifted the discussion to the contract negotiations between the University and the  House Officers Association, which represents residents and fellows at Michigan Medicine. Runge said while the parties are still divided on salary, he is hopeful for future negotiations.  

“The parties were successful in closing out non-economic issues and are moving to just economic wages and benefits,” Runge said. “The parties met with the mediator for a second session on Tuesday, May 16, and exchanged updated proposals but remained far apart on salary proposals. … We are eager to finish finalizing the contract. We look forward to getting back to the negotiating table next week.”

Kyle Johnson, HOA president and resident physician at Michigan Medicine, addressed the regents during the public comment portion of the meeting. Johnson said HOA wants to come to a fair contract with the University, but is prepared to go on strike if negotiations stall. 

“We would like to work out our differences at the bargaining table, but our membership is united, informed and ready to act should the regents fail to do so,” Johnson said.

Rackham student Amir Fleischmann, GEO contract committee chair, also spoke to the regents during public comments. Fleischmann said he believes the University’s actions during the contract negotiation process, including entering missing grades, harm its academic reputation. 

“(The administration is) bringing this great institution into disrepute and likely threatening its accreditation,” Fleischmann said. “This is shameful. It doesn’t have to be this way. You, the pro-labor democratic regents, have the power to end this fiasco. Our proposals are in fact no-brainers. Give us a fair contract, and get us back into classrooms where we belong.”

Summer News Editor Miles Anderson can be reached at milesand@umich.edu. 

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