Wayne State University will field a women’s soccer team in the fall of 2026. It will be the school’s first new varsity sport in over a decade.

WSU’s Director of Athletics, Erika Wallace, says the first order of business is hiring a head coach this year.

“We’re looking at someone who has ties to the area for recruitment purposes,” she says. “We’re also looking at head coaching experience, assistant coaching experience, some club coaching experience as well.”

Expanding opportunities for women

Wallace reviewed the athletic program when she took the job and found a need for more women student-athletes. She says adding soccer will help WSU comply with Title IX, a federal law prohibiting sex-based discrimination in education.

“Proportionality is one of the prongs that you look at,” she says. “We have to make accommodations in order to stay relevant and in compliance with Title IX.”

Wallace says this will attract more students to WSU.

“We’re the only school in our conference that doesn’t have women’s soccer,” she says. “People will want to come here and play.”

The support is there

Wallace says funding for the new women’s soccer team will come from the athletic department’s general fund as well as philanthropic donations.

She also says Detroit’s soccer culture will sustain the program.

“We have some of the best clubs in the country here,” Wallace says.

Wayne State has a partnership with Detroit City Football Club, which fields men’s, women’s and youth sides.

Wallace says WSU will make some upgrades to the soccer pitch behind Tom Adams Field before the women’s team starts play.

Detroit’s homeless population is growing. A one-night count conducted last year by the city of Detroit and two local nonprofits showed a 16% increase in Detroit, Hamtramck and Highland Park’s homeless population compared to the previous year.

The count — which includes both unsheltered individuals and those in emergency shelters, transitional housing or Safe Haven programs — came out to more than 1,700 people in 2024.

People who experience homelessness or just need assistance often have to go to different places to get care and resources. Knowing where to get help can be a challenge.

The “Detroit: Needs Management Map” aims to address that by highlighting and compiling various resources available to homeless individuals in the city. The map, created by Wayne State Master of Social Work student Cass Tretyak, includes everything from where to find food, shelter or a shower to free or low-cost medical care, employment resources, parenting support, free legal aid, and more.

Tretyak joined The Metro to talk more about the map and her work as outreach coordinator for Community & Home Supports, a local organization supporting homeless populations in Detroit, Hamtramck and Highland Park.

Check out the map below.

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In honor of Juneteenth, Wayne State University hosted a series of lectures and a genealogy workshop focused on tracing African American family lineages beyond slavery.

The workshop was led by Dr. Carolyn Carter, a historian and professional genealogist. Carter says genealogy research is an emotional journey.

“You’re going to find things that you didn’t know, you’re going to make discoveries that you didn’t know, that are going to be emotional. And you have to be ready and open and prepared for that,” she said. “But I tell my students, assume all stories are false because you were not there, and so it’s your job to find the truth in that journey.”

On this episode of Detroit Evening Report Weekends, we listen to WDET reporter Bre’Anna Tinsley’s conversation with Carter about the process of tracing one’s ancestry and the difficulties of tracing the histories of African Americans.

Later, Tinsley joins Detroit Evening Report host Sascha Raiyn to discuss their own family histories.

Listen to the episode using the media player above.

Subscribe to the Detroit Evening Report on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, NPR.org or wherever you get your podcasts.

Wayne State University is offering a genealogy workshop focused on the lineage of enslaved Black Americans as part of its 2025 Juneteenth programming.

At the interactive workshop, “Building Forward with Wisdom,” participants will learn practical genealogy strategies, like how to trace one’s ancestry through digital tools and historical records, under the guidance of professional genealogist, historian and researcher Dr. Carolyn Carter.

Carter says when beginning the search into family history, its important to start with what’s known.

“In genealogy, we do something called tracing from the known to the unknown,” Carter said. “You want to start with your story, or the people who are there with you.”

WDET’s Bre’Anna Tinsley spoke with Carter ahead of the workshop to discuss what attendees can expect and share tips for tracing one’s ancestry.

Carter says collecting oral histories will be the most valuable resources, and often the only resources that people may have. Once the story reaches slavery, researchers may find it more difficult to find information as enslavers did not keep detailed records of slaves.

“Because enslaved people were property, they had no rights. They were listed on the Census just by tick mark in male or female. So those stories, those histories have been lost,” Carter said.

Carter said researching the enslavers themselves can be just as crucial as researching one’s ancestors. She suggested checking wills and deeds of enslavers, as they would often leave slaves to family members after death. Some enslavers would sympathize with their slaves and leave property to them in their death, or emancipate them in their wills, she added.

According to Carter, there are many road bumps along the way when researching ancestors. One main reason she points out is that African Americans, even those who were free, were afraid of the government. They often would not give accurate information during Census counts to protect themselves and their loved ones.

“They put nicknames, they put erroneous occupations. And if you were living or visiting a relative the day that the Census takers came, you were recorded as living in that home,” she said.

Carter says it wasn’t until after emancipation that the U.S. government realized they were getting inaccurate information.

“So genealogy is detective work,” Carter said. “You’ve got to figure out some things. You got to listen and learn and and understand history and understand your family, where they came from, how they migrated, when they migrated, who they are.”

Carter also advises researchers to think outside the box when looking for names. Some people may have names spelled incorrectly, because most black people were illiterate and would spell things by how they sound. They would change their names to distance themselves from the enslaver, such as adding the surname Freeman or adding an “e” to the end of names to signify their emancipation.

Use the media player above to hear the full conversation.

Listen to The Metro weekdays from 10 a.m. to noon ET on 101.9 FM and streaming on-demand.

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The night skies over Tehran have been flashing with fire since Israeli jets began piercing Iranian airspace. They have been targeting nuclear facilities that Israel insists pose an imminent threat. Hundreds have been killed in Iran and thousands injured. 

Iran has responded by firing missiles into Israel, where at least 24 have been killed.

An American-brokered ceasefire fell apart this morning with reports of Israeli and Iranian airstrikes coming after the announcement. 

President Donald Trump’s post on Truth Social Tuesday morning demanded Israel’s compliance: “ISRAEL. DO NOT DROP THOSE BOMBS. IF YOU DO IT IS A MAJOR VIOLATION. BRING YOUR PILOTS HOME, NOW!”

Meanwhile, the world has been watching anxiously. That anxiety grew Saturday when Trump escalated the conflict, deploying American B-2 bombers and launching Tomahawk missiles in an aggressive campaign. The president has openly hinted at regime change. 

Iran responded by striking an American air base in Qatar, home to thousands of U.S. troops. 

Diplomacy now teeters on a knife-edge as fears of broader conflict intensify. These fears are held among many in metro Detroit, especially among the hundreds of thousands of Arab and Middle Eastern residents here. Many have been watching violence and conflict erupt across the region and it brings back painful memories of the wars that forced them to leave their homes and flee to the U.S. in the first place.

Some analysts say this latest move by Israel is an attempt to entirely reshape the Middle East, which is stoking further tension and anxiety among people in the diaspora here.

Fariba Pajooh, an Iranian-American scholar of communication and media studies at Wayne State University, joined The Metro to help us understand this moment. Pajooh spent years working as a journalist in the Middle East covering conflicts. Some of that coverage led to her imprisonment by Iranian authorities. 

Use the media player above to hear the full conversation.

Listen to The Metro weekdays from 10 a.m. to noon ET on 101.9 FM and streaming on-demand.

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