6 OPINION Page 4 I - Edited and managed by students at The University of Michigan Thursday, January 29, 1981 Feiffer VOU avE'MMV No: Wm if /N~tH The Michigan Daily 0 a Vol. XCI, No. 102 420 Maynard St. Ann Arbor, M! 48109" Editorials represent a majority opinion of the Daily's Editorial Board State must invest in quality Ickww Him MADE M1 {,II, {~ 50 If I PC-7 llc Tim !i I p MAK Ilius it dU51' blw II TNAt ELP MAY BE on the way for the University budget if the state legislature cooperates with Gov. Wil- liam Milliken's efforts to increase the state's appropriations to the Univer- sity. Just as the University's financial outlook looked perhaps most bleak, as the administration took the first steps 3oward possibly eliminating an entire academic department, Milliken of- fered some hope for somewhat im- roved financial times ahead. Monday, in the thew proposed state budget, Milliken advocated a 12.4 per- cent increase in state appropriations to the University, an increase that would significantly help the University in its struggle to prevent a serious erosion of academic quality. Although University Vice President for Academic Affairs till Frye warned that, even if the proposed increase is approved by the gislature, cuts will still have to be ade, those necessary cuts would ob- ously be less severe in the future. The crease might, at the very least, revent the total elimination of cademic departments, as is currently being planned. But a last, and major, stumbling lock remains between this week's proposed budget and next year's ac- *ual appropriations-the state egislature. Last year, Milliken The Nativei HE MICHIGAN COURT of Ap- - peals added another chapter to a 164-year-old story Tuesday when it decided in favor of the University in the suit brought by three tribes of native Americans for alleged violation f a treaty. The American Indians claim that the agreement, signed in 817, was meant to grant free ducation to members of the Chip- ewa, Ottawa, and Potawatomi tribes .n exchange for land the American In- Kdians signed over to the government. ome of that land went to the forerun- ter of the University, and the Native Americans maintain its worth ought to ave gone toward creating a trust for he descendants of the signers. The Appeals Court ruling affirms a aimilar one issued by the Washtenaw tounty Circuit Court in April, 1979. The laintiffs can now seek recourse in the ichigan Supreme Court, though it is ot yet clear whether they wish to pur- ue it any further. The lot of this country's earliest esidents has certainly been a iserable one-at least, since the hite man first appeared. Poverty, literacy, and alcoholism have lagued the Native Americans in tonishing proportions. proposed a nine percent increase in state funds for the University over the previous year. But, by the time the proposal fought its way through state legislative and executive com- promises, the funds slated for the University were smaller than the year before by three percent. State officials attributed the 13 per- cent slash-from the originally proposed figure to the final ap- propriation-to the ailing Michigan economy. The state's economy is still enduring hard times and potentially threatens to force a similar reduction in state funds to the University again this year.. Yet the economy has showed signs of improvement and economists are predicting that the worst is over, and they expect a gradual recovery. State legislators must realize that unless they act now to approve the proposed budget, the University will have to make deep financial cuts that may take many years to restore. State of- ficials may find that the relatively small investment of $17 million next year-the proposed 12.4 percent-is a wise financial decision in the long run, when faced with the task of restoring some degree of academic quality at the University in the future if drastic cuts are allowed to be made. k merican suit Yet the problems of the Native Americans, severe though they may be, do not in themselves justify their interpretation of the 1817 treaty. Two courts now haye ruled that, since the treaty does not explicitly spell out that. the state is obligated to educate the Native Americans for free, the Univer- sity does not have to make good on that nebulous agreement. In the wake of the Appeals Court decision, University Attorney Roderick Daane remarked, "Our position has never been that assistance to Native American students should be denied. The University awards scholarships and other financial aid to qualfied Native American students, and will continue to do so." It is relieving to hear a University of- ficial express that sentiment. Although the 'court has established that the University is under no legal obligation to provide for the cost-free education of. the Michigan Indians, the University cannot forget its moral obligation to promote the educational opportunities for disadvantaged residents. To fulfill this obligation, the University must make every effort to provide increased financial assistance for those mem- bers of the Indian tribes that gave their land 164 years ago to the University. { i! (~~ T~j pt W fI~ .F 4a&S - 9vew WITH Tle 4 Sex and the law in the south Let me begin by telling my readers that by taste and temperament, I am a southerner. My fondness for the sunny south grows as the temperature in and around Ithaca, New York, drops. When the Black Student Union of Florida State University invited me to speak recently on the anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday, I readily accepted. Surely the sunbelt would have more to offer than the chilling climate of fear that pervades Buffalo and New York City. Arriving in Florida, it became obvious that other northern blacks had been returning to the region in record numbers. Since 1971, the historic pattern of black emigration from the South has been reversed. The regional metropolises of Atlanta, Houston, Tampa Bay, Jacksonville, Memphis, and Miami have become the new islands of "economic oppor- tunity." Right-to-work laws and a philosophy of endless corporate expansion reinforce kind of primitive individualism, moralism and evangelism, both in the public and private sectors. I WAS SURPRISED when I read in a mor- ning newspaper that the Florida Legislature might kill a state-funded program 4that rehabilitates convicted rapists. Over ,a 13- year period the Mentally Disordered Sexual Offender Rehabilitation Program had treated. about 12,000 convicted rapists with remarkably successful results. Critics argue that the program is too costly. About $20,000 per year is spent to rehabilitate rapists over a three year period. This is twice - - -- By Manning Marable the cost of simply putting the rapist behind bars. But as in many things, the benefits out- weigh the costs. Only 10 percent' of those who undergo the sex therapy program ever rape again. This contrasts with 75 percent of all rapists who finish their prison sentences only to repeat the crime. However, these statistics may not satisfy budget-conscious legislators, who may in the end decide that women's safety is not worth the extra fiscal expense. "A successfully treated person goes out and does not recommit crimes against women and children," stated John Wright, forensic programs supervisor for the Mental Health Program Office of the Florida Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services. Sexual offenders Who are simply locked up can and-usually do-commit more rapes once released. "What's the moral obligation?" Wright asks, "How do you spend your money? What price are you going to put on a rape?" Evidently, $20,000 for some legislators may be too high a price. A SECOND instance of the bizarre and inexplicable relationship between sexuality and the Florida criminal justice system was' ,reported in the Florida Flambeau, the student newspaper at Florida State University. One inmate at the Union Correctional Institute at Raiford, Florida, was serving a 30-year sen- tence for sexual assault. The inmate submit- ted to extensive psychological counseling. A staff psychologist met with the 'man in 39 sessions and eventually concluded that "the subject has a fairly high chance of success in the free society." The imprisoned man's appeal before the Florida Parole and Probation Board was denied several weeks ago. The reason: "Chronic masturbation." The Parole Board declared that the man "evidenced a pattern of ongoing criminal behavior evidencing need for mental treat- ment." Behind bars for over six years, the masturbating inmate remained in prison for an additional 33 months. David Mack, spokesperson for the Florida Clearinghouse for Criminal Justice, informed the Flam- beau that this was the first instance of exten- ding the date of prison parole because of "chronic masturbation." Sexuality and the law do not seem to mix well in the New South. Or perhaps the ancient patterns of sexism and legal apathy toward progressive social reform have transcended their origins in the antebellum era. In either case, these recent incidents reveal a failure of the legal system to protect the victims of sexual crimes and to promote the rehabilitation of sexual offenders. Manning Marable teaches political economy at Cornell University and is a leader of the National Black Independent Political Party. LETTERS TO THE DAILY: Specialization doomed geography. To the Daily: Professors and students of .geography have greeted the im- pending elimination of their department with' 'anger' and 'astonishment.' To the outsider the reaction may seem justified. To those of us, however, who have been keeping abreast of trends in education, the depar- tment's astonishment at the proposed cut comes as a surprise and testifies to a lack of awareness of contemporary educational realities. For at least a decade geography has been eliminated from the curriculums of American high schools and been- superseded by so-called 'social studies.' As a result, geography lost a majoremarket for its graduates. Teachers of the "new" subject were recruited from among political or social scientists' and given the new educational goals have done as good or bad a job as their ousted predecessors. This trend has been as visible as-shall we say- a demand for smaller cars which was ignored by the management of the auto industry and brought about its present plight. What, however, could geography have done at the university level to counteract the discipline's lack of popularity at the high school level? Is the sub- ject really worth abolishing? Or is there something inherent in the make-up of this discipline that dooms it to extinction? Looking at the field of geography today, the casual observer is over- whelmed by a bewildering hodge- podge of sub-disciplines that bear as much resemblance to the geography of Herodotus (5th cen- tury B.C.) as a bull-drawn cart bears to a Cadillac. Over the centuries, but par- ticularly since the 19th century, geography has been marked by ever increasing specialization. It has spawned a heap of new sub- disciplines that range from geomorphology and vegetation geography on the physical side to antropo-, ethno-, political-, and urban-geography on the social side. The problems that have arisen as a result of this fragmentation are three-fold: (1) The unity of they field as a whole has got lost. (2) Physical geographers use a language derived from the natural sciences (e.g. geology) whereas the social geographers use the jargon of the social scien- ces. As a result communication between the field's two branches is close to impossible. (3) In our era of specialization, the 'real thing' is preferable to a watered-down substitute (e.g. an- thropology vs. anthropo- geography). It seems, as if geography had specialized itself out of existence. If over-specialization has proved detrimental to the field's future, a reversal of its present " trends may help its unjustified and unnecessary death. What I have in mind is a more general geography that puts its educational obligations before its fragmented self-interests, a discipline that values the whole more than its separated parts. Given this premise, geography does indeed have a place in our curriculums. It would once again become the humanist science it used to be and its educational value would exceed that of all other disciplines in that it was in the unique position of bringing together the various strands of human knowledge. Perhaps its survival can only be ensured by eliminating some if its sub- disciplines. But surely, the con- tinuation of geography is worth this sacrifice. -Gunther Volk M.A., Geography January 28 0 0 Shapiro must listen Watch out, small depts To the Daily: Thursday evening, January 22 I attended a presentation by. University President Harold Shapiro on "The University of Michigan in the 1980s." Over the course of the evening the president discussed the "challenges" ahead for this in- stitution and took questions from the audience on what he saw as the implications for the com- munity of all he observed and an- ticipated. Most disturbing about the presentation and Dr. Shapiro's performance as the University's chief administrator seems his in- difference regarding the concer- ns of students, faculty, teaching assistants, clericals, and the remainder of the University community. As w9as evident Thursday evening and as has been evident throughout his term as president, Dr. Shapiro feels he need not be accountable to his true constituency. The greater part of -the community access to this decision-making process, Dr. Shapiro and the University administration must recognize the right and obligation of the University community to contribute to the formation of decisions effecting University direction and policy. Student participation, for in- stance, cannot be shrugged off as it was Thursday evening, with remarks to the effect that student have neither the time nor the in- terest to participate in the University planning process. Collectively, Michigan students and employees have both the time and the interest. Dr. Shapiro has misconstrued real fear of cooptation and other such practices with lack of coni- munity interest. Again I stress the responsibility of the ad- ministration to recognize our right to help compose present and future policy here at Michigan. Since the administration, . To the Daily: Esteemed academic traditions are evidently less important at The University of Michigan than the lavish support of a top heavy and officious administration. This is the only possible conclusion that can be drawn from the pen- ding decision to eliminate the geography department. It is said that the decision would save the university more than $40,000 by $10,000? Surely, the savings would be far in excess of the $250,000 over three years gained by excising the geography department. As far as I can see, the geography department's major offense is being small. Small departments don't have the political clout to do much harm when threatened. If there are other reasons. I challenge the '4 ,~1Irv