0 OPINION Page 4 Friday, November 12, 1982 The Michigan Daily Giving students the voice they deserve s # t r By Richard Layman and Margaret Talmers On December 6 the LSA Governing Faculty will vote upon a resolution that is crucial to the future role of students in the University's decision-making process. The Governing Faculty will discuss the Ross R olution, which recommends making one stdent a member of the LSA Executive Com- mitee. Currently, not only is it impossible for a student to become a member of the committee, it is impossible for a student to even attend a c mittee meeting. As a rule, Executive C mittee meetings are closed. )BEFORE discussing the importance of put- tig a student on the Executive Committee, hvever, it is important to explain the decision- m king process of the University. The process is often baffling to students-possibly because th ir participation in it is so limited. The University prides itself on decentralized decision-making. The central administration makes the major budgetary decisions, while individual schools and colleges, such as LSA, implement these decisions as they see fit. Thus, the main figures in policy-making are faculty and administrators. They get to determine whether or not to "allow" student par- ticipation. Not surprisingly, students play a small role in forming LSA policy. In LSA, governance is collegial-the faculty members "run" the college. As LSA has in- creased in size, the faculty have vested most of their decision-making power into a steering committee known as the Executive Committee, comprised of six faculty members and five deans. Other advisory committees have been formed as well. These committees report to and advise the Executive Committee on par- ticular matters (curriculum, admissions, etc.). STUDENTS have pushed hard to gain a voice in the college policy-making structure. They've been somewhat successful-positions have been gained on several of the college advisory committees-yet their participation has been limited to a very minor role. Faculty argue that they can represent students as well as or better than students can represent themselves. But their role in the in- stitution is radically different from that of students. Certainly, faculty can sympathize with student concerns-for they, too, were once students-but they lack current information and knowledge about students that comes only from being a student. The effectiveness of having faculty represent students is further complicated by the fact that the academic competence, merit, and specialization of faculty is defined in terms of professional research rather than in terms of teaching. This increasing emphasis on specialization and research can cause faculty to become trapped within their own discipline. It can inhibit a professor's ability to view the college as a whole. Without looking at the college in the broadest sense, the tendency to question the entire educational structure decreases dramatically-and a critical eye is necessary to keep education relevant to student needs and abilities. ALTHOUGH students do sit on committees that advise the studentless Executive Commit- tee and participate on some departmental executive committees such as political science and economics, their role is often a small one. At every level, faculty members initiate, direct, and dominate the college policy-making process. Thus, students still lack a direct role in decisions which shape their entire college experience. Without that student role, faculty members, however exemplary their aims may be, still have the option to ignore student needs entirely. The Regents by-laws themselves support the inclusion of students in policy-making. Section 7.05 states that "student participation in University decision-making is important to the quality of student life at the University and shall be encouraged." Other colleges on cam- pus have students on their executive commit- tees. LSA-the largest college on campus-is a glaring exception. It is more important now than ever before to do away with this exception. The decisions un- der consideration today at the University-the review of academic programs for closure, the change in the focus of the University as a lear- ning institution-will have a great effect upon the quality and direction of our educational ex- perience. To arrive at the best decisions, all members of the University must play a role in the decision-making process-students as well as faculty. THE PROBLEM for students is evident. But what is the solution? The answer lies in getting more students involved in every level of decision-making-including the Executive Committee. By gaining a foothold on this com- mittee, students can start to play the significant role they deserve in University decisions. Layman is a student member of the LSA Curriculum Committee. Talmers is president of LSA -Student Government. i' 4f- .4 4f F4 Y4 a a >, r Edited and managed by students at The University of Michigan Wasserman Vol.XCIII, No. 56 420 Maynard St. Ann Arbor, MI 48109 Editorials represent a majority opinion of the Daily's Editorial Board - - } H ye n'unc d4ppp abnou new i f4 mez fi ure ding t sixth here I timne ii 4.7. w ag, o In 9 percen 1976, from ~ a percen hi have 1 back f gdal, b actual MOver II'he~ ti uall state. Detroi Ratpid pibym of:the It'si try, Acade Bove-g sity's must b2 The deter Black en rolment: Dubious commitment E LITANY changes from year to enrollment-but at the same time it gar. First the administration an- has put LSA's largest minority coun- es that black enrollment has seling service under a review which ed again, then they follow their could eliminate up to 75 percent of its ncement with the usual plea for budget. deas and expression of baf- Administrators claim that educating nt at the causes behind the latest more blacks is a high priority, yet the s list of priorities for the University's "Five-Year Plan",doesn't even men- week was true to form. Accor- tion the recruitment or retention of o administration figures, for the black students. straight year, black enrollment The difficulties involved in in- has dropped significantly. This creasing black enrollment are sub- t has slipped from 4.9 percent to stantial, but they will never be over- hen classes opened two months come by a university that would rather mly 1,650 blacks were attending. ignore the problem than make the sub- 970, the University set a goal of 10 stantial changes needed to bring that at black enrollment, * yet since enrollment up. black enrollment has slipped University President Harold Shapiro ibove seven percent to below five says he is open to all new ideas, as if all it. - the old ones had been tried. But they le University administrators haven't been. been patting themselves on the For example, blacks have been or merely having an enrollment fighting for a centralization of black students have watched the minority counseling and support ser- goals of the 1970 Black Action vices for more than ten years. nent strike fade into oblivion. Separated and isolated, the existing y've watched the University con- support services are grossly ineffec- y shirk its responsibility to the tive. In addition, a faculty committee Blacks in the urban centers of last year submitted 30 recommen- t, Flint, Saginaw, and Grand dations-from establishing a free s facing near 20 percent unem- financial aid information line to ent must also face being shut out creating minority advisory boards for state's educational system. deans-which the University could use not because the University didn't to increase black enrollment. insists Vice President for The ideas are there; the problem is bmic Affairs Billy Frye. they often fall on deaf ears. If the riven the numbers-the Univer- University is serious in its commit- commitment to black enrollment ment and is looking for ideas it will )e questioned. start with these. The University can no administration claims it is longer afford pious posturing with no mined to boost black action LOOK! TE EEMEROR (({SC' - (91982 LOS W)CLES -TOACI SYND(CAlle wg l o 1 .Y -- kI _-- _ i THINK MY RUNNING IS JUST BEEINNING" HOUSE OF WHITE OUS EPRESeMTATVES - - - - . , I When I first arrived in the United States-it was in Washington, D.C. in the mid- 1960s-one of my strongest im- pressions was of having suddenly become transparent, invisible. While walking on the streets of Paris, or anywhere in France, one is exposed incessantly to looks of curiosity, appreciation, or criticism. The eye contact game is especially active bet- ween men and women: It is a way that men reassess their "maleness" there, and women their "femaleness." Sometimes it leaves one feeling overexposed, wanting to- hide. But it is exciting, too, this per- manent exchange which creates a greater awareness of the sexual polarity of human beings. I FOUND NONE of that in America. On the contrary, it was as though the sexes ignored each other and applied the slogan, "I mind my business, you mind yours," to all interaction. It meant more freedom, certainly, but also more loneliness and more dullness. The world seemed harder, indifferent-and somehow asexual. At the cocktail parties the East Coast is so fond of, other phenomenon appeared. After the usual introductions and small talk, men drifted to one side of the room, women to the other. I felt in a no man's land, unable to relate to either side. During one of these parties, as I talked to a young woman, a man came over and after a few polite questions undertook to explain in The battle between- the sexes: Alive and well By Muriel Maufroy ther from women. The real problem, perhaps, was not the roles after all, but the fact that here in America roles of any kind are taken so seriously-that they become straitjackets. In this more liberated age, and even in ultra- liberated California where I now live, I hear people say that they have found thedsolution to their dilemmas by dropping a role, when in reality they have just assumed a different one. Men and women alike are more than ever stuck in sexual ghettoes. In other words, nothing has ac- tually changed; the dull cocktail party of 20 years ago has just become bigger. MOREOVER, meetings bet- ween men and women in this country today often are ruled by a principle which has colored American society since its very beginnings: competition. Each sex attempts. to outscore the other, even in casual encoun- ters. Some time ago, Francoise Giroud, a French journalist who served as minister in the gover- nment of President Valery Giscard D' Estaing, surmised af- ter a visit to the states that men and women here didn't like each other. "In France," she said, "we fight and quarrel, but we do like each other; there is complicity between the two sexes." If the problem of distrust bet- !'o- 'I people are simply not on the same wavelength. Yet in America it seemed to me that men and women were almost never on the same wavelength. People met without real curiosity or desire for potential discovery. As a result, each individual limited the other to a presumed role, his or her social function. And as roles were pretty fixed and predictable, especially in that period, there was little room left for innovation or surprise. Indeed, I soon noticed that most Americans, male and female, didn't want to be sur- prised. Almost anything could happen if the world was suddenly proved different from one's ex- pectations. The important thing women. I saw them growing angrier and angrier. They had been cheated, and they accused men of cheating them. "Down with the housewife role!" they declared. "Down with motherhood and its symbols!" I found most of my married friends swept up by this wind of "liberation." There was Grace, who ironically despised her husband for failing to fulfill his role: He was not a good enough provider. She is now the proud owner of a very successful restaurant, and their two, children are in her former husband's care. It seems to me that they still long for each other, however, though they do not know how to put their marriage ZZ I