4 OPINION Page 4 Tuesday, September 20, 1983 The Michigan Daily 4 Edited and managed by students at The University of Michigan Vol. XCIV - No. 11 420 Maynard St. Ann Arbor, MI 48109 Editorials represent a majority opinion of the Daily's Editorial Board Engineering payoff THE NEW computer system now being installed by the College of Engineering is a reasonably creative solution to a problem many engineering schools now face. With professional engineering fields demanding more and more computer experience from graduates, colleges around the nation have had to find ways to give engineering students more access to computers, without driving the price of their education into oblivion. Some schools make students pur- chase their own computers. Others merely survive with their existing computer systems. This University's engineering school has tried something different. It is purchasing a new, sophisticated com- puter network, and giving engineers unlimited access to it. The system has its price - an extra $100 in tuition per term for engineers -but it is worth it. The school could have forced all engineers to buy their own computers. This, however, would require a con- siderable individual investment for equipment that can become outdated quickly. It would also be an investment that could not be covered by financial oggedo UAGMIRE HAS become a much abused word for describing U.S. in vement in the squabbles of the wotld. W.S. armed forces were caught in a quagmire in Southeast Asia. They're becoming mired in a quagmire in Central America. And they're being sucked into a quagmire in the Middle East. Though the idea is unpleasant, keeping U.S. marines in the mess in Lebanon is - for the time being - the least undesirable option for the Reagan administration. Exposing the marines to pot-shots and small-scale attacks while not allowing them to do much more than defend themselves may not be decisive action. But bolder moves in either direction will further disrupt an already precarious situation. Withdrawing U.S. troops from the United Nations "peacekeeping" forces will allow Syria and Syrian-backed Druse militia units to launch an all-out effort to gain control of Beirut and the aid. Financial aid can cover the tuition hike in some cases.I The University-purchased com- puters also are well beyond the capability and sophistication that most undergraduates could afford. But the most exciting change the new system may generate is in the at- titudes of engineers toward computers. The school merely could have expan- ded the University s current computer system, the Michigan Terminal System. MTS' pay-for-use system, however, discourages students from using computers, because each extra minute costs them more money. The engineering college's new flat rate fee plan encourages computer use. Students pay once and can use the terminals for anything they want, for as long as they want. The college will also be able to modify its curriculums to put engineers on terminals more often, now that students have unlimited ac- cess to the system. The result will be engineers who are more comfortable with computers, and are therefore better trained to enter professional engineering fields. wn in Beirut areas of Lebanon not under Israeli con- trol. It wouldn't be long after the marines leave before other U.N. troops follow suit, leaving a weak Lebanese army to fend for itself - probably un- successfully. Serious negotiations would be next to impossible after that. On the other hand, letting the marines go wild would give Lebanese President Amin Gemayel a false sense of security, inhibiting his willingness to negotiate not only with the Syrians, but with the multitude of factions within Lebanon. Keeping the marines where they are will signal the various factions that U.S. policy is committed to stabilizing the area, promoting negotiations, and establishing an independent and viable Lebanese state. The Druse and Syrian attacks on the marines are aimed at testing how devoted the Reagan ad- ministration is to that policy. Refusing to budge is the best way to prove that resolve. As presidential candidate Er- nest Hollings recently commen- ted, "Everybody is talking about industrial policy" these days. That observation may not extend to the local barber shop, but it certainly does seem to be the case in Democratic Party political and academic circles. In its simplest terms,'"in- dustrial policy" means setting up a national planning council wit h the clout and money to chart the future course of U.S. economic development. Its motivation lies in the fear that America has lost its traditional lead in the fields of technological innovation and economic growth. And its model, ironically, is 'Japan's super- powerful Ministry of Inter- national Trade and Industry - the high command of Tokyo's un- cannily successful campaign to become No. 1 on the world economy hit parade. For many people, industrial policy conjures up the image of government finally rolling up its sleeves to do something about the unemployment caused by the decline of basic U.S. industries and aboutourlag in technology and productivity growth. THREE OR FOUR years ago, another term - rein- dustrialization - was all the rage. It was the brainchild of Carter adviser Amitai Etzioni, who argued forcefully that government must take the lead in rebuilding American heavy in- dustry and with it the nation's self-reliant economic strength. Then came industrial policy, a rival term. Whereas rein- dustrialization focused on the older "sunset" industries, such as steel and automobile manufac- turing, industrial policy tends to be concerned with cutting-edge 'sunrise" industries like those found in eastern Massachusetts and California's Silicon Valley. But the differences go beyond the issues of technology, and scale. For reindustrialization also promised to put America s jobless back to work again, while industrial policy stresses making the United States once again supreme in global technology and export competition. The Achilles' heel of rein- dustrialization was its cost; the effort to lower the abysmally high unemployment rate might well have left the nation Industrial policy' a false hope for jobless By Franz Schurmann bankrupt. By contrast, industrial policy is probably affordable - its fiscal incentives, tax breaks and anti-trust waivers would not be unbearable to taxpayers. But it probably would not dent the iobless rate very much. In fact, in his best-selling book, "The Zero-Sum Society," industrial policy advocate Lester Thurow called for a "triage" approach to the economy. Just as emergency doctors ignore patients who are beyond help, Thurow contends that America must select from its total industrial mix those in- dustries with a future, leaving the rest to wither away. This ap- proach augurs far better for overcoming technological lag than it does for dissolving joblessness. But there are dangers as well. Until recently American produc- tivity kept going up, thanks to constant advances in labor- saving and quality-improving technologies.- Thus, the key challenge for an industrial policy council would be pinpointing ever-new technological initiatives for government to support with generous subsidies. Since 1940, most such breakthroughs have come as civilian spinoffs of war and defense-related research. This raises the bleak possibility that a successful industrial policy may have to be linked, in time, to just the kind of big defense buildup new espoused by the Reaganites In the end, neither massive unemployment in the dein- dustrialized desert, nor flabby performance in our best sur- viving industries, will be resolved by abstract policies. Meeting the first challenge will require the creation of new kinds of work on a community-by- community basis, rather than the re-creation of large national manufacturing concerns. And the second will require bet- ter middle managers at the production site itself - and not pontification by bureaucrats from so remote a place as Washington, D.C. Schurmann is a professor of history and sociology at the University of California, Berkeley. He wrote this article for the Pacific News Service. LETTERS TO THE DAILY 4 South Quad victimized again To the Daily I was disappointed in your at- tack on South Quad and its residents in your editorial, "Quieting South Quad" (Septem- ber 18). Being a former orien- tation leader, I am sensitive to the false impressions freshper- sons have of the dorms. It is in- sensitive and uninformed sources like the Daily that promote these false impressions. I believe that Mary Jane Mayer did have some negative im- pressions about South Quad. She is typical of .freshpersons throughout the University - simply worried about living in a certain dorm because of wrong and sometimes vicious rumors, about it. I have had concerned. students in orientation ask me if South Quad really is a "party" dorm, or if only drug addicts live in East Quad, or if you have to be Jewish to live in Mosher-Jordan. Of course, none of these rumors are true. Every dorm is merely brick and mortar - it has no character of its own. And with nearly random room assignmen- ts, there are little differences in dormitory demographics.. But the Daily seems to think otherwise. Should South Quad be referred to as the "jock" dorm because the freshman football players live there? Most of the hockey players and swimmers live in West Quad- why not call it the "jock",dorm? I believe you implied that athletes are synonymous with partying - another vicious rumor. Your observations of the soun- ds and smells in South Quad are not uncommon to any dorm on campus. And the shout across Madison Street (which West Quad heartily returns, I might add), is only "West Quad sucks." Perhaps you felt it was editorial freedom in adding the word "cock" in your editorial. The Daily should spend more time pursuing facts before writing their editdrials. It might- also be helpful to be a bit more' sensitive to the effects of rumors. In this case, your insensitivity- has promoted negative; stereotypes which have no place in a respectable publication like The Michigan Daily. Robert S. Gerber September 19 Gerber is a former South Quad resident advisor.' Stewart WE FOUND YOiR. ARICL~E ON OUR SOU.TH QUAD SWPEN1S DIlD you sN',i 'MOST OF THE KIWS ALWAYS I.OOK- 'v~lf14&N SMUT "-K THAT -T- -D- -N -T-S - W-A-T-C-I - T-R-E - comM(.l MIsREME- SF-N1A ION AND) A Vicious smeAR11! HAVE Too MtXH BCE R? ' /a /' '4> CAtN R