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OPINION
Page 4
Sunday, October 9, 1983
The Michigan Daily
Yes,
Virginia, there is a five-year plan
IT MAKES YOU think that no one reads
newspapers and that everyone walks around
with Walkmans on 24 hours a day.
Despite extensive coverage in the local
media and numerous campus protests and
forums, an informal Daily survey indicated
that most students are utterly clueless to the
University's five-year plan of budget reduc-
tions and reallocations.
Two students said they were partof the so-
called five-year plan, explaining that they were
going to be fifth-year seniors.
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"I'm not aware of what's going on because
I'm busy studying," said LSA sophomore John
Swirczek, who also didn't know about the
budget cuts.
"Smaller but better?" said Swirczek. "I
don't understand. I don't see how you can cut
and get better. It just doesn't make sense to
me."
Well, John, you're not alone. Most of the
others questioned seemed to be affected by the
same mysterious fog which had shrouded
students since February 1982, when University
administrators announced the five-year plan.
One student suggested clearing the air via
direct University communication with students
through the mail - sort of a "Budget Cut Up-
date."
Billy Frye, vice president for academic af-
fairs and provost, said, "It's absolutely
incredible, not so much that students wouldn't
know (about the five-year plan), but that they
would imply that it is the University's respon-
sibility to inform them."
When the fog lifts, maybe students will
realize that the University has already cut 40
percent from the School of Education, 25 per-
cent from the School of Natural Resources,
while the School of Art got off with a mere 18
ding? Well, put those thoughts aside, because
no one will check up on you.
According to Cynthia Reeves, former MSA
vice president for personnel, MSA's job is to
find the students for the committees, not to
keep tabs on them. Besides she said, MSA
hasn't got the jurisdiction to fire them.
Well, then, if MSA, the self-professed voice of
the students, cannot or will not keep track of
student participation, who will?
If you decide to attend the meetings, you will
probably find that you don't understand what is
going on, say some former students appointed
to the committees. Besides, the faculty mem-
bers seem to know so much more, so why
bother showing up?
But aren't these committees important?
Aren't these positions the same ones that for-
mer students for which fought so hard? Aren't
students giving up one of our important means
of communication with the faculty and the ad-
ministration?
Sure, but this is the stuff great resumes are
made of.
Still interested? Hurry, because there aren't
that many spots left. Act now to start yourself
on a long and fulfilling career of resume-
building.
Kegger gone flat
What if you threw a party and no one showed
up? You'd feel hurt, and, well, rejected.
"Doesn't anyone want to share all this good
food and beer I bought?" you'd wonder.
The negotiators for the Graduate Employee
Organization, the union that represents
University teaching assistants and graduate
student assistants, must feel the same way.
The negotiators haggled with University of-
ficials for a new tentative one-year contract. So
when GEO's leaders scheduled a meeting they
probably expected their fellow union members
to show up to discuss the agreement. But alas,
fewer than 30 members out of almost 700 found
the time to say hello to their valiant represen-
tatives.
That wasn't very nice.
On top of that, no one would volunteer to mail
ballots to the rest of the union's members, nor
I
Daily Photo by DOUG McMAHON
A. J. Foyt beware. A couple hundred University students tried to prove they were ready for the
big time at Crisler Arena this past week. No injuries were reported.
4
What's a five-year what?
percent cut.
But then again, they might not.
Resume writing
MSA is looking for a few good students.
Well, not that good, but ambitious people
with a strong desire to pad their resumes with
important-sounding University committee ap-
pointments. No experience or sincere concern
necessary.
Sounds- great, doesn't it? But wait, there's
more!
You won't even have to attend these
meetings to give your resume that badly-
needed shot in the arm.
Sound too good to be true?
Check the record. According to the minutes
of these meetings, most students never
bothered to attend more than a couple of meet-
ings.
Worried that you'll be fired for not atten-
would anyone volunteer to count the ballots on-
ce they come back, if anyone decides to vote.
What must bother GEO leaders most is this'
lack of interest threatens approval of the con-
tract, which would give TAs and SAs pay raises
and tuition credits. The union constitution
requires contracts be approved by at least half
of the membership, not just by a simple
majority that choose to vote. That means that if
300 to 350 members vote, virtually all of them
would have to approve the contract for it to
take effect.
This malaise, though, may also signal the
end of the party for the GEO itself. Then who
will buy the beer?
Speed Racer
The state's sports pages were filled all week
with the hype and hoopla over a football game
that turned out to be a typically dull Michigan
trouncing of our neanderthal neighbors to the
northwest.
Meanwhile, the real sports event of the week
was taking place right on campus in the Crisler
Arena parking lot. It was "Indy comes to Ann
Arbor" as 259 students took advantage of the
opportunity to be Mario Andretti, if only for a
few seconds.
The speeds never quite reached 200 miles
per hour;in fact, they didn't break 40. But Greg
Ippolito, a. graduate student in mechanical
engineering, maneuvered through the winding
course in the shortest time with the fewest
errors to earn a free trip to Daytona in May and
a chance to win free use of a Dodge sports car
for a year.
The event attracted about half as many
drivers as anticipated, according to race of-
ficals, but the competition is certain to see
thousands of college students by the time it''
finishes its 70-school tour next spring.
Sports enthusiasts will be happy to know that
next year's events include a mini-America s
Cup (one-meter class) run on the Huron and a
junior-level Masters golf championship (The
Servants) played on the Michigan golf course.
The Week in Review was compiled by
Daily staff writers Thomas Miller and:
Sharon Silbar and Daily editors David
Spak and Barry Witt.
. . .... .....
Edited and managed by students at The University of Michigan
Vol. XCIV - No. 29
420 Maynard St.
Ann Arbor, MI 48109
Utopia
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Editorials represent a majority opinion of the Daily's Editorial Board
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Volunteer for hire
BY HIRING A coordinator to-help
recruit and retain its volunteers,
the Michigan Student Assembly is
lazily trying to solve its problems by
throwing student fees at them.
This year MSA members decided
that their personnel problems were
serious enough to spend $960 to hire
someone to solve them. So for $80 a
week this term Julia Gittleman, a
student and former MSA member, will
be recruiting potential MSA volunteers
and then matching their skills with
various assembly projects.
MSA's goals are laudable. Active
volunteers are the key to effective
student government. But by hiring the
coordinator to achieve those goals, the
assembly is paying someone to do their
job. And they are paying that person
with students' money.
Gittleman has been publicizing the
assembly in classes and mass
meetings. She has distributed surveys
to prospective volunteers and fed the
Information into a computer to match
them with University and assembly
committees. She will, also help
strengthen MSA's ties with other cam-
pus organizations.
All these things, however, should be
done by MSA members. By hiring Git-
tleman, they are merely shirking their
responsibility.
In the past, MSA prudently has hired
its small paid staff. Bret Eynon and
Roger Kerson, two researchers MSA
hired to examine campus defense
department research had a significant
impact on the debate surrounding
University military research contrac-
ts.
Eynon and Kerson were effective
because they offered MSA research
experience and skills that students
could not provide. They supplemented
the assembly's talent rather than
merely duplicating it.
With the new student coordinator
position, however, MSA seems to be
operating under a strangely twisted
form of an old adage: "If you want
something done right, hire someone
else to do it."
The skills for the student researcher
position are not out of the grasp of MSA
members. There is no reason they can
not do the job just as effectively and
save students' money.
LETTERS TO THE DAILY:
Students spotted at committee meeting
To the Daily:
The Daily's front page article,
"Student truancy plagues com-
mittee meetings," (October 5)
appears to tar all student mem-
bers of University committees
with the same brush.
LSA's Joint Student-Faculty
Policy Committee, composed of
Band out
of tune
To the Daily:
As a graduate of the University
of Michigan ( I received degrees
in 1963, 1965, and 1970) and one
who toils in the midst of intellec-
tual, academic, and athletic
(with the possible exception of
the basketball team) mediocrity
at the University of Kentucky, I
frequently refer to many aspects
of Michigan as examples of high
quality. The University's mar-
ching band was no exception. Af-
ter all, wasn't it voted the
premier college marching band
in the country last year?
After viewing the half-time
travesty at October i's Indiana-
Michigan football game,
however, no longer will I be able,
with good conscience, to hold it
in high tesm Tn th nre ne nf
six faculty members and six
students, is surely a shining ex-
ception. Last year, student atten-
dance was regular, student par-
ticipation was active, and all
student members invested a
great deal of time and effort in
committee projects.
This highly-ranked committee,
whose reports may take
precedence in LSA faculty
meetings over those of all other
.committees save the executive
committee, is proud if its highly
active student participation. The
committee meets almost every
week during the year, and this
year's group is beginning its
work with enthusiasm.
-Roy Jay Nelson
October 5
Nelson is chairman pro tem
of the LSA Joint Student-
Faculty Policy Committee.
Unsigned editorials appearing on the left side of this page
represent a majority opinion of the Daily's Editorial Board.
Letters and columns represent the opinions of the individual
author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the attitudes or
beliefs of the Daily.
Wasserman
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