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OPINION
Page 4 Saturday, April 7, 1984 The Michigan Daily
LaBan
Edie a ta nyigan
Edited and managed by students at The University of Michigan
Vol. XCIV-No. 150
420 Maynard St.
Ann Arbor, MI 48109
LISTEN -GEr THOQE
CW#*ED AN' I'LL P1K<
Editorials represent a majority opinion of the Daily's Editorial Board
Corrosive attitude
,CANADIAN MINISTER of the En-
vironment Charles Caccia's ad-
dress to the School of Natural Resour-
ces yesterday highlighted the concerns
of the Canadian government and the
need for Americanaction regarding
the threat of acid rain. Caccia called
acid rain the "largest irritant on the
agenda between the two countries,''
and a problem that "strikes to the
heart of (the Canadian) economy."
He told the audience what the
American public needs to hear: that
the threat of acid rain has been
established, means for alleviating the
threat have been pinpointed, and to
ignore those solutions will prove ex-
tremely costly in ecological, social,
and economic terms.
Canada's fear and America's com-
placency arise largely because of a
simple climatic reality: the wind blows
their way. Principle 21 of the
Stockholm Declaration aimed at com-
batting trans-border pollution states
that nations have: "the responsibility
to ensure that activities within their
jurisdiction or control do not cause
damage to the environment of other
states or of areas beyond the limits of
national jurisdiction." The United
States is not doing its part. Power plan-
ts are killing off lakes and forests in
Canada and yet the Reagan ad-
ministration is taking no steps to at-
tack the problem at its source.
To be sure, Canadian emissions also
threaten lakes and forests in the
United States, but the Canadians are
taking necessary and painful steps to
combat. the two nation's mutual
problem. Canada is acting in good
faith, the United States is not acting at
all.
Reagan has called for studies where
action is needed. Because the threat to
this nation's ecology is not as great,
Reagan is taking the luxury of waiting
for more scientific study while Canada
suffers the damage. The fact is that
there is a scientific consensus concer-
ning acid rain. Its causes, effects, and
means of prevention are all known.
Caccia is completely correct when he
says that "the problem has nothing to
do with a lack of scientific consensus,
but rather the lack of political consen-
sus."
A consensus has formed in Canada
and the.government has established
long-range plans to significantly
reduce sulfur emissions-at a cost of
$600 million to $1 billion per year.
The large costs of corrective
measures cannot be denied. The costs
are, however, far less than the costs of
not controlling acid rain. Last month
the Environmental ministers from 10
countries met in Ottawa to discuss
acid rain and committed themselves to
reduce their national annual sulphur
emissions by 30 percent within ten
years.
The Swedish Minister of Agriculture
summed up the belief of the par-
ticipating countries saying: "I am
convinced that the costs ,to our
societies and our economies caused by
the damages from acidification,
however difficult they are to calculate
with precision, are much higher than
the costs we shall have to pay for ef-
ficient emission controls."
The Reagan administration should
stop stalling and start reducing
emissions. The short-term expense
might be great, but when the bottom
line is dead lakes and blighted forests,
the cost is well worth it. Acid rain
doesn't respond to national boun-
daries, politics does. It is time for the
administration to recognize an inter-
national concern of this
magnitude-and do something about
it.
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Ban of 'Killer'
on
campus?
By Jonathon Ellis
If fact and fiction continue to
compete for headlines, how soon
will we read the following
''news" report?
In response to the playing of
"The Assasination Game" or
"Killer" on campus, the regents
were presented today with the
draft of a policy banning Univer-
sity activities "the primary pur-
pose of which is to simulate the
taking of human life."
PROPONENTS of the "No
Games" policy emphasize that
only those activities involving
make-believe killing would be
prohibited. Last summer the
regents rejected a proposal
which would have banned cam-
pus research aimed at the real
taking of human life.
"To avoid the policy, military
researchers would only have to
demonstrate that their results
can be used for real weapons,"
said a No Games spokesperson.
"The Defense Department might
be able to certify that."
The actual object of the
proposed No Games policy, the
killer game, is played with toy
weapons. While players only at-
tempt to simulate a "kill" of their
target, both University security
officers and the Ann Arbor police
have been called by confused
onlookers. No Games adherents
argue that there is no such con-
fusion about military research.
"After all, who would call the
police to a weapons research
lab."
THE DRAFT policy banning
simulated violence on campus
also contains language which
specifically exempts activities
where admission is charged.
This would permit the perfor-
mance of plays and other artistic
events even if they had violent
themes. "If you have to pay to
see the simulated violence, it
would be OK," said one Univer-
sity official.
This loophole could also be used
by professors who have already
claimed, in response to recent
protests, that their Defense
Department-funded research only
looks like the real thing. They
could merely install theater seats
in their labs and charge a fee to
avoid the No Games policy. "We
could set the ticket price high
enough to keep out those
radicals," said one professor.
The killer game itself is played
all around campus, making it dif-
ficult to charge admission.
Players of the game often call it a
"harmless release of tension,"
especially around exam time. "If
we focus on beating people to a
kill," a player said, "it's easy to
forget we're trying.to beat them
to an A."
BUT UNIVERSITY officials
claim the game is disruptive and
can promote real violence. It is
that latter possibility which has
sparked much of the controversy
about the No Games proposal.
Opponents of enacting a
separate No Games policy argue
that the proposed student code of
non-academic conduct would
already ban the killer game, if
real violence is related. A section
of the current code draft
prghibits conduct "intentionally
or recklessly causing reasonable
apprehension of such (physical)
harm."
"No, No Games" - a recently
formed student group - claims
that the proposed new conduct
code would not only prohibit
students from playing the killer
game, but would bar students
from working in any campus lab
doing weapons research.
"THERE CAN BE no doubt
that military research causes
reasonable apprehension of
physical harm," maintains No,
No Games. "Any student doing
such military research could be
charged with violating section 3.a
of thedcode." If the research
were deemed "grievous" by a
University judicial panel, under
the code such students could be
suspended or expelled.
However, a faculty member
involved in drafting the student
conduct code has argued that the
codeisaimed only a individual
violence. "There was no inten-
tion to include violence on a mass
scale," he said. At any rate,
provisions of the proposed code
would not apply to faculty or staff
members, and would thereby not
affect professors working on
weapons projects. -
No, No Games has drafted a
counter proposal for a University
policy that would only permit
campus research about make-
believe weapons: "Professors
concerned about funding for their
graduate students should be ap-
plying to Disney World, not the
Pentagon."
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And one for you
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KIDS USED to be impressed when
their grandfather dusted off his
Purple Heart. The evidence of valor
elicited "oohs" and "aahs" as vision of
death-defying scrambles across a
minefield danced through their heads.
But today's cynicaL youngster is
more likely to respond to a
distinguished achievement medal with
a " So what, everybody gets 'em."
There is a reason for their cynicism.
The Army last week awarded 8,612
medals to individual Americans in-
volved in the October invasion of
Grenada. The disillusioning part of it
is that the Army never had more than
7,000 officers and enlisted soldiers on
the island.
The Army justifies its award system
as a "valuable and effective leader-
ship tool to build unit morale and
esprit." But it's hard to believe that
morale is built when practically every
guy in khaki gets a medal. Let's be
honest, an award is only satisfying if
you're the first one on the block to get
one. The Army might as well start
handing these out with C-rations.
Somebody in the Pentagon must be
worried that America isn't going to
have any war heroes left in ten or
twenty years. After all, World War II
was the last time the United States was
involved in a really good conflict.
What will the kids do if grandpa
doesn't have any medals to polish?
Another explanation might be that
some pinstripe in medal manufac-
turing is greasing the palms of Army
officials in order to stimulate sales.
Who know, maybe that's why we in-
vaded in the first place.
Army officials said that about 50 of
the medals went to personnel at the
Pentagon. Sure, pushing pencils isn't
as dangerous - or glamorous - as
storming a beachhead but it's what
modern remote-control war is all
about. If a guy shows up promptly at
nine in the morning and doesn't take
extended coffee breaks he's virtually
a national hero.
Medals aren't what they used to be -
but then neither is war.
Ellis is director
bury Loft.
of Canter-
LETTERS TO THE DAILY:
GEO has helped TAsfor a decade
To the Daily:
In the past few weeks I have
read a number of letters to the
editor from disgruntled teaching
assistants attacking GEO
because the union has enforced
the agency shop, which costs
teaching and student assistants
anywhere from $3 to $60 per
term. These TAs seem to think
that GEO has done nothing for
their benefit and resent having to
pay the fees.
I wonder what sort of letters to
the editor these TAs would write
if they were asked to give back
the tuition waiver that GEO
helped maintain in 1973, or the
health, life, and dental insurance
that came with the 1976 contract.
I can not believe that these TAs
do not appreciate this year's 5
percent pay increase, nor do I
believe they will object much
when they receive another 5 per-
cent next year, accompanied
with a 7 percent boost in the
tuition waiver, which were
secured in the 1983 contract. It
also appears that they do not
think much of GEO's continuing
efforts to negotiate TA training
programs and class size limits.
Some TAs may think that these
to speak their mind. GEO is so
democratic that the union sent
out contract ratification ballots
not only to GEO members, as
required, but to non-members as
well. Thus, giving them the op-
portunity to join and participate
in the union. How much more
democracy does GEO need
before the union can satisfy the
charges of its critics?
The simple fact is that GEO has
accomplished quite a bit in the
past ten years. Against strong
odds GEO has endured. This is
for good reason; most TAs and
SAs know what the situation would
have been if they did not belong to
a union. It is time for GEO's
critics to quit bickering about a
few dollars and begin working for
~continued improvement. A full
tuition waiver, TA training, class
size limits, and affirmative ac-
tion are waiting for us at the next
bargaining table.,
-Stephen Grossbart
April 1
The epidemic of academic dishonesty
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79
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F~oMF1ECoUL~tE*0
To the Daily:
I wish to comment on the quote
attributed to me by Daily staff
reporter Sharon Silbar in her ex-
cellent article entitled "Beating
the System" published in
Weekend Magazine (Daily Mar-
ch 23).
I was not misquoted in any way
but in context, my remark that
cheating is not necessarily a
pathological condition, the
meaning is not entirely clear. My
position was that given the
current nature of the student
culture and the general societal
attitude, many, if not most,
students do not interpret infrac-
tions of the academic code of
honesty as "dishonest." Given a
BLOOEM COlUNTY
social context which condones
such transgressions, it is not sur-
prising that the meaning of the
dishonest act is seen as not
terribly serious and not really
immoral. It is my view that this
attitude of society is unfortunate
and highly corrupting of the
academic endeavor and I con-
demn it strongly. However, an
important aspect of correcting
this unfortunate epidemic
requires a change in the attitude
of our society and especially of
our student culture. Such a
change would make progress in
this area far less difficult.
I am glad that the Daily has
approached this topic with such
candor and I hope that my
colleagues will begin to take their
responsibilities in working to the
elimination of academic
dishonestymore seriously in
spite of the burden it places on
them.
-Donald Brown
March 26,,
Brown is a professor in the
psychology department.
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Letters and columns
represent the opinions of the
individual author(s) and do
not necessarily reflect the at-
titudes or beliefs of the Daily.
by Ber~ke Bre.aathedI