0 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. YJJ &t 11 NN OB! '~ \-- (sM)1J &U a_ La P al ) 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." \! a And one for you "00 * 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 { fCPVTL \2~sW&ET 79 I CA R~ QCOVES NETQMVA 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. 0 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