4 OPINION Page 4 Tuesday, November 13, 1984 The Michigan Daily LSA-SG elections: Defeat apathy By Eric Berman the importance of liberal arts. LSA-SG tain student grievances to the faculty's has also sponsored two essay contests. attention, such as professors' failure to The week before Thanksgiving break The first was on the value of a liberal distribute syllabi, make up missed can only mean one thing... that's right, arts education, with the winning essay classes, hold and post their office hours, it's time for the annual LSA Student appearing in the Daily's Weekend and provide appropriate instructional Government elections. Wait. Relax. magazine last winter term under the commentary - not just a grade - on all - Rid yourself of all those dreadful title, "Beards and Pope Clash with written and oral work assigned in their thoughts of waiting seemingly forever Calculus". The second is on the LSA classes. The same committee is now in long lines in anticipation of casting College's distribution requirements and addressing student concerns with the ^ your vote. Forget about the hassle of whether or not they are adequate or problems of cheating within the college., mailing those absentee ballots. Don't even necessary. (The essays must be LSA-SG has also held a symposium concern yourself with planning your handed in by Dec. 3. Applications can on different aspects of the un- -- day around where and when you have to be picked up at the LSA-SG office on the dergraduate experience here, funded go to vote. With LSA-SG elections fourth floor of the Michigan Union.) worthwhile events and student voting is a simple, carefree, and LSA-SG has worked hard trying to in- publications, and initiated un- pleasant experience. There are two form students of the proposed code of dergraduate associations. days in which to vote, and votes can be non.cademic conduct, sponsored last It is clear that LSA Student Gover- cast in any dorm, the Union, UGLi, week's forum, and is committed to con- nment has made and can make a dif- fishbowl, or the MLB. The entire tinue fighting the code as it now stands. ference. With your support and in- process will take no longer than five LSA-SG is also responsible for inter- volvement it can r..ake even a greaterey minutes-honestly, viewing and appointing qualified LSA difference. Though the faculty andad- By taking students to various administrative and ministration do not always appreciatete e eo out of your busy schedule you make a faculty committees which research and student views and concerns, and though difference. How? By getting involved, initiate reforms of different facets of certain student proposals may be Use those five minutes to show your the college. Though LSA Student watered down or not acted on, the support for your fellow students who Government was unable to persuade greatest obstacle LSA-SG has to over- are willing to put their time and efforts the college's Executive Committee to come is student apathy.s into making this University a better let a student sit in, even as a non-voting LSA-SG has earned, and deserves,M' undergraduate experience for you. member, students are now represented your support. Take five minutes either Think of what LSA-SG has accom- on the Curriculum Committee, Ad- today or tomorrow, read a poster, ask a plished just this past year. missions Committee, and Comprehen- candidate a question, get involved, and LSA STUDENT Government was sive Studies Program, and the new vote! responsible for bringing Dr. Ernest Counseling Committee among others. Boyer the president of the Carnegie Last winter term the Joint Student Foundations for the Advancement of Faculty Policy Committee introduced a Somededicated student election officials guard the LSA-SG ballot box. For those who thought the voting Teaching, to speak at the University on "bill" which was passed by the college's ended last Tuesday, guess again. Today and tomorrow LSA students should act responsibly and vote for the future of American education and governing faculty which brought cer- is president of LSASG. their student government leaders. 4 4 4 4 Edited and managed by students at The University of Michigan Cramer Vol. XCV, No. 59 420 Maynard St. Ann Arbor, MI 48109 I. A Ii . . Editorials represent a majority opinion of the Daily's Editorial Board A bitter pill T HE CODES have been entered, the buttons pushed. The sky is illuminated and punctuated by ex- plosions. And the sickness slowly spreads. The living suffer through the ultimate experience of death, the death of humanity and the earth. Only the dead can escape the agony and the guilt. During nuclear war, suicide is not an escape from life, it is an escape from death. By calling for the availability of suicide pills at the University in the event of a nuclear war, Students Against Nuclear Suicide are provoking thoughts of death and the ultimate hopelessness. Would you consider suicide? Would you desperately want a means to escape the agony of nuclear war? If society is to deal with the nuclear dilemma in a responsible way, it is imperative that the horror and finality of nuclear destruction be in- ternalized. It is a misunderstanding of SANS', goals to think that they are pro-suicide and unwilling to propose constructive solutions to the nuclear prob- lem. They are simply trying to get people to think about the inevitable, and not unthinkable, results of nuclear war. Even more frightening than the thought of dying in a nuclear war is the thought that the world can survive one. Nuclear war is suicide, and if society does not understand that, the possibility of war will be all the greater. SANS has asked that the suicide pills proposal be placed on the Michigan Student Assembly's spring ballot. Hopefully MSA will agree to this and provide the issue with the publicity it needs. It is relatively unimportant whether or not the proposal passes. \ \ S... t4. 'Ii : 4 What is important is that people are forced to think about it. Debates over the desirability of cyanide versus razor blades are trivial; the point is that people are thinking about the death associated with nuclear war. This recognition of nuclear war as suicide is the necessary first step toward a constructive solution. Without actions to follow it up, however, SANS' efforts will have meant nothing. The criticism that a campaign for suicide pills is unconstructive is legitimate in that, by themselves, the pills don't keep the bombs from flying. But if the pills provoke a fear of nuclear war that calls individuals to action, then a definite, constructive purpose will have been served. It is our hope that SANS' actions will encourage and be linked to other ac- tions which are, in themselves, more constructive. Desirable actions would be a reworking of the nuclear free Ann Arbor proposal to make it more accep- table to the voters, active petitioning of elected representatives, and in- volvement in protests both vocal and- physical. The most productive solutions to the nuclear dilemma must be rooted in the idea that nuclear war is death. Several professors at the University have proposed a "peace studies" program aimed at developing alternative, peaceful means for addressing con- flict. Such a program deserves broad support since without peaceful chan- nels for the resolution of conflict, the well-developed, destructive channels become the only recourse - a recourse that cannot be survived. Nuclear war is lethal. In order to avoid killing ourselves, we must realize that the potential is there. d 1 lk INI r I /7 LI uw~ d i A LETTERS TO THE DAILY To the Daily: The Daily's coverage of a recent rally for women's rights reminded me of a trend that has become all too apparent in this fall's campaign. The article "Group rallies for women's rights" (Daily, October 31) em- phasized the incredibility of the demonstrators' facts and figures. The reporter quoted onlookers who said the facts were "miscon- strued" and "misrepresented." One angry young man simply could not believe them. Well, I am not surprised when people are upset about the facts. We were too. That is why we stood outside in the cold Tuesday afternoon. However, a matter of serious concern exists when people turn their backs on what makes them uncomfortable and deny what they see. To simply say, "it is not true" does not contribute to our knowledge about the situation. The facts are easy enough to selves. Perhaps in 1984 we are oblivious to "doublespeak". A second article in that same issue entitled, "Women's wages cat- ching up to men" illustrates my point. The title sounded upbeat, until I read the small print. The Rand Corporation study found that by the year 2000 "women will BLOOM COUNTY earn only 74 percent of men's in- come." The implications of this study are that a 20-year old woman studying for a career can look forward to making one- quarter less than her male peers by the time she is 35 years old. This is not equal pay for equal work. Our expression of different viewpoints is evidence of one strength in our society. Let us ex press those views from informed positions. 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