0 OPINION Page 4 Wednesday, November 28, 1984 The Michigan Daily Blacks and the corporate personality 4 By Robert Honigrran The University's failure to achieve a 10 percent black enrollment after more than a decade of effort is not based so much on the difficulty of recruiting or retaining black students, as it is on the economics and values of the University. One has only to look at the football and basketball teams to realize that the University can recruit and retain black students when it wants to. Why then is the University's program so unsuccessful? THE OBVIOUS answer is cost. It costs money to recruit and retain black athletes, but at least black and white athletes bring back money at the ticket office and in alumni donations. Or- dinary students don't. Although the black drop-out rate is something like 40 percent compared to a white drop-out rate of 25 percent, black retention is not a high priority for the University. Should the University spend more on its black students to achieve a 10 per- cent enrollment both undergraduate and graduate? Yes, because the University discriminates against blacks in at least two major ways. The firts is in the University's competition for taxpayer dollars - money spent on the University is money that is unavailable for head-start programs, K-12 education, job training, civil rights enforcement, etc. As a tax supported institution, the University's goal should be to eliminate and reduce racial inequality rather than to perpetuate it. To do that it needs to take - out of its own responsibility - affirmative ac- tion. A second major way in which the University perpetuates racial discrimination is through its use of grades and testing to provide job credentials for its students. Although a great many studies have shown no correlation between grade rankings and later success in life - assuming that one is qualified to master the basic material and skills of a profession - most students, faculty members, and the public seem to think that test and grade rankings somehow entitle students, at the expense of others, to greater job opportunities and advanced training. IN FACT, the people who created and run the SAT tests have argued that only minimal scores should be used to set entrance requirements to colleges and universities, and that above minimal entrance scores, other criteria should be used. Grades themselves are often a measure of docility and institutional loyalty since to get high grades a student is often required to sacrifice social life, hobbies, leisure-time in- terests, and recreational time. Studies have shown that students with high academic motivation, the so- called "grinds," get the least out of their college experience outside of the classroom - probably because they are isolated from their peers - and show the least personality development of any student group. So the University, by hiring MBA's and other executive recruitees based on grade rankings and advanced degrees which are qualified by SAT-like tests, Dow is able to ac- complish the same thing and circum- vent fair employment laws - thanks to the University. EVEN STUDENTS who are academically bright and successful are 'The University, for reasons of its own, en- courages a narrow and institutionally dependent personality ... the G.I. Joes and Barbie Dolls who populate our singles bars and corporate offices.' maternal organization, like the terry cloth doll in monkey experiments' is a false parent. It's sad to see students believe the in- stitutional line about how bright and wonderful they are because of the high grades they get and the good jobs they line up. They begin to believe that the world really owes them a good life - as long as they kiss the institutional boot of whatever organization they happen to work for. They become keenly sensitive to who's getting ahead and who's falling behind in institutional politics and to the differences between people - nuances of complexion, hair style, and dress - since the institution wants everyone to be alike. They substitute mental agility for human relations whenever thay can - and their human warmth atrophies behind a plastic per- sonality. They are the GI Joes and Barbie Dolls who populate our singles bars and corporate offices. The real world is not kind to people who have been narrowly trained and taught to expect some kind of reward for institutional loyalty and obedience, much less to people who arrogantly demand it. The real world is largely non-white, and even a substantial portion of the white world - the Communist bloc - is ready to kill us at the drop of an ICBM. The soft-sell of the University that hit- ting the books as hard as you can will save the world or even your own career, is the same kind of big-sell that car companies use to glamorize and sell their products. It makes the University wealthy and powerful, selling house- I broken students to other big in- stitutions. But white students have got to grow up and gain a sense of real connection to the world, hopefully a friendly connection spent with people who are different from them in cooperative activities during their un- dergraduate years, such as sports, hobbies, and social events. At the very least, white students would learn that the larger world beyond the University is very different from the University and plays by a different set of rules. In my view, for all of its harshness, the real world is more forgiving and life- giving than the University, and we all have the capacity to love and share this world with people who are different from us, and to learn and grow from our differences. Universities have moral respon- sibilities that are much more than being a research institute or an advan- ced training center. It's time to start healing some deep wounds in our society. Honigman is a University alumni and an attorney in Sterling Heights. for reasons of its own, encourages a narrow and institutionally dependent personality. If Dow Chemical were to administer an SAT-like test to incoming executive recruitees, and the effect were to weed out blacks and other minority groups, the fact that the test is unrelated to job skills and future potential for success. would be fatal under present law. But ill-served by the present system because it builds up a false sense of self- confidence and expectations. Reality will ultimately replace the Nerd per- sonality with a more realistic and humane set of values and goals. But often, for the most idealistic students, there is a tragic mid-life discovery that one is still living a childish, in- stitutionally dependent life where the gtuenshe hig ant,* Edited and managed by students at The University of Michigan Vol. XCV, No. 68 420 Maynard St. Ann Arbor, MI 48109 Editorials represent a majority opinion of the Daily's Editorial Board Maintain a peaceful library Ann Arbor Public Library patrons will not only have to fear the con- sequences of speaking too loudly in the library, but will have to make sure they don't doze off for over 10 minutes or exercise "extremely poor personal hygiene." And, if one patron is caught sexually harassing another, then library officials can take action, such as requesting the offending patron to leave, revoking library privileges for a month or even a year. Though they are somewhat restrictive, the behavior guidelines adopted this month are not the product of tyrannical librarians. Instead, they are logical extensions of general library etiquette, federal, state, and local law clearly spelled out. The need for these rules, as it has been expressed by library officials, also points to several problems more com- plex than library misconduct that this community should begin to address. Ramon Hernandez, director of the library, says that, though his staff doesn't keep statistics, there is a general sense that there has been an increase in behavior problems. An in- crease in these problems has even required the library to hire a security guard for the evening hours. In the past year, several women have com- plained of being harassed, one high school woman was sexually harassed, and a fight broke out between two patrons last February. Because there seems to be a link between an increase in behavior problems and the winter weather, the homeless or mentally ill who lack shelter from the cold are the ones most easily implicated. The new rules will help develop standard procedures for dealing with this type of library patron, yet another solution is needed to handle this problem. What the rules will accomplish is to allow the library director to call in the police in a dangerous situation when a patron fails to obey rules, and to suspend that person if necessary. If the situation is not dangerous, but poses a problem for other library patrons, then the library official can call Community Mental Health for advice and aid. This will take some of the discipline procedures out of the hands of the librarian, who is, of course, more in- terested in helping library users find the book or magazine they are looking for. Potentially, these rules could be used to discriminate against those patrons who deviate from the norm. But the library must present a report on enfor- cement of the rules to the Ann Arbor Board of Education and library of- ficials do not seem to harbor any ill will specifically directed towards the homeless population. In fact, the library has a track record of being ex- tremely sympathetic to the plight of the homeless library patron. A library should be a safe haven where area residents can go to immer- se themselves in reading and escape the often noisy, violent world outside its doors. The new guidelines are just a step to insure the library fulfills its purpose. The difficulties with the men- tally ill and homeless making the library their resting place, however, cannot be solved by limiting their behavior in our libraries. This problem requires a more complex solution. Funding levels for programs to shelter the homeless have been sinking. This community should realize the impor- tance of such programs and under- stand thatsprivate care or public funds for these individuals is a more substan- tial and worthwhile cure to the problem at hand. The library's situation is primarily reflecting the larger issue. Wasserman WI~-rS THE DM'YS ROUNDUP? CHILE S OUNDING UpP SIETS AND THE SoUX% AV21CANS ARE QoUN~i&UP LcS 9. u? P~Ts~ . (N~ Fti 'WE PNt LIpPiNE E;oVC-lZt4MSt jT IS IZOVNDIN(y \ ( A \NELL...-Tf"T' ANOThER VAY \NMTWiJT R~ COMMt~UNIT J"rAVEO'ERZ ^N 0 LETTERS TO THE DAILY KGB murders don't justify CIA murders To the Daily: Imagine yourself as a judge in a courtroom. A case is brought before you. A man dressed in a three piece suit is facing a mur- der charge. You ask him to make his plea. He says, "Guilty-but with an explanation!" You ask for it. He responds with a short speech. He says that others are murdering people too... so it's okay. He asks why he's being prosecuted and not the others. In response you say that the others aren't here right now, and you think to yourself that they aren't even under your jurisdiction. You are somewhat amazed by the thrust of his "explanation." It is clear that it is no explanation. It is a childish rationalization for irresponsible thinking and violent living. Gerald Eisenhower's letter "More meaningless Liberal Platitudes" (Daily, November 27) painted just such a picture. I'm not thinking of a court of law so much as I am thinking of relevance and headedness. The CIA came to campus, not the KGB. The CIA, an agency pus as did the CIA. If they had, the protest would have been larger. The KGB and the CIA do the same thing, it's just that people have a knack for rooting for the home team. Before we call ourselves liberal, conservative, right, or left, we should look at ourselves as individuals. Rather than choose a rhetorical stereotype to model ourselves after, we should examine how we think and what we feel. I, myself, have decided that I'm tired of superpowers that are so caught up with their self importance that they treat smaller countries, especially troubled third world nations, like pawns on a chessboard. It's people's lives, yours, mine, and theirs-not a game. This is not a rightist or a leftists attitude. I think it's a choice of life and death. I live in the United States. People are being needlessly tortured and killed so that I, I'm told, can live here. The domino theory was just a rationalization. I thought we learned that years ago. I am American, so is the CIA. I will not pull back my accusing arm, or not cry "murderer" in respon- se to the whining cry "BUT THEY DO IT TOO!" -Eric Goldstein November 27 Daily concerned with cracking Reagan T4. t tN- QI K; , + To the Daily: The editorial "Politics of the game" (Daily, Nov. 17) proves that the only thing the Daily is concerned with is cracking at President Ronald Reagan. Only the Daily could find a way to equate college football rivalry with international politics. Your editorial proves only one thing: the editors' inability to com- prehend politics and life in BLOOM COUNTI I 11F general. The Daily starts by condoning the Michigan-Ohio blood drive, and finishes by denouncing the president and his policies. The ignorance of the Daily is beautifully portrayed by the statements about diplomatic relations. How could any sane person believe that a president would confront the Russians and say, "Anything to kick Russia's butt is a good thing to do." How could they even think that a highly competent politician like George Bush would use the same language in a friendly relaxed atmosphere as he would use in 0 diplomatic situation. It is just this sort of mentality that makes the Daily what it is: a publication dedicated to misin- forming the students at the University. -Eddie Mehrfar November 17 by Berke Breathed YT I UI MlAr.A li ,711 1I