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OPINION
Page 4 Sunday, February 10, 1985 The Michigan Daily
Edited and managed by students at The University of Michigan
Stalemate over report broken
Vol. XCV, No. 109
420 Maynard St.
Ann Arbor, MI 48109
Editorials represent a majority opinion of the Daily's Editorial Board
i
Inconsiderate addition
OR THE PAST two weeks LSA
,F senior Andrew Boyd has taken his
message to the streets. It is a good
message, one that everybody should
have the opportunity to hear. But he
has spread his message in the wrong
way.
Boyd admitted last week that he was
responsible for stuffing extra pages in-
to some of the 6,000 copies of Consider
magazine distributed around campus.
The magazine regularly presents two
essays on a topic, but for the issue on
U.S. involvement in Nicaragua Boyd
decided to add his own essays.
The insert, entitled "Consider (Con-
sider)," contained articles attributed
to American and Nicaraguan officials.
Boyd, who spent part of last semester
in Nicaragua, said the articles were
necessary because "the reality down
there is a different reality than is
presented here in the U.S."
Boyd was in Nicaragua and his views
should be heard because so few people
have actually seen what is going on
there. He should be heard in lectures,
printed articles, and any other form of
expression he chooses-unless it in-
'fringes, on someone else's right to do
the same.
Publications must be free to print
what they choose to print without fear
of censorship or having someone
change the context of the
cation after it is distributed.
publi-
Boyd charged that Consider is inef-
fective. He said Consider often prints
two moderate views which are nearly
the same. He said the inserts were
justified because the magazine is inef-
fective.
Whatever the format of Consider, the
magazine must be allowed to publish
without someone changing its content.
Boyd should find more constructive
ways to air his views and share his ex-
periences in Nicaragua.
Boyd has every right to criticize
Consider. Every publication is open
and should be receptive to criticism.
His challenge in which he offers to
write an article evaluating Consider's
effectiveness is an acceptable form of
criticism. Consider Editor Jeff Spinner
said he will probably accept the
challenge and write about the value of
the magazine, and the experience
might be beneficial to Consider. Such
constructive forms of criticism must
be encouraged.
Dissent is valuable. People have
given their lives in places like
Nicaragua and the U.S. to preserve the
right to a dissenting opinion. But it
must be expressed without stifling
someone else's right to free speech.
Two wrongs don't make a right.
T HE STALEMATE between MSA and the
administration over the "Sudarkasa
report" looks like it may finally be over.
Associate vice-president for academic af-
fairs Niara Sudarkasa was commissioned to
write a report on minority recruitment and
retention when she first came to the Univer-
sity last winter. The report was originally
scheduled to be completed in November, yet
she has been claiming for the last three mon-
ths that it was not yet complete.
On Wednesday MSA and the Daily filed
Freedom of Information Act requests to ob-
tain the report. The administration must
respond by Tuesday, February 12.
MSA, as well as the NAACP, The Council of
Minority Concerns, the alumni association,
and the Daily, has been trying to obtain a
copy of the report by claiming that an issue
The Wek
in Review
of the importance of minority recruitment
and retention ought to be discussed in front of
the entire University community.
In addition, Roderick Linzie, MSA's
minority recruitment researcher, claimed
that the report calls for increased funding
from the state for student financial aid. Such
a proposal could affect the entire University
financial aid request and so affect a con-
siderable number of people. Linzie was per-
mitted, along with other MSA officials, to
view the report in Sudarkasa's office and
therefore was unable to master the full con-
tent of the 150 page report.
In the meantime, a lawyer who works with
the NAACP has assured MSA that the
Freedom of Information Act requests must be
honored.
The Week in Review was compiled by
Daily staff writers Karen Klein and Amy
Mindell, and Daily editors Joseph Kraus,
Peter Williams, and Andy Weine.
Top o' the Morning
If you think 9 a.m. is an early time to attend
classes, beware of a proposal afoot in the LSA
administration which will make sleeping off a
hangover much harder.
LSA Associate Dean James Cather on Mon-
day presented a proposal to the LSA faculty to
move the starting time of LSA classes ahead
one half hour. According to Cather, pushing
ahead the starting time of classes would
alleviate the shortage of classrooms and con-
serve energy.
"There's a lot of space you're paying to
heat and light that you don't use," Cather
said. "That is basically just throwing away
money."
Cather also noted that between 8 and 9 a.m.
only 62% of the available class space is used,
while between 9 and 4, there are barely
enough classrooms for the existing classes.
Yet as with many University issues, some
students have something different to say on
the matter. They complain that eight a.m.
classes are just too early, especially for
students living on North Campus, who would
have to wake as early as seven a.m.
"It's tough to get up when you pull a late
night studying," said George Dendring, a
junior business student who lives in Baits
Housing on North Campus.
Other students were willing to comply with
the change if it would save they money or
open more "good" classes.
Don't worry too soon, though. If approved,
the plan would not go into effect before 1986-
87. There's still time to sleep in.
Dismissed from MSA
The Michigan Student Assembly removed
Minority Affairs chairman Randy McDuffie
last week in connection with his
mismanagement of the International
Cultures Weekend. McDuffie was charged
with misrepresentation of facts surrounding
the event, disobeying a direct executive or-
der, and a lack of professionalism with the
event.
McDuffie apparently claimed to have
secured funds from groups which never
agreed to support the weekend. He rented a
luxury automobile for a speaker, and when
told to return it and use a student's car, ren-
ted a second car. He also did very little adver-
tising for the event.
The vote was 13 to 4 for the removal of Mc-
Duffie from his appointed position. The four
who cast dissenting votes felt that the
discussion held was not fair to McDuffie, and
althugh he was in fact guilty of the charges, it
was not right to try someone in a circus-type
atmosphere.
McDuffie said that the discussion was a
"kangeroo (court) at its best" but he would
not appeal the decision or run for MSA again.
Due to mismanagement the event could
cost MSA up to $8,000. MSA budgeted $1,000 or
less for the event.
Consider insert
Sometimes there is more to consider than
even Consider considers. So claims Andrew
Boyd-alias Capt. John Early. This week, the
non-partisan campus publication contained
more than its usual consideration. In an at-
tempt to give students more to think about,
LSA senior Andrew Boyd stuffed 1000 copies
of an insert he printed into the magazine's
issue on American intervention in Nicaragua.
Boyd lived in Nicaragua for part of last
semester, and felt that Consider's two-opinion
structure was both limiting and biased in
favor of American gain in that country. He
wanted to give students the Nicaraguan
viewpoint to think about.
The reality down there is a different reality
than is presented in the U.S.," Boyd. ex-
plained.
Before Boyd's admission, many students
believed that the Michigan Students Assem-
bly leaders were at fault. At the last MSA
meeting, member Steve Linowes accused
another MSA member, Schnoufer, of printing
up the inserts. Steve Kaplan, MSA vice-
president, said the MSA as a group had
nothing to do with the incident.
Jeff Spinner, Consider's Editor-in-Chief,
explained that his magazine does not attempt
to represent every viewpoint. He accepted
Boyd's concern is a legitimate one, but voiced
anger at his method of presenting his opinion.
"Wasn't there a better way to do it," Spinner
asked.
Boyd challenged Spinner to a Consider
issue on the magazine's value; Spinner said
he would gladly accept the challenge, but he
must first consult his staff.
4
4
°z
Aid troubles
UST WHEN it looks like the state
government is respondng to the
needs of university students, the
federal government casts a shadow of
foom over those students' hopes.
If a proposal submitted to Congress
by President Ronald Reagan is passed,
the more than 460,000 students now
eligible for Guaranteed Student Loans
would be barred from receiving them
in the future. The proposal, which is
part of Reagan's 1986 budget, would
restrict loans to families earning less
than $32,500 a year.
Included in the president's package
is a proposal to put a $4,000 limit on the
amount a single student can receive in
loans and grants in one year. Students
whose families earn more than $25,000
annually would be restricted from Pell
Grants, which provide up to $1,900 a
year.
With the recent threats posed to lower-
middle class families by the economic
situation of the country, cuts in finan-
cial aid funding must not be tolerated.
More than 5 million college and
university students receive federal aid
each year. Guaranteed Student Loans
alone last year amounted to $7 billion
for 3.3 million students.
This constitutes a major investment
by the federal government in
education, an area worthy of invest-
ment which should not be jeopardized
by the administration's shallow at-
tempts to save money. There are other
areas of the federal government which
must be attacked before educational
aid falls beneath the Reagan Ad-
ministration's budgetary axe.
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Letters
Cartoon exemplifies lack of knowledge
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FARM
commuLNrns
To the Daily :
The political cartoon by Bering
in the Hanuary 31 issue of the
Daily depicting an Israeli tank
leaving a destroyed Lebanon in
its dust, exemplifies the lack of
knowledge and editorial ex-
perience the Daily continually
exhibits. This picture is a gross
misrepresentation of facts and is
yet another example of the
Even a basic knowledge of
recent Middle Eastern history
will demonstrate the Daily's
ignorance. In 1975, the PLO aided
by 30,000 Syrian troops entered
Lebanon directly causing a
bloody civil war between Muslim
and Christian factions. In ad-
dition to the tremendous destruc-
tion to Beirut, the war drove ap-
proximately one million
Lebanese from their homes, and
tempted to drive the PLO
terrorists out of Southern
Lebanon. The IDF never waged
an attack on West Bierut but only
on PLO strongholds, while en-
couraging the evacuation of
civilians from these areas.
Once the civilians were freed
from the PLO's hold, the Israeli
government provided more than
two million dollars in relief aid.
In addition, a tremendous
tial losses, or remain only to b
bombarded by anti-Israeli sen-
timents.
The Daily's political cartoon is
just another example of the
media's blatant disregard for the
Israeli position. Where was the
Daily when the PLO caused the
Lebanese civil war, or during the
countless PLO attacks on the in-
nocent civilians? Instead of blin-
dly attacking the Israeli position,
.
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SMALL
'FARMExV
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