4 OPINION Page 4 Friday, November 15, 1985 The Michigan Daily U'U defends minority enrollment spurt The University's Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs Niara Sudarkasa this week defended the slight in- creases in minority enrollment at the University this fall. "A small success is better than a small failure," she told a sparse audience at Campus Meet the Press. Sudarkasa said Th Week in Review that small increases in minority enrollment at the Universtiy should be taken in the con- text of declining minority representation in colleges across the country. Although the largest number of black freshmen since 1978 entered the University this fall, black enrollment increased by only 24 students to 5.2 percent, up .1 percent from last year. Hispanic enrollment also rose by 24 students, while American Indian representation grew by 16 students. Asian American students, the only minority group not considered underrepresented by the University, saw the largest increase, clim - bing to 4.5 percent, which is up 168 students from last year. Sudarkasa said the latest increases resulted from "a lot of hard work and was not inconsequential," and credited ad- missions officers with the success. Sudarkasa also defended her stance on the creation of several task forces which would address minority student retention. The Michigan Student Assembly opposes the task forces in favor of a university-wide commission that was recommended by the regents in 1983. One committee could not address all the complex issues involved in retention, Sudarkasa said, adding that a group of task forces would tackle the problem more effec- tively. Although Sudarkasa has offered MSA members places on the task forces, they have turned her down, she said, adding that she will not waste time arguing with students who oppose her and will fill the spots with students willing to work within her system. Actions speak ... While University administrators have been dragging their feet towards the establishment of a rape prevention center, a group of concerned students has coor- dinated a program focussing on rape awareness. Seventeen student facilitators have been holding workshops in dorms and for campus groups, and requests are "pouring in" for more, according to David Lovinger, a senior in the School of. Art and one of the program coordinators. The workshop includes two videos representing two hypothetical scenarios on date and acquaintance rape, the most common form of sexual assault. Meanwhile, the University has not yet selected a director for the proposed rape prevention center and it is anticipated that a choice will not be made until the end of the semester. Tongue test Many LSA students groan about the two- year foreign language requirement, but the chorus of grumblers may grow if the LSA Curriculum Committee's latest idea becomes policy. The committee is considering instituting a proficiency test for those students who en- ter the University having studied a foreign language for four years in high school. At present, such students are exempt from any foreign language requirement and proficiency examinations. According to Jean Carduner, chairman of the Department of Romance Languages, "The fact that you can complete the requirement by taking four years in high school without anybody checking what you have learned isn't fair." Quelle dommage. Buckatitis i ne Game. The Fever. You couldn't see it in Ann Arbor this week, but you could feel it. Scalpers could feel it. Journalists could feel it. It's Buckeye Fever. Buckeye Fever, according to Dr. William Eulbog of the Center for Disease Control in Atlanta, is a combination of disgust and curiosity. Every two years, a few busloads of agriculture students from Columbus Far- ming College migrate north on Route 23 in a quest for intelligent life. They pass through Bowling Green and Toledo, before finally arriving at a sign that says -Welcome to Ann Arbor." And when those busloads of degenerates arrive in Ann Arbor, they touch off the biannual outbreak of Buckeye Fever. People do silly things under the influence of Buckeye Fever. They stand on street cor- ners and sell football tickets at grossly in- flated prices to senior basket-weaving majors wearing overalls and red hats. They watch with amusement as the OSU band director drills his squad on the correct spelling of Ohio. And journalists get so swept up in it that they cast aside the week's hottest issues and devote ever-increasing column inches to descriptions of Buckeye Fever. When asked about a cure for this amusing disease, Dr. Eulbog said the antidote had been developed by an Ann Arbor researcher named Schembechler. "Just beat the hell out of them as usual," Eulbog said. It sounds so simple. Even a Buckeye could figure it out. The Week in Review was compiled by Daily editors Neil Chase and Jody Becker and staff writer Christy Riedel. I Edited and managed by students at The University of Michigan Improving MSA's efficiency Vol. XCVI, No. 52 420 Maynard St. Ann Arbor, MI 48109 Editorials represent a majority opinion of the Daily's Editorial Board LSA- While it is a disturbingly small number of students who even know of the Michigan Student Assem- bly's existence, even fewer seem to know about LSA Student Gover- nment. LSA-SG is the government of the college of LSA. MSA is the full campus governing body composed of representatives from LSA, Engineering, Business, Art and all of the other colleges in the Univer- sity. Most of those colleges also have individual school governmen- What? ts. LSA-SG operates on a much smaller budget than MSA-it collects 50 cents from each student in LSA while MSA collects over $5 from each student at the Univer- sity - but it nevertheless has significant financial resources. There are 46 students running for the 17 LSA-SG positions. Those candidates are aligned with either the Action, Said, Cause or Students for a Democratic School (SDS) parties. By Bruce Belcher The Michigan Student Assembly exists to improve the quality of life and education for University students and to involve students in decisions which affect their quality of life and education. Yet MSA cannot be effective in working for students if it does not operate efficiently. A student government does not have any inherent power, it is merely a lob- bying group for students. Whatever power the student government has exists because it has the support of students. To exercise that power, the student government also needs to communicate with students to determine what students want. MSA has recently started an outreach program with the above thoughts in mind. There are structural problems within MSA which prevent MSA from becoming as effective as it should be. To solve these structural problems, MSA has proposed changes in the MSA Constitution. All students will be asked to vote on the proposed changes on Monday, November 18, and Tuesday, November 19. The purpose of this article is to explain and justify the proposed changes. MSA's most glaring structural problem is a lack of continuity. Each year about 90 percent of the representatives are new. It takes several months for the new members to learn about MSA. In the meantime, MSA is not able to accomplish very much, especially in committees. The committees tend to be ineffective because most or all of the committee members are new to MSA. The discontinuity problem is intensified by a poor committee structure. Committees have been added to MSA each year without any consideration of how they fit into the overall structure. No major distinction is made among the different types of commit- tees. Another problem exists within each of Belcher is a Rackham Graduate School representative to MSA. the committees. The committee chairper- son is usually new to both the committee and to MSA. It is difficult enough for the chairperson to learn about the committee without teaching the other committee members as well. The usual result is that the committee chairperson makes most of the decisions. The chairperson usually becomes overworked while the other com- mittee members have difficulty fitting in. MSA thus does not use the human resources it has effectively because of structural problems. However, MSA has no long range planning program so it reacts to problems rather than acting to prevent the problems from occurring. The proposed amendments to the MSA Constitution address these and other problems. The problem of lack of continuity is being met by the introduction of staggered terms. One half of the Assembly would be elected in the fall term and the other half in the winter term. Each group would serve a one year term so their terms would overlap. The advantage of this is that there would never be acomplete turnover of membership. At least one half of the Assembly would always be around to train the new members so that there would not be a long start-up period after each election. The cost of elections will be reduced with staggered terms. The main reason for this is that the members of MSA whose seats are not up for re-election, will be required to help run the election. Costs will also be reduced by running the elections jointly with LSA Student Government in the fall and Rackham Student Government in the winter. The committee structure will be reorganized. Committees will be arranged in three types: internal committees, con- cerned with internal MSA matters, com- missions which are issue oriented, and select committees which are created to work on particular projects. The Rules and Elections Committee is an example of an in- ternal committee; the Student Rights Committee, which is concerned with the proposed code of non-academic conduct, is an example of a commission; and an ad'hoc committee created to produce Festifall would be an example of a select committee. The membership of internal committees will be limited. The membership of com- missions and select committees will be unlimited so that non-MSA students can become involved with student issues which concern them. Changes within committees have also been proposed. Each committee will have a vice-chairperson as well as a chairperson to reduce the hierarchy which exists on most committees. We have considered ways that MSA can use its resources more effectively, and it would of course be helpful if MSA had more resources. Therefore, an increase in size of 25 percent has also been proposed. This will enable MSA to staff its committees more fully as well as increasing direct contact with constituents. Lastly, the proposed amendment con- siders the problem of long range planning. The MSA Steering Committee, which is ' composed of the executive officers and the chairs of each internal committee and each commission, will be charged with long range planning. Long range planning will also be more likely if the Assembly and the committees are made more effective by the changes suggested above. The changes being proposed for MSA are major ones, but it is necessary to make these changes so that MSA can become ef- fective. In order to show its committment to student interests, MSA is also asking students to vote on two referenda. One asks whether students support a $100 computer fee and the other asks whether students should have a formal role in determining the University's computer policy. MSA has taken a stand against the computer fee, and we want to see if we have the support of students on this issue. Say it again HE VOICE of experience would T reason that the logical choice for president in Monday and Tuesday's LSA-SG elections is in- cumbent president Michelle Tear, who heads up the SAID party. Tear is running on her record :from last year, and while that ,record may be a bit spotty, she remains the strongest candidate in the field. Tear's reelection bid is being op- posed by Steve Herz of the Action party and Keith Titen of the CAUSE party. While both of the challengers have presented some interesting ideas for increasing the effectiveness of the student gover- nment, such as establishing TA English proficiency standards and publishing the LSA Journal more regularly, neither of the candidates has the degree of familiarity with LSA administrators that Tear has. Unfortunately, the single greatest consumer of time and energy in a student government is the task of learning the intricacies of the University administration. While Herz gained some familiarity with LSA bureaucracy as a Daily reporter last year, he is not as familiar as Tear with the ann - 1.. nfl ml .nn a.. .-1. -- n nr such a position because the Com- mittee deals with tenure issues. As a compromise, Tear has been working to get a guarantee from Steiner that students will be guaranteed a spot on any policy- making committee not dealing with tenure. Although Tear headed up the drive that forced Steiner to take a stand on the Executive Committee, it doesn't seem that she has been able to make much progress since then. On the other hand, both Herz and Titen argue that the more students can be involved in LSA-SG the more effective it will be. They are right, to an extent, that increased involvement results in increased credibility with the administration, but not even additional student weight can compensate for a lack of intimate knowledge of the bureaucracy. Herz and Titen's point is well taken, however, and no matter who wins the election, he or she should consider making LSA-SG more visible. The opportunity to have a student government president run for a - L._ . - _ _2 - LETTERS: Take Romper Room' off To the Daily: Whatever happened to the movement to defund MSA? After reading the latest issue of the MSA Campus Report, any reservations I had about the idea were dispelled. One would think that after being the target of severe criticism for the past month, MSA would attempt a low-key profile for at least a mon- th. Not so. Just the title "America the Ugly" was offensive, not to mention the article. The Michigan Student Assem- bly did not even report on any of the issues it should be covering. Remember campus security? That issue should be paramount, not SDI or apartheid. On what issues did MSA actually report? The SDI conference, apartheid, divestment, and a rebirth of paisley. Very impressive. Racism alarms Asian community the air Allow me to set the record straight. I elect a federal gover- nment to take care of the nation and foreign policy. I elect a state government to run the Great State of Michigan. And finally, I elected (which I have come to regret more and more with each passing day) the Michigan Student Assembly.hMSA constan- tly oversteps its bounds. When this group steals my five dollars every semester, I can only expect it to give a little attention to issues that directly affect me as a student. I cringe when I see the funds squandered on the kinds of indulgences in which MSA has been floundering. I firmly believe that MSA should be defunded, allowing this session of Romper Room to finally end. -Steve Childs November 4 hsr Rence Rreahiad A To the Daily: On Tuesday, October 29, a member of the University's Asian American Association was a vic- tim of blatant racism. When he went to study in his assigned (and locked) carrel in the Graduate Library, he noticed that his Chinese-English dictionaries were missing. Looking around the carrel, he found written on the wall above the desk, "You Die Chinaman!" He then went down- stairs to report the theft and the racist threat. The dictionaries were found in the library's Lost & Vincent Chin in Detroit in 1982. We do not expect the guilty party to come forward, as racists are usually cowards as well. We do, however, intend to continue to bring these incidents to light, as they are not merely isolated cases. As the University is currently patting itself on the back for increased minority enrollment, the administration and the student body alike should realize that the stain of racism continues to leave its mark on our campus. Furthermore, we hope R L(VbM "CO UNJTY that 'American"a society will finally realize that we too are Americans, as the term "American" is not a matter of skin color but simply one of citizenship, a status we achieved generations ago. -Theresa iHlaing Linda Wan Scott Wong Paul Kim This letter was cosigned by fifteen members of the Asian American Association.