The Michigan Daily - Thursday, September 5, 1985 - Page A 5

Col
College changes people. It's suppose
anyway.
For four years we have nearly all
freedoms of being an adult, and nearly r
of the responsibilities. Something is be
to happen. It could be explosive, it coul
subtle, or it could be silly.
Eric
Mattson
AS SOON AS Mom and Dad pull
from the curb, we feel like we're all a
Home just drove off in a Chevrolet, an(
probably won't see it again
Thanksgiving. But soon afterw
something clicks in our minds. A pow
voice surges through our subcons
bearing the message, "Ch
change... become a liberal... be
pithy... lose your virginity... joi
fraternity... "And we can do these th
w.because we are in college.
I asked my mother if she though
changed in college, and she said, "Yoi
little messier." Very funny, Mom.
Sometimes, college makes obno:
people even more obnoxious, because
Strategy t
By Clare Corey
Entering college means facing new
situations, dealing with new respon-
sibilities, and coping with strenuous
demands. Classes, studying, and
taking exams will certainly be tough.
But the most difficult test of all is the
one you won't receive a grade for. It is
learning to live with a roommate. This
involves sharing your life with
another person. Not just your life, but
your room, your closet and all your
bad habits.
Having had the experience of living
in a dorm with a roommate for the
past two years, I have developed
some tried-and-true, guaranteed
ways to insure success for surviving a
roommate.
THE KEY to success is starting
early. You must plan ahead and get a
jump on things. On the day you are
scheduled to move into your dorm, get
there early. Line up in front of the
door, block the sidewalk with at least
fifteen suitcases, boxes, and crates,
<and above all, do not let anyone
ahead. Sleep there overnight if you
'have to.
There is a good reason for doing
this: you want to be the first one in the
room. Success depends on filling the
room with everything you own before
your unsuspecting roommate arrives
and finds she has to send half of her
,belongings home because there is
nowhere to put them. With tension
mounting and tempers flaring, you
arm yourself with your flaming
fuschia carpet, your complete collec-
01tion of Andrews Sisters albums, your
500 posters of Robby Benson, and
head into the starting gate with hun-
dreds of other students - all trying to
get the jump on their roommates.
Once you get into the room, there
are several very important things you
must do right away. Carefully
measure each closet and choose the
one which is larger and has the two

ege: The best
can use the "profound" things they learn in The real educat
college to impress their friends and the bars, the fre
relatives. They can go home and speak with clubs, the librar
authority about Immanuel Kant, the Soviet There's almo
revolution, and the theory of relativity - all up. Suddenly, y
at once. pets, no home -
THESE PEOPLE, unfortunately, don't looks, and you
understand what college is supposed to do. really do you a
The ultimate goal of the struggle to stereo, but yo
matriculate is not merely the rote albums can onl
memorization of data or becoming a mature so long. Then y
adult, but the harmonizing of the physical roommate, eve
body and the intellectual soul into a perfect are. That's whe
whole. In college, you become a more com- A lot of peop
plete person. having known a
AHA! Almost had you there, didn't I? they're surpris
That was one of those deep, meaningless often fundame
statements you'll hear a lot of in college, having differ
especially in English and philosophy realizations usu
classes. "A more complete person," I said. like they do on
What does that mean? Nothing! But I bet 90 they come none
percent of the freshmen reading it thought, THE MAIN F
, "Golly, what a neat place college must be. at all at college
When I graduate, I could be a more com- whether we like
plet peron."DOEN'Tconclusions,m
ple person.LLEG DOESN'T DO anything to our ownmstpeoak
I anybody. It provides a backdrop for what have to get rid
i can be an extraordinarily educational ex- confidence in t
perience. But most of the education here way people thi
doesn't happen in the classrooms, although slowly, if at all.
a lot of teachers have valuable things to say. after 0raduatinl

baby
ion takes place in the dorms,
aternities and sororities, the
ies, and the beds.
st no alternative to growing
ou are alone. No parents, no
- just your personality, your
ir stuff. Your stuff doesn't
ny good, unless you have a
our Journey and Survivor
y provide entertainment for
ou have to get to know your
n if he isn't the same as you
n the education begins.
ple come here without ever
a Jew or a black person, and
ed to discover that people are
entally the same, despite
ent backgrounds. These
ually don't come all at once
"Leave it to Beaver," but
theless.
REASON we learn anything
is because we're on our own,
e it or not. We draw our own
ake our own decisions, make
kes, and make our own beds.
e, this is the last chance they
of old prejudices and gain
themselves. After this, the
ink tends to change more
Sure, they could join a cult
n and change that way, but

-sitting
most people don't do that. They ge
spouse, a house, a dog, and carry o.
suburban way.
Others change politically. Onei
know of came to college as a shy,c
who didn't seem to be very inte
social issues. She spent last C
vacation in jail for trespassin
laboratory during a protest of
research on campus.
Now don't get scared. Not eN
becomes a leftist, collectivist lib
because they come to the Univ
Michigan, but they learn to b
something other than what they
brainwashed into believing.
THAT'S NOT TO say that nob
minds of their own before they
college. But most people are more
find their niche after they're on t
and college - the greatest baby-si
vice ever invented - is one of
places to do it.
Things that were never questione
school are looked at more close
religion. Please! (Just a little joke.
makes you go to church or synagot
you don't believe in it, you don't go.
Politics are another examp
imagine telling your rabidly R
parents that you've joined the Pr
Student Network. Or telling Dad,

0
service
t a job, a one in the county who voted for Walter Mon-
n in some dale, that you've joined the College
Republicans. What fun!
woman I NONE OF THIS MEANS that college is a
quiet girl wondrous, "Hallelujah-I've-seen-the-light'
rested in kind of deal, because there are just as many
hristmas idiots here as anywhere else. There are still
1g in a petty arguments over what kind of music to
military play or how warm the room should be or
whose turn it is to clean the dishes. What
verybody changes is the way you think of yourself, of
eral just your parents, of your friends.
ersity of And on that fateful day in November,
elieve in when it's time to go home for Thanksgiving
've been dinner, it's hard to believe how much your
parents have changed. Over winter
body has vacation, it's even more shocking.
come to Everybody is different. Strict parents seem
likely to stricter, strange friends seem normal, old
heir own, flames seem to have burned out.
tting ser- Usually, though, they haven't changed
the best one iota. You have. Your parents probably
think you're more of a smartass, your frien-
ed in high ds think you're cool, and your old flame
ly. Take thinks you're in your own world.
) Nobody College doesn't change people, but people
gue, so if change in college.

le. Just
epublican
ogressive
_the only


Mattson's column
weekly in the fall.

will

appear bi-

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CUMUL sacsuuwdavai







ips to establish turf



handy hooks left over from last year.
Hurriedly move the refrigerator
(which you rented, and therefore will
contain only your food) onto your
future roommate's dresser to make
room for your stereo on your dresser.
Quickly unpack high school year-
books, photos of yourself and all your
friends, fifteen teddy bears and an
autograph dog onto the three shelves
in the room. This will insure that you
have space for all your belongings,
and better yet, that your roommate
will have to send her things home.
Also be sure to prominently display
your 8 x 10 prom photograph of your-
self and your boyfriend, while making
sure that everyone knows you have-
agreed to see other people while you
are away at college.
As the year progresses, you will
learn other ways to achieve success in
the struggle for survival with a
roommate. You will be sure to
discover that leaving wet clothes, dir-
ty socks and underwear on your
roommate's bed and chair is
especially effective if done when you
are expecting her parents to visit.
They may even consider withdrawing
their formerly neat and organized
daughter from school because of the
bad habits she is developing.
Repeatedly playing the soundtrack
from "Star Trek" on your Fisher
eight-piece component stereo system
with the two gigantic speakers will
endear you to your roommate. You
know the volume is loud enough if the
obnoxiously loud guys who live
beneath you come up and ask that you
turn downyour stereo.
ALWAYS WAKE your roommate up
when you come in late. Turn on the
light and invite your friends in for a
beer. Never mind that it is the same
beer that took your roommate five dif-
ferent stores and three fake ID's to
purchase. You can even call your
roommate from the bar before you

come home if you know she has a test
the next day.
Be sure that your five aunts and
doting grandmother send you
frequent care packages. You can
share the fig bars with your room-
mate since you don't like them
anyway, but great care must be taken
with the chocolate chip cookies. If
your roommate is on a diet, slowly eat
one in front of her while raving
about the fabulous taste.
However, hiding them at the bottom
of your lowest desk drawer under-
neath your folder from freshman
orientation is the best idea overall.
Doubtless during your time spent
with a roommate you will have oc-
casion to invite a young man to your
room. You needn't ask your room-
mate to leave, but make sure that
your romantic date loudly whispers
"sweet nothings" into your ear bet-
ween slobbery kisses. Should you hear
your roommate tossing and turning in
her bed with anger and em-
barrassment, you know success is
achieved.
Should your roommate have her
boyfriend up for the weekend,
graciously volunteer to stay with a
neighbor for the evening. She will
doubtless be shocked at this sudden
outburst of understanding and frien-
dship and will eagerly agree.
However, as the evening wears on,
you realize you have "accidentally"
forgotton your contact lens case and
head back for the room. Of course you
know the door is locked, but you have
your key and "forget" to knock. Your
roommate and her boyfriend will cer-
tainly be surprised by your unexpec-.
ted visit.
With all the pressures and demands
of college life, you may as well make
life with a roommate as painless as
possible. I have given some valuable
advice to aid in this struggle.

4TTORN Y & NRd-
T 44, UA~f
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Clare Cory is an LSA junior.




" T 3 I *7 ***e
* The Michigan Daily in demise


By Charles Thomson
You probably won't read much about this in the Daily
this year. You may not be able to. But if past experience
holds true, the Ann Arbor News and The Detroit Free
Press will very likely bring you the details of the biggest
little story in Ann Arbor this year: the slow, pathetic, and
apparently inexorable Decline of The Michigan Daily.
What you are reading is an endangered species. The
Daily is one of few - and one of the last - student papers
in the country in which every word of copy is controlled by
students acting outside the authority of the official
collegiate bureaucracy. There is no censor telling the
writers not to tell the truth about the latest regental ab-
surdity, no faculty lackey suggesting that certain stories
be handled more delicately. What you get is the truth as
seen through other students' eyes, the low-down as repor-
ted by people who don't owe the University administration
the time of day.
But the indications are that that could all be changing
rapidly. Through a series of perplexing coincidences - or
perhaps something more - the Daily's traditional in-
;dependence is threatened this year more than anytime in
'the recent past.
" University President Harold Shapiro recently violated
a regents bylaw by appointing a new member of the Board
'for Student Publications without first consulting the
student editors of the Daily. The board is a quasi-
independent body which controls the Daily's finances, but
supposedly not its editorial content. The illegally appoin-
ted board member, Fred Currier, fills a pivotal spot on the
board, which in recent months has shown indications of
becoming much more active in regulating the internal af-
fairs of the Daily. Many have seen Shapiro's move as ser-
ving notice that the administration's former hands-off
policy toward the Daily is over.
The bylaw Shapiro flouted, not incidentally, was an
outgrowth of the last battle between the University ad-
ministration and the Daily.
* In June, a majority of the board, led in part by the
illegally appointed member and other Shapiro appointees,
voted to alter radically the way in which the Daily is
distributed, virtually assuring a greater University in-
volvement in the Daily's finances. Despite projections of
' large potential losses, the board decided to convert the
Ah, 4-- -- 444.__ .,.is" ,..rcal Ar inntiin L Qhp. hAn~fyrnmit

" Also this summer, the board decided to change the
publishing schedule of the Daily, citing a desperate need
to cut operating losses. The new schedule calls for the
elimination of weekend publication and the addition of a
paper on Monday. In its decision, the Board unanimously
accepted the imaginative budgets drawn up by the
business staff and rejected the concerns expressed by
every reporter and editor allowed to speak at the meeting.
While the effect on the Daily's chaotic finances will be
relatively small, the effect on the Daily's news coverage
will be profound. Intentionally or unintentionally, the
board effectively eliminated the Daily's ability to report
on regent's meetings and weekend athletics, two areas in
which the University administration has been most em-
barrassed by honest student journalism. Now if the
regents raise tuition or the athletic department eases
enrollment requirements for football players, they will
have the Daily's assurances that it won't be reported until
several days later.
Is this all some sinister conspiracy hatched in Shapiro's
office? Probably not. No one in the administration is
smart or malicious enough to induce the sort of in-
stitutional chaos that has sw:ept through the Daily. But
undeniably, the administration is taking advantage of the
Daily's relative weakness to control what students and the
outside world think of it.
Of course to most current Daily readers, this newspaper
does not exactly come off as the Last Word in collegiate
journalism. Indeed, it might seem strange to suggest that
the Daily can "decline" any further. The stories are rid-
dled with typos, bizarre grammar, and factual inac-
curacies. More often than not, the coverage focuses on
self-indulgent drivel; the staff is miniscule (any group of
five reasonably intelligent freshmen could take the place
over if they all joined at once); and the editors are
somewhat less than courageous.
But for all its troubles, the Daily serves an extremely
important function in the University community, and ser-
ves it in a way few other college papers in the nation are
allowed. Every once in a while the Daily rises above the
drivel and runs a story or a series of stories which shake
the community and actually provoke a little thought. The
Daily has forced regents to resign, fanned the flames of
social unrest, - even embarrassed the sacrosanct Bo
Schembechler.

Minority~
By Roderick Linzie
The Michigan Student Assembly's
action-oriented research project
(MSA-RRG) concerned with the
recruitment, retention, and
graduation of black, Hispanic, Asian,
and Native American students
welcomes all students to the Univer-
sity of Michigan for 1985-86.
There are three main points con-
tained in this article, which will aid
in your understanding or awareness
about the enrollment of under-
represented minority students at the
University.
The objective of the MSA-RRG
project is to participate in, and in-
fluence University discussion, policy,
and initiatives designed to improve
the enrollment and graduation of
minority students. The literature
detailing the variables affecting
minority student enrollment at
ppredominantly-white college
campuses indicates that the Univer-
sity's social and intellectual climate
are key factors in the maintenance of
significant numbers of minority
students. The weight of the evidence
strongly suggests that non-academic
factors are primarily responsible for
high black student attrition. Some of
these factors are alienation, isolation,
campus life, the number and par-
ticipation of minority faculty, staff,
support services, and financial aid.
Much consideration has been given
to the enrollment of black and
Hispanic students by the University.
The Black Action Movement Strike
of 1970 forced the University ad-
ministration to set a 10 percent black
enrollment goal and create support
services for the understanding of ac-
tions which forced the University's
executive officers to provide resour-
ces, improving the chances of
graduation of minority University
students.
The most recent action has been the
recruitment report by Dr. Niara
Sudarkasa, associate vice president
for academic affairs, which recom-
mended increased financial support
and additional changes in the Univer-
sity's recruitment strategy.
These new initiatives do not
highlight the importance of support
services - such as tutoring, coun-
seling, and housing - to minority
student recruitment, retention, and

S V
ittriti on paues 'U',
Freshman Attrition Reduction created by the centralization of sup-
(FAR). This was an effort that port services. Thereby, students
reduced the freshman attrition rate avoid a situation in which support
by 20 percent and improved the four- services are organizationally and
year graduation rate there by 22 per- physically disconnected in a "maze of
cent. Since 1982, over 30 colleges and goodwill." Support units centrally
universities across the country have administered, directed, and held ac-
adopted Project FAR. countable for positive results can bet-
At Delaware State, the feeling of ter complement each other and
caring was successfully transmitted assure that recurring individual
through the centralized support ser- student needs are met.
vices of Project FAR. Its three-part Could Project FAR succeed at the
plan of attack focuses on freshmen University of Michigan? Certain in-
because these students are the most stitutional changes would need to oc-
likely to drop out. cur before Project FAR could be im-
The three parts are as follows: plemented here. First, Project FAR is
*The Preventative Component is a a personalized program. The Univer-
first-term non-academic, freshman sity of Michigan would have to
orientation class. Through role become a more personalized in-
playing and group interaction, in- stitution.
structors attempt to assist students in But there is a greater obstacle to the
recognizing the connection between implementation of Project FAR on
personal identity, scholastic success, this campus in the administration.
and career options; The present administration's policy
*The Early Warning Component is a assumes that the pursuit of equity is
test given to all freshman students. less important than the pursuit of ex-
Students scoring in the bottom half of cellence. This notion' not only has to
each entering freshman class are change, but should be dismissed for
considered target students. While all the red herring that it is. The pursuit
students are welcome to use the of excellence and the pursuit of equity
college's support services, target are not mutually exclusive; they
students are monitored for usage of should not be made to seem as if they
these services. These components are. As a first step toward this end,
identify potential dropouts. the present policy should be com-
eThe Rehabilitative Component pletely reprioritized by the Univer-
gives Project FAR its human touch. sity-wide Commission proposed but
This consists of a network of coun- not yet convened by Dr. Billy Frye,
seling, tutoring, outreach, and vice president for academic affairs
residence hall services designed to and provost.
divert the dropout impulse at every One specific task of that Com-
turn, reinforcing student perseveren- mission would be to consider the-
ce. Written contracts between studen- prospects for Project FAR's success
ts and staff of support units are man- at the University of Michigan.
datory. Meticulous records are kept of Discussions should begin under the
student use of support services and direction of Dr. Sudarkasa among the
student progress. Regular meetings different support service units which
are also held between members of all are responsible for enrollment
support units, focusing on each target initiatives. The feasibility of cen-
student's progress. tralization needs to be discussed, and
Centralization is key to the Project FAR could be the basis of
Rehabilitative Component. these discussions.
Moreover, centralization of preven- One cannot understate the positive
tative, identifying, and rehabilitating changes forced by the BAM Strike,
efforts is essential to the overall suc- yet if the administration is going to
cess of Project FAR. move forward with recruitment,
University administrators have retention, and graduation efforts,
suggested the need for centralization. those with authority must think in
Vice President for Student Services concrete, yet broader, structural
Henry Johnson believes that one terms. Long-term results depend on
reason why deficiencies exist in an aggressive centralized approach to
strategies aimed at assisting minority recruitment, retention, and
students is the decentralized nature of graduation in a "humane" environ-