OPINION
Thursday, April 7, 1988
% ePage 4
The Michigan Doily
re Uirtgan 1an
Edited and managed by students at The University of Michigan
Vol. XCVII, No. 127 420 Maynard St.
Ann Arbor. MI 48109
Unsigned editorials represent a majority of the Daily's Editorial Board. All other
r cartoons, signed articles, and letters do not necessarily represent the opinion
0 of the Daily.
End legalized rape
LEGALIZED RAPE IS another term for legal abortion and illegality of rape in
sexual assault committed upon women marriage give women power and
by their husbands. In 22 states, in- ownership over their own bodies,
cluding Michigan, a husband cannot be thereby challenging this Victorian
prosecuted for this act, although one oppression of women.
out of every seven wives in this coun- The right-wing in Michigan has other
try is raped by their spouse. criticisms of the bill. State Senator
Last week the Michigan House of Rudy Nichols (R-Waterford) wants the
Representatives voted 102-0 to remove Michigan law to state that a woman can
t the exemption of rape in marriage from not bring rape charges against her hus-
currently existing state rape statutes. band unless she has a third witness to
The bill is expected to go to the State the crime. He contends that this
Senate, where it may meet some oppo- stipulation is necessary to prevent
sition. women from bringing false charges of
Michigan residents must voice sup- rape into divorce cases. Nichol's
port for the move to end marital rape, provision would make it nearly
primarily because a number of religious impossible for women to bring rape
groups and politicians on the right op- charges against their husbands, and
pose the exemption removal, ostensibly demonstrates that the senator
'A on the grounds that it invades the pr- subscribes to the myth that women too
vacy of married couples. often lie about rape, causing many
Those attacking the illegality of mari- "innocent men" to suffer.
tal rape are many of the same people The real problem with rape in mar-
contending that a woman's right to an riage is exactly the reverse. Only one to
abortion is not a private choice. They two percent of all rape reports are false,
argue that decisions regarding abortion a statistic similar to most other crimes.
should be forcibly regulated by the Furthermore, only two percent of all
government, rapes are even reported because of the
Though support of government inter- trauma of bringing such cases to the
vention in abortion matters but restraint authorities and the courts where men
with marital relations seem contradic- like Senator Nichols could preside on
*t tory, the philosophies have a common the jury.
history. The exemption of rape in mar- Those who believe that we should
riage originated in the 19th century, a revert to the "good old days" of the
time when women in this country could Victorian era and support legalized rape
not vote and had legal rights equal to in marriage and the ownership by men
children. Rape in marriage was accept- of women's bodies. However, those
able because a woman was the property who do not hold this view should write
:" of her husband. Generally, a husband to Senator Lana Pollack in support of
; expected two things from his wife: to the bill, asserting the idea that people in
have children and sleep with him Michigan believe wives are not property-
. whenever he wished. and should have equal protection under
However, in the 20th century, both the law.
S;PLQ presence in U.N. threatened with extinction:
Keep PLO mission open
: OVER the past few months, Congress respect the consensus of the U.N.
has been trying to remove the Palestinian Assembly; the Assembly recently passed
Liberation Organization (PLO) observer a resolution by an overwhelming margin
mission in the United Nations. These condemning U.S. attempts at removing
actions, prompted by the Anti-Terrorist the PLO.
Act passed by Congress last year, are Our congressional representatives in
merely further attempts to strip the Washington should realize that the PLO
Palestinians of what little voice they is an internationally recognized voice of
have, the Palestinian people, and it has the
The Anti-Terrorist Act targets support of the Palestinians. This has
organizations committed to "terror." The been demonstrated time and time again
PLO has not been charged with one by elections and polls run by everyone
count of terrorism within the United from the Israeli authorities to Palestinian
States, yet the State Department has and U.S. magazines.
already closed their information offices Critics of the PLO need to realize the
in Washington and Congress is now PLO is a conglomerate of various
looking to throw out their U.N. offices. Palestinian groups of many political
persuasions, and it cannot be given one
On the other hand, Congress chooses label.
to ignore organizations like the Jewish The United States cannot expect the
Defense League, with 14 counts of ter- conscientious world to buy its
ronsm in the United States according to denunciation and singling out of the
the FBI, and the Ku Klux Klan, with PLO, considering it has supported the
numerous other counts. The focus on presence of tyrranical and fascist
the PLO is a political ploy to make con- regimes, like Somoza's Nicaragua and
gressmembers look good to the pro-Is- Botha's South Africa, in the UN.
rael lobby near election time. The United States is trying to force its
The PLO has a right to be in the U.N. beliefs upon the rest of the world by
because the U.N. General Assembly removing the PLO from the United
voted to give it observer status. The Nations in New York; it is hypocritical
United States must abide by its treaty and unjust and the efforts should be
obligations with the U.N., and it must halted.
Dems hurt by rent issue
RENT STABILIZATION became the result of a bad gamble made by the
central issue of Monday's elections to Democrats. Most of them allowed
Ann Arbor City Council, with Republi- themselves to be identified with the pro-
cans against and Democrats generally in rent control forces and they got burned.
favor. Since rent stabilization was The loss can also be explained by the
soundly repudiated by voters, the heavy spending by the anti-rent control
Democrats were also. group, Citizens for Ann Arbor's Fu-
Proposal C, the rent stabilization ture. They outspent the pro-rent control
ballot initiative, lost by a two to one forces by more than 18-to-1. The voters
margin and city Republicans powered brought out by the landlords' heavy
to a 6-5 majority of seats on city coun- advertising tilted the city council
cil, reversing the Democrats' former 7- balance in favor of the GOP.
4 advantage. But the loss for the Democrats must
The election was marked by a higher also be blamed on the public's concep-
turnout than usual due to the explosive ion and on the media's depiction of the
issue of rent control. The newly mobi- issues of the race. Since there has been
LSA patronizes its students
By Lars Langsrud
Some time ago I read an article in the
about students' writing abilities. Some of
the faculty in the LSA expressed their
concern about the poor quality of the
papers they received. There were several
proposals to changes. The m o s t
significant was to change the writing
requirements and to make the students take
yet another course of English. This was to
my surprise the best they could come up
with, and I find it strange that LSA has
not seen that the whole school system
needs review. The source of the problem is
to be found in the way the University
administers the students, both in and
outside class. The reason-why the Univer-
sity fails to improve the students' writing
skills, is that little attempt is made to
develop analytical thinking and
responsibility among the student. I say
that since the students do not have to
develop a certain sense of responsibility
for themselves, they will not learn how to
think with the necessary perspective. The
idea is that as the students make progress,
they should be left more to themselves.
By increased responsibility the students
will mature to become good writers. A
student must be able to think
independently to write a good paper, and I
think the answer to LSA's problems lie in
realizing this.
Since I have experience from a foreign
university, I happen to know h o w
differently universities can operate. The
university from which I transferred was
also quite large, and it offered a variety of
possibilities. Still there is one major
difference. While students there used their
time as they wanted to, students at
Michigan do not. Since grades are based
Lars Langsrud is a LSA sophomore.
Wasserman.
partly on participation, they have no
choice. Staying away from class one day
might involve missing a quiz. Material
might be passed on concerning the next
two-hour test, leaving "the truant" without
it. Teachers also tend to favor those who
show up, drawing the conclusion that
those who didn't were uninterested. All
this makes the student meet to class
whether he thinks he will benefit from it
or not. This creates a harmful sense of
compulsion, and the student sits with the
feeling that he is forced to study. This
kills whatever interest he might have had
for the class besides the grade, and school
becomes a drudgery..
It seems as if the university doesn't
believe that a student is capable of
learning anything by himself. I.think it is
very important that it is up to the student
to meet to class. If a college student is not
ready to take care of himself, then when
will he be? The essence is that with the
responsibility, the necessary maturity will
develop, and the student's independent
thinking with it. One who does not know
how to take responsibility for his
schoolwork cannot be expected to write
with profound knowledge on a topic
concerning the decline of morals.
I am quite sure studies on different
methods have led the University to believe
that first-year students behave better when
led by the hand. Quizzes and multiple
choice questions come very handy when
teachers want to check if they do what
they are supposed to. But I think it would
be worthwhile to sacrifice some advan-
tages of these methods just to make the
students realize it is their own decision
whether or not to learn. Maybe the results
will not show at first, but he would
gradually be taking on an increasing
responsibility for his work. By leaving
him to his own, he would find pride. in
acquiring knowledge without its being
pushed on him. From my own experience,
I can tell that it gives a good feeling to
study if one has one's own pure interest in
the subject taught. An increased interest in
the courses would lead to better results and
a broader understanding of the ,whole
concepts in the subjects. As it is now,
people tend to focus on memorizing the
material for the tests, leaving whatever
else there might be untouched. That is not
the way to do it in a university.
Several changes are necessary, but the
most ruinous device is the quiz. Nothing
can make a student dislike a class like an
unexpected quiz, and if it were up to me I
would ban them today. The teachers
obviously think a quiz once in a while
will increase the student's interest in a
class, but the result is exactly the
opposite. When teachers give quizzes, they
betray their distrust in the students. And as
long as the students are not treated as
grown-ups, they will not behave as such
either. Give the students the opportunity
to decide when to learn the material, and
teachers will find a different attitude
among them. As another part of my quest
for responsibility, I think the faculty
should put an end to all assigned work,
and leave the students to their fate.
In most of the classes I take, I go
through a couple of two-hour exams "just
to make us catch up." Since the student is
supposed to catch up to the final also,
what is the point with the two-hour tests?
The final should be the only test
throughout the term, and the grade should
be based wholly on this test. This would
eliminate any biased judgement from the
teachers and coming to class would be
voluntary, adding to the students' freedom.
The students would come to class of pure
interest in the subject taught, and it would
put some pressure on the teachers to create
interesting classes.
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LETTERS:
Summer orientation ,only frustration
0
To the Daily:
The sight of those yellow
folders roaming around campus
in organized little groups
brings back mixed feelings
about the student orientation I
went through just one summer
ago. I'm not talking about
Campus Day, but instead the
three day orientation program
geared to give incoming first
year students the chance to
meet people, acquaint them-
selves with the campus, learn
about how to cope with the
pressures of a totally n e w
environment, and pick their
classes for fall.
Each element of the program
was set up well excluding any-
thing to do with picking
classes. The student counselors
were completely ambiguous
about which road to success we
should set foot on; they gave
us the enlightening advice to
take only those classes we were
sure we would enjoy. What a
great idea - however unrealis-
tic it was. I felt that the coun-
selors did very little for the
student except frustrate them
and add to the confusion of
having to CRISP; an event, as
we all know, that needs no el-
ement of frustration or confu-
CorreCtion:
Yesterday's editorial, "The
Panama Connection," should
have said the engineering of
(7! cnnrn 1 NnrTrtr no o&- n t
sion added to it.
More direction in the pro-
gram, and some counselors that
are willing to be honest and
realistic about trying to meet
the needs and questions of the
students would make summer
orientation here fun, informa-
tive, and complete - every-
thing it should be.
-M. Proli
March 29
Self-destruction
fuels race tensions
To the Daily:
The Michigan Student As-
sembly has announced a novel,
if somewhat bizarre, strategy
for improving race relations on
campus: scuttle minority re-
cruitment efforts. MSA's deci-
sion to use student money to
publish newspaper advertise-
ments warning Michigan high
school students that the Uni-
versity is a racist institution is
an astonishingly self-defeating
response to a genuine problem.
For 20 years, University
students and administrators
have been struggling to attract
more Black students to this
campus. Those efforts have
been frustratingly slow to pro-
duce results, but it is no an-
swer to destroy what inroads
have been accomplished.
That is, however, precisely
what MSA's latest folly will
do. It will send a message to
minority high school students
across the state - and to all
students, for that matter - that
they will be unhappy at the
University of Michigan. MSA
no doubt believes that this is a
clever way to get back at its
perceived foes in the adminis-
tration. But, in doing so, it is
betraying the efforts and hopes
norities on campus.
MSA's plan promises to do
deep, possibly irreparable harm
to the University's long-term
efforts to achieve a more equi-
table and representative
population of students. It is the
product of emotionalism and
Police disp
To the Daily:
My anger and disgust toward
the Nazis rallying at the Post
Office on March 19, quickly
extended toward, the Ann Arbor
Police. The Ann Arbor Police
supported the Nazis not only
by allowing them to rally but
by repressing those
demonstrating against the
Nazis. They brutalized and ar-
rested four anti-Nazi protestors.
They smiled as the Nazis
saluted Hitler. They threatened,
knocked over, and beat the
Black, Jewish, Palestinian,
Latino, Asian, and progressive
white community members
frustration. MSA has every
right to be frustrated with the
Uniyersity's recruitment pro-
gram. The answer, however, is
, reform, not self-destruction.
-David Meyer
March 31
lay bigotry
who did not want the racist,
anti-semitic rally to occur.
Though the police smiled as
they aided the Nazis and
smashed the face of a Black
anti-Nazi protestor into the
street, they and the Nazis were
defeated. Despite policeen-
dorsement and protection, the
Nazis were forced to leave
within ten minutes. The police
behavior displayed their racism
and anti-semitism. The strug-
gle against racism, anti-
semitism and other oppression
continues here in Ann Arbor
and throughout the country.
-Brett Stockdill
March 21
Advice back next fall
To the Daily:
The Michigan Student As-
sembly (MSA) has been
this mistake. We are taking
immediate steps to insure that
Advice comes out next fall. We *