OPINION

Page 4

Friday, September 9, 1988

The Michigan Daily

i1


te mbsrt a nerichigan
Edited and managed by students at The Un iversity of Michigan

Ignore the 'U' computer 'kickoff'

\ / i

Vol. IC No.2

420 Maynard St.
Ann Arbor, MI 48109

Unsigned editorial. represent a majority of the Daily's Editorial Board. All other
cartoons, signed articles, and letters do not necessarily represent the opinion
of the Daily.
Protest as a cnminal act

OVER THE SUMMER, the University
administration took- dramatic steps to
reduce student power and freedom of
expression. The University made ar-
rangements for its top two security
officers to be deputized through the
Washtenaw County Sheriff. It also
implemented new rules of conduct to
control student behavior at public
events and protests and curtailed
democratic review of policies govern-
ing the University community.
.Under the previous system, all rules
governing the behavior of students
outside of the classroom were subject
to review and modification by a com-
mittee designated in Regental Bylaw
7.02. The Bylaw stipulated that the
committee would be made up of three
students, three faculty members, and
three administrators. This summer the
University of Michigan Board of Re-
gents - the governing body for the
University - removed the students
and the faculty from this committee by
placing the power to create rules of
conduct in the Office of the President.
In the memorandum "to deal with
disruption of presentations," the Re-
gents adopted the position that calling
in the police to deal with student protest
is detrimental to the University; both
because it is less expedient and because
the University loses control of the
situation. The memo notes that: "if and
when the police are summoned to re-
move disrupters, they may, on some
occasions, use excessive force."
The administration claims to allevi-
ate the risk of excessive force by depu-
tizing two of its own Public Safety of-
ficers. Both expediency and moderate
police behavior rely on the untested as-
sumptions that the University deputies
Will be the first on the scene and are
somehow less prone to abusive be-
havior than the Ann Arbor Police.
It seems unlikely that the two
security officers would be able to
control a demonstration of fifty to a
hundred people. The bottom line is that
for arrests to be made, the Ann Arbor
Police, Washtenaw County Sheriff, or
State Police would be called anyway.
University officers are as likely to
use excessive force as any other police
force. One of the Public Safety officers
- Robert Patrick - recently kicked
University graduate student Harold
Marcuse in the groin at a protest against
How studer
AS FIRST-YEAR STUDENTS settle
into their dormitories and make new
friends, many ponder why the Uni-
versity admitted them. Some students
will mistakenly conclude that they are
here because they are intelligent.
Intelligence is a concept of question-
able value. What once represented
intelligence becomes irrelevant over
time, especially as technological
advancement puts more and more
information and computing power in
the hands of everyone. For instance,
the ability to learn arithmetic
calculations is certainly less essential
now due to the calculator. The smartest
person in the world 30 years ago had
difficulty making the calculations that a
child with a calculator makes in
seconds today.
Then there is the issue of measuring
iptelligence. Tests can measure test-
taking abilities, cultural biases or socio-
economic background, but not neces-
sarily intelligence.
For instance, whatever Intelligence
Quotient (IQ) tests do measure, IQ tests

seem to have little to do with deter-
mining economic success, supposing
one accepts high income as indicator of
success.
Among people with the same family
backgrounds and years of schooling,
those in the top 10 -percent by IQ
scores are only two times more likely
than the hnttnm 10A nerrant of TO

the CIA. Similarly, the director of
Public Safety, Leo Heatly, has
challenged student protestors to assault
him. Since the policy does not prevent
the involvement of the city police ad
involves officers with a proven record
of violence, there must be reasons for
deputization other than those stated.
More ominous is the amount of dis-
cretionary power which Washtenaw
County Sheriff Ronald Schebil will
bestow on the University. The only
constraint on the University's deputies
is the limit of their powers of arrest to
the time when they are on duty and in
uniform. The University has the
ability to define all the powers of the
deputies through their job descriptions.
Although the deputies are charged to
uphold state law, the University can
specify what portions of state law are
to be enforced and when and where
they will be applied.
Unlike the Ann Arbor Police, Uni-
versity Sheriff's deputies would only
be accountable to the Regents and the
county Sheriff. With Ann Arbor city
police, grievances can be redressed
through city hall or citizens' police
review, but with the Regents, who
have eight-year terms, or the Sheriff,
the only recourse is through elections.
The new rules of conduct outlaw an
undefined "undue interference" with a
University event at the discretion of
University security officers. These
limitations on free speech came in
response to disruptions of University
speakers Vice President George Bush
and ex-United Nations Ambassador
Jeane Kirkpatrick. At both events
student protestors carried banners and
shouted slogans to voice disapproval of
Reagan administration policies and the
University for inviting such people.
Conspicuously absent from the entire
proposal are concerns for the protection
of the University community or con-
crete reasons for deputization. Sheriff
Schebil said that the University had
given him no specific reason or justifi-
cation for deputizing the two top Public
Safety officers.
The University has chosen to end
student participation in the governing
process of the community. Deputization
is just a necessary part of the ad-
ministration strategy for a clampdown
on students.
its get here
be better to possess rich parents than to
have a high IQ.
These statistics might mean that some
people of high intelligence are pre-
vented from "succeeding" due to the
current economic structure of society.
Some find this difficult to accept
ideologically because of the widespread
but currently unsupported belief that
intelligence is inherited and social or
environmental factors do not matter.
However, it is now widely known and
accepted that the largest and most
influential study of this issue done by
Cyril Burt was a complete fraud. Burt
believed that heredity explained about
80 percent of the story of intelligence,
implying that one's environment did
not make much difference in terms of
intelligence.
In the book Not in Our Genes, the
authors destroy many ideological pre-
sumptions concerning IQ. They show
that there is a possibility that heredity
accounts for 0 to 50 percent of intelli-
gence, but as of yet there is no hard

evidence of heredity's role. Stephen
Jay Gould, who authored T h e
Mismeasure of Man , reaches similar
conclusions regarding IQ.
When students ask themselves why
they got in to the University of Michi-
gan, they would do well to consider the
overall picture and not just themselves
,ac in in A l,4.a Rl a nip. a a .a ,nAo ..nr

By Bert G. Hornback
Welcome to the University! The func-
tion of a university in a society is to help
young adults learn how to live the best
and fullest lives they can in that society. I
hope the University of Michigan can help
you toward that end.
The society which a university serves is
the human society - and one of the
things it teaches is that humans, as the
most powerful species on this planet, have
a responsibility to all of the other life on
this planet.
Power always involves responsibility.
Unfortunately, technologists often seem to
forget that: you have recently received a
pamphlet from the office of the Vice-
Provost for Information Technology Dou-
glas Van Houweling, which demonstrates
this point quite clearly. Worse even, the
"Computer Kickoff '88 Information
Booklet" argues the opposite of social re-
sponsibility.
Hornback is .a Prof. of English in the
College of Literature, Science, and the
Arts.

Your "Kickoff '88" pamphlet urges you
to buy a personal computer. I'm not sure
why the University of Michigan is en-
gaged in the business of selling comput-
ers, but it is. We didn't try to sell your
predecessors pencil sharpeners in the old
days, or typewriters.
Whatever the source of this outrage
against the idea of a university, it's there:
the Vice-Provost for Information
Technology is urging you with all the
coarseness of a hard-sell confidence person
to buy a personal computer.
"Some professors on campus require
that students use microcomputers to com-
plete assignments," according to Mr. Van
Houweling. If that is true, and you run
into such a requirement, you should call
your family's lawyer, or the Michigan
Consumers Council, or the local Legal
Aid Society. Don't put up with such non-
sense.
The Computer Czar also advises you
that, "regardless of how many Campus
Computer sites are built, they are still
likely to be crowded with people waiting
in queues during the final weeks of each
term." President Duderstadt has spent three

years - and a great deal of taxpayer's and
students' money - building computer ac-
cess sites around campus for those who
want to use computers. The Chief Tech*
nocrat, using the sleaziest of advertising
techniques, says that even if the President
gives you 20,000 computer terminals,
you'll still have to stand in line. If you.
want to get ahead he argues, invest in a
personal computer.
That's perverse, to start with. It contra-
dicts University policy and practice as
well. And either the Personal Computer
Pusher is wrong or President Duderstadt is
wrong - and I'll bet that the President4
isn't wrong!
The perversity of the ploy is that it tell§
you that if you or your parents will invest
a further $1,363 to $4,516 this fall, you
will get ahead of the students who don't
- or can't - so invest. If you have the
money, Mr Van Houweling suggests,
you'll get the prize.
President Duderstadt has argued for three
years that the University has a
responsibility to make its computing sys-
tem available to students. You pay $100 a
term to make that access possible.?
According to the Vice-Provost, the
"access" argument is just a come-on:
which says that President Duderstadt is a
liar, a fraud.
Let me suggest to you that you trust
President Duderstadt, and learn what social
responsibility is while you're at the Uni-
versity of Michigan. If you want to use a
computer, use one of the terminals pro'-
vided by the University. If you don't want
to use a computer, don't use one. The
world has managed quite well - betters
perhaps, on some occasions - without
computers; and there is no evidence that
the use of computers makes for a more
humane or decent world.
If you have an extra $1,363 to $4,516 at
your disposal, let me suggest that you
give it to Oxfam, or UNICEF, or some
other worthy charity. There are lots of
people around the world - and here at.
home, too - who need your excesg
money more than Apple, Zenith, or IBM:
Please ignore the .scurrilous proposals of
Mr. Van Houweling, and instead join a
real university.
And welcome - welcome to the Unil
versity of Michigan!
If you really need a computer and the
lines on campus are too long, you can
come use the one that the University has
provided for my use.

University Public Safety officers contain protestors in the East Engineering Building in February 1984.


,T AIL EU.~4&9MGN
-.

3UT G A 1116US ALLOT %A{W
ORLY Ybug WAMS,



I .. A D - E W RD "Y S " ND " " O 1S ?"Y E " I Y r
ToKE 1MC2C

Women:
By Cheryl Weaver
On reading the article here in the Daily
about the women being attacked outside
the Nectarine and then being badly treated
by the police, I began to think, "I almost
know how this woman feels." You see, I
also had a somewhat similar experience
with the police in May. The biggest dif-
ference in the two instances was that I was
not attacked by another person, but a car
while on my bicycle.
I was riding up the sidewalk on
Washtenaw to work. I saw the car up in
front of me stop well behind the sidewalk
crossing and wait. Cars were coming from
both directions on Washtenaw, so I con-
tinued to go. Just as I was riding in front
of the car, it took off. It of course did not
get far.. My bicycle was laying in front of
the car and I was completely on the other
side; I had gone across the hood. A man
that I believe was University security (he
had a radio with him) was there instantly
holding my head and telling me not to
move since I had a head injury. The police
and ambulance came and I remember the
officer's asking for my name and address
and asking what I had been doing. I told
him that I was riding to work and the
driver had pulled out in front of me. He
said he would take care of my bicycle and I
was taken to the hospital.
At the time, I was a boarder at a frater-
nity and the officer took my bicycle to the
house and told one of the guys that one of
the boarders had been in an accident. On
being asked what the boarders name was,

know your
bicycle and being scarred for life, I would
be able to forget about the accident.
Wrong. The police report had my name
and address on it and absolutely nothing
else about me. The officer had never both-
ered to get my statement so the report said
that the car had made a complete stop and
had made no violations. In the violations
box by my name, there was a 9. I called to
find out what the 9 meant and was told it
was a "catch-all" for violations that did not
fit in any other code. In other words, the
accident was my fault.
I had no idea what to do about every-
thing so when a friend suggested Student
Legal Service I took the police report to '
them. I found out some interesting things
about the police from the lawyer I talked
to. The officer probably did not bother to
get my statement because I had a few
things working against me. I was a stu-
dent, strike one. The police do not like the t
students so in anything involving a stu-
dent,. it must be the student's fault. The
lawyer was surprised that I was not issued
a ticket, which he has seen happen several
times. He has also had to get tickets dis-
missed for U-turns and jaywalking, neither S
of which are illegal in Ann Arbor.
I am a woman, strike two. No one ever
came out and made any comments to this,
effect, but just think about it. Why should
that officer bother with some dingy female
student that just was not watching where
she was going? Then the officer could give
himself an even better excuse by saying
that I had head injury and was irrational. It

gets the same number of "Brownie points'
on his record whether he arrests a rapist o%
writes a speeding ticket. With this are
rangement why should they put in the ex,
tra effort?

r

I know of at least three women that;
were raped and never pressed charges be
cause the police told them they did not,
have enough evidence to make the charges
stick. I wonder just how hard those police
officers worked to find the evidence thaC
would have made a difference. In Ann Ar-
bor, if a woman wants to press charges;
by law the man must be arrested. If you
are a women who has been raped or as-0
saulted, please do not forget this. Do noC
let anything the police or the man mighC
say change your mind. If charges are
pressed, you have time to think and your
know information about the man will be-
on file. An organization like Safe House.
can help you in dealing with any problems!
and can help protect you if the man-
threatens your life since I am sure the pd-
lice will not offer their protection.

We must be aware of the problems that
can arise when dealing with the police and
must not let our rights be further violated
because we are students, women or homo-
sexuals. The police probably think we
students are trying to take over the town,
but we have every right to the same pro-
tection that every other person gets. Many
police still hold the old mythical belief
that the woman is the cause of the assault
as well as other oppressive beliefs about

Ir

A