OPINION Page 4 Tuesday, January 30, 1990 The Michigan Daily Education 1S a right, not a privilege By the United Coalition Against Racism In 1989, a mere 594 Black students from around the country applied to the University of Michigan College of Litera- ture Science and Arts. 404 of those stu- dents were accepted to the University; ap- proximately 315 of the those accepted en- rolled in September. 325 Black incoming students out of a class of approximately 4500 students is about 7 percent. These numbers falls dismally short of the 1987 University comittment to strive toward 13 percent Black enrollment and are unreflec- tive of the so highly publicized promise of the Michigan Mandate. The Mandate pur- ports to want to make Michigan accessible to people of color and it promises to "strive to achieve permanent and funda- mental change." "By 2020 30 percent ( of the college age population) will be composed of Blacks and Hispanics...students who have not traditionally had the opportunity or encouragement to pursue these knowlegde- intensive careers ...We must make special efforts to expand particip[ation] by these groups ...not just because that is good so- cial policy, but because we cannot afford to waste their talents." (Duderstadt Michigan Mandate) But just as we under- stand how the Reagan and Bush adminis-. trations "declared war on" the drug prob- lem without taking responsibility for per- petuating it and designed solutions which punish the victims of the problem, we must recognize the University's rhetoric as serving a similar purpose. On the surface, change is being made at the University, but the fundamental change the Mandate calls for is yet to hap- pen. Meanwhile, the talents of Black and Latino youth erg going to waste, as they don't even bother to apply to a place like Michigan because they have never been made to believe that it is an option for them.While the University waves the ban- ner of multiculturalism, the foundations upon which this racist and elitist Univer- sity stand remain unchecked and unchal- lenged. Exclusionary admissions and re- cruitment continue to define the student body. The University admits to no exact numbers required for admission for major- ity or minority students except that the bottom line is comparable to NCAA stan- dards. Admissions requirements, they ad- mit, are subjective, but this they argue is to the advantage of minority students who can show promise in areas other than the SAT and g.p.a. However, the bottom line of admissions is based primarily upon per- formance in those two areas. Despite nu- merous studies that have shown the oppo- judged by the percentage of students which go on to college. Thus the SAT is playing a significant if not entirely determinant role in admissions, however indirect this role may be.If a student comes from an academically weak school, he or she is also disadvantaged on the SAT and there- fore it would be highly unlikely for that student to do particularly well on the SAT without preparation (coaching) which they most likely cannot afford. In addition, the percentage of students from a particular high school who go on to attend college can be based on many factors other than the quality of education in the school. For example, schools in poor areas are attended by students from poor families who most likely cannot afford to attend college. Hand and hand with exclusionary admis- sions is exclusionary recruitment. The fact that only 594 Black students applied to the University suggests that the University cosmetic changes. It will require revolu- tionary changes in the attitudes, policies and practices of the University undergradu- ate admissions. If fundamental change is to be made, as the Mandate suggests, it will require the leadership of students to "bring the University kickin' and screamin' into the the 21st century. UCAR it attempting to provide some of this leadership through our High School Outreach Project. This project sends col- lege students of color into Ann Arbor, Ypsilanti, and Detroit area high schools to reach out to our youngers brothers and sis- ters. We take University applications and information about other colleges and at- tempt to motivate students of color to ap- ply. Our hope is to reach out to the stu- dents of color from disadvantaged back- grounds that the University has over- looked. We offer to help students in filling out their application and financial aid forms, and the Office of Minority Affairs has agreed to help with application fees. The short term goal of this project is to increase the number of students of color who apply to the University, and to force this school to be more accessible. The long term goal of this project is to set up a model of recruitment that reaches across class and racial barriers to create opportu- nities for students of color. UCAR and other student of color groups are meeting this week with admin- istrators to determine the level of progress the University has made to increase stu- dent of color enrollment, financial aid and retention. Students who are interested in participat- ing in the High School Outreach Project should contact the UCAR office, Room 2 East Engineering building, 936-1809. 0 'The bottom line is that change in the makeup of the University of Michigan student body is going to require more than cosmetic changes. It will require revolutionary changes in the attitudes, policies and 0 practices of the University sions.' undergraduate admis- site, Michigan operates on the belief that the SAT can be an advantage for minority students allowing them to show special "potential." The University recruits minority stu- dents from many metropolitan Detroit area schools, many of which have a reputation for "low quality" education. The g.p.a. of students from these schools is therefore suspect and must be qualified by other cre- dentials such as high SAT or selection of and success in advanced placement (AP) courses. In addition these schools are has been successful not only in limiting the number of Black students who are ac- cepted, but also in limiting the number who apply. Despite the University's claims of rigorous recruitment throughout the Southeast Detroit area, students, fac- ulty and counselors at many Detroit area schools expressed disappointment and frus- tration with University of Michigan's lack of interest in their students. The bottom line is that change in the makeup of the University of Michigan student body is going to require more than Edited and managed by students at The University of Michigan 420 Maynard St. Vol. C, No.82 Ann Arbor, MI 48109 Unsigned editorials 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. In bed with the Regents Marx is dead, Marxism isn't k m - AS IF the confused, discredited, and finally invalidated MSA elections last fall weren't bad enough, MSA Presi- ,dent Aaron Williams and Conservative r Coalition campaign manager Jeff John- son have taken MSA's problems to the Board of Regents and President Dud- erstadt. The Conservative Coalition was naturally dismayed that the bungled elections' results were invalidated, be- -cause the invalid tally (never recounted) .-.*"showed a victory for most of their candidates. When the Central Student Judiciary (CSJ) invalidated the elec- tions which MSA fouled up, we now find, Conservative Coalition leaders ran crying to the administration. Whether or not regent Deane Baker or President Duderstadt had any inten- tion of taking advantage of the student government's state of disarray, John- son and Williams handed them a chance to intervene on a silver platter. Regent Baker introduced a resolution to "look into" the elections, which was withdrawn after Duderstadt announced an independent administration investi- gation. Williams had first asked Duderstadt to simply overrule CSJ's decision, di- rectly granting the Coalition its victory. 4Though apparently not concerned about the legitimacy or morality of such a move, Williams and Duderstadt were forced to back down from this course of action after it became clear that the move could not be justified under the Michigan Student Compiled Code. An "informal" investigation was agreed to, in open disregard for the validity of the student judicial process represented by CSJ. Why do the students need an investi- gation by the administration? The re- gents and the president have a dismal track record of involvement in the af- fairs of student government which shows no sign of improving. They should not be trusted to act in the best interests of student government - certainly not without the consent of MSA or the students. True to form, Williams took it upon himself, as did Johnson, to get in bed with the admin- istration and the Regents. The move may be representative of an ominous trend on the part of the Conservative Coalition. In the past, political parties have rarely run for more than one year. This year the Coalition ran on the same platform as last year, building an institutionalized organization about which students should be uneasy. If one aspect of the path to institutionalization is developing a cozy relationship with Duderstadt and the Regents, then the trend is certainly an unwelcome one. This pattern of behavior by the lead- ers of the Conservative Coalition con- tradicts one of the chief roles of MSA: agitation for the rights of students, which typically means action against the administration and the Regents. MSA must be able to take an uncom- promising stand against the administra- tion on such issues as tuition increases, student of color enrollment, the code of non-academic conduct, housing rules and many others. If the Conservative Coalition persists on its present course, student govern- ment on this campus will face an even greater decline of power and legiti- macy. By Jim Poniewozik A few years ago, when home video games were still in the fetal stages before Nintendo, a software outfit came out with a Space Invaders clone game, the exact name of which escapes me, but which had to do with "communists from Mars." The designers of the game were proba- bly - I hope - laughing up their sleeves at the paranoiac satire of the name. The sad fact is, however, that, to most Ameri- cans, communists might just as well be Martians. In spite of the fact that we've been trained to view it as Uncle Sam's greatest antagonist of the 20th century, most of us are damned if we know what communism actually is. Most likely, we think of it as some vague, shadowy nasty, an agglomerate of everything bad. Communism is every- thing we - the ideal we - are not. If we're gentle, it's cruel. If we love free- dom, it despises it. If we are trim and healthy and go to the beach, it is fat and grey and wears a fur hat all year round. Well, apparently, the movers and shak- ers in the country's media attended the same mediocre high school civics classes we did. At least, that what is implied by headlines proclaiming "the death of com- munism." Our media has somehow become con- vinced that, in the past year, when Eastern Europeans were demonstrating for and achieving the return of personal liberties and self-determination, what they were ac- tually doing was killing communism. Re- porters and pundits treat it as a given that socialism and communism have been deci- sively rejected by Europeans, never to re- turn again. None of them bother to raise the question: Did Eastern Europe really kill communism? Well, did it? Let's define our terms for a minute. First, "death." To stay in context, let's consider deposed Romanian leader Nicolae Ceausescu. Along with his wife, Ceaus- escu was shot by bullets fired from guns. These bullets pierced his flesh and vital organs, disrupting his system to the point that it was no longer able to function. He ceased breathing and his heart came to a standstill. In other words, Nicolae Ceausescu is Now, "communism." I'm going to give you a ridiculously oversimplified def- inition because any real detail would take far more room than I have. In essence, communism is an economic system which advocates the abolition of classes and the collectivization of means of production. Beyond that, communism becomes harder to define, because it is a general concept with many theorists, like capital- ism or Christianity. There are many points of view on how a communist state should be established and organized, and it is possible to reject any of them and still be a communist. Though Lenin's theories on communist government have had the greatest number of adherents, they are not inseparable from communism. So, for example, even though most communist governments in history have maintained power by limiting civic free- doms (notably, communist governments have been democratically elected in Italy), there is nothing inherent in communism's nature that says a communist government cannot have free elections or free expres- sion. The upshot of all this is that when cit- izens toppled the governments of East Germany, Romania, and so forth, they toppled communist governments, not But communists and socialists will still have the same ability to be politically active there as capitalists. Many of the pro-democracy leaders, after all, are, con- trary to the media's picture, communists and socialists, but ones who want their countrymen to choose them freely. In other words, communists and socialists are still able to be active in Eastern Europe. Nicolae Ceausescu, on the other hand, is not likely to be active anywhere. As you'll recall, this is because he is dead. But to say that communism died because people overthrew dictators is like saying the Republican Party died in the '30s and '40s when the Democrats monopolized Congress and the White House. Still, this probably sounds like nit- picking. After all, if socialism in Eastern Europe isn't dead, it's at least rather ill. If the media hypes it up a little, isn't that just a matter of semantics? Well, no. Firstly, it's simply sloppy, simplistic reporting. The USA Today- style tendency to turn complex issues into catch phrases makes for a stupid public that can't make sense of the world in the long run. Secondly, it's manipulative. By equat- ing the push for democracy with the abso- lute rejection of communism, the media supports a fallacy pushed on Americans almost from birth: that communism is ab- solutely and unalterably equal to dictator- ship and evil, and that to oppose the latter, you must oppose the former. the media supports a fallacy pushed on Americans almost from birth: that communism is absolutely and unalterably equal to dictatorship and evil, and that to * oppose the latter, you must oppose the former.' communism itself. They overthrew gov- ernments which deprived them of freedom in the hopes of establishing ones that would allow freedom. The governments they have established since then have been largely non-commu- nist, and it is very likely that after future elections, communists and socialists in these countries will have a smaller role in their government, if any role at all. Communism may be bad or good. But in any case, in a democracy, it has as much right to exist as any other idea. And the people of that democracy have the right to evaluate it for themselves, using information not slanted to force them to choose one side or another. This right, I believe, has something to* do with this "freedom" thing they've dis- covered in Eastern Europe. mbing a So don't recycle anything, trees. students. Use up all there is !They and waste all you can. Don't ground- let people tell you thiere will be* ith used nothing left -- we will live in "'7> l f, C f ., : JJJ.: J. N: ". :. JJJ:: "'. V:."."JNJ""" JJJ.".": J:"YJJYJ""y J.:::.J:r"":J:: ::"rJ :" Xr"r J : :v?}:" :":J J:: vv: : w r f v J JJ J J{{ !. 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