MSA
candidates
debate issues

The Michigan Daily - Monday, April 2, 1990 - Page 3
Student policy
committee may
withhold input

6y Sarah Schweitzer
Michigan Student Assembly
residential candidates debated some
of the controversial issues facing the
student body last night at the
Union's Kuenzel room before an au-
dience of about 50.
1 In the two hour debate, presiden-
tial candidates Jennifer Van Valey,
Bobby Hirshfield, Aaron'Williams
4nd Alexander Isaac confronted cam-
pus issues such as a Student Group
Pill of Rights, a mandatory class on
racism, protection of the Greek sys-
tem and the implementation of a dis-
criminatory harassment policy.
Despite the controversial nature
pf the issues, the four candidates
concurred on many of the topics dis-
cussed.
On the Student Group Bill of
Rights issue, all the candidates ex-
cept Williams agreed the measure
was unnecessary and redundant. Van
Valey stated the measure would
-"invite student groups to discrimi-
nate" because MSA would be forced
1o support any racist, homophobic
or sexist group which asked for
recognition.
Williams said he supports the
measure because he feels that as
many groups as possible should be
recognized.

Isaac,Williams and Hirshfield
agreed that a mandatory class on
racism would be counterproductive
because the mandatory nature of the
class would bring negative reaction
to it.
Hirshfield said "the beauty of
college is being able to choose
classes" and a mandatory class would
only "induce sleep and blowing off
of class." He stressed that the high
school nature of having a mandatory
class would cause students to lose
interest in the subject.
Van Valey was the only one of
the four candidates to support a
mandatory racism class. She cited
the fact that students "need to be ed-
ucated on the differences and same-
ness of people."
Jennifer Van Valey represented
the Action Party, Bobby Hirshfield
the Student Action Party, Aaron
Williams the Conservative Coali-
tion, and Alexander Isaac the Student
Activities Party.
The candidates will compete for
the position of president in MSA
elections on April 4 and 5.

by Noelle Vance
Daily Administration Reporter
After struggling for six months
to write a student model of an anti-
discrimination and harassment pol-
icy, the student advisory committee
to University President James Dud-
erstadt may not make any recom-
mendations.
"I do believe we need something
to deal with this kind of problem...
but the University should address
these problems in concrete ways. A
policy is not a cure all," said Jen-
nifer Van Valey, LSA sophomore
and chair of the committee.
The 12-member student commit-
tee appointed by Duderstadt is one
of three committees charged last
November with reviewing and revis-
ing the interim policy for student
against student harassment and dis-
crimination.
The committee has completed a
revised version of the policy, but
members of the committee ques-
tioned Friday whether giving the
recommendations to the president
was a good idea. They expressed
concern that no guarantees had been
given that the recommendations
would be seriously considered before
the final version of the policy is
written.
If the committee does give the
administration its recommendations,
the administration will be able to
say it had student input on any ha-
rassment policy that is implemented
- even if none of the recommenda-
tions are taken into account, said
LSA senior Michael Schechter, pres-
ident of the campus chapter of the
American Civil Liberties Union.
"Every time they say 'we have
input,' and people hear they' ve got
student input. As far as publicity
goes it's a losing battle," he said..
Members of the committee said
they feared the policy would grant
too much power to the administra-
tion.
"They want to say they're doing
something about discrimination, but

they want to be in total control...
given the recent things the adminis-
tration has doie, they're not very
sincere," said Kofi Boone, a Natural
Resources sophomore.
Boone referred to Duderstadt's re-
cent announcement of a policy that
would regulate use of campus space
as an example of the University's
insincerity. Boone believes it could
encroach upon students' First
Amendment rights.
Schechter said there were merits
to having a harassment policy, but
he was afraid the policy would give
the administration a "code-like
power."
He said the policy was in some
ways similar to a code of non-aca-
demic conduct which, would allow
the University to punish student for
criminal and off-campus behavior:
The harassment policy would permit
the University to punish students for
harassing or discriminatory speech or
action within the campus commu-
nity. However, if a student thought
he or she was harassed by another
student off-campus, it could possibly
fall under the policy.
"We can't keep separating this
policy from everything else," Van
Valey said. "There's a difference be-
tween a law of the University and
civil law. (The University) is ac-
countable to themselves and only
themselves," she said.
The interim harassment policy
provides for a hearing panel of four
students and one faculty member to
hear complaints of harassment on a
case-by-case basis and to levy sanc-
tions.
"I don't want to say we're against
a code and throw all of this away,"
said Ben Feng. "We might look at
the lack of a code as going back to
the same old thing." But he added the
committee should not leave any;
doors open for accepting a policy
that does not include recommenda-
tions.

41

Grieving relative j"r A 1
A Honduran woman, crying over a relative's casket, is comforted by a Red
Cross worker in San Pedro Sula, Honduras. The bodies of about 48 victims
of New York's "Happy Land" social club fire arrived back in their native
land to be claimed by their relatives.

'Students don't find good reasons to vote

by Christine Kloostra
Daily Government Reporter
The vote is in.
Students are aware of this week's
Ann Arbor City Council and Michi-
gan Student Assembly (MSA) elec-
tions, but many of them just don't
care.
"I don't pay much attention to it.
know the people around me don't
either," said Craig Foster, an art se-
nior.
Students cited several reasons for
not planning to vote in today's city
election. "I'm just never around,"
said Jeremy Buckingham, an engi-
neering sophomore.
Being registered at home or not
being registered at all are additional
reasons students do not plan to par-
ticipate in the election. "I just
haven't taken the time to do it," said
Julie Montes, a first-year LSA stu-
dent.
Whether they vote or not, stu-
dents are aware of some of the main
issues on today's ballot. "It depends
on the issue. If it's the pot law
they're (students) not apathetic, but

if it's MSA they are," said Tim
Lasher, a LSA junior.
Proposal B, the "pot law" Lasher
was referring to, would increase the
fine for possession of marijuana
from $5 to $25 for a first offense. In
1974, 41 percent of registered Ann
Arbor voters went to the polls and
returned the $5 law to the city char-
ter after it was removed by the city
council in 1973. Fifty percent of the
registered voters between the ages of
18 and 20 cast ballots in the '74
election.
However, in last April's city
council election only 20.6 percent of
the registered voters, and 6.7 percent
of the registered 18 to 20 year-olds,
turned out to cast their ballots.
According to Ann Arbor voting
records, the number of registered
voters between the ages of 18 and 20
has declined from 7,322 in April,
1989 to 5,618 in March,1990.
Within the same time period, the to-
tal number of registered voters has
dropped from 84,839 to 76, 579.
The redistricting - drawing

boundaries for the wards - of the
city has decreased student impact in
the city elections. Current ward
boundaries divide the student popula-
tion into five separate wards, elimi-
nating the possibility of students
casting a majority of the votes in
any one ward.
Low turnout is also reflected in
the MSA elections. On the average,
only 8 to 11 percent of students cast
ballots for their student representa-
tives. The highest turnout in the
past eight years occurred in 1987
when 19.5 percent of the students
voted. Election Director Zach Kittrie
has no estimate of the number of
students who will vote in the elec-
tions on Wednesday and Thursday.
Despite the low turnout, some of
the individual schools are often well
represented. "In general, engineering
students have a higher turnout than;
LSA," Kittrie said. He also noted
that Rackham students have the
highest turnout and estimated that1
450 to 550 will vote this week.
MSA's election committee has

made several efforts to increase stu-
dent voting in this week's elections,
including adding more polling sites.
There will be 28 polling sites, the
most ever provided.
Still another reason many stu-
dents fail to vote is because they feel
that the elected representatives will
have no effect on them. "It just
doesn't seem that if you're going to
elect someone, it's going to do any
good," Buckingham said.
Heidi Betz, a LSA junior, said,
"Students don't familiarize them-
selves with the issues. They feel that
the elections have no effect on
them."
Kittrie said MSA recognizes this
problem, and the election committee
is trying to solve it. "We've looked
at the problem, and we're trying to
make it worth the students' while to
vote. We want to send a message
that we're important enough to...
spend two minutes a semester on
us."


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