Page 4 - The Michigan Daily - Thursday, April 12, 1990
(71e I:IridigandalQ
EDITED AND MANAGED BY STUDENTS
AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
420 Maynard Street
Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109
ARTS 763 0379 PHOTO 764 0552
NEWS 764 0552 SPORTS 747 3336
OPINION 747 2814 WEEKEND 747 4630
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.
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A big mess
Students, 'U' can't ignore the environment
ONE OF THE BENEFITS OF ATTENDING A
university as large and as prestigious as
the University of Michigan is the presence
of a vocal and diverse student body. One of
the best ways to express differing mes-
sages is through advertising points of
view - through posters, chalk on the
sidewalks and in classrooms, or a number
of other ways. While the messages are
important, their means of deliverance
causes unnecessary waste on campus.
With the country's reawakening of
concern for the environment - especially
in light of Earth Day - the University
community should be more sensitive to
our surroundings. The waste caused by
posting flyers around campus is tremen-
dous; the University spends $400,000 a
year to clean up posters.
The volume of paper accumulated on
the bulletin boards in the fishbowl alone
is unimaginable. The bulletin board is
cleaned weekly, but the refuse is thrown
away, not recycled. Include all the other
boards around campus, including all the
bathroom stalls, all the classrooms, all the
kiosks, and all the other places people
post, and the result is a disgusting amount
of garbage that is not being recycled.
If a group is sponsoring an event it
finds particularly important, it will post
on the sidewalks. No one cleans these fly-
ers up. They are kicked up or washed away
and further harm the environment.
This is not to say that student groups
should stop advertising their events; pro-
moting and encouraging the exchange of
ideas is the most important mission of
any university. But people who publicize
events should clean up their own posters
responsibly. Ripping down posters takes
less time than taping them up, and a
group could make a sweep of the campus
immediately following their event to make
sure their posters are taken down, recycled,
and not left to be thrown away.
Additionally, the University should be-
gin recycling its refuse. In addition to the
posters it removes, the University pro-
duces unnecessary waste in dorms, cafete-
rias, classrooms - essentially all areas of
the institution. As landfill space becomes
more scarce and the University continues
to produce unbelievable amounts of
garbage, the situation will only continue
to get more dire. Though recycling efforts
have begun, the University needs to make
waste reduction a priority.
The environment is something which
the world has been abusing for thousands
of years. Just in the past few years, people
have begun to realize that we cannot take
our surroundings for granted if we are to
have a healthy planet in the years to come.
The campus is a perfect place for students
to begin to take action to reverse the
trends of a deteriorating environment.
There is no reason why students shouldn't
take an interest. It's very nice to claim to
be an environmentalist, but unless actions
are put behind the words, the words mean
very little.
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ROTC restrictions are necessary and legal
Campus police need autonomy
By William J. Gregor
Normally, I permit the Daily's editorial
remarks about the Army or ROTC to pass
without comment. However, I believe it is
important that I respond to the Daily's call
for our expulsion; not because I believe
expulsion is likely, but because, as an
academic unit of this university, it is
sometimes necessary to school the stu-
dents in subjects they scrupulously avoid.
The Constitution of the United States
grants the Congress the sole power to
raise and support armies and to make rules
for the government and regulation of the
land and naval forces. Although the power
to appoint officers of the militia (national
guard) was reserved to the states, the mili-
tia are governed by the discipline pre-
scribed by Congress.
Consequently, the recruitment, educa-
tion, and training of officers is exclusively
a federal matter. This is an important fact
to note, because the recruitment policies
of the United States vary from time to
time according to manpower requirements
and national security needs.
When manpower needs were high and
conscription the means of recruiting,
avowing homosexuality did not exempt
individuals from induction - see the
movie Biloxi Blues. This was true for a
number of reasons, not the least of which
is claiming homosexual tendencies would
be too convenient a dodge from military
service. In those circumstances a patter of
homosexual sexual conduct had to be
shown for a recruit to escape induction.
Many of the recent court cases dealing
with homosexuals in the military have in-
volved servicemembers who first enlisted
under a similar rule. However, as man-
power requirements and defense budgets
shrink, the Army and the armed forces in
general become more selective, routinely
restricting enlistments. The ancient term
for this is delectus, from the Latin deligo,
to choose, select. The policy concerning
Gregor is a lieutenant colonel in the U.S.
Army, and chair of the University's Army
Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC)
program.
the eligibility of homosexuals is just one
manifestation of this principle.
Modern armies succeed in generating
combat power through a combination of
specialized training and discipline. Individ-
ual genius is superfluous to overall per-
formance. That is why a liberal society,
which focuses on the individual, finds mil-
itary organizations so hostile. In evaluat-
ing recruits, the Army is not simply con-
cerned with physical and mental skills and
fitness, but also, suitability, a disposition
to the discipline. Under this rubric fall all
those disorders and neglects prejudicial to
good order. In an organization which holds
a monopoly on violence, care must be
taken to ensure proper restraint. Offenses
involving sexual conduct are of particular
concerns.
Military commanders are frequently
called upon to deal with matters arising
from sexual conduct. In ages when reli-
gious precepts and public values shaped
behavior, the commander could rely on a
considerable amount of self-discipline to
Though individual homosexuals may be amenable
to military discipline and able to live discreetly in
military units, there is no compelling reason to
invite disorder.
are going to be involuntarily separated
from active duty, there is little need to tap
this very limited pool of manpower. The
policy is expedient.
In a similar vein, the policy of recruit-
ing officers from public and private uni-
versities is expedient. The Congress and
the states find it important to ensure offi-
cers have an undergraduate college educa-
tion and that they bring with them what-
ever particular qualities are gained by train-
ing on those campuses. Whether this pol-
icy is prudent or not is a matter of specu-
lation, but in terms of raising an army it
is clearly not essential. For example, most
of the officers who fought in World War II
were raised from the ranks and received
their commissions from officer candidate
school. Nevertheless, the cadets and mid-
shipmen at the University of Michigan are
proud, competent, patriotic, disciplined in-
dividuals not to be confused with the low-
income, mercenary wimps described in a
Daily editorial.
From the preceding discussion it
The MSU Department of Safety needs
a certain amount of autonomy to operate
effectively.
If a bill before the Michigan House of
Representatives passes, they will soon get
their wish.
Passage of the bill would allow Michi-
gan public university trustees to empower
campus police with the same powers as
other police agencies...
Opponents of the bill say it will cause a
reduction in student rights because trustees
would have too much authority. Some say
it will only be inviting a situation similar
to the 1970 Kent State protest killings.
This argument is ridiculous. Four Kent
State students were killed when outside
forces such as the Ohio national Guard
were called in to contain the protests.
The bill does not give campus officers
free reign to crush student rallies or break
into a student's, room without probable
cause. DPS will not become Hitler's SS.
What the bill will do is allow those
who know the campus best to handle the
situation.
- The State News
Michigan State University
March 30
prevent disorder. However, Americans are
increasingly less discreet in their sexual
behavior and flaunt what heretofore was
private. Consequently, commanders have
had to rely on military law rather than
moral restraint to maintain order.
In this context, it is fortunate that so-
ciety still permits a reasonable amount of
formal separation between the sexes.
Commands maintain detailed policies on
fraternization to prevent both the abuse of
office and incidents of sexual harassment.
Despite command scrutiny, however, inci-
dents occur which have a corrosive effect
on units and occupy command attention.
Homosexual offenses have a similar ef-
fect, but no such formal separation is pos-
sible. Though individual homosexuals
may be amenable to military discipline
and able to live discreetly in military
units, there is no compelling reason to in-
vite disorder. At a time when over 20,000
qualified soldiers and hundreds of officers
should be clear that the real issue is not
military discrimination against homosexu-
als. Homophobia does not animate recruit-
ing criteria. The real issue is political.
Campus activists have couched the argu-
ment in "moral" terms to mask their hos-
tility toward military institutions and their
autonomy in setting entrance standards.
No one can seriously support the induc-
tion of homosexuals out of a general con-
cern that by excluding homosexuals the
armed forces lacks sufficient combat power 9
to perform its national security missions.
Military policy, especially in a repub-
lic, is almost always driven by expedience.
It is also clear from recent court decisions
that the policy barring homosexuals from
the military is both lawful and constitu-
tional. The question for the student body,
therefore, is not whether ROTC goes or
stays. It is broader. If a university unit can
be expelled because its policies are lawful
and constitutional, is any unit or anyone
protected?
Student Bill of Rights
protects all students
To the Daily,
Since I am the author of the recently-
approved Student Group Bill of Rights, I
thought I would take some time to clear up
some misconceptions about it.
The Bill of Rights was written in re-
sponse to MSA's derecognition of Tagar
and the Cornerstone Christian Fellowship.
It was put on the MSA ballot by campus
petition with over 1,100 people signing.
In essence, the Bill of Rights defines for
groups what rights they have under
MSA's constitution. This is necessary be-
cause currently, student groups have no
rights under MSA, and MSA is free to de-
cide for itself what rights individual
groups should have.
In the past, MSA has abused this right
by derecognizing those groups it deems
"politically unacceptable." MSA derec-
ognized Tagar because of their Zionist be-
liefs, and MSA derecognized CCF because
of their Christian beliefs.
trines, resolve their own disputes, and de-.
termine their own institution." This pas-
sage was taken directly from U.S.
Supreme Court decisions.
Many have mistakenly called this
"abusive rights... giving groups the right to
discriminate." Had they read closer, they
would realize that it does not give student
groups the right to discriminate, but in-
stead eliminates MSA's right to discrimi-
nate against those organizations it does not
like. It prevents MSA from becoming the
Orwellian "big brother" by telling groups
what they should believe, and it guaran-
tees to all student groups equal rights in
accordance with those given to us by the
U.S. Constitution and Supreme Court.
Bryan Mistele
Engineering Senior
Drug legalization is
not the right answer
To the Dai.
Radio should educate
To the Daily:
It brings me untold pleasure to share
with you my vast appreciation for Dr.
Arwulf's illuminating programs on propa-
gandistic music (WCBN-FM), particularly
the one on Nazi propaganda material from
the World War II period. Considering the
pernicious element of racism that lingers
even now in the hearts and minds of so
many people on campus and in the Ann
Arbor community, we are indeed fortunate
to have this kind of educational program-
ming available on the air.
What better way to instruct ourselves
on the problem of racial and ethnic intol-
erance than by publicly examining some
of the most repugnant examples of intol-
erance, made all the more insidious by the
veil of "art" under which its terrible cre-
ators attempted to pass it off? Keep it up
Arwulf, and Radio Free Ann Arbor!
Along the same lines, the station
. ...