Page 4- The Michigan Daily - Thursday, September 20, 1990 EDITED AND MANAGED BY STUDENTS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN 420 Maynard Street Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109 NOAH FINKEL Editor in Chief DAVID SCHWARTZ Opinion Editor 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. University cops L-E4uFi Nt - J;T /j~ iTn 21 r'I ,f. Students should protest WHAT SHOULD PRESIDENT DUDER- stadt and his administration do when students continue to embarrass them by protesting injustices at the University? How is the University's Board of Re- gents to silence students who persis- tently demonstrate against tuition in- creases, institutionalized discrimina- tion, and lack of campus democracy? How can they stop the wave of bad publicity which dangerously tamishes the University's image? The solution for the administration is simple. First, abolish the University Council, the only forum where stu- dents had a democratic voice, and which had persistently vetoed any mea- sures restricting student freedom. Sec- ond, wait until summer, when the ma- jority of students are away from cam- pus, and vote to establish a fully armed, deputized, private police force to quell any "unacceptable" student be- havior. And finally, implement an all- encompassing code of student non- academic conduct, which will, no doubt, come soon. Though not all students are skeptical of a private University police force, there is an abundance of evidence which should elicit concern. For ex- ample, the University claims a private police force will be better equipped to fight crime on campus than the Ann Arbor police, but no one will say how. Armed officers of any sort will be inef- fective against crimes like acquaintance rape and dorm theft, which students have labelled their biggest concern. Also, the University's cops will enforce regental bylaws, so armed offi- the regents' decision cers will likely be called upon to break up political rallies or boisterous frater- nity parties. Despite the evidence, many students remain unconvinced of the dangers of a private, University-controlled police force, and are ambivalent about the whole concept. But that ambivalence may cost students, because they will end up suffering financially for a change that in no way will reduce crime on campus. An armed police force doesn't come cheap, and ironically it is the students who will be forced to pay the costs of their own repression. In the past, the University paid $500,000 a year to the city of Ann Arbor to patrol campus and protect students. To fund its own force, the University will pay the salaries of 24 deputized officers, pay for their training and equipment, and pay to organize a new bureaucracy to oversee the new force. Additionally, the University is planning to build a new facility to headquarter its private army. The final cost: between $3 million and $10 million initially, and at least $2.5 million in subsequent years. This cost will undoubtedly make its way onto students' tuition bills in the form of yet another double-digit increase in the cost of a U-M education. Today is the first regents' meeting of the semester, inconsiderately scheduled during Rosh Hashanah; still, students should join the rally, at 3 p.m. today on Regents' Plaza, to protest an armed University police force. I ' .----__ f ' ,_... + Ac4&4& PREciNCT 'FVE CFoRmEiRL THE 5TODENT UNIO 00 1 Asian Americans should qualify for minority grants By Benjamin T. Lo Recently, while walking to my Argu- mentative Writing class, the headlines of a poster grabbed my attention. Printed at the top of a large, rectangular, navy blue poster with boldface gold and white letters was the heading, "Minorities Interested in Graduate Studies In Political Science: Consider Michigan." As a minority student and a political science major contemplating graduate school, I was naturally drawn to the poster hoping to find some valuable information, such as who to contact for an application for admission or who to call for learning about scholarships available to help defray the cost of graduate education. I eagerly continued to read the poster, but I was abruptly shocked to learn that I, an Asian American and a political science major, did not qualify for a minority fel- lowship in political science sponsored by the University. To be considered a candi- date for one of the financial grants, my background had to originate from one of the minority groups "least" represented in graduate schools nationally: that is, Afro- American, Native American, Hispanic American and Puerto Rican. To deny Asian Americans access to programs specifically targeted for minority students based on race and not academic ability is totally unjust and unquestion- ably ludicrous. What is even more abom- inable is the logically invalid rationale be- hind the decision of the University admin- istration that Asian American students are not "least" represented in graduate educa- tion nationwide. Eight years ago, after having investi- gated the enrollment of minority students Lo is an LSA senior majoring in Political Science. in graduate programs at Michigan and across the nation, the former Dean of the Rackham School of Graduate Studies con- cluded that Asian American students would no longer be classified under the heading "minority student" due to the fact that a large number of Asian American students were pursuing graduate degrees in the med- ical, business and engineering schools. Asian American students no longer merited any special considerations granted to minorities because Asian Americans were "over-represented" in graduate pro- grams across the nation. To deny Asian Americans access to programs specifically targeted for minority students based on race and not academic ability is totally unjust and unquestionably ludicrous. As a result of this presumptive general- ization and this fallacious reasoning, I, a Asian American student who is not majo ing in the natural sciences, not studying engineering or business, am unfairly de- nied access to a fellowship for minorities. Without any regard to my academic record, I have been excluded from competing for a minority fellowship because my race is supposedly "over-represented" in non-lib- eral arts graduate programs. John D'Arms, the present dean o* Rackham, must reexamine the University The reasoning behind this decision, however, is overtly fallacious, and as a re- sult, Asian American students are denied the advantages and privileges offered to minorities at the University. Why should the number of Asian American students not enrolled in the Rackham graduate program influence the decision to exclude students with Asian backgrounds who are concentrating in the liberal arts from receiving any benefits? It appears that there is no causal rela- tion between minority students enrolled in professional schools and in the liberal arts graduate program. It also seems, contrary to the position espoused by the former dean, that the majority of the humanities and social science departments are charac- terized by a dearth of Asian American stu- dents. policy on the definition of "minority" stu# dents. Additionally, if the Michigan Man- date proposed by University President James Duderstadt, which promises a' ra- cially diverse Michigan campus by grant- ing more money for minority faculty hir- ing and more financial assistance for mi- norities, is to reach fruition, then the ad- ministration must also reconsider the sta- tus of Asian American students. To restrain Asian American student, from participating in programs designated for minority students based on race and on fallacious reasoning is not only unjust, but also discriminatory. Asian American students are indeed minority students and deserve to receive all the benefits available to people who originate from racial back- grounds. Overcrowding 'U' should rethink its class scheduling policy MSA president urges students to protest 'U' police AS THE SEPTEMBER WIND BEGINS to breeze in over the University, it brings along a familiar autumn topic of conversation. Every University student knows the various "distribution re- quirements" that need to be fulfilled for graduation; however, more foreign to students is how to get in to required classes that have already been closed. At the beginning of every term, the University is overrun with lines at CRISP, the Scheduling Office, and professors' offices, where students vie to get into that one course they need to graduate, or the ECB required course for first-year students. And when the students succeed in overcoming the predetermined size limit for these classes, overcrowding ensues. At the heart of this semi-annual circus is a series of failings that start with the professors, and runs right up the chain of the University's bureaucracy. The Scheduling Office distributes sites for classes based on several fac- tors, among them average enrollment for a class and a professor's seniority. Both of these arrangements. though "prestigious" buildings on campus, such as Angell, Mason, and Haven Halls, and will accept a smaller room in that complex over a room in the Mod- em Language Building (MLB), a less prestigious venue, that is better equipped for large classes. These scheduling policies, combined with the scarcity of large lecture halls, make it difficult for students to enroll in desired classes. And, when students somehow manage to secure overrides from their professors, the additional problem of classroom overcrowding arises. Often, students are forced to sit on floors and in aisles, creating a condition that both inhibits leaming and is a potential fire hazard. The University has to deal more ef- fectively with class scheduling. The heads of the various departments should get together with the heads of CRISP, the Scheduling Office, and the Registrar's Office to work out a policy that is based less on spoils and the sta- tus quo, and more on the reality of the overcrowding. By Jennifer Van Valey Let's make two things clear right from the beginning: 1) We all want a safer campus and community, and 2) the deputi- zation of privately controlled campus offi- cers will not do this. In fact, deputization poses an increased threat to the safety of students on campus. How can this be true? In order to un- derstand this, the issue must be contextu- alized within the history of the Univer- sity's attempts to repress student expres- sion. This debate does not, therefore, focus on what will make this campus safer; rather, it focuses on how the University can best control student protest. For 20 years, the University adminis- tration has been moving toward increased control over students in the form of a code of non-academic conduct, a protest policy defining acceptable means of protest, and the last piece in the puzzle, a deputized po- lice force. Van Valey, an LSA junior, is president of the Michigan Student Assembly. Of course, the police force is the criti- cal piece because it gives the University an independent means of control, freeing them from reliance on the Ann Arbor po- lice to do their dirty work. It also allevi- ates their reliance on a democratic system, allowing them complete autocracy in pur- suance of their repressive agenda. The issue becomes complicated, how- ever, because the University is not inter- ested in halting all protest on campus. In fact, a certain amount of protest, around issues that appear only nominally related to the University - such as El Salvador, reproductive rights, etc. - is healthy, and helps the University maintain the fagade of a liberal and open-minded institution. It is only when protest focuses specifi- cally on deficiencies in the way the Uni- versity is run, such as protest on issues ranging from the low retention of student of color and homophobic remarks by re- gents, to lower tuition, that it must be controlled. A private police force is the perfect solution. The police force will be empowered to enforce state laws and regental ordinances. The University claims that the regental or- dinances in question are those dealingq with things like speeding on campus, littering, and parking. While this is true, they conveniently omit the previously mentioned ordinances, dealing with student life off-campus and student expression. These are the ones with which students should primarily con- cern themselves. Through an analysis of the Univer- sity's history of pushing for a campus po- lice force, it becomes clear that the very real problem of safety on campus is being used opportunistically to dupe students into supporting their own repression. It is also clear that, ironically, the only way too stop the administration is through student mobilization and protest - the very thing the administration instituted the force to prevent. Student should protest against armed cops on campus, tomorrow at 3 pm on Regents Plaza. INFA funding isnt fnig- and 1 personally have a hard to run again, the irrelevant matter of the 9