Page 4 -The Michigan Daily - Thursday, October 18, 1990
GWbe Mirbkwu ~aiIy
EDITED AND MANAGED BY STUDENTS
AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
420 Maynard Street
Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109
Viewpoint
NOAH FINKEL
Editor in Chief
DAVID SCHWARTZ
Opinion Editor
\ I's Hx TOeE
IrJ J RANT..
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.
Fom ithe Dly )
Let there be light!
'U' actions show a disdain for student safety
CPS
24 HOUR
TOW NevL
WITH MIDTERMS APPROACHING
and both the computing centers and li-
braries full, the Diag is busier than
usual during nighttime hours. But it
seems the lights aren't working. More-
over, they have not been working for
almost three weeks. The entire west
side of the Diag - including the main
area near the Graduate Library - has
not been lit.
Though many students who have
been stumbling through the Diag and
dodging pot holes have been complain-
ing to campus security, the University
administration remains curiously unin-
formed. The Diag's lighting crisis has
gone on for weeks without any official
attempts to address it.
The fact that a broken lighting sys-
tem has been ignored for nearly a
month ironically illuminates the Uni-
versity's true concerns about campus
safety - it doesn't care. This summer,
when the Board of Regents voted to
implement a private University police
force, the regents were quick to discuss
how worried they were because the
campus area is unsafe.
Rather than vote to appropriate
needed funds to expand existing pro-
grams like Safewalk, or voting to in-
stall lights in areas of campus that re-
main in the dark - including the Law
Quad and many parts of the Diag - the
regents decided to hire a private police
force.
Certainly the regents were con-
cerned about something other than stu-
dents' safety, because students have
consistently opposed armed campus
security officers and have long lobbied
for more lighting, both on and off
campus, and more expenditures on
student-run safety programs.
Students have a right to security and
protection. If fixing the lights were a
priority of the administration, the
problem would have been fixed long
ago.
Students need sufficient lighting on
campus and the administration must
address its responsibilities. In the
meantime, students should be careful
when they walk home alone on the
Diag and around campus. Services like
Safewalk will escort students until 2:00
a.m. Sunday through Friday. The
phone number is 936-1000.
Lock the bathrooms
TWO WEEKS AGO THE DAILY
reported three incidents of harass-
ment in female bathrooms in the
Bursley residence hall. In each
case, a man entered the women's
bathroom and harassed women
who were showering. As the Uni-
versity investigated the matter,
locks were installed on all of Burs-
ley's female bathrooms. After the
Bursley incident, the University
Housing Services should install
safety locks on all residence hall
bathrooms.
Within days of the Bursley
break-ins, money for locks sud-
denly appeared, and an appropriate
lock was installed in Bursley, but
not in the other halls where they
are just as needed. With almost
weekly reports of restroom vandal-
ism in the residence halls and the
potential for more assaults, all
bathrooms should be similarly
locked.
For visitors and guests, each
residence hall should maintain
public restrooms on non-sleeping
floors, for example near the dining
room or in the basement.
Safe restrooms for students
living inrresidence halls are long
overdue and the University should
correct this oversight by installing
locks on all residence hall bath-
rooms.
--
.
.a
® .
Schools of Choice are good choices
~- E - -
By Karl Hans Greimei
Your editorial entitled "Choice? Educa-
tion proposal doesn't address problems"
(10/8/90) particularly piqued my interest,
especially since you blatantly misrepre-
sented two fundamental issues regarding
"schools of choice."
First, you underestimated the effective-
ness of choice proposals, and second, you
failed to admit that one gubernatorial can-
didate is committed to education.
Throughout your essay, you equate
Michigan's "educational crisis" with the
fact that "the state now ranks 36th in the
nation in state-allocated funds to educa-
tion." You continue to argue that "the
problem is that students who live in dis-
tricts where the tax base is low receive
less money for education than students
who reside in wealthier districts."
Yet, as you should know, funding
levels do not equal education quality. In-
deed, you acknowledge this fact by imply-
ing that education quality is a function of
appropriate expenditure of funds, not quan-
tity of funds. In fact, you proceed to blame
ineffective expenditure on the "vast bu-
reaucracy that exists in many school dis-
tricts." Bureaucratic constraint does stifle
school effectiveness, but you fundamen-
tally misunderstand and misrepresent
schools of choice by arguing that they do
not remedy these problems.
Greimel is an LSA junior.
The entire objective of schools of
choice is to introduce effective school or-
ganization to the public schools In the
most comprehensive study to date on the
issue of choice in schools (conducted by
John Chubb and Terry Moe of The Brook-
ings Institution), school organization was
determined to be the second most influen-
tial variable determining educational qual-
ity. Effective school organization creates
effective education. The study concluded
that schools of choice initiatives greatly
reduce the bureaucratic nature of school
organization and, consequently, increase
educational quality.
To deny this basic tenet of choice pro-
tion.
Furthermore, you did not only twist
the fundamental principles of choice pro-
posals, you also disregarded the fact that
one gubernatorial candidate does support
quality education. State Sen. John Engler
(R-Mt. Pleasant) has been a long-time ad-
vocate and ardent supporter of choice pro-
posals. Therefore, since choice systems are,
not "merely another stop-gap measure" and
are actually a viable solution to some ma-
jor problems facing Michigan's schools,
your claim that neither candidate shows a
commitment to academia is simply falla-
cious. One candidate has initiated an attack
To deny this basic tenet of choice proposals and to
focus instead on problems concerning unionized
teacher job security, either simply mislabels the
entire choice issue or decisively proves your
ignorance of the topic.
posais and to focus instead on problems
concerning unionized teacher jobsecurity,
either simply mislabels the entire choice
issue or decisively proves your ignorance
of the topic. Granted, schools of choice do
not provide definitive solutions to educa-
tional underachievement, but such policies
effectively induce increased quality educa-
against the perennial problem of lagging
education, but you chose to. turn your
head.
In the future, I hope you take more care
to thoroughly investigate the issues yot*
editorialize. By misrepresenting the impor-
tant issue of public education, you do your
readers a great disservice.
The Home Front
Cease anti-Arab racism and prevent internment
Can't get everything IFC responds to Daily
IN THE HEATED DEBATES SWIRL-
ing around the growing U.S. involve-
ment in the Gulf, one important conse-
quence has been largely overlooked:
the rising anti-Arab sentiment now evi-
dent in this country and, even more se-
riously, the distinct possibility that
such xenophobia may make internment
camps a harsh reality for many Arabs
and Arab-Americans.
Recalling the internment of the
Japanese - who were placed in prison
camps here during World War II be-
cause they supposedly posed security
risks - these camps would make eth-
nic origin the criteria for detention.
Though these Japanese victims have fi-
nally won reparations after years of ar-
duous legal struggle, internment itself
remains a very real option in the minds
of many U.S. policymakers. More-
over, it still retains its legal status.
In the 1945 ruling of the Korematsu
case, the Supreme Court upheld that
internment during war is constitutional.
This means that internment of different
groups on the basis of ethnicity is still
possible today and can be legally im-
plemented.
A leak in a government contingency
plan in 1987 suggests that internment
camps are not an unforeseen possibil-
ity. The contingency plan called for the
possible deportation of alien activists,
visa restrictions of aliens from certain
countries, and deportation of "alien un-
desirables" in the event of a terrorist
threat. A 30-page Immigration and
Naturalization Services (INS) docu-
ment revealed the camp that was envi-
sioned to house these "undesirables" is
located in Oakdale, Louisiana.
According to the plan, this intern-
ment camp, specifically designated for
Arabs and Arab-Americans, would
have the capacity to hold up to 5,000
cussed by the anti-terrorism committee
that was headed by then Vice President
George Bush.
Now, as President, Bush consis-
tently complements his direction of the
Gulf crisis with demagogic statements
about the "Hitler of the Middle East,"
Palestinian and Libyan "terrorists," and
other epigraphs which dehumanize
Arab peoples collectively without re-
gard for individual rights. This racist
ideology justifies many recent attacks
against Arab-Americans.
In 1985, offices of the Arab Anti-
Discrimination Council (ADC) in Cali-
fornia were bombed and its coordina-
tor, Alex Odeh was killed. Six months
later, the ADC offices in Washington
were firebombed. In 1988, Arab-
American News publisher Osama
Siblani received a death threat after
appearing on the McNeil-Lehrer report
speaking about U.S. policy in the
Gulf. The person threatened, "If one
American dies you will die." These
attacks not only terrorize Arab-
Americans but are used to silence
dissenters of U.S. foreign policy.
U.S. citizens need to speak out
against racism and racist policies in all
their forms, especially government
policies which threaten to violate the
basic human and civil rights of people
of color and minorities. With the
United States drifting closer toward
war in the Gulf, the threat of intern-
ment camps has once again, become a
real possibility.
People need to be aware of the racist
climate that exists in this country and
the ways in which extreme nationalism
has historically been used to stir up
violence and hatred. Only then can
barriers of intolerance be broken down
and the concerns of people of color and
To The Daily:
Many pundits, and the public at large,
blame our elected officials for the current
budget mess. But our elected leaders only
reflect the contradictory message they re-
ceive from the voters: Keep our taxes low,
but don't cut programs we like. This atti-
tude was encouraged and reinforced by
Ronald Reagan, who told us that we could
"have it all," that we could lower taxes
(which he did for the wealthy few), raise
military spending (which he did), not evis-
cerate the social safety net (which he did
not), and still balance the budget (which
he woefully did not).
Now President Bush is telling the pub-
lic that the deficit matters and that we
must balance the budget in the name of
fiscal prudence. But to most Americans,
the deficit is nothing more than an abstrac-
tion, while higher taxes and Medicare cuts
are all too real.
Opposition to the first budget agree-
ment came from an odd alliance of conser-
vative Republicans, who opposed any tax
increase, and liberal Democrats, who op-
posed steep Medicare cuts and regressive
taxes. Members of Congress were com-
pletely justified in opposing the budget
agreement worked out by President Bush
and congressional leaders. According to the
Congressional Joint Committee on
Taxation, the budget deal would have
meant a mere 1 % increase in taxes for
those who make over $200,000 per year, a
3% increase for those who make between
$20,000 and $50,000, and a sizable 7%
increase for those who make 10,00 or less.
And this deal didn't even include President
Bush's precious cut in the capital gains
tax rate, which would have given the
wealthy another big fat tax cut.
Fortunately, even many congressional
Republicans opposed the budget agreement
on the grounds that it was unfair to the
lower and middle classes.
To the Daily:
In an article entitled "Fraternities Per-
petuate Violence Against Women,"
(10/5/90) numerous ad hominem attacks
were made against fraternities and the
Greek System as a whole. The most bla-
tant of these unsubstantiated criticisms
was the critique that the Greek System's
Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention
Program is a token measure that has been
designed only to appease the rest of the
University community. Last year's Sexual
Assault Awareness and Prevention Day
was the first attempt fraternities on this
campus have ever made to address the so-
cial ill of date rape. At the session itself,
86 percent of the fraternities were repre-
sented, and everyone, including representa-
tives from the Sexual Assault Prevention
and Awareness Center (SAPAC), as well
as the Greek community, acknowledged
the program as an unprecedented success.
Over the past year, the agenda of the event
has been studied and remodeled. This year,
programming has been extended from one
day to two days and asks that five mem-
bers from each chapter participate rather
than only one. Additionally, pledges,
uninitiated members of the fraternities, are
also included in the event.
The University of Michigan Fraternity
System openly acknowledges that rape and
sexual assault in general are the most re-
grettable of actions that one individual or
group of individuals can take against an-
other. We will gladly accept any construc-
tive criticisms of our attempts to combat
it. However, the Daily's questioning of.
the sincerity of our programming efforts
has only damaged the event's credibility
rather than having any positive impact on
reducing the problem of sexual assault in
the University community.
John Fink
Publicity Chair
lnterfraternity Council
filled plastic cups, and hot dogs have also
been thrown at us.
I had hoped that our fans were above
that. Unfortunately, just before pregame
last Saturday, I watched as our own fans
sunk to the same level of immaturity by
throwing marshmallows at the State band.
Or maybe they didn't sink to that level;
maybe they were already there. It's realty
sad to watch an.entire section be that rude.
It's great to have spirit and even a little
animosity toward an opponent, but it
must be channelled. The students in sec-
tion 31, where I witnessed this display,
will go home to their dorms or apartments
claiming superiority as they relish how
they hit a tuba player with a marshmal-
low. Meanwhile, the State fans who were
sitting in the opposite end zone went
home knowing that they were the superior
fans. They cheered when their team needed
some support. They made noise when our
offense was trying to score in that end
zone. They knew how to act as fans at a
football game.
And down in our student section? Well,.
when Dan Enos had his team inside the
ten yard line down by the student section,
he certainly wasn't concerned or affected by
the sound from our student sections. We
have a stadium with over 106,000 people
in it, and the teams on the field hardly hear
anyone, except maybe some of those State
fans.
Like I said, it's great to have spirit, but.
next time focus it on the game. When
Iowa comes in here next weekend, don't
pelt their band with marshmallows; make
that end zone deafening when Iowa comes
anywhere near it. Make it difficult for
Iowa. Act like fans.
Len Kamlet
Rackham graduate student