0 Page 4 - The Michigan Daily - Wednesday, November 7, 1990 eb £idijan &iy 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, Isigned articles, and letters do not necessarily represent the opinion of the Daily. Meal Services Entree force-feeds thousands, grosses millions (~EjO5 13OSH ThATS \YH. 4 rte_ _ _ _ _ _ If VES3 : - -i p- ACLU will bea deputizationwtho FOR MANY STUDENTS LIVING IN Universityeresidence halls, the credo "Put your money where your mouth is" just doesn't hold true. All students living in dorms which serve food.are forced by the Housing Office to pay approximately $1,800 each year for Entrde, the residence hall meal plan, without regard to how much, how often, or even if they eat the meals. Entree, the standard meal plan, enti- ties each student to two meals a day Monday through Saturday, and one on Sunday. Entitles, though, is probably the wrong word; it would be more correct to say that these meals are re- quired, because the Entree plan makes no provision for'those who, for :any reason, choose not to eat in the esi- dence halls. The flat fee is only waived in the case of conflict with classes, religious objection, health concerns, or other cases at the discretion of the Housing department and the Entree office. The only option offered to those who want to get off the meal plan is a raw food ctedit the value of which is miniscule in comparison to the initial fee. Other Universities have more flexi- ble approaches to meal services. At Yale University, students choose a *certain number of meals to buy at the beginning of the term - an amount equivalent to nine, 15, or 21 meals per week - and each meal is subtracted from a meal account. Under this plan, students have the flexibility to eat, for ifstance, four meals one day and just one the next, and the amount evens out in the meal account. ' At Duke University, students pur- chase any numfber of meal "points" at thebeginning of the term. These points ca ibe used not only in the dormitories, but at a number of participating restau- r-ains it the area. And, again, the stu- e ters o dents can spend their meal points their own discretion over the course the term. at of At Wesleyan University, the meal plan resembles Michigan's Entrde Plus program. Students have money on ac- count with meal services, and they pay for what they eat in the cafeteria on an a la carte basis. These programs are all viable alter- natives to the Entrde plan. And each one should be explored by the Housing Office as a potential replacement be- cause, quite simply, the Entrde pro- gram is an inflexible failure. A survey of University students would likely show that the food served in residence hall cafeterias is generally unsatisfactory from a culinary stand- point. In other words, it doesn't taste good. A number of students simply would rather spend their money at restaurants. An enormous amount of food is wasted each day by meal services, thrown out because many students do not eat the meals they are forced to pay for. And outside competition for food dollars could only serve to increase the quality of the cafeteria offerings. The University, last month, entered into an arrangement with Domino's Pizza that would eventually allow stu- dents to purchase pizza on meal cards. Under this agreement, services offered to students simply would not improve; and, for other reasons, the University should deal neither with Domino's nor owner Tom Monaghan. Housing must engage in a wholesale overhaul of the Entrde program, not to- ken agreements with the private sector that benefit nobody. This overhaul must lead to a flexible system in which students can choose whether or not they want to eat in the residence halls at all. mom By Matt Adler In the past two months, students and faculty members have made commendable efforts to protest the deputization of a University police force. In an era of wan- ing activism and growing apathy, it has been refreshing to watch this movement gather such momentum. Undoubtedly, these efforts should be continued in order to reinforce the fact that the University community opposes this measure. We should continue to show the re- gents that we realize the police force, along with the impending code of non-aca- demic conduct, is part of an ongoing at- tempt by the administration to manipulate the lives of students outside the class- room. The ultimate goal is to restrict our First Amendment freedoms. President Duderstadt and the regents would rather control us like quiet, obedient children than accept us as the critical, questioning, thinking individuals that we are. Although we must not yield in our ef- forts to stop the deputization, we must reconcile ourselves to the fact that eight people are already in "training" as Univer- sity police officers. Despite our protest, Duderstadt and the regents are likely to proceed with their plans. They are far too Adler, a Residential College junior, is a member of the campus chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union and the Daily's News staff. anxious Lo gain the devious power which their own police force would give them. In addition to the administration's ve- hemence, their success seems likely be- cause their is no legal recourse with which to prevent the deputization. Many public and private universities throughout the country and the state have their own police forces, and the court system has never found this objectionable. This is troubling since in keeping with the spirit of the Constitution, it seems that a state should not have the right to delegate it's police power to a university. The University's mandate is to educate, ity? Because of the likelihood of a fully op- erational University police force within the next few months, it is important to be prepared to deal with the consequences. The University's chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union is doing so by ex- panding its police complaint clinic. 0 In the past, the clinic, composed of uh- dergraduates, law students and attorneys bf the Washtenaw County ACLU, has helped students whose Constitutional rights have been violated by the Ann Arbor police de- partment, and by University security per- sonnel. In the future, the clinic will also Although we must not yield in our efforts to stop the : deputization, we must reconcile ourselves to the fact: that eight people are already in "training" as University police officers. not to enforce laws. Additionally, there are many practical legal questions which arise from a univer- sity police force. The University has buildings disseminated throughout a large section of Ann Arbor. Where exactly do the University's boundaries lie? What would be the jurisdiction of a University police force? Most importantly, what would prevent the police from setting their own jurisdiction, and abusing their author- help anyone who has been harassed by the University police officers. The clinic will be a watchdog over thle. police, and will take steps within the legal system to reprimand them every time they infringe upon our freedom of speech, our right to privacy, and our right to due pro- cess of law. If you or someone you knoW is harassed by University police, call tile ACLU at 998-7975. Tell your parents what's really up with safety To students: Your parents recently received a letter from President Duderstadt. He spent thousands of tuition dollars on this mass mailing in order to counter the bad publicity his administration received when hundreds of students protested last month against an armed campus police force. We hope you will send home the following letter, which attempts to shed some light on the University's misleading propaganda. r Dear folks, experiences of other campuses havl Recently, you received a letter from demonstrated the importance of cam- University President James Duderstadt. pus security as well as the necessity of d The University suddenly became being sure that officers understand and interested in students' safety following are sensitive to the special needs and' student opposition to a deputized values of an academic community." 'campus police force. I want to clear up Funny how Duderstadt didn't i 1a few inaccuracies and misleading enumerate the "experiences of otherl 1statements in that letter. campuses," like the officer at Western Duderstadt opened his correspon- Michigan who shot a student while' dence by expressing concern for your trying to arrest him after a mis- Ifears about campus crime in the wake demeanor; or the Michigan State police lof the recent tragedies at the University officer who broke a woman's arm whiles lofFlorida in Gainesville. Of course, he putting her into a squad car during a f ineglected to mention that the protest; or our own security officer1 University of Florida already has an Robert Patrick, who is currently facing* Iarmed campus police force, and it didn't litigation for kicking a student in the' Ihelp. groin during a protest. , He also enumerated the wonderful He also forgot to mention that the I things the University is currently doing Task Force on Safety and Security - t ,to reduce campus crime: "We are also whosereportthe administrationisusing considering ways to achieve... more as justification for the deputization - 'direct student involvement in never looked into the records of other' preventive measures." I guess he must universities to see if their crime rates I have lost my phone number, because I were affected by their police forces. haven't been invited to give my input. Duderstadt closes the letter by In fact, many students have been saying: "I hope you... will let me hear 'particularly vocal lately trying to get from you if you have 'questions' or l Ithe University to listen to student want to express your own opinion onl Iconcerns, but the only response so far some of these matters of mutual l ihas been this letter to our parents. concern." After discussing the many other In spite of the dubious nature of the' safety features the administration is letter, I would like to believe that' "in the process of" installing, PresidentDuderstadt willlistentoyour' Iuderstadt finally got to the point of input. I hope you will send him a letter I the letter: "The University of Michigan telling him you support students in ours 'is the only public University in the fight to end campus deputization. State, and one of the very few in the1 University has misguided spending priorities To the Daily: While the foremost purpose of a Uni- versity should be education, recent Univer- sity actions indicate fundamentally mis- guided priorities. Over the last four years, students have seen annual tuition increases of at least seven percent. The President and Board of Regents have consistently tagged the rate hikes as necessary to match increased costs in the face of tight budget constraints. Yet somehow this semester alone these same governing bodies have found an es- timated two to four million dollars to establish a University-controlled police force. The force was established without any kind of student input during the sum- mer - when the population of those peo- ple most affected would be at its lowest. This act, though, is claimed to benefit students when in fact there has been a no- ticeable lack of any evidence establishing a positive correlation between what will, in practice, amount to only marginally in- creased uniformed police presence and di- minished crime. The only possible positive effect, the worthy one of a safer campus, could, how- ever, actually become a closer reality were these astronomical amounts of expenditure directed towards more practical considera- tions, such as improved lighting, more busing, expanded Safewalk and Northwalk programs, and increased funding for educa- tional, preventative programs such as the Sexual Assault Prevention and Awareness Center. What is truly amazing is that in the face of both tight budgets and tuition in- creases, the University has recently decided toi etwndAhA n~rrbnt .~rnnra .,,nav thn n n fits, whereas the additional teaching assis- tants that could be hired to open more sec- tions of overcrowded classes would benefit the entire scholastic community. If the University spent less on cops and grass, then they could spend more on edu- cation. Brian Hirsch LSA senior Daily neglects minor party candidates To the Daily: I read with interest the beginning para- graphs of the article "Four vie for two po- sitions on 'U' Board of Regents" (11/6/90), noting especially the mention that not only are Democrats and Republi- cans running candidates for the Board of Regents, but the Workers World Party and Libertarians are as well. But when I opened to the questions and answers section inside titled "Candidates for Board of Regents" and looked for the comments of those running on the Work- ers World Party and Libertarian tickets, I was disappointed. They were not even mentioned. What happened? Weren't these candi- dates worthy of an interview? I, for one, was interested in learning more on the views of these people, not just the views of the four "mainstream party candidates" (as you put it) from the Democrats and Republicans. (Who, by the way, concurred on nearly all of the issues, something that would not have been true had you included the opinions of the non-mainstream party candidates.) Is it really the candidates from alterna- tive parties such as the WWP and the Li- ertarians who are taking a "low profile" in the campaign (as the story asserts), or is it members of the media, such as the Daily, who do a low profile on them? " If you really want a "wider spectrum of views to be heard and taken seriously," as you maintain in your editorial of the same day, you ought to do your part in provid- ing coverage of those views. Jeff Boland LSA junior Law student writer was misinterpreted To the Daily: When I said in my Res Gestae piece that rape victims were depersonalized, I was arguing for more empathy with vic- tims, not less. Karen Akerlof and I are on the same side, at least as far as impersonal lawyers who side with rapists are con- cemed. I was arguing for more law classroom@ discussion of how sexual violence affects women, and what can be done to prevent violence. I was not one of the men joking about rape whom Akerlof refers to. Like many law students, male and female, I have no "underlying sympathy with the perpetrators." I'm sorry my writing did not make this clear. John Ogilvi University Law student ;