Page 4 - The Michigan Daily - Thursday, November 8, 1990
bie .dfgnBal
EDITED AND MANAGED BY STUDENTS
AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
420 Maynard Street
Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109

U

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.

TAX
INCREA

Sunrunner
Car races down under for ultimate challenge

I

THE MICHIGAN SOLAR CAR TEAM
is bringing their national collegiate
champion car, the Sunrunner, to Aus-
tralia to compete in the World Solar
Challenge, which begins on November
11. After their victory this summer in
the Sunrayce, which ran from the Ep-
cot Center in Orlando, Florida to the
General Motors Tech Center in War-
ren, Michigan, the team seems confi-
dent they can take on the international
competition that awaits them.
The race in Australia is going to be
much different than this summer's
competition, calling for a radically-dif-
ferent strategy for the Solr Car team.
For one thing, the race is going to have
few rules. That is, it will begin on
Nov. 11 and run from Darwin to Ade-
laide until the first car crosses the finish
line as champion. The 39 teams will be
allowed to drive for as long as they
want, as opposed to the Sunrayce,
where the cars were required to stop at
race-mandated checkpoints. In addi-
tion, the teams will be forced to sup-
port themselves in the Australian
wilderness. But to the racers advan-
tage, the solar cars in the Sunrayce
won't have to stop for traffic and stop
signs which hardly exist in-the Aus-
tralian outback.
The Michigan Sunrunner Team is
going to be representing the United
States, along with solar cars from
Western Washington University and
University of Maryland (second and

third place in the Sunrayce, respec-
tively). Honda, Mazda, and Toyota are
only some of the international competi-
tors attending the World Solar Chal-
lenge. Needless to say, they have much
more equipment, money, and techno-
logical expertise with which to compete
than the Sunrunner team.
The 'U' solar car team received no
money from the administration for the
Sunrayce. Now that they won and are
going to compete in Australia, the 'U'
is giving the team $15,000, a mere
fraction of the $500,000 Sunrunner
budget.
The team was able to get the bulk of
the money without the help of the ad-
ministration. The Engineering and
Business schools together contributed
$25,000 and the team received
$100,000 from General Motors. The
rest they raised on their own, due in
part to the efforts of the Business
School members of the team. So the
team, while representing Michigan, is
hardly funded by the University.
Best of luck to the Sunrunner team
in the World Solar Challenge. The
major automakers, solar cell manufac-
turers, and aerospace firms that make
up some of the competition are
formidable. But having proven their
ability in the Sunrayce here in the
United States, there is little doubt that
the Sunrunner will come out on top
down under.

NOW
D


TAX Opp
,,,...,
PARER M
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II

ADLAI

6

Blame members for MSA ineffectiveness"

By Stephen Henderson
The recent fiasco surrounding the an-
nual allocation of office space by the
Michigan Student Assembly culminated
Tuesday night in the MSA chambers with
more than 30 student groups showing up
to plead their cases. Although the last-
minute effort by members of the assembly
to clean up the political mess was success-
ful in the end, the process by which the
whole ordeal unfolded is cause for great
concern.
The fact that the loss of office space by
certain student groups had political moti-
vations is deplorable, and is indicative of
the sour nature of political,.in-fighting that
has plagued the assembly for some time.
Budget Priorities Committee Chair
Charles Dudley has made very clear the
fact that party politics played an important
role in the first proposal.
Last spring, during the presidential
elections, political battles within MSA
were a key issue. In fact, the victorious
Action party ran on a platform that
promised an end to the limitation of the
assembly's effectiveness by political fight-
ing.
However, students have seen little
progress toward this goal since the elec-
tion. The pursuance of a specific political
Henderson is an Associate Editor of the
Daily's Opinion Page.

agenda by both major parties on the as-
sembly has continued to obstruct MSA
from fulfilling its primary responsibility
- serving the greater interests of the stu-
dent body.
And once again, students and student
groups have ended up on the short end of
the stick. The fact that more than 100 stu-
dents showed up to deal with the inadequa-
cies of the assembly in performing a
most-basic task (office space allocation)
should prove to constituents and members
of the assembly alike that it is once again
time for a change.
But this time the change should not be

should consider the history these parties
have, and consider the alternative parties
and independent candidates that are under-
represented on the assembly. The current
members of the assembly that fall into
these categories have exhibited great abil-
ity to downplay insignificant political dif-
ferences.
The past two MSA elections have been
reactionary ones - where one party be-
came victorious in response to the politi-
cal agenda of the party in power. However,
this election should concentrate on react-
ing to the political "masturbation" that
has plagued the past two administrations,

The pursuance of a specific political agenda by both
major parties on the assembly has continued to
obstruct MSA from fulfilling its primary responsibility"
- serving the greater interests of the student body.

Packaging
McDonalds' move to paper helps environment
THE STYROFOAM ARCHES HAVE environmental community.
fallen. "Using a lot more paper means a lot
McDonald's recently announced its more pollution," said Jan Beyea, a sci-
switch from the polystyrene "clam- entist at the National Audubon Society.
shell" hamburger box to paper pack- "It's a great mistake to make plastic the
aging. The change is a success for great Satan and paper the great saint.
special-interest environmental groups Both processes generate pollution."
who have labored long pushing for the The new paper-based material will
change. The switch could signal a new not be recyclable because of its multi-
era in corporate responsiveness to envi- layer construction. But the company is
ronmental concerns. exploring options to dispose of the
A major factor in the decision has material through composting.
been has been an unusual alliance be- McDonald's also recently released
tween McDonald's and the Environ- plans to find ways to create markets for
mental Defense Fund (EDF). A week products made of recyclable material.
ago, McDonald's was prepared to These are real answers being developed
launch a plastics recycling plan that in the war to save the environment.
envirobmentalists strongly opposed. McDonald's deserves credit for taking
The EDF was prepared to oppose the an environmental stand. As one of the
recycling program publicly. To the most visible U.S. corporations, the
end, MDonald's officials insisted that change could have a positive domino
its foam packaging was environmen- effect.
tally sound. But, "our customers just It is heartening to see corporations
don't feel good about it," said Edward and environmentalists working together
H. Rensi, President of - McDonald's instead of battling each other. Public
U.S.A., "so we're changing." opinion has recently turned in favor of
The change to paper will commence environmentalists and this change in
in about a month. The new "wonder perception gives environmentalists real
packaging" supposedly has 90 percent power which hopefully more corpora-
less bulk than the polystyrene. Though tions will heed. If McDonald's recog-
recggnized as an great ecological suc- nizes the future is green, possibly oth-
cess, some disagreement lies within the ers will too.
Free speech
Abortion case examines doctors' advisory roles

made for reasons of political difference,
but should concentrate on better represen-
tation of student interest.
Both the Conservative Coalition and
Action have demonstrated unwillingness
to put petty political differences aside in
order to function as a cohesive representa-
tive unit for students. Both parties are
equally as guilty and both have done an
equal disservice to the student body.
In the upcoming elections, students

and correcting this mistake.
Next week when students choose the
people theyswant to be their representa-
tives on the assembly for the next year,
they should think of the major partie*
past records, and the political battles that
both have permitted to sacrifice student in-
terest. If this is done, then the only logical
choices in this year's election becomre
painfully evident.

Daily correspondent only told half the story,

To the Daily:
Given the grave human rights crisis in
East Jerusalem it is particularly important
to respond to the article "American Stu-
dents in Israel Cope With Regional Cri-
sis" (11/5/90).
While the 500 American college stu-
dents have been enjoying their classes at
Hebrew University and "go(ing) out at
night," the Palestinian population of the
city around them has been terrorized by Is-
rael with increasing ferocity. The events at
the Haram al-Sharif on Oct. 8 during
which Israeli police forces attacked women
praying at the mosque without provoca-
tion and then proceeded to murder 21
Palestinians and wound 500 others are
only the latest example of such brutality.
Since the Palestinian uprising began
nearly 1000 Palestinian men, women and
children have been beaten, teargassed and
shot to death by Israeli soldiers and set-
tlers. At least 100,000 Palestinians have
been seriously injured. More than 10,000
people have been administratively detained
without trial or charge.
The use of torture has been systematic,
producing more than a dozen deaths in de-
tention. Palestinian schools have been
closed, people summarily deported and
homes blown up as collective punish-
ment. Hospitals have been attacked by Is-
raeli soldiers with patients arrested out of
their beds and medical personnel who at-
tempted to protect them beaten. All this
has been done to punish the Palestinian
people for demanding their basic rights to
self-determination and human dignity.
To go to East Jerusalem and ignore all
of this as the students interviewed in the
article did is racist and disgusting as well
as quite tragic. To complain of being
force dn take different bus tn avnidi

black people and of their sympathy for the
stresses on the Afrikaners.
Karima Bennoune
.First -year law
Editor's note: The article should have
been printed on the opinion page as a
perspective story.
Daily: Go take civics
To the Daily:
The "Election III" (11/6/90) editorial
addresses serious problems in our electoral
system, but proposes unconstitutional and
erroneous solutions.
How can the Daily seriously recom-
mend campaign contributions be limited
to those who live in the district? Not only
illogical and unfair, this proposal is bla-
tantly unconstitutional. The proposal as-
sumes that I am only "represented" by the
member of Congress elected from my dis-
trict. But my opinions may be voiced by
another member (what if, for example, I
am a Democrat living in a safe Republican
district?). If I support the actions of Rep.
Ron Dellums (D-Ca) or Rep. Henry Hyde
(R-II), why shouldn't I be able to con-
tribute to their campaigns?
Second, I'm wondering what evidence
the Daily has that polls are frequently in-
accurate. Furthermore, if polls influence
voters, so what? Polls are another piece of
campaign information, as are campaign
commercials (which you also propose
banning). The Daily is far too willing to
limit the kinds of information voters re-
ceive. We need to educate voters, not pa-
tronize them.

Daily misrepresents
Parent's Weekend
To the Daily:
I was recently dismayed at your cover-
age of the Second Annual Parents' Week-
end sponsored by the Student Alumni
Council (SAC). The article, "'U' wel
comes parents for weekend" (10/26/90P
contained many inaccuracies and trivialized
the whole event. Many people put in a;lot
of time and effort to make the weekend a
success, but this was neglected in your re-
porting.
The name of the SAC advisor is Leslie
Douglas and not Leslie Thomas as you re-
ported. The student co-chairs were just
quoted on what activities their parents
would attend and what would be served )
the Brunch with the President. This-.iP
ridiculous. The theme, goals, and prepara-
tions for Parents' Weekend did not seem to
matter.
Parents' Weekend serves a very valu-
able purpose by trying to make the Uni-
versity experience of the students mean-
ingful to their parents. This was only the
second year of Parents' Weekend, so there
is still a long way to go. I only hope that
in the future that the Daily would pan
more an proper attention and try to show a
little interest in what will become a very
important Michigan tradition. I can only
wonder how many other students groups'
activities have been so misrepresented.
Michael Ellis
LSA senior

LAST TUESDAY, THE SUPREME
Court heard oral argument in the first
abortion case of their new term, as
Planned Parenthood of New Yortk City
as well as the State and City of New
York brought the Rust v. Sullivan case
against the Federal government.
While it might appear to focus on
the issue of abortion, Rust v. Sullivan
actually centers around doctors' first
amendment rights of free speech. This
case is being used to decide whether or
not the 1988 addition of Title X to the
1970 Family Planning Services and
Population Act is constitutional.
The Title X statute prohibits Federal
funding to programs which cite abor-

women are currently served by the
money allocated to clinics. According
to Laurence H. Tribe, Planned Parent-
hood's lawyer in this case, "It would
be a 'clear violation' of the regulations
(of Title X) for a clinic employee to an-
swer [any question about abortion].
The regulations state that the answer to
[such a question] should be: 'The pro-
ject does not consider abortion an ap-
propriate method of family planning."'
Title X imposes serious limitations
on doctors' relations with their patients.
Doctors' freedom of speech must be
preserved so that they can accurately
inform their patients of all available
options, especially if continuing the
nreanancv will threaten the woman's