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Page 4 -The Michigan Daily --Tuesday, November 20, 1990
EDITED AND MANAGED BY STUDENTS
AT THE UNMVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
420 Maynard Street
Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109
Viewpoint
'U.
affects students in a lot of ways
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.
Out of tune
'U' office errs in not booking minority bands
The Office of Major Events (OME)
has recently come under fire from mi-
nority groups, mainly the Michigan
Student Assembly's Minority Affairs
Commission, for not bringing in mi-
nority performers. The Office of Major
Events, for the uninitiated, is the
University office in charge of produc-
ing concerts at venues such as Hill
Auditorium and Crisler Arena.
The controversy stems from the fact
that OME has recently refused to stage
such acts as Anita Baker, Miami Sound
Machine, and Hiroshima, citing pri-
marily economic reasons. Different
student groups were ready to co-spon-
sor all those entertainers.
The major concern cited was that
these acts would simply not bring in
money. As the OME Director Kevin
Gilmartin said: "You take an enormous
economic loss if you try to produce
Black music in a white bread basket...
Washtenaw county has a small market
to draw from."
To say Black acts would not bring
money is plain silly. Washtenaw
County is located in Southeast Mich-
fgan, where there has traditionally been
a large African-American population.
'Furthermore, events at the University
have regional appeal, which attract
people from around the area in addition
to students.
Gilmartin should be reminded that
people from cities like Detroit, Lansing
and Jackson regularly come to shows
in Ann Arbor. Hill Auditorium is sup-
posed to have near-perfect acoustics,
making it among the best concert halls
in the State. An Anita Baker concert
would certainly have drawing power
there.
Miami Sound Machine and Anita
Baker have routinely cracked the Bill-
board Top 100. Both of these acts have
sold out halls in many other parts of the
country. Besides them, there are many
Black, Hispanic, and other acts that
continually are at the top of the pop
charts. Concert goers pay a lot of
money to see these acts, and they usu-
ally sell a lot of tickets to their shows.
And these groups' appeal routinely ex-
tends beyond a particular community.
On this campus, student groups
want to book these acts, but they need
the help of the University. The OME
has given no realistic explanation of
how these chart-topping acts would be
unprofitable.
Their excuses are very hollow, and
their intentions are in doubt. The Uni-
versity should make a conscious effort
to bring minority groups to campus. To
do any less unnecessarily embarrasses
the community, while alienating a large
section of the population.
By Corey Dolgon
Organizers of the anti-deputization
struggle have already stated how an armed,
administration-controlled police force will
directly affect campus life: armed cops will
chill free expression and protest; intensify
the harassment of women, people of color
and gay men and lesbians; and cost
University students millions in tuition in-
creases.
But - as if these weren't enough -
there are other University cop-related is-
sues that expose important connections
between the role of students on campus
and the University's role in society at
large.
In 1987, then-Vice Provost for
Academic Affairs James Duderstadt urged
the regents to rescind the University's
"end-use" restrictions on military research.
This policy (known as the "kill-maim"
clause) prohibited researchers from work-
ing on projects to produce increasingly ef-
ficient weapons for human destruction.
The regents complied. Since then, the
University has taken in millions of dollars
in Defense Department grants to conduct
research on such things such as SDI and
biological/chemical warfare. Although this
money never leaves the confines of engi-
neering and the "hard sciences," increased
military spending on campus has added to
the University's reputation as a "top re-
search university." We help build the war
machine.
Weapons research is not the only link
between the University and the "real"
Dolgon is a Rackham graduate student,
the chair of the MSA Students' Rights
Commission, and a leader of the Students
for a Safer Campus movement.
world. Much of the research in the social
or "soft" sciences actually intensifies
structural problems in American society
by presenting systemic failures as individ-
ual pathologies. And places like the
Institute for Social Research are regularly
commissioned by big business as well as
the government to conduct studies that
confirm predisposed positions - it's no
accident that ISR was chosen to conduct
the survey that the administration now
uses to justify arming cops.
And even the humanities propagates
structural inequalities by reinforcing elite
notions of what "knowledge" is, while si-
lencing or marginalizing the experiences
and cultures of "non-traditional" groups.
The university simultaneously produces
and justifies U.S. dominant culture.
Fleming sent a confidential memo to
regents calling for a five-point program
deal with the "disruption of university ac-
tivities." In the document, Fleming la-
ments that "since 1964, political issues
like the war in Vietnam, social tensions
surrounding racial injustice, environmental
problems, research policies, discrimina-
tion, and other similar issues came to the
campus and found a permanent home."
Thus he proposed a package asking the
regents to adopt a policy on free spee
and protest, terminate the Universit
Council, and deputize campus security of-
ficers. Fleming explains that these mea-
sures "should vastly improve our capabil-
ity to deal with disruptive acts." Again,
the regents complied.
It's clear to the organizers of the anti-
It's clear to the organizers of the anti-deputization
movement that the administration is trying roll back
the repressive clock on student participation in both
campus and world affairs.
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Since the 1960s, however, students
have challenged the role that universities
play in reproducing the U.S. military and
cultural domination. Not only did student
movements strengthen the civil rights and
anti-war struggles, but they directly chal-
lenged the University's involvement in
world oppression by protesting ROTC and
CIA recruitment on campus, by demand-
ing divestment from companies complicit
in South African apartheid, and by forcing
curriculum changes that opened spaces for
"non-traditional" voices to be heard and
empowered.
In 1988, Interim President Robben
deputization movement that the adminis-
tration is trying roll back the repressive
clock on student participation in both
campus and world affairs. As our govern-
ment speeds towards the brink of a war in
the gulf which will lead to catastroph'
human suffering, their efforts at silencin
students comes at a very precarious time.
Given the University's own interests in
U.S. foreign policy, there can be little
doubt it will intensify its efforts to stifle
students' voices of opposition in any way
it can. Now, more than ever, the adminis-
tration mustn't be allowed to have the
guns on their side.
After the Thanksgiving break, a letter from
President Duderstadt addressing the issue of
campus deputization will appear on the
Opinion Page.
'M' will not be spending this Xmas in Opryland
Regents should stop silencing students
To the Daily:
Sports columnist Eric Lemont clearly
"was not admitted to the University on the
-strength of his knowledge of geography or
-music history. Allow me to take a mo-
iment here to correct some of his deficien-
cies in these fields.
Mr. Lemont, please follow these easy
steps:
: Pick up a map of the United States.
Locate the spot on this map where
.Tennessee, Arkansas, and Mississippi
meet. This spot will be labeled
-"Memphis." This, as you correctly noted
in "'M' hopes to avoid Xmas in
"Opryland," (11/14/90), is the home of the
Liberty Bowl.
Now look a bit to the right.
-Somewhere near the middle of the state la-
beled "Tennessee," there should be a dot
labeled "Nashville," which, as reading the
-map's scale will reveal, is several hundred
-miles away from Memphis. Nashville, not
Memphis, is where Opryland, Conway
Twitty, Louise Mandrell, and the Blue
Ridge Mountains are located.
To clear up another geographical mat-
ter, Lemont says that in Memphis, there
-re "streams of people mistaking Elvis
(Willoughby Hills, Ohio) for Elvis (your
local K-Mart)." Not true.
Everyone in ,Memphis knows that
Elvis is six feet underground at Graceland,
content in the knowledge that he did it his
way. The most widely reported post-1977
sighting of Elvis was in Kalamazoo,
Michigan, wasn't it?
Far from being home to twangy coun-
try music, Memphis is a great blues and
rock town where B.B. King, Muddy
Waters, John Lee Hooker, and, yes, Elvis
Presley fine-tuned their sounds before be-
coming nationally known.
As a native of Memphis, I can attest
that it is a kickass town where I know I'm
spending Christmas. Hey, we all wish we
were smelling roses and everyone wants to
take out Ohio State.
If 'M' ends up in Memphis, though,
it'll be a good time for anyone who fol-
lows the team down.
Jeff Danziger
LSA senior
Get Lemont a map!
To the Daily:
Even though I am from Memphis and
would love to see the Wolverines play in
my backyard during the Winter Break, I
would much rather see them on television
in Pasadena fighting for a national cham-
pionship. Who knows... maybe next year.
But if we end up in my hometown for the
Liberty Bowl, and if Eric Lemont and any
other Blue fans make the road trip for the
festivities, here are some pointers. The
Liberty Bowl is in Memphis, Tennessee,
in the southwest corner bordering
Mississippi and Arkansas. I assume that
Mr. Lemont did not have a handy road
map to check his facts before he sent his
article to press.
Nashville is in the center of the state, a
mere three hour road trip from my home.
Nashville has the mountains. Memphis
has the Mississippi River.
Nashville has Opryland. Memphis has
Beale Street, the home of the blues. And
who can forget Graceland? Forget about K-
Mart sightings.
To quote Living Colour, "Elvis is
dead." Any Memphian could tell you that.
Forget Conway Twitty and Louise
Mandrell. If the Blue win, they'll be toast-
ing with B.B. King and Jerry Lee Lewis.
Lastly, don't ever confuse country with
the blues.
On a final note, I don't understand how
this article could have made it through the
editing process without someone catching
the errors. Enclosed is a copy of a Rand
McNally Atlas and a Memphis Tourist
Guide.
Barry Cohen
LSA junior
To the Daily:
For about two weeks, I've been hearing
about the protest that is currently going
on at the Fleming Building. I could hardly
avoid it, despite the efficiency with which.
University Groundskeepers removed the
posters, eliminating every written instance
of "Stop Guns on Campus" or "The U
Police Force Will Cost YOU Money."
I never planned to go, of course. I have
a very low tolerance to everything from
the enforced sense of community the left
projects, to their flimsy logic, to Corey
Dolgon's singing. Especially the singing,
come to think of it. But I suspect that
Corey means well, and I had always sus-
pected that the regents meant well also.
Until this week.
Yesterday I watched a University em-
ployee remove the last of the "No Cops"
posters, leaving up a gamut of posters
from Soundtrack advertisements to "for
sale" signs. Today, I heard that the
University is ticketing students for chalk-
ing the Diag with slogans. They're ticket-
ing their own students for using CHALK,
for God's sake!
No one is ticketing the MSA candi-
dates who chalk or the people who write
"happy birthday" messages to one another
on the Walking Bridge. No, you have to
say something the University really
doesn't like to get ticketed.
Whatever these students have to say
about deputization and armed security offi-
cers, shouldn't they have a right to say it?
They are students, not some bunch of out-
side agitators, and there are certainly worse
crimes than chalk. What could be so
frightening about these students that the
regents feel compelled to silence them in-
stead of explaining to the rest of us why
these kids are wrong?
Don't misunderstand me. I am certainly
no liberal. I have belonged to the College
Republicans for four years, and have writ-
ten for The Michigan Review for two. I
disagree with the strategy behind sit-ins
and rallies. Riot negotiations never con-
vince anyone of anything. What is needed
is rational discourse. The regents and
many of the students disagree. Let's at
least attempt to talk about it. What could
be harmful about a reasonable, calm dis-
cussion of our differences?
I am honestly perplexed and hurt that
the regents and administration seem to be
hiding from any rational debate on the
subject. Until now, most of the regents
and administrators have struck me as basi-
cally decent people, trying to make as
many people as happy as possible, but
were leaving, after jumping on the first
bus headed that way after I was told that
the question-and-answer session had been
moved. I felt that my one normal way of
contacting the regents had been removed
without reason.
I don't want to riot in order to have m*
voice heard. I don't even have the time.
All I want to know is why the regents are
afraid of talking? These silencing tactics
only lend legitimacy to the sit-ins and ri-
ots. Like an ignored child, your students
yell louder and louder for your attention.
How loud must they get before you let
them speak?
I am concerned about the probability of
accidents with armed campus security offi-
cers. Some dark night, a vagrant is goinP
to reach into his coat a little too fast, and
an officer will react as well as he can, but
sooner or later that won't be enough.
Giving weapons to officers won't make
me feel any safer; it will only increase the
number of people who might possibly
shoot me. Please, listen to our com-
plaints. Before you write us off as chil-
dren, give us one last chance to act like
adults. a
Joseph Klein
LSA Senior
Michigan Review
Asst. Editor, The,
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Destructive chalking
To the Daily:
While walking around campus last
Thursday, I discovered that the "No Gunst
No Cops! No Code!" activists had beer
hard at work the night before, chalking up
their slogans practically everywhere on
campus, in order to publicize the rally
they held at Regents' Plaza that afternoon.
I found it dismaying, however, to see
some of the sites that these activists chose
to chalk.
Besides writing on the sides of
University buildings (including the inside
of an elevator in the Michigan Union).
some activist had written the above slo-
gans on the Diag poster boards advertising
Soph Show's production of "Sweet
Charity" and the UM-OSU Blood Battle. I
can possibly understand why these ac-
tivists would choose to vandalize
University property (since they view the
University administration as their oppo-
nents), but why vandalize these posters?
The ends - no matter now noble
do not justify the means. In seeking t