Page 4--The Michigan Daily - Wednesday, September 23, 1992 F(ditor in Chie 420 Maynard Street Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109 764 - 0552 MAITlIEW I RIENNIEI Opinion Editors YAEL CITRO GEOFFREY EARLE AMITAVA MAZUMDAR Edited and Managed by Students at the University of Michigan >U KNo e~ofr, (ME PL.E CLAIM' 1-HAl- CLw~LoN's ovcRvluA-IoN INu pop CuL1'uP6 LIKE AITVTALK SHOws 1Nb RoCk M4U~':C iSs 6~516 of A1 SEL~L-OVFA~S &U: 'HSBROKEN PPOMISES'. . - ~G / } L4HAT 7 t E5E PUNDITS FAIL -rO 1RA1IZE, OF COURSE, /S -r4A-THE~ ME1DIA BLIT ';PIS -TH-E t- 061CAi- 9ES'UL-T OF THE 0NCAr4^t1Y &"NACk CLINTON JHAS FoR COMIVAICgTING W i rHEVERYDFAY Fo ZKS .'j4 Mow' ~9 1{lrf. 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. FRO :"'\": A LY~. .. . . .. . . .. . . . t " . yr; Ali r. + +. r..usr . r 'r Leave the driving to 'U' ue to the unreliability of the Fuller bridge, buses commuting between North and Central campuses must rely on a safer, but unfortunately longer route. While much attention has been paid to the considerable length of the detour, less has been given to the University's poor handling of the situation. Since the bridge may not be completely re- paired until well into the next year, the University has the responsibility of insuring that the rerouted schedule will run as smoothly as possible. In this endeavor, the University has failed. While most bus riders are aware of the unavoid- able detour, few have any idea when normal routes will be resumed, or even when reconstruction of the bridge will begin (apparently, not until Decem- ber). Furthermore, the present bus schedules make no indication of this detour, and provide only out- dated information about the old routes. Students who want to take a look at the new routes must rely on posted sheets available only in a fraction of the buses. This aside, the University has yet to fully rec- ognize the added problem of transporting students between the two campuses in a reasonable amount of time. Before the detour, all three buses - Northwood, Bursley-Baits, and the seldom-run North Commuter - made stops for students with classes on North Campus. Now, the once widely used Bursley-Baits bus makes stops only in the residential areas. Those students wishing to com- mute between classes must now crowd on the other two buses. It is entirely impossible to find a seat, and bus isles are dangerously packed. At the bus stops, buses are often unable to pick up the entire crowd, forcing students to wait for the next bus. If these students are lucky, they have a only a ten-minute wait. But the wait can be as long as 15 minutes, depending on whether a bus is running behind schedule. This, coupled with the longer ride, makes an average trip last 30 minutes or more - about double the time of the same trip last year. Then again, the Northwood and Bursley-Baits buses used to arrive every seven minutes last year, rather than every ten to 15 minutes. In an attempt to alleviate the inconvenience, the University has added only a couple of buses to the Northwood Route. This small remedy has failed to reduce either the crowds or the travel time. Considering the University's class schedule only allows for 30 minutes between classes on the two campuses, these delays can cause students sched- uling problems. To effectively get at the problem, the University could add more buses to the Northwood route, since it is the only major route available for stu- dents with North Campus classes. If necessary, it could even take a bus or two from the less-crowded Bursley-Baits route. Perhaps the University could even rent a few buses from the financially ailing Greyhound Bus Company - anything to make sure students can get to class on time. JUST FINEB'ILL. -l / - -~=;- 4"r'.: y;-="- / 4: ' ; . fI LTERS.BE 0 } 0 Bushthe debate dodger Code aids rape victims To the Daily: You have raised a number of questions about the new State- ment of Student Rights and Responsibilities.You would do well to read the . icle on your own editorial page, -Date Rape Victim Tells Personal Story" (9/ 14/92). Your statemient that ".. the Ann Arbor courts have jurisdiction over these crimes," demonstrates your failure to understand what these crimes mean to their victims. It may be true that this was a crime punish- able by the courts, however a very small percentage of such crimes ever gets reported. She did try to handle it within the University. by reporting the manl's misconduct to the President of his fraternity. Perhaps if the proposed policy had been in place she would not have felt so totally trapped -and she might ha\ e even used the University's mechanisms to deal with her situation. As it was, there was nothing but the local court system, of which she wrote, "No court will ever prosecute a little boy who went too far." Further- more, rape is very hard to prove in court, and it takes a long time before it can be addressed. In this area of sexual harass- ment, as in other areas, faculty and staff have had policies governing our behavior for some time. Why is it then so unreason- able that students should live within similarly defined areas of rights and responsibilities? Harvey Bertcher, D.S.W. Professor of Social Work To the Daily: I am sick and tired of hearing the word "minority." Will someone please tell me who isn't a "minority?" If African Americans, womyn, gay men, Asians, American Indians, the physically chal- lenged, lesbians, Latin Ameri- cans, Jews, Hari Krishnas, Muslims, bisexuals, HIV-positive people, the mentally ill, atheists and the homeless are all consid- ered "minorities," then will the real majority please stand up? Who elected the white, heterosexual, Christian, finan- cially secure men who are not physically challenged, HIV positive or mentally ill to the majority? I'm sure if all the numbers were added up they would be a "minority" just like everyone else. In our country, no one should be referred to as a "major" or a "minor." We're all people. Okay. so some people may be different from other people, but that doesn't make one group of people more important than another. Nick Pawlowski LSA sophomore Who is the majority anyway? An open letter to 'U' students 01 W hat are voters to think of a presidential candidate who refuses to argue crucial is-. sues before the public? Considering President Bush's retreat from the debate planned with Gov. Clinton for last night in East Lansing, they should think very little of his re-election effort. The principle at stake is whether presidential debates are best organized by a nonpartisan third party concerned with the public interest or cam- paign strategists concerned with the protection of their candidate's image. The bipartisan Commission on Presidential Debates recommended three debates with a single moderator who would be able to glean specifics through follow-up questions. The commission chose this format to avoid personal attacks, to make the debates less orchestrated and to pique the interest of potential viewers. Bush found fault with this set-up, preferring only two debates and a panel of questioners. He reserved the right to determine the times and dates of the debates and bypass the recommendations of the commission. He wanted to avoid a free-form debate that would force him to think on his feet and answer tough questions form his opponent. The format proposed by Bush would have elicited a predictable debate with stock answers from the candidates and limited follow-up from the panelists, as has been the case in the past. This distracting set-up would reduce viewers' ability to hear and judge the candidates based on their indi- vidual merits. The controversy will continue to be an issue, since both candidates have agreed to two debates. Bush, however, wants one debate to cover the economy and one to cover foreign policy. This plan would leave many important social issues untouched. The Clinton camp refused to negotiate this week's debate, and the deadline for a settlement expired. Not only is the cancellation of the debate a huge disappointment to the Michigan State Uni- versity (MSU) and East Lansing community, but it deprives voters of a major source of information about the candidates' programs and communica- tion abilities. A recent survey shows that more than half of U.S. adults watch the debates and consider them important when deciding how to vote. Furthermore, by dodging the debate, Bush slighted the state. With Michigan unemployment soaring, it is no wonder that the president would rather avoid discussing his economic record and minimalist plans. But he failed to give MSU even "the favor of a reply." The school wasted half a million dollars to prepare for a debate that never materialized. Wisely, Clinton took advantage of the situation to make a solo appearance. Bush's stonewalling over the format of the debates only reinforces the perception that his re- election effort is floundering and defensive in nature. The candidates should debate under the conditions recommended by the commission and let the voters make a well-informed choice. Welcome back and welcome to Ann Arbor. I want to take this opportunity to introduce myself to those of you I have not yet met. My name is Mark Guimet and I am running for the State Representative seat for the 52nd district. I decided to enter this race because it is important that we have a voice in Lansing that speaks for our community. I have spent my entire life in Ann Arbor and working towards its benefit. These are exciting times and critical times, as well. We need to focus on our community, to work together to solve our problems. Since you, as Michigan students, spend almost nine months out of the year in Ann Arbor, I value your input in our community. As members of the student body, you possess tremendous talents in many areas of specialization. It is important that your voices are heard. And although not all of you live in the 52nd district, I ask for your involvement. The 52nd is not an island. I want to ask you for your help. Our campaign is a one-on- one approach to politics. I have gone to over 15,000 doors in our community and I will continue this through to the election. We are building a coalition that transcends party lines and we ask that you join in. The campaign offers you a chance to jump in and make a change in state level politics. Mark Ouimet Candidate for State Represen- tative, 52nd district COMMUN ITY INSIGHT. ..... . MSA responds to Daily criticisms 'nuj cipi' r 1i~'1f II,, by Ede Fox and Hunter Van Valkenburgh We are compelled to respond to the editorials ("MSA betrays stu- dent interests..." 9/10/92) concern- ing the activities of the Summer Student Assembly, the summer body of the Michigan Student As- sembly. While we recognize that the interpretive fine points are de- batable, there are some errors of fact, and we will respond point-by- point. Firstly, the net fee increase was for $.43 per student, not $.78, be- cause we were asking that the $.35 fee for nc Michigan Collegiate Coalition (M(.C)-which the Daily supports--be rolled into our fee, as the University has been whining about collecting fees for a lobbying group (the University, in fact, pays for lobbying out of student tuition). Callng $.43 a "large increase" is jus laughable given that it is less ti h. the cost of most candy bars. Furthermore, it was not an unjusti- fied request. Last year, the Ann Arbor Ten- ants Union (AATU) took a 45 per- cent cut at the hands of the Jamie Green administration, and had to cut their services in half. Student Legal Services (SLS), which pro- vides free legal help to any student, had its allocation frozen, causing financial difficulties for its staff of experienced lawyers. The language of the "fee cap" is ambiguous, and we felt the needs of AATU, SLS and MSA justified this small in- crease per student. We were not "taken to task... for fiscal irresponsibility" by the re- resulted in the best audit report of several years. Much of the credit goes to last year's Assembly, who hired an accountant. We have pledged to the regents to imple- ment those procedures recom- mended by the auditors, and get an even better report next spring. On the issue of the tuition in- crease, we must apologize to the student body for not being more vocal at the time it was being de- bated by the regents. Part of the reason was that almost without ex- ception students oppose tuition in- creases, and for us to tell that to the regents would be superfluous. An- other part was that we were all busy with our own work at the time. We saw no problem with asking for '43 cents for our work while opposing tuition hikes of hundreds or thousands of dollars per student, and it is presumptuous of the Daily to say we "feared" doing so, with- out asking us first. The Daily is right in its opinion that an official statement opposing the increase would have been in order. The $350 granted to graduate students at the School of Social Work for printing pamphlets con- cerning the weavers co-op in Gua- temala is not a "random" or "hap- hazard" grant. If the Daily were paying attention for the last 20 or so years, MSA has always given money to student groups who at- tempt to enrich the educational op- portunities here at the University and who cannot find the funds else- where. This has always been part of our mission. If the regents are planning a Crcnnlept renroanization of R A ing to come in one day and find out that our keys don't fit anymore. As concerns the changes to the Board for Student Publications, we feel that the Daily's reaction to our actions was overblown. The pro- posed changes were drawn up by a task force heavily weighted toward the administration, and was ap- proved by a majority of the Daily editors, not the entire Daily staff. In our opinion, it gives the presi- dent too much veto power over the selection of the board. This is okay now given the people he has prom- ised to appoint, but could lead to an insidious stacking of the board, which has a financial stranglehold on the paper. The final changes were not ready during the school year, and all we asked was that the vote on the changes be delayed until the school year for full public view. Like tuition increases, deputization and other anti-student measures, this was being dealt with in the summer, as if the president were trying to sneak it past students. We hope the future proves us wrong on the actual effect on the Daily, but we stand behind our attempt to open the process up to the entire student body. MSA and the Daily have more common interests than disparate ones. We are all students at an ex- pensive public institution, and as such have an interest in seeing it remain open to a broad spectrum of the public, and not become an elite institution for a privileged few or a research-heavy "business" that sac- rifices undergraduate education. While differenre n nnininn are. 0 T HE. B O 1IN . . . .. . . .............. ........ De'at of a salesa pItch Anyone who's watched much college football on T.V. knows that universities will go to almost any length to make their school look good on its commercials. We've all seen clips of eager- to-learn college students hard at work with the most advanced lasers or some other high-tech equipment, even though, in truth, most students only get to use the laser beams every couple of weeks or so. Some students are shown translating the last of the Dead Sea Scrolls, while others are hard at work in economics class finding a fool proof way to permanently balance the federal budget. g ofn nn..O . ciyn n r ,- fnr-- nh ,I -,-a fn latest ad is, if not realistic, a notch or two better thy;n the vanilla mush that normally fills the air waves on football Saturdays. The new spot, which shows a young Arthur Miller opening his University acceptance letter and convincing his parents of the value of a Big Ten education, certainly continues the tradition of corniness (which must stretch all the way back to the very first college football telecast). But at least it doesn't portray a "typical" college lifestyle that's actually about as typical as Preacher Mike prosely- tizing for Shi'ite Islam. And the next time you read the Cliffs Notes for m a 2 - ~ , _ _. .. I----------.. -