Page 4- The Michigan Daily- Thursday, October 8, 1992 Gbe A icigau &iI1 Editor in Chief - -, '/ r "THEY SAID f7" COL)bN' -r SE ~WHE S TA7%AHLf- DOA/ !5u7-CON&'E~SSWOULDN'T' FA1EN e'TT7&- OF GET US 1O/1 -- 7' t31C-T g-rA/? RSA4t1 -VF W &p~t)1LocK !/A/wA5N NfrThN A,4ENt .S9111N1 FER /JSP IA 4 t __ _ _. . 420 Maynard Street Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109 764-0552 MATTHEW D. RENNIE Opinion Editors YAEL CITRO GEOFFREY EARLE AMITAVA MAZUMDAR ___ / 01 Edited and Managed by Students at the University of Michigan 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. Questions about the code remain .- - r t The scores of students who embarrassed the administration with their pointed criticism of its vague and convoluted "Statement of Student Rights and Responsibilities" have been at least partially vindicated. The new draft of the State- ment contains many of their suggestions, and is a marked improvement over previous drafts. Unfor- tunately, in its zealous attempt to implement a code - albeit a better one - by mid-October, the administration overlooked a few things, namely that it does not need a code, and it already has one. ACLU President David Schwartz and MSA Rep. Robert Van Houweling, the two students involved in the re-write who added the construc- tive changes, were both encouraged by Vice Presi- dent for Student Affairs Maureen Hartford's will- ingness to take their suggestions. Perhaps the administration has finally learned that students can draft a cleaner code than its own lawyers. And some of the code's most disturbing flaws are gone. The new code pays more attention to due process. The standard of evidence has been changed from "more likely than not" to "clear and convinc- ing evidence." Unanimity, not a majority, of the student jurors is needed to sanction a student, and jurors are selected at random at the beginning of each year. This ought to be relieving to anyone who heard Hartford's allusions to a "stratified jury," a.k.a. quotas and gender distribution. How- ever, the accused still does not have the right to active representation by an attorney, and we ques- tion why the University is so stalwart in opposing this fundamental right. While the old code gave the University the authority to sanction students for non-academic conduct committed literally everywhere in the world, the new code sensibly enumerates the pun- ishable offenses, and divides them up by location. Some are punishable only ifcommitted on Univer- sity property, while others apply off-campus. This seems sensible: if the University wants to ban bad or illegal behavior on its own property, that is its business. Curiously though, all of the actions pro- hibited in the Ann Arbor area are illegal anyway - and they already lie in the State and City's jurisdic- ' tion. These are crimes like murder, arson and forgery. It is unlikely that a University sanction would be more of a deterrent than jail time, and the University would do better to lay off than to try to prosecute. What is clearly the code's greatest fault, and the one that will jeopardize the rights of the accused for generations to come, is its unequal treatment of certain stigmatized crimes. While serious crimes like physical assault, battery and even murder are only applicable if committed in Ann Arbor, sexual assault, rape and harassment apply "regardless of where they occur." Put bluntly, a student who murders an entire family in Ohio may be free from sanction, but a student who harasses a colleague in Australia or Morocco is not. This is a clear and absurd double standard. The code as a whole is improved, but the criti- cisms and the questions remain. Why does the University want to be in the business of enforcing the law? How can it be more fair than the U.S. legal system? Why does it insist on crafting a broad code instead of adopting a minimalist policy exclusive to sexual assault and harassment, as the law de- mands? If the administration is so concerned with student input, why not put a series of proposals up to a student vote? And why is the University going through this ordeal at all if its 1973 code, the "Rules of the University Community," is still on the books? Associate Vice President for Student Affairs Vir- ginia Nordby stated that "the Rules have not been enforced for decades; (the administration) had many, many problems ... in enforcing them." Executive Director of University Relations Walter Harrison agreed. "(The Rules) don't exist. They were never enforced," he said. Vice President for Student Affairs Maureen Hartford has asked University General Counsel Elsa Cole to see if the existing Rules "present a problem." Still, the administra- tion must be aware that the original Rules were a contract between administration, faculty and stu- dents, while the new code - revised or not - will be externally imposed upon the students. The administration can put these questions to rest by allowing the students to control their own fate in a campus-wide referendum. 01 S::1 L,1ThI'IIIIS; ICC misrepresented To the Daily: Your Opinion piece "Does the ICC have your money?" (9/24/ 92) was shockingly devoid of any real-world perspective in the matters of cooperative living and the ICC's place in the Ann Arbor market. Throughout the editorial, false comparisons to Ann-Arbor landlords are made. In the ICC, the landlords are the members of the cooperative. Members set their own rates, do their own maintenance, and manage their own property. Most pertinent to the point of this article, if the membership of the ICC wished to return shares in May instead of October, it could do so very easily. But not only was the ICC founded, as clumsily stated in your editorial, "with the intent of offering cheap and affordable housing" (sic), but also to promote cooperative living. With that goal comes the responsibility of educating members about the machinery, management and the ideology of the cooperative. True, the ICC could hire more staff to take the place of indi- vidual house treasurers which would certainly be more efficient. But the cost would be the disempowerment of the member- ship as well as that additional price tag of staffing. The most offensive aspect of the editorial was its snide attitude and, ultimately, emptiness. To anyone remotely familiar with the nature of cooperatives, the article rings false and unknowledgeable. If the Daily were more professional, it would adequately research a topic before publishing an opinion piece. Rod Schoonover ICC President 1988-89,1991 Chapman responds to letters To the Daily: I was not planning to respond to Cori Jakubiak's letter ("Letter offends sorority women," 9/29/ 92). Usually, I consider pieces that ignore the issues and concen- trate on armchair psychoanalysis to be beneath contempt, but, Jakubiak made a few unsubstanti- ated accusations to which I would like to respond. She accused me of slander and of being "anti-female." She did not explain what exactly she meant by either of these charges and I am frankly at a loss as to what parts of my letter prompted them. Jakubiak, if you are going to write things like this, you had better give examples to back them up. As for your allegation of sexism, I tried to point out in my letter that the excessive noise sorority members are allowed to make on Bid Day - totally inconsistent with Ann Arbor law - is merely symptomatic of the special privilege that the white fraternities and sororities on this campus enjoy. Finally, having accused me of being "anti-female," you go on to charge that this means I must be racist and homophobic as well. These charges are self-evidently silly, but I would like to ask you a few questions. I-low many African-American women are in your sorority? Iow many of your members are openly lesbian or bisexual? I am sorry Ms. Jakubiak, but pointing out the flaws of the Greek system does not make someone arrogant, and it certainly does not make me racist, sexist or homophobic. Jim Chapman LSA senior 0 Greek coverage hypocritical a, .4 r -, 'C ; Opinion Editor Yael Citro, a member of the three-student board to re-draft the code, did not participate in the discussion or the writing of this editorial. Militants infinge STast week, a Planned Parenthood in Grand Rapids, MI was sprayed by gunfire. Two weeks earlier, this and another nearby women's clinic were doused with butyric acid, a chemical that smells of vomit. Though the Planned Parent- hood doesn't even perform abortions, it became one of the many clinics nationwide to fall victim to a militant faction of the anti-abortion rights minor- ity. As these attacks become more prevalent, it is becoming readily apparent that the forces of the religious right and militant anti-abortion rights activists can effectively nullify Roe v. Wade, whether or not the Supreme Court ever overturns it. With their blatant disregard for the law and the lives of patients and doctors, these holier-than- thou fanatics have far overstepped their legal right to assembly and protest. Abortion clinics are blockaded, women are harassed, and doctors are threatened. In Wichita, Kan. last year, Operation Rescue, a national anti- aboriton rights organization, staged protests that lasted six weeks and resulted in more than 2,600 arrests. Similarly, the reactionary Victim Souls of the Unborn Christ Child, known as the Lambs of Christ, travel the country targeting abortion clin- ics. They stalk neighborhoods, threatening doc- tors and their families, and chain themselves to on right to. choose automobiles and concrete blocks to impede police efforts to stop them from blockading the "killing centers." As doctors are scared away from performing abortions, many areas are left without anyone to perform the procedure legally. According to Time magazine, abortion has ceased to be available in 83 percent of U.S. counties; only one doctor performs them in the entire state of South Dakota. This places an extreme burden on poor women who cannot make expensive trips to get an abortion. The Supreme Court has ruled that the state cannot place an undue burden on women seeking abortions, yet a tiny extremist fringe has successfully done just this. Anti-abortion rights organizations havetheright to voice dissent. But in these cases, the dissent has gone so far as to infringe on the rights of others. Pro-choice lawyers have accurately compared Operation Rescue's behavior to the massive opposition tech- nique of racists who physically blocked school entrances to prevent integration. Now, as then, the battle to protect legal abortion must be fought in both the courts and the clinics. It is crucial that the anti-abortion rights tilt of our national courts be reversed; however, a right which cannot be practically utilized is of dubious value. To the Daily: I have never seen a positive word in the Daily about any Greek activity or accomplish- ment. When the Greek system raises money for charities, it is grudgingly reported, but when a tragedy or a scandal arises, the Daily gleefully editorializes the event as yet another piece of evidence of the evil of fraternities and sororities. Perhaps what I object to most is the hypocritical attitude that the Daily perpetuates and yet seems unaware of. The Daily has long championed (and rightly so) the idea that everyone must think of everyone else as an individual, with independent needs and varying opinions. I believe in this attitude. How is it then, that the Daily refuses to acknowledge that the Greek system is made up of thousands of individuals, each with different ways of behaving, thinking and feeling? How can the Daily insinuate that all "fraternity men" are date rapists and that all "sorority women" are fluff headed, thinking more about how to spend Daddy's money than about classes or other important interests? I know that I am not alone in my feelings. Many people I have spoken with have expressed the same feelings of frustration, anger and confusion. Perhaps if the Daily is not willing to open its eyes to the variety of the Greek system, it should at least shut its mouth. Olivia Lee Gamma Phi Beta Sorority VIEWPOINT Bovine solution to higher education 0 GA cuts cause continued suffening This is Michigan State week, and I would normally devote this column to spewing venom at our agricultural counterpart to the North. But this being the Opinion page, I have decided instead to tackle a more vexing topic: the University's decline in academic quality. According to the latest U.S. News and World Report poll, the University of Michigan is now merely the 24th best University in the country, down two spots from last year. Harvard is listed as No. one. While some administrators and faculty have expressed concern, I would like to point out that this poll was a iJONA HAN grossly misleading A gauge of our aca- d e m i c prowess for two major reasons: Michigan is actually rated No. 21 in the Associated Press poll. Our football team could ab- solutely maul Harvard's. There is a good chance that the Harvard quar- terback could not be identified after the game without the use of his dental records. So there's really no University facilities to Friday and Saturday nights. This is true. "They said they were concerned Michi- gan was getting a reputation as a party school," said University Ac- tivities Center President Jason Hackner. Now, I would like you to walk up to a student from, say, oh... Michigan State, and tell them that the academic mission of our school is being circumvented by parties. He would probably look you straight in the eye and say: "Huh?" Then he would pass out, drunk. Face it: the University of Michi- gan has about as much of a reputa- tion as a party center as post-revo- lutionary Iran. But the administra- tion is serious about this. If they follow through and ban allcampus parties except for Friday and Satur- day, they'll have to enforce - par- don the expression - a two-party- system. Already, it's getting harder to hold parties. A couple of weeks ago, my housemates and I had a party which received anoise viola- tion - after it had broken up. I had the following actual conversation with a police officer: - HIM: We received a complaint about a noisy party. I have to give you a violation. ME: But officer, as you can see, complaints about police brutality? As I was saying, this crackdown on parties seems to be related to our slide in the U.S. News and World Report poll. And I say the problem isn't with the University of Michi- gan - the problem is that the poll is slanted. Sure, if you evaluate uni- versities based on useless criteria like test scores, faculty-student ra- tio and graduation rate, we might not be able to compete with the Ivy League. But, I have devised an impartial system to evaluate our nation's uni- versities. My test will not consider standardized test scores, which are biased in favor of smart people. This is a five-pronged test, be- cause you usually only see the ad- jective "pronged" in conjunction with the number three, or some- times two. I see no good reason why* a test cannot have four or more prongs. Prong 1: Temperature differen- tial, in degrees Fahrenheit, between course-registration room and out- doors in December. Prong 2: Fifteen bonus points if the university president can name the artist who sang "Jenny/867- 5309." * Prong 3: Number of Big Ten football championships won, 1988- 91. (Schools which do not belong to 4year after Gov. John Engler slashed Michigan's General Assistance (GA) welfare program, a study conducted by Wayne State University's (WSU) Center for Urban Studies reported that 46,000 former recipients -83 percent - are still unemployed. Engler expressed his encouragement that 17 percent found work, and is confident the number will continue to grow. As long as Engler is impressed by such a meager figure, the people of Michigan cannot expect him to rectify his callous policies. With the economy still mired with high unem- ployment and slow growth, these former GA cli- ents can hardly compete with the 450,000 Michi- abuse presents further problems. Employers, with an already large stock of unskilled workers from which to choose, have little incentive to hire such potential liabilities. The de-institutionalization of mental hospitals and withdrawal of government support have forced these victims into inescapable holes. Under GA, they received more than money. They often re- ceived an opportunity for a future. The Michigan Opportunity and Skills Training (MOST) program helped many GA clients get back onto the work line. Now, past recipients are literally on their own. Michigan is heading along the charity-for-none track that Engler set in motion almost two years