Page 4-The Michigan Daily- Monday,'March 1,1993 be £itigau aitj r _ 420 Maynard Ann Arbor, MI 48109 Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan Josi DUBOW Editor in Chief YAEL M. CITRO ERIN LIZA EINHORN Opinion Editors Unsigned editorials represent the majority opinion of the Daily editorial board. All other cartoons, signed articles and letters do not necessarily represent the opinion of the Daily. -. } / r .>' -, 1 k< ' //t A PP EG I A~T ETH E BAN ON 1 1 ©Kt NC-.L THMEAN f LLJ"LL I' SECOND,-NAND 5SMOKE Is 1DOVNRI&W-F T &NHEA-r(/ ~ MORE. Gr "" C A ,/ 2 1 I1 PPIH Moratorium should be IN A FLURRY of backtracking and apologies, members of the University administration- including University President James Duderstadt and Vice Provost Gilbert Whitaker - have confirmed that the School of Public Health followed im- properprocedures when Con deciding to discontinue w the Department of AZ Population uainPlanning rrifed tt nn and Inernational Health "A (PPIH). The mistakes a have been recorded, the #' , injuries filed and the University has agreed ! to turn back and review v o the decision. a qaoimo e In January, School ehesr of Public Health Dean June Osborn and theEx-SW I~Fb ecutive Committee of.. the School of Publi Health placed a mora- torium on new faculty , nd m hiringand on studentt admissions for PPIH. , :h~ ~ aebe wToday, the Executive .::..:: > >:.. Committee will be de- :::::.:::;.:::.: liberating whether tore- verse this decision.. Hopefully, the committee will see the errors of its ways and agree to lift the moratorium before it is too late. As PPIH faculty and students have pointed out, there are proper review procedures for closing a department. The University's Stan- dard Practice Guide 601.2 suggests "an inde- pendent assessment of the quality and viability of a program ... take place prior to recommend- ing that a program be considered for discontinu- ance." Whiletheseprocedures are only suggestions, they have been endorsed by the University Board of Regents, the Senate Advisory Committee on University Affairs (SACUA) and the deans and directors of numerous academic units. Nowhere does it state that proper procedure includes placing a department on moratorium, particularly before review, unless of course one intends to guarantee the elimination of a depart- ment and sabotage any possibility for a fair review. This is precisely the route taken by Osborn and the Executive Committee. In a memo to the students, faculty and staff ofthe School ofPublic Health dated Feb. 2, 1993, Osborn indicts her- self. She states, "The Executive committee ... discussed the probability that the Department ' (PPIH) would have to be discontinued as a Department, and voted to initiate that process by declaring a moratorium on a new admissions Q; a x :< ' : :=:a r lifted immediately and new hires." In her own words, the morato- rium was meant to initiate "that process," of slashing PPIH. Blatantly ignoring the recommendations of the Standard Practices Guide, Osborn and the Executive Commit- mit tee made this initial .,.e..c cdecision without t.::...... .t "meaningful consul- tation with faculty ra t9* ~ *r~e and students... " In x wIA, fact, PPIH faculty, in sedb a memo dated Feb.4, oudhaeto 1993, stated, "We i "art am!have attempted, sev- by d n eral times by phone ?t'dnsswns and and in meetings, to resolve this issue ui- etly without embar- rassing the school. Osbrn We have been re- huffed in these at- t tempts." r:t re~vOsborn attempts embarrassgthe to explain the mora- efeihe torium on hiring new faculty by stating, .~.:"*.itwasfeltthatfur- a ther hiring to the De- partment was unwise in view of the anticipated departure of a majority of the senior faculty." If faculty members will be leaving, it makes sense to hire new faculty as soon as possible, unless, of course, one is operating under the assumption that the department is to be discon- tinued. Once again, Osborn's intentions to close the department surface as the real justification be- hind an autocratic and poor decision. In the same Feb. 4 memo where she attempts to justify the moratorium, Osborn claims "A review committee will be established in accor- dance with the University's guidelines to assess the overall issues involved in potential continu- ation or discontinuation of the Department." However, if the moratorium is maintained, the conclusions of the review committee will be inevitable. If there are no new students and no new faculty the department is not viable. The moratorium should be lifted. If the de- partment is to undergo review, it should be done fairly and in compliance with the Standard Practice Guide 601.2. Faculty and students are merely asking that PPIH receive a fair review, not that the program remain open indefinitely. A fair review implies that the committee could decide to keep the department open. Unless the moratorium is lifted, it is not possible to conduct a truly fair review - only the pretense of one. L_ Enraged women must fight fire with fire 10 Wed Shanker LSA senior With mounting frustration, I have watched the developments on "Pussie Rd." I cannotbe more insistent that those who are offended by the sign are dealing with this issue in the wrong way. Those feminists and others are fighting fire with cheese and crackers. What con- stantly surprises me is that for all the equal- ity feminists strive for, they still play the game like ladies. They are like little kids on a playground - when a big boy hits them, they go running and crying to the teacher. They still don"It bit back. Well ladies, hike up your skirts and do something besides whining about it. These pussy boys aren't playing by the rules, so why should you be? If that sign pissed you off, why notthrow a rock through that window (maybe at night when these guys are asleep and it could really scare the shit out of them)? What's stopping you - it's not legal? Who cares? Once again, the law is on their side, not ours. Run to the Sexual Assault Prevention and Awareness Center (SAPAC), run to the Daily, run to MTS - fine. But you are trying to educate a couple of dorky first- year students who think that they are cool because they have a sign in their window that has the word "pussie" on it! Pussy! Poon! Beaver! Cunt! So what? These are words, just letters on a page. Don't give them a power they do not have. What Michele de Avila and her feminist army have done is make Dan and his room- mates think they are the hottest shit on this campus. Did they really think these guys were going to say, "Gee, we were silly. Why didn't we realize that our dumb sign con- tributes to a hostile environment against women and toward a rape culture? Let's take it down and go do some community powerful action against him. Ialso wish she would have physically kicked his ass or sprayed him with maceor shot him when he raped her. I hope she's taking self defense now. Physical weakness cannot be an excuse to use against rapes - as women, we must be prepared. We must be as violent as they are. We must take action. It may not be fair but if .the world were fair then everyone0 would be equal, wouldn't they? Well ladies, hike up your skirts and do something besides whining about it. These pussy boys aren't playing by the rules, so why should you be? service for SAPAC." Not quite. It would be great if Dan or some of the guys on his hall decided the sign should be taken down, butI don't think that is going to happen. Girls, if you want equality, you have to fight and bite and hit and scratch for it. Opposite the Daily editorial about the sign was a horrible account written by a woman who was raped. And by God, I wish it had never happened to her and I wish we could go find that guy and cut his balls off so he would never rape anyone again. I wish she would publish his name so that every time someone sees him, she would know he was a rapist. It makes m; sick that she has to face him every day and I wish she would take some So, my feminist friends, tell me this "Pussie Rd." sign is all a part of that rape culture. And those women and the Daily throw in my face the question: what if the sign said "Kike Rd." or "Hymie Rd." in- stead of "Pussie Rd." ? Well, as a Jew, I am just as sick of the Jewish retreat againstanti-Semitismas lam by the feminist response to big, mean boys on the playground who don't respect us or Gloria Steinem or Hillary Rodham Clinton or marches for equality in Washington. I would love to see Jews act on the offensive instead of the defensive as well. If I had walked past that sign I would have laughed, instead of giving a couple of college first-year students more credit than they deserve. Campus debate over "Pussie Rd." sign continues 'Bush '92' poster Sign blown out of proportion, leave men in West Quad alone C NTON Pres. should act on higher education plan T E NATIONAL COMMISSION on Responsi- bilities for Financing Education, a biparti- san congressional committee,recently pub- lished a report on how to best help students meet the increasing costs of higher education. The reportincluded four central rec- ommendations: making $14,000 in aid - available to all students. Some would receive the money as a * A loan, others would receive a mixture of loans and grants, depending on need; allowing students to pay back their loans by doing com- munity service; making all student loans tax-deductible. This would in- clude graduate and professional scholarships, fellowships and internships; and, allowing parents of stu- dents to withdraw without pen- alty from their Individual Re- tirement Accounts. As students know all too well, college tuition has soared and continues to rise at a frightening States should stop allowing other nations with better-educated workforces to outperform its citizens. This is especially true in engineering and the natural sciences where the United States has lagged behind for years. If the U.S. economy is to thrive in the long term it is essential to have as many quali- fied students as possible re- ceive higher education, regard- less of their financial situations. Another commendable as- pect of the community service proposal is its efforts to pro- motepatriotism. Nottheblindly wrap-oneself-around-the-flag patriotism we are all too famil- iar with, but true patriotism. The patriotism that comes from committing oneselfto bet- tering the nation. Just like the Peace Corps and VISTA challenged the youth of the Kennedy Era to give freely of themselves, we hope this will empower our generation to give in the same To the Daily: Did anyone else bother to notice the "Bush '92" campaign poster displayed right next to the controversial "Pussie Rd." sign? I don't claim to be a lexicon of English slang. But last I knew bushes and pussies are, more often than not, a package deal. As far as the Daily is con- cerned, you could use this opportunity to reinforce your political stance by printing an editorial urging that the campaign poster be brought down. Mechele ("Offensive sign in dorm must go," 2/9/93), I've been looking for a person with your enthusiasm for a while. Every time I go to Chicago via 1-94,1 must endure the exit for Climax, Mich. You and I, we'll form the Committee to Abolish Tasteless Signs (CATS). If the sign isn't there, how can someone steal it and hang it in their window? Wait a minute, isn't a cat a pussie, too? Karl Fischer Engineering junior Protect free speech To the Daily: The sign in the West Quad window may be offensive, but I don't think anyone should force the residents to take it down. Of course I find it offensive - last year I was also disgusted by the amount of swastikas, KKK signs and Pat Buchanan posters in my To the Daily: I believe that this "Pussie Rd." sign in the window has been seriously overblown. The sign obviously makes no explicit reference in any way to women or their body parts. Now it would be ignorant not to point out that there is an implicit secondary meaning. "Pussie" sounds exactly like "pussy," which is slang for the female genitals. Of course this technique of associating Daily shouldn't grant West Quad men protected source status To the Daily: The Daily editors have committed another grievous error concerning when to leave a source anonymous or not ('W. Quad sign "offensive to female students," 2/9/93). The First Amendment prohibits states from restricting freedom of speech, but that implies an individual's right to say what s/he likes in public, not to make anonymous insinuations. Nor does it prohibit another private citizen from safely and publicly saying that the first person's opinion or alleged sense of humor sucks. Mechele de Avila ("offen- sive sign in dorm must go," 2/ 9/93) has every right to protest the sign she finds offensive, and if the perpetrators of the "joke" want to defend their actions, they should have as much guts as de Avila does to say so publicly. The complainant has opened herself to harassment from people who might accuse her of "femi-Nazism," so the two boys in West Quad should stand up and face the music also. Their fear of harassment is hardly serious enough to warrant status as a protected source from your reporter. I'm glad the Univer- sity saw that it did not have the right to order the sign removed, but I hope people are aware of the distinction the Constitution makes between individuals and the state. "hidden" meanings to words and phrases can be applied to other areas. The movie "Dick Tracy" could be construed as a downright vulgar way to treat Tracy. I also remember that there was a butcher in my home- town named Tom, and his slogan was, "You can't beat Tom's meat!" (I swear that I am not making this up). But why should we dwell on these juvenile thoughts when it is perfectly clear what these items actually mean? I admit that anyone who would name a street "Pussie Rd." probably shouldn't be working for civil planning, but that is their problem. If you are concerned about the name of a street, take it up with City Hall, but leave the two gentlemen in West Quad alone. David Cortright Engineering senior al Hunter Van Valkenburgh LSA senior Students must learn to deal with even stupid opinions To the Daily: As a radical moderate, I have clenched my teeth many times this year in watching people with remarkably tiny world-views scream back and forth about stunningly moot causes. I have observed dozens of tiny fanatic cliques ignoring reality in order to get their dubious points across. I someone. Ms. de Avila ("Offensive sign in dorm must go," 2/9/ 93), permit me to recommend that you tour the dorms on campus, notably East Quad. If you still feel that there are not signs offensive to every religion, creed, sexual orientation, political view or gender, then I shall be ,iplinhtaAi toant nt., 2 .,ar ar1 to be "liberal" or "conserva- tive." They are to be places of learning - rare crucibles where we mix with brilliant and absurd alike and draw our own conclusions. I challenge the student body here to learn a lesson that can be well-applied when they return to the real world: Deal with it. Freaking out, 6 II