4 - The Michigan Daily -Friday, October 22, 1993
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by Jim Lasser
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420 Maynard
Ann Arbor, MI 48109
Edited and managed
by students at the
University of Michigan
JosH DUBOW
Editor in Chief
SAm GOODSTEIN
FLINT J. WAINESS
Acting Editorial Page Editors
Unless otherwise noted, unsigned editorials reflect the majority opinion of the Daily editorial board.
All other cartoons, articles and letters do not necessarily represent the opinion of the Daily.
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David and Deane
To the Daily:
The purpose of this letter is
twofold. The first, and most
unimportant, concerns David
Abel's "insightful" prose. Dave's
work would be more aptly titled:
How to Tell if You Have Too
Much Time on Your Hands in
College." Yes, Dave, it is possible
to be over-descriptive, I would
even say you're hyperbolic. You
also lack the ability to enjamb your
sentences; go see someone about
that. I pray you are not an English
major.
Secondly, I realize that you love
to bash Regent Deane Baker, but
you have to stop. Do not write
about 14.06 just to berate Baker
and his views; you undermine your
power of opinion by refusing to
allow his. It may come to your
surprise that not everyone is as
sexually enlightened as the Daily
Opinion Staff. The fact that Baker
holds an opposing viewpoint
should be respected. Isn't your
newspaper based on the freedom of
speech? We may not agree with
Baker's views on homosexuality,
but he does have the right. Thanks.
TODD BEEBY
LSA Senior
Living life on the
verge of retirement
To the Daily:
The Daily editorial, "Publish or
perish?; Professors should be
judged on teaching ability first" (9/
28/93) appeared a week after
Provost Gilbert Whitaker urged the
entire University community to
address its educational
responsibilities in undergraduate
education. His remarks were a
welcomed addition to the rhetoric
that began about two years ago with
articles in national news magazines
on the quality and prestige of
college teaching. (One such article
noted that a nationally acclaimed
good teacher did not receive a
single job offer from another
institution after his latest award was
widely announced.)
I sense that this renaissance in
the public's interest in college
teaching was spawned in large
measure by the increasing costs of
higher education, prices that begin
to put this aspiration out of the
realm of possibilities for many
Americans, and the question of
value for money spent. The deans
and presidents of universities are
sensitive to this issue because
parents are becoming more
selective as the costs mount,
legislators are curtailing funds to
schools, and the pool of research
money is starting to shrink now that
Stealth bombers have lost their
apparent importance.
But the cure for the woes of
students and college administration
is not to purge "publish-or-perish"
forever from this campus as the
editorial espoused, or to retain
Assistant Professors who are
unwilling to do research, even
though they appear to be teaching
well for the time being. I believe
that the ideal researcher is one who
enjoys the topic well enough to
concept that has been recently
furnished by Ernest Boyer of the
Carnegie Foundation in his report,
"Scholarship Reconsidered." Then
the University reward system must
be overhauled to accommodate the
new perspectives. A new standard
that the quality of, say, five
publications should be more
important than fifty titles, is on the
horizon. We may even come so far
as to require that a good teaching
record is a necessary, but not
sufficient, condition for promotion.
Indeed, additional useful measures
of good teaching will be devised
and implemented. All of us may
come to realize that the facets of
learning are many and the means to
gain knowledge are varied. We may
come to question the utility of
lecturing to classes of a hundred or
more because such a format is
inefficient and ineffectual for the
transmittal of information.
Learning is hard work.
Professors and their students must
pitch in. Students must accept the
challenges too, as many learn to
learn on their own. Questioning,
discussions, research, and
scholarship must be part of their
maturing experiences, too. Indeed,
the best teaching occurs when the
burden of learning is imperceptibly
transferred to the student. That will
be the modus operandi for the
successful person thereafter. It is
then, as given in the title of the
article that was juxtaposed to the
editorial in question, that one is
"Living life on the verge of
adulthood."
WALTER DEBLER
Prof. of Mechanical Engineering and
Applied Mechanics
Hygiene problems
To the Daily:
Your story on Entree Plus was
very informative. Yet, a huge aspect
of Entree Plus eating was not really
mentioned: the food.
The food court at the Union, as
far as sanitation is concerned, is
vile. Wok Express has oily film
covering each one of its dishes,
Subway has its employees touching
everything with ungloved hands
(I've seen workers putting cheese in
their mouth and touch customers
food in the next breath), and
Wendy's and Little Caesars hit you
smack in the face with grease and
oil if you come within 10 feet of
their counters.
There has to be some clean up
and regulation because it is truly a
disgusting place. If others can't see
this, then they should wipe the
greasy film from their eyes!
BRAD TRIVAX
LSA Junior
Get it right: Taiwan
isn't China
To the Daily:
After reading the advertisement,
in the Oct. 8th Daily, celebrating
the "82nd birthday" of the
"Republic of China on Taiwan,"
we, the people of Michigan
Taiwanese Student Association, feel
obliged to voice our concern. The
ruling party, KMT, on Taiwan
claims the "Republic of China on
Taiwan" to be the sale legitimate
War in 1895. Fifty years later,
Taiwan regained self-rule at the
collapse of Japanese colonial
power. Unfortunately, US-backed
Chiang Kai-shek, with his displaced
KMT, forcefully transplanted the
Chinese National Government onto
Taiwan when the Communist took
over China.
Through the dark days of
KMT's dictatorial rule, we were
deprived of our Taiwanese culture.
In its place, Mandarin and the
corrupt Chinese bureaucracy were
imposed on our soul and body. The
fact that many Taiwanese youth
today cannot or simply refuse to
speak Taiwanese illustrates KMT's
abominable attempt at smearing and
destroying the root of Taiwanese
culture.
Just like the American people
had the right to independence from
Mother England back in the 1700's,
we want to reassert our rights to
self-determination and preservation
of our culture. We are neither a part
of China nor the government
representing Chinese people. We
are TAIWANESE and we have
every intent to build a nation truly
for the welfare of all Taiwanese
people. With everyone's help to
debunk all lies put forth by the
illicit Chinese rulers, we believe our
triumph over the imperialistic
Chinese control is imminent.
So, Happy Coming Birthday,
Republic of Taiwan!
KI-HO SU
The Committee of Michigan
Taiwanese Student Association@
Christians should
support homosexuals
To the Daily:
I applaud the University Board
of Regents for righting a long-
standing wrong with their recent
vote to extend protection from
discrimination to gay, lesbian and
bisexual members of the University
community.
Speaking as a Christian, I want
to make it clear that the narrow and
bigoted views of fundamentalist
Christians reported by the media are
not representative of all Christians
on campus. In fact, the gospel of
hatred, fear and intolerance
preached and practiced by
fundamentalist Christians is
contrary to the fundamental
Christian principle of love. I believe
- as do millions of mainline
Christians - that all human beings
are created in God's image, that
God's love, grace and acceptance
are available to each of us, and that
God calls us to love our neighbor as
we love ourselves. Our Christian
faith leads us to celebrate the
diversity of God's good creation
and to embody God's love by
embracing all --including gays and
lesbians.
I am troubled, as are my
fundamentalist counterparts, by the
fact that Christianity is often
mocked by the University
community. But common sense and
biblical scholarship render
embarrassing the biblical literalism
with which these fundamentalists
approach important social issues. Is
it any wonder that Christianity is
discredited when, as Rev. William
x ,
r ...:. . . :.