4 - The Michigan Daily - Thursday, January 6, 1993
Whbrirbigan iaiIg
420 Maynard
Ann Arbor, MI 48109
Editor in Chief
Edited and managed
by students at the ANmxiw LEY
University of Michigan Editorial Page Editor
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.
Sharp as Toa!
9
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6
Paying not to
yi U®LSA disenrollment fee is u
uppose a random LSA student reading this edi-
torial suddenly decides to drop all of their classes
and head to the beach for the remainder of the semester.
That unsuspecting dropout will be subject to a $130
disenrollment fine.
Prior to this semester, while an LSA policy was in
place that required students to pay the fee whenever
they disenrolled, those who did so before the drop/
add deadline were usually exempt from paying up.
Beginning this semester, however, LSA has decided
to crack down and stop allowing students to get away
without paying the fee - $80 of which is a registra-
tion fee and $50 of which is attributed to disenrollment.
:Of course, those who disenroll after the drop/add
'deadline are also responsible for the disenrollment
fine but may be exempt from the registration fee
because they have already begun to pay tuition.
While requiring students to pay an $80 registra-
tion fee if they disenroll early is fair, because a
registration fee is included in tuition - which the
early dropout would not pay - LSA's justification
for the $50 disenrollment fine is unsatisfactory. LSA
officials point out that the Board of Academic Advi-
sors must meet every time a student decides to drop
a class and this board, obviously, has a cost. However
-and this is the catch - the only time a student must
appear before the Board to drop a class, or all classes,
is after the drop/add deadline has passed. Therefore,
,while it seems fair that a student compensate the
University for disenrolling after the deadline, when
a meeting of the Board of Academic Advisors is
attend class
nnecessary and unfair
required, it is unfair to require students to pay a
disenrollment fee - $50 of the $130 total - when
the only thing the University must do is take a name
out of the computer.
Although it is confusing to sort through all of
these regulations and fines, it is important to keep
track of them. The University's many fees result in
many ridiculous situations, among them requiring a
student who goes to class for only one day to pay $50
for disenrolling. With the University sucking money
from its students at every turn, situations such as
these should not be ignored - or tolerated. While it
is true that the disenrollment fee has been unenforced
in LSA for years - though it has in fact been
enforced in other colleges here at the University -
the policy itself is still unjust.
Every year students complain about rising tuition
costs, and rightly so. The irony in the disenrollment
policy is that we, who are already forced to pay so
much to go to school, now must pay to not to go to
school. A fair policy would require those who disenroll
before the drop/add deadline to pay the $80 registra-
tion fee only, and be exempt from the $50
disenrollment fee.
Lack of enforcement of the disenrollment policy
is no justification for the excessive penalty, nor is the
fact that engineering students and other non-LSA
students are forced to pay this fine. Considering the
University's propensity to increase tuition, it is no
surprise that it is taking one more swipe at our
disposable income.
Haiti: a lesson in
Politics vs. justice
r Clinton should grant Pollard
Lorget, for a moment, political implications. For
get charges of dual loyalty and theories about
what constitutes a breach of national security. And
what unfolds is the sad story of a U.S. citizen who is
serving time not in proportion to his crime.
Jonathan Pollard, arrested in 1985 for espionage
on behalf of Israel, has been in jail now for more than
seven years. He has spent the majority of his sentence
locked away in high-security Marion prison, and he
is not expected to be released until 2015. Jewish
leaders, once silent on the issue in fear of invoking
,the infamous "dual loyalty" charge, have joined
Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in asking Presi-
dent Clinton to commute Pollard's superfluous sen-
tence. The President would serve justice by heeding
this request and granting Pollard clemency.
The case against Pollard began with the ridiculous
rhetoric of former Secretary of Defense Caspar
Weinberger, who claimed that he could conceive no
"greater harm to national security than that caused by
Pollard." Of course, Pollard's selling of classified
documents - such as the location of the Palestinian
Liberation Organization's headquarters in Tunis -
to a close ally of the United States did break federal
law and he should be punished accordingly. But
Pollard's offense came at the heart of the Cold War,
and the average period of incarceration for Soviet
spies at the time was only five years.
Was the information Pollard sold six (assuming
Pollard will serve a thirty year sentence) times as
damaging as the information held by Soviet infiltra-
tors?
Unfortunately, we have no way of knowing. The.
Federal government claimed at the time, and can
continue to claim, that the information Pollard re-
vealed cannot be released for national security rea-
sons, thus making it impossible for the American
clemency request
people to determine the extent of the railroading to
which Pollard was subjected.
Current Defense Secretary Les Aspin, arguing
against the early release of Pollard, has continued
this hypocrisy by telling President Clinton last
week that 14 letters written from jail by the con-
victed spy held new classified information. When
Pollard's lawyers demanded that Aspin back up his
allegations, the Defense Secretary balked, hiding
once again behind the national security curtain.
While national security is an important issue, not to
be taken lightly either by the government or by
citizens, it must not be an excuse for the govern-
ment to hide anything for which it does not want to
face disagreement or criticism from the American
public.
Because of the surreptitious nature of the pro-
ceedings, many of the facts in the case will never be
known to the media and the public. But a few
things remain clear, and they demand looking into..
Among these is the fact that Pollard's fate was
determined by Federal Judge Audrey Robinson,
who has since confessed that one of his main
justifications for the lengthy sentence was that
Pollard had leaked information on joint Israeli-
South African missile tests. Yet the prosecution
papers contain no mention of this. For all the
American people know, the government may have
fed Robinson inaccurate information.
No credible organization is defending what
Jonathan Pollard did, and President Clinton need
not either. However, commuting an unjustly long
sentence does nothing of the sort. Rather, it simply
shows that the President is ready to put aside
politics in favor of justice. It shows that he cares
about the bedrock of American justice: freedom
from the government.
For those who heard me argue
that Haiti would be a free(r) nation
by the end of
1993, I concede
that my
prediction was
less than
accurate. With
hundreds of
thousands of
Haitians CM U
threatened daily
with poverty, A
hunger and mz da
government-
sponsored violence, Haiti has
become one of the United States'
more tragic post-Cold War foreign
policy failures. Just as Bosnia's
Serbian rapists continued undaunted
in Western Europe's backyard,
Raoul Cedras' thugs learned
quickly that there are no
unfortunate consequences in
ignoring President Clinton's threats.
The word is now that the Clinton
administration has given up on the
Haiti problem. Cedras' reneging on
the agreement to restore power to
ousted President Jean-Bertrand
Aristide appears to have left the
United States with few options.
Moreover, the fact that a crowd of
rioting thugs in Port-au-Prince
managed to scare off U.S. naval
craft and marines left the United
States looking both weak and
foolish.
Mazumdar's column appears every
other Thursday.
Don't blame all men
for the actions of one
man
To the Daily:
In response to the many articles
submitted by the various women on
campus about rape, as a memberof
the male gender, I can only say that
I am perturbed that such literature
could and would be published by
the Daily. The first letter to the
editor was adequately sufficient in
getting the point across about the
rape behind South Quad last month.
As a member of the media, the
Daily has a responsibility for the
articles it prints. I can only say that
I am embarrassed that the editors
would print Mrs. Hollenbeck's
piece ("Don't blame the victim for
the rape" 12/7/93), where she
makes, the statement, "Maybe if the
men of the world would take
responsibility for their actions ...
this could have been prevented ...
Until men stop thinking with their
dicks and start thinking with their
minds, women will be forced to live
their lives in fear."
Men of the world are not in
some secret society, where we all
get together and plan ways to
terrorize women. I am surprised that
Ms. Hollenbeck would make such a
stereotype. The last thing I need is
to hear yet another diatribe about
how men are pigs. Her piece only
demonstrates her closed-
mindedness. Despite what Ms.
Hollenbeck thinks, people are
That does
that there aren
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Considering t
Clinton admin
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returning Hait
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while those w
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(To those whc
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might be take
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may be doom
decades as the
and Baby Do
United States
some lessons1
U.S. foreignp
failed foreign plc
not mean, however, The United States officially
n't still steps worth opposed the election of President
le options include Aristide in 1990, spending taxpayer
1 financial assets dollars to ensure the election of his
the Haitian elite and right-wing opponent. A friend of
of all elite family mine at the University of Dayton
n their host countries. visited Haiti on two occasions as a
he emphasis the member of independent fact-finding
nistration placed on missions, which were sponsored by
when success seemed the liberal Catholic organization
is surprising that these Clergy and Laity Concerned. He
t already been taken. returned with an interesting story.
urthermore, a need to After Aristide's victory, the story
erican immigration goes, an American delegation,
gard to Haiti. The which included former Ambassador
uard is currently to the United Nations Andrew
tian "boat people" to Young, asked Aristide to concede
e, where many will the election to his opponent.
er reprisals by the Naturally, Aristide refused. The
At the same time, the result was an American-sponsored
welcomes with open coup against the new president.
an refugees, including Though the national press has
hter and yet to corroborate this theory, such
r. The double-standard a scenario is certainly possible,
ees escaping the even probable. Presidents Bush and
totalitarian Reagan had an intervention record
re welcome to stay, as morally questionable as any of
vho suffer under an their predecessors. Consider,
government are not moreover, the CIA's behavior
o do not belong to the during recent months. Its attempts
chool of foreign to assassinate Aristide's character
iould look to be silly with stories of instability and
g). brutality appear to be fraudulent,
y, whatever steps and Agency reports during the Bush
n, there is no administration called Raoul Cedras
final success. Haitians (Haiti's chief thug) "bright" and
ed to suffer for "up and coming." Caught in a major
ey did under Papa Doc faux-pas, the CIA might be trying
c Duvalier. But the to cover its tracks. An investigation*
might at least draw of the Bush administration's Haitian
by examining where policy might reveal a lesson in what
policy went wrong. not to do to promote democracy.
case in today's society. However,
we must be realistic, and understand
that this is not the case. There are
people who are willing and able to
violate these rights. Just as we take
precautions to avoid muggings,
precautions are available to avoid
rape. We must accept, and live in,
the society which is available to us.
The utopia we all dream of is far
ahead in the future, and acts as an
objective for us to achieve. Until
then, be safe; if you can't be safe,
be smart.
DAVID SETO
LSA first year student
SAPAC is right on
target, criticism is
invalid
To the Daily:
In response to Abraham Bates'
11/9/93 complaint that SAPAC is
using "scare tactics and efforts to
create an inflated rape-crisis
mentality," SAPAC is right on
target.
Women still don't report many
rapes for various reasons, so the
one-in-three figure is far more
accurate than one-in-eight. Buried
deep in the hearts and minds of
many a woman are memories of a
rape, sometimes long forgotten,
sometimes long remembered.
Crimes that never were reported,
but nevertheless make the higher
numbers of rape no less real in a
acquaintance (it'was reported and
he was arrested, but prosecutors put
it on hold), and again at the age of
15 by a stranger who dragged her toO
the bushes (her faith in the system
destroyed, she refused to report it.
Both occurred between 8:00 and
12:00 in the morning. So it's three-
in-three for us ... for now (or more
accurately, five-in-three).
Only through efforts by
organizations like SAPAC are
women getting the courage and
strength to report and emotionally
survive rapes. Those who can't do
gain some strength from the
knowledge that people are working
to educate and provide support. We
will never know the true figures on
rape, but rest assured, they are far
higher than what we do know now.
SHALANE J. SHELEY
Ann Arbor Resident
Prof. Crysal
By RUSSELL BALCH
While I am adverse to trying my'
cases in the press, the article by
Amitava Mazumdar ("Discrimination
case is off the mark, 11/11/93) engages
in precisely the type of prejudgement
which the author says he deplores.
Having criticized my client, Prof. Jill
Crystal, for offering "little evidence"
to support her claims, Mazumdar pro-
ceeds to prejudge those claims without
has
wrong. Prof. C
recommended
tine Committee
Department.
mended for ten
of the full tent
partment. Pro
"good enough
ence Departme
standards" of ti
its faculty apps
been wronged
rystal was unanimously and the lone male has been granted
for tenure by the Execu- reconsideration. Since 1985, the per-
e of the Political Science centage of tenured instructional fac-
She was then recom- ulty who are women at the University
nure by a clear majority has risen only five percent, to about 15
ured faculty of her De- percent of the faculty.
f. Crystal was clearly Mazumdar's article alsofails to look
" for the Political Sci- at the troubled history of the Political
nt. She met the "stricter Science Department itself when it
his top Department, and comes to women. Of the Assistant Pro-
roved her for tenure. If fessors hired in 1986, the men have all