4 - The Michigan Daily - Monday, February 28, 1994 Ulbe Eirti g n tuti 420 Maynard Ann Arbor, MI 48109 Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan JESsm HALLADAY Editor in Chief SAM GOODSTE N FLINT WAINESS Editorial Page Editors Unless otherwise noted, unsigned editorials reflect the opinion of a majority of the Daily's editorial board. All other articles, letters, and cartoons do not necessarily reflect the opinion of The Michigan Daily. The code remains interim The Regents wisely vote against making the code final "From the very beginning, I have been against the code." -Regent Deane Baker at the last Regent's meeting. TO'TH}IN THAT THOU&HT,. CoOLD TRUST YoU! '' X1 A.OoKS sa~r...... - ~ F ortunately, the Statement of Student Rights and Responsibilities will remain as an interim policy for the next year - allowing students and administrators the chance to modify the badly flawed six page document. Confronted by emotional pleas from members of the Michigan Student Assem- bly to keep the code as an interim policy until next April, the University Board of Regents agreed to do so - by a 7-1 vote. Student leaders urged the regents to take a conservative approach -- to let the policy remain as an interim policy to allow amend- ments and modification to be made before making it a permanent policy - and the regents agreed. The University has tried for more than 20 years to impose a code of non-academic conduct. The current code, pernicious at best, lists a series of actions punishable by the University including hazing, sexual ha- rassment and criminal misconduct. Enforce- ment proceedings allow the accused to have the case heard by a mediator, a University official or a panel of six student jurors. Friday's action was precipitated by the flawed amendment process. Under the code, amendments cannot be considered by the regents until they are first reviewed by a majority of the pool of 50 students serving as the code's judiciary. This would protect students against the administration making changes without a public debate. But the administration couldn't get a quorum of jurors to show up and no amendments were considered. The fundamentally flawed reasoning be- hind this statement, that the administration should act in loco parentis - in place of parents - has led to many unjust policies. The code lacks adequate due process mea- sures to protect the accused. Students brought up under the code do not even have the luxury of having an attorney represent them during the hearing process - a process that can result in anything from a reprimand to expulsion. Furthermore, the code goes against the very fabric of the American legal process. The United States already has a system of civil and criminal laws designed to protect society. While the justice system is not perfect, implementation of the code aggra- vates rather than ameliorates the inherent flaws. The code places students in double jeopardy - those accused of a felony or misdemeanor can face both academic and criminal punishment. The code of non-aca- demic student conduct is not necessary, as civil and criminal law provide sufficient protection. Regent Deane Baker (R-Ann Arbor), who withstood pressure by his colleagues and voted against the code, is worthy of praise. Baker, a long-time opponent of the statement, was the lone regent who op- posed the measure - this opposition was against the code, not in favor of making it a permanent policy. While it is unlikely that administrators and regents will relinquish their adamant support for this unfair code - a policy that University administrators could use to strangle student conduct it deems "inappro- priate" - the extension of the interim policy does provide students with the chance to salvage what little rights we have left. 'Capitalism is not a political system' To the Daily Jared Levin's February 10 impassioned letter to the Daily asserts: "The only political system in history which puts individual rights and freedoms first is capitalism." I thought Jared might like to know that capitalism is not a political system. It is an economic system. When people mistakenly interchange "capitalism" with "democracy," it certainly makes their arguments less credible. USA STENMAN Third year law student 'Certainly no Sugiura' To the Daily: I am writing in response to Ken Sugiuras' Feb. 14 column "Some Winter Olympic sports for lugers only." First, I would like to know who gave you the authority to say what qualifies as a sport and what does not. The fact that you consider bobsledders Olympic caliber athletes, but not figure skaters, blows my mind. Real sports, you say, require times, distances and scores. You say there "is no 'sport' to figure skating."~ What happened to physical ability, endurance, competitiveness and incredible skill, Ken? I would love to know where exactly you derived your definition of sport. Obviously, you spend more time writing your wacked articles than participating in sports, or else I think your views on sports and figure skating would definitely change. By the way, the last time I checked, dancing was a sport. Frankly, I think your column was not even close and certainly no Sugiura. JENNIFER STARMAN Kinesiology sophomore An apology from UAC To the Daily: The University Activities Center extends its sincerest apologies to everyone who attended the screening of Blue Chips on Monday, Feb. 14. We regret any inconveniences our patrons experienced during the event, and in particular, we sympathize with those who were unable to see the show. UAC would also like to thank Mr. Jeremy Liles for his recent letter to the Daily. We are committed to providing entertainment programs that serve the entire University community, and we welcome the opportunity to learn how we can better serve you as our customers. The information that Mr. Liles and others have given us will prove helpful in examining how well our programs meet your needs. Thank you. CHRIS CURTIS UAC President Business school senior Lasser doesn't deserve criticism To the Daily: I am writing to you with regards to your cartoonist Mr. Jim Lasser. I cannot help but say that I am somewhat surprised and appalled at all the criticism he has received. in recent months. Worst of all, his public chastisement does not even seem to be deserved. I find his cartoons extremely humorous, as do most of my friends. I feel sorry for the few ignorant readers of the Daily who are unable to fully appreciate Mr. Lasser's work simply because they are unaware of current events. As far as all these letters of protest are concerned, I doubt the Daily, or anyone else for that matter, is deceived by this thinly veiled effort to oust Mr. Lasser from his position. If this is being done by a group that feels they have been slighted by one of his cartoons, perhaps it would be better to write a letter defending their party, rather than insult the work of this talented young man. RAVI MADAN LSA first-year student Goldberg is a sociology professor To the Daily: This letter is prompted by a column written by Mr. Geoff Earle in the Weekend section on Feb. 17, concerning student complaints about Professor David Goldberg in his course in Winter term, 1993. I would like to correct matters of fact. In his column, Mr. Earle referred to the course in question as Statistics 510 and, in this publication and others, Professor Goldberg has been identified as a professor of statistics. Neither of these is correct. Professor Goldberg is a professor of sociology and the course in question is Sociology 510. The faculty in the Department of Statistics cannot be accountable for courses taught in other departments, which are beyond our control. I'm sure our colleagues in the Sociology Department would agree with our position - especially if, for some unfathomable reason, we were to begin offering courses in sociology. ROBB MUIRHEAD Chair Department of Statistics Hello? Is anybody out there? Anybody? I remember an interview with a newspaper columnist I saw years ago. He said that writing an editorial is like "urinating in a blue serge suit" because it gives you a warm feeling all over but nobody notices it. This analogy is bothimpressively disgusting and very true. This is my fourth column, and I am willing to bet one Snapple® Mango Madness Cocktail that nobody out there has read the other three in their entirety. Maybe I'm wrong, but it's awfully quiet out there. I know that this is partly my fault. My recurring theme has been 'things that have been overlooked' (note the catchy title). I should have realized that things are generally overlooked when people don't give a damn about them. I also don't have the spiciest writing style in the world, though I used the word "ganked" once, and this week I'm using lots of contractions. There are lots of different directions I can take with this column. I could stay with the old highbrow, political theme ("Russia has taken over Georgia and Belarus while you were watching Beavis and Butthead"), but that won't do. I could try the vaguely droll stuff ("I think the most beautiful word in the English language is 'pancreas"'), but that's not my style. I might start fishing for controversy ("Abortion blah blah blah homosexuals blah blah blah"), but there are enough letters to the Daily about that stuff already. Self-indulgent, rambling criticism is always fun ("The following things suck: people who smoke, the MLB stairs, that puddle in front of the UGLi..."), but I have a strict word limit. Then there are the 'humor columns.' I'm not very funny, but that never stopped anyone before, did it? There's 'witty observation' ("Why don't the Lockhorns just get a divorce? Hee hee bee."), 'classification' ("There are seven types of roommates...") and the ever-popular 'absurdity of life' ("Why do all those people trudge to class, through the snow, just so they can do the Daily crossword?"). Unfortunately, none of this works for me. I still have seven more columns to do, and I would like to write at least one that spurs a response. OK, I'll admit it, I'm jealous of Ken Suguira and Jean Twenge. Ken makes an off-hand reference to "Saved by the Bell," and a week-long debate about "The Tori Episodes" ensues. Jean just does her thing, and people write in saying they won't read the Daily on Tuesdays anymore. Now THAT is cool! But I know I won't get a response from writing about my kind of stuff, like Kazakhstan, or the Olympics, or why we staple on the left. I know how you people operate. You see the word 'geopolitics' in the first paragraph and you turn to page five. I may get a reply from this week's column, though. Someone will e- mail me or write to the Daily and say "If Kalt wants a response he should write something that doesn't SUCK," or some such razor-sharp witticism. Then someone will reply, with more unconscious irony, arguing "Hey, he may suck, but it isn't worth writing a letter to the Daily about it." Oh, who am I fooling. I know the only one still reading at this point is my Dad. Hi Pop! He would write a letter saying I'm OK, but we have the same last name, so the more alert letter readers might get suspicious. There is really only one thing for me to do. I'm going to forget about being popular and just write about S S Health care crisis Single-payer system is the only panacea hile President Bill Clinton continues SVWhis two week barnstorming of the country -- expressly targeted toward the elderly - to round up support for his "man- aged competition" health care reform pack- age, the developments in Washington are ,disturbing. While the administration did mnanage to get the endorsement of organized labor, and a promise that the AFL-CIO will spend $10 million in supporting the Clinton proposal (five times more than it spent to fight the North American Free Trade Agree- ment), business leaders have resoundingly rejected the president's plan and the re- sponse from groups representing the elderly has been lukewarm. Worse, a debate has surfaced as to whether or not a health care crisis even exists in a country where two million people lose medi- cal coverage each month and 39 million people are uninsured at any particular time. With the debate getting sidetracked, Presi- dent Clinton must lucidly restate his pro- posal and focus the nation on the crisis at hand -- unfortunately, his version of man- aged competition falls far short of the pana- cea of health care: a single-payer system. A single-payer system is the only way to ensure that "universal coverage" is actually attained, and Rep. Jim McDermott (D- Wash.) along with Sen. Paul Wellstone (D- Minn.) have introduced legislation that would set up this system. Simplified, a single- payer system automatically enrolls all legal residents and citizens in a national health insurance program established by the fed- eral government. Financing, under the pro- posed legislation, would come from in- creased payroll taxes on employers, a minor income-tax hike and increases in tobacco, handgun and ammunition taxes. Tragically, both the president and most members of Congress are unwilling to take the political risk of backing tax increases in order to save a fledgling health-care system. Not only would a single-payer plan en- sure coverage for all, it would dramatically fact that Medicare and Medicaid, two pro- grams currently growing out of control and taking up money that could be used for discretionary spending, would be elimi- nated and preventative care would increase, eliminating the burgeoning cost of emer- gency treatment on the uninsured. Fur- thermore, if the government were the sole insurer administrative costs would signifi- cantly decrease - consider the fact that Blue Cross in the state of Massachusetts employs more health insurance workers than does the entire single-payer system in Canada. Unfortunately, the proposals that have the most backing on Capital Hill fall far short of providing universal coverage at an affordable cost. The president's is the most comprehensive, as it would force everyone to acquire a health care plan, however it places the unfair burden on small busi- nesses of having to pay at least 80 percent of their employees' premiums. The notori- ous Cooper plan, proposed by Rep. Jim Cooper (D-Tenn.), does not even ensure coverage for all and proposes to administer the program through funds taken away from Medicare and Medicaid - a manner which may not provide adequate dollars. Finally, a plan put together by Sen. John Chafee (R.-R.I.) is almost laughably sim- plistic - it would require all resident to buy their own health care plans with subsi- dies granted to the poor,to be funded by cuts in Medicare and Medicaid. In short, neither the Cooper or Chafee plan guarantee universal coverage or pro- vide realistic revenue raising proposals. While President Clinton's plan will make this vital guarantee, its mode of funding alienates small business and its implemen- tation calls for more bureaucracy than the single-payer alternative.- the nation's larg- est type of employer. Only a single-payer system, funded by bold and needed tax increases, will guarantee coverage for all - reversing the morally abhorrent fact iTTENTION STUDENTS "This is your opportunity to voice your opinions. Are you upset with the administration? Do you disagree with us? Are you happy about anything? If you have any opinions about anything whatsoever, write the Daily. We'll be happy to hear from you" -Randy Hardin, Daily Letters Editor AM 6A ii