4 - The Michigan Daily - Monday, December 5, 1994
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'I'm tired of hearing the same humdrum, Anglo-
Saxon, male, patriarchal perspective.'
- Tonya Clay, chair of the Michigan Student Assembly's Minority Affairs
Committee, on what she perceives to be a
lack ofprogress under the Michigan Mandate
420 Maynard
Ann Arbor, MI 48109
Edited and managed by students at
the University of Michigan
Jessie Halladay
Editor in Chief
Samuel Goodstein
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.
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SSRR and other 'codes'
Stalking case demonstrates folly of 'U' judiciary
Earlier this year the University ordered
LSA first-year student Marc Schauber to
move from the Mosher Jordan Residence Hall
to South Quad after he was accused of harass-'
inghis formerfiancee, who also lived in Mosher
Jordan. Now he is suing the University, charg-
ing that he was denied due process, as well as
his constitutional rights to liberty and prop-
erty. While this page does notpresume to make
a judgment on the legitimacy of the harass-
ment claims, the haphazard handling of the
case calls attention to some alarming pros-
pects. The University needs to refine its pro-
cess for handling such affairs.
First, due process was certainly confused in
this case. Schauber argues that despite his
previous request for copies of the complaint
against him, he was told that would not be
possible. He received copies of the judicial
report and the incident report only minutes
before the hearing and he did not receive a
copy of the complaint at all. Marc Schauber
was never given proper access to information
that would substantively impact his case.
The University Housing Division's hear-
ing officer in the case was Monique Washing-
ton. Washington has since admitted, in a writ-
ten deposition, that the hearing process did not
always follow proper procedure. Inexperienced
in dealing with the new residence hall judicial
policy, Washington first planned to act as both
hearing officer and complainant in the case.
The conflict of interest here is clear - it was
only after Schauber's ex-fiancee agreed to
testify that Washington removed herself as
complainant. Similar miscues surfaced
throughout the case.
Another problem is apparent in the exten-
sive communication between Washington and
the woman's parents. If the outcome of the
case was influenced by a knee-jerk reaction to
parental pressure, a fair hearing is impossible.
Obviously the University needs to be alert to
all aspects of the situation, as well as potential
legal problems - but caving in to coercion
violates constitutional principles of a fair trial.
The lack of oversight allowed this to happen.
As for Schauber's claims that he was de-
prived of his rights to property and liberty, his
case is a little shaky. Although he was moved
out of Mosher Jordan, he was not cast out onto
the street, homeless, in the middle of a term.
And the right to protection from harassment
probably outweighs the inconvenience of not
being allowed to live in a particular dormi-
tory.
However, the University cannot act as the
arbiter of all student disputes. The woman
could just as easily have obtained a much
stricter restraining order from the police -
and it is significantly easier to obtain a re-
straining order in Michigan today than it was
several years ago. Perhaps the dispute would
have been better handled by the police. This
would ensure Schauber's rights while simul-
taneously providing protection for his ex-
fiancee. Those involved appeared confused
about what policy applied to this type of
situation. While the residence halls have sepa-
rate methods of dealing with conflicts occur-
ring within a hall, this barely one-year-old
policy seems to overlap with the Statement of
Student Rights and Responsibilities, also
known as the code.
The code is a wholly imperfect tool for
regulating student behavior. But at least it is a
clear doctrine, sent out to all students so that
they are aware of their so-called rights and
responsibilities. It is difficult for students to
begin the process of working within the sys-
tem to make the code a better document for all
when disputes can also be settled by quasi-
codes like the residence hall judicial policy,
which overlaps with the code.
The code is rendered useless if internal
rules and regulations such as the residence
hall policy counteract its ability to protect
students' rights - its supposed intention.
Either the University needs to determine and
explain what falls under the code and what
falls under lesser policies, or it needs to revise
the code to include provisions for the resi-
dence halls and other special cases. One com-
prehensive set of rules and regulations for the
University would better safeguard student
rights - and help prevent a repeat of the
quasi-judicial bungling that marked the
Schauber case.
/ '
/ I 1
There's no such thing as an
'honorable Democrat'
Daily article
neglects facts
of Schauber
stalking case
To the Daily:
I am a friend of the ex-
fiancee of Marc Schauber.
When Iread yourarticle Thurs-
day, I was almost sick to my
stomach due to the horrid mis-
representation of the facts of
the case. I found out that she
was consulted only a few hours
before the article went to press,
and she told me the reporter
already had a preconceived
notion as to her side of the case.
I find this ironic considering
the editorial today onjournalis-
tic integrity.
What was never put into
your article was how she lived
for over a month in fear of
running into him outside of her
room, where he often sat to
harass her as she was going
about her daily business. How
he scrawled obscenities onto
the message board on her door..
I was at the party mentioned in
the article. He knew no one at
the party except for the people
he went with, but he knew she
would be there, since it was a
close friend of hers. He actually
hid behind me to try and avoid
contact with him. The article
failed to mention how he used
his team of lawyers to try to
intimidate her at a hearing when
she lacked representation of her
own.
Maybe if you publish this,
the real facts of the case will
come out. No matter what the
court says, no matter what his
lawyers say, this fact remains:
He turned five months of my
friend's life into hell.
Jamie Williams
Engineering senior
To the Daily:
Iguess I spoke to soon when
I said that the leaders of the
College Democrats were hon-
orable, I should have known
that honorable Democrat is a
contradiction in terms. In re-
gards to their letter of Dec. 2,I
guess the Democrats must have
been more bitter over their ter-
rible defeat than I'd imagined.
To clear things up, our.
newsletter joke was simply that,
a joke. Obviously like many
things in politics, the Demo-
crats just didn't get it. The rea-
son we were thankful for the
man on the grassy knoll is that
without "him" we would not
have liberal wackos running
around saying that JFK was
assassinated through a KGB/
CASTRO/MILITARY IN-
DUSTRIAL COMPLEX con-
spiracy.
These people never fail to
amuse us and thus we are grate-
ful for them. Obviously the
College Democrats share this
belief that the JFK assassina-
tion was some huge conspiracy,
however, we prefer todeal with
reality. If we were thankful for
JFK's death we would have
been thanking Lee Harvey
Oswald, but we do not nor
would we because JFK's death
was a tragedy and we would
never be grateful but only sad-
dened by any president's death.
If this was so dear to the Col-
lege Democrats, why did they
not contact me? The main rea-
son is that they'd prefer to throw
cheap shots at us in the Daily,
so their sincerity is lacking.
As for our AIDS flyers, we
were proud they got noticed. If
the College Democrats care so
much about AIDS awareness,
where were they all week?
Where were their flyers? At
least we did something to try
and save lives, far less than the,
truly hypocritical College
Democrats ever did. Call us
warped, call us what you wish,
but the College Republicans are
proud to stand up for what we
believe, an attribute that I chal-
lenge the College Democrats to
match.
Mark Fletcher
President, U-M College
Republicans
Easy steps to
a true 'global
marketplace'
Four words: short political atten-
tion span.
Does it seem strange to anyone
else that after all the months of bick-
ering last year over the North Ameri-
can Free Trade Agreement and after
all the televised debates and
soundbites about "free trade" vs"gi-
ant sucking sounds of jobs going t1
Mexico," that GATT passed With
barely a sound?
The General Agreement on Tar-
iffs and Trade is a gigantic tfde
agreementthatdoes virtually the sime
thing as NAFTA, multiplied by
one??.
NAFTA is nothing in contrast to
GATT.
But where was Ross Perot? (Th
man who cares about YOUR con-
cerns.) Where were the UAW pro-
test marches? And where were the
discussions on Larry King Live?
A highly polarized NAFTA:dis-
cussion seemed to dominate thena-
tional media for almost a year. One
side stressed how the further opening
ofthe"global economy" would boost
business and make us all richer. TI
other side insisted that elimination o
trade barriers would encourage cor-
porations to exploit poor workes in
developing countries willing to work
for dimes and to take advantage of
lax environmental standards in
Mexico to produce more cheapfy.
But while the same arguents
could have been made in relation to
GATT, the only protests I heard we
afew useless peeps fromRalph Nader
and friends and a handful of corpo-
rate execs concerned the new World
Trade Organization will disrupt their
sovereignty (read: they hate the idea
of having to answer to anyone.):
The Clinton administration Was
prepared for a fight. My housemate
in D.C. this summer was a low-level
Commerce Department bureaucrg
who spent the months we lived to-
gether busily preparing her office to
double as the GATT "war room."
But apparently no war was required.
As I said, short political attention
span. Free trade is not the sexy issue
it once was. Those who lost in. the
NAFTA debate must have beentoo
tired to expend all that energy this
time only to lose again. But that's to
bad. The discussion is far from over.
I was going to end this column
with Erin'scomplete list of free trade
suggestions to consider for the next
GATT congress (get some interna-
tional labor laws and uniform envi-
ronmental standards, dummy).. ut
since my attention span is equally
minuscule and GAT has alread
land-slidthrough Congress, I will
talk about my aunt instead.
Aunt Fran and I were discussing
her plight as a professional child-
care provider just last night (family
Chanukah latke night). She is dis-
tressed because every time she hires
someone new at her day-care center,
they quit.
And who can blame them? Sh
can't afford to pay much more than
$5 an hour and if you can make more
money flipping burgers why would
you want to change diapers and wipe
snot off dripping little kids? So basi-
cally, everyone quits and Aunt Fran
spends a gazillion hours a day filling
in for people who quit (state law
requires one adultforevery fourkids).
Her choices are to cut the numb4
of kids she can care for or raisq her
prices.
There is a huge problem here that
is so obvious it's amazing no one has
done anything about it. I tell Aunt
Fran not to raise her prices because
child care should be affordable, but
she's not exactly raking inthe profits
and living in a mansion on a lake.
Many of the kids she works wit.
are the children of single parentsivho
depend on the day care center to go to
work. A rise in prices could devas-
tate them. So could discovering that
the school no longer has room for
your kid.
College Democrats distort
comment, should 'lghten up'
Medicinal marijuana
To the Daily:
You'd think by now the
College Democrats would
know better than to make un-
founded accusations and to lie
by omission. As the editor of
"The Voice of the College Re-
publicans" I was pleased that
the College Democrats had
picked up and read my news-
letter. However, it was disap-
pointing to see a humorous
quote taken out of context and
displayed as an indictment of
the moral character of all the
members of the College Re-
publicans.
Come on, guys. I am a se-
nior and have better things to
do than submit corrections ev-
ery time you feel like writing to
the Daily.
The next newsletter is com-
ing out Dec. 15. Ilencourage my
fellow students to pick one up
and read it for themselves. I
encourage the College Demo-
crats to lighten up.
Pamela M. Nash
Administrative assistant,
Intelligent Transportation
Systems
The question of whether marijuana should
be legalized for medical purposes has
sparked debate in Michigan. Marijuana, which
was legal for these uses from 1979 until 1987,
is believed by many doctors to greatly assist
patients being treated for certain serious dis-
eases. For this reason, it is vital that lawmakers
look past their blatantly prejudiced image of
marijuana as solely an abused narcotic, and
take into account the drug's benefits when
used properly.
Proponents of the current ban point to the
self-destructive effects of marijuana when it is
abused. When consumed for recreational pur-
poses, marijuana can potentially create a psy-
chological dependency. Regular use promotes
severe kidney, liver and lung impairments. It is
for these reasons that the legalized use of
marijuana has been so fervently opposed by
many Americans.
In certain situations marijuana can have
beneficial effects that faroutweigh theharmful
ones though. It is believed to greatly ease the
chronic pain suffered by victims of diseases
such as arthritis. It also mitigates the discom-
fort provided by ailments such as multiple
sclerosis and glaucoma. Marijuana is espe-
cially helpful in treating cancerpatients, in that
it builds up in them an urge to eat which
ray treatments.
Unfortunately, the teetotalers in the capitol
just won't listen to reason. Their completely
exaggerated fear of this substance has so
clouded their vision that many people who
need this drug for completely valid reasons
will be deprived of its beneficial qualities.
Marijuana is not the only drug with harmful
potential. The majority of drugs sold over the
counter have negative effects similar to mari-
juana when abused. As an example, one has to
look only to the multitude of cold medicines
that contain alcohol. The only distinction be-
tween these and marijuana is that they do not
carry the social stigma of marijuana.
Michigan's lawmakers and drug czars want
to hide the truth. They refuse even to allocate
funding for the testing of marijuana as a
medical drug. While fears are reasonable to a
certain extent, in the interest of public good
they must accept that they are not promoting
recreational use of a drug when they permit
marijuana to be used in medicine. All they are
doing is giving assistance to people who seri-
ously need it. Disease sufferers have a right to
the very best treatment modern medicine can
provide. Any doctor can see this. Many law-
makers, viewing the societal problems caused
by illegal drugs, have great difficulty. They
Students need to tackle racism LSA students
To the Daily:
I am writing in response to
Lisa Dines' article, "Students:
'U' Shirks Mandate Promises"
(12/2/94), and the comments of
those persons mentioned in it.
To begin with, I partially agree
with Tonya Clay's statement
that the "University is not sup-
portive of Black students," but
I also think that the University
is not supportive of many
groups. The University is made
up of all different kinds of sects
(religion, race, color, beliefs,
etc.). These groups are what
create a "network of support,"
that idea which Lisa Quiroga
says the University needs. If
they, the students, cannot sup-
port one another, then how is
the University supposed to?We
are the University. It is our job
as a student body to look equally
on each other and try to under-
stand our differences so that we
represent.
In response to Quiroga's
idea that the University needs
to hire more minority faculty, I
must say that this raises some
questions in my mind. I have
had good and bad experiences
with minority faculty. Al-
though I truly believe that there
is a very able, intelligent and
valuable spring of minorities
to choose from, I must caution
the notion of blindly picking
professors and students based
on the color of their skin. Quo-
tas for students an4 faculty do
not solve the problem, but just
cover it up. This too is racism.
It not only hurts everyone in-
volved, it insults the intelli-
gence of the faculty, the stu-
dents and the administration.
Of Blacks, whites, Latino/as,
Indians, etc., etc., the Univer-
sity must choose those that best
fit the role they are to fill. This
don't deserve.
any credit
To the Daily:
Thank you for your edito-
rial addressing the fact that the
numberof credit hours awarded
for many classes is not indica-
tive of the amount of work per-
formed in the classes.
The only problem with your
position is that if all classes
were evaluated and then reas-
signed credits based on the
amount and difficulty of work
performed, the vast majority of
LSA classes would be worth
zero credits. This would make
it very difficult to obtain the
120 credits needed for gradua-
tion. How would those students
ever get a diploma?
Erik Berg