4 - The Michigan Daily - Friday, September 23, 1994
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'He is wrong. I talked to the Dean.'
- University President James J. Duderstadt, referring to LSA Associate
Dean John Cross, promising to restore questioned endowments.
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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Leadership 2017
Student leaders shouldn't be paid by 'U' to train
It's an acknowledged truism that student
leadership on this campus and at colleges
across the nation is waning. Without student
protests or even the occasional occupation of
the Fleming administration building, leader-
ship by students today takes the form of serv-
ing on selection and policy committees, draft-
ing proposals and wading through the Univer-
sity bureaucracy.
Gone are the days of Tom Hayden leading
Vietnam war protests or members of the Black
Action Movement marching for University
recognition of Martin Luther King's birthday.
With this in mind, Vice President for Stu-
dent Affairs Maureen Hartford had an idea.
Train the heads of student groups on campus to
be better leaders by going to workshops and
getting to know members of the administration
and other student leaders during the summer
months. This idea was the impetus for Leader-
ship 2017, a program to train campus leaders
over the summer - paid for with University
dollars.
But while the students who participated in
the program no doubt received invaluable train-
ing and some good proposals - like the anti-
hazing statute --came out of the summer, the
program is troubling in many respects.
First, the University spent close to $90,000
in student money, paying housing stipends and
salaries for the selected students. If a referen-
dum of the student body had been held, the
measure would have, in all likelihood, failed
miserably. To spend the equivalent of more
than a dozen in-state students' tuition to fund
this programis extravagant, wasteful and shows
articipants in the Leadership 2017
rogram and their respective organizations:
a callous disregard for the fact that rising
tuition rates - in part, because programs like
these are created yearly - are keeping many
students from continuing their education and
graduating.
Beyond the large expenses, the program
certainly raises the appearance of impropri-
ety. While students work with the administra-
tion on common goals, the most important
issues are those that students and the adminis-
tration wholeheartedly disagree. The code,
the alcohol policy, the Diag policy, the Union
access policy and the need for a student re-
gent; these are all issues that the administra-
tion and students clash over all the time.
The inference from the administration is
clear: We'll give each leadermorethan $5,000
over the summer to learn how to become
leaders as "we" define leaders.
Andhow likely are the students who worked
hand-in-hand with administrators and cashed
University checks every week this summer to
be the same ones marching in front of the
Fleming building or shouting down a regents
meeting? The message is painfully apparent.
Student leadership must come from stu-
dents ourselves. Student leaders must be at the
forefront leading the masses of students in
protests and standing up to administrators at
every turn. While training student leaders is
certainly a commendable concept, the imple-
mentation was flawed from the get-go. The
administration was paying these student lead-
ers to spend 20 hours per week in leadership
training and an additional 20 hours per week
working with their own organizations.
If the program is to continue, several
changes must be made. First, give the $90,000
to the student government. Let MSA decide if
this is the best way to spend the money and if
it isn't, then return it to students. Second,
make the program student run. Continue com-
ponents of the program such as having stu-
dents meet with administrators, but allow
students to work wholly independent of the
administration.
If Leadership 2017 is to be the future, if
leadership is to be defined by catchy titles,
name tags, special offices and important meet-
ings, then this new leadership is a far cry from
the old.
An author once wrote of eliminating sub-
versive words from people's vocabularies to
not only prevent them from speaking out, but
to prevent them from having the ability to
speak out. If students forget how to protest,
when the time comes to protest, they will be
unable.
The author, George Orwell, spoke not of
2017, but of 1984.
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The media
only looks out
for the greater
good
A controversial topic lately has
been America's bloodthirsty, im-
moral, sensationalistic, ruthless,
money-grubbing, sleazy, corrupt,
rumor-mongering news media, of*
which I am proud to be a part.
Because despite the criticism,
the fact remains that the news me-
dia has only upheld the highest
standard of journalistic integrity.
We, the media are here to serve
you, the public. Take, for example,
two internationally respected fig-
ures: Jean-Bertrand Aristide and
Kato Kaelin. The more important
person (Kaelin) has received sig-
nificantly more publicity than that
President guy. The reason for this
is perfectly logical: Kato Kaelin is
a MUCH easier name to pro-
nounce. That makes your life
easier. See? We, the media, are
catering to you, the public. You're
welcome.
MSA fails to do its job: serve students
To the Daily:
I was pleased to see two
:ritical MSA issues on the front
page of today's Daily. I would
[ike to comment on them.
On the budget - it is appar-
nt in reading the Budget Prior-
ity Committee's proposed bud-
get, about $100,000 is going to
he basic operation of the Michi-
gan Student Assembly (i.e. pay-
roll for staff operations costs,
tc.) This sum mightbe appro-
priate in a business that has a
volume in the millions of dol-
lars, but for a student govern-
rnent whose entire budget is
iround $200,000, it is ridicu-
ous. Student groups are slated
to get approximately $67,000
his year. This is pathetic. We at
ISA do not exist to have a
lushly furnished and over-
staffed office.
We exist to serve students,
which we clearly do not. When
[questioned Executive Vice-
President Jacob Stern about
hese costs, he replied that we
rust employ people due to a an
idministrative requirement. I
see no reason not to buck this
-equirement - an MSA that
:an't stand up to the Adminis-
ration of the University has no
usiness proclaiming itself the
:hampion of student rights in
heir confrontations with that
Administration.
On the subject of reserve
ratios, there is no conceivable
reason that MSA needs to hold
$14,000 in reserve. If this re-
serve is never spent, as Stern
stated in this week's meeting, it
should be moved into some-
thing more productive. And if
there were a fiscal emergency,
what is the damage? Heaven
forbid that MSA not have a
full-time staff or the latest net-
worked computer equipment.
It would seem that the Michi-
gan Party is getting caught up
in the trappings of office and
not the duties of same.
Finally, in trying initially to
de-fund the Ann Arbor Ten-
ants' Union, the Michigan Party
has tried to eliminate an impor-
tant student service.
While the stated reason for
this proposed defunding was
budget constraints and lack of
student use of the service, the
real rationale was more along
the lines of a political disagree-
ment between the AATU and
MSA leadership. This abig step
backwards for MSA, which has
tried to legitimize itself for so
long by disassociating itself
with politics.
On the upcoming lobbying
fiasco, it is apparent that U of M
(the students, that is) will have
no representation for another
month. From my experience on
MCC, I know that every sec-
ond counts in a lobbying effort.
Lobbying is not a process
that stops with recesses-gath-
ering signatures and making
plans is a good idea any time in
the year. We do not have a
lobbyist now - and won't for a
while. In the meantime, the
University of Michigan (the
Administration) has had its full-
time lobbyist in Lansing since
before MSA had its first ses-
sion. Michigan State dropped
out of MCC because it already
had a lobbyist and easy access
to the Capitol. MSA dropped
out of MCC without a plan.
Timing is critical here, and
MSA is dropping the ball.
Related to the issue ofquan-
tity of lobbying is quality. The
Michigan Party is allowing a
travesty to occur. The simple
fact that the lobbyist position is
going to be bidded out is ri-
diculous. Lobbying is a qual-
ity-intensive operation, not a
purely mechanical task that
should go to the low bidder. In
addition, it was decided that, to
save money,
MSA would not be writing
any of its own legislation. MSA
would be limited to supporting
or opposing extant bills. This
severely handicaps MSA in
getting precisely what it wants.
This is progress?
Dante Stella
LS&A Representative
Ryan Boeskool
Kyle Chenet
Sarah Endline
Stacia Fejedelem
David Garcia
Jessie Halladay
Edgar Ho
Ron Jackson
Dan Laytin
Julie Neenan
Randy Schwemmin
3reg Shannon
\lina Smith
Julie Stacey
Jim Wabindato
(irk Wolfe
LSA Student
Government
UM Engineering Council
AIESEC
Residence Hall
Association
Michigan Union Board
of Representatives
The Michigan Daily
United Asian American
Association
Black Greed
Association
Mortar Board
Michigan Student
Assembly
University Activities
Center
Project Serve
Black Student Union
Panhellenic Association
Native American
Students Association
Inter-Fraternity Council
I
Why are
Fraternities
tuition dollars soil the Diag
I
Unprotected transcripts
Anybody with a lawyer can get your transcript
spent on
construction?
To the Daily:
I have a question. If the
University's endowment has
just topped $1 billion dollars,
then why does my tuition con-
tinue to increase?
I am an out-of-state stu-
dent whois now paying $8,500
to come to a school that con-
tinues to do construction on
the campus while I am inside
trying desperately to strain and
hear my teacher through the
sounds of a jackhammer. If I
wanted to learn the art of con-
struction, I would go talk to
the workers.
I thought this was an insti-
tution of higher learning. If it
truly was, then wouldn't edu-
cation come before appear-
ance?
Randy Antin
LSA Junior
while
recruiting
To the Daily:
Tuesday evening while I
walked through campus, I re-
flected upon the scene at the
steps of the Graduate Library
earlier in the day. Representa-
tives of the many houses com-
prising this university's Greek
system sat behind their tables
attempting to ensnare possible
new recruits with preachings of
honor, integrity, pride within
the ranks, the "U", et cetera. I
wonder where that pride, integ-
rity and self-worth disappeared
to after the tables were folded
and the house presidents went
home. Apparently it relieved
itself in the mounds of refuse
left behind which encircled our
famed Diag. Is this what your
university experience is really
all about, girls and boys? Nice
message.
Benevolent
cops abound,
one gives
away a ticket
To the Daily:
I would just like to acknowl-
edge Officer Robert Daven-
port in regards to the good deed
he did at the University of
Michigan/Boston College
game. I had gone to the game
with my wife and my nine
month old child. Upon enter-
ing the stadium I learned that I
needed a ticket for my son,
Alex. He and I would have
missed the game if Officer
Davenport didn't so kindly of-
fer a ticket of his own for little
Alex's use. I think this shows
great goodwill by the Univer-
sity and goes beyond other
means of building public rela-
tions. Again, my family and
friends couldn't thank Officer
Davenport enough for his kind-
ness.
Dennis Padla
Ann Arbor resident
Another fine case of the media
looking out for the greater good is
the Amy Fishercontroversy. What
happened, basically, is that poor
Miss Fisher shot her boyfriend's
wife, and she said he made her do
it. The media covered every angle
of this crucial news event. TV-
movies featured all points of view
("Amy Fisher: The Mattress's
Story") and newspapers promptly
put the controversy on the front
page, ahead of less important
events, such as the war in Bosnia.
Some people complained that
the Fisher story received too much
exposure. Of course, if you are
among these complainers (or, pos-
sibly, complainants) then you are
clearly one of the lucky few who
hasn't been trapped into trying to
murder your boyfriend's wife with
a gun you received in exchange for
sex, which is, needless to say, a
major epidemic in this country.
It happened to one of my close
friends. One minute she was hav-
ing a perfectly innocent affair with
a married man and the next thing
she knew she shot the guy's wife
with a gun she had received in
exchange for sex. Fortunately for
all, it was only a watergun.
But even in this case, severe
damage was done. For one thing,
the man's wife got needlessly wet.
More dangerously, being shot with
a watergun does not make for very
good drama, so my friend was
unable to snag a TV-movie deal.
Another volatile, important is-
sue was the Tonya Harding-Nancy
Kerrigan brouhaha. This was in all
the newspapers, so unless you were
hibernating this winter, or in the
Upper Peninsula, orboth, you must
have read about this. Essentially,
Harding plotted to injure her fig-
ure skating rival, Kerrigan, so that
Harding could make itto the Olym-
pics. I can personally assure you
that this also brought one of our
nation's major problems to the
forefront. Most people don't real-
ize that I was a frontrunner to win
the singles luge competition at the
1994 Winter Olympics. Unfortu-
nately, as I was preparing to help-
lessly fly down the track on my
ass, I mean luge, at the Olympic
trials, I was stabbed in the arm
with a thumbtack. I had to with-
draw from the competition. Soyou
can see what a serious problem the
Harding-Kerrigan brouhaha
brought out.
(Incidentally, I was also plan-
ning on entering the mixed doubles
luge competition. However, I had
to withdraw from that because my
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Do you have a friend or a relative who is a
lawyer? If you don't, you might want to
get one, because then the University will hand
over anybody's transcript to you.
Your transcripts not only show your com-
plete academic record, but also your social
security number. With that number and a
driver's license number, anyone can look up
your financial records, credit history or any
criminal record. In short, a person that can get
i hold of your transcript can get a hold of your
life. But don't worry. The University won't let
anyone get a hold of your life.
r. Q+%**% A it rv k .i- lutnrmit %,3-%^f r
have to be approved by a judge in order for it
to be legally recognized. Any lawyer can
xerox a subpoena form, sign it, send it, and it
holds the same weight as if a judge approved
it. So gather your lawyer friends - it might be
fun to find out whether your best friend has a
criminal record. The University will inform
the person whose transcript is being requested
of the subpoena and give them time to find a
lawyer to block the subpoena. But because the
University must comply with the law, they
will release the transcripts.
The University claims that its hands are
t4- :n- .sc 41:.t-.: Tf thks t ... t .u, ...A
Walter Hergt
LSA Senior
ii