4 - The Michigan Daily - Friday, September 23, 1994 U be £IIgi~jn ~ai g '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. -ETc UNB4.N MUST TE TRe%,EMVED AND 5,nr GCTr r .t "A 1RA VRF ANV "'HRE, :g ONl.Y PRtE-IFE 40NE WAY TVb Do .L -1 .. . . ... ... ., F., , - . t ..; ."I -, - - - 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. ~ILL h &YN ",,i ® " N > 7 +' " 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 0 @ 4 41 0 J 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