4 - The Michigan Daily - Friday, October 7, 1994

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'Now a lot of women go home from a hard day's
work and believe the penis is their friend.'
-Naomi Wolf speaking in the School of Education
Auditorium about the move in feminism to victimize
men when they should be mobilizing politically.

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.

When students cheat
New cheating policy unnecessary, wasteful

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Perhaps not everyone at this University
knows what constitutes cheating. Maybe
some students do not realize that plagiarism is
an included offense. Even a phrase or an idea
left uncited could land someone in hot water.
These gray areas give some validity to the
University's campaign to educate students on
the tenets of cheating. However, other aspects
of the new cheating policy raise some serious
doubts.
First of all, this initiative is based on a
nationwide study which shows that cheating is
rampant at colleges. However, this does not
mean that the University's students conform
to the national statistics. Granted, cheating
exists at any school, but it has not been proven
that it is of epidemic proportions on this cam-
pus. The national study is only enough evi-
dence for the University to conduct its own
specific study.
Nor are those statistics a valid reason to
create a new position to deal solely with cheat-
ing cases, which the University plans to do.
The 40-50 cases reported in LS&A each year
do not seem to be enough to merit a new
administrative position. In typical fashion, the
University believes a case investigator is nec-
essary to root out all of the hidden offenders
and bring themup to justice. Not only will this
cost the University yet another salary, but a
person hired to look for great numbers of
cheaters leaves an uneasy feeling. It has the
potential to turn suspicion oframpant cheating
into rampant - and unfounded - accusa-
tions.
With the new process, a faculty member
needs only to point a finger to bring on an

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investigation. The student can then choose
between an informal chat with the new case
investigator or a formal hearing. While the
policy promises speedy results with the infor-
mal proceedings, it only succeeds in adding
another layer of bureaucracy to the process. It
is predictable that someone willbe dissatisfied
with the informal outcome, which automati-
cally turns the case over to the academic
judiciary. For students it would be more pru-
dent to send the case straight to the academic
judiciary for the formal hearing.
In eithercircumstance one person will have
the responsibility of deciding the consequences
for each individual case. Another reason pre-
sented for the revamped policy is to make
punishments fair across the board. How will
one person dictating the punishments of every
student create a just penalty system? This
would be worse than the system currently
being employed. To make it fair students
should be judged and disciplined by their
peers, who not only are most attuned to the
pressures at the University, but who also un-
derstand what cheating means for the entire
student body.
The University is only wasting time and
resources to implement a new system which
will not benefit students. Apparently the Uni-
versity feels that the morals of its students are
lacking; so instead of promoting a fair and
friendly learning environment, the adminis-
tration is looking to make us into cheaters. In
fact, someone will be hired to find and make
examples of the offending students. And the
bottom line here is that no one should be paid
to hunt for cheaters.

Daily errs, TAs are not considering a strike

BY JON CURTISS
A misleading article with
an irresponsible headline ap-
peared in Wednesday's Daily
("TA union takes offensive,
keeps open strike possibility").
By inaccurately implying that
the Graduate Employees Orga-
nization (GEO) is currently
considering or planning a strike,
the article not only misinforms
the University community, but
misses an opportunity to de-
scribe some of the projects with
which the union is actually en-
gaged.
The possibility of a strike
undoubtedly makes for the best
headline. However, GEO's cur-
rent contract does not expire
until February of 1996, and we
will not begin our negotiations
with the University adminis-
tration until November of 1995.
The idea that we would be talk-
ing seriously about a strike more
than a year before we start bar-
gaining is ridiculous. We are
"keeping open" the possibility
of a strike only in the sense that
a strike is, generally speaking,
always a possibility when a la-
bor union sits down to negoti-
ate a contract with management.
Curtiss is president of GEO

We are also "keeping open" the
possibility of peacefully nego-
tiating a good and fair contract
with the Administration with-
out a strike. Indeed, while we
have (as the Daily article states)
felt it necessary to take a strike
vote in three out of the last four
contracts, GEO has not in fact
conducted a full-fledged strike
since 1975. GEO will make
every effort to negotiate our
next contract without a strike,
and believe it possible to do so.
We are, as Dan Gamble is
quoted as saying in
Wednesday's article, a reason-
able union.
While we are not currently
printing picket signs, we are
currently preparing for nego-
tiations. In the nextfew months,
we will be meeting and talking
with our members in an effort
to determine what TAs' priori-
ties are for the next contract.
Some of the possible issues for
that contract include:
" A Living Wage.
Wednesday's article does cor-
rectly point out that most TAs
do not make a living wage.
When we make a less-than-liv-
ing wage as TAs, we have to
take extra jobs to make ends
meet. This takes time away from

our teaching responsibilities
and our degree work; conse-
quently, it takes us longer to
complete our degrees, and more
of us drop out.
" Health Care. Currently,
13 percent of TAs at the Uni-
versity do not receive health
benefits. For most of them, in-
surance is an unaffordable
"luxury" on a TA salary.
" Equal Opportunity. As
Wednesday's article states,
people of color are significantly
underrepresented among TAs,
despite a higher representation
among graduate students in
general. (The demographics of
the GEO bargaining unit are
about the same as they were in
1979.)
Teaching experience can
make a significant difference
in today's competitivejob mar-
ket.
Other issues include tuition
waivers for TAs who work less
than quarter time, fair
workloads and job security. We
hope to speak with as many
GEO members as possible in
the coming year, so we can go
to the administration with a
reasonable and representative
set of priorities for our next
contract.

IfIcanI; just lose
a few more
scruples, I can
be in Congress!
There are many things I don't
understand, such as quantum phys-
ics, simple arithmetic, how they get
the cream into the Twinkies, how
they figure out the half-life of a
Twinkie and why Twinkies are called
Twinkies in the first place. It's kind
of a silly name.
Another thing I don't understand
is why politicians abuse power. When
they get elected/appointed to power-
ful positions do they assume it is
because we would really like them to
pocket large sums of money and
bankrupt our country?
I can only imagine how many
times the following conversation has
taken place:
POLLSTER (to newly elected
congressperson): Congratulations.
You are a newly elected
congressperson.
NEWLY ELECTED
CONGRESSPERSON: Great! This
means I get to keep Tennessee, right?
One man who abused his power
is former Agriculture Secretary Mike
Espy. Espy was accused of blatantly
using his position for personal gain,
a charge he strongly denied, saying
he had not violated any ethics laws.
Then he was told he was being inves-
tigated, at which time he said, Yeah,
OK, maybe I did violate a few ethics
laws, like the ones which say you
can't take bribes. Espy resigned this
week.
Espy is not the first person to
make such mistakes, although of the
people who have made these mis-
takes he probably has the coolest
name.
For example, Sen. Ted Kennedy
of Massachusetts has long been a
proponent of women's rights. Of
course, Kennedy's personal history
with women is ... well, several vol-
umes long. But he is a staunch advo-
cate of equality on the Senate floor,
except for those frequent occasions
when he is actually ON the senate
floor, the result of a few too many
shots of Jagermeister at strip bars.
Nevertheless, he believes all women
are equal sex objects. IfTed Kennedy
went to Michigan, he'd report him-
self to SAPAC.
Then there is New York Sen. Al
"Pavarotti" D'Amato, who sang on
the senate floor last year during a
filibuster, whatever that is. As a citi-
zen of New York, I am proud to have
this man as my senator. He is follow-
ing in a rich tradition of Senate ten-
ors. I ,think we can all remember the
day when Abraham Lincoln stood
on the Senate floor and started sing-
ing Beethoven's 9th, in D minor.

Another politician in this mold is
Oliver North, who is running for the
Senate in Virginia. North has a his-
tory of lying, cheating and hiding
things from the government. If that
doesn't qualify him for congress, I
don't know what would.
The politician who always comes
to mind when talking about abusing
power is former President Richard
Nixon. If Tricky Dick did not start
this trend, he at least refined the art.
Nixon once said, "If I could do it all
again, I would be a sportswriter."
Dick, if we could do it all again, you
would be a sportswriter.
One Senator who has not gone
against his beliefs is Bob Dole, who
has continually been re-elected on a
platform of "I won't let the govern-
ment do anything, so make your own
damn money." Dole has stuck to this
pledge. Once, in June of 1983, Dole
smiled. Nobody has seen his teeth
since. When asked why he doesn't
smile, Dole responded, "I'm from
Kansas. would you smile if you were
from Kansas? And stop with the damn

A

The filbbuster fanatics
1 03rd Congress proves filibuster should go

A s the 103d Congress crawls to a close, the
words of Sen. John McCain (R-Arizona)
ring painfully true: "Most Americans want us
to get out of town. They think we have done
enough harm." The harm the Senate has in-
flicted, however, is a product of its dormancy,
not any ill-conceived legislation. With the
threat of filibuster running rampant, the
Senate's agenda has been decimated as small
coalitions of mostly Republican Senators have
killed or delayed bills addressing campaign
finance reform, the replacement of striking
workers, product liability, lobbying regula-
tion, elementary and secondary education and
health care reform. The danger is that many
bills, health care was one, will not be brought
to the floor unless the leadership is certain they
have 60 votes to invoke cloture, or end debate.
This is only one reason that the filibuster
should be stricken from the Senate rule books.
Since the 1965 adoption of the "two-track"
filibuster, which allows other Senate business
to continue around it, use of the filibuster has
skyrocketed and the entire nature of the legis-
lative body has changed. There have been
more filibusters in the last Congress than in the
entire 18th century, and 48 percent of all
filibusters have occurred since 1980. The sheer
number of filibusterers is not the fundamental
threat to Senate effectiveness, it only accentu-
ates the threat.
The multivariate problem is that filibusters
subvert majorityrule, discourage serious policy
debate, allow politics to be dominated by
individual interest instead of the national in-
terest and prevent the Senate from establish-
ing a coherent schedule.
First, the issue of majority rule. Simply put,
41 senators can block any bill from even
coming to the floor because the Senate will not
consider any bill that it cannot invoke cloture
on-health care reform is an example. There-
fore, should 59 Senators think highly of a bill

while 41 are vehemently opposed, a filibus-
terer could kill, or completely alter, the legis-
lation. This is an obvious distortion of the
principle of majority rule.
Second, filibusters discourage full and com-
plete debate on an issue. Because Senate lead-
ership and proponents of bills fear filibusters
will prevent passage, they will make signifi-
cant compromises before the bill is even intro-
duced to the body to avoid delay. These con-
cessions are often aimed at a small group of
Senators who should not yield so much power.
With the demise of party power and the rise
of the individualistic senator, the filibuster has
become a popular tool to exploit the institu-
tion. It is hardly rare for a single senator to
threaten a filibusterer in order to gain leverage
on a pet issue. Because of the immense
workload the Senate faces, even a threatened
filibuster is often enough for the leadership to
make concessions to the renegade senator on
a completely unrelated issue just to speed up
the process. This was hardly the original intent
of the filibuster. On the contrary, it was de-
signed so that issues of great national import
could be debated to fruition - not so that
individual senators could enhance their elec-
toral capabilities.
Before 1965, any filibuster would face
immense public and private pressure to give
in. Today, this check on Senate power is gone,
and the Senate's calendar is a graveyard of
worthwhile legislation.
Furthermore, the relentless use of the fili-
buster makes House members nervous of go-
ing out on a limb for fear of the Senate killing
the bill. The solution is to revoke the "two-
track" filibuster and replace the principle of
majority rule and serious policy debate. While
the Senate is unlikely to revoke its own power
privilege, it would be in the name of respon-
sible government to do so - just ask the
millions of uninsured Americans.

Carrying a 'Kickoff'

computer for four hours

BY EPHRAIM GERSTEIN
Picture this ifyou dare. Two
young, athletic, studly looking
guys, dragging a rickety dolly
up Division Street. The thing is
loaded up with $6,000 worth of
computer equipment to the
point where itcould all fall onto
the sidewalk at the slightest
bump.
We push, we pull, we stop
every few minutes or so to
straighten all the stuff out be-
cause it looks like it could come
crashing to the ground any sec-
ond. Is this one of Dante's lev-
els of hell? Did we loose a bet
with God? Are we pledging a
frat? None of the three. Like
hundreds of other University
students, we simply decided to
purchase our computers at the
Kickoff Sale.
On Tuesday, Oct. 4, my
roommate, Micah, and I went
down to south campus to pick
up our new computers. We had
no idea what to do. There we
were, two out-of-state students
(New York and California, re-
spectively) with no car, and no
friends who had one, but we
had to find some way to get our
Gerstein is a member of the
Daily Editorial Board

purchases from the Sports
Colliseum on south campus,
back to our room in Alice Lloyd.
The best thing we could come
up withwas to load it all up on
whatever wheeled vehicle we
could find, and hope to bring it
all back undamaged.
Now, I don't know exactly
who buys these computers, but
common sense tells you that a
great many undergraduates
would be taking advantage of
this sale. So if you were selling
these, and so many of your pur-
chasers were undergrads, prob-
ably without cars, would you
locate the pickup site as far
away from the dorms as you
possibly could? Of course not.
You'd want to make it conve-
nient to those customers who
need to carry their computers
home in their arms, right? I
mean, what is with these
people? Do they sit up at night
asking themselves "Gee, where
can we put the pickup site so as
to make the kids really appreci-
ate their new toys?"
The way I see it, the only
advantage to distributing the
computers at the Sports
Colleseum is that it's a big open
space where merchants can sell

a lot of accessories that we
can't afford, don't want and
probably don't need. And it's
not like they don't have alter-
natives. I'm sure there's some-
where in the Union, or some
other spot on central campus
that they could give use to give
these things out. Or even bet-
ter, they could bring them right
to students' dorms.
There is storage space for
packages in every residence
hall, and we could come right
downstairs and get our pur-
chases, and not have to worry
about getting them home safely.
The least they could do is ar-
range for cabs or some other
transportation for those who
need it.
Anyway, for those of you
who are interested, Micah and
I made it home with our new
equipment. The trip took us
about four hours. It was a real
strain on our backs trying to
steer the cart and keep all the
stuff on it, but we got some
help in the final stretch. Look-
ing back, it was a real pain in
the ass, but at least we had a
nice male bonding experience.
After this, how can we not be
friends for life.

We invade for
hig hsiness

Can anyone imagine a left-
ist leader that was being de-
posed by U.S. forces being
treated so compassionately? If
this were Castro instead of

behalf of the common people
of that country or of the United
States. They make interven-
tions on behalf of big business!
Aristide will be restored,