4 - The Michigan Daily - Wednesday, October 19, 1994
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'I sit here now and think I should be more careful.
But I don't want to be more careful. This is just
another story that keeps you from being who you
are. It leaves you a little powerless.'
- An LSA student responding to Thursday's rape in yesterday's Daily
420 Maynard
Ann Arbor, MI 48109
Edited and managed by students at
the University of Michigan
JessieHallady
Editor in Chief
Samuel Goodstein
Flint Wainess
Aaargh, those
machines of
90 16.. 11
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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The new Ombudsman
Wlhen Ombudsman Donald Perigo was
fired a few weeks ago, the student
body lost an important ace from its deck. The
Office of Student Affairs gave many reasons
for this drastic and unfair course of action,
none of which really explained their behavior.
But the vast number of wholly positive ac-
counts presented by both students and faculty
that worked with Perigo make it fairly safe to
say the Ombudsman was not let go because he
performed inadequately. From their point of
view, he did his job all too well.
The Ombudsman has always been an im-
portant resource for students here at the Uni-
versity, assisting them in matters ranging from
financial aid, to housing disputes, to student
services. He also served as a judicial advisor,
fighting on the side of students at odds with the
University in matters concerning the State-
ment of Student Rights and Responsibilities,
almost like an attorney. The problem with the
arrangement, however, is that it created an
inherent and real conflict of interest for the
Ombudsman. The Office of the Ombudsman
was one of the many divisions of the Office of
Student Affairs. In other words, Vice Presi-
dent for Student Affairs Maureen Hartford
signed the Ombudsman's paycheck, and had
the jurisdiction to terminate his contract- as
she did this summer. Not that it should have
come as such a surprise. As long as the Om-
budsman reported to Student Affairs, alien-
ation was inevitable.
It's a Catch-22 that the administration tries
to divert attention from, but there's no way to
avoid it, and it's the real reason why Perigo
was fired. He fought too hard. He did his job
so well that he was undermining the interests
of the administration. Every time the adminis-
tration found themselves at odds with a stu-
dent, they had to answer to the Ombudsman,
and that kept things from running smoothly.
So what did they do? They put student needs
on the back burner and made life easy for
themselves. Students are left to feel the burden
of this unfortunate change.
It must be tough for the administration to
have to go up against a crusader like Perigo,
but the fact is that the student body needs an
advocate, and if that makes life a little difficult
for the faculty at times, so be it. The University
needs an Ombudsman, and more importantly,
it needs a complete restructuring of the posi-
tion in order to ensure that the student body is
never again so taken advantage of. The Office
of the Ombudsman needs to become an entity
separate from Student Affairs, directly under
the control of the president.
The Daily was not informed of Perigo's
termination by Student Affairs, as they con-
tinue to view these matters as simple person-
nel decisions. If the Ombudsman had his own
office, reporting directly to the president, it
would be difficult to repeat the mistakes of the
past without engendering student outcry. Vis-
ibility and accountability would be the result
of this restructuring.
Perhaps more importantly, this will serve
to create an Ombudsman untainted by conflict
of interest, an Ombudsman dedicated to keep-
ing the job in the hands of a staff that is expert
in the handling of student grievances, and
motivated by no other directive than to serve
the student body.
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Letter writer wasn't
Ads of opposition
Many GOP candidates hide behind ads
n an election year, the need to focus on the
real issues becomes more important than
ever. While not even the naive expect cam-
paigns to be opportunities for constructive
intellectual discourse, free of mudslinging, it
is not too much to expect that they don't
degenerate into schoolyard quarrels devoid of
fact. It appears, however, that the upcoming
November elections won't even live up to
those expectations. From Michigan to Cali-
fornia, misleading campaign messages that
play upon American sentiments of distrust in
government abound. These campaign mes-
sages, providing little substance, merely play
on the current cynicism Americans feel to-
ward the Federal government.
Such tactics are evident in the race to
replace Michigan's Democratic Senator Don
Riegle. Over the past few weeks, Republican
Spence Abraham, in an effort to win the open
U.S. Senate seat, has attacked opponent Bob
Carrby hiding behind cynical and often untrue
television advertisements. In fact, before
yesterday's appearance before the Detroit
Economic Club, very few have actually seen
Abraham on the campaign trail - and even
fewer know what he really stands for. He has
not come out to Michigan voters with a clear
message about who he is and what he wants to
accomplish in the Senate.
Michigan citizens should be concerned
about a candidate who has not come forth to
address them. Abraham, who has never been
elected to a public office and who has worked
for Dan Quayle, has many questions to an-
swer. Many voters aware of his positions are
concerned about his far-right views on homo-
sexuality and welfare. Rather than campaign-
ing for what he believes to be important,
dent. If anything, Carr's weakness comes from
his willingness to ally with special interests,
and turn his back to a President with the
courage to try to put the country's economic
house back in order. However, one would
never know this from Abraham's sly tactics.
Perhaps Abraham links Carr with the Presi-
dent because Carr supported Clinton's contro-
versial budget which raised tax rates on the
wealthiest Americans. This, of course, is the
budget that significantly cut into the deficit,
sparking the lowering of interest rates which
in turn led to robust economic growth. Fortu-
nately, more and more Democratic candidates
are engaging this argument head on, and refus-
ing to allow GOP candidates to shape the
debate in a way that simply doesn't do justice
to the facts.
The Abraham-Carr race is not aberrant.
Across the country, Republican candidates
are taking one of two tacks. Either they are
embracing the Contract with America, giving
the Democrats clear ammunition to show the
GOP is no longer the party of the balanced
budget-now it is aparty led by Bob Dole and
Newt Gingrich relies on budgetary gimmicks
and outdated defense spending, at the expense
of middle class families. Or candidates are
simply running campaigns of opposition.
Opposition to Clinton, opposition to their op-
ponent, opposition to Washington. Many, like
the wealthy oil tycoon in California who be-
lieves if the government simply packed its
bags and took a nap the country would be in
better shape, are running campaigns promis-
ing to do nothing if they are elected. That
means, no environmental cleanup, no infor-
mation superhighway, no proposals to fix a
Social Security system running toward bank-
rtito - in P jffp~r~t n h r Iviin of the cnnin
State News-
Daily both
acted without
class in game
To the Daily:
In Rachel Bachman's ar-
ticle, "A friendly game? No
such thing with State" (10/101
94) the author makes some
powerful, and perhaps well-
deserved criticisms of the
Michigan State News football
team's behavior at the Daily/
State News football game two
Fridays ago. However, she
failed to give a fair picture of
what actually happened. As a.
concerned eyewitness, I'd like
to set the record straight. I de-
cided to go to Palmer field
Friday and watch the game
since. I have friends on both
papers' staffs. Like Rachel, I
was disgusted by what I saw,
but there is more to the story
than the narrow side that she
presented.
First, I would question
Rachel's professionalism in her
choice to insult State News
staffers in order to arouse sym-
pathy for her story. By taking
cheap shots at MSU students
and State News staffers, she
succeeded only in displaying
herown immaturity rather than
the alleged inferiority of the
State News staff or MSU stu-
dents in general. First, Rachel
refers to State News staff as
"academically challenged."
Perhaps Rachel is unaware of
how academically rigorous the
MSU journalism program is.
State News staffers are stu-
dents who qualified for this
program, having survived the
fierce competition for admit-
tance. Since I know many of
the staffers personally, I can
say that they are among some
of the brightest people I know,
some are definitely more aca-
demically capable than many
University students I know,
including some whohave writ-
ten for the Daily. Rachel also
referred to the alleged "ring-
ers" on the Michigan State teatn
as "Big Guys. You know the
kind who use lard for tooth
paste." (Note that she fails to
mention that there are accusa-
tions of Daily ringers as well
from the State News staff.) She
also said that Daily staffers
who questioned whetheror not
they were actually State News
staffers wondered, "Did these
guys really sit in on city coun-
cil meetings, spend hours
squinting at negatives ...?" I
would like to know when be-
ing a "big guy" came to mean
that one is incapable of being
or unlikely to be a journalist?
Last time I checked, no
studies have shown that brains
or journalistic capabilities are
criticizing all foreign TA's
To the Daily:
I didn't really want to con-
tinue this discussion further in
this forum, because I felt that
my first letter was not thought
out well enough, and stereo-
typed many TA's. This is not
what I meant, but I still stand
by the main point of my letter,
and since so many people seem
to have concerns over what I
said, I felt I should write and
clarify my position. I still have
the original copy of my letter,
and nowhere in it did I make
any suggestions of lack ofabil-
ity or knowledge of my TA's
or the fact that I think that there
is inherent inferiority in inter-
national TA's. I think that call-
ing it a "personal attack on
foreign TA's" was uncalled for,
and borders on paranoid.
I agree that most, if not all,
of the TA's hired by the Uni-
versity have vast knowledge
and understanding of the field
that they are paid to teach.
Many of my previous TA's
have given me invaluable help
in figuring out my homework,
and answering questions I may
have. But, just because a per-
son has knowledge on a cer-
tain subject, that does NOT
necessarily make them a good
teacher. The wisest man in the
world may also be the worst
teacher, if he cannot convey
his ideas to the people he is
trying to teach.
I agree that one should not
be so close minded as to ignore
a TA because they have an
accent, but I feel that when a
TA teaches you erroneous in-
formation because they can't
express (not pronounce) what
they want to say, then you have
reason to be upset. I am not
talking strictly about introduc-
tory level courses either. I have
had TA's teaching in third-
year courses that could not ex-
press the ideas the class needed
to learn, and I feel that is not
right. I feel that the students at
the University pay a very high
price to receive a top notch
education, and that should in-
clude information taught by
TA's.
It doesn't have anything to
do with what we "deserve" as
students as Beal said, it has to
do with us being the one's pay-
ing for a service, and if it is not
rendered satisfactorily, even if
it is only occasionally, we have
the right to complain. This is
not discrimination against any
ethnicity or nationality, it is
discrimination against bad
teaching, and can only make
the University better.
If someone paid me to come
teach them how to use their
computer, and I could not ex-
plain it to them, because I could
not speak their language well
enough, they would not pay
me, and I think that is perfectly
legitimate. I know that all TA's
have to pass a proficiency test
in English, but I feel that if
some of my previous TA's have
passed that test, there needs to
be a more rigorous oral test of
incoming TA's. I regret that I
said that 74 percent of my TA's
could barely speak English,
because that is wrong. The bad
TA's seem to stick out more
than the good ones, but I have
certainly had more good than
bad. I am interested to hear
what kind ofdiscrimination Liu
is talking about, because it
seems that any discrimination
on the students part (such as
walking out or disrupting class)
would just cause them to lose
their own money. I also am
curious as to other student's
thoughts on this subject, but I
feel I have stated my position,
and will not use up any more of
the Daily's editorial space in
the future to reply to any fur-
ther arguments on this subject.
.Iaimie Birk
Engineering junior
today
I hate machines that think they
are smarter than I am. Especially
the ones that might, in fact, be so.
Take, for example, my Personal
Word Processor PWP 90, upon
which I am typing this column. If I
miss-spell a word, it announces the
fact with a defiant "Beep!" so as to
drive the point home that The Hip-
popotamus can't spell, or is going
too fast, at the very least.
The problem is, it has a few
spelling problems of its own. It
has a problem with formal names
and with foreign words. Take
"Ypsilanti," where I live. It has
just this minute informed me,
with musical glee, of my error.
But just to be sure. I have
consulted the morning's edition
of "The Ypsilanti Press, an
Edition of the Ann Arbor News."
I was right the fust time. Ditto
for my entry of "Conneaut," the
small town in Ohio where I was
raised. And as for a foreign
name, like "Dosithee DuRoc" (a
puffed-up French film star from
my novel-in-progress, Burn this
Book!"), it just won't stand for
that. I'd better name him "Tom."
I suppose the real problem is
that I am essentially a Low-Tech
Person living in a High-Tech
World.
Well, let me rephrase that.
"Low-Tech" implies that I am
primitive, and that these words
are to be inscribed on clay tablets
with my reed stylus, dried in the
sun on the patio and delivered to
my befuddled editor in a basket.
He would then arrange them in
some sort of order, ask me to
redo the ones the dog has stepped
on while wet, and make a note:
"Get Bill into computer class."
After work, he'd step off for a
fast one, and Thank his Lucky
Stars Hippo only does a weekly
column.
No, if High-Tech means all
your Microsquish and
Windscreens - or is it Win-
dows'? -then 1 am firmly
Medium-Tech. After all, you had
Nintendo and the like to play
with. Electronic word crunching
comes naturally to you.
My generation had Pong.
And we did our term papers
the hard way, when Word
Processing meant "hunt-and-
peck" on the Smith Corona
Electric than Mom and Dad gave
me as a reward for not getting
thrown out of high school, and
also "Oh, God, Norm's been
sniffing the Correction Fluid and
forgot to reseal the cap."
Still, in spite of it all, I
managed to produce a bewilder-
ing number of term papers,
ranging from "Absurdist Theatre,
Alice Cooper and His Dept to
Pere Ubu"' to "Slavish Tradi-
tion: Russian Infantry Doctrine in
the Crimean War." I suspect that
you still churn out the same
academic blather; I'll have to
take a look over your shoulders
next time I'm in the UGLI's
Microcomputing Center.
My letters to parents, to
various friends and household
notes to Avis are in Medium-
Low-Tech: my tortured hand-
writing. I prefer U.S. Mail to E-
Mail, for it gives family and
friends alike endless fun trying to
decrypt the next best thing to
Cuneiform.
And to be sure, I'm a bit
unsure how Personal my
Personal Word Processor PWP
90 really is. After all, it's named
"Smith Corona," not "Bill
Marshall." And if it was really
both Intelligent and personal, it
j would also brew me up a really
good cup of tea. I have to count
101
ral sports don't allow it, it cer-
tainly is not necessary in our
newspaper. I think there is
plenty of MSU-LTM rivalry al-
ready without it, so it serves no
constructive purpose.
Second, if the two schools
were out to play a "friendly
game" as Rachel asserts, why
choose to play tackle football
without pads? Although this
choice might be based on tradi-
tion, perhaps this is one tradi-
tion that could be altered to
keep up with the times. Most
women and smaller men on
both staffs chose not to partici-
pate in a game that pitted them
against bigger, more athletic
people who were all playing
very intensely in a situation
where they were almost guar-
anteed to get hurt. With the
reporter who played only one
kickoff because she was afraid
of being hurt in the melee you
called a game.) If I were the
Daily and State News, I would
question the value of a tradi-
tion that is as dangerous, and
non-inclusive as tackle, no-pad
football. If the papers want to
continue the tradition of
friendly competition, try a
game where more staffers will
be able to play safely, and if
you want to make sure every-
one stays in line, find an offi-
cial from IM Sports rather than
whining about cheaters.
I am not saying that MSU
behaved well; they did break
rules, but Daily staff didn't
show any leadership when it
came to playing just for fun. It
is really a shame that players
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