4 - The Michigan Daily - Wednesday, October 19, 1994 Idd6a -dd& 41V ight Nt]Cbfl;ull '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. 1~~ .1'.~ *. I . ~% d 4 WF nt-i MnD~- * ~...- ~a -~ * ~ ..iruuu~ Mike i St' wriun,. " ; " tier " , u 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. r " &- v" f. w~f%',L. 1'$F'1 X1 ,-l r!NU 5FOVlNC E NEW Y0 R5 OS - US. ARMY(lm mA irs) . S+.w = t: : ' " r~""1 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 ___ L-.t--___ ---A-1 __._tt_ i I