4 - The Michigan Daily - Thursday, September 8, 1994
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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
Welcome to the U of M. Good football - selfish
administration.'
- Recently appearing on a sign in front
of Technology Partners Inc., a State Street business
"SCARIEST NIGHTMARE THRILLER OF THE YEA K-
- B05 "D L-
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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.
Begging for dollars
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Tuition increase disregards student needs
ACAR~
BILI
The University did not go home for sum-
mer vacation. While students spent the
warmer months in places far removed from
Ann Arbor, administrators were busy work-
ing on their agenda for students' lives on
campus.Amidchanges to policies govern-
ing everything from access to the Michi-
gan Union to chalking on the Diag, the
University also managed to create an even
bigger strain on student pocketbooks.
This summer, the administration sub-
mitted - and the Regents immediately
approved dollar for dollar - yet another
tuition increase for all University students.
Even with an increase in state funding to
the University, tuition will rise at a rate far
beyond that of inflation. And while the
increase for the coming school year is not
as steep as in the past, students must ques-
tion what has become an annual rite of
passage for those attending the University.
For 1994-95, in-state students can ex-
pect to pay 6.9 percent more than in 1993-
94, while out-of-state tuition will jump 5
percent. These numbers are far less than
ast year, when in-state tuition alone rose
11.7 percent. And in the last five years, the
regents have passed tuition increases that
average 10.1 percent. Still, the increase in
tuition is substantial, and the reasons are
dubious.
Approximately 34 percent of the jump
in tuition will fund a cost of living increase
for University faculty. While many may
argue that the faculty already earn too
much, employees deserve a yearly increase
that is at least in line with inflation.
But the administration is on shaky
ground in setting aside nearly 9 percent of
the increase for a reserve fund that the
~University will hold as a check against the
unlikely possibility of spiraling inflation
or other financial disasters throughout the
school year. This reserve fund is new at the
University and its necessity must be ques-
tioned. Even more important to students,
the administration has not decided where
this money should go if not used up during
the school year. The University mustprom-
ise to give any unspent money back to
students, or channel it into next year's
budget to offset future tuition increases, or
this reserve fund ultimately is a slight to
the student body.
The administration will also give 5
percent of the increase to vague "under-
graduate initiatives." If the administration
would truly use this money to shape up its
undergraduateprograms, the money would
be more than justified. However, the ad-
ministration should document in its bud-
get precisely where the money is to be
spent, so that students can be confident
that this portion of the tuition increase is
directly being used to help them.
Finally, the tuition increase will raise
financial aid funding by 18 percent, and
this is commendable. But it also highlights
a paradox within the college tuition sys-
tem. A general rise in tuition only rein-
forces the economic bias and de facto
discrimination in college admissions. In
1994, it seems that the only individuals
who can afford a true college education
are those from an upper-middle class back-
ground and those who qualify for full
financial aid. The latest tuition increase
will only compound this problem, leaving
an education at the University a privilege
for the very few.
It is time to consider a long-term solu-
tion to skyrocketing tuition. While many
items in the University budget deserve
increased funding, an affordable college
education should be an even greater prior-
ity.
The University, in cooperation with
state government, must make a commit-
ment to solve the long-term problem of
college tuition.
---- --_-
A tribute to Dr. Revelli
White House woes
Clinton's baffling presidency continues
By MICHAEL ZUCKER
Come on, whatkind ofcrazy
reports are these about Dr.
Revelli having died? Has some-
thing gone awry at the Michi-
gan Daily? And at the Ann Ar-
bor News? And at the Detroit
Free Press? What a sick joke to
play on us! What a cruel hoax!
Can you believe such ajournal-
istic conspiracy?
Well, they can't fool me. I
know that William D. Revelli,
Director Emeritus of Michigan
Bands, cannot die. He is 92,
and the whole world knows (at
least a few generations of Michi-
gan musical alumni know) that
this man is unstoppable. Surely,
those journals have it wrong.
He just snuck away when no
one was looking, and is in some
distant city making another
guest conducting appearance,
just as he has been doing for
decades.
I mean, we're talking about
the ubiquitous Chief. We're
taking about the man who, after
37 years of conducting Univer-
sity bands, showed us that there
was no such word as "retire-
ment." For well over two de-
cades, after an archaic Univer-
sity regulation mandated that
he was "too old" to remain on
the faculty, he took his genius
to other institutions all over the
continent, inspiring students of
succeeding generations in the
same way that he had incul-
cated in us, his Michigan dis-
ciples, the passion for excel-
lence.
Why, when I talked to him
several months ago, I com-
mented that I had to guess that
if it hadn't been for that Univer-
sity regulation that forced him
out, he would even now still be
in charge of Michigan Bands.
"Oh, yes!" he bellowed. And
his tone told me that he was
absolutely serious. He told me
that he had five appearance
scheduled over the ensuing
two months, appearances that
would take him to Boston,
Washington, Montreal, Or-
Zucker is a member of the
Class of 1957.
lando and Chicago.
And when I talked to him
again on May 30, a time when
he was still recovering from
his second heart attack, I told
him that I was looking forward
to playing again under his ba-
ton during halftime at next
October's Homecoming, and
that I wanted to be sure that he
would still be conducting.
He responded by assuring
me that those indeed were his
plans. But then he cautioned
me to check with him a few
weeks prior to Homecoming
-just to be sure. Of course, I
reasoned, he was advising me
to make sure that he was still
healthy.
How could I misinterpret
him like that?! His follow-up,
without missing a beat, was
that he instead might be away
on another out-of-town guest
conducting appearance! The
Super Chief!
In that conversation, he told
me that four more trips were
planned: conducting, appear-
ances in St. Louis, Alabama,
Orlando and Toronto. And that
despite recovering from two
heart attacks, he was bending
his doctor's desires by starting
to drive himself again around
town.
Dr. Revelli dead? Do you
believe those reports? Just like
it snowed in Panama City. And
Robert Dole turned Democrat.
And the sun sets in the East.
I was not an exemplary
musician. I knew I never had
that kind of talent. So what a
coup I feel it is that I accom-
plished: to be able to learn from
the master. I was able to play
under the baton of one of the
few truly great mentors of my
time. And under his direction,
I was able to learn to appreciate
excellence in art in a way that
I could not possibly learn in
any other way.
Although I never took a
class from him, Dr. Revelli
firmly stands as my most out-
standing teacher in any sub-
ject, anywhere, anytime. He
wasn't Toscanini; he wasn't
Szell; he wasn't Leinsdorf; he
wasn't Bernstein; he wasn't
Mehta. He was all of them.
To so many of us
bandmembers who served un-
der him, the sequence of atti-
tude toward him went from
fear to anger to respect to awe
to reverence. And now, we
remember with affection some
of his trademarks which once
made us cower: the growls, the
snarls, the exclamations after a
few bars of triple fortissimo
that "I can't hear you!" And
when Dr. Revelli talked to you,
he didn't look into your eyes;
he looked through them.
It was a decade after I played
in the Michigan Band that I
heard him define his creed. He
was rehearsing his 1964 musi-
cians in Los Angeles afew days
before their Rose Bowl appear-
ance. Becoming exasperated
that they were not playing a
piece with the precise rhythm
that he was demanding, he
launched a fifteen minute ex-
hortation in the middle of re-
hearsal. It included this pas-
sage:
"The world is full of people
who do things just-about-right.
Just about. And a few on the top
do them just right - most of
the time ... When are you go-
ing to start to demand of your-
self what I demand of myself?
When are you going to be as
uncompromising with what you
do as I am uncompromising
with what I hear and what I
insist on? When? Are you wait-
ing for some miracle? The
miracle will be when you de-
mand of yourself everything
you've got of yourself ... and I
don't only mean five minutes
out of ten. I mean ten minutes
out of ten; I mean sixty minutes
out of an hour, twenty-four
hours a day, at least all of your
waking hours."
He then capped that creed:
"I don't want it just-about-
right. To me,just-about-right is
terrible!"
So, somebody tell those
journals to gettheir stories right.
Dr. Revelli lives on. And that
can't be just a cliche.
Naturally
born
Oliver Stone's new film, "Natu-
ral Born Killers," is a disturbing porS
trayal of the direction American so-
ciety is heading in - a place which
can be best described as apocalyptic
- as an abyss of violence, broken
families and tabloid culture run
amok. True, Stone has been lam-
basted for his over-the-top depiction
of a vast government conspiracy
("JFK") - a charge without sub-
stantive factual documentation. But
"Natural Born Killers" is not int
historical revisionism. It is about the
future. It is about the demise of a
once very great society at the handsi
of some pervasive, yet preventable
symptoms.
In 1994, making lots of money
and being famous is still the way of
the up and coming. But now it has
taken on a different tone - that of
high stakes murder. Mix together th
proliferation of media outlets, the
ensuing democratization of the news
media by such stalwarts as Hard
Copy and Geraldo , a staggering
divorce rate and a society that im-
prisons the largest per capita prison
population in the industrialized world
- and the result is a precipitous turn
toward a violence-tolerant consum-
erist culture that feeds off the likes of
Mickey and Mallory, Stone's two
serial killers who murdered over 5G
people in their trek across America's
heartland, and turns them into Bono-
like rock stars. The fact that Mickey
and Mallory then became so enor-
mously popular, cultural icons actu-
ally, replete with adoring fans com-
paring their devilish deeds to Charles
Manson and shouting encouraging
words of support to their beloved
pop heroes on the steps of the court
house, strikes an eery resemblanc
to the scene O.J. Simpson's white
van generated. Hundreds of motor-
ists pulled off the highway in Los
Angeles this spring to watch the spec-
tacle and cheer the running back on
- "Go O.J., Go!" They might as
well have said: "Go Mickey and
Mallory - kill one more for your
fans!" "We love you!"
Is Stone's portrayal overdone?
Surely. John Wayne Gacy and Jef-
frey Dahmer, to the best of my knowl-
edge, never had the honor of a fan
club, or for that matter, a decent
defense. But the picture Stone is
attempting to paint is all too real. In
1992, almost 1 million Americans
were behind bars, most of them in
state penal institutions. Michigan
boasts the fifth largest prison popu-
lation in the nation (40,000 inmates)
and has the sixth highest incarcera-
tion rate (414 prisoners per 100,000
residents). And although violent,
crime and the overall crime rate are
down slightly, forcible rape, the to-
tal number of murders and murders
involving the use of a firearm are all'
up. Both state, county and federal
prisons are vastly overcrowded and
the potential for large-scale riots and
uncontrollable violence is increas.
ingly possible. Add to the stew the
breakdown of stable families, the
lack of jobs for the middle class and
the lack of meaning in so many
people's lives - what we have is
nothing short of a crisis. Defcon 1.
This begs the question: What hap-
pens when a society - devastated
by fear of men like Mickey, head
shaved and as charismatic as a poli-
tician, seclusion and division (I my-
self live in a gated community in
South Florida), police brutality, a
lock-em-up mentality and a citizenry
fully armed with the 550 semi-auto-
matic guns that the U.S. Congress
did not ban in the recently passed
crime bill - fails to heed Stone's
warnings? Are we heading to the
edge of the precipice, the edge of
civility itself?
And even if Stone embellishe
some and exaggerated (50 murders!)
to make his point to mainstream
moviegoers, I feel we as a generation
and as a society must at least begin to
act to curb the violence, economic
disparities and familial pathology
that breed killers such as Mickey and
Mallory. Mallory's life of crime
found its roots in an incestuous, abu-
sive family, and a longing for a new
life, free from the sexual advances o
her father and the submissiveness of
her mother. Soon after the meat
packer Mickey entered her life, the
duo murdered her parents, setting
Mallory's mom aflame with gaso-
line. Once on the road, these two
enrverse1v ncialized twentv-some-
W hile pundits marvel at President
Clinton's abysmal approval ratings,
currently 39 percent, the public bemoans
his inability to break gridlock and laments
his so-called "character" problem. To be
sure, the Clinton administration has had its
moments in the sun -however, consistent
mismanagement and a string of policy
blunders have eroded Mr. Clinton's politi-
cal capital and impeded his ability to gov-
ern. His loss of support among congres-
sional Democrats, highlighted by a defeat
on a procedural crime bill vote last month,
is in part due to hostile constituencies
unfairly characterizing the President as
"slick Willie," a scoundrel who only seeks
political gain. Yet there are also systemic
flaws behind his oft-bedraggled legislative
agenda.
The battles over the crime bill, arguably
Clinton's most important domestic victory
to date, and health care reform, undoubt-
edly the greatest domestic disappointment
of his presidency, illuminate Clinton's
weaknesses. They also demonstrate a po-
litical reality - a president elected with
only 43 percent of the vote will struggle to
build a consensus.
At this point, with the President's health
care overhaul package officially dead and
abevyofcompromisesonthe table, Clinton
should take whatever modest reform he
can get. Unfortunately, nothing will be
easy, as Republicans smell major gains in
the upcoming election and dig in for one
last stand on the issue. However, to avoid
another disaster on the next major legisla-
tive issue, welfare reform, Team Clinton
must avoid the crucial strategic and policy
errors made on health care.
First, the secrecy surrounding the origi-
nal policy draft, and Hillary Clinton' s stub-
born insistence that it stay secret, started
the initintivpn n the menn x en_ Tncte d nf
tailor the plan toward some special inter-
ests - notably big business - and to
burden others. The lack of open debate on
the issue at the critical early stages re-
mained a liability throughout the process.
Furthermore, the White House lost com-
plete control of the issue in the press, as
anti-Clinton plan ads outnumbered pro-
universal coverage ads 4 to 1. Instead of
demonstrating to the public why the plan
would work, and why it is the right thing
to do, the public was scared off. In addi-
tion, the President in large part abandoned
his moderate roots and tailored a plan
toward liberals. While the merits of this
decision from a moral and policy stand-
point are sound, it was a political error.
These mistakes and others - including
poor rapport with Congressional Demo-
crats due to prior flip-flopping on issues
-- haunted the administration and could
conceivably recur.
In the President's defense, he was never
elected with a clear majority and not only
faced Republican obstructionism from the
outset, butproposedboldchanges-which
always attract dissent. In addition, the
issue of his leadership abilities and char-
acter flaws -- many of which are irrel-
evant to his ability to serve in office -
have emboldened his once-allies to vote
against him in Congress. This was never
more clear than on the crime bill proce-
dural loss, when 58 House Democrats
defected.
Unfortunately, the "slick Willie" im-
age is unlikely to go away, and Clinton's
substantial loss of political capital will be
difficult to regain. Furthermore, a more
conservative Congress - which the up-
coming election promises - will only
contribute to gridlock. Unless Clinton
corrects the mistakes that plagued health
rare reform these nhstacls will undouht-
i