4 - The Michigan Daily - Thursday, September 8, 1994 (Thw £rbio an &rirtg I . . . . . Mmk m No Apok a a 'Oft Alk 0 I I I L~ [61 V±~ :j g ~giui@j I±~ :j ~ 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- r,-%w w ir/ + 4"- #, 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 I yo r ,5Y 1', I, 0 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