4 - The Michigan Daily - Friday, October 28, 1994 c e igttit :40tt 1 420 Maynard Ann Arbor, MI 48109 Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan JessieHalladay 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. 'I just think the whole idea behind them is disgust- ing ... I didn't get in this business to be on film. I don't like the power music videos assert over the success or failure of songs.' -R.E.M. bassist Mike Mills lamenting the state of the music industry. TZ 60 E'S5 NoT qg q, IS 2"PICE LEss ANYMOREI! Ar I- about the weather? Sure 4 oI Reaching out to students Executive officers should follow Nelms' example Should we talk harlie Nelms, the new chancellor of the University's Flint campus, should be a role model for President Duderstadt and all of the University's executive officers. Nelms' emphasis on reaching out to students and ' being very accessible to the student body should be an attitude which guides all of the executive officers on the Ann Arbor campus, as well as at Flint. All executive officers should be as open to students and as aware of current student concerns as Nelms, for such knowledge allows the administration to make more informed decisions about running the n University. Fortunately, President Duderstadt has vastly improved and increased his contact with stu- ' dents this year: his speaking appearance at Alice Lloyd Residence Hall, his participation in Welcome Week by serving ice cream at South Quad, speaking at Convocation and his access via electronic mail are all greatly appre- ciated by the student body. Additionally, Maureen Hartford, Vice President for Student Affairs, is very open to students and does keep up to date on students' ideas and feelings through her very frequent meetings with students and student leaders. However, the rest of the executive officers are rarely seen by students. The efforts put forth by Duderstadt and Hartford to be accessible to, and in frequent contact with, the student body should be expanded and copied by all of n the other executive officers. It would certainly be beneficial to Walt Harrison, Vice President for University Rela- tions, to know how students and their families view the University. Provost Whitaker would certainly be better informed if he heard stu- dents' comments about the University's aca- demic environment, and these are just two examples. This campus is so big that executive officers rarely come into contact with students because of the Fleming Building's location on campus and their hectic schedules. Therefore, the ex- ecutive officers should make special time to ensure communication with students, and mak- ing such an effort is very easy and requires little time. Governors and mayors remain in fre- quent contact with those they serve; there is no reason University executive officers should not do the same. Chancellor Nelms noted that he walks around campus and introduces himself to stu- dents. All of the University's executive offic- ers could do something so simple; they must each walk past hundreds of students a day. There are also many other simple ways that the executive officers can know what is on the minds of students, including: holding an open office hour weekly, having lunch in the U-Club or a residence hall on a regular basis, or attend- ing student organization meetings such as the Michigan Student Assembly or Interfraternity Council just to say hello and see what topics student leaders are discussing. Clearly, the effort and time that the execu- tive officers would have to spend to keep in better touch with the student body is minimal. But such time would be very well spent, for the University's leaders would have a more accu- rate view of how the University runs and its strengths and weaknesses. Such knowledge will certainly allow the executive officers to make better and more informed decisions on the running of the University. Daily critique of SLS is misguided, inaccurate BY JAMES ALLEN It has been nearly four years since the editorial board of your newspaper removed the cap- tion from its masthead pro- claiming that it had enjoyed "one hundred years of edito- rial freedom." If memory serves me correctly, the edito- rial board's action was in part to protest the central administration's dilution ofstu- dent representation on the Daily's advisory board. I find it ironic and, quite frankly, galling that the same newspa- per would favor the same dilu- tion four years later on the gov- erning board of Student Legal Services (SLS). I, of course, refer to the Daily's Oct. 20 editorial, "Reconfiguring SLS." If I had the time and the Daily provided me with enough space I could address all of its inaccuracies. But the con- straints, such that they are, com- pel me to discuss the most ob- vious. To begin with, as a long serving member of the board, I take personal exception to the Daily's charge that the present SLS board of directors is "un- qualified and unable" to run SLS. The truth of the matter is that the present boardialong with SLS's extraordinarily dedicated staff, has kept SLS running smoothly in spite of a three year freeze on our fund- ing. In that time, the board has balanced every one of its bud- gets. (In point of fact, SLS has never run a deficit in the 16 years of its existence.) In addi- tion, board policy has led to an increase in the number of at- torneys that handle students' cases as well as a massive im- provement in office technol- ogy. The permanent addition of a fourth attorney to the SLS staff was a direct result of a 1993 board initiative to redi- rect office resources. I might also add that the directors of most private for-profit law firms would envy SLS's 16 year record of steering com- pletely clear ofcostly malprac- tice imbroglios. Again, board policy (not to mention staff expertise) has been the catalyst for this success. If this some- how amounts to incompetence, I'll gladly reserve my vote in the upcoming election for the candidate that delivers incom- petence. To my knowledge, and I have not missed a board meet- ing in four years, the Daily has never once covered the work that SLS's board does. If it had, and I have personally invited it to do so on a number of occa- sions, it would have seen that the board is not made up of incompetent or unqualified members. The reality is that, aside from having two highly knowledgeable law students among its ranks, the board counts as one of its members a law professor, the architect of the law school reorganization plan that the Daily favors. SLS's bylaws mandate this level of law school representation, which insures that its represen- tation is and will be more than "token." As for eliminating staff members from the board, noth- ing could be more unwise. To begin with, the staff members sitting on the board provide other members with the infor- mation necessary to make in- formed decisions. On another level, their presence is neces- sary to insure that SLS's em- ployees' voices are heard on matters of vital importance to them. Having limited democ- racy in the workplace has helped the board to maintain staff stability through tough economic times. Such stability is a key component to the deliv- ery of quality legal service. (Just ask similar legal services cor- porations with high staff turn- over.) With all of the above said, let me just suggest to the Daily and the rest of the University that the problems SLS faces have little to do with the con- figuration of the board or with what University department supervises it. Let me further suggest that neither the law school option nor professional board appointments are the panacea. The problem is, as it always has been, that the pro- gram is woefully underfunded. Staff attorneys make about half of what other attorneys of com- parable experience and exper- tise make. SLS has employed a wonderful paralegal for 16 years and has no money to pro- vide for her retirement (or that of any other employee). The fact of the matter is that the University, which incidentally raised my tuition by 1200 dol- lars and raises infrastructure and other fees faster than a Tyrone Wheatly touchdown sprint, refuses to raise our fee by a measlly buck and a half. The Daily can put all of the local attorneys it wants on the board and that won't solve the funding problems facing SLS. Law school supervision will not fix them either. SLS's board has studied these proposals for at least five years and the con- clusion of this board member is that these plans, for reasons too numerous to list, simply will not work. In fact, if the Daily had both- ered to check, it would have found that the University of Indiana is the only university in the country that has its law school supervise its SLS. Ac- cording to the program's direc- tor, the plan has been "ineffec- tive" at best. While I would be remiss in saying that the present con- figuration is perfectthe Daily's ire would have been more prop- erly directed at the powers that keep funding at such an abys- mal level. The Daily's failure to do so, makes me question who is pulling its strings. Perhaps, the old editorial board was correct in protesting student removal from the Daily's advisory board. Now that student repre- sentation on that board has been diluted, the Daily appears will- ing to sacrifice student inter- ests in the name of god only knows whose hidden agenda. Students should be weary of the same thing happening to SLS. Autumn in Michigan is, without question, one of the best weeks of the year. The sun shines, the leaves change colors, you fall behind in your classes. The scenery, like most pictures, is quite picturesque. The problem with autumn is that it's usually followed by winter. OK 'it's always followed by winter. It's unbelievable. Every year, at the end of autumn, winter comes. It's like an act of nature or something. Winter is noticeably different from autumn. The sun doesn't shine, and snow falls instead of leaves. This difference is particularly obvious in Michigan, where snowflakes are roughly the size of small trucks. The snowstorms last, on average, several months. These long snowstorms can cause mass confusion among students. Student No. 1: "Hey! The world is white!" Student No. 2: "You racist!" StudentaNo. 1: "I'm not a racist! And why are you driving a snow-' flake?" StudentNo. 2: "It's a small truck." Student No. 1: "Oh." Also, students start pelting you with snowballs for no reason at all, using flimsy excuses, like they don't like your humor columns. And it's not just the snow. Michi gan winters are cold only in the sense that ice is cold. According to scien- tists, the cold is caused by a drop in the temperature, which is caused by a lack of mercury in the air. The weather is generally not a problem until a certain point in the day, usually when you leave the house. From there, the weathercause: all sorts of problems. The biggest problem involves getting around Ann Arbor. There are a few different ways to commute such as ... Driving. Here's a word of advice for those considering driving: don't. Because here's what will happen: you'll climb in the car and start driv- ing, naively looking for a parking spot in the same zip code as your class. You will drive and drive until you are willing to accept any spot. Then, when you actually do find a spot, you'll rationalize why it's a good spot (i.e. "Great! We're right near the sign that says 'Welcome to Michigan'!"). Then, moments after your meter expires, your car will bg towed. So, even in a best-case sce- nario, driving is only a one-way proposition. Ride a bike. Riding a bike has definite perks, the most obvious be- ing the ability to knock over random pedestrians. But when youride abike in the winter, with the wind blowing in your face at the approximate spee of a DC-9, your skin is likely to fly of your face, causing serious medical problems. This can also put a damper on your social life. Biker: "Hey, are you free tonight?" Woman: "Sorry, I only date guys with skin." Walk. There are two reasons walk- ing isn't a good idea: it is the slowest of the options and it takes the most time. This is actually not so bad, because after several minutes in the cold, your body becomes completely numb, and you can't feel your limbs falling off. Dig. This involves digging an underground tunnel to your destina- tion. This has obvious advantages - it's cheap, and it's legal, as far as 14 know. But you never hear about any- one doing it, so there must be some reason not to. Ejection seat. This is easy. You just take that old Air Force plane 0 0 Exploding welfare myths Thejobless, unwed mother who sits at home " with her babies while living off the com- forts of an all-too-generous welfare system is a common misconception voiced in discus- sions about welfare, and is an integral part of most assumptions representatives take into their plans for welfare reform. It is all too easy to preach about unmotivated women and an over-providing welfare system. It is similarly easy, and often popular with the electorate, to rail about the culture of dependency and say that the solution to this supposed cultural breakdown lies in placing strict time limits on public assistance. A recent, extensive study by Donna A. Pavetti, a researcher at the Urban Institute in Washington, takes apart these stereotypical notions that women don't desire or take action to get off of welfare. Backing up liberal aca- demics that have said this for years, Pavetti's findings suggest that women are, indeed,join- ing the work force; the problem is that an over- riding percentage of these women are not staying in the job sector once they get there. This data suggests a need for broad policy change emphasizing job-related benefits that will keep women in the job market. Pavetti's statistics are overwhelming. She found that 64 percent of the women seeking welfare for the first time returned to the work force within two years - and more than 75 percent of these women who left welfare even- tually returned. Clearly, the problem does not rest on the notion that welfare benefits encour- age women to remain jobless, but rather that the conditions of the job market discourage women from remaining in it. Pavetti found that the most common deter- rent to remaining in the working world is the loss of health coverage women face as they leave welfare and enter a new job. Presum- at entry-level positions and receive wages near minimum wage. In the current job market, these positions, even when provided by large conglomerates or chains, almost never pay for - and many times don't even offer - their workers health insurance. The only way to cure this enormous problem is an overhaul of the health care system, utilizing the employer mandate that Democratic leaders called for in 1993. A mandate would protect small business by promising they wouldn't have to spend more than 3.5 percent or so of their payroll toward health care costs, and would simulta- neously provide a major incentive for single mothers to leave the welfare rolls for good. Pavetti found other issues besides health care deterring women from a consistent work record. Such issues as child care and transpor- tation become added costs to working women which they never faced when relying on wel- fare. Furthermore, the study reports that jeal- ous boyfriends act as an additional factor caus- ing women to leave their jobs. Feeling threat- ened by their girlfriends' new-found indepen-j dence, boyfriends are abusing and assaulting their mates. Therefore, it is imperative that such additions as on-sight child care, transpor- tation that is both affordable and accessible and established support and counseling groups are included as part of work programs. These services are necessary to ease the transition from welfare to working and to enable women to stay employed. We need to stop putting all our money into welfare and, instead, start investing more of it in "workfare." Although funding may be com- plex, the shifting of dollars from one program to another may not even be more costly in the long term. If we invest more into work pro- grams, and provide health care benefits for all, women would find that the benefits of their Allen is a third year law student. Rapist acts out of hate To the Daily: I congratulate Joshua's courage to stand up and ac- knowledge what role he plays in this act of violence against women. But I feel I must make a clarification to what he seems to be saying. The creature who is ings and loved ones. This letter is addressed to him and the other menaces out there like him who either stalk their prey or rape their dates. Try putting yourself in your victims shoes. Not getting raped be- cause that is probably just another one of your sick fan- tasies but getting the shit kicked out of you or having one of your enemies grind upon myself." These are some of your thoughts as you either sit in a hospital waiting room, ormore likely, go home alone since many rapes are not reported be- cause of fear and the guilt which you do not deserve. Now you are destroyed as an individual, you are just an object. To the ones who act out their aggression in such a manner, why not try being a real man and not a II