4 - The Michigan Daily - Monday, November 14, 1994 a1je £Cidigzu &zilg 'The apathy of students is remarkable. They don't know who's running, they don't care and they don't think MSA has anything to do with them.' - Christine Young, MSA election director in Friday's Daily 420 Maynard Ann Arbor, KW 48109 Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan Jessie Halladay 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. OLIVER, NORTH: iT]-HFN - j NOW-~ r j t r' Administrative aberration Schoem listens to students on LSA 'honor code' coo :tn + : . . - \ . : -- - . .. .::. / .. t i 9 -< . . t , /f ; : ji .: : _ :;r ;ti ' a :::r t '1. -, -, y, ;. A committee within the College of Litera- ture, Science, and the Arts (LSA) re- cently decided not to implement an academic integrity statement that all University students would be required to sign. This judgment came as a result of both student and faculty complaint toward the obligation, which would have gone into effect next year. Instead, LSA has decided to distribute a statement to stu- dents at orientation concerning cheating. Stu- dents will be informed of what constitutes cheating, as well as the consequences of those actions. This change in policy exemplifies the type of student-administrator relationship that is beneficial to the entire University commu- nity, a relationship where open communica- tion allows student voices to not only be heard, but to be taken into consideration. The necessity of signing a form is consid- ered by many - including this page and student government- to be superfluous, and would most likely be pointless as a deterrent to student cheating. Those students who are cheat- ing now are aware of their actions and the possible outcomes -these are students that would cheat with or without a signature pro- claiming they will abide by academic conduct codes. Moreover, there is no evidence to indi- cate that cheating is a widespread phenom- enon at the University. Thus, it would have been silly to institute a new structure to deal with cheating. Another change in policy has been made regarding the process steering cheating cases. LSA is hiring a "case investigator" to research all cheating cases, hoping that this will relieve faculty of the burden of gathering evidence to present at formal hearings. Hopefully, the case investigator will provide a more objective and unprejudiced attitude in dealing with students. Students will now have the option to meet informally with the administration and then proceed to aformal hearing if they are unhappy with the decision that is reached. Recent testing of the new policy has concluded positive re- sults. Students involved in cheating disputes deserve a fair trial and these two new policies may be able to provide just that. The potential still exists, however, that a case investigator will be an expensive administrative lackey, eating up University funds and chasing poten- tial student cheaters. LSA Associate Dean David Schoem has been instrumental in changing the policy to not only provide a better environment for students but to make them aware of the facts concerning cheating. Regardless ofone's opinion on honor codes, it is undeniable that responsiveness to student concerns is not a regular occurrence in the University hierarchy. Administrators like Schoem deserve credit for bucking that trend. Cheating is a serious offense and it deserves comparable punishment. However, students can't be seen as guilty simply because a faculty member points his or her finger. With the case investigator and the new policies on hearings, students may be able to receive a more unbi- ased investigation and examination of their alleged cheating. More important, the original top-down ap- proach to student cheating has rightfully been scrapped. Schoem, and all the students and faculty that contributed to the change, deserve kudos. Prevention, Detroit style Metropolitan Youth Foundation shouldn't close The eternal vow of politicians is to be tough on crime. We've heard the promises of a larger, tougher police force and harsher sen- tences for criminals. And in the past few decades, many of these promises became real- ity, as the United States locked up more indi- viduals than any other industrialized nation and simultaneously had chronically higher violent crime rates. Unfortunately, no matter how tough we get on crime, crime tends to get even tougher. The obvious reason is that there is more to being tough on crime than simply supporting tougher punishments for offenders and more protec- tion for potential victims. Prevention matters, as is evidenced by the fact that from 1985 to 1992, the homicide arrest rate for adults over 25 remained constant, while the homicide arrestrateformales 16to 20more than doubled. One organization understandsjust that. For nearly three decades the Metropolitan Detroit Youth Foundation -(MDYF), a non-profit agency, has worked with at-risk youth in the Detroit area. Its purpose is to help these young people look beyond the gangs, prisons and graves that are sometimes the only future they know, and to educate them, give them work training and most important, instill them with hope. Unfortunately, now it is MDYF that is looking for hope. The organization faces the possibility of being closed permanently. MDYF's problems began with the embezzle- ment of over $250,000 by a former agency employee. While an investigation into this fraud continues, hundreds ofthousands of state and private dollars have been withheld. Mean- while, MDYF's bills continue to go unpaid. MDYF has been forced to lay off all but 20 of its employees and cut its programs down to two. Twelve Together, a dropout prevention program which has won numerous awards, including selection as George Bush's 602nd "Point of Light," is one such program that had to be cut. For the state of Michigan to allow MDYF to crumble into nothingness - thereby evicting some 4,000 helpless youths into a bleak world of drug dealing and gang banging--is dismay- ing. MDYF's contributions to stemming the tide of young adults in Detroit turning to a life of crime have been monumental - perhaps moreso than state efforts which focus more on punishment than prevention. Being tough on crime means being even tougher on crime prevention. We must support organizations like MDYF which work for thej betterment of at-risk youths. MDYF has made a positive difference in the lives of many. MDYF needs money. The IRS has forgiven MDYF of its unpaid taxes. Following this example, the state and pri- vate donors like United Way have a duty, both practical and moral, to release the money they have frozen. The doors of MDYF must remain open. Rackham search must be open and national TotheDaily: I applaud, and am in total support of, the stance of the Daily that was expressed in the editorial (10/6/94) on the pro- cess for seeking a graduate school dean to replace John D'Arms. However, I question the accuracy of the informa- tion as I believe that, even for the University, the search has to be a national one, rather than an internal one. I say this be- cause a position as important as this one at all major institu- tions is advertised nationally. The reasons for this are to eliminate exactly those con- cerns expressed appropriately by the Daily editorial, a major one of which is the diversity of the pool of candidates. Cer- tainly from the recent report from the SACUA Committee for a Multicultural University it is obvious that faculty of color as well as women are not in sufficient numbers here at the University, particularly at the level of full professor, that would permit many of them to be viable candidates for this position. A national search however would definitely yield a diverse pool of candi- dates and permit the Univer- sity to make a real attempt to fulfill some of the goals of the Mandate. Still, even with a national search there exists concerns as to the "closed" search process of which the University has had a history. For example, the choice of search commit- tee, and the charge to that com- mittee (usually from the Pro- vost), can negate the "open- ness" that is suggested by a national advertisement, result- ing in problems alluded to in the editorial regarding previ- ous searches such as for the President and the Vice Pro- vost for Multicultural Affairs. To provide a personal example, I will referto my experience as a member of the search com- mittee for an Associate Dean for Minority Affairs in the Medical School. Our commit- tee very carefully and committedly selected four in- dividuals who were outstand- mng in their specialty as well as "working with programs in- volving persons of color." However once the four indi- viduals were brought in for interviews, our committee du- ties were done; we had no fur- ther input. This is significant since the members of the com- mittee represented those indi- viduals in the School who were most involved in the programs for which the candidates were Why you should vote in MSA elections To the Daily: As a candidate for Michi- gan Student Assembly, I have spoken with a number of stu- dents concerning their feelings about the upcoming MSA elec- tion. Sadly, many people don't even know what MSA is, and many of the people who do know say that they have never voted. Because of this I feel that the most important issue of this election should be increas- ing voter awareness and help- ing people to realize that their vote does make a difference. A vote is a powerful thing because it is the way in which a student puts into power the people who are going to ac- complish the things that he (she) wants done. This raises an in- teresting point: the small per- centage of people who do vote choose the representation for everyone. In other words, people who don't vote give up their right to choose their own representatives, which means that their agendas are not ad- dressed. MSA does many things (represents student in- terests to the regents, funds student groups and works to improve campus safety), but it only does the things that its constituents show interest in. Basically, if you want a stu- dent government that does something, you have to tell the representatives what it is that you want them to do. The power of a student government lies in the support of the students that it repre- sents. Without student back- ing, it has no leverage. The word "leader" implies a fol- lowing: a base of support. As the leader of the student body, MSA needs the support of its constituents in order to be ef- fective. It is true that one vote won't win or lose most elections, but many votes will, and individual votes are what comprise the block of votes that does make a difference. In that spirit, I would like to encourage all of the people who just took the time to read this article to go out and vote - it will take roughly the same amount of time and you will be strength- ening your student govern- ment and helping yourself in the process. Melissa Anderson LSA candidate for MSA, Michigan Party Plan for '96- prepare to vote Sitting in an East Quad lounge - that clumsy ballotin my lap- Icould not help but make the comparison. There I was being reprimanded by the election guy for talking to my friend while we voted. (He had to separate us.) We were complaining abouthow now that Ann Arbor's gone modern, we don't get to pull the little voting booth levers anymore (draw- ing lines with a little marker was more like taking the SAT). I was struck by how calm it all was. Nine months before, I watched my neighbors in Costa Rica pour into the streets of San Jose waving home-made flags like mad. It was presidential election day and I had the misfortune of arriving from a weekend trip at a bus station across town. In Costa Rica, no one drives on election day, they vote. Buses are all used to transport voters to the polls. Taxi drivers are too busy cam- paigning to worry about work. Walk- ing home was out of the question because the streets and sidewalks were packed with celebrants. The results had not yet even been tallied but ev- eryone was ready -jumping up and down, chanting the name of their fa- vorite candidate, waving the flag of one party or another. After no little manipulation,I ended up hitching a ride from an ambulance because it was the only vehicle able to cut through the crowd. The minute I arrived home, my host mother threw my bag on the floor and swept me out to the street with the others. I had only been in the country a few weeks and knew little about national politics, but I knew I was excited and proud to be a part of it. Everyone was. Suffice it to say almost 90 percent of the population voted (even kids have their own practice plebiscite so they can get in the habit of voting). Four weeks later, I was in El Sal- vador for another election. There, I saw thousands of people lined up for miles on a scorching hot Sunday, waiting for their turn to vote. Large numbers of Salvadorans were blocked from voting by administrative hurdles designed to make voting difficult for the poor and uneducated. Even so, despite the intense heat and the hassle of finding your name on the right list, most people insisted on trying. It was hard for me to believe the scandalous level of cheating going on in El Salvador, and I could never imagine a U.S. citizen waiting in lines like I saw there. But knowing we would never have to gave me a new appreciation for our system. Yet voting for us is something we do between classes. Only 39 percent of voters bothered to find the time and of those who did vote, most of us were uninformed about the candidates. We voted based on party or on who had the coolest name. But why is this? Maybe we need to be Costa Rican - bordered by Panama to the south and Nicaragua to the North - to appreciate what it means to live in a democracy. Or maybe we need to be in El Salvador-just recovering from a 12-year civil war when those who voiced opinions were eliminated. It's easy to forget that as students most of us wouldn't have been able to vote 20 years ago -you had to be 21. Student action gave us that right. Women and Blacks fought for the right of suffrage. The United States has fought one war after another all in the name of democracy. But democ- racy here is something we ignore. Although I have little respect for those who forgot to vote or didn't know there was an election (that'sjust lame), I can relate to some other rea- sons for not voting. I agree there's not much difference between the candi- dates and that politicians are too far removed from daily life to really af- fect a community. I'm convinced that the reason the United States has the lowest voter turnout among industri- alized countries is not so much apa- thetic voters as it is a system that does not encourage participation. The truth about cyclists To The Daily: As an avid cyclist, I was dismayed by the recent letter to the editor that demanded cyclists off the sidewalks and said nothing about rollerbladers, which I thought were more out of control than any cyclist I had ever come across. I defended cycling and riding on the sidewalks around certain areas of campus. There is a code of conduct which many cyclists follow, which includes yielding to pedestri- ans and saying, "On the left" or "On the right" to forewarn people a cyclist is about to pass them. Frankly, I never gave the issue much thought until I was rudely awakened to the reality of life as a pedes- trian on central campus. Recently, I was walking down the hill between MoJo and Stockwell. Behind me I heard the distinctive sound of a cyclist slamming on his brakes and going out of con- trol. He was flying down the hill and locked his brakes in a futile effort to prevent an immi- nent collision. He wiped out, taking me and another nearby student with him. The other stu- dent glared at him, got up and walked away. My friend and I stared at him in amazement. Instead of profusely apologiz- ing to us as any decent cyclist would, he proceeded to say that we should not have been walk- ing in front of him. When my friend disagreed with his ratio- nale, since he was behind us in the first place, he began to shout obscenities at us! This happened in the early afternoon, with nearly a hun- dred other people walking in the area. No one should be riding a bike through a crowd of people at high speeds. It was obvious that this guy was not in control of his bike or even able to ride it properly. Furthermore, his belligerence was simply inex- cusable. I think of his attitude and what a disgrace he is to cyclists every time I feel the sting of the bruises I received. It is boneheads like this who give cyclists a bad name. Anne Rea School of Public Health Notes about Nike January 2nd, 1995. The University of Michigan at Nike prepares to square off in the 1" __%* *%T7C'_1"t*-, _e%- A}I _. _ _4_T 1_ ... > r Vin 1AI t _ _ ~r'.os _ _ nt. t a siR t ra ns n . addressed the concerns ex- pressed by the Daily editorial as to persons ofcolor/womenin thesetypes of positions (e.g. all four candidates in our search were persons of color). Thus, countable" to those who truly represent the University (i.e. students and faculty) for im- portant choices that impact on all of us, such as president, dean, vice provost, etc.