4 - The Michigan Daily - Friday, November 18, 1994
Ie S dligatt &iii
'I submit there are some things that are impor-
tant, such as whether or not we let a shoe com-
pany piggy-back on 170 years of tradition to
peddle some shoes.' - Regent Laurence Deitch (D-Bloomfield Hills)
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
Kids today are
just~ out of
control
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.
The new CRISP
EARLY SIGNALS FOR,
U. S. MiLITARY Ac TioN'
TIHE NAVY...
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I'm concerned about our
children's future. I know what you're
thinking - you and I don't even
have any children. In fact, we've
never even met. Well. It's that kind
of neglect that worries me so much.
The fact is, our children have
way too much free time, and they're
not using it productively. When I
was a kid, I would spend my free
time participating in meaningful,
productive activities, such as whiffle
ball.
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Registration over the phone is a good first step
e long waits in the basement of Angell
rHall may finally be a thing of the past.
Students may never have to argue with the old
man guarding the CRISP room ever again.
Learning one has been closed out of a desper-
ately needed class may now be an experience
one has alone and not along side 20 other
students frantically searching through the time
schedule looking for an easy, natural science,
four credit class. Maybe.
The University should be commended for
finally making an attempt to update the anti-
quated CRISP process. It is about time that one
of the most technologically advanced univer-
sities in the world began using current technol-
ogy to register its students for classes.
This semester, the University is debuting
its new CRISP method. Students now have the
opportunity to register for classes over the
telephone by calling a specific phone number
at a predetermined time. While many students
may not use this new method this semester, it
will eventually prove to be an excellent im-
provement to a frustrating student activity;
students' time will be saved and their anxieties
should be lessened. A smoother registration
process can be assured assuming one does not
encounter continuous busy signals, computer
breakdowns or frequent call waiting interrup-
tions. However, this newest improvement is
only a first step in improving the process of
registering for classes.
CRISP stands for Computer Registration
Involving Student Participation. Before now,
the only use of a computer was by temporary
employees typing numbers into the computer
for students. Now, students are at least using
some vague computer themselves by punching
numbers on a phone. To perfect the system,
students should directly register by computer-
CRISP would finally them be an accurate
acronym.
The lives of University students virtually
revolve around computers these days. Whether
it is just e-mailing for fun, typing a term paper
on Microsoft Word or programming a new
computer game, nearly every student is famil-
iar with computers and is becoming more and
more comfortable with them. It therefore makes
sense to allow students to directly register over
the University's computer network. Such an
improvement should not be difficult to enact,
for a network is already doing the registration;
it would just have to be modified to allow
students to directly access the registering com-
puter. This change would make registering
easier and more user-friendly than the new
telephone method. Instead of simply hearing a
computerized voice confirm one's schedule,
students could actually print their schedule out
and see, for sure, that it is the way they planned
it. Also, it would be easier to counter problems
that arise in the registration process if one could
see what was happening, as opposed to having
to constantly remember what the computer-
ized voice just said to do.
So, while the University has finally taken
steps to improve the process of class registra-
tion, it should continue to improve and update
it. For now, it is just a relief that we don't have
to trudge to the bottom of Angell Hall, franti-
cally filling out tedious time-sheets to register.
CT AY E'
011
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But kids today aren't as produc-
tive as they should be. Instead, they
waste their time doing useless things,
such as ...
Watching television.
Don't get me wrong: watching
television is not inherently bad. In
fact, it can be extremely productive,
especially if you are watching
ESPN2.
Ohio State newspaper slams Michigan, Smith
By the staff at THE
LANTERN
"We want to get Cooper
fired. That's what I want to do.
We want to keep on beatin'
'em and beatin' 'em until he's
no longer there."
Tact. It's something we start
learning when we are about
three years old. It usually comes
right after potty training.
Apparently Walter Smith
never learned the meaning of
the word. It makes you wonder
what else the folks up in Michi-
gan never learned as young
children. Does the word incon-
tinent mean anything to you
Wolverines?
Each and every year The
Lantern and The Michigan
Daily exchange editorials lam-
basting each other's schools.
It's usually pretty vile stuff,
although this year Walter "The
Mouth" Smith proved he can
bottom just about anything.
The sad part is, this is just
the type of thing you classless
cretins probably get off on. Hey
Michigan, how many blind
people have you tripped to-
day?
"We want to get Cooper
fired. That's what I want to do.
We want to keep on beatin'
'em and beatin' 'em until he's
no longer there."
Courage. It's pretty easy to
talk the talk when you know
you don't have to walk the walk.
Smith won't be playing on Sat-
urday. Come to think of it, nei-
ther will most of you pasty-
faced imps up there in Ann Ar-
bor. Yet you Wolverines seem
to take a great deal of pride in
your football team. The funny
part is, most of you probably
don't know a "flood left" from
the floods that come from one
of your polluted lakes.
"We want to get Cooper
fired. That's what I want to do.
We want to keep on beatin' 'em
and beatin' 'em until he's no
longer there."
Sportsmanship. Yes, the
Buckeyes have not beat Michi-
gan the last six times they have
met. But each and every time,
they left with their heads held
high and had nothing but com-
plimentary things to say about
the Wolverine program.
Apparently the rules change
when a bunch of no-class thugs
are doing the talking. Then
again, rules have never meant
much to the uneducated and
unbathed masses of Michigan.
Just ask Gerald Ford, your
famous football player/politi-
cian. He proved you don't even
have to be qlected to become a
do-nothing president. Or ask
Jalen "Crack House" Rose or
Chris "Gee, maybe they won't
notice if I call just one more
time-out during the national
championship game" Webber.
Now there was an impres-
sive bunch. They were the best
recruiting class in the history
of man, and have no national
title to show for it. Maybe things
would have been different if
they had known about a thing
called sportsmanship.
"We want to get Cooper
fired. That's what I want to do.
We want to keep on beatin'
'em and beatin' 'em until he's
no longer there."
Yes, John Cooper has had
trouble beating the Wolverines.
But he has handled each loss
with class and dignity - in
short, he has handled them like
a man. Which is more than we
can say for Smith or anyone
else in Ann Arbor. Hey Michi-
gan, grow up. Your faculty
isn't getting paid to baby-sit
(although with the things you
have been known to say, we're
not so sure).
"We want to get Cooper
fired. That's what I want to do.
We want to keep on beatin'
'em and beatin' 'em until he's
no longer there."
We'll see about that on Sat-
urday, Mouth.
Academic freedom
Despite comments, Jeffries should keep tenure
But the problem is that many of
today's young schoolchildren do not
watch such education channels. In-
stead, they watch uninformative drek,
like "Mighty Morphin Power Rang-
ers," "Barney" and National Geo-
graphic specials.
Video Games.
Every afternoon, hundreds of
thousands of bright young school-
children gather across the country to
practice the fine art of blowing people
up.
Not real people, of course. They
do that in the morning. In the after-
noon, the bright young schoolchil-
dren blow up little electronic people
while playing video games in an
arcade.
That is an essential element in
almost all video arcade games: kill.
As a dedicated journalist, I could use 4
the rest of this column to investigate
the serious ramifications of such a
violent pastime.
Home video games.
When kids can't make it out to
the arcade, they often sit home and
play Nintendo or Sega until their
eyes melt, or they graduate from
college, whichever comes first.
And they are always insistent
upon playing new games. For ex-
ample, kids will play Sega Hockey
'94 for 12 months straight. But the
minute Sega Hockey '95 comes out,
Sega Hockey '94 becomes immedi-
ately obsolete, and the kids won't
play it anymore. Do they really need
to come out with a new Sega Hockey
game every year? Does the game of
hockey change that much?
This deadly hobby also presents
another problem. If kids play home
video games at such a young age,
what are they going to do when they
get to college?
Play sports.
Participating in sports is not just4
good; it's all that matters in life. But
today's schoolchildren don't know.
how to do it.
The other day I saw 10 kids stand-
ing in the park, making fun of each
other.
"What are you doing?" I asked
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L ast Monday, the Supreme Court voiced its
opinion on the case of Leonard Jeffries. A
tenured professor at the City College of New
York (CCNY), Jeffries held the chairmanship
of the Black studies department for 20 years
until being removed from that position in
1992, ostensibly for poor administrative per-
formance. However, his demotion came soon
after a speech in which he accused "rich Jews"
of financing the slave trade and conspiring in
Hollywood to create movies that "put together
a system to destroy Black people." Jeffries
sued the college on the grounds that his demo-
tion was based on his words rather than his
administrative woes, thereby violating his First
Amendment rights to free speech. He won
reinstatement from both the Federal District
and Appeals Courts of Manhattan, but the
Supreme Court invalidated the reinstatements,
ordering the Appeals Court to reconsider its
decision.
At this time, Leonard Jeffries remains a ten-
ured professor, with full pay, benefits and
duties, pending a new Appeals court ruling on
his chairmanship of the Black studies depart-
ment.
Underlying this whole quandary is the ba-
sic issue of academic freedom: the ability of
educators and researchers to voice their opin-
ions and test their ideas without being re-
strained by public opinion.
One of the major building blocks of aca-
demic freedom is professorial tenure. Profes-
sors achieving tenure have reached a certain
status within a university. By granting tenure,
institutions signify their acceptance or at least
the ability to overlook the professor's words
andideas in favor ofthe educator's value to the
institution- By achieving this status-tenured
professors have earned a certain amount of
respect, and one would think, a certain amount
of leeway in expressing their ideas. In fact,
tenure protects professors from being fired on
the basis of what they teach. Inherent in that
argument is the notion that by granting profes-
sors tenure, universities take on a responsibil-
ity to defend the right of a professor to express
controversial ideas --regardless of the verac-
ity or nature of those ideas.
Whether Leonard Jeffries went too far with
his unfounded anti-Semitic remarks is debat-
able, and currently that decision lies in the
jurisdiction of the Federal Appeals Court of
Manhattan. However, while his demotion could
potentially have a chilling effect on academic
freedom, CCNY is to be applauded for not
giving in to the many vociferous demands that
they fire Jeffries immediately, and for not
downgrading his professorial status in any
manner. For all the furorover this case, Leonard
Jeffries may indeed be an administrative in-
competent, and CCNY guilty only of bad tim-
ing in demoting Jeffries so soon after his con-
troversial speech. The vital fact is that Jeffries
remains a fully tenured professor.
Whatever the outcome may be, academic
freedom should not be held hostage to public
opinion, and educators should not have to
constantly worry whether their words, actions
and beliefs might bring administrative retribu-
tion. "Academic freedom" establishes a sys-
tem under which ideas can be expressed freely,
without fear of reprisal - even hateful ideas.
Insofar as these ideas, especially the more
controversial among them, foster the intense
debate and research upon which academia is
built, academic freedom is an ideal to be pro-
tected and cherished-
Daily News
needs to
investigate
pot
To the Daily:
Iam severely disconcerted
by the apparent lack of profes-
sionalism by your normally
professional paper. The Nov.
16 article "Marijuana pushed
for medical use" contained
journalistic fallacies of the first
degree. I realize it was not
written by the staff, however,
the staff shouldn't let any faulty
material leak onto their pages.
Robert Peterson, head of the
Office on Drug Control Policy,
is not a doctor or a scientist,
and is in no place to be quoted
on the medical uses of mari-
juana. He is also biased from
the very beginning, without
marijuana he would be out ofa
job ...
Peterson fails to mention
that three people are currently
receiving marijuana (Can-
nabis) from the U.S. govern-
ment for ailments such as glau-
coma, the leading cause of
blindness. Peterson says it has
been "linked" to several ail-
ments. Twinkies have been
linked to heart disease, and as
far as I know, I can still pick up
a case at Kroger. Of all the
of State George Schultz both
suggested the legalization of
Cannabis, for medical uses. It
might not be a favorable thing
for people to be smoking mari-
juana in the streets, but it is no
one's place to say a patient
shouldn't be able to improve
the quality of their life.
I recommend that the Daily,
in the future, investigate a ar-
ticle from news agencies more
closely, to see if it measures up
to their journalistic integrity,
which must be preserved.
Neil Ganju
LSA Junior
EECS Speaks
To the Daily:
I am writing about the
story in the (11/17/94) Daily
about the monorail connect-
ing North and Central Cam-
pus. In the story, you mention
that EECS Speaks is the Eta
Kappa Nu newsletter. I would
like to point out that this is
incorrect. EECS Speaks is the
newsletter of ACM (Associa-
tion for Computing Machin-
ery), HKN (Eta Kappa Nu),
and IEEE (Institute of Electri-
cal and Electronics Engineers),
the three EECS student societ-
ies.
Yawar Murad
Secretary, IEEE - U of M
Chapter
TIhe photo
was a cadet,
not a middle
To the Daily:
As a veteran, I commend
your front page (11/ 14) recog-
nition of the Veterans' Day
ceremony. Unfortunately, the
photo doesn't get the recogni-
tion it deserves - it is not of a
Navy midshipman, as cap-
tioned, but of an Army cadet.
Kate Durham
LSA
r,
I
them.
"We're playing basketball."
Homework.
I'll admit, at some point in your
life you may need to do homework.
It may be helpful. You may even be
able to learn something worthwhile.
Maybe.
But some of these kids are doing
homework at a far too early age.
It's dangerous, I tell you. Let's be
honest here for amoment. (Up to this
point, this entire column has been
nothing but blatant lies.) When you
are in, say, the third grade, what can
you possibly learn from homework?
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