4 - The Michigan Daily - Tuesday,_January 17, 1995
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'Racism is the mentor of the University and it has
earned its master's degree.'
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
- Recently fired University employee Dawn Scott
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.
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The budget process
'U' must watch for problems in new program
37171
NIL.K PAY
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Aside from the obvious effect of raising
and allocating funds more efficiently, so
as to save money and stave off tuition hikes, it
is impossible to predict the new budget's
implications for the University's future. Al-
though the administration should be applauded
for its efforts to conserve funds, the new
procedure, to be implemented in fiscal 1996,
could backfire. In this matter the devil truly is
in the detail, and if the change is to succeed,
University officials must take great care in
putting the new budget into place.
The main change to be brought about by
the new procedure, dubbed Value Centered
Management (VCM) by its creators, is one of
spending power and fund-raising responsibil-
ity. Underthe old system, the burden ofraising
funds was placed on the central administration
of the University. The administration col-
lected student tuition and fees, research grants
and state funds. These were then distributed to
the various academic units based mainly on
what each unit received the previous year,
with adjustments made to allow for inflation.
Thus, the units could spend rather freely,
depending on their expenses, and count on
receiving similar allocations for the next year.
The new procedure puts more fundraising
responsibility on the academic units. While
the administration still collects and distributes
the dwindling state funds, the "meat" of the
budget - student money - is collected by
each school. Each school's funds are then
separately held in accounts by the central
administration. The academic divisions, there-
fore, not only will have to raise a substantial
portion of their funding with on their own,
they will have to be much more careful about
how they spend it, since they will be unable to
count on receiving comparable funding the
next year without raising it themselves.
Value Centered Management's obvious
advantage is that it raises money more effi-
ciently. If it works as planned, it will allocate
to each academic unit only the necessary
amount of money for the year. Most impor-
tant, it will cut costs and should keep tuition
down.
Despite its apparent advantages, however,
the new budget is fraught with serious poten-
tial pitfalls. It could harm the smaller units that
lack the fund-raising capabilities oftheir larger
counterparts. It could also lead to unscrupu-
lous fund-raising schemes, such as creating
low-quality classes for large enrollment at the
expense of more important programs. Perhaps
the most formidable problem posed by VCM
is its potential to undermine the holistic nature
of the University. It might compel individual
academic divisions to discourage students and-
faculty from participating in interdisciplinary
activities that would fail to generate revenues
for their own units.
Value Centered Management has the po-
tential to be a highly beneficial program for the
University and the administration deserves to
be commended for its efforts to cut costs and
keep tuition stable. However, the latest plan is
far from perfect. No student or faculty mem-
ber at the University of Michigan should ever
have to be told that he or she cannot participate
in an activity just because it fails to raise
money for his or her division. The way in
which VCM is implemented will have great
impact on whether these possible problems
will materialize. Safeguards will have to be
put in place to protect against them, and if the
money savedby the procedure proves not to be
worth the difficulties, the program should
quickly come to an end.
, ;.
Writer lacks
Lunch gossip
Hillary Clinton loses in presidential image race
sense of
humor
To the Daily:
Recently, Jim Lasser, the
Daily's cartoonist, has been
criticized by "politically
correctniks" for denigrating_
priests as child molesters on
January 9. Such people, who
normally lack senses of humor
and .take offense at virtually
any statement,claimthat Lasser
showed no wit in this cartoon.
On the contrary, Lasser show-
cases his talent by killing two
birds with one stone. HeV de-
picts Newt Gingrich as indif-
ferent with a hint of naivete to
the needs of less fortunate chil-
dren,while poking funatCatho-
lic priestswho moonlight as.
child molesting hoosexuals
On P-nik, Steven Shan
non, claims to tolerate a wid
spectrum of views and is proud
of the University's diversity.
lfowever.with asensedfmoral
outrage, hefeels thatLasser has
overstepped his bounds in pro-
ducing such a cartoon.Itisclear
that Shannon, who is an engi-
neer, has lost his sense of hu-
mor although it more likely that
he never had one.If he didhe
may be right in being outraged,
but he should redirect his anger
toward such priests. Lasserdoes
not create news. He only com-
ments on it and regularly does
so in amatter-of-fact way simi-
lar to the humor of Woody
Allen.
Steve Granes
LSA Junior
People's Food
CO-ops
To the Daily:
The People' s Food Co-ops,
located on Packard and on
Fourth Avenue, are the only
places downtown that you can
buy grocery food at a reason-
able price. In addition to "regu-
lar" foods, they offer a large
variety of bulk foods, all while
supporting local farmers and
environmentally aware food
producers. And if you choose
to become a full member you
receive a three percent discount
or receive a larger one if you
volunteer. With yourmember-
ship, you can alsoget discounts
atcool stores aroundtown such
as Shaman Drum and
Schoolkid's Records.
Unfortunately, the Packard
store is in danger of closing
and for those of us without
Eliminate the
To the Daily:
The editorial concerning the
Michigan Mandate ("The
Michigan Mandate, 11/30/94)
disturbs me as I believe it fails
to recognize the real problems
at hand. The outright focus of
the University should not be in
the recruitment of more and
more "minority" students.
Rather the goal should be this:
to enroll top notch students by
virtue of academics and per-
sonal qualities. While I recog-
nize that this is not exactly the
policy here, I believe that the
policies and philosophy which
this and other institutions fol-
low can explain many of the
problems we have discovered
over the years °For example,
the author of the article men-
tions the problem of retention
of minority students versus
"whites." The reason is clear
- students are not being ad-
mitted to universities (not just
UM) for the uight reasons all
the time.
Ever since summer orien-
ration before entering UM,
have been bombarded by
ethnicity/diversity advisors
who continue mandates with
the line, Everyone who is at
UMhas met the qualifications
tobe here." That may very well
be true, but being qualified to
be here and being the best of a
pool of applicants are two very
different animals. There are
indeed those studentsWho are
here because that are of a dif-
ferent color, and while they
may meet the same minimum
qualifications as the rest of the
student body, the simple fact of
the matter is that under equal-
consideration circumstances,
some of these students would
not be here to begin with. No-
body, can deny this because
when there exists a mandate,
any mandate, it is inevitable
that some students will be ad-
mitted over others that may be
more qualified in an effort to
meet the mandate's criteria. An
example: if a university sets a
mandate such that by the year
2000 five percent of the stu-
dent body will be composed of
students with crooked noses,
then you can bet your bottom
dollar that over the years until
the year 2000, some students
with straight noses will be
turned away in an effort to bring
in more and more students who
are rhino-enhanced. The point:
retention is inevitably a prob-
lem when dealing with man-
dates on enrollment due to the
difficulty some students may
face when trying to compete in
a university in which they oth-
erwise would not have been
admitted. This includes other
mandates such as the in-state
mandate where the University
is supposed to be composed of
70 percent Michigan residents.
While this is a valid mandate
(considering Michigan is
funded and supported in part
by the state), it is inevitable
that there are students here from
Michigan who were admitted
over equally or more qualified
out-of-staters. In either case,
the mandate is not necessarily
god or bad, because I too agree
that a more diverse university
is an asset for all students here.
1 haveahad an opportunity to
learn an incredible amount
from the overwhelming pool
of diverse thoughts and experi-
ences of the variety of students
at the University of Michigan,
and in turn, have already made
wonderful friendships which I
have come to value even in my
short stay since entering the
University of Michigan this
fall. However, if anyone is pon-
dering why the retention rate is
lower for minority students in
general compared to "whites,"
the Michigan Mandate is a per-
fectly reasonable explanation.
So, to President Duderstadt
and the rest of the Michigan
Community, I suggest that
while socioeconomic problems
may indeed be part of the rea-
son for differing graduation
rates, the problem of minority
student retention will never be
completely ameliorated unless
the source is eliminated-that
is, unless the mandate is elimi-
nated.
Mark J. Thomford
LSA first-year student
The wonders of
telephone
technology
My mom taught me how to
dial the phone the day I turned
four. I was too unskilled to actu-
ally call anyone yet, so I sat for
hours with the receiver on the
hook, trying to place my small
fingers into the right plastic holes
and letting go at exactly the right
moment to make the rotary wheel
spin back into place. My dad was
off organizing his power tools or
something, so he was a little con-
fused when he walked in and saw
me practicing. "Nowonderyou've
been having trouble," he said, in
his helpful-dad way. "You have
to put the phone up to your ear."
Thank you, Captain Obvious.
Ah, the nadir of our youth -
when men were men and phones
were black and heavy. All of the
phones in our house were black
for years - the phone company
charged more for colored ones, as
if avocado green plastic were any
more expensive than black plas-
tic. As Henry Ford said of his
Model T, "You can have any color
you want as long as it's black."
Then came deregulation, and
we were all given the privilege of
choosing along distance carrier to
overcharge us and buying phones
shaped like Garfield the cat. It's
just as well - otherwise the
yuppies would have ended up
fighting over the limited number
of taupe-colored phones.
And now, in the 1990s, we
have so many telephone innova-
tions it's hard to keep track of
them all. Answering machines
allow you to converse with a ma-
chine eight times before you talk
to a person, who says "Message?
What message?" Call-waiting lets
you hang up on people in new and
interesting ways. (Caller makes a
pathetic attempt at an electric beep-
ing noise, andthen says: "Weil,
that's my other line. Gotta go!")
And then there's cordless phones,
which (as one friend pointed out)
"let you talk on the phone when
you're in the bathroom." Now
that's progress.
But it's the phone company
(excuse me, "long distance car-
rier") commercials which are re-
ally annoying. Let's forget about
base fees, calling circles, secret
codes, and all of that other jargon
that makes choosing aphone com-
pany look like joining the
Jonestown cult (don't drink that
Kool Aid, no matter how much
they say you'll save on calls to
Cleveland). And now the phone
companies feel it's extremely im-
portant that you know how to make
a collect call.
When was the last time any-
body who wasn't stranded in
Bangor, Maine, made a collect
call? When I was in college, I was
too busy using myparents' call-
ing card to think about calling
collect. But now we've got Bud
Melvin on TV wearing flannel
and telling the members of our
august generation how to call col-
lect to Seattle. Other commercials
feature young 'uns who say things
like, "I've been called lots of
things, but neverprosperous."But
the people he keeps calling collect
think he's a tremendously consid-
erate guy because (gasp) he knows
the best way to call collect.
Though I must applaud this
new and innovative way to soak
your parents and be "considerate"
at the same time, I'm holding out
for more exciting developments.
For instance, I think it'd be really
great to have a picture phone and
worry about how I look all the
time instead of just most of the
time. Not to mention "sending a
fax from the beach"-that's what
I want, sand in my shoes and my
fax machine.
0
0
A t a recent luncheon with a group of gossip
columnists, first lady Hillary Rodham
Clinton characterized herself as "naive and
dumb" about national politics. She expressed
confusion at the public's perception of her as
a aggressive litigator, claiming the reality of
her role was actually very different. She then
went on to say that she would like to present
herself in a more likable way to the public.
It is obvious to even the most casual fol-
lower of national politics that Hillary Clinton
is anything but "naive and dumb" -leaving
politics for the actual motivation behind her
statements. Clearly, the lunch was a political
maneuver by an administration desperately
trying to improve its public image. By under-
playing Mrs. Clinton's successes and present-
ing her as a well-meaning woman who as-
sumed too much responsibility in the running
of the government, the political managers of
the Clinton administration hope to downplay
the administration's role in the failure of health
care reform. Furthermore, they believe that by
softening Mrs. Clinton's image -- portraying
her as a more "traditional" woman - the
administration can increase its popularity.
The fact that a woman must claim to be
"naive and dumb" in order to gain national
approval is a sad commentary on our society.
From the campaign trail through the first year
ofthe administration, Hillary Clinton has been
constantly plagued by criticism, regarding
everything from her hairstyle to her aggres-
siveness inpolicymaking. Too many people in
this country are simply not ready to accept a
coffee and cake in the White House, and
perhaps to come up with catchy slogans like
"Just Say No." Any other actions, however,
define her as a "bitch," as one friendly mother
recently put it.
In an ideal world, with a thinking, knowl-
edgeable American public, Mrs. Clinton would
not be telling gossip columnists that she was
politically unaware - she would not have to.
She would be defending her record, pointing
to the successes she has achieved. She would
point out the many victories the Clinton ad-
ministration has achieved, and challenge those
who argued otherwise.
However, American politics is two Connie
Chungs away from the ideal world. It is a
world of name calling, sleaze and outsmart-
ing, a world where perceptions are signifi-
cantly more important than reality. Thus, it is
not important to Bill Clinton's image that
Hillary Clinton has contributed to several of
his administration's successes in the past two
years. It is not important that the Clinton
administration has even had successes in the
past two years. What is important is that the
words "Contract with America" give Ameri-
cans ablind sense of hope, thatRushLimbaugh
does nottalk aboutthe Clinton administration's
accomplishments and that Americans believe
denying hospital care to immigrants is more
important than improving their own access to
hospital care. What is important is that Clinton
be seen as a strong leader, even if doing so
means portraying his wife as weak. Thus, the
administration must pander to a misled Ameri-
0
I
schedules for that matter), it is
important to take the time and
care about what we consume.
The less people are connected
to what they are eating, the
more toxins that go unchecked
in our food. No one is going to
magically regulate it for us.
(Even if the FDA claims they
will - the current debate over
the Bovine Growth Hormone
or the pesticides that are used
in growing non-organic fruits
and vegetables are only two
small examnles of how our