4 - The Michigan Daily - Thursday, March 9, 1995 c1je £iditgan ?afig JASON LICHTSTEIN JASON'S LYRIC 1- 420 Maynard Ann Arbor, MI 48109 Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan I MICHAEL ROSENBERG Editor in Chief JULIE BECKER JAMEs NASH Editorial Page Editors Things they don't teach you atfreshman Orientation 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. Open Council misu A s it was conceived in 197( gan Open Meetings Act attempt to bring governmental into the public eye and to eli back-door dealing. The act took politics out of decision-making 1 public in on meetings of govern But the Open Meetings Act - - is open to abuse, and the An Council's recent actions cross t political games to outright mis So glaring has been the coun the Open Meetings Act that the c legal action from a retired cit The worker, Robert Peer, corre that the council must take minu meetings in accordance with the council took no minutes of two ings. Viewed alone, the counci may be dismissed as a lapse c Taken in the context of other coi however, this violation of the O Act is a disturbing example of a that attempts to shield sensitive the public by wantonly disregar( The council's breach of the ings Act is especially curious Regei In an ominous action remin botched presidential search of 1 versity Board of Regents is c plan to split off into smaller Supporters say the plan would st burdensome process of govern versity. While this is an admira present plan looks like anothe avoid public scrutiny and escap ments of the Open Meetings A Except in cases specified by regents must hold all meetings i the act only requires public mee quorum - that is, more than h regents are in attendance. Duri dential search, the regents bypas Meetings Act by discussing the sub-quorum groups, withholding until Duderstadt was finally s board's actions during the searc Meetings ises law as political football 6, the Michi- February meeting in which a majority of is a worthy council members voted to open a meeting proceedings that should have been private. The council ninate shady was discussing legal action against the YMCA some of the - clearly sensitive information that could by letting the compromise the city's position in the legal ment bodies. standoff with the YMCA. Instead of invok- like all laws ing a provision of the act that allows public n Arbor City bodies to discuss pending litigation behind he line from closed doors, the council turned the spotlight conduct. on potentially damaging information. cil's abuse of Council members were concerned that ity now faces the information would have become public y employee. anyway: Leaks from previous closed meet- ctly asserted ings have disrupted delicate negotiations tes of closed between the city and the YMCA. One coun- e act. But the cil member was alarmed enough over what recert meet- he viewed as the council's previous abuses of l's oversight the Open Meetings Act to sabotage attempts of judgment. to hide information from the public by leak- uncil actions, ing to the press on at least one occasion. pen Meetings Political wheeling and dealing is to be government expected in any unit of government. But the issues from Open Meetings Act must not become a bar- ding the law. gaining chip in the hands of imprudent poli- Open Meet- ticians, which unfortunately has happened in in light of a the case of the Ann Arbor City Council. nts must observe act iscent of the declared illegal in court - invalidating the 988, the Uni- University's argument that sub-quorum com- onsidering a mittees may formulate policy and forward it to committees. the whole board for approval. treamline the But now, with a plan to restructure board ing the Uni- into two four-member committees for fiscal ible goal, the and policy issues, the regents are ignoring the r attempt to lessons of the past. University General Coun- e the require- sel Elsa Cole insists that sub-quorum groups ct. are excluded from the Open Meetings Act. ythe act, the However, the Michigan Supreme Court ruled n public. But in the case of two newspapers suing the tings when a University over the 1988 presidential search ialf - of all that even sub-quorum groups are subject to ng the presi- public oversight. The groups may meet for ;sd the Open informal brainstorming sessions - but not candidates in to decide policy. In moving to restructure the g their choice board, the regents are doomed to repeat the elected. The costly mistakes of the past unless they allow ch were later for public scrutiny at every level. was traveling through the ionosphere a week ago and it struck me like a zinger straight from Bob Dole's mouth. What I and my fellow erudites desperately needed was their very own hitchhikers', cable ready, generationally adjusted for the slack at heart guide to college life. Here's what's inside the latest edition, published by Lichtstein Free Press: Excerpts from a section titled "The Dysfunctional Academic"-- If for some bizarre reason you're inter- ested in graduating in three rushed years and set upon hurrying from the pleasantries of being a full-fledged member of Generation X into the dreaded real world of "idiot labor," do the following: Go to a lame, conformist, racially torn community high school on a street named after a southern flower and take AP courses with the residenthippie/SDS organizer/draft dodger/teacher. I myself pulled down a promising "2" in AP Art History, but don't let that daunt you, because dammit, you're ambitious, you're Clarise Starling and you're gonna go all the way to the FBI! When you have nothing else to do with your summer before 12th grade be- sides endeavors into cynicism and suburban destruction, leave the gates behind, go off to some urban, dangerously violent Pre-Col- lege program, deepen your depression and manage to get yourself forced into reading a couple hundred pages a week of Poli Sci on U.S.-Soviet foreign policy in the Third World. As fascinating as it gets this side of the Mississippi. Don't even think of starting your first year like everyone else does in the second week of September. Labor Day, ha! Miss Freshmen Orientation, skip sensitivity train- ing workshops, avoid formative bonding experiences and hop on an overcrowded white van with a bunch of budding geolo- gists, frat boys and other social misfits to Camp Davis, Wyo., on the outskirts of the Tetons and Jackson Hole. This solid ca- reer move will nab ya eight extra Nat Sci credits and automatically lower your na- scent GPA. Good fringe benefits though, like having the pleasure of being able to see a professor drunk and naked. So before your college life actually departs from the familial mother ship, rack up a term's worth of non-graded credits, exploits in triangulation, mineral identifica- tion and experience in rock hammering. Do you know about the K-T boundary? Can you recite the eras, eons and epochs of geologic time off the top of your head? Well, neither can I. An extra bonus of this plan: You get to call yourself a sophomore before no time and tell your one friend back home the good news in December. Social status, look out. Enroll in the Honors College but bolt after some pesky advisor-type informs you in hushed silence that you'll have to take another Great Books or Classical Civiliza- tion course after the 191 fiasco. Praise Cliff Notes. This is not a good development. At this point, forget about some shiny accolade on your diplomaand in a flash of referential epiphany, pretend you're Doug from "The State" and proclaim "I'm outta here." 0 Check into Hotel Couzens for a year's worth of liberal-bashing and gen- der ambiguity. When it comes to deciding about a major, pull an ICP. Make sure to include the words "Socio-Historical-Political" in it and you're guaranteed success with the board that meets in the upper echelons of°Litera- ture, Science and the Arts. This will en- sure safe passage to the world of the 3-year graduate. Congrats on your voyage. Stay the course. Be stout of heart. Defy the oddsmakers. Shun indecisiveness. Shock the relatives. Plow away at300-level Psych and 400-level Poli Sci courses. Basi- cally, be all that you can be, sans econ or stats courses, or any training in mathematics for that matter. That is, a graduate of the most expensive public university in the land. Worthy of all kinds of presents, thanks and $100 checks. Nothing could be finer. e ,JiMLASS:R SHIS FIRST TOV~AY... . 4oW , 1 ) 1 rI L^' t r L 00 t t SHARP AS TOAST L t r _1 o l . - NEWVJ... - 0 .. LETTERS Thecu rse of Hyde Congress should respect Roe vs. Wade Doe vs. Wade is probably the best-known upreme Court decision of the last 40 years. Yet in attempting to erode abortion rights, many members of the House of Rep- resentatives deny the high court's decision. Well, in case anyone has forgotten, Roe vs. Wade made abortion legal in the United States. Certain members of Congress appar- ently need this reminder - they have repeat- edly tried to circumvent this law of the land. In 1976, Congress passed the Hyde Amendment, which bars the use of Medicaid funds for abortions. An exception was made for cases where the life of the mother is in danger, and a 1993 law extended those ex- ceptions to cases of rape and incest. Now, even this odious restriction is considered too lenient by many House members. Legisla- tion to allow states to eliminate the excep- tions for rape and incest - and thus nearly all federal funding for abortions - soon will be discussed in the House. The Hyde Amend- ment is bad enough - for Congress to take it even further would negate decades of progress in securing abortion rights. Abortion is legal. Why does Congress ig- nore that fact at every chance? Well, only those privy to Congress' special brand of logic could answer that question. And given that an an- swer does not appear to be forthcoming, it is clear that legislative attempts to undermine women in the United States. No woman should have the option of abortion taken away from her, especially notby this country's legislative body. And since abortion is legal in the United States, these limitations dis- criminate against women on Medicaid by depriving them of a legal right. The eradication of Medicaid funding for abortions could give rise to some terrible scenarios. If pregnancies evolving out of rape or incest are not allowed to be termi- nated, both mothers and children would be forced to experience emotional trauma due to the violent origins of the pregnancy. More- over, this proposal shows the hypocrisy of many conservative legislators. Without fund- ing, many mothers on Medicaid may be un- able to have abortions. If mothers are unable to afford.an abortion, how will they be able to provide for their child? Families with chil- dren resulting from such situations will al- most certainly end up on welfare - some- thing Republicans are determined to cut as well. In times when budgetary concerns are so prevalent in political discussion, an end to federal abortion funding would be fiscally, shortsighted and socially intolerable. Legis- lators have made enough mistakes in the past - they have constantly tried to circumvent the Roe vs. Wade decision. Or perhaps Con- gress has simply forgotten that landmark nana C' a n n.a nra msa fi4i r. ..a..nAar Cho off base on agenda To the Daily: For much of the last 200 years people have tried to justify exist- ing social structures and preju- dices by appealing to scientific "truths" about the inequality of different people. They sought to justify injustices - slavery, the exploitation of workers and the exploitation of women. James R. Cho in his article against the Michigan Agenda for Women ("Agenda heads down the wrong path," 2/27/95) similarly at- tempts to justify gender inequal- ity among Michigan tenured faculty by appealing to scien- tific "truths." Cho argues that scientific evidence shows that people of different genders ex- cel in different areas and conse- quently men should dominate in some fields while women should dominate in others. Cho does not clarify in what fields science presumably shows women should excel (nursing? home economics?). But he does assert that males have an advan- tage in "visual-spatial abilities and higher mathematical reason- ing." According to a New York Times article in gender differ- ences in mental ability and brain function (2/28/95), "(The field of brain research) has been sul- lied by overinterpretations of data, like the claims that women are genetically less able to do everyday mathematics because men, on average, are slightly that women are on average worse at mathematical reason- ing than men, this would say nothing about whether there should be gender equality among tenured faculty in math- ematics or engineering. Rela- tive to the population as a whole Michigan faculty must be at least in the top 5 percent of the popu- lation in mental abilities rel- evant to their area of interest. Even if women on average are worse than men in some skill, it could be true that the top 5 per- cent of women are better than the top 5 percent of men in that skill. The average value of a population tells you precisely nothing about the extremes. Peter Muhlberger Rackham graduate student Chevy Chase is brilliant To the Daly: We appreciate the amount of time that it takes to write a for a newspaper, but perhaps some of your Weekend etc. movie critics should take some of that pre- cious time to re-watch some of the classic comedy movies of our time, such as "Caddyshack," "The Three Amigos" or "Natonal Lampoon's Vacation." Last Thursday's section included a review of Chevy Chase's latest film, "Man of the House," which incredulously claimed that Chase was and is a terrible actor. We believe that Chevy Chase is a comedic genius who is the Murphy or Jim Carrey, each of whom have had far fewer hits than Mr. Chase? All we ask is a little respect for the wealth of work that Chevy has given com- edy. Giving his newest film a bad review is your choice, but calling Chevy Chase's entire career a wreck is foolish and unfounded. David Schick Jack D. Zelimer LSA sophomores Candidates enlightened To the Daily: On Feb. 10, three days prior to the Daily's front-page article telling the whole campus, a friend of mine told me he was running for president of the Michigan Student Assembly. I smiled, knowing from the fire in Flint's eyes that he had found another way to concentrate his passion for furthering the public's understanding. A po- litician. I acknowledge I have been quite apathetic in past years about this arena, due in part to my general animosity toward politics and my somewhat ig- norant view that MSA does not affect me. Flint Wainess and his running mate Sam Goodstein schooled me about how the school government not only af- fected me, but how important it was that I take it seriously. Here comes the point. On Feb. 13, the Daily printed an article in which one first-year student, Fiona Rose, found that NOTABLE QUOTABLE "We kept screaming, 'There's an appeal here,' and she kept. fancy-dancing around it." - MSA Rep. Jonathan Freeman, on MSA President Julie Neenan's refusal to hear debate on a resolution Perhaps it was the pervasive influence of the media, the bright lights in Fiona's eyes, but if she wants to play the politically cor- rect game, she has to think be- fore letting the words flow from her face. Ian Lester LSA senior Union in need of renovations To the Daily: In response to "Renewing the Union, fix it-but don't privatize it" (Daily 1/27/95), the Daily was correct in acknowledging the need for University Union reno- vation, thus ensuring that an im- portant asset and resource of this University is "keeping up with the times." The Union turned 90 years old this past year. A building with such heavy traffic, and such a long and rich history, deserves some care, and definitely de- serves at the very least to be r- brought up to code. The article made it very clear that many of the issues are re- lated to the American Disabili- ties Act (ADA), about 70 per- cent. Hopefully with the other 30 percent, we can realize the po- tential of this great "untapped" resource, and create a growth, spirit and sense of community0 that is greatly needed among the student population. It is true that students are being drained of funds through increasing tuition, but the prob-