4 - The Michigan Daily - Monday, April 17, 1995 U~lbe £rbitu iit tlg 420 Maynard Ann Arbor, MI 48109 Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan MICHAEL ROSENBERG Editor in Chief JULIE BECKER JAMES NASH 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. Please don't tow s City vigilance on parking tickets is misplaced In a sudden burst of vigilance, the city of Ann Arbor's tow trucks descended onto campus last week, determined to haul off any vehicles with four or more unpaid parking tickets. By the end of the week, studentsjammed City Hall with complaints and without trans- portation. While the city is certainly entitled to enforce its own laws, the current tow-a-thon is an unwelcome and unexpected nuisance that appears to single out students for special pun- ishment. The city initiated the recent crackdown in the wake of a March 23 agreement under which the city assumes responsibility for park- ing violations on campus. The agreement was meant to spare the University the expense of administering its own parking-violations bu- reaucracy. This followed the city's own crack- down on unpaid tickets, which began last April with a City Council resolution to tow vehicles with four rather than six unpaid parking tick- ets. Now'the campus is targeted by city tow trucks, and the timing is suspect. Is it coinci- dence that the city and University cemented their pact only a month before most students head home? Not likely. The city apparently is trying to coerce students into making good on parking debts before they leave for the sum- mer. However successful the tactic turns out to be, it is an underhanded stab at the student population and a transparent attempt to squeeze more cash from those most inconvenienced by a lack of parking on and around campus. In playing "get tough" with ticket violators, the city is conveniently overlooking the cause of the parking dilemma: insufficient facilities. Students who choose to maintain a car in Ann Arbor are immediately faced with a dearth of places to park it, often confining them to metered lots or remote street parking. Because of the city's unwillingness to tackle the park- ing problem, students and others in the down- town area are stuck with an unreasonably high number of tickets. Instead of stepping up tow- ing efforts, the City Council must commit the city to building more parking lots and struc- tures in student-populated areas of the city. Until the lack of space is solved, the council should reconsider last year's decision to begin towing cars with four tickets. With the city's dogged determination to ticket vehicles just minutes after their meters expire, it is quite possible for a car to accumulate the dreaded four tickets in the course of a day. And if that day's tickets are not paid, not only do the fines deservedly go up, but the city - which re- serves the right to pluck vehicles from their owners' property - could come with a tow truck and remove the offending vehicle. Such a scenario is the product of a misguided vigi- lance at City Hall, aimed squarely at drivers' pocketbooks instead of a workable solution to the parking crisis in Ann Arbor. In October, Michigan wrestler Kazaku had a run-in with sec Law student Eric Wise that left N multiple cuts and bruises and "he ing of the eardrum." Wise filed criminal charge Kazaku, a native of Hawaii who w the 134-pound weight class. Kaza tainshis innocence, saying both fault in the altercation. But spira and academic cdsts forced Kakaz draw from one class and plead no district court. He was sentence hours of community service, fined placed on probation for two year Wise told The Michigan Dail) sentencing that he thought the pu was too lenient and threatened to to under the code. Two years ago University ad tors, in an authoritarian coup d' cocted a disciplinary policy knot Statement of Student Rights and F bilities. With the policy, nickn code, the University sought to hazing practices, physical injury students and even stalking (all u infamous 30-mile radius fromcam ministrators implemented the co tect students outside the classro such infractions as sexual harass kidnapping. In reality, the policy with flaws and inequities. On Thursday, the eight-mem versity Board of Regents will hea plead for regents to "Screw the C Friday, the regents will listen atte Vice President for Student Affairs A. Hartford extols the code and th it has made in the past year. Har field inane questions by regents JAMEs R. Cuo BENEATH THE PALMPS Wrestlers, lawyers, regents and a kangaroo court, Kendrick failure of the amendment process and other dants spent nearly 10 hours in Room 3 cond-year minutiae. They will then proceed to either the Union giving opening commentst Wise with keep the code on an interim basis or make it Mary Lou Antieu, code judicial advise morrhag- permanent University policy. a University administrator who will But before voting, the regents must ask down a decision - and possible expu s against the ultimate question: Has the University The case has since been postpon wrestles in become a safer place under the code? Has Wednesday. It is understandable in ca aku main- the primary goal of the University - to sexual assault or harassment for ca h were at maintain stability and order on campus-- occurinprivate,buttheproblemwithc ling legal been attained? Have students benefited from door cases is that freedoms are furth u to with- the added protection of the code? stricted and improprieties tend to ru contest in pant. How can procedural problems s d to 108 Issue 1: Due Process? 10-hour hearings be addressed without [$340 and Double Jeopardy? lic scrutiny? s. "Students who have been accused of y after the violating University policies have the right Issue 3: What next? inishment to fair treatment." - the code. "You can't change the rules unle ake action Kakazu, along with five other students know the rules." - Bill Clintont who were allegedly present at the time of the Georgetown student newspaper, whi fight,continuetofacetrouble withthe"law." was running for student government1 Iministra- Wise and a fellow Law student, who also dent. 6tat, con- claims he was assaulted, have brought The University delights in quashin wn as the charges against Kakazu and his cohorts. dent dissent.Yet when membersof thel Responsi- They are being persecuted under the code. Student Union boycotted Martin Luthe amed the Underprivileged defendants do not have Day events two years ago, the Univ, proscribe the luxury of a "court-appointed" lawyer. listened. The BSU was given its own# to other Student Legal Services represented Kakazu to address activism this year. But no within the in district court, but because the group re- will the University tolerate mass prote ipus). Ad- ceives partial funding from the University, evidenced by its effort to co-opt s de to pro- it could not help him in the quasi-legal code leaders by paying them: Leadership2 om from proceedings. Kakazu has been left to fend No one can dispute the Universit ment and for himself. Wise and his co-complainant, gitimate right to regulate student ac is riddled both Law students, however, have retained But to bring about change, students the services of a lawyer. The attorney can play by the rules. No more will the U aber Uni- only advise his clients and cannot speak on sity succumb to petty student protestso r students their behalf. slogans of "Abolish the Code." It is si ode." On students to think they can coerce Harti ntively as Issue 2: Public or Private? annul the code. The code, whether t >Maureen Unless the parties involved agree to an gents decide Friday to keep it interima e progress open hearing, the cases remain confidential is here to stay. And students like Ken tford will and are conducted behind closed doors. Kakazu will continue to fall victim t about the Last Tuesday Kakazu and his co-defen- pernicious policy. 000 of before er, an l and ulsion. ned to ases of ses to losed- her re- n ram- uch a ut pub- ss you to the ile he presi- ng stu Black rKing versity forum more ests, as tudent 2017. y's le- tivity must 'niver- or cute illy for ford to he re- or not, ndrick to this JIM LASSER The perpetual campaign Presidential election season must shorten _x KATE AL)- x Wis~f I1I CoiNSRCI'PC4'4 jAV 14 ,oN CA f u .! 18tV "'RIN TS SEWH'AT El-m RE - 1~IR~iL b .~ID } Last week, Sen. Bob Dole (R-Kan.) be- came the sixth Republican to throw his hat into the presidential ring - a full 18 months before the 1996 election. The fact that presidential campaigns now consume nearly two years poses extensive problems for the governance of the nation, as it lurches from one election season to the next devoid of any clear direction. With four U.S. senators in the campaign, Congress loses some of its most valuable law- makers to the whirlwind called campaign poli- tics. Especially troubling is Dole's position - he must serve as Senate majority leader and barnstorm the country at the same time. A system for electing presidents that requires sitting senators to sacrifice one-third of their terms if they wish to seek the White House inevitably damages the nation. Yet long campaigns harm more than the national scene. In 1987-88,Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis neglected his home state while campaigning for the presidency. In the meantime, the state's economy suffered from the void in the Statehouse, giving political ammunition to presidential opponent George Bush. Dukakis was caught in a political Catch- 22: Campaign or risk underexposure, govern or risk recession. The political calculations of this presiden- tial campaign are poisoning Washington, as candidates cannot cast votes without an eye toward political repercussions. It is especially difficult for Dole - as GOP leader in the Senate, he could be crafting substantive legis- lation. However, he must placate the conserva- tive wing of the party - the faction that votes most heavily in the primaries - by avoiding, compromise and bipartisanship in favor of confrontation and right-wing ideology. Furthermore, the fact that the campaign is already in full swing on the GOP side makes it all the more difficult for President Clinton to govern. Forced to react to the attacks of the candidates who wish to oppose him, he must operate in an even more partisan, combative political atmosphere than usual. Consequently, the chances for productive legislation all but disappear. These problems are not new. However, the presidential campaigns were once at least con- fined to the year of the election itself. Today, the campaign spans a full one-half of the presidential term. Shorter campaign seasons would minimize the damage to the govern- ment. While there is no easy way to accom- plish this, there are many solutions that should at least be seriously investigated. Election schedules could be modified: Primary and caucus dates could be condensed, instead of being spread out over such a long period. Another option is to set a national date before which no primaries could be held - as it is now, the states compete to be ahead of one another on the schedule, putting a large num- ber of primaries excessively early in the elec- tion year. Another focus of reform must be money. Campaigns are so expensive that candidates must start early to build up the necessary war chest. Finance laws should be reformed to tighten spending limits and end the need to put so much effort into fund-raising. Solving the problem of the perpetual presi- dential campaign will not be easy. However, the nation must address the issue if it is to avoid frequent two-year periods of paralyzed gov- ernment. This year, the politicians will have to make the best of a bad situation. In the future, the campaigns must be changed. SHARP As TOAST A~re1- so-lf~v 5-U NorAr QUOTABL "An ideal (leveraged buyout) Is a company like RJR Nabisco. When you hit a recession, people keep buying those Oreos and smoking those cigarettes." - University of Chicago professor offinance Steven Kaplan, explaining the risks of the attempted buyout of Chrysler Corp. -A. ._ ti : R = .I LETTERS Money for smiles wasted To the Daily: In response to the Project Smile rebuttal of words about Friendly Days ("Friendliness a yearlong bid, 4/14/95): The prob- lem many people have with Friendly Days and Project Smile is not that they "want people to smile at each other as they cross the Diag," but rather that they were funded with my money to give out free food and balloons. I find this an outrage. In addi- tion, I find it completely disheart- ening to know that our Univer- sity administrators were more than willing to invest my money for Friendly Days' public rela- tions for the University. When there are students giving their blood, sweat and tears for causes like human and civil rights on this campus, I can assure you, those very same administrators. have been nowhere to be found. Sure, hunger and homelessness are not as "cute" as smiley-face posters, but I want to see my University's administrators (and as a resident of Michigan, it is my University) delivering food to homebound elderly and AIDS path to Real Life." (4/14/95) Mike, you typify the attitude we all seem to have that if you're naked, you have to be having sex. You say things like "Several thousand students, many of whom will never purchase a por- nographic magazine, will watch," and "there will be a few who take photos of the event, hoping to get some kind of sexual excitement out of this." I thought you were better than that. There is such a thing as being without clothes and not doing the horizontal lambada. It's called skinny-dip- ping and there are plenty of us around here who do it. It's quite a phenomenon on campus, this nudity thing. Throughout my many years here, I've seen quite a few "Co-ed Naked" T-shirts. "Coed Naked Volleyball: Rude, Crude, and in the Nude." Been there, done that. But why do you think one would wear such a shirt? Probably for the same reason that one wears a shirt that reads on the front "Col- lege is ful of many difficultdeci- sions," and then on the back has the emblems of every beer ever created. It takes quite a bit of maturity to be stark naked and carry on a conversation with an- nther nerson who mav also he your clothes off, and then just sit back and enjoy the sun. I'll bet you could make it an entire after- noon stark naked with your stark naked friends and not even once jump one of them. If you haven't been watching Melrose Place for too long, that is. After all, if God had meant us to be naked, we would have been born that way. Zaid Salman Engineering senior A heartfelt farewell to city parking cops To the Daily. On the eve of my graduation, I would like to take this opportu- nity to express my sincere appre- ciation for the most respected group of individuals on this cam- pus. No, I am not speaking of tenured faculty, nor the leaders of the student government. Rather, Icommend asmall group of dedicated, model Americans -Ann Arbor's parking enforce- ment officers. No other organi- zation has displayed to me such# genuine care for a calling in life ... one consisting of spotting ex- pired meters and cars parked too close to a driveway. In my four years here, I have gladly donated to their cause a sum of nearly $500. Most re- cently, this group had the cour- tesy of towing my car right fror@ my own driveway to remind me that it was time to donate to the Ann Arbor parking charity again. For this I thank you. To the officers: My experi- ences at the University would not have been the same without you. The Fab Five, Desmond Howard's Heisman, the Jake Baker incident and you peop keeping an eye on my Jeep. Lastly, please note that the amount of truth and honesty in this letter is equal to the amount of slack you have cut me over the years ... zero. Thanks again for four great years. I will never re- spect, I mean forget you. HOw TO CONTACT TIHM Lewis A. Morrissey, chief freedom of information officer Office of the Vice President for University Relations 2064 Fleming Administration Building 763-5800 Lew.Morrissey@um.cc.umich.edu Rick Klamka LSA senior MONDAY Ann Arhor Citv Council meeting