4A - The Michigan Daily - Monday, February 19, 1996
e diigarn ilg
420 Maynard Street
Ann Arbor, MI 48109
Edited and managed by
students at the
University of Michigan
RONNIE GLASSBERG
Editor in Chief
ADRIENNE JANNEY
ZACHARY M. RAIMI
Editorial Page Editors
Unless otherwise noted, unsigned editorials reflect the opinion ofa majority ofthe Daily's editorial board. All
other articles, letters and cartoons do not necessarily reflect the opinion of The Michigan Daily.
FROM THE DAmyl
A fa'r exchange
Residence hall meals are not economical
NOTABLE QuorABLE,,
'You can all be sex-goddesses of the world.'
-River Huston, woman living with AIDS and
AIDS educator, urging University students
to enjoy safer, more creative sex
JIM LASSER SHARP AS TOAST
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.ETTERs To TEDITOR
No c risis ine Budget P riorities Committee
E ach day when the dinner bell rings,
thousands of University Uousing resi-
dents take advantage of the meal plans the
residence halls provide. This often compli-
cated system - most likely designed to
make living at the University easier and more
enjoyable - tends to break down. When
Students in residence halls benefit by be-
ing able to dine without leaving the building.
But they deserve greater financial freedom
when choosing where and when to eat and
how to pay for their meals. Now that Entree
Plus is no longer accepted in the Michigan
Union, students without MCard accounts -
who don't want to shell out cash for meals -
are forced to dine in residence
halls.
students miss meals or must us
means of payment to pur-
chase food in the dorms, the
University's meal services
become a detriment to stu-
dent life and finance.
Most University Housing
residents opt to use the pro-
vided dining choices in the
cafeterias, located in most
residence halls. Housing de-
signed a variety of meal
plans: a full 18 meals per
week, 13 meals, nine meals
or the two newest plans, 115
meals per semester or zero
meals. Any plan with less
than 18 meals per week adds
amount of money to students'
e alternative
IkI
Restrictions on meal credit
usage must be lifted. In the
current system, once a credit
is used for a particular meal,
no other credits may be de-
ducted until the following
meal period. Residents are
forced to eat only the food
offered in one location at one
time - an unfortunate pre-
dicament if a menu is particu-
larly unappetizing or food is
not filling. By reducing the
value of a meal in the snack
MATT WIMSATT/Daily
a pro-rated
Entr6e Plus
accounts. Students may use meals any time
during the week.
If students miss meals, they may redeem
a meal credit in Bursley's Northbar, the
Markley Underground or the South Quad
Down Under. Snack bars also accept Entree
Plus as payment for meals. However, stu-
dents using Entree Plus instead of a meal
credit in a cafeteria will find the decision
costly. Current rates for cafeteria meal tick-
ets bought with cash are $6 for lunch and $8
for dinner; Entree Plus gives a slight dis-
count. Furthermore, meal credits applied to
food purchased in one of the snack bars are
only worth $3.35 for dinner, less for lunch.
The value ofa meal in a cafeteria is more than
twice the value of one in a snack bar - an
unaccaeptable discrepancy.
bar, students must use Entree Plus or cash to
make up the difference. Students effectively
pay for the same meal twice - in their tuition
and in the snack bar. Meals should translate
into a full credit in the snack bar - not a
portion of a hamburger or a pint of Ben and
Jerry's. Likewise, meal credits should be
available at all operating hours of the day, all
days of the week - especially for students
whose busy schedules prevent them from
dining by the respective cutoff times.
Dining in University cafeterias may not
be the most enjoyable experience. However,
by restructuring its meal payment program,
University Housing would make eating in
the dorms a more appealing and feasible
option to residents. Housing's function is to
ensure the quality of dorm life. For as much
as students pay, residence halls had better be
one enjoyable experience.
TO THE DAILY:
I have been reading the
articles in the Daily
regarding the so-called
"crisis" that exists on the
Michigan Student
Assembly's Budget Priori-
ties Committee, including
the editorial on Feb. 14,
1996 ("The BPC 'non-
crisis': MSA's poor
planning causes a budget
crunch"). I am appalled at
the incorrect and rude
statement that MSA "must
hone their arithmetic skills
to plan efficiently." As a
member of the BPC, I assure
you that my math skills are
up to par, and if all else fails
I have a perfectly good
calculator to fall back on.
Although BKC has
already allocated much of its
funding for student groups
this year, I can not see this
as a crisis. More thann
$83,000 will be given to
student groups by the end of
the school year. This is an
increase of almost $20,000 .
from the past year. How can
this be a crisis ? As a result
of MSA and BPC, many
excellent events will be able
to be held on campus this
year.
BPC spends a lot of time
deciding which groups that
come to us for funding
deserve funding, and also the
level to which they deserve
funding. These decisions are
not arbitrary and are very
important to us.
In the Daily editorial,
BPC is criticized for our
seven hearing fiscal
appropriation process and
suggests a four hearing
solution to the problem.
This shows to me a lack of
understanding of the lengths
to which BPC goes to
assure that student groups
are funded fairly. Currently,
each hearing includes
presentation by 16 student
groups in a period of four
hours often followed by an
additional hour where
decisions are made regard-
ing our recommendation to
MSA as a whole, after
which other committee
business must be taken care
of We often give up
weekends and evenings to
ensure that student groups
are given the consideration
they deserve in funding
them fairly. It is impractical
if not impossible to reduce"
the number of hearings
given by BPC. These
hearings would then stretch
to eight to 10 hours each. If
any student is will to spend
the amount of time that we
do in the process, I welcome
them to apply to be part of
BPC, as committee positions
are open to the whole
student community.
I agree that it is unfortu-
nate that some student
groups will remain un-
funded. Each event has its
own merits. But the truth is
that there will be always be a
lot of"groups that apply to
MSA for funding, and there
will never be enough money
to fund them all. Just
remember that $83,000 will
be going directly to student
groups.
BPC has taken great
pains to assure funding for
all, but ultimately I can only
speak for myself. I know I
havei spent many hours
toward helping student
groups make sure they have
the funding they need. As I
see it, there is no crisis with
student group funding. And
as a B PC member there are
no regrets.
BRYANT WU
- MSA REPRESENTATIVE,
MEDICAL SCHOOL
BPC MEMBER
THE DOUBLE X
I have what
shes having'
The joys of eager
young cousins
For my younger cousins, my entry
into college signalled my ascen-
sion to a new level of coolness. More
than ever before, I am teetering on
the edge of adulthood in college,
young enough to
understand them ,.
and sympathize
with them, but old
enough to have
shed most of the
rules. No one stops
me if I want to stay
up all night eating
Frosted Flakes,
but, unlike their
parents, I'm young KATE
enough to want to EPSTEIN
do such things.
My almost-adult
status gives me authority in my cous-
ins' eyes. They look up to me. They
wear my hand-me-downs a lot, as if
being on my body gives clothes a
worthiness. I hope that my attention
and respect for my cousins helps them
see their own worth.
My cousins are 16 and 13. They
could be quite a bit younger, and they
would probably still look up to me.
But it wouldn't be the same if we
didn't share gender. For one thing,
they wouldn't wear my hand-me-
down clothes. More importantly, in
today's society, they wouldn't iden-
tify with me and take me as a role
model if they were boys.
Ifthey were boys, relationships like
ours might be less important. Ac-
cording to the 1991 report of the
American Association of University
Women, less than a third of girls in
high school-and the younger of my
cousins will enter high school next
year-strongly agree with the state-
ment, "I am happy the way I am,"
compared with nearly half of boys.
There are reasons. Girls my cousins'
ages have had enough time with male-
centered curriculum and Barbie and
TV shows with cute girl characters
and active boy characters to suffer.
They are at an age when they may
begin to experience sexual harass-
ment and other forms of sexual vic-
timization, and, in my cousins' so-
cioeconomic group, to be at risk for
eating disorders.
My cousins are at an age when a
multitude of changes, both physical
and personal, make it easy fora sexist
society to tell them who they are and
what they should be. Because they
are girls, their changes are anything
but subtle. They get whole new bod-
ies, complete with metabollic
changes, menstrual cycle and body
hair. They literally carry a new body
part around in front of them - in a
spot that's hard to ignore. At all hours
of the day, they know they are chang-
ing.
I know how it feels for my cousins
to go through allthese things because
I have always recognized myself in
both of them - myself at 12, for
example, listening to musical group
"A-ha" because my teen-age
babysitter said they were cute. I want
to save the 12-year-olds they were
from turning into me at 16, when I
believed that having a boyfriend was
the answer to everything.
I thought boyfriends were the an-
swer because of, among other things,
teen movies and magazines, which
depicted adolescence as a game where
the object was to get a date. Changes
make it hard to know who they are
and what new things like sexuality
should be like. It makes sense, some-
times, to look outside yourself for the
answers to these hard questions.
I'm trying to be one of the places
where my cousins get positive an-
swers for their questions, and to steer
them to other places with positive
answers. My age makes it easier for
me to formulate answers and to rec-
ognize the questions. Not only is my
memory for these experiences more
acute than for people further from
adolescence, my experiences have
more in common with my cousins'
because we are of the same genera-
tion.
My age also makes it easier for
them to identify with me. The older
one, with whom I have been corre-
sponding regularly for longer than
five years, says that she likes to re-
read the letters I wrote her when I was
the age she is now. She says it helps
to read about me when I was going
through what she's going through
now. She knows if I coped, she can.
When I wrote those letters, my cous-
ins were following me around every
time they visited, waiting to order at
a restaurant so they could get the
same thing as me. They believed in
me enouwh to imitate me. and that
lol
Lite choices
City employee residency requirements needed
M aintaining vested interest in one's
work, and its subsequent outcomes, is
of paramount concern to all involved. That's
why many communities across the state set
residency requirements as a condition of
employment. The Michigan Senate disre-
garded this notion when it voted last Wednes-
day to remove such restrictions. In the pro-
cess, legislators interfered with the practices
of local communities - and put the commu-
nities at great risk.
The Senate approved a bill forbidding
communities to require their employees to
live within city limits - where they would
work and receive paychecks. The residency
provision applies to all public employers,
including school districts and police depart-
ments. The legislation also prohibits require-
ments that employees live within a specified
distance or travel time. At least 76 communi-
ties around the state impose such residency
requirements.
The residency requirement is only logi-
cal. Communities have the right to decide
whether to adopt such measures. The city
benefits from having employees residing in
the city -all public employees would have
astake in the community in which they lived.
employees could monitor the quality of gov-
ernment services because they too would
receive them. More important, by serving as
a city's eyes and ears, public employees can
ensure the safety of the environments in
'which they work.
Detroit, the largest community to impose
a residency requirement, has had a residency
- and it works to benefit the city. The nearly
17,000 people it employs compromise a con-
siderable middle-class taxbase, which is es-
pecially important in a city that has lost many
citizens. The requirement allows municipal
revenues to recirculate within the local
economy. It also maintains a good relation-
ship between the public and the police. Hav-
ing officers live in the neighborhoods they
patrol gives them more of an incentive to
keep the area safe.
Until now, the residency requirement has
been a decision of local communities. In
many instances, it has been the result of
popular local vote. Ann Arbor has a require-
ment for the city administrator and all depart-
ment heads. If this legislation were to be-
come law, Ann Arbor's new city attorney,
Abigail Elias, would not have to move to the
city. She currently resides in Detroit and has
been allowed by the City Council one year to
move to Ann Arbor. Elias will be able to do
her job most effectively if she moves to Ann
Arbor.
The statewide legislation will go to the
House before it reaches Gov. John Engler.
Representatives should defeat the legislation
- allowing local communities to make the
decision to maintain residency requirements.
The requirements enable cities to use their
own resources to the fullest. Proponents claim
the requirements intrude on personal free-
dom. However, ifthe workers know that such
requirements exist, it becomes their own
choice to accept the position or not. Legisla-
tors would like to allow employees this choice
- conmmunities must have a choice as well.
Civil rights
at 'U' are
precarious
TO THE DAILY:
The state of civil
liberties is precarious,
indeed. Recent passage of
the censorship laden
communications bill, along
with talk of passing an
anti-flag burning amend-
ment and lenient interpreta-
tion of the Fourth Amend-
ment, only act to jeopardize
the rights of citizens as
stated in the Bill of Rights.
On a more local level,
the students at the Univer-
sity have found themselves
subject to an unnecessary
Code of Student Conduct.
With the development of
the latest version of the
Code, there is concern over
whether or not this Code
works for or against
students. Of course, with
an established legal system,
the Code is not only
unnecessary but gravely
antithetical to civil rights.
In addition, the recent
censorship of art at our
own Art and Architecture
Building proves that civil
liberty infractions can
affect us all.
The Univeristy chapter
of the American Civil
Liberties Union has been
formed in response to these
infringements of civil
liberties. The UM-ACLU
endeavors to act as a
resource for the University
LETTERS POLICY
The Michigan Daily welcomev letters from its readers.
Alllettersfrom University students,faculty and staffwill be
pri"ed space providing. Other materials will be printed at
the editors' discretion: All letters must include the writer's
name, school year or University affiliation and phone
number. We will not print any letter that cannot be verified.
Ad hominem attacks will not be Melerated.
Letters should be kept to approximately 300 words. We
reserve the rigt to edit for length, clarity and accuracv.
Longer "Viewpoints " may be arranged with an editor.
Letters should be sent via e-mail to daily.letters@
umich.edu or mailed to the Daily at 420 Maynard St.
Editors ean e eached at 764-0552 or by sending e-mail to
the above address.
UM-ACLU needs all the
help it can get.
GREG PARKER
CO-CHAIR, UM-ACLU
PAMELA SHORT
CO-CHAIR, UM-ACLU
CHRISTINE MILLER
TRUSTEE, UM-ACLU
W imsatt
cartoon is
not funny
TO THE DAILY:
Mr. Wimsatt's cartoon
for ("Mookie's Dilemma,"
2/8/96) appears to be
accusing the Big Three of
not encouraging electric
vehicle technology.
Perhaps he should consider
researching his subjects a
little.
Anyone who was at the
Detroit Auto Show this
January probably noticed
the Saturn display. Cen-
vehicle. General Motors
will soon be selling this
production vehicle at a
Saturn dealership near you.
Ford and Chrysler are not
big angry companies either.
Both sell EVs for fleet use
and heartily support
research in alternatives to
gasoline. Why, you barely
have to look hard to see
projects here at the Univer-
sity like the Solar Car and
the FutureCar. These
student projects are
sponsored by the "evil"
auto manufacturers that Mr.
Wimsatt depicted.
In conclusion, I think a
previous writer summed
this cartoon up the best:
"Mookie's Dilemma"
seems to be more one of
meeting deadlines than
putting a humorous slant on
current events. Perhaps
Wimsatt should take a
lesson from "Sharp as
Toast" and "University X,"
two genuinely funny Daily
cartoons.
,'n,,r~mPtt in nlare fo~r mohre tha~n a centuirv
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