4 - The Michigan Daily - Friday, April 19, 1996 cbE d iga 420 Maynard Street Ann Arbor, MI 48109 Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan ae ., , s Y RONNIE GLASSBERG Editor in Chief ADRIENNE JANNEY ZACHARY M. RAIMI Editorial Page Editors NOTABLE QUOTABLE, 'I do not believe this is a death-sentence case.' - Michigan State University President M. Peter McPherson told reporters Wednesday that he does not think MSUsfootball program will be disbanded. An internal investigation revealed that the football team violated NCAA regulations. McINosH CmSICS Trying to grasp somepeet moments before the slp way P erfect moments are not so polite they just sort of sneak up on you. One. minute, it's just another wonderful day; the next, you're having a wlnperfect moment. You don't know how long it will last, but you're , 0 Unless otherwise noted, unsigned editorials reflect the opinion of the majority ofthe Dailv s editorial board.A ll other articles, letters and cartoons do not necessarilv reflect the opinion of The Michigan Daily. FROM THE DAILY The new Director JIM LASSER SHARP AS TOAST 0 A CARTooNIsTS C~UIDE U' made wise choice T he University made a wise move by selecting Stephen Director to serve as the new dean of the College of Engineering. Currently the engineering dean at Carnegie Mellon University, Director is a nationally renowned and widely respected leader in engineering research and scholastics. Director should strengthen the already solid reputation of the University's College of Engineering and keep it among the best in the nation. Director graduated from the State University of New York at Stony Brook and the University of California at Berkeley. He began teaching at the University of Florida before moving to Carnegie Mellon in 1977. Director built his reputation as an expert in computer-aided circuit design. He has writ- ten six books on circuit theory, authored more than 150 articles and received many national awards for his research. Since former Dean Peter Banks stepped down in November 1994, the College of Engineering has been without a permanent dean. Engineering Prof. Glenn Knoll has served on an interim basis. The University was smart to make an appointment now, instead of delaying it further. If the University had waited to appoint a dean until a new president was in place, it might have taken a year or two longer. Further delay would have prevented the department from conducting long-term planning. Director has expressed his commitment to diversity for the College of Engineering. While minority and female enrollment has for Engineering dean consistently risen in the last few years, the college must still work to increase diversity. Director's commitment to fairness in enroll- ment is encouraging. Director also said he plans to strengthen the College of Engineering's research pro- grams. He stated, "It will be nice to be part of an organization that is progressing rapid- ly and moving into the future." During his tenure as dean at Carnegie Mellon, he was successful in a similar venture. His appointment affects more than just Engineering students. The role of technolo- gy in education continues to increase in importance. Director said technology will play a greater role in the engineering pro- gram under his tenure. He also said that many University resources, such as the new Media Union, will help students in all fields learn more in new ways. Under Director's leadership, technology most likely will become a significant part of the curriculum; he is a solid choice to move the University to the cutting edge of technology. The University made its selection with foresight. Director wants to make the College of Engineering more technological- ly advanced and he possess the qualifica- tions to accomplish this goal. He must con- tinue the college's commitment to diversity and cooperation between the University's other schools and colleges. Director's ability to work with others, coupled with his long-term vision for the college, should ensure success in meeting his goals. rt ANGRY 1r t'4 AMAZED ioTtHe r4YRFACES OF 4tt 1i Wormy FEAR .C- H YSTE R ICAL jay (4 ASI EEP A,/ktiA, LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Safer streets City's budget proposal A nn Arbor's streets may become a little safer if the City Council passes the budget proposal for the 1996-97 fiscal year. Earlier this week, City Administrator Neal Berlin proposed a budget that would increase the allotment to the police depart- ment by $1.5 million. Overall, the budget is a step in the right direction - it has made improvement of city services a top priority. The increased funding to the Ann Arbor Police Department is an attempt to improve a few key areas of deficiency in the current state of the department. For example, the budget provides funds to upgrade technolo- gy. The police department is currently using a 10-year-old communications system. Police have requested a replacement system for several years. The budget would grant more money for the department's innovative community-ori- ented policing program. Additional funds would expand and improve the program. The program encourages the officers to become more active in the neighborhoods they patrol. Not only has the program been successful in making neighborhoods safer, it has improved the community's perception of the police department. Since the program has been successful, and the community values it, Berlin deserves commendation for proposing a funding increase. Moreover, the budget calls for increas- ing the number of police officers on the streets. Under the budget, the department would hire nine new police officers in the next year - this will allow the officers to devote more time to the neighborhoods they are assigned to patrol. The budget also includes the hiring of four new civilian cus- would improve AAPD tomer service assistants; as a result, officers would be able to spend more time on the streets and less time behind a desk. These changes would help to cut crime. Overall, the proposal would allocate a $1.5-million increase to the police depart- ment, compared to last year's budget. In recent years, the City Council was con- cerned about the variable climate of city funding. In the late 1980s, the city had a $1.6-million deficit. In addition, the coun- cil was not sure how Proposal A - a redis- tribution of property taxes at the state level - would affect city finances. As a result, the city built a reserve fund of nearly $11.7 million, the highest level in more than 10 years. This year's budget proposes to make use of more than $3.2 million of those funds, which will keep city taxes fairly stable or slightly reduced for most home owners. The reserve fund will still be left with a signifi- cant amount of money in case the city is strapped with financial problems in the future. The increase of allocations, then, will not adversely affect the city's financial well-being. The budget also allocates increases in funding for the human resources depart- ment and the city attorney's office. These funds are aimed at improving the city's cus- tomer service. Also, there are allotments for various youth programs that aim to keep young people active and off the streets. This budget represents a commitment to Ann Arbor's citizens. The City Council should pass this budget - it will increase the quality of services to levels that citizens deserve. 'U' faculty are paid too much money TO THE DAILY: Your article on the phe- nomenal paychecks for University professors ("'U' salaries low for peer group' 4/11/96) was a hoot! President James Duderstadt and Provost Bernard Machen should both be reminded that while they prefer to play financial games with their designated "peer institu- tions," the University is a public, not a private school. Michigan taxpayers are being gouged by their collective Bill Gates arrogance. The Michigan Daily should do a follow-up article citing a few more insightful points. In addition to their inflated salaries, what other benefits do faculty receive via medical benefits, travel and other perks in their con- tracts? Since the upper echelon of the University faculty are tenured, what is the cost after they retire? After all, these chosen ones have guaranteed lifetime contracts no matter how good or bad they are; they are the Supreme Court justices of the higher educa- tional system. Finally, and most impor- tantly, the Daily ought to do some number crunching of its own and take a close look at the ratio of students taught per deep-pocketed professors. How many classes do they teach? What's their student population'? If - as we've learned from the recent Graduate Employees Organization's two-day work stoppage - graduate student instructors are educating 40 percent of the University's undergradu- ates and the lowly-paid instructors (who earn barely 1/3 of their tenured peers) proctor the second largest bulk of students, how many of these top dogs are pulling their weight with hands-on education? I'll bet those numbers would be staggering. And good for a few more laughs especially in the feathered- bedded nests of tenured pro- fessors practically allergic to coming into contact with the very people they are suppos- edly here to educate. E. MICHAEL LEONARD LSA JUNIOR Greek Week works with charities TO THE DAILY: I know that I and many important events that occur on campus and in the world. A week-long event that involves approximately 30 percent of the campus' stu- dent body deserves coverage. The money Greek Week earns for charity is substan- tial and it involves multiple local organizations and phil- anthropic events. It, in itself, is an example of students coming together to help out the community. I strongly feel it deserved coverage and hope the Daily will give this some thought and include Greek Week cov- erage in the years to come, because it undeniably deserves to be recognized. LESLEY BAUMANN LSA SOPHOMORE Paper theft was about racism, not free speec h TO THE DAILY: Your editorial regarding the theft of newspapers ("An act of censorship: Theft of student newspaper abridges rights," 3/29/96) seems to have missed the entire point. And, I'm quite sure that this was intentional on your part. Instead of addressing why the Daily is seen as racist,wyou focused upon the issue of "free speech." Let's discuss free speech. You say that the Daily has always supported others' rights to protest, but you neglect to mention the con- text of allowable protest that you place on it. Any protest views that are aired in your paper must come through you (the editors). It seems to me that, on a daily basis, you are the viola- tors of free speech. You suggest letters to the editor and "creating a new publication" as the "proper" means of dissent, yet you miss the contradictions inher- ent therein. To use your suggested means of dissent implies one of two things: No. 1: Protest must either come through your channels (letters to the editor); or, No. 2: Through very expensive means (creating a new publi- cation). This prohibits the overwhelming majority of people, who are like me (not wealthy) from being effec- tively heard. Thus, your self-righteous platitudes about free speech and criminal prosecution seem more like the rantings of corporate (in this case University) puppets who see their purpose of existence threatened. This purpose is profit. What this episode has forced Editorial misinterprets abortion law TO THE DAILY: The Daily's recent editori- al ("A show of strength: Clinton's abortion bill veto was appropriate," 4/16/96) said that any law that restricts a form of abortion would violate the sanctity of Roe v. Wade and would give abor- tion opponents "license to sponsor anti-abortion legisla- tion nationwide" The Daily's implication that Roe protects late-term abortions is just plain wrong. In fact, Roe specifically allows the state to prohibit these abortions. "If the State is interested in protecting fetal life after viability, it may go so far as to proscribe abortion during that period, except when it is necessary to preserve the life or health of the mother," Roe, 1973. Certainly President Clinton was right to veto the specific bill Congress passed, since Roe does protect late- term abortions performed to save the woman's life. However, the Daily's assertion that all abortions are protected by Roe makes it clear that they have absolute- ly no idea what Roe says. Certainly the Daily's edi- torial staff cannot be expect- ed to understand every com- plexity of the law, but when the staff mentions a case three times in an editorial, I don't think it's too much to ask that they know what they are talking about. But what is more trou- bling than the fact that the Daily perpetuated false infor- mation is that it demonstrated a very superficial under- standing of the moral impli- cations of late-term abor- tions. A 5 1/2-month-old fetus has a highly developed brain and nervous system and can actually feel the abortion- ist killing her, and it is a moral contradiction for abor- tionists to kill this fetus while a doctor struggles to save a baby born 3 1/2 months pre- mature. The argument that there are very few late-term abor- tions performed for non- health reasons is not a reason to oppose prohibiting these senseless killings. If a serial killer were annually murder- ing five prematurely born babies, we would not refuse to prosecute because only a few die. Similarly, we cannot refuse to protect a fetus from being aborted after it reaches viability. Indeed, the fact that these abortions are performed so rarely actually strengthens the argument for a ban, since it would not significantly affect abortion rights. sure you never want it to end. Perfecti moments always catch you when B BRENT you're relaxing on MCINTOSH the porch, usually with friends but sometimes alone, in glaring sun or on a cool rainy night. You're talking with someone or read- ing a book, just watching cars slide by and slurping orange juice ... suddenly you're assaulted with the sheer right- ness of the situation. It's that singular certain perception that nothing could ever be better than this moment, that all is right with you - which is all that matters - and that there is truly nowhere you would rather be. A perfect moment is lazily tossing a Frisbee on Elbel Field after spending what could have been a sun-drenched Wednesday trapped inside your office job. It's cruising a red convertible through the curves of Huron River Drive when the trees are at their green est; it's dozing on the couch on a casu- al Sunday afternoon. It's the first snowball fightof the winter. It's a good thing perfect moments don't come along often: Were they common, we would too easily take them for granted. U.. Perfect moment;. You ecstatically crowd onto South U. with 12,000 of your closest friends to celebrate a big4 Wolverine athletic triumph. You sing "The Victors," flow with the mob and wonder why you can't have this much fun all the time. A perfect moment is harmony. It is a minute or two of repose in a chaotic world. It is that hour in April, on the first warm day of spring, when a crowded Diag brings you to the real- ization that there are 17 people here that you really want to talk to, and only4 one you to do the talking. A perfect moment is a $5 bleacher seat at a stunningly beautiful Detroit Tiger day game, kicking back with your friends and a hot dog, realizing that whatever your feelings on Bruce Springsteen may be, the "Glory Days" blaring over the loudspeakers was written specifically about you and your friends and this very moment in this very place.74 It's Hemingway writing in "The Sun Also Rises" that it was "a good morn- ing, there were high white clouds above the mountains. It had rained a little in the night and it was fresh and cool on the plateau, and there was a wonderful view. We all felt good and healthy, and I felt quite friendly... You could not be upset about anything on a day like that." It's readingdthat passage over lunch in Prague and thinking, "That's how feel right now." 0 0 r Glorious sunny days don't have a monopoly on perfect moments. Ever stood in Michigan Stadium in the silent moonlight, in awe of its vast emptiness? Ever walked in the Arb in a soothing drizzle? A perfect moment is the feeling you get after stupidly struggling to th shelter of your 9 o'clock, when the windchill is an Ann Arbor-record 69 below zero. Only four of your 25 classmates made the trek - and you're suddenly a lot warmer. It's sitting in the Brown Jug with the guys and a plate of nachos, with noth- ing better to do because, frankly, there just isn't anything better out there. It's reading, "It's all too much, I feel wonderful and wild, I've found my friends and a great vibration of livin joy and of Poetry is running thru us," in "Desolation Angels," and knowing Jack Kerouac was speaking to you. Perfect moments are both free and priceless - in truth, there is nothing in the world more free or more price- less than a perfect moment. U.. Tuesday, I walk away from The Michigan Daily. I walk away from th University on May 4, and I walk away from Ann Arbor in late August. I've been blessed with more than my fair share of perfect moments here. I can only hope that the frequency with which they manifest themselves isn't diminished when I'm gone from here I How TO CONTACT THEM PRESIDENT JAMES DUDERSTADT 2068 FLEMING ADMINISTRATION BUILDING ANN ARBOR, MI 48109-1340 7P A C")7( I