4A - The Michigan Daily - Monday, September 9, 1996
i~jz rbigum &ii
420 Maynard Street
Ann Arbor, MI 48109
Edited and managed by
students at the
Universit y of Maicihi.ganl
RONNIE GLASSBERG
Editor in Chief
ADRIENNE JANNEY
ZACHARY M. RAIMI
Editorial Page Editors
NOTABLE QUOTABLE,
'The game turned In our favor
when we went ahead.'
-- Nick Saban, Michigan State football coach, explaining his
philosophy on how the Spartans beat Purdue two weekends ago
Im LASSER SHARP ASr TOAST
F N A 5)KPSEEMOVE, 108 VOLE HAS CHANG ED
CAMPA1c-N ADVISER S.. .
Unles otherwise noted unsigned editorials relect the opiyion of thmajort of te Dail's editorial board. All
other articles, letters and cartoons do not necessarily reflect the opinion of The Michigan Daily
FROM THE DAILY
The wrong debate
Michigan GOP succumbs to infighting
W hat are the key issues in a University
of Michigan Board of Regents elec-
tion? Finance, education, student welfare
and experience are among the most impor-
tant. However, this year the Republican side
has turned the fight into an abortion issue.
At the state Republican convention this
weekend, Gov. John Engler endorsed one of
two Republicans to run for the Board of
Regents in a statewide election - a move
he even considered unusual. He claimed
that Judy Frey of East Grand Rapids had
worked harder and longer than Mike Bishop
of Rochester Hills - and therefore Frey
deserved the nomination more.
But Frey lost in her own district, which
cast the deciding votes for the spot.
Members of the 3rd congressional district
izstead nominated Mike Bishop, who won
the nomination.
fey lists membership in the Michigan
Republicans for Choice association among
herqualifications for nomination - in fact,
she was president. Bishop enlisted members
of the Christian Coalition and anti-abortion
activists in his campaign. Somehow, the
GOP used the regental nominations to cre-
ate a public policy floor fight, with abortion
at its center. Both Engler and the Christian
Coalition should not have interfered in the
decision - their actions were divisive and
forced the nomination's central issues to the
back burner.
Engler has tried to interfere in the
regental nomination process since he
becane governor. In fact, he meddled in the
other nomination spot; he tried to encour-
age incumbent Deane Baker (R-Ann Arbor)
to step aside. However, Engler felt the wrath
of his own party, as it shunned his pick.
Engler had no choice but to endorse Baker,
as Baker was uncontested. But he played for
control of the other spot.
Engler's meddling highlights his desire
to gain more control over state politics than
he ought to. Often, this pursuit of power
makes politics more important than policy.
Engler should have quietly presided over
the nomination for regent; instead, his
desire to stock the board with his choices
helped divide his party, cause more prob-
lems than necessary and shift the focus of
the nomination away from substantive
issues that affect the University.
Meanwhile, the conservative Christians
are also guilty of dividing the party. They
have pitted themselves against mainstream
conservatives - and the result is squabbles
over who controls educational boards,
which has little to do with abortion. Frey
was ostracized because she is pro-choice,
and the Christian right wing disagrees with
her stance - however, her abortion politics
have little to do with running a university. It
seemed as if those who voted against her
lost sight of her qualifications for the job.
The GOP must resolve its intra-party
instability - the internal strife has caused
the important issues that affect the
University community to take a backseat to
abortion politics and gubernatorial muscle
flexing. University students want regents to
work on their behalf- not Engler's and not
the party line.
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VIEWPOINT
Path to peace is still rocky
Cooperation
h City, 'U' need to create more parking
t Jiappens every year: Students return to scenario, the burden falls squarely - and
campus in September and are met with unfairly - upon the shoulders of student
the parking problems that plague Ann motorists.
Arbor until May. For visitors to campus and Right now, the University can take one
downtown Ann Arbor, the lack of parking small step on its own. The area formerly
space is a nuisance, often forcing them to occupied by the Sigma Epsilon fraternity
park far away from their destinations. For house, which was destroyed by fire last
those who live in the city - including stu- September, is slated to be a parking lot.
dents - the parking shortage represents However, the University plans to desig-
one bf the most negative aspects of life. nate the lot as another Staff Paid lot, a
The number of parking spaces available proposition that gives no relief to student
is inadequate for the amount of traffic flow- motorists. If the University is serious about
ing through the city. Lack of student park- alleviating the perpetual crisis, it should
ing is a problem that arises each year - and open this lot so everyone affiliated with the
each year the University fails to resolve stu- University - including students - can
BY RONNIE GLASSBERG
After months of negotia-
tions, Israel's hard-line prime
minister, Benjamin
Netanyahu of the conservative
Likud Party, finally met with
Palestinian Authority
President Yasser Arafat last
week. While this is an impor-
tant step forward, true peace
in the Middle East is far from
fulfillment.
At the current time, the
West Bank cities of
Bethlehem and Jericho -
both important religious cities
- are in the control of the
Palestinian Authority. While
technically part of Israel, their
infrastructure and internal
security are under Palestinian
control. Israeli redeployment
of Hebron, another West Bank
city, was delayed last spring
by then-Prime Minister
Shimon Peres after a series of
suicide bus bombings in Tel
Aviv and Jerusalem. Current
talks between Netanyahu and
Arafat will focus on Hebron
and the future security of
Israelis living there.
The opening of talks
between Netanyahu and
Arafat was a critical point. It
showed that the progress in
the peace process did not rep-
resent the will of only two
political leaders. Rather, the
Middle East process is the
commitment of the Israeli and
Palestinian people - along
with the rest of the world -
to peace.
While Likud ministers
have been extremely critical
of Netanyahu'smeeting with
Arafat, the prime minister
wisely recognized the politi-
cal value, at least on an inter-
national level, of restarting
the peace talks.
Just a week before
Netanyahu's meeting with
Arafat, I visited Israel with a
group of campus newspaper
editors. In a meeting that
Glassberg is the editor in
chief of The Michigan
Daily and an LSA senior
He visited Israel in August.
week, Moshe Fogel, the direc-
tor of the Israeli Government
Press Office and a spokesper-
son for the Likud Party, said
that the prime minister would
not meet with Arafat just for
the sake of a meeting. The
prime minister, Fogel said,
would only meet with Arafat
to discuss substantive issues.
With the peace at such a frag-
ile stage, it was extremely
detrimental for Netanyahu to
shun Arafat in an attempt to
earn political points with his
supporters. Despite the prime
minister's campaign rhetoric,
much could have been accom-
plished in the past few months
through direct negotiations
between the two leaders.
Although the path to peace
has reopened, the most diffi-
cult issues have not been dis-
cussed yet. First, the
Palestinian Authority wants to
establish a sovereign state
known as Palestine in the
West Bank and Gaza Strip,
while the Israeli government
wants to retain control over
the area to prevent a new mil-
itary threat from forming on
its border.
In a meeting in Bethlehem
during my trip, a member of
the Palestinian Legislative
Council, Salah Tamari,
expressed his opposition to
Israeli control of the
Palestinian areas.
"How can you normalize
relations with occupation? It
cannot happen. We need to be
free," he said.
However, it would not be a
simple step for Israel to give
up control of the West Bank.
Since 1967, Israelis have been
moving into undeveloped
areas and forming advanced
communities, and construc-
tion continues at the present
time. Such an action would be
similar to our government
asking those in the Western
United States to leave their
homes so the land could be
returned to Native Americans.
While this may be a morally
appropriate course, it defi-
nitely would not be easy to
convince Westerners to leave
their homes, and the Israeli
government faces the same
obstacles.
Beyond the West Bank
dispute, other issues will like-
ly be more difficult to resolve.
Syria will not even enter into
peace talks until Israel is will-
ing to give up its control of
the Golan Heights, a move
that is extremely unpopular
among Israelis. In 1967 Israel
gained control of the region,
which overlooks the Sea of
Galilee. Returning the area
would give Syria a huge
strategic advantage over Israel
- opening the entire width of
the country to the threat of
Syrian shelling.
Peering at the Golan
Heights from Israel, it is
understandable why Israelis
fear the possibility of Syrian
control. The only possibility
for peace would need to be
coupled with disarmament
zones that expanded into
Syria.
But the issue that will
probably be the most difficult
to resolve is control of
Eastern Jerusalem - a holy
city for Jews, Muslims and
Christians. After the 1967
war, Israel added the control
of the holy sites in Eastern
Jerusalem to Israel, and near-
ly all Israelis want it to remain
the undivided capital of Israel.
For Tamari, however, East
Jerusalem is the "occupied
part of Jerusalem, and I stress
occupied."
Many of the Arab-Israeli
conflicts are political in
nature -- tracing back to
British mishandling of the
region; however, control over
Jerusalem is a religious and
far more emotional issue.
While the path toward
peace may have moved for-
ward last week, the region is
left with more conflicts. The
world will likely soon find
that getting Bibi and Yasser to
shake hands last week was the
easiest part in the process, and
most of the conflicts will be
far more difficult to resolve.
CYCHEST /
Student housin
theory 101
I have a theory. It may be a somewhat
paranoid theory, but stick with me
and at least read down to the fold.
Student housing is a giant experi-
ment. We are all rats in a maze, driven
to madness by the aroma of mvisibl
Gruyere cheese. We think theres
prize - spacious
apartment, decent
landlord, privacy
- at the end. But
we have to find
the end.
And where's
hope when you
start out in a 3-by-
2-by 5 dorm
room? Yes, dorm.
DOR-MI-TOR-Y. ADRIENNE
A term as distin- AREN
guished as "resi- JANNEY
dence halls" just
doesn't apply to Velveeta.
Gosh, I have a great idea.
Experiment phase one: Let's take hun-
dreds of displaced high school seniors
with scattered ideologies and place
them in little tiny boxes - and see i
they all get along. Then we can call th
University "diverse!"
A friend of mine was lucky enough
to share his dorm room with a nice boy
named Fish. (His name was actually
something normal like Mike or Joe.
Maybe he was trying to discover his
new identity.)
Fish was special. He liked electron-
ics. He liked to build things. He did
some extracurricular reading.
He built a pickle machine.
No, really.
Imagine coming home to the over-
powering smell of burnt pickle - in
your clothes, your sheets, your favorite
teddy bear. Mmm, pickles.
You see, the pickle machine consist-
ed of two electrodes at either end of
the pickle. Flip a switch, and the pick-
le glows faintly. But Fish - being a
special boy - wanted a BIG glow. So
he skewered the pickle (actually,
went through an entire jar of Vlasics)
on a coat hanger and plugged it into
the electrodes. The pickle gave off a
very special glow - until the fuse box
gave up and blew. But Fish persevered.
A Dr. Frankenstein aspire, he spent all
his time refining his creation. And my
friend lived in a virtual pickle barrel.
(Hey, it's better than dorm food.)
If you survive the dormitory cages,
you can graduate (oops, didn't mean t
taunt) to apartment living. Choose th
two very-best-friends-you've-ever-
had-in-your-life that you just met last
year and set out to find a slumlord. My
personal favorites: Slime Realty and
Campus Slimeballs. If you think their
"joint and several" clauses are confus-
ing, wait until your kitchen pipes
explode. They'll fix it two weeks later
and take it out of your security deposit,.
claiming you should have told the'
sooner than five seconds after you go
sprayed by recycled dishwater.
(Hint: The Ann Arbor Tenants Union
in the Michigan Union puts out helpful
pamphlets, including "How to Evict
Your Landlord." Nice people. Pay
them a visit.)
Sometimes you have to get creative.
One year we had furniture that must
have been left over from a burnt-down
Boy Scout camp - it was SO ugly...
The couch sunk when you sneezed; v
constantly hit our heads on the ha d
armrests and backs. Did I mention that
it was ugly?
While our third roommate was away,
the two of us took the situation into
our own hands. We jumped up and
down on the couch like it was a tram-
poline, cackling and giggling until our
feet touched the floor.
The new couch was an exact copy o
the old - only an even uglier plaid.
Incidentally, roomie #3 is probably
at her desk reading this information
for the first time, and I am in so much
trouble ...
Maybe you'll have to get a bit more
creative than we did.
Or maybe you'll try an alternative
sort of landlord: the co-ops. They're
cheaper and friendlier than your aver-
age landlord. Why? Because every-
thing is cooperative and democrati
Everyone does their fair share an
everyone gets a vote. Everyone solves
problems cooperatively and nicely and
for the greater good.
WARNING: If you are a control
freak - no matter how socialist you
would like to be - stay away from the
co-ops. Some hippie will cooperative-
ly park in your space - despite the
fact that she doesn't believe in cars
because they are not good for yo4
karma -and you will feel very unco-
operative.
If you make it to phase four (your
senior year, your fifth year, the year
before you drop out), use your knowl-
edge gained from running around in
dent concerns on the issue.
However, the University
is not the sole culprit in the
ongoing mess. Ann Arbor
collects more than $1 mil-
lion a year from the ticket-
writing business. Mayor
Ingrid Sheldon said the city
would have trouble meeting
its budget if this revenue
were eliminated.
The rationale behind her
statement is disconcerting.
Given that a substantial por-
tion of the city's money
r(
MT WMSAT/Dily
obtain a permit. Such a small
lot would not solve the prob-
lem completely. But the ges-
ture would signify that the
University is willing to work
for student concerns.
To date, the city and
University have responded to
student needs with tow
trucks. The only cooperation
between the two involves
ticket collection methods.
Before April exams, the
Department of Public Safety
and the city will hit the streets
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
comes from student pockets, it means that
Ann Arbor depends on students to break the
law to fulfill fiscal obligations.
Students always meet or exceed the
city's expectations because Ann Arbor does
nat have enough parking spaces to accom-
modate students - both live-in and com-
muters. To find parking and make it to class
on time, commuters may resort to parking
in Staff Paid designated lots, thereby risk-
ing a punitive $17 ticket. If students are for-
tunate enough to find a convenient metered
to ensure that no one goes home without
paying up.
Students have proposed solutions in the
past % including the reduction of outra-
geous ticket fines. Students also have rec-
ommended opening formerly restricted lots
to wider use.
A better collaboration: The city and the
University could put their powers together
to build high-rise structures, lower meter
and ticket rates, and implement other cre-
ative remedies.
'U' luxury
projects
To THE DAILY:
Many returning and new
students would have found
that the North Campus is
undergoing a major face-lift
these days, and a significant
part of this ambitious project
is the new Media Union.
It contains the
Engineering Library, several
hi-tech class rooms and
research facilities, and a lot
of study space.
The former president,
James Duderstadt said the
Media Union will benefit the
expected to see only in big
department stores, glass walls
with no insulation ability, and
confusing space arrangement
of the entire Engineering
Library, it provides so much
surplus convenience and a
careless display of enormous
space which, I doubt can be
effectively used by anyone
except to give us an aestheti-
cal feeling.
I wonder if this phenome-
non reflects the poor man-
agement ability of the
University and why we have
to pay one of the highest
tuitions in the country.
Now I can only hope for
the best: that some kind of
student culture can eventually
E-maiI the
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