so 4 - The Michigan Daily - Tuesday, February 11, 1997 (1be £idCi grtn ti1i 420 Maynard Street Ann Arbor, MI 48109 Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan JOSH WHITE Editor in Chief ERIN MARSH Editorial Page Editor Unless otherwise noted, unsigned editorials reflect the opinion of the majority of the Daily's editorial board. All other articles, letters and cartoons do not necessarily reflect the opinion of The Michigan Daily. FROM THE DAILY Educational elitism 'Exceptional' college will not help 'U' NOTABLE QUOTABLE 'Be good to each other and have courage to right the wrongs.' - Retired Regent Nellie Varner (D-Detroit), echoing her late father's words, in an address celebrating Trotter House's 25th anniversary YU KI KuNiYUKI GROUND ZERO \ c LETTERS TO THE EDITOR wo weeks ago, the "Task Force on Recruiting, Retaining and Nurturing the Exceptional" released a report recom- mending methods to increase the number and quality of upper-echelon students at the University. It calls for a new "College for the Exceptional" to encompass academic student leaders across University schools and colleges. The report also recommends a new fund to recruit high-quality faculty and students for the new college. While obtain- ing better faculty is desirable, limiting them to serving only "exceptional" students engenders an unequal educational environ- ment. A better way to attract high caliber students and faculty would be to encourage Universitywide improvements. The task force's report cited a decrease in the quality of students applying to the LSA Honors Program as motivation for creating the new upper-level program. The task force aims to not only attract higher quality stu- dents, but keep them in honors programs. resently, only 40 percent of first-year stu- dents admitted to the Honors Program stay to graduate with an honors degree. The pro- posed college is designed to increase student retention rates and hold higher admission standards than the present Honors Program. Establishing a new program without fix- ing the old one is a waste of resources - a better method would be to restructure the Honors Program to ensure greater quality and higher retention rates. Restructuring the existing Honors Program would strengthen an established institution - and may reach the desired goals faster. By proposing an elitist faction like the "College of the Exceptional," the task force ignores the value of the University's unique academic environment. The task force must realize that the University does not fit a standard Ivy League mold. Funding to retain exceptional faculty could improve the quality of University edu- cation. Quality faculty often have to endure a long process to obtain the recognition and resources they deserve. The University's reputation as a leading educational and research institution depends on such experi- enced faculty - the University must ensure that faculty do not leave for other schools with better compensation programs. More faculty recruitment money could increase the in-flow of experienced profes- sors. However, the new faculty must be available to all students, not just a small group, or the University's greater academic atmosphere will not benefit. With fewer applications flowing into the University admissions office than in previ- ous years, the task force must refocus its recommendation for greater student recruit- ment efforts. As high school seniors apply to fewer institutions, recruitment must ensure that qualified students see the University as an option. The University should work to expand applicant base diversity. Recruiters should not pursue only obvious applicants; stu- dents from wealthy districts are not the stu- dents to whom they need to sell the University. Increasing the number of quali- ty minority applications would improve stu- dent quality and broaden the University's multicultural community at the same time. The task force's report calls for new poli- cies and ignores problems it could remedy. Efforts to attract better faculty are benefi- cial, but will not help many students if the faculty are limited to a small section of the school. The University should carefully con- sider the task force's recommendations - it must not divide the University community. Unkndest cuts Clinton deserts disabled children nstead of protecting disadvantaged members of the next generation, the Clinton administration is kicking them when they're down. Last Thursday, the Clinton administration issued new rules that would end disability benefits for 135,000 poor children -- 14 percent of all children who now receive those benefits under the Supplemental Security Income program. The cutting doesn't stop there; the legislation would deny benefits to an addi- tional 45,000 disabled children who are not now on the rolls but would have qualified for assistance in the next five years. The decision appears to be fueled by Clinton's focus on budget cuts rather than what would be in the best interest of tens of thou- sands of children. Clinton tried to please conservatives in the past with his Welfare Reform Act - cutting the financial lifeline of the nation's poorest, youngest, disabled citizens continues his heartless welfare precedent. The Supplementary Income rules - issued last Friday as part of Clinton's bud- get proposal - set standards for evaluating disabilities. It allows disability benefits for people with "severe functional limitations." Most of the children who will lose benefits have "less severe" disabilities, such as men- tal impairments or behavioral problems. The standards are defined case-by-case and are more then judgmental - they are i diculous. Social Security officials gave examples of how the new rules would affect will probably lose benefits. However, chil- dren with Down syndrome, cerebral palsy, autism or diabetic children that require insulin shots three times a day might still qualify - but there are no guarantees. The message is a painful one for children and their families: The government, not medical professionals, now has the subjective power to decide how miserable a child's physical condition is, and therefore, who can receive benefits. In conjunction with the Welfare Reform Act that Clinton signed last summer, impoverished children are losing almost all public support. The WRA included a five- year lifetime limit on federal aid and work requirements that may be impossible for parents to meet - there is no provision for child-care. Besides being unfair to parents, the act gouged America's neediest children. More than 70 percent of welfare recipients are children and they simply cannot provide for themselves the way an adult can. The act attacks a group that has no legal or finan- cial means to defend itself. Instead of improving the situation, Clinton has now made it worse; his new bill hits where it hurts. Children below the poverty line do not have lobbyists - their parents have to provide for them. The work requirements established in the original WRA may be making that difficult. Disabled children have even more needs, which the government is pushing aside. The Trickle-down education is wrong for 'U' TO THE DAILY: Regarding the report of "The Task Force on Recruiting, Retaining and Nurturing the Exceptional" ("New college, special- expense fund requested for recruiting" 2/7/97): There are at least two good reasons to disagree with the findings of the report. First, it is the aim of pub- lic colleges and universities to educate a broad swath of the American public - not just those students who, through luck or riches or rec- ognized talents, have earned good grades and glamorous SAT numbers. Former University President James Angell, who declared the University's commitment to provide "an uncommon edu- cation for the common man," would surely be troubled at the prospect of diverting scarce resources to self- aggrandizing recruitment efforts. Second, whether the fac- ulty boasts zero Nobel Prize winners or 20 is irrelevant: those of us who value educa- tion seek to be taught by car- ing, interested and accessible mentors. It will profit under- graduate teaching efforts lit- tle to land a celebrity researcher if his/her duties require more time spent off- campus than on. Prof. Akil's assertions to the contrary notwithstanding, this University features thou- sands of "truly excellent peo- ple that shine" This "shine" is not always easily defined in test scores or prizes won, but this is what makes the University unique. Our facul- ty and staff put their various skills to work in the service of educational and societal improvement; can there be any aim more "Nobel?" Only when the University truly abandons its fascination with trickle-down education will we make real progress as a socially responsible institu- tion. FIONA ROSE LSA HONORS JUNIOR, PRESIDENT, MSA Weekend bus schedule is inadequate TO THE DAILY: I live on North campus, and I have a problem with the weekend bus system. My niorn is.ti;t with t m_?n a system so that I'm not either 20 minutes early or five minutes late to every- thing. JEANNIE BAUMANN LSA FIRST-YEAR STUDENT Examining the abstract is valuable To THE DAILY: I was extremely distraught after reading Cameron Hamilton-Wright's letter ("Liberal arts are inferior to engineering," 2/7/97). Could such an obviously knowl- edgeable individual take such a blatantly ignorant stance? After all, he did deliver the valedictory speech to his class (as he was so sure to indicate just in case readers felt uncomfortable giving their attention to the opinions of any lesser, average-type human lacking such conspic- uous honors). I have trouble following his logic to such a harsh denial of the value of liberal arts. Hamilton-Wright seems very impressed by the spe- cial, only-one-answer feature of "non liberal arts" ques- tions. I guess he feels com- fortable pursuing an answer that already exists. I hate to disturb this cozi- ness, but I'm not so con- vinced that we are supposed to be focusing on the straight-forward questions in life. The fact of the matter is that we exist in a complex world with complex issues. This situation gives rise to a number of very important conundrums that are not solved by applying mathe- matical formulas. Just because dealing with this is not as cooperative as the inte- gration of trigonometry func- tions does not mean we should completely disregard it and play with our calcula- tors for all eternity. We must take on life with all our might utilizing both hemispheres of our brain. It is true that the wrong answer to a question with one solu- tion can lead to the bridge falling, the airplane crashing, or the fries burning. But what it is equally true is that toss- ing aside questions with complicated and abstract answers can lead to the child being neglected, the racist tri. umphing or the war being declared. This is by no means to suggest that the liberal arts are superior or more impor- tant. I find it interesting that Hamilton-Wright separates them with such a rigid dis- tinction. I see the two as hei;u heani;i;;,i,;nerhimnd of thought in the first place. Maybe if we could mature beyond making arrogant proclamations declaring our field of study to be the pin- nacle of human brilliance, we could realize just how depen- dent all of our lives are on each other regardless of which classes we CRISP into. Just as the limit as 'h' goes to zero of(+h)(1/h) does not exist, neither do al l the answers to life's mysteries such as lust, God, love, morality and greed. We are not living out some quirky story problem that is an odd number with an answer in the back of the book. There are no definite solutions for what we face each day; however, I have a strong belief that using this as an excuse to overlook the dilemma and just satisfy ourselves with predetermined answers will not make this world a better place. AARON E. BOYLE LSA FIRST-YEAR STUDENT Mehta should quit MSA To THE DAILY: I have long asked why the student body exhibits such apathy towards the Michigan Student Assembly, an organi- zation that had a generation before not only influenced decisions concerning the wel- fare of the student body but also made its presence felt all the way to the steps of the Capitol building in Washington, D.C. The answer finally came when I read the headline "MSA will not probe Mehta's allocation" (2/5/97). The answer lies not in the contro- versy over Mehta's question- able relationship with the United Asian American Organization; not in the flawed funding system in place during the "gray" months of summer; nor even the refusal of the general assembly to simply investi- gate the matter further. What truly highlighted the unsoundness in the current system is the usage of a secret ballot in determining whether to investigate the alleged impropriety of Mehta. The employment of a secret ballot vote makes a mockery of the concept of representative democracy, where constituents, through their representatives' voting record, decide whether their representative is truly repre- senting them. Through these events, MSA has injured the spirit of democracy, a spirit where it is more a hope than realitv where I cm from TefOfWina day dnam nation M y friend W is a struggling screen- writer. Disenchanted with soci- ety, he holes up in his apartment and laments his plight and that of humanity - and tries to write the perfect script. His last script began with a man stp ing into the camera, reading this li from Saul Bellow's classic novel, "Herzog:" "I wanted to tell her the story of my life; how I went from mod- est origins to com- plete disaster." The film goes on to depict how this ~man-of-suburbia was ruined by the boredom, confu- .' sion and ugliness of life. A bit on the trite side, but it's a pretty good story. " The film, of $AMUEL course, never hit a GOODSTEIN producer's desk.GRAND Exasperatedeby ILLUSION the fact that each of his 12 scripts have been rejected by every studio and director he has c tacted, W spent the last of his lifeds ings on a polling firm. W asked this firm, which polls for Democratic candi- dates around the country, to conduct a survey asking the American public a series of questions about the qualities they like in a movie. After compiling the data, the firm constructed a general plot, complete with character analysis. The polling firm recommended three courses of action: A) Drama: Woman andaman meet, fall in love, estranged and end up together. Comedy: Idiot does idiotic things (the things can range from mumbling inco- herently to doing the tango with an ox). C) Action: Very muscular individ- ual commits a number of violent acts (automatic weapons are the preferred instrument of violence, but hand-to- hand violence will suffice) and saves humanity, or at least Los Angeles. W, of course, is constitutions incapable of writing a script to match any of these outlines, but the results df the poll did convince him to stop wri- ing such depressing scripts. So he moved on to his next project: A docu- mentary examining the relationship of Mozart's operas to the political machi nations of 19th century Viennese politicians. Of course, this project was a colossal failure. After spending mon researching Viennese politics and - tening to Don Giovanni over and ovr again, W incorrectly concluded tht there was no relationship between Mozart's operas and politics. Worse, he wrote the script from the perspec- tive of a Viennese weiner-schnitzel vendor. (At this point, I recommended to W. that he go back to writing about the emptiness of existence). W hardly needed my advice. "We 14 in a daydream nation," he lamented - borrowing the term from Sonic Youth: I more or less lost contact with W for a fewyears. He moved to New York while I stayed on in Ann Arbor, toiling through school. It is not at all uncom- mon for college students to make friends, real friends, and then com- pletely lose touch with them. Such is the transitory nature of college. So I was a bit surprised when, aby a month ago, I received a phone from W. - completely out of the blue. "I want you to come to New York to see thetsneak-preview of my first film. It is set for mass distribution on Super Bowl'Sunday." Since he paid for my ticket and a ticket for my brother Raphael, I decided to go. The day before the Super Bowl, my brother and I met W .at a private screening room. As you, reader, probably imagine, I was quite excite to be re-united with my friend and to see his first film. "It's very short;' he warned me, "but Fellini got his start making shorts." The picture started with a man star- ing into the camera, just like his afore- mentioned script! He- made it, I thought to myself with envy. Instead of a look of deep sadness, though, the man had a barely detectable smile glued on his face. Then the moment truth: Instead of opening up "Herzog" and reading a line of genius, he picked up a bottle of shaving cream and lath- ered his face. Raphael began to giggle, as he is prone to do in moments- f absurdity. The handsome man then picked up a razor blade, a lightening bolt instantly flashed and thunder boomed. Putting the razor to his skin, the man shaved his chin and look dreamily into the camera.W "Gillette: The best a man can get," said the man. Then, for the next 20 sec- onds a group of people proclaimed the greatness of Gillette razor products. r "What do you think?" asked W."My first picture that will hit the screen.