4 - The Michigan Daily - Tuesday, September 9, 1997 aoe £ibtiggwu &lg 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 ll haorns High-quality administrators fill top offices "NOTABLE QUOTABLE 'We are looking at these wonderful results that adults are reporting, and none of us are perceiving that we are getting the same results in kids.' - Pediatric AIDS expert Dr Ross McKinney, lamenting the failure of new protease inhibiting drugs to slow HIV infection in children YUK Ku NIYuGKGROU ZERO There is no greater gift than love, And no greater sadness tn when it is taken away. Mother Terems 1910 - 1997 LrT T LETTERS TO THE IEDITOR W hen Lee Bollinger took his place TVYbehind the president's desk in the Fleming Administration Building in February, he faced a daunting task. Vacancies abounded early on, as Bollinger began to form the group of administrators with whom he would lead the University and guide its policies. The most notable absences included the executive vice presi- dent for medical affairs -- a position creat- ed during interim President Homer Neal's tenure - and the office of the Provost, which J. Bernard Machen stated intentions to vacate. In addition, former Athletic Director Joe Roberson recently stated that he would resign from his post, leaving another hole in the administrative frame- work. Recently, Bollinger successfully filled many of the administrative vacancies. Former Rackham Dean Nancy Cantor was named provost - the University's second- in-command - over the summer, new Athletic Director Tom Goss began his tenure yesterday, and Gilbert Omenn will soon begin as the University's first execu- tive vice president for medical affairs. Bollinger should be commended for his fine choices that culminated in a strong administrative team. Cantor has the distinction of being the first female provost in University history while Goss is the University's first African American Athletic Director. Recruiting and maintaining a diverse campus environment is imperative to enhancing the University's academic mission. In appointing a group with refreshing breadth, Bollinger helped extend the ideology and benefits of a diverse campus from the student body to the administrative ranks. Diversity must contin- ue not to be merely an admissions policy but also an administrative hiring doctrine. Omenn, with experience in the academ- ic, private and governmental spheres, stands well equipped to take on the challenges his new position promises to deliver. The University's Medical Center has seen much tumult recently. Amidst a signif- icant budget downsize, the Medical School and the University Hospitals saw both of their administrators resign in the span of a week last year. The Medical Center is split in its focus, with the school looking to aca- demics and the hospitals oriented toward profit margins. In response to the dilemma facing the Medical Center, Neal created the new vice presidency to help coordinate the efforts of the center's two arms. Omenn must now work to provide a common acad- emic focus for the University's medical establishment and ensure that the University Hospitals serve as a place for learning. Cantor also faces significant tasks in her role as the University's second-in-com- mand. She should gear policies to preserve campus diversity and the University's affir- mative action programs. In addition, she will serve as a conduit for student concerns and help promote faculty relations to strengthen the University's academic mis- sion. Goss, who has long awaited his position, looks to tackle potential problems in the University's Athletic Department. He will be faced with a fractured program that will require expertise and professionalism to conquer. Operating the University with a strong team will ultimately benefit students, facul- ty, staff and the greater academic mission that the University holds in high regard. Bollinger deserves commendation for stocking his administration with a high- powered group of administrators. Finding the truth Program seeks to identify domestic violence M cPherson Hospital, in Howell, Mich., is waging a new war against domes- tic violence, a severely under-reported crime. The hospital is implementing a new screening procedure for all patients over the age of 16 to uncover the signs of domestic violence, which often escape physicians' scrutiny. Nancy Diehl, director of the child and family abuse bureau of the Wayne County Prosecutor's Office, stressed the importance of this new policy when she told the Detroit Free Press, "A medical set- ting is the first chance to intervene. The vic- :tim may not tell anyone else, and the doctor has a wonderful opportunity to give proper resources and support." Two more hospitals in the St. Joseph Mercy Health System plan to implement similar screening programs following McPherson's lead. Hospital administrators should be commended for their efforts in detecting a widespread and ®ten concealed crime. During an era in which legislators are combating crime with tougher anti-gun laws, domestic violence is a more complex and secretive crime, making it harder to detect and prevent. Domestic violence tran- scends all racial and socioeconomic groups and will occur at least once in two-thirds of all marriages, according to "The Abusive Partner." Abusive patterns often begin in early relationships - presenting the prob- e lem of dating violence, which appears on u college campuses more than most students would think. The new screening programs are Justice stated in its 1986 report, "Preventing Domestic Violence Against Women," that national crime survey data shows that once a woman is victimized by domestic violence, her risk of being victim- ized again is high. During a six-month peri- od following an incident of domestic vio- lence, approximately 32 percent of women are victimized again. Since the majority of battered women eventually end up in hospi- tals and emergency rooms, the new screen- ing programs will provide them with the option to receive help from various domes- tic violence shelters, counseling programs, or information about their legal options. A "common-sense" policy like the one at McPherson should have been around for years. More hospitals throughout the state of Michigan and the rest of the country must begin to implement such inexpensive and necessary screening programs designed to help survivors of domestic violence break free from the patterns that often char- acterize their relationships. Telling statistics demonstrate the program's effectiveness and value: Since the program's inception, hospital officials at McPherson have recorded a 25-percent increase in the num- ber of patients identified as victims of domestic violence. Detecting the signs of domestic violence have challenged health care workers for decades. With increased awareness and acute training, domestic violence need not escape notice. Health care systems should emulate McPherson's "simple" screening Affirmative action gives 'unethical' preferences TO THE DAILY: I am writing in response to the story about affirmative action at the University ("It is only a matter of time ...'' 9/5/97). To give preferences based on race or sex is uneth- ical. The notion of using dif- ferent standards for minori- ties in the admissions process reeks of bigotry and sexism. Who among us would say that women are not as capa- ble as men? Who would say that those who are Mexican American, African American, or American Indian cannot compete on equal ground with whites? Admissions to the University should be based on academic merit. Financial aid should be based on financial need. It sounds simple because it is that simple. People are people, regardless of race and sex. In every race, there are those who work hard and those who do not. There are those who strive to do well in school and there are those who don't. Advocates of affirmative action say it is necessary to give all people an opportunity to education. We all do have an opportuni- ty to get an education. If you work hard in school, you should get an equal shot at admission.Getting into a prestigious university such as U of M should be about aca- demic ability. Anybody exhibiting those abilities, regardless of race, religion, or sex, should be given equal opportunity for admission. Grants and loans shoud be distributed based on financial need. Affirmative action merely breeds bad feelings between whites and minorities. It keeps us in categories (that you may have seen on a Michigan application), which keeps our races divided. Advocates of affirmative action say that it is needed to help cure ills left over from discrimination in the past. But what, then, cures the future ills created by the dis- crimination being practiced now? The answer is to simply ban discrimination of all kinds, here and now. TODD SZYMCZAK ENGINEERING SENIOR Beer stones dominated Daily's NSE TO THE DAILY: You know, if I didn't Wednesday's issue? Why not just have an 80-point head- line on the front page: BEER = GOOD! ANNIE TOMN LSA SOPHOMORE Country still 'waking up' from years of racism To THE DAILY: I find it really humorous that there are a bunch of peo- ple who are so concerned with the delivery of justice that they are willing to sue the University to see it hap- pen. They say that poor, downtrodden white folks have been the victims of racial discrimination. Whoa! Do you know that in the hundreds of years of racial oppression that this country has kindly provided for peo- ple of color, there has never been a court in the United States that has ever consid- ered damages resulting from discrimination against a stu- dent of color? Be honest folks, white people have it easier at the University. Period. I'm not going to say that we don't have our hard times, but this country is still wak- ing up from years of racially. motivated hatred. Does some- one who grows up rich and suddenly disavows her wealth to enter religious ministry forget the upbringing of priv- ilege that she had? No. Has this country healed itself of racism? No. Who should be suing whom? CHAD BAILEY SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH Column was inappropriate welcome for students To THE DAILY: Wow, what a way to wel- come incoming freshmen. The ripping of New York stu- dents in Miller's column was quite inappropriate for the first day of classes. My prob- lem isn't with the stereotyp- ing of New Yorkers per se, I might have even found it amusing at a later date. My problem is that it appeared the first day of school. Here you have 6,000 new naive freshmen, people who haven't even had a chance to formulate their own opinions yet, they go to pick up their first Daily and read about mention the New York fresh- men who probably read the article and are wondering what the hell they did to earn this nasty reputation. I under- stand that this article may have been written in retalia- tion to the article in last April's final edition against Midwesterners, but a little sensitivity should come before useless revenge. JONATHAN KuO LSA SENIOR 'U' 'cannot afford' to lose equality To THE DAILY: Affirmative action was established for a reason. People of different races in our society are not treated equally and do not have the same opportunities. Until equality of both genders of all races permeates every niche in our society, we can- not afford to lose programs like affirmative action that provide opportunity for many who would otherwise have little or no way to establish a productive life for them- selves. America has bountiful resources in its youth of all races, and the best way to tap those resources is to put them in an environment where they can learn, interact, and teach each other acceptance. When we reach the day where an African American woman gets the pay and the same treatment as a white male simplyby virtue of the fact that she is a member of soci- ety, then we can think about abolishing affirmative action. Until that day, policies that promote diversity should be maintained, even if it means that a group that does typi- cally have opportunities and advantages is occasionally gets its nose out of joint, AMY PICKARD SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH Reduce inserts to save planet To THE DAILY: In keeping with the fact that the resources of this planet aren't going to stick around forever, I think that the Daily should at least try to keep waste down. When one picks up the paper and is suddenly avalanched by a cascade of flyers and inserts it's quite disturbing to know that a tree lost its life for the few dollars made by running the ad. Might I suggest that Rankings tell e students, alumni the wrong story S o, yet again, the University dwells in the near-basement of higher education's elite faction. Or at least that is what U.S. News and Wo Report would like all of us to belie At 23rd (in a tie, I might add), the University finds itself in good compa- ny, but it is certain- ly not giving the biggest of the big boys a run for their money. Narrow U.S. News' cate- gories down to aca- demic reputation, and Michigan's noteworthy 3.8 out of 4 catapults the University to 7th in - JOSH the nation - for WHITE the one category JUMPING that should really THE Gu amount to some- thing more than coffee table reading material or chatter over gin and tonics. Pare the list even further to include only the nation's public schools * the University rises to No. 2, quite respectable considering the company - such as the University of Virginia and the University of California at Berkeley. But an overall score of 88 is modest when compared with perennial list-toppers Harvard, Princeton, Yale and Duke. Modest, when among the best schools the world over. And who is it making this exalted list that is held up on high as the bible ofe legiate rankings? What grand poobl the collegiate braintrust decides? U.S. News crunches the numbiers, the hard facts and figures, to tell the world of academia where it stands. An objective, respected news source pub- lishes its list each year in the hopesof educatingthe public about the finer institutions of higher education and to provide all those prospective students with a third-party evaluation of very schools they only wish to attel Oh, and don't forget about that little matter of making a buck. The administrations of many .top schools sneer at the rankings and high- light the fact that they are a profit-making enterprise designed to reach a large target audience. At fist it seems easy to just sy that the rankings mean nothing or to 4is- miss them as merely an advertising ploy. This University does the same thin; the University's top officials, year aV year, shrug the rankings off as non- sense and almost got me to believe that the numbers are as senseless as the very idea of ranking schools that have little in common to begin with. I men how can a small Ivy League school like Dartmouth, tucked away in New Hampshire's Upper Connecticut River Valley, compare with Big Ten power- house Michigan, standing proud a Midwestern mecca of universities? The sad truth is that the numbers do matter a whole lot, and they matter -to a whole lot of people. It is hard for me to believe that there is one prospective student, one currnt student or one alumnus who isn't at least a little bit curious about ,the University's ranking each year. Whether it be ego, spirit, a way to nar- row college choices or a source of pride for the alma mater, everyoe knows where we stand and every perks up when the new list comes out each fall. While the Associated Press football rankings are also interesting, the idea of our whole way of collegiate life in some way not measufing, up seems to raise a few more eyebrows than a mediocre season on the gridiron. When the rankings came out two years ago, the administration, under then-President James Dudersta scrambled to explain why the sch o ranks low as compared with other, top schools. Given to the Board of Regents, a carefully prepared presentation out- lined dozens of reasons to ignore the rankings and postulated many ways 'to rationalize the low scores. In short, the University was worried. And it should be.dForget that stu- dents can get a world-class education here and that a Michigan degree issoe of the most valuable commodities' today's job market. Forget that Michigan is a world leader in several academic programs. Forget the nation- al championships and the Big House. The University needs to rise in.the rankings because the people of the state of Michigan, who fund this school through their tax dollars, need to recognize the jewel that sits here in Ann Arbor and need to appreciate it@i one of the best schools in the nation. The reason Michigan is forsaken a high ranking lies in part to its greatest strengt: a high acceptance rate. By allowing Michigan residents access to such a great education, the school achieves its goal - but instead of being ashamed of this, the University should tout such a strength and