4 - The Michigan Daily - Friday, September 12, 1997 tIe 4I irIigun Dui1j 420 Maynard Street Ann Arbor, MI 48109 Edited and managed by a: students at the University of Michigan ):h 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 What's the rush? First-year students should explore options NOTABLE QUOTABLE, 'No one can predict what Bollinger will face during his term as president. There is the excitement of the course and new direction.' - Paul Boylan, dean of the School of Music and member of the committee planning President Lee Bollingers Sept. 19 inauguration ceremony PURPL EH ~I LW ( s LETTERS TO THE EDITOR T oday is the eighth day of the 1997 Fall semester, and while it may have been the longest eight days any first-year student ever experienced, it represents only a small -portion of the college experience that lies ahead. Most incoming students have not yet adjusted to class schedules, new roommates or the broad offerings of college life. Many still seek their own group, a personal niche Mn an imposing and sometimes cold institu- tion. Enter the Greek system, with promises :-,of social involvement and friendship - an appealing proposition to students who have j:: ust had their first real taste of life beyond -the confines of parental supervision. = However, these familial organizations are -not without their own bounds, not the least cif which is the significant time commit- -ment they demand from participants. Sorority rush, which begins today, and fraternity rush, which starts on Monday, are long processes involving numerous consec- utive days of constant activity. While women who rush face much more strenu- ous and consuming proceedings than their male counterparts, all students who rush k nay find time for studying and preparing for their first tests and papers greatly taxed. Zt:,Students who receive a bid for a Greek l ouse will see an even greater time com- mitment. First-year students should take a good look around and to try to view the wealth Y and diversity of opportunities a campus of this size has to offer. New students should go to a few mass meetings, especially if they missed last week's Festifall. Several a universities prohibit first-year students from rushing to allow students to absorb a more complete picture of university life before they decide to rush and subsequent- ly pledge in the Greek system. There is nothing wrong with rushing a fraternity or sorority, and it is a significant- ly different and less-binding decision than pledging an individual house. The Greek community makes a significant contribu- tion to University life, especially in terms of their commitment to public-service pro- jects. In many ways, the University would not be the same without its presence. However, the Greek system is only one of many brush strokes in the grand landscape and history of the University, and anyone considering participation in rush should be aware of that fact. It should also be understood that rush is not the only way to get a clear view of Greek organizations. Students can seek out present fraternity and sorority members for advice and information about the Greek system. Furthermore, the Greek system will be still be around four or five months from now and winter rush will be in full swing. In that time, students will be able to make a more careful, informed decision. In fact, by waiting, students may find that their plan to rush has been reinforced when it is not acted out on an uninformed whim. Joining a Greek house is a personal deci- sion that will affect a students' social and academic life. While it can offer first-year students an instant group of friends, it can also prevent them from exploring other activities and opportunities on campus. Rush is not something students should hurry into - it is a decision with lasting impact across a college career, and poten- tially a lifetime. I11111k i 1 A~ Miller should not apologize for column TO THE DAILY: I am writing in response to James Miller's article con- cerning out-of-state/New York students ("Welcome to the 'U': An open letter to New York students," 9/3/97). After spending the last four years at the University and being an Ann Arbor native myself, I was pleased to find a column telling it like it is around here. I can't recall the number of times students from New York (and sur- rounding areas) would com- plain about Ann Arbor in one way or another. It may have been a harsh welcome, but students from the East Coast need to know that they're in the Midwest now, where a big-city attitude is not welcome (unless you're in Markley). It's true that not everyone from the East Coast is like this, but it is what most of us have experienced. Miller should not have to apologize for his opinion, at least he has one. But that's another story. CAROLYN MILROY UNIVERSITY ALUMNA Letter was misread TO THE DAILY: I fear that my letter to the Daily in response to James Miller's column ("Negative stereotypes won't help 'U,' 9/5/97) has been misinter- preted by some readers, in particular by David Crandall and Lawson Sutherland as reflected in their letter on 9/10/97 ("Miller is not preju- diced"). First, my letter was not intended to defend myself against prejudice (I am not from New York) nor to defend New Yorkers. I do not feel that New Yorkers have a particular need to be protect- ed from prejudice, nor do they need a special minority status. I do not generally have a problem with columns that poke fun at various campus subgroups and I often see the humor in them even when many Daily readers take them too seriously. What I object to is the tone of Miller's column. If Miller's diatribe was meant to be humorous, then I feel that he failed miserably, for I did not detect any hints of satire in his piece. My impression was that Miller simply wanted to air a grudge against a general group of people on campus. If this is the case then I strongly suggest that Miller be removed from the Daily staff because I do not consid- er such work to be of any value. If satire was Miller's intention, then I suggest that Miller improve his writing skills. BILL. WALSH RACKHAM Mama, don'tle babies grvw up to be cowboys O! ur national culture thrives on being the good guy. So what do we need above all else? Simple: Someone to hate. It is entirely impossible for Americans to be the Lone Ran astride a white horse, six-shooter gleaming in the victorious sunlight without a villain to vanquish. We need a threatening t iconoclast image \ on par with our own notions of patriotism - we can't have any lit- tle guy being our enemy, they gotta PAUL be a big one. And SERILLA of course our gRILLA opposition knows WARFARE nothing of free- dom, justice, truth or the success of the common man (it's our dream you know, we came up with that one). Hell, how do you think they became our enemy in the first place? From those king-loving Brits in 1776 through every commie in the pack (yeah, we still gottour eye on you, Fidel), we took on all the big boys on the block and beat them all. The Soviets were a particularly tough cookie to crack, but even if it took internal economic crisis and failed military coups to bring them down, we won the Cold War. USA! USA! The only problem with winning (or strategically evacuating a southe Asian police action) is that it leaves nobody to make us look good, with no competing propaganda, who can we possibly teach that we are right? Vietnam taught us to look for a situa- tion with a bit more dichotomy; that's been our major problem for the last couple of years, no clear-cut villains. Many Americans are quite nostalgic for the great communist threat U went out basically with a whie instead of a bang. I guess that's why there has been so much introspection on what happened on the U.S. side of the Cold War - with no constant threat, we only have ourselves to look at. Having some major opposition really helped take the focus and the blame off ourselves. Not any more. The Secretary of Defense under Kennedy and Johnson, Rot McNamara, recently held a conferene in Hanoi, with former U.S. and Vietnamese generals and advisors; his goal was to figure out where both sides could have saved lives, wpere they went wrong. I'm not sure that:Mr. McNamara's efforts did much to oon- sole the families of the 58l0 Americans or 3.6 million Vietnadese who lost their lives in that conflict I doubt it even helped the former s tary's guilty conscience. But in a way, it is a small step. I don't really commend him, but McNamara has done something few men of power have ever done in this country. He said we were wrong. Recently McNamara told The New York Times, "we believed our interests were being attacked all over the world by a highly organized, unified Communist movement, led Moscow and Beijing, of which believed - I think incorrectly - that the Hanoi Government of Ho Chi Minh was a pawn." It must be significant that it took-one of the architects of the Vietnam War more than 20 years to figure out what most of us have known that whole time. It must be more significant that he is one of the few living leaders of that war to have made the conclusion at all.' Criticism is something America don't deal with well on foreign policy; it must come from all those years keeping a brave face pointed towards Moscow. I am sure it's why McNamara's conference didn't make too many headlines. While the press, politicians and his- torians try to figure out if Americans can handle the unsavory details (or documented facts, depending on your perspective) of our "diplomatic his* ry," our culture, fueled by our enter- tainment industry, has made the next logical step. We have seen the enemy, and it's us. "Men In Black" and "Conspiracy Theory" were both No. I movies this summer and on TV, "The X-Files" is a prime-time powerhouse; even the sci- fi blockbuster "Contact" was partially fueled by corrupt politicians who w very Earthbound. All of these produu- tions share themes of the government pulling the wool over the eyes of the American people. The "evil within" scenario is the only marketable threat left. Lots of political science theorists would dredge up the distrust fueled by aI U r INS iMuS ASL courses offer unique opportunities VIEWPOINT Diversity aids University education Students across campus were disappoint- ed earlier this week when the University announced that it would not form classes in American Sign Language this semester. As interest in ASL becomes what Gary Olsen, former Executive Director of the National Association of the Deaf, called, "an American ground swell," many colleges across the country are begin- ning to offer ASL classes to satisfy foreign language and graduation requirements - among them, Michigan State University, Madonna College and the University of California's campuses. Numerous Ivy League schools are also considering the addition of ASL classes to the curriculum. University administrators, however, contin- ue to drag their feet on the matter. It is time for the University to offer a new gateway into deaf persons' culture and language - they should establish ASL classes and allow them to fulfill the LSA foreign-language requirement. Deaf and hearing-impaired people who utilize ASL have experienced American culture in a different manner than the rest of the population. While more traditional for- eign languages involve students learning aspects of the respective cultures, ASL could offer students a unique insight into their own culture. ASL is neither a simplified form nor a derivation of English. It is a thoroughly evolved human language with its own dis- tinct mannerisms. Dr. Wilcox, a professor of linguistics at the University of New Mexico, once wrote, "There is an abundant linguistic research on ASL demonstrating that ... ASL is radically different from English - surely as different as any of the more traitional foreign lannanae" ASLE oral-based languages with which most stu- dents are more comfortable, but the University should not assume that it lacks something that only conventional spoken languages can offer. It is true that ASL is not universal - hence, whether or not ASL is "foreign" becomes rather cloudy. The University offers courses in relatively obscure lan- guages such as Ojibwa and Sanskrit to ful- fill LSA requirements but refuses to extend that policy to ASL, the third-most-used lan- guage in the country. University adminis- trators should not bind themselves merely on a technical definition, but examine whether ASL can accomplish educational objectives. ASL courses will open students up to study a new language. Similar to other languages, ASL also opens up channels into the lives, thoughts and customs of not only a different group of people but a new per- spective of their own language and culture. Moreover, many more students who took ASL as a second language found them- selves as well equipped and more employ- able in the "hearing" world as that of any other foreign languages. The University should change language requirements to allow students to enrich their educational breadth. State laws in Michigan already recog- nize ASL as a foreign language for high school graduation requirements. ASL brings to students the same challenges and rewards as any traditional foreign language; it uncovers fresh perspectives of themselves in developing a new understanding for another language and culture. It is time for the University to follow the legislature's example and convey its own support in teaching A S Land acenting it e a aennd BY MICHAEL NAGRANT Lost among the cries of equality and reverse discrim- ination is the real mission of the University, one of the most important reasons that affirmative action exists. This is the idea that the University is for deliberation, intellectual discussion and an environment where chal- lenges to the problems of society are undertaken. In order to engage in proper intellectual investiga- tion and in order to have a dialogue on these issues without the taint of exclu- sion, the University must bring in a racially diverse campus. Not only does it seek racial diversity, but it seeks intellectual diversity. The University system of admissions takes into account other factors beyond race, such as leadership abil- ity, geographical location, and degree of difficulty of high school curriculum, to name a few. The University accepts students based on artistic abilities, musical vir- tuosity, or if they wrote a good essay on their applica- tion. The University does this because it knows that true discussion cannot exist with- out participation from all types of people. Should we exclude these factors as well and go on what some call the equal merit of GPAs and SATs? The University also rec- ognizes that true merit is not just test scores and GPAs. One can not measure a per- son's heart or their true mind by a number, these are only factors of possibility. One cannot measure the oppres- sion felt by a racial minority in a world of white privilege. I've met many a valedic- torian or SAT genius whose idea of intellectual discourse was Super Nintendo 64 and sleeping through classes. Think about what high school would become if we rely only on these "objective factors": Nothing but a mind- numbing race for grades and afternoons of Kaplan test prep. No more school plays, no more football Fridays. Surely once affirmative action goes, we will concen- trate our efforts not on minorities, but on all artists. After all, not everyone has artistic ability and it's unfair that this ability would be considered over my high ACT score. I'm not saying race is like artistic ability, but African Americans, Hispanics, Indian Americans and even Caucasians have experiences and ways of looking at life different from each other. These experiences need to be incorporated into intellectual discourse. It is important. The fact that this discussion is taking place is actually a direct product of affirmative action. The fact that minority groups have been able to transcend the difficulties of patriarchal, racial and preju- dicial enslavement, with or without the help of affirma- tive action, to succeed at such high academic levels certain- ly has spurred this debate. It has been a factor in further- ing this particular intellectual discussion. The fact that many of these groups who now have an equal voice in this discussion, and could not previously reach the debating podium in the past is testa- ment to the importance of affirmative action. No one, not even the most ardent supporter, will argue that it is the cure or the be all end all, but it does work in great capacity, even if there are side effects. We must keep re-evaluating and look to new methods like expan- sion of Head Start programs and a restructuring of ele- mentary and secondary school curriculums, but we must work at both ends. We cannot pull out the rug just because the system is not perfect. We do not pro- hibit AIDS patients from using AZT or protease inhibitors until we find an ultimate cure. Just because these preventative medicines might make them sick or vomit or even worse, they are still able to use them to stave off an even worse fate of death. We have a disease in this country called racism, which is bigger than any can- cer or Ebola epidemic. If we end affirmative action now and sit around looking for a new cure, we will surely endure a death of the ideals of true intellectual delibera- tion and possible harmony among all. Michael Nagrant is an LSA senior and president of the Michigan Student Assembly. i