4A - The Michigan Daily - Monday, October 27, 1997 (The 3itiwn iai 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 refeet the opinion of The Michigan Daily. FROM THE DAILY Planning ahead 'U must improve its academic advising NOTABLE QUOTABLE, 'It feels great. The one thing we wanted to do was to come in here and take over their stadium, and we did.' - Michigan cornerback Charles Wodson, afticr Michigan . victory over the Spartans Saturday JORDAN YOUNG " l T MfAT buy + L ES-rT' COR LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Navigating the University's lists of con- centration requirements, distribution classes and elective classes can be a daunt- ing task. As students begin planning their schedule for winter term, many will turn to their academic advisors for advice regarding class choices. Michigan Student Assembly members held a forum last Thursday to dis- cuss problems students had with their advi- sors and to brainstorm possible changes and improvements. The discussion produced many criticisms of the University's academ- ic advising programs and its future. Administrators should seek out more student input and take their ideas under advisement. When first-year students attend orienta- tion, they are assigned to an academic advi- sor, who is to guide them through class selection and graduation requirements until they declare a concentration, at which time individual departments provide concentra- tion advising. But, MSA's discussion revealed that advising for undecided and first-year students is lacking. The first few semesters of college, when most students remain undeclared, are important for com- pleting other graduation prerequisites such as distribution and language requirements. Without adequate advice, students may be forced to cram a great deal of their prelimi- nary coursework into their last few semes- ters or postpone graduation. General academic advisers must serve as a resource for all students. Students often turn to them when considering graduate schools or making concentration decisions. But, if the advisors are uninformed or pass the buck to another department, students may find their efforts unrewarded. Presently, students often find difficulty accessing advisers - increased individual attention is necessary. One method to increase accessibility to academic advisers would be to offer faculty members to a small pool of students on an individual basis. Advising in this manner would allow students to create a strong rela- tionship with their advisor, and would pre- vent the adviser from being overburdened with hundreds of students. Improving the present academic advising environment should incorporate students' problems and experiences with advisers. MSA could provide the administration with a useful source of information by expanding on Thursday's discussion to increase the number of students whose personal experi- ences receive consideration. Thursday's forum also unveiled differ- ences in the quality of academic advising between different schools and colleges. With varying financial resources, individual schools and departments provide their stu- dents with different levels of advising. The administration should strive to ensure that all students, regardless of their academic disci- pline, receive high-quality advising. MSA could facilitate the establishment of an advising standard by providing comparative information from students of different schools. The beginning of a student's college career can set the tone for the rest of their college experience. In addition to figuring out which house to rush and which clubs to join, students must make important concen- tration decisions that will likely effect their career prospects and entire lives. Academic advisers should serve as a resource for stu- dents - the University should address stu- dents' concerns with present advising services. Tough choices Parental consent laws should be eliminated L ast week, the Supreme Court contin- ued its five-year record of denying full review to any case directly dealing with abortion. But, it did take action. In a near- unanimous vote of 8-1, the court refused to give judges more power over young women's decisions to end their pregnancies. This action shredded a Louisiana parental consent law that gave judges the right to deny abortions, even if no rational reason for doing so exists. A vote like this strikes down an irrational clause in Louisiana's parental consent law - however, these laws should not be present in the first place. The nation's highest court needs to stop skirting the issue and openly debate abortion. While the high court's action is not a ruling, and therefore sets no national prece- dent, the court was correct in striking down a law that would further limit abortion choice. Before 1995, Louisiana's parental consent law said judges "shall" authorize abortions, in loco parentis, in those cases in which a young woman's maturity or best interests are at stake. The 1995 law changed the wording to say that judges "may" autho- rize abortions in those circumstances. This new wording imposed an arbitrary and powerful hold over women's abortion rights - the Supreme Court's vote made this unreasonable clause unconstitutional. Louisiana's parental consent law will need to return to the wording of "shall." While the law remains unacceptable, and actions like these may be small measures -they still target the heart of abortion rights. The right to end a pregnancy should not belong to either the court or parents - it should be the woman's choice. While this bypass, it did not go far enough. The nation's highest court should have granted review to the case, and used the opportuni- ty to eliminate parental consent statutes.- Many young women face coercion by par- ents, or even by the law, to keep an unwant- ed pregnancy. Situations such as these, when a young woman cannot make her own decision, may end in tragedy. Reports of young women, too afraid to discuss abor- tion with a parent or too scared to seek other options, are becoming commonplace. Many of these young women would opt for abortion, but extenuating circumstances linked to parental consent laws may force them into options they do not want to choose. The rights Roe v. Wade guaranteed are slowly being eroded. It is time for the Supreme Court to debate abortion issues in the open - and reaffirm the landmark Roe decision. All women have a constitutional right to end their pregnancies. But, parental consent statutes infringe upon younger women's rights. Louisiana was not alloweda to expand judges' arbitrary powers to deny abortion - but this is just a positive twist on a very restrictive and unreasonable parental consent law. While a pregnant young woman's ideal situation would include a supportive parent, this is not always the case. Judges who oppose abortion can make it difficult for young women, who cannot obtain parental consent, to receive the necessary permis- sion. Women under the age of 18 need then assurance that the decision to end a preg- nancy is an option, and is their own choice. The nation's highest court needs to:.take Housing fails to address Oxford's needs TO THE DAILY: We like the way the article about Oxford Housing ("ICC trying to purchase Oxford" 10/21/97) skirted around the relevant issues at hand. According to William Zeller, the University is not ready to make decisions on the sale of Oxford. This is misleading, since Housing probably can- not sell Oxford at this point in time. In 1996, Housing signed a contract with the Executive Residence of the Business School, granting them full use of the kitchens in Geddes and Emmanuel houses. This con- tract does not expire until 1999, which is likely when Housing will make the sale. Oxford has been a thorn in the side of Housing recently, due to resident complaints regarding a wide array of aggravations. The leased-out kitchens, once a substitute for the lack of a cafeteria at Oxford, are no longer avail- able for resident use. Housing's only compensation thus far has been to credit $100 in Entree Plus to the Geddes and Emmanuel resi- dents, which can conveniently be used at the nearest cafete- ria, located six blocks away with no bus service. Moreover, while the Business School is paying for the use of the kitchens, the cost of housing at Oxford remains unchanged. Originally, the kitchens were used in conjunction with the co-op status of Oxford Housing. In 1995, Housing revoked the co-op status and increased the room cost at Oxford. In compensation, they offered free micro-fridges to Oxford residents, but even this will no longer be the case next year. According to the article, Housing is addressing long- term issues at Oxford. Chief safety issues here include the lack of lighting and emer- gency phones. It took two years of asking to get Housing to upgrade the lighting, and they are making even slower progress on the phones. The main reason for the inaction lies in the potential sale of Oxford. Why invest in safety if it is going to be sold any- way? If Housing is investing money for upgrades at Oxford, they are doing it in such a way that we have not noticed, and they are doing it because residents are insisting they should. Maureen Hartford also comments about Oxford, "they're not our greatest buildings." We would like to point out that in terms of building quality, Oxford is nicer than anything else Housing has on campus. (', r msn -.n nan n n rf Oxford if'it does not generate income, but they are eliminat- ing any incentive for people to live there. We feel that Housing should learn to solve its problems rather than elimi- nate them. PETER KATONA TOM KRIEWALL OXFORD HOUSING RESIDENTS Miller is the Daily's best columnist TO THE DAILY: Though I first found him to be a hyperbolic blowhard I must admit that James Miller has slowly developed his col- umn into the editorial page's best. Miller is particularly adept at spicing his commen- taries with a biting wit, with- out straying from his main point, like so many of his colleagues. While most other Daily editorialists are following the standard format, Miller has carved out his own. BRETT TAYLOR UNIVERSITY ALUMNUS Title IX is not designed for aspiring pro athletes TO THE DAILY: I am writing in regards to the Title IX article in the Daily ("Title IX reaches key moment" 10/22/97). 1 could not have been more disap- pointed with Donna Lopiano's (Executive Director of the Women's Sports Foundation) opinions of women in college sports. She states that enough "women have received the benefits of Title IX to produce a pool of professional athletes ." Sorry, but I thought that college sports were not to be a stepping stone to the profes- sional arena. Title IX gives women the benefits of com- petition as it has to men for years. Those benefits are competing, team work, equali- ty and individuality, which can be used throughout life in the real world. Let us face it, maybe 20 male athletes a year from Michigan get drafted, and have that opportunity to reach the pinnacle of sports. That is 20 out of several hundred ath- letes. Basically, college sports is the end for most sports careers, male or female. Emphasis should be placed on maintaining the student in the student athlete, because, more often than not, educa- Assisted suicide is the wrong solution To THE DAILY: Your editorial on Oct. 22 ("The right to die") argues, "Denying individuals the right to die, under circum- stances where death is inevitable and pain is extreme, violates their 14th Amendment rights." If physi- cian-assisted suicide was ever deemed a constitutional right, it is difficult for me to see how it could be restricted to certain citizens, such as those whose death is inevitable, or whose pain is extreme. If it is a constitutional right, then how can any citizen be pre- vented from exercising that right -- even suicidal teens like the ones whose deaths were reported in the same ssue'? Also, in the Netherlands, efforts to prevent abuse of physician-assisted suicide, by imposing strict guidelines of the kind being proposed in Oregon, have failed miser- ably. Guidelines established by that country's courts in 1981 included that the patient must be conscious, experi- encing unbearable pain and requesting death voluntarily. Yet an official govern- ment study known as the Remmelink Report, released in September 1991, revealed that in 1990, 1,040 people were killed by doctors with- out the patient's knowledge or consent. An additional 8,100 patients died from intentional overdoses of pain medication; in 61 percent of these cases (4,941 patients), the overdose was given with- out the patient's consent. These 5,981 involuntary deaths represent 4.6 percent of the approximately 130,000 deaths in the Netherlands in 1990. To think that the experi- ence of the Netherlands could never happen here in the U.S. - especially since the Dutch have free health care and we do not - would be, I fear, sadly naive. Dying a painful death is a terrible thing. Physician- assisted suicide, however, is the wrong solution. Instead, let us channel our energies and resources into improving pain management and hos- pice services. Let us stand with those who are suffering, whether their pain be physical or emotional, and not merely help them get out of the way. True death with dignity comes to those who are sup- ported by people who are willing to surround them with love, patiently bear their sufferings with them and per- severe with them to their nat- ural end. Is each of us willing to Sports clichds * taken just one game at a time f, as most people say, organized iathletics are a microcosm of real life, then sports commentary is defi- nitely the language of cliche. After all, our everyday parlance is full of unoriginal phrasing -talk to is best exemplified by the sports broadcasts we so love to consume. And, considering that I was almost three years old when my beloved Washington Bullets came from behind to win the 1978 NBA cham- pionship, motivat- ed the whole way by the catch JOSHUA phrase "It's not RICH over until the fat TIVIAL lady sings," I'm _______ surprised I hadn't realized this sooner. Nowadays, when I tune into a pre- or post-event show on radio or televi- sion, I find that cliches - and., even more obnoxious, the statement of tI* obvious - dominate the typical banaT commentary and pointless heated arguments. Moreover, watching ESPN or any of its rival sports media outlets during a game, I hear the commenta- tors - people who are supposedly educated enough to intelligently pre- sent a game to a mass audience - communicating even less eloquently (just look at "Monday Night Football" after it becomes Tuesday Morning Football, and you'll see what I mean Clearly, the ridiculousness of the language of sports goes beyond the famous scene in "Bull Durham," when Tim Robbins' character, Nuke LaLoosh, poignantlydeclares that "You gotta play it one day at a time." You know, "Sometimes you win; sometimes you lose." Surely, were he living in the real world, Nuke's linguistic master would put him in the booth with th likes of Dick Vitale and Howie Long upon retirement. For that reason, I envy such champions of sports poetry - analysts like John Madden, the Dorothy Parker of his day. When I retire I'll just sit on my ass and get fat; when an athlete or coach retires he gets to sit on his derriere, talk out of it and get paid big bucks. And that bugs me, because I'd like to think that, like them, I know plent3 about sports. For example, I'm well aware that the Washington Redskins are by far the best team in profession- al football. Still, I find many of the things said during a typical sporting event even more baffling than the concept of the "forward lateral." Hence, the follow- ing are a few of the more nonsensical comments that perplexed me durin one week of intense professional an college athletics watching. "That was a dumb penalty." As we should know, all athletes are required to commit only highly intelligent detrimental fouls. "Sometimes this game just comes down to the way the ball bounces" A revelation. "For something like this to hap- pen is heartbreaking." Hearing this after, say, seeing a Michigan basket ball player call a timeout when h doesn't have one, I am usually dumb- struck by the profound insight expressed in the announcer's words. His thoughts allude to a deep emotion that I certainly wouldn't have consid- ered. This phrase reminds us that sports commentary is also the science of mind reading. "Three feet separates them, an that's like a mile." Actually, it's like a yard. But it is interesting to note that another guyain another sport could be caught out at home plate by approxi- mately the same distance. "I can't tell you how much that play will motivate the Wolverines." It's too bad that the announcer can't tell me, because I really want to know. In fact, I'm always surprised by the amount of information that the announcer can 't tell me, like the moti- vation behind executing a certain play, or what must be going through the coach's head right now, or how much that broken leg hurt. "Bobby Ross knows that Scott Mitchell can throw the football." Which is a pretty good reason for making Mitchell the quarterback, I'd say. "That was one of the best plays we'll see all year." It seems as if every other halfway exciting or well-execut- ed operation in the sports arena must be given this distinction of ambiguous praise. Why can't we be honest with ourselves: This is a boring game, and we are wasting our time watching it. "He goes out there and gives 110 0 0 i