4A - The Michigan Daily - Thursday, September 4, 1997__ Ql1tE igttn 34trtild 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 NOTABLE QUOTABLE, 'My term ends in 2000. I will not run anymore.' -Russian President Boris Yeltsin, announcing his intent to step aside when his term expires to make way for younger leadership 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 Dailv. FROM THE DAILY Lounge izards Communication problems muddle housing YU K KUNIYUKI ,., .. . ,,, '< As the 1997-98 school year commences, the University once again finds itself unable to house the students it admitted. In a last-ditch effort to fulfill its obligations, Housing Division officials opted to cram students into unsatisfactory living spaces across campus. Some first-year students will be quick to question the quality of their new learning environment as the lucky ones move into converted triples, and the unlucky are forced - however temporarily - to call transformed student lounges home. The problem of dorm overpopulation causes student agitation and decreases the quality of living. The effect is intensified by the persistence of the problem, which arose this. year for the third consecutive September and threatens to distinguish itself as an annual occurrence. The most convenient target of blame for this problem falls on housing officials who are responsible for providing students with adequate living conditions. However, admissions officials shoulder a great deal of the responsibility. In each of the past three years, the number of students admitted to the University exceeded the amount of housing space available. As a result, much of the residence hall population resides in cramped conditions. To counteract the prob- lem, the two branches must work together to uncover viable solutions - if the housing authority states that the University has liv- ing Space available to a certain number of students, admissions should not ignore that fact and proceed to invite a total that exceeds the amount of physical space. Every year, admissions elects to invite more students than they expect will accept - and during the last three years more stu- dents have accepted those invitations than officials assumed. As a result, students suf- fer in the overcrowding crisis. Clearly, the admissions office must re-examine its sta- tistics and recognize that something is amiss if the numbers have failed for several consecutive years. Either the practice of estimating the number of fall attendees must be adjusted, or the University must admit overflow students on the wait-list, admitting them only when housing becomes available. Two to four weeks after the beginning of classes, the housing office has general- ly settled the situation. However, spending the first two weeks to a month of school is unsettling and stressful to first-year stu- dents, who are trying to cope with the novelty of the University atmosphere and succeed academically. Disrupting these students' lives for their first several weeks of college may take a toll on their success and happiness both socially and academi- cally. Residence hall living at the University does not come cheap. Over the course of the school year, many students will protest the quality of the accommodations the University is obligated to provide based on the money that students pay. Almost all par- ties involved can agree that providing safe, comfortable living is the University's job. Whether or not the administration currently provides adequate housing is the next ques- tion. To ensure that first-year students do receive adequate housing, the University must immediately take steps to rectify the communications gap that exists between housing and the admissions office. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR M issing'M' diminishes impressive construction TO THE DAILY: This summer, the University undertook an immense construction project in completely renovating the Central Campus Diag. Now that the project is finally almost completed, it looks fantastic. There is only one problem, however. The 'M' is gone. Every time I now walk by the Diag the first and last thing I think about it is that the "heart" of this University is gone. This is a tragedy. The University personnel in charge of this operation should have known that the first thing the students would want is for the M' to remain. Not only that, but I have no doubt that those graduates in the Class of 1953 would be disappointed to know that the gift that they granted to the University has been removed. The weirdest thing about all this is that the 'M' was taken to some place in Minnesota to be repaired. Now, it lies underneath all the bricking in the center of campus, but completely out of sight of all passersby. What a mistake. This is something that the University must reverse as soon as possible. Until this happens, U of M risks losing alumni, parental and student support for something that could easily be changed. Not only that, but the missing M' will always loom over the renovation project like a shadow. LUKE KLIPP SCHOOL OF MUSIC SOPHOMORE Hypocrisy dominates anti-photog backlash To THE DAILY: It seems to me that the drunk chauffeur driving the car containing Diana caused it to crash, not the photogra- phers chasing behind. During a chase, vehicles travel only as fast as the lead car. In this case, that speed was an astonishing 121 miles per hour in 30 mph, tight tun- nel! It almost makes me won- der if the driver intended to commit suicide and take his famous passengers with him. The National Enquirer has refused to buy photos of the crash and urged all other media outlets to do the same. That's good, but we know just how far the press has sunk when it is the National Enquirer lecturing the rest of the press to take the high road. Some photographer will make a lot of money from crash pictures, and so will the magazine that eventually publishes them, because for all the clucking noises every- one is making about how ter- rible it would be for any such photos to be published, they would sneak a peek at them, given the chance. We just know not to admit it out loud. Right now the photogra- phers are making a conve- nient scapegoat. But paparazzi wouldn't have been chasing the car if everyone didn't want to see such pic- tures. This tragic death is of course reminiscent of Elvis, Marilyn, or James Dean. If history is any guide, Diana herself will rest in peace, thank God, but public interest in her will multiply tenfold. Now there can be no more new photographs of Diana taken. Every single paparazzi photo that exists has now increased in value and will eventually be published somewhere, many no doubt even in the many publications of tribute that will shortly sell out on newsstands. Right alongside harsh criticism of paparazzi, no doubt. CHARLES GODWIN UNIVERSITY ALUMNUS First-year status offersfesh perspective, new challenges T ime heals all wounds, they Take, for instance, senioritis. After a year of development, seniori- tis is rapidly cured in only two weeks or so. Because as soon as seniors are put in an envi- ronment they've never encoun- tered, with peo- ple they've never met, all the symptoms disap- pear. Being a first- year student - or first-year any- thing, for that MEGAN matter --is SCHIMPFI never easy, espe- pR:CpRiMONS cially at the beginning. Whether it's starting col-. lege, graduate school or a new job, time moves on. And takes us with it, The first year is a time when t precocious stability of being a senior. comes to a screeching halt in the face, of insecurity. It is not a time most of us would care to go through regular-. ly. But we do. About every four years, we find ourselves at an orientation,- tossed with a group of semi-familiae, at-best faces into awkward introduc- tions. We move from an environment where everything was controllable one where we are controlled. It doe n't become easier with age or experi- ence. But as painful as it may be, starting over is important. Because stagnancy is the alternative. In school, we have the enviable. opportunity of starting over in some. way every fall. Campus changes every year, forcing us to readjust who we had become. Walking to class without getting lost isn't everything. Try to call your' friends, now that they have new. phone numbers. Try to find your way to a store, now that you live in a di-, ferent part of campus. Try to figure- out what to do with allethe leftover. stuff in the middle of the floor when everything else has a place in your new room. Still, there's nothing quite like t first year. Because while old-hand st- dents adjust relatively quickly, first- years have eight months of firsts. , Orientation has the amazing feature of reducing everyone to a name, hometown, previous school attended and present address. Then you play "Do You Know ...?" and see if you can connect to Kevin Bacon, your best friend from kindergarten or both. Conversations buzz happily alo9 until everyone has told their story. Then, silence. You shuffle. You des- perately try to think of anything - anything - to talk about. You stare at your hands. And you bring up the weather. By the second day, this pattern becomes irritating in its predictability and superficiality. You realize how dif- ficult it is to communicate with people with whom you share interests, but no experiences. How long it takes explain something you're used to sim- ply referring to. How inside jokes aren't funny if you're the only one who laughs. Essentially, we're forced to shed our old images and roles and invent new ones. All at once, we have to draw on everything that shaped our personality, and forget all of it. We have to be our- selves, not our image. It is difficult and painful and healtlh all tumbled into one. For a short time, all those walls that build up during four years are gone. Anyone can talk to everyone. No one is a label because of something they did or said. Because no one really knows anyone else, everyone in the group is an equal colleague who brings something fascinating. And so we can focus on people - even if conversations aren't deep - and try to know who they really a before chalking them up as the guy who sits in the front row or the per- son who actually owns the Hanson CD. Being a first-year student means you've lost your security blanket. It means your friends are scattered. But it comes with a clean slate, where you start over and define yourself instead of being defined. The "must-be-a-first-year-student'. utterance whispered by older students actually comes with a hidden blessing. Any mistakes, directions or questions are simply chalked up to first-year ignorance. So do the wrong thing at the wrong time, get lost and ask silly auestions without doing much more ine for change 'Pay to Stay' to benefit rehab programs U nder the terms of Macomb County's unconventional Pay to Stay program, the long arm of the law can extend its reach to the wallets of inmates. Now in its 12tH year, the program requires prisoners to pay for room and board during time spent in jail. Though the program will not likely act as a crime deterrent, it consti- tutes a positive move toward easing tax- payer burden. Moreover, it holds the potential to fortify and establish auxiliary correctional programs directed toward education, employment, or a host of other pertinent causes. For these reasons, other counties should strongly consider adopting the similar versions of the policy. In addi- tion, legislators should investigate expand- ing Pay to Stay beyond its current county level to encompass state correctional facil- ities. One of the first counties to adopt an inmate co-pay program after the Michigan legislature allowed counties to bill prison- ers for jail time served, Macomb County has watched Pay to Stay grow steadily. Last year, the program brought nearly $900,000 to Macomb County. While this revenue hardly meets the cost of operating the coun- ty jail system, it helps minimize the cost passed on to taxpayers. Furthermore, tax- payers delight in knowing that offenders must reimburse the county for costs engen- dered by their own crimes. The bills that the Pay to Stay program imposes vary according to the inmates' financial status: The criminals pay only what the county believes they can afford. The nonrest nrisoners nay only $6 ner Though the county currently uses the funds generated by the program primarily to defray the costs of operating its jails, Macomb should explore the feasibility of funneling part of the revenue into correc- tional support programs that may indirectly diminish criminal offenses. Possibilities include augmenting educational funds. Congressional Record reports reveal that the rate of criminal offenses among those with solid schooling falls far below that of those with minimal education. By fortify- ing educational systems, for example, the county could decrease the rate of area crime. Given the success of Macomb County's program, legislators should examine the practicality of implementing the program on a state level. If adapted to accommodate the state prison system, the Pay to Stay pro- gram - or a similar cousin - could draw revenue into the Michigan correctional sys- tem. The use of money for educational and employment programs would prove even more useful when administered to felons - those who have committed serious crimes. According to a Capitol Hill study, members of this segment of the criminal population who undertake educational programs or find employment show a 15.7-percent drop in the recidivism rate over a three-year peri- od. A prisoner co-pay program at this tier of the correctional system might prove benefi- cial to curbing crime. The success of Macomb County's pro- gram has already led both Oakland and Wayne county to adopt similar versions of Pay to Stay. Perhans in time the program 20 YEARS AGO IN THE DAILY Ann Arbor:A town like no other Ann Arbor is an easy town to take for granted. After spending a few years here, one becomes an expert at moaning about everything from obscene rents and astro- nomical tution rates to the condition of the streets and the dearth of parking spaces. And yet, we all return each fall, drawn like lemmings to the city. The fact is, deep down, we all love this place, and after a summer in the real world, it's a relief to return to our cozy little pseudoreality: ® Where you can dress and act any way you choose since there's always someone much weirder than you around the corner. ® Where you can see 50 different movies a week, (quite a relief after a summer diet of Monkey and the Bandit and Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo) and most of them at a cost of only $1.50. * Where you can come home from a tough day and turn the stereo on just as loud as you like without any com- plaints from the elderly cou- ple next door. ® Where you can always expect to find someone to talk to who is an expert in whatev- er new subject in which you've suddenly developed an interest. ® Where you can join a group or organization that shares your values, whether your goal is to burn the Administration Building and depose Robben Fleming or to crusade for psychoanalytic counseling for plants. ® Where you can wait in line on Sunday mornings for omelets at Steve's Lunch, and you know they'll be better than Mom used to make. Where you can play pinball until 3 a.m. and not be alone. Where you can smoke and drink yourself into obliv- ion and have no one to answer to the next morning but your- self. ® Where you can sit in a booth from your parents' era, eating Drake's famed toasted pecan rolls and sipping dar- jeeling tea. ® Where a man named Shakey Jake will sing you a song if you buy a paper from him and jeer and hiss at you if you pass him by. And where you can watch top-ranked football and basketball and hockey teams, eat fragels from the Bagel Factory, buy hardback books at discount from Borders, devour all-natural ice cream at Mountain High, eat the best crab you've ever tasted and not pay an arm and a claw for it at the appropirately named Cracked Crab, where you can buy every comic book ever made at the Eye of Aggamotto, and read one of the nation's finest college newspapers delivered to your home each morning for a pal- try $12 a year (sorry about that). Gee, ain't it good to be back home again? This editorial was originally published in the Daily on Sept. 9, 1977. II