4A - The Michigan Daily - Thursday, November 6, 1997
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420 Maynard Street
Ann Arbor, MI 48109
Edited and managed by
students at the
University of Michigan
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JosH WHITE
Editor in Chief
ERIN MARSH
Editorial Page Editor
Inless 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
Juggling act
SACUA reps deserve compensation
F or the University's faculty leaders, rep- teach a reduced load of classes. The Office
resenting professors and helping guide of the Provost recommends that the chair's
administrative decisions can be time-con- department cut his or her workload in half,
suming and- financially prohibitive. The but that request is not always fulfilled. In
nine members of the faculty's Senate addition, with a reduced classload, the chair
Advisory Committee on University Affairs must take a 50-percent pay cut - discour-
must deal with the demands of teaching full aging many potential candidates from con-
course loads while at the same time spend- sidering the position. The irony of the situ-
ing time advising the administration on ation is that while the number of class hours
policies and academic matters. SACUA and the pay rate are reduced, the workload
representatives recently stated their wish for remains about the same. In order to get the
the University to pay them for this work and best faculty members to run for the posi-
decrease the number of classes they teach tion, finances must not be a blockade.
and the department work they do; adminis- Running for a position should not be based
trators should follow their suggestion to on a person's economic capacity, but rather
give the faculty leaders the opportunity to on their ability.
work for the improvement of faculty, stu- Many other schools, including the
dent and administrative relations. University of California system, give their
SACUA provides many valuable ser- equivalent of SACUA time and money to
vices to the University faculty and commu- represent the faculty's interests. In addition,
nity. The committee serves as a liaison funding for SACUA members should come
between the faculty and the University's from the University's administration - not
central administration, often communicat- the faculty member's department. Funding
ing many of the faculty's concerns and ideas SACUA through central administration
to the University Board of Regents. In addi- would allow less prominent departments to
tion, SACUA serves as a means to connect afford representation that may otherwise be
faculty of -different departments, allowing out of their reach - increasing the number
an easier exchange of ideas and comparison of potential candidates that can vie for posi-
of programs. tions.
The committee also benefits students SACUA serves a large portion of the
through work to enhance the University's University community - it is important for
educational environment. One of SACUA's its members to have the time and motivation
recent efforts was work to develop a com- to do their work. To include all qualified
prehensive faculty compensation policy, candidates, the University should compen-
enabling the University to recruit a strong, sate faculty leaders for their work in devel-
diverse pool of professors. As a result, stu- oping curricula and guiding other academic
dents receive better class instruction and the initiatives. To build a strong voice for the
University's academic reputation is faculty, the University must ensure that time
enhanced. and money do not decide the quality of fac-
Presently, the SACUA chair is allowed to ulty representation.
NOTABLE QUOTABLE
'The important thing is not the cost, but the principle.
We believe that the cost of having a diverse student
body is worthwhile.'
- University Vice President for University Relations Walter Harrison, stating the
University's commitment to fighting the civil lawsuit brought against it last month
PURPLE HERRING
5SR BUT OUR
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F~oR S URGEW j ('Al THOUG4, A~f
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CON S r RK HY poQs's
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Quarantine
School board mist
HIV is becoming more prevalent, wide-
spread and public. Because the virus
affects all age groups, races, sexes and
lifestyles, it is bound to walk through the
classroom of one school or another. Sadly,
it entered a classroom in Portage, Mich.,
and days later was forced to leave. Andrea
Herrera, while later gaining re-admittance
to her school, suffered through a painful
process that drastically needs adjustment.
-HIV-positive children suffer terribly at the
:hands of incompetent school officials and
,obsolete policies. School boards nation-
wide need to enact plans now, so when sit-
uations like these arise, guidelines exist.
In June of this year, 9-year-old Andrea
was diagnosed as HIV positive. Before the
school year began, her mother informed the
principle of Woodland Elementary School
of Andrea's condition. The principal, acting
quickly and confidently, said there would
be no problem accommodating Andrea and
the matter would be addressed in early
September. But the events of early
September did not fall according to plan.
Three days into the semester, the local
board of education panicked and suspended
Andrea on a quarantine order. This angered
the Herreras, because the school board did
g not initially follow its own policy. A board
-learing was required for recommendations to
the superintendent, who would then decide a
course of action. So quickly, but not very qui-
etly, the school board started the process that
should have commenced during the summer.
After the board sent the recommendations to
the superintendent, two options existed for
consideration: To release Andrea from school
-and provide a reasonable alternative - as
required by the Education Reform Act - or
make the necessary arrangements to accom-
Zandled HIV case
Either way, the board should have made a
decision before school began. By waiting
until Andrea began school, suspending and
then re-admitting her, the school board
ignored all terms of confidentiality. The mat-
ter rapidly progressed from a personal health
issue to a matter of public information.
At school and in her hometown, Andrea
will never be looked at in the same way.
Even if the children didn't understand why
AIDS and HIV awareness programs were
taught only to Andrea's class or why she
was suspended and quarantined, the parents
understood all too well. Andrea's mother,
now in the process of suing the Portage
Board of Education, maintains that the
board's poor handling of its policies nearly
isolated Andrea from her friends. While the
board eventually acted the child's favor by
allowing her to return to school, the damage
is done.
Even though a change in school policy
will not help Andrea's situation, it can pre-
vent future problems. HIV and AIDS are
growing among younger populations and
will touch the lives of almost everyone in
some way. Understanding and education are
vital when dealing with a situation such as
Andrea's. The classroom provides the per-
fect environment to teach children impor-
tant facts, encourage an understanding and
foster acceptance. Unfortunately, Andrea
and her classmates are a step behind. Due to
the poor judgment of the Portage Board of
Education, this matter only carried mes-
sages of fear, ignorance and confusion.
Cases like this require sensitivity and
patience, but above all privacy. The board of
education must realize its errors and create
a policy that will foster education and keep
in mind the best interests of the children for
College was
misidentified
in story
TO THE DAILY:
When writing articles
about schools and colleges, it
helps a lot to know the names
and the differences. In your
article "Alumni Visit Art
School's Changes" (11/397),
you consistently refer to the
"School of Art and
Architecture," which in fact
no longer exists. Currently,
the College of Architecture
and Urban Planning and the
School of Art and Design
reside in the Art and
Architecture building. There
is io more relationship
between the programs other
than being neighbors and
sharing certain facilities. It's
bad enough we're sequestered
away onl North Campus. shad-
owed by the engineers. You
could at least write an
informed piece and help us to
preserve our identities.
JOSH KEOUGH
COLLEGE OF ARCHITECTURE
AND URBAN PLANNING
Administrators
are invited to
North Campus
TO THE DAILY:
Family Housing
Residents' Council will be
meetingwith MSA President
Mike Nagrant, Vice President
Olga Savic and representa-
tives from the North Campus
Nursing center on Nov. 13.
The primary purpose of this
historic meeting will be the
preservation of the North
Campus Nursing Clinic as an
important University health
care provider.
To this end, Residents'
Council would like to extend
an open invitation to
President Lee Bollinger,
Provost Nancy Cantor and
reporters from The Michigan
Daily to attend this meeting.
President Bollinger's and
Provost Cantor's attendance
at this meeting would be a
significant good faith demon-
stration on the part of the
administration. It is our sin-
cerest hope that this invita-
tion and its significance are
not overlooked or ignored by
this administration.
CARLOS HERNANDE FORD
FAMILY HOUSING
RESIDENTS' COUNCIL
REPRESENTATIVE
A 'thank you'
to Bollinger
and Goss
was a great game and I had a
lot of fun, and I give
President Bollinger and Mr.
Goss a lot of credit for mak-
ing lemons into lemonade. I
appreciate their kind gesture.
TAMI TARNOW
LSA FIRST-YEAR
STUDENT
Headline was
grammatically
incorrect
TO THE DAILY:
Daily staff reporter Peter
Romer-Friedman and the
Daily news editors should be
emi nent ly embarrassed about
the blatant grammatical mis-
takes in the article, '"U' holds
less class days than other col-
leges nationwide," (I 1 497).
The title should read "'UJ'
holds fewer class days ...."
This mistake is repeated
throughout the article.
According to Lyn Dupre
in "Bugs in Writing," "the
word fewer' denotes a reduc-
tion in the number of a given
collection of individual items;
less' denotes a reduction in
the amount of a given stuff."
Days are items, not stuff.
You should be even more
embarrassed that it is an
engineer pointing out your
mistake.
WILLIAM WALSH
COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING
Affirmative
action is
not perfect
TO THE DAILY:
I've heard the debateover
affirmative action's merits
and demerits go back and
forth over the past few years,
hearing the same arguments
every time. What many peo-
ple don't realize is that affir-
mative action was originally
established through executive
order in 1964 by President
Lyndon B. Johnson and
merely required thatathere be
no discrimination for govern-
ment contracts based on race.
I'll make it simple:
Diversity is good, but prefer-
ences or discrimination based
on the color of one's skin is
bad. Therefore, affirmative
action as we know it today is
bad. Affirmative action is great
in principle but fails in its
implementation. That is where
changes need to be made.
Now I've got to stay up
all night to make sure BAMN
doesn't burn my house down!
AARON BROOKS
ENGINEERING SENIOR
Cartoon was
ever got to press.
What the hell were people
thinking when they decided
to run the caricature of a
slant-eyed Jiang humbly
mouthing the old Charlie
Chan mantra, "So sorry?
That whole early conception
and perception of Asian
Americans was a tremendous
factor in allowing Congress
to approve atrocities like the
Japanese internment camps
and the Chinese Exclusion
Act. The cartoon carelessly
impinges on a dark and crip-
pling history that is the sub-
ject of tears, not laughter.
Yuki Kuniyuki should
have known better. Maybe he
thought that as an Asian
American, it was okay to
draw on racially stereotypical
insults to get a laugh.. If so.
then why stop there? Hell,
might as well throw in the
buck teeth and the Confucian
proverbs to boot.
Inea time when race rela-
tions are strained over offen-
sive vandalism and affirma-
tive action, it is extremely
disturbing to watch the cam-
pus paper propagate the same
subtle and insidious forms of
oppression that tore this
nation apart in the past.
JAY IM
LAw SCHOOL
A letter to
'M' coach
Lloyd Carr
TO THE DAILY:
I'm writing to you as a
proud Michigan Wolverine
and a proud trumpeter in the
Michigan Marching Band.
The reason I'm writing to you
is a rather simple one: The
marching band will not be
joining you and the M' men
in State College this Saturday.
However, there isn't one band
member who wouldn't love to
be there cheering on the blue
legions. This is obviously a
situation we all wish were
different for such a big game.
My one desire and hope is
that you share this with your
team just to let them know
how much we all would love to
be there as they battle Penn
State. Please let them know
that every time they score a
touchdown or a field goal and,
strangely, the glorious chorus
of "The Victors" is not heard,
or every time the defense stops
PSU on third down and the
team doesn't hear the intimi-
dating notes of "Temptation,"
we actually are there - in
spirit, if not in person.
Whenever the team needs a
"Let's Go Blue!" to push them
onward or, again, the ultimate
motivator of "The Victors," let
it be that they find and hear it,
whether it comes from the
sideline, the huddle or even
silently,internally, from deep
within the heart of every proud
Wolverine on the field. Just
In the 'off-years'
elections lose
their sparkle
and the public
W hat a difference a year can
make.
A year ago, we were basking in
afterglow and predictions. Sure, t
country had just elected the first t
t e r m
Democratic
president since
the New Deal,
but the
Republicans had
held Congress.
Wasn't it going
to be fascinating
to see what
would happen?
Bob Dole was MEGAN
cracking jokes SCHIMPF
and Bill Clinton PRESCRIPTIONS
was partying.
Politics was interesting and exciting
A year later, cynicism is back in
style and apathy doesn't begin to
describe what happened Tuesday.
Theiads and propaganda are cliche
enough during "big" elections, when
we're asked to ponder what would h@
pen if they held an election and no one
came, or told we should rock the vote,
We're given guilt complexes about wha
our ancestors went through to give us the
privilege to vote in a democratic society
and how we're throwing that away.
But during an offyear election like
1997, they're bitterly ironic in their
truthfulness.
This was the first Tuesday after the
first Monday in November, wh
makes it election day. But in stark c
trast to last year, no one noticed.
True, there were some major elec
tions in other states and cities - New
Jersey, Virginia and New York City
among them - but the vast majority
of people in the country either didn't
know, didn't care or both. And inci-
dentally, a vast majority is supposedly
what it takes to win an election.
Even my planner, which is thou "
ful enough to remind me whT
Professional Secretaries' Day and
National Boss's Day are, didn't bother
to mark election day as anything other
than Tuesday, Nov. 4.
I didn't vote, and I follow politics
enough to subscribe to "George."
What's even worse is that I'm not lds-
ing sleep over the fact that I didn't voe.
It shouldn't matter that there weren't
flashy parties or rock-video comn:
cials or town meetings on televis
hosted by trustworthy anchors. But there
wasn't much on the ballot, and I didn't
even remember until about 10 days ago
that I should have gotten an absentee
ballot. I have other things to do.
No one really gets upset this year
that they missed the polls. That they
lost their voice, regardless of how
effective it really is in the whole
scheme of things. Whatever - it's
odd-numbered year, right? Nothi r
really important happens.
Voting, admittedly, is a challenge for
most students, who are either not yet
registered or who are registered at
home. And off-year elections - pr-
ticularly those following a presiden'tial
election - are notorious for poor
turnout across the electorate.
That doesn't make it right not to
vote.
There's no extremely rational reasg
to vote for presidentdand skip loc
elections, which made up most of
Tuesday's ballots. Local officials affect
daily life much more than presidents
do. From a political science standpoint,
one vote means much more in a local
election because the. voter pool-is
smaller in the first place, and because
fewer people will turn out.
It's hard to avoid a presidential elec-
tion, whichmakes it easier to reme
ber to vote. MTV, public service
announcements and even campaigns
themselves plead with voters to get. to
the polls for presidential or gubernato-
rial elections.
Not so for off-year elections. Sure,
newspapers printed voter guides this
year, but not nearly as many as last year.
It was harder to find election coverage
this year, which is partly the fault of the
all-encompassing media, but also p
ly due to the public, which didn
demand more coverage than it got.
There goes voter education out the
window. No coverage of the issues,
still, but none for the horse race either.
Because it was more like the old mare
in the pasture than a race.
Why we do regard voting as inher-
ently more valuable in an "important"
election? Shouldn't they all be impor-
tant? Why do we feel more guilt ab*
being a lazy voter in an even-num-
bered year?
Still, the lowest turnout ever came to
the polls last year, even when there
was a presidential race, along with
Senate, House, state-level and local
elections. It's not just the perceiyed
importance of the race, it seems - it's