4 - The Michigan Daily - Wednesday, March 18, 1998

the diguntilgttr1

420 Maynard Street
Ann Arbor, MI 48109
Edited and managed by
students at the
University of Michigan

LAURIE MAYK
Editor in Chief
JACK SCHILLACI
Editorial Page Editor

NOTABLE Q UOTABLE
They're doing a terrific job.'
- Provost Nancy Cantor speaking about the Michigan Student Assembly
MSA CANDIDATES SPEAK THEIR MINDS

MSA emperor

James Millerfor

0

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
Votae dchs Gaa
Idependents have experence needed to lead MSA

T he walls of Mason Hall are covered
and the Diag is chalked - it is election
time, but don't expect to hear President
Clinton crooning on his saxophone. These
elections are reserved for other presidential
hopefuls running for a leadership position
in the Michigan Student Assembly. MSA
elections are being held today and tomor-
row, and to facilitate a smooth and valid
transition of control, the
entire student body should
participate by casting a
vote. MSA president and
vice president are perhaps,
the most influential posi-
tions that affect next
year's assembly. To ensure
an organized, productive
and strong MSA, indepen- Frledrchs
dent candidates Ryan Friedrichs and Albert
Garcia should be elected for president and
vice president.
Friedrichs has served the student body
for almost three years, and his achievements
and genuine sincerity toward improvement
speak well of his familiarity with the
University administration and leadership
within the assembly. Garcia, while a new-
comer to MSA, worked to restructure the
LSA student government, and his experi-
ence from that realm should prove benefi-
cial. Together, Friedrichs and Garcia offer
an experienced yet fresh, dedicated yet real-
istic, and versatile yet grounded partnership
that is worthy of student support.
The Students' Party's presidential and vice
presidential nominees, Trent Thompson and
Sarah Chopp, are worthy of mention. While
these candidates offer the backing of a strong
party platform, they have not yet harnessed
the necessary experience or individual persis-

tence to effectively lead MSA. The risk asso-
ciated with the Students' Party's candidates is
the opportunity for them to ride the coattails
of current president Mike Nagrant and vice
president Olga Savic. Thompson and Chopp
need to establish themselves and their own
vision better or the assembly would remain
stagnant under their leadership.
In comparison, Friedrichs and Garcia pos-
sess the necessary ingredi-
ents to move MSA for-
ward. Their candor, deter-
mination, and the fact that
after years of experience
they are running as inde-
pendents - dropping
party politics to push their
own ideas and goals for the
assembly - show that as
president and vice president, they would not
disappoint. The popularization of the "Voice
Your Vote" program and the professor
midterm evaluations, to name only a few,
exemplify the far-reaching and beneficial
projects that Friedrichs and Garcia could
implement if elected.
If the pair are elected, they must remember
the many roles of leaders. As the assembly
grows and attempts to become a resource for
the entire student body, the president, more
than anyone, is responsible for the assembly's
vision. A president must know how to calm
and compromise, inspire others and delegate
responsibilities. As an extremely motivated
individual, Friedrichs must remember to
translate his own vigor into the encourage-
ment of others, listen before speaking, and
attempt to turn the visions of few into realities
for all.
Vote Ryan Friedrichs and Albert Garcia
for MSA president and vice president.

Helping U'
students feel
at home
To THE STUDENTS:
The reason we are running
is because we want to mke
this a better, friendlier uversi-
ty to attend. I don't want to
sound too idealistic, but this
place is too cold and cut-
throat, and we want to do
something about it. It seems
that a lot of students have
become disinterested and thus,
withdrawn from the Michigan
Student Assembly because
they don't see it addressing
any problems. Our goal would
be to limit the areas we focus
on and actually get something
done instead of just talking
about it. One of our main goals
is to extend the drop/add dead-
line to six weeks after the first
day of classes. Presently, it is a
joke. Students can't determine
how much they like a class by
reading the syllabus. Second,
we want to address the prob-
lems of parking. The city of
Ann Arbor only takes money
from us. We would advocate
having a representative attend
every city council meeting -
voicing students' concerns.
The meters need to be extend-
ed from one hour to a mini-
mum of two, the time they are
checked should be limited, and
meter checking should end at 5
p.m. Third, we want to address
the problems of the bookstores
and how students are being
robbed. They buy used books
for only $2 to $3 and turn
around and sell them at a
1,000-percent mark-up.
Finally, staying on the
theme of getting students
involved in important deci-
sions, we would advocate ref-
erendums for important issues
such as affirmative action. We
want the everyday student to
have a say in what goes on at
their school. We want to take
the power out of the adminis-
tration's hands and return it to
where it belongs - the stu-
dents. We want to work to end
what we see as a dictatorship.
This is an intimidating place,
and if we don't help students
feel at home, then we have
failed them.
FERRIS HUSSEIN
NiCK PAVLIS
WOLVERINE PARTY
Independently
redesigning
the assembly
To THE STUDENTS:
Our greater goal is to
open new doors of access,
opportunity and engagement
to all University students.
Fundamentally restructuring
the student assembly into an
inclusive, service-based and
project-focused student team
is our first step in this vision.
Although challenging, inde-
pendent candidacy provides
the perfect vehicle to initiate

the above changes. Our plan
and its development centers
around tangible services,
meaningful products and
accurate representation.
Some of our past accom-
plishments include creating
and coordinating the
Environmental Theme
Semester, the Festifall Online
student-group database, a
monthly graduate student cau-
cus, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther
King Jr. Symposium session
titled "Maintaining/Promoting
a Diverse Student Capus,"
LSA midterm course feedback
evaluations, Advice Online, an
American Sign Language
Course and online voting.
Highlights of our current
and future plans for the assem-
bly include initiating the new
"Redefining Diversity' Theme
Semester, assistance phone

representation. Turning our
vision of this new assembly
into reality begins with your
support.
Elect Ryan Friedrichs and
Albert Garcia for MSA presi-
dent and vice president. Vote
and view our complete plan
at www umich.edu/~vote.
RYAN FRIEDRICHS
ALBERT GARCIA
INDEPENDENTS
Social justice
should prevail
TO THE STUDENTS:
The far-reaching ramifi-
cations of the anti-affirmative
action lawsuits against the
University put students in an
important position of respon-
sibility. These lawsuits have
already focused a substantial
amount of national attention
on the University. What stu-
dents do matters a great deal.
The Feb. 24 day of action
at the University was a great
success and a step forward in
building new student and
national movements to defend
affirmative action. The success
of that day was due in large
part to the unprecedented unity
achieved among progressive
organizations to defend affir-
mative action and fight for
social justice.
The Defend Affirmative
Action Party sees the affirma-
tive action issue as decisive.
Racism and sexism are living
factors in today's society, and
as long as racist and sexist
inequality and discrimination
exist, social policy must con-
tinue offset their impact.
We stand for the defense
of affirmative action. We
oppose the effort to resegre-
gate higher education. For
this defense to be successful,
the student movement that
has begun on this campus
must be built and extended to
a new mass civil rights move-
ment across the country. The
DAAP is running for the
Michigan Student Assembly
to facilitate this process. Our
party will fight for students'
interests on other fronts as
well -- like opposing the
Department of Public Safety
harassment at social events
and fighting for increased
staffing and funding for cam-
pus computing sites and ser-
vices with the same powerful
methods of struggle and
social organization.
JESSICA CURTIN
DEFEND AFFIRMATIVE
ACTION PARTY
'A vision of
change'
TO THE STUDENTS:
Under the Students' Party's
leadership, the Michigan
Student Assembly has been
dedicated to bettering students'
lives and bringing students
together. Our accomplishments

include creating the Speaker
Initiative and fireside chats,
keeping tuition equal to the
rate of inflation, a statewide
student-regent initiative, legal-
izing Diag chalking, streamlin-
ing MSA operations and
increasing student group fund-
ing.
We are committed to creat-
ing viable student services and
uniting the campus through
our three-tiered platform: The
Ambassador program will cre-
ate a true campus community
and a direct constituency for
MSA representatives by reach-
ing out to all student groups,
regardless of their size or con-
tent. Students will be able to
exchange their programming
ideas and voice their concerns
to their student government
through student group forums
coordinated by MSA represen-

available off-campus housing,
making the search easier and
more accessible for all stu-
dents. In an effort to make the
academic environment more
personal, we are instituting a
lecture mentorship program to
guide students towards acade-
mic success.
With a diverse and ener-
getic voice, we bring to the
student body a vision of
change. We recognize the
serious issues that face cam-
pus and are ready to facilitate
action on them. For more
information, visit our Website
at www. umich.edulstuparty.
TRENT THOMPSON
SARAH CHOPP
STUDENTS' PARTY
Making
students'
lives easier
TO THE STUDENTS:
With elections so close at
hand, it can be hard to choose
among the candidates who to
vote for, what position to take
on the current issues, or even
why to vote at all. First, the
New Frontier Party urges stu-
dents to vote. It is the student
vote that gives the Michigan
Student Assembly the power
and the legitimacy it has. MSA
is supposed to represent the
student body, so make sure
that it does by voting and voic-
ing student choice.
Also, the New Frontier
Party urges students to vote for
us! Our statement of goals
doesn't claim to reinvent the
University, but we do see a
variety of problems that if cor-
rected, would make students'
lives a little easier. We would
like to change the meal-credit
system so that students actual-
ly get what they pay for. We
want to see the University tele-
phone monopoly dismantled in
order for students to choose
their own long distance carrer.
Almost any phone company
can beat the 17 cents per
minute students are paying
now! Right now, Information
Technology Department tells
students how to spend their
monthly allocation and most
students end up wasting some
portion of it. We'll work to
restore the old system that
allowed each student to spend
their money how they like, be
it printing, dial-in or whatever.
There is more to our party,
but this gives a good example
of what we'd like to do for stu-
dents - make life easier and
save money. Please vote for the
New Frontier Party.
ELIZABETH KESLACY
MICHAEL ENRIGHT
NEW FRONTIER PARTY
Small projects
can have
'big impact'
TO THE STUDENTS:

We at the Michigan Party
have changed our focus for
this election and have moved
away from party politics and
more toward the goals and suc-
cesses of our individual candi-
dates. We have become more
project-oriented, believing that
smaller projects can have a big
impact on University students.
Many of our candidates have
been working on issues such as
improving the Mcard, estab-
lishing a student survey to
address undergraduate inter-
ests, extending the drop/add
deadline and increasing stu-
dent group funding. These are
issues that would improve the
lives of many of the students
on this campus. Though they
are not sweeping changes to
campus life, these are goals
that can be accomplished on
this campus with a little hard

F ellow students, staff, faculty and
bored TAs who might be reading
this, I come to you today not as a colum-
nist, not as your friend, but as a man
with a mission.
For too long, we have all seen our
campus destroyed by the evil presence
known as the Michigan Studen
Assembly. I ask you, how long will w
allow ourselves to
be treated like this?
How long will we
allow our huts to be }
raided, our crops
fondled and our
women burned?wr
How long will
Mike Nagrant's
oppressive, stubbly
face loom in our
collective uncon- AMES
scious? MILLER
How long will rl ,,
Olga Savic dance#
through our dreams
like the Homeric siren that she is? (T
be honest, that might just be me. Ahem.
Moving on.)
I say this has gone on long enough! I
say we should take our petty grievances
and repressed aggression toward authorg
ity and form a mass militant movement
that will forever free us from our $5 per
semester chains.
It is under this banner of freedom,
that I boldly proclaim my candidacy for
the Supreme Emperorship of MSA.
As emperor, my first act will be'to
abolish the MSA fee. I believe that a
campus that can support a host of
designer coffee teats, liquor stores and
marijuana paraphernalia vendors should
certainly not be asked to spend $5 0o
their parents' money to further civilized
and charitable causes. Save your money
children, Phish tickets will be on sale
soon.
After that, I intend to behave like
Nero on paint fumes.
None of this pussy-footing around
about affirmative action and diversity.
We'll settle this like gentlemen: oil
wrestling. Five rounds live at Hil
Auditorium. Jessica Curtin vs. War
Connerly. University-sanctioned betting
odds will be available on Wolverine
Access until midnight the day before the
fight. May the best wild-eyed ideologue
win.
The diversity-training session of
every freshman's University Orientation
will be replaced by a class on how to
behave like your races'sTV sitcom
equivalent. We can use the delusions of
Hollywood to bring us closer togethel
Black students can either be the saucy
best friend (female),sthepartner that
gets killed in the first reel of a cop
movie or the angry police captain
(male). Asians will have the option of
either the computer expert or the martial
artist. You get the idea.
On to the assembly itself. All pro-
grams designed to benefit the student
population in general will be abolishe
Student regent program, parkin
reform, election reform and voter regis-
tration - they're all gone. I will replace
all useful, intelligent, practical people
on the assembly with raving, one-issue
ponies.
Ryan Friedrichs and Albert Garcia?
Out. BAMN, DAA and the Fruit and
Vegetable Anti-Defamation League? In.
Want a non-binding, anti-circumci-
sion resolution passed? (They actually
did try this.) I'm your emperor.
The psychology department will b
abolished. I'm basing this entirely on
the fact that this department has the
numerical majority of tight T-shirt,
swim team goddesses, and since the
tight T-shirt, swim team goddesses
wouldn't give me the sweat from their
breasts if I was dying of thirst, they're

out like the afro. The money saved will
be used to hire a small five-piece band
to follow every student, faculty and sta
member around for the duration of their
working day. This will vastly improve
the tenor and spirit of our campus.
Think about it. Every time you enter
a room, they will play your own person-
al theme song. I choose "White Boys"
from "Hair." Bollinger himself gets
James Brown's "Funky President."
Jerry Springer will be awarded an
honorary doctorate in Sociology.
The linguistics department will be
required to hold a course in "z-speak.4
Every student will have the chance to
learn to speak like a member of the
Pharcyde. "Pimp" becomes "piznimp."
The first line of the fight song becomes
"Hizail to the viznictors." They will also
have to incorporate the word "cunning"
into their official title. I ain't sayin' how.
Graduate Student Instructor evalua-
tions will no longer involve golf pencils
and bubble sheets. Think blindfolds an
rubber hoses.
Not only will Nike remain a part of
the University business community, but
every student will be required to intern
for one summer in a southeast Asian
sweatshop. To further the ideal of a

Party politics
Students' Party can contribute much to MSA

Michigan Student Assembly's newly
elected president and vice president
will most likely receive worthy attention.
But it is the representatives who put forth
less-glamorous work and receive less praise
simply to serve the student body. This week,
University students will cast their votes to
elect student government representatives.
The Students' Party, traditionally a strong
presence on the assembly, offers the best
overall platform and is certainly deserving
of students' votes for representative seats.
In the past, the Students' Party has fur-
thered many 'University students' objectives.
For example, it worked to streamline MSA to
avoid excess, administrative costs. Its mem-
bers increased funding for student groups and
worked with administrators to guarantee that
tuition increases will be at or below the rate of
inflation. But their major objective lies in the
MSA Student Regent Task Force that recently
introduced a proposal into the state legislature
that would allow a voting student regent. The
party's current platform includes continued
campaigning for a student regent, a structured
lobbying group, a guidebook with informa-
tion on off-campus housing, and increasing
students' knowledge of their personal rights at
the University. These goals would prove very
beneficial to students if implemented.
For years, the Students' Party has spear-
headed the push for a student regent. This
effort should definitely continue in the future
- students deserve representation on the
University Board of Regents. But the "Yes!
Yes! Yes!" campaign, which is largely a cre-
ation of the Students' Party, is the wrong way
to go about it. The legislative effort is more
likely to see success and wouldn't require stu-
dePnts to nav additinal fees.

year, the student-operated coursepack store
has yet to materialize. Campaign promises
like these need implementation. The Students'
Party, while deserving of student votes, must
learn from the mistakes of the past.
Several individual candidates are particu-
larly deserving of mention. Olga Savic, the
current MSA vice president, would be an
ideal Rackham representative. Her assembly
experience makes her particularly well-suited
to address the different interests that graduate
students face. As an out-reaching and goal-
oriented representative, Savic could breath
life into an often vacant position. Ozel
Xiante and Erin Carey, both of the Students'
Party, as well as Mehul Madia of the
Michigan Party are experienced with MSA
and have served the student body well.
Xiante, who has chaired the Lesbian, Gay,
Bisexual and Transgender Commission, has
vastly improved the visibility and participa-
tion of LGBT students. Carey and Madia have
proven their determination and dedication to
the assembly through hard work and the pro-
duction of tangible objectives. These candi-
dates deserve a seat on the assembly.
The Students' Party platform includes
plans for the improvement of student life at
the University as well as increasing com-
munication between MSA and its con-
stituents. In the past, the party has institut-
ed change at the University, and it should
continue to do so. Goals such as the cre-
ation of a student regent and a student lob-
bying group are designed to strengthen stu-
dents' public voice, and plans for the
coursepack store, the housing guide and
other ideas are meant to improve student
life. These aims follow the Students' Party's
record of institiitine rsuiccessfuli chancres that