4A -The Michigan Daily - Thursday, April 9, 1998
albe ffiirbigw &dlg
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
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
SCrumbling code
Faulty election code hurts MSA's credibility
'There's no excuse that they can give that can dismiss
their lack of respect for Native Americans.'
- SNRE sophomore Joe Reilly, during Tuesday nights race dialogue
PURPLE HERRING C O V E N I E N CfE AB:oU N
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
ichigan Student Assembly elections
have been over for weeks, but the con-
troversy surrounding them is just now wind-
ing down. At Tuesday's meeting, the Penalty
Elections Board announced that it had found
MSA President Trent Thompson guilty of
campaigning within 50 feet of a polling site.
While this brings to close a long and tumul-
tuous controversy and investigation, it high-
Jights a serious deficiency in the assembly's
Election Code. It is time for MSA to re-eval-
uate the present code to prevent future devi-
ations from threatening the integrity of stu-
dent government at the University.
According to the board's ruling,
Thompson was campaigning too close to a
computer being used to vote at a fraternity
party on March 17. While Thompson denied
the allegations, it is obvious that someone -
whether at Thompson's request or not - was
attempting to influence voters.
Thompson's penalty for the violation
amounts to little more than a slap on the
wrist. His ticket - consisting of himself
and MSA Vice President Sarah Chopp -
was given one violation point, bringing its
total number to two. The other point was
given because Thompson placed a poster on
glass, a violation many MSA candidates
incur durring the election season. In order
to be disqualified from the election, a tick-
et must receive five points.
There is an obvious difference between
influencing voters and merely causing poten-
tial damage to a glass surface. The Election
Code was not designed to account for elec-
tronic voting - when this method was added
last year, too much haste led to a failure to fix
all of its problems. The Election Code is in
dire need of reworking - both to clear up the
vagueness that plagues it and to ensure that
future acts in clear violation of election ethics
are not passed on without due punishment.
When it rendered its decision, the Penalty
Elections Board made recommendations for
changes to the Election Code, including elim-
inating students' ability to vote off campus.
While this may eliminate some problems, it
would severely hamper many students' ability
to vote at their convenience - negating the
intent of establishing online voting. The
assembly should make it possible for all stu-
dents voting to be aware of what the rules
regarding their ballots are. Including a brief
summary of the election rules on both paper
and electronic ballots would inform students
about the standards candidates must adhere to.
In addition, the assembly must address
the problems that surface when interpreting
the code. For instance, the code defines an
electronic polling site as "... any computer in
a Campus Computing or Rescomp site." But
computers in off-campus locations still have
access to voting - begging the question of
what category these computers fall under.
Further, MSA should increase the severity of
the penalties for serious violations.
MSA representatives should also take heed
of these election rules. The assembly suffers
from a lack of credibility among students - a
problem that situations like the recent investi-
gation only aggravate. If representatives want
the assembly to be taken seriously, it must
make sure that it takes its own rules seriously.
While online voting has benefited many
students and helped increase voter turnout,
it does have drawbacks. MSA must address
these problems not only to better its own
image, but to prevent its work from being
overshadowed by scandal.
Northern exposure
'U' should address North Campus issues
M onday's town meeting with
IVIUniversity President Lee Bollinger
and Provost Nancy Cantor addressed the
issue of North Campus's overall alienation
from the rest of the University. Bollinger
tend Cantor both recognized that the
University lacks a sense of unity due to the
relative isolation of North Campus. This
stratification on campus negatively impacts
the , learning environment, and the
University should work to foster a strong
bond between North Campus and the other
yeographic segments of the University.
Driving a large wedge between the two
academic campuses is the physical distance
separating them. A 10-minute bus ride
awaits any student departing from the C.C.
Little bus stop. To make the journey more
convenient, the University operates a fleet
of busses that run every 10 minutes during
the week. This arrangement does well to
make the journey north less of a hassle, but
the weekend bus schedule is not nearly as
successful.
On Saturdays and Sundays, the buses
run only on half-hour intervals, an incon-
venience that strands a many students for
two days during the week. The lack of
readily available transportation discour-
ages students living, on North Campus
from visiting Central Campus and the
downtown Ann Arbor area. Weekends give
students the opportunity to relax and
explore all of Ann Arbor. Students on the
respective campuses often remain there
for the duration of the weekend - miss-
ing out on the resources available on both
campuses.
To remedy this problem, the University
simply needs to run a few more busses on the
weekend. Granted, the number of students
using the weekend busses drops, but these
students deserve to have a convenient way of
University could add more buses during the
weekend to reduce the time interval between
pick ups to a more reasonable 15 minutes.
This interval should be short enough to make
the trip between campuses more feasible, and
long enough to gather a number of students
that justify running the bus.
Another major problem facing North
Campus is its lack of development. Nearly
every building on the campus is a
University-owned property dedicated to
housing classes or students. Only in
Pierpont Commons is there a food court,
and it is drastically short of restaurants and
services. People do not go up to North
Campus because there is little to do there.
The University would likely have little trou-
ble locating potential suitors to develop the
North Campus image. Many businesses
would jump at the chance to market them-
selves to a large number of college students.
Such expansion would also help build the
North Campus sense of community.
A third problem for the University is
that the split between campuses damages
the potential for interdisciplinary work.
North Campus takes the engineering,
music and art professors and breaks them
away from the University. Different depart-
ments working together can lead to inter-
esting new research and better classes for
students to take. The University needs to
publicize North Campus more so that more
faculty and students consider looking to the
different parts of campus for their next
endeavor.
As the University develops North
Campus into a more accessible and diverse
environment, it will start to earn a place in
the collective mind of the University.
Eventually, the campus may be seen as one
developed unit. A unified campus will
greatly benefit students in both an academ-
Affirmative
action is
racism
To THE DAILY:
In response to the Ciara
Benson's letter, "Minority
views are not voiced at the
'U"' (3/23/98), I would like
to take this opportunity to
applaud Benson for capturing
the very essence of affirma-
tive action with the line, "..
they assume that because
they look a certain way or
come from a certain back-
ground, educational privi-
leges not only are available to
them, but they have a right to
them." For those not blessed
enough to have been enlight-
ened by Benson's entire let-
ter, let me clarify that her let-
ter was written in support of
affirmative action.
Confused? I was. Allow
me to explain: The "they" at
the beginning of that quote
was referring to the dominat-
ing evil force at work in the
country, the white males, not
the countless underrepresent-
ed persons who have used
their race, sex or social back-
ground to get ahead.
Benson also says, "...
they have never had to take a
stand and fight for something
as critical as their right to
higher education." Besides
contradicting herself by indi-
cating.awithin the same letter,
that higher education is not
an inherent right in the first
quote and is an inherent right
in the second quote, she also
presumes to know for what
I've fought.
Please, fight for your
"right" to higher education,
but don't let me fight for
mine. Benson, would you
care to know that I was
rejected by more schools
than accepted me? I don't
blame my race or sex for
keeping me out of those
other schools, just as I would
never insult my own intelli-
gence by giving credit to my
race or sex for getting me
into this one. Because I hold
dear the idealistic notion that
race and sex should be
ignored when determining
the merit of an individual, do
people label me as an ideal-
ist? No, they label me as a
racist and sexist.
Affirmative action is an
issue of racial discrimination.
Racial discrimination is both
illogical and immoral. To
deny the fact that affirmative
action is a racial issue would
be toeundermine the intelli-
gence of people on both sides
of the issue.
I prefer to look at social
issues from an individual per-
spective. Affirmative action
asks us to make a sacrifice.
As noble as that is, let's
examine it on an individual
basis, without rhetoric or sta-
tistics. I'm talking to you, the
reader, the editors of the
Daily and Ciara Benson.
Would you be willing to give
is the real world, where we
don't have to share. I wanted
an education at a top-notch
school, so I worked for it,
and I'll be damned if I sup-
port a program that
"assumes" merit and pre-
sumes to manually "level the
playing field," hurting my
individual chance to succeed
and undermining the very
integrity of this nation's com-
petitive spirit.
AVI DERROW
LSA SOPHOMORE
Homophobia
hides behind
the Bible
TO THE DAILY:
Recently, Edward Blum
wrote a very eloquent letter
on God's forgiveness and the
inclination of all people to
sin ("Humankind cannot fol-
low biblical laws," 3/30/98).
In this, he somehow found
the justification to declare
homosexuality a sin.
He missed a very large
point in Jonathon Seyfried's
letter ("Modern Society does
not adhere to biblical laws,"
3/23/98). That was that the
Bible condemns a large num-
ber of activities, many of
which happen on a regular
basis in our society.
Therefore, to single out
homosexuality, declare it a
sin, and then say that some-
how, we are completely justi-
fied to eat 1ham or to have
marriages where the man and
woman are equals is com-
pletely a pick-and-choose
method of interpretation of
the Bible.
The reason I mention
those two points is simply
that they are a small sam-
pling of the many ways in
which modern society out-
right ignores the teachings of
the Bible.
But when it comes to
something like homosexuali-
ty Blum can recite chapter
and verse to find every possi-
ble justification for what he
really wants to do: promote
homophobia and heterosex-
ism. He even compares my
sexual orientation to lying
and cheating.
Homosexuality has even
been compared to rape and
murder (although not by
Blum). These are acts that
defile another person. But my
capacity to love another man
is only a fulfilling act for
both of us. It in no way
defiles either of us, or anyone
else in society, for that matter.
The issue, then, is not me
bein'g gay. The issue is Blum
(and others, like the religious
right) being afraid of the
unknown.
Anyone who has read (not
quoted) the Bible and learned
their history can tell you that
hate of a specific group of
people comes from the
unknown.
Article was
'biased'
TO THE DAILY:
I am writing in regards to
the article by Peter Meyers,
in the March 30 issue of the
Daily ("Ku Klux Klan plans
hate rally in Ann Arbor").
I noticed several rather
disturbing aspects to this arti-
cle which, particularly after
discussing the article with
some of my fellow U of M
students, that I felt I should
bring to the Daily's attention.
I would encourage readers to
reread the article in light of
what I have to say here.
Perhaps I should begin my
comments with the headline
of the article in question.
After reading through the arti-
cle a couple of times, I was at
a loss to find justification for
the reference to the Klan's
attempt to plan a rally as
being a "hate" rally. Now I
feel obligated to state at this
point that my beliefs are not
in league with those of the
Klan as well as many of the
activities that they used to and
may still participate. But as
previously stated nowhere in
the article could I find any
justification for this allegation
that was made in the headline
of the article. I believe that I
do understand the reason for
the choice of wording in the
title, and it doesn't take a
communications major to
realize this either. In fact, I
believe that I can remember
back to my freshman English
class in high school to under-
stand the motivation for the
headline. I was taught to try to
find a headline that would be
captivating to the audience at
a glance. If appropriate, it
could also be somewhat
provocative with the goal of
gaining the audience's atten-
tion. Well, this certainly did
have what I propose was the
desired effect of causing me
to read the article. But I was
also taught that you must be
fair to your audience and
eventually justify whatever the
headline inferred on the issue.
After reading the article, 1
was also left with the over-
whelming feeling that Meyers
had overstepped his responsi-
bility as a reporter of giving
an objective and unbiased
portrayal of the circum-
stances. Rather, it seemed that
his opinion was influecing
the general tone of the article,
and I sensed a lack of profes-
sional journalism. This led me
to believe that perhaps this
was an editorialtrather than a
news article that I was read-
ing. Unfortunately, I failed to
find anything in evidence to
suggest this as a plausible
explanation. It was at this
point that I felt obligated to
bring this to the attention of
the Daily's editors.
Now I would like to
emphasize once again that this
is merely my opinion on this
issue. But for what it's worth,
I felt that the article did not
Studenthood:
Dealing with the*
small things your
parents used to
nstead of the junior-senior writing
Irequirement or free electives, the
University should require Basic Life
Skills. Life has an insidious ittle habit
of getting in the way, right when there4
are so many
other things to
do. A class
would provide * a
justifiable time.
Before you sit
down to deal
with any number
of things typical
for a student -
there's that paper
due in three days MEGAN I
and, by the way, SCHIMPF
there's an exam
on the book you
haven't opened since you bought it -
you've got a pile of other things on the
desk, floor and kitchen table requiring
attention.
Guaranteed that sometime in the
process, you'll wish your parents were
still dealing with these issues.
So get this: College isn't about prov-
ing whether you can do the work. That
was high school and agai in graduate
school. College is about learning how to
do the work.
It's about whether or not you can pay
the bills on time - from rent to heat to
water to phone - and collecting from
everyone who shares the house. Finding
the money - that means going to the
bank to actually deposit those checks -
to pay the credit card bill on time. And
whether you've got stamps on hand to
mail any of these.
It's about trying to stay healthy,
including exercising, sleeping, eating.
Finding a doctor and a dentist and then
time to see them. Cooking something
reasonably satisfying, and something
different tomorrow night. This would
involve having time to go shopping, of
course.
Life is about finding a place to live.
that falls within the range of "accept-
able" - you thought creative writing
was broad - and keeping it running.
Your landlord's still not cooperating
about the drippy noise. There are dishes
to betdoe before they become a private
microbiology experiment. As soon as
you get this year's place working,
there's next year to think about, a sum-
mer residence to find, and possibly a
sublettor to line up.
It's about doing and paying taxes.
That calculus you slaved for in high
school won't help, and April 15 is less
than a week away. You thought your
5004evel class for which you rarely
attend lecture was hard to succeed in?
Wait until you've got tax forms for three
states in front of you and a calculator as
your only friend. (Screw up, and the IRS
might catch you in about 25 years.)
The money that earned the privilege
of paying taxes came from on-the-jobs
hours, which can take countless forms
on a college campus. Any will keep you
away from just being a student.
Your car needs to be washed. And the
gas tank is almost empty. Heaven forbid
it need to be fixed.
By the way, there are three phone
messages just from tonight that need to
be returned. Opening your e-mail might
be a little scary because of how long it's
been. Three people are celebrating
birthdays this week, and you don't actu-0
ally keep birthday cards around the
house. Your one group of friends has
plans for Friday night, another is getting
together Saturday night, and your fami-
ly wants to see you Monday night.
But wait - do you have enough clean
clothes to make it through? Thought so.
Then it's about finding the right time to
do laundry, when you can commandeer
all the machines. (Hint: Start stealing
every quarter you see now.)
Because it's almost the end of the
year, any group you're associated with
is having its Big Event, and once upon a
time, you thought it might be cool to be
involved.
In your free time: Test on Monday,
bigger test next week. Research term
paper taunting you.
Ready, set, go.
Soin your spare time, you can worry
about what will occupy the summer4
months - recreation? internship? trav-
el ? sleep? - and after that, perhaps
what will come in the years after gradu-
ation.
Being a successful student is about
achieving in the midst of this muck,
about sorting through the background
din to find the right mix of everything
that has to be done for all the different
channels that request a portion of our
energy, brainpower and effort. It's about
having a life and still managing a life.
The course description for Basic Life
Skills would be simple: This class will
consist purely of experiential laboratory
sessions that take place in and around
Ann Arbor. No attendance reauired. No