4A - The Michigan Daily - Thursday, September 17, 1998
c1Ie Bdifigunt Eui g
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
'I'm not a rock group.'
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
Affirmed
Study supports 'U"s admissions policy
he controversial issue of racial and eth-
nic diversity has demanded attention at
the University for decades. The adminsitra-
tion's use of affirmative action in admis-
sions decisions played an integral role in
creating one of the most diverse college
campuses in the nation. The University
,community benefits from the effects of
affirmative action - the interaction of
numerous cultures and a variety of different
backgrounds results in an extremely rich
'learning environment, both in and out of the
classroom. It has and continues to be a long,
hard fight for student activists and
University officials like President Lee
Bollinger to convince the nation that affir-
mative action is essential to maintaining
diversity and academic strength in higher
education.
A recent study conducted by former
Harvard University President Derek Bok
and former Princeton University President
William Bowen shows that the University's
administrators have been right all along in
its support of affirmative action. A book
profiling their study, "Shape of the River,"
is being released in the midst of the lawsuits
against the University's College of
Literature, Science and the Arts and the
Law School. The lawsuits object to the
administration's use of race and ethnic
background as a factor, among many, in
admissions decisions.
The authors, both affirmative action
advocates, analyzed the academic records
of 45,000 students of all races who entered
28 highly selective colleges and universities
that employed affirmative action policies,
noting their performance and achievements.
They found the African American graduates
from the schools obtained more profession-
al degrees despite lower average test scores
and grades. These graduates were nearly
twice as likely as African American gradu-
ates from other schools to get advanced
degrees and several times more likely to get
degrees in law, business and medicine. They
also became more active than the white stu-
dents in social services, politics and in com-
munity services.
Anti-affirmative action activists argue
that admitting minority students to presti-
gious colleges and universities under the
auspices of affirmative action puts them at
an academic and social disadvantage since
the usual standards of admission are low-
ered. University admissions officers mea-
sure academic achievement by the
Scholastic Aptitude Test and the American
College Test, but studies have shown that
such tests are biased against women and
minorities - placing them at a disadvan-
tage and casting a shadow insufficiency on
them. If the University focused solely on
test results and GPAs, they would miss
many of the more qualitative measures of a
potential students' worth. The University
takes race into account as a contributing
factor when making admissions decisions
- enhancing the entire campus's educa-
tional experience.
Further, to deny many under-qualified
students the opportunity to attend the
University would deny them the chance to
prove themselves in the face of a significant
challenge. As the study suggests, when pre-
sented with this opportunity, many of affir-
mative actions beneficiaries proved to
excel.
The study's results not only show that the
University is correct in its use of affirma-
tive action, but also shows that high test
scores do not imply superior intelligence.
They simply indicate good test-taking
skills. As the study suggests, it is the hands-
on application of classroom learning that
matters in the end. Quantitative student-
asessment methods may aid in admission to
higher education institutions, but they do
not necessarily help with the applications of
knowledge and skills needed for a success-
ful career and contribution to society.
- Democractic candidate for the 53rd District state House of Representatives
seat John Hansen, on how to distinguish him from the band Hanson
A LooK BACK MATT WLMs ATT
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This cartoon originally ran in the March 28, 1998 Daily.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Voice your vote
Students should take part in political process
Airbags do
not protect
women and
children
To THE DAILY:
The article "DOT plan may
make air bags safer for kids"
(9/14/98) brought tears to my
eyes. There is absolutely no
excuse for the senseless deaths
of over 65 children because of
air bags. These "safety precau-
tions" that only protect the
adult male population are just
one example of how our soci-
ety is still sex and age biased
Air bags should never have
been installed into vehicles
unless they could protect all
occupants. Women and chil-
dren ride in cars everyday -
yet the article states that "cur-
rent federal rules require that
they only protect belted and
unbelted male dummies"
If car companies can not
test new products for all peo-
ple, then they should not be
installed at all. Only when
the death tally reaches an
extreme high will car manu-
facturers realize that the pop-
ulation consists of others
besides adult males.
LISA MCANUFF
LSA SOPHOMORE
Half-Shekel
campaign
supports
illegal acts
To THE DAILY:
Although I am not Jewish,
I always assumed the maize-
and-blue buttons I see on cam-
pus representing donations to
the Half-Shekel campaign
were a good thing. After all,
we all support charitable ges-
tures towards those less fortu-
nate than ourselves, and I com-
mend the "helping hand" the
campaign lends to homeless
shelters and hunger programs.
But I was quite angered and
disturbed reading the Daily's
coverage of the Half-Shekel
campaign ("3-year-old Half-
Shekel campaign kicks off
again," 9/14/98). The reason?
The campaign "helps Jews
from North Africa and Russia
emigrate to Israel" ... this
sounds very innocent to the
uninformed, but the fact is
Israel is an overcrowded state,
and many of these "immi-
grants" move to settlements in
the West Bank. These settle-
ments are illegal by U.N. dec-
laration, international law and
according to the new tribunal
in The Hague, which makes
settlement of occupied territo-
ries a war crime. Thousands of
Palestinians have been ousted
from the homes their families
have owned for centuries to
make room for these settlers.
Jewish Appeal claim to be pro-
moting "tikun olan" - mean-
ing "repairing the world" -
when they are supporting
internationally condemned
activity and waging what
amounts to an assault on a last-
ing Mideast peace? I fully sup-
port charitable causes, but am
disgusted at piggybacking sup-
port of an illegal and unethical
practice onto those causes.
SALADIN AHMED
LSA SENIOR
The 'U' has a
responsibility
to consider
background
To THE DAILY:
Any public institution has
the right - moreover, the
responsibility - to "better"
the community they serve.
This responsibility includes
attempting to break the cycle
of poverty, hunger, crime and'
despair that exists within that
community by providing real
and viable alternatives to those
suffering from these hardships.
In the case of the University,
that community is the world;
the opportunity we can provide
is an education. We must con-
tinue to afford all individuals
an equal chance at hope.
WhatIamsaying, then, is
that admissions standards at
this institution should be
allowed and expected, (much
like life), to take into account
more than grades and test
scores. They should review
individual circumstance and
decide whether or not admis-
sion to the University would
be likely to enable the indi-
vidual in question to better
himself. I am not advocating
admission based solely on the
grounds of race, gender, reli-
gion or any of the other polit-
ically correct buzzwords. I
am instead suggesting that
we reward individuals' suc-
cess in life at least as richly
as their success in academia.
After all, who is the true
victim The daughter of a
middle-class suburbanite who
is forced to choose from a
handful of fine institutions?
Or is it the young man who
had to raise his siblings
because his father left and his
mother had to work 16 hours
every day to make ends meet?
Would you like to be the one
to tell this man that he hasno
future because he wasn't able
to devote enough time to his
studies? More importantly,
would you deem his experi-
ence and "life" achievements
to be less important than the
ability to drop an egg from a
building without it breaking? I
think not.
Granted, the egg test is
important - we'd never have
explored the surface of Mars
without it 1iRut until we~ live
Article did
not give the
whole story
To THE DAILY:
I'd like to suggest a novel
idea: The Michigan Daily
should actually inform readers
about what's going on in the
world so they can make
informed judgements about
various issues Case in point:
the September 14 article on
The United Jewish Appeal
Half-Shekel Campaign ("?3-
year-old Half-Shekel campaign
kicks off again"). In it, we read
that a portion of half of the
donations to this organization
"helps Jews in places like
North Africa and Russia emi-
grate to Israel." The article
doesn't comment on this state-
ment, a quote from a member
of the organization. We don't
learn that many immigrants to
Israel are provided with subsi-
dized housing by the Israeli
government in occupied
Palestinian territory like the
West Bank. We don't learn that
these settlements are illegal
under international law - the
Fourth Geneva Convention,
which Israel signed, prohibits
population transfer from an
occupying country to occupied
territories.
We don't learn anything
of the depth of suffering that
these (armed) settlements
planted in their midst causes
to Palestinians. These settle-
ments are very often created
on Israeli "state land" confis-
cated from Palestinians by
home demolitions and other
military actions and available
only to Jews. The idea that
the Half-Shekel Campaign's
actions (including admirable
ones like supporting battered
womens organizations and
the homeless) can altogether
be described as working for
"tikun olam" (repairing the
world) is doubtful, given the
situation that settlements in
occupied territories perpetu-
ates. Unfortunately, the Daily
doesn't give us the facts
about the situation (which is
openly discussed within
Israel itself, among other
countries). I hope that this
article doesn't represent a
pattern for the Daily's perfor-
mance this year.
AARON STARK
LSA JUNIOR
Beware of
chalking the
Diag benches
To THE DAILY:
A message to any and all
campus groups: Whatever
your political statement or
service may be, go ahead and
chalk it wherever you want.
But beware the consequences
Baseball, alive
and kicking, !
offers honor
amid scandal
T his past Friday, the results of th
Clinton-Lewinsky investigation
spurted career-destroying carnage alt
over the Internet.
Lives were ruined. Dreams wer
destroyed.
A few hours
spent leering at the
car wreck prompt-
ed me to grab the
remote control.a
Instead of reveling
over D.C.'s drama
or fretting about
the nation's disin-
tegrating stan-
dards, I did theE M
mature thing. ELDRIDGE
I watched base- t 'ImA
ball. 'iI)Ni
'The Cubs played
the Brewers. I should have been dis-
mayed that the Cubs, a team I love, lost
1-11; instead I felt an instant wave of
relief.
The game did its job. It was immedi-
ate diversion from hateful event*
America was still linear, content, sensi-
ble. I'd never contend that any sport is,
important enough to solely balance out
the drudgery of a badly pained nation
- but at times like these, a little bit of
a good thing can go a long way.
Baseball remains the only sport I've
ever followed with genuine affection.
Few moments in life will match the
undiluted joy I knew in the fall of '87,
when Frank Tanana capped the regular
season with a 1-0 complete-gan
shutout againstthe Blue Jays, bringin
the Tigers the American League East
title.
The game had me hooked. I knew I'd
never leave,.
The world has ,been breaking my
heart ever since.
But this summer, life got good again,
right when baseball was needed most.
Pastel-shaded, slow-motion, Roy-
Hobbsian fantasies poured over network
news and front-page headlines.
Recently, there have been moments
when the game has seemed not just
inspiring, but, welldownrightmythic.
My conversion came during a two-.
game series between the Tigers and the:
Cubs. Tiger Stadium surely has seen
better times, but for two muggy nights
in June, the stands had an echo of
grandeur.
Crowds surged to 30,000 - a dro
in the bucket at Coors Field or Yanke
Stadium, but a major turnout for the
hobbled Detroit team.
Better yet, we were drawn by play-
ers like Kerry Wood, Sammy Sosa and
Bobby Higginson - not by Beanie
Babies or free ball caps. When Sosa
hit home runs both nights, partisan
allegiances dropped, and he fielded
ovations comparable to . any he'd
receive in Chicago. Later, when Ma
Anderson made his major league
debut, the crowd roared for the highly
touted reliever.
The Tigers won both games, but on a
certain level, the results didn't matter.
I watch baseball like I read a book;
studiously, the field as text, multiple
stories playing out simultaneously as I
try to take in as many details as possi-
ble, and the pleasure of seeing the Cubs
and Tigers play each other - the two
teams of my adolescence, teams I nev
expected to go face to face in my life-
time - was enough.
I now feel sheepish for having bashed
interleague play. '
Someday Tiger Stadium will be laid
to rest. I wasn't there in '84 and I
wasn't there in '87. But I will be able
to say I was there to see Sosa hit two
home, runs, and I was there when,
Anderson threwdhis first pitch in the
majors.
It was the highlight of a summer that
included several other ventures to Tiger
Stadium, my first trip to Wrigley Field
and a Mets-Cardinals double-header in
sold-out Shea Stadium.
Arl''it goes without saying that the
season unfolded beforethe Homeric
backdrop of the Mark McGwire-
Sammy Sosa home run chase, a story
heaped with so many superlatives that
all comments about it become instant
cliches, an apple-pie epic centered i*
two historic, Midwestern baseball
cities. Their gee-whiz humility falls
straight. out of an old Frank Capra
movie; they're a Walt Whitman poem.
Not to mention David Wells's perfect
game.
Not to mention the continued bril-
liance of Tom Glavine and Greg
Maddux.
Not to mention the Mets-Cubs wil
card chase.
Not to mention the Yankees' torrential
success.
It will still take years to heal the sores.
of the 1994 strike. No quantity of home
runs or Yankee victories will make the
owners seem any less greedy, the play-
pre. anv, lace cplfih nr the amp wa nv, laos
A ncient civilizations thought of political
science as the mother of all sciences.
In light of the importance of the upcoming
elections, it seems that to a degree, that is
true.
On Tuesday, Geoffrey Fieger, the
Democratic candidate in the Michigan guber-
natorial race, visited the University. It is likely
that his chief opponent, Gov. John Engler (R-
Beal City), will also visit the Ann Arbor area
in the coming weeks before the November
election. It is a fitting honor that the
University's campus are visited by the leading
political figures of our state. Not only do local
and regional politicians visit the University,
but leading national and international figures
pay our school tribute also. Hillary Rodham
Clinton visited the University at the end of the
winter term and just last Monday, a former
presidential candidate in South Korea, who is
now the Korean ambassador to the United
States, visited campus.
The fact that so many politicians visit
benefits the student body enormously.
Every student is able to listen to these per-
- sonalities and hear what they have to say
verbatim. There is no media taint, and scan-
dal of any nature fades away as the political
character lays out his or her ideology for the
student body.
It should come as no great surprise that
so many well-known and respected politi-
cians come to the University. The student
body has traditionally been very politically
active on election day and through its work
on political campaigns. In addition, the
r'ntir .. i , n. P r1n m a a n r ttan-'c. t11 lltrlnan
serves as a valuable resource for students
interested in both working in politics and
interpreting various political issues. With
all these unparalleled resources, the
University's student body should be
involved in the political scene.
While politics may seem not to get into
our everyday life, it is composed of the
fabric of our everyday life. The student
body must know exactly who the candi-
dates are and for which issues they stand.
Candidates must be carefully screened
before they are elected for any potential
defects; issues and ideas must be careful-
ly analyzed and weighed in the minds of
the voters. Having all of these excellent
resources and opportunities, the student
body should transcend media blurbs and
partisan squabbles to be thoroughly
informed and involved in the political
process. Every member of the University's
student body who is eligible to vote
should register and take part in the politi-
cal process. Students that have yet to reg-
ister to vote should do so by Oct. 3 to
ensure that they can cast a ballot come
November. When the student body real-
izes that their financial stability along
with the world in which they will raise
their kids will be determined by the poli-
tics of today, political science will, maybe
not be the mother of all sciences, but at
least will be one of the important ones.
Perhaps by November the student body
will not only vote but also be politically
active by showing the benefits of the
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