4 - The Michigan Daily - Friday, October 2, 1998 Ur £tbiripign 3 aitg 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 Dailys editorial board. All other articles, letters and cartoons do not necessarily reflect the opinion of The Michigan Daily. FROM THE DAILY Financing the future Lower interest rate will benefit 'U' students E ducation is supposed to be an investment But for many University students, the in the future. Many students are forced to financial outlook is still grim. The lower finance their education through loans that will interest rates will help students who are follow them into the "adult" world. In an forced to take out loans and the increase in effort to make investing in education possible Pell grant money will help students who will for more students and ease the financial bur- qualify for the grant. But Congress did not den of loans for them, Congress passed a bill provide enough money to increase the num- this week that will lower the interest rate on ber of grants available. Many students are student loans. This will drop the student loan forced to take out loans that will financially interest rate to a 17-year low of 7.43 percent. burden them for years after graduation. The bill also increased the amount of money Lower interest rates are a step in the right for Pell grants, although many students will direction, but they are not enough to sub- not be able to benefit from these funds. stantially ease the burden on many students. The interest rate - which dropped from Financial institutions are not making 8.23 percent - will not only help those stu- University students' situation easier. That dents taking out new loans, but students and the commercial banks are interested in stu- former students who wish to consolidate dent loans for profit made from interest. To loans. University students should consoli- prevent these banks from bailing on the date their loans before the window of student loan industry, Congress was forced opportunity close at the end of January. to subsidize the institutions. The money Congress did face opposition in lower- that was used in the additional subsidy ing interest rates from banks who claimed should instead be used to form additional that the new rates could financially hinder grants. them and drive them from the student loan By lowering the interest rate and increas- business. Although it is doubtful that the ing the amount of money offered in grants, interest rate would break the banks, Congress is definitely heading in the right Congress is providing the lenders with sub- direction. The increase in the value of Pell sides that are expected to total hundreds of grants is good for students who are eligible, millions of dollars. but for the many students who are not the It is not only students that use loans that solution to the problem of paying for col- are benefiting from this bill, though. Those lege is still the same - loans. And for those students who will be awarded a Pell grant in students the option to consolidate or take the future will also be able to reap the benefits out loans at a fixed lower interest rate is of the bill. The current grant of $2,800 will be helpful but loans will still financially bur- raised to $4,500 in the 1999-2000 academic den students for much of their adult life. year and will continue to increase until 2003, Financial institutions should not be so when the maximum grant size will top out at greedy as to require subsidies from $5,800. But students not eligible for a Pell Congress. Congress and the private banks grant will not benefit from the increase in should put the interests of educating stu- grant money because the number of grants dents above the profit margins of commer- will not increase -just their individual value. cial corporations. State employee drug policy is irrational A s of this past Sunday, non-union state under the feet of people suffering from drug employees could lose their jobs for addictions, the state government should be having one beer over lunch. At the request setting an example for employers in the pri- of Gov. John Engler, Michigan has joined vate sector by addressing employee chemical the ranks of 25 other states with the adop- dependency through counseling, Alcoholics tion of its new "zero-tolerance" policy Anonymous or a similar treatment regimen. toward drugs and alcohol. The policy man- This approach would benefit both the state dates that any non-union worker found to and the troubled worker. Fired employees, have a blood alcohol concentration of 0.02 unable to afford effective treatment for them- percent will be subject to disciplinary selves, will only see their problems get worse action that could include termination. until they end up becoming even more of a Additionally, any state employee under the burden on the state than they originally were policy's umbrella will be fired if they are as drug-plagued state employees. found with any detectable illegal drugs. Through the adoption of the "zero toler- While the principle of taking measures to ance" policy, Michigan has forced itself to create a drug-free workplace is commend- draw unfair and unnecessary distinctions able, the new policy, which affects 16,000 between its employees. Another drug-test- state workers, considerably oversteps the ing policy has been languishing in court for boundary between the rational and the two years, and the state is in the midst of absurd. The Engler administration has main- negotiations with unions to establish a poli- tained that the policy is fair because it gives cy for all of its 58,000 employees. Instead state employees two times in their career to of implementing an even-handed policy self-report any substance abuse problems that applies to all of its employees, the state before they are caught. How can such a poli- has singled out those workers not protected cy be justified when a state worker can be by the aegis of a union. fired for having a blood alcohol concentra- The state should be applauded for wanting tion of just one fifth of the state's drunken dri- to create a positive work environment for its ving limit of 0.1 percent? Certainly, drunken- employees, but the logic behind the new zero- ness and drug abuse on the job should not be tolerance policy is unsound. Not only is a 0.02 tolerated. But the consumption of the equiva- percent blood-alcohol concentration a ridicu- lent of one alcoholic beverage would hardly lous standard by which to define drunken- impair the average adult to anywhere near the ness, but the state dodges the obligation it has point where they could not properly perform to maintain the health of its employees and a job, let alone to the point where it would ultimately puts more of a burden on itself by warrant termination. firing workers with chemical dependencies. The blood alcohol concentration limits the Furthermore, if Michigan is to adopt an anti- new policy imposes are not its only flaw drug policy, it must apply it universally, not Supposing that only workers who had gen- just to workers who aren't backed-up by a uine substance abuse problems were fired, union. There are better ways to discourage the state would still be neglecting the respon- drug and alcohol abuse than through the sibility it has to address employees' health implementation of intrusive, selective and issues. Rather than pulling the rug out from irrational policies. 'An adult student for better or worse is still an adult. ... This amendment would basically be turning the university into a babysitter for them.' - David Banisa the policy director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center on a federal law that would allow universities to disclose students'alcohol-related offenses KA AMR AN HAFEZ As IT H APPENS *"4~' I ell -i t - LETTERS TO THE EDITOR of going for black humor, he their lives depended on in. I St d n sgives us another resentful was at Joe Louis Arena in attitude is anti-upper-middle-class-East- 1991 when your boys came Coast rant that is just ludi- back from a three-goal deficit ch ildish crous and has nothing to do to beat Ferris State, screaming with the issue at hand. Are myself hoarse as Steve Shields we supposed to believe that (then an anonymous freshman To THE DAILY: the only people who suffer sub) put on an unbelievable My husband and I have from this allergy are east show and you walked away been Michigan football sea- coast WASPs, as the column victorious. I even defended son ticket holders for some implies? your character when I heard 25 years now. We are now Miller, your "Poverty that you had been charged retired and drive to all the Pat" column was rambling, with a crime more typical of a home games from Higgins self-contradictory, and unin- binging 21-year-old than an Lake, Mich. I have been very telligent. And why don't you established coach at the top of disappointed in the attitude lay off East Coasters for a his profession. of the University students week or two? You're making However disillusioned I when the players from the Midwesterners like us look may have been by this last away teams are introduced as petty and confused as your example, nothing compared before the games. It shows a recent columns. to the disillusionment I feel lack of class on their part and having read your statements does not paint a very good JAC0B KART in the Daily, trivializing the picture of the University. It LSA SENIOR financial burden the Athletic seems to me that more Dprmn a lcdo respect should be given to Department has placed on our uest onfootallstudent hockey fans. Perhaps our guests on football yuhv otsgto h Saturdays. I have always An openyoualod'standmsig tfwit. thought that a great universi- letter n y Red ed fans are.I am one of the ty such as ours should be lte.o R d edfn r.I moeo h above such childish behavior. fortunate 1,600 who had Berenson enough saved up from the ANNETTE WHITE summer to be able to afford UNIVERSITY ALUMNA the near doubling of ticket To THE DAILY: prices, but none of the seven I am writing in response friends I purchased tickets to Daily Oct. I article with last year were able to do M iller's "Despite doubles prices, so, and I spent the money I hockey tickets sell out," more had saved to attend your colum n was specifically to the comments games at Joe Louis Arena on uninte g ent' made by Coach Red the price increase (may I u n inte ige t Berenson. He states that remind you that Michigan "nothing has changed." always has a shameful To THE DAILY: However, the ticket prices turnout at "The Joe," general- I've been one of the silent have changed. They were ly outdone by those who trav- majority who has looked for- raised a significant amount elled all the way from ward to James Miller's col- (87.5 percent, to be exact). Houghton and Sault St. umn in the Wednesday Daily Another thing has changed as Marie and don't even get me over the last few years. His well. For years, Yost Ice started on how embarrassing "I'm going to say what Arena has been dreaded by we are in comparison to everyone else is thinking but opposing teams as the loud- State). You, sir, may choose won't say" style has been est, rowdiest and most diffi- to look at it as simply another good for a few laughs. But cult arena to play in. Now, $2.50 out of my pocket, but I'm beginning to wonder if with almost 1,000 fewer of please keep in mind that Miller hasn't just run out of the rowdiest of the rowdy, the those $70 kept a lot of very targets and insight. rafters of Yost may never enthusiastic fans from sup- Take Wednesday's again shake and shimmy the porting your team in person "Poverty Pat." He goes after way they used to. and kept the likes of me from the peanut allergy issue, a Red, I have been a big fan supporting your team at some perfect column controversy of your hockey team ever of it's most important games topic: The issue is absurd on since I first came to Ann of the year. the one hand, deadly serious Arbor in 1987. I defended on the other. But Miller com- your team members when they ERIC DYER pletely drops the ball. Instead couldn't put a puck in a net if RC SENIOR VIEWPOINT Gov Bush should stay out of tmn-s' ptts After 108 years, the Daily is still going strong "The staff of the Daily proposed to set the ball rolling by establishing a paper which should attempt to do but one thing - give the news - promptly and accurately. The Daily pretends to do nothing else." - Daily editorial, Thursday, Oct. 2 1890.S L ast year's Daily editor in chief ended his birthday comments with the above sentiment, and so Ifind it fit- ting to begin mine with it. It's the kind of thing we pass down around here. Like many student LAURIE organizations, we have our crazy tradi- tions and silly mem- ories. But they fade after a while. What remains (yellowed, but still there) are the pages and pages of Dailys and the impact that 108 years of editorial freedom has had on the members of the University community. The Daily has changed just as college campuses have over the years. In the 1920s and 30s, when the coun try's attention was focused on national and international affairs, so was the Daily's. In 1925, the paper published a personal interview with Gandhi. In the turbulent '60s, the Daily was a radical vehicle for political speech and expression. It published editorials criti- cizing the draft, covered the volatile 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago and braved tear gas during demonstrations. In the 1980s, the Daily shed its liber- al skinand took up a more conservative attitude, editorially. Today, the Daily retains a classic approach to journalism that, sadly, many papers have abandoned in favor of USA Today-style graphics and MBA-style journalism. In some ways, of course, it's a little easier for us to resist these trends. We're a need-to-know newspaper, and we don't apologize for that in th least. We have plenty of graphics and illustrations on hand, but they're there to make the news more easily digested, not to attract attention. Granted, we don't have to sell our newspaper. We don't need -focus groups because our readers are our roommates, class- mates and neighbors. We live just down the street at 420 Maynard St.; if readers don't like what they see in the Daily, they can tell us. Or they can join the staff. Providing news to the Ann Arbo community has sometimes required a little legwork - and an occasional trip overseas. Ambitious Daily staffers got down and dirty with the rest of the reporters - sometimes scooping papers that would later hire them or their Daily colleagues. Their escapades resulted in personal and lively accounts of events that may otherwise have seemed far and irrelevant to the University community In 1958, an editor's note read: "Daily reporters Huthwaite and Elsman spent their Spring vacation in Cuba attempting to get an interview with rebel leader Fidel Castro. Before they could travel to con- tact Castro in the Seirra Maestra moun- tains they were the first reporters arrested by the Cuban government as it attempted to deny privileges to all newspapermen in Santiago"' The Michigan Daily was the only college paper credentialed by Judge Julius Hoffman to cover the Chicag Seven trial in 1970. In "Special to the Daily," a compila- tion of Daily article excerpts from the newspaper's first 100 years of publishing, an editor wrote next to a 1975 story: "I haven't a clue how this story came about, or what a Daily reporter was doing in Vietnam. Sometimes it seemed as though the Daily was everywhere." iMost of the time,however, the Dail# is right here in Ann Arbor. Although we take great pride in the fact that we have brought the University community news from all corners of the world, we are most proud of the work we do right here on campus. Several years ago, someone asked what I thought life on campus would be like without The Michigan Daily. Life, class- es and sporting events would go on, I sup- pose. It's the knowledge and perspective of their participants that would change. 0. I remembered a day a few years ago when there was no Daily for most of us. We awoke one morning in March to find most of the press run had been removed from campus as a political statement. The mood was somber inside 420 Maynard St. that day and several days later when editors and staffers gathered at the window to watch a crowd of stu- dents chant and burn a Daily in fronto building where it was created. "Well, honey, in journalism, you won't always make everybody happy," my father said to me over the phone as I watched the scene outside. No, we don't always make everybody happy. That's not our job. BY THE STAFF OF THE Prrr NEWS Republican presidential hopefuls are push- ing abstinence high on their platforms. So it's not likely that Texas Governor George W Bush will slide into the White House as easily as a bowling ball rolling down a lane lubed with Astroglide come November 2000. Bush's initiative, the Lone Star Leaders program, is aimed at high-school students, telling them to abstain from premarital sex, drugs, crime, tobacco and critical thinking. Other Republican presidential hopefuls on the abstinence bandwagon include Sen. John D. Ashcroft(R-Mo.), Family Research Council President Gary L. Bauer, publisher Steve Forbes and former Vice President Dan Quayle ("seksual abstinanse is a priaurity"). Premarital sex is an abominable act - if one happens to be of the Victorian-era mindset. The aim of lowering teen-pregnancy rates is noble, but the advice offered by opportunistic politicians is hopeless. Instead of handing out condoms and birth-control pills - distributive measures that could really help - the Lone Star Leaders program is dishing up outdated advice. chastity ticket any time in the future. His rat- ings are going through the roof - his spin doctors should be cheering, "Viva adultery!" Come on, no one wants a chaste leader. The sexual revolution was won in the '60s, but backward-thinking Republicans appear to be completely anal about sex. As unmarried college students, we should be allowed to place whatever appendages of ours we want in any orifice we want, as long as the bearer of that orifice agrees. Teenagers should take necessary precau- tions, not be inhibited by slippery politicians' Biblical "morals." Abstinence is something that should not be forced on a population. Premarital sex is not going to make the world spin off its axis (see- ing as Republican desires for an armed-to-the- teeth military will knock us out of orbit first). Abstinence is honorable, and kudos to those who choose to wait until they're married. But premarital sex is not immoral and should not be used by dunces like George W. Bush, whose goal is not to save Texan teenage girls from pregnancy but to inject his own seed into the White House. ,I