4 - The Michigan Daily - Friday, November 13, 1998 1I~e S i~tidiun OrIg 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 A tenuous connection 'U' should not follow national tenure trend 'She doesn't feel like the Code did anything for her.' - LSA first-Year student Lanni Lantto, about a student in a recent Code of Student Conduct case in which she felt the sanctions against the defiendant were not comparable to other cases A LOOK BACK MAT T WIMSATT ppps~s O F CREATIVE EAT THE AR 4You'e CL rrfk ORc t S A r S -D You J EED To G OWITh - H Lo OGY ANDt RESEARGH TIAT s WHENE HMME MONCY 1E S FoU40 T05 i ThE i-I' LETTERS TO THE EDITOR University students often complain they are treated like guppies in a sea of 37,000 fish. Despite the relatively good job that the University administration does to run its bureaucracy efficiently and cut down on red tape to make students feel at home, the University as a whole is succumbing to a national trend in higher education - a reduc- tion in the number of tenured faculty mem- bers caused by slowly substituting them with non-tenure track professors and part-time fac- ulty members. The governing body of faculty members, the Senate Advisory Committee on University Affairs, met earlier this week to hear Provost Nancy Cantor address the changing composi- tion of the University's faculty. "Part of what bothers me is a significant increase in non-tenured faculty," Social Work Prof. Sherrie Kossoudji said. "This needs to be explained." Kossoudji brings up a very pertinent point in questioning this trend of downsizing the number of experienced tenured professors at universities and especially in Ann Arbor. By increasing the number of non-tenured faculty on staff, the University is hurting both faculty members and students. Professors or part-time lecturers who aspire to gain tenure but are restricted from that goal are the biggest losers in this trend that has increased the number of non-tenured professors at the University from 28.5 percent to 39.2 percent between 1987 and 1996. Many of the current non-tenured professors are highly competent researchers and teachers who deserve the chance to climb the ladder and attain the status of being a full professor. By cutting back the numbers of professors who can reach this status, all fields in higher education suffer. Talented undergraduates and w graduate students may decide not to become professors, thus threatening the quality of the University's faculty. More crucial is the fact that non-tenured professors do not receive the same type of benefits as tenured professors. They often have to teach too many classes, which subsequently hurts the students for whom they have little time to advise and instruct outside of class. Part of being a top-flight university is supporting the ability to balance research and teaching. Unfortunately, the University has not placed enough emphasis on quality teaching in recent years. President Bollinger obviously sees the virtue of having adminis- trators teach - he teaches one undergradu- ate and one law class - and he should be lauded for doing so. Other administrators such as RC Director Tom Weisskopf also take time out of their busy schedules to advise and teach undergraduates. But by replacing some of the best professors with less experienced faculty in the classroom, students lose out. Despite the claim by the University that it must compete with the Ivy League for the best professors and that it takes big bucks to do so, the overall quality of education falls when the University puts all of its eggs in a few baskets. Reversing this trend at the University will require the willingness of tenured faculty members to defend the interests of those who will not be offered tenure. Through contract negotiations, professors can demand conces- sions from the University to improve condi- tions for newly entering faculty members. A new class is forming in academia, made up of part-time and non-tenure track faculty mem- bers who fall victim to salary cuts and whose rights are constantly ignored. With the help of those who already have secure positions at the University, this group may be able to become full and equal members of the faculty. .i Getting better Admissions decisions prevent overcrowding E ver since the University expanded its enrollment in the 1950s, housing- related issues have been a constant sore 4 spot between students and the University's administrators. This problem is not unique to the University, though, as many other large universities face the same concerns with respect to living arrangements. Housing problems also pit incoming students against upperclassmen who might want to live in the residence halls, especially when space is limited, and it causes additional strain on over- crowded classes. Finding a solution or compromise between the various interests lies on the shoulders of University offi- cials, especially those in admissions and Housing - who until recently did not do a very good job of it. Flashbacks of previous years remind us of something of a disaster for many students. Many on campus can recall the residence hall nightmare stories they have heard, witnessed or experienced. Whether it was living in the residence hall lounge for the first few weeks of school or three "students crammed into an overflow triple, they are almost always experiences one would not wish to go through again. University officials have been aware of this problem for years. The solution boils down to much better coordination between admissions, who accept the stu- dents, and Housing, who decides where everyone will live and whether or not there is enough room. Several times in recent years, admissions has flat out taken more incoming students than Housing 4 could handle. One of the results has been major inconveniences for incoming stu- dents - something that first-year stu- dents should not have to deal with in addition to adjusting to the college envi- ronment. Another major problem has to do with the diminishing amount of resi- dence hall space for upperclassmen, forc- ing them out into the already competitive and expensive Ann Arbor housing market. This year, University admissions and Housing officials got their act together. Last Friday, the University released its statistics for this year's incoming class. One of the most striking figures was the almost 300-person drop in overall class size from 5,534 students last year to 5,253 students this year. Housing offi- cials stated that the drop was a targeted goal to combat the problem of overcrowd- ing. University Housing and admissions officials should be commended for set- ting an important goal and sticking to it. There will always be problems with housing at a big school as big as the University, but administrators should use this year's effort as a model for years to come. A concerted effort is necessary by all the involved parties to make over- crowding a smaller problem at the University. In addition, President Bollinger and other administrators with a vision and the power to change things must think of the long-term fate of the University. Everyday concerns like class size, housing and quality of teaching with an expanding student body must be con- sidered. There is a relationship between these University-related issues, and changing one will affect the other two. Serious thought must be given to the problem of housing with respect to all students and its ramifications on the University as a whole. An open letter to letter writers TO THE DAILY: This letter is in response to about 90 percent of the let- ters to the Daily over the past six years. The Ku Klux Klan has five members in Ann Arbor. Ignore them. Feminists and political extremists write really long and boring letters. Student government cannot change tuition rates and therefore, is worthless. It needs to be abolished. Not all, but a lot of East Coast students are annoying. Fraternity and sorority members are not Greek (my friend Dean Bakopoulos is Greek). They are all annoying. All majors are difficult. Most engineers would fail a 400-level creative writing course and most LSA majors would fail thermodynamics. Don't worry, we'll beat Ohio State again. MARK WEST COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING Many hate crimes go unnoticed TO THE DAILY: My fears were confirmed. When Matthew Shepard was brutally beaten and killed, I was scared. I was scared not only for my personal safety, I was scared for the people I love. And now that Leonard "Lynn" Vine has been shot, I'm terrified. While a senior in high school and for the past two summers, I have worked at The Attic Youth Center in Philadelphia. The Attic is the largest organization in the greater Philadelphia area serv- ing lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning youth. LGBTQ youth of all backgrounds come through The Attic's doors. The people there who have loved me and nurtured me and to whom I have given my love are black, latino, asian and pacific islander, white, mixed, drag queens, self-identified butch dykes, lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, transgender people and more. Some come from the same affluent white suburb in which I went to high school, and some live in Philadelphia's poorest and most violent neighborhoods or have sur- vived its streets since they were thrown out of there homes at the age of 14, 17 or 12. Some are visible college students like myself and some are LGBTQ sex workers whose existence we are aware of but never acknowledge. When Matthew Shepard was beaten for being gay. I was of mouth. So I ask anyone reading this letter, why is it that we can give all the support needed when a blond-haired, blue-eyed, Midwestern, non- activist, comfortably gendered college student is murdered for being gay, and then hardly acknowledge the hateful shoot- ing of Vine? Right now I am scared for my fiends, scared to go home and find out who has been beaten and possibly killed. I am also scared for our campus and our country if we believe that one hate-based crime is more noteworthy than another. BENJAMIN FIFE SCHOOL OF ART Daily fuels 'the fires of antagonism' TO THE DAILY: In regard to the Nov. 4 arti- cle reporting on the vandalism of the Hillel Diag board, we are interested in finding out exactly why our organizations' names were mentioned in ana- lyzing who the suspected per- petrators were ("Hillel Diag board vandalized"). Although Ross Kirschner did not believe either the American Arab Anti- Discrimination Committee or the Palestine Catastrophe Committee were involved in the incident, we feel that the mere mention of our name implies that there is a belief that we would engage our- selves in such actions. It would be interesting to find out if Kirschner made that statement on his own or was prompted by the Daily to "round up the usual suspects." There is no reason why, as established organizations, we would mandate any of this kind of behavior. It is an insult for anyone to imply that we would ever do so. The Daily should not fuel the fires of antagonism, which is largely the result of stereo- types that portray Arabs as per- petrators. The Daily's approach should have focused on the criminality of such activities without unsupported specula- tion. The Daily needs to depart from the traditional media ten- dency of playing an ignorant Dick Tracy. WILL YOUMANS DEANA RABIA AMERICAN ARAB ANTI- DISCRIMINATION COMMITTEE EXECUTIVE BOARD Lockyer contradicted herself TO THE DAILY: Sarah Lockyer's column, "The fervor ofthe new con- vert," (11/10/98) is clearly a In the first line of her col- umn, Lockyer laments the lack of "true public discourse"-on our campus. Yet several para- graphs later, we find her com- plaining about students who "won't stop talking" about issues of race, ethnicity, gender and lung cancer. Now, isn't there an obvious contradiction here? If we lacked a public dis- course, then Lockyer couldn't complain about activist stu- dents voicing their opinions-- there would be no such stu- dents. And if we took Lockyer's advice and stopped "complaining" about such obviously unimportant issues as the oppression of women and the cultural genocide of Christopher Columbus, would- n't that be the death of public discourse? The "zealots," who I take to be those students who voiced their dissatisfaction with Lockyer's first column, are accused of perpetuating an anti-discourse atmosphere by writing letters to The Michigan Daily. But this seems precisely backwards! The lettersfurther the exchange of opinions and ideas. The letters box, after all, is a forum for public discourse on campus. What Lockyer must really be complaining about, of course, is the fact that many students found her column offensive, ridiculous and unin- formed. When we students voiced our opposing opinions, we are called zealots who seek to eliminate opposing view- points. But given Ms. Lockyer's most recent column, it's clear who has the real problem with opposing view- points.' GARY BROUHARD RACKHAM Lockyer raised an 'interesting point' TO THE DAILY: Sarah Lockyer raised an interesting point in her column ("The fervor of the new con- vert," 11/10/98). The leftist leanings of the University do not coincide with my views, but I respect other people's right to believe what they choose and act accordingly. The heart of Lockyer's argu- ment lies in the vocal fringe of the University's left not tolerat- ing the voicing of any other views. If I disagree with some- one who is in favor of the per- petuation of the University's affirmative action admission policies, I address their issues in a discussion. In the same discussion, I am met with name calling and accusations. An exhibition of the issue: I disagree with hate speech. I think that its existence polar- izes the campus, hurts people and perpetuates both racial inequities and stereotypes against fair-minded white peo- ple. Did anyone see the adver- tisements for the anti-Klan MSA can't work unless students vote in next weeks elecfion j n one of my very first encounters 1 with the Michigan Student Assembly, then-Vice President Sam Goodstein said to me: "I don't think the position - MSA has a great impact." Goodstein's com- ments were made in explanation of why an uninformed assembly shouldn't rush to push through a resolution to support the con- tract negotiators for the Graduate Employees Organization. The LAUR statement, however, MAYK is one that I haveSl* heard repeated in SAY tSs various forms over the past three years. Despite the rainbow-colored pleas for votes covering Angell Hall every semes- ter, it's easy to dismiss the student gov- ernment's presence on campus. As MSA elections approach, stude are again asking exactly what MSAi and why they should spend two tochte minutes of their time voting for candi- dates they have never met. Quite simply, students should vote in MSA elections because if they doii't, the assembly won't be much of anything at all. Without the support and confi- dence of a significant proportion of the student body, and a notion that students actually want an elected assembly, the institution of MSA is reduced to Tuesday night club with bylaws and large budget. In theory, representatives from each school and college at the University bring the viewpoints of his or her cqn- stituents to the assembly. The elected body can then bring issues and concers to the attention of the Universitt's Board of Regents, the City of Ann Arbor and the state legislature. But, as a regent, how much stock wot* you put in the suggestions of a group of 18- to 24-year-olds who represent roughly 8 to 1I percent of the student body? More, hopefully, than you'd think. Granted, the opinions of that percent- age of the student body that votes in presidential and midterm MSA elec- tions probably are proportionately sim- ilar to those of the rest of campus. ut the numbers, and therefore the clout, are lacking. The voter turnout in U.S. elections especially midterm ones - is stagger- ingly low as well. But the purpose ad power of these elected officials, regar less of turnout, is assumed in the United States. At the University, students are still struggling to organize their voices in an effective manner and grab the attention of lawmakers and administra- tors who will take their ideas and protestations seriously. Without a large percentage of the su dent body taking ownership of the assembly, the representatives have too much leeway in deciding what to take to the regents. MSA representatives are elected officials, and they should be treated as such. Vote them in, write them letters, call them with suggestions- and if you don't like what you see, vote them out. To political science majors and others versed in such theory, this sounds jo like the democratic idealism that is squashed by realist pluralism every two years. But there's a reason why this type of democracy works (or can work) 'in campus student government:"MSA doesn't govern, it just represents. It doesn't set laws, it doesn't decide for- mulas for admissions or Housing or tenure-track faculty. It just represents student interests (and funds them) a advocates for policies and rules to be student life. The assembly has spent too much of its time in the past few years passing - or rather discussing, tabling and dis- cussing again - resolutions to support or "condemn" University actions or events. Especially with the backing of only a small percentage of the student body, these resolutions don't carry much weight (as the vice president told me at the MSA meeting several years ago) and don't affect student life at University. The assembly is, however, more than just a vehicle to pass out money to cam- pus groups. This is one if its most signif- icant functions, but its efforts to, among other things. provide speakers and open forums to debate issues such as affirma- tive action and the Code also are benefi- cial to the University community. Student votes should go to candid who are proactive and dedicated not j to the assembly, but to the University community. They should have concrete ideas and the determination to fight against potentially daunting opposition from administrators, faculty and legisla- tors to implement them. On a campus as idealistic as this orle, i