4 - The Michigan Daily -- Tuesday, January 26, 1999 cat lie firtichlutttt tt 1 Riding off into the sunset - 420 Maynard Street Ann Arbor, MI 48109 Edited and managed by students at the LAURIE MAYK Editor in Chipf JACK SCHILLACI University of Michigan 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 Top dollar Faculty pay increase keeps 'U' competitive "It's kind of like 'For God's sake, die already.'" - Sen. Patrick Leahy (D- Vt.) on expediting the finish of the presidential impeachment case proceedings THOMAS KULJURGIS TENTAT IVE' ::Y SPEAKING YE.S. T9 VtE $4ATOZ TLRM4o9p, fESt9ENT 15 T IALS TESTII4OtAY ~QUESEP TA L.. TOO gIACN FOZ YW? LET ES T T----- _..--- LET TERS TO THE EDITOR T oo often, people deserving the most praise are neglected. The University fac- ulty are the essential component of an excit- ing, quality academic atmosphere. Professors have the opportunity to shape the minds of the future. Their jobs can be under-appreciated in many ways - including financially. For the third consecutive year, the provost's office has placed an emphasis on maintaining higher salary increases for faculty than for adminis- tators and staff. The importance of faculty pay increases is two-fold - not only does it encourage excellent teaching, but it keeps the University competitive with other higher edu- cation institutions. In particular, highly -acclaimed private institutions can sometimes offer higher salaries than the University and .ften attract outstanding professors who are drawn to higher salaries. The 1996-97 fiscal year kicked off the first of three consecutive years in which the fhculty's average salary increase exceeded tjiat of the administration and staff. That year, the average increase for faculty mem- bers was 4.4 percent, while administrators Feceived a 4-percent increase as a whole. In 1997-98 the faculty received a 4.9-percent increase - the highest ever. Provost Nancy Cantor said her office has made a conscious effort to increase faculty pay, building the budget around that priority. The past few years demonstrate a positive Trend that benefits the University in a variety hf ways. In the past, the University has been mown to lose top professors to other schools, many of whom receive have larger funding bases. It is a fact of life that in academic cir- cles, quality can often be obtained by the highest bidder. The University administration has correctly identified this as a component of University politics that cannot be ignored if the campus wishes to gain - and maintain - a top-notch staff. Pay increases rose an aver- age of 4.7 percent while the deans, staff and executive officers received average salary increases near 3.96 percent. This rate increase was due to the fact that the majority of execu- tive officers are new to their position and not eligible to receive an immediate salary hike. Proud of the ability to "fairly" and "meri- toriously" compensate all employees, Bollinger's support for competitive faculty salary increases was reflected by his request that the University Board of Regents hold his salary increase to no more than three percent as to reflect the average dean and executive officer increases. The efforts of Cantor, the regents and Bollinger to emphasize faculty salary increas- es is noble and praiseworthy. One of the chal- lenges a public university has to face is keep- ing tuition competitively low while increasing faculty pay. The University has one of the highest tuitions of any public institution and a reputation to go with it. Distinguished faculty give the University the outstanding academic reputation it is known for - but the administration must be careful not to neglect the financial slack stu- dents will have to pick up. Precanous pro iton Social Security plan must proceed with care n his State of the Union address, President Clinton vowed to save Social Security by pumping in 62 percent of federal budget sur- pluses for the next 15 years, amounting to $2.7 trillion. He also promised to invest at least 25 percent of this money in the stock .;narket. Overall, Clinton's proposal seems wise. As the baby boomer generation begins to retire, the Social Security system will be Xforced to pay out more than ever. But its funds from tax revenue will erode as fewer workers must support more retirees. Indeed, :without Clinton's plan, Social Security ;would either fail or its benefits would need to be cut back. With Clinton's plan, Social 'Security's future is more certain. Moreover, as stocks have historically offered higher Oreturns than fixed-income securities such as ~bonds, Clinton is hoping that higher returns on Social Security's stockpile of cash can jkeep Social Security afloat whip minimiz- ing the need for higher taxes in the future. While the crux of Clinton's proposal is Bright on the money, critics, including Federal Reserve Chair Alan Greenspan, find fault with portions of it. Primarily, 'Greenspan cites a potential conflict of interest as the government will be investing -in independent corporations. Not only might the government favor certain compa- nies or industries, but America's markets could potentially lose some of their free- dom as government involvement in private industry could potentially disrupt American capitalism. The government could become the largest player in the stock market, creating the potential for excess government inter- vention in markets that were designed to be free. Moreover, such government interven- tion in certain Southeast Asian countries has partially led to the Asian financial crisis. Proponents of Clinton's plan insist that government investment could be apolitical, # similar to the set up of the Federal Reserve system. But as an article in the Jan. 22 issue of government was as unbiased as possible in its investment decisions by investing in index funds, there would still be a serious conflict of interest. For example, the United States could end up investing in tobacco stocks - the same industry that Clinton vowed to bring lit- igation against. Obviously, the plan's over- seers must be careful to take investment ethics into account when making decisions. Another potential oversight inherent in Clinton's plan is that by nearly all historical measures, the stock market is presently over- valued. While conventional wisdom dictates no one is capable of predicting stock market prices in the short term, over the long term, stock prices have always followed companies' underlying profits. Over time, those profits largely have been correlated to productivity. While the economy has shown remarkable strength with gains in productivity and mini- mal inflation, bull markets are often charac- terized by an overabundance of optimism. The current market, which has been gain- ing steam for years, has most likely been built up to unsustainable heights. With the market so high, it is very likely that either a drop in prices will occur in the future or future stock market performance will be substandard. With this in mind, it might seem foolish to put so much of the nation's retirement fund in an investment which carries risks and the poten- tial for sub-par performance. Nonetheless, the situation is not as scary as it might seem. After all, the existing Social Security principal would not be affected. Moreover, only a relatively small portion of future budget surpluses ear- marked for Social Security would be affect- ed. Additionally, Social Security is a long- term investment, which could presumably weather short-term ups and downs in the stock market. Finally, the investment in stocks would occur slowly, over 15 years. As funds are pumped into the market bit by bit over a long period of time, the impact of short-term gyrations is minimized. Overall, Clinton's proposal is a wise plan for the Larry Flynt did public service TO THE DAILY: If Larry Flynt's version of journalism and political revenge does not belong in our newspapers or in our Capitol, then does the hypocrisy of Reps. Barr and Livingston belong in our Congress? I personally am glad that Flynt has come forward with this informa- tion, and feel that he has done America a service; also, I find his public state- ment on the findings of his privately funded research to be far more professional and dignified than the tax- payer-funded and hideously lascivious Starr report. God bless Larry Flynt. DAVID ZIMET LSA SOPHOMORE Daily's sports coverage is excessive TO THE DAILY: After having read this paper a couple of times since my arrival at the University last fall, I have noticed one thing that drives me up the wall more than any other thing (and there are many things) - too much sports. Now I am not some shel- tered, shut-in nerd who hates running and throwing things and gets swirlies every other day and is called Data by friend and foe alike. I simply would like to see less than one- half of the paper devoted to sports so that other things can be reported. At a university that is sup- posed to be about diversity and equality, etc., doesn't it make sense that all topics should be treated equally? There must be something else going on in this world other than basketball. For example, why is the world news section shorter than a picture book for the blind? Is there a limit to how many Associated Press articles the Daily can print in a given week? The expansion of the world news section is my per- sonal desire, but I am sure many others would like to see other sections augmented as well. See what you can do, but please, I beg of the Daily, try and expand the scope of this paper so that it will actually be a paper and not the "U of M Sports Journal with Other Stuff in the Front." GEOFFERY STANTON LSA FIRST-YEAR STUDENT the letter by Tom Sohn on Thursday, Jan. 21 ("Fraternity should not be blamed for death"). Yes, Courtney Cantor chose to drink and she is responsible for that. But in doing so she did not expect someone to lace her drink with a date-rape drug. They are in trouble first for violating the charter of their fraternity as that of an alcohol-free organi- zation and second they broke a number of laws. Those are facts! What's even more sick is perhaps one or more of these 10 are responsible for the sub- stance that most likely led to her death. These substances have different effects on differ- ent people that would cause someone to have no idea what they were doing, including falling out of a window. Thus this action would indeed be murder. It is very disturbing that anyone would would even think about yet alone do something so inhumane, morally and legally wrong to another person. I would hope anyone knowing of anyone who did such a thing would do the right thing and turn that per- son in. Otherwise in this case they are nothing short of being an accomplice to mur- der. There is no need for any- one to feel sorry for these "poor" fraternity boys. They are also responsible for their actions and deserve any consequences that come as a result of those actions. It is appalling that Sohn would try to defend such actionstand even more appalling that the Daily would even print such a let- ter. TIM DRYER UNIVERSITY ALUMNUS Alcohol cove rage raises issues To THE DAILY: I am not sure what sur- prised me more about the Jan. 21 edition of the Daily - the fact that three news items on one page were devoted to the alcohol-related issues brought up by the death of Courtney Cantor or the obvious lack of thought put into these items. First there was the editorial "Overreaction," in which the Ann Arbor Police Department is assailed for their outrageous scapegoating of the Phi Delta Theta fraternity. Apparently, a majority of the Daily's editorial board feels that because viola- tors of the host law are usually let off with a relatively small ticket, this should always be the case - even when a death is involved. I hate to point this out, but I do not think it is that unusual for a law enforcement agency "Fear and Loathing in the Streets of Ann Arbor." Eldridge makes the point that one should not be too con- cerned with the recent alcohol- related tragedies at U.S. uni- versities because of the vastly different natures of the institu- tions atwhich they occurred. The unconsidered flip side of the coin, of course, is that this is exactly what should cause one worry. The fact that alco- hol related deaths have occurred at universities rang- ing from what are stereotypical party schools to our own "Quaker colony" of Ann Arbor would seem to point more to a larger problem than to a series of unrelated tragedies. Finally, there was Tom Sohn's letter, "Fraternity should not be blamed for death." While Sohn's analogy might dazzle the minds of those of us who have not slept much lately, it is far from a parallel argument. If you, as an adult, give your car to a 15- year-old -just as if you pro- vide a gun to someone who wants to commit suicide - you are liable for what ensues. A 15-year-old is not supposed to have access to a car, and an 18-year-old is not supposed to have access to alcohol. I am not claiming that the host law, as it is written, is ideal. But if one is willing to provide alcohol to someone who is legally defined as a minor, one should also be pre- pared to face the consequences of that action. AARON CETNER UNIVERSITY ALUMNUS Reviews are meant to be sophisticated TO THE DAILY: This is in response to Jeff Ringenberg's Jan. 25 letter condemning the Daily's film reviews ("Film reviews do not help stu- dents"). He complainstthat the reviews discuss issues that he does not care about in films, and that he often likes movies that the Daily criticizes. Unfortunately for Ringenberg, it is not the job of a film reviewer to write about whataRingenberg's opinion of a film would be. A film reviewer must rely on his or her own opin- ions. If that means that the review discusses some more sophisticated topics than Ringenberg can handle, then Ringenberg does not have to read the reviews. There is nothing wrong with being a typical movie- goer who has not taken film classes, but there is also nothing wrong with those who have chosen to become more educated about this alife at the Daily 1995-1999 Having worked at The Michigan Daily for 3 1/2 years, I've come to recognize identifiable column genres. The most dependable breed is the farewell column. I promised myself that I would write one, but promises were made to be bro- ken. Besides, I'd rather chew off my hands than write one more word about Bill Clinton. This is my 137th piece in the Daily - about 120 from a JEFF reporting career, the ELDRIDGE rest since September. ' It;11s g As news editor, I 518-'x° S edited at least 500 articles more. So indulge me. I've earned it. It's been a long and winding road, as The Beatles said. Instead of waxing philosophical about the cruel mistress or offering earnest praise, listed below are the 10 most memorable moments from my time as reporter and editor, mixed with some personal remarks from a reformed college-newspaper diehard: 1. The presidential search of '95-'96. From the outside it probably looked drier than toast. But covering the search that led to hiring Lee Bollinger felt like participating in a strange academic soap opera, complete with colorful charac- ters, sudden surprises and lots of detec- tive work on the phones. Lee was the odds-on favorite from day one, but the meeting when the regents announced their choice certain- ly didn't lack drama. The rest of my Daily career paled in comparison to those 11I months.; 2. The murder of Tamara Williams. A reporter called my house at 8:30 in the morning with rough details about a killing on campus. As news editor on duty, I spent the rest of the day helping to organize a Daily blitzkreig over the University. It was a miserable, exciting, frantic day. 3. Affirmative action lawsuits. Several days later, I was also on duty when news broke that LSA was getting sued over its admissions policies. Psyches still blister- ing from the Williams killing, everyone came together with characteristic grace. Obviously, no one knows how the law-@ suits will play out. But I never thought University admissions policies would be so provocative, or so divisive. 4. The Unabomber slept here. While I pecked out a feature article, an editor announced that the Unabomber had been captured and that he got his PhD. from the University. The following six hours were a blur. Watching "Nightline," I hugged myself with pleasure at seeing Cokie Roberts ask a University math professor the same questions I posed to him moments before. 5. Party at Bollinger'! For a second, chaos loomed. A mob of drunk, hyper stu- dents crammed the president's front lawn after Michigan trounced Penn State. Riot and disaster? No - one of the great moments of a college career. Bollinger said he loved us, then invited everyonehinside hisahouse. We toured, hugged, high-fived and whooped. As a group of us left, someone unknowingly shouted, "Where's the Daily when you need it?" We cheered and raised our hands. The episode was indescribably sweet. 6. The Dailys are stolen. Damn. Misguided activists stole half the paper's pressrun in April of '96. My article on the theft fanned the flames - literally. Two days later, protesters burned copies of it on the Maynard Street sidewalk. 7. Michigan beats Ohio State. Michigan defeats its arch-enemy. The team gets a trip to the Rose Bowl. Students rush the field. Cops beat them. Someone falls out of a tree on South University. A reporter bangs his head on a ceiling, cuts it open, then goes to the hospital. The campus becomes a zoo. 8. Meeting the rich and famous. So a college newspaper isn't exactly "Vanity Fair' and I'm not exactlybCharlie Rose but hanging out in Robert Shapiro's hotel suite in Detroit while he talks about boxing, introduces you to his family, offers you wine and explains the social implications of the O.J. saga is still pretty cool. 9. Fisher fouls out. A tortured, chaot- ic story that never seemed to end - an Energizer Bunny towing SUVs, shad- owy scheming and accusations of cor- rupt basketball boosters. The episode was a muddled mess that kept going and going and going. May it rest in peace. 10. Eating the cricket. A girl in the RC acquired minor fame because she. liked to cook insects. I wrote a feature story about her. She fried some bugs