4 - The Michigan Daily - Tuesday, March 16, 1999

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The campus's best Winter semester spectator sport

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daily. letters@umich.edu
Edited and managed by
students at the
University of Michigan

HEATHER KAMINS
Editor in Chief
JEFFREY KoSSEFF
DAVID WALLACE
Editorial Page Editors

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.

The fig k c tinues
Steinem evokes reminders and challenges

It's March, post-Spring Break. And at the
University, that can only mean one thing:
MSA elections. Rather than running on the
Jack Schillaci-Anarchy ticket with Daily Arts
Editor Christopher Tkaczyk as was my origi-
nal intention, I have decided to resign myself
to the role of mere
spectator to this year's
elections.
The three major
parties involved in this
year's electoral spata
include only one new-
bie - the Blue Party
- in comparison to
recent years when the
presidential race
brought groups like
the Tea and SlumberaC
Parties out of the
woodwork to foul Schillaci
things up.Slm 't o
The other two - Slam it to
the Students' and the the Left
Defend Affirmative
Action Parties - are both old hands at this.
But in a time when the proportion of students
who partake of MSA elections has jumped all
the way to the mid-teens, the contest has
become somewhat more contentious. The
days when running on the dominant party's
ticket - be it the Students' or the now-
defunct Michigan Party's - virtually guaran-
teed a seat are now gone. For instance, last
fall's elections saw the dominant Students'
Party edge out the DAAP by only one seat in
the election.
The result: The party system is probably
not worth as much. Individuals have to stick

out from their party and hopefully, do more
than just bullet-point the party's platform to
get elected.
Blue Party Presidential Candidate Bram
Elias is probably best known for being the
face, the mind and indeed the loud voice
behind the Yes! Yes! Yes! campaign.
Perhaps he's a master campaigner, after all
the ballot question did pass (though the
University Board of Regents ignored it). But I
think standing up and urging students to vote
during the audience Q&A with Gloria
Steinem might disqualify him for that.
Annoying does not equal persuasive.
The Blue Party, by many accounts, is essen-
tially the same thing as the Students', though
I'm sure I'll soon be informed to the contrary.
The Blue Party is taking the stance that MSA
needs to be changed and that change won't
happen under the current leadership. Hmm ...
I recall something roughly similar coming
from the Students' Party two years ago.
As proof that MSA is a real governmental
body, it even has its fair share of scandals.
While the assembly members' sex lives
remain a secret (thank god), they still get to
have their dirt unearthed occasionally, and
usually somewhat comically. In 1997, Probir
Mehta's "abuse of power"' in allocating funds
to an organization (which is, after all, one of
MSA's functions) without consulting the
assembly was disastrous to his campaign for
president.
Last year, a bunch of gossip about vodka
and a fraternity house proved disturbing and
disruptive. Even Fiona Rose's student-funded
Franklin Planner caused the Earth to quake in
its day.
But before these rather trivial things, MSA

presidents had used student money to fund
trips under the guise of "fact-finding." They
sure don't make scandals like they used to.
One of MSA's biggest problem is that it is
often viewed as useful as an empty keg. There
is some merit in this - after all, relatively
simple projects can often take years to come
to fruition, such as the much-touted student
coursepack store, which became a campaign
issue two years ago but just recently came into
being with fewer coursepacks to sell than I
have fingers.
MSA has done some valuable things. Their
review of and stance on the Code, not to men-
tion efforts to educate students and get them
involved, was helpful, though it fell on deaf
ears within the administration and the student
body the majority of the time.
Credibility, however, remains a persistent
problem. The solution is simple - the assem-
bly needs something more closely approxi-
mating a mandate. No, an increase in turnout
to 18 percent will not count. Like Sandra
Bullock from a good hair day, most students
avoid the MSA polls. Candidates and parties
spend tons of money to get their faces plas-
tered all over Mason Hall, but not much is
done to actually make the body they vote for
matter to most students.
If the assembly wants its tendency to
resolve itself into the ground to have any real
meaning to the administration, let alone the
U.S. military, it needs to be able to speak for
more than 40-odd people who meet once a
week in 3909 Michigan Union.
As it stands no, it has a voice, but no one is
listening.
- Jack Schillaci can be reached over
e-mail atjschilla@umich.edu.

0.

Who are you calling a feminist? Once a
popular social movement at the fore-
front of the struggle for universal equal
rights, feminism has lost support in recent
decades as women have either felt feminist
issues have been resolved or that the label
"feminist" no longer applies to them. But as
feminist activist Gloria Steinem reminded the
University community in her speech last
Thursday, feminism is not dead - and the
fight for equal rights for women is not over.
Steinem has been a leader in the feminist
movement for decades, founding the.
National Organization for Women and Ms.
magazine. Times have changed since 1963,
with the publication of Betty Friedan's The
Feminine Mystique, launching the second-
wave of feminism. Friedan's book refuted the
notion that a woman's place must be in the
home. Since then, the women's movement
has taken many strides that are important to
remember and appreciate during March,
which is Women's History Month.
For example, there are more women in
the workforce than ever before - and they
occupy prestigious positions such as doc-
tors, lawyers and business managers. Just a
few decades ago, some of these jobs would
not have been available to women because
of existing discrimination. The expansion of
women in the workforce is a sign that the
feminist movement has made great
-advancements. Women have also become
more active in government. Secretary of
State Madeleine Albright and Attorney
General Janet Reno are only two examples
of women in government. It may be only a
matter of time before a female president is
seated in the Oval Office.
Similarly, women have gained important
equal rights advancements through court
decisions. In 1973, the Supreme Court's land-

mark ruling, Roe v. Wade, guaranteed the
right of women to secure a safe abortion. But
in the following 26 years, women have
watched as right-wing legislators eroded the
rights Roe v. Wade established with amend-
ments making obtaining a legal abortion
much more difficult in several states - espe-
cially for poor, teenage and married women.
But with all the advancements in the femi-
nist movement, a backlash has occurred in
recent years. In her 1996 book, Feminism Is
Not the Story of My Life, Elizabeth Fox-
Genovese chronicled the stories of many
women who feel that the feminist movement
no longer applies to them. A recent Time mag-
azine cover suggested that feminism is dead,
brought down by the likes of T.V shows such
as "Ally McBeal."And as Steinem pointed out
in her speech on Friday, feminists are often
labeled today as "anti-man and anti-sex,' a
label that most women will shy away from.
Despite the many advancements for
women in the workplace, the majority of
powerful positions are held by men - and
on average, men receive better wages. Equal
pay for equal work will be a major issue in
the feminist movement in the future. And
despite the increasingly large number of
women in government, men still outnumber
women by a large margin - hardly repre-
sentative of the actual population.
Steinem said women have achieved a
"legal identity." Now they must achieve
"equality." The feminist movement is far
from dead - it lives on to improve upon
the changes that have already been made.
Steinem's work has drastically improved
the quality of life for women over the past
decades. But as she said last Thursday -
and as existing injustices demonstrate -
the fight for equality and respect is far
from over.

Leveling off the top
Engler's higher ed plan would hurt 'U' funds

L ast Wednesday, University President
Lee Bollinger, along with five other
state university presidents, testified before
the state House Higher Education
Appropriations Subcommittee about Gov.
John Engler's proposed funding formula for
higher education. This formula would orga-
nize Michigan's 15 state universities into
four tiers, with varying per-student funding
floors. The University - along with
Michigan State University, Wayne State
University and Michigan Technological
University - would fall into the highest tier.
Bollinger argued against this system on the
grounds that it overlooks the specific needs
of individual universities. And his criticisms
are on target - Engler's system is likely to
be more harmful than helpful.
The four-tier system would be detrimen-
tal to the University. Under Engler's plan,
the top tier, which includes the University,
would have an $8,500-per-student funding
floor. Because the University already
receives $14,573 per student, it would not
receive any of the available funds. The only
top-tier school to receive money under the
plan would be Michigan State University.
But Engler's plan overlooks the importance
of the University to the state of Michigan.
Not only is it one of the top public universi-
ties in the United States, it is also an impor-
tant center of research, with the largest
research expenditures in the nation.
Decreasing the amount of fiunds allocated to
the University would damage the aspects of
the University that makes it a world-
renowned institution.

four groups overlooks the fact that each uni-
versity is unique. A large research institution
like the University has vastly different needs
than a smaller college. Different universities
have different purposes, and ignoring these
key differences in favor of a supposedly
equal system would ultimately harm higher
education in the state. The University and
other top-level educational institutions have
different funding needs from other universi-
ties; Engler's budget proposal disregards
those needs in favor of a misguided attempt
to "equalize" higher education spending.
Despite the apparent attention that
Engler's budget proposal gives to higher edu-
cation, it is clear even with this plan that the
budget is woefully neglectful of the needs of
universities. Compared with the increases
given to the Department of Management and
Budget, the Executive Office and perennial
Engler favorite, the Department of
Corrections, the amount of money allotted to
the University would be paltry. This budget
shows an alarming lack of concern for the
needs of educational institutions, despite
their crucial importance.
Higher education is such an important
part of the state - and the nation as a whole
- that its needs should not be overlooked in
this way. Pigeonholing 15 very distinctive
institutions into four general categories does
a disservice not just to the University, but to
all of Michigan's universities. Michigan's
legislators must work to meet the needs of
the state's educational institutions - not
only by rejecting the funding formula, but
by increasing funding for colleges and uni-

A U.S. District Court judge' decision
Monday to stop the NCAA from using stan-
dardized test scores to determine an athlete's
eligibility is a bold and proper judicial move.
Standardized tests like the ACT and SAT
have long been considered racially biased
and poor indicators of potential higher edu-
cation success. Judge Ronald Buckwalter's
decision comes as a welcome statement: that
a biased test used as an eligibility require-
ment amounts to a biased eligibility require-
ment and a violation of Title VI of the Civil
Rights Act of 1964. The NCAA rule,
Proposition 16, requires an 820 combined
SAT score or an ACT score of 16 for a stu-
dent to be eligible for athletics in their first
year of college, no matter how the students
performed academically in high school.
Thus, when plaintiffs Leatrice Shaw and
Tae Kwan, who both finished in the top 10
percent of their class, bombed the ethnically
slanted SAT, they were excluded from stu-
dent athletics in their freshman year. The
very idea that a standardized test whose fair-
ness falls in such low repute would keep
these students off the playing field is a prima
face violation of their civil rights.
One is left with two hopes subsequent to
L ETTERS TO
THE EDITOR
Government was
correct in holding
Ashby trial in U.S.
TO THE DAILY:
While I don't agree with the outcome
in the Ashby case, I can unequivocally
say that the Daily's assumption in the
Mar. 9 editorial "Flying Blind," that the
United States is trying to duck responsi-
bility, is erroneous and irresponsible.
Simply because the government
decided to handle the case in its own
courts and to apply its own negligence
standards does not mean the United
States is being irresponsible. Rather, the
opposite is true; the government is trying
to avoid Ashby having to face a biased
tribunal in a foreign country.
Simply consider the Singapore caning
case. When an Singapore court decided
to punish an American teenager by can-
ing for a crime he allegedly committed,
we were quick to decry Singapore's legal
system as being cruel and archaic. In
fact, most observers proclaimed that the
young defendant should have been
brought back to the United States to face
trial under our laws. Therefore, it seems
that these observers are advocating a
double standard.
Furthrmore, the Daily's assumption
of Ashby's negligence is quite hasty,
especially when the editorial mentions
that many determinative facts are still
being disputed. In adjudicative legal sys-
tems, there are courts and juries to assign
blame. While the faulty equipment argu-
ment, in the Daily's eyes, seems to be
weak, it holds water in court and would
conceivably absolve Ashby of any negli-
gence.
Was it considered that the topograph-
ical map of the area did not make men-
tion of the ski area or any ski lifts higher
' than 20 feet off the ground? The facts
clearly demonstrate that this case is not
as open and shut as the Daily makes it to
he uht because onr legals vstem came

THE OBESITY GENE

Buckwalter's decision: first, that it sticks,
and second, that it translates to college
admissions in general..
The NCAA has run screaming for a stay
of the decision. The collegiate athletics over-
sight group claims the "situation facing the
membership can only be described as chaot-
ic" in the wake of the judge's ruling. And,
according to CNN/SI, if the decision stands,
ineligible students could walk on to the
NCAA Men's and Women's tournament
floors without consequence.
For those students to pick up a basketball,
however, would be an image of justice rather
than chaos. The NCAA protests, which
request at least three years to institute
changes if the ruling isn't overturned, would
sound reasonable and proper if not for the
group's dismal reputation on race and gender
issues. The NCAA is, after all, an organiza-
tion still fighting for exemption from Title
IX, a nearly 30-year-old law that requires
equal gender opportunities in federally fund-
ed institutions. The NCAA is no defender of
student rights, but rather a defender of the
desires of rich boosters: minorities and
women need apply in small numbers.
Particularly sad in light of the NCAA's

reputation for everything from academic
policies to gender equity is the University of
Arizona's own close relationship to the
group. Former UA athletic director Cedric
Dempsey serves as the NCAA executive
director and defender of the status quo.
One hopes that, with Buckwalter's deci-
sion in place, the dominance of the ACT and
SAT in determining college admissions will
fall by the wayside. It is not difficult to see
how the entire college admissions process,
and the role standardized tests play in those
admissions, may violate the Title VI rights of
many would-be college students. No longer,
with Buckwalter's decision, is the idea that a
test can in fact be ethnically and socioeco-
nomically biased so radical. If this is a coun-
try of opportunity for all, our admissions
standards shouldn't shut the door on a group
of people because of their background.
Surely someone in the top 10 percent of their
class should be afforded all the rights and
privileges of being a college student, from
academics to athletics. Anything less would
be offensive.
- This editorial ran in the Mar: 12 edi-
tion of the the University ofArizona's
Arizona Daily Wildcat.

THOMAS KULJURGIS TENTATIVELY SPEAKING

bility demonstrates that such important
legal decisions should not be made by
uninformed journalists and commenta-
tors. If it were up to me, I would allow an
attorney to argue this case, not biased
editorialists. The United States does have
a responsibility to other countries, but
we also have a responsibility to our own
citizens. This responsibility is quite
underappreciated and ignored.
SETH GLADSTEIN
UNIVERSITY ALUMNUS
St. Patrick's Day is
'very holy' for Irish
TO THE DAILY:
I would like to take this opportunity
to share with the University community
one Irish American's view of the very
holy day known as St. Patrick's. As any
Irish American knows, St. Patrick's day
is much more than a chance to drink
excessively. Rather, it is a day for family,
church. and celebrating our Irish heritage

windows and, for a few days, grocery
and liquor stores put up displays of
Guinness and Harp, hoping that their
patrons are feeling festive this March.
These modern-day traditions are as
Irish as a box of Lucky Charms, and are
extremely offensive and at times even
racist to both Irish Americans and the
Irish themselves. I'm not asking anyone
to stay home and meditate about the
meaning of life Wednesday night, but
please try and be respectful; please give
us the dignity we deserve.
JOHN KRAFT
LSA SENIOR
'Kudos' for Greek
Week article
To THE DAILY:
Kudos to the Daily for finally writing
an article that positively portrays the
Greek system. Greek Week is not only
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