4 - The Michigan Daily - Friday, March 26, 1999
Uatw #I{tltn ]Daig{
Springtime in Ann Arbor brings distinctive images
420 Maynard Street
Ann Arbor, MI 48109
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.
Smoke out
'U' should divest its tobacco stocks
Ci "or; lo, the winter is past, the rain is
over and gone; The flowers appear
on the earth; the time of the singing of birds
is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard
in our land."
- from The Song
of Solomon, and read
by Ernie Harwell to
open the first game of
Detroit Tigers spring
training every year:
First are the rays of r
sunlight in the morn-
ing through the
blinds. Then that
peek that confirms
it's finally time to
wear short-sleeved Megan
shirts. Then the blind- Schimpf
ing glare if a door is
opened. P________o___
It's springtime.
Spring came in like a lamb this week, the
final days of March. Because this winter
earned a place in record books - despite
several weeks of relatively fair weather -
we're definitely ready for spring's freedom.
Wander around Ann Arbor - it's easy to
tell spring has come because ...
0 We now think 40 degrees is balmy.
Consider that in November, this was cause
for fleece and wool sweaters - together.
0 Dominick's is bustling and once again
the place to be seen on sunny afternoons.
People start jumping into Jell-O and
stuffing whole pizzas in their mouths on the
Diag.
0 Exercising outdoors sounds like it
might actually be fun - and possible.
0 The MSA people emerge from the
third floor of the Michigan Union for just
long enough to irritate everyone on campus.
Everyone who thought writing a senior
thesis was either a nice way to get out of a
lot of class time or an unparalleled opportu-
nity to intellectually delve into a topic of
real substance is regretting that thought.
Taking a year off is now something "I'd
really always thought was a good idea" -
especially considering the attractive rejec-
tion-letter wallpaper.
Sand volleyball courts and entire-
block-vibrating stereo systems are revived
by the fraternities on State Street and
Washtenaw Avenue.
It's almost time for the inspiring
activism that is Hash Bash - and the fes-
tering mess that we get to clean up when
they all crawl back under their little rocks.
. Ice cream sales at Stucchi's start out-
pacing soup sales again.
It's possible to sit on the Diag for an
hour or two - hey, a whole afternoon -
and watch the entire world walk by, stop-
ping for a quick conversation.
® Porches are the best part of a house.
Parties can once again spill outside
into the fresh air.
Countdowns to the end - be it finals,
graduation, moving day, big exams, whatev-
er - are the stuff of on-the-street greetings.
O Wandering through the Arb is a source
of peace, solitude and nature appreciation
- except for all those other people doing
the same thing.
Outgoing administrators start packing
up their offices in preparation for the move
to a smaller school that will offer them
more power ... um, opportunities.
Conversation turns to the will-you-or-
won't-you for the little-known, quaint little
tradition that is the Naked Mile.
The snow piles are almost gone.
Television (excepting some basketball
games this weekend) is not so interesting
anymore. At least during daytime.
T he University has recently started to
form a committee of students, adminis-
trators, alumni and faculty to evaluate its
ownership of tobacco stocks. The University
currently has $25 million invested in tobac-
co companies. The purpose of the commit-
tee is to decide whether the University's val-
ues preclude this investment. This is part of
an ongoing process started in 1997, in
response to the faculty Senate Assembly's
call for the University to withdraw its invest-
ments. And in January, the Michigan
Student Assembly passed a resolution sup-
porting this cause. The formation of the
committee is a step in the right direction;
now the University must take action by
divesting its tobacco investments.
In the past, the tobacco industry has
demonstrated many times that it is unde-
serving of the University's investment. It
has attempted to deceive consumers about
the the harmful effects of its product, claim-
ing repeatedly that tobacco is not very
harmful or addictive. In truth, it is responsi-
ble for over 40,000 deaths per year, result-
ing in $50 billion in direct medical costs. It
is only in recent years that tobacco compa-
nies have reluctantly begun to acknowledge
the addictive nature of nicotine.
In addition to its denial of the dangers of
tobacco, cigarette manufacturers have been
guilty of launching advertising campaigns
specifically designed to attract young peo-
ple - the most obvious example is Joe
Camel. The purpose of these campaigns is
to addict new smokers to nicotine; eventual-
ly, a third of these new smokers will die
from smoking-related diseases.
Clearly the tobacco industry's modus
operandi centers on deceiving and manipu-
lating the public - and hiding the truth
about its product. The University should not
contribute to this deception by investing in
the tobacco industry; rather, it should divest
its funds and seek out more productive
industries in which to invest.
It is also important that the University
actually take decisive action once the com-
mittee is formed. In the late 1970s, the
University considered withdrawing invest-
ments in companies dealing with South
Africa, which at the time was still governed
by the apartheid system. This action can set
an important precedent. But the University
must do something more than simply form
a committee. The faculty, students and
administrators should work together to
reach a decision on this issue.
The University should not continue to
invest its money in companies that are devot-
ed to selling harmful products and manipulat-
ing the public. The new committee needs to
work out an alternate plan for the University's
investments so that the University's money
can be used in a cause that helps people rather
than harming them.
We are all once again at risk for pedes-
trian-inline skater accidents.
E The rest of the University gets a little
tired of that whole I'm-a-second-semester-
senior-as-if-I-care routine. (Just wait - a
couple more weeks and it'll be, "I'm not
leaving already, am I? This is the last time
I'll ever ...")
Procrastination seems universally jus-
tifiable. It's like the reward for sludging
through 20 inches of snow and all the gray
days since November. Who could argue?
® The Gap, J. Crew and Banana Republic
have a whole new wardrobe for you to buy.
Quickly, as the summer clothes are coming
soon.
* Pick-up softball, soccer and basketball
games appear on Palmer and Elbel fields.
The muddier, the better. Frisbees are tossed
around residential streets.
Sunglasses are the most popular acces-
sory in every outfit.
Cars on the street are clean again. (I
heartily recommend a car wash experience
as a must for a bright sunny day.)
® The wait is at least an hour anywhere
that has outdoor seating.
O Shirts and shorts get smaller and
tighter. (Stop. Think for a minute. This is
not always a good thing. See the note about
exercising.)
0 Opening Day for major league base-
ball is in 10 days. And it's the last season
ever in Tiger Stadium, one of baseball's hal-
lowed homes.
They say the first part of a relationship is
the best - that tingling, heart-pounding,
willingness to throw everything else aside
feeling. That newfound, consuming energy.
That conviction that it may last forever.
Yeah, that happens in spring, too.
- Megan Schimpf can be reached over
e-mail at mschimpf@umich.edu.
R'NDLINkG T HENI
,*1
.
CHIP CULLEN
Tuition was $92?
This editorial originally ran Dec. 4, 1921
It is only natural for members of a student
body which has during the past enjoyed
the privilege of admission to all the
University athletic contests of the year at a
blanket price, to become concerned when
the announcement is made that one sport
has not been included in the bill of fare for
this season. On its face, to some, this omis-
sion smacks of injustice.
But a consideration of the facts, both in
connection with athletics at Michigan and
elsewhere, gives the decision of the Regents
in charging extra for basketball games a dif-
ferent complexion.
The first thing about the situation which
might easily be overlooked is the rise in the
cost of athletics that has taken place in
recent years and its relation to students'
fees. The rate charged this fall for member-
ship in Michigan's Athletic association was
just $1 more than the amount fixed in 1912.
In the meantime tuition here, which in 1915
was $49, has increased to $92. At other
schools it has increased more in many
cases, having gone up $225 at Leland
Stanford, and $100 at Johns Hopkins,
Pennsylvania and Harvard, between 1914
and now. The same causes that have been
working to necessitate higher tuition fees
have increased the cost of college athletics.
In this activity expenses are no longer at the
1914 stage. For example, footballs that then
retailed for $5 are now more than $10; the
old one-and-a-quarter baseball now costs
$2.50; and all along the line, sporting goods
have practically doubled in cost. Railway
fares, which make up an important item of
expense, are more than one-and-a-half
times what they were in those balmy days.
Hotel bills and the rest have increased in
proportion. The cost of maintaining athletic
teams is vastly different now as compared
with the time when the $5 blanket fee was
established.
It is also worthwhile to note that when this
minimum was fixed, basketball admissions
were not covered by it. This game was estab-
lished as a Varsity sport in 1917 and admis-
sions to it were "thrown in."No increase in the
blanket tax was made. Since then, the game
has been carried on at an annual loss.
As is usually the case in collegiate ath-
letics, football has been standing the losses
incurred by other Michigan sports. It is our
only paying sport, as is illustrated by the
fact that during the 1920-21 season, basket-
ball ended with a $7,000 deficit, baseball
ran approximately $5,000 short and track
was a loser by $13,000. Furthermore, the
gridiron sport must pay for the upkeep of
Ferry field, which is generally considered
as well kept as any other in the country, and
which, like a good golf course, takes a lot
more money to maintain than might be
imagined, costing about $15,000 annually.
It is true that even after these items have
been deducted, a surplus remains, yet what-
ever is left over goes right back into
Michigan athletics. This goes a long way
toward accounting for the fact that while we
have never had a stadium drive here, we have
our present mammoth plant. So far improve-
ment campaigns such as recently held at
Illinois and Ohio have been unnecessary
here. The burden has been distributed the
easiest way by carrying over a surplus each
year, and unless the Athletic association
changes its present policy, future additions
will be taken care of in the same way.
An increasemin the cost of things is always
hard to take but if all the angles to the admis-
sion situation are considered, it is hard to
escape the conclusion that the plan adopted by
the Regents is only fair and reasonable.
Proposed voting
legislation unfair
to students
TO THE DAILY:
I find the proposed state voting legisla-
tion troubling. Elected officials are forcing
college students to choose between chang-
ing their official address (and therefore
rerouting all their important mail) every
nine months, or not voting in the elections
of the college district in which they live.
This would essentially eliminate any signif-
icant influence of college students on local
issues.
The city of Ann Arbor already thumbs
their nose at students through parking fee
hikes, overzealous ticketing and police
party raids. Eliminating us from their voting
base surely wouldn't make the local govern-
ment any MORE sensitive to college stu-
dent concerns.
MARK SCHAIRBAUM
LSA SENIOR
Student activism
is getting
out of hand
TO THE DAILY:
I am writing to you to announce the cre-
ation of a new student action group.
The group, called IMBORED, was cre-
ated to protest the University's practice of
giving exams to students to measure how
well they have mastered a subject We cur-
rently have only one member, but we will
begin a membership drive next week, and
we expect to double that number.
As our first protest, we plan to sit in
President Lee Bollinger's private bath-
room until he agrees to our demands,
which are totally arbitrary, and will
change as time passes. If Bollinger does
not have a private bathroom, then we will
sit in the public bathroom closest to his
office.
Other protests, planned include sitting
in the north campus bell tower until a clock
is installed on it, and sitting in ny GSI's
office until I receive an automatic A.
If anyone would like to join
IMBORED, then get a life.
J O~YUf(PV /~T~p'rH'0 A4
mater," 3/24/99) was an illustration of the
poorly written and edited work that the
Daily does.
As a member of the marching band, I
think that a reporter would be hard-pressed
to find a member of the band who does not
hold Sedatole in the highest esteem and the
tone of your article did not convey that
obvious point.
The Daily left out the important facts
that James Tapia, who will be taking over
for Sedatole, has had input in the program
as assistant director for the last two years
and that there will be no drastic changes in
the program.
I don't know why the reporter felt it
necessary to' make a story about the
departure of a great Michigan band direc-
tor and excellent musical mind and edu-
cator into a negatively slanted story of
disloyalty and jealousy, but it is another
example of the Daily's amateur lack of
journalism skills.
RONALD PAPKE
MUSIC SOPHOMORE
Viewpoint offered
'gullible' opinion of
military case
To THE DAILY:
This letterwisintresponse to Stephen
Reinach's viewpoint, "Captain should not
be accountable for deaths" in the Mar. 15
issue of the Daily.
Reinach provides an elaborate analysis
of the "facts" of the case, gullibly accept-
ing at face value all the excuses that the
perpetrators made. He, however, com-
pletely overlooks the most telling fact: the
"lost" video tape of the flight.
Obviously the good captain has some-
thing serious to hide, and the tape would
show it. Obviously he was hotdogging
and the crap about the malfunctioning
altimeter was just that: crap. If the altime-
ter had been malfunctioning, I doubt that
Ashby would have been flying so reck-
lessly.
Ashby and his buddies and jury pals
are like the cops when they cover for each
other. Pilots like Ashby shouldn't be fly-
edly murdered them.
If it had happened in the United
States, do you think the acquittal would
have been so easy?
Will Ashby show the video tape to his
grandkids when it is all long forgotten?
CHARLIE REYNER
UNIVERSITY ALUMNUS
Mass e-mails can
bring students
together
To THE DAILY:
In yesterday's Daily, George Dunlap
expressed the negative effects that mass e-
mails have upon our University community
("Use caution with mass e-mails," 3/25/99).
However, the idea of a mass e-mail list has
its perils; for one group at this University, it
has done wonders.
Last week, the graduates of Bloomfield
Hills Andover High School who attend the
University were brought together behind the
LSA-SG candidacy of two of Andover's
fine graduates, B.J. Orandi and Laurie
Linden. An e-mail from Orandi sparked the
kindest of dialogue between the members of
the University/Andovercommunity, some-
thing otherwise unforeseen.
The more than 300 students here, in all
sorts of different activities, all were
brought together behind the support of
these two candidates and were given an
opportunity to reminisce and reconnect in
a way they would not have been able to
had this candidacy not sparked the e-mail
group. A true love for the high school we
attended and a pride in being Wolverines
pervaded through all of us. It was an
inspirational event to bring together such
a group that was notoriously sordid dur-
ing high school, behind the maturity that
college has taught us.
On behalf of the proud former Barons
of Andover High School, and current
Wolverines, I would like simply to provide
a converse perspective to that given yester-
day.
Our fondest wishes to Orandi and
Linden, who I know wear their Andover
RICHARD
ENGINEERING
KOWALCZYK
SOPHOMORE
Coverage of
Sedatole was
poorly reported
To THE DAILY:
I have thought for the last two years that
the Daily's coverage of campus events was
slanted and usually poorly reported, but the
fact that we have no journalism school and
that the news is being reported by amateurs
W. .: " v }.+.m.vv " m": .v .. .4..:}v:.