4 - The Michigan Daily - Wednesday, January 13, 1999
(TIW itt jigFun laillg
From Harry
Truman to Stuart
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
'Our objective is to show continued vitality and energy.'
-White House Deputy Chief of Staff Maria Echaveste, on President Clintons deci-
sion to give the State of the Union address despite the Senate impeachment trial
Scott: Sins
mens.)wear
and
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
Stopnt eae re
Code review should not be delayedfturther
SCOTT ROTHMAN
ZSo-ME KNUCKLEHEADS
T he Division of Student Affairs
announced last week that the Board
of Regents review of the Code of Student
Conduct will be postponed until
February's meeting, delaying it one
month. The review originally was sched-
uled to take place at the regents meeting
this month after they received the
Michigan Student Assembly's reports and
suggestions on the Code in late
December. But Vice President for Student
Affairs Maureen Hartford said the board
has not yet had enough time to review the
reports. This delay reflects poorly on the
administration, as it is important that the
regents take action on the Code - either
by approving significant changes to make
the Code less intrusive or abolishing it
entirely.
The Code must be dismantled because
it violates many doctrines upon which
American society rests. Among them is
double jeopardy; the Code can be used to
essentially try students twice for the same
crime without the rights that all citizens
are granted by the justice system, includ-
ing legal counsel, the ability to appeal to
precedent and burden of proof.
By conducting hearings under the
Code's auspices, the University denies the
basic rights and principles of the justice
system, something it should not have the
authority to do. Also, the University's
administration should not have a Code
that acts in loco parentis when most of its
students are adults.
Another problem is the Code hearings
are conducted in a secretive manner, mak-
ing it extremely difficult to determine the
Code's effectiveness and nearly impossi-
ble to establish precedent for appropriate
sentencing and procedure. As a result,
each Code case starts almost from
scratch, leading to a serious lack of conti-
nuity.
These problems should be taken into
consideration by the regents when they
review the Code. But the postponement of
the review means the Code will continue
to unfairly try University students for an
even longer time. The claim that the
regents need more time to review the
Code seems somewhat disingenuous, and
it helps no one if the board ends up sitting
on the Code for a great deal longer. The
month delay on the review of the Code
has been long enough.
But since the Code. review has been
delayed, it is important that the regents use
the extra time to consider MSA's reports in
greater detail. These reports highlight
many of the flaws of the Code; chief
among them is the fact that it violates stu-
dents' civil rights. This should not be toler-
ated at a university that purports to be a
stronghold of enlightened ideas.
When the regents finally review the
Code, they should take the opportunity to
change it significantly - or eliminate it
entirely.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Article
focused on
volunteerism
TO THE DAILY:
I applaud the Daily for
the excellent article
addressing the University's
ranking for Peace Corps
volunteers (" U' ranks 5th
for Peace Corps volun-
teers," 1/8/99). So many
times the University is
acclaimed for its academics
and athletics, but this arti-
cle reminds us that the
University is also well-
known for preparing quali-
fied service volunteer lead-
ers - graduates with an
extreme passion and dedi-
cation to devote several
years of their lives for the
development of other
nations.
The article raises aware-
ness of the purpose and
focus of the Peace Corps
and reminisces upon the
University's involvement
when President John F.
Kennedy announced the
creation of the Peace Corps
on the steps of the
Michigan Union in 1960.
Reading this work
instilled in me a great 'sense
of pride for the University
and should be an inspira-
tion for all students. We
should take from this article
to not only consider an
opportunity with the Peace
Corps, but most important,
to participate in activities
and organizations.dedicated
to utilizing our skills for
the development of the
community around us.
JUSTINA CHO
ENGINEERING SENIOR
Coach
Guevara was
not o 'bby'
TO THE DAILY:
While I agree that the
Michigan basketball team's
performance in the
Minnesota game was poor, I
take issue with Josh Borkin's
suggestion that Michigan
Women's Basketball Coach
Sue Guevara's post-game
appearance was "unprofes-
sional" and "sobby"
("Disappointment reigns for
Blue," 1/11/99).
Guevara is doing a
remarkable job turning this
ball club around and deserves
our full support and admira-
tion. A setback like the
Minnesota game is under-
standably distressing and
worthy of a few tears.
1 am confident that the
team is working hard this week
to make up for the loss and
that we will see the Wolverines
we have come to expect play-
ing against Penn State.
DAVID CRAMPTON
SCHOOL OF SOCIAL WORK
'Patch'
review was
on target
TO THE DAILY:
After reading two letters
of disagreement concerning
Aaron Rich's scathing,
r'eview of "Patch Adams"
(" Patch' can't find funny
bone," 1/6/99). 1 find myself
forced to write in defense of
Rich's article and review. I
agree that "Patch Adams" is
a very poor movie. The
entire film is structured to
make Robin Williams as
Adams seem saintly and
extraordinary, but is he? No,
he is obnoxious and irritat-
ing and excessively cloying.
I wouldn't want Patch
Adams anywhere near me
were I in a hospital.
But perhaps more
annoying than Williams's
performance was the disre-
spect and destruction of the
entire medical field in order
to project Adams as superi-
or. To suggest that the
entire medical field is
improperly treating every-
one in their care is atro-
cious enough - but to
imply that the better way to
do it involves sneaking
around in the middle of the
night passing out cap guns
and balloon animals is
downright insulting.
DAVID GARCIA
SCHOOL OF MUSIC
Afresh start
New speaker should stress bipartisanship
Men, as a species, are not vain.
There are exceptions, certainly.
No one is completely without conc
for their appearance. But we tripo s
are usually pretty
relaxed about it.
This is part of our
charm. You'll never
hear a man whin-
ing about his flab-
by elbows or refus-
ing to go out
because his hair is
"just, you know,
not right."
This disregard is _ AMES
also a liability. The ILLER
same uninterested : i ,
attitude that can be JA
charming and
unpretentious can also be slovenly,
irritating and creepy.
There are everyday sins,ethe venial
sins of fashion. You can see these in
any of the larger buildings such as
Angell Hall or the MLB, where th@
are lots of students from different
social groups. The first of these guys
is "too-casual guy."
"Too-casual guy" is not an athlete.
Michigan athletes can afford to have a
complete set of warmups and ,new
shoes for every day of the week and
two for Sunday. "Too-casual guy"
wants to look like an athlete, but just
misses a little bit. Real jocks aren't
that concerned with dressing in the
trappings of the tough guy. They 0
tough guys. They already look the part
because they are the part. It's the five-
foot-six guy in the "No Fear" T-shirt
and six-year-old Air Jordans that make
all of us men look like Bulls-worship-
ping armchair coaches.
I hesitate to mention the next guy, as
I think I've traveled down this road
before. I can't, however, in good con-
science, talk about this topic with
mentioning "Puffy, Jr." This guy
usually white, almost always upper-
middle class. Whereas the "too-casual
guy" latched onto athletics to steal
some masculinity, "Puffy, Jr." uses
computerized, sterile hip hop that
started with Puffy himself and now
hovers over Master "1.6 points a
game" P.
"Puffy, Jr." likes to keep it real for
his peeps in West Quad, and worse yet,
doesn't see the comedy in it. He
friends all over the city and brags
about how he "gots the mad hookup at
Wendy's in the Union. Word."
Pursuant to histstatus as a hardcore
gangsta, he wears his black North Face
bubble coat, Nautica headband and big
Koss headphones just to show every-
one how hard it is to represent and get
on the waitlist for Anthro 101.
The mortal fashion sins are a,, pt
more serious.it
It's true that "Puffy, Jr." dresses like
a rap video extra and looks foolish
because he's essentially wearing a cos-
tume everyday. But this isn't the worst
of the offenders, as far as pretending
to be someone you're not. This honor
would be reserved squarely for the
"Gothic Master of Darkness and C++"
This gentleman thinks people laugh at
his cape and Morressy T-shirt because
they don't understand his deep affinity
for the dark side.0
He has large black boots tied tight-
ly to his skinny, chicken fat-colored
legs. If he doesn't own a cape, he has
a large trench coat. Further, just to let
you know he's the spawn of Satan, he
has three or four cheap, silver-plated
rings with skulls and gargoyles on
them, some of them won in a particu-
larly heated game of "Vampire: The
Masquerade." This is worse ty
"Puffy, Jr." because the Beastm
in question not only dresses like
Elvira's pool boy, but because at least
the suburban 'G' is dressing like peo-
ple who exist in real life. "Gothic
Master" doesn't even have that. I
myself was a fan of dressing like fan-
tastical role playing characters and
pretending to be them. Then I turned
12.
These sins all pale in comparison to
the Sins of Formal Wear. Men of
age and station are notoriously ba t
dressing for formal and semi-formal
occasions. The worst of these crimes,
which is thankfully becoming less
common, is the wearing of your
father's clothes. You see these guys.
Their cuffs stop on their knuckles.
They have coats and shirts about 10 or
12 years behind the culture curve.
These are the guys who have to have
their roommates tie their ties for t
or tie their own with double Windsr
knots the size of navel oranges.
The other mortal sin of this family
is that of homogeneity. There really
isn't a point to dressing up if you're
going to do it like everyone else. It's
not particul~arly special at that point, is
he 106th Congress opened its ses-
sion last week, electing Illinois
Republican Dennis Hastert the new
speaker of the House of Representatives.
The former speaker, Newt Gingrich (R-
Ga.), was very outspoken throughout his
term and was familiar to a majority of
Americans - something Hastert is not.
In addition to becoming third in the line
of presidential succession, Hastert has
become the leader of the Republican
Party in the House. The party has been in
disarray since the 1998 elections, when
Gingrich announced that he was going to
hand the reigns of speakership over to
someone else. Rep. Robert Livingston
(R-La.) was supposed to assume the posi-
tion, but following the outing of his extra-
marital affair, Livingston resigned from
his position and. from his seat in the
House. Stepping into this intraparty tur-
bulence is Hastert, a conservative, soft-
spoken man whose past suggests that he
is different from the always controversial
Gingrich. An initial indication of this
.changing of the guard took place when
Hastert broke with tradition and gave his
acceptance speech from the floor of the
House instead of the speaker's chair.
Hastert has been in office since 1986
when he was elected to represent the 14th
Congressional District of Illinois. He has
been a member of the House Commerce
Committee, which reviews nearly half of
all legislation that reaches the floor of the
House. Hastert also serves as chair of the
House Government Reform and
Oversight Committee's National Security,
International Affairs and Criminal Justice
Subcommittee and has been the
Republican point person on health care
reform since 1992. Interestingly enough,
he was the only Republican on First Lady
Hillary Clinton's Health Care Task Force
in 1993. As part of the taskforce, Hastert
helped author the Health Care Reform
age to the uninsured. He also helped write
the Patient Protection Act, passed on July
24, 1998; which protects patients and
guarantees Americans access to afford-
able, high-quality health care. Hastert has
a unique background that few members of
Congress can match. In addition to hav-
ing taught high school government and
history for 16 years, Hastert has also
coached high school football and
wrestling. In his opening speech, he
encouraged all members of the House to
play an active role in the government's
accomplishments. Hastert explained that
a good coach knows when to step back
and let others shine in the spotlight -
something for which Gingrich was not
known.
The new speaker will need all of these
assets in order to forge a bipartisan con-
sensus with the Democratic Party that
can accomplish significant legislation
while maintaining control of his fractious
party.
The partisanship that currently clouds
the Capitol Building only adds to the chal-
lenges Hastert has to face in the next two
years. Many Americans have lost faith in
the government, particularly in the U.S.
House of Representatives, which was
recently the scene of disgraceful party-line
politicking in the presidential impeach-
ment vote.
The majority of Americans want
Congress to do the work of the people on
impending problems, such as Social
Security and other entitlements, and to
resolve the Clinton matter swiftly and
efficiently. A key intangible that will aide
Hastert in his effort to restore the people's
faith in government and specifically in
the House of Representatives is the fact
that he is widely respected and well liked
by members of both parties. For now,
Hastert should get the benefit of the
doubt with regard to his ideas and vision
VIEWPOINT
Bribes shouldn't be part of Olympics
BY THE STAFF OF THE DAILY ATHENAEUM
When one thinks of the Olympics, he or
she conjures up images of legends like Jesse
Owens, Wilma Rudolph, Jim Thorpe and
Mary Lou Retton. The Olympics are sup-
posed to stand for what is good about ath-
letics.
But new allegations could destroy all of
that. In 1995, the International Olympic
Committee named Salt Lake City the site
for the 2002 Winter Olympics. It looked like
the committee's decision rested upon the
city's beauty.
Oh, it was that, and yet supposedly so
much more. Former Salt Lake Organizing
Committee President Tom Welch has been
accused of bribing IOC officials. Welch says
he has done nothing wrong, but according to
The Deseret News, he has acknowledged
cash payments and gifts to IOC members.
Instead of bribing them, Welch said the
SLOC made contributions to the Olympics.
"We never bribed anybody. We never
bought a vote," Welch said. "We made con-
tributions out there as a part of the Olympic
family, as an obligation we have. ... It was
the responsible thing to do." Welch admitted
giving $50,000 cash to Jean-Claude Ganga,
an IOC member from the Republic of
Congo. Ganga sought the money to help
children in the African nation ravaged by
civil strife, Welch said.
This editorial ran in Mondays edition of
'the Daily Athenaeum, the student-run
newspaper at West Virginia University.
He alsoaacknowledged the bid committee
made a $10,000 contribution to the cam-
paign of Chilean IOC member Sergio
Santander Fantini, who was running for
mayor of Santiago. Welch also denied a
rumor being investigated by the outside
ethics panel for the SLOC that prostitutes
were hired for IOC members visiting Salt
Lake City.
The first incident is gray. The money
may or may not have actually gone to chil-
dren in the Republic of Congo, but Welch
really had no way of knowing for sure.
The $10,000 campaign contribution is
another story. What would Fantini's winning
the mayoral race have to do with the
Olympics?
Whether he won or lost, he still has to
make the decision. That "contribution"
seems to be an outright bribe. The third alle-
gation is the most heinous.
The ax should fall on both sides if it is
found out that prostitutes were hired for
IOC members. If these allegations are
proven, the 2002 Olympics should be moved
to another city. Also, members of the IOC
who took those gifts should be removed
from their positions. It is the job of the IOC
to make sure athletes behave ethically. How
can they talk ethics when they cannot
behave ethically themselves? This scandal
has left a black mark on the image of the
Olympics. If people .like Owens and
Rudolph were alive today, they would break
every speed record in the book - by run-
ning away from this debacle.