4 - The Michigan Daily - Friday, April 14, 2000
ckw £idligau aily
Face the facts: Dial 764-6969 and get some
420 Maynard Street
Ann Arbor, MI 48109
daily.letters@umich.edu
Edited and managed by
students at the
University of Michigan
MIKE SPAHN
Editor in Chief
EMILY ACHENBAUM
Editorial Page Editor
Unless otherwise noted, unsigned editorials reflect the opinion of the majority of the
Daily s editorial board. Allother articles, letters and cartoons do not necessarily
reflect the opinion of The Michigan Daily.
S o, what's it gonna be, eh ... ? As the
proud inheritor of the least read col-
umn slot of the week, I am still cheerfully
enthusiastic about my quasi-revolutionary
stints and foreign policy paradigm shifts
here for the penultimate page 4. Just so
you know, this is not the last of me. More
crocks and mocks
are being pre-
cooked for your
consumption. More
debacles on inkE
await your audience.
But for the sake of
all you Milophiles,
they can rot on the
back burner of free
press for now ... this
one has nothing to
do with anything ...
its just about get- Waj
ting some. Syed
Tonight, the
brave, the proud and he3
the beautiful will
charge the battlefield
of the city which
houses this academic cooperative. Flesh
will be on the streets and in the air. What's
the Mile all about? Tradition, school spirit,
drunken stupor, whatever. I have zero
doubts about advocating the sexuality of
the whole gambit. What's that song about
being mammals and doing it like they do it
on the Discovery Channel? That's the tick-
et. So please, kindly dismantle the Repub-
lican/devout/plutonic/divine-intervention-
ist/good-clean-fun/bullshit intellectualI
wardrobe you dress up in for the parents,
priests and professors, and face the facts
about the hound-dog reality of the Nunga1
Meel. On that note, the Karachi Kama-I
Sutra shall leave you buggers with the all
the versions and renditions of the carnal
mediums this campus has to offer ... how
you like it is up to you:
Sex on the couch: Psychology Dept.
e Statutory Rape: The Law School ;
Hippy Sex: East Quad
Jock Sex: West Quad
No Sex: Bursley, the School of
EngineeringI
N The New Jersey Turnpike pick-up:
Markley
Do-It-Your-Self: The Grad Stacks '
Pure Sex: Biology Dept.1
* Lovqr's Leap: Dennison
Oral' Sex: The Dental Schooli
Cyber-Sex: The EECS Building4
Anal Sex: The Business School1
Necropheliacs: MoJo ... the buggersl
are right across the cemetery.I
N Goin' Deep: The Big House (prefer-
ably, the 50 yard line)j
SCORE!: Yost Ice Arena
Sex without a future: The Schools off
Music and Art
Just for her: Martha Cook, Betsey j
Barbour, Helen Newberry and StockwellI
(where, evidently, they stock pretty well).I
Just for him: Sauna room of the
CCRB
Students could make Naked Mile safer
Quickies: The Michigan Union.
(Check e-mail, get Wendy's, get some, get,
out).
0 Don't-have-to-worry-about-getting-
knocked-up Sex: Nuclear Engineering
Dept.
Booty Camp: ROTC
0 69: Mathematics Dept.
Safe Sex: The Medical School
Porn: Film/Video Studies Dept.
Poor Sex: With anyone in a graduate
school or the School of Social Work. '
Dirty Sex: Ypsilanti
Bestiality: MSU
Honest and Loud Sex: The Michigan
Daily
The Best Sex in Ann bloody Arbor:
All of the 14 residents of 514 Monroe
St., including the gentleman in the pic-
ture.
Defying all the boundaries of journal-
istic integrity is not an easy task. Whatev-
er you have just read was a meant in good'
taste and was specifically authored for this'
last day of school. It's been a tough year,
no doubt. Apart from the buddhas among
us, we all live in a cynical, cynical world.
Misanthropic harboring and churlish polit-
ical commentary, challenging and
engrossing as they might be, can take a
seat for now. Sex is not college, but defi-
nitely a part of the life we live here. Face
the facts, and come out of the closet.
Cheers.
- Waj Sved can be reached via
e-mail at wajsved@umich.edu.
ince the Naked Mile's advent in 1986,
the atmosphere surrounding the year-
end tradition has changed. Rather than
remaining a seniors-only event, other stu-
dents have joined in and everyone from
sketchy townies to Channel 4 News comes
to watch. For many, the risks may outweigh
the pleasures of baring it all and running
down South University.
Student volunteers from last year
deserve commendation for attempting to
keep the Naked Mile safe. Efforts like
handing out T-shirts and lining the run-
ners' path made a big difference. Students
,should volunteer in increased numbers this
year.
But despite current safety precautions,
students need to realize that the event is
unsafe. University President Lee Bollinger
has sent a letter to seniors warning them of
the dangers of running and numerous ad
campaigns have stressed the same issues.
Besides the physical threats, authorities
are threatening arrests and further penalties
to discourage runners. Although the DPS
probably will not be arresting anyone, the
Ann Arbor Police Department will not hes-
itate to arrest runners on city property.
Indecent exposure is a sex offense, which
will stay on a criminal record for the rest of
one's life. Unlawful assembly may have a
long lasting effect too, due to a bill signed
by Gov. John Engler on April 6. Anyone
convicted of this offense will be prohibited
from attending a state university. While
illogical and absurd, this law threatens the
educational futures of Naked Mile runners.
But the Naked Mile is not going to go
away and the city should be smart enough
to realize this. It can take measures to
ensure the safety of its residents. Closing
off a street and hiring extra security are
starting points. City officials can show con-
cern for student safety without explicitly
supporting the Naked Mile.
The Naked Mile may not be an event
for everyone; certainly many administra-
tors, politicians and even students here
are opposed to it. But it is tradition and it
should be fun. As long as students recog-
nize the dangers involved in participating,
they should be allowed to have one more
wild night of freedom before graduation
and the work force beckon.
THOMAS KULJURGIS
Residential wronged
LSA should keep their hands off the RC
I SA deans could be destroying what
makes part of the University
unique. By forcing the Residential Col-
lege to use letter grades, the administra-
tion is dismantling the foundation of
one of its most unique and successful
living-learning programs.
The Residential College was founded
on the belief that students and profes-
sors should share a close, non-competi-
tive working environment. This helps
foster education for the pursuit of
knowledge rather than for a letter on a
transcript.
Instead of grades, professors write a
few paragraphs on the students' work in
class: Their participation, strengths and
weaknesses. Because their performance
his based on this evaluation, students feel
more comfortable with their professors
and in their classes. Students do not
need to fear that a semester's effort will
be wasted because they handed in a
term paper one day late, as many non-
RC students do. At the same time, stu-
:dents know they must consistently
participate and work hard in order to
gain the respect of their professors.
There are other aspects which make
this program unique: An intensive for-
eign language program, first-year semi-
pars and a mandatory two year
requirement to live in East Quadrangle.
All of these aspects make the RC
uncommon, but the one thing binds
them all together is the grading system.
Recently, the deans of LSA reviewed
the RC and decided to change the grad-
ing system so that all RC students will
receive letter grades for their classes,
like other LSA students. In an attempt
to cover up this tragedy and reconcile it
with the principles with the RC, they
are allowing the RC to keep written
evaluations. But mandating letter
grades fundamentally undermines the
principles of the RC. Students will
work for grades and GPAs. The empha-
sis on learning will be lost.
Admittedly, there are upsides and
downsides to the RC. Some graduate
schools and scholarship committees
may look through hundreds or thou-
sands of applications and pick a stu-
dent from the RC because of the
uniqueness of their transcript. One
could almost view the evaluations as a
series of recommendations if the stu-
dent has done well. Other programs
may disregard an application because
they view the RC as going against edu-
cational norms.
While the RC has a duty to let stu-
dents know about how written evalua-
tions will affect them, the fact remains
that every LSA student accepted to the
University has the choice of belonging
to the RC. There is no overall privilege
or disadvantage - it is simply different.
And in this age when the University is
trying to diversify and offer as many
opportunities to its students as possible,
it should keep the RC's diversity, not
homogenize it into A's and B's.
Computing center
in Angell Hall is not
the 'Fishbowl'
To THE DAILY:
In the "Best of Ann Arbor" section, the
Best Computing Site, Angell Hall, was
referred to as the Fishbowl. One question
always seems to be murmured around cam-
pus. "Where is the Fishbowl?" We know
that one exists on this campus, but no one
can really agree on where it is. Although the
large glass windows allow passing students
to be overseers, the Angell Hall Computing
Site is not the Fishbowl.
The real Fishbowl is the area where we
pick up our copy of the Daily on the way to
class and buy a bagel or doughnut on the way
out of class. To gogalong with everything else
at the University, the Fishbowl has its own
myth as to how it got its name. When the sun
shines in to the area through the glass wall,
the students walking back and forth suppos-
edly look like fish swimming in a fishbowl.
So while the Fishbowl nickname is already
occupied, maybe we can start calling the
Angell Hall Computing Site the Aquarium.
KATIE BONDY
LSA SOPHOMORE
Criticism of
Michigamua needs
perspective
To THE DAILY:
I suppose it was only a matter of time
before Michigamua was compared to the
Nazis, and in her letter "SCC fights campus
racism" (4/7/00) Cameron Schultz didn't dis-
appoint. Please, let's keep our perspective.
______________ USAP AA-
AtCA"
b
Engaging in insensitive and potentially offen-
sive activities is one thing. The systemic
slaughter of millions of innocent people is
quite another. Let's not confuse the issue by
even uttering the two in the same breath.
And for those like Schultz who throw
around the phrase "institutionalized
racism," I'm wondering to what they're
referring, space allocation policies for Uni-
versity buildings, or the blatantly racist and
discriminatory admissions and financial aid
policies which are employed on a daily
basis by the administration under the
euphemism of "affirmative action."
TIM MAUN
LSA JUNIOR
Insensitivity should
not be tolerated
TO THE DAILY:
What constitutes freedom of speech
and what constitutes sheer insensitivity to
oppressed peoples? On the one hand your
Apr. 6 editorial, "Michigamua's choice,"
supports freedom of speech by saying
Michigamua can "mock Native American
chants on the Diag," if they desire even
though it may offend many people.
On the other hand columnist David
Horn, on the same page, lambastes the
South Carolina General Assembly for
continuing to fly the Confederate flag
even though this offends many people.
I'm confused. Where are the differ-
ences in these situations? Michigamua
has a well documented history exploiting
Native American culture and promoting
negative stereotypes of Native American
people.
The Confederate flag is a symbol of
the enslavement and continued oppression
of African people on American soil. Both
are offensive symbols and need to be exter-
minated immediately.
RHONDA DZAKPASU
RACKHAM
Changes we'd like
CRISP, credits and the course guide
ith summer jobs and finals hang-
ing over their heads, students do
not need anything else to worry about at
the end of the semester. But every year,
registering for classes is a difficult
process. By instituting an online regis-
tration system, making a hard copy of
the course descriptions available and
matching credit hours with class difficul-
ty, the administration can make register-
ing for classes a better experience.
The addition of online registration is
a welcome change, albeit one that is
long overdue. But the focus on online
registration materials is not without its
drawbacks. For instance, the fact that
course guides are now exclusively avail-
eliminating the printed course guide are
worthy, it isn't that effective from a prac-
tical standpoint: students simply print
,the course guide out. The University
should restore the printed course guides
and simply encourage people to recycle
them.
But the problems of registration don't
end with the course guide. As students
progress in their University education,
most find it harder and harder to take
enough courses to satisfy their degree
requirements. This is because most
upper-level classes only offer three cred-
it hours, while a large number of lower-
level courses give four credit hours. Part
of the reason for the discrepancy is due
Yesterday, Residential College students
received an e-mail message from LSA Dean
Shirley Neuman and Associate Dean Robert
Owen explaining LSA's case for changing the
current evaluation system that the RC has
used for more than 30 years. We find this
message offensive to the RC community,
both because of the words it uses and because
of the implications of such language.
In this message, Deans Neuman and
Owen explain how it is "standard practice
within the LSA College to hold external
reviews of departments and units at intervals
of approximately every 10 years ... In 1998,
the RC underwent an external review which
involved an evaluation of the RC by four out-
side experts:'
A small segment of the report from these
external reviewers was also included in the e-
mail message, stating, "... A number of RC
students (including many who clearly like the
written evaluations) said that the absence of
grades in the RC is widely regarded by other
Michigan students as proof of the College's
'flakiness' and lack of rigor. Just as lecturers
in the RC express the desire to 'get more
respect,' so too do students, and we suspect
grades might help achieve this goal."
We resent this characterization of RC stu-
dents as "flaky." We understand that this word
was put forward by RC students, yet, in the
context of this e-mail message, it seems as if
Deans Neuman and Owen are using such lan-
The fact is, the RC fosters a different and
well-proven environment for learning. The
University seems to look kindly upon diversi-
ty in its student body, so there seems no justi-
fication for limiting diversity of educational
approaches. How the RC is regarded by the
University community (as flakes, in this
case), should play little to no role in deciding
pedagogic value.
The biggest problem we find with the
deans' decision is that they seem to have
ignored the desires of the RC faculty and stu-
dents. After lengthy discussions within the
RC last fall, LSA was presented with a pro-
posal detailing the specific wishes of the RC.
Later, meetings between RC representatives
and LSA administrators brought to light the
most salient issues. After all of this work,
which had gone on for several months, LSA
responded with a plan containing few simi-
larities to anything previously proposed by
the RC community.
The current LSA proposal is, in effect, a
mixture of the findings of the external com-
munity and its own desires for "equity for the
students." As the new policy on grades
stands, RC students will have to abide by the
ruling of LSA, without ever having a forum
by which to express their opinions.
Even more insulting to us is the percep-
tion that the RC "lacks rigor." Its most strin-
gent requirement is the intensive language
program, capped by the difficult proficiency
tk.ct andAliteratuire rlHacc in the criven 1,nranar
two semesters. This curriculum is just as
demanding, if not more so, than the language
requirements of LSA.
Written evaluations are a key part of the
philosophy - and they are rigorous. They
are in depth, one- to two-paragraph synopses
of a student's performance; they are both crit-
ical and constructive. To place them along-
side grades deemphasizes their importance to
students and faculty alike.
Written evaluations in the RC also reflect
a professor's commitment to the students. To
complete a written evaluation, an RC profes-
sor must know the students in his or her
course - not only how they fared on papers
and examinations, but how they interacted in
class discussions and how much enthusiasm
they showed. The written evaluations are
completely necessary for this intimate rela-
tionship to continue.
The LSA proposal also sets a very dan-
gerous precedent whereby LSA has the
ability to govern the RC without regard for
the wishes of community members. Such a
precedent will no doubt cause further diffi-
culty in the future when more divergent
opinions appear. It is imperative for LSA
leave some power for self-governance with
the RC.
If LSA takes away our written evalua-
tions, or overshadows them with letter
grades, the fabric that holds together the
RC - the University's most successful liv-
ina-learninco rmmunity, - beg~ins to tear