4 - The Michigan Daily - Wednesday, February 9, 2000
~bt Skilgu 1&ilg

Goss learns about leadership: Image is everything

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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. All other articles, letters and cartoons do not necessarily reflect
the opinion of The Michigan Daily.

Help topple the Code
Committee needs to hear student concerns

or the last few years. this is a typical
beginning to a conversation for me.
Stranger: Do you go to school?
Me: Yeah, I'm a student at the University
of Michigan in Ann Arbor.
Stranger: Oh. That's
good. You guys have
been having some
problems recently, eh?
The problems
referred to, of course, n
are athletic. We aren'
talking about sprained
knees or tendonitis
either. As you've
noticed, it seems for
every great victory we
earn on the field, a
new controversy aris- Daid
es to sling mud on the Wallace
block 'M.' Our image E
looks worse than a
flubbed extra point. May-;rd t
I'm not an insider.
I've watched everything like you. I don't
know the minds of University President Lee
Bollinger or Athletic Director Through
March Tom Goss. But I bet they both had
conversations that went like the ones I've
had. I bet you had them too. And I think
that's the real reason Goss had to go.
Sprite is wrong. Image is everything.
Bollinger made Goss the man to clean up
the mess in the athletic department after
scandals made the campus southwest of
Hoover and State look less like a bastion of
amateur athletics and more like the origina-
tor of "Who Wants to be a Millionaire."
Goss knew what he had to do. At the press
conference introducing him back in
September of 1997, Bollinger talked about
Goss's understanding of the University's val-
ues and pronounced him "an individual of

great personal character and values."
Bollinger closed with this statement: "He
will give us a program that will protect us
from any improper influences."
Now, two and a half years later, our image
still cracks mirrors. We haven't gotten rid of
the dirt; we've compiled more of it. Goss
wasn't fast enough with the broom and the
dustbin.
Anybody still in denial about our sorry
reputation, believe it. The deterioration is
several years in progress. Look at Goss's
Website (http://u-wwmgoblue.comn/depart-
ment/bios,'goss.html). It begins with four
words Goss said on day one. Tradition.
Excellence. Accountabiliv Integrity. The last
two set the klaxons blaring for me in 1997,
as they do now.
No one mentions integrity until it's in
short supply.
Same with accountability. The athletic
department was and is in trouble.
I am not without remorse for Goss's exit.
None of us know how difficult the athletic
director's job is except him. Goss seems like
a genuinely nice man, and I hate to see any-
thing bad happen to someone good. I felt bad
watching the press conference.
But I believe in the universality of leader-
ship. In my short life, I've held a few impor-
tant leadership positions. When you are a
leader, the image of your organization
becomes your responsibility. The everyday
workings remain in the hands of subordi-
nates. They do the bulk of the grunt work
and you make sure they know how to do
their jobs. Then you tinker when something
needs tinkering to maintain the standard of
excellence. In short, you're in charge of the
infrastructure.
Goss knew as much. At that Sept. '97
press conference Goss said, "Everyone
should know the rules and once you know

the rules, they're black and white. Once you@
agree to those, I expect them to be lived up
to."
Clearly, this hasn't happened. Just in the
past week, the men's basketball team's lead-
ing scorer, Jamal Crawford, received a
lengthy suspension for NCAA rules viola-
tions. Badmouth the NCAA all you want,
and I'll help. But those are the rules to play
by, and everyone should have known them. I
don't like what this did to a team beginning.
to show promise, and I especially don't like
what it did to Crawford. It's got to feel terri-
ble sitting out during the heart of the Big Ten
schedule. If there were any questions, and
certainly there were, they should have been
answered at the beginning of the season.
I didn't expect Goss to micromanage
every recruit and to read every memo in the
athletic department for the past two-plus
years. I question Goss's direct ties to much of
what people blame him for - the halo, the
deficit, NCAA problems.
But when these things got out of hand, I
didn't see decisive action. I only saw more
bad press. That's bad since athletics provide
most of the University's advertising.
It's a shame Goss's egress serves as yet
another controversy for the athletic depart-
ment and the University. In the end, the man
who wanted to ring in accountability heard
that bell toll for him. One more reason for
recruits to shy away, one more wind in the
long road back to respectability. And it's one,
more day students, faculty, administration
and alumni have to defend the University's
honor. I'm tired of it. What the University
needs now is someone who can clean up like
a Shop-vac. No excuses and no time for BS.
We need a five-year job done in a single
year.
- David Wallace can be reached via
e-mail at davidmnw@umich.edu.
TEN TATIVELY SPEAKING

T he Code of Student Conduct, which
has plagued University students in
one form or another since Robben Fleming
was an Interim President at the University,
will be vulnerable yet again in the next few
months - giving students a great opportu-
nity to stand up for their right.
University President Lee Bollinger has
named a search advisory committee to
choose a new Vice President for Student
Affairs. Former Vice President for Student
Affairs Maureen Hartford left the
University last spring.
As the Vice President for Student
Affairs is in charge of administering the
Code, the next occupant of the position
will have a crucial role in shaping its
future.
The search advisory committee should
consider the detrimental effects of the
.Code and select a candidate who is willing
to actively amend or abandon the Code
altogether.
The Code has never been an effective
or fair method of discipline. Its very exis-
tence violates students' constitutional
rights. Many students brought up under the
Code have already had their cases heard by

the legal system, punishment under the
Code amounts to double jeopardy. To make
matters worse, the Code does not grant
students many of the rights they have
under the legal system.
Code hearings are conducted in secrecy,
so that there is no chance to appeal to
precedent - this also leads to arbitrary
sentencing. Nor are students allowed to
have any form of legal representation at
Code hearings.
This form of punishment should not
continue. The justice system is sufficiently
equipped to handle any crime committed
by a University student; the University
should not compound the punishment by
subjecting offenders to an ineffective and
unjust system.
The members of the committee should
keep the interests of students in mind when
reviewing the candidates and recommend
someone who is willing to recognize the
unfairness of the Code.
It is imperative that the Code be dis-
mantled as soon as possible; the search
advisory committee can help achieve this
aim by finding a candidate who will work
for the good of students.


THOMAS KULJURGIS


1w k

zoo
I ArY

Where capitaism fails
Supply and demand should not set drug prices

S enior citizens in the United States are
facing a huge, although often unno-
ticed, crisis today. The growing senior
population, which for a generation has
relied on the Medicare system's promise
of affordable health care, is now seeing
that guarantee being washed away in the
torrent rising prescription drug costs.
Prescription drugs are becoming a pro-
gressively larger part of modern medical
care, but Medicare still provides no cov-
erage for them. Many seniors receive cov-
erage through HMOs or retirement plans,
but many of them require high co-pay-
ments and large numbers of those organi-
zations are cutting back on prescription
drug benefits, leaving millions of seniors
without adequate coverage. Most dis-
turbingly of all, fully one-third of seniors
do not even have prescription drug insur-
ance.
It is a tragedy that the federal govern-
ment has allowed this situation to devel-
op. The sad consequences of the govern-
ment's inaction were vividly illustrated by
U.S. Rep. Debbie Stabenow last Thursday
when she took a group of senior citizens
to Canada and purchased their prescrip-
tion drugs for 53 percent less than they
would have cost in the United States. This
shocking price disparity is the result of
the Canadian government's negotiated
discounts from the pharmaceutical indus-
try. But with the United States govern-
ment's hands-off approach to prescription
drugs, seniors, who are often on fixed
incomes, have been left to face the bal-
looning cost of medicines alone.
The problem is only going to get worse

the last four years, the number of compa-
nies providing such benefits has plum-
meted by 25 percent.
Congress has so far not only been
unresponsive to the prescription drug
problem, but has also exacerbated the
problem by frequently granting legisla-
tive patent extensions to drug companies
to prevent generic and lower-priced drugs
from being introduced.
With prescription drug prices rising by
more than 12 percent a year, increasingly
large numbers of people can simply no
longer afford them. Many seniors are
forced to choose between paying their
rent, buying food or purchasing medicine.
The federal government needs to take
action to reduce the cost of prescription
drugs. Promisingly, the pharmaceutical
industry has recently shown some will-
ingness to work with the government on
expanding Medicare coverage for drugs.
Unfortunately, agreements like the dis-
counted drug prices in Canada are still
opposed by drug companies. Despite this,
the government should pursue such mea-
sures - which would benefit everyone -
while expanding Medicare coverage to
prescription drugs for seniors as soon as
possible.
This is not just a problem of the poor,
rising drug costs are a burden on every-
one. This issue is not just about keeping
people alive either - it is about quality
of life. Prescription drugs can often deter-
mine whether someone is an invalid or an
active and healthy person. It is a tragedy
that having a meaningful life as a senior
is often only for those with high incomes.

Michigamua is
misrepresented by
activists
TO THE DAILY:
Fact 1: The University does not subsidize
Michigamua. All of Michigamua's funds are
from in-house dues and alumni support.
Fact 2: Michigamua is neither sexist, nor
racist. Although in the past it may have
appeared to be an all-white, all-male society,
so was the University at one time.
Michigamua's current members come from a
broad range of backgrounds, ethnicities and
include both male and female members. There
is no question about Michigamua's support of
diversity.
Fact 3: All of the items found by the
Students of Color Coalition are not used by
the current "Prides" of Michigamua. They are
artifacts of years past but who is to say that
we must forget our heritage even if we do not
like it? For if we forget we are doomed to
repeat it. Is that not the saying? To hear these
groups talk about things they have no knowl-
edge of and make assumptions that are based
on guesswork goes completely against their
efforts to find the "Truth."
Excuse me for being skeptical. but this
group (although named something different
every year) continues to attempt to protest
Michigamua, and yearly fails to garner sup-
port, because of the one fact that all of their
present concerns are completely unfounded.
As long as the native community contin-
uies to live in the past. they will ruin their
future. As long as they continue to live on
hatred, they will never learn to live in peace
with their surroundings. Joe Reilly, what is
your true demon?
Eventually, these people will leave the
tower, but Michigamua will live on, for it does
not care about those physical objects and that
room in the tower. All it cares about is the
bond formed between people who care for
each other and love one another, for that is
what Michigamua is about:'Love. Love for the
University, love for leadership, love for all
humanity. There is nothing on earth that can
destroy that. Let them come. Michigamua will
be the victor.
LYELL HAYNES
UNIVERSITY ALUMNUS
Peace process
ignores Palestinian
refugees
TO THE DAILY:
The front page article by Josie Gingrich
("Debate focuses on Palestinian refugees,"
2/3/00), was well written and impartial. It is
one of a string of recent Daily articles that
have signified a drastic turn for the better.
For that, I commend the Daily.
But, it would irresponsible by any read-
er not to fully understand the issue that was
discussedathere. The refugees are one of the
biggest and most pressing, yet most

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international ideals of such matters involves
the right of return and/or restitution. If any-
one who is Jewish can have the right to
"return," whether they have ever even been
there or not, then certainly the millions of
refugees bordering the land they and their
ancestors lived on for centuries should also
have such a right.
The refugees are a group that have lived
a life of displacement, oppression, and
neglect. Any formula foretrue peace will
have to involve them directly. But the cur-
rent pattern of "peace-making" says that
such essential development is not going to
happen. As Americans, we should grant the
Palestinian refugees the same accordance
with which we defended the Kosovars since
systematic displacement and oppression are
despicable no matter who is the victim.
WILL YOUMANS
LSA SENIOR
Affirmative action
policies are racist
TO THE DAILY:
In response to Jeffrey Kosseff's Feb. 7 col-
umn "Racism doesn't always hide behind a
white hood" I take great offense to Mr.
Kosseff's claim that I am a racist.
Personally. I consider myself to be a liber-
al, and in the true spirit of liberalism, I oppose
the use of race as a factor in the University's
admissions policies, just as the civil rights
movement did in the '60s. I find it hard to
believe that anyone could consider this to be a
racist position.
Tell me Kosseff, when the debate was cen-
tered on the admissions policies of the
Universities of Alabama and Mississippi in
1963, who were the racists, the ones who
favored or opposed the use of race as a factor
in college admissions? The use of race as a
factor is no more justifiable today than it ever
was in the past.
Kosseff goes on to point out how people
are judged every day on the basis of the color
of their skin and he is most certainly correct.
These judgements must end and the only way
to do that here at the University is to have an
admissions policy which does not consider
rni-cAfactcnrleI iivni'rty is nernetat-

dreamer, but you cannot say that I am a racist.
ERIC NYMAN
ENGINEERING JUNIOR
P rote sters are
'terrorists'
TO THE DAILY:
The Ann Arbor campus has, of late, been
host to a rash of breaking and entering inci-
dents. In the name of "protest fgroups force
their way into the office space of some targeh
of their ire. There they remain, occupying the
space until their demands are met. I respect
the urgent need of these groups to have their
voices heard. In their fervor, but they violate
the rights of the individuals and groups being
protested.
Most protesters act in the tradition of civil
disobedience made famous by Gandhi,
Martin Luther King Jr. and many others. By
publically and deliberately disobeying a ba
law, one builds public support for the eradica
tion of that law. By being willing to sit in jail
for their beliefs, the protesters force the public
to make up its mind.
In the case of office occupations, it is not
so much a law that is to be changed (I doubt
that these protesters are working for the repeal
of breaking and entering laws!), but public
policy. By being willing to trade their time and
freedom for change, they make a powerful
statement. For the statement to be complete,
they must be imprisoned and the matter decid
ed by the citizens.
The Ann Arbor Police Department and the
Department of Public Safety must fulfill their
end of the bargain in the civil disobedience
equation: Arrest and try the protesters. Every
juror has the right.to support violators of bad
laws by refusing to convict them. We must be
allowed to exercise that right, and change pub-
lic policy in the best way.
Without exercise of that process, thes.
protesters are nothing but terrorists, allowed to
break the law by quiet consent of the powers
that be. Should terrorism be a policy tool of
the University, sometimes condoned and other
times not?
There are many ways to protest without
breaking the law or impinging on the rights of