4 - The Michigan Daily - Wednesday, December 1, 1999 Cbe £iitjiguu iailg 420 Maynard Street Ann Arbor, MI 48109 daily. letters@umich.edu Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan HEATHER KANIINS Editor in Chief JEFFREY KOSSEFF DAVID WALLACE Editorial Page Editors Unless otherwise noted, unsigned editorials reflect the opinion of the majority of the Dailys editorial board. All other articles, letters and cartoons do not necessarily reflect the opinion of The Michigan Daily. Look closer Looks like my time wasting is coming to an end A really cool way to descend into the had e-mail addresses were government pared I was for death. Prepared for death? Grand Canyon would be on a roller personnel and university faculty, staff and Not something I routinely think about, but coaster. Forget about the donkeys and students. AOL and Prodigy had been oper- a good exercise nonetheless. What would mules - the Grand Canyon Expressway ating for years. but were barely connect- 1 say on the other side? I'd say. "Why, oh. would get you down in less than a minute. ing themseles to the Internet backbone. why did I waste so much time?" I'd be try- You'd be able to walk At that time. Creighton only published a ing to figure out why I didn't get off my around the bottom, newspaper once a week. You'd have to go butt and get a move on. go to the Navajo out of your way to keep up with current I can think of a hundred things on my stores and see the events. Few people did. Who cares when "to do" list. I want to learn things like how sites until it was time there are so many girls, parties and to play the piano, play the guitar, cook, to get back. Then movies repair cars, build houses,. carve wood and you'd have a prob- We can only live the college life for a rub backs. I want to read the classics and lem. Roller coasters limited time. Before long, we've got to become a pilot. How far have I gotten in do a great job going climb our way out of the canyon and back these activities? Nowhere, because "I down, but they stink into the real world. What does it take? It don't have time." How can I find time to at going up. Getting takes a mountain of papers. presentations watch hours of TV, catch movies and back to the top of the and exams. The trail back is marked with cruise the Internet then? canyon would be a trials and tribulations. Just as college life Basically, I've got skewed priorities slow, arduous Mike was marked with partying, football. danc- and I'm willing to bet that I'm not the process. Lopez ing, drinking, eating, movies, romance only one. The beginning of the semester Sounds a lot like and studying, the climb out of our hedo- shouldn't be a roller coaster ride down to school. In the begin- nistic existence requires us to let go of wonderland followed by a painstaking, ning of the semester, each pleasure, one by one, so that we can last ditch effort to make it back to reality. we all fall quite easi- make it out with passing grades. A lot of people never leave reality. They ly into life at the University. Partying, It reminds me of a commercial I used still have fun. They party. They dance. football, dancing, drinking, eating, to hear on the radio back home. In it, the They watch movies. They also learn how movies, romance and studying. Notice announcer said that there are only a few to play the piano, cook, repair cars and how studying is tacked on there. That's things that everyone has to do in life. "You carve wood. They build houses. Fellow how it seems to be for most of us. We tack got to work. You got to eat. You got to time wasters, how about we make this it on as some sort of afterthought. Once sleep. And you got to ski." Then he goes semester's last ditch effort our last? immersed in the college life, we get on to say that eating isn't all that neces- As we give up the hours of TV movies detached from civilization. Think about sary, so all you really have to do is work, and Sega to devote more time to studying, how isolated the bottom of the Grand sleep and ski. But you know, since you are let's make a list of things we'd really like Canyon must be to the rest of the world. If saving so much money on food, all you to do. Maybe you'd like to weight train, it weren't for Netscape Netcenter and the got to do is sleep and ski. Well, sleeping is do some community service or make Daily, I'd be totally in the dark when it overrated, so all you really have to do is more regular appearances in church. comes to current events. ski. That's what is happening to us as the When the time comes for us to take that In fact, when I was a freshman in col- semester draws to a close. "All you get to roller coaster, don't get on. Instead, rip lege, I was totally in the dark when it do is study." out that list and start filling your extra came to current events. That was back in When you free your schedule of all the time with the activities that will make 1994 when the Web was just starting to parties, Sega, movies, dancing and drink- your life better. pick up steam. Netscape was barely get- ing, it is amazing how much time you find - Mike Lope: can be reached via ting off the ground. The only people who in a day. I was recently asked how pre- e-mail at manarlarge(yumich.edu. Admissions process tries to go beyond SAT A group of students who would have normally been denied by the University's admissions process because of low standardized test scores are being given the opportunity to enroll next fall thanks to Harvard student Deborah Bial's research project. Her project, the Bial- Dale College Adaptability Index, tests applicants in skills not measured by stan- dardized tests - such as leadership - and is aimed at identifying students who have the ability to succeed in an academic environment. Standardized tests like the SAT and ACT always have been the most suspect and least accurate method used by col- leges to screen applicants. Too often, stan- dardized tests are merely a test of a stu- dent's ability to pay for a preparatory course and not their ability to succeed in college. This problem, along with biases in the tests, have resulted in aggregately and artificially lower scores for minori- ties. Everyone, including the writers, admit the tests are far from perfect. It is exciting that the University is acknowl- edging standardized tests' inadequacies and is taking an interest in other methods of examining applicants. Pursuing tests that strive to pick out promising students --that would have bee previously passed over for admission because of standardized test scores - is especially important in light of the impending, lawsuits against the University's use of race-based affirmative action in admission decisions. While con- tinuing the University's current affirma- Live action policies is the preferable method of promoting diversity because of its proven effectiveness, this experimental program and others need to be pursued. Recently, colleges have been fairing poorly in defending affirmative action admission policies in the courts. In the possible event the University will have to end the use of affirmative action, it needs to have plans in place to ensure this con- tinues to be a diverse campus. The Bial-Dale Index seems promising because it measures non-cognitive skills and includes interviews - "tests" whose scores are far more difficult to manipulate than an SAT or ACT score. Without this or another new test, the University should stop placing so much weight on standard- ized tests relative to the four-year academ- ic and extracurricular high school records of applicants. These tests, while they mea- sure academic ability to some extent, are so predictable in their content and form that anyone able to shell out a few hundred dollars can easily learn how to receive higher scores on them. The Bial-Dale Index or any other new test that can be developed is surely not going to be a panacea and will have its own problems. But it is certainly a step in the right direction away from the highly flawed standardized tests currently used. And while the University should certainly continue to use affirmative action in its admissions process, it may eventually be forced to stop that practice and so needs to continue looking into new ways to identi- fy qualified minority students. THOMAS KULJURGIS EN EA , , (X COM~PLICATED MOERN VAU4.. What's down, Doc? Minority med school apps take a dive The University Medical School, heralded' as one of the best programs in the coun- try, is having trouble convincing minority stu- dents to apply. Despite the Medical School's current efforts to increase diversity, only 13 percent of this year's entering class were members of under-represented minorities. Having recognized the problem, Medical School officials should do everything in their power to encourage more minority students to apply. Declining diversity in the Medical School poses a serious problem. A racially and ethnically diverse atmosphere is impor- tant, impacting both the comfort of enrolled minorities and the quality of education for every student. Learning in such an environ- ment prepares students to associate with oth- ers in a diverse world. Also at stake with declining numbers of minority applications is the University's repu- tation as a friendly institution to non-whites. Whether or not programs like affirmative action are in place to increase diversity, low enrollment and applicatory numbers among minorities may cause prospective students to view the University as an uncomfortable place to study. In the field of medicine; a business not exactly known for incredible diversity, convincing minorities to at least apply to the Medical School is key to mending this prob- lem. The University understands the impor- tance of diversity in the field of medicine but seems unsure of what is causing the problem. Declining minority applications to medical institutions has become a national trend. At this University, only 478 minorities applied to the Medical School. The admissions office received 501 minority applications last year Medical School created a number of policies to encourage minorities to apply. Project: HOPE, one of the Medical School's minority support programs, focuses explicitly on reversing the trend of decreasing interest of minorities in the field of medicine. This pro- gram utilizes a coalition of colleges and grade schools to introduce medical professions to a wide range of minority students. The University, through Project: HOPE, provides middle and high school minority stu- dents with the opportunity to tour health care facilities and witness medical vocations first- hand. Applicants to the University may also partake in a spring retreat and meet with minority representatives. In some cases the Project can even subsidize the travel costs for these early conventions. But aside from dealing directly with prospective students, the University should review what else can be done to make the Medical School more appealing. One possible attraction to the medical program could be to increase the number of minority professors within the school. The existence of visible mentors for minority students might provide some incentive to matriculate to this Medical School. The University can also take advan- tage of the many minority student groups on campus to pinpoint specific problems within the program that have repelled minorities from applying. Whatever course of action the University takes to combat this problem, it is imperative that something be done. Such dras- tic reductions in minority application and enrollment is a serious issue for any institu- tion that values diversity. As a champion of racial and ethnic equality and diversity, the University must do everything in its power to AIDS exhibit review had major flaws To THE DAILY: This letter is in response to Nick Falzone's review. "Errors Hinder AIDS Exhibit," (Nov. 29). This article is a clear example of the typical Daily "reporter" try- ing desperately, however feebly, to have an opinion of his own (yet not convincing due to his lack of knowledge of the topic at hand). This exhibit was created not specifically to entice students to North Campus, but to increase H1IV-AIDS awareness among the hun- dreds of faculty. staff and students who pass by the Atrium Gallery daily. It is an installation, not "artworks" per se - Falzone does not seem to understand the difference. The goal of the installation is to transform the lounge into an environment dedicated to AIDS awareness, in which crucial information is readily avail- able. The fact that the installation is almost entirely composed of related facts and statis- tics (granted. with some misspellings) means that it accomplished its main purpose of pro- viding information. The combination of this young man's knit-picking and lack of under- standing of installations created a one-sided review that did not touch on the obvious suc- cesses of the exhibit. For those who are unfamiliar with the gallery containing the exhibit, one side is completely open, two walls are traditional sur- faces and the fourth side is all glass. The glass wall faces the main concourse of the building; thus it is the first that passersby see. For this reason, it is the focal point of the exhibit. The transparent, vertical banners consist of star- tling information, which is boldly painted in black. Some information is highlighted by white backgrounds. Staggered between these banners are red ones, which break up the potential monotony of a lot of text, and make the existing text pop out. If you step back from the glass, you essentially see a collage, con- sisting of these banners, the centrally placed transparent information cubes (which are indeed cracked) and a black back-drop with "End the Silence" in white. On the far wall hangs a painting by School of Art sophomore Kate Armstrong-Blanchard, which is dedicated to her uncle who died of AIDS. It is flanked by two black banners which help pronounce the painting. While standing in the concourse, this exhibit can be viewed at many angles. The astute observer will notice that different facts become appar- ent or fade into the background. depending on their vantage point. This creates a dialog between the viewer and the exhibit. Furthermore, upon entering the room, you are surrounded by the information which makes the installation/viewer relationship a more active one. The color palette used for the exhibit is a simple one - black, white and red - making it undeniably bold and eye- catching.Although Nick Falzone's "staunch opinion" chose not to admit this, the number of people stopping to view the installation do. In order to create an accurate depiction in future art reviews, it is necessary for Falzone to consider the many facets which compose exhibits, educate himself in basic art termi- nology (such as "installation") and recognize that he is not a big-time New York art critic, but a student with much more to learn. Rather than attempting to pass himself off as some kind of expert, he could have easily summed up his thoughts with a simple, "I don't like it." CARRIE WolocKo PIERPONT COMMONS ARTS & PROGRAMS ASSISTANT COORDINATOR Sanz's view of hazing 'disturbing' To THE DAILY: To comment on Brandon Sanz's column "To Haze or Not To Haze": As both a United States Marine and a prospective fraternity member, I find your article on hazing very dis- turbing. I might go so far as to say that it is one of the most ignorant pieces of writing ever to cross my web browser. But then I would want to write a lengthy rebuttal defending my view- point, and it doesn't sound like you're worth the time. Suffice to say that I am glad to hear your military service is over and hope that you are not continuing to inflict yourself on this country's Armed Forces as a member of the Reserves. In case you think I lack perspective, I'm a grunt, have spent most of my tour over- seas or on a float and have scars worse than anything you'll get from flutter kicks. MATT MULLER SERGEANT, U.S. MARINE CORPS 'White liberal guilt' has no weight apologize for not making myself clear on the definition of racism. I should have stated that we as white people, were never forced to sit at the back of the bus, pulled over in our cars because of the color of our skin, put in ghettos or forced to go out the side door of the Union. I agree with Godwin, there are circum- stances in which white people have been dis- criminated against. I should have been more clear, I suppose. Godwin goes to great lengths to describe the diversity within the white population. If we, the white community, are so diverse, how does he know what kind of life I've lived? I also wonder why being in favor of equality automatically makes me feel guilty for being white? I do not feel guilty for my life. I believe in equality and when I see something that I can do to help, I do it. The whole white liberal guilt statement is just old and has no weight. AIMEE BINGHAM LSA SENIOR Thanksgiving break* is not enough To THE DAILY: In response to the Nov. 30 editorial "Give us a break," I agree that the extended Thanksgiving weekend is not truly a vacation and is late in the semester. Undergraduate edu- cation, while time and energy demanding, is not so strenuous as to require an additionali vacation earlier in the fall term. In my four years at the University, I do remember feeling tired right about this time of year waiting for the semester to end. Though the truth of the matter is that if a vacation were to be added earlier in the term, that time would have to made up somewhere - by beginning the semester earlier, for example. I don't know about current students but I preferred having the overall duration of the semester shorter. * FAR iS u WR L-E~ / - '9" To THE DAILY: I am responding to the letter by Chris DAVID CHESLER Godwin that appeared in the Nov. 24 Daily. I UNIVERSITY ALUMNUS