4A - The Michigan Daily - Thursday, November 16, 2000 i1} $£iu igwnt1)ig In the name of the Father the Son and Glenn 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 T here is only question that matters this week: Do you agree with Glenn? By now you've probably seen Glenn's flyers scattered across campus, or you may have encountered someone in a "Do you agree with Glenn?" T-shirt in one of your classes. If it seems that Glenn is every- where, it's true - and; yet there's so much more to Glenn than just omnipresence.' Unless otherwise noted, unsigned editorials reflect the opinion of the majority off the Daily s editorial board. All other articles, letters and cartoons do not necessarily reflect the opinion of The Michigan Daily. Glenn entered my life during a particu- larly hard time. I was dealing with a bad break-up, I'd been evicted from my apartment and I was on speed. And by that I mean the Keanu Reeves movie - I had an extra's role as Unsuspecting Pedes- trian #2, and I'd said, "No, I think the Big Dog should have stayed in school for his final year." She shook her head and handed me a pamphlet. "Glenn will show you the way," she whispered. Although I never used the free Arby's coupons the woman gave me, Glenn is still showing me the way. I admit, at first I was scared that Glenn was just the figurehead for a creepy, subversive religious cult, but that's not the case at all. Glenn doesn't even belong to an organized religion - 1 think he was raised by Communists. But unlike those Communists who want to steal away our children in the dead of night, Glenn's mission is to help all peo- ples, regardless of race, ethnicity or creed even Apollo. Some spiritual leaders will only cater to a particular group, but one of Glenn's greatest attributes is his tolerance: He can and will out-drink members of any religious sect, and it doesn't matter if he's knocking back the Manishevitz with the Jews, the vino rojo with the Catholics or the white milk with the Protestants. Glenn is also a big proponent of forgive- ness. I recall one time when Glenn and I were walking down the street, discussing spices and whatnot, when a man bumped into Glenn and sent him reeling. This gen- tleman didn't bother to say he was sorry, so Glenn chased him down and unleashed upon him a savage, unholy beating. As Glenn rained down an array of close-fisted blows and deadly mule kicks, the man finally mumbled an apology. "Forgiveness is a virtue," Glenn hissed. Some individuals have accused Glenn or going to extremes, but the way he sees it, it's always too high or too low, there ain't no in-between. People are just unfamiliar with his beliefs, and in cases like this, igno' rance breeds fear, or at least a slight sense of nausea. Ask yourself this: Do you agree with Glenn, or do you feel queasy? Glenn believes we were all created equal in the image of simple carnie folk. Glenn believes in the natural love between a man and a woman and another man and a second woman and the mus- tached Tom Selleck. Glenn believes in miracles, as well as Smokey Robinson's solo work. Glenn believes in the personal return of the late "Dear John" star Judd Hirsch to this physical world. But most importantly, Glenn believes in divine intervention. He's never been afraid to confront a deity and say, "Buddha you've. got a problem with the pills" or "Christ, man, you gambled away your kid's college fund." Glenn helped Shiva stop sniffing glue, he got Ra off of booze and he talked God out of the whole "Sinners go to hell" fiasco. When gods go wild, Glenn is there to put the fear of Glenn in them. I've made my choice: I don't agree with Beatles, I just agree with Glenn. - Chris Kula can be reached via e-mail at ckula@unmich.edu. Go with Glenn. Courts must uphold affirmative action Chris Kula AnA Today, the affirmative action lawsuit facing the College of Literature, Sci- ence and the Arts goes to trial in the fed- eral district court for the Eastern District of Michigan in Detroit. Both the LSA's and the Law School's use of policies designed to promote a diverse learning environment are being challenged by two class action lawsuits spearheaded by a Washington D.C.-based legal advocacy group, the Center for Individual Rights. CIR has mounted an aggressive legal push to dismantle affirmative action at universities around the country. It was the driving force in ending affirmative action at Texas universities and is also currently suing numerous other universi- ties, school districts, governmental agen- cies and other organizations in an attempt to not only fight affirmative action, but to end every program targeted specifically at minorities or women. Things such as scholarships and research grants designed for minorities and women and even funding of women's sports are also under attack from by CIR. The primary plaintiffs in the lawsuits against the University, unsuccessful LSA applicants Jennifer Gratz and Patrick Hamacher and Law School applicant Barbara Grutter believe that the use of race as a factor in the admissions processes illegally discriminated against them. Why we need diversity against minority applicants, who are far less likely to have the money for prepara- tory courses and retests. Many minority students with less impressive high school , curriculums and SAT or ACT scores as some non-minority students' are just as intelligent and qualified to attend the University. It must be recognized that these students have been denied the edu- cational opportunities available to other students throughout their lives. The bigger socio-economic picture never felt worse about myself as a human. That's when I first learned of Glenn and his crusade. I was chasing after a dog when I collided with a young woman who was distributing literature on the street corner. I was just about to help her up when a differ- ent woman distributing different literature said to me, "Do you agree with Glenn?" Thinking she meant former Purdue Uni- versity small forward Glenn Robinson, I The commendable goal of the Univer- sity's consideration of race in admissions is the promotion of diversity on campus. Diversity is one of the reasons that this is a world-class institution of higher learn- ing. The opportunity to examine ideas from as Race is n many viewpoints as pos- sible is indispensable to only facto a quality academic envi- ronment. Learning and gets spec the advancement of knowledge is severely considera limited when people from different backgrounds, with differ- ing viewpoints, life experiences and understandings of the world are not pre- sent. In order for students to truly learn, they have to be exposed to ideas and people that allow them to experience perspectives beyond those of their own race, class, geographic region and cul- ture. The point of education is to broaden one's knowledge and insight - an unat- tainable goal in an insular institution that does not strive for diversity. How can one better understand the world when surrounded only by people like them- selves? Is it really unfair? And though it is an important goal of the University, racial diversity is only one of the many considerations in the highly complex method by which appli- pants are assessed. When judging appli- cants, the University takes into account high school grades, standardized test scores, content of a student's curriculum, co-curricular activities, essays, letters of recommendation, the quality of their high school, whether any relatives attended the University, athletic and socioeconomic status, in addition to race. At first glance, policies designed to boost the number of underrepresented minorities may appear to be unfair to some prospective students, but many of the other factors used in admissions deci- sions clearly favor non-minority appli- cants. The University's consideration of the quality of an applicant's high school is obviously beneficial to students from wealthier and usually almost exclusively non-minority areas. The consideration of a student's curriculum will also be disad- vantageous*to most minority applicants, as they tend to be from less affluent areas where schools seldom have many, if any, of the advanced placement courses the University values highly in its admis- sions decisions. Alumni relationships favor non-minority applicants, as their parents and other family members are far more likely to have attended the Univer- sity. of a One of the main reasons children tend to stay in the same socioeconomic class as their parents is that they are brought up in our sharply segregated secondary education system. The richest kids get the best schools and the most opportuni- ties and the poorest kids get the poorest schools and are shut out of almost every educational opportunity available. Grow- ing up in a poor neighborhood and hav- ing no option but attending a substandard school should not disqualify an applicant. The obstacles they have had to face need to be recognized when determining if they have the capacity to be successful at this university. Critics of using race in admissions often point to states such as Texas, where consideration of race in college admis- sions has been ended, but diversity has been maintained to some extent, as proof that race need not be considered by col- leges. Texas accomplishes this by requir- ing that public Universities automatically accept applicants who graduated in the top ten percent of their high school class. This is poor substitute for the method it replaced because it leaves schools without the ability actu- ot the ally make any judge- ments about the ability r that of applicants. Factors such as an applicant's jal standardized test !f scores, student leader- tiOl? ship, community ser- vice and other activities outside the classroom that demonstrate a student's skills have been taken off the table. Assessing the qualifications of an incredibly diverse group of applicants with drastically different experiences, accomplishments and demonstrated lev- els of ability has been reduced to a one- size-fits-all solution in Texas. The result is a more unfair system than the complex admissions process that includes consid- eration of race ever could be. Many stu- dents that did little outside the classroom or did not take challenging courses will be admitted over students who have demonstrated attributes valued by col- leges but did not fall in the top ten per- cent of their class. This system is also totally unworkable for judging graduate and professional school applicants, which are also not allowed to consider race in many places. University's policy is worth defending Michigan Party misleading students TO THE DAILY: In the interest of full disclosure, I am a supporter of the Blue Party. However, in the interest of objectivity and fair elections, it is important that as a former MSA Repre- sentative and Budget Chair I address some of the issues of this campaign. Over the past year, Blue Party members have led a multitude of meaningful pro- jects, including the drive to register thou- sands of students to vote, a reformed budget committee that allocated more money to student groups than ever before in the history of MSA and LSA-SG's quest to institute direct constituency. The Michigan Party, however, could not be more different - only two Michigan Party candidates have any governmental experience at all. Perhaps it is this inexpe- rience that results in a misleading Michigan Party platform. For instance, the Michigan Party pro- poses having MSA meetings in the Resi- dence Halls. In fact, MSA held a meeting at Bursley just the other week. In addition, the Michigan Party propos- es a "Community Service Initiative" to specifically fund community service groups. Coincidentally, such an initiative already' exists. MSA's Community Service Commission currently doles out $73,000 of student money to service groups on campus every year! GLEN ROE LSA SENIOR Daily's liberal bias suspended for coverage of Bush TO THE DAILY: During this election time I have felt that the Daily has givena very biased opinion on the election. I was glad to finally see an article ("Students for Bush Optimistic" S11/9/00) about the Students for Bush and our campaign, as we have worked very hard this election year. However, I was dis- appointed the entire second half of the arti- cle had a negative spin to it, supporting Gore and somewhat Nader. I realize that - Vice Presidentjor Stuaent A poisoning of E the press should give both sides of the story but there have been numerous pro-Gore articles in your paper and it would be refreshing to see one pro-Bush article in the Daily this year. Hopefully the article about his win will be a supportive one. NICOLE BABCOCK LSA FIRST-YEAR STUDENT Blue Party Website resorts to personal attacks TO THE DAILY:. Why must campaigns always turn to slander to win votes? The problem with pol- itics today is that most politicians focus on slandering their fellow candidates, rather than the issues, or the things that matter: Us. Specifically, in our microcosm, election politics are simply corrupt. One example that we have recently been alerted to is the Blue Party's Website (http://www.umich. edu/ -voteblue) in the "differences" section. In this section of the Website, they took an entire page to slander Doug Tietz. 'We haven't done enough - not me, you, the institution. Every time a student dies unnecessarily it means we haven't done enough.' 04..,.,7.__4 rr :._ IY r*. 1r. .1 7 hairs . Royster Harper on the alcohoq} ,ngineering sophomore Byung Soo Kim. They made comments about Doug hav- ing "a lack of knowledge about student gov- ernment" as well as his "trend to say anything that will get him elected." Howev- er the most offensive comment was, "It's hard to believe that there's a 'commitment' from someone who refuses to fill out his entire term." Do these people even know Doug? We thought they were going to explain the differences between the parties. Is the difference between the Blue Party and the other parties Doug Tietz? We know Doug. He is our friend, though we are impartial. We do not even vote in the MSA election.,. He is not this monster that they are mak- ing him out to be. We first implore the Blue Party to stop being "anti-Doug." But, even more importantly, we urge all of the candi- dates to stop the corruption, or we will end up with a divided country well illustrated by the current presidential dilemma. We will be the leaders of this country very soon, and if we are corrupt now, we really will hate to see our generation in a couple of years. JULIE HUMPHRIES NURSING SOPHOMORE DAVID WARD ENGINEERING SOPHOMORE$ IY SPEAKING THOMAS KULJURGIS TENTATIVE - i .. - .11 t t rVNAfL ' ~11t! TXoi ?L~CbLJ4s I i- W0SD~A. C12o5 Fi !e - 44n -roil$6SOOO OO LOSER~ * 4 The admissions policies of the Uni- versity as they currently exist may not be perfect, but they are as fair and effective as anyone knows how to make them and are vastly preferable to many other sys- tems. These policies provide the Univer- sity with both a diverse and highly qualified student body. Neither goal is sacrificed for the other. The University's use of race in its admissions decisions is necessary to maintain the best academic environment possible and it is not dis- criminatory. It merely acknowledges that race in this country affects what opportu- nities people have. That must be recog- nized for the best students to be found. If race is not considered in the University's admissions process, many applicants who are qualified will be rejected and the University's educational environment will be damaged for others through the admission of less well-qualified students. Ours is not a color-blind society; one's race makes a difference in how people live and what chances they get. For the University to be forced by the courts to shut its eyes to this reality would be a grave injustice and seriously harm its ability to effectively educate its ienetiCall modified foods should be labeled By Rob Goodspeed Daily Editor alWriter " .September, independent activist groups discovered genetically modified (GM) corn not approved for human consumption was in taco shells. By November, the FDA had recalled nearly 300 varieties of tacos, tortillas, tostadas and chips made with the unapproved genetically altered corn from the market. And while the corn, known as Starlink, has not been proven to cause harm to people, it is disturbing that an unapproved crop could pervade the food supply so com- pletely. Indeed, officials are still searching for 1.2 million bushels of the 80 million bushel Starlink crop. products suggests the widespread nature of GM crops. This list includes many grocery store private-label brands: Kroger, Food Lion, IGO, Safeway, Wal-Mart and Meijer. It is safe to say that if you live in America and buy food at a grocery store, you have eaten a GM food. Mothers for Natural Law, a GM food advocacy group, claims that 60 to 70 percent of foods in U.S. grocery stores contain genetically modified ingredients. And since 60 percent of processed food in U.S. grocery stores contains at least one soy- bean product, and half of all soybeans plant- ed this year are Roundup ReadyTM soybeans (a GM variety resistant to the roundup spray), most Americans unknowingly ingest genetically modified foods. Many varieties consumers should be able to make a moral decision about GM foods, just as some choose to eat only Kosher or organic foods. In response to recent developments, U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich, an Ohio Democrat, proposed legislation that would require all GM foods be labeled, but it was withdrawn because of a lack of support in the House. He has also proposed legislation to fund research about unknown allergens in GM foods and assess the risk of GM fish escap- ing into the wild. The Ann Arbor City Coun- cil recently voted in support of the testing and labeling genetically modified food. Independent organizations have long cam- paigned for GM food-labeling laws, similar to those already in place in Europe. V i'v . 1 Y" 1 t r, t , 1