4A - The Michigan Daily - Thursday, February 21, 2002
OP/ED
bt Jfirbigu 1
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STUDENTS AT THE'
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
SINCE 1890
JON SCHWARTZ
Editor in Chief
JOHANNA HANINK
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.
NOTABLE
QUOTABLE
Civilized people -
Muslims, Christians and
Jews - all understand
that the source of '
freedom and human
dignity is the Creator."
- Attorney General John Ashcroft
speaking to a group of Christian
broadcasters in Nashville, as quoted in
yesterday's Washington Post.
SAM BUTLER TE SOAPBOX
The Starbucksification of Ann Arbor
DAVID HORN HORNOGRAPHY
Are you a freshman?
You're just getting
used to Ann Arbor.
You're beginning to explore
more of it and find the
nuances of one of America's
great college towns.
Are you a sophomore?
You think you've got this
town understood. You know
where you like to drink. You know where you
like to eat. You know where you like to see
music and study and buy CDs and take walks
and take dates. You probably don't have it quite
right. You'll figure it out though.
Are you a junior? I am. Living in the Mid-
west is starting to bore me.
Are you a senior? I bet you're feeling sepa-
ration anxiety.
The truth is that I am too - perhaps prema-
turely. I don't really hate living in the Midwest.
This town is too cool a place not to miss.
But my concern, my fellow students, is that
my Ann Arbor differs too much from that of
incoming freshmen. And it will continue to
change so radically over the next few years -
at a rate that will be seemingly exponential -
until the Ann Arbor I return to will be unrecog-
nizable.
The news earlier this week was that State
Street was to undergo major renovations over
the next year to the tune of $5.5 million. The
area would be improved with better lighting,
wider sidewalks, more trees and a redesigned
traffic flow. The Daily featured an editorial
Hands off State Street: Use Ann Arbor's resources
better; elsewhere (2/18/02) suggesting that the
city find a better way to spend its money. There
are concerns over increased rent in the area that
will eventually drive students away. And of
course the recurring theme in the story of Ann
Arbor commerce - the balance between local
business and national chains - will surface dur-
ing and after the renovations.
I don't pay taxes in Ann Arbor because I
am only passing through. But it pains me that
my stake - our stake - in this city can be
seemingly disregarded by both the city and the
University.
Years ago, I traveled with my father to his
alma matter - a small liberal arts college in
Pennsylvania - where he was able to point
out the place where he and his buddies shared
a slice of pizza or a pitcher of beer. I fear that
with Ann Arbor's increasingly changing face, I
will not be able to recollect such memories in
my later visits to the city. Even in my three
years here I have seen establishments to which
I had some sentimental or practical attachment
come and go. The Burro on East William
Street made way for a sub-par donut shop,
which is now a General Nutrition Center. I
want a quesadilla but I get creatine.
There seems to be a force at work that
exploits the transient nature of students' time in
Ann Arbor; our stays here are too short for busi-
nesses to count on our loyalty. Before freshmen
have a chance to find out that they can get a
decent slice of pizza at New York Pizza Depot,
a Famiglia opens up in a better location with a
more aesthetically pleasing exterior and steals
the former's business.
It seems that Ann Arbor is destined to be
overrun by the sort of franchises that benefit
from a superior establishment's inability to
develop customer loyalty. That efforts are not
taken by the city to keep rent low n order to
keep local business here is unacceptable. If
these renovations to State Street do drive rents
up and local business away, an Ann Arbor that
to me is worth coming to the Midwest for will
lose much of its appeal.
As a sports writer for this paper I have had
the opportunity to see much of the Big Ten.
Let me tell you that our city is the best. The
Columbuses and Iowa Cities and West
Lafayettes of the country make me appreciate
just how special this town is and how much
we benefit from living in it. Ann Arbor can-
not become like them - a strip of
Applebee's/Kinkos/Starbucks/Gaps that
makes me want to throw up my hands and go
live in the woods. A city can have charm.
Ours does, although increasingly less so.
When Daily alum (and current SportsCenter
anchor) Rich Eisen visited Ann Arbor two years
ago he spent some time with the Daily's sports
staff. He mentioned that the first two things he
does when he returns to Ann Arbor are get a
beer at Dominick's and a hot dog at Red Hot
Lover's. I dig that, Rich. I hope I'll be able to do
the same in 15 years.
0
0
David Horn can be reached
at hornd@umich.edu.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
'Cheap shots' directed at
Greek system unjustified
TO THE DAILY:
I was equally offended and distressed by the
Daily's editorial, Sexual assault at U: Greek system
needs to step up (2/19/02). As a member of the
Greek system here at the University, I believe it is
unfair to label the initial efforts of the Interfrater-
nity Council to raise awareness about sexual
assault as an attempt "to repair the fraternities'
broken image." Similarly, I think it is ignorant to
insinuate that fraternity members are not aware
that "sexual assault is, in fact, wrong," and that
this "oft-overlooked statement has unfortunately
not permeated the collective Greek psyche thus
far." These cheap shots are unnecessary and
unjustified and only serve to further embitter this
campus against its own Greek system.
The organization of Students Acting for
Greek Awareness (SAGA) was spearheaded
by the IFC in an attempt to educate Greeks on
the importance of sexual assault awareness.
The current IFC officers have done an excel-
lent job in addressing the negative stereotypes
that pervade Greek society and to downplay
their first step toward addressing sexual
assault as simply face-saving tactics is unjust.
I attended the SAGA presentation last Satur-
day at Alpha Gamma Delta with my fraternity
brothers and was impressed by the information-
al content and comfortable atmosphere SAGA
provided. Fraternity and sorority members were
afforded the chance to speak about these impor-
tant issues face to face and I know that my
brothers came away with a stronger sense of
sexual assault issues here on our campus. I view
these presentations as the beginning of a new
chapter in the Greek system at the University.
Are these presentations a cure-all for the
ills that plague our Greek system? Certainly
not, nor were they intended as such. Yet they
do represent the start of a new tradition here at
the U, a Greek tradition built upon excellent
leadership and a desire to redress past wrongs.
Cooperation, not cynicism, is needed to effec-
tively combat sexual assault on our campus.
BRANDON PHENIX
Education junior
President, Delta Upsilon Fraternity
decided to make up a new theory which didn't
need any evidence to prove. They decided to
say that instead of things evolving slowly over
time, they just "spontaneously" evolved and that
is why there is no evidence to support it. Both
evolution and ID are theories which no one can
prove without a doubt. Both creationism and
neo-Darwinian evolution claim to be supported
by evidences from nature gathered in an orderly
way. The philosophical presuppositions under-
lying each of them are a matter of faith.
Just as an intelligent creator is the view of a
theist, evolution is the view of an atheist, which
is also a religious belief.
If one thinks that ID should be left out of the
classroom because it is not fact, then evolution
should be left out as well. Not including ID in
the curriculum of students, while including evo-
lution, would compromise the educations of
Ohio students.
NATHAN LEE
Engineering senior
In spite of Bush, we shoul
work to make our own
area Kyoto-compliant
To THE DAILY:
We are pleased that Tuesday's editorial
Enviro-fraud, Bush feigns Kyoto agreement,
(2/19/02) recognizes that George W. Bush's
energy plan is, at best, unrealistic. If Bush truly
believes that voluntary actions will curb the
powerful effects of global warming, all he needs
to do is take a look at his own state of Texas to
realize the inefficacy of such a proposal. How-
ever, the administration's close ties to the oil
industry give a clear indication of where Bush's
favor lies. Clearly, it does not lie in the best
interest of America.
Rather than losing money, becoming Kyoto
compliant would stimulate the economy while
helping America become independent of for-
eign oil. Although there is an initial investment,
the savings derived from increasing energy effi-
ciency would pay off royally in a few years.
However, even though Bush refuses to sign
the Kyoto Protocol, we must ensure that our
own communities are Kyoto compliant. We
cannot wait for Bush to act on common sense
- we could be waiting forever. Instead, stu-
dents right here on campus are pushing the Uni-
versity of Michigan to adopt the measures of the
Protocol. Other campuses across the country
have signed onto the Protocol, including Tufts
and Cornell Universities and Oberlin College.
The Sustain UM Initiative has been pressur-
ing the administration to agree to a seven per-
LSA-SG responds to
critiCisms of GSI survey
To THE DAILY:
A response is necessary regarding Michael-
Simon's letter LSA-SG's survey indicates poor
research, interpretation (2/19/02). Certainly,
Simon's point is valid that the students who
answered the survey were self-selected in that
they chose to respond to a survey we sent to
every student in the College of Literature, Sci-
ence and the Arts. And of course this self-selec-
tion puts an inherent bias in the data; LSA-SG is
acutely aware of this fact. However, Simon fails
to mention that apart from the University itself
commissioning such a survey and mandating
that every student participate (say, by threaten-
ing to prevent them for registering for classes),
the self-selection bias in any research done by
LSA-SG, or any other University division, is
absolutely unavoidable. We advocate for stu-
dents by accessing all available information and
feedback that we can possibly garner. It is for
this reason that we encourage active student
participation on the government.
- Further clarification regarding the efforts
of LSA-SG are necessary. The survey did not
identify the "worst" departments in terms of
instruction, but rather the departments with the
most commonly cited incongruencies in grad-
ing and instruction of courses with multiple
GSI-led instructions.
While the full text and statistical appen-
dices of the government's report does indicate
the departments that received low "consisten-
cy" ratings from students, LSA-SG has neither
attacked these departments nor even contacted
them to discuss their GSI practices - in other
words, we don't yet know the significance of
the data because we haven't examined both
sides of the story. LSA-SG representatives
clearly stated that the work with departments
had not yet begun and therefore they were
unable to comment on which departments
would be targeted or the specifics of how.
Suggestions to the contrary was pure irrespon-
sibility on the part of the Daily.
The Daily article was clearly intended to
make the serious problems of insufficient
training for GSIs and instruction inconsistency
into something "exciting" and "controversial."
In so doing, it ignored and misconstrued state-
ments made both by LSA-SG members and
made in the government's survey report.
These errors have certainly damaged the gov-
ernment's relationships with both departments
and graduate student groups - the same rela-
tinn mupw rely on tn imnrne aaemic no]-
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Evolution has little proof; is
the view of atheists
To THE DAILY:
T am writine in resnse to Mondav's editor-
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