4A - The Michigan Daily - Thursday, February 21, 2002 OP/ED bt Jfirbigu 1 420 MAYNARD STREET ANN ARBOR, MI 48109 letters@michigandaily.com EDITED AND MANAGED BY 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]- 0 9 Evolution has little proof; is the view of atheists To THE DAILY: T am writine in resnse to Mondav's editor- itilc vL~WLL. 9> E~AAu &JL v