4A - The Michigan Daily - Thursday, January 23, 2003 OP/ED U bz £i l'gtx JBail, 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 If you think back to when we had the draft (draftees) went out, adding no value, no advantage, really, to the United States armed services." - Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, reflecting on the effectiveness of the draft. Rumsfeld later apologized for his remarks, as reported in yesterday's Washington Post. KARL KRESSBACH UN IIE;: NATION AlOW A WORqD PROM EPRSIErs-r OF -N rmpATEY.. it-?Ul an ikYVA RR/,it'-.i1r2i t ,i t' IA A OJrArA /1rIAiA /AA Is a black 'B' worth a white 'A?' LUKE SMITH TIHERE IS NO I IN COLUMN ikely, everyone that the difference between the B-student and sented minority, a scholarship athlete, socio- knows that in the the A-student is equal to the points awarded for economically disadvantaged - and the LSA Admissions being an underrepresented minority. The mes- provost can bestow bonuses where he sees fit. Office, a perfect 1600 on sage this sends, while certainly unintentional, is "Socioeconomic disadvantage" is extreme- the SAT is worth 12 alarming. It allows a B-student, who also hap- ly vague. The Admissions Office cannot fy^ points, significantly less pens to be an underrepresented minority to be employ any strategy in determining one's than the 20 received for viewed (by admissions standards) as the acade- socioeconomic standing. Sure, they could cull being an underrepresent- mic equal of a racially over-represented A-stu- information from the FAFSA, but they're due ed minority (a group dent. Those two students should never be much later than the University begins review- including blacks, Native considered equal under any system; there is no ing applications. Instead, the application Americans and Hispanics). It is this egregious more telling evidence that the Admissions reviewers must glean information from stu- discrepancy - completely antithetical to the Office needs reforming than the inflation of a dent's essays, letters of recommendation or standards of achievement for which the Univer- minority student's B-average to a majority estimations based on an applicant's home- sity should be striving - that has affirmative member's straight A. town. Because there is no concrete way to actionantagonistsup inarms. It's equally unsettling to me that I assert that a student has financial need until Upon examining the University admis- received 20 unearned points (16 for my geo- FAFSA figures are available, these 20 points sions scorecard further, one finds that the 12 graphical location, and four as a legacy) as it can easily be manipulated by students in their points awarded for the 1600 SAT are also is to see underrepresented minorities receiv- essays. Whether students would consciously awarded for a 1360 (or the 31-36 ACT ing 20 unearned points. Ideally, the admis- attempt to impoverish themselves in a person- range). The rewarding of the same points for sions process should consider the student's al statement ("it was so hard eating Mayon- these two scores is questionable, if not sinful, academic achievement, contributions to the naise sandwiches for the last two years of high especially for those who spent countless community and standardized test scores. It is school") is questionable, but the possibility hours fretting over their standardized test understandable to award points for adjusted exists. And those 20 points could be critical. scores. Given the rubric, the next tier of curriculums, as students have different Boiling down the University's admissions standardized test scores (1200-1350) would access to curriculum - but not too many. policy to an examination of race and its get a single point less than those in the cate- Here, the University's admissions process applicability in admissions is a simplified gory that received a 1600. A student with a succeeds. However, the curriculum points treatment of a far more complicated issue. The 1200 on the SAT receives just one point less system fails in its penalization of students students at this University - all of them - than a student with a perfect 1600. coming from poor districts. are here because of a system rife with flaws. Unfortunately, the incongruities with the This makes little sense. It would be While the specifics of the University's admis- admissions criteria aren't limited simply to enough of a penalty to give students who sions policy are far more than troublesome, its disparaging (and somewhat disquieting) have participated in weak curriculums a tokenism! and inconsistency aren't limited to reward policies for the SATs. Students zero, subtracting points from them is Ann Arbor. The reform of the collegiate graduating with a 4.0 grade point average counter-productive, especially if the oppor- admissions process needs to be reconsidered from their high school receive a whopping tunities aren't available. on a far greater level than the"elimination of 80 points on the scorecard. Similarly, a B- The other major deductions on the Univer- racial preference in admittance policy. student receives 60 points (generally, 100 sity admissions scorecard fall under "miscella- points gets a student admitted). neous." Students can receive one of four Luke Smith can be reached This doesn't seem important until it's noted 20-point perks: One for being an underrepre- at lukems@umich.edu. VIEWPOINT I went toD.C. and all I got was a peace movement BY ARI PAUL WASHINGTON - The path from the National Mall to the Naval Yard was filled with a marching infantry - 200,000 strong - armed with banners, puppets, drums, newspapers and an array of clever pro-peace and anti-Bush chants. Since the Pentagon's top-secret plans to formulate a war on Iraq leaked to the press last year, there have been massive demonstrations across Europe, student peace groups emerg- ing and an overwhelming doubt surround- ing the idea of war. A former U.N. weapons inspector became an icon for the anti-war movement and questioning Repub- licans have taken out newspaper ads urging the president to use proper restraint. The anti-war movement is no longer just for radicals. Though the sectarians were out in full force Saturday, the dominant vibe was that of a genuine belief that this war is wrong and not just party-line rhetoric. In contrast, the small counter-protest was uniform, whose only point was that all 200,000 of us, as well as the other thousands of protesters in Tokyo and San Francisco that also marched that afternoon, were supporting the terrorists and should all swim to Cuba. Right, all the World War II, Korea and Vietnam veterans marching for peace, the thousands wielding American flags and sev- eral members of Congress were simply just being unpatriotic. And people say that it is the Left that is running out of ideas. Saturday's demonstration was a pinnacle in a rising opposition to the war in Iraq being mounted by people from all over the world from different political walks of life. The march on Washington was united, and it will only be effective in actually making political change if it remains so. The ques- tions that it is faced with are how to pre- serve the unity. THE QUESTION OF ANSWER The main organizer for this march was the coalition known as Act Now to Stop War and End Racism. Sounds innocent enough, howev- er, a closer look at this organization is frighten- ing. Founded days after Sept. 11, 2001 by former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark, it acts as a front group for a hard-line Stalinist group, the Workers' World Party. Among other outrageous beliefs, the party has expressed sup- port for the genocide under Slobodan Milose- vic. the massacre at Tiananmen Square and the no alternative organization has as loud a voice. On Saturday, several student anti-war groups gathered in front of the Supreme Court for a separate march that would later join the rest of the protesters walking towards the Naval Yard. Even though their hearts were in the right place and their consciences were opposed to ANSWER's dogma, their numbers and impact were dwarfed by the intensity of the rally on the mall. Therefore, it makes more sense for the anti- war movement to stay away from the idiotic and mindless teachings of the Workers' World Party, but utilize their strengths and resources if any alternative network of activists fail to gain the same amount of enthusiasm. And many activists already believe this. Many of the students in front the Supreme Court agreed that though ANSWER's core ideology is repugnant, as one organizer put it, "soli- darity is the most important thing." RAMSEY'S RETURN District of Colum- bia Police Chief Charles Ramsey may still haunt some IMF/World Bank pro- testers dreams. At the anti-globalization protest last September, under his orders, Wash- ington police hogtied hundreds of activists for several hours, mak- ing very little distinc- tion between who was committing a crime and. who was lawfully dis- senting. And before this Saturday he made it clear to the press that About 200,000 people he was ready and will- Saturday to oppose a p ing to do the same, even though there are lawsuits still pending against his department. On Saturday, however, we learned that it was just an idle threat. Instead of the city streets being lined with riot cops standing shoulder to shoulder with tear gas canisters at the ready, officers stood with about 10 yards between them, initiating little, if any, confrontation with the protesters. The crowd for the most part behaved well, staying within the limits of the protest permit, however, against non-confrontational police officers is patently inappropriate. One protester peacefully and respectfully explained to one officer why she was against the war. While he disagreed, he peacefully and respectfully explained why. So much for police brutality. Police violence should be condemned when committed, but such wanton antagonism against this profession alienates those that simply do their job and on a larger scale, alienates a major sector of the working class. DROP BUSH, NOT BOMBS As much as Saturday's rally was an anti- war demonstration, it was an anti-Bush demonstration. Many signs contained such thought-out and intelligent criticism of the Bush regime such as "Fuck you, Bush" and "Asses of Evil" along with pictures of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Vice President Dick Cheney. So much dis- content from so many Americans proves that there is an ever- increasing opposition to the policies enacted by the man and admin- istration we the people allegedly elected. For those of us who bit the bullet and punched Gore in 2000, our explanation was that a Bush victory was so unbelievably frightening that voting for Ralph Nader was just too dangerous. We were right. It was apparent that many at the march recognized ARI PAUL/Daily that it wasn't simply vere in Washington the U.S. government ssible war with iraq. as a whole that was S 0 Wi pa committing such atrocities; it is Bush who is causing the majority of the problems. Would Al Gore wage war on Iraq? Would he create a Depart- ment of Homeland Security? Would he appoint John Ashcroft as attorney general? Meditating on these questions, anyone who still thinks Bush and Gore wefe the same can- didate has a learning disability. The awful truth is that there is a stark dif- ference between what Bush has in mind for THE BOONDOCKS AARO.NMcGRI..DlIR T rA#Innn. or 7-77.7,77.7 nwm Y- '' t /Ali 1.7 11 1 1 I iAonI f -r Vi 1 td TC \ I