4 - The Michigan Daily - Friday, January 16, 2004 OP/ED 4m D 420 MAYNARD STREET ANN ARBOR, MI 48109 letters@michigandaily.com EDITED AND MANAGED BY STUDENTS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN SINCE 1890 LouIE MEIZLISH Editor in Chief AUBREY HENRETTY ZAC PESKOWITZ Editorial Page Editors 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 He is a moral coward." - Former Vice President Al Gore, in a speech criticizing President Bush's environmental record, yesterday, at an event sponsored by moveon.org, as reported by Guardian Unlimited. SAM BUTLER THE' SOAPBOX - - 6 44 Trading spaces SRAVYA CHIRUMAMILLA ithin two months of my time here at the University, I made a life-altering decision: to live in a house with six other people. As a freshman, I naively signed at the dotted line, sure that my new residence would deliver all the promises of late night talks, movies and roommate bonding. It was due to this optimism that I failed to understand that landlords, especially those in Ann Arbor, will do everything to screw a tenant out of money and comfort. My housemates and I should have come to this conclusion soon after we moved into our home because the carpet had not been cleaned. Though some unseemliness is expected during move in, there is an agree- ment that the landlords professionally clean the carpets. Because ours failed to do so, one of my roommates stepped on a nail and had to be taken to the hospital. - dur- ing the first week. Our troubles continued since we had no furnace for two months. To ease our cold, the landlords dropped off some space heaters, which in turn blew out our elec- tricity. It was around this time that the landlord told its emergency line to stop accepting phone calls from our residence. Unfortunately, this was not a rare occurrence. Recently, a friend's home was ransacked and looted, which is common during breaks. Though no claims have been filed, it is with utmost coincidence that soon after the landlords came for mainte- a XXWEAVING THE HANDBASKET nance, the apartment was pillaged. Even without that consideration, her landlord has failed to perform because they have yet to fix the window and lock through which burglars did and can still enter. The curse of no heat found me in a new home with new a landlord, leaving us in the cold once again this year. The fear of theft is especially high in our new home because the main doors of our apartment building remained open for weeks on end. Also, there is no adequate lighting, which makes dodging the puke in the hallways, left uncleaned from weeks ago - a formi- dable task. The blame clearly lies with the building manager, who, taking a cue from his experiences as a Michigan Student Assembly president, has done nothing to improve the quality of the filthy building. It is not just through maintenance that landlords take advantage of students; it is in the very leases themselves. To move in early, a landlord often charges a prorated amount for the extra days. However, though most leases end mid-August, tenants have to pay a full month's rent even when they are not per- mitted to live there. Until last April, students had an ally. The Ann Arbor Tenants Union was a group that fought for our rights, demand- ing that landlords provide adequate infor- mation about our rights and care for our residences throughout our tenure. Due to both the University Board of Regents' refusal to increase tuition by $1 to support MSA-funded programs and the MSA Bud- get Priorities Committee's superfluous allocation of funds, this program ended. The BPC stealthily stopped funding AATU between semesters, using trickery usually reserved for Jimmy John's price hikes. Now that this service is no longer available, students are forced to turn to either Student Legal Services or the Hous- ing Information Office. Though both spe- cialize in the service they provide, neither can coordinate both legal and housing aspects. Thus, we are left to live in homes that are old (and not in that wow-look-at- the-history-in-this-city way), poorly main- tained (trust me, there are plenty of stories like finding flies in showers and small fires due to wiring) and over-priced. Because we are transient residents in~is city, we have very little say about the con- ditions that are thrust upon us. For this reason, landlords understand that they can take full advantage of our situation, hiking up prices on shoddy homes and ignoring major problems. It is embarrassing that while there was a 6.5 percent tuition hike this year, the regents couldn't part with $1 per student for programs like AATU. It is even more disheartening that BPC could not save a program that actually benefits most stu- dents, instead of squandering funds on groups that just host shows. Daily, I trudge past the President's House at 815 S. University Ave. and often wonder how she would like living at my home, which happens to be at another 815 South address. It is comical to consider such an arrangement because she obvious- ly cannot live in such squalor. So, the question remains: If she can't live there, then why should we? Chirumamilla can be reached at schiruma@umich.edu. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR 4 Affirmative action may be flawed, but no current alternative exists To THE DAILY: I just have one thing to add to Nick Owens' letter yesterday (High school equality in rural areas, not race, indica- tive of students' disadvantage, 01/15/04). In response to his statement that white people do live in Detroit, I cannot disagree with him. But, with a closer inspection of the actual statistics you will see that white people only make up 19 percent of Detroit, less than 100,000 residents. In fact, the 2001 census showed that metro Detroit is the most segregated area in the country out of the 100 largest metro areas. By resort- ing to generalities, you can really make all statistics say whatever you want them to. Affirmative action is indeed a simplis- tic solution, but it is currently the best option. If there were no racism left in the country and everybody had the same resources while growing up, affirmative action would be unbelievably racist and untenable. However, if you knew that the 1990 census showed that the median income for blacks was $29,740, while the median income for non-Hispanic whites was $46,305, you would have to come to the conclusion that racism still exists. You either reach this conclusion, or you deny that barriers exist and that blacks are just too lazy: Racism is the only conclusion. Also, and I don't know if this has been changed, but when I applied to the Univer- sity, you got the same amount of points on your application for having a poor socio- economic background as for being an under-represented minority. If this is still the case, the argument for poor rural schools is pointless, because it is already being addressed. BRIAN ALBUS Engineeringjunior Affirmative action violates principles King fought for TO THE DAILY: I do not believe that years ago when basic premise of affirmative action seeks only to provide an opportunity for higher education for all people, regardless of their ethnic background, and by doing this to decrease (dare I say, eliminate) discrimina- tion, it is ironic that the very idea has proved to be a source of discrimination itself. However ridiculous the irony may seem, it is very real and is widening the already substantial gap between ethnic groups. Those who support affirmative action suggest that it is necessary to give minori- ties an opportunity for higher education which the supporters feel they would oth- erwise be deprived of. In reality, affirma- tive action is simply another form of discrimination. The likelihood of gaining entrance into a university should not be aided by an applicant's ethnic background. The idea has been twisted and its benefit removed, leaving the suggestion that minorities are not "intelligent enough" to be accepted to a university and would oth- erwise be rejected based solely on their academic careers. I am by no means sug- gesting that this statement is true, that every student feels this way or that even I myself share this view; however, I am sug- gesting that the idea is now out there and it is due to affirmative action. Being a member of a minority group myself, I am torn between both arguments. I do not feel that I deserve special treat- ment because I was born into this heritage, but I have felt discrimination firsthand and I understand where the anger and willing- ness to support this idea comes from. Racism is real, it's out there, however, many people do not recognize it as a prob- lem in contemporary U.S. society. There is no deeper emotional pain than to feel as though you are not accepted, don't belong or that you are simply not good enough because of something you cannot control. Except, my question to you is: Does affir- mative action really succeed in remedying this feeling? I would be lying if I said that I have never had the sudden fear that I'm here at this university not because of my qualifications but because of my ethnicity. I do not question whether I am an intelli- gent person or not, nor the fact that I deserve as much of an opportunity to suc- ceed as others; however in the same respect, I am hesitant to accept anything that wronglv gives me more of an opportu- Students should vote for Clark in the caucuses TO THE DAILY: Students need to know that if they want new leadership in the White House, they need not wait until November to vote against President Bush. They can start by voting in their state's primary for retired Gen. Wesley Clark. Clark has come a long way in this campaign. Most recently, he has received the endorsement of writer Michael Moore, who believes that Clark has the best chance of beating George W. Bush in the November elections. However, this is not the only reason to support Clark. The fact is, Clark has plans that will appeal to indepen- dent and swing voters, assuring a Democratic victory in the fall. Unlike Howard Dean and Dick Gephardt, Clark supports the middle-class tax cut and would repeal Bush's upper-class tax cut, which a majority of Americans agree with. Clark is committed to keeping this country safe without having to start war after endless war. Clark has policies that will appeal to all Ameri- cans. Clark has served his country for his entire adult life, and he's not about to stop now. I urge students to vote for Clark during the primary so we can ensure that he will be on the ballot come this November. DAVID GUZMAN LSA junior Wolverines for Clark The word 'treason' must not be used lightly TO THE DAILY: My first reaction to Chris Joseph's letter (Cartoonist Daly guilty of 'treason,' igno- rance, 01/14/04) was to tell him to "go back to reading your damn Ann Coulter book!" But no one deserves Ann Coulter. Instead I would like to respond to him and in the process hopefully inform those who still don't know the meaning of the word "treason." Treason does not mean "satirical political cartoon" in any of the references that I checked. A person commits an act of treason when he betrays his country. Colin Daly hardly crossed the bound- aries of disloyalty by creating a cartoon that provided a commentary on the U.S. occupa- i rY Y..,'_ . .. . '.A .a,'I.. 1..... .... _ J -------------