4 - The Michigan Daily - Wednesday, March 31, 2003 OPINION. R '& 420 MAYNARD STREET ANARBOR, MI 48109 nion.michigandaily.comr tot hedaily@michigandaily.com EDITED AND MANAGED BY STUDENTS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN SINCE 1890 JORDAN SCHRADER Editor in Chief JASON Z. PESICK 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 It's just crazy. We haven't been involved in politics since Morris the Cat ran for president in 1988." - H.J Heinz company spokeswoman Debbie Foster, referring to Presidential candidate John Kerry's marriage to Teresa Heinz Kerry, as reported yesterday by Reuters. SAM BUTLER THE SOAPBOX i d s . ti d .a- 7 CA e 'n.. MW ue ord *)AC ua5e+ CU+ Sh le I I Liberals behaving badly DANIEL ADAMS SPITTING INTO THE WIND he activist group commonly referred to as BAMN has developed quite a reputa- tion for itself on campus. Despised by the Right and ostracized by the main- stream Left, BAMN is clearly a group that has alienated itself from the majority of the student body. Its platform isn't the problem. In fact, many students, as well as most University administrators, support its key positions on affirmative action and race-based admissions policies. The problem is its tactics. Its mem- bers are loud, obnoxious and clearly aren't interested in dialogue. Often, individuals with a different point of view are just shouted down, or worse, called racist. Simply put, BAMN is just offensive. Groups like BAMN illustrate clearly the consequences of advocating for the right issues, in entirely the wrong way. The issues lose an otherwise important voice, and people ignore an otherwise important point of view. When I heard that there was a new stu- dent group on campus, Student Voices in Action, I was excited. In response to the proposed cuts to several key student servic- es, SVA coordinated large student protests on the Diag and outside the Fleming Admin- istration Building. Shockingly, they had a coherent message. They oppose the changes to the Sexual Assault Prevention and Awareness Center. They oppose funding cuts to the Office of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Affairs. They want Trotter House to finally get the funding to renovate. They demand increased student representation at the admin- istrative level. Check, check and check. To top it off, they have a great slogan: "Royster cut student services and all I got was this lousy T- shirt." I was so excited, my little liberal heart started going pitter-patter. Then they broke it in two. After meeting with several of their organizers, I realized that some of their other assertions range from the highly debatable to the completely outrageous. They claim the University isn't committed to diversity, despite a multi-year, multi- million dollar defense of its race-con- scious admission policies. They want the University to give students more than a say in the administrative process, with veto power, yes, veto power, over decisions regarding student affairs. Then, they took this questionable wish list and went on the offensive - and did it as offensively as possible. They demanded a meeting with University President Mary Sue Coleman at the Trotter House, at you guessed it, 12 o'clock - high noon. Coleman came as requested to meet with the activists. Apparently, the conversation went something* like this: SVA: We demand these things. Coleman: Well, that's a complica ... SVA: We demand yes or no answers. Coleman: I wish you'd let me answ ... SVA: Yes or no. Funny, not a damn thing came out of the meeting. SVA member Clair Morrissey had this to say regarding the event: "It's important to engage in the kind of dialogue we did today. I would have hoped the administrators were more open to listening." Listening? They interrupted and shouted their demands over the president of a major university who had amicably agreed to meet with their group. Dialogue? If that is SVA's definition of dialogue, they're in worse trouble than I thought. It's true that the University has been stalling on these issues for years. It is under- standable that many in SVA are frustrated that it's taken so long to get heard by the Uni- versity. But that only makes the events that occurred on Monday all the more tragic - that provided with the long-awaited opportu- nity to discuss and advocate for their issues, they instead chose the tactics of desperate and frustrated men and women. That's just not how you get things done - that's how you get marginalized and ignored. It sounds to me as if SVA, like so many other contem- porary student movements, just doesn't have the patience to barter with the administration. Now Fleming, justifiably offended by their tactics, probably won't listen to them. Sum- mer will come. SVA will probably die, and along with them, any momentum that could have been carried into the fall. The student body will get screwed. And all we'll have to show for it will be the lousy T-shirts. 4 I Adams can be reached at dnadams@umich.edu. Not in their backyard ARI PAUL FOUGHT THE LAW magine having the only that, but representatives of the house Anti Arbor Tenants Union, the only housing police come to your went out of their way to attend a meeting resource students could take advantage of. house because you with police officials, Crockett and a repre- Affordable housing is simply becoming had a handful of kids on sentative of the Inter-Cooperative Council more and more inaccessible to students. It the front porch enjoying at the dispute resolution center near the is those that want to raise property values rare, pleasant evening Courthouse to hammer out compromises who keep granny flats, small apartments weather. Imagine your with the neighborhood. rented out in the basement or the back of a house being banned But despite the efforts to appease single-family home, illegal in the city. from having parties, Rausen, nothing seems to be good enough. Because these units are typically rented to when you've been hav- Even the co-op's treasured public garden is students in more modest financial situa- ing similar parties for last several decades a point of contention. Some have speculat- tions, the intransigence of associations without your neighbors raising a peep. ed that the pressure for the co-op to reform working to increase property values is just Imagine having a neighbor circulate a peti- is an attempt to raise property values in making our "Athens of the Midwest" that tion seeking to place you as a public nui- the area. much more economically exclusive. sance for living the way you have for years This is only an extreme case of the big- And this is all happening while subur- and years. ger threats student housing is facing. ban sprawl is quite literally strangling the This is the state that the Michigan "I think it's fair to say that (the OFWA) city from the outside and high demand for Cooperative House on North State Street is represents a very specific point of view downtown housing due to a lack of Univer- in. Since last year, the co-op has received that's not necessarily hostile to all students sity housing helps the landlords keep the 11 noise violations, called in by a handful or renters but definitely favors homeown- rents up. While the University's new hous- of local homeowners, one of whom is a ers," said Julia Lipman, an Engineering ing director, Carole Henry, says she is eager part of the Old Fourth Ward Association. graduate student and a resident of the Old to develop new residence halls, it may be And this is definitely something new. Fourth Ward neighborhood. too little, too late, as the University has let Christine Crockett, chair of the OFWA, Lipman, who is involved with the city's the housing crisis climax at a point when said, "I have lived in this neighborhood for Cool Cities task force said, "neighborhood the budget is severally crippled. 24 years, and until quite recently I have associations in general should have less Fellow students, our way of life is in never had a problem with the co-ops." power - if city government is really con- danger. Our financial ability to maintain a While the OFWA has been generally cerned with making Ann Arbor cool and campus-area community is in the conciliatory, one activist in particular, holding on to that 20 to 34 demographic, crosshairs of the suburban resistance to the David Rausen, a graduate student and they should balance the viewpoints of one institution that puts this town on the OFWA homeowner, has been the bane of groups like (the OFWA) with those of stu- map. They want to take our student culture Michigan House's existence. He has been dents and younger residents, who don't away and impose their way onto us. And known to personally make sure that the generally have that kind of organization." they want to make sure we pay through the house is cited even for the most minor Why don't we have this kind of organiza- nose just to have a place to sleep at night. civil infraction, said Andrea Hunwick, the tion? For one, because the city wards are ger- So this is Ann Arbor. Tolerant, liberal co-op's president, which has impeded the rymandered so that students can't have a Ann Arbor. house's ability to operate. unified voice that would be represented on "We want to cooperate, we want to have the City Council. Furthermore, the Michigan Paul can be reached a good relationship," Hunwick said. Not Student Assembly effectively dissolved the at aspaul@umich.edu. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR I SAE, Greek system unfairly targeted in article To THE DAILY: I don't know what the Daily's problem is with my organization, but I think it is high time for an apology. I had an exchange with the Daily over the misreporting about Sigma Alpha Epsilon's involvement in the Delta Kappa Epsilon situation a month ago and how your lies nearly cost us our fraternity and our place to live. The Daily didn't pause to get the facts, and you reported way too fact i,-.nn xnn -Aa ih1 0 hP0A1n (Alhnmp l tion. The Daily has always been keen on disparag- ing the Greek system in its pages with false head- lines that often have no factual backing. I think you need to put a stop to your campaign to unjust- ly ruin SAE's reputation. I quote Dustin Nelson when he said your next headline should read, "113 years of editorial freedom fails in attempt to end 115 years of brotherhood." DREw BEEsm LSA junior The letter writer is a former president of SigmaAlpha Epsilon Editor's note:According to today's Daily article, while the alleged victim now maintains that the sexual drawn to the conclusion that the interests of many of the social frats are simply incongruous with those of the University. Even if evidence shows consent on the behalf of the woman, the testimony of the friend is indicative of the institutionalized victimization occurring at social frats, and not only of women. From the BB gun incident several years ago to the fairly recent kidney failure due to over- exhaustion, pledges are forced through a bizarre and dangerous boot camp in which their individu- ality is stripped for the sake of "brotherhood." This, for one, is completely antithetical to the ideals of the American college experience, in which youth is given the chance for self-expression and realization of its individuality through study, art, sports, etc. -$,L3 . fi-l (.4,4Li a