4 - The Michigan Daily - Tuesday, April 6, 2004 OPINION 420 MAYNARD STREET ANN ARBOR, MI 48109 opinion.michigandaily.com tothedaily@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 Terrorists can't stand freedom." - President Bush yesterday in a speech at Central Piedmont Community College in Charlotte, N.C., as reported by The Associated Press. COLIN DALY IHE MICHIGAN DALY Asking is for X-mas presents, demanding is for justice JESS PISKOR JOIN THE PISKOR ometimes you need power on this campus. Maybe if we stu- demanded that the University do it. The racist to negotiate peace- dents, lecturers, graduate students and pro- secret society Michigamua was forced out of fully. Sometimes fessors had more of a voice and didn't feel the Michigan Union and made to change you need to sit down at a so disenfranchised and separate from the some of their rituals not because of students' bargaining table and hash administration of this university in the repeated requests, but because a coalition of out a deal. Sometimes you first place, it wouldn't have to be this way. students engaged in a 37 day sit-in and forced need to flip over the table But after a series of years when student the University to act correctly. and get ready for a brawl. and teacher unrest and unhappiness with The University will respond to In her letter to the various services were met with commit- demands and direct action and it really many students upset over tees, advisory boards, lip service and little doesn't matter if they like to or not. This top-down changes to student services, Uni- to no real action, it should hardly come as Thursday, after nearly a year of weekly versity President Mary Sue Coleman said, a surprise that real demands rather than negotiations, the Lecturers' Employee "I am not interested ... in responding to a gentle negotiations are necessary. It has Organization plans to stage a one-day walk set of demands where no real discussion been too long. We have been ignored for out. This action is not rash, radical or reac- can take place. I believe that progress on too long. The administration might not like tionary. It is a thoughtful escalation of tac- important issues can only come from dia- it, but it will respond to our demands and tics that is only necessary because the logue." Coleman can spin it any way she direct action. University has continuously stalled and likes, but when you read the rest of her let- The main victories in the last few years refuses to budge on several key LEO ter, you will realize that it is in fact a on campus and in Ann Arbor came not demands - among them that the Universi- response to a set of demands. through negotiation alone, but through ty pay lecturers with doctorates more than Making demands and following up with demands and direct action that confronted untrained middle school teachers with no direct action like protests, picket lines or sit- those who thought they were in positions advanced degrees. ins is often the only way to create change. of power. The arts of diplomacy and negotiation are More confrontational tactics have a time and Borders's employees negotiated for a year vital means through which students and a place, and should always come after negoti- to get a fair contract, and it was only after teachers can achieve justice. They are the car- ation and dialogue, but it is through the exer- they went on strike that they achieved their rot that can lead administrators to build a bet- cise of non-violent direct action and through demands - even though Borders had said it ter university. Usually, direct action is not demands that an institution as slow-moving was impossible. The Graduate Employees' necessary. But sometimes a carrot isn't and bulky as the administration is changed. Organization negotiated with the University enough - sometimes students and teachers Students need to snap out of the mind- to no resolution for months, until they forced need to use a stick to show the University set that if we ask nicely the administration the issue and held a one-day walk out - a who has the real power. Direct action brings will act more responsibly. The administra- week later they had a contract with childcare. results far more often than the administration tion is not our friend. It does not like The University belongs to the Worker Rights wants us to believe. change. It likes the status quo, no matter Consortium and has a code of conduct that We have asked nicely to no avail. Now we how unjust. People need to stand up and helps to ensure fair labor practices not demand. We control this University, not a demand justice from the administration, because the University wanted to sign on or committee-lovin' president. not act as supplicants and beg for it. because students asked nicely for it. Instead, Sure, Coleman doesn't want to respond after being rebuffed by the University in to demands. That's because she does not negotiations, Students Organizing for Labor Piskor can be reached at want us to remind her that we hold the real and Economic Equality started a sit-in and jpiskor@umich.edu. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Student Voices in Action sends mixed messages TO THE DAILY: I consider myself a liberal and believe that many of the ideals held by Student Voices in Action do hold promise for the University community. In my opinion, the idea of a student committee participating in administrative decisions can only help to create an academic atmosphere that fur- ther allows students' needs to be met and input to be encouraged. I find its request to the University to investigate the prob- lem of minority admissions to be not only appropriate, but commendable. However, despite my agreement with SVA's goals, it is its tactics that bother me. By continuing its trend of overly aggressive demands, SVA turns a possibly productive relation- ship between students and the administra- tion into an adversarial one. This also seems to hold true for its relationship with the student body itself. Despite its call for action, SVA seems to attack the exact same students it asks for support if they disagree with any element of the organiza- tion. This irony was made explicitly appar- ent in a letters to the editor (SVA calls students to untie, hold admin. accountable, 04/01/04). On one side of the section, SVA had written a passionate letter to students in which it calls on the student body to "raise its voices in demanding the Univer- sity listens." However, this "call" for stu- dent participation was immediately followed by a letter by SVA member Clair Morrissey attacking the reputation of Dan Adams for disagreeing with some of the group's goals and platforms. While Mor- rissey has every right to confront any aspects of Adams's article she felt were unfair or incorrect (Liberals behaving badly, 03/31/04), her personal attacks on Adams's character were completely inap- propriate and uncalled for. She announces Adams's disagreement with the tactics of a University group is an underlying sign of Adams being "sexist, racist and heterosex- ist." I was appalled to see someone seek to brand a person with such a vile, disgust- ing reputation, based on an extremely broad and incorrect interpretation of their ideas. Adams said nothing of marginalized SVA wants the aid of students' voices, it seems to be completely opposed to listen- ing to them. I encourage SVA to take part in the same productive dialogue it demands from administrators with stu- dents who have minor disagreements with their organization. Perhaps then, a united voice can be actually realized. JOSHUA SLEDGE Business junior For women, abortion can be induced by emergency contraceptives TO THE DAILY: In an article (Fem Fair addresses issues of violence, choice, 04/05/04,) the Daily quotes nurse-midwife Lisa Kane Lowe saying "It is a common misconception that contraception is related to abortion." Lowe is incorrect. Hormonal contraceptives such as the pill and emergency contraceptives especially can behave as abortion-inducing drugs. Emergency contraception, since it is taken after intercourse, can only work if it either prevents conception or if it prevents a fertilized egg from implanting in a woman's uterus. If it acts to prevent con- ception then the emergency contraceptive truly works as a contraceptive. If the emer- gency contraceptive prevents implantation of a fertilized egg (a birth-prevention mechanism that it shares with the pill) then it does not act as a contraceptive; it acts as an abortifacient. If you believe that life begins at conception, preventing a newly conceived human life from implant- ing in the womb is in fact a very early abortion. TOM BRESS Undergraduate laboratory coordinator, Mechanical engineering Student needs to change perception of YAF, funding at 'U' TO THE DAILY: group of people that live in a large house. They each have to pay a certain portion of the phone bill to stay in the house. A cou- ple of them never use the phone, but they are still forced to pay their portion of the phone bill to stay in the house even as the cost each has to pay for the phone bill keeps rising to unbelievable amounts. I think there is a large group of students here at the University that feel the same way as the people who never use the phone in the house. For those like Rezmovic, who don't want the funding cut for the "extras," don't try to force everyone else to pay for them, raise the money yourselves. I'm also deeply offended by the way Rezmovic stereotypes Young Americans for Freedom. He says we are all "wealthy" and "Repub- lican." I am actually a poor Libertarian from Kansas. This whole funding topic is very pertinent to me because I am going to have trouble in the next few years finding the funds to keep up with my rising out-of- state tuition. When you complain about funding cuts to the "extras" and try to argue that this University needs the "extras," you are trying to speak for every student that pours money into the Univer- sity's funds, but I ask you: Please don't try to speak for me and my money. P.S: Rezmovic, since I don't think you know the meaning of fascism, here it is: A political philosophy, movement, or regime (as that of the Fascisti) that exalts nation and often race above the individual and that stands for a centralized autoc atic government headed by a dictatorial le er, severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition. I invite you to attend one of our YAF meet- ings to learn how we are probably the stu- dent group that is most opposite of fascism there is on campus. JEREMY FERTNER Engineering freshman Campus Director YAF DAlLY On.14...t... WE'VE BEEN4 OFFENDING tEOEFOR 'THE PAT 113 .... . ; ', ..a-.R " .- ..:. : ::<: : r:7a s::n:s;<;:>;« ...,;,if: <;:::>"c s a, m rrc : .e.-"