4A - The Michigan Daily - Thursday, April 8, 2004
OPINION
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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
The coalition is
conducting ongoing
combat operations to
take the fight to the
enemy in order to
restore order in Fallujah
and to destroy the
Mehdi Army."
- Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt on
the growing anarchy in Iraq, where
coalition forces have lost control
of key facilities, as reported yesterday
in The New York Times.
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4
Don't read this until mid-afternoon, alright?
STEVE COTNER MY BACK PAGES
K. I know University has considered ending the ban too bright you'll see the whole Milky Way,
you're cheating on student-teacher relationships, so now and you can stare at the Northern Lights
and reading you can get out there in the grad scene, or spreading across the sky for hours, thinking
now anyway, but don't. even the backdoor-of-married-professors'- strange thoughts about our little planet.
It's still morning and homes scene if you're ambitious enough. This is why summer was invented. It was
that means it's cloudy Plus there's the Naked Mile coming, and it's made for getting away from everything,
and wet and not so possible that people will both be naked and away from cities and clocks and cellphones
happy. So go do some- run a real mile this year. and suddenly discovering that you're right in
thing else for awhile. And this brings me back to my point: the middle of something much bigger than
Maybe go to class, if It's really, really nice out, and it's getting you ever imagined - or perhaps just
you have those. nicer everyday. This has nothing to do remembering what you forgot during the
Now I'm going to assume that you're with all the problems I mentioned. Our long, gray school year. Sometimes it seems
playing along. So let's say it's like 3 or 4 in student services will still be in jeopardy, like there's not much to give thanks for in
the afternoon now, and it's 55 degrees and but it's pleasant enough outside that stu- this world, but there is one thing you can't
partly sunny. Lecturers' Employee Organi- dents can service each other in the Arb. turn down. You can say no to patriotism. You
zation is on strike, and you're sitting at We won't stop hearing about the war, but can say no to religion. You can even say no
Dominick's with a sangria, or smoking on listening to the TV through our porch to drugs. But there's nothing that will make
the sidewalk at Caf6 Ambrosia. If none of screen-doors, it will be a sunnier, warmer you hate the endless blue sky and the water
this is true, I don't really care. It's how war. We'll eat pizza and drink Boone's lapping against red rocks.
things should be anyway - my point being Farm and fall asleep to Operation Endur- So don't despair about your tests and
that today, on April 8, you have just about ing Summer. It will be great. papers, or the fact that this or that person
the best you could ask for: no classes, a I don't mean to sound too flippant. The is taking too much power in your organiza-
gentle breeze and some occasional sun. problems of this world and this town are tion, or you still haven't found a subletter,
We just came out of a long winter of important to every one of us. But they're all or you think you don't look good in your
some awful stuff. Students have been fight- going to be here in the fall when we get bathing suit. Who needs bathing suits any-
ing with the president for funding, girls back (if we're coming back), and in fact way? Try something new for a change.
have been raped or not raped (it's unclear), they'll be worse, because the University is Climb on as many roofs in Ann Arbor as
strange men have been trying to re-write sure to sneak in some dirty policies over the you can. Ride your bicycle drunk at mid-
our civil rights laws and Seasonal Affective summer. But who really cares. We'll play night. If that's illegal, call it civil disobedi-
Disorder has not been kind. There are still catch-up when we get back. ence. I don't care what you do, just make it
soldiers dying in Iraq, security contractors If you stay in Michigan, take some time good, and if you have to say the summer
dying in Iraq, Iraqis dying in Iraq. The Fed- to learn why we put up with this state for went by too fast, at least make it a big
eral Communication Commission has made two-thirds of the year. Take a drive up to the flash of brilliance. Do everything you can
swearing hard as hell, and President Bush is U.P., pitch a tent in the Porcupine Moun- think of, until you just have to stop think-
still spitting out "freedom" and "democra- tains, hang your food on a bear pole and go ing altogether. And when school comes
cy" like they're canned goods. Living in skinny dip in Lake Superior. But be careful back and reality bites, don't forget to yell
Ann Arbor is getting more expensive by the - the rocks are slippery. When night at the president like it's your job.
minute, and all of us have closets full of comes, cook up some food with the people
unpaid parking tickets. you meet on the trail, then sit out by the Cotner can be reached at
But there are some bright spots. The water and watch the stars. If the moon's not cotners@umich.edu.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Contraceptives cannot properly used. The University community, lecturer does OK. Of course, a lecturer is nei-
both men and women, deserve to know the ther an Ann Arbor public school teacher, nor
induce abortions accurate facts about their sexual and repro- unemployed. He has a different set of skills,
ductive health options. works a different schedule and deserves dif-
TO THE DAILY: SHOSH RUSKIN ferent compensation.
I am writing in response to the gross LSA senior I cannot accept a comparison between lec-
misinformation printed in a letter to the Member Students for Choice Executive Board turers and Ann Arbor public school teachers.
editor (For women, abortion can be induced Other universities must offer similar posts. In
by emergency contraceptives 04/06/04). Tom Compare LEO's salary hopes of forming an educated opinion on this
Bress 's audacious claim that Lisa Kane issue, I would like to pose an open question to
Low, a certified nurse-midwife, is incorrect requests to other colleges anyone knowledgeable about this issue: What
about contraception is ironic considering do other schools pay for a non-professorial lec-
the false information he provides in his let- TO THE DAILY: turer with an advanced degree?
ter. We could argue for a long time about In the Daily's Monday coverage of the If other schools pay significantly more
when life begins and probably fail to reach pending Lecturers' Employee Organization than we do, then our lecturers are right to
a unanimous conclusion. Medically howev- strike, and again in Jess Piskor's column, (Ask- do everything in their power to improve. If
er, pregnancy is defined by the American ing is for X-mas presents, demanding is for other schools pay significantly less than the
College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists justice,04/07/04) a case was made that Univer- total value of the salary and benefits LEO
and the U.S. Department of Health and sity lecturers deserve a better base salary than is demanding, then the union is being
Human Services as the moment at which a that awarded to teachers in the Ann Arbor pub- unreasonable, and the administration must
fertilized egg is implanted into a woman's lic school system. The justification seems to be take a firm stance for fair compensation.
uterus. Abortion is a medical procedure that that working as a lecturer requires a higher Students want to see their tuition money go
terminates a pregnancy. degree, and therefore, ought to pay better. This to good use and want the University to pay
Emergency contraceptive, which prevents artificial comparison attributes too much value well enough to attract and keep the best
this implantation, is not an abortifacient to obtaining a special piece of paper while dis- teachers. We cannot possibly know what
because it will not affect an already estab- respecting public school teachers. lecturers deserve, however, without some
lished pregnancy. In fact, EC could actually Compared to an Ann Arbor teacher, a lec- logical grounds for comparison.
prevent thousands of abortions each year in turer may come up short. Compared to any- MILES PUTNAM
the United States if widely distributed and one currently unemployed, however, a LSA junior
VIEWPOINT
SAPAC changes will provide better services
a
40
BY SASHA ACHEN AND STEPHANIE VITALE
There has been much said about the
changes at the Sexual Assault Prevention and
Awareness Center over the course of the last
few months. We support everyone's right to
have his or her own opinions about this issue,
and so we would like to take this opportunity
to express our opinion.
The changes that will take place this sum-
mer are a result of the University dedicating an
increased amount of funding to services for sur-
vivors of sexual violence and to educational
programming around the issues of sexual vio-
lence. The changes are also part of SAPAC's
commitment to developing a coordinated com-
munity response to sexual violence. Rather than
fragmenting services for survivors of sexual
violence, these changes are designed to increase
serve sexual violence survivors. Because CAPS
is an accredited counseling agency, both thera-
pists will also receive position upgrades, and
our current part-time therapist will take a full-
time position at CAPS. These changes, then,
mark an increase in counseling resources avail-
able to survivors. CAPS has been providing
services to sexual violence survivors for over
20 years (longer than SAPAC has been in exis-
tence), and so the staff at CAPS is familiar with
these issues. Some have expressed a concern
that because CAPS also provides services to
perpetrators of sexual violence, a survivor
might see his or her perpetrator while at CAPS.
When this situation is known to exist, CAPS
can schedule the appointment times of the sur-
vivor and perpetrator so that they will not see
each other and work with survivors to ensure
their sense of safety.
Crisis line services will be provided by
also continues to provide educational pro-
gramming, and the University has increased
resources to these programs, including raising
the position of our training and education
coordinator from part-time to full-time.
The goal of this system is to allow multiple
partner organizations to respond in a timely
and compassionate way to survivors of sexual
violence. Within such a system and with the
consent of the survivor, pertinent information
about the survivor's story can be shared in
order to minimize the number of times that a
survivor will have to re-tell his or her story. By
encouraging this network of organizations, the
new system will ensure that a survivor is able
to receive comprehensive and quality counsel-
ing, advocacy and crisis services, regardless of
whether his or her first contact is with CAPS,
SAPAC or SAFE House.
In our minds, these changes reflect the com-
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