4 - The Michigan Daily - Wednesday, February 23, 2005
OPINION
c e fi ut ttilg
JASON Z. PESICK
Editor in Chief
SUHAEL MOMIN
SAM SINGER
Editorial Page Editors
ALISON GO
Managing Editor
EDITED AND MANAGED BY STUDENTS AT
THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN SINCE 1890
420 MAYNARD STREET
ANN ARBOR, MI 48109
tothedaily@michigandaily.com
NOTABLE
QUOTABLE
G'Ninety-nine-
point-nine percent
of the media is left
of center ... There
are two companies
doing truly balanced
news toda : Sinclair
and Fox."
- Sinclair Broadcast Group CEO David
Smith, as quoted by Rolling Stone on
Feb. 10. Sinclair was criticized for exces-
sive partisanship during the 2004 election.
SAM BUTLERTH AVO
Chose 1Vit r Coke. a, fle.A +
V.,Wo' A ~.do~ -j ~,A~'
9 j
WOOi
Hazed and confused
JORDAN SCHRADER PeRT HU.'RON TATEMENT
niversity officials about the hazing violations that the University If the incidents reported in fall actually took
spared few details confirmed. Details about how that behavior place, then University investigators have proven
way back in Octo- harmed pledges. Details explaining why the themselves incapable of breaking through the
ber when they announced most serious charges evaporated. loyalty of Greek brothers and sisters to get at the
the disturbing reports of Here's what the report uncovered: "smok- truth - or they've chosen to ignore the most seri-
,.> hazing they had received. ing marijuana, inducing consumption of food, ous infractions with some kind of plea bargain.
They described a degrad- blindfolding, dressing in arguably humiliating On the other hand, if the incidents never hap-
ing scene inside a fraternity costumes, theft of property and trespassing." pened, then the University acted irresponsibly by
house, where sorority mem- These crimes were accompanied by pledges' casting a shadow over the Greek system and not
bers supposedly had their "heavy alcohol consumption and underage exonerating it as soon as the truth was known.
clothes torn off and entered drinking," leading some to vomit. Then there's another possibility, to which I
a cramped room for an orgy with drunken frater- Sounds like a typical college Halloween, would hardly give credence if not for the eager
nity pledges. They told of a pledge who needed albeit a couple weeks early. publicizing of these accusations and the plod-
medical treatment after his brothers left him in a It also sounds like hazing, which of course ding pace of the actual investigation. Perhaps
room stripped to his underwear with a cold wind deserves to be punished - yet I can hardly the University wanted to portray Greek houses
blowing in through the windows. They said cars imagine a cleaner laundry list of hazing crimes. as dens of deviants, Rush as a violent free-for-
carrying pledges in their trunks drove in circles The report gives no indication that the tres- all and pledges as victims.
until the unfortunate passengers threw up. passing and theft amounted to any more than The University began its push to revamp the
The trouble is, none of these incidents hap- a panty raid (or its modern-day, less exciting Greek system last winter, hoping to end fall
pened. Or at least, the University's investigation equivalent, the composite photo raid). Perhaps Rush and to make every house ban alcohol and
didn't find any eyewitnesses. "We couldn't sub- these were more serious than they sound, but hire a live-in advisor. Was the hazing scandal a
stantiate every aspect of the scuttlebutt," Dean if so, why did the police investigate and find no component of this campaign? Did the Univer-
of Students Sue Eklund told me. criminal wrongdoing? And why would the new sity publicize what it knew might be little more
Four long months after describing the scut- report leave out the details? than rumors, in order to promote the idea that
tlebutt about the Greek system in lurid detail, "We felt like this was the best kind of infor- the Greek system requires reform?
the University administration released its final mation we could give to the public in keeping We may never know exactly what was report-
hazing report on Friday. For those four months, with our notion that we don't go into details ed to the University last fall and why adminis-
administrators refused to comment on whether about disciplinary hearings," Eklund said. trators couldn't confirm it. What matters now is
they had found any truth to the allegations. By I'm all for privacy rights. But the University that Greeks do not let the University use those
not refuting claims they knew were bogus or at had no problem giving nearly every detail of four months of bad faith to pressure them into
least impossible to prove, they implicitly stood the rumors, then it refused to get specific when compliance.
by those claims. reporting the truth. That's probably because
Maybe it's too much to expect an apology further details would reveal just how embar- Schrader can be reached
for letting the rumors spread for four months. rassingly minor these incidents proved to be, in atjtschrad@umich.edu
But we should expect new information: Details comparison to the tales from October.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Bush's faith-based sex ed to the misguided and "faith-based" Bush report. Our resolution that passed on Feb. 10
administration. called for the issuing of a trespass citation and
oliCy not shocking' Jordan Acker "full legal recourse" against WDIV Local 4
LSA juioir' should'the "news'teamii"'be found in g'residence
TO THE DAILY: hall again. While lawsuits are often the fullest of
After reading your editorial on Presi- legal recourse, in this case, we feel there are more
dent Bush's sex-ed policies (The War on Daily editorial misses appropriate, but equally powerful options. RHA
Sex, 02/22/2005), I found myself in total Drdid not offer further suggestions for the interpre-
agreement, except on one point. You stated point of RHA resolution tation of "full legal recourse" - this is to be left
that you found the positions of Bush to be up to the discretion of University Housing. Our
"shocking." Personally, I did not find this so TO THE DAILY: resolution encouraged exploration of further legal
at all. Bush has made a habit of faith-based As members of the Residence Halls Asso- options, but did not call for a lawsuit.
policies. Whether it be his faith-based eco- ciation, we were very pleased to find an agree- Again, thank you to the Daily for recogniz-
nomic system, benefiting the top 1 percent ment on behalf of the Daily with our stance on ing unethical journalism and taking a strong
while punishing the poor, his faith-based recent reporting by WDIV Local 4 (Investigating oppositional stand.
Social Security plan, which flies in the face the facts, 02/16/2005). It is encouraging to find Amy Keller
of research and many studies, his faith-based another media source recognizing what we did LSA senior
plan for invading foreign nations against all - sensational reporting and unethical behavior The letter writer is the president of RHA
evidence - why would it be surprising that on behalf of WDIV Local 4. It is evident how- Jeff Souva
Bush has a faith-based policy on sex educa- ever, that.there needs to be clarification regard- LSA senior
tion? What is so surprising about this? Nei- ing RHA's intent with recent legislation calling The letter writer is the executive
ther reason nor logic seem to not be a barrier for a University response to Local 4's "news" assistant of RHA.
VIEWPOINT
Why the 'U' should cut its contract with Coke
BY ILAN BRANDVAIN, BEN GRIMSHAW, MATrT
HOLLERBACH, KRISTIN MCKRAY, LINDSEY
ROGERS, PAYAL SHAH, NAFISAH ULA AND
SAMANTHA WOLL
Monday's viewpoint (Drinking Coke and
Wearing Nikes, 02/21/2005) demonstrates to the
campus community exactly why the University
must not renew its contract with the Coca-Cola
Company. Yes, money talks. The $1.3 million
contract the University has with the Coca-Cola
Corporation talks. It speaks so clearly that
Coca-Cola sent representatives to the Michi-
gan Student Assembly last night to try and talk
back. Yes, globalization has had devastating
effects on many countries. And yes, most of all
the products we buy in some way support nega-
tive practices - but we can change that.
The members of the Coke Coalition refuse to
accept that collaborating with paramilitaries to
murder union leaders and members of their fam-
ilies is an acceptable byproduct of globalization.
We refuse to accept that distributing toxic waste
to farmers, telling them it is fertilizer or selling
drinks filled with dangerous levels of pesticides,
is an acceptable byproduct of globalization. We
think people should come before profit. We
believe that a Coke from a vending machine in
Angell Hall is not worth Isidrio Gil's blood or
the tears of Luis Cardona's daughter who didn't
understand why she had to leave her home. We
The tactic of the Coke Campaign is to hold one
company accountable for its actions by using the
University as leverage to effect change. When it
succeeds and Coca-Cola changes its practices,
other companies will be forced to change as
well in order to stay competitive in the market.
In this way, we can all use our consumer power
to change the market. This is a goal worthy of
our university, an institution with high aims and
great influence, a university on the cutting edge
of social and environmental issues. Our univer-
sity has already taken steps to advance ideals of
social and environmental justice. Last year, the
University adopted a Code of Conduct for all of
its vendors that states that "in aligning itself with
its core values and practices, the University seeks
to recognize and promote basic human rights,
appropriate labor standards for employees, and a
safe, healthful, sustainable environment for the
general public." Though these general principles
may seem lofty and impractical, the code man-
dates one standard: compliance with the law.
Drinking Coke and Wearing Nikes states that
with regard to accusations against Coke, "noth-
ing has been proven in a court of law." This
is incorrect. On Dec. 16, 2003, in response
to allegations of Coke's connection to water
shortages in India, the Kerala High Court
ruled that Coke's extraction from the com-
mon ground water resource in Kerala was ille-
gal and demanded the plant seek alternative
is currently under appeal. However, a fact-find-
ing delegation by the New York City Council
concluded that, "To date there have been a total
of 179 major human rights violations on Coca-
Cola's workers, including nine murders. Family
members of union activists have been abducted
and tortured, and union members have been
fired for attending union meetings."
Parts of the $1.3 million contract between
the University and Coca-Cola expire in June.
Drinking Coke and Wearing Nikes states that
corporations should be held accountable but
that it should be done through market forces.
We must realize that our University in fact is a
part of this market and plays a significant role
in this force. The University has the opportuni-
ty to show Coke its practices are unacceptable.
This will send two strong messages from the
University to the corporate world:
1) Coke's actions are unacceptable and insti-
tutions of conscience will not tolerate inhu-
mane actions by its vendors.
2) The University has a code of conduct, and
it will be followed.
Last night, the Michigan Student Assem-
bly passed a resolution affirming that the
human rights and environmental violations of
the Coca-Cola Corporation are indeed valid,
supporting the Coke Coalition's efforts. The
efforts of this coalition include urging the
administration to cut all contracts with this
umnthcal rnmnanv until thev repenct the ricrhts