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