OP/ED
The Michigan Daily - Wednesday, October 12, 2005 - 5
Hot Topics
The Daily evaluated progress toward fulfilling the five most
prominent campaign promises made by representatives from
Students 4 Michigan - the assembly's ruling party - during
their campaigns for office.
City Council
Students continue to suffer
for MSA's failure to secure a
permanent, institutional pres-
ence at City Hall. During the 1.
summer while most students
were out of town, the Ann
Arbor City Council passed
anti-student parking ordinances in Oxbridge and North
Burns Park. The combination of the council's failure to
acknowledge potential student concerns and a general lack
of student representation during the proceedings allowed
the ordinances to pass with little trouble.
Student housing concerns are receiving similar neglect.
MSA President Jesse Levine and former Rep. Stuart Wag-
ner were active this summer in their efforts to encourage
City Council to craft an ordinance to push back lease-sign-
ing dates, an issue students have voiced a great deal of con-
cern over. How their lobbying translated into actual policy,
however, remains uncertain. For one reason or another, City
Council has failed to tackle the lease-date problem with the
urgency and attention it deserves, leaving the prospect of a
new ordinance before the next academic unpromising.
As a response, MSA - after about a week of infight-
ing - created a formal City Council liaison position.
The new envoy, however, will operate under the auspices
of the assembly's External Relations Committee - a
body with a sub-par history when student/city corre-
spondence is concerned.
Entree Plus
Representatives made
three key promises dur-
ing their last campaign:
Increasing the number of
Entr6e Plus-accessible vend-
ing machines, creating a yearly
meal credit rollover plan and extending Entree Plus
points to off-campus eateries. Unfortunately, there has
been little to no dialogue between MSA and Entree
Plus officials on these matters. Entree Plus adminis-
trator Michael McGray and business manager Larry
Durst both said they have yet to be contacted by MSA
representatives about these goals, though Durst said he
has had conversation, with Levine.
MSA Transparency
MSA has made strides in this
area. Important content has been
added to the assembly's website,
including up-to-date resolutions
passed by the Assembly and meet-
ing minutes.
There is, however, some room for improvement.
Posting meeting schedules and agendas would be one way
to increase student participation at meetings. If topics of
potential interest were posted in advance, students would
be more likely to schedule in time for attendance. The web-
site can be found at: www.msa.umich.edu.
M SA
INCONSISTENCY
AND STUDENT APATHY
Skipping out? TI
On meeting nights, some assem-
bly members are nowhere to be
seen, yet others manage to show As I si
up each time. Not including last Daily we
night, there have been ninermeet- described
ings since the last election cycle, ing" activ
Missingincyears of t
.S in aCtion Michigan
One only
NINE ABSENCES to find ne
Nathan Gonik viewpoint
Elon Granader of MSA i
Six ABsENCES The "it'si
Six ABFACESily pervad
Eyad Abu-Isa any era.
and exace
Andrew Jacobs pointing f
Andrew Zeitlin ple of yea
and say IT
FIvE AnSENCES I havet
Alice Chen cynical; i
Gabriela Reyes in ignoral
Andrew Schneidel expegnena
experience
hadn't a n
FOUR ABSENCES car and h,
Nicole Campbell Detroit
Derek Fahrer I should t
Paulo Patwardhan ulI shovod
ule to vol
Chris Peoples only oner
ing sophc
listened tc
my dorm
ZERO ABSENCES urging of
Sirene Abou Chakra Daily edi
Mathieu Brener had fully
Bretlan Fletcher ment, PI
Mike Forster - I knew
Elizabeth Harris new rheto
Matt Hollerbach friends re
Meghan McDermott MSA-Dai
Ayodele Olugbewga In an e
Justin Paul tion being
Saamir Rahman electiont
Ben Royal ducts end
Tim Wiggins executive
Happy Wong their plat
they're th
CQMPILED USING MSA MEETING MINUTES
ie MSA blame game
ifted idly through The Michigan
bsite, doing what can only be
as an elementary style "pre-writ-
vity, I came across literally three
banter between Daily writers and
Student Assembly representatives.
needs to search "MSA elections"
ws stories, editorials, columns and
s that rehash the cyclical nature
neffectiveness and student apathy.
not us, it's them" attitude stealth-
des many of the pieces, continuing
rbating the blame game. As fun as
ingers has been over the last cou-
ars, I would like to end the game
T'S EVERYONE!
to admit that I wasn't always this
n fact, just two years ago I lived
nt bliss. As a freshman who hadn't
ed the dismal state of housing,
need to find street parking for my
ad no need to ride the Airbus to
Metro Airport, I couldn't see why
take time out of my busy sched-
te in campus elections. But after
month as a rent-paying, car-own-
omore, I realized I should have
o the candidates who knocked on
room door. Later that year, at the
a friend, I joined The Michigan
torial board. Within a month I
mastered MSA lingo - divest-
RGIM, student-group funding
w it all. Only the blank looks my
uric elicited from roommates and
minded me of the world outside
ly crossfire.
ffort to streamline the informa-
g thrown at students during MSA
time, the editorial board con-
orsement interviews, where the
members of each party explain
form, as well as why they feel
he best candidates for the job.
After hours of listening and deliberating
last winter, the editorial board reluctant-
ly acknowledged Students 4 Michigan
candidates Jesse Levine and Alicia Bena-
vides as the pair best equipped to handle
the myriad issues dealt with by MSA on
a daily basis. The editorial board's res-
ervations surrounded the influence the
party's supermajority might have on
accountability; well-warranted concerns,
it turns out, but for reasons much bigger
than any one party.
Although a viable opposition party
would increase Students 4 Michigan's
accountability, demands for accountability
should source from the student body. The
reality about elected representatives is that
they are slightly accountable to the popula-
tion at large, generally accountable to those
who vote and only directly accountable to
the select few voters who take the time to
track MSA progress on campaign issues.
Considering only about 9 percent of stu-
dents took the time to vote last spring, it
is safe to say the number of voters to who
representatives are truly accountable is low
enough to endanger accountability. For
example, several representatives promised
to expand Entree Plus to some off-campus
businesses. While this would be conve-
nient, it would also tread on the legal grey
areas of Michigan's banking laws. Ten
years ago the University's General Counsel
advised University officials about just that
- and no discussion has taken place since.
The frequency with which these lapses in
accountability go unpunished can only be
explained by the student body's languid and
apathetic attitude toward the assembly.
In what I believe is an effort to motivate
students to vote, representatives' campaign
platforms are littered with politically popu-
lar fluff. It's the college level equivalent of
high school student council representa-
By Amanda Burns ( Daily editorial
board member
tives promising more vending machines
in the cafeteria and off-campus lunch. Yes
it would be great to have more concerts on
campus, but with houses burning down as
result of indolent landlords, textbook prices
rising at rates nuch higher than inflation,
the discriminatory Michigan Civil Rights
Initiative making its way onto the ballot and
the fall housing race just around the corner,
students can travel to Lansing to see Kanye
West.
A change in the current trend of sensa-
tional campaign promises - encouraged
by students who don't realize whether they
are ever fulfilled - would take a re-struc-
turing of priorities by both representatives
and voters. It is amazing students can sit in
houses with furnaces that barely work, pay
exorbitant book prices all the while voting
for representatives based on soft promises
of concerts and off-campus Entree Plus. If
the civic duty argument doesn't persuade
voters, perhaps an economic one will. Con-
sider this: If MSA was able to achieve the
one goal of increasing information about
the books required for classes, it would
widen the possibility of on-line book buy-
ing, save students money and in the end,
provide students with extra cash - money
for even more concerts.
Change starts with taking the power
of MSA seriously. Now that it has been
established that everyone is responsible
for the state of MSA today, .everyone
can take responsibility for repairing it.
Representatives need to break down the
stereotype of MSA as a resume builder
by refusing to campaign on unneces-
sary, bandwagon issues. MSA polls are
open for two full days during elections,
so take the five minutes you would spend
confirming someone as your friend on
The Facebook and use it give MSA a true
mandate from the student body.
Bus System
Voter turnout as a percentage of the student body
MSA doesn't have a trans-
portation committee that
directly deals with on and
off-campus transportation
issues, though the Campus p
Safety Committee has done work
with SafeRide and other nighttime
transportation services that cater to students.
A number of candidates expressed their intentions to
have bus schedules posted at all stops and to set up digital
clocks that would display arrival times. Others complained
about the infrequency of routes to North Campus. Here
again, a failure to communicate with proper authorities will
make most of these changes unlikely. James Williams, the
bus operations manager for the University, said he had not
spoken with anyone on the MSA.
- ----------17.3%
WINTER 2001
16.7%
WINTER 2002
18.3%
WINTER 2003
11.6%
9.4%
WINTER 2005
WINTER 2004
I
Concerts
'
After a protracted nego-
tiation process, it seems the
long-anticipated Ludacris
concert might become a real-
ity. Given the number of can-
didates who pledged to bring
more big-name performances
to campus, this may be the assembly's one unqualified
success of the year. Considering that the University was
host to zero big-name performances last year - Michael
Moore does not count - it was nice to see reps meet
their goal.
None of this is to say the Ludacris concert won't have its
costs. One problem with the concert planning has been the
large amount of time and resources representatives were
forced to pour into it. For many assembly members, the
concert proved more important than addressing theshoddy
relations with City Council, organizing against the dis-
criminatory Michigan Civil Rights Initiative and working
for cheaper textbook prices.
Dream On
I'm held accountable every Thursday at
the bar. That's where I face the hardballs:
"Why isn't the entree plus working in Angell
Hall!?" "Is Ludacris coming?" "Why isn't
the football team winning? Fix that."
An inebriated friend of mine almost got a
minor-in-posession citation when a hospital
staffer told him to leave or expect a ticket.
He left, unknowing the staffer had broken
federal law. So, I met with the Director of
Operations of the hospital, and urged that
the staff be retrained to comply with federal
privacy laws. And change happened.
The Michigan Student Assembly
- your student government - makes
change happen at the University, and not
just when it meets on Tuesday nights. It
happens when teams of students collabo-
rate and work behind the scenes, getting
kicked out of the Michigan Union at 2
a.m. Change happened when former Rep.
By Jesse Levine I MSA President
Stuart Wagner presented the Ann Arbor
City Council with ear plugs last sum-
mer, to remind them that students matter.
Change happened when Rep. Milton Lee
spent his summer working to bring Lud-
acris to campus. Change happened when
Arielle Linsky sifted through hundreds
of applications for MSA and University
committees.
MSA is a dynamic group that changes
every semester. The body is made up of
strong leaders from across campus, each
with distinct ideologies, all motivated to
make this place better. I drank the Kool-
Aid. I enjoy my job, and have seen the
body at its best. The most effective mem-
bers of the assembly are those that take
the initiative to make their own vision a
reality, work cooperatively and have the
patience to keep fighting for what they
believe in.
Making change takes time, but when
students put in the work, change happens.
You have to have the patience to strat-
egize, communicate your ideas through
various advisory boards and navigate
through internal and external commit-
tees. But, when students put in the work,
change happens.
Historically, MSA has achieved much
for the student body. We successfully lob-
bied for fall break and significant improve-
ments to the William Monroe Trotter
House. We registered more than 10,000
voters in 2004. MSA is now working to
change the culture of campus so that hous-
ing is safe and affordable, and landlords
are responsive to students. Students' rights
matter, and that's why we're working on
education campaigns to prevent MIPs and
noise violations before they are doled out.
There are two types of people that
get involved in politics: those driven by
ambition and those driven by passion for
policy change. MSA is looking for the
latter. Tuesday night meetings are for pas-
sionate students to present proposals and
dreams to the assembly to make this cam-
pus better; the meetings are necessary for
true collaboration to engage the campus
community. If representatives do not hold
up their end of the bargain, and do not
show up to any meetings, our Rules and
Elections committee will be looking for
someone else to fill the seat.
Join MSA! Run or apply. Get a few
friends, register at www.msa.umich.edu,
and the assembly will give you some
money for posters. Find a gimmick, pass
out flyers on the Diag and have fun doing
it. Once on board, work cooperatively,
dream big and your vision will become
a reality.
MSA party turn-
over has been
extensive over
the past five
years, with old
parties retooling
and renaming
and new ones
often arriving
dead in the water.
2001 2002
MICHIGAN
2003
2004
2005
CHMAN
e _ .nom nz £ =' ;:
I