4A - The Michigan Daily - Thursday, November 3, 2005

OPINION


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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

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NOTABLE
QUOTABLE
Her greatness
lay in doing
what everybody
could do but
doesn't."
- Gov. Jennifer Granholm, speaking at
Rosa Parks's funeral, as reported
yesterday by CNN.com.

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New Business School could help all
SOWMYA KRISHNAMURTHY AUDI AiTERAM PARTEM
L ast week, sity of Pennsylvania's Wharton School and petitive on all fronts. Just as observers con-
the Univer- the University of California at Berkeley's stantly tout the Law Quad for its aesthetics,
sity Board of Haas School, there is a lot of competitive better facilities increase the campus's over-
Regents approved parity: similar coursework, job placement all bottom line. The Law School certainly
a major design to statistics and admissions selectivity. This does not need an attractive library or learn-
revamp the Stephen equality forces schools to differentiate ing area to churn out effective lawyers, but
M. Ross School of themselves on more superficial factors, like a few brownie points don't hurt. After all,
Business. At least on access to technology and environmental a student with a positive college experience
paper, the design is comfort. now is far more apt to make donations as an
impressive: 270,000 Significant indicators of success are the alum in the long run.
square feet, six sto- external rankings found in publications like The underlying problem is not whether a
ries and a glassed lounge with a panoramic U.S. News and World Report and The Wall new business school is needed, but rather
view. The new facility is intended to be Street Journal. The Wall Street Journal, the unnecessary destruction that accompa-
an architectural and technological power- which recently ousted Ross's master of busi- nies its creation is. The existing Ross school
house, with a price tag to match; it is esti- ness administration program from the top structure is plush in comparison to other
mated that the new building will cost $145 spot, bases its designations upon the sen- buildings, especially in the College of Lit-
million, sourced largely from alum Stephen timents of company recruiters. A school's erature, Science, and the Arts and should be
Ross's $100 million donation. environment directly affects recruiters, leveraged. In line with our friendly rivalry,
Even before its groundbreaking, the so impressive facilities can translate into B-school students often poke fun at eco-
renovation project has come under heavy higher rankings. Just yesterday, I spoke nomics majors whose classes take place in
scrutiny; outside of the Business School to a recruiter from a major bank who had shabby Lorch Hall. There is no reason why
community, there is criticism that the lofty a less-than-stellar opinion about the space these students, or others in similar posi-
design is too costly and ostentatious for its and configuration of our career center. If tions, should continue to use aging facilities
surroundings. enough recruiters echo such a feeling, Ross's when ample resources exist next door.
Pouring millions of dollars into what is national reputation could become tainted. The new and improved Ross School will
presently an adequate facility - especial- A strong business program favorably definitely improve the experience of Busi-
ly compared to decrepit University staples affects the campus on a larger scale too. ness students, and although there will be
like Angell Hall or the Modern Language Every year countless students apply to and trickle-down benefits for the entire campus
Building - is certainly questionable, but attend the University solely because of the population, there is no reason not to share
unfortunately, the overhaul is a necessity. Ross school; I myself came here contingent the wealth directly as well.
Institutions of higher business education on the notion that I would acquire an under-
are becoming increasingly competitive. graduate business degree. This interest will Krishnamurthy can be reached at
Between Ross and rivals such as the Univer- diminish if the school does not stay com- sowmyak@umich.edu.
VIEWPOINT
Youth and the new civil rights movement
BY BEN ROYAL, MONICA SMITH build and integrate the leadership of young Teachers, throughout this campaign. High
AND KATE STENVIG people. BAMN is also a national organiza- school and middle school students have also
tion that is majority youth in its composi- led the way in the fight against the anti-
"If our drive was to be successful (in Bir- tion. affirmative action Michigan "Civil Rights"
mingham), we must involve the students of Young black leaders play a leading role in Initiative thus far. On July 19, Detroit stu-
the community. Even though we realized that the new civil rights movement. Detroit stu- dents mobilized over 500 of their peers
involving teenagers and high school students dents organized themselves and their class- to the state Board of Canvassers meeting
would bring down upon us a heavy fire of criti- mates to picket and fill the courtroom for to demand that the board prevent MCRI's
cism, we felt that we needed this dramatic new every day of the federal district court trial racially targeted fraud from going forward,
dimension ... But most of all we were inspired of Grutter v. Bollinger, the University's Law which the board did.
with the desire to give to our young a true sense School affirmative action case. When the The new civil rights movement is a young
of their own stake in freedom and justice." lawsuit went to the 6th U.S. Circuit Court and developing one. Our base of support
"(I)mmediately, of course, a cry of protest of Appeals in Cincinnati on Dec. 6, 2001, consists primarily of young people who had
went up ... many deplored our 'using' our chil- young people from Detroit and Cincinnati the misfortune of growing up at a time when
dren in this fashion. Where had these writers again took the lead to mobilize students and the struggle for equality has been largely
been, we wondered, during the centuries when youth from around the region to march and absent from American politics. Every day
our segregated social system had been misusing rally in defense of affirmative action. On new young leaders step forward - inspired
and abusing Negro children?" April 1, 2003, more than 50,000 high school by BAMN's message that they do not have
- Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., as written and college students from around the nation to accept second-class citizenship - to join
in his autobiography marched on Washington to demand that the new civil rights movement.
the U.S. Supreme Court uphold affirmative Youth are playing a leading role building
Just as Martin Luther King Jr. expected action. This march and the national politi- the new civil rights movement, finding their
criticism for the youth participating in the cal debate leading up to it ensured the big- voice and leading their peers. Young peo-
last civil rights movement, we expect it gest victory for civil rights in more than a ple come from situations of terrible abuse
now. Just as those criticisms in retrospect generation - the Supreme Court's June 23, and mistreatment and rise to speak for their
appear both prejudiced and irrelevant, so 2003 decision to uphold the legal principle peers with elan, insight and power. Our suc-
will those leveled at the youth of BAMN. of affirmative action in Grutter v. Bollinger. cessful defense of affirmative action so far
BAMN is an , integrated organization Black students lead the fight for equal, is the result. We know we can do what needs
dedicated to building the new civil rights quality education. Last November, Detroit's to be done both to defend affirmative action
movement to defend affirmative action and high school BAMN chapters took the lead and to move our society toward the long-
the other gains of the civil rights movement in the campaign to defeat the state take- deferred promise of justice and equality.
King led. We learn from the successes and over of their public schools. These Detroit
failures of our predecessors. One lesson students worked closely with a number of The letter writers are organizers for
history teaches is that the only way to build other organizations, including the Detroit BAMN. Royal and Stenvig are graduate stu-
a mass social movement for equality is to NAACP and the Detroit Federation of dents in education. Smith is an LSA senior.
LETTER TO THE EDITOR

91

Columnist misinterprets
history of race relations
TO THE DAILY:
I found it difficult to swallow that on the
day of Rosa Parks's funeral the Daily allowed
Jeff Cravens to write such a misrepresenting
column (Affirmative action and the shadow
of slavery, 11/02/2005). He seems to almost
encourage violence as a way to solve societal
problems. He couched this belief by writing
"I don't support violent protest," but in the
same sentence writes, "but, don't we live in a
violent society with crime and poverty, drugs
and war?" Instead of fixing those problems,
Cravens seems to instead want to add to them

American Civil War" in any encyclopedia to
learn how that turned out.
After that, Cravens recounts how southern-
ers used Black Codes and Jim Crow to subju-
gate the newly freed slaves. This is true: blacks
were treated unfairly, but unfortunately, a
constitutional amendment didn't immediately
change the racist feelings of 400 years.
However, American society continued to
progress toward equality. Cravens convenient-
ly forgets to mention something that happened
between the years of Jim Crow and today -
the civil rights movement. This is kind of a big
omission. Cravens seems to be tying Jim Crow
to today's problems while ignoring one of the
most important social movements of Ameri-
can history.

not all suburbs are white. Yet, race-based
affirmative action seems to say that no
white people live in disadvantaged urban
areas and that no black people have the
advantage of living in the suburbs. Martin
Luther. King Jr. dreamed of an America
in which his children would not be judged
by their color of their skin but instead by
the content of their character. Affirmative
action's generalization about black people
not only fails to live up to this ideal, but
also seems to prevent it from happening.
Carl Paulus
LSA senior

Editorial Board Members: Amy Anspach, Reggie Brown, John Davis, Whitney Dibo,
Sara Eber, Jesse Forester, Mara Gay, Eric Jackson, Ashwin Jagannathan,
Theresa Kennelly, Mark Kuehn, Will Kerridge, Rajiv Prabhakar, Matt Rose,