4A - The Michigan Daily - Thursday, February 9, 2006 OPINION albe liitcigau 3 ui~g DoNN M. FRESARD Editor in Chief EMILY BEAM CHRISTOPHER ZBROZEK Editorial Page Editors ASHLEY DINGES Managing Editor i EDITED AND MANAGED BY STUDENTS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN SINCE 1890 420 MAYNARD STREET ANN ARBOR, MI 48109 tothedaily@michigandaily.com NOTABLE QUOTABLE '4All we've got is fear, and we're going to keep playing the fear card." - Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY), describing the Republican strategy for this year's congressional elections, as reported on CNN.com. STEPHEN BUSCH LAND CRAIER Unsigned editorials reflect the official position of the Daily's editorial board. All other signed articles and illustrations represent solely the views of their author. 1+ I A low-tech 'U' in a high-tech world ALISON GO WHO \\WATCHES THE WATCHMEN? en minutes into mation Technology Central Services. How 2005, Duke University held a symposium - class, I stare at many times last year did the school's e-mail full of lectures and panel discussions - about a blank screen. crash? At one point, it seemed to be a weekly podcasting. At the time, the medium was only Life is not good. Wire- affair. And when the University upgrades its a year old. less is freaking out on systems - e-mail and Wolverine Access, for Duke and Stanford aren't quite like the Uni- me, as it often does, and instance - it rarely goes smoothly, and leaves versity. Both are smaller, private schools that my irritation with the thousands of students feeling like technology can spend more money per student. Duke even ineptitude of this Uni- guinea pigs. supplies its students (as a part of their tuition) versity grows as each As much as the situation sucks right now, with iPods and anything else they'd need to be minute passes by. For what I really mourn is what's missing on as connected as possible. But it doesn't even another excruciating five campus - the tricks, gizmos and conver- seem like we're trying. minutes, I will have no e-mail, no instant mes- sation that more connected schools in the Administrators, professors and even stu- saging, no Facebook. A terrible life indeed. nation are a part of. dents need to get over their Luddite tenden- If you've been paying attention to the front Stanford University recently announced cies and join together to take steps forward. page of the Daily the past couple days, you've that it plans to put 500 lectures on iTunes My little pet obsession with podcasting and noticed a lot of talk about the wireless situation as podcasts for the general public to enjoy, wireless might put me in the minority on this at the University. It's incomplete, inconsistent no tuition necessary. As far as I know, the campus, but while other schools are actively and sometimes just plain bad. There is a com- School of Dentistry is one of the few Uni- seeking out how to incorporate trendy technol- plete lack of centralized leadership in imple- versity departments to embrace this new ogy - some of which will admittedly go the menting innovative technology, and as a result, medium - one that I particularly enjoy and way of Betamax - I worry that we'll be left the University is now lagging behind. abuse. If the teachers here started podcast- in the dust. But this isn't just about wireless. Not being able ing their lectures, I could finally start listen- Way back in the day (the early '90s), the to efficiently goof off in class isn't what concerns ing to what I missed while busy surfing the University was one of the first to supply e-mail me the most - it's the fact that the University Internet. to its entire student body. Knowledge of e- will slowly become less relevant if it stops look- But more seriously, at a place that encour- mail allowed a handful of alumni to grab jobs ing forward. Two weeks ago, Forbes magazine ages the eager accumulation of information because their competitors weren't familiar and the Princeton Review released their list of and insight, making available academic work with such mysterious and new technology. If the top 25 most connected campuses. Intel also in a hopping new field would allow students this school continues at its snail-like pace when recorded its top 50 "unwired" campuses. The with packed schedules to sample the many thinking about technology, when the Next Big University was not on either list. viewpoints circulating around campus. On an Thing explodes into the market, the University There is no need to discuss the credibility or even more practical level, students could use and all its constituencies will be left - with methodology of the ranking. I know, from try- podcasts to sample classes they might want to their erratic servers, Ethernet cords and pend- ing to use the technology here, that there is no take - gauging whether one professor is bor- ing unemployment - scratching their heads way that the University will make the list any ing beyond belief or if another is a veritable and wondering what the hell happened. time soon. Notwithstanding the wireless issue, Jerry Seinfeld come lecture time. there has been problem after problem with the Academically, the University seems behind Go can be reached services coming out of the University's Infor- in even talking about new.technologies. In fall at aligo@umich.edu. Send all letters to the editor to LETTERS TO THE EDITOR tot hedaily ~michigandaily. corn. Open debate, not censorship, discredits hateful views TO THE DAILY: I am writing in response to the Student Relations Advisory Committee's viewpoint (An open letter to the Daily, 02/03/2006). While I object to its arguments and excessive wordi- ness overall, I have specific objections to the committee's sixth point, which states, "there are indeed situations such as a newspaper dedicated to serving an entire campus commu- nity in which the abovementioned Fourteenth Amendment trumps the First. It is easy to hide behind the First Amendment; but invok- ing that right also requires the recognition of responsibility not to abuse it." It is likely that no example of this "trumping" was included in this otherwise lengthy letter because no rel- evant one exists. While there has been much controversy over the First and the Fourteenth Amendments, the courts have repeatedly decided that the First comes, well, first. That is why we see the Ku Klux Klan march openly and why hate sites exist without fear. However, it is also the reason we can guarantee the wid- est array of competing views in our society, and it ensures that we can express hostility toward the government without resorting to physical violence. It is this openness that makes hateful speech irrelevant today. The world's most open societies are also its least violent. Illogically hateful views have a hard time holding up to open debate and scrutiny, and it is imperative that these debates can exist freely. A campus paper at the University should be the last place to censor debate, and to demand it at this level is unnecessarily suppressive. Sean Germaine Business senior Bollinger was an effective leader, not a 'spineless jerk' TO THE DAILY: I was a bit disturbed by Prof. Robert Frost's comments about former University President Lee Bollinger (Lack of plan dooms wireless, 02/08/2006), apparently prompted by what Frost views as his "lack of leader- ship" on the deployment of a campuswide wireless network. Perhaps our wireless network isn't among the best in the coun- from alumni than any other public univer- sity) and research (the University led all public universities in research expenditures) served to enhance the University's national reputation. And perhaps most importantly, Bollinger was critical in the University's successful defense of its affirmative action admission policies, an accomplishment with historic implications. Yet according to Frost, because Michigan lacks a centralized wireless network, "nothing got done" under Bollinger's leadership. Though people are certainly free to criti- cize former leaders, Frost's remarks lack civility and ignore other aspects of Bol- linger's tenure. Michigan has a rich tradi- tion of leadership that is entitled to greater respect. Referring to a former University president as a "spineless jerk" who viewed his post as a "trophy job" is misguided at best and unprofessional at worst. Sabir Ibrahim Law School Few students, regardless of race, are Ph.D. material TO THE DAILY: I am writing in response to an article titled Coalition accuses 'U' of racism (02/08/2006). While I do not have enough information to seri- ously challenge or confirm the legitimacy of the coalition's claims, I have trouble believing that the University is guilty of "a full assault on the African-American community." One part of the article claims that professors often discourage black students from attempt- ing to earn a Ph.D. in the graduate engineering program. Let's think about this for a second. Completion of a Ph.D. in any field implies that the recipient is part of a small group of experts in that field. Very few people in general are "Ph.D. material." Unless a student is near the top of his class, a professor should discourage that student from entering a Ph.D. program. No professor is going to think to himself. "John has received great scores on all of his assign- ments, but he is black, so I am going to tell him he's not good enough." Unless one of the coalition members has truly been discriminated against in this way, it would be wise for them to focus more on schoolwork and less on trying to find situa- tions that fit their overly inclusive definition of partly to blame. As reported in the original piece (Amid controversy, NAACP VP resigns, 01/30/2006), Moffett and the state NAACP refused to comment for the story. The letter writer also attacked the Daily's usage of material posted on Moffett's suppos- edly "private website." It's not a private website; I checked it out this afternoon. If Moffett wish- es to keep certain material private, I suggest that she not openly post it on the Internet. The writer's accusation that the article "failed to highlight any of the positive actions Moffett took during her stint as vice president" is patent- ly untrue. The article highlighted her advocacy against the fringe group BAMN and acknowl- edged that "her presence will be missed" at NAACP meetings. Despite her misgivings, the letter writer couldn't point to anything in the article that was inaccurate or misreported. The writer noted that the article was writ- ten "without any type of contact with Moffett beforehand." The Daily spoke with Moffett. Moffett chose not to speak back. Though I laud Moffett for sticking to her guns and distanc- ing herself and her organization from BAMN, refusing to comment for a story and then being pissed about the end result are not marks of someone cut out for politics or for leadership. Daniel Adams Alum The letter writer is a former Daily associate editorial page editor. South Asians recognize that divorce is 'objectively bad' TO THE DAILY: Divorce is considered taboo among many South Asians (as well as many Americans) because marriage is objectively good and divorce is objectively bad. Who gets mar- ried thinking it might be fun one day to get a divorce? Only in the Daily would there be an article putting a positive spin on divorce (Conference explores Indian divorce stigmas, 02/07/2006). Let's congratulate the Indian community for its low divorce rates. Mar- riage is a promise of fidelity through all of the hardships life throws at you, even "clashing priorities." Divorce happens, yes, but it is not the desirable outcome of marriage. Divorce tears apart families - the building blocks of American society - and has severe con- sequences for children. There is something Editorial Board Members: Amy Anspach, Andrew Bielak, Reggie Brown, Kevin Bunkley, Gabrielle D'Angelo, John Davis, Whitney Dibo, Milly Dick, Sara Eber, Jesse Forester, Mara Gay, Jared Goldberg, Ashwin Jagannathan, Mark Kuehn, Will Kerridge, Frank Manley, Kirsty McNamara. Raiiv Prabhakar. Eric Karna. Katherine Seid. Brian Slade, Ben Taylor, Jessica