4 - The Michigan Daily - Tuesday, March 14, 2006 OPINION a y t J r Y ,t ,t c be Mlidtlf gutn t DoNN M. FRESARD Editor in Chief EMILY BEAM CHRISTOPHER ZBROZEK Editorial Page Editors ASHLEY DINGES 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 44 I turned on the kitchen faucet and beer came out." - Haldis Gundersen, 50, who resides in a apartment over a bar in Oslo, Norway, com- menting on how the beer hoses and water pipes were accidentally swapped in her build- ing, as reported yesterday on yahoo.com. 0 COLIN DALY T I I VcuCuSIGAN Al 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. N Forget volunteer work, join the Taliban SAM SINGER SAM S CLUB 9 mong the star- studded list of students Yale University admitted in 2005 was Sayed Rah- matullah Hashemi, an Afghani nationalist and the former deputy foreign secretary of the Taliban. The New York Times profiled Rahmatullah in a Sunday magazine feature last month. If you go by the numbers, Rahmatul- lah falls well short of most Ivy League bench- marks. He never took the SAT. His formal education ended in fourth grade, and his extra- curricular r6sum6 isn't so glamorous either.. He spent the better part of his adult life as the Taliban's face-guy, playing apologist for one of the 20th century's most brutal and repressive regimes and, when the occasion called for it, its likeminded houseguest, al Qaida. He must have written one hell of a personal statement. Either that, or Yale temporarily relaxed its admissions criteria, which, as some of you surely learned the hard way, are one of the Ivy League's most exacting. Just when we thought we had seen every angle of the affirmative action debate, Yale goes and adds "former ter- rorist sympathizers" to the long list of demo- graphics worthy of preferential treatment in admissions. The school's official line on the matter was predictable: The more intellectual diversity the better. As an international university, the pitch goes, Yale has an obligation to open its classrooms to divisive political views, even if they happen to rub the public the wrong way. Plus, as far as administrators are concerned, Rahmatullah abandoned fundamentalism years ago. He left the Foreign Ministry in 2001 and since then has distanced himself from the regime's most objectionable positions. "I was very young then," Rahmatullah told the New York Daily News, "At that age, you don't really have the same sensibilities that you may have later." By "that age," Rahmatullah meant 22, his age in the spring of 2001, when he publicly defended the Taliban's treatment of women in an interview with The Wall Street Jour- nal. (For those unfamiliar, the Taliban's posi- tion on women is roughly analogous to Ann Arbor Pest Control's position on cockroaches). In the same interview, Rahmatullah defended his government's decision to harbor al Qaida, which was still a known terrorist organization at the time. Though he's since recanted, his public state- ments on the subject remain shamefully callous. In a recent interview with The London Times, Rahmatullah was asked to comment on the Tal- iban's summary execution of women allegedly guilty of crimes against Islam. His response was dismissive: "That was all Vice and Virtue stuff," he said, referring to the Taliban's repres- sive religious ministry, adding, "There were also executions happening in Texas." Not surprisingly, the intellectual diversity argument hasn't resonated in conservative circles. Rather, for the ideological Right, Yale's decision embodies everything that's backward about contemporary liberal thought. It's what's dangerous about armchair academia. It's a value system without courage or foundation. It's that dark place, that vacuum of principle where political correctness gets lost in moral relativism. Conservative Wall Street Journal columnist John Fund, expressing similar sen- timents, wrote that in the distant aftermath of Sept. 11, the Yale community "represents the world turned upside down." All overstatements aside, he may be right about this much. For all its virtues, diversity of thought has practical boundaries, and there are some views that simply don't deserve a forum. These are the views that challenge our most elementary understanding of individual liberty and equality, views that feed off the ignorance and fear of others, views that civil society should have put to bed sometime during the 16th century. And it's these same views that Yale and insti- tutions with similar egos take so much pride in entertaining. They call them "cultural barriers" and make them the subject of round-table dis- cussions and policy conferences. And whether out of dogma or sheer arrogance, they frown upon those too enraged to listen. But when it's the Rahmatullahs of the world speaking, the line between intolerance and integrity nar- rows. Tolerance, as they've yet to learn in New Haven, is only worthwhile until it becomes an excuse to embrace bigotry. Singer can be reached at singers@umich.edu VIEWPOINT Pants on fire By STUART WAGNER I would like to commend the Michigan Progressive Party's platform to bring fiscal responsibility to the Michigan Student Assem- bly. I just wish the executive candidates actu- ally stood for it. While MPP has trumpeted responsible gov- ernment throughout this election, MPP's leader- ship has lied about, manipulated and exaggerated information on MSA finances and the Ludacris concert. As a fonner Budget Priorities Commit- tee chair who worked tirelessly to improve student government finances, I have to set the record. MPP's claims on improving MSA's finances are blatantly false. According to its website, MPP claims its MSA presidential candidate Rese Fox "exposed a treasurer cover-up of historical tax form errors regarding student fee allocation, and ... worked with ... University administrators to correct MSA tax problems." MPP's position paper, MSA Financial Responsibility, further alleges that MSA is not currently in compliance with the Internal Revenue Service. Charges that MSA's $700,000 budget violates tax law should not be taken lightly. Last summer, I was part of the MSA/administration committee that reviewed MSA's expenses to ensure compli- ance with tax exemption laws. No MPP candi- dates served on this committee. Edward Jennings, the University's tax manager and a member of the committee, described MSA's finances six days ago quite differently from MPP's deluded view: "MSA as a whole complies with the federal and state tax rules regarding charitable organizations and has not committed any excess benefit trans- actions or other prohibited transactions that may trigger excise taxes." MPP's allegation that Fox exposed a finan- cial tax scandal and subsequently corrected it is patently false. There never was a scandal to expose, let alone correct! MPP's plans to financially clean house are amusing to me personally, because I already did it. Since the 2005 MSA election, I have written and cosponsored two significant code amendments - again without MPP candidates - which dras- tically improved MSA's financial accountability on discretionary spending and student group allo- cations. These changes made MSA's expenses, according to the General Counsel's office, com- pliant with state and federal laws. By codifying stricter procedures for MSA spending and severe penalties for violating these procedures, cronyism in discretionary spending was markedly reduced. But don't take my word for it. The University Board of Regents believed MSA was responsible when it increased MSA's budget by around $40,000 per year last sum- mer. Incredibly, revenue from student fees increased this year in tandem with MSA dis- cretionary spending cuts. Discretionary spend- ing was cut by $80,000, a 33-percent decrease from last year. Stemming from its more efficient finances, MSA took the lead in planning the Ludacris con- cert, with Hillel and University Activities Center co-sponsorship. While MPP's MSA vice presi- dential candidate, Walter Nowinski, has called the concert an "unqualified failure," the Ludacris concert was one of the most fiscally efficient MSA huge-scale events. It was first large-scale rap con- cert at the University ever and turnout numbers only compared with crowds for Michigan sports. Twenty-seven hundred students, more than 7 percent of the student body, nearly sold out Hill Auditorium, filling 88 percent of it. Access for all students was ensured with prices that halved any comparable for-profit concert. Somebody had to pay for the concert, though. MSA spent $20,000, 12 percent of MSA's yearly discretionary budget, to hold the all inclusive concert. Last year's large- scale Sept. 11 conference provides some per- spective: MSA spent over $25,000 and attracted merely 1.3 percent of the student body. To be fair, the concert was not perfect. Costs exceeded the predicted budget because MSA overestimated outside sponsorship funding. Yet Nowinski has unfairly exaggerated the bottom line, alleging MSA planned to put on the concert cost-free. This allegation is false. According to MSA's resolution to support the concert, MSA invested in a budget designed to subsidize ticket costs. While the outside sponsors were not accu- rately predicted, this does not detract from the success of the concert, its minimal relative costs in MSA's budget or the future advantages from successfully working with the administration. MPP has been disingenuous by propagat- ing lies about MSA's finances, which are more accountable and efficient than ever. These finan- cial improvements occurred without MPP can- didates, who have irresponsibly taken credit for changes they played no part in. The results of their below-the-belt behavior are evident in their cam- paign. LSA Student Government vice-presiden- tial candidate Daniel Ray's platform proposes to reduce funding application lengths by 90 percent, which would require budget allocations evaluate applications with essentially no information and likely in violation of federal law. With only one MSA candidate with prior experience in MSA's student group budget allocations MPP leadership, if elected, will bury student government in a hole of unqualified budgetary failure. Wagner is a LSA junior. He is a for- mer MSA and LSA-SG representative, former LSA-SG Counsel and former Budget Priorities Committee chair. I LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Send all letters to the editor to tothedaily michigandaily. com. Michigan's sports programs inferior to Ohio State's To THE DAILY: Now that Ohio State has surpassed Michigan in nearly every major sport, what is Bill Martin going to do to change it? 1- I'~---«+-- _+- -- --hethnn; class next year. The hockey team is having a rough year, and split with a terrible OSU team. Michigan has looked outmatched by nearly each mem- ber of the WCHA and east coast opponents it has faced in the NCAA tournament in recent years. As a four-year season ticket holder, I saw first-hand losses to Boston College, Min- University is correct in aiding community college transfers TO THE DAILY: I just finished reading David Waddilove's let- ter to the editor (U should not reward community college students, 03/13/2006), and I am appalled. I Visit our blog at apps.michigandaily.com/blogs/thepodium to read "Coke issue is all about choice," a viewpoint from LSA sophomore Ryan Fantuzzi and LSA junior Tommi Turner, MSA presidential and I i I