4A - Wednesday, January 17, 2007 The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com L74 CMidi igan JaI*I Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan since 1890. 413 E. Huron St. Ann Arbor, MI 48104 ,.,,,tothedaily@umich.edu i We have to change our politics and come together around our common interests and concerns as Americans." - Sen. BARACK OBAMA (D-Ill.) in a video on his website announcing his candidancy for the presidency. JOHN OQUIST | DONN M. FRESARD EDITOR IN CHIEF EMILY BEAM CHRISTOPHER ZBROZEK EDITORIAL PAGE EDITORS JEFFREY BLOOMER MANAGING EDITOR Unsigned editorials reflect the official position of the Daily's editorialboard. All other signed articles and illustrations represent solely the views of their authors. Worth fighting for University should continue battling Prop 2 A fter being ultimately denied its request for a delay of the enactment of Proposal 2 and publiclyquestioning the legal and social viability of the ballot measure now on the state constitution, it appears the University will have to just to play ball. It held out two months, but an e-mail to the campus community last week from University President Mary Sue Coleman and Pro- vost Theresa Sullivan announced that admissions have resumed after a one-week postponement and will abide by the stipulations of the law for the rest of this cycle. YOU'VE HEARD THE OLD ADAGE, "THE MORE WE H THINGS CHANGE, THE MORE THEY STAY THE RAPIDL SAME?" LOOK AT THE WORLD TODAY. WE'RE WHAT STILL DIVIDED BY RELIGION AND WE STILL VIDEO HAVE THE MOST PRIMAL OF MENTALITIES. WE T HAVEN'T CHANGED IN A THOUSAND YEARS. (rt HAVE NEW TOOLS WITH WHICH TO> LY DISSEMINATE INFORMATION AND DO WE PROPAGATE? IMAGES AND DOF EXECUTIONS. LYNCH MOBS ON HE MOST MASSIVE OF SCALES. ' SADDAM HUSSEIN'S HALF- ...THEN WE BROTHER WAS DECAPITATED ONLY HAVE TO DURING HIS HANGING. WE'RE WAIT SEVERAL LIVING IN THE DARK AGES. HUNDRED YEARI FOR ANOTHER ENLIGHTENMENT 4 i The bank of Wal-Mart Although admissions officers are no lon- ger permitted to consider race when mak- ng their decisions, the University has not removed questions concerning race from applications, simply asking instead that admissions officers disregard the answers. Is that slightly dubious? Yes, but the Uni- versity is hardly to blame. While universi- ties in other states have been granted stays until the next admissions cycle, the courts decided to deny Michigan's public universi- ties the benefit of similar sensibility. While we may disagree about the viability of Pro- posal 2, even its strongest backers - like Republican Attorney General Mike Cox - agree that implementing it immediately is illogical and unfair because it changes rules in the middle of the game. The University was compelled to comply with a questionable law in the inopportune present. The law will hurt the University by diminishing the quality of education it is able to provide and, if the University gives up now, also tarnish its reputation as a har- binger of academic diversity. Monday's Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Symposium reminded onlookers that the University is still a leader at recognizing and tackling prevalent social issues that others are all-too happy to overlook. By continuing to contest the Gratz and Grut- ter cases challenging the University's use of race in its admissions process all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court in 2003, the University demonstrated that it believes a diverse campus community is a vital part of a good college education. The University has to comply with the most recent court ruling, but Coleman has insisted the legal avenues of contesting Pro- posal 2 will continue to be explored. She also has declared that in the absence of race, the admissions office will look at personal expe- rience, special talents, geographic diversity, civic engagement and socioeconomic status in attempting to create an adequately rich, diverse campus community. Also, in Febru- ary, the Diversity Blueprints task force will issue its findings, detailing possible addi- tional ways to build a diverse student body. It is reassuring that the University admin- istration is so focused on this issue, but we must also continue to challenge legally Pro- posal 2, not simply work around it to unpre- dictable results. The law has the potential to disintegrate much of what has been built up over the last several decades, both in the dynamics of American society and the complex com- munity the University has created. The Uni- versity successfully defended its practices in front of the high court in the affirmative action cases mentioned above, and it should be prepared to go that far again. In order to further the fight, the Uni- versity should remain vigilant on the legal front, use the help of Gov. Jennifer Gran- holm, who will step in to clarify stipula- tions of the law come February, and keep up the public relations campaign to inform people of why continued challenges to Pro- posal 2 are necessary. The University has worked too hard to be undone by a handful of clueless federal judges. hen I look at Wal-Mart, I see an American success story. The retail giant started in the backwoods of Arkansas and, over thelasthalf centuryhas grown intothe largest retailer in the world. Sam Wal- ton, the company's deceased founder, was a true vision- ary. He developed business meth- ods that would expand his com- pany while con- tinuing to attract " consumers with low-cost mer- chandise. As they did with virtually every other suc- JOHN cessful American business, liber- STIGLICH als have targeted Wal-Mart for annihilation. Liberal complaints about Wal- Mart's business practices are too many to detail here, but the latest objection is gaining some momentum: Wal-Mart wants to destroy Ameri- can banks. After delaying its deci- sion six months, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation is expected to decide this month whether or not to issue Wal-Mart a banking charter. In light of the growing fears over what the retail giant's entry would do"to the health of the American banking industry, the FDIC is likely to cave under the pressure applied by the anti-Wal-Mart crowd and deny the company's application. During the summer of 2005, Wal- Mart applied for a banking charter in the state of Utah to establish an industrial loan corporation. ILCs are commonly used by retail companies to offer consumers an in-house cred- it-purchasing alternative to the third- party debit and credit cards already on the market. Ideally, consumers would pay for their purchases with credit cards issued by the retail company's ILC, making the cost of third-party credit transactions insignificant. You might be asking yourself, "Why on earth would Wal-Mart want its own bank?" Well, in case you did not know, every time you pay for an item using your credit or debit card, the company you are purchasing from loses fractional amounts of money to your bank or credit card company. To a mom-and-pop operation, those losses are small, but for retail giants like Home Depot, Wal-Mart and Tar- get, they are substantially more con- sequential. While the anti-Wal-Mart crusad- ers are using the bank application as a soapbox for their usual whining, the banking industry's complaints are at least economically based. It fears the company's enormous size will per- mit any bank Wal-Mart operates to charge lower prices for services and lower interest rates, forcing smaller banks to exit the market. The concern is that once those smaller banks are gone, Wal-Mart could increase the costs of services and interest rates to consumers. Wal-Mart's principal rival, Target, received the blessing of banking reg- ulators for its ILC in 2004 with nary a protest from the banking industry. The lack of concern over Target's charter led Wal-Mart to believe bank- ing regulators would quickly approve its ILC application. Unfortunately for Wal-Mart, there are many double standards in Washington. Now that Democrats control both chambers of Congress, liberal poli- cymakers can dictate the fate of Wal- Mart's banking charter. According to The Wall Street Journal, the new chairman of the House Banking Com- mittee, Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), plans to introduce legislation that would ban retail companies from applying for banking charters. How- ever, retail companies that already operate ILCs are allowed to keep their banks. Frank's legislation details how unfairly Wal-Mart is treated by the Left. First, if the presence of retail firms in the banking business really threatens the overall health of the industry, why allow previously estab- lished retail ILCs to continue operat- ing? Second, Target does not employ union labor, yet its ILC charter was dealt with in a fair manner and subse- The Left holds Wal-Mart to different standards. quently approved. What gives? Simply put, Wal-Mart is the New York Yankees of the retail industry - everybody loves to hate them, but they secretly hope their team could be just as successful. Through the years, other retail giants from Target to Best Buy have copied Wal-Mart's business plan and implemented many of itslabor strategies but experienced minimal criticism from retail watchdogs. Yet, when Wal-Mart develops a strategy to save its customers money, protestors line up to register their objections and their cronies in Congress voice their support. Never has the liberal vision for America been so clear - it's OK to be successful, as long as you don't be the best. U I 4 MAGGIE WESTON Teach for equality John Stiglich can be reached at jcgolf@umich.edu. Marian Wright Edelman, founder and chief executive officer of the Children's Defense Fund, and Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), while speaking at the Teach For America summit last year in Washington D.C., argued that the fight for educational equality will become the civil rights battle of this generation. As an edu- cator who chose the Teach For America path, I can say with first-hand knowledge that they are right: We as a generation can no longer afford to remain silent about the disparities in academic achievement that exist between low- income, mostly minority students and their middle- and upper-class counterparts. We have failed to live up to the expecta- tions set forth by Brown v. Board of Education. Fifty-three years later, our urban and rural schools are in disarray - failing to live up to the expectations of No Child Left Behind, fail- ing to attract and retain qualified teachers and failing our students in the quality public edu- cation mandated by the Constitution. In my southwest Michigan high school, by 1998 all of our teachers had an e-mail account and used the Internet to submit attendance. My science classrooms were equipped with snazzy lab equipment, and we were centri- fuging DNA and doing electrophoresis in biology. Our disadvantage was limited to sharing a football field with our cross town rival high school. In the Baltimore classroom where I taught - in a building condemned by the Health Department - it took six months to receive a computer for my classroom. My students weren't allowed to do science experiments because of a lack of supplies, inadequate teacher training and administration reserva- tions about allowing students near Bunsen burners. And while we had our own dirt foot- ball field, the Baltimore police were always present to prevent neighborhood violence. The stark difference between my own edu- cation and what my students received wasn't limited to resources. The quality of teachers, difficulty of courses and general school and home expectations also contrasted. My senior students read at a sixth-grade level, and I had several students who were essentially illiter- ate. When doing SAT practice problems, my students needed calculators to perform basic arithmetic. Only those enrolled in the admin- istrative assistant trade program knew how to type and save documents on floppy disks. While the majority of my students had post- secondary education aspirations, few were prepared for college-level work. Somewhere along the way, their teachers, schools and com- munity had failed them. But things don't have to be this way. While the Ivy League schools have increas- ing percentages of graduates joining Teach For America, the University is the largest sup- plier of Teach for America members. I encour- age you to go to www.teachforamerica.org and learn more about the organization and the fight for educational justice. Most graduate and professional schools and major corporations like JPMorgan allow accepted corps members to defer their school- ing or career for the two-year commitment because they believe in the Teach For Amer- ica mission and its impact on both our stu- dents and corps members. Leading graduate and professional programs in law, medicine, business and public policy, as well as lead- ing companies, like Goldman Sachs, Google and Wachovia, specifically recruit Teach For America alumni for the same reasons. What- ever your long-term career interest may be, Teach For America is an asset because you gain real world experience and learn first- hand about the challenges of our country. Teach For America afforded me the oppor- tunity to see and live the real difference between suburban and urban education. Before joining it, I wasn't sure about my future career interests. I had majored in English here at the University and only knew that I wanted to make a difference and that not everyone had grown up as I did. My students have dramati- cally impacted my life and further deepened my passion to make changes in education. My experience in Baltimore has fueled the urgen- cy of my current studies in public policy and passion for larger changes. I felt and fought the injustice in the classroom for two years and am now gaining a new toolset to fight the inequali- ty at the district, state and federal levels. I now ask you to consider doing the same. Maggie Weston is an LSA and Teach For America alum currently pursuing a master's degree at the Gerald Ford School of Public Policy. A little notice would be nice ith the exception of some inclement weather, the semester seems to be com- ing together for me. For the most part, I've memorized my new schedule, pur- chased the majority of my textbooks and coursepacks and have begun looking forward to my approaching graduation. Despite all my worrying, things are falling into place and, like a locomotive starting slow, the term is gradually pick- ing up steam as f the gears shrug off the lethargy and sleepiness of a two-week vacation. Two weeks into the new term and ; everything's back to normal. Well almost RAFI everything. You MARTINA see, just days into new semes- ter, the city of Ann Arbor rather gracelessly took a prized parking spot from the residents of Elm Street, converting it - seemingly overnight - into a handicapped spot. Although the city was tight-lipped about who requested the new spot, it didn't take us long to figure out that the elderly homeowner across the street (yes, there are indeed permanent residents in the student ghetto) had rather cun- ningly won himself an exclusive park- ing spot. What had for months been the subject of so much coveting and com- petition had with one stroke been taken out of our reach. Not that the gentleman was for want of parking - indeed, his driveway was typically less crowded with cars than any other on the street. And from all appearanc- es, the man owned (and rented-out) the house next door, providing him with additional parkingwhen needed. What's more, the man was ostensibly able-bodied - at least enough to regu- larly walk his dog around the neigh- borhood. And yet for all my frustration and griping, I cringe at questioning his putative disability. After all, who am I to second-guess the doctor who judged him needing of a handicap permit? Moreover, I'm a little embar- rassed over the entire episode; if one of my grandparents thought it neces- sary to request a handicapped street parking spot, would I want some snide college kid sneering over the petition? Some say disability rights are the new civil rights. If that's the case, I haven't the stomach or the mind to play the modern-day Orval Faubus, obstruct- ing the rights of the disabled as that notorious character in history sought to obstruct the implementation of Brown v. Board of Education. No, the real culprit here figures to be the city of Ann Arbor. Installing the handicapped parking signs without the slightest notice to any of the resi- dents of Elm Street, the city once again bullied student compliance without even the most half-assed of attempts at weighing resident opinion. No leaf- lets. No letters. Nothing. My room- mate even received a ticket for parking in a spot that hadn't been marked as handicapped when he parked his car there the previous evening. Are the interests of students so inconsequential to this city as to pre- clude even the most lukewarm atten- tion from city government? Sure, the city seems to take notice of us, as pimps invariably take notice of their whores and swindlers carefully take notice of those they swindle. Much like its esteemed company, the city takes notice of us merely in its desire to make a buck. Addressingthe concerns of disabled Ann Arbor residents is undoubtedly a priority. As a potentially vulner- able and underrepresented group, disabled persons deserve the city's resources and attention. ButI daresay another potentially vulnerable and underrepresented group enters the equation in the situation presented above. Students in this city are con- stantly preyed upon by the avarice of landlord and shopkeeper (particular- ly bookstore owners). And while the bevy of privileged students capable of owning cars (like my roommates and I) or paying high rents might obscure their view, numerous less-privileged students also call this city home. In A2 neighborhoods, students are the ones who lose out. Has the city become so calloused by the financial incentives of business and high-property value taxpayers as to forget about those other residents? For all the progressive labels the city adorns itself with, it still hasn't got- ten around to simple progressive issues like rent control or investigat- ing price-fixing and the lack of com- petition among bookstores. But then again, those concerns don't particu- larly afflict the white-collar home- owners who glowingly pat themselves on the back for living in such a pro- gressive, liberal town like Ann Arbor. What this city truly needs is a slap in the face. That or an Eliot Spitzer to really shake things up. Will someone be kind enough to give the city notice before the changes are undertaken? Rafi Martina can be reached at rmartina@umich.edu. Want to join Daily opinion? Of course you do. Come to our mass meeting Thursday at 7:30 p.m. at 413 E. Huron. Editorial Board Members: Kevin Bunkley, Amanda Burns, Sam Butler, Ben Caleca, Devika Daga, Milly Dick, James Dickson, Jesse Forester, Gary Graca, Jared Goldberg, Jessi Holler, Rafi Martina, Toby Mitchell, Rajiv Prabhakar, David Russell, Katherine Seid, Elizabeth Stanley, Jennifer Sussex, John Stiglich, Neil Tambe, Radhika Upadhyaya, Rachel Wagner