4A - Wednesday, February 21, 2007 The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com 40 Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan since 1890. 413 E. Huron St. Ann Arbor, MI 48104 tothedaily@umich.edu KARL STAMPFL IMRAN SYED JEFFREY BLOOMER EDITOR IN CHIEF EDITORIAL PAGE EDITOR MANAGING EDITOR Unsigned editorials reflect the official position of the Daily's editorial board. All other signed articles and illustrations represent solely the views of their authors. No sweat Students call for oversight, University should comply Masked students once again paraded across campus on Friday, but unlike the pink-clad Valentine's Day prank- sters, they were protesting, not passing out candy. While the protest against the University's partnership with companies that might use sweatshops to produce University branded apparel was far from perfect, it did bring attention to an important issue: the lax enforcement of the University's own Code of Conduct for Licensees. Whether or not licensees are actually employing sweatshop labor, administrators have little to lose from allowing third-party over- sight to ensure that this is not the case. He's not an ordinary soldier, of course, but it looks like he's got his way over Iraq." - An unidentified British military official on the possibility that Prince Harry, a recent graduate of the prestigious Sandhurst military academy, may go to Iraq with his unit in April, as reported Monday by the Daily Mail. 6 JOHN OQUIST| WHAT ARE WE DOING HERE? I'M FREEZING! /WE'RE MAKING A DIFFER ENCE ... IT'S TIME YOU DO REALIZE YOU'RE SPRAY-PAINTING A PICTURE OF DICK CHENEY EATING A DOG ONTO A PRE-SCHOOL, RIGHT?. IT'S S' G ------ ------ a Green goes green The spectacle was organized by the Sweatfree Coalition - sponsored by Stu- dents Organizing for Labor and Equal- ity and the University chapters of Amnesty International and the American Civil Liber- ties Union. Members wore facemasks and donned attire with witty slogans like "Fuck Sweatshops." But aside from providing these rather vague clues, the protesters did little to inform onlookers about what they were actually protesting. The event seemingly culminated with the procession's arrival at the Fleming Administration Building, but it turned out the fun was just getting started. There, at the site of the office of Universi- ty President Mary Sue Coleman, protesters waited for more than 15 minutes to hand deliver a letter to the president (who was unavailable) before dispersing. The letter urged administrators to sign onto the Des- ignated Suppliers Program, which would limit production of University apparel to businesses that do not, according to the group, use sweatshop labor. It expressed concern that the University has been lax in its oversight of clothing product suppliers. While the occasional conservative econ- omist may hail the use of sweatshops - which involve long hours under dangerous conditions to make less in a day than most Americans do in an hour - by saying that they're better than no work, most would agree that it is appalling for a university with the storied progressive history of this one to still have its logo emblazed upon the products of exploitative labor. The University has taken action on this topic before, and the University's Code of Conduct for Licensees already bans the use of forced or child labor by affiliated busi- nesses. Unfortunately, the code can easily be neglected, because there is little over- sight and its application to some sweat- shops is ambiguous. The University can say that it will not partner with corporations that exploit workers, but it means very little if administrators fail to monitor the activities of manufacturers to enforce their own rules. As such, the University should adopt the Designated Suppliers Program. Adminis- trators have rightly expressed a commit- ment to boycotting the unethical treatment of labor, and they should honor that pledge by allowing a third party to monitor suppli- ers' labor practices. The Designated Suppliers Program can accurately provide the sort of judgments that are necessary in order for the Code of Conduct for Licensees to carry weight. Joining it will allow for necessary over- sight that the University sorely lacks. The President's Advisory Committee on Labor Standards and Human Rights considered this very action less than a year ago. The time has come to implement it. magine never having to endure the stink of gasoline or the pain of paying at the pump. Imag- ine cities that smell as clean as the countryside and towns that pump electricity back to the cities from solar plants and wind farms. Imag- ine energy so cheap and machines so efficient that an energy crisis will seem as antiquat-_--. ed as a flat Earth. Now stop imagin- ing. The technol-r ogy to do this is already here. The only thing Ameri- ca is missing is the_ nerve to take it. T With a sleek alu- TOBY minum and carbon MITCHELL fiber body, a 250- mile range and the ability to accel- erate from 0 to 60 as fast as your average Ferrari or Porsche, the Tesla Roadster shatters the stereotype that paints electric cars as little more than golf carts. Powered by 900 pounds of batteries, it has a two-gear transmis- sion, zero emissions and a gas pedal without the gas. Not surprisingly, Tesla Motors wasn't founded in Detroit. The Silicon Valley entrepreneurs-gone- automakers behind the company could never have got started in the land where dinosaurs still stalk the roads - and the boardrooms. Unfor- tunately, many Americans share the same view as Michigan's shockingly imbecilic auto executives; it's either environment or economy, golf carts or gas guzzlers, and never the twain shall meet. Al Gore summed up the dinosaur view in "An Inconvenient Truth." On one side of a balance, there are some gold bars. On the other side, there's the entire planet. This picture is as inaccurate as it is ridiculous. As the Tesla Roadster shows, economic and environmental progress aren't mutu- ally exclusive but complementary. For an example of what this could mean for the energy business, con- sider GreenFuels. This tech start-up produces bio-fuel from algae at a rate 40 times greater than the man- ufacture of corn-based ethanol. The algae itself feeds on exhaust from fossil-fuel power plants, reducing those plants' carbon emissions by 40 percent. GreenFuels already has $11 million in venture capital, but future profits from green energy will make that figure look like chump change. More ambitious schemes are in development. The Solar Chimney channels hot air from a huge des- ert greenhouse through a mile-high concrete tower, driving a 200-mega- watt turbine at a total cost only somewhat greater than coal. Even nuclear power has a green side: Tho- rium reactors can burn plutonium waste left over from Cold War-era weapons programs, turning a long- standing problem into a source of power. They have political advan- tages as well, because they can be engineered to work without urani- um or plutonium. That means Iran could pursue this technology all it wanted and never be able to build a bomb - removing any opportunity to use nuclear power as an excuse to develop nuclear weapons. Now that even the U.S. Army is researching hybrid electric tanks, it may finally be time to admit that so-called alternative energy has gone mainstream. Supplies of solar panels can't keep up with demand. Wind turbines now pay for them- selves within a few years in many states. There's a lot of money to be made in green energy - it'll just be different people making it. Oil companies have seen the writing on the wall. They've poured millions into propaganda outfits like the Competitive Enterprise Institute, an Exxon-Mobil-funded think-tank whose manufactured experts appear in the media to denounce alternative energy as a wasteful government subsidy. This is pure hypocrisy - there never was a free market for energy. The entire nuclear industry was literally engineered by the government, and the oil companies' primary market was created by the largest continu- ing federal subsidy in history - the interstate highway system. The real debate isn't over whether or not to subsidize, but whether to keep subsidizing the status quo and face diminishing profits or to ; make a leap to technology that pays far big- ger dividends in the long run. Liberals who want others to want to protect the planet need to get real. Unless going green starts to pay some green, it won't happen. Fortu- nately, profitability is almost a real- ity. The government just needs the courage to make traditional energy America needs to diversify its energy portfolio. industries pay their own bills. Imag- ine how much better the econom- ics of green energy would look if some of the estimated $58 billion in federal dollars that will be spent on nuclear waste storage in Nevada went to green energy instead. Bull-headed fiscal conservatives will be repulsed by the idea of a Green New Deal, as suggested by New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman. Democrats should do what Republicans did with global warming and simply call the idea by a different name. What America needs is a broad array of perfor- mance-driven energy initiatives that foster the best solutions for individual cities and states. After all, even the most uneducated inves- tor can tell you that the surest way to good returns is through a diversi- fied portfolio. Toby Mitchell can be reached at tojami@umich.edu. Editorial Board Members: Emily Beam, Kevin Bunkley, Amanda Burns, Sam Butler, Ben Caleca, Brian Flaherty, Mara Gay, Jared Goldberg, Emmarie Huetteman, Toby Mitchell, Rajiv Prabhakar, David Russell, Gavin Stern, John Stiglich, Jennifer Sussex, Neil Tambe, Radhika Upadhyaya, Rachel Wagner, Christopher Zbrozek CHRIS KOSLOWSKI I ________ ________ Sfound out yesterday that my Eher the campus is beut . 4 K'- CX) SEND LETTERS TO: TOTHEDAILY@UMICH.EDU University surveys fail to gauge student attitudes are not surveys that provide new insights. These are junk surveys that serve to con- firm the agendas of University adminis- trators by making the University's plan look like a home run with students - even TO THE DAILYY if it isn't. Reading Monday's article regarding the University's push to keep upperclass- Edward Santos men in dorms ('U' aims to keep upper- LSA senior classmen in dorms, 02/19/2007), I was saddened to see that the meal credit stopwhim policy may change as a result of a survey given to students. This actually shows snow this1 that University administrators are not o touch with students. As part of the Divi- sion of Student Affairs Advisory Board, I TO THE DAILY: have seen University administrators with Contrary to w an agenda report survey results that are editor claimed, A skewed. a foot of snow in For example, a survey designed to safety's sake, st gauge opinions about the Hill Dining roads plowed, 02 Center gave respondents three choices: maybe six inches 1) I would prefer to have a small, dining ally does get a fo operation in my residence hall, even if the roads are plon that means I have less variety of foods to falling, I'll join in choose from for each meal 2)I would pre- that the city neec fer to eat in a conveniently located, larger policy. dining operation that serves more than Although ther just my residence hall so that it could offer slush and snow a wider variety of food options for each around town, I d meal 3)I would prefer to have a snack bar I drive down to or convenience store in my residence hall, day for class and plus have access to a conveniently located in question, like+ larger dining operation that serves more Street and Eastt thanjust my residence hall sothat it could the main roadsV offer a wider variety of food options for the storm. It is each meal. the roads where Any student who has taken Stats 350 travel at higher s can tell you that these questions are ter- ion, the streets w rible. "Small" and "even if it means IShave their cars are bet lessvariety" arethe qualifiers used for our so there isn't a ti current dining operations, while "conve- drive over to get i nient" and "wider variety" are the qualifi- We live in Mi ers used for the Hill Dining Center. These should be expect ing about the is Michigan hat Friday's letter to the nn Arbor did not receive last week's storm, (For udents deserve to have /16/2007). We got five, . When Ann Arbor actu- ot of snow, and none of wed after the snow stops with the others and say ds to change its plowing re was a few inches of on some of the roads id not encounter any ice. Central Campus every park on the very streets Church Street, Oakland University Street. All of were clear the day after important to first clear a high number of cars peeds. Also, in my opin- 'here a lot of people park ter off not being plowed wo-foot wall of snow to into a parking spot. chigan. Driving in snow ed. If drivers would just be cautious and not freak out at the sight of snow on the ground, everyone would stay safe and people wouldn't need to complain just to have something to com- plain about. Ryan Mitchell LSA senior Protest unfairly vilifies natural history museum TO THE DAILY: I am writing in response to Monday's story, With art, students draw attention to Native American dioramas (02/19/2007). Students' awareness and engagement with social and political controversies is a necessary and vital part of campus and community life. However, when the art students featured in this article chose to create an art installation protesting the Exhibit Museum of Natural History for its Native American dioramas, they vili- fied a museum that has worked for years with the local Native-American com- munity to change those exhibits. Many artifacts considered offensive to the Native-American community have been taken off display and are in the process of repatriation. The Exhibit Museum of Natural His- tory is fully aware of the controversy surrounding the dioramas and is sympa- thetic to the offense these displays may cause Native Americans. While many at the museum and in the community may favor the dioramas' removal, the cost and labor is problematic for a museum that has a very small staff and relies almost entirely on donations. For students to imply that the museum is irresponsible and culturally insensitive is damaging to the image of a museum that relies on the support of the Ann Arbor community. If these students are truly concerned with the removal of these dioramas, I implore them to consider fundraising for the endeavor, an act significantly more help- ful than protesting an institution fully aware of the necessity of the proposed changes. Erin Cosens The letter writer is an LSA senior and a docent of the Exhibit Museum ofNatural History. In class, women treated differently than men TO THE DAILY: I was disappointed that Tuesday's front page story (Solving the gender equa- tion, 02/20/2007) failed to mention the treatment of women in math and science courses at the University. It does not take much effort to discover that men treat women differently than they treat other men. I found that most of my female peers in my science courses agree. I mostly noticed the treatment in my calculus and physics courses because of the group work. In my calculus classes, where my groups were composed entirely of men, I was constantly treated like an idiot. There were several occasions when I was not invited to the group homework meetings, and my answers were never considered. Even in my biology classes I have found that males are very unrecep- tive when I ask questions. They usually claim they don't knowthe answer (but it's hard to believe them when they got A's on the last exam) or they pretend like they didn't hear me at all. I would say that it's just me, except that these instances only occur with interac- tions with males.When I work with other women, I am treated with respect and always given the benefit of the doubt. The research shows that people believe women are not usually science majors because of stereotypes, but they fail to consider the reason those stereotypes exist. Those who believe the research can encourage all young women in this country to major in math or science, and they're welcome to go on thinking it will make a difference. However, I live in a world where women are constantly dis- couraged by animosity from their male peers. Aimee Denovchek LSA senior Letters Policy All readers are encouraged to sub- mit letters to the editor. Please include the writer's name, college and class standing or other University affiliation. Letters should be no longer than 300 words. The Michigan Daily reserves the right to edit for length, clarity and accuracy, and all submis- sions become property of the Daily. Letters will be printed according to timeliness, order received and the amount of space available. Send letters to tothedaily@umich.edu. Editors can be reached at editpage.editors@umich.edu. I a a