4 - Friday, April 6, 2007 O PINION The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan since 1890. 413 E. Huron St. Ann Arbor, MI 48104 tothedaily@umich.edu 0 6 KARL STAMPFL EDITOR IN CHIEF IMRAN SYED EDITORIAL PAGE EDITOR JEFFREY BLOOMER MANAGING EDITOR Unsigned editorials reflect the official position of the Daily's editorial board. All other signed articles and illustrations representsolely the views of their authors. A dishonored code College of Engineering must address cheating What happens when you mix grade-conscious students in a competitive program with an unproctored test? The results of a seven-year investigation of College of Engineering students suggest that the answer is cheating. While the College of Engineering's honor code is admirable for its ideal- ism, the propensity of cheating requires a more rigorous system to bring fairness and honesty back into the college. I got nowhere I can go!" - Rene Matamoros, a released sex offender in Florida who lives under a highway bridge because of his county's strict housing restrictions for sex offenders, as reported yesterday by CNN.com. ERIN RUSSELL I YOU'VE BEEN SNIFFING - - I TNINK NOW WOULD THAT SMELLY MARKER ALL HEY! I Io'r HAVE BE A G00 WTINE. YOU'RE AGAIN? (SIGH)...FINE. PAY I THINK YOU MIGHT AN ADDICTION! I CAN GETTING SO MUCH ILL GO ON THE HAVE AN ADDICTION. STOP WHENEVER I MARKER ON YOUR FACE SCRATCH N' SNIFF WANT OKAY? YOU'RE STARTING To LOOK PATCH TOMORROW. LIKE A PICASSO PAINTING. High schoolpolitics 0 0 For more than 92 years, the College Engineering's honor code has been a h mark of trust. By allowing students to t tests that aren't supervised, the code designed to breed a graduating class t takes responsibility for it's actions and r ognizes the importance of hard work. Vis tions of the code are supposed to be repor to the Engineering Honor Council for inv tigation and punishment. However, the investigation into engine ing students' cheating by the Center Research on Learning and Teaching s gests that the code may not be living up to lofty principles. The report claims that ne ly nine out of 10 students in the engineer program admitted to cheating, and m rationalized cheating as acceptable if t felt the teacher was inadequate. Of the vi tions that are reported, critics claim prof sors and administrators often overlook th and marginalize those who speak out. When students are cheating, their w doesn't reflect their effort. The quality of graduates the school turns out suffers. s grade inflation could harm honest stude because much of the grading in the en neering school is done on a curve. The a ficially inflated grades also call into quest the quality of teaching at this highly ran engineering school. LET TERS TO THE EDITOR 'U' should be leader in sweatshop fight TO THE DAILY: In the University's fight song, the phr "leaders and the best" is intended as a st: ment of athletic superiority. Unquestiona the University deserves the honor in the re of athletics. But it is unfortunate that Univer President Mary Sue Coleman missed an opp tunity Tuesday to make the University not j an athletic leader but an ethical leader as we Instead of meeting with members of, Students Organizing for Labor and Econo ic Equality's Sweatfree Campaign, Coleo enlisted the Department of Public Safety expel them from the Fleming Administrat Building. Coleman did not need to use po power to prevent this peacefulstudent assem Former University President Lee Bollinger s precedent in March of 1999 when he addres the concerns of a similar group. In order top tray the University as an ethical leader, Coleo should have followed Bollinger's example. If the University, as one of the most marl able schools in the world, sends a signal th will not allow workers to suffer so that Bl M's can be cheaply affixed to T-shirts, app el companies would be forced to take not Other colleges would take notice as well. University regrettably lost an opportunity be a leader by failing to take an ethical sta to improvethelivesofgarmentworkers arou the world. By arresting students instead listening to them, Coleman showed that prefers running a university that is a pawn apparel companies' interests. Luke Schmerberg Alum Faith, reason are not necessarily always at odds TO THE DAILY: Ian Robinson's letter to the editor ear this week (Religion's got nothing on an o mind, 04/03/2007) was not only mildly off sive, but laughable. Robinson boldly endor an "open mind" and utterly dismissesc belief or faith in things beyond his finite: supposedly open mind. I will allow reader: dissect the glaring hypocrisy of his assert on their own, but I'd like to respond to Ti Mitchell's column itself, which the letter written in response to (Sex, God and terror 03/28/2007). Mitchell's proposal that students hav "terrible choice" between sound intellectu JOHN OQUIST LIVE ON YOUR F of worst of all, however, is that unqualified all- students could graduate and be placed in ake positions of great responsibility. The thought is of unqualified engineers making it through hat college because of their clever cheating 'ec- methods should send chills down anyone's ola- spine. One inflated grade in a thermodynam- ted ics course could mean the difference between es- your vehicle moving comfortably around a bend or landing in a ditch upside-down. eor- The solution is simple. The only thing the for College ofEngineeringneeds to do to curtail ug- cheating is simply put a proctor in the room. its Measures like proctoring tests can improve ar- the fairness of testing for all students and ing come at a very small cost. lost If instances of cheating are decreased hey through commonplace, basic monitor- ola- ing in these courses, professors can also fes- get the added bonus of accurately seeing em what concepts their students don't under- stand and can alter their teaching methods ork accordingly. the In a perfect world, students would be uch responsible and trustworthy, wealth would nts be distributed equally and cars would pro- sgi- duce fresh water instead of carbon emis- rti- sions. But that just does not reflect reality. ion Although cheating is deplorable and stu- ked dents should know better, the University should not make it so easy. SEND LETTERS TO: TOTHEDAILY@UMICH.EDU ism and religious belief is ridiculous. I just do not see the dichotomy. Instead, students can use logical and philosophical ideals from their liberal educations to understand "childhood faith" in a deeper, richer and more fulfilling way. I am not alone in this position. A popu- ase lar counterpart to Richard Dawkins is Francis ate- Collins, the director of the National Human bly, Genome Research Institute, who sees scien- alm tific thought and faith as strengthening each sity other - not as being at odds. or- This assertion that atheism is inherently ust the only logical belief is both ethnocentric and 4. misinformed. These statements ignore the fact the that atheism also comes from its own system of sm- belief and culture. Ignoring this basic fact has nan led some people down the dangerous roads to of eugenics and genocide in the past. These ion deluded positions have no place in a liberal, lice open-minded University. bly. et a Rob Dood sed LSA senior )or- Don't throw away old school at it supplies, donate them ock ar- TO THE DAILY: ice. The end of the semester is approaching rap- the idly, and most students probably have a few 'to extra pages of college-ruled paper or a partial- nce ly-used notebook that will likely be discarded. nd But before they throw them away, I implore of students to pause for a moment and consider she donatingthese things to a worthy cause. of Supplies for Success, a student group, is issuing an urgent plea for the cooperation and assistance of the University community. We are collecting any unused or gently used school supplies that students may be able to donate to an underprivileged school in Detroit. High- demand items are notebooks, pens, pencils, office supplies, art supplies, floppy disks and athletic equipment. Dropboxes are located con- veniently at the Michigan Union, the Michigan League, Palmer Commons, Pierpont Commons and the Michigan Student Assembly office. lier Students should give because our communi- pen ty is fortunate enough to have ample resourc- en- es. Others do not. It is unfair that potential and 'ses willing students should be restricted by a lack any of resources. When they contribute, students and should know that every donation is not a mere s to handout; instead, their donation empowers ion the disempowered and extends the privilege oby of education beyond the confines of our com- was munity. So please be generous. Any donation is sm, greatly appreciated. e a Paul Leahy sal- LSA sophomore EET Almost seven years ago, Ameri- cans voted George W. Bush into the oval office, deeming him more charming and relatable than Al Gore, who was too robotic and lacking in charisma.Since then, the warin Iraq has caused hundreds ofthousands ofunnec- essary deaths, the war in Afghanistan has been on the rocks since the Taliban has started creeping back and tax cuts for the rich have put this country into deep debt. You'd hope that Americans . would learn a lesson from all this and look to next year's elec- tions for redemption. Butthisdoesn'tseem to be the case. RAJIV As someone who reads the news- PRABHAKAR paper everyday, I- follow all the major issues. I know all about how John Edwards's wife is bat- tling cancer again and I know all about the fund raising war between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. I even know about the numerous marriages and extramarital affairs of Rudy Giu- liani and John McCain. Sadly, I know almost nothing about each candidate's platform or what exactly he or she plans to do if elected. The media seems too busy debating the candidates' images to the point that there is no meaningful discussion about the mer- its of the platforms or how effective a candidate's ideas would be. Take, for instance, Fox News's cov- erage of Obama. The dominant themes of the coverage were Obama's middle name being Hussein, his father being Muslim, his alleged attendance of an Islamic school as a child (completely false) and even his smoking. The other Democratic nominees aren't doing any better. Clinton's biggestproblem is that people view her as power hungry and "unfeminine." Edwards meanwhile is getting grief for not dropping out of the race because his wife is ill. As New York Times columnist Paul Krugman wrote recently, policy has been ignored in favor of image (Sub- stance over image, 02/26/2007). Judg- ing from the media's priorities during the last few months, the election next year will not be won by the person with the best ideas but by the person who is best at playing the public relations game and projecting the most attrac- tive image. This drama led Howard Fineman of Newsweek to come to the conclusion that presidential elections are nothing more than glorified high school popularity contests. It is easy then to blame the media for dumbing down the debate, but ultimately, we have only ourselves to blame. The coverage from news outlets is just a reflection of what society thinks is important in general. If the media has focused almost exclusively on the superficial merits of each candidate, it's only because the public would rather hear about Edwards's family situation than about his health care proposal. As students, we spend hours poring over our textbooks trying to make sense of our economics class in preparation for an upcoming final. But when it comes to choosing the next president, we're content to make decisions based on the sound bytes we hear on television. Try- ing to understand the merits of trickle- down economics is simply more effort than most of us are willing to expend. As a society, we crave leaders with simple ideas and beliefs that we can understand and that we agree with. We want politicians who canidentifythem- selves as either pro-war or anti-war, big government or small government and pro-life or pro-choice. There's no room for intellectuals like John Kerry who are personally opposed to abortion but don't want to impose their religious beliefs on others. In our quest for simplicity, -our beliefs become wedge issues for which no middle ground is possible - you're either with us or against us. Conse- quently, liberals are writingoffRepub- licans as Bible-thumping rednecks, while conservatives are just as will- ing to dismiss Democrats as godless, senseless, bleeding hearts. Political debates are lacking in substance. Unfortunately, real life isn't half as simple as we wish. More often than not, complex problems can only be handled through solutions that are just as complicated. And more often than not, people have good arguments to support their beliefs. Throughout our lives, there will be no shortage of people trying to con- vince us that things are actually very simple, that simple solutions exist and that their opponents are completely wrong. We shouldn't fall for it. The world is much too complicated for a binary outlook. We must always chal- lenge ourselves to understand why oth- ers believe in what they do. We will be better for it. Rajiv Prabhakar can be reached at rajivp@umich.edu. 0 ELLIOTT MALLEN I I SOLE: It's upto you, Mary Sue University President Mary Sue Coleman's decision to allow 12 student demonstrators to be thrown out of the Fleming Administration Building in handcuffs this Tuesday was a slap in the face to the thousands of workers worldwide who struggle to survive on sweat- shop wages to produce University apparel. Her outright refusal to negotiate with students not only demonstrat- ed her contempt for student activism but also sent a clear signal that the University will continue to embrace the use of sweatshops in the production of clothing bearing the Michigan logo. For two years, Students Organizing for Labor and Equality has encouraged Coleman to adopt the Designat- ed Suppliers Program, a proposal guaranteeing an end to the use of sweatshop labor in making University apparel. Thirty universities, from Duke to Grand Valley State, have already endorsed the DSP. But Coleman has refused to discuss the DSP with students and maintains that stu- dents must acquiesce to the appropriate channels if they wish to engage in productive dialogue. She has consis- tently redirected student concerns to the Committee on Labor Standards and Human Rights, a dilatory advisory body charged with enforcing the University's Code of Conduct, which prohibits the manufacture of University apparel under sweatshop conditions. Coleman's predecessor Lee Bollinger adopted this code in 1999 following SOLE's two-day occupation of his office. But the code remains unenforced. Bollinger rec- ognizes that abuses continued, and as the president of Columbia University, he has endorsed the DSP. Coleman openly admits that the code of conduct is failing to ame- liorate the hardships workers face, yet she still refuses to adopt a proposal to do something about it. Those who make University apparel have borne the brunt of the University's inaction. Workers in factories producing clothing with our logo routinely grapple with the burdens of compulsory overtime and physically strenuous work. The overwhelming majority of sweat- shop employees are women who face the humiliations of mandatory pregnancy tests, limited or nonexistent bathroom breaks and, in some cases, forced abortions, all for the sake of a wage that does not provide even the barest of necessities. Workers face brutal suppression when they organize to improve conditions in their factories, and victory all too often leads only to unemployment. Factories where. University apparel is manufactured have closed down in response to demands for a just wage and fair treatment as corporations flee for non-union shops. For example, workers in the BJ&B factory in the Dominican Republic banded together with American students to win shorter hours and an unprecedented wage hike. In response, Nike and Reebok pulled their orders from the factory, forcing BJ&B to shut down and condemning hundreds of workers to unemployment. This is the story across the globe as corporations aban- don factories with union representation and opt to do business where labor is cheapest and treatment of work- ers is at its most depraved. The DSP would put an end to this barbaric race to the bottom by guaranteeing that workers are not punished for asserting the rights guaranteed under the Universi- ty's current code of conduct. The DSP requires that cor- porations like Nike and Adidas can only make University apparel in factories that respect freedom of association and provide a living wage. As such, Nike would not be able to pull all of its orders out of a unionized factory like BJ&B. Such a proposal would reward factories for respecting the rights of workers rather than giving cor- porations an incentive to cut and run. ;" gess 2 Shioos 5 ... Cor Pops 0omM e or h d 00,?mop? / ' 1oaP a. 7 g0 CORN TheCommitteeonLaborstandardsandHumanRights recommended last April that the University not endorse the DSP, instead making vague promises to strengthen the existing (and utterly ineffective) code of conduct. However, the committee has met only intermittently over the course of the academic year and has devoted less than 14 hours (roughly the equivalent of a sweatshop worker's daily shift) to devising an alternative. Of course, the committee's inaction is moot. Despite Coleman's insistence that she doesn't "sit in (her) office and be the grand pooh-bah and say thou shall do X, Y and Z," the real decision making power lies not with advisory bodies but with Coleman herself. She had the opportunity to make the University a leader in the struggle to end sweatshop labor. Instead, she callously allowed 12 students to be sent to jail for daring to chal- lenge the brutally oppressive status quo. It's up to us to help her change her mind. To get involved, check out www.uofmsitin.com. Elliott Mallen is an RC senior and a member of SOLE. THIS WEATHER $ RIDICULOUSI YESTERDAY IT WAS 10 AND TODAY IT'S SNOWINGI C UDE, E KNOW FT'S APRIL, BUT PUT SOME REAL PANTS ON. SERIOUSLY IDS NW T f7' Editorial Board Members: Emily Beam, Kevin Bunkley, Amanda Burns, Sam Butler, Ben Caleca, Mike Eber, Brian Flaherty, Mara Gay, Jared Goldberg, Emmarie Huetteman, Toby Mitchell, David Russell, Gavin Stern, John Stiglich, Jennifer Sussex, Neil Tambe, Radhika Upadhyaya, Rachel Wagner, Christopher Zbrozek W/ i NQ 11 1 / i