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Th ich .nDal Wensdy Octbe 1S 2S0
THE EDITOR'S NOTEBOOK with GARY GRACA
ru les eu A look at the big news events this week and how important they really are. Conveniently rated from one to10.

A REAL MAN OF GENIUS?
when the editor in chief of Colorado State University's
student newspaper, The Rocky Mountain Collegian,
allowed "Taser this: Fuck Bush" to run as an editorial,
he probably saw himself enshrined next to Patrick
Henry as a great protector of liberty. He was wrong.
3 Now he's a lot more like the Real Men of Genius in the
Budweiser radio commercials; you barely kept your job
Mr. Unnecessarily-absurd-free-speech advocate.
HE SAILED THE OCEAN BLUE
Make sure to mark Columbus Day on your calendarsfor
Friday, Oct.12. If you want to truly celebrate the man, myth
and legend that was Christopher Columbus, don't forget to
amass your muskets, smallpox blankets, greed and colonial-
ist arrogance before partyingdown. Who knows, pretty soon
S we might be able to celebrate Jefferson Davis Day too.
RENOVATING HISTORY
After an Italian architectural firm inflated a 2003 project
from a projected $75 million to roughly $200 million, the
University is expected to start anew in its long-in-the-
works Law School renovations. Unlike a certain other major
renovation, maybe administrators won't decide to tamper
with a University icon without a little community input.

THAT UNIVERSITY ALUM
University Law School alum and conservative windbag
Ann Coulter spoke to a crowd at Cleary University Oct.1,
In The New York Observer on Oct. 3, she argued irplicitly
that women should be disenfranchised because;"If we
took away women's rightto vote, we'd never have to
6 worry about another Democrat president." In her speech
she answered a question about who she would vote
for in the upcoming election. How preciously ironic.
THE "D.C. SEVEN"
what's worse than white students hanging noosesfrom
a tree in Jena, La. and six black students beating one
of them up for it? Seven students in Washington D.C.
-six white students and one black student -holding
8 down a deaf black student at Gallaudet University and
drawing swastikas and "KKK"s on him in marker.

Latest study vrting is OK
The surprising and reassuring survey results about the University experience
o SCOtt Mll sDeily Staff Witer

2

THOMAS THE TANK ENGINE BLOWS STEAM
Fuming with his usual perverse sense of victimization,
Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has a new
memoir railing on affirmative action and liberals as
undermining his brilliant achievements. Although he has
certainly strung together more unfounded arguments,
as a Supreme Courtjustice it's a bit of a stretch to think
that Thomas has been stonewalled by the negative

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Editor 'on Chief: Carl Stawyll
Managng Editor: Jefrey Booe
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Designer:AllsonGhaman

PERSON OF THE WEEK
PERVEZ MUSHARRAF
Over the past six months, Pakistani General Perverz Musharraf has survived
massive demonstrations led by the country's supreme court, put down an Islamic
uprising in Islamabad, waged a military campaign against rebels in the north
and worked out a power-sharing agreement with his exiled political rival.
Oh, and he also managed to transform himself from military dictator
to a democratically elected president. That's a busy few months for an
embattled leader in the world's most volatile region.

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magine yourselfoutinthe world, f
graduated from college. Whatn
will you remember about these
four or five years in Ann Arbor? s
Over the summer, The New Yorkv
Times asked 1,354 recent collegec
graduates to reflect on their under- f
graduate educations. The poll,9
which consisted of 40 fairly specifics
questions, surveyed alumni of the f
University of Pennsylvania, an Ivy
League school in Philadelphia; Reedg
College, a small, private liberal arts t
school in Portland, Ore.; and the t
University of Michigan.t
What emerges from the data is r
an interesting picture of the under-v
graduate experience at the Univer- c
sity, at least the one that existed 1
five years ago. The Times surveyed e
graduates from the class of 2002. r
But if we assume that the generali
experience of being an undergrad a
here is fairly similar to what it was c
five or so years ago, the poll results t
offer a unique view of the experi-N
ence we're having now - one tidiedc
by reflection and a sense of perspec- g
tive. The informants have sobered f
up (figuratively speaking, of course)r
and can now tell it like it was. %
When asked to name the bests
thing about their undergraduate
education, 15 percent of graduatesc
said cultural diversity was numberc
one. At the center of the nationalr
debate over affirmative action, it's1
no surprise University of Michi-}
gan graduates would be especially 1
sensitive to issues of diversity. Still, (
choosing diversity as the best part t
of college is an unconventionalc
response, especially compared to
the 9 percent who said the quality ofi
their education was the best thing1
- or the meager 8 percent who mostA
2
Percent of University gradu-
ates who said learning to
think was the best thing
about the college experience

fondly remember the friends they
made here.
The results from the two other
schools surveyed look more like
what you'd expect from the typi-
cal college campus. At Reed, 40
percent said they most valued the
quality of education and 21 percent
said friends. At Penn,18 percent said
friends.
So why did only 8 percent of the
graduates think friendship the was
the best part of college? The statis-
tic is especially surprising given
the University's reputation as a
party school, which probably out-
weighs its renown as a champion
of affirmative action. Home foot-
ball games at the University, for
example, draw more than 100,000
people each, and going to a game
isn't something people usually do
alone. What about the invaluable
companionship that's supposed
to come out of the Greek system,
which has claimed about 20 per-
cent of students? Could it be that
graduates fell into a kind of social
fatigue after all those parties? Or
maybe they are looking back and
wishing they'd done a little more
studying and a little less tailgating.
So regardless of what the stu-
dent presidents tell you at freshman
convocation about not going to too
many classes and not forgetting to
have fun and party, chances are
you're not going to forget to party,
but you might regret that later.
Overall, the graduates came off as
being alarmingly level-headed and
career-minded, and not just in their
aversion to socializing. When asked
if they could do one thing different-
ly, the second most popular answer
was to find an internship, gain pro-

fessional experience and diversify
courses,.
Only 2 percent of the graduates
said the best thing about the Uni-
versity was that it tought them to
think, and the greatest number of
University graduates said they val-
ued their skills or degree over any-
thing else.
So what about all the talk about
these being the best years of your
life because of the esoteric learning,
Grads valued the
college degree
more than the
college friends
the fun and the life-longsisterhoods
or brotherhoods? That narrative, so
popular in teen movies like "Van
Wilder" and "Animal House," seems
to be missing from the survey data,
at least at the University of Michi-
gan.
But even if you're an avid tailgat-
ing fan, don't fret, at least not too
much. When asked what their big-
gest regret was about their under-
graduate education, "nothing" was
the most popular answer for Uni-
versity graduates - a reassuring
statistic. Tied for second place was
not doing extracurricular activi-
ties and not taking full advantage of
the resources the University offers.
Trailing in a very close fourth place,
though, a full 9 percent of students
said they thought they had, in fact,
socialized too much.

Only 21 percent of University
graduates decided not to participate
in extracurricular activities during
their undergraduate tenure. Half of
them regretted that decision. So if
you're thinking about joining that
bhangra dance team, but aren't sure
if it's worth it, just ask the class of
'02.
When the people surveyed were
choosing which college to attend
way back in high school, the Uni
versity's reputation was at least
somewhat important to every one
of them, and 78 percent said it was
very important. At the time of the
poll, however, 30 percent of the
graduates said the University's
reputation and ranking were less
important in hindsight.
As for students' propensity to be
career-oriented, that trait seems
to have paid off. More University
graduates, 90 percent of them
were employed at the time of the
poll than those of Reed (81 percent
or Penn (85 percent). Also, more
of the employed graduates from
the University were working in
their field of study than those from
either of the other two schools
suggesting they had their careers
in mind when they logged into
Wolverine Access to choose their
courses. University graduates wer
also quicker to settle down: 32 per
cent of Michigan graduates owned
a home at the time of the poll, an
31 percent of them were married
The percentages in each category
for both Reed and Penn were con
siderably lower.
So maybe University gradu
ates were onto something when 6
percent of them responded thata
college education is necessary to

be successful at one's work. When
recent graduates nationwide were
asked the same question, only 45
percent of them agreed, 52 per-
cent disagreed and 6 percent were
unsure. It's worth noting, though,
that we're earning more than the
f national average for college gradu-
ates, but less than Penn graduates.
When asked if their education
i was worth the money they and their
parents paid for it, 84 percent of the
t Michigan graduates said yes. Only
1 percent of them said their biggest
s regret was paying too much for their
education., though 81 percent said
theythought students generallyhad
s to borrow too much money to make
s itthroughschool.All of this needsto
be qualified, though, by the fact that
59 percent of them graduated with
s no debt, and 74 percent responded
that their parents paid most of their
, tuition. Of course it was worth it.
e So what are the real-world impli-
) cations of all these numbers regard-
e ing the class of '02 for the classes of
'08 through '11? Does this informa-
tion predict how we, current Uni-
versity undergrads, will look back
on our time in Ann Arbor a few
s years from now?
o Maybe. Maybe not. If it does,
r the poll results offer a progno-
e sis. Whether it's good or bad will
- depend on how many bhangra dance
d lessons you've taken and how many
d fraternity parties you've attended.
. But at least you can take comfort
y in the knowledge that, whether it's
- because of nostalgia or not, 96 per-
cent of Michigan students rated
- their undergraduate experience as
9 excellent or good. How many peo-
a ple in "Animal House" could say the
o same?
96
Percent of University gradu-
ates who thought their
undergraduate education
was excellent or good

Percent of University gradu-
ates who chose not to par-
ticipate in extracurricular
activities while at school

69
Percent of University gradu-
ates who thought a college
education was necessary in
order for a person to be suc-
cessful with their work

I * StudentUniverse.com I