I 4 - Tuesday, December 11, 2007 The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com C74c Mic4ig n Jat*lg Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan since 1890. 420 Maynard St. Ann Arbor, MI 48109 tothedaily@umich.edu IMRAN SYED JEFFREY BLOOMER EDITORIAL PAGE EDITOR MANAGING EDITOR KARL STAMPFL EDITOR IN CHIEF Unsigned editorials reflect the official position ofthe Daily's editorial board. All other signed articles and illustrations represent solely the views oftheir authors. The Daily's public editor, Paul H. Johnson, acts as the readers' representative and takes a criticallook at coverage and content in every section of the paper. Readers are encouragedto contact the public editor with questions and comments. He canbe reached at publiceditor@umich.edu. Talking points High school recruitment a vital tool in quest for diversity A mong the many casualties of last year's passage of Proposal 2 was the University's reputation as a welcoming place for people of all backgrounds. In response to Michigan's voter- mandated prohibition on race- and gender-based affirmative action, the University commissioned the Diversity Blueprints Taskforce to outline ways to maintain diversity on campus. Sadly, a recent Daily investigation has shown that the one tried and true way of project- ing the University's positive image, recruitment, has slackened this year at many Detroit high schools. This stacks the odds even more against the University in its quest to maintain and enhance under- represented minority enrollment numbers despite Proposal 2. I'm willing to deal with the consequences and accept responsibility for my actions.: - Former Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick at his sentencing hearing for charges related to dog fighting. Vick was sentenced to up to 23 months in prison. JOHN OQUIST SO ... YEAH. I'VE GOT A COUPLE 0 WHAT WAS THAT YOU HAVE NO IDEA, DO YOU. INTERNSHIPS, YOU KNOW, LINED WOW, SON THAT SOUNDS ABOUT? UP. MY PROSPECTS ARE LOOKING REALLY IMPTESSIVE. GOOD, AND WELL, YOU KNOW I WAS JUST TELLING MY I'M A HISTORY MAJOR, HOW BUSINESS STUFF IS.IT'S WE'RE SO PROUD PARENTS ABOUT WHAT I'LL BE WHAT DO YOU THINK? A DOG EAT DOG WORLD OUT OF YOUl DOING AFTER I GRADUATE. THERE. - 4 i The education market Only about an hour down the road from Ann Arbor, Detroit is an important pool from which the University seeks to find underrepresented minority students. Detroit's population is about 82 percent black, according to the latest Census Bureau statistics, and this racial character is repre- sented in the city's schools. The University has emphasized the importance of recruit- ing at Detroit high schools because it allows the institution to reach out to top candi- dates from diverse backgrounds. The city's 29 high schools will gradu- ate many well-qualified prospective appli- cants, but recruiters must be more present in order to personify the University's open- ness and be a resource to students who might otherwise just apply to other col- leges. However, 10 of the 17 public schools reached for comment said that they have seen University recruiters less frequently this year than in the past. Even Cass Tech- nical.High School, which regularly sends. around 40 underrepresented minority stu- dents to the University every year, has seen fewer recruiters than in years past. With the University singled out in court and in the media in recent challenges to affirmative action, something must be done to dispel the building misconception that the University does not welcome diversity. The University could fight this misconcep- tion by redoubling its recruitment efforts to ensure that its representatives speak personally to as many students as possible. Instead, it seems the University's presence in Detroit schools has decreased rather than increased. The University has discussed innovative responses to last November's disastrous bal- lot initiative, outlining the various tactics to encourage adiverse campus. Ideally,theUni- versity would implement an unprecedented recruitmentprogram that would send repre- sentatives to middle and elementaryschools. But this is just an extension of the vital high school recruitment efforts, which cannot be deemphasized as we seek new, innovative ways to reach the same goal. Currently, the University employs four recruiters for Detroit high schools. Oddly enough, these recruiters do not represent the University's Dearborn and Flint cam- puses, each of which have their own repre- sentatives. Pooling the recruitment efforts of all three campuses might be an ideal way to increase the presence of the University in Detroit high schools. Different campus- es of the University don't need to compete with each other: The point is to get students into any one of those campuses to serve the larger goal of institutional diversity. Take the bidding and PayPal out of eBay.com, and you're left with an online marketplace that looks a lot like the University's , system of register- ing for classes on Wolverine Access.a Both websites allow users to shop x; through count- less items to find one that fits their THERESA needs. With the off- chance their favor- KENNELLY ite item is bid on by- someone else - or filled to capacity - experienced members on each site have learned they may have to fight to win. The aggressive approach taken by users of each site, along with the pop- up congratulatory messages on both that appear once an item has been successfully obtained, suggests their shared objective: To shop victoriously. For eBay, this objective has become its promotional slogan; for Wolverine Access, this objective has made people more obsessed with enrolling in a par- ticular class than actually participat- ing in an educational experience. These similarities, though a bit of a stretch, hint at the consumer-direct- ed quality of class registration, which has begun to spill over to many other corners of the University. Once students have successfully "purchased" a class during registra- tion, they assume they will receive a product in line with their initial expec- tations. It's almost as though students enter classes with the consumerist expectation that, because they are paying to be there, classes should be catered to their demands and they have some control over what transpires. A professor wrote a letter to The New York Times in February 2006 reflect- ing on this mentality that more and more college students are starting to adopt: "The students pay to enroll in a university, they expect service, and if they aren't happy with the product (the grade) they receive, they reject it, just as if they were in a restaurant and had to return an overcooked steak." "Rejecting" the product may seem like an overstatement. This is a college education we're talking about. Stu- dents have to work fortheir grades and degrees and shouldn't just drop out if they are unsatisfied. It is an extrem- ist perspective to think that students actually want tohave controlover their professors and that students assume they will get good grades because they are paying to be enrolled. Still, the underlying consumerist attitude of students, and the pressures instruc- tors feel as a result of students' atti- tudes, is undeniable. From sites like RateMyProfessors.com to students' expectations of review sessions and complete outlines of their impending exams in advance and requesting that teachers throw out exam questions they got wrong, it's clear students are high-maintenance consumers. Whether the neediness and aggres- siveness of students is a new trend or an innate quality just recently high- lighted with technological advances is hard to judge. Students' demands aren't quantitatively calculable, but in a world where 5.0 is the new 4.0 in terms of GPA and graduate school is the new undergrad in terms of gain- ing marketable job skills, there is good reason to assume that students have become more demanding of their colleges and teachers. Evidence such as the rise of stu- dents' GPAs at top universities around the country also suggests a growth in students' pushiness. Grade infla- tion, which has been examined most recently by Stanford University and publicly commented on by Harvard and Princeton Universities, is unde- niably a problem. It shows that teach- ers may be doling out good grades just to ameliorate students, who now have the potential to affect their job status via negative evaluations, complaints to department chairs and, in extreme cases, legal action. Studentswantinggreater influence over their college experience isn't in itselfabad thing. Itshould be reassur- ing to know that students are being active in their education and dis- cussing their grades with professors rather than being complacent. But the problem at hand is not that stu- dents are too aggressive in the class- room. Rather it is the consequence of students' creating consumer-direct How students bring consumerism into lecture halls education and losing out on the edu- cational experience because they are too caught up with logistics or feeling provided for by their college. When students' consumptive atti- tudes - which are apparent on this campus with the ubiquity of apparel and the consistently long lines at cof- fee and sandwich shops that produce items worth a fraction of their selling price - start to affect their education, there are heavy consequences. As the director of research at the American Association of University Professors wrote for a summer 2006 meeting, "If a college degree is nothing more than a commodity, a product to be purchased after comparison shop- ping for the best value among compet- ing 'brands,' then academic freedom... mayvery well be seen as irrelevant." Theresa Kennelly is an associate editorial page editor. She can be reached at thenelly@umich.edu. 4 4 SEND LETTERS TO: TOTHEDAILY@UMICH.EDU 4 Winter Break is the real problem, not exam schedule TO THE DAILY: The editrrial in yesterday's Daily talked about how professors who give final exams on the last day of class are being unfair because they don't give students enough time to study (Reexamining finals, 12/10/2007). However, I prefer to have an exam or two the last day of class, just to spread out my exam schedule and get it over with. I think the more important question is, why does the University make us come back from Winter Break on a Thursday? What a pain. It would make winter break a lot more enjoyable if we could enjoy that last weekend and start on a Monday. I'm sure most students would prefer an extra two days in April if they could have a four-day extension of Winter Break. Sarah Hayosh LSA senior Drug policy conference showsfailures of drug war TO THE DAILY: Last week, New Orleans witnessed one of the largest conferences in history on drug poli- cy: The 2007 International Drug Policy Reform Conference organized by the Drug Policy Alli- ance, Students for Sensible Drug Policy and dozens of other organizations. Building on the momentum from recent drug policy reform victories, approximately 1,000 drug policy experts, health care and drug treatment pro- fessionals, elected officials and family and friends of drug war prisoners gathered to pro- mote alternatives to the failed war on drugs. Members of the University chapter of SSDP attended the conference on full scholarships from their national organization and the DPA to accept SSDP's award for Outstanding Chapter. SSDP led an exploration of issues affecting youth and students, including their Campus Change campaign, an effort to repeal the part of the Higher Education Act that denies financial aid to students with a drug conviction and end the harm of random stu- dent drug testing. These panels emphasized student mobili- zation as a means for counteracting harmful policies and promoting reasonable ones. The conference brought together a diverse crowd. Former law enforcement officials spoke with the people they used to put in jail, the current director of the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime presented next to the director of the Interna- tional Harm Reduction Development Pro- gram, sod even the Ohio State and Michigan chapters of SSDP learned how to strategize and mobilize for reform in conjunction. The conference showed that even bitter enemies could come together for progress. Chris Chiles LSA sophomore The letter writer is the executive director ofStudents for Sensible Drug Policy. ungle law prevails in the Fishbowl duringfinals TO THE DAILY: During finals season, we become like ani- mals in the Fishbowl. While scouting out a computer, a couple of laps around enough to guarantee a Mac or PC, but then December rolls around, and suddenly Fishbowl etiquette disappears like the sun cowering behind the Michigan clouds. During the joyous season of finals in the Fishbowl, friends become enemies. Rather than linger for conversation, we deem our friends competition. A girl from sophomore English class waves my way. I give her a quick hello and move on, scouting a Mac. She rep- resents five minutes waiting time, and now the lines are blurring between Macs and PCs because beggars cannot be choosers. For the first time ever, checking Facebook. com at the Fishbowl is irresponsible. And let's be honest, do you really need to watch an episode of "Entourage" in the Fishbowl? I know plenty of coffee shops that have wire- less Internet. All of a sudden, there's a rustle of papers like wind whistling through the bare branches of winter pines, and a guy gets up. He logs off. I go in for the kill. I dodge the large coats and the designer bags ahead of me. Just as I thrust my bag toward the spot, another person swoops in to take my comput- er. I sigh more loudly than normal. It takes several more laps for me to secure a PC, and finally I can begin my work. First, I will check Facebook. Laurie Segall LSA senior APPLY TO BE AN EDITORIAL PAGE COLUMNIST Interested in writing 700-word opinion pieces about campus, Ann Arbor, the state of Michigan and beyond? Applications are now being accepted for columnist positions for the winter semester. E-mail gmgraca@umich.edu for more information. ARIELA STEIF 4 krlA AsECcor.JO,coeJOi L -,y'5 ~ ~ TTH. I *1 ) r ./ s:~ ,rDE J EA L\S. ((W r,) Ie2 ~ 4C 4 a 4 EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS: Emad Ansari, Anindya Bhadra, Kevin Bunkley, Ben Caleca, Jon Cohen, Milly Dick, Mike Eber, Gary Graca, Emmarie Huetteman, Theresa Kennelly, Emily Michels, Kate Peabody, Robert Soave, Jennifer Sussex, Neil Tambe, Matt Trecha, Radhika Upadhyaya, Rachel Van G;4der, Rachel Wagner, Pat Fick Zabawa LETTERI TO THE EDITOR: Readers are encouraged to submit letters to the editor. Letters should be less than 300 words and must include the writer's full name and University affiliation. All submissions become property of the Daiy. We do not print anongmous letters. Send lettets to tothedaily@umich.e .