0 4A - Monday, January 28, 2008 The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com C7C idiig*an B3a1'*1 Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan since 1890. v t 420 Maynard Sc. Ann Arbor, MI 48109 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 editorialboard. All other signed articles and illustrations represent solely the views of their authors. The Daily's public editor, Paul H. Johnson, acts as the readers' representative and takes a critical look at coverage and content in every section of the paper. Readers are encouraged to contact the public editor with questions and comments. He canbe reached at publiceditor@umich.edu. F MTH E DA ILY o F Taken for a ride International students hurt by ID law; 'U' must act Mike Cox did it again. Like his far-reaching interpreta- tion of the 2004 constitutional amendment banning gay marriage, in which he barred public institutions from offering benefits to domestic partners of state employees, last month the Michigan attorney general reversed a decision made in 1995 by Michigan Attorney General Frank Kelley that allowed anyone to obtain a state ID like a driver's license regardless of legal citizen status. It was supposed to be his way of protecting the homeland by buying into illegal immigration hysteria. But in his shortsighted xenophobia, Cox forgot about a whole group of legal immigrants who will be hurt by the new interpretation: international students. x) 5F5 OVe r3j When I was mayor of New York I made certain that Fidel Castro was not invited to the U.N. 50 celebration." - Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani, courting Cuban-American voters at a campaign rally in Little Havana, Fla., as reported Friday by The New York Times. 4 Wrnted:A bold goal t's not easy to be president of the University of Michigan these days. The state govern- ment has stopped adequately funding higher education, affirmative action is no longer legal and the Depart- ment of Justice is pretty angry that Michigan Stadium isn't compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act of STAMPFL 1990. None of that day- to-day struggle, though, is an excuse for not having a bold vision that cam- pus could rally around. Covering her as an administration reporter for this newspaper, I was impressed by University President Mary Sue Coleman's intelligence. She's always been a solid president, but she's never been a hero. That's mainly because she hasn't outlined the grand goal that would set her and this university apart. University of Michigan presidents in the recent past have had such bold ideas. James Duderstadt, for one, start- ed the Michigan Mandate, which more than doubled minority enrollment. Similarly, Coleman has had her share of initiatives, but they've been largely safe and uncontroversial (add- ing skyboxes to Michigan Stadium is the exception). She launched the $2.5-billion Michigan Difference fundraising plan, and last summer it succeeded. She has given several state of the University addresses thick with moderately difficult goals. She has voiced innovative commitments to interdisciplinary research. Yet none of those are the kinds of goals that get people talking. Perhaps her best chance to roll outa vision came the day after the passage of Proposal 2, which banned race- or gender-based affirmative action in state public institutions. I stood in the disappointed crowd on the Diag that day and waited for her to tell campus something it did not expect to hear. Instead, she gave a deflated speech filled with abstractions and the repeat- ed use of the word "diversity." It didn't seem like anyone was very inspired afterward as they trudged back to their regularly scheduled lives. Daily writer Gary Graca dubbed her "the quiet president" in a profile pub- lished in October, and he was spot-on. The University is never going to col- lapse with Coleman at the helm, and maybe it won't even take a step back- ward. But it doesn't appear it's going to do anythingtranscendent either. That doesn't meandColemanwstill can't outline a big idea that would ignite everyone - not just the faculty or the students or the alumni. What if Coleman were to propose that in the next20 years the University would solve the world's energy crisis? Or promise to spend more of the $7.1-billion endowment and make the University completely free for any undergraduate whose parents .earn less than $80,000 a year and any in- state student whose parents earn less than $150,000 (in today's dollars) within 10 years? Or announce a mandate to cure AIDS here in 25 years? Or cancer? Or map a 15-year plan to take the University completely private so that it wouldn't have to rely on fickle state funding and could use affirma- tive action however and whenever it wanted (maybe that's what Coleman should have done on the Diag the day after Proposal 2 passed)? There's something to be said for pie-in-the-sky goals. In 1962, President John F. Kennedy gave a speech to a crowd at Rice Uni- versity aboutchis promise to land a man on the moon before 1970 - a goal near- ly everyone thought would be impos- sible to meet. He addressed those who considered it foolish because they believed it wouldn't directly improve the lives of Americans. "We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard," Kennedy said. His point was that you set improbable goals because they "serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills," and he was right. Will Coleman choose to go to the moon? Coleman knows that better than most. Shetoldme in aninterviewthree years ago that she was inspired to become a scientistby the Space Race. In a speech to the National Press Club in 2006, she said, "I came of age with Sputnik and the Space Race. I sometimes find it hard to believe it's been 45 years since President Kenne- dy issued his call to put a man on the moon, because the enthusiasm and energy it produced in me and so many others is still so distinct." President Coleman, now it's your turn to be the inspiration. When's your speech? Karl Stampfl is the Daily's editor in chief. He can be reached at kstampfl@umich.edu. Effective Jan. 22, 2008, only American citizens or permanent residents are allowed the "privilege" of obtaining a driver's license or a state-issued ID. The law still allows people with drivers' licenses from most other countries to drive in Michigan, but doesn't allow them to get a state license. The decision came from Michigan's Secretary of State last Monday, but was based on Cox's opinion last month. Students at the Univer- sity inexplicably found out about it the day it went into effect. Along with banning illegal immigrants from receiving drivers' licenses, the deci- sion also bars non-permanent, legal resi- dents like international students studying in America on student visas from receiving drivers' licenses. They are unfortunately victims of America's hysterical illegal immi- gration backlash. For international students who arrive to the United States without a driver's license from another country, as many do, the new law effectively keeps these students from driving. Even for international students who arrive with drivers' licenses, many insurance companies will not sell insurance to someone without an American driver's license. Further, driving rules vary signifi- cantly among countries and the present law discourages these drivers from taking les- sons, putting other drivers at risk. Because of the new requirements, the new law leaves few choices for international students besides public transportation. But good luck finding that in Michigan. There is no way for University students to travel reli- ably outside of Ann Arbor, even to Detroit, which is less than 45 minutes away. An American driver's license counts as more than just a pass to drive acar too - it is a basic form of identification. Taking licens- es away from legal residents will force them to use their passports for many ordinary tasks, from buying cough syrup to finding a job. It's neither convenient nor safe to carry a passport in order to go to the bar. All of these barriers to the normal life of temporary residents supposedly comes with the benefit of added security. But interna- tional students are already put through a battery of security screenings and applica- tions. If anything, preventing international students from getting state IDs is just aban- doning one more round of checks. What is even worse that the announce- ment was simply sprung on students the day it took effect. Although the University's International Center claims to have known about the possibility of this change from the beginning of January, it made no effort to warn the students that something of this nature might happen. It should have saw it coming since last month, though. If warned sufficiently ahead of time, many students could have obtained state ID cards in that period. Now they are out of luck. Luckily, bills are already in the state House and state Senate that would make exceptions for temporary residents. The University has an obligation to its students to make sure that this unjust requirement is reversed. Out of its own self-interest, the University should be looking ahead to the overseas recruitment problems it will have because of this new requirement. Drivers' licenses aren't just nice to have. They are necessities. HANNAH FISHMAN AND JONATHON KENDALL VWP(iNT 'U' not helping voter registration GABE NEWLAND The human right to education Voter turnout for Michigan's primary was embarrassing. For a university that prides itself on political activism and civic engage- ment, the apparent lack of interest was stifling - but more important- ly, it was representative of a more complicated problem that needs to be addressed. The most obvi- ous scapegoat is the student body itself. Our generation is constantly accused of political apathy, and in some cases this may be warranted. But more often a lack of a unified message or organization is bet- ter representative of the problem, rather than apathy. Students actu- ally have an interest in politics, but we generallylack an understanding of or belief in the enormous impact we can have in politics. But in this year's primary there was much blame to be shared. The Democratic National Committee undeniably decreased the impor- tance of all Michigan voters by taking away our delegates to the Democratic National Convention - literally taking away the voice of an entire state. The same can be said for the Republican National Committee when it cut the num- ber of Michigan delegates in half. The question, "does my vote really count?" never rang more true than it did this year. In taking away our voice, both the DNC and the RNC eradicated any semblance of moti- vation and excitement surround- ing what could have been a highly influential election. Outside of national politics, however, our campus shares in the responsibility. The e-mail sent out by the Michigan Student Assembly and the Voice Your Vote Commis- sion was inexcusably late because of a number of extenuating cir- cumstances. Sending out an e-mail to 40,000 students is significantly more complicated than just push- ing send. We assure the student body that we had written the e-mail under the assumption that it would have reached the student body much earlier. This brings us to a much deeper issue. Since its inception, Voice Your Vote has been solely responsi- ble forthe nonpartisan registration, education and turnout of student voters. Though in the past this organization has done a more than commendable job, every year there have been insurmountable barriers to our efforts put in place by differ- ent parts of the University. Professors do not grant the organization access to their class- es for voter registration, nor do the department heads urge them to. University buildings have not yet allowed Vote Your Vote to place voter registration drop boxes at easily accessible locations around campus. Housing allows Voice Your Vote access to the dorms once a year but does not currently have any self-sustainable voter ,regis4 tration policy. Voice Your Vote is hoping to train resident advisers directly, have available registra- tion forms at all residence hall front desks and make voter reg- istration a priority rather than an afterthought for housing. More- over, the University's seeming lack of interest in providing its students with either information about voter registration or actual regis- tration forms is in direct violation 'of the Higher Education Act of 1998, which is a federal law requir- ing public universities to make a "good faith effort" to provide voter registration forms to its students. Last Monday, University Presi- dent Mary Sue Coleman's Martin Luther King, Jr. Day Symposium introduction emphasized the power and importance of voting: "Dr. King said: 'Life's most urgent question is: what are you doing for .others?' All of us can answer that question by stepping into the vot- ing booth, thoughtfully engaging in a sacred rite, and shaping our world." We challenge Coleman to put her words into action and sup- port a real, effective, institutional- ized voter registration policy. One currently does not exist - but it must. More than 100 million children do not have access to education today. Among those who do, millions more are deprived of a quality education in asafe learningenvironment. This "education" often involves corporal punish- ment, violence, sexual harassment or political indoctrination. Even in the United States, con- sidered by many the most prosperous country in the world, educational inequity persists along socioeconomic and racial lines. Half of the 9-year-olds growing up in America's low- income communities will not graduate from high school by the time they are 18 years old. And it is not because they lack potential. To deny our fellow human beings access to a quality education in a safe learning envi- ronment is to deny them their human right to education, which is established explic- itly in the founding documents of the United Nations. Adopted in 1948, the Universal Dec- laration of Human Rights states: "Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and funda- mental stages. Elementary education shall be compulsory. Technical and professional edu- cation shall be made generally available and higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit." Especially in Western cultures, rights- based dialogue often focuses on civil and political rights while ignoring economic and social rights like the right to health or the right to education. Positive rights like the right to education, critics argue, are dif- ficult to justify because they are financially difficult to provide and because they require active provision of entitlements by the state (as opposed to the state being required only to prevent the breach of rights). That is, pub- lic resources mustbe used to improve the sta- tus of society's have-nots. But as the civil rights hero Jack Green- berg argued last January in a lecture at the University of Michigan Law School: "(We all) have an interest in a stable and prosper- ous society. Ifa large part of the population is subjugated, disenfranchised and not fully productive, it's not going to be a successful society." The right to education is not just an end. It provides a foundation for economic development and many other improvements in the quality of life. By enabling children to gain skills and knowledge, education breaks generational cycles of poverty. It is linked to improvements in health and nutrition. Edu- cation empowers children to be active par- ticipants in civil and political life. Education also reduces the chances that children will come into conflict with the law or become vulnerable to various forms of child exploi- tation like child labor or recruitment into armed forces or gangs. As noted above, lack of access to quality education is a large problem. Hundreds of millions are deprived of this human right, which has a profoundly negative impact on our world. But what can we, as students, do to address this problem? We lack the politi- cal power of President Bush. We don't have the financial power of World Bank President Robert Zoellick or the moral authority of U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. And we certainly can't influence others through rhyme like newly appointed University "Vis- iting Professor" Mos Def. Demanding education about human rights is a good place to start. The primary and most critical responsibility of the University, after all, is to educate. There are programs for human rights education underway - both the international studies minor and the recently created peace and justice minor allow stu- dents to focus on human rights. Butit's OKto wantmore. Limitingdialogue on human rights to extracurricular groups at the University has forged an essentially iso- lated political subculture that is powerless to bring human rights into the mainstream. As students, we must demand an academic approach to human rights at the University. We need more classroom discussions with diversity of opinion, facilitated by faculty in pursuit of solution-oriented debate. This is the most crucial step in enabling the Univer- sity to participate in the international system on behalf of the dispossessed. By approach- ing human rights as what we are - students - we can encourage the University to provide us with the tools and knowledge we need for the future. Gabe Newland LSA senior and a member of Human Rights Through Education. The group is hosting a free conference Feb. 1-2 at the Michigan Union on the human right to education. For more information about "The Right to Education: Challenges and Opportunities" and HRTE, visit www.umich.edu/~hrte. Hannah Fishman and Jonathon Kendall are LSA seniors. They are co-chairs of Voice Your Vote. 4 ALEXANDER HONKALA THE E RE S ENT'S U StN e N go-f5 v . tv A \i Y'V ' EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS: Emad Ansari, Anindya Bhadra, Kevin Bunkley, Ben Caleca, Satyajeet Deshmukh, Milly Dick, Mike Eber, Gary Graca, Emmarie Huetteman, Theresa Kennelly, Emily Michels, Arikia Millikan, Kate Peabody, Kate Truesdell, Robert Soave, Neil Tambe, Matt Trecha, Radhika Upadhyaya, Rachel Van Gilder, Rachel Wagner, Patrick Zabawa.