4A - Monday, March 17, 2008 Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan since 1890. 420 Maynard St. Ann Arbor, MI 48109 tothedaily@umich.edu ANDREW GROSSMAN EDITOR IN CHIEF GARY GRACA EDITORIAL PAGE EDITOR GABE NELSON MANAGING EDITOR Unsignededitorialsreflectthe officialposition of the Daily's editorialboard. All other signedarticles and illustrations represent solely the views of their authors. The Daily's public editor, Paul H. Johnson, acts as the readers' representative andtakes acritical look at coverage and content in every section of the paper. Readers are encouraged to contactthe public editor with questions and comments. He canbe reached at publiceditor@umich.edu. FRMTH E D A I L)V Harvesting wind's power The 'U' and the state must turn to renewable resources f you are looking for answers to global warming and America's energy crisis, there's at least one solution that many people overlook. Wind power continues to be a realistic and often- ignored alternative to fossil fuels and other non-renewable resourc- es. In the state and at the University there are budding opportunities that must be seized in order to integrate wind power into energy policies that are cost-effective and depend on renewable resources. The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com Someone who's not gonna stab me in the back like has happened a lot in this town, someone I can have fun with." - Paris Hilton, on what she'll look for in her new MTV reality show with the working title "Paris Hilton's My New BFF," as reported Friday by Reuters. Diverging routes hat if this were the sched- captured six conference titles in foot- about whether professors are concen- ule for the 2008 Michigan ball. It won the 1905 national cham- trating on undergraduates and less football team? pionship. In all sports combined, about whether the Big House remains Kenyon, Wabash, Elmhurst, Ober- the school won or shared 71 Big Ten the largest college football stadium in lin, Macalester, championships. It produced the first the country? Denison, Case, Heisman Trophy winner, Jay Ber- In Ann Arbor, the talk of campus Washington (Mo.) wanger, in 1935. this week will be The Ann Arbor and Carnegie Mel- So why are the Maroons open- News's report about how athletes are ton. ing their 2008 season with Kenyon funneled into an independent study Of course, it - a slightly lesser known Ohio foot- course taught by Psychology Prof. isn't. It's the sched- ball team than the one in Columbus John Hagen, which offers them an ule for the Division - when Michigan is opening its cam- easy A for minimal work. In Hyde III University of paign against Utah, which produced Park, what will they be talking about? Chicago Maroons, the top pick in the 2005 NFL draft? Probably not Terrelle Pryor. which used to Because in 1939, Robert Maynard The Division I athletic program be one of college STAMPFL Hutchins, then-president of the Uni- has given this university a lot. It's a football's power- versity of Chicago, decided to elimi- wonderful thing for the Michigan houses. nate the football program. He saw it Chicago also used to be one of as a distraction from the true mission Michigan's biggest rivals. The two of the university. one of higher edu- teams competed at the turn of the cation's most idealistic figures - his w hat if the 'U' century in the Western Conference seminal work is titled "The Univer- (does "champions of the West" sound sity of Utopia" - Hutchins had the had followed familiar?), which was later known vision seven decades ago to anticipate as the Big Ten Conference. They the goliath distraction that Division I Chicago traded conference championships for athletics would soon become. decades. In 1898, a Michigan student When Hutchins made the unpopu- composed "The Victors" on the way lar decision to cut the football team back from a one-point victory over before it became too powerful to community to come together seven the Maroons. control, the fates of the universities or eight Saturdays a year, and alot of Chicago was the Ohio State of the of Michigan and Chicago began to athletes get unparalleled educations early 20th century - albeit with a diverge. Today, both are easily among in the classroom and on the field. better academic reputation. The two the Midwest's premiere colleges. But But I'll leave you with a couple of heavyweights competed in the class- at Chicago - which is considered to questions: Why is it that when aver- room and on the gridiron. They were offer the superior education, espe- age Americans think of one of the a perfect match in both arenas. cially at. the undergraduate level world's top higher institutions of . Football was a serious pursuit at - athletics don't share the spotlight higher education, the University of Chicago. Almost two years before with academics in the same way that Chicago, most think of economics or the school held its first class, it hired they do at Michigan. There's a differ- the Nobel Prize? a football coach and athletic director, ent culture. And why is it that when they Amos Alonzo Stagg. Stagg pioneered University of Chicago President think of another of the world's finest the center snap and the "T" formation, Robert Zimmer does not have to deal schools, the University of Michigan, now common in sports vernacular. On with the same issues that Univer- most think of sports? the day of the school's first class, Oct. sity of Michigan President Mary Sue 1, 1892, Stagg also held the Maroons' Coleman does, for instance. Wouldn't Karl Stampfl was the Daily's fall/ first football practice. it be nice if the central administra- winter editor in chief in 2007. He can From 1899 to 1924, Chicago team tion spent more of its time worrying be reached at kstampfl@umich.edu. ABRAHAM H. FOXMAN E Behind a mask, a dangerous theory A testament to the growth of wind power, the state's first commercial wind farm offi- cially started churning out energy in Huron County at the beginning of this month. The wind farm - Harvest Wind Farm - gen- erates about enough electricity to power 15,000 average homes. The windmills are built on land leased out by farmers, pump- ing money into local agriculture and pump- ing out clean energy - a win-win. Meanwhile, about 100 miles southeast in Lansing, Gov. Jennifer Granholm has pro- posed a Renewable Portfolio Standard. If passed, the initiative would require 10 per- cent of the state's energy supply to come from renewable sources by 2015. Twenty- five other states have already passed simi- lar legislature, with many of them calling for far greater future standards than Gra- nholm has. On the grand scale of things, Granholm's proposal is hardly radical. What's sig- nificant here, however, is just how much Michigan stands to benefit. Michigan's excellent geographic position and strong winds could go a long way to attracting wind energy investors to the state. As Har- vest Wind Farm illustrates, it's good for the farmers already here, too. Overall, a move away from fossil fuels will also be a move away from the constant ups and dowrs in oil prices that threaten industry. Closer to campus, the University can also do its part to set Michigan on the path toward a bright green future. Recently, the Michigan Student Assembly's Envi- ronmental Issues Commission highlighted how. In a press release Wednesday, the commission called for the University to immediately purchase 3-6 megawatts of wind power - a move that would cover roughly 3 percent of its total purchased energy. This is a simple step that the Uni- versity can take, but the results of such a change would be enormous. As well as helping the Michigan econ- omy, a shift to more renewable resources like wind power is consistent with the Uni- versity's image and tradition as a progres- sive university. MSA's resolution goes on to call for the University to buy 30 percent of its energy from renewable sources by 2015, citing100 percent as a long-term goal. Such proposals might be ambitious, but they are worthy goals and by no means unattain- able. They would also serve as vital sup- port to the wind industry in our state. Granted, wind power has its inevitable critics. Some argue that windmills put some land in shadow, are eyesores, pro- duce too much noise and are dangerous for birds. But these are largely aesthetic sacrifices for an energy source that pres- ents great potential for the state and the environment. It's a solution that's blowing in the wind. EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS: Emad Ansari, Harun Buljina, Anindya Bhadra, Kevin Bunkley, Ben Caleca, Satyajeet Deshmukh, Milly Dick, Mike Eber, Emmarie Huetteman, Theresa Kennelly, Emily Michels, Arikia Millikan, Kate Peabody, Robert Soave, lmran Syed, Neil Tambe, Matt Trecha, Kate Truesdell, Radhika Upadhyaya, Rachel Van Gilder, Rachel Wagner, Patrick Zabawa. JENNIE MCALPINE . Beyond leave policies Unfortunately, we are all too familiar with racist and extremist groups who engage in conspiracy theo- ries about Jews. Accusing Jews of controlling Ameri- ca is stock-in-trade for groups like the Ku Klux Klan, Aryan Nations and the National Alliance. We don't underestimate the dangers from such groups. But as long as these theories remain in the domain of the extremists, we can contend with them because the haters have no credibility with the Amer- ican people and our exposure of their views and inten- tions brings widespread condemnation of them. It is quite another issue when conspiracy views about Jews come from the mainstream. There is a tendency by the public to give them much more of a hearing and, if the presenters are smart in how they go about their work, the whole enterprise can gain legitimacy. That is why I was seriously concerned about the views of Prof. John Mearsheimer of the University of Chicago and Prof. Stephen Walt of Harvard Univer- sity, when they first published their paper, "The Israel Lobby" in April 2006. Despite their respectability, their bias toward Israel and American Jews was trans- parent and their assessment of the Arab-Israeli con- flict over the years was completely flawed. For them, Israel is to blame for every event in the conflict. Far worse, they see control by the Israel lobby as the rea- son why America supports what they consider a way- ward country to the detriment of American interests. Unfortunately, there was little condemnation. Instead, we continually heard that Mearsheimer and Walt have made an important contribution to the discussion on U.S. Middle East policy, that they had spoken "truths" that others had not said, and that this would be a welcome addition to curricula on campus- es around the country. I ultimately concluded that there was a need to provide students, journalists and the general public a more comprehensive and integrated perspective as to the dangers of their thesis. I knew their thesis had to be debunked, so I set out to write a book that would do just that. My book, "The Deadliest Lies: The Israel Lobby and the Myth of Jew- ish Control," was published in September 2007, the same time that Mearsheimer and Walt's book, "The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy," an expanded version of their article, appeared. I believe "The Dead- liest Lies" is a reasoned, temperate critique of danger- ous works that masquerade themselves as legitimate criticism of Israel and American Jews. While Mearsheimer and Walt toned down some of the more extreme statements from their original arti- cle about Jewish lobbying activities and intention - now insistingthey never were questioningthe right of Jews to lobby for Israel - their efforts to appear more innocuous are for naught. Their conclusion remains the same - Jewish people are responsible for all the "bad" decisions of American Middle East policy. Their claims include: The war in Iraq? It was Amer- ican Jews who got us into it for the sake of Israel. Islamic extremism? It is the Jewish insistence on U.S. support for Israel that has brought us to this point. American public support for Israel? It is Jewish con- trol and stifling of debate on campus, in the media and in Congress that misleads the public into support for Israel. Rather than acknowledging that most Americans support Israel in its struggle against hostile Arab states and terrorist groups, and writing a book in an effort to change that public sentiment to their way of thinking, Mearsheimer and Walt insist that the play- ing field isn't fair because of what they claim are the insidious efforts of the Jewish/Israel lobby to under- mine the very democratic levers of power that could be used to effect such a change. "The Deadliest Lies" provides the reader with the understanding and the arguments to make sure these anti-Semitic conspiracy theories will not take root in America. Abraham H. Foxman is the national director of The Anti-Defamation League. SEND LETTERS TO: TOTHEDAILY@UMICHI.EDU 1' I. I was happy to see that the Daily's recent editorial spotlighted Rackham Graduate School's important new policy granting six weeks leave to graduate student parents for the birth or adoption of a child (Family mat- ters, 02/21/2008). As the editorial pointed out, the challenges of parenthood extend far beyond the first several weeks of birth or adoption so it is important for student par- ents to know about additional support ser- vices the article didn't seem to recognize. The new policy is but one of many efforts to support student parents at the University. The University currently provides care for more than 500 children each day through six on-site child care centers in Ann Arbor, Flint and Dearborn. The centers are open during school semesters, with summer care options, and offer care for children from infancy through five years of age. Addition- al infant/toddler care was added this fall at the North Ingalls Children's Center and will be a feature in 2009 at the soon-to-be-built Towsley Center for Children on Forest Ave- nue and Hill Street. Second, in order to make campus care centers more affordable to students, the University funds stipends through the Child Care Subsidy (available through financial aid for use at any licensed center or home in Michigan) and through the Tuition Grant program, which can pay up to 40 percent of care costs at our Central Campus centers and Northwood Child Development Center. Further, in the early 2000's, the Commit- WYMAN KHUU E U tee on Student Parent Issues, which includ- ed student parents and Graduate Employees' Organization members, investigated options to address students'needs for extended hour care and found that the best option was to develop the Campus Child Care Homes Net- work. This network of 15 licensed child care homes in and around campus can accommo- date extended hours, weekends and drop-in. care. It provides up to 144 spaces for chil- dren, including 96 spaces for infants and toddlers. Each independent caregiver com- mits to annual training and the pursuit of program accreditation through the National Association of Family Child Care. Hundreds of University families have found this to be an affordable, high-quality and flexible alternative to center-based care. As with all child care settings - including our own on-site centers - parents need to visit, check references and choose the pro- gram that is right for them. Parents can get more information on the Campus Child Care Homes Network and hundreds of other com- munity-based, licensed child care programs* by calling our Work/Life Resource Center or accessing our searchable child care data- base on our website (www.hr.umich.edu/ worklife/). To learn more about University on-site child care centers, please visit our Child Care Gateway (www.hr.umich.edu/ childcare/). Jennie McAlpine is the director of the University's Work/Life Programs. E-MAIL KHUU AT YMANKHUU@UMICH.EDU 9 a T he economics Of luxury student housing and reduces pric move out of their( into new comple: Village and Zarag ers of less desira We have to create greater wareness of 5o whas the the issues that affect Asian Pacific deal? What wre It'sAsianHeritage Islanders andincreaseour voice on Well in that case you might you promoting? MonthIfs mpromoting cmpus. We need to unite around our want to start spelling Asian concerns commonalities andraly around one ngs correctl... sacether P$ TO THE DAILY: encouraged to r I commend last week's editorial dated, dilapidated about the proposed University Vil- being shut out o lage apartment complex for acknowl- means that highe edging that the responsible thing for less expensive ren Ann Arbor to do is increase density by Furthermore, t growing upward, not outward (Mov- luxury developmc ing up, not out, 03/10/2008). I also segregation is fau commend the editorial's praise of the wealthy students University Village developer's deci- far away from c sion to use green building methods the density near( and materials. However, the article's along with the ec argument against the complex being above - allowsI an upscale student housing develop- students to have a' ment because it would not help make tions at lower co student housing more affordable was gets to live closer flawed. ing students closE As a student whose focus is real date affordable ho estate, I agree that the high rent a necessity. Proje compared to the poor quality of stu- Village indirectly dent housing in Ann Arbor is out of more likely by d whack. A project like University Vil- making current h lage will help the situation, though, less desirable and according to the basic principles of incentive to renov supply and demand. Increasing the supply of modern housing, even when Jonathan Weiss expensive, increases the total supply Business senior ce. When students current houses and xes like University on Place, the own- ble properties are enovate their out- I properties or risk f the market. This r quality rentals at ats. the argument that ents increase class Ity. Presently, less- are forced to live ampus. Increasing Central Campus - onomics described these less-wealthy ccess to better loca- sts. Everyone then to campus, bring- er together. Up-to- ousing is absolutely cts like University make such housing ropping the price, ousing comparably increasing owners' ate. Trashing free speech at the Posting Wall TO THE DAILY: I went to the Posting Wall with a friend early Wednesday morning to put up fliers for Students for Life's Diag Day. We finished posting the fliers around 6:45 a.m. and left with a sense of accomplishment. Howev- er, when I returned to Angell Hall an hour later, I was shocked to see that all of our fliers had been torn down while all other groups' fliers remained posted. Our fliers did not say anything offensive. Even if they had, no one has the right to remove them. These fliers were simply inviting people to attend our informational event on the Diag. I was (and still am) con- fused why someone would take our fliers down at such a diverse, for- ward-thinking, open-minded uni- versity? Lauren Bennett LSA sophomore The letter writer is the vice president of Students for Life. *I 4 A