4A - Monday, December 1, 2008 4 Moa Dc e1 8 The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com * l e iicl ig n .+ ai[ 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 Unsigned editorials reflect the official position of the Daily's editorial board. All other signed articles and illustrations represent solely the views of theirauthors. FROM THE DAtIY Quality control Greene case demands answers about faculty hiring, review Now when it comes to the economy, we're not going to get out of the hole that we're in overnight ... I'm not a miracle worker:' - Barack Obama in an interview Thursday, as reported by USA Today. ELAINE MORTON IJ .xE-MAIL ELAINE AT EMORT@UMICH.EDU eta J l y W in tite con s 15+s 0. Ill stasrv'e. alPicl aor ~&Sesan Aandpwe 14A exer wlnat5 t~i g psicle. ' 0 Te Mumbai message I I At a university with more than 5,600 faculty members, it's unrealistic to expect every single one to be professor of the year. But while the University can't be expected to make sure every professor is a master lecturer, it should be expected to hire and maintain a staff of high integrity and quality. The recent scandal regarding the dubious ethics of political science lecturer Lawrence Greene raises important questions about how well the University screens its potential faculty members and ensures they teach at the highest level of quality. The scandal began last month when the Michigan television station WXYZ aired a segment criticizing Greene. The seg- ment described how Greene cashed thou- sands of dollars in pension checks made out to his deceased parents by Ford Motor Co. and angered several former clients by allegedly failing to do the job for which he was hired. Because of these problems, he had his license to practice law in Michi- gan suspended twice: once in 1998 and again in 2003. Despite these professional concerns, the University has employed Greene as a lecturer for the past six years. Days before the segment aired, Greene withdrew from teaching his course "Constitutional Poli- tics, Courts, Politics and Society," citing medical concerns. Greene is not the main problem though. While these personal troubles are prob- lematic if true, the real concern here is how the University failed to act already. Either the University was unaware of Greene's questionable professional qualifications before and during his time as a lecturer or, more troubling, it just didn't care. In both scenarios, the University owes students an explanation. Take, for instance, the first of these two scenarios. Because of the records contain- ing this information are public, there's no reason the University shouldn't have known that Greene's license had been suspended both before he was hired and during his first year as a lecturer. The Uni- versity has a responsibility to check the professional qualifications of the faculty that it employs, both before and after they are hired. If the University didn't notice these professional faults in Greene, it just wasn't paying attention. On the other hand, if the University was aware of Greene's shortcomings, why did it overlook such serious professional flaws? License suspension is no small matter. In Greene's case, a lecturer who couldn't maintain his legal license was charged with teaching hundreds of students about the legal system in his political science class on constitutional law. If someone can't be trusted by the state to practice a profession, that person certainly can't be trusted to teach others how to do so. In the end, it's not the University that suffers when faculty with questionable qualifications remain in the classroom - it's the students who pay the price. Stu- dents expect an outstanding education from the University when they pay thou- sands of dollars in tuition fees each semes- ter. To give it to them, the University must maintain the highest standards for its fac- ulty. That means that it must be keeping a close eye on its faculty, even after they make it through the application process. don't remember many things from my early childhood, but I do rememberthe car accident. Sitting in the backseat of a taxi, I was struck in the forehead by shards of glass, which left a scar that still remains very prominent. Sadly, that is aboutI my only memory of: Mumbai --then, and perhaps still, better IMRAN known by its West- SYED ern name, Bombay. Unlikesomeolder, more prominent and informed Indian- Americans (Suketu Mehta in Friday's New York Times, for example), I cannot waxnostalgicaboutthebeauty,splendor and undying spirit of Mumbai. Others will tell you all about that cosmopolitan metropolis - like New York City, Los Angeles and Las Vegas all rolled into one (indeed, Mumbai has more people than those cities combined). I simply wouldn't know what to say about that. However, there is one key thing I can talk about: Namely, what makes India and these attacks different. From the invasion by Alexander the Great in the 4th century BC to the coming of the Muslims in the 700s and finally to the 300-year occupation by the British starting in the early 1600s, you might say India has had border security problems for thousands of years. It has also long battled religious and communal tensions, even before the heated partition of the subconti- nent in 1947. Now, as theworld's largest democracy and an emerging economic power, the problems India has always faced suddenly become more glaring. As the American media set aside the turkey to feverishly analyze every aspect of the attacks this weekend, it made the assumption that's perfectly natural by this point. It took as agiven ofthat), theyrequiredifferentsolutions that the attacks in Mumbai are a part of than similar attacks in London or New the global struggle against terrorism. York City. In India, the "other" lives And perhaps, on the most basic, least notacross oceans, but across the street, insightful level, they were just that. But and the vast majority of the time there no matter how many bald guys with are no conflicts. But when there are, titles like "terrorism expert" the cable the result can be terrifying, as these news networks brought out, one point attacks and similar ones through the overlooked in the conversation was decades have shown. that Mumbai and other major Indian Understanding these complexi- cities have been attacked in this hor- ties is important because it helps us rific fashion before, including earlier understand the complexities that will this year. be required in any possible solutions. I say that in no way to minimize any- As so-called experts go on about stock thing. The loss of life and well-being in solutions like increased border secu- this weekend's attacks was unspeak- rity or more police presence, they over- able. But there's a risk in immediately look the fact that those strong-handed lumping the Mumbai attacks with police tactics simply cannot quell a those in New York City and London, democracy of more than a billion or a as the media, with its obsessive need city of14 million. to compartmentalize, seems eager to do. Those cities were shining beacons of Western empire that hadn't been attacked in that fashion before. The Don't respond to reason Mumbai is different is India's longhistory ofinternal communal rela- last week's tions and struggles, details of which would fill entire libraries. Suffice it to attacks like 9/11 say, however, there are many possible motives for the Mumbai attacks that pre-date Al Qaeda and Sept. 11, 2001. And yes, this is of crucial impor- Afterthe attacksofSept. 11, the Unit- tance. Consider the huge mistake the ed States passed the Patriot Act, which American media and leaders made curtailed individual liberties almost to post-Sept. 11 in grouping Al Qaeda with the breaking point. Britain went even other violent movements like Hamas further after its own attacks - the or the insurgency in Iraq. Al Qaeda is a Brits either haven't heard of the con- global ideological operation of sicken- cept of a bill of rights or simply aren't ing fortitude and proportion. The other too impressed by it. It's crucial at this groups, however, care only about their time that the world remembers those practical regional gains. Dealing with lessons of how not to respond to ter- them as one is inefficient to say the rorism, and ensure that India doesn't least and creates a blanket war whose make the same mistakes we did. In blanket solutions are impossible. a place like India, the results of that Something similar is true about would only add to the tragedy. these attacks on Mumbai. While they were probably executed by individuals Imran Syed was the Daily's influenced byAl Qaeda(the assault on a editorial page editor is 2007. He can Jewish center in particular is evidence reached at galad@umich.edu. EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS: Nina Amilineni, Emad Ansari, Elise Baun, Harun Buljina, Ben Caleca, Satyajeet Deshmukh, Brian Flaherty, Matthew Green, Emmarie Huetteman, Emma Jeszke, Shannon Kellman, Edward McPhee, Emily Michels, Kate Peabody, Matthew Shutler, Robert Soave, Eileen Stahl, Jennifer Sussex, Radhika Upadhyaya, Rachel Van Gilder, Margaret Young BEN CALECA VIE T Taking charge of electric cars a The Daily is looking for a diverse group of strong, informed writers to be columnists next semester. Columnists write 750 words on a topic of their choice every other week. E-MAIL ROBERT SOAVE AT RSOAVE@UMICH.EDU FOR MORE INFORMATION. Sipie ways to stopAD With more attention being paid to the risks of global warming, a growing awareness of the effects of car exhaust emissions like lung dis- ease and photochemical smog and this sum- mer's massive gas price hikes still fresh in our minds, many people are clamoring for a politi- cally feasible solution to the problem of our dependence on oil. In California, an ambitious billion-dollar plan by the startup company Bet- ter Place to install an electric-car grid hopes to show the United States what is possible with existing technologies. More importantly, it could soon render most arguments against a new electric-based auto industry moot. The Better Place plan builds on a set of cars from Renault-Nissan that work with existing lithium ion batteries, like those in your laptop or the upcoming Chevy Volt. These cars can travel approximately 40 miles on one charge, which can be a little inconvenient for drivers. But here's the beauty of the Better Place plan: Drivers who pay per mile for the service own the cars at a discount, and Better Place owns the batteries. Instead of relying on lengthy charg- ing periods, Better Place circumvents the prob- lem by building stations that swap out drained batteries for a fresh ones ina couple of minutes. Drivers get to stay in their cars and have more flexibility to charge their cars away from their homes. But this simple solution isn't only convenient for commuters. With banks of batteries stored at charging stations, Better Place can charge the drained batteries whenever it is most con- venient for the company and the electric com- panies. This eases the burden on the power grid and puts Better Place in a good position to lever- age deals to buy electricity at discounted rates. Going further, the increased flexibility that comes with the Better Places plan will allow the company to take advantage of other ener- gy sources. If such a system were tied to clean energy sources, for example, having an excess of charged batteries at any given time for the electric car system would mean that even unre- liable sources of electricity like wind and solar power could be used to charge batteries. This way you are both eliminating emissions from fossil fuel-burning power plants and cars. The cities involved, for their part, are not going to end up paying for the program. Instead, while Better Place collects its own venture capi- tal to create the required infrastructure, the, government will provide permits to expedite the creation of charging stations in parking lots and homes besides the battery replacing stations in 200 locations and will encourage users of the system to benefit from government tax incen- tives on clean car technologies. This kind of partnership of private funds with government cooperation is a model that both parties want. The Better Place plan isn't perfect, though. For one, it beholds people to one company for their transportation. Additionally, the plan focuses on the San Francisco Bay area, meaning that drivers making long trips outside the area will still need to use gasoline or make lengthy stops to re-charge. There are a few things that need to happen for a plan like Better Place to work nationwide. Most importantly, automakers would need to agree to some kind of standards for batteries so they could be interchanged across brands - think about how the same ties work on a range of vehicles or the same gas nozzle fits into every car on the road. Electric propulsion also needs to emerge as the primary replacement for the, internal combustion engine. It's currently vying with other technologies - like hydrogen fuel cells - for that spot. In the meantime, companies like Better Place are offering a way to move toward a cleaner infrastructure than we have now, without mas- sive sacrifices by the government and taxpayers. Ben Caleca is an Engineering junior. n our current times of eco- nomic recession, terrorism and global disparities, it seems only right to take time out to reflect and assess our personal responsibility as well as our account- ability to our fellow humans. Coinci- dentally, this also is in keeping with the theme of today, ROSE World AIDS Day. As the World AFRIYIE Health Organiza- tion celebrates the 20th anniversary of its HIV/AIDS campaign, it's logical to start with one important question: What is the state of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS? There definitely has been progress. Since 2000, the worldwide numbers on HIV have stabilized. But accord- ing to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, that also means there were still an estimated 33 mil- lion people living with HIV globally in 2007. There were 2 million HIV-relat- ed deaths in 2007. Domestically, the Center for Dis- ease Control reported that more than 1 million people are living with HIV in the United States. The other bad news: Recent estimates of infection rates look like they were too optimistic. While it was previously estimated that 40,000 people are infected annually, a report released this year estimated that the annual infection rate was 40 percent higher, at 56,300 infections annually. Here at the University, HIV infec- tion rates are relatively small. In 2007, HIV tests administered by Univer- sity Health Service came back positive only .001 percent of the time. How- ever, this data doesn't account for the many services at the University that offer HIV testing. And recent national data asserts that roughly 1 in 5 people with HIV may be transmitting the infection to others because they don't know their status. So, to close out the semester, let's discuss what you can do in your own sex life and whatyou can do politically to make a difference. This fall, we learned that using condoms isn't high on University stu- dents' to-do lists. To recap, a 2006 National College Health Assessment survey along with UHS showed that condom rates are at 50-51 percent for vaginal sex and as low as 5 percent for oral sex. We may be in need of some fresh ideas when it comes to protection. Here's one good place to turn: a 1997 article "It's Like You Use Pots and Pans to Cook. It's the Tool." This was featured in the Journal of Science, Technology and Human Values and offered interviews with a particular group of San Francisco sex workers who paid particular attention to con- trolling their bodily fluids in a post- HIV climate. Tobe clear, none of these women were drug-addicted or worked on the street, and all of them were over 18. The following are some helpful tips about how to make safer sex a more viable option. First, all condoms are not made equal. In this assessment, Kimono condoms were regarded as the standout latex condoms. Kimonos are known for being thin and discreet so that your partner won't even notice they are on. And while most latex con- doms are an off-white colorthat seems to camouflage the most on white men, Kimonos have such a clear quality to them that they appear invisible on men of all races. Next, it's important to take another look at the female condom. "Women- initiated devices" as they are called have the potential to remedy a lack of compliance. Some informants report- ed that these condoms can be noisy and minimize sensation. However, one sex worker reported that "the fif- teenth time was a lot easier than the first time." Lastly, another offering this article made was about the utility of non- powdered latex gloves. These can be used during digital penetration, otherwise known as "fingering," and when cut sideways they can be used as a makeshift dental dam. They can be bought in bulk at warehouse retail outlets, are gender-neutral and are available in all sizes. On the political level, you can write your Congressmembers advocatingfor the reform of U.S. foreign aid to ensure that the global HIV/AIDS struggle is a priority in president-elect Barack 6 6 Try Kimono condoms, latex gloves Obama's first 100 days. Looking more locally, however, it's important to note that the United States has spent bil- lions of dollars in global aid and the CDC spends only $750 million dollars annually on prevention of infections nationally. We must advocate for more funding domesticallyand amulti-tacti- cal approach that includes comprehen- sive sexual education. Tomorrow between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m., there will be a kickoff rally on the Diag in commemoration of World AIDS Day. Stop by, and lenda hand for health justice. Rose Afriyie is the Daily's sex and relationships columnist. She can be reached at sariyie@umich.edu. 0 LETTERS 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. Letters are edited for style, length, clarity and accuracy. All submissions become property of the Daily. We do not print anonymous letters. Send letters to tothedaily@umich.edu.