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4A - Monday, February 2, 2009
The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
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GARY GRACA ROBERT SOAVE COURTNEY RATKOWIAK
EDITOR IN CHIEF EDITORIAL PAGE EDITOR 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 their authors.
Left in the cold
State should change shelter policies to protect sex offenders
Around 10 a.m. last Monday, 52 year-old Thomas Pauli was
found frozen and lifeless in a Grand Rapids parking lot.
As a registered sex offender, he couldn't enter two of the
city's homeless shelters because of their proximity to a local school.
His status as a sex offender left him nowhere to turn. While many
sex crimes are serious offenses, they should not be accompanied
by a legal and social stigma that leaves a human being with no
choice but to freeze to death. To ensure this never happens again,
the state government must change the way it treats homeless sex
offenders.
Two of Grand Rapids' homeless shel-
ters, the Guiding Light Mission and Mel
Trotter Ministries, can be fined or even
shut down for admitting sex offenders
like Pauli. That's because both shelters
are located within 1,000 feet of Catholic
Central High School. State law prohibits
sex offenders from living within 1,000 feet
of a school, and staying the night at Guid-
ing Light and Mel Trotter falls under this
category. On top of this restriction, Mel
Trotter can't admit sex offenders because
it houses women and children. Before his
death, Pauli was allegedly seen in line at
these shelters, but officials say they would
have had to deny him a bed.
It is tragic that Pauli could not enter
either shelter simply because of their loca-
tions. Restrictions on sex offenders should
be placed to protect civilians - not harm
the offenders themselves. But no matter
how much the shelters would like to help
these people, state law is preventing them.
The stigma placed over sex offenders is
life-altering, and regardless of one's stance
on sex offender laws in general, Pauli's
death should serve as an indicator more
must be done to balance the care of these
people with the state's safety concerns.
This is clearly a difficult matter for state
law, the shelters and homeless sex offend-
ers. On one hand, the state has some legiti-
mate safety interests at heart, and some
good reasons to keep school zones and
certain shelters safe from sex offenders.
But leaving sex offenders with no allow-
able homeless shelters during Michigan's
harsh winters is hardly an acceptable con-
sequence.
In this case, the homeless shelters'
proximity to a school forced them to turn
away Pauli. The best compromise would
be for the state to make sure all homeless
sex offenders have somewhere to turn.
Whether that means changing the law to
allow these shelters to take in sex offend-
ers, setting aside funding to build homeless
shelters outside the school's radius or some
other compromise, the state has a respon-
sibility to take care of these people.
Pauli's death was not the law's inten-
tion, but it was a consequence of policies
that discriminate against sex offenders
and leave them with no way to live in our
society. This mentality toward sex offend-
ers is inhumane - they may have made
mistakes, but they are still human beings.
Homeless sex offenders are in just as much
need as other homeless people, and laws
need to change to provide them with bet-
ter options for care.
This death could have been prevented
if the state government had not created
an environment in which Pauli could not
enter the available homeless shelters. By
paying attention to the location of home-
less shelters and how they relate to restric-
tions on sex offenders, society can provide
a more humane way of life for all homeless
people.
I had no idea waterboards were so heavy"
- Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.), commenting on an injury sustained by former vice president
Dick Cheney while moving into his new home, as reported yesterday by The Washington Post.
CHRIS KOSLOWSKI OUT AT E-MAIL CHRIS ATCSKOSLOW@UMICH.EDU
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Reconsidering GSI bias
S everal semesters ago, I was in itself a political decision. I teach ruled in 2000 that the state of Flori-
reviewing my teaching evalu- political science. If I don't introduce da violated this clause in its election
ations and encountered a curi- politics into the classroom, I fail to recount procedures and effectively
ous combination live up to my job title. handed the election to George Bush.
of comments. One Despite that trite statement, much Other important applications of the
student wrote I of what I teach isn't controversial. 14th Amendment have to do with
"was too hard on Last term, for example, I taught affirmative action, the right to a law-
the liberal students Introduction to Comparative Politics. yer and freedom of religion.
and favored the Some countries like Britain use sin-
conservative ones." gle-member districts, in which voters
A second observed elect a single local legislator to repre- o o
that I "clearly was sent their respective small geograph- ControVersy s
biased in favor ical districts. Other countries like the p
of liberal view- PATRICK Netherlands use proportional rep-
points." To top it O'MAHEN resentation. Under this system, the
off, a third wrote, country is one big legislative district, ClaSSroom
"The GSI was obvi- citizens vote for their preferred party
ously biased." and parties are allocated seats in the
Right. legislature based on the percentage I try to separate "positive" and
This set of evaluations demon- of the vote they win. Some, like Ger- "normative" analysis to defuse ten-
strates some challenges that most many, use a combination of the two. sion. Very loosely speaking, posi-
ihstructors at the University face. Boring, right? tive analysis tries to determine what
What do we do about political bias Well, even these mundane facts policies lead to what outcomes (e.g.,
in the classroom? What, precisely, have serious and controversial impli- British-style electoral systems lead to
is that bias to begin with? And more cations. Systems with proportional two-partysystems).Normative analy-
broadly, under what circumstances is representation often have more sis then debates the desirability of the
it okay to bring politics into the class- political parties represented in gov- means and outcomes (are two-party
room? ernment. That's why the German systems desirable?) Inthe classroom,
Bias is in the eyes of the beholder. Green Party often has a role in poli- my goal is for students to understand
Remember, the goal of any instruc- cymaking that American Green Party the positive processes behind a given
tor is to help students grapple with members can scarcely imagine. Also, outcome and then begin to consider
uncomfortable new ideas. In math- it's often easier for women and other the normative implications.
ematics, students can be uncomfort- underrepresented minority groups to It's okay to be a bit uncomfortable
able when learning new concepts. win parliamentary seats in propor- with those implications, but instead
But algebraic equations rarely court tional representation systems. Both of attributing that discomfort to a
charges of political bias. In the social of those outcomes have large - and conspiracy, at least attempt to engage
sciences, however, we expose under- controversial - influences on policy- these different conceptions of how
graduates to some questions that lead making. the world works.As instructors, we're
students to push back. If you come When we start debating which sys- generally not asking you to embrace
from a stereotypical family of hip- tem is best, it can open up the door to certain worldviews, but we want you
pies, you may have distaste for basic charges of bias. Often, controversy is to develop more sophisticated ones of
neo-liberal economics; if you come closer to the surface. Take the class your ownbyhelpingyou confrontand
from proverbial suburban America, discussion about the 14th Amend- understand competing ideas. That's
you might find it distressing to con- ment in my section of Introduction something to reflect on the next
front the state-of racial inequality. to American Politics last week, for time you're certain your instructor is
One way to remove problems of example. The text declares that U.S. "obviously" biased.
political bias in the classroom is to states must provide their residents
eliminate consideration of contro- with equal protection under the law. Patrick O'Mahen can be reached
versial issues altogether. But that is A majority of the Supreme Court , at pomahen@umich.edu.
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.
EDWARD MCPHEE E
Foreign lang uage frustration
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EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS:
Nina Amilineni, Emad Ansari, Emily Barton, Elise Baun, Harun Buljina, Ben Caleca,
Satyajeet Deshmukh, Brian Flaherty, Emmarie Huetteman, Emma Jeszke,
Sutha Kanagasingam, Shannon Kellman, Edward McPhee, Matthew Shutler,
Neil Tambe, Radhika Upadhyaya, Rachel Van Gilder
SEND LETTERS TO: TOTHEDAILY@UMICH.EDU
Studentgovt leaders to host
Town HalltMeeting tonight
opportunity to
you want us t
concerns are a
or school spiri
TO TH E DAILY: resentattves th
The challenges facing student governments working to ad(
have been highlighted in recent weeks. This to listen. Toni
situation affords us an opportunity to reflect on to let you know
the work that we have been doing on behalf of made on some
the student body, how we have been doing it and might not ben
how we can better reach out and do more for the student concer
campus. To get straight down to the heart of the . but hopefully a
matter, we are students who are fired up about At the end of
campus issues - just like each one of you - and We want stude
we really do care about what you have to say. administrators
Not only do we care, but wehave a responsibil- evant governm
ity to listen. possible Unive
As governments representing the students each and every
at this University, we understand that we have cerns and give
more traction when we have full student sup- See you in 1300
port behind us. We also acknowledge that stu-
dents can't be behind us if they don't know what Sabrina Shing
we're doing. In all honesty, it is a struggle to Hsiao
keep you in the loop. It's a catch-22: when we The letter-write
are doing our job well, we're not newsworthy. Student Assem
Then, when we do something controversial, we and the Engine
make the front page. As one of our constituents
pointed out, we have the same marketing prob- Cartoon
lem as NASA - you only hear about them or care
about them when there is an explosion. Stm ceh
Some of you have expressed that this is a bro-
ken system that can't be fixed. On the contrary,
we passionately believe in the potential of stu- TO THE DAIL
dent governments to affect positive change and Elaine Mor
to constantly improve ourselves. This change formed, compl
is always more effective if it is a collaborative (Nature Calls,
process. We are flawed as governments without embryonicstem
informed constituents to keep a check on our pri- which is false.
orities, to hold us accountable to our campaign conducted on
promises and to demand that we are working have been disc
on a relevant agenda for students. Although we a living humai
stand behind the work we have done this year form is no excu
and in the past, we acknowledge that as hard as polarize the de
our individual members may work, we still need I ask that The]
constant feedback and a healthy dialogue so that in policing thei
we can make progress together. these opinions
Let's take the time to hear each other out. The
Town Hall Meeting this evening is an opportu- Tom Duvall
nity for us to do just that. Tonight, you have an LSA junior
stand up and tell us what exactly
o be working on. Whether your
bout classes,.the residence halls
it, the student government rep-
at have been and will continue
dress these issues will be there
ght, we also have an opportunity
about the progress that is being
important issues. This progress
newsworthy, but it is relevant to
ns. This meeting is a small step,
a step in the right direction.
f the day, we want the same thing.
nts to havea seat at the table with
. We want more effective and rel-
ents. We want to create the best
rsity of Michigan experience for
y student. Come voice your con-
us the chance to address them.
0 Chem at 7:30 p.m. tonight.
wani, Leslie Zaikis and Danny
ers are presidents of the Michigan
sbly, LSA Student Government
ering Council, respectively.
ifailed to portray
1issue accurately
LY:
ton's cartoon was wildly misin-
etely offensive and inflammatory
01/27/2009). It implied that an
ncellwouldhavebecome"achild,"
Embryonic stem cell research is
embryos that otherwise would
arded and would never become
n. Putting something in cartoon
se for blatant mistruths that only
bate and spread lies even further.
Michigan Daily be more vigilant
ir editorial pages, no matter how
are represented.
4
The University tends to make a big
deal about diversity, and that's great.
Diversity is a fantastic thing. But it's
really easy to have too much of a good
thing, and it sometimes results in a
burden on students' already rigorous
academic schedules. For LSA stu-
dents, this burden is most substan-
tially felt in the form of the foreign
language requirement.
As an LSAstudentworkingtowards
my degree, I am extremely frustrat-
ed by the school's insistence that I
achieve fourth-semester proficiency
in a foreign language. When I first
received my course guide last sum-
mer, I hoped the five years of Italian I
took in high school would be enough
to cover any sort of foreign language
requirement. Was I ever wrong.
Luckily for me, my limited skill in
the Italian language allowed for me
to skip out on the first semester -
that is, if you consider having to take
three more semesters of a language
you never wanted to hear again lucky.
The simple fact is that I'm never
going to use Italian, in any form. If I
do happen to take a vacation to Italy,
and if I actu-ally remember any of
the language,I can ask the tourist
shop cashier, "Do you have this shirt
in blue?" Yeah, Mom, all those thou-
sands of tuition dollars you spent
went toward that.
Quite frankly, this requirement is
a waste. While proficiency in a for-
eign language might be a nice skill,
it's hardly a necessity, especially in
a globalized world where it seems as
if everyone speaks English already.
And as an out-of-state student, I'm
basically spending $5,000 for each
foreign language course I'm forced to
take. I'd much rather put that money
towards courses I actually have a use
for.
Sure, a foreign language compo-
nent to a liberal arts degree has some
merit. It fits right in with the quota
of natural science credits that have
to be met, as well as the quantitative
reasoning requirement that basically
means you have to take some form
of math at some point to earn your
degree. The idea behind these quo-
tas is logical; a liberal arts degree
should be well-rounded and include
of fields.
But what's ridiculous is that stu-
dents are required to achieve fourth-
semester proficiency in a foreign
language. Unless you're already
talented enough to test out of some
(hopefully all) of these courses, you'll
have to spend one-eighth of your 120
total credit hours learning a language
that you'll most likely never use
again.
And what's worse is how much the
foreign language component seems to
outweigh the other components of the
degree. Why a student is required to
take over twice as many credit hours
in a foreign language than in either
science or math is beyond me. The
lack of an actual math component to
an LSA degree is another issue alto-
gether. Under the Bachelor of Arts
degree requirements, LSA students
don't have to take any math courses,
and I intend to take full advantage of
this absurdity.
Sadly, this foreign language
requirement is also driving students
away from LSA. I've met people who
have left LSA because they didn't
want to take four semesters of a for-
eign language, choosing to opt for
majors in other schools that don't
have this requirement. Students
shouldn't be driven away from an
education that might be best suited
for them simply because one of the
degree requirements is detestable.
Liberal arts degree requirements
should be challenging - but should
also not be a deterrence.
This isn't an attack on foreign
languages. They definitely have a
place in education. But their level of
emphasis in LSA's required curricu-
lum is preposterous. Sadly, regardless
of whether I'm right or not, I'm still
going to have to make it through Ital-
ian 232. In the meantime, it's going to
wreak havoc on my GPA, give me a lot
of tedious busywork and annoy the
crap out of me.
Edward McPhee is an LSA freshman.