a 4A - Thursday, September 10, 2009 The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com L 4e MIC41,60an 4 a Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan since 1890. 420 Maynard St. Ann Arbor, MI 48109 tothedaily@umich.edu ROBERT SOAVE COURTNEY RATKOWIAK EDITORIAL PAGE EDITOR MANAGING EDITOR GARY GRACA EDITOR IN CHIEF Unsigned editorials reflect the official position oftthe Daily's editorial board. All other signed articles and illustrations represent solely the views ofttheir authors. A canne ap proach Amethyst Initiative needed to confront binge drinking Based on her opposition to Anheuser-Busch's "Fan Cans," it would seem like President Mary Sue Coleman is concerned about binge drinking. After the University sent a letter objecting to the marketing ploy - which would produce beer cans in blue and yellow and distribute them in the Ann Arbor area - the beer company agreed not to sell them on campus. But no matter how justified, Coleman's opposition to the Fan Cans is hypocritical. If she wants to show real leadership on the issue of binge drinking, she will reverse her position on the Amethyst Initiative - a sensible petition that asks Congress to examine the issue of the drinking age - and, at long last, sign it. As part of a marketing scheme to appeal to the college-aged beer drinker, Anheuser- Busch decided to produce Bud Light cans decorated with the colors of 27 targeted universities - the University of Michigan among them. After the University sent a complaint to Anheuser-Busch alleging that such a ploy would increase the prevalence of binge drinking on campus, the company agreed not to sell the beer in the Univer- sity community. But the University went further, insisting in another letter that the University community is not limited to its campus, and that Anheuser-Busch should not sell the Fan Cans anywhere in the state of Michigan. Such insistence should indicate that the University administration is taking the problem of binge drinking seriously. But Coleman's absolute refusal tosign the Ame- thyst Initiative is sending mixed messages. It's hard to imagine that the University is really interested in dealing with binge drinking when reevaluating the drinking age isn't even on the table. The Amethyst Initiative, introduced in July 2008 and signed by 135 college presi- dents, does not call for the drinking age to be lowered. It simply asks Congress to reex- amine the issue and determine whether the current drinking age of 21 is a success- ful policy. This is a legitimate question - since the drinking age was changed to 21 in 1984 under the National Minimum Drink- ing Age Act, there has been an increase in deaths and accidents related to underage and binge drinking. Generating discussion about the respon- sible age for drinking and its connection to binge drinkingshould never be discouraged. And considering Coleman's background as a researcher, it's especially troubling that she would not agree with an initiative that only asks for more study to be done on the relationship between binge drinking and the current drinking age. Her absolute rejection of the Amethyst Initiative shows not only that she stands steadfastly behind a drinking age that may be unhealthy, but also that her support for researching new ideas and possibilities is dishonest. Taken in stride, the University's strong reaction to Anheuser-Busch's Fan Cans is hardly demonstrative of a serious commit- ment to reducing binge drinking. The Ame- thyst Initiative is an attempt to deal with one of the biggest issues on college cam- puses. Until Coleman's signature is among the many who have already expressed sup- port for the initiative, any expressed inter- est in preventing binge drinking can hardly be taken seriously. I am not the first president to take up this cause, but I am determined to be the last." - President Barack Obama, referring to his plan to reform health care, in a speech delivered last night to Congress. CHRIS KOSLOWSKI E-MAIL CHRIS AT CSKOSLOW@UMICH.EDU el l atlking bell. I4 H ma talk ngabull st - then so mmie lin..rWe prtanise s ('secer-hutcnservaive j and Iewke aiona ois our latya. takn ott emakngeeg m cool f un of my fr end here becaus wear sn asses.Moo taw xw w0 WWI Q40 The new news wo and a half years ago, I sat Internet capability, giving owners While my family resides right at my kitchen table in tears the power of online news at their outside Washington D.C., I consider after receiving the position fingertips. If not through a handheld myself a dual member of both the of Online Fea- device, the Internet can be accessed Washington and Ann Arbor commu- ture Editor of my through home computers, laptops, or nities, and have washingtonpost.com, high school news- at any of the campus libraries. annarbor.com and michigandaily. paper. Though it Aside from the convenience of combookmarked on my computer - a may sound pres- online papers, the switch to the Web convenience made possible by online tigious, my high follows ournation's increasinglyenvi- school paper was ronmentally conscious path. The 21st as highly regarded century is far more a world of Google as the Michigan than Gutenberg, and it's becoming W hy Ive traded in football team is to clear that print papers are becoming . the University, and LEAH exceedingly less timely. Discontinu- print papers for my the Editor in Chief POTKIN ing the print version saves not only position rivaled time and money, but paper. BlackBerry star athletes and Not to mention, navigating an head cheerleaders in status. Need- online paper takes far less energy less to say, any online position was than the strenuous maneuvering of not regarded quite as highly. But to meticulously folded print sections papers only. my surprise, this position I loathed that crinkle with each movement. I Even the production side of news- receiving now looks better on a rdsu- understand that this familiar crin- papers may have something to gain me than its print-version sister I so kling is what loyal subscribers will from going online. I understand naively coveted. miss, but in retrospect, it's just a there is no perfect substitute for face- It now seems only appropriate, matter of adjustment that will only to-face brainstorming and communi- that the town I chose to spend my come in time. Our nation made the cation, but with the development of college years in is the first large city switch from VCR to DVD, snail mail technologies such as video chat and to abolish its own local print newspa- to e-mail, and now print papers to editing programs that show correc- per. Ina recent article in Time Maga- online papers. tions in the margins, the process is zine, owners of the former Ann Arbor University students check their subject to change. News said they believe they can turn grades online on CTools, stay con- I could sit here and continue to the paper into awebpublicationwhile nected through Wolverine access babble about all the pros and cons still generating a profit and pleasing and are usually instructed to contact of online papers, as there are clearly the news-hungry public. Contrary to their professors via e-mail. Just this many,.butathe fact that this article is what my crying-at-the-kitchen-table week, one of my professors specifical- likely posted online and being read self would have believed at the time, ly asked students to exchange e-mail off a computer screen should speak I now agree entirely. addresses rather than phone num- for itself. In fact, I never thought I'd Some inevitably cringe at the bers in the case they need to contact say this, but if this article weren't thought of losing their beloved morn- a classmate for missed lecture notes posted online, I would be quite disap- ing coffee and paper-browsing ritual. - something past generations would pointed. But two or three generations down not understand. Even when they're So pick up your coffee, grab your the road, reminiscing about this ritu- not physically on campus, students BlackBerry and kindly recycle any old al will compare to the baby boomer's can buy football tickets online, view newspapers - they're so last century. talk of oversized car phones before class syllabuses at all times, and stay the cell phone craze began. Speak- up to date with what's going on in - Leah Potkin can be reached ing of cell phones, many now have their beloved Ann Arbor. at lpokin@mich.edu. The Daily is looking for a diverse group of strong, informed writers to be columnists during the fall 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. EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS: Nina Amilineni, Emad Ansari, Emily Barton, Harun Buljina, Ben Caleca, Brian Flaherty, Emma Jeszke, Raghu Kainkaryam, Sutha K Kanagasingam, Erika Mayer, Edward McPhee, Asa Smith, Brittany Smith, Radhika Upadhyaya, Rachel Van Gilder, Laura Veith SEND LETTERS TO: TOTHEDAILY@UMICH.EDU l the legislators not tax system, our scholarships could be in safe hands. Instead, students and families are left ebudget-c utte s with more debt and fewer opportunities to fur- ther education. Remember this when you hear politicians talk about "saving" our Promise BI th TO THE DAILY: Scholarships,a Before moving in, I had to empty most of my to do so. checking accountto pay the University what my Promise Scholarship did not. The program is on Alex Franz Lansing's chopping block, and families all over LSA junior the state are scrambling to make up for this empty promise. I'm angry, like most students, Lapin but my anger isn't blindly directed at the bud- is get-cutters. It's the legislators who made these1 o empty promises that deserve our wrath. IgJoraec The Promise Scholarship debuted when I graduated high school in 2007, during the 2008 TO THE DAIL fiscal year. That year, the state government had I found myse a $605 million deficit. Rather than focus on Lapin's column long-term corrections, governor Jennifer Gra- seurs, 9/8/09). nholm proposed only $108 million in spending philistine," or cuts. At the same time, Granholm wanted $66 film, and goes million in university payments delayed - an wrong with bei accounting trick pushing expenses off of one It goes witht book and onto another. essential to mo That same year, the Michigan Business Tax ing that culturE debuted, giving breaks to the collapsing auto- Any univers motive industry while making service firms edge and we s pay more. After small businesses protested, is something t the legislature removed the service hike - and paying enough replaced it with a 22 percent surcharge on all anybody who taxable companies. The MBT has amplified the molecular biol volatility of government revenues, making the say I know eve budget process even more difficult. doesn't mean I In fiscal year 2009, the budget deficit grew to Willful ign an astounding $L75 billion, pushing the state's should be toler credit rating down further. This year, the deficit by us as a uni reaches $1.3 billion - and the state government refuses to watt is just now getting around to cutting horse rac- it's in black-an ing programs. ish - that's not Our legislators and governor made a prom- We should rect ise to students and they have yet to take action toward keeping it. If painful-but-necessary David Kinzer cuts had been made earlier, alongside a fair LSA junior as if this was their first chance wrong - cultural e is not bliss ,Y: elf generally repelled by Andrew n (Of philistine and film connois- Lapin talks about the "proud someone willfully ignorant of on to say that there's nothing ing one. out saying that film is an art form dern culture, and Lapin is argu- al ignorance is A-OK. ity's mission is to spread knowl- hould all agree that knowledge o be desired. After all - we're money in pursuit of it. I respect knows a lot about cars, about ogy or about film. Though I can't rything about these subjects, it shouldn't want to know more. orance isn't something that ated - not by the Daily and not versity. If someone irrationally ch Wild Strawberries - because d-white or because it's in Swed- a prerogative, that's just stupid. ognize it as such. Keep smoking on campus to hard to disagree with the fact that smoking cigarettes is an injurious and potentially annoying habit. State legislators are negotiating a ban on indoor smoking in most Michigan businesses in an effort to protect the health of employ- ees and patrons from the hazards associated with HARSHA secondhand smok- ing. This is thought by many to be valid and sensible leg- islation. But the University's ban on smoking throughout campus - set to take effect in July of 2011 - cannot be described as such. The innumerable health risks of cigarette smoke are well known. Peo- ple who smoke cigarettes, especially University students, should be aware of the consequences. A smoking ban doesn't introduce any new informa- tion that may encourage an individual to not start or stop smoking. Chiding smokers serves no practical purpose other than to annoy the target. The main cited reason for the University's smoking ban is decreas- ing exposure to secondhand smoke. Outdoor secondhand smoke is not completely safe: exposure to it while sitting next to a smoker for extended periods of time is harmful. But cam- pus is not a stagnant location. Many people walk to class while smoking or take smoke breaks outside of univer- sity buildings. So while it's true that smoke may be inhaled while entering a building, it's not a health risk - it's simply an irritation. Banning a habit for merely being irritating would be discriminatory, which sets an intolerable and unfair precedent. Smoking has an excessive- ly negative stigma in our society in comparison to other equally bad and disgusting behaviors. Obesity has very similar health risks to smoking: heart disease, diabetes and cancer. Still, following this logic, the criti- cism received by an overweight per- son eating a rich dessert is not even comparable to the scolding often ini- tiated by lighting a cigarette. But a policy has not been suggested to limit food types and intake of people in the University dining halls. People can eat what they want, and some choose five slices of pizza and three cookies., Following the logic of the smoking ban, wouldn't limitations on eating habits improve the health of the over- all campus? Why has this never been proposed? Because such a policy, were it suggested, would be called laughable, ludicrous and would be met with an uproar of protest from students. Such outrage would not be with- out good reason. A food intake policy would greatly impinge on the per- sonal liberty of both the students and employees of the University and violate the principles upon which the United States was founded. A smok- ing ban would have a similar effect. A smoking ban sets a dangerous precedent for what may follow. That means standing and talking loudly on a cell phone in a crowd of people could be banned because it disrupts the atmosphere on campus. In reality, professors may enforce no cell-phone policies in their classroom since banter on the phone interferes with learning, but a cell phone policy could not be implemented campus-wide since it's a public area. This makes any ban on a legal and personal activ- ity an egregious violation of students' rights. As a taxpayer-funded institu- tion, the University should be an all- inclusive environment. The ban on smoking contradicts this principle. 4 A smoking ban is unhealthy for students' rights. But even aside from the question of fairness, the ban would be difficult to enforce and its effectiveness is doubt- ful. There is no proposed fine for ban-, ning smoking on campus,leaving very little incentive to follow the policy. This makes having such a policy on the books even moire ridiculous. All people have their flaws and failings: smoking is just one of these flaws. The President of the United States even admits to smoking the occasional cigarette as he battles his addiction. Regardless, an annoying habit should not be banned for minor convenience. - Harsha Panduranga can be reached at harshap@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.