4 - Friday, December 11, 2009 The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com E-MAIL BELLA AT BELLZ@UMICH.EDU L74C firIC4igan + ai1y BELLA SHAH *I Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan since 1890. 420 Maynard St. Ann Arbor, MI 48109 tothedaily@umich.edu 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. Right climate for clange Congress must pass greenhouse gas emissions regulations or weeks, environmental activists have been eagerly await- ing the upcoming United Nations Climate Conference in Copenhagen and hoping that at the conference, the United States will take a firm stance on greenhouse gas emissions. As the second-largest emitter of greenhouse gases in the world, the United States is currently failing its obligation to protect the environment. But on Monday, the Environmental Protection Agency made a land- mark decision that designates greenhouse gases as a threat to public health - a step deemed necessary by the Supreme Court in order for the EPA to regulate emissions. With the whole world watching, President Barack Obama should pledge to get serious on climate change, and Congress should follow his words with actions. Yep, that's exactly (freshman) whatfinals are like )n the brightside, you only have 7 more semesters to go The definition of success or most of my life, I've had a mild obsession with excep- tional things like great litera- ture, Jimi Hendrix albums, cham- pion athletes and people who are in love with what they do. Since I was a kindergart- ner, I've also had a less mild obses- sion with trying to be exceptional BRIAN myself. I frequent- FLAHERTY ly argued with my parents when they tried to tell me that it was okay to get a "B" once in a while, because I thought I could do better. Going into my last semester at the University, I still think "fail- ure" when I see any sub- "A" letter on my Wolverine Access transcript. It's not surprising, then, that I want an exceptional career. And I'm not special in that regard. Most students share my goal. After several semesters being sur- rounded by smart, ambitious Busi- ness School students, I've noticed that there are striking differences in the ways people define an excep- tional career. And the way people define success can have a big impact, not only on decisions about their first jobs, but also how much they achieve and happy they are in their careers. As it is commonly used, the word "success" is sometimes synonymous with another word - "winning." Suc- cess is beating the other guy and get- ting the big salary. Success is what happens when other people think you're a success or when you can con- vince them of it. As a junior, I attended a recruiting event for the Boston ConsultingGroup. Hardly ten words were out of the BCG representative's mouth before he was compelled to announce that he was a partner at the firm and that he'd gotten his MBA at Harvard. He then delivered a presentation that was fixated on his firm's corporate mantra: "We're Win- ning." Some of my sharpest classmates ate it up. High achievers who knew little about -BCG Consulting before they entered the B-School competed intensely to land one of the select open- ings there. They aren't alone. I know of many students who are competing for or have accepted jobs that are considered pres- tigious. Getting a job at a top-ranked employer is a lot like getting an "A+". It's a signal that someone performed exceptionally. The money is good. It elevates social status. The addition to one's r6sum6 opens career options. It's a good choice for some people. But what surprises me is that most of my peers I've heard from don't intend to keep those prestigious jobs forlong. In tenyears, theymightwant to be an entrepreneur, a restaurant owner, a social activist or someone who works internationally, but they certainly don't express any wish to still be working long hours as a high- profile banker or consultant. If a recruiter held a gun to my head and told me to accept a job like that, I like to think I'd still say "no." One reason is that a person's first job after college sets the tone for their career. I don't mean that a graduate's first job commits them to a particular career. It doesn't. In fact, the average Ameri- can switches careers three times, and many do it far more frequently than that. What I mean is this: Ifa person puts off doing what they really want to do and takes a job that's socially accepted, that's what the person, in all likelihood, will continue to do. That's precisely what happens to people in many cases. When people treat a job as a means to an end, they often forget what the end was. And the pressure can be intense. I am curious to know what Jeffrey Skilling's career goals were before he went to Harvard Business School, joined a prestigious consulting firm, made partner and left to engineer massive accounting fraud at Enron. It's all too easy for gradu- ates to get bogged down in day-to-day tasks, the typical career path of the profession, supporting a family and fit- ting into their social role. Students: Don't forget to love what you do. In the 2007 U.S. Supreme Court case Massachusetts v, EPA, the court ruled that the EPA should declare greenhouse gasses a threat to public health before it regulates their emission. While the EPA officially made this designation earlier this week, Obama has reassured members of Con- gress that the EPA will take no immediate regulatory action without new legislation. This comesadespite assurances to the inter- national community that U.S. emissions will be reduced 17 percent by 2020. This move to reclassify emissions as harmful was long overdue, and it's about time the EPA made it. Whether or not the EPA actually takes the next step and directly regulates emissions - which would likely prompt lawsuits and court cases -the EPA's designation should send a message to lawmakers: Get moving before the EPA does your job for you. Legislation that would regulate emissions by creating a "cap-and-trade" system was passed by the House of Representatives on June 26, but has since stalled in the Senate. Delaying on this issue is unacceptable, and Congress should get an emissions bill to Obama's desk as soon as possible. Regulating emissions is as critical as ever. There is near certain evidence now that humans are contributing to a build- up of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, which raises temperatures and melts polar ice. This results in higher sea levels and regional climate changes that will damage the agriculture industry, causes extinc- tions of species and disrupt water resourc- es. In the long run, fixing these problems or at least mitigating these consequences will be difficult - in some cases, impos- sible - without a concerted effort to fight climate change now. But America's approach to climate change has been wholly inadequate com- pared to the rest of the developed world. In the past, the United States has avoided international agreements arguing that it would wait for commitments from China, the nation that produces the most green- house gas emissions of any in the world. U.S. leaders fear that China will gain a decisive economic advantage if the Unit- ed States regulates emissions but China doesn't. But this is backward logic - the United States should be taking a tough stance on climate change in hopes of per- suading other nations to adopt similar positions. Anything short of that is a dis- grace. The upcoming conference in Copenha- gen is a good place to start. Obama should let the world know that the United States is serious about confronting climate change. And Congress should echo his sentiments by getting a bill that regulates emissions to his desk. i As for me, I would count my career as a success if and only if I love what I'm doing, think it's important and can perform it well. Undermy defini- tion of success, I can start being suc- cessful immediately after college, but I can't be successful in a job if it's only a means to an end. Trying to do what you want immediately and over other options can be a risk, to be sure. But as relief workers, entrepreneurs, suc- cessful artists, Warren Buffett (the second richest man in the world) and other people who are exceptionally good at what they do would likely tell you, the risk is well worth it. -Brian Flaherty is an associate page editor. He can be reached at bfla@umich.edu. The Daily is looking for a diverse group of strong, informed, passionate writers to be columnists for the winter semester. Columnists write a 700-800 word column every other week on a topic of their choosing. If you are an opinionated and talented writer, consider applying. E-MAIL RACHEL VAN GILDER AT RACHELVG@UMICH.EDU FOR MORE INFORMATION. KYLE SUMMERS Getting involved in MSA 9l EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS: Nina Amilineni, Emily Barton, Jamie Block, William Butler, Ben Caleca, Nicholas Clift, Michelle DeWitt, Brian Flaherty, Emma Jeszke, Erika Mayer, Edward McPhee, Harsha Panduranga, Alex Schiff, Asa Smith, Brittany Smith, Radhika Upadhyaya, Rachel Van Gilder, Laura Veith COLLEGE DEMOCRATS Stop the health care stall As our nation contemplates the potential impact of the most important health care leg- islation ever to grace the chambers of Capitol Hill, many can't help but wonder what's taking so long. As with all major legislative action, the struggle for health insurance reform has gen- erated controversy as it progresses through each stage of consideration. The proposed reform would affect the entire health care sec- tor and the lives of millions of Americans, so it's important that the legislation come to frui- tion through healthy, vigorous debate. And while the debate has been vigorous, the tactics of Republican senators have been any- thing but healthy. For the past several months, they have schemed ways to lock down the Sen- ate with procedural technicalities rather than address the legislation based on its merits. Take, for instance, the treatment of hard quorum calls. Senate rules require a majority of senators to be present on the floor before business can proceed. This rule is often waived by unanimous consent, but ifa single member objects, then the presiding officer must check attendance by reading off all 100 names of the senatorial body. Since the assembly routinely goes into adjournment, Republican senators can use this tool to postpone discussion several times per day. In addition, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) has threatened to force Senate clerks to read aloud the reform bill in its entirety to what will surely be an empty chamber. one of the most abused procedures thus far in the health care debate has been the amend- ment process. Senators can call for each pro- posalto be divided up into independent debates and votes, which unnecessarily increases the amount of time for each section to pass on the floor. Sen. Judd Gregg (R-NH) explicitly encourages his fellow Republicans to propose "an unlimited number of amendments - ger- mane or non-germane - on any subject" that would force the Senate to debate and then vote on a series of irrelevant alterations that are protected from compromise by the rules of unanimous consent. This is known as a filibus- ter by amendment because it has the potential to lengthen debate indefinitely with no dis- cernible benefit. And after months of squabbling over frivo- lous amendments, points of order and issues of Senate procedure, the Senate rules allow the Republican leadership to invoke the procedur- al filibuster and saddle Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) with the responsibility to find a three-fifths majority (60 votes) in favor of the bill. In short, Senate Republicans have geared up to do anything and everything in their power to prevent health insurance reform from com- ing to an up-or-down vote. When the challenge at hand is designing a piece of legislation that will provide improved health insurance cov- erage for millions of uninsured Americans, you would think that our Republican senators would take a more proactive role in the debate. For all their talk about defending the middle class, it is puzzling that the Republicans have chosen to impede health insurance reform and ignore the millions of Americans who are suffer- ing under the broken health care system. Since 2000, the cost of health insurance has doubled, and medical problems remain a leading cause of personal bankruptcy. These issues will not sim- ply disappear. Health insurance reform is needed to ensure that hard-working Americans no lon- ger have to decide between maintaining financial security or seeking medical care. We are in favor of a vigorous public debate both on and off the Senate floor. Reform is critical to the long-term fiscal stability of our country and must be crafted thoughtfully. Nonconstructive obstruction, however, should not be part of the process. It is our sincere hope that the Senate is able to overcome these pro- cedural challenges and pass comprehensive health insurance reform for the American people. This viewpoint was written by Robert Bowen and Devin Parsons on behalf of the University's chapter of the College Democrats. As a representative-elect for the College of Engineer- ing - specifically, one who ran as an independent - I'd like to share my reaction to Alex Schiff's recent viewpoint regarding the Michigan Student Assembly. (Hey MSA, make yourselfmatter, 12/03/2009). I believe it can be generally agreed that the Israeli- Palestinian conflict is an issue that isn't directly relevant to MSA. MSA is a place to serve the student body within the context of the University. There are many interna- tional issues that our world faces today, and for MSA to respond with a position or action to some of them would arguably not be an efficient use of the assembly's efforts. Student organizations have every right to lobby state and federal legislative bodies to action, and MSA has the duty to defend that right, but it seems unreasonable for the student government to tackle these itself. On this topic, I agree with Schiff that such issues are largely irrelevant to the assembly. Although Schiff continues to provide legitimate con- cerns, my agreement with his argument may end with his stance on the aforementioned. To reduce MSA to nothing "more than a glorified middle school student council with fancy websites" is rather extreme. MSA controls a bud- get that is within hundreds of thousands of dollars. I'd be interested to learn about any middle school student coun- cil commandingsuch funds. Furthermore, MSA's website could be much "fancier." The functionality and resources it provides to students should be improved. It may be that many students are apathetic to MSA. I find this to be unfortunate, however legitimate it may be. Perhaps if students cared more, things would actu- ally change. Democratic governments do not function well without participation from their constituents. Schiff must have come from one large high school for his "high school class president" election to garnish as many votes as the MSA election did. Yet the point is understood - the student turnout is terribly low. This may result, in large part, from the great amount of ignorance students have when it comes to MSA. I have encountered many individuals who don't know what the acronym stands for, let alone what the assembly does. I believe this is largely the fault of the assembly for not educating students about their student government. One possible solution is to establish some presence during ori- entation to introduce students to MSA. I may have the most contention with Schiff's argu- ment against both the party system and independent candidates. I didn't seek to be a party candidate because I didn't feel like the parties were very highly regarded by students, nor was I very educated on what the parties stood for and their track records. Therefore, I chose to be an independent. To compare independent candidates to "emo kids in high school that told you they don't have a label" is a bit ridiculous. I ran on a platform. I am an independentbecause I wanted to represent myself and my specific views - not that those views are uncommon. The problems with electing representatives to the Department of Public Safety Oversight Committee have been addressed, albeit rather late. It was unjustifiable to violate state law. However, the reasoning behind the appointment method - though found to be illegal - is logical. If the voter turnout for MSA representative elec- tions is quite low, one can imagine what the numbers may be for a direct election for the committee. It may simply be decided by who has more friends. The legitimacy of one's interest could therefore be an issue; it must be more than a r6sume booster. What I believe in comes down to transparency and accountability. MSA must communicate its proceedings in a convenient manner to the student body. One positive change is that WOLV-TV will begin broadcasting MSA meetings live next semester. The average public turnout to the meetings is generally quite low, and I hope that TV coverage will eliminate the excuse that it is conve- nient to venture to the third floor of the Michigan Union to watch the meetings. I hope further improvements to transparency are made through greater communication and publication of documents. In exchange for the right to transparency, the student body has the duty to hold MSA accountable for its actions and to participate more actively. I appreciate that Schiff cared enough about MSA to write a viewpoint. I hope that more students might care as much. Kyle Summers is an Engineering freshman. 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. 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