4A - Monday, January 25, 2010
The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
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BELLA SHAH
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JACOB SMILOVITZ
EDITOR IN CHIEF
RACHEL VAN GILDER
EDITORIAL PAGE EDITOR
MATT AARONSON
MANAGING EDITOR
Unsigned editorials reflect the official position of the Daily's editorial board. All other signed articles
and illustrations represent solely the views ofntheir authors.
Aiding diversity
'U' must make financial help accessible to those in need
hile the University may claim to hold a strong commit-
ment to diversity, its actions haven't always support-
ed that claim. A recent study by The Education Trust
group found that the University of Michigan was one of several
universities where levels of accessibility and success of minority
and low-income students is on the decline. Though many of these
public universities, including the University, assert that they value
diversity, the study shows that they aren't backing up their words
with action. A diverse student body is important to a comprehensive
learning environment and the University must act upon its declared
commitment to diversity by increasing minority outreach programs
and directing financial aid to those who need it most.
Preparing a flatter world
The report, which was released last
week, rated the accessibility of financial
aid to minority and low-income students
at public universities from 2004 to 2008.
The Education Trust group revealed that
in recent years, many public universities,
including the University, were awarding
more financial aid to well-off students and
less support was being given to students of
low-income backgrounds. As reported by
the Daily last week, the study identified
the University as one of the worst public
institutions in the nation for its decreased
accessibility to financial aid.
Part of the worth of attending a large uni-
versity is that students gain knowledge of a
diverse population. But with racial diversity
at the University continuing to decline, stu-
dents are losing a valuable opportunity to
learn. And it's a slippery slope - as diversity
decreases, the University is less appealing
to a diverse group of students.
Officials at the University have claimed
that they are doing everything in their
power to foster diversity, according to a
Daily interview with University Senior Vice
Provost of Academic Affairs Lester Monts.
But since the ban of affirmative action at
public universities in Michigan in 2006, the
University has clearly faced new challeng-
es. But its responses haven't translated into
success. There have been outreach initia-
tives by University officials within the past
year like the Wolverine Outreach Workshop
held in Detroit in late 2009, but these pro-
grams haven't produced the desired results
- minority figures at the University have
dropped every year since 2006. The Univer-
sity needs to scale up existing programs and
investigate new ways to attract a diverse
student body.
But the real shock of the Education Trust
group's study was that the University has
been, in recent years, giving more money
to wealthier students. It's alarming to learn
that the University hasn't been directing
as much aid as possible to the low-income
students who actually depend upon it to pay
for tuition. There is no acceptable explana-
tion for spending less on students with more
need and giving more to students who don't
actually require aid. The Office of Financial
Aid has a responsibility to ensure that the
students who need aid the most have access
to it. The office should redouble its efforts to
offer more aid to low-income students.
The University must remember that
proof is in results, not rhetoric. It needs to
increase outreach and aid to minority and
low-income students to make sure that the
next time a financial aid study is published,
it isn't at the bottom of the rankings.
love Ann Arbor, but my favorite
part of college took place about
2,200 miles away from the Diag,
the Big House and
Rick's. I had want- .
ed to study abroad
since high school,
and in May 2008, i
went to Costa Rica
as part of the Ross
School of Business's a'
three-week study
abroad program.
Even though the COURTNEY
trip was everything RATKOWIAK
I could have hoped
for, Costa Rica was
never one of the
places where I had been itching to live
and learn about international business.
But I went to Alajuela because as a Ross
student, my options for study abroad
were limited to just three locations.
Rankings show that Ross is one of
the best business schools in the nation.
(The 2010 U.S. News rankings have
us ranked fourth, which is a disap-
pointment after being ranked third
for years.) But in terms of pushing stu-
dents to learnmore about global econo-
mies and international business issues,
it's clear Ross isn't even atthe top of the
BigTen - and that's ridiculous.
There are a lot of reasons why busi-
ness school students can't just leave
Ann Arbor for a semester like many of
our LSA counterparts, BBA Program
Director Scott Moore explained to me.
The biggest is the school's sequential
structuring, where every core class
(for example, Marketing 300) has to be
taken during a certain semester (first
semester, junior year). Even though I
understand the need for prerequisites,
the strict scheduling for every single
class - like being required to take mar-
keting a year after accounting, even
though the classes aren't related what-
soever - unnecessarily limits students'
study abroad opportunities.
Moore also raised the point that
with on-campus internship recruit-
ing during junior year and full-time
recruiting during senior year, it would
disadvantage Business School students
to travel during those years unless they
had jobs lined up before leaving.
It's also almost impossible to get
Business School credit for non-Ross
study abroad programs, and the only
sponsored programs for credit are
the three-week trips to Costa Rica,
Germany/Slovakia and China. That
means that if students want to go
abroad during the school year and
join an LSA program, they will prob-
ably end up staying at the University
an extra semester or two to make up
for lost credits.
The way I see it, though, most of
those issues are just logistics, things
that the Business School administra-
tion could work around or change -
if it wanted to. But with an intense
focus on job placement and mov-
ing up that rankings ladder, the real
problem is that promoting study
abroad opportunities just isn't high
on the priority list.
In my internship last summer,
working for a multinational company,
it didn't take long for me to wish I had
the same international opportunities
as fellow interns from other busi-
ness schools. Two of the girls I met
on the first day, one from Purdue and
one from Indiana, had returned from
semester-long trips to Spain less than
a week before.
My friend from Indiana's Kelley
School of Business worked 11 hours per
week at an internship and also earned
12 business school credits taking
classes like International Operations
and International Marketing. Now,
with a full-time job offer in hand, she
says our summer internship "felt like a
breeze" after working in Spain because
she had already learned how to handle
herself in an unfamiliar business set-
ting, where she had often felt lost and
confused because of the culture differ-
ences.
Michigan should take a few lessons
from Indiana's business program. Kel-
ley has an "International Dimension"
requirement, for which students need
to take a minimum of six credits in
international business classes or study
abroad classes. Ross doesn't have any--
thing close to that. (The foreign lan-
guage distribution requirementdoesn't
count - I learned nothing about Span-
ish business while sitting in the MLB
as a freshman.)
To be fair, Ross is trying to catch up.
Moore estimated 80 to 100 students
this year have signed up for the three-
week summer study abroad programs.
And while talking with Leslie Davis
and Vicki Simon from the Ross School
of Business's Center for International
Business Education, I learned about
interesting options I didn't know exist-
ed, like CIBE-funded international
summer internships and the fact that
business students with international
studies minors receive up to $750 in
funding toward the three-week study
abroad programs.
Ross should offer
more international
opportunities.
But for Ross students who truly
want to immerse themselves in
another country's business culture,
three weeks just doesn't cut it. The
fact that I didn't know about the
other CIBE options - even though
I've studied abroad once already and
have been in the school for three
years - means that a lot of other
students probably don't either. And
that's where Ross falls far below the
elite standards it has set for itself.
It's obvious that the world is becom-
ing flatter every day, as Thomas L.
Friedman detailed in his book of a
similar name. Every business school
student knows that - we had to read
the book for our Business Informa-
tion Technology core class, after all.
But compared to other schools, Ross
doesn't encourage us to get out there
and experience that flat world. If Ross
took the time and energy to make
international studies a graduation
requirement, maybe we'd be graduat-
ing from one of the premier business
schools with a little more knowledge of
what goes on outside of just Ann Arbor
and Wall Street.
- Courtney Ratkowiak was the Daily's
managing editor in 2009. She can be
reached at cratkowi@umich.edu.
The Daily is looking for a diverse group of writers to join the
Editorial Board. Editorial Board members are responsible
for discussing and writing the editorials that appear
on the left side of the opinion page.
E-MAIL RACHEL VAN GILDER AT RACHELVG@UMICH.EDU
FOR MORE INFORMATION.
WILL BUTLER|
The progressive puzzle
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0i
Change beyond party lines
Had I been writing a Facebook status at the
time of Scott Brown's victory in Massachu-
setts, I surely would have typed an incoherent
"ajdasghgyg!!" to express my extreme displea-
sure and unhappiness at the election outcome.
In the land of the late Democrat Ted Kennedy,
in the state with the most progressive health
care in the country, I struggled to grasp how
a Republican was elected. The whole thing
seemed like one bad dream. While the Republi-
cans were shouting how "the nation's voice had
finally been heard" and Democrats were scram-
bling to try and figure out a plan for health
care, I began thinking about how our brief
and relatively unproductive era of progressive
dominance was over and why it seemed that we
could never fully get the upperhand.
The Nobel Prize-winning economist and
The New York Times columnist Paul Krugman
expressed this idea when he stated in his blog,
"He Wasn't The One We've Been Waiting For," in
reference to President Barack Obama. After the
2006 midterm elections, when Democrats finally
took back Congress, and the historic 2008 elec-
tion, it seemed as though our time had finally
come. Progressives finally had their chance -
with all the power in hands of the Democratic
Party - to implement the legislation we had been
pushing for. Progressive deliverance and salva-
tion had come with Obama, but we have yet to
see any tangible results. Why is that? Despite
the statements of naive cynics, it isn't the fault of
Obama or the supposed "ineffective" Congress
led by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.). It
is merely the political environment of today and
the realities of beinga progressive on the left.
Whether majority or minority, being a pro-
gressive is the most difficult political position
to have. It represents change, reform and the
constant perfection of policies. Being a pro-
gressive means working for the ideal and being
idealistic. Compare this to conservatives on
the right, who merely have to defend the status
quo and the reality of the system today. Isn't
it much easier to fight for what already exists
than for what could be? The public understands
the inadequacies of current structures, such as
the health care system, but is fearful of reform.
After all, the devil you know is better than the
devil you don't, right?
Progressives fight for the interests of the
underprivileged and underrepresented, the least
socially and politically mobilized. It is always
said that interest groups have a wealthy upper-
class bias, so how much easier is it for conserva-
tivesto rep'esentthe needsofcorporatebusiness,
with enough capital to invest in their own politi-
cal interests? This becomes especially true now,
as the Supreme Court has most recently decided
to rid corporations of any limits on campaign
funding. Your vote may soon become void to the
benefits of large companies who buy legislation.
On the contrary, when progressives work to fight
poverty, they are generally advocating for groups
with little electoral benefits. Conservatives have
the luxury of enjoying a platform that feeds the
interests of greedy and economically unhealthy
self-interest. How much easier is it for the public
to hear "tax cut" than "the hard and difficult road
ahead to economic stability?"
Such is that of the progressive puzzle and
why it may never be solved. It is simple enough
to understand that the political policies of
conservatives on the right are easier to sell
despite the many times they are not in the best
economic or social interests of the country.
Progressives may never have the upperhand
politically. The only consolation that can ever
be had from being a progressive is that eventu-
ally reform will come. It is only inevitable. With
all the frustrations that come with pushing and
working to change the system, progressives can
always keep in their minds that it is not in vain.
However slow or however prolonged, progres-
sive goals will be achieved.
Will Butler is an LSA freshman.
f you believe everything you hear,
then Republican Scott Brown's
victory last week in a special elec-
tion to choose Ted
Kennedy's succes-
sor as senator from
Massachusetts was
an Earth-shatter- k
ing event. But even
those of us who are
too smart to buy
that nonsense must-
admit that Brown's
victory does kick IMRAN
off a very impor- SYED
tant election year,
especially here in
Michigan.
With Democratic Gov. Jennifer
Granholm ineligible for re-election
due to term limits, a crowded field
of potential candidates has emerged.
While the list will certainly be pared
down well before the August prima-
ry, the muddle that currently exists is
very telling of where this state stands
politically.
Granholm - a perpetually unpopu-
lar governor who miraculously won
two terms - inherited a state on the
verge of ruin. She stood tall atthehelm
through what was certainly Michi-
gan's toughest decade in a long time.
She will leave the state in its most fam-
ished condition yet,but her failure was
really a failure of circumstance,
That unemployment is unforgiv-
ingly rampant in the state, and that its
most powerful corporations have been
brought to their knees is no secret.
As a result of the poor economic out-
look, Michigan will likely lose elec-
toral votes after this year's census. As
troubling as those situations are, an
equally important consideration here
is Michigan's political identity.
Like most of America, Michigan
has a reputation for being a little
right of center. The influence of labor
unions and a large urban center like
Detroit often push the state into the
blue, but the general perception has
always been that this state is closely
divided. Today, Michigan has eight
Democrats and seven Republicans in
the U.S. House of Representatives.
Even accounting for some skillful ger-
rymandering, it doesn't get more even
than that.
Considering the events of 2009, it
seemed that while Michiganders may
retain their centrist values, the state
would not go red in a major election
any time soon. As the Detroit auto-
makers struggled to survive and the
Obama administration considered a
bailout, national Republicans engaged
in an alarming line of rhetoric that
surely dissipated support their party
may have otherwise had among blue-
collar Michiganders.
Following the strategy of squealing
against anything Obama did (not to
mention the jobs brought to their own
states by foreign automakers), southern
Republicans railed against the bailouts
for American automakers. As Michi-
gan bled jobs, resources and a sense of
well-being, many national Republicans
turned their backs, even goingso far as
to speak of the Big Three's troubles as
necessary and long overdue.
Michigan's workers surely would
never forgive those who hung them
out to dry at their darkest hour. And
for that reason, it's hard to imagine
even today that Michigan will go red
in a presidential election any time
soon. But that does not mean that
Republicans are a non-factor in state
level races in Michigan.
Contrary to what the national
media has said about Republican vic-
tories in Massachusetts, Virginia and
New Jersey, those events will not
cause a snowball effect in places like
Michigan. If Republicans win the gov-
ernorship in 2010, it will be because
they were smart enough to distance
themselves from the national party
and remain relevant to Michigan's
suffering middle class. Regardless of
national Republican victories, the real
factor in Michigan will be who voters
trust to turn things around.
On the Democratic side, no one
associated with Granholm stands a
chance. For that reason, Lt. Gov. John
Cherry's decision to leave the race
came as no surprise. That's also why
there has been so much buzz around
the race's potential wildcard, Univer-
sity Regent Denise Ilitch.
Red/blue won't
matter in the
governor 's race.
0
0
Ilitch is exactly the type of hybrid
candidate the Democrats need to
retain the governor's mansion. Repub-
licans have hammered Granholm on
jobs and her relationship with busi-
nesses. Of course, no such allegations
can be hurled at Ilitch, an accom-
plished businesswoman who can
couple her familial fortune with her
moderate progressivismto bethe ideal
candidate in 2010.
But Ilitch may not run at all, in
which case other contenders like
state House Speaker Andy Dillon
and Lansing Mayor Virg Bernero
will have to step into a similar hybrid
position to counter what the Republi-
cans offer. Republicans for their part
can do no wrong, so long as they avoid
making this a national race.
Regardless of the ultimate out-
come, the muddled and disparate
nature of the current pool of candi-
dates is indicative of where this state
stands at the end of a brutal decade.
Michiganders aren't so worried about
what party their potential savior may
come from: We just know we need to
get it right.
- Imran Syed can be reached
at galad@umich.edu.
EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS:
Nina Amilineni, Emad Ansari, William Butler, Nicholas Clift, Michelle DeWitt,
Brian Flaherty, Jeremy Levy, Erika Mayer, Edward McPhee, Emily Orley, Harsha Panduranga,
Alex Schiff, Asa Smith, Brittany Smith, Radhika Upadhyaya, Laura Veith
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