4A - Monday, January 11, 2010
The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
y Midiigan al
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the University of Michigan since 1890.
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Ann Arbor, MI 48109
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Let me say, all the madness of the past ends today:'
- Detroit City Council President Charles Pugh, commenting on the change of power ir
Detroit, as reported by The Detroit News on Saturday
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 of their authors.
Don't cut the classics
Universities shouldn't eliminate traditional programs
W~Tath out, classics majors across the nation - your depart-
ment may be in danger of being cut. Michigan State Uni-
versity recently cut majors that administrators deemed
less important as part of an effort to trim excess departments, stay
relevant and save money, according an article in The New York
Times last month. And other colleges have followed a similar trend.
But cutting majors damages the value of the variety that a liberal
arts education offers. Coursework should be updated and adjusted
to make majors relevant to the changing world but limiting areas of
study isn't the right way to address funding cuts.
BELLA SHAH
E-MAIL BELLA AT BELLZ@UMICH.EDU
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Connecting in Detroit
MSU recently eliminated its American
studies and classics majors after these con-
centrations experienced declines in their
enrollments. The. decision to cut the pro-
grams was made in part because of their
limited number of students - only 13 stu-
dents have declared classical studies as
their major in the last four years, accord-
ing to a Dec. 29 article in The New York
Times. The cuts were also a money-saving
measure. MSU isn't the only university to
cut majors. Last spring, the University of
Louisiana voted to eliminate its philoso-
phy major because, as the New York Times
article reported, it "lost some credence
among students."
Universities that have cut majors due to
lack of interest or to cut costs have under-
rated educational diversity. Information of
all types is valuable, and students should
have access to a wide range of educational
opportunities. Part of the value of a liberal
arts education is that students can expand
their perspectives, identify varied interests
and grow a diverse skill set. Career-specific
knowledge changes as industries grow and
are redefined. But a well-rounded education
won't lose its value.
The educational mission of a university
is compromised when an institution choos-
es to cut majors and courses. Even a course
that doesn't teach job-specific skills may be
relevant to producing thoughts, skills and
ideas that can serve students personally
and professionally. Cutting off students
from a branch of knowledge is contrary to
the fundamental purpose of a university -
to expand students' knowledge and meth-
ods of thought.
Universities should be adding new
courses and educational avenues as society
changes. Global and economic states are
always changing, and new courses are nec-
essary to help students navigate the world.
If some majors show a decline in enrollment,
then the coursework should be updated so
that students find the relevant connections
between real-world applications and what
they learn in the classroom.
The University of Michigan hasn't resort-
ed to cutting classes so far. Instead, it has
expanded its number of courses, particularly
in entrepreneurship, according to the article
in The New York Times. And the University
has committed to hire 100 new faculty mem-
bers that specialize in more than one sub-
ject to bridge the gap between departments.
Administrators should hold to what they've
been doing and maintain a breadth of cours-
es that are both diverse and relevant.
Universities are right to re-examine their
curriculums to coincide with the changes
happening around them. But all areas of
study offer valuable lessons and shouldn't
be discarded. Universities trying to balance
their budgets shouldn't look to cuteduca-
tional quality. They should give students
the broadest education possible, and that
means expanding the availability of cours-
es, not reducing it.
As the tense situation unfolded
at Detroit Metropolitan Air-
port, onlookers wondered
exactly how to
handle themselves,
none of them hav-
ing been near such
a newsworthy inci-
dent before.'
According to the
Detroit Free Press,U
Detroiter Sarina
Conrad strained
behind a barrier IMRAN
as she said "What SYED
happens if we run
over there - will -----
we get tackled?"
Horrible though the alleged Christ-
mas Day terrorist attack might have
been, it failed. Northwest Airlines
Flight 253 landed safely at Detroit
Metro, shortly after passengers man-
aged to overpower a man haplessly
attempting to set off an explosive on-
board. Given that nothing awful actu-
ally happened, it's understandable
that Conrad's biggest concern at the
moment was getting close to the action
to see first hand what was happening.
Airport employee Karen Goretski
was also on the scene and, as the Free
Press reported, her concern was about
the man at the center of the spectacle:
"He was so close," Goretski said. "He is
very handsome, very handsome. He'f
very, very cute."
Wait a minute, what the ... ? Surely
that's no way to talk about a man who
just attempted to blow up an airplane?
Livonia native Dan Crosby's reac-
tion was even more odd. The Free Press
reported him saying: "This is awesome.
I love doing this stuff."
Excuse me? Have these people lost
their minds? A mad man nearly blows
up an airplane and all they can think
about is how excitingthe situation is?
Oh wait. Scratch all that. I got con-
fused. All of those quotes are actually
from a Free Press story from last Feb-
ruary, when Detroit Metro Airport
played host to the only other signifi-
cant thing that has happened there in
recent memory. George Clooney's lat-
est film, "Up in the Air," was filmed at
the airport in February, and it opened
nationwide on Wednesday, December
23 - just two days before the drama
aboard Flight 253.
Attempting to find any similarities
between the two incidents would be
a stretch, even for purely rhetorical
purposes, and that's not my intention.
I only relate the two incidents at all
because they each afford the oppor-
tunity to study how the Detroit area
and its people reacted when the elu-
sive national spotlight turned to them
for a purpose other than rebuke. Both
events were our chance to show the
country that we are just like them, and
that the problems this area has are not
so forbiddingly unique after all.
Whether by unleashingthe fanatics
to gawk and scream at an internation-
al star like Clooney or by telling the
world about the dozens of Detroit area
passengers on the flight who helped
overpower the terrorist on board,
Detroit is (to borrow from the tagline
for "Up in the Air") "a city ready to
make a connection."
No press is bad press, the old show-
biz saying goes, but that's an outright
lie in the case of Detroit, which seems
'to get nothing b tb1ad pregs. The city
is never in the spotlight except for
national concern and consternation
over its crumbling infrastructure,
struggling auto companies, spiral-
ing crime and unemployment and,
lately, its God-awful football team. To
the average American, Detroit is not
simply another large city struggling
under modern pressures, but rather
a whole different animal - a disaster
unlike any other, that no one could
hope to understand.
Long gone are the days when
Detroit was heralded as "the arsenal
of democracy" and the birthplace of
the American middle class. Today, the
nation scoffs at the Kwame Kilpatrick
scandal and the corruption and incom-
petence within the City Council, citing
Detroit as Exhibit A in the story of
urban decline.
Detroit needs
good press to
open discussion.
6
What the nation forgets however is
that Detroit once alsoled the wayto the
top, and its recent decline is no more of
an anomaly; rather, it's an indication of
what is to come for every major Ameri-
can city if we continue as a country to
ignore the basic needs of our people.
The story of Detroit's downfall is quite
simple. While the problem had racial
roots, the crime and desolation we find
in the city today stems from one main
source: poverty. No matter how free
our nation may claim to be, as Presi-
dent Franklin Roosevelt often said,
"Necessitous men are not free men."
But to understand Detroit's prob-
lems as no different from what may
soon follow nationally, people from
other pats of the cotfytt need to se
Detroit and its people in situations
they can identify with. And for allow-
ing that forbiddingly difficult task
to be accomplished, I thank George
Clooney and those who stalked him, as
well as those brave metro-Detroiters
who really were aboard Flight 253 and
gave the usual, meaningless everyman
interviews to the national media in the
aftermath of the attempted attack.
Hey America: We're justlike therest
of you.
- Imran Syed can be reached
at galad@umich.edu.
WANT TO BE AN OPINION CARTOONIST?
E-MAIL RACHEL VAN GILDER AT RACHELVG@UMICH.EDU
SEND LETTERS TO: TOTHEDAILY@UMICH.EDU
Distribution requirements are the University's way of preventing that.
give well-rounded education ZharyTickner
LAURA VEITH
The grade for pop quizzes
TO THE DAILY:
Everyone at this University has run up
against the distribution requirements at some
time or another, and the experience is often
frustrating. However, Emily Orley's view-
point claiming that they should be abandoned
ignores some of their important benefits (Free-
dom from distribution, 01/07/2010).
Orley states that during undergraduate stud-
ies, it's acceptable to have no idea what you want
to do. I agree completely. Distribution require-
ments are one way to ensure that undergraduate
students are exposed to a variety of fields and
ideas they might enjoy with the added benefit of
producing more well rounded students regard-
less of their eventual career path.
Yes, an English major might not want to take
an introductory science class, just like a math
major might resent having to take English 125.
However, both writing skills and scientific lit-
eracy are important parts of being an educated
citizen and the distribution requirements just
might make that math major realize that he
really wants to do social work instead.
It's not that "because a person is better in
calculus than another they are smarter," but
that an educated person should know a little
bit about race and ethnicity or the humanities
as well as their own pet subject.
I also believe that attendance sheets and lec-
ture quality, more than distribution require-
ments, determine whether students skip a
class. Some of the be classes I've taken have
fulfilled distributi , requirements, and I've
seen students skip wels in their own electives.
The idea that ti , ',requirements can pre-
vent someone from,; aduating is a little far-
fetched. Students have finished double majors
in four years (or three, or five) for decades now,
with their distributions all in a row and no
problems. If someone can't make it out because
of a distribution requirement it's due to poor
planning on his or her part.
The viewpoint claimed that because we are
paying tuition, we should be able to choose
which classes to take. That's fine - but we pay
for classes, not a degree. The reason the Uni-
versity is so expensive is because of the high
standards the diploma implies, one of which is
breadth.
The freedom to ignore all areas of study but
your-own is the freedomto become insular and
arrogant, and the distribution requirements
ArborVitae seeks to offer
safe environment for women
TO THE DAILY:
As the Director of ArborVitae Women's
Center, I'd like to add to Bethany Biron's news
article on ArborVitae and the U of M FemDems
(Campus group pushes for more info at local
pregnancy centers, 01/07/2010).
First, at ArborVitae, we're really open about
our values. We're a private 501c3 charity. We
don't discriminate against anyone for any rea-
son. We are life-affirming, so we don't refer for
or perform abortions, nor do we prescribe or
refer for birth control. We offer free, confidential
medical services including pregnancy testing
and ultrasounds; options consulting including
info on birth control and abortion methods; and
material support and community referrals.
Our intake forms do ask whether our cli-
ent identifies herself with a religion because
religion often plays a key part in a woman's
pregnancy decision-making. How can we offer
sensitive, personalized consultation if we don't
know whether she's Atheist, Wiccan, Mormon,
Baha'i or Catholic?
The FemDems need to educate themselves
about hormonal birth control. Medical studies,
including a 2006 Mayo Clinic meta-analysis,
show that sustained use of hormonal contra-
ception significantly raises the risk of pre-
menopausal breast cancer. It's well known that
synthetic hormones sometimes cause deadly
side effects - just google "Yaz lawsuits."
What's wrong with promoting natural fertil-
ity awareness: a free, environmentally-friendly,
safe, effective way to work with (not against) a
woman's natural cycle? Even if ArborVitae were
pushinga religious agenda and lying, how would
posting a sign reading, "We do not offer abor-
tion or birth control" possibly fix that problem?
ArborVitae might not be where FemDems
will come for pregnancytests. But otherwomen
at the University like us and come to us repeat-
edly for services. We're proud to proclaim that
we are life-affirming. We don't need the city of
Ann Arbor to mandate that we are.
Suzanne Abdalla
The letter-writer is the Executive Director of
ArborVitae, Inc.
Like most University students, I dread the words, "put
away your notes and take out a piece of paper." It usually
means one thing - a pop quiz. If you didn't look over the
assigned material the night before or decided to use the
lecture as a midday nap, you could be in a trouble. If you're
lucky, the pop quiz could become a grade booster at the
end of the semester. But regardless of your preparedness,
the thought of a pop quiz can be nerve-wracking and even
frightening. At the same time, these pop quizzes have the
ability to serve as a potential benefit for students.
In the past two years, many professors and GSIs have
tossed out the traditional paper pop quizzes in favor of
electronic pop quizzes. These electronic pop quizzes are
made possible through the device known as a Qwizdom.
Recently, the Qwizdom has received an increased amount
of attention due to its failure to meet many expectations
of professors and students. While I agree with the Daily's
stance on replacing the Qwizdom due to its technological
inefficiencies and cost, I disagree with the Daily's posi-
tion on its usage (Qwizdomfails, 12/06/2009).
The Daily's editorial argued that using the Qwizdom
as a device to take pop quizzes that count towards a stu-
dents' attendance grade "shouldn't be a classroom poli-
cy." The classroom grading policy the Daily appears to
favor is based on assigned essays and exams. But this pol-
icy, while idealistic, fails to consider the positive impact a
Qwizdom can have in fostering learning.
A pop quiz, given on paper or through a Qwizdom, is an
additional learning tool that encourages students to pay
attention to lectures and assigned reading material. Like
planned exams and tests, pop quizzes can promote great-
er comprehension of the course material. More impor-
tantly, if the pop quiz grading policy is fair and written
into the syllabus, professors and GSIs have every right
to use the Qwizdom as a tool for giving pop quizzes that
count towards an attendance grade.
As students, we struggle to comprehend and complete
every piece of required work in one semester. It can be
extremely difficult to keep up with every requirement in
each course. But in my experience, pop quizzes encour-
aged maintaining a readingschedule and attending lecture,
which in turn increases potential success in the course.
Last semester, 15 percent of my grade in a Political Sci-
ence course was based off of an attendance policy. This
was enforced through frequent pop quizzes. Though it
sounded terrible at first, the thought of an unexpected
quiz pushed me to become more prepared for each class
and read the required material in a timely fashion. The
short pop quizzes, similar to Qwizdom quizzes, were
multiple-choice questions based off assigned reading.
These pop quizzes were productive and helpful in learn-
ing the material. 4
Additionally, the policy the professor set was reason-
able and fair. The requirements were clearly outlined
in the syllabus and students were fully aware that a pop
quiz could occur during any lecture. The professor made
it clear that missing several classes where quizzes were
given would affect their grades. But the policy was flex-
ible enough that all students could do reasonably well if
they made an effort to come to class and read the mate-
rial. Consequently, when it came time for the scheduled
exams, I wasn't knee deep in unread material. I had
established a solid grasp of the material and was able to
begin reviewing without rereading every assignment.
The quizzes saved me from bulk memorization at exam
time, since I had been learning the whole semester. In
this way, the pop quiz policy proved to be a successful
learning tool in the classroom.
The Qwizdom has the potential to operate in the same
effective manner. While the thought of pop quizzes may
keep students like myself on the edge of their seats, it
helped me become a better student. If students can get
past their initial fear of pop quizzes, they may realize that
it can actually enhance their learning experience.
Laura Veith is a senior editorial page editor.
EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS:
Nina Amilineni, Emad Ansari, William Butler, Nicholas Clift, Michelle DeWitt,
Brian Flaherty, Erika Mayer, Edward McPhee, Harsha Panduranga, Alex Schiff, Asa Smith,
Brittany Smith, Radhika Upadhyaya, Laura Veith
4