a 4A - Wednesday, January 13, 2010 The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com E-MAIL ELAINE AT EMORT@UMICH.EDU te 1Mi ian &U Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan since 1890. 420 Maynard St. Ann Arbor, MI 48109 tothedaily@umich.edu ELAINE MORTON I a -^ ' I ....... Tioif-i, ihasaijos kst, heavy aomP asinc-~- whi 0t0A sotil .' t C~taty ' 'fl ri iT'S WN SYJN le JACOB SMILOVITZ EDITOR IN CHIEF RACHEL VAN GILDER EDITORIAL PAGE EDITOR MATT AARONSON MANAGING EDITOR Unsigned editorials reflect the official position oftthe Daily's editorial board. All other signed articles and illustrations represent solely the views of their authors. Revitalizing education Teaching fellowship is necessary investment in education While the state continues to struggle with severe budget cuts, the introduction of an education program may spark a glimmer of hope for the state's recovery. On Thursday, Gov. Jennifer Granholm and officials from six Michi- gan colleges, including the University of Michigan, announced the creation of a fellowship program to train students for their master's degrees in education and place them in some of Michi- gan's most underprivileged school districts. The program will help to fill the needs of these struggling districts. The University should encourage enrollment in the program and encourage the state to expand its support to improve all levels of education. The real Farmville I Perhaps you're familiar with the Facebook sensation that's sweeping the nation: Farm- ville. For those of you who aren't, Farmville is like "TheSims" video- game, except it's on Facebook. If the number of people I know who use it as their primary pro- crastination tool is any indication, RACHEL Farmville is awe- GLE some. I don't play VAN GILDER Farmville. And here's why: I'm actually from a farm. So for me, Farm- ville is kind of like Keith Richards playing "Rock Band." My fellow college students seem to think that harvesting virtual fields is fantastic, but it's not exciting for me because I've actually helped harvest fields. There's no novelty. For me, novelty is a city with more than one stoplight. And though Ann Arbor isn't a large city in the grand scheme of things, to a girl from a town with only one high school, Ann Arbor is practi- cally Metropolis. I hail from the great village of Webberville, Michigan, not far out- side of East Lansing. Population: 1,500 (give or take). My graduating class numbered 51. I grew up on 80 acres of farmland that my father, an engineer for General Motors, rents to his cousin, a career farmer, to plant. Usually, my father's cousin plants corn or soy beans in our field. Very rarely, he plants wheat, and then it's like living inside a Pepperidge Farm commercial. When I tell people here at the Uni- versity that I grew up on a farm, I get all sorts of questions. Among my favorites are: "Do you have, like, cows and chickens and stuff?" and "OMG! Do people drive their tractors to school?" I usually answer questions like this patiently, with a slight sense of annoyance. In case you're curious, my family doesn't own cows or chick- ens, but we do own horses, and my mother raises pigs. And Webbervillians only drive our tractors to school once a year on Drive Your Tractor to School Day, sponsored annually by the Webberville Chapter of the FFA, which is a leadership orga- nization based in agriculture. (This is not a joke. This actually exists.) The grand total of Webberville Community High School graduates currently enrolled here at the Univer- sity is four (Represent: Mike, Hannah and Jeanne). And I'm sure they've had some of the same experiences dealing with you fancy city-folk that I have. I've lived in Ann Arbor for three years and learned to navigate the things that made me uncomfortable at first. But my initial transition to Ann Arbor's metropolitan, artsy and very liberal atmosphere was as jarring as putting Julie Andrews in a KISS video. My first introduction to the new environment came on move-in day in the fall of 2007 at Mary Markley Hall. Or, more accurately, it came when I was introduced to my roommate, who was about as different from me as possible. Caitlin was easily 5'7", as blonde as can be and easily beautiful. She looked like she belonged on "American's Next Top Model." Caitlinwas from well-to-do St. Clair Shores, Michigan, was a liberal and was the most cosmopolitan person I had ever met. She had pink and lime green bedding, a whole bin full of high heels, and she promptly rushed a soror- ity. I was intimidated. We passed most of the year in silence. Don't get me wrong. She was a friendly person, and we got along quite well for two people who didn't share any interests. We just didn't have any common ground to start on, and so conversations were hard. Not having anything to say to someone - especially someone with whom I lived - was bizarre. Just a small town girl, livin' in a big university world. I The program, called The W.K. Kellogg Foundation Woodrow Wilson Michigan Teaching Fellowship, is expected to be a competitive program that will accept 240 students from the six participating univer- sities in Michigan, according to an article in the Daily on Friday. The fellowship took shape after the W.K. Kellogg Foundation awarded $16.7 million to the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation last November. The program will allow teachers to receive their master's degrees in either science, technology, engineering or mathematics, known as STEM fields. At the completion of the program, the new teachers will work for at least three years in one of five of the state's struggling school districts, including Detroit, Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo, Battle Creek and Ben- ton Harbor. Programs like the teaching fellowship are a chance for the state to support an educa- tional system that will revitalize Michigan's economy. The state's economy is shifting toward a basis in developing technolo- gies. But to make this change successful, Michigan residents will need more edu- cation opportunities to prepare them for knowledge-based jobs. Since it is the goal of Michigan to expand education in the STEM fields, the fellowship's focus on these aca- demic areas will improve the quality and quantity of the type of teachers Michigan needs. This will compound the benefits of the new program as a new wave of well- trained and engaged teachers will inspire even more students to take up studies in STEM fields. The new teaching fellowship is an invest- ment in education. It provides teachers to districts which are most desperately in need of resources. Often, struggling districts can't obtain the resources they need to improve. And each time a school fails to make "Ade- quate Yearly Progress," as defined by the Bush administration's No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, it loses more government sup- port and sinks deeper into the hole. But the way to improve a school is to give it more resources, not to punish failure with loss of income. The fellowship offers a valuable resource to struggling schools. At the same time, early placement in underfunded districts is a valuable learning experience for teachers who may have never experienced the more troubling aspects of the public education system. And educa- tion of teachers prepares them to tackle the problems that education faces. Sending aid to underprivileged school districts will also help to narrow the socioeconomic divisions in institutions of higher education. When students in under- privileged schools receive insufficient educations, they are less likely to attend institutions of higher learning. But col- lege should be accessible to people from all backgrounds. Efforts to give schools more resources - like highly-educated teachers from successful colleges like the University - are the only way to help bridge the gaps between wealthy districts and traditionally under-performing districts. Because it is an institution of higher learning, it's the University's responsibility to encourage all forms of education. This fellowship is one way to do that. But the state can - and should - go further by pro- tecting education funding and expanding programs that invest in education. I also learned pretty quickly that safety was going to be different from that back home. I'd gotten the obliga- tory spiel from the Department of Pub- lic Safety at Orientation.and I wasn't stupid. I knew that it was easier to stay safe in Webberville, which doesn't reallyhave crime except for afew cases of superficial vandalism and speed- ing, than on a campus with 40,000 students. My father took it to the next level. He armed me with a safety flash- light (available at Cabela's) and a guilt- inducing reminder to always carry it with me because he wanted me to "be safe, honey, because I love you and I don't want anything to happen to you." And they saythat mothers are the mas- ters of guilt-tripping. I learned to deal, of course. And while I still get annoyed by sirens at night and the light pollution that obscures the stars, I think I've bal- anced my down-home desires with some big-city sensibilities. But I'm still not such a city-slicker that I think that virtual orchards are fun. So stop sending me Farmville invitations. - Rachel Van Gilder is the Daily's editorial page editor. She can be reached at rachelvg@umich.edu. WANT TO BE AN OPINION CARTOONIST? E-MAIL RACHEL VAN GILDER AT RACHELVG@UMICH.EDU 4 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. Beyond affirmative action 4 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 PHIL POWER I Fleming set standard for 'U' Robben W. Fleming served as the Univer- sity's president from 1968 to 1979 and again as interim president in 1988. He was widely recognized as among the University's wis- est and most successful presidents, admired and respected by the University community, including by those who disagreed with him. He was a lawyer, an arbitrator and an expert on labor-management relations. Fleming came to Ann Arbor following his years as chancel- lor of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. During his time in Madison, he was famous for bailing out students who had been arrested for protesting the war. His training and personal- ity served him well when he was forced to lead the University through the turbulent times of the Vietnam War and the peak of student oppo- sition on campus. In Ann Arbor, he constantly urged restraint, reason and thoughtful listening by all sides. When Washtenaw County Sheriff Doug Har- vey was anxious to arrest and jail protestors, Fleming interceded in a way that was both firm and flexible. He later faced the Black Action Movement strike of 1970, when groups led by the Students for a Democratic Society called for more minority admissions to the University. The strike eventually resulted in a wide variety of affirmative action programs in admissions and increased minority composition on cam- pus. Throughout this entire period, he avoided the violent clashes that took place atnother uni- versities. I believe that his patience, grace and unpretentiousness elevated him to national renown without ever turning his head. His posture during these eruptions was simple. He believed that it was important to listen carefully and to make a sharp distinc- tion between often inflated rhetoric and actu- al demands. He once said that his experience taught him not to be particularly disturbed by what opponents might say to each other (or to him!) but that consistency and calm could defuse almost any inflammable situation. I remember talking with him in 1988, when I was serving as a regent. Sitting in his office with his manual typewriter on his desk - he preferred to write his own statements rather than dictate them - he said: "The entire histo- ry of human progress has always been accom- panied by conflict. It's an ordinary part of moving things along. You simply have to expect it." Then he pushed his chair back, chuckled, threw his hands in the air and said: "So, let's have some conflict!" He was a perfect leader for his time. And his grace, humor and sensible behavior set a stan- dard for all subsequent University presidents to follow. Phil Power was editorial director of The Michigan Daily in 1960. He has published numerous community newspapers in Michigan and served as a egent of the University from 1987 to 1999. There's no denying that diver- sity benefits college campuses and society as a whole. In his book "The Differ-- ence," University Prof Scott E. Page shows that diversi- ty results in a soci- ety that is better at problem solving and is more pro- ductive. A diverse community allows us to celebrate what TOMMASO makes us uniqueP while simultane- PAVONE ously respecting our differences. A plethora of research also shows that when minority students are given the necessary tools, they per- form as well, if not better, than their white counterparts. In a recent book titled "The Shape of the River," Wil- liam Bowen and Derek Bok found that African-American college graduates achieve above average civil participa- tion rates and marriage rates. It follows that performance isn't a derivative of identity but rather a product of oppor- tunity. So why do I find the affirmative action concept problematic? Hint: It's not because I am a conser- vative (I am not). Many make the mistake of equating affirmative action with diversity and conclude that to be against affirmative action means being against diversity. But affirmative action is only a means of achieving the goal of diversity, and - as is often the case in the policymak- ing process - it is our dependence on this method, not its goal, that I contest. In essence, while affirmative action may be necessary in the short run, we should seek to make it unnecessary in the longrun. Consider some common - and often factually fallacious - criticisms of affirmative action. We have all heard the argument that affirmative action constitutes reverse discrimination. Critics who argue this reduce affir- mative action to a system of quotas, which allows minority candidates to enter into programs at the expense of their white counterparts. On the flip side, some, including Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, have argued that affirmative action causes minority students to develop inferiority com- plexes. While one can question the validity of these arguments, as I often do, the result is undeniable - affirma- tive action remains a divisive and con- tentious topic. And, as University students, we find ourselves at the heart of the storm. Repeatedly, liberals have had to defend affirmative action policies. Surely there's a better long-term means to promote diversity on college campuses without facing continuous charges of sponsoringreverse discrimination. An alternative solution exists. But it's not simple, nor is it cheap. It entails tackling the root problem which affir- mative action seeks to remedy: the fact that minority students are often dis- advantaged compared to their white counterparts. According to the Kai- ser Family Foundation's State Health Facts, approximately one-third of all African Americans live below the pov- erty line, compared to only approxi- mately 12 percent of whites. The imprisonment rate among young Afri- can-Americans who drop out of high school is almost 23 percent, according to a new report released by a national coalition sponsored by the Alternative Schools Network. In short, minority students find themselves coping with no after-school programs, rampant crime, overpopulated schools lacking in supplies and unstable family nucle- uses. It's not easy to prioritize getting into college in such an environment. Sadly, many policymakers try to reap support in minority commu- nities by flashing their affirmative action credentials. Thereafter, they never make the effort to solve the problems necessitating affirmative action programs in the first place. This amounts to indirectly support- ing systematic inequality. We should stop turning a blind eye to the racially driven inequality that exists throughout the United States, only then to attempt to remedy the situation through the college admis- sions process. If we wish to promote diversity on college campuses the right way, we should actively support anti-crime policies in troubled neigh- borhoods, restructuring inner-city schools and expanding after-school and recreational programs. This would allow minority students to compete4 on a leveled academic playing field, and affirmative action would become increasingly obsolete. The solution to racial' inequality is 1 inner-city reform. Such reforms won't be easy. They require time, solidarity and, even worse, some charity on the part of those fortunate enough to reside in privileged communities. But to suc- ceed in these policies would mean providing minority students with the necessary tools to compete with their white counterparts. Diversity within college campuses is sure to result. What's more, nobody will be able to accuse liberals of promoting reverse discrimination. I don't seek to provide a mind- blowing solution to systematic racial inequality. Instead, I wish to high- light it as the primary problem and propose a more constructive way of framing the affirmative action debate. Noting affirmative action's problems and recognizing that racial inequality won't be erased overnight, we should consider affirmative action anecessary - buttemporary - means of ensuring diversity.r t I, for one, await the day when we can achieve diversity on campus without having to tinker with college admissions. - Tommaso Pavone can be reached at tpavone@umich.edu. The Daily is looking for a diverse group of strong, informed writers to be columnists this semester. Columnists write 750 words on a topic of their choice every other week. E-MAIL RACHEL VAN GILDER AT RACHELVG@UMICH.EDU FOR MORE INFORMATION