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April 08, 2010 - Image 4

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4A - Thursday, April 8, 2010

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The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com

17" C dC 4gan al
Edited and managed by students at
the University of Michigan since 1890.
420 Maynard St.
Ann Arbor, MI 48109
tothedaily@umich.edu

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.
The students have spoken
After survey, 'U' must adopt gender-neutral housing

We are not protecting our customers by keeping
this quiet. The time to hide on this one is over."
- Irv Miller, Toyota's vice president of environmental and public affairs, in an e-mail to top executives before the
company's recall of millions of vehicles with sticking brake pedals, as reported yesterday by The Detroit Free Press.
CHRIS KOSLOWSKI I E-MAILCHRISAT CSIOSL1W CUMICH.EDU
Whaes heo -un er on Kissing a stranger in the Safe
the percentage of time If I were them, rd i Sex Store brings six more
campus day tour guides give skip the facts, and spend all weeks of winter!"
falsn informatioo? my tiee crnating outrageous o,..4
cIfl ampas lngends. a "If you badf in Mary Sue's
l duno. 61%? «,, , o' toil shn s ours'uino",.
M
My ellow Americans listen up

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T he University supposedly prides itself on encouraging
campus diversity, but its policy on housing doesn't seem
to support this claim. But that soon could change. A recent
survey of campus community members showed support for the
creation of a gender-neutral housing option. If implemented by
University Housing, students living in residence halls will have
the option to choose the gender of their roommate, a long-awaited
opportunity for many students, particularly those who identify
as transgendered. And students have shown that they favor the
option. To acknowledge the needs - and wants - of students, the
University should offer gender-neutral housing.

The proposal for gender-neutral housing,
introduced to the University in April 2009,
was designed to create a housing option tar-
geted at transgender students. Currently,
the option is only offered on an individual
need basis. After much debate, the Univer-
sity gave students an opportunity to voice
their opinions through a survey conduct-
ed by the Gender Neutral Housing Coali-
tion. According to an Apr. 2 Daily report,
19 percent of the 9,545 students surveyed
responded. 19 percent of respondents did
not support the option. But 67 percent of
those who responded said that gender-neu-
tral housing "would bea welcome option for
the University Housing community." And
38 percent of those responses claimed that
they would choose gender-neutral housing
if given the option.
Students should be given more housing
choices. As the policy stands now, hous-
ing doesn't provide an appealing option for
transgender students. And many students
who feel that living with a member of the
opposite sex may be a better situation for
them don't have that option. By not having
the opportunity to select a gender-neutral
rooming assignment, the University is
indirectly discriminating against these
students. If approved, this change would
create a greater sense of acceptance and
ensure that all students were comfortable
with their living situation.
Gender-neutral housing has already

been implemented and shown to work well
at several institutions of higher learning
across the country. According to a Sept. 30
Daily article about the proposal, 36 colleg-
es, including Harvard University and Stan-
ford University, have provided students
with a gender-neutral housing option. Uni-
versity Housing Spokesman Peter Logan
told the Daily in September that he has
been in contact with many of these schools
in exploration of the option, but campus
hasn't seen the results of these talks yet.
Since many other universities have seen
success, there's no reason the University
should be lagging behind.
The results of the recent survey show
that the majority of respondents support
the enactment of a gender-neutral option
in student residential housing. The posi-
tive response reveals that the desire for
its creation spans further than just those
students who would chose the option.
Students on campus have demonstrated
that they support a more inclusive hous-
ing option. The University should realize
the significance of this response and make
gender-neutral housing available.
The limits of current roommate gender
choice are unsatisfactory for students, and
the survey has proven that the campus
community supports a change. The Uni-
versity should respond appropriately and
in a timely manner to provide students
with the option of gender-neutral housing.

L iberals and conservatives
alike can agree that President
Barack Obama has a lot on his
plate. Though his
office is the plum
of politics, there's
no one alive who
envies his work-
load. An economic
crisis, two wars,
global warm-
ing, vast income
inequality, lag-
ging public educa- MATTHEW
tion, the continued
threat of terrorism GREEN
and countless other
concerns. It's got to
make Obama wonder at least once in a
while why he schlepped Michelle and
the girls to Washington to take this
seemingly impossible job.
But while Obama continues to focus
on the chasm between Wall Street and
Main Street, or between Israelis and
Palestinians, I hope he won't ignore
the restless tenor of cultural conten-
tion between everyday Americans
as well. He should take note of the
increasingly bitter divide between
his party and the GOP, fueled by even
more bitter cable news networks
on both sides of the debate. And on
another front, I hope Obama recog-
nizes that many Americans don't seem
to differentiate between the words
"terrorism" and "Islam."
Equally important, Obama must
address the Tea Party movement,
though not necessarily by adopting
any tenet of their antithetical, loosely
assembled platform. Rather, when
the historic health bill neared its pas-
sage last month, I hope the president's
ears perked up during meetings with
dithering Democrats to hear Tea Par-
tiers hurling epithets at black and gay
members of Congress.
Yet more important than just taking
note of these cultural realities, I hope

he'll say something in response.
I hope all of the above because I
know it's that famous Obama hope
- the one that Americans met dur-
ing a campaign about bringing people
together - that will once again (or per-
haps for the first time) unify the coun-
try. He conveyed that hope by reaching
out and inspiring Americans through
his oratory. And that's exactly what he
should do now. He ought to call a press
conference, look into the camera and
say somethinglike this:
"My fellow Americans, you've got to
listen up. Because I've been listening to
you, and I've heard a whole lot of crazy
talk. And more than crazy talk, I've
heard a lot of unproductive talk. For
starters, let's get it resolved once and
for all that'Socialism' is not the same as
'Fascism.' In fact, they're pretty differ-
ent from one another. Those who favor
universal health care are really not
'fascists,' people. And for that matter, if
some of you stopped using 'Socialism'
as a reactionary buzzword, and stud-
ied it in a philosophical context, you
may realize it raises some pretty good
points. Just somethingto think about.
"Andyouknow, Iwasthinkingabout
that whole conversation in 2008 about
whether ornotIwas a Muslim, and I've
been thinking that I took the wrong
approach. It's true that I'm a Christian.
Most definitely. But I should've asked:
what if I were a Muslim? I've got to tell
you, if it weren't for American Mus-
lims in our military, particularly those
who've served as Arabic translators,
our efforts in the Middle East wouldn't
be worth anything whatsoever. Count-
less Muslims now join the ranks of his-
tory's great American patriots.
"Which brings me to another point
- not only can non-Christians or non-
whites illustrate true 'patriotism,' but
non-heterosexuals, too, can exhibit the
true spirit of America. I'm not saying
you guys need to change your religious
views, but everyone's got to accept that

gay people are here to stay. Someone is
gay like someone is Asian or has green
eyes. They can allitry to hide it, but they
shouldn't have to in America. It's time
to treat the gay community with as
much respect as anyone else.
SObama needs to
put a stop to all of
the crazy talk.
"That respect is the bottom line,
people. It's what we're missing across
the board. Here in Washington, liber-
als and conservatives need to respect
each other since both, like gay people,
are here to stay. As the greatest coun-
try in the world, every nation ought
to respect us - but we can't expect
them to until we make ourselves
respectable. Think about it, people.
And God bless America."
Yeah, in a perfect world, it might go
somethinglike that.
It's appropriate for a president,
especially one formerly on the faculty
of an esteemed university, to take a
moment to teach the country some-
thing important.
Presidents, we are taught in gram-
mar school, must wear a number of
hats while they're in office. But they
must never forget that the United
States is a nation of hard hats in addi-
tion to top hats; one of yarmulkes
and hijabs and turbans, too. We wear
graduation caps and hairnets, sailor
caps and sombreros. And as Obama
puts on his hat as our head of state,
the ceremonial head of one indivisible
nation, it's his duty to remind us that
that's exactly what we are.
- Matthew Green can be
reached at greenmat@umich.edu

EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS:
Nina Amilineni, Jordan Birnholtz, William Butler, Nicholas Clift, Michelle DeWitt,
Brian Flaherty, Jeremy Levy, Erika Mayer, Edward McPhee, Emily Orley, Harsha Panduranga,
Alex Schiff, Asa Smith, Brittany Smith, Robert Soave, Radhika Upadhyaya, Laura Veith
SEND LETTERS TO: TOTHEDAILY@UMICH.EDU
Campus-wide smoking ban used. Johnson & Johnson does not make any
Camp s-wie sm kingban prescription-only smoking-cessation products.
reflects what students want RobertW. Winfield, M.D.
University of Michigan Chief Health Officer
TO THE DAILY:
I'm writing today to correct some of the Attacks on Coleman and
faulty assumptions used by Daily columnists to smoking b unfounded
argue against the smoke-free campus initiative an are
(Coleman's smoking gun, 04/05/2010, Banned
discussion, 04/06/2010). TO THE DAILY:
The decision to make all three University
campuses smoke free by July 1, 2011, was made University President Mary Sue Coleman
by University President Mary Sue Coleman deserves nothing but respect and admiration for
and her executive officers based on a recom- her courageous stand in favor of public health
mendation from the University's chief health and against the tobacco industry. The desperate
officer - me. accusations of a conflict of interest, led by Rob-
I brought the idea of taking the entire cam- ert Soave's Tuesday column, are nothing more
pus smoke free to President Coleman after than the hopeless efforts of a raucous minority
students living in our residence halls brought (Coleman's smokinggun, 04/05/2010).
their concerns to me and an associate vice The fact is that Coleman is following over 260
president in the Division of Students Affairs. other campus communities with the ban, includ-
Students sought our help in finding a solution ing Ball State, Indiana, Iowa and Purdue. More
to the problem of smokers gathering outside importantly, there is absolutely no evidence that
residence hall entrances. the tobacco cessation products the University
Some students objected to walking through subsidizes will be Johnson & Johnson products.
smoke at the entrances. Others were con- To put it more simply, there has yet to be any real
cerned about smoke infiltrating rooms near evidence of a conflict of interest.
the entrances. The forces of dissent have frantically tried
After careful consideration for more than to make this initiative a referendum on Cole-
a year, we took a recommendation to Presi- man. Opponents fail to see what this initiative
dent Coleman and her executive officers. They is truly about: public health. Smoking not only
agreed to the smoke-free campus initiative and causes sickness and death to those who choose
they agreed to our suggestion of a two-year it, it also harms those who happen to be around.
implementation process. While damages due to second hand smoke in
Our primary motivation for implementing open air are small, a public university like ours
this policy is to take the university one more shouldn't accept any risk to innocent bystand-
step down the path of creating a healthier ers. That is why the co-chairs for the Smoke-
environment for everyone. We are now close Free Initiative are Kenneth Warner, the dean
to the point when we will receive recommen- of the School of Public Health, and Dr. Robert
dations on implementation from five separate Winfield, the director of University Health
subcommittees. Services. Those who study public health and
I also want to address the smoking-cessation medicine know that Coleman is making the
products that might be prescribed by Univer- right decision for public health.
sity physicians to help those students, faculty When I was seven, my grandmother died
or staff who choose to quit smoking. Some have from lung cancer, caused by smoking. Hopeful-
raised concern about the appearance of a con- ly, with leaders like Coleman, fewer children
flict of interest between President Coleman's will have to endure the heartache that so many
service on the board of directors of Johnson & of our generation have endured. At the very
Johnson, a company that produces some smok- least, we will be able to breathe easier when we
ing-cessation products. walk to class, literally.
Simply put, there is no conflict. Prescription-
only drugs for smoking cessation are generally Anthony Mariano
considered the most effective and most widely LSA senior

JOSH BUOY AND STEPHANIE HAMEL|I
Promoting fire safety awareness

On Saturday, Apr. 3, four fires were reported off cam-
pus within a span of 12 hours. The first, reported early
Saturday morning at 909 Church Street, consisted of
three burning cars and damaged the adjacent Abbey
apartment complex but resulted in no injured or dis-
placed residents. The second, a trash can fire on White
Street, occurred within the next few hours. The third
fire was initially reported as a burning trash bag on the
porch of 928 State Street early Saturday morning. The
fire spread to a sofa on the porch and quickly engulfed the
house in flames. Of the seven people in the building, three
were taken to the hospital due to injuries sustained while
escaping the house. One of the hospitalized residents -
Renden LeMasters, a 22-year-old Eastern Michigan Uni-
versity student - sadly passed away later that day. The
last reported fire involved a burning newspaper under-
neath the window of a house on the 700 block of Church
Street and occurred early Saturday afternoon.
As the chair and vice chair of the Michigan Student
Assembly Campus Safety Commission, it is our role to pro-
vide the student body with safety information relating to
all areas of on-campus and off-campus life. Our thoughts
and condolences go out to the LeMasters family during
this difficult time and we hope that such a tragedy can be
avoided in the future.
Having spoken with a number of students regarding Sat-
urday's fires, it is evident that many are concerned and are
looking for ways to prevent similar incidents in their own
homes. After meeting with the Department of Public Safety,
we wish to share some safety procedures regarding fire pre-
vention and suggested protocol in the event of a fire. As the
cause of each of Saturday's fires still remain unknown, it is
important to consider a variety of fire safety precautions.
Here are some ideas:
Try not to light fires outdoors. In the last month, state
and local officials advised not to burn anything outside. Due
to the recent heat wave and dry air, vegetation and wooden
structures are more susceptible to catching fire.
Be careful when you grill. With the weather improving
and more students using outdoor grills, it is important that
hot coals and ashes are extinguished and discarded safely.

Dispose of cigarette butts properly. Verify that all ciga-
rette butts are completely put out before disposing of them.
Also avoid flicking cigarette butts and smoking near flam-
mable structures and materials.
Don't leave trash lying around. Garbage can easily catch
fire, soitshould always be fullycontainedintrashcansasafe
distance away from buildings.
Consider the risk of having a sofa on your porch.
Although there is currently no city ordinance banning
upholstered furniture on porches, DPS advises against
keeping sofas, armchairs and other upholstery outdoors
due to their flammable nature.
Have an evacuation plan. Know the exits in your build-
ing and prepare a back-up plan in case flames block usual
escape routes. Hold practice fire drills to make sure all
residents know how to get out safely.
Keep escape routes clear. Ensure that doorways and win-
dows are not blocked and avoid putting large objects in hall-
ways because they can impede your exit in the case of a fire.
Check your smoke detectors. Verify that there is at least
one smoke detector and carbon monoxide detector on each
floor of your home. Test the devices often to find out if the
batteries are working. Be sure to leave all smoke detectors
uncovered, plugged in and turned on.
In the case of a fire, it is essential to act quickly and
decisively. If you smell smoke and are unsure of its source,
immediately evacuate the buildingyou are in and informthe
police or fire department of the situation. Also, always trust
your smoke detectors - never presume that a fire drill is
taking place or that the alarm is malfunctioning. This advice
may seem obvious and redundant, as we have all heard fire
safety tips countless times since childhood, yet in light of
Saturday's tragic events, we are reminded that it is better to
be proactive than reactive when dealing with fire.
As always, if you note any suspicious behavior on cam-
pus, contact DPS at (734) 763-1131. For suspicious behavior
off campus, contact the Ann Arbor Police Department Tip *
Line at (734) 794-6939. For all emergencies, dial 9-1-L
Josh Buoy and Stephanie Hamel are the chair and
vice chair of the MSA Campus Safety Commission.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR:
Readers are encouraged to submit letters to the editor. Letters should be fewer than 300 words and
must include the writer's full name and University affiliation. All submissions become property of the Daily.
.We do not print anonymous letters. Send letters to tothedaily@umich.edu.

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