4A - Monday, October 11, 2010

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SIMON BORST


4

JACOB SMILOVITZ
EDITOR IN CHIEF

RACHEL VAN GILDER
EDITORIAL PAGE EDITOR

MATT AARONSON
MANAGING EDITOR

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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.
A rebound for Detroit
Chance of new arena should prompt Pistons's move
A s owners of the Red Wings and Tigers, Mike and
Marian Illitch control a 50-percent share of Detroit's
professional sports teams. Now, the Illitch family is
on its way to owning another of Detroit's big-name teams -
the Pistons. Mike Illitch is in negotiations to buy the Pistons.
He has also discussed obtaining tax incentives and funding
for the construction of a new Pistons venue downtown with
Detroit Mayor Dave Bing. Though moving the Pistons back
to Detroit would certainly aid the local economy, the city's
$85-million budget deficit is a considerable obstacle. If the
funding for the transition is handled responsibly, the Pis-
tons should move back to downtown Detroit.


0

Debate to educate

On Tuesday, multiple news outlets report-
ed that current Pistons owner Karen David-
son has decided to exclusively offer Illitch
30 days to make a bid on the team. A pur-
chase by Illitch, in conjunction with the
move back to Detroit, has the potential to
result in the construction of a joint venue
downtown to house the Pistons and the Red
Wings. Illitch has worked with Detroit in
the past to build sporting venues. In 2000,
he was involved in the construction of the
Tiger's Comerica Park, which cost a total
of $300 million to build - $115 million of
which was publicly funded, according to a
2006 Daily article.
A major roadblock in this new project
is whether or not Detroit can afford to
import the team. The city would have to
fund a large portion of any efforts to build
a new stadium, as well as negotiate tax
cuts and incentives at the expense of the
city's budget. With the budget's already
significant deficit in mind, Bing has stated
that the city may not be in the position to
offer Illitch any incentives, accordingto an
Oct. 5 USA Today article.
But the city could certainly use the extra
revenue. Detroit's ailing economy has
become an old story. Bringing the Pistons

back to the center of the city could help to
breathe new life into the struggling metrop-
olis. Building the new venue would also
provide employment for contractors and
construction companies. The Pistons have
led the NBA in attendance five out of the
last nine seasons, accordingto their website.
The new venue would create increased rev-
enue for surrounding businesses and pro-
vide jobs for local residents. Fans attending
games at a downtown arena would patron-
ize area bars, restaurants, gas stations and
hotels, among other businesses.
Should the plan for a new Pistons
venue downtown come to fruition, Illitch
shouldn't let the Palace become an eco-
nomic drain on Auburn Hills. Ideally,
Illitch would be able to unload the venue
to prospective buyers or keep it alive for
concerts and other performances.
Detroit would be a winner if all goes as
planned. Illitch has a proven track record
as a successful businessman and, more
importantly, as a successful Detroit sports
team owner. The remaining question is
whether city's government could afford
the move. But it's clear that the Detroit 'is-
tons should move back to the city that they
are named for.

Y esterday, an epic saga came to could only hurt his lead.
an end. Republican gubernato- Though I recognize that holding a
rial candidate Rick Snyder and debatemaynothavebeenthebestdeci-
Democratic candi- sion from a campaign-management
date Virg Bernero point of view, I'm glad that Snyder and
finally faced off in a Bernero got to face off. Debates can be
debate. boring - especially to college students
Okay, the saga butthey're important.
wasn't that epic. I don't think that debates are
But it was quite a important for the same reason that a
journey to get Sny- lot of people do - I don't think that
der-anAnnArbor they actually help people make up
businessman and their minds. They may occasionally
University alum - RACHEL be the tipping factor for undecided
and Bernero - the voters, but I think that, for the most
mayor of Lansing part, people already know who's
- to the debate going to get their vote when they sit
they participated down to watch the debate on TV.
in last night at a Detroit Public Tele- Instead, the value of these debates
vision studio. is that they inform voters about the
Snyder initially rejected Bernero's nuances of the state's problems and
requests for a debate. Negotiations the candidate's solutions. These can-
stalled after the number and type of didates don'thave the time in al-min-
debates was disputed by Snyder. But ute TV ad to explain their stance on
Bernero was persistent. He resorted the economy. And the chances of
to a bit of name-calling and eventu- voters actually reading through the
ally showed up unannounced at a huge chunks of text on candidates'
town hall meeting Synder was hold- websites to learn about tax breaks are
ing on Sept. 13. Snyder, unable to tell slim to none. But at a debate, viewers
Bernero to buzz off without looking can get a concise description of can-
really bad, invited Bernero on stage didates' plans that are easy to under-
to hold an impromptu debate. Shortly stand and help them learn about the
thereafter, the two finally hammered problems and possible solutions. And
out a deal to hold a formal, televised if candidates manage to strike a chord
debate. In all likelihood, this will be with voters during these debates,
the only public debate the two have. maybe those websites will see a bit
It's no surprise that Bernero pushed more traffic.
so hard for a debate - or that Snyder The problem with these sorts of
seemed reluctant. Bernero has trailed political debates is that they almost
in the polls since he won the primary always turn into a whole lot of mud-
election in August and he needs to get slinging. Candidates shoot poorly-
his face and plan out to more voters. veiled barbs at one another, trying
Meanwhile, Snyder's "Nerd" cam- to convince voters that their oppo-
paign has paid off well. People know nent is either a) a horrible person, b)
his name, and things are looking pret- incompetent or c) corrupt. Instead of
ty good for him - he's still ahead by a frank discussion about how to deal
about 20 points in the polls, according with the state's problems, debates are
to a Sunday Detroit Free Press article. always layered with competitive sub-
He probably figured that any debate text. But I suppose that's unavoidable

in the context of elections. Candi-
dates need to make themselves seem
better than their opponents to garner
votes if they want to win. But that
imperative makes people miss out on
the value of real discussion.
Healthy discourse
is needed to move
society forward.
As editorial page editor of the
Daily, I love informed discussion. I
thrive on it. I believe in an individu-
al's right to express an opinion (let's
all take a moment to appreciate the
First Amendment) and the respon-
sibility to listen to another's point
of view and consider what they have
to say. You don't have to agree with
someone with an opposing point of
view, but a diverse set of thoughts
will help you refine your own opin-
ions. That's one of the reasons that I
- a conservative - can handle work-
ing at a traditionally liberal newspa-
per. It's also why I value responsive
content like viewpoints and letters to
the editor, which encourage thought-
ful debate on campus.
As usual, both candidates implied
negative things about their oppo-
nent at last night's debate - Bernero
wasted no time in stating that Sny-
der was nowhere to be found when
the automotive industry fell. But we
also learned about the candidates and
their plans to fix Michigan. And the
education is what makes that debate
worth the time.
- Rachel Van Gilder can be
reached at rachelvg@umich.edu.

BRITTANY SMITH I
Closing the education gap

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. Letters are edited
for clarity, length and factual accuracy. All submissions become property of the Daily.
We do not print anonymous letters. Send letters to tothedaily@umich.edu.

What evolved as a dream for a group of stu-
dents in 1995 has today catapulted into a move-
ment for thousands of others. In the fashion of
great activists, children of the Freedom Move-
ment and students from Sam Brinkley Middle
School in Jackson, Mississippi organized them-
selves to help create a world of which they
would want to bea part.
These budding activists are helping to cre-
ate a society in which students of working class
families receive an exemplary education rather
than merely a "fair" one. Together, Taba and
Omo Moses - Civil Rights leaders and current
Harvard Professor Bob Moses' children - and
Khari Milner partnered with Brinkley Middle
School to create The Young People's Project.
The Young People's Project was crafted
from the belief that math literacy could impact
social change. In the United States, haves and
have-nots are often distinguished by their
quality of education. YPP was founded with
the conviction that the only way to minimize
this country's socio-economic disparity is to
challenge the achievement gap - specifically
in mathematics.
Solving the education conundrum is on the
YPP national agenda. But education problems
are also local, and can be confronted when
students have a shared interest in education
reform. Students from the University's Ann
Arbor and Dearborn campuses co-exist within
YPP's organizational framework, which also
includes Eastern Michigan University movers
and shakers like Morghan Williams. The coali-
tion also includes students like Khalid Sarsour
- former Lincoln High School Math literacy
worker and current student at the University
of Michigan's Dearborn campus - and the Uni-
versity at Ann Arbor student leaders like Natalie
Erb and Jacob Tanner.
Though the Ann Arbor site of YPP is cur-
rently undergoing dramatic financial budget
cuts, this setback hasn't decreased members'
optimism. Instead, it has created greater pos-
sibility for growth.
The cuts that YPP has experienced have
affected such schools as Lincoln High School

in Ypsilanti and Cesar Chavez Academy High
School in Detroit, where YPP sites no longer
exist. But the spirit of YPP is very much alive in
the Ypsilanti community and the lives of Lin-
coln High School students. According to the
Ann Arbor interim program director, Alexandra
Tracy, high school students like Nana Nyarko,
Nikita Miner, Aysha Williams and Amber Cobbs
are emerging activists. They are working inde-
pendently and with YPP's College Math Liter-
acy Workers to increase funding for sites that
have lost sponsorship. Under the guidance of
Sarsour, these students even formed their own
YPP club, meeting without former YPP staff.
By being plugged into the Detroit and Ann
Arbor-Ypsilanti communities, YPP is not only
changing the expectations of math achievement
for high school and middle school students, but
also cultivating power within the neighbor-
hoods and student communities around the
University of Michigan, Eastern Michigan Uni-
versity and Washtenaw Community College.
The idea is to increase the involvement of col-
lege students in the Flint and Detroit areas, like
those attending Wayne State University and the
University of Michigan's Flint campus.
I'm confident that YPP will eventually
receive the financial backing it needs to con-
tinue to foster visible growth in secondary
education because of its ability to build a coali-
tion by tapping into the community power at
the local level.
The only thing interfering with the students
disadvantaged by this country's wide-spread
achievement gap is their quality of learning.
YPP is challenging this problem by making use
of a child's potential at the grassroots level.
The Young People's Project is important to
the social progress of this country. This orga-
nization has created an alternative approach
for the academic inequalities of this country.
Its method is not slanted by the views of the left
or right wing. However, they are motivated by
the effects of social exclusion, which lend to an
unequal public school education.
Brittany Smith is an LSA junior.

The accidental boom?

Feeling drunk, tired, sleepy and
jilted, a young college student
decided to blog about it.
He was imma-
ture and said some
silly things about
the girl who broke
his heart ("All B-U
girls are bitches.").
But from that mad
moment, Mark
Zuckerberg was
well on his way to
founding Facebook, IMRAN
the $25-billion SYED
company that we
can't imagine being
without. (I under-
stand that this story, as told in the film
"The Social Network," is fictionalized
at every turn. But that makes no differ-
ence atthe moment)
When a friend ventured that the
Facebook idea could be worth big
money, Zuckerberg simply shrugged
it off, saying he was content with
building something cool. From Zuck-
erberg's timeless accident, we can
gather that even big, world-changing
things don't always announce their
arrival. Faith is essential on the road
to accomplishment.
Innovation for innovation's sake
isn't only a good idea, but in some
cases, it's also the only way forward.
We won't always see how our efforts
today will pay off in the future, but
we can rest assured that progress
today is better than sitting idly by and
waiting for a miracle.
This is something Michigan's law-
makers seem to have forgotten.
Four years ago, Michigan's three
largest research universities - the
University of Michigan, Michigan
State University and Wayne State Uni-
versity - united to create the Universi-
ty Research Corridor. From the outset,
the URC was more of an idea than any-
thing tangible. The three universities
always have and always will conduct
world-class research on a vast array of

subjects, but this union allowed them
to officially stand together.
The bargaining advantage that
unity brings matters because the three
universities of the URC want more
money from the state. As University
President Mary Sue Coleman told the
state House Appropriations Subcom-
mittee on Higher Education earlier
this year: "If we had more resources,
we could do more and do it faster."
State lawmakers remain skeptical
though, and that's no surprise, given
Michigan's rich heritage of under-
funding its public universities.
To the average state lawmaker,
increasing funding to state universi-
ties in a time of such financial hardship
would take an immense leap of faith.
The URC universities have continued
to provide world-class educations to
thousands of students and conduct cut-
ting-edge research, but can the state
really afford toinvest more?
It's a dilemma not unlike the one
early investors in the Facebook idea
struggled with. The social network-
ing site was taking off and seemed to
have a good following on Ivy-League
campuses, but was it really an Earth-
shattering event waiting to happen?
Could Facebook really go from a
fun distraction for college nerds to
something the world would embrace
as an essential part of personal inter-
action? They simply couldn't have
known. Investors just had to look at
the 20-year-old Harvard dropout
across the table from them and trust
that he was building the next big
thing - a thing their old minds would
never understand.
With political diatribes and misin-
formation swirling in the lead-up to
the November election, there is plenty
of talk about cutting costs. Like always,
certain lawmakers find it easy to score
a point with the base by contending
that universities are wasteful and train
mostly students who bolt from Michi-
gan the momentthey graduate. But this
type of talk is useless.

Clearly something is broken in
Michigan, and years of siphoning
funds away from universities hasn't
exactly turned things around. Michi-
gan lawmakers failed to take the leap
of faith at every turn in recent decades,
and the innovation boom came instead
to places like California and Mas-
sachusetts, while Michigan fell into
ruin. But it's not too late.

01

The URC is an
investment worthy
of our attention. 0
As stated in an economic report
released last week, the URC three
have contributed $14.8 billion to the
state's economy since 2007. At a time
when so many of the state's other,
desperate attempts at revival are fail-
ing, the three research universities
have brought money and activity to
this state and that has begun the turn-
around even while state lawmakers sit
on their hands.
Investing in this fledgling thing
called the URC is almost a no-brainer
at this point, given that we've already
begun to see results. Business people
in the know (California venture capi-
talist Tom Baruch, for example) are
already talking: Michigan is a place
to watch. We don't feel it yet, but S
efforts like the one research universi-
ties have made alone for the past few
decades are about to pay off.
We've built something here and
don't even know it: With any luck,
Michigan could emerge from its hang-
over smarter, stronger and wealthier.
The sooner state lawmakers jump on 0
board, the better.
- Imran Syed can be reached
at galad@umich.edu.

EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS:
Aida Ali, Jordan Birnholtz, Adrianna Bojrab, Will Butler, Eaghan Davis, Michelle DeWitt.
Ashley Griesshammer, Will Grundler, Jeremy Levy, Erika Mayer, Harsha Nahata, Emily Orley,
Harsha Panduranga, Tommaso Pavone, Leah Potkin, Asa Smith, Laura Veith

i