4 - Tuesday, November 23, 2010 The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com E-MAIL ELAINE AT EMORT@O)UMICH.EDU C ii t 1 pan iai Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan since 1890. 420 Maynard St. Ann Arbor, MI 48109 tothedaily@umich.edu ELAINE MORTON X~k1OKv K 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. A safety check for DPS University needs to review campus trespass policy J tcan be difficult for the University to maintain a balance between protecting students and abusing power. This can become particularly complicated when political protests cross into disruptive or threatening behavior. Recently, the Uni- versity has been criticized for its trespass policy - especially in regard to the Andrew Shirvell case. The American Civil Liber- ties Union of Michigan has questioned the constitutionality and implementation of the University's policy. While the power to issue trespass orders is an essential tool for keeping students safe, the University's Department of Public Safety must re-evaluate its trespass policy to avoid giving DPS excessive power. North Quad's blemishes On Sept. 14, former Michigan assistant attorney general Andrew Shirvell was issued a trespass order that banned him from campus in response to behavior that DPS considered threatening to Michigan Student Assembly President Chris Arm- strong. Earlier this month, the order was modified to allow Shirvell on campus except for at events at which Armstrong is likely to be present. Last week, the undergradu- ate chapter of the ACLU here on campus suggested that the trespass order threat- ens Shirvell's First Amendment rights and asked the University to modify the policy. Shortly thereafter, the ACLU of Michi- gan said it was looking into the policy and is considering filing a lawsuit. University President Mary Sue Coleman told the Daily last week that it would be "appropriate" for the office of General Council to examine the policy to determine if it needs revision. The ACLU's requestto reconsider the tres- pass policy seems sensible - but its request to have Shirvell's trespass warning reviewed or revoked is unwarranted. Shirvell's increasingly extreme behavior this summer - includingshowingup at events Armstrong was attending and even showing up outside Armstrong's house - justifies the trespass order. The modifications made to the order in early November are adequate to allow Shirvell on campus grounds while continu- ing to protect Armstrong. There is merit to the ACLU's claim that the University's trespass policy gives too much power to individual DPS officers and lacks an appropriate appeal process. Currently, the University's trespass policy allows all 56 DPS officers to issue a trespass warning at their discretion, which gives a fair amount of power to a lot of people, increasing the likelihood that it could be misused. Additionally, the warnings are lifetime bans. At Eastern Michigan Univer- sity, bans expire after one year. A one-year ban on Shirvell would be sufficient to pro- tect Armstrong, who is expected to gradu- ate in April. And only DPS Director Ken Magee has the power to overturn a trespass order. Those who wish to appeal a trespass order must meet personally with Magee to argue their case. While Magee has dealt appro- priately with the Shirvell order, there is no guarantee that future directors will show proper discretion. And the director of DPS isn't a disinterested third party. Though there's no evidence that Magee has acted inappropriately, it's concerning that there is clearly the opportunity to do so. The power to revise orders should be entrusted to the Department of Public Safety Oversight Committee, an impartial body that can make an objective decision. The ability to enact trespass orders is important to protect students and other members of the University community - but it shouldn't be abused. DPS must revise its trespass policy to ensure that orders are issued only for appropriate reasons. I f you've passed by North Quad or if you've spent a couple min- utes perusing its grounds, you were probably impressed. This is a completely normal reaction, I assure you. But after liv- ing there for the past three months, I've got to tell you that North Quad is hardly the resi- dential paradise MATTHEW you might imagine from a quick walk GREEN through its halls of _ faux marble. To be sure, it starts out great. You walk into this beautiful new building and you can't help but admire the delicately placed wood paneling and crown molding above. From sweeping windows, you take in a grand view of the "collegiate gothic" architecture as you look out into an impressive courtyard, replete with a colonnade and arched entry- ways. But soon you'll notice - as you begin to text your friends about the building's perfectly placed study spots - that you're probably out of cell reception. Indeed, this is just the beginning. By this point, North Quad has you in its snare. If you're hungry and you have a meal plan, you might think you want to try out the cafeteria. After all, you've probably heard fantastical sto- ries about the food there, but be fore- warned. The dining hall will woo you with vaulted ceilings, chandeliers and a gourmet menu touting shark, sushi and creative tofu dishes. And admit- tedly, the food itself is pretty good. But the portions! Oy. If you enjoy a dish (perhaps a nice Midori vegetable med- ley) you'll probably have to go up two or three times - and then wait in line - in order to get a satisfying amount of food. Sure, no one's stopping you from going back to get as much as you want, but the crowded room will make doing so a real pain. of course, that's the real problem about dining in North Quad - the crowd. If you're hoping to find a table for four at lunch or dinnertime, you may have to wait a while to find a comfortable spot to enjoy that rack of lamb. There's clearly nothing anyone can do about the limitation of physi- cal space in the dining hall, but per- haps if its hours of operation were extended past the current impossibly short window of time, the bottleneck may ease up a bit. As of right now, the cafeteria is open for lunch from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. and for dinner from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. - and only on week- days. For less congestion, University Housing ought to consider extend- ing the hours to go continuously from lunch through dinner. That's what East and South Quads do, and it seems to work swimmingly. And if you want breakfast during the week, you'd better have blue bucks or dining dollars to pay for the a la carte menu. This, too, is a despicable fact of life in North Quad. Diners in its state-of-the-art cafeteria deserve the same breakfast opportunities as their counterparts in other dining halls. How can North Quad residents go on to cure cancer or win a Pulitzer Prize if their meal plan doesn't allow them to conveniently eat the most impor- tant meal of the day? But I digress. While food may be the first thing on my mind, one could argue that the real North Quad expe- rience is upstairs - where residents actually live. So how about those top seven floors? Apart from the pleasant color schemes and mod furniture in the study lounges, the rooms them- selves aren't all that different from those in older dorms. My single room, at least, is almost identical to my pre- vious single in East Quad, but with none of the charm. And the closet space is practically nil. At first I was thrilled to see that with new lighting technology, the rooms and hallways in North Quad at least have the illusion of conserv- ing energy. But when you take into account that there are two plasma screen televisions on every floor - one of which is on at all times to showcase the North Quad Twitter feed - you realize that this commitment to ener- gy conservation is only half-hearted. And though two of the University's recent building projects have LEED certification, North Quad isn't among them. To be fair, many components of the building - from water flow controls to maximal insulation to the heating system - are all reportedly eco-friendly. But with a price tag of $175 million, the University could've sprung for the qualifications neces- sary for all-out LEED certification. This new dorm isn't the paradise you might think. Surely, North Quad has its merits. But when everyone on campus is rav- ing about it, I can't help but point out its imperfections. As I always say, it may have dual flush toilets, but its toi- let paper is as coarse as ever. I know you know what I'm talking about. Needless to say, the University's lat- est residence hall doesn't sit well with me. And, clearly, that's not just because of the toilet paper. Matthew Green can be reached at greenmat@umich.edu. 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. 0 EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS: Aida Ali, Jordan Birnholtz, Will Butler, Eaghan Davis, Michelle DeWitt, Ashley Griesshammer, Will Grundler, Jeremy Levy, Erika Mayer, Harsha Nahata, Emily Orley, Harsha Panduranga, Teddy Papes, Tommaso Pavone, Leah Potkin, Roger Sauerhaft, Asa Smith, Julian Toles, Laura Veith, Andrew Weiner ASHLEY GRIESSHAMMER I Re-work registration rules Pursuing the semester's theme It's thattime of year again: Students are antici- pating Thanksgiving break and finals are loom- ing in the distance. With this comes registering for classes for Winter2011, an exciting process as the University offers a wide range of classes. But for some of us - like me - registration can be a terribly stressful time. Before the option of backpacking even opened, I was already thinking of what classes I wanted to take. Since this is the last semester during which I will have the opportunity to take first- year seminars, my tentative schedule includes at leastone - and hopefullytwo -of them.So when backpacking began on Nov. 15,I was ready at my computer to pick my classes. Since I had already gone through the course guide and crafted a per- fect schedule, I was ready to backpack as soon as it went live. But then I remembered I needed to check my registration date. At that point, I found that I will not be registering until Dec. 13 - one of the latest possible days. I was furious as I saw my perfect semester start to slip away. I didn't understand why I was in one of the worst situations possible. As a freshman, I have only backpacked and registered for classes once before and that was at orientation. At ori- entation, you register the d'ay after you back- pack, so you know exactly what your schedule will be. Later, I was informed that registration dates were determined by the amount of cred- its a student has. So a senior would have an ear- lier registration date than a freshman - which I'm fine with. They should have priority. But what I didn't understand was why one of my close friends - also a freshman - had a reg- istration date almost two weeks before mine. I then learned that Advanced Placement credits were the determining factor. But as freshmen, we're all relatively in the same boat and no one has really had the oppor- tunity to establish themselves here on campus. I don't think that using AP credits as a way of determining registration dates is fair. I understand that some people come in with many AP credits - and that's great for them. But some of us aren't that lucky. As a student from a very small high school (only 97 students in my graduating class), we were only offered a small number of AP classes. So I had fewer opportunities to earn AP credits than my peers from larger high schools. I don't think students like me who didn't have the chance to take as many AP classes should be punished when it comes to registering for classes. Aside from the AP credits, there's also the issue of student-athletes. In a Daily article from November 2008, it was reported that "athletes will receive priority over non-ath- letes when registering for classes." Athletic officials backed up their policy by saying that athletes typically travel on Fridays and there- fore need to be able to schedule classes around travel times. I agree that it can be more diffi- cult for an athlete to craft a schedule because they want to miss as little class as possible, but it's completely unnecessary for them to have the first registration dates. In my opinion, it's not difficult to find a schedule that would allow you to not have class of Fridays. So between the student-athletes - which I'm not - and the people with a ridiculous amount of AP credits - which I don't have - I'm stuck with a poor registration date. I may sound like I'm just complaining because I have a late date, but there are other students in the same situation as me. We all pay to attend the University, and we should all be given an equal chance to get the education we want. The Uni- versity needs to implement a better way of assigning registration dates. Ashley Griesshammer is an SA freshman. uring my first few days back on campus at the end of August, the banners adorning South University made my flutter- ing back-to-school butterflies feel a bit heavy. Univer- sity students and- Olympic ice danc- ers Meryl Davis and Charlie White smiled down at me wearing tee-shirts LIBBY that bore the Uni- versity's fall 2010 ASHTON semester theme: "What makes life worth living?" And in that moment, I was reminded of my purpose at the University, which is to find my own answer to that question. I can't remember being aware that the University had semester themes before this one. Perhaps I was pre- sented with them but didn't register their weight because they weren't as jarring - neither in meaning nor in structure - as this one. Examples of past and upcoming theme semester titles include "The Universe: Yours to Discover" (Winter 2009), "Meaning- ful Objects: Museums in the Acad- emy" (Fall 2009 and Winter 2010) and "Water" (Winter 2011). These are simple declarations of things that exist and the implication that the University intends to spend the semester learning more about their significance. But this semester, the theme is an entirely different form. By posing a question to students, it reaches out and grabs at our cores as conscious, rational beings. Mere comprehension of the question makes us vulnerable to its power - the source of which is the possibility that we won't be able to answer it. This semester's theme, unlike any other, pulls us into an existential debate with ourselves, even if just for a moment. Psychology Prof. Christopher Peterson and Director of the Uni- versity's Center for Ethics in Public Life John Chamberlin, the professors responsible for organizing the semes- ter theme "What Makes Life Worth Living?," set out to engage us in a pos- itive search for our own answers. In an e-mail interview, Chamberlin said that the theme's structure as a ques- tion "provides an active prompt to an individual to think about what makes life meaningful for her/him." This exploration, he thinks, is essential to a liberal arts education and often doesn't receive enough engagement in our curriculum. Peterson, who came up with the idea for this semester's theme, said in an e-mail interview that the question "has been, is, and will be important." He said his career as a positive psy- chologist is defined as "the scientific study of what makes life worth living." The question is central to both Cham- berlin's and Peterson's professional lives. Their work to make it a Univer- sity-wide focus this semester reminds us of its centrality to our own lives. It seems strange that we would need to be reminded to think about the reasons behind our walking these streets, writing papers and maintain- ing relationships. As beings whose capacity to question makes us dis- tinct, I'd think we wouldn't lose sight of the most fundamental question we could ask: Why are we? Though it may be a contradiction, people - and the institutions they comprise - are often lost in the muck that distracts from considering the meaning of life. Governments around the world have mistaken measures of wealth and power to be synonymous with measures of happiness. And, in doing so, have faulted on their commitment to their peoples' pursuits of happiness. A British daily newspaper, The Guard- ian, recently ran an article announc- ing the United Kingdom's plans to begin measuring the happiness of its citizens in an effort to ensure that Britain's general well-being is "at the heart of future government pol- icy-making." According the article, "France and Canada are looking at similar initiatives as governments around the world come under pres- sure to put less store on conventional economic measures of prosperity such as gross domestic product." Britain plans to measure happiness by gathering information on "subjec- tive well-being" and an "objective sense of how well they are achieving their 'life goals."'While the intentions of the British government certainly seem to be nobly in the interest of its citizens, how can they be sure that their citizens' "life goals" are any less misguided than the government's pri- oritization of the GDP? As Peterson pointed out, there's a scientific field of study dedicated to discerning what makes our lives worth living. It's likely that many of us don't always live in the interest of our happiness. We're distracted from considering the meaning of life. The answers to the semester's theme "What makes life worth liv- ing?" are as important to discover as they are elusive. The answer depends on the individual, making it impera- tive that each person works to dis- cover the meaning of her or his own life so as never to forget that such a meaning exists. This column alone isn't long enough to highlight any especially resonant declarations of life's meaning. In my next column, I'll attempt to (modestly) substanti- ate the meaning of life by exploring how various individuals, fields and disciplines answer the question. But until then - and even after - explore the question yourself. - Libby Ashton can be reached at eashton@umich.edu.