4 - Tuesday, November 30, 2010 The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com E-IAIL ELAINE AT EMORT@UMICH.EDU Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan since 1890. 420 Maynard St. Ann Arbor, MI 48109 tothedaily@umich.edu ELAINE MORTON JACOB SMILOVITZ EDITOR IN CHIEF RACHEL VAN GILDER EDITORIAL PAGE EDITOR MATT AARONSON MANAGING EDITOR Off-track transportation I I 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. In sync with students Campus should use new online writing resource f he Sweetland Writing Center has always been a useful resource for students. But a new Sweetland service may increase the number of students who know and love the center. At the beginning of the semester, Sweetland expanded its online services to allow for more personal interaction between stu- dents and peer tutors through a new branch of its Online Writing Lab - OWL - called SyncOWL. This useful resource will allow students to receive help remotely, interactively and at their conve- nience. Sweetland should continue to improve its online services. At the same time, students should take advantage of the resources offered to them. The purpose of SyncOWL is to help stu- dents receive peer tutoring on their writ- ingvia web conferences. The program uses Google Docs so students and tutors are able to view the student's work at the same time and communicate via text, audio or video. SyncOWL incorporates an interac- tive element into the online tutoring ses- sion. In a Nov. 23 Daily article, Anne Gere, director of the Sweetland Writing Center, described SyncOWL as a part of a series of efforts to integrate media and writing. Sweetland helps students understand assignments and develop their ideas coher- ently in essays and other kinds of writing. Peer tutors provide students another set of eyes that can help students catch mistakes or focus their ideas better. This can be especially beneficial to younger students who are nervous about approaching pro- fessors and new to the demands of college- level writing. The current OWL system extended the low-stress interaction that students got at the writing center to the ease of the Internet. But the OWL - as easy and useful as :it is - didn't allow any personal interac- tion between student and tutor. Respons- es were limited to a list of comments and notes on a PDF, which restricted the back- and-forth that often makes tutoring most valuable. SnycOWL will add that conver- sation to the convenience that students get with the OWL. One of the greatest things about SyncO- WL is that it's easy to use. Any University student with a Google account - which anyone can sign up for free of charge - can get help editing an essay from the peer tutors at Sweetland through SyncOWL. And SyncOWL was cheap, too. The system was easy to implement and doesn't require upkeep from the University's IT Services because it's run on Google Docs, which is maintained by Google. But SyncOWL shouldn't be a standalone achievement. Rather, it should mark the beginning of further additions that build upon existing resources to help students get assistance on individual assignments and learn how to improve their writing over time. Sweetland and other University pro- grams should continue to make a variety of online resources available to students. SyncOWL is an efficient and cost-effec- tive academic service that makes it pos- sible for students to get help with their writing wherever they have access to the Internet. But unless students actually use SyncOWL, it won't reach its full potential. Students should log on to the site and take advantage of the resource. ver Thanksgiving, I drove Obama stimulus package contained to Milwaukee. I had a great funds to ease bottlenecks on the Wol- weekend, except for all the verine line and improve signaling. driving I had to Soon, it will be able to travel at 110 do - or rather I mph instead of its current 79, which should say, all the will make it even more competitive. sitting in traffic. Finally, it's not like driving always Last Wednes- gets you there on time - as the two- day, as I sat fum- hour traffic jam in downtown Chi- ing on the Dan cago last Wednesday demonstrated. Ryan Expressway So why isn't there a passenger rail in Chicago, which,] service to Madison? had cleverly been Two Wisconsin politicians, disguised as a PATRICK Democrat Herb Kohl and Republi- 16-lane parking can Tommy Thompson, have been lot,Ipondered why pushing strenuously for it since the we can't seem to mid-1990s. This year, passenger rail muster the politi- seemed to become a reality with the cal will to develop decent passenger promise of an $810-million federal rail transportation in this country. grant from the stimulus. The grant Frankly, it's an embarrassment. would have started service from Mil- When I visit my sister in Milwau- waukee to Madison by 2013. kee, I usually take Amtrak. The prob- Then, Wisconsin Governor-elect lem this time was that I also wanted Scott Walker said he didn't want to go to Madison, which is home to the money. He reasoned the state two dear friends from college, their couldn't afford the annual $7.5 mil- new baby boy and beer in the Uni- lion in operating costs, despite state versity of Wisconsin student union - officials saying the federal govern- but there is no passenger rail service ment could pick up 90 percent of that from Milwaukee to Madison. cost. That would leave the state with Traveling to Milwaukee on Amtrak annual operating costs of $750,000, costs me about $160 round trip. That according to a Nov. 21 story in the sounds like a lot of money. But trav- Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. eling by car isn't free either. I spent Let's see: Walker wants to turn about $90 on gas and $15 in tolls get- down an $810-million federal grant ting from Ann Arbor to Milwaukee and nearly $7 million in annual fed- and home again. And I drive a com- eral funds because his state can't pact car that gets about 30 mpg. afford a mere $750,000 in annual Gasoline isn't the only cost of car subsidies. That sounds crazy - dou- travel, however. While I'm driving, I bly so because $750,000 represents can't nap, grade papers or write a col- only about .05 percent of the state's umn - all of which I have done while 2010 general fund revenues of $13.2 taking Amtrak's Wolverine line from billion. It's not like there's a lot of Ann Arbor to Chicago. savings to be had by canceling the The Wolverine is often delayed. program. But that's because freight trains Apparently Walker dislikes the idea have the right-of-way on Michigan's that any public subsidiesgo to freeload- tracks. The Hiawatha passenger rail ers like me who want to ride a train. service from Chicago to Milwaukee But drivers get subsidies too. On runs on tracks owned by Amtrak, so my trip from Ann Arbor to Madison, it never has to wait for freight traffic I only paid about $15 in tolls - none to pass and is always on time. But the of which were paid in Wisconsin and Michigan. Yet, it costs a lot of money to repair the highways, maintain sig- nage and pay the state police to patrol the roads. That money comes primar- ily from taxpayers - not tolls. Why should drivers get subsidized when train passengers don't? Why should I have to pay for every penny of the cost of my rail ticket when we don't tell drivers to personally pay for the snowplows that clear I-94 every winter? Railway systems in the U.S. are an embarrassment. Finally, investing in railways cre- ates jobs. According the Journal- Sentinel, the rail-car manufacturer Talgo recently opened a facility that employs 125 workers in Milwaukee. If the Madison rail project dries up, Talgo has said it would consider mov- ing its plant. That's probably not what Wisconsin voters wanted when they put Walker in office to create jobs. Perhaps Walker will reverse his poor decision, but if he doesn't, hope- fully Michigan Governor-elect and chief nerd Rick Snyder will learn from Walker's mistakes. Lesson one is do no harm: put the federal grants Michigan has already gotten to good use by developing infrastructure. And second, if Walker insists on throwing away Wisconsin's money, grab as much of it as you can. More improvements to the Wolverine line and other Michigan rail travel would be quite welcome in this state - as would a company like Talgo moving to a depressed area in Detroit. - Patrick O'Mahen can be reached at pomahen@umich.edu. 0 Thank you, whistle-blowers The Daily is looking for a diverse group of strong, informed, passionate writers to be columnists for the winter semester. Columnists write a 700-800 word column every other week on a topic of their choosing. If you are an opinionated and talented writer, consider applying. E-MAIL MICHELLE DEWITT AT DEWITTM@UMICH.EDU FOR MORE INFORMATION. LAURA VEITH I Teenage texting When I returned home for Thanksgiving break this year, I decided to work at a specialty store that I had been employed at throughout high school and during portions of the summer. I figured with the holiday shopping season just beginning, my former employer might need an extra hand - even if it's only for two days. As I started to ring up a costumer during one of my shifts, I couldn't help but notice that she was texting on her cell phone. Usually this action wouldn't bother me, but I grew more frustrated with the situation as the customer spent our entire interaction texting. While I think texting at a register is an incredibly rude gesture by itself, the most startling aspect of this interaction was that this costumer appeared to be roughly 14 or 15 years old. Maybe I'm having a memory lapse, but I can't remember being as obsessed with tex- ting when I was her age. This encounter made me reflect on my personal experience with texting and also reminded me of a CNN article I read earlier this semester that summarized a study on cell phone usage as well as text message prac- tices among different age groups. The October 2010 study by The Nielsen Company analyzed roughly 60,000 individual cell phone bills as well as survey results from 3,000 teens throughout April, May and June. The results noted that text messaging has been increasing rapidly - specifically among teenagers. Indi- viduals ages 13- to 17-years old are reported to be sending or receiving approximately 3,339 text messages each month. Nielsen noted that this is an 8-percent increase in the age group from last year. Comparatively, Nielsen found that 18- to 24-year-olds send or receive approx- imately 1,630 texts per month. If those findings weren't startling enough, Nielsen also noted, "all of this texting activity has come at the expense of voice." In Nielsen's study and analysis, it found that "voice activ- ity has decreased 14 percent among teens." The study also discovered that there were many rea- sons for the trend toward texting, including 22 percent of teens who find texting easier and 20 percent of teen respondents who found texting to be faster than a traditional phone call. The CNN article remarked that the findings from this study imply that "texting is a more impor- tant means of communication than ever." While these numbers are certainly astound- ing, my initial reaction was an overwhelming feeling of fear. How is it possible for teenagers to maintain relationships and build their inter- personal skills if they are fixated on text mes- sages? The findings from the Nielsen study left me wondering whether teenagers might suffer in the long run due to their apparent obses- sion with texting. And based on this appalling amount of text messages, I think it's possible that there might be larger consequences for teenagers. If teenagers are constantly voicing their thoughts, feelings and opinions through, text messages, aren't they losing, or failing to strengthen, their abilities to communicate over the telephone - or even worse, in face-to-face situations? Though it may seem obvious, the ability to communicate well over the telephone is an important skill to have. With this increas- ing reliance on texting, I fear teenagers may be losing this ability. There are also some concerns about spelling - if students are always relying on abbreviations of words, then does their traditional spelling deteri- orate? That's an important skill, too, and a poten- tial consequence that can't be ignored. Of course, this is my opinion about the poten- tial consequences oftexting, but this result seems plausible. My reaction may be rash and extreme, but I can't help but be worried about this becom- ing a future dilemma. Even though I am ina different age group and grew up at a time when texting wasn't as preva- lent, I know I'm no better than these teenagers. I rely on texting as a form of communication, too - but I didn't send and receive more than 3,000 texts when I was 13 years old. I don't know if there is a solution to the growing trend of text messaging among teenagers. I believe, based on this evidence, that it may continue to grow in the future. But I do think parents need to make sure their children aren't failing to focus on their verbal and interpersonal communication skills, because not everything in their futures will be communicated through T9 Word. Laura Veith is a senior editorial page editor. So much for avoiding the use of Thanksgiving cliches in my column. As I write this, the world is buzzing after more than 250,000 United' States government diplomatic cables were leaked to - select news organi- zations that subse- quently published the documents on the Internet. And ALEX though some have BILES scrutinized this act of whistle blowing, - I truly couldn't be more thankful. In a world of ever-increasing gov- ernment secrecy and control, a grow- ing market for transparency and accountability has emerged. Nowhere is this more visible than the release of classified information by the whistle- blowing organization WikiLeaks. Since the beginning of the year, the group has been releasing critical information hidden from the Ameri- can public. These documents contain information ranging from cover-ups of friendly fire casualties in Afghani- stan to the U.S. government's failure to investigate hundreds of reports of torture and rape by Iraqi police and soldiers. The most recent disclosure by WikiLeaks highlights the fears of Israel and Saudi Arabia regarding Iran's nuclear program. According to leaked diplomatic cables, King Abdul- lah of Saudi Arabia has urged the U.S. to attack Iran to halt any further advances of Iran's nuclear program. Whether you support an attack on Iran or are highly critical of military cover-ups isn't the main issue here. The fact is that this information is significant, and concealing these developments from civilians violates the public interest of the world at large. The disclosures I mentioned above are a fraction of the cover-ups, corruption, failed policies and wastes of taxpayer money that WikiLeaks has revealed to the world in recent months. As Simon Jenkins of The Guardian puts it, "if that's not in the public's interest, I fail to see what is." In anticipation of the organiza- tion's expose, WikiLeaks maintained high standards of professionalism working closely with the Spanish news outlet El Pais, Le Monde out of France, Speigel out of Germany, The Guardian out of Britain and The New York Times - five of the world's top media outlets. The Guardian notes that meticu- lous processes were carried out to ensure that the leaks "could not be party to putting the lives of individu- als or sources at risk, nor reveal mate- rial that might compromise ongoing military operations or the location of special forces." Governments across the globe will probably condemn the disclosures - buj they're wrong to press for the prosecution of whistle- blowers like WikiLeaks front man Julian Assange. WikiLeaks isn't alone in their self- described mission to "open govern- ments." Closer to home, Michigan votes - a project sponsored by the Mackinac Center for Public Policy - has a similar mission. Through the use of a searchable online database, Michigan Votes grants users online access to "concise, plain language and objective descriptions of every single bill, amendment, and vote that takes place in the Michigan legislature." An invaluable resource, Michi- gan Votes allows citizens across the state a previously unforeseen level of accessibility to government infor- mation. Before, explanations for the dozens of votes and the allocation of millions in taxpayer dollars that can take place on a daily basis were dif- ficult for the common person to find. Today, a few clicks of a mouse can give Michiganders the opportunity to hold their public servants account- able for their actions. There is also University alum and U.S. House Representative-elect Jus- tin Amash, whose campaign I worked for this summer. Currently a Michi- gan state representative, Amash is the first legislator in the country to post every single vote that he makes on Facebook for the entire world to see in real-time. Dedicating himself to enhancing government transpar- ency, he provides a summary of each bill and justification for his votes. Besides holding himself account- able as a public servant, Amash's Facebook page is a crash course for anyone interested in the extensive and often frivolous spending of pub- lic funds that occurs in Lansing. Fortunately, the trend toward trans- parency is a hit. Amash's Facebook page had a couple thousand fans at the beginning of the year. Today, it features more than 15,200 followers from around the country. 0 WikiLeaks reveals what should be public knowledge. * My hope is that the trend toward enhanced transparency continues. As fellow Michigan Daily columnist . Imran Syed noted in a recent piece, "neither of the two groups that are supposed to look out for the people - government and the press - are doing their jobs" (Judging Wayne County, 11/22/2010). In an era when the institutions that we are supposed to trust have deteriorated, we should welcome with open arms alterna- tives to the traditional press - which has failed to serve as a check on an increasingly subversive government. To the true journalists, transparen- cy devotees and whistleblowers out there, thank you. - Alex Biles can be reached at jabiles@umich.edu. 0 S 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 Sauerhatt, Asa Smith, Julian Toles, Laura Veith, Andrew Weiner