4A - Wednesday, January 26, 2011 The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com 4A - Wednesday, January 26, 2011 The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom 0 Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan since 1890. 420 Maynard St. Ann Arbor, MI 48109 tothedaily@michigandailycom SIMON BORST E-MAIL SIMON AT SIMKA@UMICH.EDU STEPHANIE STEINBERG EDITOR IN CHIEF MICHELLE DEWITT and EMILY ORLEY EDITORIAL PAGE EDITORS KYLE SWANSON MANAGING EDITOR Find your inner entrepreneur 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. W M ( Banish the ban 'U' needs a better solution for smoking concerns The plans for the University's campus-wide smoking ban are officially coming to fruition. The Smoke-free University Ini- tiative Report - released Monday - details plans to carry-out and enforce the ban. While University officials seem optimistic about the future of the ban,it's actually an expensive and overbearing policy. There are avariety of smoking rules in place on campus that are unen- forced. And with the plans mentioned in the report, it seems that the new rules will likely make little difference in creating a smoke-free environment on campus. The University should rethink how it will implement the smoking ban and make the rules less arbitrary. University President Mary Sue Coleman first announced plans for a smoking ban ini- tiative in April 2009. The ban would extend to all three University campuses. After a year andahalfofplanning, theUniversityreleased its official plans on Monday that explained how it would implement the ban, according to a Jan. 24 Daily article. The report included 14 points about where smokers could smoke on University grounds. Smoking is prohibited in all University buildings and specific Uni- versity sidewalks. Smoking is also prohibited in University parking structures, unless the smoker lights a cigarette inside his or her car. The ban is set to take effect on July 1, 2011. The rules outlined in the report are over- bearing. To expect students - who aren't full-time Ann A/bor residents - to distin- guish sidewalks that run adjacent to pub- lic roads and sidewalks that run adjacent to private roadsjis unrealistic. And if a person is foup spoking on the non-smoking side- walkd. " her they're ware or unaware of theiritrxgression - tre is virtually no punishment. No tickets will be issued, and no arrests will be made. The only realistic outcome is that the smoker's friend or some- one in the vicinity will mention it. This is not implementation worth a $200,000 plus ini- tiative. Not only is the initiative largelyunenforce- able, it fails to recognize that there are smok- ing regulations in place that are unenforced. The University already has strict guidelines about smoking near campus buildings, but rarely, if ever, is the regulation made obliga- tory. The University should have examined why those rules weren't functioning properly before they decided to implement a far more pervasive set of restrictions. Despite the University's good intentions to make the campus a healthier environment, it has no right to tell smokers they cannot smoke. Smoking is legal in the state of Michi- gan as long as a person isn't smoking inside a public place. If those guidelines are effec- tively implemented throughout the state, the University shouldn't create its own separate rules. And though second-hand smoke is dangerous, forcing people to quit smoking because they have nowhere to legally smoke on campus is unfair. While the University is its own commu- nity, its purpose is to prepare young adults to enter into the real world where, like it or not, people smoke. 50 million. That's how much Google paid Nathan Stoll of Stanford University and his team to acquire their search- engine company, Aardvark. My business team eagerly takes notes as we hear his story. The next day, anoth- er team talks to ERIK a senior execu- TORENBERG tive at Comcast, inquiring about the market for interactive TVs. We're in ENGR 409, a two-week, one credit course offered through the University's Center for Entre- preneurship. The CFE, formed in 2008, offers a growing number of courses and resources available to all students interested in business and entre- preneurship. ENGR 407 hosts a weekly lecture series that invites accomplished entrepreneurs to speak. Most students don't know about these opportunities. Fewer know that the Engineering label is misleading - anyone can take advantage of the classes offered by the CFE. Let me stop you before you steal your friend's great idea and imag- ine mass amounts of money flow- ing into your bank account. Though "The Social Network" might lead you to believe otherwise, a great idea plus start up money doesn't necessarily equal profit. My other CFE class, ENGR 520, debunks this myth, teaching us how to identify whether our ladder (our idea) is leaning against the right tree (mar- ket validation). Some more debunking: While it might be inspiring to hear how suc- cessful entrepreneurs turned their passion into alucrative reality, most entrepreneurs don't have such suc- cess. But you just don't hear those types of lectures. How often do you hear an adult say that following his passions screwed him over in the long run? Don't let this deter you. Not everyone can be a wealthy entre- preneur, but everyone can be a bit entrepreneurial. At the recent LSA career fair, a recruiter told me he was seeking students who display an entrepreneurial spirit. He meant he wanted a student who generates productive ideas, effectively leads groups and knows how to make things happen. Notice how such skills are differ- ent from those exemplified by good students. Being a student trains you to accomplish predefined tasks and to game a certain system. Entrepre- neurship requires gaming a differ- ent system - the market, in which the grading rubric is blurry. You can't become innovative by study- ing its definition from a PowerPoint slide. You develop such skills by pursuing self-designed projects and learning from your mistakes. CFE creates such a space, showing that entrepreneurship isn't only about hi-tech start-ups. It's also about assessing what value you can provide and how you can provide it, regardless of your major or skill set. Ben Casnocha, entrepreneur and author of "My Start-Up Life", believes that entrepreneurship is a lifestyle. In his book, he says that he believes in "thinking different, challenging the status 4uo, striving for impact, and generally maintain- ing a commitment to carve your own life path and not outsource that vital task to anyone else like a parent or professor." These attri- butes describe Henry David Tho- reau, Gandhi and Bill Gates. Their goals might have been different, but they all demonstrated entrepre- neurial abilities in achieving them. Let's define the student entre- preneur. He isn't only interested in building businesses. He's also the political science major who starts a political organization, using it as a platform to connect thinkers from other disciplines. She's the art major who sets up her own exhibit, inviting artists from outside the area with the intent to enliven Ann Arbor's art community. The time for students to take risks is now. He plays the student card: Stu- dents would be amazed at what they can achieve by cold calling people in positions of power and saying "I'm working on this project. Could you offer any help? I'm a stu- dent from the University of Michi- gan." Most of all, the student entrepre- neur acknowledges that the time for taking risks is now, that the cost of failure - for flip-flopping ideolo- gies, experimenting and pursuing all sorts of projects - as a student will never be lower. In ENGR 409, we learned to con- clude our "elevator pitches" to cus- tomers with a call to action. Here's mine: The University presents unparalleled resources to think like an entrepreneur, but it's too easy to miss these opportunities. If this column has piqued your curiosity, let's talk about how we can be a bit more entrepreneurial in our Uni- versity lives. -Erik Torenberg can be reached at erikto@umich.edu. 0 0 0 EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS: Aida Ali, Will Butler, Eaghan Davis, Michelle DeWitt, Ashley Griesshammer, Erika Mayer, Harsha Nahata, Emily Orley, Harsha Panduranga, Teddy Papes, Roger Sauerhaft, Seth Soderborg, Andrew Weiner DANIEL LUKS I In defense of Israel 0 No more text-aholics As 2011 begins, no conclusive peace settle- ment in the Middle East has been reached. In 2010, the world witnessed a historic 10-month settlement freeze put in place by the Netanyahu administration. Over the past year, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has taken extraordinary steps to show his commitment to the peace process and his desire to see peace in his lifetime. The Middle East peace talks - which took place in September of this past year - failed because of the Palestinian leadership's demand that all of their preconditions be met and their refusal to recognize the Jewish state. Israel was more than willing to negoti- ate with the Palestinian leadership in hopes of achieving a new lasting peace agreement. Israel didn't make demands in advance that would cause the peace talks to fail because the Israeli leadership is willing to support an agreement that would allow Israeli citizens to live in peace. Like Yonah Lieberman (March for an inclusive Israel, 12/10/2010), I too am a Jew. I was raised to believe in justice and equality for all and that it's just as important to speak of these principles as it is to put them into action. Similar to any state, Israel isn't perfect. In the face of extraordinary circumstances Israel does the best it can to provide justice and protection for all. Unlike the Palestinian territories, Israel provides religious, politi- cal, gender and sexual freedom for everyone. There's a reason that the gay pride march in Israel takes place in Tel Aviv and not in the Palestinian territories. 6 The recent statement by a small grotp of radical rabbis informing Israeli Jews not to sell property to non-Jews was met by fierce criticism from the prime minister. Netanya- hu was in total opposition to this statement, while just this past September, Khaled Abu Toameh from the Jerusalem Post reported that the prime minister "reaffirmed the death penalty for any Palestinian found guilty of selling land to Israelis." There's a reason that people of any religion or beliefcan purchase land and own property in Israel - whereas in many Arab countries, Jews would be barred from any property ownership. A few thousand miles to the south of Israel, a terrible situation has been going on in Sudan for many years. In an effort to flee the violence, many Sudanese attempted to seek refugee in Egypt. While they were permitted into the country, these refugees lacked any form of rights and faced persecu- tion from the Egyptian government. Only a few weeks ago in December, The New York Times reported 23 unarmed Sudanese men, women and children refugees were shot and killed by Egyptian police for refusingto leave a public park. Where did these refugees then attempt to flee? The answer for many of them was Israel. I'm proud of Israel for what it stands for and for her many accomplishments. Israel strives to attain a fair and equitable peace agreement even in the face of such hatred and violence. Israel has tried time and again to make peace with the Palestinian people, but each time is met with resistance from the Palestinian leadership. While Lieberman is quick to blame Israel for any human rights violations, he neglects to acknowledge the citizens of southern Israel, whose human rights are violated on a daily basis. These Israeli citizens continue to live under the fear of constant rocket and mortar fire. As the only democracy in the Middle East, it's easy to criticize Israel. Israel has a gov- ernment that is fully accountable to its citi- zens and is willing to admit when it makes mistakes. Unfortunately, articles like Lieber- man's attempt to paint a false picture of a homeland that has provided justice and ref- uge to so many. Daniel Luks is a senior in the Ford School of Public Policy and a member of the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America. When I got my first cell phone at age 16, I kept receiving text messages intended for the person who had the phone num- ber before me: "Hey, girl, want 2 go 2 the mall @ 6?" No, I don't want to go to the mall at six, and RACHEL I'd appreciate it VAN GILDER if you stopped asking. After about a week and a half of getting messages for the prior owner of the number, I got so annoyed with them that I simply had the phone company turn off my phone's text messaging capabilities. Almost six years later, I still don't have texting. And while this occasionally causes some miscommunication when people say, "Oh, I texted you that I would be late," I'm still glad that I don't have texting. It seems like more trouble than it's worth. It's not the idea of texting that bugs me. A quick, easy way to pass along a short message can be very useful. That's why I love e-mail so much. The problem is that people abuse text messaging. It's like they can't pull their fingers from the key- pad, even when they're behind the wheel or interacting with someone in real life. Texting while driving is now ille- gal in Michigan - making it one of 30 states with a similar ban. Shortly before the law was signed into effect, the Ann Arbor City Council consid- ered making texting while driving illegal here in the city. The Federal Transportation Department is now encouraging automotive makers to fund public service announcements about the dangers of driving dis- tracted, accordingto aJan. 21 article from Reuters. Texting while driving is extreme- ly dangerous. In fact, doing almost anything while driving is a bad idea. Everybody knows they shouldn't drive drunk. But drivers also shouldn't eat or talk on the phone while they drive. Some people go as far as applying makeup while driv- ing. Tasks like these - and texting - demand attention to fine motor control and decrease attention to the road. This increases the likelihood of an accident. Everyone has heard how dan- gerous it is to drive distracted, and yet people still seem to do it. I'll be the first to admit that I've made a call while driving or scarfed down some fries from McDonald's behind the wheel even though I know I shouldn't. But texting is a whole new level of dangerous. No matter how much texting practice you have, you still have to devote too much atten- tion to the phone and not enough to the road. Just put the phone away. People should get their texting under control - and not just while they're driving. Texting shouldn't be used to hold a long, complicated discussion - especially when the person texting should be paying attention to their real-life surround- ings. Most often when I say that I don't have texting, people tell me it'sgreat. They say that it's so easyto just shoot someone an e-mail when you're in a place that you can't talk, like class. But students shouldn't text dur- ing class, as I have to tell the high school students at the school where I'm currently student teaching. No matter how sneaky you think you are as you text beneath the desk, it's still noticeable and pretty rude to the instructor and your classmates. It shows that you're not invested in the class. If you don't want to listen to the teacher, just don't go to class. And since texting can be used to cheat on tests and quizzes, it's even more concerning that stu- dents have no problem whipping out their phone in the middle of a lecture hall. People just can't pull their fingers from the keypad. The worst thing is when people text during dinner. Iunderstand that everyone is busy, but when I'm shar- ing a meal with someone, I expect them to keep their attention on me and our other companions. Hope- fully, they wouldn't answer a phone call during dinner in the midst of a conversation. Why would they hold a full conversation with another per- son via text messaging when they're supposed to be connecting with the person across the table? If you need to text, please leave the table and go into another room. I love the idea of being connected all the time - of always being able to contact anyone. But there has to be a limit. There has to be a time when we put the phone away and fosus on what's going on in front of us. Some- times that's simply the safe thing to do (like during driving) and some- times it's the polite thing to do. So don't text me, OK? I won't get it anyway. - Rachel Van Gilder was the Daily's 2010 editorial page editor. She can be reached at rachelvg@umich.edu. 0 0 0 0 'i