4 - Friday, Aprill1, 2011 The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com 4 - Friday, April 1, 2011 The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom 0 C 1aa Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan since 1890. 420 Maynard St. Ann Arbor, MI 48109 tothedaily@michigandaily.com JEFF ZUSCHLAG E-MAIL JEFFAT JEFFDZ@UMICH.EDU Hello, folks. GOP, here to tell ye about a group of parasites that are responsible for America's destruction: Public worhers Maybe if I close my eyes, I can pretend it's all just an elaborate April Fools Day joke. 0 0 STEPHANIE STEINBERG EDITOR IN CHIEF MICHELLE DEWITT and EMILY ORLEY EDITORIAL PAGE EDITORS KYLE SWANSON 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. Rebuilding bridges Mich. needs to repair its damaged infrastructure Just when it seemed Michigan's infrastructure couldn't get any worse, Transportation for America - a non-profit organiza- tion focused on gaining support for laws in favor of progressive transportation - released a troubling report on Michigan bridges that adds considerable insult to the already-injured state economy. 0 Pros and cons of Greek Life According to a March 28 MLive.com arti- cle, the report found that 1,400 of Michigan's 10,928 highway bridges - or 13.1 percent - are "structurally deficient." This classification of "structurally deficient" means that one of four bridge components - the deck, superstructure, substructure or culvert - was deemed to be in "poor" condition by National Bridge Inventory standards. The figure isn't a staggering con- trast from the national average of 11.5 percent, but with Michigan's decade-long budget crisis, the state is far less prepared to solve the issue. The report also states that Michigan exhausts all its federal bridge money on bridge repair, and flexes even more money from other sources to supplement the shortfall. Though Michigan's budget crisis has severely hin- dered the state's ability to reallocate state and federal funds, bridges are a vital component of the state's infrastructure and must be main- tained. A report released on March 17 by the Citi- zens Alliance on Prisons and Public Spending - a non-profit group that is concerned with Michigan's punitive strategies - indicated that the Michigan Department of Corrections appropriation currently uses 25 percent of the state's general fund budget - more than what's allocated to schools and universities. In spite of the sweeping measures Republican Gov. Rick Snyder has implemented to recon- cile the state budget, the corrections budget has remained virtually untouched. Some sen- sible options that would free up these funds for bridge repair include privatization of the prison system and reduction or elimination of mandatory minimum sentences for nonvio- lent drug offenders. In an Mlive.com article, Keith Ledbetter, a lobbyist for the Michigan Infrastructure andy Transportation Association, reassures Michi- gan drivers that the Michigan Department of Transportation is vigilant in its inspections of structurally deficient bridges, but that doesn't change the fact that many of the country's bridges are rapidly approaching their pro- jected life spans of 50 years. The average age of bridges in the United States is 42 years, and Michigan's average is slightly less at 41.3 years. Additionally, many of these bridges have significant surface damage - potholes, ruts and cracks in the pavement - that are con- tributing factors to poor gas mileage and increased car repair costs. If the damage gets bad enough, an entire bridge may have to be closed for a period of repair. If a bridge is a vital commuting route, the closure can lead to increased commute times and added gas expense. These concerns don't include the potential for injury and death in the case of a bridge's collapse. The evidence plainly shows that the nation's bridge infrastructure is in trouble, and Michigan's is in even worse danger. The state government needs to reevaluate its pri- orities regarding the general fund budget to ensure that adequate funds are available to repair the state's deteriorating bridges and roads, not only to avoid the ongoing nuisance they pose for drivers, but to prevent more severe consequences in the future. As I am writing my last col- umn, and pondering my time in the Greek commu- nity, I thought I would dedicate this column to a list of my ran- dom musing and thoughts. Bear with me here, this is certainly not an exhaus- tive list - there RYAN are many more KNAPP positives (and negatives for that matter) that I simply could not fit. What the Greek community at the University of Michigan does very well: Creating Leaders: We are culti- vating future leaders on campus and for the future. Just look at the list of business, civic and sport leaders that were Greek at the University. It's simply not a coincidence. Maintaining a great balance between social life and GPA: This is not true of every Greek, but on average, we do a great job of work- ing hard and playing harder. Simply put, we know how to have fun, but to keep our lives in check to ensure that we will be successful in the future. It makes me laugh when people categorize fraternity members as guys who only care about partying hard. I live with eight guys from my fraternity in our senior house, and contrary to popular belief, we all have been extremely success- ful in college. Among the group is a future investment banker, doctor, consultant, lawyer, equitytrader and mechanical engineer. Creating and maintaining life- long relationships: If you don't believe me, see if you will have a reunion for your hall mates your freshmen year or with the members of the student organization that you participated in. It may not be the case for all, but I've met people who are 80 years old who can still tell you everyone in their pledge class and still talk regu- larly to brothers who were in their house. This is not just some corny catchphrase that rush chairs spit to get people to join chapters - you really are creating tangible bonds with people who you will talk to for the rest of your life. Preparing you for the real world: If a company existed with more than $100,000 in inflows and outflows and was run by a myriad of 18 and 19 years old, you would think that the company structure was foolhardy, and the firm would be insolvent. But this is how fraternities and sorori- ties have been operating success- fully for decades. Sure, they have a backstop with alumni helping man- age the finances, but they are giving real-world experience to those run- ning the chapter. What the Greek community can improve upon: The Rivalries: The only real tan- gible thing that separates chapters are our rituals. Some of the best aspects of being a Greek (Mud- bowl and Greek Week for example) involve direct competition between chapters. It's ok to be competitive, but spewing vitriolic words at each other further divides us into seg- ments. One house is too fratty, the other house is not fratty enough. One house is full of douche-bags, the other filled with boy scouts who don't know how to have fun. Twenty percent of people doing EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS: 80 percent of the work: This is true with any organization. Not every individual can be president of the chapter, nor would every individual want to bear the colossal responsi- bility of serving as a chapter execu- tive member. But whether it is at a chapter or council level, very few individuals shape the way the com- munity is run. If we pride ourselves on being a diverse community, why does it seem like the same individu- als are always making decisions that have a tremendous impact on the Greek community? My fraternity has shaped my 'U' experience. Keeping seniors involved: A stig- ma exists that the old guys and gals should be done with their chapter involvement after their junior year. After putting in two to three years of work they are either burnt-out or forced out by the younger members. If I could only track how many times I heard the words, "We are a completely different fraternity/ sorority than we were a few years ago." Here's a hint - no you aren't. The seniors are the ones who recruited you, and they are the ones who indoctrinated you into the fra- ternity and sorority culture. It is natural to want to grow and do big- ger and better things, but let's stop tryingto reinvent the wheel. -Ryan Knapp can be reached at rjknapp@umich.edu. STEVEN BRAID I Abright side ofthe Final Four Somewhere within the money-making busi- ness that is the NCAA, there's a glimpse of morality and principles in the Final Four. Somewhere between the historic basketball programs of Kentucky and Connecticut and the Cinderella story that is Virginia Common- wealth, lies Butler - the undaunted team that improbably reached the last weekend of the tournament for the secondconsecutive year, led by the confident, classy, too-wise-for-his- age Brad Stevens. Yet Brad Stevens's greatest achievement is not that he's guided Butler, a so-called "mid- major," to consecutive Final Four appearances, but that he's done so while maintaining the university's and his own integrity. Can you believe that, Jim Tressel? Collegiate athletics is littered with coaches and programs in every sport that have been dis- ciplined for violations of one kind or another, but Butler serves as a beacon of light. The uni- versity has never been sanctioned. Their coach has never been fined or suspended. Butler has been an exemplar. Their opponent on Satur- day, Virginia Commonwealth, isn't far behind. Though this will only be their first appearance in the Final Four, the Rams have enjoyed simi- lar success. And like Brad Stevens and Butler, head coach Shaka Smart and his team have never been involved in pernicious allegations. The same can't be said about their Final Four counterparts, though. While Connecticut head coach Jim Calhoun and Kentucky head coach John Calipari are widely considered as two of the best coaches in college basketball, they have both been linked to NCAA violations. If they were on an Inter- net dating site, Calhoun and Calipari would be matched instantly. Calhoun was handed a three-game suspen- sion earlier this year - one which he will serve next year - for recruitingviolations committed under hiswatch. While he continues to play the ignorance card - citing an unawareness about these recruiting violations - I would think a head coach of his tenure would be aware of everything that goes on inside his program. And Calipari hasn't been any better. Though he hasn't been personally indicted by the NCAA, it's no coincidence that Calipari has been a part of two basketball programs that have had to vacate their Final Four appear- ances due to NCAA violations. After having his first Final Four appearance in 1996 expunged at the University of Massachusetts after it was found-that his star player - Marcus Camby - had accepted money from an agent, Cali- pari proceeded to make the Final Four again a decade later with the University of Memphis. This time Calipari's 38-2 record with Memphis was removed from the records because one of his star players was deemed ineligible after the player's SAT score was discovered to be fraud- ulent and the school provided a player's family with benefits that violated NCAA rules. Calipari obviously didn't listen to his parents when they told him two wrongs don't make a right. I wouldn't even be surprised if Kentucky had this year's Final Four appearance vacated sometime in the near future. But to say that Calhoun and Calipari are the exceptions would be fallacious. Integrity in college athletics has been dwin- dling. Sanctions, suspensions and fines have unfortunately become the norm in the NCAA. Top athletic programs such as Ohio State Uni- versity and the University of Southern Califor- nia have recently faced sanctions for incidents involving players and coaches. And let's not forget about the violations incurredby the Uni- versity of Michigan under former head coach Rich Rodriguez's reign. It's alarming that these same men who dis- play such a lack of rectitude are allowed to continue to be in charge of leading and shap- ing a group of young adults. College is a time for development and maturation, but we shouldn't expect much improvement from students whose models are coaches who consistently violate ethical codes. No wonder so many col- lege athletes have been suspended of late. But Butler and Virginia Commonwealth inspire hope. They have shown that middling athletic.programs can hang with the "bigboys" without violating the NCAA rulebook. They have shown that success can come without any allegations or suspensions. They have shown that integrity still exists in college athletics. And one of them will be playing for a national championship come Monday night. So, please, don't root for Butler and Virginia Commonwealth because they're the perceived underdogs. Root for them because they do things the right way. Steven Braid is an LSA freshman. Aida Ali, Will Butler, Ellie Chessen, Michelle DeWitt, Ashley Griesshammer, Melanie Kruvelis, Patrick Maillet, Erika Mayer, Harsha Nahata, Emily Orley, Harsha Panduranga, Teddy Papes, Timothy Rabb, Asa Smith, Seth Soderborg, Andrew Weiner ROBBY SOAVE | Are college degrees overrated? Many students, opposed to Republican Gov. Rick Sny- der's higher education cuts are protesting his selection as Spring Commencement speaker. How they must turn red with envy when they recall last year's speaker, Presi- dent Barack Obama, and his oft-repeated pledge to make the United States the most college-educated nation in the world. Of these two leaders, which offers students and graduates the better vision of a responsible educa- tion policy? Before reflexively answering "Obama," consider this: Policy experts from all sides of the political spectrum are concluding that a college degree isn't necessarily worth the investment - not for the student, and not for the state. The simple truth is that the U.S. already has too many college graduates. As a result, Obama's push to increase the college graduation rate to 90 percent is unlikely to yield much economic benefit. Richard Vedder, an Ohio University economist, published some telling statistics in The Chronicle of Higher Education in December. Over the last 20 years, more and more graduates have taken jobs that do not require a college education. For example, there are now twice as many waiters and wait- resses with degrees than there were in 1992. Think of it this way: If it takes a person tens of thou- sands of additional dollars and four to five years extra to do a given job than it did two decades ago, the U.S. worker is actually becoming less efficient. It makes little sense to encourage such inefficiency by urging every young person to go to college. It makes even less sense to force taxpayers to subsidize inefficient behavior. If this strikes you as some sort of Right-wing assault on public education, you may be surprised to learn who else is taking the side of the skeptics. Paul Krugman - a New York Times columnist as reliably liberal as they come - recently disparaged the notion that higher edu- cation spending is key to economic growth. Krugman called degrees "tickets to jobs that don't exist or don't pay middle-class wages," while noting that advances in computers are displacing college-educated workers faster than less skilled workers. Why hire an informa- tion analyst when Watson the Jeopardy!-winning robot can do the job better? Unskilled laborers, on the other hand, aren't so threatened. It's true that the educated have an advantage over others to the extent that prospective employers attribute more competence to them. But this distinction is harder to document on paper than you might expect. A study released this year by professors at New York University and the University of Virginia found very little actual learning among a representative sample of 2,300 under- graduates from 24 colleges. After two years of college, nearly half the students demonstrated no measurable improvement in a variety of subjects. After four years, a third were still no discernibly smarter. In that case, college degrees are a product - an expen- sive, time-consuming product - with a remarkably high failure rate. Ifa third of the cars coming off the line at Ford Motor Company were defective, would anyone still buy Fords? Would we urge the state to invest huge sums of money ina faulty manufacturer? Apparently, Obama would. Melody Barnes, a White Mlouse policy advisor, made the president's case for higher education in a Huffington Post article just last week, reiterating Obama's goal to boost the U.S. college graduation rate to 90 percent by 2020. Barnes noted, somewhat bizarrely, that half of today's 30 fastest- growing jobs require a college degree - as if the statis- tic strengthened her case. But this also implies that half of the 30 fastest-growing jobs do not require a college degree. In other words, graduating from college pro- vides about as many opportunities as not graduating from college, but the Obama administration still wants everyone - or nearly everyone - to go for the degree. This is lunacy, not policy. College degrees are expensive (for students and tax- payers) defective (for a third of all students sampled), and increasingly unlikely to yield an actual job. In light of these uncomfortable facts, Snyder's 15-percent cut to I higher education fundingseems all-too reasonable. And in a day and age when college dropouts found billion-dollar companies while graduates wait tables, should we be so confident that higher education spend- ing is a commitment, rather than a curse? Robby Soave is a University alum and a former editorial page editor of The Michigan Daily.