4 - Tuesday, April 5, 2011 The Michigan Daily - michiganclaily.com 0 4 - Tuesday, April 5, 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@michigandaily.com ELAINE MORTON E-MAIL ELAINE AT I,,MORT@UMICH.EDU STEPHANIE STEINBERG EDITOR IN CHIEF MICHELLE DEWITT and EMILY ORLEY EDITORIAL PAGE EDITORS a~~m not as ~ ~ awCf-as assmbol the you. cueP \ Lr (1± L zeaos x s.nt. I r 0. obl tb m exoer. success. i Lam not (am fl'uMa44, right?/ Religion is becoming extipnct 0 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. Share the wealth Committee unfairly allocated student funds recent allocation of student funds toward a community service trip for a select group of North Quad residents has many students upset. Members of the North Quadrangle Committee for International Impact may have had good intentions, but their decision to set aside $2,000 for a community service trip to Peru - involving mostly members of their committee - was a misuse of student funds. Community service in developing countries is an activity that should be encouraged, but there is a clear conflict of interest in this situation. Funding service trips for a small group of students is beyond the purview of a residence hall council. 0 According to a March 31 Daily article, the North Quad Committee on International Impact and the Residence Hall Association recently voted to spend more than $6,000 on a trip for 14 students to go to Peru this summer - to help school children. Of the 14 going on the trip, nine are onthe International Impact Com- mittee. Of the 450 North Quad residents, all of whom contribute to the committee's funds as a part of their room and board, only 14 will actively engage in community outreach as a result of this spending. It is upsetting that thousands of dollars of community funds were allocated to help a few students. Members of the committee must recognize that their primary duty is to the residents of North Quad, who could have used the money for community building events and activities. A tangible goal could be to foster a climate of tolerance and diversity within the residence hall. And an international impact is possible without a trip to Peru. The commit- tee could have used the money to jumpstart fundraising efforts for similar causes which could have involved more residents and raised greater awareness about internationally rel- evant issues. There was a clear conflict of interest in this situation. Students on the committee have argued that it made sense for those organiz- ing the trip to participate and that they would share their experiences with the rest of the residence hall through presentations. But it's difficult to believe that the trip doesn't benefit the participants disproportionately, since they receive the majority of the first hand experi- ence. Perhaps the allocation would have been less controversial had nine of the 14 partici- pants not been members of the council that voted to fund the trip. Students should also be more involved in the activities of their residence hall. Building a vibrant community takes effort, but being a member of a thriving one can be an enriching experience. Residents should be aware of their hall council representatives' actions and par- take in discussions to make their voices heard so wiser decisions are made in the future.- The North Quadrangle Committee for Inter- national Impact should act responsibly and reallocate the money for a more fruitful cause. There are better activities that will fit the mis- sion of the committee and allow more North Quad residents to participate. As society enters the Infor- mation Age, more can be questioned and researched. Everything is on the table, even deeply held per- sonal beliefs like religion. . A recent study by the Univer- sity of Arizona and Northwest- ern University DAR-WEI suggests that CHEN religion, and Christianity in particular, "will be driven toward extinction" in nine countries in the near future. This trend, while dis- turbing to people of faith, makes sense as Internet access becomes more widespread across the world. Contact with people of other faiths can cause people to question whether they picked the right one: How do you know you have picked the right deity to believe in? Liter- ally millions of gods have existed over the course of mankind, mak- ing the chance somewhat slim that yours is the real one. The trend also makes sense because scientific progress can refute many of the basic tenets in holy texts. For example, scientists now know that the Earth is billions of years old, not several thousand as implied in the Bible. The sto- ries about Jonah and the Whale, as well as Noah's Ark, can also be safely assumed to be fictional, due to knowledge of digestive acids and fossil records, respectively (if you think the Bible is allegorical, those are your words, not God's). The new religions are equally as wacky: Sci- entologists believe that Xenu, dic- tator of the Galactic Confederacy, brought billions of people to Earth and blew them up with hydrogen bombs in volcanoes, whose souls are stuck to the bodies of the living today. How they decided this story was more believable than Noah's Ark is beyond me. But if you say I cannot prove God doesn't exist, I say you can't prove Xenu doesn't exist. Many of my friends, even reli- gious ones, would admit that their holy texts have stories that cannot be taken seriously. They even admit many of the laws in those books are draconian (by the way, how can a deity be omnipotent if he can't make rules that stand the test of time?). However, they usually argue that religion has produced a net positive effect for the world. Even if their chosen faith is not believable and their deity's rules are blatantly immoral, the spirit of their religion is a good one, they say. It's amazing how many people admit to think- ing this, somehow implying that they don't believe in their religion and subscribe to it like they are supposed to. Some non-believers defend religion in this way, suggest- ing that it is beneficial to mankind. I take issue with the statement that religion has been good for the world. Believerssaythatfaith-based groups perform charitable work to help those in need and give hope to those in pain. I do not discount that - people have indeed been lifted up through faith. However, those good deeds come at a price: keeping the "religion excuse" alive. Historically, religion has caused much violence - the Crusades and theInquisition to name two. Nowadays, religion causes Middle East violence, the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, subjugation of homosexu- als, abortion clinic bombings and countless other ghastly events. of course, many believers will say their religious beliefs do not imply the endorsement of those violent activities. True. But as long as faith is used as the vehicle for these good deeds, and religion permeates as a result, others will always have the "religion excuse" to do terrible things. Physicist Steven Weinberg once said that in a regular society, you will have "good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things ... for good people to do evil things, that takes religion." How likely is it that your God is the right one? Mankind has already proven that it can do secularly all the good things that faith groups do, but without the aforementioned com- plications. If we can eradicate reli- gion and do charitable works from the goodness of our hearts, and not because of a higher power, we not only show true compassion, but we also eliminate a few of the good people doing evil things that Wein- berg talked about. Religion does not make much sense anymore in the 21st century. The Internet and science are expos- ing many religious beliefs that have been accepted for a long time. Fur- thermore, secularism is showing it's more than capable of providing charity and hope to those.in. need -, and without religiousbaggage. The only thing secularism can't do is provide a deity to save you ... but how likely is it that your deity is the right one anyway? -Dar-Wei Chen can be reached at chendwoumich.edu. EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS: 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 MELANIE KRUVELIS I Learning from Karlos Marks 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. We do not print anonymous letters. Send letters to tothedaily@michigandaily.com HARSHA NAHATA Make first se-mester pass/fail I hate the Every Three Weekly. I hate that it's funnier than me. I hate that, unlike other prestigious newspapers, students actually read it. I hate that it'll probably ridicule me for this introduction that seems oddly remi- niscent of that one Julia Stiles movie that's not about dancing and crying. And I really hate that roughly every21 days, I can find my room- mate collapsed in a bean bag, gushing about how great it is that we have "real publications" like the E3W on campus. And Pizza Rolls. Sigh. But as Socrates once told Euthyphro, every once in a while you have to give props to those who get it right, even if they destroy your self- esteem with consistently better humor writ- ing. So here it is: E3W - kudos for the Karlos Marks campaign. You did the damn thing. The idea, in case you somehow missed the Michigan Student Assembly elections - I don't know, maybe you were too busy doing work, having a social life, perhaps sorting your button collection or anything really - the con- cept was simple. Satire magazine on campus began campaigns for Karlos Marks. Marks got second in the presidential election - earning more votes than the Defend Affirmative Action Party's candidates - won representative seats in MSA and earned a spot on the Department of Public Safety Oversight Committee. Marks, however, won't be taking these seats next fall. Why not? As MSA members point- ed out, made-up people cannot hold a public office. Bravo. What people are really upset about - wait, is anyone actuallyupset? Huh. Well, what peo- ple should be concerned about - ok, ok, what people should kind of pay attention to is the fact that a fake person beat out real, live candi- dates: And rightfully so - it looks like MSA is calling for another crusade against imaginary people. Both me and my pal Norton are wor- ried; who are actuarial math majors going to talk to now? But my editor wants a sophisti- cated analysis of student apathy and the lack of faith in this school's governing bodies, and apparently a narrative with my imaginary duck is not the best way to make the point. Sorry, Norton. Anyways, onto the whole doubting MSA thing. As it turns out, humor magazines on this campus can do more than make poop jokes relevant for 20-somethings. Regard- less of their intentions, staff members of the Every Three Weekly made student elections more relevant than they've ever been - which is to say, almost not entirely pointless. Even if Karlos Marks was nothing more than a hom- age to Carlos Mencia by means of a Santa Claus look-a-like, Marks's popularity made it clear: Beards are in again. Holla. And also students don't trust MSA. Perhaps distrust isn't exactly the right word - after all, why would anyone distrust an organization that takes in more than $500,000 of students' money and then spends meetings passing resolutions on funding for new judi- cial robes? Which I totally understand, by the way - I was also disappointed when college wasn't just like Hogwarts. No, no - frankly, students just don't give a damn about MSA. Despite the overwhelming popularity of fun events like last November's Flu Day, MSA just can't seem to connect with students. Which is why every year, candidates have to try to get people to care that their campaigns are all about getting people to care. And, of course, getting Nimbus 2000s. Maybe MSA should take Marks's win as a sign. A sign that next semester, maybe they really should try to connect with more than just the Quidditch Team. And though I'm pret- ty indifferent about it, Norton seems to think students should stop being so apathetic. Yes, it's painful to log on to the website and vote - you might not be the first one to re-blog the latest picture of Paula Deen riding Snooki on Tumblr - but you are paying MSA more than seven bucks a semester. Might as well try to get something out of them. Anyways, I think I'll end this here - gotta go burn every copy of E3W on campus. I'm funny too, dammit. Melanie Kruvelis is an LSA freshman. Massachusetts Institute of Technology does it. So does John Hopkins University. And Brown University. Maybe we should think about it too. What exactly is it that these schools do, you ask? They allow first semester grades to be pass/fail for freshmen, providing a blessed grade buffer during that stressful time when students are first adjusting to college life. I'd like to think that in terms of rigorous course load and caliber of students, the University of Michigan is no less than the big names on the East Coast. And perhaps we should consider taking a leaf out of their books. Having almost completed my first year and looking back on the first semester, I can conclude that along with being a completely new and exciting experience, fresh- manyear was the biggest blur of my life. Between adjust- ing to living away from home, keeping up with class work, meeting dozens of new people and, on top of it all, maintaining a pretty respectable GPA, there was no time for anything else. Needless to say, freshman year is a challenge - with so much to keep track of, it's difficult to juggle everything without losing your mind. Taking into account the stress of adjusting to college, some of the nation's top universities have installed a grade buffer for incoming freshmen. At these universi- tiesthe firstsemester for freshmanyearlis pass/fail. This is something the administration here should seriously consider. There are regular concerns about the mental health of college students, especially when they are first adapting to college life. And let me tell you, the looming pressure of writing an A grade English 125 paper, while simultaneously not failing the upcoming orgo, calc and econ exams, doesn't do much for mental health. Coming into college, what I found most shocking was how much grading differed across classes. It isn't just about managing time skillfully enough to do all the work (and do it well), but there is also the added burden of calculating exactly what counts and how much it counts for. It very quickly becomes a game of figuring out what percentage of points is necessary to get by, and what is the easiest way to achieve that. Not only that, but each professor and GSI has a differ- ent lecturing and teaching style. It's one thing to have to adjust to a new schedule and course load, but to also have to decipher the teaching and grading styles of each instructor is an added burden. It often takes new stu- dents a good three to four weeks of classes to get a grasp of what is demanded and how they will be evaluated. And, in a 15-week class, there isn't always much time to catch up. Not fretting about safeguarding a delicate GPA frees up time and brainpower for first-year students to delve into classes. As a freshman, when you're taking classes to explore potential career paths or reaffirm current ones, it makes sense to do just that - explore. But, when you're stressing about getting a 90 percent on the next exam, there isn't much time or energyleft for exploring. There are people who will say a pass/fail policy will just give incoming freshmen an excuse to not take school seriously. But, the students who genuinely care about the class will still care. By not being bogged down by the pressure to get good grades, they will have more opportunities to creatively explore the subject. They'll be less worried about making mistakes or getting penalized for having the wrong answer, which means students will be more likely to take risks in terms of how they approach a topic. They'll be inclined to begin thinking about the topic and field of study itself, as opposed to the end grade. Sure, there's a difference in the quality of work demanded at the college level, and freshman year is expected to be tough. But we've all heard the disaster stories from freshman year - the classes that we never imagined would be so tough, the professors whose lec- tures were more a cryptic code than lessons and the 0 papers that just didn't get written coherently at 3 a.m. I'm not saying this should be a free-for-all. I'm saying we all would have wanted a little bit of a break. Just for one semester. Harsha Nahata is an assistant editorial page editor. f . A