4A - Tuesday, April 19, 2011

The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
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tothedaily@michigandaily.com

ELAINE MORTON

coLLEGE*: HOW T SURVIVED
GR1uATON'?
i!!!!!!!N o N c,
BROK &N) ALL CLASS LuCTURES
trKE NtGTERS P,
Im not 'In 'for Obama

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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.
'1-1 Edgar Awards
Spoiler Alert: Karlos Marks won all the awards
Back when J. Edgar Hoover, that infallible defender
of our constitutional rights, was playing dictator and
spying on Americans as head of the Federal Bureau
of Investigation, the Daily's editorial page handed out the
Edgar Awards annually to individuals and institutions best
embodying his many admirable characteristics. Of necessity,
we revived the tradition in recent years.

And so we present the eighth annual Edgar
Awards:

goes to Republican Gov. Rick Snyder. While
following President Barack Obama as the Uni-
versity's commencement speaker was going

" The Newt Gingrich Edgar for worst to be a tough task for anyone, students were
budgetary mess goes to Republican Gov. understandably unenthused that Rick let's-
Scott Walker. Instead of working to unite his cut-education-funding Snyder was chosen to
state, Walker took away collective bargaining address the class of 2011.
rights from all union workers - an action that
resulted in weeks of protests o The giddy school girl
and Democratic state represen- Edgar goes to the University
tatives fleeing the state. _-student body for freaking out
each time someone allegedly
" The Michelle Obama spotted George Clooney on
Edgar for best fashion sense campus.
goes to Muammar Gaddafi.
Though he refuses to give up his " The Chevy Volt Edgar for
role as Libyan dictator, at least going green goes to Rebecca
we get to marvel at his designer Black. Her emphasis on car-
sunglasses and colorful outfits. pooling in her song "Friday"
/ is exactly the progressive atti-
* The Muammar Gaddafi tude toward climate change
Edgar for craziest person goes ' this country needs.
to Charlie Sheen. As violence
in Libya was escalating, Gaddafi The Arianna Huffing-
said in reference to his people ton Edgar for selling out goes
- who were rioting against him to State Street. The addition
in the streets - "they love me." of CvS Pharmacy, 7-Eleven,
In an equal boutof craziaess, , - and.Five Guys has.stripped
Charlie Sheen taught us all what = State Street of its once eclectic,,
it means to be "winning" and locally-owned flair.
complained of being forced too
deal with "fools and trolls." t The Lady Gaga Edgar
for "Born This Way" inclusion
e The Andrew Shirvel "-- goes to the open housing ini-
Edgar for obsession with Mich- tiative.
igan Student Assembly Presi-

P resident Barack Obama's
campaign staff is nothing if
not savvy about the power
of social net-
working. This
was apparent
when the silly
little sticker for
people to declare
their allegiance
to Obama 2012
popped up on my NEILL
Facebook news- MOHIAMMAD
feed before the
official re-elec-
tion campaign broke in the main-
stream media.
I'm not "In" for Obama 2012
because, on the issues I care about,
I can't find any difference between
his position and those of any of the
assorted clowns he could find him-
self running against next year.
Of course, as a political scientist
I should know better than to expect
any differently. One of relatively few
rock-solid empirical laws we have
in political science is the relation-
ship between "majoritarian" elec-
toral systems and party behavior.
In a nutshell: If there's no prize for
finishing third in an election (as is
the case in the United States), then
from the perspective of a prospec-
tive candidate there's no point in
starting a third party. And if that's
the case, then the two parties should
both move as close to the center, or
"median voter," of the set of people
voting in any particular election.
But wait! Certainly there's a dif-
ference between Obama and, say,
serial bankruptcy case, reality TV
star and born-again Birther Don-
ald Trump? Well, sure. The theory
doesn't have much to say about the
candidates'..lpersslosllties,,And yes,
if you puta gun to my head, I'd have
to concede that, as entrepreneur
and Dallas Mavericks owner Mark
Cuban might say, I wouldn't trust

Donald Trump to manage a Dairy
Queen let alone the West Wing.
When you start to get down to
the issues themselves, though, these
distinctions melt away. If you had
to guess who asked the joint chiefs
of staff to put together a "hit list" of
American citizens suspected of ter-
rorist behavior and then authorized
the CIA to execute anyone on that
list wherever they're found, without
a trial, would you say Obama or for-
mer president George W. Bush? The
answer may surprise you.
Under Obama, the crushing
wave of Homeland Security fund-
ing that paradoxically makes us all
less safe has continued apace. Last
fall, a Washington Post investigation
determined that around 854,000
Americans have a "Top Secret"-level
security clearance. That works out
to be around 0.3 percent of the coun-
try's adult population, even when
excluding however many more hun-
dreds of thousands of people who
have the comparatively pedestrian
and hopelessly gauche "Confiden-
tial" and "Secret" clearances.
You might think that 0.3 percent
is a small number. It only took two
minutes of Google searching and
some back-of-the-napkin arithmetic,
however, to figure that the Stasi, the
notorious East German secret police
- and the intellectual forebears of
the "See Something, Say Something"
program you probably saw plas-
tered all over the walls the last time
you were at the airport - directly
employed as much as 0.7 percent of
the German population during the
1970s. So we're in good company.
These things matter. Granted, the
bit about the extra-judicial execu-
tions matters somewhat more to me
given my skin eolob-a'ad.last name
than it might to you. You might have
the luxury of not having to worry
about the world's worst case of mis-
taken identity any time you step off

an international flight. Even so, the
lack of opposition to the expansion
and entrenchment to the national
surveillance state is corrosive to
American values and makes us less
secure. Opportunists have carved
out tidy careers for themselves by
subverting the torrent of counter-
terror cash that never seems to let
up. Last month, the Washington
Monthly described a terrorism pre-
paredness training session for sher-
iffs' deputies in Floridaduringwhich
a self-described expert explained
that any "Muslim who wears a head-
band, regardless of color or insignia,
basically what that is telling you is
'I am willing to be a martyr."' So at
least now we know what happened
to Tupac.
Too much
surveillance
is not helpful.
I found myself with a lot of time
to contemplate these things last fall,
when I spent about 30 minutes being
interrogated by border security at
Dulles International on my way back
to Michigan from South Africa. And
I speak, in this case, as one of the
lucky ones. It could have been much
worse considering I'm fortunate
enough to have an Irish first name
and a nasally Midwestern accent
and I am a native English speaker.
But am I "In" for Obama 2012? No.
Hell, his name is Barack Obama. If he
weren't the president, he could have
foundhiosaC"in" thatsAme stuffy
holding pen at Dulles that I did.
-Neill Mohammad can be
reached at neilla@umich.edu.

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RealLjfe University

dent Chris Armstrong goes to
The Michigan Daily. To date, the Daily has.
published 106 articles with Armstrong's name
in them - just saying.
* The John Boehner Edgar for cry-
ing goes to former Michigan head football
coach Rich Rodriguez. His moving rendition
of "You Raise Me Up" brought many to tears
- some tears of sentiment and some tears of
hysteria.
" The Jersey Shore Edgar for best fake
tan goes to House Speaker John Boehner.
Boehner's Oumpa Loompa-esque skin makes
Snookie's look likea natural glow.
* The Rich Rod Edgar for biggest let down

" The Denard Robinson
Edgar for being the only thing worth watch-
ing in the Big House goes to The Big Chill.
* The "omg" this thing tweets more than
Charlie Sheen Edgar goes to the Egyptian
protesters. Former Egyptian President Hosni
Mubarak thought he had to worry about peo-
ple reading "Animal Farm," but apparently he
didn't know the power of social networking
sites.
" The Karlos Marks Edgar for damag-
ing a governing body goes to the Tea Party.
They almost forced a government shutdown,
but thank goodness there are still a few people
on Capitol Hill who actually want to negotiate
and govern.

EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS:
Aida Ali, Will Butler, 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
SEND LETTERS TO: TOTHEDAILY@MICHIGANDAILY.COM

was pleased to see this on a
friend's Facebook wall: "To all
my Facebook friends, if you had
all the money
and connections
to design the
world's best edu-
cational expe-
rience in three
months, WHAT
would you learn?
HOW, WHERE,
from WHOM ERIK
would you learn TORENBERG
it?"
Perhaps I'll
answer this question in a future col-
umn. Before that, I'd like to prove it's
a question worth answering. Consid-
er the following four reasons:
First, it encourages you to step
back from barriers that may be real
or exaggerated. It defines what skills
you really want to acquire and why.
The time horizon forces you to pri-
oritize options that seem to be end-
less. When time is limited, and it is
limited, you realize that if you really
want to do X, it doesn't make much
sense to take that class on dinosaurs.
Second, it answers not only who
you want to become, but also what
type of society you want to live in.
Does your ideal experience focus on
individual or collective development?
Is success measured by economic
growth or widespread contentment?
A better question: To what extent is
it both?
Third, if you're passionate about
any cause, you probably think the
root of the problem can be solved
through education. Some people
want to mitigate education inequal-
ity. Others don't want to stifle "gift-
ed" students. Some want students to
be more creative. Others prefer that
American students beat Singaporean
students on math and science exams.
Fourth, important people are
already answering this question.
It seems as if society is constantly
debating the point of education and
what's the best way to implement it
Should it be humanities or vocation
based? Steve Jobs believes a liberal

arts foundation induces creativity.
Bill Gates thinks it should be mea-
sured by how many jobs it creates.
Perhaps again, a better question is to
what extent should it be both? .
Last week a column appeared in
the Wall Street Journal called "How
To Get a Real Education in College."
Even though I believe in the concept
of entrepreneurial education - how
education can develop more creative
and engaged students - I disagree
with a large part of the column. It
emphasizes implementation of ideas
at the expense of the mindset that
generates them.
Entrepreneur and author Ben Cas-
nocha hasblogged abouta concept he
calls Real Life University. I under-
stand his concept as customizing an
education to one's specific talents
and desires. For Ben, RLU entails
reading voraciously and eclecti-
cally, exploring places and adapting
to different cultures and surround-
ing himself with interesting and
inspiring people. He's assembled an
informal board of trustees, people
he respects to serve as advisors and
mentors, to guide him as he designs
his own path.
Ben isn't alone. Anya Kamenetz's
book "DIY U: Edupunks, Edupre-
neuers and the Coming Transforma-
tion of Higher Education" chronicles
students who are designing and
implementing their ideal education
experiences. "Life-to-text" program
College Unbound assembles per-
sonalized learning networks - the
equivalent of the University's living
learning communities - to join in
informal classes and formal work
experience. Learning, Freedom and
the Web, a community dedicated to
revolutionizing education, hosts the
Drumbeat Festival, where hundreds
of people share ideas and teach each
other tangible skills.
I, too, have been captivated by the
concept of RLU. My friend and I have
been brainstorming a curriculum
for the next month, from what we
want to read, to whom we want to
include in our personalized learning
networks, to what goals we want to

achieve.
He wants to prepare for the LSAT,
undergo a self-designed study of bas-
ketball statistics and prepare for his
senior thesis on the economic impli-
cations of philosopher John Rawls's
theories.
My senior thesis will answer the
initial question as well as others:
What should education look like in
the 21st century? What skills should
students acquire, and how should
they acquire them? What is the best
way to incentivize students? How
can schools accommodate different
learning styles, different cultural val-
ues and ultimately competing visions
as to what society should look like?
What do you
want from your
education?
I want to read up and talk to
experts on pedagogy, neuroscience
and organizational design. I'll also
be working with eRes, an entrepre-
neurial living learning community to
directly implement some of my theo-
ries, as well asbrainstorm a potential
University of Michigan version ofthe
Drumbeat Festival.
For a month, I'll be experiment-
ing with the people, projects and
information we want to surround
ourselves with, so that I can recreate
it when all structure is taken away.
Throughout the process, I'll be ask-
ing: Is this sustainable? Am I getting
the results I want? This concept is a
bit peculiar, but also telling. I want
to have a real life University experi-
ence, in a real live University.
We might all be a bit more delib-
erate if we answered the initial
question. As for time to experiment,
there's always the summer.
Erik Torenberg can be reached
at erikto@umich.edu.

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University dining halls must
identify their sustainablefoods

150 miles of Ann A
of Michigan. It's alp
know that sustains
mote environmenta
economic sustainal

TO THE DAILY: tant thing for them
Most students know that East Quad Resi- to identify sustaina
dence Hall serves sustainable food, but hon- The labeling systen
estly, how many students know that all the ineffective and the
dining halls do? Or how many students actu- lacking.
ally know the University's definition of sus- If more students
tainable food? I didn't know either of these ronmental and eco
things before taking the class "Sustainabil- sustainable foods,I
ity and the Campus" this semester. I have for more sustaina
noticed an unfortunate disconnect between more students were
the students and the food they eat. When it options that already
comes down to it, the University is doing a try to eat more of tf
great job of incorporating sustainable foods or not this is true,
into dining areas across campus, but it is work on bridgingi
doing a poor job of informing students about students and the foo
sustainable food choices and educating us have guessed that I
about the importance of eating more sustain- campus is sustainab
able food. that's some food for
It's important for students to know that
the University defines sustainable food as Chelsea DuChene
food that is either grown or processed within LSA sophomore

rbor or within the state
so important for them to
able foods not only pro-
al sustainability, but also
bility. The most impor-
to know, though, is how
ble foods around campus.
m currently being used is
education component is
were aware of the envi-
nomic benefits of eating
I think they would push
ble ingredients. And if
aware of the sustainable
'exist, I think they would
hose dishes too. Whether
the University needs to
the disconnect between
od they eat. I never would
19 percent of the food on
ble, would you have? Now,
thought.

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