4 - Tuesday, November 22, 2011 The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com 4 - Tuesday, November 22, 2011 The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan since 1890. 420 Maynard St. Ann Arbor, MI 481i09 tCthedaily@michigandaily.com MICHELLE DEWITT STEPHANIE STEINBERG and EMILY ORLEY NICK SPAR EDITOR IN CHIEF EDITORIAL PAGE EDITORS 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. Imran Syed is the public editor. He can be reached at publiceditor@michigandaily.com. FROMT H EDA ILY Drive eiciency forward Congress should pass new CAFE standards. Last Wednesday, the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration official- ly released a proposal to hike fuel economy standards to 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025. The plan should be embraced by all par- ties and lawmakers should work toward making the United States a FOLLOW DAILY OPINION ON TWITTER Keep up with columnists, read Daily editorials, view cartoons and join in the debate. Check out @michdailyoped to get updates on Daily opinion content throughout the day. Como se dice, globalization? e tend to use the term "globalization" liberally, but what does it really mean? We don't have to look any further than our own campus to find the answer. The Institute of Internation- al Education reports that, the University ranks eighth in the country for the number of DANIEL CIIARDELL leader in energy efficiency. Wednesday's announcement came after the Obama administration and automakers agreed in principle to the plan last July. This is well over a 50-percent increase since the Energy Independence and Security Act of2007, which mandated that the national mileage reach 35. miles per gallon by 2020. The average fuel economy standard in the U.S. has been stuck at 27.5 miles per gallon since the mid-1980s. The European Union and countries like Japan have average rates of at least 45 mpg, starkly contrasting the Corporate Average Fuel Economy in the U.S. Though President Barack Obama has yet to fulfill promises to cut down on foreign energy dependence and oil consumption, the admin- istration has begun making strides toward raising the fuel-efficiency standard. It's crucial that Congress takes steps to reduce U.S. dependence on foreign oil. Making automobiles more fuel efficient would greatly impactthese efforts. Moreover, the proposal is in line with additional efforts made by the U.S. EPA to cut down on motor vehicle emissions, which is a major contributor to greenhouse gases. Gas exhaust has undesirable effects on the environment and public health. Factors such as toxic hydrocarbons and solid particu- lates contribute to air pollution A escalating a varietyof diseases includingsome cancers. Many foreign car companies including Daimler AG, BMW AG, Jaguar Land Rover and Porsche AG choose to violate CAFE requirements and pay millions of dollars in fines as a result. Volkswagen AG has been especially vocal against raising fuel-efficiency standards, while Ford Motor Company, Chrys- ler Group and General Motors have come out in support of the proposal, saying 54.5 mpg is an achievable goal. Taxes on gas-guzzling vehicles are proving ineffective at gaining cooperation from auto- manufacturers. Companies are happy to pay the fines for noncompliance because the fees are less costly than investing in new technolo- gies. In orderto enforce the new national stan- dard, the Obama administration should follow theleadofother EuropeanandAsiancountries. Different measures need to be implemented to promote fuel-efficiency - fiscal incentives could be provided for companies that comply, and tax relief could be awarded according to efficiency and lower emission rates. The U.S. is the world's largest market for passenger vehicles. Therefore, corporations have a responsibility to do the best they can for the environment, economy and health of their consumers. It's in the country's best interest to cut down on energy consump- tion - if the proposed rates do take effect by the projected date, the country will use 2.2 million fewer barrels of oil each day. CAFE standards needoto respond to pressuresnof the present. In a global economy, it's of the utmost importance that U.S. automakers can compete with their foreign counterparts in a market that is becoming increasingly envi- ronmentally conscious. international students studying on campus. During the 2010-2011 academic year, this amounted to 5,995 students coming to the Uni- versity from around the world. A 2010 statistical report released by the University of Michigan Inter- national Center shows that inter- national student enrollment has steadily increased each year. This is reflective of a broader nation- al trend. According to the IIE's annual Open Doors report, foreign student enrollment in the United States increased by 5 percent over the past year. To put that in per- spective, there are 32 percent more international students studying in the U.S. today than there were one decade ago. These statistics speak for them- selves. Anyone who still believes that isolation from the world out- side U.S. borders is a viable option is simply delusional. As with econom- ics and politics, higher education is yet another venue in which people from opposite sides of the globe now interact on a daily basis. But let's not get lost in the num- bers or cliche abstractions. Like the ever-elusive "diversity," it's easier for us to frame foreign students as if they were merely a data point or a homogenous demographic and easi- er to deem all international students "non-American" rather than invest the time to learn what makes their respective cultures unique from one another. For American students and native English speakers, the more difficult (and urgent) task is to learn how to communicate with and learn from the international students with whom we interact each day. Their presence should be a constant reminder that we live in an increas- ingly global society. Perhaps the best way to act upon this is learning another language. Which brings me to my unfortu- nate point: The University's foreign language requirement is inadequate. In the University's largest school, LSA, fourth-term proficiency in a language other than English is nec- essary for graduation. For students pursuing concentrations in interna- tional studies or specific area studies programs, sixth-term proficiency is required. Are four to six courses enough to ascertain a new language? Unfortu- nately, I'd have to say no. As in most schools, basic language courses at the University consist of hour-long sessions that meet anywhere from three to five times each week in a formal classroom setting. That's not really the issue. The true problem lies in the fact that, as soon as stu- dents step outside the classroom, they revert back to English. As long as we still study at the University, we can't escape the fact that we live in an English-speakingsociety. English inevitably interferes with foreign language acquisition. For some students, that is perfect- ly all right. They consider the foreign language requirement a burden and a distraction from their concentra- tion. But for those who genuinely wish to master a new language, it. quickly becomes clear that our cur- rent system of foreign language instruction isn't conducive to actual proficiency. Intro courses certainly provide the necessary foundations - grammar, vocabulary, cultural awareness - that are requisite to long-term language acquisition, but they fall short of supplying students with the tools they need in order to carry on an intelligent conversation with a native speaker. The best remedy would of course be studying abroad. Immersing one- self in a foreign language and culture is proven to be the most effective means of language acquisition and long-term retention. The University has exceptional resources for stu- dents interested in studying abroad, and I would encourage all to consid- er this option. Nonetheless, the University can still improve things here on campus. For instance, departments should offer more semester- or year-long intensive language courses. Inten- sive language classes represent the best available alternative to actual immersion abroad. Having taken intensive first-year Russian, I can attest to the fact that intensive courses do wonders for language acquisition. 6 U' should focus more on foreign languages. Students in the Residential Col- lege are required to complete an intensive foreign language program, which allows them to satisfy their LSA language requirement faster. With an emphasis on speaking, RC students also gain superior con- versational proficiency. Keeping in mind that students are often wary of devoting so many credits to one class, undergraduates should be encouraged, not steered away, from pursuing intensive foreign language coursework. Foreign languages are tough. We should recognize this, reward stu- dents who pursu.e languages beyond the LSA requirement and reinforce the fact that foreign language com- petency makes students more com- petitive in the job market following graduation. The University would do itself a favor by investing in more intensive foreign language pro- grams and encouraging all students to achieve full language proficiency - something that can't be achieved at the current low standards. In the future, when globalization.is old news and foreign language skills are valued above all else, we'll be thank- ful that our University expected the most of us. - Daniel Chardell can be reached at chardell@umich.edu. EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS: Aida Ali, Michelle DeWitt, Ashley Griesshammer, Nirbhay Jain, Jesse Klein, Patrick Maillet, Erika Mayer, Harsha Nahata, Emily Orley, Teddy Papes, Timothy Rabb, Vanessa Rychlinski, Caroline Syms, Seth Soderborg, Andrew Weiner JESSE CARR l EWOIT A false illusion of safety 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 DAVID GREEN|VIEWPOINT Make crime alerts more descriptive I write to draw the campus community's attention to a pair of articles that recently appeared in the online edition of The Michi- gan Daily. "Students talk racial profiling in Depart- ment of Public Safety alerts" describes a town hall meeting where students of color gathered to share their experiences of being randomly stopped, interrogated and searched by DPS officers. The town hall meeting was called by Students of Color of Rackham in response to an especially problematic alert that described an alleged offender as a black man who was either "bald or with dreadlocks" - a vague and contradictory description that makes it easier to engage in racial profiling. DPS Chief Greg O'Dell explained to the frustrated town hall audience that alerts had to go out quickly in order to comply with the Clery Act, and therefore officers don't have time to procure more detailed descriptions or reconcile contradictions. In light of this, I was surprised to see a second article titled "Days later, DPS alerts East Quad of sexual assault." This article describes an incident of sexual assault that was not reported to the cam- pus until 10 days after the fact because DPS didn't think the incident represented a serious threat. Taken together, these articles expose seri- ous flaws in the University's crime alert sys- tem, namely that they exacerbate the problem of racial profiling and simultaneously mini- mize the problem of sexual violence. Last week's town hall organizers presented data on four years of crime alerts - showing that more than half of these alerts involved alleged crimes perpetrated by black men. This figure is wildly disproportionate to the population of black men who attend the University or reside in the larger Ann Arbor community. The cause of this disproportionate reporting pattern is not clear, but the effects are undeniable: Stu- dents of color (especially African-American men) face racial profiling, which makes them feel less safe on campus. If you have never experienced the fear and shame that comes with being interrogated by police while you are minding your own busi- ness in the library, racial profiling might seem minor compared to the issue of safety. But do crime alerts ensure safety? When it comes to sexual violence, these alerts might actually leave us underprepared. Last week's unreported East Quad Resi- dence Hall incident is just one example. It's likely that more students on campus have experienced date rape or acquaintance rape than have been attacked by a stranger in East Quad, but we never get crime alerts about those incidents either. On the other hand, we frequently get crime alerts about stranger- assaults (and half of these alerts feature black men). This leads to a situation where many students feel instinctively fearful when they see an unfamiliar black man approaching on the sidewalk, even though chances are this person is probably just another student on their way home from a late night study session. What few students realize is that the pushy guy who keeps bringing you drinks at a party, or who implies he is owed sex because he paid for your meal, is a much more likely source of violence than the stranger on the street. Crime alerts give us a false illusion of safety, making usoverlyfearful insituationsthatare probably safe and overly complacent in situations where we might actually be in danger. The Clery Act and the crime alert system are certainly well intentioned - buthave rates of sexual violence (or any other type of vio- lence) actually decreased as a result of these policies? All students deserve a safe campus where they can learn, live, work and play without being subject to violence. We deserve initiatives that address root causes of violence like challenging pervasive rape culture. We deserve strategies for addressing violence that don't perpetuate racial profiling, which is a form of violence itself. If the Clery Act and the crime alert system don't provide this, it's time to develop effective alternatives that will. Jesse Carr is a Rackham student. On Nov.11, a number of concerned University students, faculty, administrators, staff and representatives from the University's Department of Public Safety convened at the Law School to discuss an issue critical to our current reality in Ann Arbor: race, racism and safety. What led to the organization of the town hall meeting was a rather dubious crime alert which described a black male suspect as being "bald or with dread locks" and wearing either an "orange, red or black" sweatshirt. Now, anyone in their rightmind knowsthat it's impos- sible to confuse a baldhead with dread locks. This vague description fits a number of black men who attend the University, myself included - a black male Ph.D. student with no criminal record, whose academic merit at the University of Florida and the University of Wisconsin- Madison rightfully earned a space here at the University of Michigan three years ago. These and other similar alerts lack a specificity that could lead to apprehending the suspect. My central concern, however, is that this description and the medium it was pipelined through - via e-mail - results in a unique practice of racial profiling that per- petually typecasts African-American men as pathologi- cal menaces to Ann Arbor's society. I call this practice viral racism because, like a virus, these descriptions spread through the University system and thus pei- petuate a gendered formation of blackness that's inher- ently criminal and deviant. This viral racism is a subtle practice of racial profiling that's legally and federally protected in the name of campus "safety" vis-a-vis the Clery Act. While the town hall meeting and its reception were positive; students' responses to The Michigan Daily's coverage of the meeting deserve critical attention. These comments were accusatory and representative of racial politics endemic to the University's campus climate - racial politics that can perhaps explain why students of color do not feel comfortable at the University. Com- ments attacked Philosophy Prof. Elizabeth Anderson with counterproductive personal attack, calling her an idiot and a moron because she dared to challenge the need of race as a descriptor in DPS crime alerts. Critics of Anderson take race for granted as a descriptive category, unfazed even by vague descriptions as "baldhead or with dreadlocks." Iam disturbed by the fact that of those who condemned Anderson, none were willing to acknowledge this appalling crime alert description. Indeed, there were a number of comments that failed to comprehend the history of race and racial profiling endemic to Ann Arbor and the United States. Critical to this discussion is the racialization and regulation of "safety" on campus. What body of students benefit from safety and at whose expense? This was the question that town hall participants addressed. DPS crime alerts pro- vided a platform to discuss privilege and power, as well as pathology and marginalization. Let us all be more conscious of the crime alerts. At the town hall meeting, archival research was presented of crime alerts, from 2007 to 2011, as opposed to those reported in the Daily's report and issued by DPS, which only represented a few short months of data. This method was done to highlight a politics of disproportion whereby, according to 2010 U.S. Census data and University demo- graphics, the total number of black men who attend the University and those who reside in Ann Arbor was sub- stantially less than reported percentages in said-crime- alerts1n 2010,3.28 pecient of men at the University were black; and the total number of black male residents in Ann Arbor was less than 7.7 percent. Between November 2007 and October 2011, 62 incidents provided descrip- tions of the suspect whereby black men represented 48.3 percent of alleged offenders. Men of color (including Latino, Asian, black and mix raced) comprised 51.5 per- cent of these descriptions. What factors explain this disproportionate reporting pattern? Instead of attacking town hall organizers and panel- ists, it's time to institute social and institutional change here atthe University. I will close in an attempt to capture the essence of Anderson's presentation. Anderson's central questions, cogently articulated throughout her presentation, were: Why are we so obsessed with race in this country? What value, or added value, does race have - particularly for those with access to institutional power compared to those who do not? She argued that if race is important and necessary, then we ought to be more diligent and ethical in the transfer of reportage. David Green is a Rackham student. I D I 4