I 4 - Tuesday, December 13, 2011 The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom 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 JEFF AT.JEFFDZ@UMICH.EDU I'm not ashamed to admit But you don't have that Rick Perry commercial to be a cartoonist, If elected I will parodies are probably done or even a liberal, % I don't knw. to death at this point. / to know that , w making an ad that insults our I think I'm too angry serviemento even deliver a and women, punchline now. Vv fabricates a "war on religion" 4 and denies the ,, legitimacy of ever religion outside of j Christianity, is a Jeff Zuschlag ; reprehensible and Sidiotic act. -V An unparalleled experience, STEPHANIE STEINBERG EDITOR IN CHIEF MICHELLE DEWITT and EMILY ORLEY EDITORIAL PAGE EDITORS 4 4 NICK SPAR 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. FROerTHE DAILY 'U' needs to address issues in FOIA Office The Universitys administration's transparency with public records has become a concern. Last Thursday, The Michi- gan Daily exposed another flaw within the administrative system, specifically with the University's FOIA Office. The Michi- gan Freedom of Information Act is a state law that mandates pub- lic bodies to release requested public information at a low or no cost. The University is a public institution, so most of its records are public records. But the University's FOIA Office has been recently charging expensive fees for requestors to receive public records. The University's inability to provide requested information in a timely, reasonably priced manner is a failure on its part, and its pro- cess needs to change. In recent years, the Daily has uncovered closed-door meetings held by the Univer- sity's Board of Regents and administrators trying to conceal certain decisions. Another notable investigation was the discovery in 2009 of the University Department of Public Safety Oversight Committees' failure to hold proper elections. In the latest investigation, a Daily article from Dec. 8 revealed that the University FOIA Office does not function the same way as other Big Ten School FOIA offices. The Daily requested information on the number of parking tickets given on cam- pus and employees' purchasing cards trans- actions from the University, as well as other schools. While some schools gave the infor- mation for free or a small charge, the Uni- versity asked for more than $1,000 for each request. m The purpose of FOIA is to encourage transparency among public institutions. If an organization receives taxpayer money, the public has the right to know how the orga- nization is spending that money and how it operates. A properly functioning FOIA Office should make that process as easy and effi- cient as possible. The discrepancies in estimated costs to fulfill open record requests between the Uni- versity and comparable public institutions show that the University is not meeting its obligations under the Michigan open records law. The failure may simply reflect an under- staffed FOIA Office, or it could be a sign that the University's records are unorganized. An understaffed office should be given resourc- es to hire new employees, and poorly main- tained records should be made electronic and more accessible for the benefit of the public. More alarmingly, the FOIA Office could be inflating request costs to discourage outside scrutiny of the University. While that is an unlikely scenario, without the FOIA Office operating efficiently, it's impossible to have complete transparency. It's clear from other universities' quick responses and low fees that the FOIA Office at the University of Michigan is not operat- ing properly. If it is as difficult to retrieve charge card information as the FOIA Office has claimed, then there is legitimate concern of whether the University has a handle on the more than $105 million employees spend with charge cards each year. When records are not easily accessible, there is an increased risk of faculty misuse. Regardless of the reason for the problems with the FOIA Office, it's an unacceptable sit- uation. If the office is disorganized or under- staffed, the University needs to invest in the FOIA Office to fix these problems. If the charges are meant to discourage requests, that violates the spirit and letter of the law and should be immediately addressed. presume that many of my fel- low seniors can relate to the feeling of not wanting to move on. The spec- ter of life after college looms large wherever we look. For me, leaving The Michigan Daily symbolizes the myriad of chang- es that lay ahead MATTHEW in the next few GREEN months. As you may imagine, writing for this paper has signifi- cantly shaped my experience in col- lege and I'm sad to see it go. It was in the second or third week of my freshman year that I first made my way to Maynard Street to attend an Editorial Board meeting. And in the three and a half years since then, I may not have been a fixture in the newsroom as others have - but the paper has defined me nevertheless. It's hard to reflect on my tenure at the Daily without immediately thinking about all the people who've hated my columns. Pessimism is in my nature, so this may not come as a surprise. Over the years I've main- tained some loyal readers, of course - here's a shout out to my girls at the synagogue sisterhood - but I also developed a colorfully diverse set of detractors. And from this latter set, I've heard a remarkably extensive range of criticism. In response e-mails and com- ment pages, they've accused me of being both a spoiled son of privilege and a militant socialist bent on class warfare. I've been called an agent of Zionist propaganda as well as an anti-Israel pawn of the Left. Many have accused me of pushing a radi- cal gay agenda. Yet just a few weeks ago a printed viewpoint accused me of projecting heteronormative ideas onto others. Hyperbolic to say the least, these seemingly contradictory criticisms highlight an important element of my writing over the years. As I've articulated my opinions, I've at least attempted to look at issues from multiple angles, even if my work generally took one bias or another. I mean, let's face it - this was opinion writing. But from all of the back and forth involved, it's no wonder that my criticism would be so varied. This, I think, was the most valuable part of writing my column: the chance to figure out exactly what I believed. In some ways it was dangerous to put into writing opinions that may not stick with me throughout my career. But from the feedback I've received, formally and casually, my opin- ions and my logic were sharpened immeasurably. One criticism has been that I've taken my writing too seriously. Indeed, this is something I've heard about the Daily more generally as well. Musing on this, I think there are two important truths here. The first is that college news- papers don't matter a whole lot. Skeptical friends and critics are often quite willing to point that out. With the exception of some Univer- sity news, college newspapers only somewhat provide information that other sources - other news outlets, blogs or gossip, for instance - don't. Articles are written and edited by unseasoned journalists and opinion writers are almost never experts on the subjects they discuss. And in a culture that's dominated by social media, the college newspaper is no longer the go-to medium for campus communication. But ina sense, the college newspa- per is the only thing that does mat- ter. For freshmen writers, the paper can provide journalistic experience to build upon. And for opinion writ- ers, it's a springboard for formulating ideas. Both these instances epitomize the ways in which college is sup- EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS: posed to benefit those who can go - teaching both practical and theo- retical skills. More important still is the way in which the paper enhances the University's ability to develop an educated and thoughtfully critical citizenry. Though it often plays sec- ond fiddle to other pages - sports, much to my chagrin - the opinion page is the frontal lobe of the news- paper. It contextualizes the stories written in other sections, and it's the sectionwith the greatest stake in social justice. I often tried to remem- ber this as I wrote my columns. It's truly been an honor to write for the Daily. And whether ornot Isucceeded in imbuing a greater social awareness in my writing, I can only hope that my successors will continue trying to do so. In the past few years I've writ- ten roughly 37,500 words in about 50 opinion articles. That's more or less 130 pages of double-spaced, elected, extra work. Though I could surely continue finding material within the news and in day-to-day life, I've decided it's time to tuck away my byline and give someone else a pen. I thank you for reading my work over the past few years, for sharp- ening my judgment and for keeping me honest. You may have hated my flaming liberalism or my occasion- ally questionable outlook on life, but this experience has been unparal- leled for me. It's truly been an honor to write for you. - Matthew Green can be reached at greenmat@umich.edu. Aida Ali, Kaan Avdan, Michelle DeWitt, Ashley Griesshammer, Nirbhay Jain, Jesse Klein, Patrick Maillet, Erika Mayer, Harsha Nahata, Emily Orley, Teddy Papes, Timothy Rabb, Vanessa Rychlinski, Sarah Skaluba, Caroline Syms, Seth Soderborg, Andrew Weiner COURTNEY MERCIER J Student-athletes go green CONNOR CAPLIS AND BENNETT STEIN [ Student-athletes at the University are going green! Well, not green as in our rivals to the north, butgreen as in sustainable and environ- mentally aware. Michigan Student-Athletes for Sustainability, a group of student-athletes, have organized an official career community in M-PACT - a professional and career tran- sition program for student-athletes. With support from M-PACT and the Student Sus- tainability Initiative, we are very optimistic about the changes we can make in the Athletic Department. M-SAS's founder, Courtney Mercier, a four- year varsity student-athlete, formed M-SAS last year when she realized that there were other student-athletes like her who were interested in environmental sustainability but didn't know how to get involved. Shortly after the Athletic Department approved the creation of M-SAS in September, University President Mary Sue Coleman announced the University's sustainability goals and commit- ment for the entire University. Throughout the University, departments and offices had begun to embrace a culture of sustainability even before the announcement. However, as student-athletes, we have noticed that this culture isn't infused into the athletic community. When we go to our ath- letic events, we wonder how a university that has made such an incredible commitment to sustainability could have such a sustainability deficiency in its athletic facilities. The biggest exposure thatthe University receives on a daily basis is through its athletics program. When fans come to our games, we want them to know that as a university, we care about sustainabil- ity. At Michigan, we strive to be the Leaders and Best in everything, so shouldn't the athlet- ics community also aim to be the Leaders and Best in environmental sustainability? Our goal for M-SAS is to be a program not only for professional and career-related issues, but also avenue for student-athletes to express their interests and desires to make the athletic community more environmentally sustain- able. We hope to unify individual interests, organize action and build awareness. We're not just fighting to get recycling bins put in the facilities, but rather we want to reach out to all student-athletes, coaches, fans, everyone in the athletic community. We want to educate and empower them to make their own choices about sustainability. The commitment that the University has made to sustainability has created an amazing opportunity for us to integrate the sustain- ability movement into the athletic commu- nity. In order to do this, we need widespread support from not only the Athletic Depart- ment, but from everyone across campus. The University's commitment would not be com- plete without the involvement of the Athletic Department. In an effort to create one culture of sustainability at the University, we have made our slogan for M-SAS: "We play on Plan- et Blue," which complements the "We live on Planet Blue" slogan conveyed throughout the rest of campus. Courtney Mercier is an LSA senior. She is the founder of M-SAS. Protect peaceful protests The images from the University of California, Davis are shocking. A row of people sit in solidarity with the Occupy movement. Their arms are linked, and their heads are bowed. Above them strolls a helmeted police officer applying a heavy coat of pepper spray to their heads and faces with the efficiency and seeming indiffer- ence of a robotic arm in a paint shop. The video, show- ing the extensive use of pepper spray against non-violent protesters, immediately strikes as an inexplicable and indefensible overreaction and abuse of power. On Nov.29, University students held a vigil on the Diag in support of UC-Davis and UC-Berkeley students. The use of pepper spray on non-violent protesters is inhumane, unethical and unconstitutional. The health of our democracy and the vitality of the college campus as a haven for non-vio- lent social protest rely on a police force that protects free speech, not brutalizes it. We are fortunate that the University has a deep and proud history of non-violent protest, dating back to the 1960s anti-Vietnam War protests. Campus saw the rise and fall of the Students for a Democratic Society's anti- war leadership. The 1970's included the Black Action Movement's campus-wide strike to protest low minority enrollment. These protests and their legacy of student activism have developed a community that stands firmly behind the First Amendment in its respect for peaceful protest. Our University community, however, must work actively to not only preserve free speech but also expand the right to those still silenced. Though much of the non-violent protests at the Uni- versity have been correctly tolerated, we cannot forget the less-than-shining moments in our recent past. In April 2007, the Department of Public Safety unneces- sarily arrested 12 students who had staged a sit-in at the Fleming Administration Building as part of a Students Organizing for Labor and Economic Equality campaign. In October 2010, the University attempted to charge a security fee to the student group Students For Life to pay for an unsolicited DPS presence to monitor protests of their event. The University eventually revoked the fee, as it is unconstitutional to financially burden a speaker because of a potential hostile reaction to her speech. These local examples as well as the news from around the country show a growing need for action to prevent the erosion of this critical liberty and further extend it to all individuals. In response to inquiries by the university's chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, the University fur- thered its protection of speech this year as it reviewed and reformed its trespass policy. The new policy limits DPS's discretion in banning individuals from campus and ends the practice of lifetime bans without review. Addi- tionally, this year the University stood proudly behind History Prof. Juan Cole, as reports emerged that the CIA had targeted him as a prominent critic of the Iraq War and Middle East policy. University Provost Philip Hanlon wrote in response to the insulting news, "Free expression of views is essential to dynamic dialogue and debate." The ACLU of Michigan sued the CIA demanding that it turn over all documents relatingto professor Cole. We seethe health and safety of our University and com- munity threatened not by peaceful protesters, but by any force that threatens this free exchange of ideas. There is no doubt that the violence at UC-Davis illustrates the challenge protests present to university administrators, public safety departments and the larger community. The University's protection of protest and public safety requires preparedness, communication and professionalism. The University's values and excellence rely on DPS's continued commitment to these goals. We call on our administration and our police force to main- tain their respect for non-violent protest for any cause, at any time. This is of unique importance as the University selects a new DPS chief to uphold these principles. The excessive police force at UC-Davis must remind our cam- pus of the need to unceasingly demand free speech for all. Connor Caplis is an LSA freshman and Bennett Stein is a Public Policy senior. They are members of the ACLU-UM undergraduate chapter. 0i I 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. 0 A