4A - Thursday, January 26, 2012 The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com 0 4A - Thursday, January 26, 2012 The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom S Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan since 1890. 420 Maynard SE. Ann Arbor, MI 48109 tothedaily@michigandaily.com ASHLEY GRIESSHAMMER JOSEPH LICHTERMAN and ANDREW WEINER JOSH HEALY 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. kMF Making the call The 'U' should implement medical amnesty The University is likely not the only college in the coun- try faced with the problem of underage drinking. To address the issue, the state of Michigan upholds a law that states an intoxicated minor seeking medical aid for an underage victim of alcohol poisoning can be convicted for Minor in Possession of alcohol. As a result, students often ignore medical emergencies to avoid getting into legal trouble. A new proposal put forward by the Central Student Govern- ment calls for the implementation of medical amnesty at the University, which would allow students under the influence to call authorities to help others without fear of punishment for doing a good deed. The implementation of this initiative would allow students to respond quickly to emergency situa- tions, seek help for others and ultimately save lives. What has happened in recent years, we were told a rising tide would lift all boats, but the rising tide has lifted all yachts." - Billionaire Warren Buffett said yesterday in an interview with ABC News about growing income inequality in America. 6 a stu stuck and n versity's act or inact affects the br er internatic community. Frankly, bubble is o placed over campus for good rear Few thinkt talking ab international issues in cla halls is really ble difference first step, but ly put into po This make; to reach bey( more importa PT Kizone factory locat literally half' Since the Un apparel contr dreds of shirt and other tyl the Diag doz were made at These worl $0.60 an hou But workers across the wo little, or eve Kizone impor According Consortium,) workers at th fired. They w lion in legall3 Today, more and family m Since last companies t Nike, Greenl iary) and the oddly enougE el), have agre the severancE Sweatshop sweatshirts dents, it's easy to get million owed and Adidas has stub- Adidas apparently h in our campus bubble bornly refused to chip in. Furthermore, in doci not know how the Uni- This comes out to roughly $642 respondence with th ion, per worker. That is more than 1,071 enforcing our Code oft ion, hours of unpaid work when one das repeatedly lied abo oad- makes $0.60 an hour - nearly five ment in the PT Kizone onal months' pay if they are working Put another way: t eight hours per day. wrote a rulebook, At that These are enormous numbers. It's one of those rulesa ften impossible to picture the difference administration refuse our between $1.8 million and $1.8 bil- Adidas for its actions. a lion, 10,000 people and 100,000 peo- Adidas has obviousl son. YONAH ple or 1,071 hours and 10,071 hours. Code of Conduct. that LIEBERMAN If we focus on the numbers, it's easy bout to get lost. Let's focus on the families. Adi- assrooms and lecture das' unwillingness to ante up has W hen going to make a tangi- had a tremendous impact on these . . . Education is a crucial people that are likely relying on just lniversit3 rarely is it immediate- one person for their total income. the ld litical action. Since that person is already making wor I s the rare opportunities less than a dollar an hour, these fam- ond the bubble all the ilies are hardly livinglives of luxury. lnt. Imagine for a moment only one I call on Adidas topa is a Nike and Adidas of your parents worked. Then, for lion owed to the PT K ed in Indonesia - yes, reasons beyond their control, they ees. But I doubt that a way across the world. stopped receiving a paycheck for company will be pers iversity has an athletic work they had already done. But they piece. I want to use my 'act with Adidas, hun- continue to go into work instead of get figures closer to ho s, hoodies, hats, jerseys trying to find another job out of fear In light of these clew pes of apparel seen on of being fired. Nearly four months call on our administrat ens of times every day later, there's still no paycheck. condemn Adidas' inact this one factory. Now what? How can your fam- company that they are kers.are being paid only ily pay rent? How can you afford to the University's code a r. Is that wage fair? No. pay your heating bills? Forget about Adidas pays these worm in developing nations going out to No Thai. Forget about are owed. rld are being paid that buying Johnny Depp's new DVD. Our University ha n less. So why is PT And definitely forget about going to tional reputation base 'tant? our public University. ics and integrity. Wh to the Workers Rights Now imagine how our campus world listens. When last January, the 2,800 can help these workers on the other world accepts the stat e factory were abruptly side of the world. You could be walki ere never paid $3.3 mil- Our University's multi-million the Grand Canyon and y mandated severance. dollar contract with Adidas is the in Adidas University than 10,000 workers largest in the nation. Since 2001 flex that economic mu embers are suffering. we have had a thoughtful and com- of struggling workers January, three of the prehensive Code of Conduct that is side of the world and1 hat used the factory, meant to ensure that all of the Uni- versity to live up to its o Textiles (a Nike subsid- versity's apparel suppliers follow a enforce its own code. Dallas Cowboys (who, basic ethical standard. h, make college appar- Part of our Code of Conduct is - Yonah Lieberman ed to pay about half of that suppliers need to comply with at yonahl@umich. e. But there is still $1.8 local labor law, something that on twitter @Yo as not done. .mented cor- he committee Conduct, Adi- ut its involve- factory. he University didas violated and now the s to penalize ly violated the our y acts, istens. CSG President DeAndree Watson described medical amnesty as a "huge accom- plishment" for the University that would give students an incentive to seek help. A resolu- tion in support of the medical amnesty pro- gram was put forth and approved at the CSG meeting Tuesday night. While the resolution calls for the immunity of underage drinkers attempting to help others, it has other pro- visions, including online alcohol education classes and meetings with the University's Counseling and Psychological Services. Medical amnesty initiatives are becoming increasingly popular on college campuses. Cor- nell University found that there was an increase in calls for alcohol-related emergencies after the implementation of the program. Without the fear of being issued an MIP, more students are taking prompt action to help a friend. Fines and community service time - the general consequences of an MIP - are often insuffi- cient deterrents for students who have access to alcohol. More importantly, fear ofsuch puni- tive measures is certainly not worth the life of another student. Medical amnesty policies help students distinguish their own situation from the condition of a fellow student in need of medical attention. According to a 2009 arti- cle in The Heights, Boston College's student newspaper, medical amnesty programs have been implemented at more than 90 other col- leges and universities in the country. University policies like the mandatory AlcoholEdu course for incoming under- graduates are only beneficial to an extent. Students remain likely to make reckless and ill-informed decisions, as shown by a 2007 University Student Life Survey, in which 52 percent of undergraduates reported that they participated in binge drinking and 69 percent reported that they had taken care of a drunk person. The University should have a policy that ensures the safety of students who are dangerously inebriated as well as those who look out for them. Unfortunately, binge drinking is common on many college campuses. Though under no circumstances is such behavior encouraged, any student attempting to aid another should not be punished, regardless of their blood alcohol content. A medical amnesty policy would ensure a more timely reaction on the part of an intoxicated student's peers and would result in less hesitation before the vic- tim is transported to a hospital. The Univer- sity should implement the medical amnesty policy because the safety of students needs to be at the forefront. ay the $1.8 mil- izone employ- multinational uaded by this energy to tar- )me. ar violations, I ion to publicly ion, notify the in violation of nd ensure that kers whatthey s an interna- d on academ- en we act, the we don't, the us quo. ng in Paris or d see someone apparel. Let's scle on behalf on the other urge our Uni- ownvalues and can be reached edu. Follow him nahLieberman. 0 SEND LETTERS TO: TOTHEDAILY@MICHIGANDAILY.COM EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS: Aida Ali, Laura Argintar, Kaan Avdan, Ashley Griesshammer, Nirbhay Jain, Jesse Klein, Patrick Maillet, Erika Mayer, Harsha Nahata, Harsha Panduranga, Timothy Rabb, Adrienne Roberts, Vanessa Rychlinski, Sarah Skaluba, Seth Soderborg, Caroline Syms, Andrew Weiner RON AND DENISE LANCE I The origins of a tradition There's no right way to experience museums TO THE DAILY: I would like to respond to what I thought was an extremely condescending and acutely insulting article by Lauren Caserta, "Context adds an extra dimension to experiencing art," on Jan. 23. The article paints her readership of Michigan students as a bunch of philistines who need to be led up the steps of a museum or auditorium by the nose. Of course context changes the way a work of art is perceived and understood. Tomes have been written and paintings have been painted since the 17th century that throw into question the very accuracy of perception, a viewing con- text in itself. At the Paris Salon, paintings that were thought inferior were placed way up high so that they touched the ceiling, and the superstars placed at eye-level. Furthermore, Caserta ignores the 20th century efforts made by artists like Allan Sekula, who in the series "Aerospace Folk- tales" created viewing spaces complete with potted ferns and recorded audio that added meaning and therefore dismantled slightly the framed photographs from their seem- ingly exalted position. Instead, I think that Caserta sides with the arbiters of the Salon in defending the institutional right of museums in shaping our viewing experience, and that she is all too impressed by the ritual and for- malities of experiencing culture that these authorities dictate. Did the author of this article ever stop to think that art is not limit- ed to the high art that is finally selected to be in these highly exclusive arenas? And what is to say about artists who consciously reject such settings, such as sound-artist Max Neu- haus's needle-in-a-haystack "Times Square" sound, literally a low-pitched sound which occupies a carefully sonically delineated space near a subway exit in Times Square? When Caserta sees a group of people huddled around something, does she immediately follow the "social prompts" that "[provide] the cues that tell you you're looking at some- thing that's meant to be meaningful?" Didn't the Dadaists kill the idea of "meaning to be meaningful" with automatism? Or with this statement has Caserta brushed off their con- tribution to art historycompletely? Caserta makes me believe that we go to museums as some kind of bourgeois obli- gation, in search of something to say at the next dinner party, or to experience a commodity - "even the day-long museum pass you paid for makes you feel as though you're looking at something special." Fur- thermore, the white walls, the "Hey! I'm in a museum!"vibe as bearing on the meaning of a work, is only applicable to the last 100 or so years of art making and falls into what Robert Smithson-called 'the secular ambush of art.' Before, say, the titanium backdrop for early modernist works at Stieglitz's 291 gallery, works of art were NOT intended to be placed in such deliberately hollow and context-LESS vacuums. Malevich empha- sizes this distinction himself when he dis- played (originally, and not the way Caserta described) "Black Square" for the first time in 1915 in the corner of a ceiling, the place traditionally reserved in the home for Chris- tian idols, and thereby nullifying it. But the dogmas of the past are only replaced by new ones. The leaders of the French Revolution founded the Louvre as a museum in 1793 so that they could hold on to all the sumptuous art objects they confiscated from church- es and at the same time quarantine these sacred objects in a meaningless void: the museum as we know it today. Folk art does not become art when a cura- tor plucks a weathervane off of a barn and puts it in a museum. It was a piece of art with a story and a meaning and a purpose all the while. I would like to read Caserta's article and be excited about a work of art in a way that would naturally incline her reader to make the trek out to the museum and con- sume the exhibition from the bottom up. However, what we have here is a prescrip- tion for the correct way to experience art and that, I strongly believe, is entirely up to the individual. And if you just think that muse- ums are so novel and amazing, then you need to get out more. Eleanor Dumouchel LSA senior These days the "Blues Brothers Dance" is every- where Michigan sports seem to be. And isn't it great fun to see everyone, including sports greats like Denard Robinson, having such a great time going crazy for those brief minutes? No doubt it has quickly become the latest in a long history of Michigan traditions. Traditions are truly wondrous things, andhavingleft the Ann Arbor campus ourselves almost 35 years ago, it's become ever more curious to us just how they seem to acquire a life energy all their own. But how many people really know how this zaniness got its start? Sadly, we believe that all too often, after a few short years, no one remembers. Classes graduate and no one pauses to commit the story to writing. Far too many of today's deeply rooted traditions lack what journal- ists might call the "back story" on how they came to exist. For the past few years, we've had the pleasure of watching a new tradition be born at the University, and watch it spread across the various sporting events. This time, however, we felt that the "back story" should be written down and documented. The birth of the "Blues Brothers Dance" mania is recent enough that many people know its genesis is rooted in Yost Ice Arena with the Michigan hockey team. Go to any Michigan hockey game and it's the highlight of the second intermission - it has been for several years. In the past year or so, the Big House has been rocking as the band blares out the song and throngs of students and even arena staff and the crowd, pump their fists and dance with delight. But just how many remember how and when it started? Well, here's that answer. The atmosphere in Yost on any Friday or Saturday night the hockey team is in town has long been unique. Just ask the parents of any visiting team's goalie. The cheers are special, the student body is bursting to let off steam and the Hockey Pep Band has always been more than willing and able to spice up to the mixture. But in the 2008-09 season, a core of the student sec- tion seated in Section 18 added a new member, and it brought something new to Yost. The hockey cheers have long colorful histories, but this new group kicked their game up a notch as they began egging on the band and its newly dancing director to add even more fre- netic accompaniment to the antics. Visiting goalies, parents and referees are the long-standing targets of the student section. The experience of being in Yost at game time is spe- cial to those who follow Michigan hockey. Even the Wall Street Journal took notice, voting the crowd in Yost one of its notable "best." But this small core of students worked hard each night to arouse and involve others around them, and with their success came the participation of even the working event staff. The pep band had long played a spirited rendition of the Blues Brothers song, but it became the channel of this ener- getic student group for some newly invented craziness. The new "Blues Brothers Dance" was introduced into the student section repertoire by one student who con- vinced his brother and others seated around himto join in during this 2008-09 season resurgence. It shortly became an event with a life of its own, and thankfully intermission lasts only 20 minutes, or there would be no telling to this day just how long it might go on. Who were these kids? Well, the hard core member- ship includes Jeff Lance and Mandy Siegle (an alumni hockey pep band member). The important new ingre- dient in 2008, however, was Kevin Lance, Jeff's young- er brother. It was Kevin who introduced the punching hand motions and the rest of the dance routine to the Blues Brothers music the pep band had long been play- ing. In the earlier versions, there were words to the dance but they were soon dropped due to the frenzy taken on by the dance itself. In those first days some called it "Punch the Giant" as coined by Kevin, its cho- reographer. It was quickly way beyond being identified with any one person, however, and the effort of this small initial core was swallowed up as all of Yostbegan to feel that rush the minute the band fired up the tune. Looking back, I wonder if perhaps this is what hap- pened with so many of Michigan's other fine traditions. After all, some one individual had to do it for the first time, and many of those names are now lost to us. From Yost, it took only a couple of seasons for the dance to find its way to the Big House in a big way on the shoul- ders of the band and some of these same hockey danc- ers. There is no question the Big House and Crisler Arena versions are fun, but for purists there is nothing like the original being belted out in Yost by the hockey pep band and the fans in Section 18. Ron and Denise Lance are 1976 University alums. i