4 - Tuesday, April 10, 2012
The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
4 - Tuesday, April 10, 2012 The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
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the University of Michigan since 1890.
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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.
Engineering the future
Universities and students must focus on sciences
he importance of higher education can't be understated. In
order to compete in an increasingly global economy, Ameri-
cans are seeking degrees at high rates. Still, the demands of
an advanced economy aren't being met by current graduates' quali-
fications. With the improvement of the U.S. economy over recent
months, more manufacturing and information technology companies
are looking to hire qualified engineers but have to face the reality of a
talent shortage. The shortage, which may be caused by a lack of guid-
ance for students toward their majors of interest, is pushing up the
unemployment rate and hurting the economy. Therefore, efforts have
to be made to change the situation and bring nore students to the
College of Engineering.
"Everybody has this uneasy feeling... You're
out enjoying this nice March weather,
but you know it's not a good thing."
- Climate scientist Jerry Meehl from the National Center for
Atmospheric Research about record temperatures throughout
the United States last month, as reported by Time magazine.
0
Guarding the Great Lakes
Even as the economy struggles to get back
on track, job growth last month was slower
than economists expected - jobs in high-
tech and engineering fields remain open. The
Engineering Society of Detroit hosted a job
fair in Novi, Mich. last month, and even in a
state with high unemployment, there were
six job openings for each candidate. The
Detroit Free Press reported that out-of-state
applications were able to fill some of the open
positions. Other companies looking to hire
left the job fair with a total of 3,500 unfilled
positions. Experts have cited lack of skilled
workers as an aspect of continued high rates
of unemployment around the nation.
Before students get to college, they should
be encouraged to study engineering. Michi-
gan high schools, for example, should place
more emphasis on science classes that may
lead students to an interest in engineering. It
may also be helpful to issue more State H-1B
visas - which allow foreign workers to work
specialty occupations in the U.S. - so talent-
ed foreign students could fill the shortage for
a temporary period.
The most important way to guide students
toward jobs that this economy needs filled is
to make colleges - engineering along with
all majors - more affordable. The Univer-
sity's College of Engineering is consistently
ranked as one of the top undergraduate engi-
neering schools in the country. Last summer,
tuition was increased about 7 percent. While
the University tries to rein in its spending,
state funding has also decreased drastically
over the past decade. Michigan must return
to increased higher education funding, and
colleges must do their part to make higher
education more affordable. The country
needs a well-educated work force to advance
its economy.
Michigan should start working to nurture
more qualified engineers, since many manu-
facturing and high-tech companies are now
facing shortages of engineering positions.
As a top institution of higher education, the
University must lead this effort to benefit the
state economy.
remember the summer that
zebra mussels finally made it to
Platte Lake - an annual vaca-
tion spot for
my family near
Traverse City in
Northern Michi-
gan. It doesn't
stand out in my
mind because '
I was appalled
by the ecologi- JOE
cal havoc caused
by the invasive SUGIYAMA
species - those
aren't exactly
the thoughts of a 10-year-old. No, I
remember that summer because I
sliced my foot on one of the mussel's
sharp shells and didn't catch a damn
fish the entire trip because the natu-
ral food chain in the lake had been
thrown out of whack.
Though my first run-in with the
mollusks was about 12 years ago,
the zebra mussels have been run-
ning rampant in the Great Lakes
for about 25 years, ever since they
were dumped by a European ship's
infested ballast water. In that time,
they've been outcompeting native
species for resources and blanket-
ing the lakebeds to such an extent
that scientists claim that there is no
way to reverse the damage done. Our
only hope is to mitigate the situation
as best we can.
Enter the U.S. Coast Guard.
In addition to protecting the
people on our shores, the Coast
Guard is also interested in saving
the shores themselves. As of last
month, the Coast Guard issued a fed-
eral rule that requires all seafaring
ships traveling via the St. Lawrence
Seaway from the Atlantic Ocean to
the Great Lakes to install onboard
ballast water treatment systems. A
ship's ballast water is typically taken
from the ocean, used for stability as
it travels and is then discharged into
the Great Lakes once the ship no lon-
ger needs it. This discharge is where
invasive species such as zebra mus-
sels have been successfully stowed
for years.
This water treatment system
would most likely include some sort
of filtration coupled with a disin-
fection agent. But one of the biggest
problems facing ship owners is the
reduction in cargo space taken up
by the new water treatment system.
Small and sleek will be the name
of the ballast water management
game - a game that, according to
an April 7 New York Times article
will generate about $35 billion in
revenue in ten years as the new
rules are implemented.
One drawback with the Coast
Guard's new regulations is the speed
at which it's moving. The rule will
only be enforced on newly built
ships. Those already on the water
will be allowed to continue with-
out the new systems until they need
maintenance, which means that it
could be 2021 before the new rule
fully takes effect.
Thom Cmar, a lawyer for the
Natural Resources Defense Council,
claims that "the industry's had fair
warning that this was coming," and
such a long grace period for those
ships already on the water is "unjus-
tified," as reported in the article.
A similar sentiment seems to have
taken hold of the environmentalist
community, which is concerned that
Europe's current "killer shrimp"
issue - a predatory species invad-
ing from West Asia - could quickly
become a problem in the Great
Lakes. According to the Times arti-
cle, biologist Tom Nalepa seems to
think that if these freshwater shrimp
make it to the Great Lakes, they're
"going to cause as many changes as
the zebra mussel."
Ballast water *
regulations may
not be enough.
It's pretty great something is
finally being done about the whole
irreversible invasive species situ-
ation we have going on in the
Great Lakes. But I think we may
be a little better served addressing
these environmental issues before
there, isn't a solution for them. I'm
not trying to minimize any of the
efforts currently underway by the
Coast Guard or the U.S. Environ-
mental Protection Agency - who
are expected to come out with their
own regulations on ballast water by
the end of the year - but nipping
these issues in the bud as they're
happening is the key to protecting
our most valuable resources.
The Coast Guard's new regula-
tions are a tremendous first step,
but it's unacceptable to not have the
regulation in full swing for another
nine years. This new ballast water
treatment requirement for ships is
something that needs to be done
promptly, before another summer
of fishing is ruined by a bunch of
killer shrimp.
-Joe sugiyama can be reached at
jmsugi@umich.edu or on Twitter
at @JoeSugiyama. This is Joe's last
column, and he would like to thank
those who found time to read his work
over the last two years.
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LOWELL BOURGEOIS I
Agrandather's ift
YONAH LIEBERMAN AND MATAN NAAYAMI|
Let's make history together
0
A grandparent is a gift, and for the first
22 years of my life, I was blessed by my rela-
tionship with my grandfather, Mike Wallace.
A grandparent's knowledge is often lost on
us. They come from a different era, and are
shaped by different events and expectations.
Often, there is little in common to bond and
connect over. I, however, was lucky to follow
in my grandfather's footsteps and attend the
University of Michigan. Throughout my life,
the University bridged the 71-year age gap
that separated my grandfather and me.
All of us are constantly reminded that the
University community connects students and
alumni alike. We encounter it when we wear a
Michigan hat and a stranger yells "Go Blue!"
My Michigan connection began in 1935 when
Mike Wallace first arrived in Ann Arbor. He
grew up here. His long career in journalism
began when curiosity got the best of him, and
he wandered into the University's radio sta-
tion. The rest, they say, is history.,
Mike went on to interview every president
from Richard Nixon to Bill Clinton. In the
wake of the Iranian hostage crisis, he sparred
with Ayatollah Khomeini. The civil rights
leaders he interviewed, including Martin
Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X, inspired him.
His career stretched from the newsroom of
The Michigan Daily in the 1930s to the Irani-
an Presidential Palace in 2006 when he ques-
tioned President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, an
interview that resulted in his 21st and final
EmmyAward. th
But even after all the interviews, all the
pointed questions and all the accolades and
awards that followed his journalism career,
he still was drawn back to Ann Arbor. He gave
back to the University that marked the start of
his career, not because he had to, but because
he wanted to. Because he loved this school and
appreciated all that it did for him.
When Mike and my grandmother Mary
donated the house for the Knight-Wallace Fel-
lows at Michigan, it was not an empty handout
to the University. Rather, I saw it as an encour-
agement to others to engage their curiosity
- much in the same way he did when he wan-
dered into the radio station. The fellowship he
proudly supported affords world-renowned
journalists the opportunity to come study and
live at the University, with the expectation
that their year at this school will spur growth
on a personal and professional level.
His love of Michigan was not a guarded
secret. He lauded the University of Michigan
as a "top rate academic institution," he cele-
brated our football team and shared his pas-
sion for the school with his grandchildren.
His love for this school transcended the more
than 70 years that separated us in age, and I
have come to love the University for many of
the same reasons he did. Mike Wallace was
the start of my Michigan community. From
the moment I was born to the day he passed
away, this University connected us in shared
memories and humbled admiration.
Lowell Bourgeois is an LSA senior
and is Mike Wallace's grandson.
Two weeks ago, 20 University students descended
on Washington, D.C. for the third annual J Street
National Conference. The conference's theme was
"Making History," and together with more than 2,500
other attendees - including more than 650 students
from 125 schools - we made history.
This was the largest J Street conference in history.
Never before have so many pro-peace advocates come
together in one place to stand up for a two-state solu-
tion that includes a Jewish and democratic state of
Israel alongside an independent state of Palestine.
There were numerous speakers of note. Former
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert gave the keynote
speech at the conference's Gala Dinner..He expressed
his belief in Israel's partner in peace, Mahmoud Abbas,
the president of the Palestinian Authority. His pas-
sion and conviction could have convinced any person
who may have doubted the possibility of a resolution.
Amos Oz, the most famous novelist in Israel's history,
told the conference that it was time for Israel and the
Palestinians to move from their painfully tangled rela-
tionship to one where each could live separately and
independently. Oz told J Street that he had waited a
long time for our organization to exist.
The energy of the conference, however, can't - and
won't - remain in D.C. Over the next two weeks, we
will be asking student leaders from groups across cam-
pus to sign a simple, yet strong'declaration: "We sup-
port vigorous American diplomatic leadership toward
achieving a two-state resolution to the Israeli-Pales-
tinian conflict."
To many, this statement reads as obvious - of course
our government should be encouraging peace. Yet, the
harsh reality is that our politics, when it comes to the
Israeli-Palestinian issue, are broken.
We know they're broken when the Florida Legisla-
ture passes a unanimous resolution saying the occu-
pied territories belong to Israel, when major candidates
for the U.S. presidency say "There are no Palestinians,"
and when an American president is hammered relent-
lessly as being insufficiently pro-Israel simply for pro-
posing negotiations based on the parameters set since
President Bill Clinton's go at negotiations in 2000: the
1967 lines with mutually agreed-upon land swaps.
Despite this rhetoric, without a two-state solution,
the conflict will likely continue for generations. We
need to act now.
This does not mean it's easy. Hamas continues to
promote virulent anti-Semitism and refuses to even
recognize Israel's right to exist as a state. As long as'
Hamas unilaterally- controls Gaza, condones send-
ing rockets across the border and does not change its
fundamental political outlook, a Palestinian state will
remain inconceivable.
On the other hand, the continued expansion of set-
tlements in the West Bank poses another great threat.
Over the past two decades, the number of Israeli set-
tlers in the area has more than tripled, which makes
drawing the contours of a Palestinian state even more
difficult. This is especially true in East Jerusalem,
where Palestinians are being systematically evicted
from their homes and replaced by ultra-religiousO
Jews, as we wrote about in The Michigan Daily last
semester. With each new settlement, it becomes hard-
er for Israel to propose a state that the Palestinian$
can accept.
This is why it's so unlikely that the parties will
resolve this conflict on their own. This is why our gov-
ernment has such an important role. Unfortunately, in
our politics there is little incentive for politicians to
encourage a two-state solution. Reshaping this politi-
cal landscape is why J Street was founded.
This is why our voices are so important. Two weeks
ago at the conference, we - the future of pro-Israel -
walked across Capitol Hill, talking to our members of
Congress about the need to fight for a two-state solu-
tion. We want to thank Congressmen John Dingell,
John Conyers III and Hansen Clarke for signing onto
the Cohen-Connolly-Yarmuth letter asking President
Barack Obama to recommit to the two-state solution. .
We ask that you, the leaders of this campus, do that
as well. Stand up and tell the public what the major-
ity of us here on campus already know. Sign our dec-
laration: "We support vigorous American diplomatic
leadership toward achieving a two-state resolution to
the Israeli-Palestinian conflict." Let's make the voice
of our generation heard. Let's continue to make his-
tory together.
Yonah Lieberman is an LSA junior, co-chair of J Street
UMich and a Daily opinion columnist. Matan Naayami is an
LSA senior and general board member of J Street UMich.
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