4 - Tuesday, April 10, 2012 The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com 4 - Tuesday, April 10, 2012 The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan since 1890. 420 Maynard St. 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. 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. EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS: Kaan Avdan, Eli Cahan, Ashley Griesshammer, Jesse Klein, Patrick Maillet, Erika Mayer, Harsha Nahata, Harsha Panduranga, Timothy Rabb, Adrienne Roberts, Vanessa Rychlinski, Sarah Skaluba, Seth Soderborg, Caroline Syms, Andrew Weiner II@Facebook Are a bunch of faux-vintage iPhone pictures .... worth $1 billin - #impulsebuy -@Michdailyoped 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. CONTRIBUTE TO THE COVERSATION Readers are encouraged to submit letters to the editor and viewpoints. Letters should be fewer than 300 words while viewpoints should be 550-850 words. Both must include the writer's full 0 name and University affiliation. Send submissions to tothedaily@michigandaily.com. I