4 - Friday, September 28, 2012
The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
4 - Friday, September 28, 2012 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
TIMOTHY RABB
JOSEPH LICHTERMAN and ADRIENNE ROBERTS ANDREW WEINER
EDITOR IN CHIEF EDITORIAL PAGE EDITORS MANAGING EDITOR
Unsigned editorials reflect the official position of the Daily's editorial board.
All other signed articlesoand illustrations represent solely the views of their authors.
Haze and mirrors
Students and 'U' should keep Greek life safe
As bid week comes to a close and "pledge term" begins for
Greek life, we must turn our attention to the threat of haz-
ing, which will soon confront many prospective members
of these organizations. The University's hazing policy defines it as
"any action or situation, with or without consent of the participants,
which recklessly, intentionally, or unintentionally endangers the
mental, physical, or academic health of a student." In light of the
hazing-related deaths last year at Cornell and Florida A&M Univer-
sities, we need to make sure we are standing up for each other and
preventing hazing at the University of Michigan.
DITORIALS IN140 CHARACTES ORLESS
@WVU Selling beer inside the stadium
decreases binge drinking. We can get
on board with that. #counterintuitive
#8dollarPBR
-@michdailyoped
Keep education open 24 7
At Binghamton University in New York, all
Greek institutions were suspended from pledg-
ing and inducting new members due to a hazing
scandal last year. Students' friends and families
reported the heinous activities the men were
expected to participate in to school administra-
tors. Last year, two national sororities canceled
their chapters at Binghamton after a review of
the Greek culture on campus. Greek life makes
up 10 percent of the student population at Bing-
hamton, compared to approximately20 percent
here at Michigan.
Universities across the country need to pre-
vent hazing to their greatest effort. At Michi-
gan, the Hazing Task Force takes "a firm stance
against hazing violations" within the Greek
community. The members investigate hazing
complaints and report to the University's Office
of Student Conflict Resolution. The offending
fraternity is subject to probation, suspension or
a sweeping ban if found to have engaged in haz-
ing. The involved members can be suspended or
expelled from the University. Additionally, the
state of Michigan enacted an anti-hazing law in
2004, threatening those accused of hazing with
legal actions, including jail time.
While these reprimands are deterrents to
those who haze, kicking an organization off
campus or expelling certain members is not
comprehensive enough. These actions do not
reform hazing cultures of hazing, since they
only administer punishments on a case-by-case
basis. There is a mindset within the university
setting that fosters hazing behaviors. Some
may contend that these behaviors are an inte-
gral part of Greek culture and that one should
simply avoid the pledge process if they don't
wish to be subjected to hazing. According to
manystate governments with laws against haz-
ing, however, a victim's "consent" is not truly
"consent" due to the presence of peer pressure.
There should not be any negative stigma asso-
ciated with dropping out of a fraternity due to
hazing. Rather, students should stand up for
themselves and for their friends.
During the first week of October, the Univer-
sity will observe National Hazing Prevention
Week to "educate students, parents, faculty
and staff so that they can more easily recognize
hazing." On Oct. 5, students will wear black
and can pick up a maroon ribbon at a table on
the Diag in support of hazing prevention. This
gesture is a great form of awareness but is not
enough to end hazing. We must be aware of
hazing, work further to prevent it, and not be
afraid to speak out.
it's hard to describe the feel-
ing you get when you wake up
early. I mean really early, like
not before your
classes start (at
noon), but before
even the earli-
est classes in thei< x
University (more
like 8:30 am.).
Since many of
my fellow under- MICHAEL
grads may not SMALLEGAN
have experienced
this in a while, let
me tryto explain.
Stumbling to the sidewalk with
bleary eyes and a yawn at 6:30 a.m.,
the first thing you notice is not a sin-
gle other beingis awake - except for
the birds and, well, the "real" people
commuting to their jobs and respon-
sibilities. Also you notice that, merci-
fully, the baristas at Espresso Royale
are also awake. Some of them are col-
lege students and I really don't know
how they do it. They must just stay
awake from the night before. At that
moment, stumbling out of Espresso,
beverage in hand, eyes clearing up,
you see the sun starting to peek over
the horizon and you feel - in spite of
yourself - a sense of power, a sense
of a head-start, a sense of being a
leader. This grows inside of you as
you head toward the library (and
the caffeine starts to kick in). Fanta-
sies of finishing the course pack two
months early float around in your
head, and instantly shatter when you
pull the door handle to the library
and it's locked.
The Hatcher Graduate Library
is closed from 2 to 8 a.m. This curi-
ous policy of the University library
system is frustrating on those early
mornings, and not only because I'm
naturally inclined to be grumpy
before mid-afternoon. Surely library
administrators set these hours in
response to the actual usage patterns
of us night-owl undergraduates, but
is this policy in line with what the
University is trying to accomplish?
If we're not the leaders and the
best before we set foot on campus,
the University aims to make it hap-
pen before we exit through the
fountain and march onward to grad-
uation. It's true - it's in Mary Sue's
vision statement.
The content of that statement
helps determine the direction taken
and decisions made by the adminis-
tration on an everyday basis. Curious
then, that some really great words are
not in there to describe the desired
output of the University. "Happy"
or "happiness" isn't in there. Neither
is "healthy," nor is the word "sleep."
Although, admittedly, the University
does "champion...policy research to
advance health, quality of life, and
longevity of our own community."
With that in mind, the Univer-
sity should love this meta-analysis of
sleep research conducted by Franzis
Preckel and others last year. Chro-
notype data from more than 7,500
people showed a positive correlation
between people that prefer evening
time and cognitive intelligence. So
smart people stay up late, and that
would be fantastic if that were the
end of the story. Instead, Preckel and
his team found people that stay up
late have less academic success than
early risers. Another study, con-
ducted by a team at the University of
North Texas found that early risers,
on average, have a full letter grade
over evening-types.
Scientific studies and popular
articles proclaiming the benefits of
a healthy night's sleep have become
so numerous they're hardly worth
citing here. We know (although we
may not yet know the mechanism
by which this happens) that proper
sleep increases cognitive function-
ing, memory tasks and positive
outlook. We also know that sleep
disorders co-occur with numerous
mental and brain disorders, not to
mention obesity. Furthermore, the
National Highway Traffic Safety
Administration tells us that sleep
deprivation contributes to 100,000
accidents each year and most of
these occur between midnight and
2 a.m. and 4 and 6 a.m. While no
one is operating a vehicle in the
Hatcher Grad, how much effective
studying can be going on there dur-
ing that time?
Night owls may
be smart, but the
early birds get
the grades.
Library administrators took a
step in the right direction today with
the announcement that the Shapirra
Undergraduate Library will soon be
open 24 hours a day. However, aside
from the Duderstadt Center (conve-
niently located on North Campus),
this is the only University library
with this luxury. Certainly, the Uni-
versity administration mustg always
strive to strike a balance between
reacting to the habits of the com-
munity and implementing paternal-
istic policy. The presence of smokers
.on the Diag didn't step the campus
ban on smoking, yet the evidence of
the benefits of proper sleep-wake
cycles is almost as robust as the evi-
dence arrayed against nicotine. If
the libraries are going to continue
to allow for inefficiency and damag-
ing student sleep habits, at the very
least they shouldn't stand in the way
of students who're embodying the
"leaders and best" mantra by getting
a head start on their day.
- Michael Smallegan can
be reached at smallmic@
umich.edu. Follow him on
Twitter at @mjsmallegan.
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EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS
Kaan Avdan, Sharik Bashir, Eli Cahan, Nirbhay Jain, Jesse Klein, Melanie Kruvelis,
Patrick Maillet, Harsha Nahata; Timothy Rabb, Adrienne Roberts,
Vanessa Rychlinski, Sarah Skaluba, Michael Spaeth, Gus Turner
Myth busters: ER edition
VANESSA RYCHLINSKI I
Get your platform straight, Mitt
it's 10:35 p.m. the night of Michigan's
win against Massachusetts. The ambu-
lance is just leaving our sidewalk and
that feeling of helpless fear
starts to set in. No, Mom,
it's not me in the back of
that ambulance, but I am
about to make my first trip
to the University Hospi-
tal's Emergency Room to
support my friend. My
vision of an emergency
room rested somewhere TIMOTHY
between an episode of BURROUGHS
"House" and the wait-
ing room of a DMV. Upon
arrival, I realized those two stereotypes were
far from the truth, and I gained a new level of
respect and admiration for the professional-
ism and kindness that I witnessed.
Long wait times at ERs are no secret. A
CNN article placed the average U.S. ER wait
time at about six hours, but most other news
sources report the time closer to four hours.
Lucky for me (or unlucky for my friend) our
emergency was so urgent that he sawa doctor
immediately. After sitting down, the cause of
the absurdly long waits became obvious - not
all emergencies are created equal. Head, neck
or back injuries and anything involving blood
takes precedent. An individual who arrived
before us was still waiting to see a doctor for
her sprained ankle when we left six hours
later. The receptionist probably should have
taken the tough-love approach and told her to
put some frozen broccoli on it and make an
appointment at UHS. This type of emergency
visit is what creates these absurd wait-time
statistics. If you were to take her six-hour
wait to see a doctor and our zero-hour wait
and average it, you'd still report an average
wait time of three hours. Anyone can tell this
extremely misleading statistic gives emer-
gency rooms an undeserved bad rap.
Another common issue many ERs run
into is overcrowding. Packed waiting rooms,
beds in hallways and multiple roommates
are all typical hospital problems. The Uni-
versity Hospital has greatly benefited from
a $17.7-million renovation of the ER, which
was completed last April. The project added
extra patient beds and a newly renovated
waiting room. Jennifer Holmes, the director
of operations for the emergency department,
claims the goal of the improvements wasto
cut wait times down to between 30 and 45
minutes. That's a considerably lower range
than those projected at other hospitals. The
new waiting room, where I spent the major-
ity of my time, was as spacious and com-
fortable as a hospital can be. To be honest,
I spent most of the wait watching the Notre
Dame versus Michigan State game on one of
the emergency room's new flat screens - in
other words, it could've been worse. Obvi-
ously, sitting in a hospital waiting room is
never fun, but it wasn't the claustrophobic,
baby-crying experience I expected.
The aspect of the entire evening that made
the biggest impression by far was the hos-
pital staff. The receptionists were friendly
and helpful and kept me updated on my
friend's condition. (Also, one of the front desk
employees loaned me a few bucks to get a
snack at the vending machine since I some-
how managed to bring only $1.16 to the emer-
gency room.) While my friend went to get a
MRI, the nurse tried to keep me busy. He sug-
gested that I have fresh clothes and maybe an
iPod brought to the hospital for the rest of the
wait. Anyone who's had that feeling of help-
lessness you get at a hospital knows there's no
better cure than that simple task that makes
you feel useful. When my friend and I did
have a chance to talk with the doctor, he was
informative and had us out of the hospital as
fast as he could. The staff, even after possibly
one of their busiest days of the year (Football
Saturday), was still friendly and professional.
Not only am I sure that this was comfort-
ing to my friend, but it also helped me be the
calming, positive presence that he needed.
Knowing we have a resource like the Uni-
versity's ER should be a comfort to every stu-
dent on campus. Our parents should sleep a
little easier as well. After my visit to the ER,
I know in a time of need, helping hands will
be there, extended by a team of professional
staffers who work tirelessly to keep us safe.
- Timothy Burroughs can be
reached at timburrumich.edu.
TOLEDO, OH - On my way to the
nearest stop on the Romney-Ryan
bus tour on Sept. 26, I figured I could
predict many details of the event. I
wasn't disappointed. A light board
proclaimed the $16-trillion national
debt in sickly green while flashing an
estimated financial burden per citi-
zen - a staggering $142,000. Look-
ing around the SeaGate Convention
Center, I wondered what my fellow
rally-goers - mostly white, mostly
middle-aged - were thinking.
The average-Joe demographic was
the most predictable feature of the
entire spectacle. Ohioans know all
about being in the middle. The state
was won by President Obama in 2008
but wentto President Bush in the two
elections previous. At the rally yes-
terday, the homogenous Midwestern
audience milled about, celebrating
the party they believe will protect
their average lifestyles. Come Elec-
tion Day, most of these people will
be concerned with the economy and
their own freedoms and indepen-
dence. Romney's economic plan is
composed of five parts that run the
gamut from energy independence to
American exports to blue-collar job
creation. During his speech, he effec-
tively touched the pressure points
rankling Middle Americans most:
the gas pump, China, joblessness and
the national debt. He claimed that
his tax proposal alone would quickly
generate 7-million jobs, and prom-
ised S million more by 2016. He ges-
tured to the light board, lamenting
the $6 trillion added to the national
deficit during Obama's term.
Looking at the audience, it didn't
take too long to identify "average
Americans" - families, kissing
couples, members of the Air Force,
boy scouts and wounded war veter-
ans - conservative Americans. Do
modern Democrats and Republicans
truly advocate for the proper defi-
nitions of liberalism and conserva-
tism? Republicans are supposed to
be conservative = meaning, fiscally
and socially. But I wonder where the
social portion of modern GOP policy
lies. Mitt Romney stated on Wednes-
day: "No nation on earth is as chari-
table as the people of the United
States of America." Americans are
"a compassionate people" who ought
to take care of their own by finding
jobs for the jobless. In an attempt to
defuse and interpret his infamous
"47 percent" comments, Romney
invoked compassionate conserva-
tism as a catalyst to help so-called
"dependents" reach independence.
Perhaps the biggest complaint
against Romney is that he isn't
down-to-earth, too big business
- the leaked fundraiser video cer-
tainly underscores this argument.
The media seized on this sound bite
along with several others (Todd
Akin, anyone?) to emphasize what
many Obama supporters believe -
that the GOP is out-of-touch with
social issues, that it's the party of
wealthy special interests, human-
like corporations and women-hat-
ers. The GOP doesn't care about
civil rights - just ask Ann Coul-
ter. But conservatism didn't always
mean lack of social reform; in fact,
it traditionally devoted itself to a
basic standard of ethics on which to
build a free, American society. New
York Times columnist David Brooks
makes the distinction between "eco-
nomic" and "traditional" conserva-
tives - the former are advocates
of the free-market while the latter
wished to reform society accord-
ing to certain ethics and at a mea-
sured and judicious pace. Brooks
raises a great point - that modern
conservatism today is all business.
The phrase "small business owner"
constantly creeps into the political
rhetoric of the GOP - step four of
Governor Romney's economic plan
is dedicated exclusively to promot-
ing such enterprises.
The GOP is historically respon-
sible for considerable social good.
The Republican Party stopped slav-
ery under Abraham Lincoln. It's
responsible for the Sherman Act,
which busted trusts and monopo-
lies. Conservative Republicans and
Democrats worked together in Con-
gress during the Second New Deal
to stop programs deemed socialistic,
such as the Resettlement Adminis-
tration - an agency that moved poor
rural families at the government's
whim. Republicans pushed the Civil
Rights Act of 1964 into passage. The
darling of Republican conservatism,
Ronald Reagan, halted the recession
in the early 1980s by creating 16-mil-
lion jobs, and his two terms are often
remembered for their tax-cuts, low-
ered inflation and the support of
working-class former Democrats.
Romney stated on Wedhesdaythat
if he's elected he'll repeal the Afford-
able Care Act, dubbed "Obamacare,"
and riffed on Medicare's similari-
ties to European socialist systems
("Europe doesn't work' in Europe,"
he quipped to an amused audience).
Medicare does verge on socialist,
but Romney misses the point. The
Republican party should want to
reform healthcare as well, but in a
careful way that fits with American
society's demands and the moral val-
ues that guided the GOP in the past.
In Bowling Green on Wednesday,
Obama spun the auto industry's sta-
tus as a success, and made the sup-
posed reduction of student loans
a bragging point. Both claims are
dubious since the industry has exri-
enced a resurgence at the cost of mil-
lions of dollars to future taxpayers
and student debt is over $1 trillion
while students are business default-
ing at almost twice the rate claimed
by the government. He called those
middle-of-the road Midwestern-
ers "hard-working [people]" not "a
bunch of victims." Though Romney
has attempted to speak to the middle
class and low-income families, it's
uncertain whether his push in Ohio
- a state that epitomizes the mid-
dle-of-the road mindset in its voting
record and demographic -will be
enough to win him the state's crucial
electoral votes.
Vanessa Rychlinski is a
Senior Editorial Page Editor.
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