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. 0 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. 6 0 0 4 t