4 - Tuesday, November 13, 2012 Th Mchga aiy mchgndil~cm i Jbeffi t ign aiI Edited and managed by atudents 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 articles and illustrations represent solely the views of their authors. FROVTHE DAILY Time to follow suit Same-sex marriage should be legalized nationally n Election Day, Maryland, Maine and Washington state legal- ized same-sex marriage, joining six states and the District of Columbia that had already legalized same-sex marriage. It's a step in the right direction toward giving every citizen the undeniable right to marry whomever they choose - a right that should be extend- ed to everybody regardless of race, gender, religion or sexual orienta- tion. While the approval of same-sex marriage in these three states is an excellent step forward, it's disappointing that other states haven't taken similar steps. While marriage should be a completely undeniable right, states do have the power to decide if same-sex marriage is legal. And at the very least, states should not be able to deny recognition to Are you sure it was rape? Maybe it was just a bad hookup ... you should forgive and forget. - Former Amherst student Angie Epifano paraphrased the Amherst administration in her October op-ed piece in The Amherst Student. She accused the school of failing to adequately respond when she was sexually assaulted, a criticism which several other students have also voiced. Don't occupy Wall Street 4 same-sex couples. According to a May 14 Gallup poll, 54 per- cent of Americans believe that same-sex mar- riage is morally acceptable, increasing from 38 percent in 2002. In addition, 63 percent of people now believe that relations between gays and lesbians should be legalup from 52 percent in 2002. In fact, according to a Nov. 9 article in The New York Times, Washington's same-sex marriage opponents have officially conceded and acknowledged the tremendous strides that the gay rights movement has made. These are significant milestones in the past 10 years. Gay rights are becoming increasingly normalized in the United States, as the prevalence of shows such as "Modern Family" and "The New Nor- mal" in current popular culture suggests. While it seems that a majority of Americans believe same-sex marriage should be legal, the 10th Amendment gives states the power to decide whether they'll allow same-sex mar- riage. Unfortunately, the Defense of Marriage Act of 1996 signed by President Bill Clinton does not require that states recognize same- sex marriages performed in other states; under the contentious section 3 of DOMA, states do not have to confer federal benefits, like Social Security, upon gay and lesbian couples. Yet, The Full Faith and Credit Clause of the Con- stitution mandates that each state respect the "public acts, records, and judicial proceedings of every other state." The country should respect the Constitution in this matter. Just because a state can refuse to perform same-sex marriages doesn't mean it should be able to deny the recognition of a same-sex marriage. Marriage should be recog- nized across the country regardless of which state it was performed in. The repeal of DOMA would prevent states from denying rights that marriage gives same-sex couples. States recog- nize driver's licenses from other states - rec- ognizing a marriage between two people of the same sex from another state is no different. It's only a matter of time before same-sex marriage will become legal in all states. For this to happen sooner rather than later, states should give their citizens the opportunity to vote for it to become legal. Or at the very least, states should recognize these marriages. Many countries, such as South Africa, Belgium and the Netherlands, already have legalized same- sex marriage. Even countries with predomi- nantly Catholic' populations, including Spain, Portugal, Argentina and Brazil, have approved same-sex civil unions and marriage. If coun- tries that are largely religious allow equal rights, there's no reason that the United States shouldn't do the same. Marriage is an unde- niable right that should not be denied to any adult, and as the general population increas- es its approval of same-sex marriage, states should follow suit. it's easy to lament the sore state of the Ann Arbor parking situ- ation, but determining a course of action to rec- tify it is a more difficult affair. This month marks the start of the University's cofistruction of a new parking structure on Wall Street. The pro- MICHAEL posed structure SMALLEGAN seems like a per- fectly adequate way to meet the increased parking needs that came with the opening of the new C. S. Mott Children's and von voightlander Women's Hospital; however, its placement and execution create more problems than they fix. Progress on the structure has been steady since its approval by the University's Board of Regents in April, despite equally steady resis- tance from residents in the Lower Town area. Calls from area residents to halt the project, though heard, remain unheeded. With room for 725 cars, the 70-foot tall structure will be an outlier in the mostly resi- dential neighborhood speckled with historic buildings and delineated by a slow peaceful bend of the Huron River. The move toward more Uni- versity activity in this area is far from unprecedented - it has been occur- ring for the past 30 years. The University is an institution thathas driven to be the "Leaders and Best." In its marching to the cease- less tempo of "improve, expand" it has acquired and demolished many historically significant homes in the area to make way for buildings and parking lots. While the new struc- ture will be partially constructed on the location of an existing surface parking lot, at least one home will be demolished in the process. The home in question, at 959 Wall Street, has received the same prepar- ative treatment as have other homes lostto"progress" - acursoryarchae- ological dig directed by Anthropol- ogy Prof. Henry Wright. Though he carries out these digs in earnest, wright is given too little time for a full treatment of the sites. Further- more, this small gesture does little to mitigate the loss of the historic record that comes from demolishing these homes and replacing the soil underneath with culturally mean- ingless, homogeneous loose stone and concrete. The loss of this part of Ann Arbor's story is significant because of the role this area played in our city's past. In 1830, with the construction of a flour- mill on the Huron, the area gradually became a booming business center. Anson Brown, owner of the flourmill, named the streets in the area after those in New York, intending to cre- ate a city center, a "downtown," that would compete with the then-devel- oping community that is our current downtown. Many of the oldest hous- es in Ann Arbor are in this area, and with them, a fantastic record of some of our community's past. The establishment of the Univer- sity and the location of the train sta- tion gradually sucked the vibrancy out of the area, and brought the locus of attention south 'of the Huron. It now seems the University is finishing the job. Parking in AA may be tough, but community must be preserved. Perhaps of even greater concern than the disregard of the historical record, the disturbance of the com- munity's look and feel, the increased traffic congestion, and concerns over pedestrian safety is the environmen- tal degradation that this new struc- ture will bring. Lower Town is called such because it is a low point topo- logically in Ann Arbor, and with its proximity to both Traver Creek and the Huron River, the unavoidable increase in runoff, that comes with the addition of multiple thousands of square feet of impermeable concrete will undoubtedly have consequences for the area's natural habitat. The parking structure will be built, University planners will be happy and local residents will learn to deal with it, but lessons can be learned from this. There are other solutions to the lack of parking near campus. Let's have some smart peo- ple find them next time. -Michael Smallegan can be reached at smallmic@umich.edu. DEREK WOLFE VIEWPOINT Coursera is no classroom 4 EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS Kaan Avdan, Sharik Bashir, Barry Belmont, Eli Cahan, Nirbhay Jain, Jesse Klein, Melanie Kruvelis, Patrick Maillet, Jasmine McNenny, Harsha Nahata, Timothy Rabb, Adrienne Roberts, Vanessa Rychlinski, Sarah Skaluba, Michael Spaeth, Gus Turner, Derek Wolfe SEND LETTERS TO: TOTHEDAILY@MICHIGANDAILY.COM Voter turnout rates in Ann Arbor are difficult to measure TO THE DAILY: I am a Daily alum from about 40 years ago and still live in Ann Arbor. I've been active in local politics ever since. Your Friday lead story about the campus vote really missed the mark. Its conclusion is based on comparing two total- ly different statistics. You compared the results of an exit poll showing that 49 percent of people under 30 voted this year with the percentage of registered voters turning out in campus pre- cincts. First, "under 30" and campus precincts don't correlate, since the age range in campus precincts is likely to skew significantly younger than the total under-30 population. More importantly, the percentage of regis- tered voters turning out is an almost meaning- less number, particularly in student precincts. Because students move in and out of Ann Arbor so frequently, there is a tremendous amount of "deadwood" on the voter rolls in student pre- cincts - people who are still listed there, but have moved away. Many may have registered elsewhere, but the old registrations are fre- quently not cancelled. Also, a significant num- ber of University students are registered at their parents' homes, especially since Michigan requires that your voting address and driver's license address be the same. From many years of experience in working the student precincts, including this year, I can tell you that an extremely small percentage of students registered to vote here, who are actu- ally still living here, fail to vote in a Presiden- tial election. I would also be willing to bet that more than 49 percent of University students voted either in Ann Arbor or at "home" last week, though that's ahard number to pin down. There are very few Ann Arborites who are eligible to vote who aren't registered here or elsewhere, and their turnout rate for presiden- tial elections probably exceeds 90 percent. Tom Wieder University alum The University has nothing to fear. As long as it exists, students will come. And by come, I mean flock here by the thousands. What prompts me to say this is not the threat of rising tuitionprices (eventhoughthat'strue as well), but rather the expansion of online education. The University has openly embraced Coursera, an online equcational medium that allows any- one to take classes from prestigious universities such as Stanford Uni- versity, Princeton University, Brown University and 31 other institutions, including the University of Michi- gan. According to Coursera's mission statement, it wants to "empower peo- ple with education that will improve their lives, the lives of their families, and the communities they live in." So with all the hubbub surround- ing online education, specifically Coursera, I decided to give it a try. Since Oct. 22, I've been enrolled in "Principles of Obesity Economics," a class taught by Prof. Kevin Frick from Johns Hopkins University. While at first I only took the class because it was four weeks long, I've actually enjoyed the topic, as it tries to answer the question of why the United States suffers from an obesity problem using an economic perspec- tive. Every lecture has taught me something that I didn't previously know, which is really all I could have expected. Admittedly, I'm not as engaged in the class as most of the other stu- dents, and for good reason. I'm m col- lege and many ofthem aren't.Ibarely spend any time watching the posted lectures and doing the quizzes, but it looks like I'm going to get the 70 percent grade necessary to complete the class. And there lies the problem with Coursera and the online educa- tion experience as a whole; it lacks the demand for the critical thinking that I crave. There's no way online educa- tion can fully replace the traditional classroom setting. While my instruc- tor has set up a discussion forum where students can converse and talk about the subject, it certainly doesn't compare to the passionate debates that go on in my English 125 class at the University. The neatly produced PowerPoint presentations my instructor posts aren't nearly as intriguing as Prof. Brian Coppola in organic chemistry. There's no doubt in my mind that online education serves a purpose by giving more people an opportP- nity to learn, and I think any chance to improve your intelligence should never be wasted. But I want to make the point that there's something to be said for the human element, espe- cially in an academic setting. I'm not denouncing the value of an online education, but I'm skeptical of the idea that an individual who earned a bachelor's degree online could com- pete with someone who did the same on a physical campus. I have no regrets over my Coursera experience. It has been fascinatingto learn information in a different way. But it has made me rethink the pur- pose of an education. Is it ultimately for monetary gains? Or is it to help improve society? I've concluded that it really doesn't matter. Because no matter which choice you pick, rely- ing on online education as a complete education could be providing false hope that we've actually learned something. President Barack Obama has emphasized the importance of an education in his first term and it cer- tainly will be a focus of his second term. But like anything, it must be done responsibly. I recognize that I'mpotentiallybiased because of how 1 privileged I am to attend this uni- versity. But I'm convinced that if we want to become smarter as nation, we need to find ways to get people into the classroom and off the couch. Derek Wolfe is an LSA freshman. E.E R TO T ED EE t TSEND LETTERS TO: TOTHEDAILY@MICHIGANDAILY.COM @Texas If you secede from the nation, please leave us TexMex. #Borack'd #welove food #queso -@michdailyoped The 'U' should take advantage of local food TO THE DAILY: Most food served in University dininghalls travels hundreds of miles, uses thousands of gallons of water and is picked well before its ripely filled with the essential nutrients that should be appearing on our plates. Granted, the University cannot rely solely on local farms to feed its staff and students. However, I think that the leaders and the best should try harder to avoid the waste that our current food system promotes. The University has a goal to pur- chase 20 percent sustainable food the customers of the dining halls by 2025, which has almost been met. and, according to Whiteside, french Kathy Whiteside, the Residential fries and chicken nuggets are the Dining Services menu and nutrition most favorable dishes. Students manager, the University has nearly understandably don't want to eat maxed out the amount of food that squash and root vegetables all win- it can purchase locally. After visit- ter. That is not what I'm suggesting. ing Goetz Farm, the University's There is local food available and the local vegetable source, I learned University is ignoring this. Students that this isn't the case. The Univer- need to stand up for what is just and sity only purchases 5 percent of the right. Should we continue ridding total crop that is produced on the the earth of resources if it means Goetz's land. Karlene Goetz said getting what we want? Or, should that the farm has tried, and have we learn to love what nature already I the capabilities, to provide the Uni- graciously provides? You are a stu- versity with much more local food dent, you havethe power,you decide. than it's currently ordering. However, we can't place the blame Madeline Dunn fully on the University; students are LSA junior 0