qw 4 - Tuesday, April 16, 2013 The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com c I4e fitichipan 4:3alip RIP, Google Reader Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan since 1890. 420 Maynard St. Ann Arbor, MI 48109 tothedaily@michigandaily.com MELANIE KRUVELIS and ADRIENNE ROBERTS MATT SLOVIN EDITORIAL PAGE EDITORS MANAGING EDITOR ANDREW WEINER EDITOR IN CHIEF 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. Illegal' no more Changes in Associated Press styleguide on the right side of history n Tuesday, April 2 the Associated Press updated their style- book to end the use of the term "illegal immigrant." Used by U.S. newspapers as a guide for editing style and content, the changes made in the stylebook come at the height of immigra- tion debate in Congress. The official removal of illegal immigra- tion from the AP's guide should be reflected in national rhetoric, as newspapers nationwide begin to use more inclusive, less accusatory language to describe undocumented immigrants. Stigma surround- ing immigration has propelled misunderstandings to the forefront of debate, and newspapers should be quick to adopt this policy in order to encourage more accurate discussion of the issue. When Google announced the impending extinc- tion of Google Reader, the Internet opened itself up to reveal a sur- prisingly benev- olent though misguided frame of mind. Lifehacker posted a bevy of Reader alter- JENNIFER natives, which XU did nothing but confirm that nobody on staff actually uses the application. It's probably right that Reader is closing down to make way for snazzy new features like Google Glass, since it's clear that. its user base has been dwindling with the meteoric rise of Twitter. But I'm in mourning nevertheless. Yes, I am one of the select few who still uses Google Reader. This places me within a demographic composed of people who otherwise cannot view blogs due to the strict censorship of their home countries. I also use a service called iGoogle, whose own identity as an endan- gered species is something nobody has pointed out, which leads me to believe that I'i the only person in the world who still uses it. By now, I've come to realize that the Inter- net as I know it is slowly being taken away from me. Who knew one could turn into a cultural dino- saur at the tender age of 21? Not I. There's literally nothing float- ing around the World Wide Web that resembles the wonder that's Google Reader. Believe me, I've tried to find it. I spent a frustrat- ing four to five hours trying to adapt to The Old Reader, a website that purports to resemble Google Reader in its nascent stages but is instead extremely slow and calibrate asit should. Then Feedly, a color-blocked nigh with a mass of extra service slow down the website's inf tion delivery. What Feedly's lists have to do with RSS fe' have no idea. Twitter landed closest to t of service I'was looking for - frills interface with a button that allows the user to quickl scribe and unsubscribe to ac he or she's interested in. Buts the initial learning curve (wt MT? What does RT mean wh lowed by a period?), I realize Twitter moves too rapidly fo keep up. I have what could b as a compulsion to reach Rea Zero - a state that signifies t I've read every doesn't quently but not too frequently. It's I tried small enough to finish but substan- tmare tial enough for me to not get bored. as that And once I reach that good, glori- orma- ous Reader Zero, I can trick myself to-do into thinking that I've finished eds, I reading the Internet. By now I've endured all five he type Kubler-Ross stages of grief, oscillat- a no- ing from denial to anger to depres- click sion. Only recently have I swung ly sub- around to acceptance. As disheart- counts ening as it might be to lose a central after part of your Internet livelihood, hat is it's worth it to take a stepback and sen fol- realize what is and isn't owed to us. d that Everything on the Internet is more r me to or less free - it wasn't created with e known me specifically in mind. Anything der that takes a hold of the Internet col- hat lective exemplifies the paradigmatic cultural shift that the rest of society is undergoing. I know that few ho knew you people use Google .1 Reader and there- Id turn into a fore most might not sympathize ural dinosaur withrmy particu- lar situation, but at 21? we would all do well to realize the extinction of any- single item on my Google Reader - and with Twit- ter, this position is impossible to achieve. Every time I paused to open up another news window, new Tweets would eternally zoom into view. I felt like Alice run- W cou cult Though the changes may have implications to nationwide debate, the AP claims that this change was made not for political reasons but because the term "illegal immigrant" is a legally inaccurate denomination. "The Sty'le- book no longer sanctions ... the use of 'illegal' to describe a person," AP said in a statement last week. By changingtheir preferred termi- nology, the AP confirms that while an action may be considered "illegal," a person cannot. Though some have criticized the revision as excessively politically correct, the changes allow for more factually accurate reporting of a critical talking point across the country. In its statement on the language change, the AP endorsed "undocumented immi- grant" as the current preferred terminology. The adoption of undocumented immigrant isn't just more precise, but more acceptable. While the media isn't responsible for push- ing a more progressive understanding of immigration, newspapers do play a signifi- cant role in not only disseminating informa- tion, but also establishing the words we use to describe news stories. Word choice mat- ters, and language can generate harmful ste- reotypes and stigmas. Whether or not they acknowledge it, the AP made a step toward eliminating divisive terms nationwide. While the AP sets the standard for news- papers in the United States, individual papers and magazines may choose whether they fol- low the guidelines. In this case, newspapers across the nation slould endorse the changes made by the AP and abide by the new style. Newspapers have a great impact on language, and reflecting such a change in print can prompt changes in how the average Ameri- can perceives immigration issues. This new decision comes at a time when immigration has become a hot-button issue for legislation President Barack Obama has made immigration a large part of his sec- ond-term agenda, and currently a biparti- san group of senators are working on a new immigration bill. The current work being done on immigration in Washington D.C. and the new change to the AP Stylebook indicates that progress is being made towards a more nuanced understanding of immigration. ning on the Red Queen's racetrack, exerting all of my mental willpower just to keep pace. What attracts me to Google Reader is the faux sense of empow- erment it can imbue the user. The Internet is a big, scary place that explodes with information in every cranny you look, but Reader allows me to harness that infor- mation with a tasteful interface that doesn't require me to click all over the place to get my news. I have an expansive but manageable subscription list that updates fre- thing beloved is less a personal affront and more an important truth of existence. Power to me might represent an RSS feed, and to others the abilityto frequent a local coffee shop, but none of that is power. Power is held by something* greater than all of us, and that's culture. Culture is neutral - and while it might not represent the will of the individual every time, it does represent the will of the collective, all the time. - Jennifer Xu can be reached at jennifxu@umich.edu. MICHAEL PROPPE| Moving past the election EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS Kaan Avdan, Sharik Bashir, Barry Belmont, Eli Cahan, Eric Ferguson, Jesse Klein, Melanie Kruvelis, Maura Levine, Patrick Maillet, Sam Mancina, Aarica Marsh, Megan McDonald, Jasmine McNenny, Harsha Nahata, Adrienne Roberts, Paul Sherman, Sarah Skaluba, Michael Spaeth, Daniel Wang, Luchen Wang, Derek Wolfe PATRICK BAUMHART I No ethics in sight President Coleman, In the past weeks I have been following the fallout stemming from the Central Student Government elections. Amid the allegations of voter coercion and mismanagement of election funds, I came to the disheartening conclusion that there's a major problem on our campus - a problem that often goes unacknowledged. The matter in question is this: Nobody ever seems to talk about ethics until after someone has done something wrong. The CSG election code is meant to estab- lish a base level of ethical integrity, one that is expected to be used in carrying out a cam- paign. It presents candidates, whether run- ning as an independent or a member of a party, with a universal standard that's meant to be upheld by all parties involved. Yet in my time at the University, I've only seen it used as a device to disqualify the opposition. I'd like to believe that all representatives in the legislative branch of our system are commit- ted towards the betterment of our commu- nity, but from reading the various responses issued by some of the main political parties on campus it has become clear that our gov- ernment has fallen victim to many of the same petty squabbles that we see in the parti- san-dominated U.S. government. A similarly dismal state of affairs can be associated with the academic honor code and the lack of knowledge that the average student has regarding the code. Outside of the required comment on academic integrity that seems to be the mantra of every "Syllabus Week," most students only become acquainted with the honor code after being told that they've been suspected of violating it. In coupling this with the increasing trends of honor code violations, I believe that a growing issue is present here. I believe that the true issue at hand is that there's a lack of discourse and awareness directed toward the broader topic of ethics. Students need to come to the realization that all of their actions have potential ethical impli- cations, and with those implications comes an association that's bigger than themselves. As we enter the workforce our actions are not only representative of our own ethical standard, but it also reflects on the ethical integrity of the greater University community. I write to you because as the president of the University, you have a vested interest in main- taining the quality of its reputation. I also write to you because you once took a strongstance on the importance of ethics by leading an initia- tive for the creation of the Center for Ethics in Public Life. More significantly, when the center was closed in 2011, University spokesman Rick Fitzgerald issued a statement saying that, "the evaluation was that its mission of ethics in pub- lic life was now embedded in the community," and that "the provost's office believed that would be sustained without having a specific center focused on that." Regretfully, I now say that whatever under- standing of ethics that was then instilled in the community is no longer present in the actions of our students. We've reached an impasse in our campus community; I fear that honor and ethics are now principles found only in history and literature. Patrick Baumhart is an LSA sophomore. Before I announced my candida- cy for president of Central Student Government, I called my friend Chris Osborn to let him know I would be running with youMICH. He offered me the same courtesy before he announced he would be running with forUM. We wished each other well and expressed a mutual desire to work together again next year, regardless of the outcome. A little over a month ago, I truly believed the campaign would be quick and fun. I thought my friendship with Chris would trickle down to our respective parties and create a friendly rivalry as we com- peted to lead CSG. I never could have predicted this outcome. In an election that garnered the most votes in the his- tory of student government at the University, my running mate Bobby Dishell and I took second place to Osborn and his running mate, Hay- ley Sakwa. But due to a unanimous ruling by the University Election Commission that Chris and Hay- ley influenced students while they were voting, I am set to take office as president of the CSG. Many have said I sued my way into office. Technically, that's true - but in doing so, an incredibly important rule was enforced. The will of an individual in the voting booth has to be protected. The pri- vacy of an individual, acting alone, exerting his or her will in the demo- cratic process is precisely what puts the voter in charge of the process. There's a reason candidates cannot Tragedy in Boston brings together community TO THE DAILY: "Explosion at the Boston Mara- thon" - my stomach churns as I take in the headlines. The footage of the explosion sends shivers down my spine. I can't help, but feel a mixture of sheer disgust, sadness, confusion and helplessness. My heart becomes filled with sympathy for the victims and their families. Again and again the same three words keep running through my mind: "Who does this?" Having been.a competitive run- ner for-almost half my life, I know the impact of Monday's incident enter the voting booth with voters. Now, I don't think Chris set out with the intention of breaking this rule. I think he felt passion- ately about the issues and wanted to share that enthusiasm with as many voters as possible. I think he got caught up in the excitement of the campaign and made a mis- take. Ultimately, it's impossible to quantify how much of Chris and Hayley's 485-vote margin of vic- tory would have been erased had they not employed that illegal cam- paign strategy. I personally main- tain Bobby and I would've won, but you're free to disagree. Many do. Whatever your belief, it's true that I will be the constitution- ally legitimate president of CSG in about one week's time. This isn't how I thought I would take office, tbut I'm excited for the opportunity. And I'll work my tail off for the stu- dents of the University for the next year, whether they voted for me or not. It's time to move past the elec- tion. It's time to get to work on all the fantastic initiatives that were campaigned on this year. Bobby and I have already begun laying the groundwork for an off- campus bus route, the Student Orga- nization Sorting Hat Survey and the Mcard mobile app. We've met with administrators this week to present our plan for a degree-granting entre- preneurial learning community. We have been in the Duderstadt from 2 a.m. until 5 a.m., gauging demand for a 24-hour cafe on North Campus. But those are just our initiatives. The fact that the legislature and executive branches, will be split between forUM and youMICH offers an exciting opportunity for CSG to work hard on both parties' goals. forUM brings a multitude of great ideas to the table, and I par- ticularly admire their passion for environmental sustainability and diversity. I look forward to working with the forUM representatives, as well as Chris and Hayley, to develop a strategy for reducing the Univer- sity's carbon footprint. And CSG should play an active role in the Dream Big, Dream Blue campaign to engage and recruit high-school students from underrepresented communities. Scott Christopher, the independent candidate, raised awareness of some serious prob- lems with Counseling and Psycho- logical Services that need to be addressed. forUM and youMICH will rally around that admirable goal of reforming CAPS. Similarly, Nick Swider brought a multitude of tangible goals - especially fresh- men-centric ones - that CSG will continue to work on next year. Students, don't ever stop reach- ing out to me, Bobby or any of your 56 newly elected representatives with your thoughts and input. We thrive on your ideas and feedback. We all have certain directions we'd like to take student government in, but your voice can alter those trajectories. The election is over. We're ready to go to work. Michael Proppe is an LSA junior. SEND LETTERS TO: TOTHEDAILY@MICHIGANDAILY.COM will be felt especially throughout for long periods of time running. the running community. With the It's hard to explain without hav- Boston Marathon being the premier ing experienced it first hand, but marathon in the world, thousands ultimately it comes down to this of the world's most devout runners - within the running community flock to the streets of Boston each there's a sense of brotherhood and year to compete. But the Boston sisterhood among individuals. It's a Marathon is so much more than a beautiful a thing, and to see it per- 26.2 mile long race: it's a beaming verted by such destruction hit me pillar of self-actualization, perse- like a sledgehammer. verance and camaraderie. At this point, we're all still in What shocked me the most shock awaiting more information, about the explosions in Boston was but I'm curious to see how we as a the seemingly unknown connec- running community will respond. tion between pure sport and utter Knowing the determination, destruction. Runners are known to endurance, and sportsmanship we not only be some of the most disci- have cultivated as a community, I plined individuals, but also some of imagine we'll finish strong. the most friendly. There's a unique bond created between individuals Kevin Allport that enjoy torturing themselves LSA freshman LETTERS TO THE EDITOR: Readers are encouraged to submit letters to the editor. Letters should be fewer than 300 words and must include the writer's full name and University affiliation. We do not print anonymous letters. Send letters to tothedaily@michigandaily.com.