4A - Monday, March 31, 2014 The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com 4A -Mondy, arch31, 014The ichian aily- mihigndaiyco Ele idhiian a4y Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan since 1890. I 420 Maynard St. Ann Arbor, MI 48109 tothedaily@michigandaily.com MEGAN MCDONALD PETER SHAHIN and DANIEL WANG KATIE BURKE 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. F RO0M T HE OAIY Trning a new page The 'U' should utilize open-source textbooks As the prices of textbooks continue to rise, many college students are choosing to not purchase them at all. With many students continually struggling to pay for higher education, the added stress of buying expensive textbooks is a serious issue. It's because of these high prices that some universities are turning to open-source textbooks. The University should make an effort to utilize open-source textbooks more often in class curricula in order to reduce the cost of education for Connecting us all C onnecting... " said the screen of my iPhone. A couple of seconds later, my younger brother's mischievous, smiling face popped on my screen. In one hand he held up the phone, and in the other he was holding up a NIVEDITA shiny, new black KARKI football with a Manchester United logo on it. "I did OK on my midterms, so Mummy and Papa finally bought this for me!" "That's awesome!" I said. "Jaldi aao (Come here fast), we need to start the Pooja Vedant!" "Your sister is going to get late for class!" I heard my parents say from the other room. I straightened up in my chair, pushing back my hair so my Kurti shirt was visible, and made sure the new fairy lights I had bought for my room were noticeable on the phone screen. As my brother ran across the living room to the Pooja room in our house, I could see that my mom had decorated the house with flow- ers beautifully. "Nivi beta, ready?" "Nope!" I tried to kid. And so we prayed and sang Bha- jan songs - my brother and I trying our best to mouth the right words - then my parents showed me how they had decorated the house. "Your mom outdid herself this time!" said Papa, showing me the flower petals that formed patterns across the liv- ing room floor. From our balcony, I could see lights lighting up the night everywhere, and hear fireworks going off every other second, mak- ing me cringe. New Delhi looked like a beautiful, but noisy, bride - as it always did on Diwali. I looked up at the clock in my room - 9:30 am - my class started in half an hour. "By the way, the new update for iOS 7 is available," my mom said. I laughed and nodded, said my goodbyes, and started packing my bag. Diwali - the Hindu festival of lights - was, literally, a surreal experience in 2013. And so will the next few ones to come. Though this happened last November, you can see that I remember the day extremely well. Partly because it made me realize how far out of my comfort zone I have been trying to live, but mostly because that was the day I truly appreciated how technol- ogy has come to affect our lives. Every other Facebook/Intel/ Microsoft/Apple commercial I had ever seen - y'know the cheesy, overtly emotional kind showing how families, friends and people in general had been united through the company's work - all made sense to me that day. I don't mean to sound like someone in love finally understanding the meaning behind all sentimental, sappy songs - but despite my problem against the dominance of boys in tech, I had come to truly appreciate and love my choice of major that day. As I finished getting ready for that morning, I remember taking a picture of myself by those fairy lights I bought, and sending it as a Snapchat to all my friends with the caption "Happy Diwali - the festi- val of lights!" What followed was a hilarious series of replies. From my friends in India, I got Snaps teasing me about all the sweets and des- serts I would be missing, and that it sucked for me that I had to go to class. Meanwhile, some my friends who weren't from India started send- ing me Snaps of them next to the most random sources of light - the chandeliers in the Law Library, the ceiling lights in the UGLi, and even the sun - and some just drew lights next to their faces. Other than realizing the fact that I only picked people whose brains stopped developing after middle school to be my friends (just kid- ding, I know they were just being silly) no matter where I went, I also realized how I absolutely agreed with my mom on one thing: "What would we do without technology?" I couldn't help but marvel at the fact that I was 7,500 miles away from home celebrating one of my favor- ite festivals in a strangely amusing way. It made me miss my family a little less, and appreciate people a little more. The point of this extremely per- sonal anecdote is, or at least I hope it's been, to create a little positiv- ity around our dependence on technology. In between deactivat- ing accounts on social media out- lets during exams, and blaming the Internet and other fun tech cre- ations for the decline in our atten- tion span (I've been trying not to play 2048 while writingthis article), we have forgotten to appreciate the good things that have come out of this dependency. Our generation, especially, takes technology for granted. We know that technol- ogy is going to continue to be a huge influence on our lives, so we must understand that we need to learn to really value how it has augmented our ability to interact. Focusing on how it can help us create valuable experiences can really help us make it an asset for ourselves. - Nivedita Karki can be reached at nivkarki@umich.edu. its students. The University of Maryland, College Park is one of the universities working on making the transition. Open-source textbooks are comprised of materials from a variety of sources that are not subject to copyright restrictions. The initiative to use open- source textbooks is just a pilot program at the University of Maryland but it has been estimated that the program has saved 1,100 students $130,000 collectively. According to the College Board, the average university student spends $1,200 annually on textbooks and supplies, and depending on the major, the amount can be even higher. Open-source textbooks would provide a free alternative to these expensive textbooks. According to the U.S. Government Accountability Office, average textbook prices rose 82 percent between the years 2002 and 2012. With this kind of price hike, students need more cost-efficient resources. However, there are concerns that go along with using open-source textbooks. Textbook publishers have extensive processes involved in editing the information presented in the textbooks they sell. They make sure that the materials are credible and use reliable and correct information. It could be harder to check the credibility and reliability of open-source textbooks since they would be compiled from so many different sources. To combat the problem of credibility and reliability, extensive review systems should be implemented. For example, the College Open Textbooks Collaborative provides reviews of books used by over 200 community and two-year colleges. Reviewers are community college professors with at least one year of teaching experience and their reviews are considered along with their curriculum vitae. Open-source textbooks should be treated as all other academic articles are and be reviewed by experts in the field to ensure quality information. Minimum teaching requirements and a demonstration of qualification should be a standard for all reviewers, and open-source textbooks should be constantly reviewed by these individuals to ensure credibility and reliability. There are already a number of simple ways that the University can transition into an era of cheaper textbooks. The University already has subscriptions to many academic journals, magazines and newspapers. Professors should utilize these resources as often as possible, as some classes have completely replaced textbooks with these online articles. Additionally, a number of professors at the University allow students to use drafts of textbooks they're currently writing - sending students updated versions if certain chapters have been edited. More professors should consider this method, and professors already doing so should consider allowing other classes to use their textbook drafts. The University should take note of the other colleges that have already begun to transition to open-source textbooks. California State University, Washington State College, the University of Minnesota and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology all have compiled giant libraries of free course materials online within recent years. These colleges are making an effort to save their students money on textbooks, and the University should do the same. However, in doing so, the University should consider other aspects of switching to open-source textbooks, like providing additional printing pages to allow students to view these resources on paper. With the rapid rise of collegetuition over the past decade, colleges need to assist students in investigating cheaper alternatives to pricey textbooks. Textbooks are an essential tool for learning, but their extremely high prices provide a barrier to students. Open-source textbooks can be that alternative, and with proper support from the academic community, they can be just as effective. EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS Barry Belmont, Edvinas Berzanskis, Rachel John, Nivedita Karki, Jacob Karafa, Jordyn Kay, Aarica Marsh, Megan McDonald, Victoria Noble, Michael Schramm, Matthew Seligman, Paul Sherman, Allison Raeck, Linh Vu, Daniel Wang, Derek Wolfe YAZAN KHERALLAH I Pineapple express JEREMY KAZZAZ I A resolution for all This week the Daily's editorial board appeared to come out in support of the bill rejected twice by the Central Student Gov- ernment, which calls for a committee to investigate and recommend divestment of the University's endowment from certain compa- nies doing business with Israel. The Daily editorial board said, "the Uni- versity needs to institutionalize a permanent mechanism to evaluate complaints against companies that are suspected of doing busi- ness with unethical regimes." That is a noble initiative that was not at all addressed by the divestment bill CSG considered. The Daily editorial also said, "The reso- lution called for CSG to petition the Board of Regents to create an ad hoc committee to investigate University investments in com- panies accused of violating human rights." That sentence is missing an important word that changes the meaning entirely: Israel. The Daily implied that the measure recommended the committee investigate all companies for human rights violations. The resolution does no such thing, the bill requests that the Uni- versity investigate companies doing business with only one of many imperfect states with which transnational corporations do busi- ness. To illustrate the impotency of the bill to broadly target human rights violators, if one of the four companies listed in the resolution stops doing business with Israel one day and the next day is found to be complicit in the commission of a genocide in a different coun- try, SAFE's ad hoc 'human rights' committee would give the investment the seal of approval. The editorial board of the Daily either mis- understood the language of the resolution or was misled by its drafters into thinking that the bill addressed globally responsible investment rather than a targeted political attack on Israel. Once the editorial's words are carefully parsed it is clear that the Daily endorsed a measure that no student group has yet drafted and proposed to CSG. Had Students Allied for Freedom and Equality authored a bill striving for a Uni- versity endowment free from investments in irresponsible corporations around the world, it would have remained true to its name, seek- ing freedom and equality for all. Instead, it introduced a bill that focuses on one side of a complex geopolitical issue in just one country. The bill before CSG was not interested in guarding human rights globally. The bill was not even drafted to protect human rights violations committed against all Palestin- ians. For example, it ignored the cruelty to the Palestinians committed by the Syrian regime and the Palestinian Authority's vio- lations against its own citizens. Singling out Israel is where SAFE's human rights dialogue starts and ends. To achieve this narrow goal, SAFE wrote a resolution that the Daily has not properly fact checked. The resolution was filled with sources that would be unaccept- able in an academic paper or a news article and they surely do not hold water as factual support underpinning a piece of legislation. The editorial is a call to us as students to propose a wholly different resolution. It is a call for us to look one by one at the 597 directly held equities in the University's endowment portfolio and investigate the global human rights records of all of them. By contrast, the SAFE BDS bill would instruct the University to only cross-reference those companies with ones on lists of alleged violators featured on anti-Israel political websites. Let us as a student body come together and fight for human rights in every corner of the globe. Let us fight for equality for all. We are the thinkers of the day and together can start building a better tomorrow. Jeremy Kazzaz is a second year Law student. Pineapple is one of my favorite fruits. I love its cool, refreshing taste. I love the way it squirts juice onto your taste buds. I love it in my fruit salads, I love it in my smooth- ies, and I love it on my pizzas. I love it by itself, just the way it is. But because of Adam Kredo from the Washington Free Beacon, I don't know how I'm going to be able to eat a pineapple ever again. On March 26th at 10:23 am, Kredo posted an article titled "BDS Leader Posts 'Overtly Threaten- ing' Photo to Facebook." In it, he posts a Facebook photo of me with a keffiyeh wrapped around my face as I stick a knife into a pineapple. The author writes: "Civil rights leader Kenneth Marcus labeled Kherallah's photograph as 'overtly threatening' and said that it could contribute to the culture of fear within the University of Michigan's pro-Israel community." The article goes on to speculate about the meaning of the pine- apple, somehow connecting it to Zionism and peoples' denial of the Holocaust through an anti-Semitic French comedian (whom I had never heard of). Another bizarre speculation was that since sabras (presumably associated with Isra- el) were not available at Michigan grocery stores, I used a pineapple as a substitute to convey these hor- rible messages. It is embarrassing to even have to address this. None of these claims are true whatsoever. I jok- ingly posted the photo on Facebook before any talk of a divestment resolution started. I was playing on an intramural basketball team and posted the photo in the lead-up to a game against a team of friends. Their team was called Ananas - the name of their favorite sandwich joint in Dearborn, also the Arabic word for pineapple. In the cap- tion, I tagged the members of Team Ananas and wrote, "It's on," allud- ing to the basketball game we had the following week. The photo was an innocent joke that engaged in a longstanding bas- ketball rivalry between friends, who were overwhelmingly Arab and non-Arab Muslim. At another level, the photo was intended to make fun of racial stereotypes of Arabs as violent and extreme by juxtaposing the image of a "vio- lent" Arab man with a piece of fruit. When your identity is repeatedly demonized in public, all you can do is laugh it off. What Adam Kredo did in his article is, in a word, libel. It is politically motivated and bigoted journalism that targets me as a vis- ible leader of the #UMDivest cam- paign. Unfortunately, this sort of individual attack against Univer- sity students involved in the BDS movement is not unusual. In addi- tion to this attack against me, other Students Allied for Freedom and Equality students are being falsely accused of using racial epithets against opponents of the resolu- tion in an attempt to distract from our real message - that complicity in Israel's human rights violations has to stop - and paint us as moti- vated by anti-Semitism. This is, in fact, a primary tactic of opponents of divestment, including Kenneth Marcus himself - the "expert" who provided Kredo with the stun- ningly wrongheaded analysis of what the pineapple means. Despite Marcus's civil rights background, he is a leader of the crusade against campus activism for Palestinian rights, using various legal tactics to claim that this activism is threaten- ing Jewish students. Words cannot describe the kind of outrage and emotional distress Ihave gone through in recent days. Already, Kredo's article has been cited in a number of other outlets including in The Jerusalem Post, on the Brandeis Center for Human Rights under Law website, and in San Diego Jewish World. None of these sources both- ered to verify Kredo's allegations by reaching out to me. My Twitter account has been flooded with hateful and racist messages. There are photoshopped images of me in which I am called a "Jihadist" and "Infidel slayer." The emotional shock I have been through is immeasurable. This is something that will negatively affect me for the rest of my life, every time I have to go through an airport (as if I didn't have to worry about airports already as an Arab male), when I apply for grad school, and every time I interview for a job. It does not matter how inac- curate and libelous Kredo's article is, the fact is that my reputation has been unfairly tarnished and simple Google searches will always lead to the original false allegation. I want to tie this back to cam- pus. I sincerely hope that no one at our University gave Kredo my photo out of context with insidious motives, but I have to question why my Facebook account was scoured months back*for a point of attack. That's disconcerting in itself. More importantly, we all have to critical- ly examine the rhetoric surround- ing the opposition to #UMDivest. Many opponents of the resolution we proposed chose to oppose us by calling our movement "violent" and "hateful" instead of debating us on the actual merits of our resolution: nonviolent divestment as a means to advance the end of the Israeli occupation and the discriminatory laws Israel enforces. These opponents included prominent CSG members. This was despite SAFE going to every length imaginable to ensure that the sit-in and the movement was a place that was safe and loving for everyone. This was despite Vice President for Student Life E. Royster Harper's public statement affirming our peaceful methods and respect for the space we occupied. My advice to fellow students is this: You came to a University. Your opinions and political stances are meant to be challenged. Please engage in actual critical discourse instead of resorting to fear-mon- gering and baseless accusations. If you have a case, you might be able to challenge us for the better by engaging with us intellectually rather than on the basis of ad homi- nem attacks. Thank you to all my friends who have supported me (both pro and against divestment). How ironic that a photo that was intended as a satire of violent stereotypes of Arabs and Muslims is taken out of context to spread the same anti- Arab and Islamophobic character- izations it sought to ridicule. What are Adam Kredo and Kenneth Mar- cus smoking? Pineapple Express? Yazan Kherallah is an LSA senior.