Page 4 - Tuesday, December 9, 2014
The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
Page 4 - Tuesday, December 9, 2014 The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom
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the University of Michigan since 1890.
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Ann Arbor, MI148109
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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 R OM T HE D A ILY
Policing the police
Body cameras are a good first step towards improving law enforcement
The recent decisions to not indict police officers involved
in the deaths of Black men such as Michael Brown and
Eric Garner have inspired passionate conversations about
our justice system. Across the nation, several police departments
are seeking to rebuild trust in their respective communities by
implementing policies to increase transparency. On Dec. 2, the
Ypsilanti City Council approved a resolution for the purchase of 15
body cameras for its police staff after nearly a year of discussions.
While the Garner case has proven body cameras alone can't be
expected to solve deeply rooted and systemic issues of police
brutality, requiring officers to wear them has been statistically
shown to create more accountability on all sides. Therefore, the
Ann Arbor Police Department, the University of Michigan Police
Department and other law enforcement agencies across the
nation should adopt the use of body cameras as the first step in a
multi-pronged approach to police reformation.
Intheproblem-posingmethod,"The
teacher is no longer merely the-one-
who-teaches, but one who is himself
taught in dialogue with the students,
who in turn while being taught also
teach. They become jointly responsible
for a process in which all grow."
This philosophy considers
the student a human entity with
intellectual value, able to contribute
to his or her own journey of
education. Simply put, dialogue is
stimulating. Lectures are not.
As I come to a close on my four
years as an undergrad, I reflect on the
classes I've taken - those that have
inspired and those that have fallen
short. Unfortunately for me, the ratio
seems a bit off. Some of that has to
do with distribution requirements
forcing me to take courses I'm not
interested in. Much ofithas to do with
my professors' seeming disinterest in
taking a true role in the dialectical
relationship of education. Spare me
your lectures and textbooks and
multiple-choice exams. Provide me
with the tools and freedom to think.
Marls Harmon is an LSA senior.
The Ross School of Business
is located on Tappan
Avenue, in a building so
large, orange
and modern that
it almost looks
as though it was
intentionally
designed to
differentiate
itself from the
rest of campus.
The inside - filled VICTORIA
with hanging NOBLE
artwork, glass
windows that
flood the space
with natural light and small study
rooms each equipped with audio-
visual equipment - looks nothing
like Lorch Hall down the street,
or Mason Hall a few blocks away.
When I visited the University as
a prospective student, this was
intenselyobviousto me.
Last winter semester, I was one of
a handful of people in my Econom-
ics 101 class who had no intention
of applying to the Business School.
One day in discussion section, as my
class and I waited for class to begin,
I listened as students detailed their
concerns that, if they didn't get into
Ross, they wouldn't have anything
else to study atthe University. Trying
to be helpful, I offered economics,
statistics and communications stud-
ies as possible alternatives. "No," one
student told me. They had no inten-
tion of staying in LSA. If they didn't
get into Ross, they would be applying
to the Ford School of Public Policy,
another exclusive "special program."
Happy to have found someone
who I thought might've shared my
interested in politics, I excitedly
asked what kind of policy they were
interested in. Oops, I had again mis-
read my classmate. As it turned out,
they weren't really interested in
policy at all.
Andthatkindof made me wonder
- out of the probably hundreds of
people in my class who were applying
to the Business School, how many
were interested in business? Not
business as a.high-powered career
andaperceived pathtoahighstarting
salary. Not business as a major that
might provide added benefits like
an intense recruiting process, a
?oss and the res
shiny, high-tech class building or a
closer community of students also
in their major. But rather, how many
of these students were interested in
the major for the skills and lessons
it might provide? How many of
them even knew, beyond what they
had been told in mass meetings and
read onthe Ross website, what those
skills were?
There's no doubt that the Business
School, ranked fourth in the country
in 2014, is an excellent program.
Likewise, there's no doubt that
Business School graduates are highly
desired by employers - 92 percent
of 2014 graduates were offered a
job by graduation. But, if a student
finds themselfinthe programforthe
wrong reasons, the overall strength
of the program won't make up for
the missed opportunity to study'
something about which they were
truly passionate.
So to freshmen considering apply-,
ing to Ross, do your best to ensure
that you're doing so for the right rea-
sons. You'll do the best at the thing
you're most passionate about. The
ability to demonstrate that passion
and commitment - not to mention
show off the higher grades that often
follow trueengagement with course-
work - will likely get you a whole
lot further in the job market than
a BBA degree and Ross-sponsored
networking opportunities. Ircan per-
sonallytell you that I've found a lot of
incredible internships and opportu-
nities as an LSA student. If you don't
know what you're passionate about-
this is the time to find out - but
don't settle for a major just because
it's highly ranked, likely to get you a
job or housed in a pumpkin-colored
architectural masterpiece.
While it's important that students
do some serious introspection
before choosing a major, it would be
unwise to ignore the many ways in
which University action has nudged
students toward programs that
they may not truly be academically
iriterested'in.
The Business School also offersso
many resources to its students that
students from other majors usually
don't have access to. For example,
Ross-affiliated student organiza-
tions can get access to special fund-
ing, and can use Ross facilities for
meetings and events. Meanwhile,
non-affiliated groups have to pay
to use University facilities. The
Business School also holds a pro-
fessional recruiting process that
is generally restricted to Ross stu-
dents - though other students can
pay a fee to participate. Many Ross
students also participate in student
organizations explicitly restricted
to or mostly filled with other Ross
students, providing an added sense
of community. Due to the exclu-
sivity of the school, it's completely
understandable that many students
might apply to the Business School,
even if they're unsure whether the
program is right for them.
In some cases, similar resources
are availableto general LSA students.
It's certainly possible for them to get
career guidance and ad-hoc funding
for student organizations. However,
while smaller special programs can
offer a more centralized and struc-
tured approach to connect students
with resources, LSA students are
often on their own. For example,
while .professional planning and
recruitment is heavily emphasized
for Ross students, 36.8 percent of
unemployed recent LSA graduates
didn't begin their job search until
after graduation. The Career Center
can provide resources to help stu-
dents find a job, but they have to seek
that guidance out on their own.
The University has a responsibility
to ensure that the perceived (or
actual) inequality of experiences or
resources between LSA and special
programs like the Business School
is not contributing to students'
decisions to pursue any given major.
When students decide to attend the
University of Michigan, most do
so with the expectation that they
will receive a world-class education
in whatever they choose to study.
Once they arrive on campus, they
deserve the freedom to decide
what that subject is without-feeling
constrainedbyadisparityinavailable
opportunities. By strivingto provide
a uniform quality of experience
and opportunity to all students, the
University can surely make progress
toward that end.
- Victoria Noble can be
reached at vjnoble@umich.edu.
Ypsilanti Police Chief Tony DeGiusti
submitted a request to the Ypsilanti City
Council for nearly $55,000 worth of equipment
purchases andupgrades. While Ypsilanti police
cars currently have dashboard cameras that
can record police interactions in front of the
vehicles, DeGiusti noted that the outdated
equipment has become a problem for the
department. In addition, a bargain offered by
law enforcement technology company L-3
Mobile-Vision, motivated the police force
to purchase the cameras. Similarly, Eastern
Michigan University has announced plans to
invest $17,000 in body camera equipment for
officers, and Ann Arbor officials discussed
the implementation of body cameras
Monday,Dece. ,
Body mcaeras would not only hold police
more accountable for their actions, but also the
civilians with whom they interact. The cameras
could also potentially help with conflicting
witness testimonies that so often result from
encounters with police officers. Furthermore,
a study of the use of body cameras by police in
Rialto, California, shows that the use of force by
police fell by 60 percent and citizen complaints
decreased by 88 percent after their distribution.
Though it is commendable that the Ypsilanti
Police Department and other law enforcement
agencies are taking these preventative
measures, the use of these body cameras must
be accompanied by legislative guidelines
to ensure that the cameras are an effective
measure. The department has mandated that
officers turn their cameras on upon coming
into contact with a citizen. While there are
both pros and cons to this policy, legislators
must create aspecific, uniform policy providing
strict guidelines regarding when cameras
should be on and how they should be utilized.
According to The Atlantic, there is very little
conclusive and consistent evidence, research
or testing regarding the use of body cameras.
With President Barack Obama asking for $263
million in federal funding for the purchase and
training of body camera use, it's imperative
that these devices' role in the justice systembe
closely monitored.
It's important to note that body cameras
will not completely solve the problems that
exist between citizens and law enforcement.
As Obama stated after the Ferguson decision,
"This is a problem that is national." The road
to a solution must include providing police
personnel with better and more extensive
training. Police departmentsacross the
nation should reevaluate their practices
and hold their officers to a higherstandard.
Nonviolent measures should always be
encouraged whenever possible and officers
should be better trained to handle civilians
of all identities,"including those with mental
disabilities and other cognitive impairments.
Being aware of differing cultural identities
will lead police officers to become more
sensitive to the different issues facing groups
within our diverse society. It's becoming
increasingly evident that there is a deep
and extremely problematic divide between
some police forces in the United States and
the communities they police. In helping to
close this divide, body cameras are a piece
of the puzzle, but only that. To attempt
to move toward remedying this divide,
improved legislation and training must be
put into place in order to aid police forces
in their understanding and policing of their
respective communities.
EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS
Edvinas Berzanskis, Devin Eggert; David Harris, Rachel JohnJordyn Kay,
Aarica Marsh, Megan McDonald, Victoria Noble, Michael Paul,
Allison Raeck, Melissa Scholke, Michael Schramm, Matthew Seligman,
Mary Kate Winn, Jenny Wang, Daniel Wang, Derek Wolfe
LINDSEY LAIRD
How can we achieve friendly diplomacy
9
MARIS HARMONI | I M
Are you satisfied with your undergraduate education?
As I am coming up on completing my four
years at the University this spring I am starting
to wonder- could I have done something to feel
more satisfied with my liberal arts education?
Why is it that an outcome of my choice to receive
a liberal arts education is that I can't quite
articulate what I've learned in my classes? Is ita
resultof my class choices or my major selection?
Or is my lack of satisfaction a product of a system
that doesn't really know quite how to teach?
PauloFreire, in "Pedagogyof the oppressed,"
categorizes teaching into two main methods
- the banking method and the problem-
posing method. In the banking approach,
"Narration (with the teacher as narrator) leads
the students to memorize mechanically the
narrated account. Worse yet, it turns them
into 'containers,' into 'receptacles' to be 'filled'
by the teachers. The more completely she fills
the receptacles, the better a teacher she is. The
more meekly the receptacles permit themselves
to be filled, the better students they are."
From required statistics courses to history
classes where I was mandated to memorize lists
of terms and capitals, I often felt likea receptacle.
I frequently felt trapped within an uncreative
paradigm of memorize and regurgitate within
classrooms and especially with GSIs. I did not
feel this way about all of my classes at all, but
the majority of survey courses, history seminars
and obligatory requirements fell incredibly short
of worthwhile experiences. Each year we pay
thousands of dollars to attend each course - why
should onlyaselectfewupper-levelcourses really
challenge our intellect and force us to truly think?
"The banking approach to adult education, for
example, will never propose to students that they
critically consider reality. It will deal instead with
such vital questions as whether Roger gave green
grass to the goat, and insist upon the importance
oflearning that, on the contrary, Roger gave green
grass to the rabbit. The'humanism'ofthe banking
approach masks the effort to turn women and
men into automatons - the verynegation oftheir
ontological vocation to be more fully human."
There have been countless instances when
I felt I was learning something so inapplicable
to the real world that it almost wasn't worth
challenging my brain to perform the task at
hand. Hundreds of pages of reading a week
didn't help me critically think or analyze - it
made me into a robot that skimmed some pages
of academic garble every night.
In problem-posing education, Freire's
counter to the banking approach is, "people
develop their power to perceive critically the
way they exist in the world with which and in
which they find themselves; they come to see
the world not as a static reality, but as a reality
in process, in transformation. Although the
dialectical relations of women and men with
the world exist independently of how these
relations are perceived (or whether or not they
are perceived at all), it is also true that the form
of action they adoptis to alarge extent a function
of how they perceive themselves in the world.
Hence, the teacher-student. and the students-
teachers reflect simultaneously on themselves
and the world without dichotomizing this
reflection from action, and thus establish an
authentic form of thought and action."
Students need to learn how to think as
individuals, not as robotic cogs in the academic
machine. That's boring and uninspiring.
University education has so much potential to
create passion and inspire fascination in the
minds of students; all of my friends love learning.
However, most of my friends do not love school.
There is a very big contradiction here that we
need to fix. The problem is not that my friends
and I are lazy or under-stimulated by the world
around us. The problem is that we are at the
mercy of teachers who treat us like receptacles
into whom they dump their knowledge.
A few weeks ago, the famous
author and activist Alice Walker pre-
sented a lecture for hundreds of peo-
ple at Hill Auditorium. Her lecture,
which was incredibly moving and
thought-provoking, was filled with
many feminist/womanist, environ-
mentalist and anti-war sentiments.
The main theme of her lecture was
friendship, which Walker expand-
ed to address friendships amongst
nations or, as it's most commonly
understood, diplomacy.
Later in her lecture, Walker
asserted the need to unlearn what
we have been taught to hold as truth.
Many audience members cheered
in agreement with this idea. In my
opinion, Walker was suggesting that
our formal schooling has presented
us with a very biased and simplistic
view of how things are. While I agree
and believe it is necessary to revise
exactly what we learn in order to
include a greater diversity of experi-
ences and viewpoints, I feel an addi-
tional degree as to how we learn and
how we feel about learning should be
addressed in order to achieve Walk-
er's vision of friendly diplomacy.
Quite obviously, diplomacy
revolves around the need to under-
stand cultures and ways of life of
people from around the world. I feel
that, all too often, our society has a
superficial as well as blindly biased
idea of the way things are in other
parts of the world. This is harmful
because, without a deeper and more
complex understanding of other cul-
tures, our society has the potential to
make decisions that can cause unin-
tended harm to many people.
So, I ask the question: why, as a
society, have we come to be more
comfortable with static, fixed and
one-dimensional views of issues,
ideas and unfamiliar cultures?
My hypothesis is the way in which
children are (generally) educated
within the public school system.
By means of class exams, state-
mandated tests and AP/SAT/ACT
tests, one cannot argue that the pub-
lic school system has come to be pri-
marily concerned with exactly what
students know. These types of tests
and ways of advancing in the public
school system are sending the mes-
sage to childrenthattheir knowledge
and opinions can boil down to being
either right or wrong. This is a gross
misrepresentation of real life - the
very thing education should be pre-
paring students for. Additionally, I
feel that kids are being taught from
a very young age that learning is a
one-time deal. Once students take an
exam on a particular topic, they often
feel they have learned all there is to
know, or, even worse, all they need to
know on that topic. How many times
have you heard asked, or perhaps
even asked yourself, "Will we need to
know that for the exam?"
Test's and exams have trained us
not to be comfortable unless we have
straightforward and immediate
solutions to a problem or question.
To tie this back to Walker's idea of
friendly diplomacy, our discomfort
with complexity becomes
problematic on a larger scale when
society tries to put major ideas and
decisions into tiny boxes labeled
"A, B, C and D." (When in doubt,
always guess C.) Society should
be comfortable with complex and
nuanced understandings of issues.
Additionally, we need to teach
kids from a young age that they will
never completely understand every-
thing and, as a result, they should
have a commitment to continual
learning. It is my belief that exams
do not foster this attitude toward
learning - it merely fosters an atti-
tude centered around passing tests
that are often devoid of any level
of complexity.
In addition to a commitment
to continual learning, I feel that
kids should be taught that they can
and should learn from anyone and
everyone. All too often our society
has underlying assumptions as to
who can learn from whom: teacher-
student, parent-child, developed
nation-developing nation, etc.
We need a generation of young
people who are humble enough
to break this mold of learning. In
my opinion, humility is a crucial
component to Walker's vision of
friendly diplomacy.
In conclusion, we need to restruc-
ture our public education system to
provide students a space in which
they can be comfortable with not
knowing the correctanswer to every
question asked of them. Kids should
be made aware of the complexity of
issues, cultures and societies. They
should be taught to thrive in this
complexity and to continually strive
for a more nuanced understanding
of the world, while always under-
standing their own personal limits
and biases.
It's my belief that all of these
solutions should be practiced on
a larger scale when our society
interacts with other parts of the
world. If we combine humility
and a commitment to continual
learning, Alice Walker's ideal
of friendly diplomacy could
be achieved.
Lindsey Laird is an Music,
Theater & Dance junior.
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