Opinion
4
Page 6
The Michigan Daily
Vol. XCII, No. 6-S
Ninety Years of Editorial Freedom
Edited and managed by students
at the University of Michigan
Wednesday, May 12, 1982
The Michigan Daily
LETTERS TO THE DAILY:
4
An engineer against cuts
Legislature
provides relief
T HE STATE LEGISLATURE finally
passed Governor Milliken's tax increase
yesterday, amid heavy sighs of relief here at
the University.
The temporary increase in taxes spares the
University a $21 million funding cut that would
have been disastrous. Such loss would have for-
ced immediate cutbacks at a time when the
University is agonizing over its long-term plan
to reallocate $20 million in five years.
Passing a tax increase during an election
year is normally anathema to legislators, but
this hike was absolutely necessary. Not only
was higher education to suffer huge cutbacks,
but public schools, social programs, and state
parks would have been severely affected as
well, all to balance the state's budget.
Although no one likes to pay more taxes, this
time the legislature deserves praise for acting
responsibly during the budgetary crisis.
University officials can now relax and work on
a budget, without having to scramble for
devastating cuts of their own.
Waging peace
for a chang e
T HE RECENT OUTBREAK of violence in
the Middle East may lead to yet another
conflict in the war-ravaged area unless both the
Israelis and Palestinians show some restraint.
In spite of the flare-ups, the fragile U.S.
negotiated cease-fire can still work if the in-
terested parties are interested at all in peace.
Even if both sides decide to go back to the
cease-fire agreement, however, the situation
will remain unstable until a long-term solution
is found to the decades-old conflict.
The only country that can provide the leader-
ship and mediating skills for such a solution is
the United States. The time has arrived once
again for this country to wage peace in the
troubled region.
Editorials appearing on the left side of
the page beneath The Michigan Daily logo
represent a majority opinion of the Daily's
Staff'x. ,.
To the Daily:
While the impact on the studen-
ts in the schools targeted for
review under the ad-
ministration's reallocation plan
(Art, Natural Resources, and
Education) is obvious, how do
students in the engineering and
science curriculum feel about
these new directions? As a senior
in the College of Engineering, I
would like to address this"point.
This university is unique in
that it offers excellence in many
areas and allows diverse areas of
study to complement each other.
Michigan's engineering program
ranks with Cal Tech and MIT, but
it is the diversity of our univer-
sity which sets it apart.
Aren't engineers too busy with
job interviews and employment
prospects to worry about what
happens to other programs atthis
university? Perhaps we should
reexamine our roles in society.
The purpose of engineering, as
defined' in the College of
Engineering handbook, is to
provide technological leadership
which can be applied for the
"benefit of mankind." Though
many engineers have been
steered off course in this pursuit,
a large number still follow it.
This is clearly evident in such
areas of engineering as solar
energy, pollution control, and.
safety research.
sEngineers play powerful roles
in modern society. Do we want
people in these influential
positions who have no feel for the
fragility of our environment, the
importance of education, or the
creativity of art?
The administration's "smaller
but better" campaign engenders
lack of appreciation in these.
areas. Engineering students
benefit greatly from the interac-
tion with students from these
targeted schools.
Suggesting these schools be
saved for the benefit of engineers
and science majors is a rather
warped way of looking at the
situation. Perhaps this perspec-
tive will, however, add weight to
the fight to preserve the targeted
schools.
If this university goes through
with its proposed reallocation
program, everyone will lose.
Margaret Helton
April 16, 1982
A. farewell
to books
To the Editor:
Your headline about a school
official urging the banning of
Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn
(Daily, April 10) may have sur-
rised some, hut it's a tip of the
iceberg. Banned books include
not only Huckleberry Finn, but
Toms Sawyer, Alice in Won-
derland, A Farewell to Arms, The
Grapes of Wrath, Of Mice. and
Men, Brave New World, The
Diary of Anne Frank, and hun-
dreds of others.
Math books have been targeted
in Warsaw, Indiana. Members of
the school board voiced op-
position to calculus and
trigonometry because, "When a
student reads ina math book that
there are no absolutes, suddenly
every value he's been taught is
destroyed. And the next thing you
know, the student turns to crime
and drugs."
Legislation has been in-
troduced in four states that would
make it a criminal offense to
teach anything by Shakespeare,
Steinbeck or Hemingway.
We must not allow a deter-
mined minority of politically am-
bitious dogmatists to destroy our
rights through our neglect. We
must be voices of reason.
-David Treece
President, University
voice of Reason
April 13
Letters and columns
represent the opinions of the
individual author(s) and do
not necessarily reflect the at-
titudes or beliefs of the Daily.
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Flunking science
To the Daily:
Robert Honigman's editorial,
Research wins over education,
(Daily, April 17) shows such a
poor understanding of academic
research that one wonders
whether he flunked his Univer-
sity courses in science. He equat-
es research with robotics and
rats, with soulless technocrats
and bureaucrats, and with
inevitable reductions of the
teaching function and academic
freedom.
In reality much of the Univer-
sity research is pure rather than
applied, involves students
deeply, and excludes both, robots
and rats. Mr. Honigman states
that research does not enhance
teaching, when any active
scientist can tell you that being
on the cutting edge of current
research allows one to feed ex-
citing new ideas and controver-
sies back to all levels of teaching.
Reseach support also provides
funding for an important
teaching function in training
graduate- students for em-
ployment. Mr. Honigman claims
that research competes with
teaching for limited resources
when in fact research dollars
contribute rather heavily to the
financial support of the Univer-
sity and its graduate students.
It would be great if the Univer-
sity had more financial support
for teaching, student support,
and unsponsored research, but
current financial exigencies
make this difficult. Mr.
Honigman should direct his ill-
aimed ire at the State and at
those who have some measure of
control over the economics of this
country.
-Eric Essene
Professor of Geology
Wasserman
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