4 - The Michigan Daily - Monday, May 23, 2005 I 420 MAYNARD STREET ANN ARBOR, MI 48109 STEPHANIE WRIGHT tothedaily@michigandaily.com Editor in Chief DONN M. FRESARD Editorial Page Editor ~ ~ ~A ure EDITED AND MANAGED BY ESTUDENTDAT THE Unless otherwise noted, unsigned editorials reflect the opinion of UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN the majority of the Daily's editorial board. All other pieces do not SINCE 1890 necessarily reflect the opinion of The Michigan Daily. Republicans in the state House recently introduced a proposal, named Work- force Investment Needs, that would reform the way the state distributes funding for its 15 public universities. The new system would rely on formulas - based on factors such as enrollment, number and types of degrees granted and research - to deter- mine each university's share of the total higher education budget. The sponsors of the proposal, including House Speaker Craig DeRoche (R-Novi), say the objective criteria will encourage public universities to produce more skilled workers by rewarding schools for increasing graduation rates and award- ing more science and engineering degrees. While it is encouraging to see Republican legislators acknowledging the central role of public universities in Michigan's transi- tion from a manufacturing to an information economy, this proposal is a misguided one. If House Republicans want to improve Michi- gan's economic future, they should push for significant increases to the state's investment in all of its public universities. The formulas are not yet finalized, and leg- islators are also considering a provision that would award more money for enrolling in- state students than out-of-state students. This criterion, which would affect the University of Michigan far more than any of the state's other public universities, is ill-advised; it would be A dangerous equation Proposed budget formula would hurt universities an attempt to pressure the University to enroll fewer out-of-state students, which would ulti- mately drive down academic quality. Still, it is unlikely that the University's funding would suffer under the new criteria - the Univer- sity's enrollment is the second-largest in the state, its graduation rate is the state's best, and it does more research than any other public school in the nation. Rather than investing more money in higher education, House Republicans seem to believe they can use formulas as incen- tives to squeeze greater economic results out of the state's universities after slashing their funding by 12 percent over the past three years. These incentives, however, are the wrong approach to the state's problem with university funding. Under the new system, university administrators would make deci- sions based on what would bring in more state dollars rather than what would maxi- mize their schools' academic excellence. Because legislators will likely tweak the for- mulas so that few universities will see drastic changes in their funding, the new system's long- term impact would probably be felt most heav- ily in humanities and social science programs, which universities would be encouraged to cut in favor of engineering and hard sciences. This would be a grave mistake. The University's liberal arts programs are already receiving much of the burden of the state's appropria- tions cuts - their humanities and social sci- ence departments bring in almost no revenue in the form of research grants, unlike graduate programs in hard sciences and engineering. The University's liberal arts departments, as well as those at several other state universi- ties, cannot lose funding without sacrificing the quality of education. Furthermore, a single set of criteria cannot account for the unique role each university plays in the state's higher education system. It would be counterproduc- tive to pressure schools like Eastern Michigan University, which is renowned for its excellent College of Education, to beef up their hard sci- ence departments. Another fundamental flaw in the WIN plan is that its incentives are aimed in the wrong direc- tion. If House Republicans want to increase the number of students receiving engineering and applied science degrees, they should provide incentives and encouragement - perhaps in the form of targeted scholarships and public service announcements - to students, not university administrators. Students should be motivated to pursue hard sciences because they truly want to, not because liberal arts programs at their universities are under-funded or sub-par. To be sure, the current system of distribut- ing funds is not perfect. Legislators determine each university's slice of the pie based on the previous year's funding and what they deter- mine to be the universities' relative needs - a process that could be called either "holistic" or "arbitrary," depending on one's point of view. In effect, the schools that win out are those that can afford the best lobbying and whose graduates sit on the subcommittee making the decisions. And, inevitably, some universities get unjustly shortchanged. Still, the WIN proposal is badly flawed and oversteps the Legislature's boundaries; attempt- ing to exert more control over all of the state's public universities using one set of criteria will only lead to poor academic decisions by money-starved university administrators. If the Legislature wants greater performance out of the state's universities - a necessary goal, if Michigan is to avert economic disaster - it has no other choice but to dramatically increase its investment in all 15 state universities. I I He cut the grass ... Time's up for Detroit mayor Kilpatrick A t arally last Tuesday, Detroit Mayor in Detroit's parks; yes, he resurfaced 350 miles Kwame Kilpatrick, his hand some- of the city's roads; and yes, he can be forgiven what fatigued from signing a check somewhat for being handed a city besieged by to the city for $9,000 in questionable charges, poverty and plagued by falling revenues and a took a deep breath and announced his candi- bloated, bureaucratic city government. But this dacy for reelection. His merits are few, and election is about more than accomplishments his crookedness is no secret; it is an offen- and excuses - it is about change. Kilpatrick sive account of arrogance and abuse of the was listed among the country's worst mayors system. A renewal of his tenure in office in Time magazine; his reelection can only feed would be severely detrimental to Detroit: the growing nationwide perception that Detroit its image, its financial and political well- is stagnant and a "lost cause." being and its future. The mayor has complained about state and The rally itself, like Kilpatrick's tenure federal budget cuts while simultaneously main- as mayor, was simultaneously entertaining, taining a gratuitous 21-man security detail and bewildering and embarassing. The mayor's spending more than $200,000 of the city's father, Bernard Kilpatrick, spoke at the event money on expensive meals and lavish hotel and equated the rumors about his son's wild rooms.. Depending on whether this is viewed as parties on city property to the rumors that a very serious joke or a very funny, if damning, galvanized Germany into Nazism, remarking, fact, it exemplifies the absurdity of his reelec- "One lie! And before it was all over, 6 million tion campaign. Kilpatrick's candidacy does not (Jews) died." promise anything other than more of the same. Some have fared quite well under Kilpat- The same, in this case, is a gross ineptitude, an rick's benevolent hand. A peculiar situation abuse of power that needs to be tried and con- was unearthed last October. by the Detroit victed in the court of democracy. Free Press: Kilpatrick's sister, mother and The mayor Detroit needs can revitalize the close family friend were taking staggering sal- city; he needs plans for reform and the drive aries that ate up more than half of donations to necessary to carry them out. He must respect their recently established charity, Next Vision the city's residents by resisting the temptation to Foundation. Companies like Genesis Energy define his tenure by the parties he throws and Solutions found that karma really did come full the favors he doles out. As voters sort through circle in the Kilpatrick world - no sooner did the several emerging candidates, they cannot they aid the foundation in its mission to pad the afford to settle for a status quo defined by a man Kilpatricks' pocketbooks than they received a who needs his parents to defend his compulsive remarkably favorable contract with the city. spending habits. Detroit does not deserve and Kilpatrick is expected to tout his record should not tolerate four more years of Kilpat- during the coming months, which, although rick. His reign has been a comedy of errors; dimmed by allegations and controversy, is not tragedy only comes if the residents of Detroit unworthy of mention. Yes, he had the grass cut do not learn from their mistake. Misplaced blame Blame U.S. military, not Newsweek, for riots I Despite the retraction of Newsweek's report that U.S. soldiers threw a copy of the Quran down the toilet at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, debate is still raging. The mistaken article triggered violent anti-American demonstra- tions in both Afghanistan and Pakistan, resulting in at least 15 deaths. Despite what the Bush administration might like to believe, what gets buried in the pages of Newsweek is not so highly regarded that it would be the sole inspiration for violent riots. These tragic events are not solely Newsweek's fault, but rather are the culmination of numerous human rights abuses and unwise foreign pol- icy decisions by the United States that have tarnished its reputation abroad. Given its source, Newsweek did not nec- essarily err in printing the story. The mag- azine's source, a high-ranking Pentagon official, claimed at the time that the Quran incident would be included in a soon-to-be- released official military report. And, while the incident may not be included in the forth- coming report, there is little reason to believe it did not happen. In light of the abuses at the Abu Ghraib prison and numerous other reports of human rights violations, the pos- sibility of American interrogators flushing the Quran down the toilet does not seem unlikely. Newsweek's report unfortunately fits into a disturbing pattern of abuse against imprisoned detainees. In a New York Times report published May 1, a former American interrogator at Guantanamo Bay gave an account of Ameri- can guards tossing copies of the Quran into a pile and stepping on them repeatedly. Dis- turbing reports of religious abuse have been prevalent, ranging from forced shaving of beards to more extreme accounts of detainees being smeared with fake menstrual blood. Coupled with evidence of recurrent physical and emotional abuse, including documented cases of detainees dying from beatings at the hands of their American interrogators, a pic- ture emerges of an environment so lacking in respect for prisoners that Newsweek's report seems almost mundane Newsweek should not be discredited for printing the story, nor should this event cause other journalists to back off from investigat- ing U.S. detainee abuse. The media must not be deterred from uncovering stories that may portray the U.S. military in a negative light; this is a crucial time for the press to be aggressive in exposing U.S. human rights violations. In addition, the use of anonymous sources is often crucial in discovering the truth behind military abuses, and journalists must continue to use these sources responsi- bly despite the negative reputation they have recently garnered. Newsweek is not at fault for the United States's deteriorating image on the interna- tional stage. Its report, while now believed to be inaccurate, is in line with many other accounts of abuse by U.S. interrogators at Guantanamo Bay and other military pris- ons. The real issue here has been clouded. It has been confirmed that many other instances of religious and physical abuse have in fact occurred in American military prisons, and this is the matter the White House should be so vigorously attacking - not the media. { 4 4