0 4 - The Michigan Daily - Monday, June 5, 2006 Irz £dgm g FROM THE DAILY Sharing is caring Age requirement for car-sharing program insensible JEREMY DAVIDSON Editor in Chief IMRAN SYED Editorial Page Editor JEFFREY BLOOMER Managing Editor EDITED AND MANAGED BY STUDENTS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN SINCE 1890. 420 MAYNARD STREET ANN ARBOR, MI 48109 tothedaily@michigandaily.com Unsigned editorials reflect the official position of the Daily's editorial board. All other signed articles and illustrations represent solely the views of their author. Editorial Board Members: Amanda Andrade, Emily Beam, Jared Goldberg, Theresa Kennelly, Christopher Zbrozek FROM THE DAILY Central idea State economy in need of center's bipartisan aid Strenuous bike treks and long waits for buses simply to buy groceries could be a thing of the past for students next fall. Thanks to the University's participation in a car-sharing program, run through Zip- car, Inc., students may soon be able to rent cars for personal use on an hourly basis. This convenient and auspicious program - which is gaining popularity in campus communities across the country - will provide a great service to the University community, so long as it is accessible to those students who are in need of it. With few supermarkets within a sustainable walking distance of student housing and the occasional need for students to travel off cam- pus for other reasons, the University certainly could use a car-sharing program. Zipcar's program operates by having members make online reservations and pick up and drop off rental cars at a campus parking lot. Although becoming a member and renting cars will cost money, the cost is much lower than actu- ally owning a car or hiring a cab. The benefits of car sharing are many, such as cutting back on the number of cars on cam- pus and providing students who don't own a car the same access to off-campus areas. But this particular program sets the age at which a student may rent a car at 21, and thus it fails to include those who most need a car. Only a small percentage of undergraduates are older than 21, and this program does nothing 6 to help those who are under that age yet face the same need to travel. The benefits of a car-sharing program can- not truly be achieved unless the age-require- ment is lowered to 18. The required age may have been set at 21 because of the stringent * requirements of insurance companies - indeed, most rental car companies actually require renters to be at least 25. However, if the age requirement.can be lowered to 21, then surely it can be lowered to 18 if the suc- cess of the program depended on it? The likeliest customers for a car-sharing program will be younger students who have yet to bring a car on campus. The program is much-needed at the University and should be a success - once the age barrier is lifted. Despite all the politicking, posturing and partying on Mackinac Island last week at the annual policy conference hosted by the Detroit Regional Chamber, it remains unclear whether Michigan's leaders have any sense of the seriousness of the issues the state now faces. The biting partisanship that epitomizes state government doesn't just paralyze our leaders, it discourages any discussion or action regarding the changes needed to ensure that Michigan's transition away from its industrial past leads not to obsolescence but to prosperity in the emerg- ing knowledge-based economy. Michigan's citizens would benefit greatly if their leaders would downplay politics as usual and instead cooperate to find sensible solutions to the state's problems. One place to start is with the ideas that the Center for Michigan advocates. The brainchild of Phil Power, a former mem- ber of the University Board of Regents, the recently created Center for Michigan bills itself as a politically moderate "think-and-do"tank.Its goal is to motivate discussion of and support for the reasonable things state government can do to help reverse Michigan's long economic decline. The center's steering committee includes a num- ber of renowned names, including Metro Tunes columnist Jack Lessenbeny and former Uni- versity Provost Paul Courant, whose thoughtful suggestions for the state's future deserve more attention from the elected leadership. The Center for Michigan is important in part because of its commitment to find moderate policies that can generate bipartisan support. That's refreshing, because an age of inexpe- rienced, term-limited state legislators elected from districts gerrymandered along narrow partisan lines has frozen practically all signifi- LIVE ON YOUR FEET cant motions in Lansing. Cons bling over how to replace the S Tax, for instance, or the endles proxy battles in the nation's ct Republicans in the state legislate Jennifer Granholm for a predic On the need for expanded a education,on the importance c cated young adults from fle and above all on the reality tho need more than its traditionali base if it is ever to return to e perity, the Center for Michiga ideas. Undoubtedly, there wil issues on which the Center's perhaps too moderate for thi Still, anything that can get the to rise above the demands of bases, whether on the left o move the state's economy in century is a change worth mal The Center held a confer leaders in March and recently. Detroit Free Press reporter J its executive director. Hopefu generate the intellectual and ing needed for the legislature hostility with which it hasi university funding in recent y tility needlessly inflamed b press reports such as Bebow "Big waste found at state ui highly educated workforce w component of Michigan's eco Even under Bebow's leadersh for Michigan must help convi leaders to increase the state's the human capital upon whic] future will be built. ider the squab- Single Business s, meaningless ulture war that are send to Gov. table veto. ccess to higher f keeping edu- oing Michigan LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Restaurant Workplace Project a 'waste of time' at the state will TO THE DAILY: manufacturing The Restaurant Workplace Project is just one conomic pros- more example of an organization that seems to n has the right have noble intentions but in the end is nothing more 1 be particular than a waste of time and resources, as demon- positions are strated by the statistics provided in Local programs is page's taste. aid area migrant workers (05/30/2006), as well as in state's leaders the organization's online brochure. The research their extreme the group conducted gave little insight into the r the right, to working conditions of immigrants in Ann Arbor to the current because it did not survey any non-immigrant work- king. ers for comparison. The average Ann Arbor immi- rence of state grant restaurant worker is paid $6.50 to $8.50 per named former hour, and "one in five works more than 50 hours ohn Bebow as per week," according to the group's surveys. This lly Bebow can data means nothing without non-migrant data for political back comparison. I can only assume that comparison to reverse the data was either intentionally omitted to mask the truth or that members of this organization have no regarded state knowledge of the scientific method. (ears - a hos- The group also made claims about the "unsafe y misleading working conditions"thatmigrantworkersface.Don't 's own article, non-migrant workers face these same conditions at niversities.' A the same establishments? According to the survey, ill be a crucial many migrant workers feel that they are treated dif- nomic revival. ferently than non-migrant workers who perform the tip, the Center same duties. Itis thus demonstrated that non-migrant nce the state's workers are working alongside migrant workers, and investment in under the same workplace conditions. h its economic The organization needs to evaluate its research methods and provide solid, meaningful statistics if it means to develop credibility or facilitate any type JON OQUIST of change in Ann Arbor's restaurant workplace. JON ()IJI$TChris Clifford School of Dentistry YOUe SAY Ethics standards lacking at ,LsesC? State Board of Canvassers To THE DAILY: The bi-partisan State BoardofCanvassersoversees Michigan elections. Last July, three of the four the board members found that a group opposed to equal opportunity for women and minorities used system- atic deception in its effortto amend Michigan's Con- stitution to outlaw all forms of affinmative action. On Dec. 7, 2005, a court ordered the board to meet immediately and change its vote. On Dec. 14, the board met but before a proper vote could be taken, the fourth member, the Repub- lican Chairman, adjourned the meeting without the consent of the rest of the board. She then refused a request to reconvene so that the board could vote as ordered by the court. As a result of deliberate distortion of what hap- pened at the meeting, fellow board member Paul Mitchell and I face criminal charges. Every Amer- ican school child is taught that everyone is entitled to a presumption of innocence, a day in court and especially, an opportunity to defend themselves against false charges, like the ones we now face. Most recently, some state senators have piled onto our existing troubles, claiming that it is a "dis- grace" and a "sullying of the system" for Mitchell and I to even defend ourselves against the charges. Recently retired Supreme Court Justice San- dra Day O'Connor has chastised the radical right wing ofher own Republican Party for such attacks on protections provided by the judicial system, describing them as the first step on the way to America becoming an authoritarian state. The "disgrace" here in Michigan is that the radical right wing has paid no more attention to Justice O'Connor's rebuke than to its sixth- grade civics lessons. 6 Doyle O'Conner Detroit The letter writer isa member of * the State Board of Canvassers. USTEN MENTat MAJORITYOF YOU AEtDOMNA sesTON#msssaRec EImsts. 6005 JSUT SeME O OUARE SCREWWM5T TNGs, NsfRAPINGtEPLETHERsu. TACHTS"C OREt WARRIOR VAUTitIN -W COURSE FST L NRMDNO VE 4KI? H 1WSAINO 4MASSACR15CKWANS? CMON SARGEt. Daily marred by poor proofreading and structure Torus DAILY: I'm curious about the comments made in a letter to the editor last week (Sports editors should make better use of space, 05/30/2006). Is the Daily, in fact, a respectable college newspaper, as she seems to argue it is? What fun would that be? Besides, I thought the lack of proofreading of content and structure would have dispelled that assumption. Carle Svitil University Housing 0