4 - The Michigan Daily - Monday, May 22, 2006 o~ur 4 'Luxury' or tradition? Luxury boxes could make fans long for Halo 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, Adam Soclof, Gavin Stern, Ben Taylor, Christopher Zbrozek FROM THE DAILY A gap in credibiity New NSA revelations continue disturbing trend ong a heralded symbol of the tradi- tion,excellence and character that the University itself stands for, Michigan Stadium might be scarcely recognizable by 2010 if a plan approved by the University Board of Regents last Friday goes forward. To offer wealthy Wolverines the option of luxury boxes or club seating, the Big House will likely be dominated by two massive structures - which may rise higher than the current scoreboards - running the full length of both sidelines. Besides divid- ing fans who have long shared a common experience at Michigan football games, the renovation plan is detrimental to stu- dents and the vast majority of season-ticket holders who are unable to afford the most exclusive seats. The regents will still need to approve specific plans for the renovation; they can still act to preserve the integrity of Michigan's traditional bowl stadium and safeguard the experience of all fans. Critics of what Athletic Director BillMartin likes to call "enclosed seating;' better known as luxury boxes, have argued that dividing fans by income will inevitably go against the egalitarian values of this public institution. That, admittedly, might not be a terribly com- pelling argument to the average fan. But we're willing to bet that the average fan enjoys hav- ing a bleacher seat in the sun on a crisp Octo- ber afternoon. The plans the regents approved will make getting that seat more difficult. According to plans obtained by The Ann Arbor News, the proposal the regents approved Friday would construct two struc- tures rising 82 feet high along the sidelines - leaving many fans literally in the shadow of the wealthy. Though the plan would add slightly to the stadium's overall seating capac- ity, there will be 4,300 fewer bleacher seats. That's not in the interest of students or of the thousands of fans on a years-long waiting list for tickets. It's hard to see how future seating additions could possibly be accommodated around gargantuan sideline structures. To be fair, administrators - includ- ing Martin - deserve praise for remain- ing staunch in their opposition to allowing advertising in Michigan Stadium. And the luxury-box plan will include needed renova- tions to add restrooms, concessions, seats for disabled fans and other improvements. But those same necessary upgrades were included in a more modest proposal, favored by Regent Larry Deitch. That plan, which would not add luxury boxes, would have made the stadium safer and more accessible without drastically and permanently depart- ing from tradition. And given the challenges many other colleges with luxury boxes have faced in selling all their suites,the rosy finan- cial projections of millions in luxury box revenue may not come to pass - especially if University President Mary Sue Coleman intends to stick by her commitment not to allow alcohol in any part of Michigan Sta- dium. All told, it's difficult to see why the plan Deitch favored wasn't given the more serious consideration it deserved. Indeed, much about the decision last Fri- day was questionable. The Athletic Depart- ment only shared its plans with the Ann Arbor News when faced with a Freedom of Information Act request. More troublingly, stadium renovations did not appear on the agenda for Friday's regent meeting until the day before - after the 9 a.m. deadline for concerned citizens to register to speak during the public comment section of the regents meeting. There has been an outpour of concern over a historic departure from the tradi- tion of the one structure that figures most prominently in the memories of many alumni. Between the secrecy over the plans and the devious move to put luxury boxes on the agenda at the last minute, the Uni- versity appears determined to ignore public concerns about the renovations. It would do well to listen more closely as it finalizes plans for the stadium. A nation's belief in its core val- ues, laws and character can only be proven when it's put to the test. As such, the revela- tion that the National Security Agency has been building a massive database of domestic phone records suggests that our nation no longer values its citizens' right to privacy. Such a program is contrary to any reasonable reading of the Fourth Amendment. Worse, the decision to spy on untold millions of innocent citizens was made by an out-of-control national security apparatus, with practically no meaningful Congressional oversight. As it stands, this program is destructive to liberty and must be modified or ended. We must not stand by as the Fourth Amendment becomes a casualty of the so-called war on terror. The NSA's secret program, as detailed in a recent USA Today story, has used the records of three major telecommunica- tions corporations in an attempt to, in the words of one source, "create a database of every call ever made" on American soil. While two of the phone companies named in the story - BellSouth and Veri- zon have denied participation in the NSA program - The New York Times and The Washington Post have both independent- ly confirmed the core of the USA Today story: that the NSA has built an immense database of domestic phone records. The Fourth Amendment protects Americans from unreasonable search and seizure without a warrant on the belief that a government able to investigate any citizen without cause can easily stumble down the path to tyranny. There seems, on face, to be little reason why the gov- ernment should have unwarranted access to data of any citizen's phone calls. The potential for abuse is too extreme. Indeed, the USA Today story claims that NSA officials said the phone records it sought might be shared with other agencies, ranging from the Fed- eral Bureau of Investigation to the Drug Enforcement Administration. Two investigative reporters from ABC News recently said that a federal offi- cial informed them that their calls were tracked and suggested they get new cell phones, although it's unclear whether this persecution of journalists is tied to the NSA program or is simply an unre- lated facet of the Bush administration's assault on civil liberties. But Sept. 11, the NSA's defenders will argue, changed everything - and it is true that the nation is engaged in an ongoing debate over the proper balance between liberty and security. It's too bad, then, that Congress has been excluded from this debate. Until last Wednesday - the day before confirmation hearings for Gen. Michael Hayden, the former NSA head now nomi- nated to run the Central Intelligence Agency - most members of the Sen- ate Intelligence Committee had not even been briefed on the NSA program. If the program is somehow legal, as the Bush administration's misguided view of the Fourth Amendment would make it out to be, surely informing senators on the Intelligence Committee wouldn't hurt? The complete lack of Congressional over- sight for this program not only further weakens the system of checks and bal- ances, but it invites public mistrust. President Bush has tried to calm fears about governmental spying, insisting on the same day of the USA Today report that the government does not listen to domestic phone calls without court approval. But remember that in 2004, Bush said in a town hall meeting address- ing the Patriot Act, "A wiretap requires a court order. Nothing has changed, by the way. When we're talking about chas- ing down terrorists, we're talking about getting a court order before we do so." That was a lie, as reports last December about warrantless NSA wiretaps of the international phone calls of American citizens proved. Without effective Congressional over- sight, there's little reason to believe that the administration is currently telling the whole truth about the extent of its spying on American citizens. What else do we not know? 'You can do this' Bikes a small but important step in energy solution Detroit may have given birth to the automobile, but with the recent jump in gas prices (not to mention the city's ever-persistent ranking among the nation's fattest), it's clear that her beloved child has reached a turbulent patch of road. With small hope for dropping gas prices, and, given current national energy policies, even smaller hope for a long-term sustain- able energy solution, a handful of devoted commuters have offered up a different answer: the bicycle. Last Friday, Detroit cel- ebrated its first annual Bike to Work Day, in which casual bike riders were encouraged to cycle their way to work in a city-wide display. Organizers hope one day of day peddling might inspire fellow Detroiters to ditch their cars in favor of the more energy- and cardio-friendly bicycle more often. The ingenious endeavor seeks to get people thinking smart not only about the nation's ever-worsening energy crisis, but also about their own wallets and waistlines. It comes in the middle of a similar month- long program for the city of Ann Arbor called Curb Your Car Month, which aims to raise awareness of alternative means of transportation around the city. These campaigns are intended not to convert the entire populace to granola- chomping hippies, condoning only the most stringent of eco-friendly technologies, but simply as the presentation of a logical alter- native. For many in the city, the morning commute of a few traffic-clogged miles in the sunny month of May is merely self-con- demnation to a costly and unnecessary has- sle. Yet this practice endures, in large part, because reliance on the personal automo- bile is so strongly ingrained into the psyche of America, especially in and around the motor city, thanks to the continued absence of a viable public transportation system. By championing a new paradigm, Bike to Work Day and Curb Your Car Month pro- pose a small change. Instead of driving that two miles to work, bike it. Not only will you feel energized and refreshed, but you'll also get to enjoy the beautiful weather. Do See BIKES, Page 5 ,I