4 - The Michigan Daily - Tuesday, November 21, 1995 (!i~e Atkichgrt &Itu I JEAN TWENGE THE ERASABLE PEN 420 Maynard Street Ann Arbor, MI 48109 Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan MICHAEL ROSENBERG Editor in Chief JULIE BECKER JAMES M. NASH Editorial Page Editors Tnhbgs I'm thakfulfor Hand turkeys and childhood memonies Unless otherwise noted, unsignededitorials reflect the opinion of a majority of the Daily's editorial board. All other articles, letters, and cartoons do not necessarily reflect the opinion of The Michigan Daily. etting it right Presidential search begins on positive note ttempting to bury the ghosts of the past, the University Board of Regents began what promises to be a long and possibly arduous process: picking the next University president. The often factional board made an effort to begin the process on a good foot by selecting regents Nellie Varner (D-Detroit) and Shirley McFee (R-Battle Creek) to co- chair the committee on the search. Varner and McFee have consistently been two of the least politically motivated and least contro- versial members of the board, a welcome fact given the recently increasing political nature ofthe board. Ifthe presidential search is to be successful, the regents must put politics be- hind them and uphold the spirit of a public search process. In convening the regents committee in public, the board has at least in part realized that conducting an open search is not debat- able. When faced with a question that affects so many, maximum community involvement should be a prerequisite for choosing a presi- dent. However, the ghosts of 1988 still loom in the shadows of the new search. McFee has said the regents committee will likely estab- lish subcommittees to perform unspecified tasks to aid the main body in the search. The regents have not said whether these yet-to- be-created advisory committees will be open to the public. In 1988, the regents held all presidential search meetings behind closed doors, presenting only one candidate - even- tual President James J. Duderstadt - to the public. In 1993 the Michigan Supreme Court said the 1988 presidential search violated the state Freedom of Information Act and Open Meetings Act. To assure the regents' com- mitment to follow the law, there must be an immediate commitment to opening the sub- committees to the public. Unfortunately, the regents are showing tendencies toward reverting to the secrecy of; the past. When Duderstadt announced his resignation in September, both he and the regents told the community that their parting was amicable and mutual. The private pic- ture was much different. The regents warned Duderstadt not to discuss the true reasons for his unexpected departure, which apparently resulted from a deep and intractable split between the president and the board. In addition, questions are now appearing regarding the regents' intentions. George Brewer, the chairman ofthe Senate Advisory Committee on University Affairs, declared that if the regents did not pick a president from the field of academia, the "Senate As- sembly is fully capable of a vote of 'no confidence,' which would be a disaster for you as well as for the administration." While Brewer is justified in his desire for a president with strong academic credentials - it is seems impossible that the regents could find a more qualified person in any other area - his threats seem premature and as of yet unjustified. This University needs leaders who understand the community and institution where they work, but there is no reason to doubt that the regents are looking to any fields of expertise other than academia. Brewer has jumped the gun and while he and SACUA have a valid point, they should not have opened up discussion on this topic with what appear to be idle threats. Last week's actions by the Board of Re- gents seem to set the tone for this search as open and non-partisan. The community should not be forced to resort to the paranoid and overly defensive tactics exhibited by SACUA's chairman. The regents have done nothing so far in this search to lose the confidence of their constituents. This com- munity deserves a voice in the selection of the person who likely will be setting its course into the next century. Anything less would be unacceptable. When I was a kid, my favorite part of Thanksgiving was making a turkey out of my hand. You remember - you lie your hand flat on the paper, draw around it with a pencil, and viola! you have a turkey with your thumb for its head and fingers for feathers. I liked hand-turkeys because they were the only thing remotely fun about the holiday besides getting out of school. If you didn't get recruited to help with the cooking (yuck), one ofyour grandmothers was bound to smother you inabear hug and tell you how much you've grown (double yuck). Well, this year I'm doing the cooking and hosting my parents for Thanksgiving in my apartment. This event only reinforces my creeping suspicion that I might just have become an adult (triple yuck). Despite the haunting specter of cooked turkeys and massive mounds of dishes, this Thanksgiving I am actually thankful for something: I am glad I'm no longer a kid. Perhaps I'll think differently when I have a mortgage, but right now, looking back at childhood is anything but pleasant. In the "Calvin and Hobbes Tenth Anniversary Book," cartoonist Bill Watterson annotates one of his Sunday panels with the telling comment"I've never understood people who remember childhood as an idyllic time." That's quite a statement for one of our decade's most skillful observers of child- hood, and I agree with him. Growing up is a delicate balance between freedom and re- sponsibility, but right now I'll take worries and responsibilities over being a kid any day. The reasons: Other kids. Actually, if it hadn't been for other kids, childhood might have been tolerable. As it was, girls wouldn't play with me because I wasn't part of their special club, and boys wouldn't play with me be- cause I was a girl. Most of the boys came around in the end and let me play with them, but the "in" group of girls (which stayed the same from second grade to high school) was guaranteed trouble. The game was humilia- tion: If she doesn't wear a bra yet, make fun of her; if she does, maintain either that l) she doesn't really need to, or 2) she really does need to. Both are a slow death injunior high school. No freedom. Beingakid usually means having no money and very little free will. Adulthood has its own unavoidable man- dates, but at least you have some freedom in choosing your job and your spouse (then you'll feel even more guilty if you screw up, but ah, well). After years of suffering in school, going to forced football game pep rallies, asking for hall passes, being the only feminist in school and studying Texas his- tory, I exercised my free will in a major way by escaping to college in Chicago as soon as was humanly possible. School. These days,just the thought of filling out a mimeographed worksheetmakes me shiver. Although I had some very good teachers growing upmany of them relied on busywork to keep us quiet. The only class without worksheets was gym, when, instead, you'd change into a uniform that made you look like a hippopotamus and get balls thrown at you at 30 mph. At my school, this unique form of torture was called dodgeball, and somehow I always managed to get bonked in the head within the first minute. Gym was also torture for cartoonist Watterson: "High on my list of adulthood pleasures is the fact that nobody makes me wrestle sweaty guys anymore," he says. Unrequited love. Having a crush on someone who doesn't even realize you exist is the worst feeling in the world at 13 or 14. The act of unrequited love can be turned into a high art form at this age: Just how many times can you write "I love Todd" before your pen runs out? Getting older doesn't necessarily mean that you'll have any more success in matters, of love; in theory, how- ever, you should begin to know better than to fall for anyone who's never talked to you. In theory. The only time I ever wish I were a kid again is Christmas. Opening the presents under the tree, seeing what Santa left and playing with new toys was all the joy the world could possibly bring back then. I used to say I knew I was growing up when my parents could no longer give me the things I wanted most in life. Now I think you've become an adult when what makes you happy is not the presents under the tree but the people around it. - Jean Twenge can be reached over e-mail at jeant@umich.edii. MATT WIMSATT MOOKIE'S DILEMMA \pisi 5" ! LETTER ~SAL LETTERs NOTABLE QUOTABLE 'All I can say is "Yes!"' - House Budget Com- mittee Chairman John Kasich (R-Ohio), react- ing to the end of the federal budget standoff Renter beware It pays to know housing rights, obligations Don't dis Code's a of civil ri To the Daily: Regarding "miss buse ghts Mr. Ian In a report released last week, the Off-Campus Housing Office has reaf- firmed the popularity of off-campus housing. The report states that occupation rates are near capacity, despite rising rents. This seller's market is significant for students exploring off-campus housing, especially first-year stu- dents and sophomores. One look in the clas- sified ads reveals the scores of landlords offering their services -but students should be wary. Landlords in Ann Arbor take advan- tage of unsuspecting students. Many landlords in the city are honest and fully comply with the rules and regulations set down by city and state law. But it is important to remember that, no matter how friendly or honest a landlord appears, they are in the realty business to make money. Protecting oneself by learning the law will go a long way to guarantee that the contract signed with the landlord will be equitable. Fortunately, there are many options stu- dents can pursue to ensure that when they do start looking for off-campus housing, they will be fully aware of their rights and respon- sibilities as tenants. The Ann Arbor Tenants Union, located on the fourth floor of the Michigan Union, and the University's Off- Campus Housing Office, on the first floor of the Student Activities Building, are just two options. The AATU publishes a guide book- let titled "How To Evict Your Landlord" that neatly condenses almost everything a pro- spective tenant needs to know. The Off- Campus Housing Office has further informa- tion on most of the popular landlords who rent to students, and keeps files containing complaints against landlords. Also, iftrouble begins after the lease is signed, Student Le- gal Services on the third floor of the Union- which fortunately had funding restored in last week's MSA vote - is a first step in resolving a dispute. Spreading the word when any student has trouble with a particular landlord is also important. If students do not make their griev- ances known, future student tenants could relive the same troubles. When a landlord does something questionable -from slightly shifty to outright illegal - chances are it is not the first time it has happened. Both the AATU and the Off-Campus Housing Office will hear grievances against landlords. It would be nice to think all landlords will be completely honest - however, there are numerous tenant-landlord disputes that end up in court every year because of failed legal obligations. Students can quite easily avoid these situations by taking advantage of the many private and University organizations whose main goal is to help Ann Arbor and University tenants. The purpose is to encour- age not adversarial relationships with land- lords, but ones that are open and informed. Goldenberg's recent tirade of apathy toward non-academic con- duct codes at this University and his challenge for anyone on cam- pus to explain why anyone should care about the University's at- tempts to control student behav- ior off-campus ("Code debate is distracting," 11/16/95): 1 think it is you who have some explaining to do. Please enlighten those of us who think that civil rights are more important than moneysasato why the University has the right to usurp the U. S. Constitution. Let's go back to the idea of "be- having ourselves," shall we? Jake Baker, having committed what I and many others consider to be a disgusting act, was excused from this University for merely writ- ing something. While what he wrote could have been (and was) perceived as a threat, Duderstadt broke his own non-binding prom- ise in removing him under Re- gents' Bylaw 2.01. A little background: When the Statement of Student Rights and Responsibilities was on the re- gents' table, Duderstadt had to assure them that he would not invoke Bylaw 2.01 while the code was in effect. Remember, Mr. Goldenberg? Whoops, that was before you were a student here. Anyway, by removing Baker, Duderstadt showed that he was exempt from both his word and the First Amendment-and more powerful than Congress - in handing down a judgement that abridged freedom ofspeechwith- out even so much as a trial in the I . . _: o c ,fa ,c -rnno....n>rt n something beyond federal, state, and local laws to encourage them to "behave" (whatever that means) that really exemplifies why there ought not to be a code. In loco parentis? No thanks. Yes, rising tuition costs should be a concern to all students, but a post-secondary education is not guaranteed by the Constitution. Besides, would Mom and Dad charge you this much for an edu- cation? I think not. Warren Lapham LSA senior Code's effect is very real To the Daily: Ian Goldenberg ("Code de- bate is distracting," 11/16/95) seems to be under several misap- prehensions: First, he assumes that in the face of a threat to our financial well-being (e.g., rising tuition costs), any concern for less "tangible" issues (e.g.. con- stitutional rights to freedom of expression) is superfluous. It is sad to note that at what I can only assume is a relatively tender age, Ian reveals himself to be a com- plete materialist (the logical prod- uct of the Reagan era, perhaps). However, that should not lead anyone to conclude that his shal- low values represent those of the majority of University students and faculty. Second, Ian assumes that the Code will not impact students, even indirectly. This assumption appears to be based on no evi- dence whatsoever, and in fact flies directly in the face of recent events both on this campus (e.g., the Jake Baker case) and others (e.g., the Cornell e-mail cases, the U of Pennsylvania "water buffalo" in- cident). How Ian is able to deter- t: inp ..i . 1ta lnr r fafr t nn- the Code issue to distract stu- dents from more pressing matters ("student's true concerns"). Again, there is no evidence pre- sented to support this claim. More strangely, it smacks of the kind of conspiracy theorizing most often associated with extremists from my generation (I'm a rather an- cient 45 years old). I seriously doubt that the driving force be- hind the lengthy struggle on the part of the administration to get a conduct code installed can be at- tributedtoa 'smokescreen' strat- egy. And if Ian's contention that the Code impacts noone is cor- rect, why would the administra- tion be so foolish as to try to distract the student body with it? No, I'm afraid that Ian is be- ing, for want of a better term, sophomoric. Perhaps a little more experience at this university will help show him the error of his ways. Fortunately, there are plenty of us who are not blind to the desire to suppress speech held by a few influential individuals at this institution. Michael Paul Goldenberg Rackham student New code an improvement To the Daily: As a direct result of the ex- hausting hours we dedicated to working on behalf of students, the new Code of Student Con- duct: Allows students to have an attorney present at all stages of the hearing process Allows only students, fac- ulty and staff to bring charges (underthe old code any individual could bring charges against a stu- dent) Opens up the records (with nnmerAric nto tI e ,dnts' student panels (student panelists used to be chosen "randomly" by the Registrar; now they'll be se- lected by your elected represen- tatives). We're disappointed that the Board of Regents saw fit to adopt a non-academic code of conduct for students; but we're equally disappointed with those that sim- ply sit back and throw stones, not concerning themselves with the process of making tough choices in order to better the lives of stu- dents on this campus. Flint J. Walness MSA president LSA senior Sam Goodstein MSA vice president School of Public Policy Race-based programs important To the Daily: I found Avi Ebenstein's. thoughts on affirmative action ("Affirmative action: Death of meritocracy," 1/ 16/95) to be in- credibly naive and simplistic. It's always amazing to see the view-. point that a few decades of an attempt to equalize racial oppor tunities is enough to make up for hundreds of years of official and social oppression. His ideas to make our world a "meritocracy" are based in fantasy and delusion - he even admits that "... many racist whites are in a position of authority," but his solution is to defend "standards of equality as well as we can." He is perfectly willing to get rid of a system to help fight prejudice, but offers no alternative way of fighting the racist attitudes firmly rooted in HOW TO CONTACT THEM Ann Arbor Tenants Union Pattrice Maurer, director A:tAA Mir'hio;n Ininn