4 - The Michigan Daily - Friday, September 15, 1995 ctje rbigri ailg 420 Maynard Ann Arbor, MI 48109 Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan I I MICHAEL ROSENBERG Editor in Chief JULIE BECKER JAMES M. NASH Editorial Page Editors Biuvr MCINTOsH MCINTOSH CLASSICS Bekinzd your back, t/he - --constructkmn virus spreads M Unless otherwise noted, unsigned editorials 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. Rushing b Panhfel should seek alternatives to fall rush T he beginning of the school year brings new and exciting experiences for all first-year students. For many female first- year students, the first day of school also brought the mass meeting for Rush'95. Right from the beginning, sororities challenged freshly minted University students to decide whether they would make the intense com- mitment to rush. For many first-year stu- dents, the need to get involved and ignorance of other organizations pushed them to accept that challenge. For the students who do decide to rush, an intensive, month-long chain of events sucks them into a dizzying schedule of mixers, set parties, invitation rankings and rush group meetings. After the mass meetings, the rush- ees attend two evenings of 25-minute parties each sponsored by a sorority. This is only the beginning of Rush '95. While all this and more is occurring, the rushees are attending a full schedule ofclasses, adjusting to life away from Mommy and Daddy and meeting new people. When will they find time to do their homework, write their papers, maintain an acceptable grade point average and adjust to college life? By mandating such large commitments, sororities are excluding students who want to spend large chunks of time on schoolwork, those who might be interested in other orga- nizations and students who simply do not have such time in the beginning of the year. Many first-year students choose not to rush because of the extreme demands so early in the semester. Sororities must realize that first-year stu- dents need time to adjust and to see what else is available before turning their lives over to their sorority. The Panhellenic Association should disallow first-year students from rush- ing in the fall. Instead, a fall rush for sopho- mores and a winter rush for first-year stu- dents could be possible, or rush could be moved to winter term only. Many object to this idea because of the cold - but if Panhel were to commit itself to changing the system, it could likely find the resources to transport rushees from house to house. Many sorority leaders also claim that fall rush for first-year students is needed to fill their houses. However, by allowing first- year students to have time to see what is available, the sororities may find that more first-year students will rush because they sincerely feel that they want to be a part of the Greek system. This would also increase and promote stronger devotion and loyalty to the system. This summer, the Division of Student Affairs announced that it might consider pro- hibiting first-year students from rushing so- rorities or fraternities. Vice President for Student Affairs Maureen A. Hartford said she had heard from concerned faculty that rush might hinder first-year academic perfor- mance. While reform is certainly needed, University interference in any way, shape or form is not, and cannot, be the answer. The sororities are independent of the University, and such interference would infringe on their autonomy. Change is needed. Sororities should in- spect and improve their system to provide an easier, more enjoyable way for first-year students to become members. V ery soon, there will be no open space on the campus of this university. After the Diag becomes the Red Berenson Library, construction transforms Palmer Field into the Maureen A. Hartford School for the Study of Student Rights and various other green spaces find themselves con- sumed by new experiments in neo-brutalist architecture, what's next? Soon, construction will begin eliminat- ing roads, trees and homeless people, until the campus is nothing but a single, mon- strous, behemoth of a building - and very probably, it will be called Nike Hall, with the sporting goods company (also majority shareholder in this planet and several others nearby) putting up a couple bazillion dollars to fund a few thousand scholarships, buy all of us an indestructible new wardrobe, and ensure that there is an enormous maize and blue neon Swoosh blinking on the roof, a symbol visible from Chicago, mainland China and the near side of the moon. Those will be the days! Imagine, Michi- gan Stadium to the Med School in mid- February without frostbite killing off vital body parts. Not having to crowd 162 people into a tiny Mason Hall classroom with seat- ing for 25. No need for a Diag usage code, since there will be no Diag. Sure, there will be no more sunny foot- ball Saturdays, but nobody goes to football games anyway. True, smoking would be illegal for several square miles, but no one at Michigan smokes, so that's moot. And, yeah, no more Hash Bash, but the administration's been trying to rid themselves of that event for years, and frankly, what's good for the administration is good for all of us. There will be drawbacks. Finding classes won't be easy, as if it were now. It may be disconcerting to look down at your schedule and discover that you have art history in "East 27.394A Corridor B99y of the West- South-West Engineering and Pharmacology Substructure." A's will be awarded to those who arrive on time. Sometimes small sacrifices like that must be made in order to realize greater glory, like Chris Webber selflessly relinquishing the last two years of his college eligibility so that Ray Jackson could have the spotlight. Nike Hall, the greater glory in all this construction, is the magnificent vision I had the other day (yesterday, I guess) when Presi- dent Duderstadt called me to ask me to take part in a brand-new, super-secret committee on the construction that he claims is plagu- ing the campus. The president told me - in confidence, of course, since no-name Daily columnists are often asked to join secret committees on sensitive issues based on the premise that we, of all people, can't express ourselves well enough to expose the issue - that the construction on campus isn't a planned event. Rather, the construction is some sort of virus that is taking over the university, some- thing like "Outbreak" for dump truck opera- tors. (David Hasselhoff will probably star in the made-for-TV movie.) When we're not looking, it seems, the heavy machinery on campus mates - prob- ably more than we do, based on a recent student survey. That's why tractors peer in your window when you're asleep, walls spring up when you turn from the window and the steps of the Grad have been redone in charming, attractive stone. The president is gathering a committee to brainstorm solutions for the construction plague, to find an alternative to a campus so construction-laden that it will be possible to' wander its halls for days without seeing another human being. For example, the University is secretly negotiating to buy Michigan State, a much larger campus. (The Dude's offering $6, change and a can of Sprite; State is holding out for Biakabutuka and the Cube.) All of MSU's current students would be employed in various menial tasks for sub-standard pay. The same plan was in the works for Ohio State, but why increase Buckeye students' chances on the job market? Besides, it wouldn't make sense to call the school Michi- gan if it were in Ohio. The president, it seems, wants to halt all the construction we love so dearly-doesn't he comprehend that infrastructure revital- ization is essential to the school's continued prosperity? What would he do with the sav- ings anyway, hire more TAs? I say no way, man. Nike Hall, here we come. - Brent McIntosh can be reached over e-mailed at mctosh@umich.edu. o - . . c. JIM LASSER BOB DOLE'S "AA" CLINIC: SHARP As TOAST THE~ QUICKEST WAY To ItCOlVER V 15 ADM ITTIN( I YOU HAVE A NoTABLE QUOTABLE 'University politics are vicious precisely because the stakes are so small.' JbKQ ISLEEM BEEN N EFITIN6~' oe "FT-CMAAFFIRMATIVE 1 I, ACT~ON FOR5 - Henry Kissinger Cheating teachers Removing tenure would harm state's children O nce again, Republicans in the Michi- gan Legislature are clamoring for dras- tic change in the way the business of elemen- tary and secondary education is handled. For the upcoming session they have created a sweeping series of proposals encompassing everything from charter schools to relaxed teacher certification standards. Along the way, they also apparently intend to dismantle the system of tenure that affords teachers their only real measure of job security. As it now stands, tenure in the state is governed by a set of statutes enacted in 1993. Those standards were adopted in response to a system that made firing tenured teachers - even the worst ones - next to impossible. Although the current law streamlined the process required to weed out bad teachers, tie GOP in Lansing would go even further. If its plans are approved, the 1993 process would disappear before its effectiveness can be properly gauged. At the most basic level, tenure gives edu- cators job security against unwarranted dis- niissal. As with tenure at the university level, public school teachers with tenure are af- forded a certain academic freedom, to ex- periment with new, even unorthodox meth- ods. A tenured teacher can also concentrate oh teaching without having to worry about school politics or pressure from outside po- litical agendas. The current system is admittedly not per- fect, and steps can be taken to improve it. Another Republican proposal involves awarding merit pay to teachers - an idea ow TO CONTACT THEM that deserves consideration. If teachers are performing exceptionally well, there should be rewards built into their contracts. These provisions would also give incentive to other educators to rise to that level. By the same token, there should be sanctions built into the system, to avoid abuse of tenure protections. When teachers clearly cannot perform the tasks they were hired to do, they should not be allowed to hide behind the shield of ten- ure. Under the proposed plan, "tenure" would last for a limited number of years, after which school districts could decide to renew tenure, place the educator on another probationary period or - in the extreme case - fire him or her outright. While periodic performance reviews are necessary, "periodic renewal" of tenure is a ridiculous concept. In essence, teachers with years of experience would find themselves on a par with the rawest teachers in school. Educators could fall victim to issues unrelated to their job performance, such as administrative politics or petty jeal- ousies. Educator morale would certainly suf- fer as a result. Furthermore, the measure would have di- sastrous effects on the state's teacher corps. With job insecurity added to the already low level of respect given teachers in the commu- nity, more bright young people who would have gone into the profession will undoubt- edly steer clear. Inevitably, these proposals would most harm the people the majority party claims to help by its misguided ideas - Michigan's children. A note for the potential fraternity rushee By Martin Wilk Are you planning to rush a fraternity this term? Many stu- dents don't understand much about the Greek system when they first decide to check it out. As a former vice president of a frater- nity, I know through experience that there are many common ques- tion potential rushees might have, and it is not all that easy to find answers. Here are some of them. 1. What exactly is rushing, pledging, etc.? Rush is a visiting period for students to see frater- nities and find out what they are about. Although the exact meth- ods of rush vary from house to house, there are common quali- ties. On Sunday at 4 p.m., frater- nities will open their doors to visitors. You walk in the door, get a name tag or some other form of identification and have your pic- ture taken. Then, hopefully, one of the brothers of that house will strike up a short conversation with you, and after a while, he intro- duces you to another brother and you have another conversation. After daysaofthis, thefraternity members discuss among them- selves, based on these conversa- tions or prior non-rush interac- tion with you, whether the frater- nity wants you tojoin their broth- erhood. If they do, they give you Wilk is an LSA senior. a bid, or an invitation to pledge. If you accept this invitation, then you become a pledge. After a certain period of time of "educa- tion," you become initiated, and you become a full member of the fraternity. For most houses, this takes the entire term. 2. Will this hurt my grades? That really depends on you. Pledging is a tremendous time commitment. Some people -can handle this, others' grades will suffer. It is more difficult for first- year students to cope because they are not completely accustomed to the college lifestyle. The safest course of action is either to rush in the winter term or first term sophomore year. If anyone says to you that rushing fall of first year is by any means easy, they are lying to you. 3. What is this about a live-in requirement? This is one of the most controversial topics for so- rorities, but considerably less for fraternities. The standard policy is a one-year live-in requirement, meaning that you must live in the fraternity house for at least one school year. One thing you should realize is that the house you see during rush is not the house you would be living in. One of the most extensive cleanings of fra- ternities is the day (and night) before rush. Usually they are more similar to the houses you see dur- ing a party. They less clean and san 4. What about by far the most con about fraternities. even at our wonde of Michigan, haz more the rule thai National fraternit for the local chal them set rigid gi hazing; however,I ternity is not there ers are drunk at 2 or there after a p time to clean up. anything from p which you are r food or anything e when they call y which does still houses. This pt unique to fratern Sororities and sp commonly haze. ing rush gives yc line "Our house there is a very g they are lying. 5. How do II making the right c is no clear-cuta You will find that meet when you ru two weeks later accepted your bi ent. The best bet yourself at rush, a think is best for are usually far house doesn't give you a bid, that nitary. does not mean that you are not hazing? This is good enough for them. In most ntroversial topic cases, it means that that isn't the Unfortunately, house for you. This is a very seri- erful University ous decision to make, and not one ing exists. It is to take lightly. n the exception. 6. How much does it cost? ies set the rules That varies from house to house, pter, and all of but one common trait is that it is uidelines about expensive. If you (or more accu- the national fra- rately, your parents) are comfort- when the broth- able enough to spend a consider- in the morning, able amount of money on the fra- arty when it is ternity - and it is a lot - then Hazing can be this won't concern you. But if ledge runs, in you are scraping your way though equired to buy college, then you should ask the else for brothers brothers of the fraternity (or even ou, to paddling, better, ask the treasurer) speci-. exist in some cally how much the whole thing roblem is not will cost. If he doesn't give you ities, however. specific numbers, then he is afraid orts teams also to, and you should question ifthat If anyone dur- house is the type ofhouse for you. ou the common Fraternity rush is a fun time doesn't haze," - for both you and the brothers.: aOd chance that For many houses, it is the futurea leadership and new blood for the know that I am house. You will meet many new. decision? There people, and it is only the begin- answer to this. ning of some good times in the t the people you next three or four years of your, ash are different life. You must remember, how- after you have ever, that when it comes to rush d. Very differ- and the Greek system in general, for you is to be things are not always as they seem.; nd do what you An important decision like this r you. If some takes time to make. housemother' rarely make out better judgment of the boys stag- oup of boys. ing the hoax. It was indicated guys," said the later that none of the boys staging of you here want the hoax were actually fraternity RETROSPECTIVE 'The frat with the six-foot The following is excerpted from a column in the Daily on Sept. 16, 1965. thing until you've seen the most progressive fraternity, Phi Upsi- lon Kappa. Come on with us," the boy said. '7"L -I-------- where he could b the forms of a grc "All right you boy. "How many c .0L"xt r V ;T T State Rep. Mary Schroer State Rep. Liz Brater L