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The next generation

Progress comes not only from protest

Throughout Jake Baker's expulsion and arraignment for Internet obscenity, the University kept going. With each funding cut and tuition increase, campus life ensues. We had to catch our breath when Duderstadt announced his untimely retirement -- but the University barely missed a beat. Students have struggled against a non-academic conduct code for years. Yet with each new implementation, the cube keeps its spin.

Each year, the student body somewhat blindly elects a new Michigan Student Assembly president; this year the administration will pick a new University president from partially hidden chambers. We will watch the Office of the Vice President for Student Affairs stumble through the new Code of Student Conduct. Internet intricacies will increase tenfold -- our generation will lay the ground rules for cyberspace. The federal government might reach a budget agreement and we will elect a president. Like the cube, the world will spin, no matter how loudly we protest.

In the '60s, our parents protested, blocked, restructured and revolutionized any cause that crossed their paths. The Fleming Administration Building, with its bizarre windows, was "riot-proofed" with good reason; the FBI had a file on many campus groups, including The Michigan Daily.

But we're a different generation -- more dispersed, still active and a little confused. We're grappling with apathy and advancement technology -- not blowing up campus buildings. Student empowerment, however, does not have to come from protest alone. We have quieter methods of protest: participation, petitions and the vote. If storming Fleming works, great. But if we can't charge, we must stand firm.

As voters, we must choose our leaders carefully because we entrust them with the decision to compromise or hold fast. If compromise is the result, it must be a calculated one. However, the voters' -- the students' -- interests must never be compromised.

For our part, we will keep you, our readers, informed. We will hold the ideals up for you to examine, not wavering in our position.

For your part, keep right of your own ideals. Students will have more power in solidarity -- so stand together. Forty thousand of us cannot be ignored.

Student concerns are the highest priority of this page. For this reason, we reserve a space for your letters and viewpoints. Tell us when we're wrong and when we're right. Tell us something we don't know. But tell us.

-- Adrienne Janney, Zachary M. Raimi