To the Daily:
This letter is in response to "Vandalism creates 'tension'" (9/23/97).
Evidence of intolerance seems to appear weekly on the pages of the Daily. Last term, anti-semitic flyers were inserted into books in the Shapiro Library. Now, a similar anti-semitic episode has occurred outside the library. These are unacceptable and ugly events at one of the nation's most prestigious universities.
Issues of pluralism and racial diversity are challenging our school and I see few attempts to address this challenge. Intolerance is acquired behavior. It is taught. It is learned. Diversity workshops at Orientation and voluntary dialogue groups, although important, are not going to undo a lifetime of racism.
President Bollinger and the University must aggressively confront this issue. A diverse student body populates Ann Arbor. For all students, we must invite and promote a more tolerant University to continue to grow as an academic community, and this must happen now!
Adam Snow
School of Social Work
To the Daily:
I had a simple task at hand: It was to print, at one of the computing sites, a letter that I had written to University President Lee Bollinger on my home computer. My trials began in the Union's basement. I turned on a Mac. After about five minutes, it booted up and I transferred my file to the hard drive to open it. Trying to open it through Word failed with an "error type 2." So, I tried double clicking on it. I watched the hourglass for about five minutes and decided to leave.
As I left, a woman asked the ITD consultant, who was sitting next to me, if the computer I had used was available. Hearing this, I walked back and said, "If you can unlock it, you can use it." She promptly left the area and the consultant turned to me and rudely said, "Don't tell people about things you don't know! Out!" I just left.
Off to Angell Hall. The sign said something like "Network is slow, printing is erratic." I just turned and walked away. Off to the Chemistry building. I logged on and tried to open Word. It said, "All the access keys for Word are in use, you are in line to receive one." Off to NUBS. Ahhh, solace at last! An IBM that's letting me print this letter.
Well, it turns out the file on my disk is "cross-linked on allocation unit 2083."I found out by running "chkdsk" through MS-DOS. I knew to do this because I was hired at $10.50 per hour to fix computers and set up networks. I'm a computer science concentrator and have been called a "walking computer manual." This is why that mean, aging consultant didn't faze me. Where I worked, the large computer network was always in top shape because a few, real computer technicians, not students, kept them working. ITD and CAEN need to get their act together. It's an exercise in patience to use their computers. Computers: You can live without them, but you can't live with them. I still have to print that letter.
Shailesh Humbad
LSA junior
Jewish holidays
To the Daily:
The University is a community of diversity. For many students who grew up in white suburbia, this is the first time they have to live and learn with people who are extremely different from themselves.
There are many different races, religions and sexual orientations that are accepted. The University incorporates this into Orientation programming as well as in the LSA graduation requirement.
Although the University seems to be so understanding and accepting of differences among its students, it has truly disappointed many members of the Jewish community in its failure to recognize their holidays as being significant. Last winter term, finals were scheduled during the Jewish holiday Passover. Since this holiday puts emphasis on family time, it was extremely stressful (more than usual) and morally conflicting for many students. This year, they scheduled a football game (Northwestern) on the holiday Yom Kippur. For Jews, this is the most holy day of the year, for which they are required to fast.
I understand this is a large school with many events to schedule. On the other hand, I would happen to think that the Jewish population is large enough on this campus to be considered when making such important events as finals and football games.
Allison Schnaar
LSA sophomore
To the Daily:
I am writing in response to the letter by Evan Knott ("Government should not fund arts," 9/19/97). I wish to comment on two aspects of his letter that I find particularly grating.
First, I do not believe that it is correct to argue from the standpoint of what the "founders" did or did not envision. All that should be considered in current policy decisions is the Constitution. I am sure the idea of government regulating radioactive material (mere "rocks") would have seemed absurd to those who wrote the Constitution. Does that make it wrong? Trying to argue the validity of governmental efforts based on interpretations of the "founders" and not the Constitution is like trying to determine if Christ would have used a PC or a Mac (He probably would have used Unix, anyhow).
Besides, the last time I checked, the Constitution allowed Congress "to make all laws which shall be necessary" to carry out everything required of the government by the Constitution. First and foremost of those requirements is to "provide for a more perfect union." In addition, the Constitution is supposed to "promote the general welfare." I certainly believe that the National Endowment for the Arts does this.
Which brings me to the second aspect of the letter with which I disagree. I firmly believe that the chief strength of the United States lies in its ideas. After all, our chief export is the decidedly American airplane, followed by good old Hollywood movies. We must do what we can to encourage new ideas. Leaving this to corporate America is not the answer. "Big Business" is justifiably not interested in new ideas so much as it is interested in money. How can we rely on such companies to promote new growth in art? For instance, every one of Disney's extremely profitable cartoons is based upon a previous story - someone else's idea. It works, and I am not saying that is wrong. But that completely misses the spirit of art. Art is not about money. I do not think we should rely on those who wish to make money through art to keep America innovative.
The NEA is both justified and justifiable.
John Wambaugh
LSA junior
To the Daily:
I greatly enjoyed the review of the Luna concert in Chicago in the Daily ("Luna brings 'Pup,' rousing show to Chicago," 9/23/97) and would like to commend the journalistic style of the article. Never before in my three years here at the University have I read a review in the Daily that was as interesting, succinct and objective. I attended the Detroit show the night prior to the Chicago performance, and made many of the same observations as were mentioned in the article.
As a longtime Luna/Galaxie 500 fan, I found the author's descriptions of the band's sound and style to be accurate. The band members' quotes were a welcomed bonus. Please continue to print articles in this vein, rather than the opinionated and verbose ramblings of other concert reviews that have bewitched me in the past.
Nicholas Bratton
RC senior
09-26-97
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