Letters to the Editor

Decision violated ex post facto

To the Daily:

This letter is written in response to "Sex offenders do not deserve a second chance" (3/19/98) in the Daily. I agree with everything the letter says about sex offenders, and I found it to be an excellent summary of why Megan's Law was enacted.

I was pleasantly surprised, however, that the Daily chose the unpopular position of defending the rights of former sex offenders ("Injustice upheld," 3/9/98). I feel that the Daily is correct in its castigation of the Supreme Court's decision to reject the claims of sex offenders whose crimes occurred prior to the enactment of Megan's Law. One of the Constitution's most important provisions is the protection against ex post facto legislation. In the Supreme Court's decision, a ruling that allowed a secondary punishment of criminals whose crimes were committed prior to the passage of Megan's Law.

This ruling, by definition, upholds a piece of ex post facto legislation. Whether or not the provisions of Megan's Law as applied to current offenders are appropriate, as I feel they are, the court's decision was unconstitutional.

Justin Schafer
LSA sophomore

'U' should support students with children

To the Daily:

Last week, the University Provost released to the public the "Strategic Plan for Child Care Programs at the University of Michigan," a report compiled by the University's Child Care Task Force. As a student parent, I feel it important to make the campus aware of the committee's findings.

At the University, many student parents and staff employees struggle to locate affordable care for the approximately 16,000 children who are part of our community. Staff members especially report having difficulty finding evening and weekend care. Sick child and emergency care is of particular concern to faculty and GSI parents who often cannot find last-minute replacements for their classes. Staff turnover in child-care facilities on and off campus is extremely high; quality care is thus compromised when many centers lose employees to local public schools where salaries are as much as 50-percent higher than in child-care centers. Especially startling is the fact that tuition is higher for a child in full-time day care on campus than it is for an undergraduate at the University.

To address some of these problems, the task force has made some important proposals in their plan. Copies of this report can be obtained at the University Reserve Services (at the Shapiro Undergraduate Library), at the Media Union reference desk and at the Taubman Medical Library reference desk.

An e-mail account, childcare.feedback@umich.edu, has been established for public comment on the report. I encourage everyone who reads this letter to comment on the plan because, as the following anecdote reveals, not everyone believes child care deserves our support.

Several weeks ago, I turned on the radio in time to hear a U.S. congressperson suggesting that the attention and funding being paid to day care of late may be excessive because it privileges mothers who work to the detriment of mothers who choose to "stay home and not buy a second car." There are several things wrong with such a suggestion. First, it implies that child care is solely a mother's responsibility; that a father's only familial role is as breadwinner. Second, it implies that a house-bound woman without a car is the best kind of mother. Third (and this is perhaps the most glaringly obvious misunderstanding of American people the member of Congress made), is the idea that such a choice (between having one or both parents work) is one that most American families are free to make.

Even a brief e-mail stating your support of the Strategic Plan would make a difference.

Katie Jewett
Rackham

Professors and GSIs need to end class on time

To the Daily:

Attention all professors and GSIs! Please, please end class at the designated time. Running even just a few minutes over may cause huge inconveniences not only to your own students (whose next class may be way across campus), but also to the students and instructors of the subsequent class scheduled for the room. People need time to settle in and prepare for class, and running late inconveniences everyone! Sure, students could leave if needed, but it would not be fair if those who had to leave on time missed lecture material or announcements given at the end of class simply because the instructor did not finish on time. Take our time into consideration, too.

Christine Bell
LSA senior

Daily tried to 'make a scandal'

To the Daily:

Wow! And I thought that this was one of those races where everyone would be happy with the triumph of either major candidate. It was a close race, and Ryan Friedrichs and Trent Thompson both campaigned well. They both deserved it, only one got it, and now, the one person who won the election is being publicly and maliciously criticized. It amazes me that the Daily, under the premise of trying to work with the Michigan Student Assembly, takes any and every chance to undermine the leaders of the student government. The article in the Daily on March 25 made Thompson sound like an obnoxious idiot ("Allegations taint MSA elections"). The Daily staff not only failed to substantiate the claims in the article with any facts or names but even failed to state their claims against Thompson. Yes, Thompson went to the party to campaign. Yes, Thompson campaigned at the party. Yes, Thompson and MSA Rep. Brian Reich set up a polling site in one of the house's bedrooms ... all legal under Election Code. What exactly are the sources claiming to be illegal? Are they seriously claiming that someone who has been on this assembly, working his butt off for over a year would stand at a polling site looking over people's shoulders as they vote?

All this article does is smear someone's name ... and for what purpose? Embarrassment at endorsing the losing candidate for election? A slow news day? A personal vendetta? Or maybe it was just pure sensationalism, and the idea that the Daily can be a real newspaper if it makes a scandal. I mean after all, that is what journalism is about right? Uncovering the truth? Oh wait a minute ... I have a really good idea ... why doesn't the Daily try that route and see how it works out for them? Sorry if it isn't exciting enough for them, but we are all just college students, and I don't think we have had enough experience with all things political to be as sneaky, conspiring and unethical as their National Enquirer-esque journalism would like us to be. Sorry, guys, I have to go, I have an interview with a Daily reporter about the UFO I spotted flying over Burton Tower last night.

Karen Fauman
LSA sophomore

04-02-98