Letters to the Editor

An open letter to Tom Goss

To the Daily:
For years, the glitter of Las Vegas and the Great Wall of China used to be the only two human creations on Earth visible from the moon. The Athletic Department added a third one: the renovated Michigan Stadium.

I don't want to be an astronaut anymore. The horrid vision of this cheesy and arrogant yellow and blue crown over the home of the Wolverines already made me sick when I drove back to school a few days ago, so I bet it would be worse to watch this memorable failure from space. I am not talking about the addition of new seats and giant videoboards, (this was an excellent idea) but of these cheap colors (is this what you call "maize?") and pompous letters ("Conquering heroes") that easily top Frieze building in the contest for the ugliest architectural mistake on campus.

The decision to transform our venerable and authentic college stadium into a bright-NFL plastic-like arena is sad because it is the indirect consequence of the wonderful 1997-1998 football season. It is sad to think that if the Wolverines hadn't be so great last year, we wouldn't have been gratified with such terrible demonstration of bad taste.

So what can be done in the few hours remaining before the first game of the year? Give us back our century-old stadium!

Paint it back! Paint it back, Athletic Director Tom Goss! For every jeweler knows that to fully appreciate diamonds, you need to wrap them up in a simple case.

Jerome Balmes
LSA sophomore

Schillaci did not give task force enough credit

To the Daily:
I would like to respond to Jack Schillaci's article, "Student regent is plausible - if modified" (9/8/98). Although I appreciate the publicity Schillaci was able to give to the student regent issue, I do not believe he gives those who have worked hard in this effort the credit they are due. He asserts that members of the Student Regent Task Force "... haven't tried to build coalitions with other state universities' student governments to lobby for a legislature-ordered referendum... ." On the contrary, since student regent efforts were rejoined in earnest 2 1/2 years ago, the SRTF has been working with student governments at Michigan State University and Wayne State University (the other two universities with elected regents/trustees), not to mention students at the University's Flint and Dearborn campuses. Since the spring of 1997, the student regent effort has been joined by student governments statewide, with students from as far away as Michigan Technical University taking part in some of the discussions. What is more, legislation is currently pending that would allow the citizens of Michigan to vote on the student regent issue without a referendum. Unfortunately, because of legislative and gubernatorial opposition, this legislation likely will not even be voted on, much less pass. Hence, the SRTF's attempt at a state-wide referendum.

If any students have questions about the Student Regent Task Force or its efforts, they should feel free to contact the co-chairs, Bram Elias and Andrew Wright, myself or any other Michigan Student Assembly member.

Erin Carey
LSA senior
MSA representative

Engler has created jobs in Michigan

To the Daily:

I am amazed to see that the gubernatorial debate continues to focus on the personalities of the two candidates running for governor rather than their respective accomplishments and qualifications. When you look at what is really important to the students of our state, the choice is clear. Since April of 1991, total employment in Michigan has increased by 713,000 jobs. Over the same period, unemployment has plummeted from 9.9 percent to the current rate of 3.5 percent.

There are some people who would claim that President Clinton is responsible for the great economy we currently enjoy in Michigan. The fact is, from 1994 through 1997, unemployment in Michigan has been below the national average. Prior to this period, the last time unemployment was below the national average was in 1966 - 32 years ago! For 26 years, from 1967 to 1993, Michigan's annual unemployment rate was never once below the national rate. For 15 years in a row, 1978 to 1993, Michigan's monthly unemployment never fell below the national average - not for one month. Starting in 1995 and continuing through 1998, Michigan unemployment has been below the national average 37 months in a row! Those are accomplishments!

For those people who say that the jobs Gov. John Engler created are low paying, consider that the per capita income in Michigan grew faster than any other state in the first half of the 1990s.

What has Geoffrey Fieger accomplished? Is insulting his way to the Democratic nomination an accomplishment? Personal insult after personal insult is not what I call an accomplished campaign. Although I do not agree with his primary opponents on most of the issues, they certainly did not deserve his personal attacks.

I hope that readers - Democrat, Republican, or Independent - will join me in voting for Engler. He is busy creating the jobs that we will need when we graduate. Fieger is busy creating the insults he needed in order to win the nomination.

John Yob
LSA senior

Commentary article was hypocritical

To the Daily:

I was reading the commentary by Peter Romer-Friedman in the Daily on Tuesday ("Affirmative action vital to 'U' welfare") when I felt the need to write this letter. I found it disturbing that the Daily will allow its staff writers to attack others for what they themselves are guilty of.

Let us review the article. In attacking state Sen. David Jaye (R-Macomb), a favorite pastime of the Daily, Romer-Friedman asks, "has (Jaye) stopped to think about how minorities feel when he tells them that they don't belong at the University of Michigan, that they only got in under the guise of 'racial preferences?' Probably not."

This is a valid criticism of the senator, but one from which Romer-Friedman failed to escape. Let us now review the opening paragraph of that same article: "Imagine a University where everyone looks exactly alike. No people of color - a homogeneous body of students who have little to exchange about different cultures through peer contact. If anti-affirmative action advocates have their way, this is precisely what the University of Michigan could become."

Unless I am mistaken, Romer-Friedman has just implied that all students of color at our University were admitted solely because of the University's affirmative action policy.

David Burden
Engineering senior

Graphic was inaccurate

To the Daily:

The graphic for the article "'U' drops 2 places in rankings" (9/9/98) contained an understandable error. This year's rankings have a new methodology which has resulted in more ties; for example, my alma mater, Yale, tied with both Harvard and Princeton in the first position. MIT and Stanford tied at four and so on. So a quick check to U.S. News & World Report Website would confirm that Harvard's supposed superiority is only based on the fact that H comes before Y in the alphabet.

Karl Paulson-Egbert
University alumnus

09-11-98