To the Daily:
As if President Bill Clinton thought that the American public was stupid enough to not know the difference between lying and being legally correct (in his case there is none), he further insulted us by drinking Canada Dry during his grand jury testimony. Maybe we could enlighten him to the tasty pleasures of an American ginger ale. Vernor's, perhaps?
Carrie Presdorf
Engineering senior
To the Daily:
In reading the Daily's coverage of "Investigation of the President" and watching the interrogation video on every station, something strikes me as odd. In the coverage that I have seen and read so far, it seems that Clinton has only gotten outwardly upset twice.
The first time he got upset was over the meaning of the word "is." He questioned the meaning in regards to whether he was currently having an affair or had he previously had an affair.
The other time that he objected to the line of questioning was over the definition of the word "sex." It would appear to me that anyone who gets confused over the meaning of a two- or three-letter word, is obviously full of a four-letter word.
Greg Quitmeyer
LSA junior
To the Daily:
As a doctoral student specializing in women's health and contraception, I feel the need to clarify some statements made in the Sept. 9 article. ("New morning-after pill sparks debate").
First of all, we call it Emergency Contraception, or EC, as it can be used up to 72 hours after unprotected intercourse, not just the morning after as the other name implies.
Secondly, it is currently available to students at University Health Services from a different company than the one mentioned in the article. Also, side effects can be minimized by taking anti-nausea medication along with the EC.
Of course, University students are exceptionally bright, but unfortunately this does not protect us from birth-control mishaps like broken condoms or missed birth control pills, and sometimes we know sex and birth control are not discussed in depth by sexual partners.
It would be nice if we were all exempt from these stumbling blocks, but while we work on it, I am very thankful that Emergency Contraception is available and is a safe, effective way to prevent unintended pregnancy and lower the abortion rate.
Suzanne Knecht
Rachham
To the Daily:
I would like to commend the Michigan Marching Band on its performance at the football game this past Saturday.
As a member of a high school marching band, I am always interested in watching bands at the halftimes of football games. I've noticed that in recent years, bands have gone more toward "amoeba" shapes rather than recognizable shapes.
This past Saturday's "Movie Themes" show was spectacular, with recognizable shapes to the tunes of "ET," "Robin Hood" and "Titanic," including a bow and arrow shooting across the field.
I believe the highlight of the show was during "Titanic," where the band formed a ship, using fire extinguishers as steam, and actually sank the ship on the field.
After halftime, rather than the usual fanfare band touring the stadium from the field, the band broke up into several pep bands and toured the stadium in the tunnels of each section. This was a tremendous idea, especially because it included the areas of the stadium that usually cannot hear the band.
Congratulations Michigan Marching Band. Keep it up.
John Lalik
University alumnus
To the Daily:
Kudos to former Harvard University President Derek Bok and former Princeton University President William Bowen for asserting that quantitative factors should not be the only criteria, or even the predominant criteria, in assessing candidates for admission to top-ranked universities.
Shame on them for only taking their stand to the water's edge and stopping with minority candidates. Their position seems to argue for a veiled "separate but equal" standard of quantitative admissions criteria for some and mixed criteria for others.
In as much as their data points out that minority students from Ivy League schools and other top universities find more success in their post-graduation endeavors and concluding that "success breeds success," they inject motivated biases.
By dismissing or ignoring alternative hypotheses like "pedigree breeds success" doubt is cast on their own objectivity and conclusions.
It is indeed refreshing to see that those at the top of American academia recognize the importance of allowing access to elite institutions from people of less than elite means or quantitative achievement. It is discouraging to note that those who yell the loudest represent institutions where their own advice falls on deaf ears.
Harvard and Princeton are hardly models of access with their acceptance rates of 10 to 15 percent, and use of quantitative indexes as "the first cut" before separating those admitted or held from those denied.
If Bok and Bowen are truly serious, they and their institutions should lead from the front, not the rear. Until that time, they should lock away their rhetoric in the ivory tower and let schools like the University of California at Berkeley, the University of Michigan, the University of Virginia, University of California at Los Angeles and the University of North Carolina take the point in pushing for greater access to world-class education.
Randall Roth
University alumnus
09-23-98
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