Letters to the Editor

GSIs are hired to 'facilitate the learning experience'

To the Daily:

When I used to hear about illiterate students graduating from high school, I often wondered how that was possible. After reading the letter from Matthew Murphy "GSIs' Role at the 'U' is 'often unwanted,'" (2/2/99) I now realize that not only is it possible for a student to graduate from high school without having learned a fundamental skill such as reading, but it is possible for a student to graduate from a prestigious university without having learned much.

Murphy demonstrates the lack of one of the fundamentals of a college education - that one's attendance in class should not only be a function of its role in the final grade, but for its role in the learning process.

In my experience as a GSI in the School of Business Administration, I have found that the students who were most disappointed with their GSIs were those who came to class expecting GSIs to spoon-feed them the information necessary to do well on the exams without expressing any desire to learn. Without fail, these same students are the ones who fare poorly in the course. GSIs are not intended to teach students what they need to get a grade, but to facilitate the learning experience. I have found that the students who do well in their courses are those who demonstrate the initiative to do the assigned readings, attend lectures regularly, and then use the GSI-taught sections to clear up points or issues on which they are unclear.

Murphy, a senior in the College of Literature, Science and the Arts, has deemed it necessary to draw from his personal experiences with GSI-taught classes at the University to demand that the University "declare that a student's attendance in a GSI-run class ... not be used as a basis for grading."

The attendance policies at the University are necessitated by students exactly like Murphy who would not attend unless it was mandated as a part of the grade for the course.

During my undergraduate coursework in LSA, I have found that the only courses which weigh one's attendance record in the final grade are those classes where majority of the learning is derived from the class discussions.

You are not in grade school or high school. You are in a prestigious institution of higher learning. What makes the learning experience world-class is the opportunity to learn - through discussions - that although 20 to 30 students all read (hopefully) the same assigned material, due to the differences in past experiences and cultures, there were 20 to 30 different perspectives on the same issue. That is the learning that is most valuable from a college education in LSA.

Deborah Weinmann

School of Business Administration

Iraqi resolution is not properly focused

To the Daily:

I have decided to resign as one of the Michigan Student Assembly's four executive officers in the wake of the Assembly's decision on Jan. 26 to officially oppose the economic sanctions against Iraq. That said, I also wish to warn all politically interested students on campus of a potentially dangerous shift in the assembly's focus.

I have spent the last three years on MSA arguing against the University's use of affirmative action in its admissions processes. As such, I have been naturally opposed to the political goals of the Defend Affirmative Action Party, which has gained influence over the Assembly's affairs in the last year.

But in pushing the resolution regarding Iraq through the assembly, the DAAP has revealed that it has no plans to limit its initiatives to matters of civil rights. Convinced that they hold both the correct view on social issues and the support of campus, members of the DAAP have announced that they plan to use the Assembly as a rallying point for their comrades.

Regardless of your personal political stance, you must realize the danger posed by any group claiming to have a unique understanding of world affairs and a prominent pulpit from which to preach.

If you believe as I do that MSA exists to serve students rather than to speak for them, I ask that you take the time to vote this March for candidates who have concrete plans for how to improve student life, rather than voting for political demagogues with delusions of grandeur.

David Burden

Engineering senior

Balanced coverage of campus issues is important

To the Daily:

Days like these urge me to question the Daily's policy of printing every verifiable letter to the editor which it receives. It's a laudable policy, upholding the spirit of the First Amendment and all, but it allows all manner of tripe leak through.

Take, for example, Geoffery Stanton's truly incredible complaint that the Daily offers too much sports coverage ("Daily sports coverage is excessive," 1/26/99). He's entitled to his opinion (since I surely don't want it), but he bases it on the faulty assumption that one-half of the Daily is devoted to sports. On the very day his letter appeared, the sports section filled approximately one-quarter of the Daily. Counting only the actual space devoted to news (and excluding ads), there were three pages of news, one page of opinion, about one-and-a-half pages of Arts and one-and-a-half pages of sports.

Stanton proposes that the Daily cut its sports space and give that space to international news. While there are obvious technical hurdles to clear before the Daily can dispatch its sports staff to the Middle East or the Balkans, I think the more salient point is that Stanton is blind to the Daily's mission. While CNN, The New York Times, public radio and TIME cover Washington and the world, only The Michigan Daily serves the University community and devotes so much time to coverage of its issues and events.

When I served as a news editor for the Daily, we adopted the philosophy that a judicious sprinkling of nation and world stories was important, so readers wouldn't miss key developments in major stories.

Stanton asks, "At a university that is supposed to be about diversity and equality, etc., doesn't it make sense that all topics should be treated equally?"

Of course not. One could fill the graduate library and come no nearer to that goal. No voice has been a stronger supporter of diversity and the equality of individuals than the Daily's, but certainly not all issues were created equally. The safety of the University community, the actions of the University leadership and the success of University's sports teams - these topics are more important to the Daily's readers, and therefore to the Daily.

As a final note, I'd like to congratulate the outgoing seniors at the Daily for doing such a fine job. I applaud this paper for its aggressive focus on the University community. It's an often thankless job, though it shouldn't be. The Daily provides an independent voice and a free service that I feel the University very literally could not live without. It's been another proud chapter in the Daily's history.

Scot Woods

University alumnus

02-03-99