MICHIGANREVIEW THE
THE JOURNAL OF CAMPUS AFFAIRS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN www.michiganreview.com
VOLUME XXVI
January 29, 2008
ISSUE 8
Feds’ Grant Targets Drinking on College Campuses BY JONATHAN SLEMROD, ‘10
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RELATIVELY UNHEARD BILL signed into law in 2006 gives the Federal government more power to pursue underage drinking on college campuses. The Sober Truth on Preventing Underage Drinking Act— or STOP Act—was signed by President Bush late in 2006 after passing both chambers of Congress by large margins. Only twenty-six members of Congress voted against the bill in the House of Representatives, and none voted against it in the Senate. The twenty-nine-page STOP Act chastises the alcohol industry for spending millions of dollars on advertising, and states that the annual “societal costâ€? of underage drinking is $53 to $58 billion dollars. And even though the bill states that â€œâ€Śthe Federal Government spends $1.8 billion annually to combat youth drug use and $71 million to prevent underage alcohol use,â€? it calls for increased federal spending in a variety of arHDV )RU H[DPSOH WKH $G &RXQFLO D SULYDWH QRQ SURĂ€W advertising agency which serves as clearing house for anti-drug commercials seen on TV, receives an extra $1 million in government money. Also, $6 million is allotted for the Department of Health and Human Services to conduct and compiled research on underage drinking. The bill provides up to $5 million in grants for XQLYHUVLW\ DGPLQLVWUDWLRQV WR Ă€JKW XQGHUDJH GULQNLQJ LQ WKHLU RZQ ZD\V ,Q Ă€VFDO \HDU FROOHJHV VXFK as Arizona State University, Indiana University, and University of Kentucky all received federal grants. The University of Michigan did not. Vague descriptions of how universities utilize their federal grants can be found online. For instance, The University of North Carolina at Charlotte receives money for a project that “is guided by the social ecological framework, which recognizes that cultural norms, organizational culture, community capacity, and laws are all essential areas to target in order to reduce individuals’ high-risk drinking practices.â€? Some grants, such as one at the University of Central Florida, bring the government’s message straight to the class-
Illustration by Eun Lee
Bureaucracy Poses Hurdles for Student Orgs BY MICHAEL O’BRIEN, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
modicum of structure, but not without adding to an already confusing T CANNOT BE easy being a maze of obligations for student ormember—let alone a leader—in a ganizations. student organization at the UniverAt the recommendation of the sity of Michigan. Student Organization and RecIn addition to the regular meet- ognition (SOAR) Advisory Comings, fundraising, and other obliga- mittee Report in 2005, more than tions, any student who spends any a thousand organizations on camVLJQLĂ€FDQW WLPH LQ D VWXGHQW RUJDQL- pus were categorized into different zation is likely to graduate with a “Registered Student Organizationsâ€? doctorate in red tape. (RSOs), under the supervision of A series of complex, overlap- WKH RIĂ€FH RI 6WXGHQW $FWLYLWLHV DQG SLQJ RIĂ€FHV LQ WKH 8 0 DGPLQLVWUD- Leadership (SAL). The new RSO system sought to tion have emerged over the past two FRQIHU EHQHĂ€WV WR VWXGHQW JURXSV years to govern the roughly 1,100 more equally, said Susan Wilson, student organizations on the Ann the Director of SAL. “It was clear to $UERU FDPSXV DORQH 7KHVH RIĂ€FHV me that not all organizations got the originally created to bring order to a VDPH OHYHO RI EHQHĂ€WV Âľ VKH VDLG LQ student organization universe previously in limbo, have achieved a an interview. “It really did seem to
depend on who you knew or how long you had been here.â€? The new regime forces student groups, “Sponsored Student Organizationsâ€? (SSOs) and “Voluntary Student Organizationsâ€? (VSOs) in particular, to register every year with a minimum of ten members DQG NHHS RQ Ă€OH D FRQVWLWXWLRQ DQG bylaws with SAL. In exchange, VWXGHQW JURXSVÂłVRPH HLJKW\ Ă€YH percent of which are VSOs—are HOLJLEOH IRU YDULRXV EHQHĂ€WV LQFOXGLQJ RIĂ€FH VSDFH LQ 8QLYHUVLW\ EXLOGings, meeting space in the University Unions at a discount rate, and Ă€QDQFLDO VHUYLFHV ZLWK 6WXGHQW 2Uganization Account Services (SOAS). But even for all the efforts to bring
Feature
News
News
Arts & Culture
Law Student Prepares Run for Michigan House of Representatives
College Football Bowl Games’ Ratings Decline for Third Straight Year
Michigan Leadership Awards’ Broad Criteria May Create Problems
Local Blogger Puts Unites ‘Politics and Prada’
BY CHRISTINA ZAJICEK, ‘10
BY JANE COASTON, ‘09
BY ERIKA GONZALEZ, ‘09
BY ADAM PAUL, ‘08
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ICHIGAN MAY BE the home to the leaders and the best, and now one of its students is intent on becoming a leader in the sphere of politics. Michigan Law student Paul Scott is currently campaigning to become a state representative in the 51st Michigan state house district. Scott says that his academics, experience, and commitment to his community distinguishes him from other competitors for the house seat.
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HE NIELSEN RATINGS for the most recent crop of bowl games have been dismal. With a few exceptions (the Capital One Bowl featuring Michigan and Florida being one), viewership was down across the board. The drop in ratings from the 2007 National Championship game was seventeen percent. Generally, such drops have been blamed on a lack of intriguing matchups or truly competitive games.
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T IS THAT time of year again. The Michigan Leadership Awards are calling for nominees. What does this mean for those groups and individuals who feel that are deserving of recognition for their exemplary leadership? According to Mark Hindelang, Special Programs Coordinator for Student Activities and Leadership, that depends largely on the nomination itself.
EING A YOUNG lawyer can be tough work. It’s even harder when you have three to four hours of extra work each night moderating comments, preventing site crashes, and providing content for a well-read political blog. E.M. Zanotti, who runs the popular “American Princess� blog, lives just that lifestyle. While the project can be demanding, it has yielded national attention.
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www.michiganreview.com
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features. the michigan review
The Chemical Approach to MLK Day BY CHERRI BUIJK, ‘11
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HE THEME FOR the University’s 22nd Annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day Symposium, taken from King’s own 1963 Letter from Birmingham Jail, “Injustice Anywhere is a Threat to Justice Everywhere,â€? was drawn upon by many cross-campus events in the weeks surrounding this year’s holiday. One of these events, a talk sponsored by the University’s Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program (UROP), certainly gave new meaning to King’s words. Drawing upon his research with amphibians, featured speaker Dr. Tyrone B. Hayes, a biologist at the University of California-Berkeley, pointed to an injustice cropping up in a surprising form: ecologically. Hayes’s ideas originated when he was testing the reaction of frogs to the herbicide atrazine for a large chemical company, Syngenta. He and his research team found that the animals were rendered hermaphroditic when exposed to the chemical. Atrazine had drastically upset testosterone and estrogen levels, “chemically castratingâ€? exposed animals. Others had tested the effects of atrazine on different animals. Their results corroborated with Hayes’s conclusions. “In rodents, atrazine-induced estrogen production causes reproductive cancers,â€? he said. “Embryonic exposure to atrazine causes neural damage in male and IHPDOH PLFH DQG UDWV ZKHUH VSHFLĂ€F QHXURQV DUH SHUmanently lost.â€? Hayes said that an advisor had once told him that he should always, in his own words, “Let the science speak for itself.â€? But in the course of his research with atrazine, Hayes decided to “cross the lineâ€? and take steps to inform the public about a problem he believes to be indisputable, and urgent. Hayes pointed out that these effects of atrazine are not restricted to lab animals RU HYHQ ZLOG DQLPDOV LQ WKH Ă€HOG EXW DOVR KDYH VLJQLĂ€FDQW LQĂ XHQFH RQ KXPDQ SRSXODWLRQVÂłSDUWLFXODUO\ within Latino and Black communities. Atrazine is used heavily in American agricultural areas, Hayes said, with about 80 million pounds applied per year. Using his home state of California as a SULPDU\ H[DPSOH +D\HV HODERUDWHG RQ WKH VLJQLĂ€FDQFH many of the state’s poorest counties’ location within those major agricultural areas—where atrazine application is highest. He said, “The same people who are more likely exposed in the environment, who are unable to purchase ZDWHU Ă€OWHUV ERWWOHG ZDWHU DQG RUJDQLF SURGXFH OHVV likely to have adequate healthcare and access to education, are more likely to have the unskilled jobs in agriculture and industry that expose them to contaminates, such as atrazine.â€? “Already Mexican-American agricultural workers and African-American unskilled factory workers (the community surrounding Syngenta’s Saint Gabriel atrazine production plant is more than eighty percent African-American) suffer from shorter life expectancies and can be two times more likely to die from breast cancer and four times more likely to die from prostate cancer,â€? he added. The problem grows more ethically complicated, according to Hayes, in light of the role Syngenta has played as both a major manufacturer of atrazine as well as a seller of treatments for breast and prostate cancer— both cancers traced to atrazine. Additionally, Syngenta has denied the validity of Hayes’s research and its implications, thus threatening to set in gear an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) model for “addressing the effects of atrazine on amphibiansâ€? that would take forty years to complete, Hayes said. MR
Austyn Foster/The Michigan Review
BAMN leaders stand out in the cold, on the steps of the Graduate library, during their January 21 rally.
BAMN Takes to Diag in MLK Day March, Rally BY JULIANNE NOWICKI, ‘11
“Reverse the drop in Black, Latina/o, and Native American enrollmentâ€? ´5HVWRUH DIĂ€UPDWLYH DFWLRQÂľ “Equal quality integrated education for all.â€? HE BATTLE TO overturn Proposal 2 continues a “ End the U.S. occupation of Iraq now.â€? \HDU DIWHU LW ZDV SDVVHG E\ Ă€IW\ HLJKW SHUFHQW RI BAMN members marched down South University, voters in Michigan, and Martin Luther King Jr. Day shouting various chants. Such chants included, “Black, was used in a big way by organizers of this effort. Latino, Arab, Asian, and White, United for Equality we The weather was freezing this Martin Luther King ZLOO Ă€JKW Âľ DQG ´7KH\ VD\ -LP &URZ ZH VD\ KHOO QR Âľ 'D\ EXW %$01 WKH &RDOLWLRQ WR 'HIHQG $IĂ€UPDWLYH About 100 people attended the march, holding Action by Any Means Necessary) still managed to stir VLJQV Ă DJV DQG ODUJH EDQQHUV 7KH VLJQV UHDG ´'HIHQG up some heat on campus with a march and rally as one of the University’s MLK Symposium Events. The rally $IĂ€UPDWLYH $FWLRQ DQG ,QWHJUDWLRQÂľ LQ FDSLWDO OHWWHUV and march were a general preview of BAMN’s court Proposal 2 protestors continued marching ending in hearing on February 6 to determine whether or not the front of the Grad Library on the Diag. Arriving at the Diag, Shanta Driver, National organization will be granted a trial to try to overturn Spokesperson and co-chair of BAMN, took the microProposal 2. phone, and spoke about “undoingâ€? Proposal 2 on the Last Monday, BAMN members and national steps of the Grad library. At the end of her speech, she spokesperson Shanta Driver, convened in NYPD Pizza EULHĂ \ PHQWLRQHG ZLWKGUDZLQJ WKH WURRSV IURP ,UDT on the corner of South University and Forest. Passers“We speak for the majority by could see the large gathering from outside the glass window, as BAMN members handed out double-sid- of Americans,â€? Driver said. After her speech, Driver HG OHDĂ HWV ZLWK LQIRUPDWLRQ UHJDUGLQJ WKH PDUFK WKDW passed the microphone on would take place at 11:30 a.m. The slogans and claims to other BAMN members, on the sheet were repeated by Driver in a speech after trying to let everyone who the march. wanted to speak, speak. This included BAMN president Liana Mulholland and BAMN member Maricruz Lopez who are both sophomores. Lopez cited a problem that many students have, regardless of race, in applying for college—parents lack of knowledge about the application process—as reason for undoing Proposal 2. 2WKHU YLHZV RIIHULQJ DOWHUQDWLYHV WR DIĂ€UPDWLYH DFWLRQ programs, such as funding from private scholarship sources, were not voiced during this time. Proposal 2 has sparked continuous controversy DPRQJ WKRVH ZKR VXSSRUW DIĂ€UPDWLYH DFWLRQ SURJUDPV in higher education and government contracting. After what has been a complex battle, BAMN will once again try to overturn Proposal 2. On February 6, BAMN will appear in a court hearing to determine whether or not a trial will be granted. The Honorable David Lawson will preside over the case. MR
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“End the U.S. Occupation of Iraq now.�
Austyn Foster/The Michigan Review