Arbor Update

Ann Arbor Area Community News

This week in student journalism

25. July 2005 • Matt Hollerbach
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Are the quote marks too much? Oh well, here goes:

Coverage of the City Council’s NoBuPa (I love typing that) street parking issue, news of a giant tuition increase and an editorial on Granholm’s part in neccessitating the increase, notes on a student fee increase, and finally another editorial on opposing the MCRI.

From ‘MSA angered by City Council parking decision’:

MSA President Jesse Levine and Rep. Stuart Wagner spoke at the beginning of the meeting and were upset because the council was voting on a resolution in the summer when most students affected by the parking change are gone.

“37,500 students live in Ann Arbor, yet tonight it feels like we are not represented,” Levine said. “Tonight’s a slap in the face.”

Wagner began his speech by presenting the council with earplugs, to symbolize what Wagner believed is the City Council’s relationship with students.

And from ‘Something had to give: Granholm misses link between funding cuts and tuition increases’:

This year’s tuition increase may alleviate some of the stress on the University’s budget for now, but unless the state restructures the way it funds higher education, these problems will only worsen next year. University funding is allocated through the state’s discretionary fund, and consequently it is one of the first areas to be cut when state revenues decline. If Granholm works with the state Legislature to find a way to maintain or increase higher education funding, universities will not have to implement further double-digit tuition increases anytime soon. In times of high unemployment and falling state revenues, investing in higher education, as Granholm purports to recognize, is the state’s best bet for a prosperous future. But should this investment continue to come in the form of rhetorical lip service, Granholm will only further alienate herself from the administrators who could be her closest allies in revitalizing Michigan’s economy. As the governor unwisely calls on administrators to further cut out “fat,” she must realize that a belt can only be tightened so much before it cuts off blood flow.



  1. the online article on the tuition increase didn’t mention paul courant’s likening higher tuition + more financial aid to a progressive tax, which is in the actual paper.
    though, i doubt any of these people voted for nat damren, the green party candidate for UM regent who suggested raising in-state tuition to that of out-of-state. the extra money would go to financial aid, essentially lowering tuition for poorer families at the expense of those west boomfield folk. imagine that! don’t want to pay taxes, then you can pay my tuition direct!
       —muirhead    Jul. 26 '05 - 01:54AM    #
  2. Why is journalism in quotes?
       —why    Jul. 27 '05 - 03:13AM    #
  3. Journalism shouldn’t be in quotes.

    Courant never likened the raise in tutition and financial aid to a “progressive tax.” He never said that, nor is it in his briefing document or the print edition of the Daily.
       —Anonymous    Jul. 27 '05 - 03:30PM    #
  4. Journalism is in quotes because it is the Daily. Any publication that runs the headline “Computer Breeches Worry Experts” (4/15/05) deserves the quotation marks.
       —Juliew    Jul. 27 '05 - 03:56PM    #
  5. Anonymous— Juliew pretty much summed it up. I am a former staff member, and to see it run from the inside is discouraging.
       —Matt Hollerbach    Jul. 27 '05 - 06:13PM    #
  6. Hollerbach,
    People would of thought that you might like the Daily considering all the nice coverage they gave you and PIRGIM this year. If you don’t like reading the Daily though just graduate already and you won’t have to worry about it.
       —why    Jul. 27 '05 - 07:15PM    #
  7. “would of”?
       —Parking Structure Dude!    Jul. 27 '05 - 07:36PM    #
  8. I believe the management and editorial structure is highly flawed and does not serve the content (i.e. the readers) nor the writers. Consequentially, there are a bunch of really interested (and talented) people who create a very flawed product.

    I don’t want the Daily to go away, and I don’t want its coverage of worthwhile news to end. I really just think it could be a whole lot better, and I am reminded of this in nearly every issue. It is this constant frustration that led me to characterize the Daily’s quality as amateur with my guerilla punctuation attack.

    As for the PIRGIM coverage, I hope that the editorial board would not base their opinion of a particular issue on the personal, unrelated feelings of someone involved in that issue.

    I’ll take the quotemarks off and I won’t deny it was probably not the best way to register my frustrations. Apologies to ‘why’ and ‘Anonymous’ if I offended, and sorry to disappoint, but I’m a student until May of ‘06.
       —Matt Hollerbach    Jul. 27 '05 - 09:43PM    #
  9. my bad, courant’s progressive tax qoute was in the editorial:

    http://www.michigandaily.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2005/07/25/42e4d9db8996d

    so, either this article is lying, or he did in fact actually say that.

    peace
       —muirhead    Jul. 27 '05 - 10:11PM    #
  10. Last year, thousands of student voters and Daily readers participated in the November 2004 elections, and had to choose among candidates for important positions including county prosecuting attorney and county commissioner.

    The Daily refused to provide even one word of coverage for those contested races prior to the election. The Daily has EARNED those quotation marks around the word “journalism”.
       —Larry Kestenbaum    Jul. 28 '05 - 01:34PM    #
  11. Tell me “computer breeches” wasn’t funny lol.

    I thought the Courant article he was referring to was in News, not Opinion. Misunderstanding.

    I’m skepticle if “thousands” of students voted for two relatively unknown city positions. Regardless it should have warranted at least one story.

    ***
    The Daily is far from perfect to be sure. Remember: the University has no journalism school and many of the reporters that come in have no news experience at all (especially in summer). This is their training ground and by consequence the product is not always amazing. It is “amatuer” in the sense that people do not yet have professional skills—but they work hard and, more times than not, put out well-written, informative articles for the students they serve.

    The Daily could be better, but that doesn’t automatically mean it’s bad.
       —Anonymous    Jul. 28 '05 - 03:32PM    #
  12. Not city positions, county positions. And yes, thousands of students did vote on those offices.

    Just as an example, there are about seven Ann Arbor election precincts in the Central Campus area which are overwhelmingly made up of UM students: 1-1, 1-2, 1-3, 2-2, 3-1, 4-1, 4-2. That includes South Quad, East Quad, Law Quad, the State/Maynard/Thompson area, and South Division.

    In those seven nearly pure student precincts, there were 6,360 ballots cast in November 2004. Of those, 5,020 voted in the race for county prosecutor, and 4,837 voted in the race for county clerk.

    And the voters in that small territory are undoubtedly just a portion of all the UM students who vote in Ann Arbor.

    The fact that more than 20% of students didn’t vote in the county races (an unusually high proportion) reflects the lack of information they had available.
       —Larry Kestenbaum    Jul. 28 '05 - 04:15PM    #
  13. They should have definately done a story. I know thousands voted in the election, but that didn’t mean that they marked those spots on the ballot for those positions.

    You should definately e-mail news@michigandaily.com if you have something they should cover.

    City/county stuff doesn’t get covered as much as it probably should, although the U is its main concern.
       —Anonymous    Jul. 28 '05 - 05:41PM    #
  14. Matt,
    Everyone can always say it can be better but until these people try and help it (in this case the Daily) become better they’re just letting out hot air.

    If you were a member of the Daily and you thought it could be better, you shouldn’t have left (unless you had no choice but to leave).

    As for Larry, maybe he can send his news tips to the Daily like someone already suggested. However, Larry, do you believe that those races deserved higher priority than the races that were covered. I don’t, instead I’m led to believe that there were limitations on the coverage and that register of deeds/county clerk didn’t make the cut.
       —why    Jul. 29 '05 - 06:29PM    #