VV THE MICHIGAN DAILY Paew' ., guy - - I4-ECONOMIC INSTITUTE: mer Professor Battles Unemployment, Referenda, Mock Conventions 'Oppose War, Support Liberals A former University professor is waging a one-man battle against unemployment. Edward Page, who heads Ann Arbor'shSocio-Economic Institute, feels that Federal training pro- grams will not solve the problem of unemployment. He rather con- centrates on what he calls the problem of "entry"-getting the hard-core unemployed into the economic system, after which "the training problem will solve itself." Page put his ideas into practice, some time ago by founding the' Employment Enterprises Develop- ment Corporation, a non-profit organization which took hard-core unemployables, including patients from Ypsilanti State Hospital, and turned them into functioning members of the economy. EEDCO has now spun off from the institute and become a totally separate entity. Page now only sits on its Board of Directors. The institute, which he is trying to make into a consulting agency for, individuals and communities who are attempting to form enter- prises such as EEDCO, has become his main concern. He also em- barked on a number of projects, most of them in the theory stage,, which reacn far beyond employ- ment projects into city planning and reorganization. Leaves UniversityI Page left a position as professorf of industrial engineering in 1965 and traded his tenure for a year's sabbatical in order to found EE- DCO. Using an Office of Econo- mic Opportunity grant, which was later revoked he says "because we didn't follow O.E.O.'s strict train- ing plan" he and his associates established a gas station and oth- er enterprises employing hard- core unemployables and Ypsilanti State Hospital patients. The primary concept that EE- DCO has used in fighting unem- ployment is that it is the problem of "entry", not training, which keeps people from getting jobs. Of the Problem, he says that "we have an economic system that doesn't know how to take care of losers," and that the function of EEDCO is to provide a resource for losers, who can't compete suc- cessfully in the highly competitive economic system. Training programs, Page feels, don't solve the problem of entry, because they don't solve the prob- lems of appearance, of police rec- ords, of prior work experience, of transportation, or fear of failure, all of which contribute to unem- ployment. Further Problem A further problem with train- ing programs is that they take months to complete, which hikes costs enormously. EEDCO's pro- cess of getting the unemployed person a job first and letting training follow thus cuts both costs and time. EEDCO staffers found that in many cases obstacles to employ- ment are not so difficult to break of about $500 per man. This com- pares with the Federal Manpower and Development programs, which place under 50 per cent of their, f applicants, with per man costs of $2,500. With EEDCO on its feet and making progress, Page has begun to devote his time to promoting and gaining financial support for SEI. He is also developing a seem- ingly endless series of ideas deal- ing with economic and social prob- lems. "Any social or economic prob- lem has a rational basis and can be solved," he says.- "Not perfect- ly, perhaps, but to a satisfactory degree." With this in mind he en- visions: Urban Villages -Economic Urban Villages, built in the center of large cities, which would function as a town within a town. The villages would contain residences of all econom- ic levels so poor people would not be displaced. -The people living in the vil- lage could form a condominium. This would be an organization to run the village as an economic (but not political) unit. The resi- dents of the village would elect a board ofhdirectors, who would in turn hire a village manager, who would be judged on perform- ance alone. The village would franchise its business establishments. That it, a city of 20,000 people could support a certain number of doc- tors, a certain number of drug- gists, and so on. The village would' franchise the needed number of any kind of merchant, and revoke the franchise if the merchant abused it. Merchants would be re- quired to live in the village. Fran- chise fees could then be used toI replace property taxes.- Provides Jobs Such a condominium would not only provide much-needed hous- ing but would also provide jobs- all the services that 20,000 people need. Proposals with such far-reach- ing social and economic implica- tions would seem unlikely to come from someone like Page, by train- ing an engineer, not an economist. At present he is receiving no out- side support, and is in the process of mortgaging his house to pro- vide funds. He hopes eventually to make a living working for SEI, but admits that if things don't improve in six months or so, "I'll have to give up and go back to teaching." By College Press Service Washington vote, which was ac- Student referenda and mock tually a poll, gave McCarthy 65 conventions are showing support percent while 81 percent of the' for liberal candidates and general students opposed re-election of opposition to the war in Vietnam. President Johnson. Only a few campuses have held conventions and referenda so far this year. Several more are sched- uled and there will be a national campus presidential primary and referendum on the war on April 24. Students have been leaning to- ward SenatorEugene' McCarthy (D-Minn.) among the Democrats. He has won every Democratic ref- erendum held so far, at such cam- puses as the University of Oregon, I George Washington University, Middlebury College in Vermont, and the University of North Car-: olina. At Oregon, Middlebury, and North Carolina McCarthy beat both President Johnson and New York Senator Robert Kennedy. Kennedy was second at Oregon' and Middlebury but only third at! North Carolina. The George ),1R eTC On the Republican side, there is no clear trend. Former Vice President Richard Nixon won the nomination at a mock convention at the University of Chicago in- volving 22 Young Republican clubs in the Midwest and primaries at North Carolina and Rio Grande College in Ohio. But New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller won primaries at Ore- gon and Middlebury and captured the nomination at a mock conven- tion at the University of Missouri. Notre Dame students nominated Oregon Senator Mark Hatfield ov- er both Rockefeller and Nixon at a convention in which the vote was seen primarily as a protest against the Vietnam war. Campus polls at Butler College in Indiana, King's College in New York. North Carolina, Ore Middlebury, George Washin showed students opposing war. But students also opp immediate withdrawal as a ; tion to the war in polls take the University of Texas, K College. and Colorado State versity. Join the StafI of the Michigan Dail this summer Stop in at Student Pubications Bdg 420 Maynard St. CI lQDC J'~JLX~A\IL)L I'J THIS SUMMER 3 s I ' for your USED BOOKS at UNIVERSITY BOOK STORE Call - 764-0558 316 S. State NO 2-5669 -Associated Pr THE WAR COMES HOME A Vietnamese elder who has lived all his life in avillage ne. Hue listens in wonder as he learns for the first time of the nea destruction of the cuty during the Tet offensive early this yea Since the battle of Hue, travel in the area around the city h, been sharply restricted and communications severely disrupte down as is assumed. Often lack of drivers licenses, or lack of transportation, or fear prevent unemployed persons from getting jobs. Page also found that mental hospitals such as Ypsilanti State contain many people who are merely considered unemployable, and not really mentally ill, Page says. EEDCO taks its applicants, pro- vides whatever they need, builds up their confidence, and puts them to work, either at one of its ess own businesses, or, if possible, lo- cal establishments. Results Impressive EEDCO's results have been im- r- pressive, especially whl:en compar- ed to lavishly financed Federal r. programs. For instance, EEDCO as has succeeded in placing roughly d. two-thirds of its people at a cost // l GLEN PLAIDS \ t "The excitement in engineering doesn't all happen in a developmenttab." "I found that out when I started selling computers. "Obviously, they're expensive. Nobody's going -to buy one unless I can show him why it'll be worth the investment. (This is Bob Shearman, Mechanical Engineer, an IBM Medical Representative in Marketing.) "My customers happen to be doctors and scientists. Naturally, I have to find out what their problems are before I can hope to build a case for installing a computer. That's what I find excit- ing. This whole process of helping somebody solve a knotty problem. "For example, one of my installations is at a cancer research institute. A problem came up when they decided to build a radio therapy suite about a block away from the compu- ter. The doctors wanted to communicate with the com- puter right from a patient's bedside. "The general solution was easy enough. We knew we'd have to use some sort of remote terminal. But from then on it was a process of exploration. I asked a lot of questions, dug up a lot of facts, and generally helped the customer arrive at a detailed definition of his prob- lem. Then I worked closely with IBM and the customer until we had the right terminals installed and functioning. "In a job like this, you use your tech- nical background all the time. Whether you're defining a problem or showing the customer how our equipment can help solve it." Bob's comments cover only a small part of what IBM offers an engineer- ing or science student who likes to work with people. For more facts, visit your campus placement office. Or send an outline of your career inter ests and educational background to Irv Pfeiffer, IBM, Department C, 100 South Wacker Dr., Chicago, Illinois 60606. We're an equal opportu- nity employer. 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