4 ifiitran'nathl Seventy-nine. years of editorial freedom Edited and managed by students of the University of Michigan ) Maynard St., Ann Arbor, Mich. News Phone: 764-0552 Editorials printed in The Michigan Daily express the individual opinions of staff writers or the editors. This must be noted in all reprints. DNESDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 1970 NIGHT EDITOR: JUDY SARASOHN "The Clergy Counseling Service maintains a phone service in Detroit. Call 964-0838 and you will hear a taped message listing the names and phone numbers of three clergymen in the metropolitan area. There is no charge for the service." 00 Aborion and disse-minating the word Putting teeth in the housing ordinance E CITY'S HOUSING ordinance has long been a weak and ineffectual document - not even a tiger on paper. It provided unwieldy and insufficient mechanisms for penalizing violators, tol- erated sloppy inspection of apartment buildings and gave landlords endless ex- tensions to correct their code violations. As a result lapses of up to two years oc- curred between the time a violation was reported and the correction was made. It is little wonder that landlords have taken advantage of the housing code, per- mitting long standing code violations to go uncorrected, though they presented im- minent hazards to a tenant's health and safety. For what would threaten the land- lord; the ordinance was only a packet of laughs. These wretched conditions appear to be headed for improvement, with City Council's enactment of a new housing codelast Monday. The code strengthens many of the pro- visions of the 1968 state housing Tenants Rights Act which the city relied on ex- clusively prior to the new ordinance's ap- proval. And while the new ordinance has some shortcomings, it can - if the city ac- cepts the enforcement responsibilities - mark the end of the deplorable condi- tions of the past. E CODE enables the city to seek an injunction against a landlord if he' refuses to correct violations which present an imminent hazard to a tenant's safety. It additionally allows the city to take emergency procedures itself to correct the violations if the situation presents an immediate danger. And the city can also instruct a court to appoint a receiver to make repairs that a landlord failed to make in his building. In such a case, the receiver would de- termine the conditins under which the building would be returned to the land- lord. The code also imposes a fine of $5 per day for each major or minor violation that is not corrected in a maximum of 180 days. Major violations refer to hazards to health and safety, while minor viola- tions apply to less severe problems, like the failure to paint a building. The fine would take hold in 15 days if a landlord did not show any proof he was correcting a major violation. Also, tenants can place their rent in a private or city-operated escrow fund if the city fails.to inspect the dwelling with- in 10 days after a complaint is filed with the city, provided the owner did not pre- sent evidence repairs were underway. A tenant can also place his rent in escrow if the building's certificate of compli- ance is withdrawn. The maximum amount of time before escrow payment could be- gin is 60 days for both major and minor offenses. 1968 state tenants rights act allows payment in escrow for only major violations and is unclear about whether tenants can place their rent into a pri- vate escrow account. These points are well clarified in the city's new code. Although these changes on balance represent a significant strengthening in the code's enforcement provisions, they place a heavy burden on the city to insure that excessive extensions are not given and that penalties are imposed rapidly and efficiently. For the code was deliberately restruc- tured to give the city building officials flexibility in determining the amount of time that can elapse before penalties are invoked. Until Monday, a landlord had 15 days to correct violations constituting hazards to health and safety or he would face the $5 fine and rent withholding. And now there is no distinction be- tween a major and minor infraction - despite the differences in their gravity. The maximum time before fines can be- gin is 180 days and for rent withholding, 60 days. City building officials - who are large- ly responsible for the code's enforcement - insist they will strictly enforce the ord- inance and not give landlords excessive extensions to correct major violations. They do not, for instance, anticipate giving landlords the entire 60 day period to fix hazards to health and safety. They believe it would be extremely unusual that it would be 180 days before fines would take effect. YET WHETHER the code is strictly en- forced or whether, as before, it toler- ates code violations depends entirely on the building officials. If, as at present, they are dedicated'to eradicating housing abuses, the code will be a powerful piece of law. But suppose the officials are willing to give landlords endless extensions and re- fuse to enforce the ordinance stringently? Then it is entirely possible that it could take as much as two month for rent with- holding to begin and as long as six months for a landlord to be fined. And during this time, a tenant could be wallowing in hazards to his own health and safety. Thus, it is unfortunate that the council refused to establish more definite time limits for the beginning of rent with- holding and fining. For while it may be true that fixing major violations requires offering bids for contractors, possibly hiring new manpower-and in short tak- ing a long period of time-this must be weighed against the possibility that with careless building officials, tenants may be faced with such things as a shortage of heat for long lengths of time without effective remedy. It is the city's respon- 'sibility to insure decent housing for its citizens, no matter what the effort. Council should consider shortening the time limits for both rent withholding and fining to 15 to 20 days for major viola- lations and 60 days for minor violations. The possibility .of a tenant waiting half a year before a careless landlord can be penalzed is ridiculous. Assuming the code remains unchanged, however, council must make sure the building officials strictly enforce the time limits. It must scrutinize a monthly re- port the city Building Safety and Engi- neering Department will provide con- cerning its enforcement policies. T HE CITY SHOULD realize that the power of its housing code lies as much in explicit wording as in implicit threats. The city should make sure that landlords realize the penalities and respect them. To do otherwise would allow a prom- ising ordinance to degenerate into Inef- fectuality. -RICK PERLOFF By JIM NEUBACHER (last of a series) The handsome, husky athlete on one of the University teams sat on the sofa in my apartment, ner- vously clutching the hand of his girlfriend. He had called me the previous day, and said he wanted to talk to me about abortion. When he showed up with his girl- friend, I guessed why. "Uh, what we were wondering is if you could . . . uh ... well do you k n o w how we can get an abortion for her?" he asked. I didn't answer right away. I could go to prison for up to 4 years for "conspiracy to commit abortion," a felony in this state, if I told them. Maybe this was a set-up by the state police. They do that sort of thing. I also hesitated because I was uncertain of my own competence to tell them anything. There is a real danger in the illegal abortion racket. I knew of some contacts - competent persons who would likely make sure she got a decent, professional abortion. I DECIDED to refer them to a trustworthy clergyman. Friends, housemothers, resident advisors, clergymen, and doctors are continualy faced w i t h the same question. And the dilemma is many sided. "I don't dare turn away a girl who approaches me," says a psy- chology teaching fellow who is a member of a very competent, pro- fessional and concerned under- ground abortion counseling ring. "It might be the last time you see her alive if she ends up in the hands of someone incompetent." T h e problem with abortion counseling is the communications gap between the counselors and those who need the advice and understanding. A young woman, finding herself pregnant, often is afraid and doesn't know who to turn to for help. "I was just paralyzed when I found out," says Sandy. "I sort of rejected the idea. I didn't want to admit to myself I was preg- nant. There would be so many problems if I was." AND MANY TIMES, the wo-' man is afraid to reveal to h e r friends and close advisors that she is pregnant and in need of help. "You never know what kind of reaction, you're going to get if you tell someone," says Marilyn. So, unless something happens to put the woman and the counselor together, tragedy and unhappi- ness can be the result. Recognizing this problem, more and more people are, making themselves known publicly as sup- porters of abortion reform a n d counselors for women with "prob- lem pregnancies." In Detroit, the Rev. Carl Biel- by heads the Michigan Clergy for Problem Pregnancy Counseling. More than 120 clergymen across the state have joined to provide free, informative counseling for women who need abortions. The organization maintains a phone service in Detroit that re- fers callers to clergymen for counseling. Call 964-0838 and you will hear a taped message listing the names and phone numbers of three clergymen in the metropoli- tan area. "Call and say you would like to make an appointment for prob- lem pregnancy or contraceptive counseling," the message tells you. "There is no charge for the service." REV. BIELBY, who works out of a small office in the Metropoli- tan Council of Churches building in downtown Detroit, devotes al- most all his time to the counsel- ing service. "We operate with the blessing of the Council of Churches but not with their endorsement," he says. "But I've been given a man- date to devote a considerable amount of time for this opera- tion." Rev. Bielby has made no effort to cover up what the clergymen are doing. On the contrary, he has publicized the operations as much as he can, and has been inter- viewed by both Detroit dailies and Time magazine. The phone num- ber of the service is listed. And Bielby knows that the next visitor he gets may have been sent by the state police. "When we first set up the serv- ice, we met with state officials to discuss the ground rules," he says. "They didn't agree to them, but then, we didn't ask them to." THE PHONE rings constantly in Bielby's office. "Hello, this is Carl Bielby speak- ing. (pause) Not for yourself? (pause) Oh, I see. How many weeks pregnant are you? 11? Listen, young lady, we want to set up an appointment for you right away. You shouldn't waste another minute. After twelve weeks things are much more complicated. Now I want you to talk to this clergy- man in Dearborn...." And later . "Hello, this is Carl Bielby. Oh yes, you can send her there. Sure, his technique is excellent, and its very clean. I know, went down and watched him myself. Yes. Ex- cellent. You call him and set it up. Make sure to put the Reverend in front of your name. He'll under- stand." While the clergymen are still a bit hesitant to say it outright, there is no question that they are, indeed, setting up illegal abortions. But they see their job as more than just a referral service. And they don't operate on the assump- tion that each woman they talk to will end up getting an abortion. Each member of the service un- dergoes a training session and is given a set of guidelines by which to operate. The clergyman explores many aspects of the situation, mentioning five alternatives facing the woman, marriage, putting' the baby up for adoption, keeping the baby, termination of pregnancy, and suicide. IN ORDER to discuss the merits of the alternatives, the counselor asks the woman about her feelings toward the child, her religious and ethical convictions, her opinion on the current laws and their appli- cation, and her view of the future. "The counselor is to help clarify the ethical and emotional issues involved in the moral decision the client must make," states the sheet of guidelines issued to each clergy- man. "He should avoid the in- clination to be overly inquisitive about the client's sexual history and should refrain from any moralizing about her behavior." More than 150 women a month are now using the Clergy Coun- seling Service, with nothing to in- dicate that the number won't keep growing as long as public officials allow the clergymen to do their work without harassment. When the time comes, as Rev. Bielby feels it inevitably will, that the clergymen have to go to court, they will do it "with the best law- yers in town and the most solid case, in terms of circumstances, that we can put together." Until then, our society's clergy- men and doctors are prohibited by law from doing their jobs by help- ing pregnant women solve the emotional crises that beset them. ow Ai LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Radical facuity comes together $ To the Editor: WE ARE DEEPLY alarmed by University complicity in military and corporate violence, and by recent efforts of t he University administration to repress groups such as SDS which have attempt- ed to oppose this violence. The administration h a s undertaken a broad range of punitive tactics which, if successful, would have the effect of driving SDS off campus. T h e University thus makes an academic policy and a political choice. By menacing the organized student opposition,tit confirms its alliance with ROTC, Dow Chemical, Chase Manhattan, and other agents of near and dis- tant destruction. CONTENT merely to deplore the tactics of SDS, many of our colleagues make the same choice. But we members of the University staff will not be, distracted from the task of naming and opposing the main institutions of inhuman- ity in the world. It is time for radical faculty to form a coher- ent group for the purpose of po- litical analysis and independent action. We invite interested staff members to join us Sunday, Feb. 15, at 8:30 p.m. at Guild House, 802 Monroe St. -Frithjof Bergmann --Barry Bluestone -Leslie Bluestone -Janice Bude -J. Edgar Edwards -Robert Hauert -William B. Hauser -Craig Hammond -Robert Hefner -Richard Mann -Roy Rappaport -Robert Ross -Marshall Sahlins -Archie Singham -Robert Sklar -Stephen Stich -Adrienne Tentler -Charles Tilly -G. A. Waggoner -Joseph Wehrer -Ernest Young Feb. 10 From John's boy To the Editor: IN THE INTERESTS of setting the record straight, I write this letter to protest the tactics of bi- ased news management practiced so meticulously by The Daily. Let's take, for example, yester- day's page one story on student participation in Housing Office decisions. Having made an issue of the deliberations of the Stu- dent-Staff Residence Halls Rates Committee, The Daily should feel obligated to allow its reporter, Rob Bier, to report the story as he saw it - not how the editors want him to see it. Rob gained the respect of all of the committee members by being in attendance at practically all of our meetings and demonstrating a willingness to absorb all of the financial data which the commit- tee used. (A point of fact which should be noted here is that any and all data ever requested by any member of the committee w a s promptly supplied to all of us, in- cluding Rob Bier, by the Office of University Housing.) The day prior to the most re- cent Daily story, Rob Bier called me and in the ensuing conversa- tion he referred to the gross in- eptness of Mike Farrell's criticism of the rates committee. The ex- ample which your reporter used was that the a b o v e mentioned SGC member claimed that t h'e rates committee decisions were in direct contradiction to the stu- dent desires expressed by the re- sponses to the committee's survey. WHEN PRESSED by the Daily reporter, Mr. Farrell used the ed- ucational resident staff as an ex- ample. Mike was in a b it of a quandary, however, to then ex- plain what he meant when Rob Bier pointed out that the commit- tee had demanded nearly $100,000 in cuts in the budget of the edu- cational resident staff. ' And I'm wondering w h y the nDailyeditors won't give their own reporters a free hand to report the news. Certainly t h e Daily's gross distortions and one-sided re- porting of the IHA affairs of Dec. served to credit no one and did absolutely nothing to clarify the issues for your readers. In my two years in IHA I have acted under the premise that my contituency is the residence halls student body - not the editors of the Daily. If you have taken af- front at this, I can only offer you my sincere apologies. Further, I wish you all the luck which you deserve in trying to strong arm as many others into mouthing your views. -Jack Myers Pres., IHA Jan. 26 Grad Assembly To the Editor: THE DAILY'S report of the last Graduate Assembly meeting was not entirely accurate. I did not say that I expected that the Rack- ham executive board would ap- prove student parity on the board. Quite the reverse, I would predict protracted delay and seeking of compromise. WhataIdid say was that the board would probably be willing to talk about the issue bey- ond the point of exasperation. Similarly, I did not say anything abou the board's seeking stu- dents for dissertation committees through Graduate Assembly, a notion that is bizarre and absurd. I did say that students as full, voting members of the Rackham board could begin to change the unreasonable inflexibility of the school on this and other issues. . t4. - - " - "Don't nybody move , . 1 W K! Iva be MOVES1I1S1 ARMS UP NP DOWN!I recommending immediate review of SDS' recognition as a student organization. In addition to the instances which he cited, we have now experienced the SDS action against du Pont and attempted action against the Air Force and Gulf Oil Company employment re- presentatives, and four large and, expensive windows in our area have been smashed. During the duPont demonstration I was man- handled and forceably prevented from entering the interview room, and many threats of more serious violence were made to the duPont representative, the security offi- cers, and to me. In particular, a concerted rush was made on the interview room with the avowed intention of capturing the repre- sentative and taking him against his will to the "Fishbowl," appar- ently to make sport of him. If the security officers had not success- fully repulsed this effort, t h e r e undoubtedly would have been much more serious violence than the scuffles which did occur. IN VIEW OF the recent con- viction of SDS by CSJ of a similar violation of SGC rules in connec- tion with the blockading of the Navy Underwater Weapons Lab- oratory representative last March, continued recognition and priv- Private support To the Editor: PRESIDENT FLEMING'S r e - ported views about the legislation which threatens to cut off financ- ial aid to students involved in poli- tically motivated disruptions, as testified before the House Spec- ial Subcommittee on Education, sound admirable. Apparently he is aware of the inequitable nature of this oppressive measure, as it affects some more than other students and is not governed judi- cially. Many men, for the misguid- ed sake of upholding the rule of law, give tacit support to individ- ual discriminatory laws by com- plying with them. Few are willing to risk principled violation of such laws in order to contest them. There is a striking irony to me as a Rhodesian student. Some years ago there was an outcry in American government and univer- sity circles when the Smith regime passed a bill requiring the suspen- sion of government scholarships to students at the University College of Rhodesia who engaged in poli- tical activities on campus. Natur- ally the students most disastrously HE HE !;"f. THE A4