Student
housing
crisis
confronts
city,
University
Dorm shortage forces crowding
City struck by housing crush
By ROBERT KRAFTOWITZ
Morris Holt/. "3. sat hunched
on his bed in a West Quad cafe-
teria.
"It's hot, but livable," he said,
describing his first 24 hours as
a resident of Dining Room No. 4.
Holtz, along with some 300
other teshni en and 36 foreign
studen; is absorbing his first
imp-siw s of tl University in
such unusual living quarters as
a linen room, a library, and a
janitor's workroom. Ninety of
the freslhmen ar o'ccupying two
cafeteria on the second floor of
Wet Quad, and the 36 foreign
tudents are being housed in a
dining room at Markley Hall.
The students are the victims
of circumstances which left the
Office of Uniersity Housing
with a large number of dormi-
tory applicants whom they could
not accommodate in regular
mom11s.
According to housing officials
the number of students, partic-
ularly men, who applied for dor-
mitory spaces greatly exceeded
the estimates made last year by
th? Committee on Residence
Hall Planning.
When this became apparent
in early June, the housing of-
fice immediately made plans to
use two women's houses in
Marklcy Hall for men. In addi-
tion, housing officials began re-
jecting some 150 dormitory ap-
plications from transfer and
graduate students entering this
term.
According to Inter House As-
sembly President Jack Myers,
a member of the committee, six
different women's houses had
been considered for conversion
to men's houses as long ago as
March.
"The personal housing pref-
erunces of the individual com-
mnittee members helped prevent
the conversions, which were
later found to be necessary,"
says Myers.
However, the measures taken
in June still did not insure
spaces for 300 incoming fresh-
men. The Housing Office was
then forced to assign them to
emergency spaces in the Mich-
igan Union, the Michigan
League, faculty suites, storage
and workrooms, the two West
Quad cafeterias, and even sev-
eral motel rooms. The foreign
students, who arrived Tuesday
expecting to be provided with
rooms, were housed in Dining
Room No. 3 in Markley Hall.
Housing officials insist the
emergency quarters are only
temporary. About 200 dormi-
tory spaces are-expected to be-
come available this afternoon,
because the assigned occupants
never arrived. However, the stu-
dents have been warned they
may have to secure housing in
fraternities and off - campus
apartments.
Until they find permanent
residences, the 300 freshmen
will reside in their hastily furn-
ished quarters and many are
See DORM, Page 9
By ALEXA CANADY
and STEVE KOPPMAN
Close to 100 people crowd the
off - campus housing bureau
every day to find listings for
available apartments.
At 1:30 in the aftrenoon the
lobby of the Ann Arbor News
looks like Waterman Gym dur-
ing registration as students
await early copies of the paper
so they can get the first crack
at the rental advertisements.
The student co-ops, already
filled to capacity, have been re-
ceiving applications at three
times the usual rate for this
time of year.
The students invading the off-
campus housing office, the Ann
Arbor News and the co-ops are
all victims of a serious housing
shortage this fall that has left
hundreds of students with no
place to live.
A combination of too many
students, many forced out of the
dorms because of a shortage
there, and almost no new major
residential construction h a s '
created the housing crush.
Charter Realty's Plaza Tow-
ers, a 26-story high-rise a block
and a half from campus, is the
only major new building to go
up this year. At least one cause
is out of the control of anyone
on campus - inflation and the
rising interest rate on mort-
gages.
Both Kenneth Barnhill of
Apartments Ltd. and D. A. Ren-
ken of D. A. Renken and Co.
cite the quickly rising cost of
mortgages as a discouraging
factor in apartment develop-
ment.
And they both cite the Ann
Arbor rent strike being conduct-
ed by the Tenants Union as the
other major factor.
Renken n o t e s that some
apartments have been converted
to business offices and others
have been demolished. One col-
lection of small houses was torn
down for a parking lot for the
telephone company, he noted.
"It may be as much as five
years before more private hous-
ing for students is built," he
added.
Barnhill notes that the two
factors combined to make the
student housing market ex-
tremely insecure, discouraging
new construction.
Dale Berry, legal spokesman
for the Tenants Union, admits
that the rent strike "may have
had some impact, but I doubt it
is a major consideration." he
added.
"It is more likely an attempt
to discredit us," he said. "Our
position is that private housing
is not the only answer."
The housing situation would
not be so bad if it were not for
the unusually large number of
students seeking non-University
housing.
With the elimination of re-
quired freshman residence in
the dormitory system last year,
the housing office had predicted
See CRISIS, Page 9
Daily- Jal.Cassidv
TEll PRESIDENT'S
SUMMER
see Editorial Page
Y L
gilt4b
~Iaii4
MUGGY
Hligh--84
Low-68
Possible
thundershowers
Vol. LXXX, No. 2
Ann Arbor, Michigan-Friday, September 5, 1969
Ten Cents
Eighteen Pages
1INOR H1:
I.C.
SGC
call
for
to
or nize
cease-fire
By Ihe Associated Press
T'h Vi'u Cong will suspend military operations for three
dty n to m_'rk th funeral of President Ho Chi Minh, a broad-
cast report said last night.
The 'rport wa broadca't 'tby Liberation Radio, mouth-
piece of the South Vietnam revolutionary government, and
monitored in London by the British Broadcasting Corp.
The announ 'emnt >aid the decision was made by the
- intr0l Connittee of the National Liberation Front,
It did iot p 'ify wh. n the cease-fire would begin and
end but said the councilt had decided "to suspend military;
attacks for three days during the period of the funeral."
march
on Regents
bookstore
for
'
, 4-
RIO DE JANEIRO T" . Four
gunmen kidnapped U.S. Ambas-
sador Charles Burke Elbrick yes-
terday and, police said, demand-
ed that Brazil release 15 political
prisoners in retlurn o his fre -
dom..
Th'ie kidnappers anibushed El-
brick's black Cadila limousine on
a Rio street, ehlorofonned the
ambassador and drove him off in
T l t tone de-
mma nding-, poliical aylmor the
15 prisoners and the other con-
ttaining-Onantigvamnthar'-
Bra/ilian radio and television.
Informants said tlh e kidnapers
demanded that the prisoners be
delivered to tie embassies of
Chile. Mxico and Algeria witihin
24 hours .by (11lay afternoon.
Eibrick, 61, a ve ran of key as-
signmemts in portant p)s1s,
speaks Portuguese fluently, a
1Oct01 in his recent appoint nen
to the Rio Embassy. He ser'ved as
a mbassado r to Portumiii . 1 958-t
amid was prexioxisly assigned to
Lisbom wlh'n tih' Portuguese cap~
ii al was an intrigue- filled cross-
roads during World War II. Port -
tlud'se is the language of Brazil.
Latin Amnmica's larst ('ottitry.
In San Clenmnti' Cal i.. t h e
Western White house said Presi-
dent Nixon was '''onc'nd"' over
the kidnapping and was following
deselopmnents closely-
The State Department in aWsh-
ing ton said the Brazilian eovern-
ment had promised every effort to
obtain Eibrick's release.
Eibrirk presened his creden -
biva Jly'14Tel'esidrit now
is recovering fom a strmok? and a
niilitarv iriumivirame is m'tilii g
Brazil.
Thie State Departmeit said the
searcli form t he am bassador would
be left lareely to Bramzilia n ant ho'-
it ies but that some Amneric'ani Em-
bassy secutrity pjersommel pi'obably
would assist.
In Washington U.S. officials in-
dicated it wou 1d be up to the,
South Vietnam government to say
howlong it would respond to any
cease-fire. The U.S. command'
would go along with the Saigon
government's decision. officialss
predicted.
Leaders of the Communist world
meanwhile headed for Hanoi to
attend the state funeral of the
president. The mourning North
Vie tnamese capital was shrouded
in rain as the people listened to
radios playing somber music.
First to arrive was Premier Chou
En-lay of Red China and two
members of the Communist party's
Central Committee, Yeh Chien-
ying and Wei Kuo-ching.
The Soviet Union, Red China's
ant agonist, was expected to send
Premier Alexei N. Kosygin.
Hanoi has yet to announce the
date for the funeral of the 97-
year-old North Vietnamese leader.
who died Wednesday of a heart
attack. But Ambassador Xuan
Thty, chief of Hanoi's delegation
to the ietnam peace talks, said in
Paris the funeral would be next
Wednesday.
Thuy requested and got a can-
cellation of Thursday's session of
the peace talks. He said Ho's death
.ould bring no change in North
Vietnani 's staid, which among
other things call: for' withdrawal
of all U.S. troops from South Viet-
mnami
Japtanes dispatches from thet
North Vietnamese capital said res-
icients stood in a light driule to!
hear the first word over loud-!
speakers that Ho had died.
Seiichiro Ujiie, Hanoi corres ion-
dent of the Tokyo newspaperw
Yomiuri Shimbun, said they re-
ceived the news calmly. Man in
t' crowds wore black arm iV;'dsI
and some were ed-eyed from cad-;
"The people seem to lha,,, jIni
trust in the solid 'nity ofI their
leadership even without 'Uncle
Ho'," Ujiie wrote. "People in Hanoi
-Dail} 1ay _'. i
't iversity President Robben W. Fleming welcomes inconiing freshmnien
Fleminge M aghlin1
clash before freshmen
By RICK PERLOFF
Student Government Council
voted 5-2 last night to sponsor a
rally and a subsequent march into
the Regents meeting Sept. 19 to
protest the Regents decision this
'umnmer not to establish a student
bookst'ore.
The rally is scheduled to begin
at 1:00 p.m., an hour before the
Regents meeting begins.
"We are going to disrupt the Re-
gents meeting," said Executive
Vice President M''c Van Der
However, SGC President Marty
McLaughlin said the rally would,
in effect, decide whether or not
the meeting was to be disrupted.
The motion, introduced by Van '
Der Hout, states that the studentsYg
"plan to go to the Regents' meet-
ing from the rally sohthat the -
student voice may be heard in a z
way that the Regents cannot ig-
nom'e."
If, as Van Der Hout says, the
motion is intended to disrupt the
meeting it could, technically, be a
violation of an SGC rule banning
interference with the "quiet" of
University functions. -Dauily-Jay Cassidy
Council also amended a resolu- gu .E to Ket ele
tion fom Van De Houts motion A gus Editor Ken Kelley
which stated that SGC's intent
was "to continue to disrupt every
Regents meeting until actiistro s ' 0 1 )a1
duced by Mary Livingston, stated
that Council would pursue the.
establishment of the bookstore un-
Oct1 harngset
til action is taken, presumably, by
the Regents.
The Regents oi July 18 rejected By STEVE NISSEN
two proposals to create a student City Editor
discount bookstore. An SGC plan
to finance the bookstore through Ken Kelley, editor and publisher of the Ann Arbor Argus, has
a $1.75 student fee assessment been freed on $1000 bail following his arraignment Wednesday
with additional funds coming from in District Court on an obscenity charge.
the Office of Student Affairs was Kelley was arrested Tuesday two weeks after the Argus printed
unanimously defeated. This pro- a picture of Republican City Councilman James Stephenson which
posal had been supported over- had a drawing of a penis superimposed on it.
helmingly by students in a ref- A preliminary hearing has been set for Oct. 1.
erendum last spring. Kelley's attorney, Detroit lawyer Marc Stickgold, predicted his
The Regents also turned down client "will never be convicted."
an administration plan which Stickgold and Kelley appeared at a press conference Wednesday
would have financed the bookstore
through outside gifts and volun- following the arraignment. In a prepared statement Kelley called his
tary student contributions. Mc- arrest a "strictly political bust".
Laughlin indicated that the Re- He said the prosecution is "designed to eliminate a highly politi-
See SGC, Page 8 cal enterprise that politically attacks this city's, state's and coun-
By RICK PERLOFF
The President's Welcome to
'freshmen has in the past been a'
rather sleepy affair typified by
faded jokes by the president of
Student. Government Council and
familiar praise from the Univer-
sity President.
But at this year's welcome Wed-
nesday a standing - room only
crowd ini Hill .Aud. heard talks on
the issues as SGC President Mar-
ty McLaughlin lashed out at an
"undemocratically" run university'
and President Robben Fleming
spoke of the difficulties in satis-
fying the various constituencies in
the community.
Both McLaughlin and Fleming
exceeded the usual 15 minutes al-
loted speakers in the past -- Mc-,
Laughlin spoke for 45 and Flem-
ing for 25 minutes.
"The University," said Mc-
Laughlin in an impromptu "tell it
like it is" speech, "is run in the
interest of students only when its
interests and the students' coin-
cide.
"The University listens to the
people who have power and it is
going to continue to do that un-
less the student body - which has
an interest in getting a share of
this institution - starts mnaking
the changes that are necessary."
Fleming stressed that he did'
not come to debate the SGC Pres-
ident and said their differences on
c4,1r1l i" 7n17P 1P .f i T ni .r- , i
the taxpayers ("who have been
extremely generous" with giving
money to universities.)
McLaughlin attacked the idea
that the University is a sanctuary
where free and open debates take
place. "In fact," he said "what the
University is-which you can see
very clearly simply from reading a1
catalogue from a school let alone
from the bylaws of the University
-is a structure which is in es-
sence authoritarian, where tih e
kinds of authority- -legal and
otherwise-is vested in the Re-
gents and where defacto authority
is in the hands of administ'ators
and faculty.
"It should be quite clear."' he,
continued, "that rational dialogue
is only possible between equals and
the first time students start toz
consider themselves equals with
the faculty or the administration
is the time they find this really not
is the case in terms of powem'r"
McLaughlin added that "the
University does not serve a train-
ing function for producing criti-
cal thinkers. Crit ical thinke's are
produced at the Umiversity by ccr-
tamn accidents as a result of brimg-
ing together a certain number' of;
sufficiently bmight peopl._
"The role of the university In
this society is to produce a com-
modity for a price."
McLaghlin saved most om his
tongue lashinr fo' tie Regents.
He described regeital decisions,
here as "made after' 350 pages
have been sent to them in the mail
and duni'ig heii' two dlays a momth
in Ann Arbor."
He cited the Regemts' decision
not to set upt a Univeirsity book-1
I store, dt 'pi i studen referen-
See FL EMING, Page 8
I
are going about their watine
emergency work as usual and thereE
appears to be little tension in the1
air."
As Hanmoi began a (.)~k f
moiurning, Hanoi madio told nevs-
papers to run Ho's picture and a
biography within a black border
for the next seven days. AUl miaoio
stations b'roadcast subdued mu c.
"tig the mourning das. allj
celebratiomis, all entertain :mns,.
See VIET, Page 8
sj
.I
.
E
;
l
COMMLINICATION GAP
.- - try's politicians."
The obscenity case is expected
to raise significant legal ques-
tions regarding individual civil
lihpartiprad fpernm refthe ~nif
Course closin
I Y,
JJ.Jk 4 VU'ull I rueuv....i.Alla 'sv 411C p. '..a.
By JIM BEATTIE
On paper, the diversity of the
courses offered at a large univer-
sity seem a great advantage. In
fact, however, many freshmen and
sophomores at the University have
found themselves on long waiting
Speech and sociology hadi the
next worst problem with 19 couirses
closed in the tvo depatmnets be-
fore last Tuesdav,
The causes of time piroblemi geI-
erally vary with the size of the
department in quest ion. However,
sThetiariant for Kelley's arrest
was authorized by County Pro-
secutor William Delhey after City
Attorney Jerold Lax refused to
the office of the registrar, not the :caused not so much by bureau- authorize a criminal warrant.
various departments. determine cratic failure as by shortages of Lax described the Argus photo-
what the expected return of stu- funds for faculty and equipment. graph as a "political statement"
dents and the admissions quotas "In the larger departments, we and concluded that it was there-
shall be for each year. can make fairly accurate predic- fore protected in light of recent
Because of fluctuations in the tions about how many students we Supreme Court decisions,
number of graduates and dropouts
swill have, says Psycholog de- At the Wednesday press con-
I .-k _
~1