Pana k-Sundav. October 22, 1978-The Michigan Daily
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THE WEEK IN REVIEW
Regents: S. Af
The University Regents approved
guidelines for the selection of the next
University president this week. The
Regents made some concessions to the
Michigan Student Assembly (MSA)
which has claimed over the past
several weeks that the guidelines
originally proposed by the Regents did
not allow for adequate student input.
One guideline ties the Regents to
make available to all advisory commit-
tees the biographical sketches of all
candidates it is considering.
"If a name is suggested by the
Regents' Selection Committee, a
biographical sketch will be sent to the
chairmen of the three Advisory Com-
mittees. In this way, every committee
will know the candidates being con-
sidered and the Selection Committee
and the Advisory Committees would.
begin to have names to study, states the
ninth guideline.
'Guideline seven adopts the MSA
request for equal distribution of
biographical information of the can-
didates to all committees.
However, the guidelines prohibit the
advisory committees from inter-
viewing the candidates and no specific
means of communication is set up by
the guidelines.
,Kate Rubin, a member of the MSA
was allowed a short time to speak on
the selection process. She objected to
the 'guideline excluding the advisory
committee from the interviewing of
candidates.
"Students do feel personal access by
1ll groups is necessary in making a
reasonable decision," said Rubin.
It is not clear whether the MSA will
participate in the selection process. A
resolution passed by the Assembly on
october 9 asked that the selection
process would allow for a fourth ad-
visory group composed of students,
Faculty, and alumni, which would
narrow the list of candidates proposed
by the groups and then present them to
the Regents.
The guidelines adopted Friday by the
Regents made no provision for this
narrowing of candidates.
The Board also reviewed the
rica and new president
preliminary reports submitted by cor-
porations operating in South Africa in
which the University has investments.
In April the Regents agreed to send let-
ters to the corporations asking for a
report on their South African
operations. The Regents were
especially interested to learn if they
adhere to the Sullivan Principles which
are designed to discourage
desegregation.
At Thursday's meeting in Flint three
residents of the city, which houses one
campus of the University, spoke on the
investments issue.
Steven Stewart, president of the
student government on the Flint Cam-
pus, lauded the Regents' decision
against divestiture, "The Regents will
'have more impact on helping the blacks
who are working for the corporations
by retaining the investments," said
Stewart.
Michael Moore, co-editor of the Flint
Voice and a graduate of that campus of
the University, spoke in favor of
divestiture.
"These corporations are providing
the tax base for the apartheid regime to
exist. Without the tax base there is no
regime," said Moore.
Dan Kildee, a University student,
called the South African investments
"an endorsement of hatred, inequality,
and white supremacy. An economic
boycott is the only way to avoid blood-
shed. The University of Michigan is a
place where dreams are built. Let's not
crush the dreams of the people across
the ocean."
The Regents also approved the
proposed 1979-80 state funding request,
which includes provisions for a 10.1 per
cent increase in staff salaries. The total
request headed to the state legislature
is $24.7 million.
'Entertainer'folds
Richard LeMar, the distributor of a
controversial discount passbook "The
Entertainer" announced Tuesday he
was discontinuing production of the
book under that name.
LeMar, recently under fire because
of numerous complaints about bogus
coupons in the book, made the
announcement after an attorney for
another passbook, "Entertainment '78"
demanded that he discontinue
distribution.
The attorney, John Blair, accused
LeMar of infringing the registered
trademark "entertainment" of the
Birmingham based Sports Unlimited
Company that publishes
"Entertainment '78."
Steve Zacks, executive vice-president
of Sports Unlimited said he could show
that LeMar had also copied the artwork
of his passbook.
Last week LeMar received many
complaints from students who found
several of the coupons in "The
Entertainer" were not redeemable. He
claimed that a salesman he employed
had forged the names of six area
merchants on the contracts he
received. LeMar said the salesman has
agreed to sign a written statement
claiming repsonsibility for the forgery,
relieving LeMar of liability for the
coupons.
All of the publicity surrounding the
Entertainer passbook has left LeMar's
business in poor shape.
"On campus, I'm ruined," LeMar
said. He said about two-thirds of the 150
people who ordered the book no longer
want it.
Unions and t
Three University labor unions
were in the news for much of last
week. One union is seeking to main-
tain their status as a labor group,
another is trying to organize such a
union, while a third is seeking a con-
tract settlement from the Univer-
sity.
The Graduate Employees
Organization (GEO) is trying to
maintain its status as a union in the
face of the University position that
Graduate Student Assistants are not
employees but students and
therefore should not be organized.
The GEO got some good news this
week when Regent James Waters
(D-Muskegon) said he is considering
a resolution calling for the Univer-
sity to drop its appeal of a 1976 ruling
that found the University guilty of
unfair labor practices.
Waters, along with Regent Gerald
Dunn (D-Livonia) voted against the
resolution to appeal the case. Two
Regents said they would definitely
oppose the measure if Waters does
propose it while four refused to
commit themselves.
Should the Regents vote down the
Waters resolution, if it is proposed,
four Regents have already commit-
ted themselves against voting to ap-
peal a pro-GEO ruling by the
Michigan Employment Relations
Commission (MERC).
Meanwhile, negotiators for the
University Hospital's House Officers
Association (HOA) and the Univer-
sity moved closer to a contract set-
tlement during preliminary
negotiations Wednesday night..
HOA represents the interns and
residents at University Hospital,
who are asking for better working
conditions and improved patient
services.
Pauline Reisner, an HOA ad-
ministrator, said HOA altered most
of its proposals and retained only a
he University
few of the union's original demands.'
HOA President Harry Colfer
stated the organization is frustrated
by the University's reaction to the
unions concessions and accused the
University of hampering the
negotiations.
Clerical workers at the University
moved close to organizing a union
this week. At a meeting of the
MERC, the University, and the
Organized Committee for Clericals
(OCC) a tentative agreement for a
certification election was reached.
In order to have an election the OCC
must collect 30 per cent of a possible
3,000 signatures of clericals on cam-
pus. The union has already collected
1,423 signatures - close to 50' per
cent.
Marianne Jensen said the OCC is
at the brink of becoming a union.
City rap-up:
PBB, no conflict
The PBB fiasco struck close to home
this week when it was disclosed at
hearings being conducted by the
Department of Natural Resources
(DNR) in Lansing that the Ann Arbor
city landfall was the burial site of two
and one-half tons of PBB-tainted grain
in June of 1974.
William Turney, DNR environmental
department chief, estimated there was
about one and one-half ounces of PBB
(poly-brominated biphenals) in the
grain. The DNR, and city and county
health officials were not aware of the
PBB dumping at the landfill until Tuesday
of last week.
On Wednesday city officials greeted
the news with relative calm. Assistant
City administrator Patrick Kenney said
the landfill had been tested three
months ago for leakage because it had
been considered as a dumping spot for
PCB (poly-chlorinated biphenyl) which
has accumulated in the sludge at the
city's sewage plant. At the time of that
test the five foot clay walls and floor of
the landfill were not leaking.
Because of the tests Kenney said,
"we are confident no PBB is or has
been leaking."
But the next day the city announced
the landfill would be tested once again
for possible leakage because of the PBB
dumping.
Turney sait it was unlikely any PBB
had leaked out.
"PBB is extremely insoluble," said
Tunney. "That makes it quite unlikely
that it would have been able to seep out
when there was no trace of any possible
chemicals."
The city will contact state and county
officials this week, however, requesting
the landfill be tested for leakage.
City Attorney Bruce laidlaw ruled
Wednesday that two Republican City
Council members did not have a
conflict of interests when they voted
Monday to approve the city purchase of
land from the Ann Arbor Bank and
Trust Company for the construction of a
parking structure.
Earl Greene (D-Second Ward) raised
the issue Monday night after
Councilmen Clifford Sheldaon (D-Third
Ward) and David Fisher (R-Fourth
Ward), both employees of the bank,
votedin favor of the land purchase.
After handing down his decision
Laidlaw said the current state statute
concerning conflict of interest is not
stringent enough.
"We have a pathetically weak
conflict of interest statute, so the
decision was messier than normal,"
said Laidlow. He explained that the
original law as passed by the
legislature rigidly defined conflict of
interest but major portions of the law
ere thrown out by the state Supreme
Court.
The Regents at the March 1978 meeting when they decided not to sell invest-
ments in corporations with South African operations.
Sam off's tenure
Political Science Assist-
ant Professor Joel Samoff announced
Thursday he would appeal the most
recent gecision by "Iihe department's
tenured faculty to denyhim tenure.
Samoff, an expert on South African
(ffairs and political economics, said his
appeal claims his work was not
examined fairly because opinions of
professors in his field were devalued
while those of professors outside his
areas of expertise were weighed more
heavily.
The appeal also states the
department chairman did not present
the tenured faculty with an adequate
background on University guidelines
for tenure decisions. Moreover, Samoff
states, that because five department
members were being considered for
tenure when his case was considered it
was impossible for him to be tenured.
The tenure decision will be appealed
to the Literary College's Executive
committee who will decide how the
appeal will be handled.
Meanwhile, on his visit to campus
Wednesday and Thursday, author and
educator Jonathan Kozol pointed to the
Samoff case as an example of the lack
of student input in the academic
decisions of the University. Kozol urged
students to organize around the Samoff
case.
- The next night a Samoff student
support committee was formed. At the
meeting the names of the faculty
members who voted to deny Samoff
tenure was circulated for the first time.
The names were supplied by a Political
Science Department source. Seven of
the names were confirmed by other
department sources. They include:
professors Thomas Anton, John
Kingdon, Warren Miller, Lawrence
Mohr, J. David Singer, A.F.K.
Organski, and William Zimmerman.
The student support group proposed a
.number of tactics to raise the
University community's consciousness
on the Samoff tenure denial.
Waters
I
I ____________________________________________________________________ I
Behind the civil war in Nicaragua
EIty-ie Y£IdganaId
Eighty-Nine Years of Editorial ire edmen
Vol. LIX, No. 40
News Phone: 764-0552
Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan
The raid into Zambia
ILITARY MEN are not known for
their exceptional intelligence. In
fact, promotions are not based on how
wise their judgment is, but rather on
how well they can follow orders and
how quickly they react. To react
quickly a military 'person must limit
her or his options-to be most effective
in the eyes of their superiors; they
cannot waste time thinking about the
ramifications of their actions. So a
military person thinks in very narrow
terms. Military leaders strive to main-
tain order and the status quo-freedom
and human rights are of little concern
if at all. For this reason the military
can never play a role in a democratic
government other than as a servant to
the people.
Rhodesia, of course, is not a
democracy. Rhodesian
military leaders play a major role in
the Rhodesian government. Last Thur-
sday was a perfect example of how
great a role the military has in
thodesia (known as Zimbabwe to the
however, put the count closer to 1500
persons.
While Rhodesian jets were dropping
bombs on the ZAPU only twelve miles
north of Lusaka, the capital of Zamiba,
Rhodesian Prime Minister was in
Washington, D.C. soliciting support for
his transitional government. When Mr.
Smith, who did not authorize the raid,
was informed that his military had in-
vaded Zambia, he said: "Our forces
work from a charter to defend the
national security; they don't have to
come to us for permission." Even
Bishop Abel Muzorewa, one of the
three black leaders of the transitional
government, said the army "is given
this freedom of action in defending the
country." Defending whose country
and from what, $ is the question that
must be asked. The answer is simple:
protecting white Rhodesia from the
will of the black majority of Zimbab-
we.
What nonesense does Mr. Smith
speak when he says after six years of
guerrilla warfare that he is ready to
Behind the assassination of Nicaraguan
opposition leader Pedro Joaquin Chamorro,
which ignited that country's current political
turmoil, lie unanswered questions about a
firm that sold vast quantities of Nicaraguan
blood to the United States..
Because Chamorro was the chief political
rival of Nicaraguan President Anastasio
Somoza, some opposition leaders hold
Somoza responsible for the killing and accuse
him of blocking a thorough investigation.
Although Somoza denies having any con-
nection with Chamorro's death, nine months
have passed since the incident occurred and
investigations remain at a standstill.
AT THE VERY CENTER of the Chamorro
riddle is a Miami physician who operated a
Nicaraguan human blood processing com-
panythat collected and sold vast quantities of
plasma to firms in the United Statees: The
blood processing company, Centro
Americana de Plasmaferesis, was burned to
the ground the night after Charmorro's death
during anti-government riots in response to
his assassination.
Plasmaferesis had been the focus of a
political storm since it opened in 1971. Char-
morro had published reports in his opposition
newspaper, La Prensa, charging that Somoza
himself had a financial investment in the
company. Denouncing the operation as "an
inhuman tariff in the blood of Nicaraguans,"
Charmorro claimed that Plasmaferesis.was
making money off the poor by purchasing
their blood at low prices and selling it at a
huge profit.
Plasmaferesis manager, Dr. Pedro M..
Ramos, the Miami. physician, denied the:
charges saying that his only link to Somoza
was that the Plasmaferesis building stood on
Somoza-owned land.
Ramos eventually sued for libel.
ON JAN. 10 Charmorro was assassinated,
sparking two days of protest in which
Plasmaferesis and several Somoza-owned
building were destroyed. Several days after
By Mark Sh'wartz
he flew from Nicaragua to Miami the day
before Chamorro's death has heightened
specualtion about his possible involvement in
'the assassination. Also, on Jan. 15, five of
Ramos' Plasmaferesis employees were
allowed td leave Managua and travel to
Miami without undergoing interrogation into
the Chamorro affair.
In September, the Nicaraguan embassy in
Washington, D.C., formally asked the State
Department to extradite Ramos to
Nicaragua. The case is still under review, in
part because State Departmentlawyers are
having trouble interpreting the vaguely wor-
ded extradition request, which accuses
Ramos of being the "intellectual author" of
the Chamorro assassination.
"We don't know if the phrase 'intellectual
author' translates to 'murder,' or 'accessory
to the fact of murder,' or just what it means,"
said Dan Welter, the State Department's
Nicaraguan desk officer.
MEANWHILE, THE five alleged assassins
remain in jail in Nicaragua awaiting the out-
come of the Ramos extradition. And Ramos
continues practicing medicine in Florida,
although he no longer will discuss his pending
case.
Ramos' company was the only large-scale
foreign operation licensed by the. Food and
Drug Administrationsto collect and sell
plasma in this country.
"Until last January, 10 per cent of the raw
plasma used in the United States originated
from Plasmaferesis," said Dr. Joel Solomon,
an FDA spokesman.
Plasmaferesis was collecting over 38,000
pints of human plasma a month, according to
the American Blood Resources Association
(ABRA). An ARBA spokesman noted that all
of the plasma was sold to two corporations:
Baxter Travenol Laboratories headquarted in
Deerfield, Ill., and Cutter Laboratories of
hours waiting to sell a pint of blood.
The sheer number of blood donors who
passed through Plasmaferesis is astounding.
Using ABRA figures, Hink estimated that the
blood center handled over 100 donors an hour
while operating six days a'week from 6 a.m.
to 8 p.m. Over 400,000 blood donations were
made very year, he calculted, in a country
with a total population of only 2.5 million.
A startling new allegation in the
Plasmaferesis mystery was made recently by
a former Peace Corps volunteer who had
spent over a year in Nicaragua.
Vickie Powell, who returned from Managua
last March, said that she became acquainted
with Chamorro and many of his" political
associated while serving in the Peace Corps.
Powell said Chamorro had cultivated sources
inside Plasmaferesis who told grisly tales of
how the blood was obtained.
"Many believed that.was one reason why
Chamorro'was killed," Powell said. "They
said he was going to expose the killing of 30 or
more people a day and the flushing out of
their bodies into Lake Managua."
WHEN CONTACTED at his Miami office,
Dr. Ramos refused to discuss any of the
allegations that the blood was obtained in a
questionable manner. The FDA's Solomb i
said the Nicaraguan center was "spotless and
well run."
The FDA conducted annual inspections of
Plasmaferesis, Solomon noted. "I am not,
aware that there were any major deficien-
cies," he said. "All their records were in or-
der."
Robert Reilly, executive director of ABRA,
agreed with Solomon but noted that "a lot
can happen between FDA inspections. Most
everyone agrees that annual inspections are a
fairly inefficient way of determing com-
pliance."
Hink of Cutter Labs rejected all claims that
Plasmaferesis donors had been exploited. "I
visited the place myself ii the fall of 1977,"
Hink remarked, "and in some instances they