Even in A2
,there's no place like home
Dorm life: Exercise in coping.
By PATRICIA HAGEN
For $2000 a year what do you get?
Thirteen meals a week, a cubicle of a room,
bed, a desk and a chair, and a built in bottle
pener.
You also get a roommate.
THE MEALS are nothing like mother's, the
oom is minute, the bed is lumpy, and the room-
-ate, well:...
Life in any of the University's 12 residence
.alls is guaranteed to be a crash course in lear-
ing to cope. But first-year students somehow
sually manage to adapt to the many challenges
orm dwelling presents.
Some of the lucky, but warped, students who
urvived, can even ,enioy, their "dorm experi-
ience" freely offer advice to incoming fresh-
persons.
THE FIRST problem is trying to fit the assor-
ted paraphernalia of two people (or three if it's a
triple) into a room about the size of an airplane
lavatory. It can be done-if you keep your
roommate in the closet.
Once moved in, you will meet an amazing
menagerie of students. Don't laugh-some of
them will become your best friends.
Late nights of impromptu partying, studying,
and general lunacy are common in every dor-
mitory. (An overdose of popcorn and pizza-two
items essential to survival-has never proven
fatal, just fattening.)
EVEN AT the most obscure hours there is
always someone around to share a pizza with or
shoot the proverbial breeze. Leaving the door-
ajar is like an open invitation for anyone and
everyone to stop in for a chat or study break.
Many residents complain about the sharing a
bathroom with 40 others but at least it's handy if
you need to borrow some shampoo. While there
is a decided lack of privacy, at the same time it's
nice to know a concerned hallmate will always
ask "how was your day?" or how that big chem
test went.
The scarcity of electrical outlets is another
major problem most discover as soon as they
move in. You must adapt. One engineering
student attached one of those four-plug thing-
amabobs to each outlet, He had to plug
See HOW, Page 7
More on housing:
Cooperatives
Fraternities and
sororities
Apartments and
houses
Dorm characterizations
See Page 7
.1y
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f
~G &
Daily Photo by JIM KRUZ
..ad beer
By PATRICIA HAGEN.
Dr. Diag has joined the ranks 4
of University legends.
The personality, whose real
name is Richard Robinson, will
probably never be seen by fresh-
persons. The thirtyish "doctor,"'
whose favorite avocation was to
stand perched upon a trashcan in
the Diag, and expound gems of Daily Photo by JIM KRUZ
wisdom (like the Greek. ONE CAMPUS LEGEND demands that students sidestep
alphabet), left the city last year the big "M" on the Diag (above) lest they fail their first
after he was convicted of assault exam. Another old story--popular in the days of dorm cur-
and battery in connection with an fews-maintained that a woman student was not an official
Angell Hall scuffles coed until she had been kissed under the Engineering Arch
See CAMPUS, Page 2 (top) at midnight
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MSA fights for authority
amid campus apathy and
administrative problems
6
By JULIE ENGEBRECHT
One former member of the Michigan.
Student Assembly (MSA) recently
described the organization as "the only
voice students have" in a University
where political maneuvering of one sort
or another is common among the
various campus segments.
MSA is generally known as the
student government at the University,
although the word "government" is
used mainly out of custom rather than
as an actual descriptive term. Its
members are elected by students of the
17 schools and colleges on campus.
"Whatever we get involved in, it's our
responsibility to look out for student in-
terests," said Jim Alland, current
president of the Assembly. "Basically,
MSA's major function is acting as an
advocacy group for student interests."
FOR THE time being, it is the
recognized student group,"
acknowledges newly-elected member
Doug Farr. "But I'd like to see
something better. The focus is so com-
monly small, and there is so much
bickering back and forth."
Assembly members strongly
disagree over whether the group should
deal with solely University, student-
related matters, or whether the
organization should be used 'to educate
students on national and international
political issues.
"We have enough trouble affecting
University affairs," said Student
Alliance for Better Representation
(SABRE) party president and MSA
Treasurer Brad Canale. "MSA has no
business taking stands on events which
are taking place thousands of miles
away. We can't be sending $50 to the
'Save the Pygmies Foundation'," he
added.
CANALES COMMENT is disputed by
another of a group which contends MSA
should be "politically involved - not
only here, but all over." The People's
Action Coalition (PAC) representative
claims MSA has a responsibility to in-
form students about those issues. "The
University isn't isolated from the rest
of the world," the member said.
"We receive student funding, and it's
our responsibility to be accountable to
students-dealing with issues affecting
the day-to-day campus life," countered
Alland, and LSA junior. "We should be
dealing with issues such as the quality
of education, tuition, housing, and
minority enrollment and attrition.
"It doesn't mean other issues aren't
important," he said. "It's just that we
have to decide what we have time for."
DEBATING TO a reasonable com-
promise between what some call the
Assembly's "conservative,"
"moderate," and "liberal" circles oc-
cupies a substantial portion of the
group's weekly tTuesday night
meetings.
A steering committee of executive of-
ficers coordinates the Assembly agen-
da, presenting resolutions and other
proposals to MSA as a whole. Assembly
representatives other than officers
rarely attend steering committee
meetings, and the executive officers
generally dominate the regular
meetings.
Excepting the president and vice-
president - of MSA, who are elected
directly as a ticket by the student body,
the other executive officers are chosen
by the Assembly in its first meeting.
Engineering senior Lauie Tyler is the
vice-president.
The other executive officers are
called vice-presidents also, but have
more specific functions, and each
chairs a committee which performs
various duties for MSA. MSA's commit-
tees, which any student can belong to,
deal with legislative, minority,
academic, and student organizational
affairs.
ASSEMBLY ELECTIONS are held in
early April for the following school
year. Prior to this past April, student
government elections have been
marked by fighting among political
groups and student apathy. Just over
4000 students voted in each of the last
two elections.
MSA's 35 representatives are directly
elected by the school or college they at-
tend. Since the difference in enrollment
is so wide, a college like LSA has 11
seats, while the lone delegate from the
College of Pharmacy, for example, has
only one-half vote.
Last year's election brought the
organization more attention than it had
had since the outset of its operation in
January, 1976. (Before MSA, the
Student Government Council was the
See VARIOUS, Page 2
Assembly members
vary in views, goals
By JULIE ENGEBRECHT
The students who hold the 37 seats on
the Michigan Student Assembly (MSA)
don'.t pretend to be "average students."
Nevertheless, they have the job of
speaking for some 40,000 students on
campus.
In past years, MSA developed a
reputation as an "old boys' club." In
fact, one MSA officer confesses many of
those involved could make a statement
such as: "Well, my friends were in it,
and they got me to run. It's something
to do."
But no matter how much one can
generalize, the reasons for student in-
LOCAL ISSUES OFTEN DRA WINTEREST..
Political groups spur students
help anyone in the acceptance process,
said former Law School Representative.
Jeff Supowit. He remarked, however,
that "the type of person interested in
law school would probably also be in-
terested in student government." He
described the character of both as
"aggressive."
SUPOWIT SAID MSA was
"something I thought I would enjoy
doing in my last year of school." His job
as chairman of the student advisory
committee on the presidential search
actually continued after he graduated
from law school in May.
Current MSA President Jim Alland
I obviously can't repr-
sent my constituents, but
I like to think I'm sensiti-
tive ... in a great enough,
capacity to guide my de-
cision making.'
-Jim A/land
Michigan Student
Assembly President
said he became involved in the
organization because he "wanted to
have an impact on my environment."
Alland said if he wasn't active in MSA,
he probably would have worked with
By JOHN GOYER
In a busy corridor of the Michigan Union, a
-epresentative of the Spartacus Youth League ped-
led his party's newspaper in a voice just above
he noise level in the hallway. "Latest Workers'
,Vanguard, latest Workers' Vanguard," he
'epeated. He showed off the front page of the paper
ith one hand, his other hand holding a stack of
gapers.
No one played the least bit of attention to him.
The scene is reflected several times a day around
ampus, and of the thousands of leaflets passed
'ut, no one knows how many are actually read.
mIi T'I' nPL' r-Pndia 1pAflst eiinninf A.P
"Our main concern is winning over those studen-
ts who are interested in fighting for socialism,"
Richard said.
Another group on campus is the U.S. Labor Party.
That same hot, muggy day last summer, two
representatives from the U.S. Labor Party were
handing out their newspapers just outside the
Union, about 50 feet from the spot where the Spar-
tacus Youth Leaguer sold his papers.
ACCORDING TO Sharon Thill, one of the two
passing out the Labor Party's newspaper, the party
is anti-environmentalist, anti-gay rights, and anti-
international drug conspiracy.
"Unfortunately, there's been a general burning
(INFACT) organized students last winter to boycott
products made by'Nestle Foods.
In addition to an informative campaign directed
at the campus at large, INFACT reached dorm
residents through dorm house councils, asking that
the residents vote on whether dorm food services
should boycott Nestle products.
INFACT CLAIMS Nestle is responsible for
malnutrition among infants in developing countries
through the company's practice of selling infant
formula in these countries where conditions
allegedly prevent proper use of the formula.
The University agreed to stop buying Nestle
products to serve in dorm cafeterias if a majority of
6L- - 44- nw ..rc t-nnn A -- --4^-0 _r . f
volvement in MSA are about as dif-
ferent as the individuals themselves.
PARTICIPATION IN student gover-
nment is a "good way to get some han-
ds-nn pvnerieneop" if one is intereted