Pge -Sundy. September 23, 1979-The Michigan Daily
LOOKING
BACK:
THE WEEK
IN REVIEW
Re ts
struggle
for answers
gust as sure as the Regents meet each
month, it's almost just as sure that they
wil, at some point, be faced with the
issye of University financial ties to cor-
potations doing business in South
Africa.
And this week was no exception, as
th Regents convened for their monthly
meeting.
IARDLINE, anti-divestment, is
what their votes said, but underlying
the roll culls was a subtle softening in
their stance, as well as increased ten-
sions that have been evident since this
issue really came to the fore about two
years ago.
. After cleaning out their ad-
miiistrative house of reports, appoin-
tm nts and public comments Thursday,
th egents made time Friday morning
fo ction, or lack thereof, on a faculty-
st ent report examining the South
Af can divestment issue, which the
bo d commissioned in the face of
s ng student protest during its April
m ting.
e report presented to the Regents
by Dearborn Campus anthropology
Pr f. Daniel Moerman called for'
se eral specific recommendations
w ch would have altered the Univer-
sit 's official divestment policy which
w adopted in March,'1978. That policy
ca s for divestment in firms which do
no prove to the University that they
arg committed to the anti-
disriminatory Sullivan Principles.
$JT THE latest report, completed by
th Senate Assembly Advisory Com-
m'tee on Financial Affairs (SSACFA),
re ommended that the University be
re4uired, as a stockholder, to vote on all
proxy questions which touch on current
U zversity policy, such as the divest-
mnt resolution of March 1978. Curren-
tl the University avoids making a
ju gment on such questions and defers
it votes to the corporation's
m nagement, as a means of avoiding
tical stands which the Regents say
m y binder academic freedom.
he SAACFA recommendations,
Room of the Michigan Union Friday afternoon before leaving peacefully. The Regents again
now include four non-MSA members
appointed by the assembly's Per-
manent Inteviewing Committee (PIC).
Other potential revisions to the
allocations process include an appeals
procedure for student organizations
dissatisfied with allocations and
provisions for the investigation of
violations or irregularities in the
budget or expenditures of funded
groups.
Search for
Murray's
replacement"
Former city administrator Sylvester
Murray has been away for only two
weeks, but the search for his eventual
successor is already well underway.
Korn-Ferry International, the
California-based personnel firm hired
to conduct the search for Murray's
replacement, already has received ap-
plications for the position. The ap-
plication deadline is Octoer 12.
NORMAN ROBERT, a spokesman
for the firm, said the company will'
handle the initial screening of applican-
ts. A citizens' committee-most of
whom will be chosen from the citizens'
now serving voluntarily on city com-
mittees and commissions - will
recommend between five and ten can-
didates to City Council. Council will
make the final appointment decision.
According to a profile form created
by the firm, the candidate chosen by the
Council will have to meet a number of
requirements. The candidate will have
a college education and will have at
least seven to 10 years of experience as
city manager in a city with a population
of at least 50,000. Experience in fiscal
and budget management, employee
development and the workings of a
major state-owned facility are con-
sidered desirable. ,
Plans are also underway in a search
for a new police chief to replace Chief
Walter Krasny, according to acting city
administrator Godfrey Collins. After 32
years on the city's police force, Krasny.
announced his resignation last week.
The Week-In-Review was written
by Editor-In-Chien Susan Warner
and Editorial Director Michael
A rkush.
Protesters march around the Regents table in the Anderson
refused to divest from South Africa.
however, remained simply recommen-
dations, as the Regents rejected each
one. The Board also voted against
several constructive amendments
which would have substantially
changed the March, 1978 resolution.
Only one minor revision to the
current policy, suggested by Regent
Thomas Roach (D-Saline), was passed.
His motion called for an expansion of
the March 1978 resolution to demand a
commitment on the Sullivan Principles
from firms in which the University has
bond holdings.
BUT IN rejecting the SAACFA
recommendations, the Regents put for-
th a flurry of amendments, motions and
even held hurried caucuses.
And although there was barely a
change in policy, there was certainly a
change in Regental behavior if one
were to compare their actions to the
well-orchestrated meetings hammered
out in the 'U' Club up until the last
several months, as the divestment
protest has grown stronger.
One Regent, James Waters (D-
Muskegon), went so far as to openly
urge the Regents to totally divest. His
motion wasn't even seconded, but the
last time Waters endorsed total
divestment it was only after, literally,
being forced into a corner by members
of the pro-divestment Washtenaw
County Coalition Against Aparthiid.
At one point, Regent Paul Brown (D-
Petoskey) moved that the Regents go
ahead and vote proxy regardless of the
"threat" to academic freedom," Power
suggested a cultural "people ex-
change" with South Africans, and
Regent David Laro (D-Flint) hinted
that the best solution might be for pro-
divestment students to join the Peace
Corps.
MOST OF the proposals were clearly
not feasible, but nonetheless, the
Regents strained for answers to the dif-
ficult questions surrounding the
divestment-apartheid question.
And as the WCCAA has promised to
"struggle until victory is assured," the
Regents have struggling ahead too, if
they ever hope to return to those
peaceful days at the 'U' Club.
MSA
criticizes 'U'
When the Regents intervened in its
election process and took away its
authority to fund student organizations
in May, the representatives of the
Michigan Student Assembly (MSA) had
already left Ann Arbor for their sum-
mer vacations. Only a small minority
had remained at the University, clearly
not enough to file any kind of formal
protest that would carry any weight.
Yet, despite the four-month period
that as passed by since that irrespon-
sible display of University power, it has
not taken long for assembly members
to show their anger. In its meeting
Tuesday night, the assembly passed a
statement calling upon the ad-
ministration to "adopt a hands-off
policy towards the assembly while
recognizing its basic right to govern
autonomously."
THE PROPOSAL, drafted by mem-
ber Marc Breakstone, pointed out the
assembly's ability to represent the
needs of students "was seriously in-
jured by the administration's interven-
tion and veritable takeover of MSA" by
certifying the elections after the Cen-
tral Student Judiciary (CSJ) deemed
them invalid The statement also
criticized the administration for
holding back MSA's progress by "usur-
pation of MSA's funding capacity."
MSA also approved a tentative
budget for the upcoming year that
would cut external allocations to
student organizations by nearly half
the amount given to those groups last
year. Allocations would total ap-
proximately $24,000, comprising 31.12
per cent of MSA's budget. In 1978-79
MSA's external allocations totaled ap-
proximately $48,000, or 46 per cent of
the assembly's budget.
It will still be awhile, however, before
MSA will be able to control
its own external funding. The
assembly did agree at last week's
meeting to accept a change in the
makeup of the group's Budget
Priorities Committee (BPC). The
committee, which reviews student
organization requests for funds, will
Letters
_eIStb an iI
Ninety Years of Editorial Freedom
Divestment no
racism cure
Vol. LXXXX, No. 16
News Phone: 764-0552
Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigon
A tough Jimmy Carter
T HROUGHOUT Senator Edward M.
. Kennedy's artfully planned run for
the presidency, one man has been
sadly neglected-the president of the
United States.
Jimmy Carter has become a forgot-
ten man, a desperate man, a man on
the ropes fighting against a political
dynasty. As the Kennedy camp gains
converts each day, the Carter crew has
shown growing signs of dispair.
'The most recent display of the
president's desperation surfaced
Thursday during a White House dinar
when he told a group of Democratic
Congresmen that he would become
more "political" in the future in an at-
tempt to collect some crucial victories
in Congress.
This threat-a typical abuse of in-
cumbents-is as equally disturbing as
the president's lack of leadership for it
demonstrates his fear of the youngest
Kennedy, and his preference for put-
ting politics ahead of the issues.
Representative Glenn English of
Oklahoma summed up the president's
sudden get-tough posture by
proclaiming that his constituents
prefer that he votes in accordance with
them rather than voting with the Carter
administration. By attempting to
strangle these representatives, the
president can only succeed in hurting
himself, for the congressmen really
support, vowing that the storm would
soon pass.
But the emergence of a Kennedy
candidacy, and the president's
staggering rating in the polls, have
persuaded many congressmen to jump
off the Carter train and join Teddy's
bandwagon. Many are afraid that if
Carter were renominated, he would
lose to a Republican, and bring down
the whole party with him. At the very
least, a Carter-Mondale ticket would
bring out ; much fewer Democratic
voters than a Kennedy ticket.
Based on those reasons, it comes as
a slight shock and a miscalculation on
the part of Jimmy Carter to call for
stricter party discipline.
Carter has been deeply troubled
recently by the defeat of legislation to
carry out the Panama Canal Treaty,
the administration's proposed budget,
and the- politicking surrounding the
SALT treaty. He obviously needs a vic-
tory soon to show the nation and
Congress that he can lead the nation of
out its "crisis of confidence."
Besides, as some congressmen have
already admitted, there is very little
Jimmy Carter could do anyway. Many
of the newer lawmakers are similar to
the president; they campaigned as
outsiders and have very few ties or
loyalties. In addition, the president
To the Daily:
The Daily's recent editorial
concerning the WCAA and
divestiture (September 15)
echoes a common viewpoint on
South African affairs. The ex-
tremist stance of immediate and
total divestment may be noble in
intent, but in practice ignores the
problem of apartheid. Stock sold
by the University does not,
miraculously vanish, nor does a
corporation suffer any strain on
its financial resources as a result.
Instead, the buyers would be
those who prefer to make profits
regardless of the effect on the
South Afican majority. As a
stockholder, the University can
raise its voice against apartheid.
Regents can vote against
management that supports apar-
theid, vote in favor of proposals
to enact change in South African
operations, and continuously
focus attention on apartheid.
Divestmentwould release the
University from this moral
responsibility. How much in-
fluence does the University have
with Black and Decker or J. D.
Searle, after divesting of their
stock?
In the past, the Regent's com-
pliance with apartheid, as
evidenced by the voting record of
the July General Motors
stockholders meeting,r
virtually unopposed.I
must be brought on the
to take a strong stand
apartheid. The WCAA ri
its sights on the or
solution to apartheid,
temporary soothing of a
sciences. Divestiture,
bolic rather than con
tion, is not as powerful
the SAACFA proposal
fight against aparthei
proposals allow for the
of intra-University sq
and offer a basis for a n
ning in the University'
against racism. This is
issue, and we should not
the supposed pan
divestiture.
-Robert A.
Keith E.P
.
has gone clude unqualified 'acceptance of
Pressure the wages system; the failure to
Regents acknowledge the class struggle;
d against and the failure to accept the fact
nust keep that the labor movement must
ng term adopt a more radical posture if it
not on a is to serve workers' common in-
few con- terests. These premises have led
a sym- to the unions becoming adjuncts
crete ac- of capitalism. As such, they are
a tool as incapable of serving the needs of
is in the the workers.
d. These The UAW is a classic example.
cessation For all its past talk of the need to
uabbling, protect its members' jobs, to
ew begin- create more jobs, to assure
s struggle economic security, it has not
the real done so. Just ask any Chrysler
settle for worker with less than ten years'
acea of seniority! It is true that the UAW
was not directly responsible for
Feldman Chrysler's problems. They were
Moree brought on by the inexorable
working out of capitalism's
economic laws. A Socialist In-
dustrial Union organization as
UAW advocated by the Socialist*Labor
Party would have at least warned
nd more its members that under
frontation capitalism the "deck" is stacked
are inef- against them and that the
for defen- "gains" won at the "bargaining"
ng, the in- table can be wiped out in the
file. Their inevitable economic downturns.
ect results Any labor union "worth its salt"
om which should have for its goal a
emises in- cooperative Socialist society un-
der which the 'worker would
receive the full social value of his
labor.
-Archie Sim
Andy Young
To the Daily:
Keith Richburg's article was
interesting in certain aspects.
While the people of our parents'
generation may feelnostalgic for
the old Roosevelt Coalition, we
are content to consider it a
passing historical phase. After
all, Affirmative'Action represen-
ts the kind of handing around of
privileges and goodies by race
and ethnic group that our gran-
dparents left Europe to getaway
from.
The Black leadership's scabid,
festering attempt to scapegoat
the Jews for Andrew Young's
departure made me angry at fir-
st, but now I am grateful that
they have chosen to be our
enemy. As Tenzin Gyatzo, the
fourteenth Dalai Lama of Tibet,
has said, "The enemy is very im-
portant. He teaches you inner
strength." If that isn't moral
authority, I don't know what is.
-Joshua Banner
To the Daily:
It becomes more a
evident with each conf
that the present unions
fective as instrumentsf
ding, let alone advancin
terests of the rank and f
weaknesses are the dire
of the basic premises fr
they operate. These pre
-.
AM TE( arT
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V1cTi$1.
PEOPLE AREALWiA',S
ARE VER<Y SUB5TLE.
~~5 Mrv E5THE -rTju sT
IGNOK~EME,09FA(L
RESPECT Y peE5EitvE.
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-TEyMC