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RELIEF FOR CAMBODIANS
Miliken forms refugee aid group
The Michigan Daily-Saturday, December 1, 1979-Page 3
Computing Center
celebrates its 20th
By BILLY THOMPSON
While the state combats the financial
chaos created by Wayne County
budgetary problems and Chrysler's
mismanagement, Gov. William
Milliken established a private relief
organiztion this week to aid the Cam-
bodian refugees in camps in Thailand.
"Whatever problems we may be
coping with here at home, our moral
obligation to do what we can to alleviate
this suffering of fellow human beings is
very clear," said Milliken. "I cannot
overestimate the urgency of the
situation."
ALTHOUGH THE effort will be coor-
dinated by the governor's staff, funds
will be solicited from private donors,
specifically business, labor and com-
munity leaders.
One of Milliken's chief lieutenants,
James Jordan, who heads the private
aid effort, said he expects to acquire
significant contributions from students
at the various campuses across the
state.
"We've been talking to universities to
try to get students involved," he said.
FUNDS COLLECTED by the CRF
will be used to purchase food, medicine,
and other essential materials, to be sent
immediately to the camps in Thailand,
Jordan said.
"If there is an emergency situation
such as a need for doctors, we can use
the money to send doctors right from
Michigan," said Jordan.
Jordan accompanied Milliken on the
governor's recent tour of refugee cam-
ps. Upon returning from that trip,
Milliken said he was shocked at the
deplorable conditions, and said that the
state must assist the refugees in some
matter.
ONE OF THE relief fund's principal
responsibilities will be to organize an
orderly influx of refugees to Michigan,
which currently ranks tenth among the
states in the number of Cambodian
refugees.
"We are in the process of expanding
our refugee programs. We will be
bringing them in and developing spon-
sors," said Jordan.
"There are four to five thousand
refugees already in Michigan arid they
have been brought here through volun-
tary agencies who are the primary
sponsors of refugees," he said.
The activities of the other voluntary
agencies in the state are coordinated by
the Michigan Committee on In-
dochinese Refugee Resettlement
(CIRR). That group comprises
representatives from various relief
agencies, the governor's office, the
Michian Department of Social Services
and the Federal Department of Health,
Education and Welfare.
But Holly Witkowski, the governor's
representative on CIRR, said the
newly-established CRF would not be
associated with the current network of
relief groups.
By MARK PARRENT
When Robert Rossin was one of
the first graduate student assistants
in the University's new Computing
Center in 1959, one of the computer
operators beckoned to him.
"Don't you people have anything
to run?" Rossin said the operator
demanded. "The machine is em-
pty."
"THAT'S THE last time that ever
happened," Rossin-now a doc-
torate-olding consultant for Bell
Laboratories-recalled last night.
To anyone involved today with the
University's vast computer net-
work, it indeed is difficult to imagine
the huge system with nothing to do.
But in 1959, computers at the
University were a relatively new
phenomenon. Their potential for
assisting research in almost all
academic areas was not yet
recognized by many members of the
University community.,
The progress of the Computing
Center from its modest beginnings.
in 1959 to its standing today as one of
the most prominent university-
related facilities in the nation was
charted last night in the Business
School's Hale Auditorium by various
persons associated with the center in
its 20-year history.
WHETHER IT be Physics,
Economics, or Political Sciences,
almost all academic areas of the
University now use in some form the
facilities of the constantly-updated
Computing Center on North Cam-
pus. Researchers have come to rely
on the computer for incredibly fast
and efficient processing of com-
plicated data.
In 1959, the closest then-University
President Harlan Hatcher probably
ever came to a computer was an oc-
casional ribbon-cutting ceremony at
the new complex. But Harold
Shapiro, who will become the
University's tenth president Jan. 1,
has already installed a special shelf
to hold his own computer terminal in
the office of the president's house on
S. University.
.. . urges Cambodian aid
Angry Mo
rBy United Press International
Bombs rocked the U.S. Embassy in
Thailand yesterday and mobs of angry
Moslems were beaten back from the
embassies in Kuwait and the Philip-
pines in another wave of anti-American
violence sparked by the worsening
crisis in Iran.
In Moscow, a group of Iranian
students also planned to march on the
U.S. Embassy but Soviet authorities
doubled security around the yellow-
stucc4 compound and "neutralized" the
protest, a diplomatic source said.
Three Moslem demonstrators were
reportedly injured in the Philippines
slems- storm several U.S. embassies
but.there were no American casualties
in any of the protests, staged on the 10th
day of Moharram, one of the holiest
days of the Moslem Shiite calendar.
AS THE SIEGE at the U.S. Embassy
in Tehran dragged into its 27th day, the
anti-American sentiment stirred by
Iran's Islamic leader Ayatollah
Ruhollah Khomeini spread to three
countries largely untouched by the
crisis until now - Thailand, Kuwait
and the Philippines.
In Bangkok, between two and four
bombs exploded inside the compound of
the American Embassy at dusk,
breaking the retaining wall of a fish
pond but causing no injuries, officials
said.
Thai police rushed to the scene and
sharpshooters in camouflage uniforms
were posted around the compound in a
speedy attempt to protect the embassy
from further violence.
AN AMERICAN Marine on duty at
the time said he heard "about four ex-
plosions." But William Lenderking, the
embassy press attache, said he heard
only two. "Everythings kind of foggy,
but they have investigators here. I
heard two loud noises," Lenderking
said.
Thai Prime Minister Kriangsak
Insurance overpricing charged
LANSING (UPI) - Consumer
advocates told the state Insurance
Bureau yesterday borrowers too often
are coerced into buying credit insuran-
ce and overcharged for the
coverage-allegations disputed by, in-
dustry spokesmen.
"Credit insurance is an area long
overdue for reforms," Peter, Eckstein
of the United Auto Workers union said a
a hearing called by Insurance Com-
missioner Richard Hemmings to
review regulations on the industry.
Qnly "misguided, uninformed, truly
not knowledgeable members of the
press," are complaining about the in-
dustry, countered Tom Warmus of the
American Way Life Insurance Co.
CREDIT INSURANCE has been a
subject of increasing controversy in
Michigan recently.
Borrowers buy credit life insurance
to cover their debt if they die before the
loan is paid off. Credit accident and
health insurance covers borrowers
when they are disabled and unable to
make payments.
Eckstein said millions are spent on
credit life insurance, adding he is "not
at all sure that all of it was spent ...
well."
HE SAID premiums income should
be not more than one-third more than
anticipated losses rather than the
current 50 per cent.
He also said policyholders should
receive refunds when losses go below
anticipated projected levels, and len-
ding institutions should be prohibited
from receiving kickbacks or rebates for
selling an insurer's policies.
Eckstein added it "may be necessary
to forbid the sale of credit insurance on
the premises of a financial institution."
LINDA JOY of the Michigan Con-
sumers Council said her organization
has received calls from consumrs who
"indicated they were coerced into
buying credit insurance" by
suggestions they had to have it or that it
would enhance their chances of getting
a loan.
"May be its purchase is technically
voluntary, but don't tell that to the
economically marginal person who is
fearful of being turned down for
credit," said Paul Parker of the
Michigan Citizens Lobby.
Warmus urged against overly restric-
tive policies, however, warning the
'entire public will pay the price of
unavailability of the product."
Coercion was dismissed as a "sub-
stantially moot issue" in a statement
issued by the Consumer Credit In.-
surance Association-a trade group.
Striking teachers stage
sit-in at Arm'ada&- school.
Chomanan, in a statement released
shortly after the incident, indicated the
bombs may have been planted by a
Thai Moslem separatist group that
distributed leaflets around Bangkok
last week threatening attacks on U.S.
targets.
Officials said leaflets were signed by
the Pattani National Liberation
Organization and warned of attacks
against "Rockefeller, Yankee im-
perialism and Western powers in-
filtrating Iran."
IN THE TINY Persian Gulf sheikdom
of Kuwait, a mob of several thousand
chanting Moslems marched on the U.S.
Ebassy but was driven off by tear gas
fired by national guardsmen who
rushed to the scene in armored cars.
Witnesses said the protesters were
mostly Iranian students and workers
demonstrating in support of Iran's
demand for the extradition of the shah.
Embassy spokesman Kevin Honan
said the demonstration began in the
morning and "by noon the crowd had
grown to several thousand.
"Kuwaiti security personnel used
tear gas when one group came to within
300 yards of the embassy," Honan said,
adding that the crowd eventually
dispersed.
RIOT POLICE in the Philippines
used water cannons to break up a mob
of about 200 Moslems who tried to turn
an anti-American demonstration in
Manila into a march on the embassy.
In the pandemonium, three ex-
plosions shook the crowd but they were
apparently large firecrackers and
caused no serious injury, witnesses
said.
Police turned on the water cannons
and arrested 179 of the demonstrators
when they tried to march on the em-
bassy, chanting "Return Satan Shah,"
and "Down with Carter peanut
politics," officials said.
In Moscow, official sources said the
Soviet Union alerted embassy person-
*nel yesterday morning that Iranian
'students planned to march on the U.S.
compound.
Extra Soviet militiamen were sent to
stand guard in front of the embassy and
dependents or embassy personnel were
told to stay away.
THAEILAIND
MOTION PICTURE
(Double Trouble)
Radford Theater
Detroit
l pm, Saturday, Dec. 1
for further information
calf 538-4476
ARMADA (UPI)-Striking Armada
teachers, threatened with mass firings
if they continue their walkout, yester-
day began a sit-in at a local elementary
school and vowed to remain "as long as
it takes" to get a new contract.
All but five of the district's 78
teachers marched into the Armada
Elementary School at about 11:30 a.m.
District officials said they would start
firing teachers who did not report to
work by noon.
Union officials said the teachers
decided on the sit-in during the morning
in an effort to head off a threatened
sympathy strike by more than 4,200
other area teachers who belong to the
same bargaining unit.
Teachers in 11 of the 16 districts
represented by Michigan Education
Association Local 1 already have voted
in favor of striking if Armada teachers
are fired. Five more districts voted ,
yesterday.
"The Armada teachers have oc-
cupied the Armada Elementary
School," said Patrick Laughlin, Local 1
executive director. "Their intent is to
stay there until they have a contract."
School Superintendent Daniel Eskin
said district officials had no immediate
plans to force the teachers to leave the
building. But he admitted he was at a
loss as to what to do next.
"Hell, I don't know," he said. "This is
a new one to me."
The teachers had notified local police
of their intention to stage the sit-in
before they started filing into the
school's library and teachers lounge,
said their chief negotiator, Walter Ben-
ton.
The "occupation" would be peaceful,
Benton said, but the teachers who have
been off the job since Oct. 22 in a con-
tract dispute "intend to stay here until
we get an equitable contract.
"We're going to stay here as long as it
takes," he said. "We do not intend to
leave voluntarily. If they are going to
get the police, the police are going to
have to arrest us to get us out of the
building."
The striking teachers are seeking a
raise of 18 to 19 per cent over the next
two years. The school board has offered
16 per cent and said a greater pay boost
would force program cutbacks or a
millage increase.
, appEliiINGB
Do a Tree
a Favor:
Recyle
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FILMS
Institute of Labor and Industrial Realtions-Why Work?, Changing Work,
and Tescaming, 9 p.m.; Blue-Collar Capitalism, We've Always Done It This
Way, 1p.m., Res. College, Aud., E. Quad.
PERFORMANCES
Univ. Music Society-Handel's "Messiah" featuring Elizabeth Parcells,
Victoria Grof, Donald Bell, and David Fisler, 8:30 p.m., Hill Aud.
University of Michigan Electronic Music Studio-Concert of new works, 8
p.m., Rackham Aud.
SPEAKERS
Museum of Art-Papers on impressionist artists presented by art history
scholars, 9:30 a.m., and 2 p.m., Aud. A, Angell.
MISCELLANEOUS
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