Citizens can no longer
on 'Democracy Wall,'
post grievances
The Michigan Daily-Friday,. December 7, 1979-Page 3
From.AP, UPI, Reuter and Staff Reports
PEKING - The City of Peking
yesterday banned all protest posters
from "Democracy Wall" and set up a
new wall for such posters where the
authors will have to register their
names and work addresses.
The notice issued by the Peking
municipal government spelled the
demise of the brick wall around a bus
depot where for one year people have
been authorized to put up posters that
criticized the Communist Party and
government leadership and demanded
"democratic freedoms."
DEMOCRACY WALL has been the
showplace over the past year of the
small human rights movement in
China.
Director of the University's Center
for Chinese Studies, Albert Feuer-,
werker said last night the closing of the
wall "probably indicates some degree
of unhappiness with democracy in
China." He added, "It's not a real big
change, but symbolically it could be
more."
Feuerwerker pointed out that
"China is not a democracy," and
therefore such measures are not unex-
pected. "It's a dictatorship of the'
proletariat and we shouldn't forget
that."
The government said it acted because
"certain people with ulterior motives
had wrapped themselves in the banner
of 'democracy' to damage socialist
democracy..."
BUT WESTERN observers said some
of the posters put up at the downtown
wall embarrassed the government, a
feeling heightened by proximity of
foreign diplomats and reporters who
watched a unique kind of free speech
movement there during the last year.
A city spokesman inadvertently
revealed just how popular the
Democracy Wall had become when he
Peking gov
was quoted by the New China News
Agency as saying that crowds
gathering there had spilled over onto
Peking's main boulevard and blocked
traffic.
Notice forbidding posters at the wall
on Changan Avenue, which leads to the
main square and government offices,
was posted on the brick and plaster
structure immediately after the7
decision. Two policemen stood by as the
notice was posted.
WHEN ACTIVISTS learned the new
wall would be in Moon Altar Park,
about one mile to the west, they said
they were relieved posters were not
being banned entirely.
"This is good because we thought
they would ban it. They . . . only moved
it which indicates it isn't all bad," said
Xu Wenli, an editor of the April Fifth
Forum, a magazine of political com-
mentary.
"If it's so bad why do thousands and
t. says
thousands of people come to read it
everyday?" he asked.
"Even if they demolished the wall,
they could not extinguish the
democracy movement," said Mang Ke,
29-year-old editor of the literary journal
"Today."
Before putting up posters in Moon
Altar Park, writers must register their
names, pseudonyms, addresses and
work units with officials in the park.
Posters would not be examined at the
registration center, the notice said.
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11
6
DESEGREGA TION WORK CONTINUES:
School Board consid
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By MARIANNE EGRI
In an informal poll, the Ann Arbor
School Board Wednesday night voted 5-
4 in favor of involuntary busing to
achieve racial balance in six elemen-
tary schools.
The board members responded to a
list of informal questions drafted by
School Superintendent Harry Howard
to provide guidance to administrators
formulating a plan to present to state
officials and the community.
"IT'S DESIRABLE to have kids walk
to school to the extent that it's possible,
but I support involuntary busing when
it's necessary," said School Board
President Kathleen Dannemiller.
Board members also were split 5-4 on
the question of whether a desegregation
plan should insure that no school is
racially identifiable. Four board mem-
bers said they may agree to this if it
were further qualified.
"I'm concerned with increasing
educational opportunity not just
moving bodies on the basis of skin
color," said board member John Heald,
one of the four who wanted more
qualification.
Board members, however, were in
agreement on a number of questions.
"It was a joy to see us soplose," said
School Board President Kathleen Dan-
nenliller.
NEXT WEEK, the board is scheduled
to charge the school administration -
with drawing up a plan. According to
Dannemiller, the process for
developing a plan, specifically outlining
community involvement, will be
decided by January.
Dannemiller said that by early
February a tentative desegregation
plan should be ready for community
evaluation. Originally, the plan was to
be completed in- January but an ad-
ministration request that it be delayed
was granted so that Howard, currently
onleave, will be able to review the plan.
The board differed on whether a
desegregation plan should allow for the
distribution of educational resources to
individual schools based on student
need rather than on a per capita basis
as is currently done.
AGREEING WITH this, board mem-
ber Peter Wright said, "If we have a
particular problem at a particular
school, we need a target program for
target needs."
However, board member John
Powell said a plan should identify
students with individual needs instead
of schools. Agreeing with Powell, board
member Patti Cerny added "a child
with certain needs may not be clustered
ers busing
specialization at an early age, Cerny
said "I would like to see magnets that
offer alternative learning styles rather
than specialized subject areas such as
Math and Science." An alternative
learning style would be an open
classroom.
STRESSING A need to consider
many options, Heald said, "If we're
going to make a change, it's likely that
a number of components will be in-
volved, so we have to look at all the con-
siderations."
Landlord A
Landlord B
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just moring bodies (on the basis o f .skina color.'
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AnnArbor fSchool1 Board .Mem'iiber
You Can Be Living in
A Student Cooperative
is .x__52.._...
4002 Michigan Union
inter-Cooperative
Council
A house where you and other students can make a comfortable home
and still cut costs by sharing the work and expenses. Spaces for Winter
Term are available now. Doo't delay-Contact the Inter-Cooperative
Council now at 662-4414, or better yet, visit our office on the fourth
floor of the Union. We're open from 9:30-4 p.m., Mon.-Fri.
in a school with certain needs."
There were also differences on
whether any proposed plan should con-
sider grade restructuring. This would
involve reorganizing elementary
schools so one school consists of grades
kindergarten through four and another
consists of grades five and six.
FIVE BOARD members said they
were not enthusiastic about this plan
while it met with approval from the rest
of the board.
There was some disagreement on the
question of whether a plan should
create magnet schools, which are
specialized schools providing alter-
native educational opportunities. Board
member Lana Pollack said that if
magnet schools are created, they
should retain the concept of neigh-
borhood schools by reserving some
space for neighborhood children.
Expressing a concern over academic
FILMS
Cinema Guild-Key Largo, 7, 9:15 p.m., Old Architecture and Design
Aud.
Ann Arbor Film Coop-Halloween, 7, 10:20 p.m., Enter the Dragon, 8:40
p.m., MLB Aud. 3.
Ann Arbor Film Coop-Every Man For Himself and God Against All, 7,
10:20 p.m., The Wild Child, 8:40 p.m., MLB Aud. 4.
Cinema II-El, 7 p.m., The Phantom of Liberty, 9 p.m., Angell Hall,
Aud. A.
Mediatrics-Good Bye Girl, 7, 9p.m., Nat. Sci. Aud.
Army ROTC Week-Weekend Adventure, 9 p.m., Bursley Hall.
SPEAKERS
Field Museum of Natural History-Ellen Zak, "Image and Life: 50,000.
Years of Japanese Prehistory," 8 p.m., Lecture Hall 1, Field Museum.
Center for South and Southeast Asian Studies-Prof. Peter Hook,
"Functions of the Compound Verb in Indo-Aryan," noon, Lane Hall Com-
mons.
Museum of Art-Prof. Joel Isaacson, Prof. Raymond Grew, "Im-
pressionism Around 1880: A Reassessment," 4 p.m., Angell Hall, Aud. D.
WUOM broadcast-Alvin Toffler, "Education of the Health Professional
of the Future," 10:10 a.m.
MEETINGS
Undergraduate Political Science Association-Wine and cheese party, 3-
5 p.m., 6602 Haven Hall.
PERFORMANCES
Department of Dance-University Dance Company, faculty choreog-
raphers, 8 p.m., Power Center. Call 764-0450 for ticket information.
Canterbury Loft-"The Winedrinker," 8 p.m., Canterbury Loft, 332 S.
State.
School of Music-Joy Nwosu Lo-Bamijoko, soprano, "Introduction and
Explanation of the Aesthetic Values of Ibo Nigerian Music," 8 p.m.,
Schorling Aud., School of Education.
St. Mary's Chapel Players-"Murder in the Cathedral," 8 p.m., St.
Mary's Student Chapel, 331 Thompson. Tickets at the door, or call 663-0558.
Board members unanimously sup-
ported the community involvement
structure proposed by the ad-
ministration in which the desegregation
plan would be drawn up by the ad-
ministration, sent out for community
evaluation and.then reshaped.
However, some board members want a
guarantee that the Citizen's Advisory
Committee, which submitted
desegregation proposals to the board in
October, has considerable input. "The
mechanisms used to get feedback are
already there, the relationships are
established, and we should use them,"
said Powell.
The other questions receiving
unanimous support included setting
achievement targets for judging
progress toward improving educational
opportunity, considering boundary ad-
justment as a strategy for improving
racial balance, and setting time limits
for plan development.
QUESTIONS THAT received support
from eight board members included
movement toward state guidelines for
racial balance and most answered this
should be at a speed of about two years.
They also supported a training
program on desegregation for students,
staff, parents and the community.
Seven board members said they would
f4vor a plan assuring a racially in-
tegrated staff, and the provision of a
standard set of resources to each
elementary school.
At their next meeting the board will
discuss a policy statement on
educational opportunity and racial im-
balance proposed by Pollack.
"I think a policy statement is essen-
tial. Before the administration can go
some place in developing a plan, they
need to know where they're going," she
said.
The formation of a desegregation
policy was made necessary when the
Michigan Department of Education
notified the Ann Arbor School District
in June 1978 that it did not meet state
racial balance guidelines in six of its 26
elementary schools.
The state guidelines specify that the
percentage of student enrollment in a
school cannot be greater than 15 per
cent above or below the student percen-
tage for that racial group in the district
as a whole.
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