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Vol L)XAIA, No. Y4
Ann Arbor, Michigan-Tuesday, January 23, 1979
Ten Cents-
Twelve Pages
Maize and Blue fiasco symbolicof housing struggle
By MARK PARRENT
Students began massing at the Bell Tower
Hotel early Sunday morning.
By evening, members from about 25 groups
had paid $25 for a hotel room and the privilege of
waiting in the lobby till morning. Then the offices
of Maize and Blue Management Company would
open and the application process for apartments
would begin.
MAIZE AND BLUE, which has become a very
popular rental agency since it opened in 1973,
rents apartments in eight modern campus-area
buildings. According to rental manager Suzanne
Feliks, only about 20 apartments were availble
for rent beginning next September.
They were snatched up immediately, Feliks
said.
"There's just too many people in this Univer-
sity and not enough housing," she added.
MEMBERS FROM several groups who rented
rooms so they could wait inside, did not receive,4
apartment commitments for next year. About 30
more people, who began waiting outside at 11
p.m. after the hotel had rented all its rooms, also
did not receive assurances of housing for next
fall.
A2 students face
a sellers 'market
Harry Machesky, one of the students who, with
his roommates, paid $25 for a hotel room so the
hotel wouldn't kick them out for loitering, waited
13 hours but did not receive a lease from Maize
and Blue. Machesky, a sophomore, said he was
particularly angry because he thought the rental
company should have announced beforehand
how many apartments were available.
"We were 17th in line and we figured we'd at
least get something. It was just a pretty
frustrating situation. It was pretty poorly
organized," Machesky said.
STUDENTS WHO received apartments were
also angry at the way the Maize and Blue han-
dled the situation.
"It seems to me they (Maize and Blue) don't
care. We're just college students," said Dan
Matsch, one of the overnight waiters who suc-
ceeded in securing an apartment.
"They'll be able to rent the apartment no mat-
ter what so they don't really care who gets the
room or how they get it.
IN ANN ARBOR, according to tenant advocate
attorney Jonathan Rose, the current housing
vacacny rate is 0.7 per cent, well below the 7 per
cent rate considered by the U.S. Department'of
Housing and Urban Development to be
marginally healthy for competition.
"'People will find housing," said Rose, "but
that's not the point." He added that people will
probably have trouble finding a room that suits
their taste for location, condition, and price.
For those who waited in line but came too late,
it's back to prowling the slushy streets of Ann
Arbor looking for a place to call home next year.
Revisions
in English
guidelines
draw fire
By JOHN SINKEVICS
Significant changes in the teaching
format for English 125 courses this
school year have disturbed a number of
teaching assistants (TAs) - primarily
because of the philosophical thrust of
the classes.
"Up until this year, TAs in English
125 had almost unlimited freedom in
teaching the course they wanted to
teach," said English TA Howard Brick.
"It was a great shock to many people
this year to find greater control being
placed on the TAs, and having
theoretical ideas being placed upon
them in the teaching of their classes."
BRICK, WHO is not alone in
criticizing the new English composition
courses, wrote a critique which he sent
to Professor Bernard Van't Hul, direc-
tor of the English composition
program. In the paper, Brick expressed
his feelings about the inadequacies of
the program.
Van't Hul said he has distributed a
number of copies of Brick's paper to in-
dividuals in the department because it
is "well organized" and "relevant."
One of Brick's major gripes about the
current composition program concerns
the syllabus or "handbook" which was
given to all English 125 TAs as a set of
guidelines for the course. Brick said
this syllabus has standardized the
teaching of English 125 into a form
which he finds "philosophically
troublesome."
"The problem with the syllabus is
that it reinforces the idea of teaching
students bureaucratic writing; styles,"
said Brick. "The course turns people
away from the idea of challenging and
questioning the educational and social
system."
THE ENGLISH Composition Board,
which directs the program, has also
been criticized by some TAs. One TA
who wished to remain unidentified, said
some of the ECB lecturers who sit in on
the composition courses are not
qualified enough to reasonably
evaluate the TAs.
See TAs, Page 9
Carter
1980
fiscal plan up
$28 billion
From Reuter and UPI
WASHINGTON - President Carter,
calling for austerity and sacrifice to
defeat inflation, gave Congress yester-
day a record $531.6 billion budget that
raises defense spending but slashes
funds for social welfare programs.
The budget for the 1980 financial year
beginning on October 1, projected a $29
billion deficit, compared to the $37.4
billion deficit estimated for the current
financial year.
THE PRESIDENT increased defense
spending by 10 per cent, from $111.9
billion to $123 billion.
This offset an estimated seven per
cent inflation rate in 1980 and met Car-
ter's pledge to NATO allies that he -
would hike defense spending by three
'per cent in real terms.
"The budget. . .. is lean and
austere," the President said in a budget
message to Congress that re-
emphasized his fear that inflation,
which rose by about 9.2 per cent in the
Return of the Dead Daily Photo by LISA
Jerry Garcia, guitarist for The Grateful Dead, concentrates on a lead during the group's Sunday night concert at
Masonic Temple. For the lowdown on the band's performance, see the review on Page 6.
U
Council averts
budget deficits
1978 calendar year, could wreck the
economy.
TONIGHT, HE will go to Congress to
express in person his concerns in the
annual State of the Union address.
Time and again in his budget
message, Carter returned to the theme
that inflation must be tamed and one of
the ways to accomplish this is strict
"discipline" over federal spending.
"The decisions I have made are dif-
ficult ones," Carter said. "They involve
not figures on a balance sheet, but the
lives and future of the American
people.
"I HAVE chosen restraint in gover-
nment spending because inflation must
be controlled.
"Real sacrifices must be made if we
are to overcome inflation," Carter said.
Carter's top aides emphasized that
this strategy would not be altered, even
in the face of deteriorating economic
conditions.
THE PLANNED overall spending of
$531.6 billion in 1980 compared with
$493.4 billion in the current financial
year, an increase of about 7.7 per cent
or $28 billion, including the large jump
in defense spending.
This barely met the estimated seven
per cent inflation rate and, according to
Carter's critics, failed to take into ac-
count the needs of a growing
population.
Budget director James McIntyre said
the inflation fear persuaded the
President to cut $16 billion from a $548
billion spending total he had been plan-
ning last July.
WITH ITS main provisions generally
known in advance, the budget already
has met strong resistance from liberals
in Carter's Democratic Party, from
black civil rights groups, and from pen-
sioners' organizations upset by
proposed cuts in some Social Security
benefits.
But the President said programs for
the poor weresabout $4.5 billion larger
despite overall cuts. He insisted that
the budget was fair in meeting needs,,
for welfare, health, public jobs, '
education and other social programs.
"THE POLICY of restraint. . . is
imperative if we are to overcome the
By ELISA ISAACSON
A possible budget deficit was averted
by City Council last night when it
unanimously passed a resolution tran-
sferring unexpected excess revenue to
under-budgeted areas, as well as allot-
ting a portion of the surplus for the
creation of a contingency fund.
,The Ann Arbor Transportation
Authority (AATA) c'ollected on a year-
old promise by City Administrator
Sylvester Murray when it received
$5000 of the surplus to facilitate -a new
bus shelter. The new shelter will be
housed in the Benz building on Fourth
Avenue downtown.
MURRAY HAD told AATA one year
ago that if the financially-weakened
organization would build a rest room.
and shelter facility for persons waiting
to reide the bus, the city would help out
with $5000. According to Murrary,
AATA "didn't do it at the time, but
remembered the $5000 a year later."
AATA's estimated cost for the first
six months of construction on the
shelter is between $35,000 and $40,500.
The bulk of the city's excess revenue
will go towards the Special Assessment
Deficit accumulated over six years on
the insurance budget.
A FURTHER potential deficit of
$520,000 will be covered by previous
years' surpluses. Murray said that this
is therefore not an actual deficit.
Although Murray told Council the city
is "receiving revenue and spending
money as planned," he acknowledged
that should police officers be granted
full retirement benefits at the age of 43,
the city budget could be harmed.
A local officer's union is demandning
a revision in the traditional police pen-
sion plan which provided the officers
with a retirement fund at age 55. Ac-
cording to Murray, the city would be
unable to finance such a plan if the age
is lowered to 43.
AN ARBITRATION hearing between
the city and the union has been slated to
begin in two weeks and Murray said
that if the decision favors the police of-
ficers' union, the city will appeal.
Although the administrator said he is
uncertain of the union's exact demands,
he said the revised pension plan would
certainly take a severe bite from the
city's finances.
Another possible threat to the balan-
ced budget is a proposed landfill site
and shredding operation purchases.
The collective price tag on these two
projects could total over $2,600,000.
Murray pointed out that payments can
be postponed for at least one year.
COUNCIL ALSO passed - after
much partisan debate - a resolution
approving the by-laws of the AnnArbor
Summer Festival, "Inc., a joint cor-
poration between the city and the
University. The fEstival - championed
by Mayor Louis Belcher - is designed
to bring theatrical and other cultural
activities into the city.
See COUNCIL, Page 2
MILITARY HEAD ASKS SUPPORT FOR GOVT:
Appeal made to Iranian troops
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Iran's
'military chief, in an unprecedented
radio appeal, called on his troops
yesterday to "overcome their sen-
timents" for Moslem religious leaders
and defend the government left behind
by theshah.
New political violence flared in the
provinces. Armored troops in one
western city broke up street battles
between pro- and anti-shah gangs in
which five persons were reported
killed.
IN kNOTHER serious blow to the
embattled government of Prime
Minister Shagpour Bakhtiar, the head
of the Regency Council that supposedly
is acting in the shah's absence, Jalal
Tehrani, resigned under pressure from
anti-shah religious leader Ayatullah
Khomeini.
Gen. Abbas Gharabaghi, military
chief of staff, made his broadcast
speech after telling reporters the 43,000-
man armed forces stood firmly behind
the "legal and constitutional" Bakhtiar
government in the face of.the challenge
by Khomeini, long-exiled head of Iran's
dominant Shiite Moslem sect.
Khomeini, who orchestrated the
movement that drove Shah Mohammad
Reza Pahlavi from Iran, plans to return
to Iran Friday and vows to replace
Bakhtiar and the U.S.-backed con-
stitutional monarchy with an Islamic
republic.
THE ARMY, many of whose top
commanders remain loyal to the shah,
may hold the key to whether Khomeini
succeeds in toppling the Pahlavi
dynasty. Tehran has been filled with
rumors of a possible military coup to
keep Khomeini from power.
"In this sensitive period of history, I
See APPEAL, Page 2
Tuesday
" At leat one local car rental
agency has changed its policy to
allow 18-to-21-year-olds to rent
cars. See story, Page 2.
" The American Federation of
State, County, and Municipal
Femngn I A C1U1A'r I ) iral
See CARTER, Page 5
,,
Soitics, socie
By BILL THOMPSON
Womlen in Action forns
coalition of area grou s
By BETH ROSENBERG organization. for eleven interested
women's groups and concerned
In the past few years, eleven separate citizens. Women In Action held its first
Despite widespread claims that today's college
students are politically apathetic and ignorant of
current affairs, political satirist Mark Russel found an
enthusiastic audience last night at Rackham
Auditorium, as he lampooned virtually every current
issue.
Russel spoke to a crowd of about 300 like a preacher
addressing his congregation. His sharp wit spared no
one - including his hosts.
RUSSEL DESCRIBED the University as the place
where "the footballs are inflated and the ex-Presidents
are un-elected." He likened former President Gerald
Ford's appearance to "the guy who answers the meat
buzzer at the A&P." Even the stage was open to