Remember to vote in tomorrow's city and MSA elections For details see TODAY, Page 3 CITY ELECTION ENDORSEMENTS See editorial page Eighty-Nine Years of Editorial Freedom i u UNABASHED High-48 'Low--36 See Today for details Vol. LXXXIX, No. 145 Ann Arbor, Michigan-Sunday, April 1, 1979 Ten Cents T...niva Pnnae rlose C r, r larrtiar i. weave rues pus auppement Students can sample about 25'cake' courses By MARIANNE EGRI One student's "cake" can be another's headache., But undergraduates say in conversations that truly easy courses share some characteristics: light homework assignments, straightforward exams, lenient grades, and -minimal required attendance. STUDENTS WILL have the chance to sign up for at least 25 "cake" courses at registration this week - some will use them to balance heavy schedules, others to fulfill distribution" requirements painlessly, still more to improve grade points, .and, of course, most to be able to relax a little in the fall. "We have an informal list (of easy classes) that we recommend to people," said Matt Rohr, a coordinator at Student Counseling Office. "We know from previous ex- perience, or we've heard it from friends, so we file the infor- mation away and pass it on. But we keep our eyes on the department to make sure the classes haven't changed and the same professor is teaching it." Here are some opinions from students and professors on some of the easier courses around: SPEECH 109 (Fundamentals of Public Speaking),. Engineering sophomore Kipton Moravec said, "The material is easy, it all depends on how you present it." Prof. Bill Colburn said, "How easy the course is depends on the student's natural ability for public speaking, but we work hard to present a good course.'l POLITICAL SCIENCE 361 (Current Issues in World Politics). LSA sophomore Tom Kramer said, "It's an easy way to get two credits because there's no midterm, quizzes, or tests. There is a take-home final, which is two essays, and the lectures can be really outstanding, or they can be boring." Prof. Russell Fifield said, "It's a survey course and a service course. It would be a snap for students concen- trating in political science, but for the average sophomore and junior coming from different branches of the University for two hours credit, I would say it is about an average cour- se. Last year, the average grade was a 'B'." PSYCHOLOGY 474 (Introduction to Behavior Modification). LSA junior Ellen Finegold said, "Everyone in the class has an opportunity to get an A because everything is laid out on the table in a contract. It works - everyone learns the material.because they know they can get an 'A', and it's interesting. Prof. James McConnell said, "A lot of students take the course because it's perceived as having limited intellectual content, but this is true only for those students to whom lear- ning is memorization. We don't give 'A's, students earn them. We specify what they're to learn and we reward them for doing exactly what we ask them to do." See TWENTY-FIVE, Page 3 Economic boycott for ERA urged BY MARION HALBERG Powerful national organizations like the AFL-CIO have recently used economic boycotts to make political statements in favor of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), and yesterday the former city NOW (National Organization of Women) president suggested that sympathetic individuals ought to follow suit. Kathy Fotjik said she feels it's time those states which have not yet ratified the amendment felt the economic pressure of decreased vacationing and visiting revenues in a speech she gave as part of the Women In Action Day conference held in the Union. TO THE DELIGHTED cheers of the wholly supportive, mostly female audience in the Kuenzel Room, Fotjik said, "I'm asking you not to travel in Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Missouri, North Carolina, Utah, Virginia, Illinois, Oklahoma, Nevada, Mississippi, and Louisiana (the 15 states in which legislators haven't approved ERA). That leaves you 35 other states to vacation in." FOtjik's talk on the economic boycott was only one of a number of speeches given yesterday. Nan Baily of Detroit's NOW office addressed Affirmative Ac- tion questions; Sallyanne Payton, a University Law School professor, spok- on the role of women in the law; and Lorraine Beebe, a former state senator, spoke in support of women's right to abortion. "They (Right to Life organization members) get into the whole abortion issue and deny you your rights. They ,want to deny you - every woman - the See BOYCOTT, Page 2 Reactor gas may become explosive Daily Photo by LISA UDELSON SENATOR CARL LEVIN (D-MI.) stops to chat with Ann Arbor resident Janice Caldwell. He was in town yesterday cam- paigning for Democratic mayoral candidate James Kenworthy. KENWOR THY GETS HELP: From AP and Reuter HARRISBURG, Pa. - Federal officials said last night the gas bubble inside the crippled nuclear reactor at Three Mile Island is showing signs of becoming potentially explosive, but they disagred on how soon that might become a problem. Officials said earlier that tens of thousands of people might have to be evacuated if engineers decided to try to remove the bubble, an operation that could risk a melt-down of the reactor and the release of highly radioactive material into the atmosphere. Harold Denton, operations chief for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), said here that it would be about 12 hours before the bubble reached a flammable stage and about twice that long before it could explode. An NRC spokesman in Washington,AFrank Ingram, said it would be several days, while an NRC source, who asked not to be identified, said the critical point could be reached within two days. An explosion could release radioac- tive materials into the atmosphere or, at worst, cause the reactor core to melt, releasing even greater radioactivity. Metropolitan Edison Co., operator of the plant, said company experts were checking on the report. IN WISCONSIN last night, President Carter said he would visit the site of the nuclear reactor accident for a personal look at the situation which he described as serious but improving. ' Without being specific, Carter said his visit would take place in the near future,. Carter made the disclosure while speaking to a Democratic fund-raising dinner about accomplishments and challenges which face his ad- ministration including energy issues. "I'VE JUST had word from the site that the situation is still stable and slowly improving," Carter said. "But many people in the region have Peen severely frightened, and the crisis is not yet over." NRC Chairman Joseph Hendrie said earlier at a news conference in Washington that the evacuation of citizens within 10 to 20 miles downwind of the power plant was "certainly a possibility" as a precaution if technicians tried to force the bubble out of the reactor. He would not say when a decisidn might be made. NRC spokesman Frank Ingram told a reporter later that technicians believed the bubble consisted mainly of hydrogen, with a 'small amount iof oxygen - too little, so far, to form an explosive mixture. See GASES, page 2 evrn st By KEITH B. RICHBURG Sen. Carl Levin came to town yester- day to lend his name to the campaign of James Kenworthy, a fellow Democrat who's running against incumbent Louis Belcher for mayor in tomorrow's elec- tion. Levin called Kenworthy a politician who, like himself, has tangled with bureaucracy and fought for open government. THE FORMER Detroit city council president compared his own council battles with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to Kenworthy's similar bouts with HUD over abandoned houses in the Fourth Ward, which Kenworthy umps AE represented from 1974 until last April. "Jamie's battled HUD and I've been through that battle," said Levin. While in town, Levin made good on a campaign promise from last year's race against Robert Griffin, saying he will introduce legislation "in a couple of months" to halt the proliferation of new nuclear power plants. Levin said that most of his senate colleagues are opposed to any ban on new atomic plant construction, but that last week's accident at the Three Mile Island nuclear plant in Pennsylvania will provide impetus for his A-plant moratorium. Levin - a member of the senate sub- committee on energy and nuclear in Arbor proliferation - also said that in the search for alternative energy sources, he "might end up supporting deregulation (of natural gas) if there's a windfall profit tax attached." He ad- ded, however, his support for deregulation would be dependent on "assurances from the oil companies as to what new production levels can be reached if we decontrol." Independents face uphill battle in this week's MSA elections Mayoral candidates' styles differ Belcher campaign: subtle' By ELISA ISAACSON Confident of the benefits of incum- bency, Republican Mayor Louis Belcher declares his campaign has been "more subtle" than that of his Democratic opponent, Jamie Kenwor- thy. But the mayor admits his elected position has ironically encumbered his, efforts to retain it. Belcher's campaign is conducted in part from the mayor's chair, where he continues to hold office hours from 4 to 6 p.m. But he is also taking to the streets, marching briskly from house to house and assuring residents that something is indeed being done about the city's potholes. WHILE KENWORTHY is hitting a wide. variety of neighborhoods, can- uvasnagin il five wards Relcher is Kenworthy campaign. 'personal' By ELISA ISAACSON Jamie Kenworthy has become a familiar face at Drake's Sandwich Shop, where he frequently catches a bit to eat between meetings at his headquarters above the restaurant and his door-to-door campaign for the mayor's seat. With the declaration that he is reaching all segments of the voter population, Kenworthy has made a daily ritual of canvassing neigh- borhoods, writing the occupants' names on the leaflets to give them a personal touch. In a stylewmuchdifferent from his opponent's, Kenworthy covers the map in leaps and bounds, literally run- ning from doorstep to doorstep. DASHING umbrella-less through the rain in a low-income housing co-op, By JULIE ENGEBRECHT Fifth in a five-part series It's likely party affiliation will help those partisans running in the Michigan Student Assembly (MSA) election tomorrow, Tuesday, and Wed- nesday-a contest in which many voters will make decisions on a whim. So the three minor party candidates and 18 independents vying for seats probably will have to work a little har- der campaigning over the next several days if they expect to take any seats. The three minor parties: Students for Academic and Institutional Develop- ment (SAID), the Spartacus Youth League (SYL), and Our Party Really' Includes Concerned, Knowledgeable Students (Our P.R.I.C.K.S.), each have two candidates. There are also 18 in- dependents, four of whom are running for presidential or vice presidential positions as well as Literary College (LSA) representatives. SYL, A well-known revolutionary communist youth group on campus, is offering presidential and vice presiden- tial candidates in Bruce Richard, a Law School student, and Irene Rhinesmith, a Literary College (LSA) sophomore. MSA elections '79 The SYL platform demands the abolishment of the University ad- ministration, open admissions, free tuition, and a state stipend for all students at the University. SYL members emphasize a working- class revolution, and said they are run- ning to draw student attention to their program for revolution. "We want to win students to the socialist. revolution," Rhinesmith said. "Student government is no more than a sandbox in which the administration allows various student careerists to play at politics, secure in the knowledge that the kids will do no harm," Richard said. TWO INDEPENDENTS running for the top seats while also trying for LSA representativges seats, Gregg Nathan- son, LSA junior, and Steve Michaelson, LSA sophomore, said they are running because they-feel unhappy about MSA and its relationship with students. They said something could be done. "We would contact; a few more students, and let them know what MSA does," Nathanson said. "MSA should provide a leadership role and be the focus of student sentiment. We have to find out what students are concerned about, and make them feel aware and involved. "A lot of times MSA and student groups work in parallel ways to the See INDEPENDENTS, Page 2 Sunday " Ninety-six University stu- dents matched wits yesterday in the first Michigan College Bowl, a question-and-answer contest held in the Michian Union Ballroom, See story, Page 2. * Where will the Tigers finish? See story. Page 11 KENWOR THY . .the cha"ner Arab nations to impose economic boycott on Egypt BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Eighteen Arab nations agreed yesterday to im- pose a total economic and political ference, which was marked by a bitter dispute between the "hardliners," led by the PLO, and conservative Arab