LSA FACULTY See editorial page' Eighty-Nine Years of Editorial Freedom fla~i g BACKLASH High-~45o Low-29 See Today for details Vol. LXXXIX, No. 147 Ann Arbor, Michigan-Wednesday, April 4, 1979 Ten Cents Ten Pages ANTI-APARTHEID GROUP CLAIMS CONFLICT OF INTEREST WCCAA urges resignation o SACFA By HOWARD WITT The chairwoman of the committee analyzing University investments in firms doing business in South Africa is involved in a conflict of in- terest .because she sits on the boards of two such companies, the Washtenaw County Coalition Against Apartheid (WCCAA) alleged earlier this week. WCCAA members have called for her immediate resignation from either the committee or the corporate boards. Patricia Longe, professor of Business Ad- ministration and chairwoman of the Senate Advisory Committee on Financial Affairs (SACFA), is a member of the boards of direc- tors of the Manufacturers National Bank of Detroit and the Warner-Lambert corporation, spokesmen fqr the two businesses confirmed Monday. . v v v1 THE UNIVERSITY owns $804,000 of common stock in the Warner-Lambert corporation and has no investments in the bank, University In- vestment Officer Norman Herbert said. In response to student demonstrations at last month's Regents meetings, the Regents direc- ted SACFA to update a March, 1978 report on the South Africa divestiture issue. Longe declined to comment, saying only, "I don't see that there is any conflict of interest." SACFA MEMBER Arthur Rich, professor of physics., said that SACFA members knew of Longe's positions on corporate boards last year. "When the issue (of divestiture) came up last year, she made her situation clear to us." At that time, Longe was a member of SACFA; she became SACFA chairwoman in September, 1978. However, another SACFA member, Univer- sity Librarian Harriet Jameson, was not fully aware of Longe's positions. "I have a vague recollection of (Longe) saying something about being on some corporations, but I do not remember her saying anything specific, and I think I was at every meeting last year," she said. WCCAA member Debbie Duke, a Literary College (LSA) sophomore, said, "If it's true that SACFA members knew (of Longe's cor- porate positions) last year, then the committee was lax in not publicizing that she was on these boards. THE WCCAA asserted in a letter to. the Daily (see e ditorial page) written last Sunday that Longe's "presence (on the boards of the bank and the corporation) and on SACFA constitutes a conflict of interest." Members of the WCCAA called on Longe "to resign immediately either from SACFA or from the boards of Warner- Lambert and Manufacturers National Bank of Detroit." Manufacturers National Bank Senior Vice- President Robert Herdoiza would not comment on whether the bank is involved in any financial activity in South Africa. However, Warner- Lambert Director of Communications and Public Affairs Ewart Thomas said his cor- poration did have a subsidiary in South Africa. LSA Senior Heidi Gottfried, a WCCAA mem- ber, commented, "If the University decides to divest, then it's a conflict because she (Longe) chie is going to want to have a position that it not divest. She has a stake in the outcome. Several SACFA members and others said they did not believe Longe's interests will con- flict. Rich said, "I think it's unlikely (that her corporate positions) will affect her SACFA decisions, but I don't really know her well enough to make an absolute decision." Prof essor of Higher Education James Miller, also a SACFA member, said, "I think she has been an outstanding chair woman." HISTORY PROF. Shaw Livermore, chair- man of the Senate Advisory Committee on University Affairs (SACUA), which is the executive committee of the faculty Senate Assembly, said neither SACFA nor SACUA had any idea SACFA would be taking up divestiture See WCCAA, Page 10 Federal loan may improve off-campus housing By AMY SALTZMAN Rent reductions and improved property maintenance of off-campus student housing and co-ops could be a few, of the effects of a federally funded housing loan program currently being implemented by the city's Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) of- fice. If Ann Arbor landlords are receptive to the Department of Housing and Ur- ban Development's (HUD) Multi- Family Rehabilitation loan program, one of the results would be a maximum price tag of $302 on "moderately rehabilitated" two bedroom apartmen- ts. ANY LANDLORD participating in the program, which would provide loans for the improvement of low and moderate income households, would also be subject to a five-year rent regulatory agreement. But for student housing, the success of this program, which utilizes the federal Section 312 loan in conjunction with private lending, rests solely on landlord response. "We haven't gotten the word out to landlords yet that these loans will be available, so it is, difficult to judge, at this time, what the response will be," said Barry Tilman, the city's CDBG physical development manager. The loans would result in a significant reduction in the financing of property improvement, which, Tillman said, could provide incentive for landlords to participate in the program. Under the Multi-Family Loan Program, landlords would get a 4.05 per cent reduction in the level of financing for property im- provements. ALTHOUGH MOST landlords sur- veyed said they were not yet aware of all the details of the program, which is expected to go into effect sometime this summer, the general response was positive. "I'm interested in checking it out," said David Copi, owner of several older homes and apartments in the campus area. Copi added he is par- ticularly interested in the loans because, "the rates at banks are astronomical." Vernon Hutton, another Ann Arbor See POSSIBLE, Page 10 Officials say reactor safe HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) - A troublesome gas bubble no longer poses any significant danger of explosion at the disabled Three Mile Island nuclear power plant, a federal official said yesterday. Declaring "the bubble has been eliminated for all practical purposes,' Harold Denton of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission told reporters. "I think the danger point is con- siderably down from where it was a few days ago." "I would say there is no more bubble at the top of the core. . . We no longer consider a hydrogen explosion a significant problem,",he said. "The site remains stable.. . the bubble poses no further significant safety problem." IF NO 'FURTHER radiation is released from the Three Mile Island plant, neighbors of the plant will get about the same radiation exposure this -year as residents of Denver get year in and year out-about 200 millirems. (Nevertheless, some scientists who study low-level radiation think the releases may have serious long-term health effects, including cancer and genetic damage.) Meanwhile, speculation arose that the crippled reactor might have to be junked, but one NRC official said he doubted that. AS DENTON, President Carter's special representative at thescene, madehisiremarks at a briefing, tension was easing~ in the week-long crisis caused by the worst nuclear mishap in U.S. history. Civil Defense officials estimated that between 80,000 and 250,000 of the region's 950,000 people had temporarily pulled out, .,but thousands were returning yesterday and some schools were reopened. Asked when the emergency would be over at Three Mile Island, Denton said, "I hope that from here on out we can move rapidly in that direction. "We are right now developing and looking at plans of the most effective way to bring this reactor to cold shut- down." He declined to predict exactly when that might be accomplished. ASKED ABOUT concerns that some safety instruments have failed because of intense radiation in the reactor, Den- ton said some sensors were lost but most are redundant "and we have other See GOV'T, Page 5 NUCLEAR REACTOR operator David Waalkes monitors an experiment in the control room of the University reactor located on North Campus. U nuclear reactor disaster not possible according to director I . in By TIM YAGLE Last week's near-disaster at a nuclear plant near Harrisburg, Pa. has caused many area residents to wonder about the safety of the University's own research reactor on North Campus, the Phoenix Memorial Lab. According to assistant reactor manager Gary Cook, though, any fears are misplaced, because no accident similar to the one at Harrisburg could happen here. Reactor Director Prof. William Kerr said, "Almost everything is different (from the Three Mile Island plant)." Kerr said to draw a comparison was like comparing a matchstick and a raging fire. The only thing we have in common is the combustion," he said. SINCE THE reactor is not a power- generating plant, it cannot explode and there are no dangerous gases being produced from the reactions. Uranium, which is stored in the building under tight security, is loaned to the University free of charge by the U.S. Dept. of Energy. The radioactive element is the single substance needed to fuel and maintain the nuclear reac- tions. Cook added that "We're here to serve the University as a laboratory tool. We aren't here to make electricity (like the Harrisburg plant does.)" THE PHOENIX Lab is not a massive power-generator like the plant in Pen- nsylvania. It is a research lab which generates just two megawatts versus the nearly 3,000 megawatts produced at Harrisburg. The reactor sits in a 27-foot deep, 50- gallon water tank. The water, which is drained into the Ann Arbor sewer system, prevents the minimal amounts of radiation from seeping into the building. Kerr said the possible physiological effects of radiation "poisoning" are concentrated in human cells. It specifically affects the chromosome count and human genetics. "But there are so many other variables," Kerr said. "It's an inconclusive thing." The worst thing that could happen to a human is death, he said. T HE REACTOR is used by students from several different- University departments. Many utility companies and businesses also use the lab for radiation tests. Cook says the lab has received an estimated $100,000 in revenue from commercial use of the reactor, of which about onethird is used for grant money for University nuclear engineering students to per- form tests there. Most of the ex- periments are done on objects which are believed to be radioactively con- taminated. See 'U', Page5 NEW SYSTEM FALTERS: Punch card voting to be studied By ELISA ISAACSON Ann Arbor's punch card voting system will be reviewed during the next four weeks by the City Clerk's office, the two political parties, and concerned precinct workers, in order to iron out some of the difficultis which arose while counting Monday night's ballots. Although the ballots were tabulated by midnight Monday, the process had been stalled when canvassers were for- ced to use magnifying glasses to determine whether the chads-squares on the paper ballot marked by per- forated lines-had been punched out enough to qualify as votes. according to City Clerk AlVollbrecht, the local Republicans had requested the ballots be counted at one central location, the Armory, rather than at the individual precincts. GOP members wanted monitors watching the ballots counted, and were afraid they would not be able to find workers to cover each precinct. "They (the ballot-counters) were very deliberate," said Vollbrecht. "There is a fair amount of paranoia about the election process in Ann Ar- bor." The concern to which the clerk was referring stems partly from the 1977 city election, in which mayoral can- didate Albert Wheeler was shown to have won by a single vote. When his op- ponent, now-Mayor Louis Belcher,. challenged the results, it was discovered that 20 Ann Arbor Township residents had voted illegally in the elec- tion. Transpsorting all the ballots to the Armory, however, takes up time. Vollbrecht suggested that possible solutions for speeding up the tabulating process might be allowing the precinct workers to count the ballots as they come in, or at least to allow them to select theballots about whichthere might be discrepencies and send only those to the Armory. CANVASSERS COMPELTED their routine election audit at about 5 p.m. See PROPOSALS, Page 7 I Curnculum comm. rescinds policy BY ADRIENNE LYONS The Literary College (LSA) curriculum committee recommended yesterday that the LSA Executive Committee reconsider its decision formation about certain courses to make some proposed exemptions and because most departments have already finalized their fall staffs. According to Associate Curriculum Dean John Knott, the original decision faculty, such as the programs in Women's Studies or American Culture. These programs utilize TAs in upper- level courses far more than do most other departments. KNOTT SAID that the Women's BULLETIN' ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (Reuter)-Former Pakistan Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was hanged in Rawalpindi district jail shortly before sunrise today, official sources said. The failure of the Roosevelt Administration to take an active hand in preventing the Nazis from killing millions of Jews in concen- tration camps was due primarily to the lack of America wanting to become involved, said Henry Feingold, professor of history at City University of New York to more than 175 students and community members last night in the Rackham Amphitheater. Feingold's talk ended a three-day program dealing with the Holocaust. Entitled "A Glimpse Into Darkness," the Conference began Sundav afternonn and featured three Meeting "News of the Final Solution reached American Jewry in the final months of 1942," Feingold said. "Un- til that time there were certain blocs that kept the news from us." Feingold said the State Depar- tment deliberately attempted to block any news on the atrocities of the concentration camps "because it upsets us." ONLY WHEN a file was brought to the Secretary of the Treasury Morgenthau spelling out efforts of the State Department to block any news on the atrocities being commit- ted and the department's effort to bar the entrance of immigrants, to I" I