. . . CONFLICT OF INTEREST See editorial page I Sirti wan Eigh tv-Nine Years of Editorial Freedom 1~aI1 PREPOSTEROUS High-37 Low-24 See Today for details Vol. LXXXIX, No. 148 Ann Arbor, Michigan-Thursday, April 5, 1979 Ten Cents Ten Pages South Africa divestiture still hot issue at fU' I0 By WILLIAM THOMPSON First came the leafletting, then the Diag rallies. And now corporate divestiture from South Africa is such a hot issue on campus that last month more than 200 protesters stormed the Regents' meeting demanding that the University divest. , But student activism on the South Africa divestment issue isn't limited just to this University. THROUGHOUT THE nation, students are protesting college holdings in corporations that do business in South Africa. Cries for divestment are being answered with mixed reactions and, in some cases, not being answered at all. , In late March, the trustees at Columbia University an- and on campuses elsewhere nounced that they would release holdings in banks which deal with the South African government. Although their decision was made public only recently, the Columbia trustees ap- proved the school's divestment last June, following a series of student protests. The Columbia administration delayed announcing the school's transaction to avoid a "run on the banks," according to David Rosenberg, managing editor of the campus newspaper. "THE TRUSTEES said there was no relation (between the vote and the protests) even though it happened at the same time," he stated. At other schools, protests over divestment are gaining momentum and - according to student leaders - activism should increase with the spring weather. When Harvard University's investment corporation meets in coming weeks, the Students' Southern Africa Solidarity Committee on campus will hold a teach-in and demon- strations. "WE VIEW DIVESTITURE as a means to cause cor- porations to withdraw from Southern Africa," explained Matt Rothschild, a member of the committee. "This will ex- pedite an end td apartheid." Rothschild said he doesn't expect Harvard to divest in the coming year. "But pressure is building," he said, "and at some point, they (trustees) may be forced to divest." However, Lawrence Stevens of Harvard's General Counsel office, insisted that the school's investments do not con- tribute to apartheid. "We do the best we can on information we have collected to evaluate the net effect of a company See S. AFRICA, Page 5 'U, asks court for OK to bar protesters April showers Doily Photo by ANDY Spring enthusiasts were forced to pull their winter coats out of the moth balls when The white stuff is predicted to continue sporadically through tomorrow. a blinding snow fell yesterday afternoon blanketing the city with a layer of slush. PROBLEMS WITH MSA POLL SITESBALLOTS: Elcinends i on trove rsy By MITCH CANTOR and MARK PARRENT The University Tuesday filed a motion in Washtenaw County Circuit Court asking that the Regents be allowed to move behind closed doors in April should their scheduled meetings be disrupted by the Washtenaw County Coalition Against Apartheid (WCCAA). Hearing on the motion will begin Mon- day morning before Judge Ross Cam- pbell. The 9:00 a.m. hearing will center on an 11-page brief written by Peter Davis, the attorney for the University. In his statement, Davis alleges that a planned appearance of more than 200 members and supporters of WCCAA may result in "violence and injury. . . unless judicial relief is sought in advance." REFERRING TO this month's Regents' meeting, WCCAA leader Jemadari Kamara had declaredlast month, "We will come back in numbers they have never seen before." More than 200 protesters, many of them WCCAA members, disrupted last month's Regents meetings, forcing the board to obtain a restraining order from visiting Judge Harold Van Domelen. The order allowed the Regen- ts to meet privately, allowing only members of the press and selected in- dividuals to attend. A week later the order was dissolved by visiting Judge George Kent. Kent, however, didn't assess the legality of the original issuance. UNIVERSITY ATTORNEY Davis, BY JULIE ENGEBRECHT Voting in the Michigan Student Assembly (MSA) election came to a- close last night amid charges by can- didates, election workers, MSA mem- bers, and voters claiming that the elec- tion was ridden by inept vote processing and fraud. Despite the complaints, no one has filed suit against the Assembly for its handling of the election, and validation MSA elections '79 of the ballots is continuing as planned. MSA election officials were expected to continue sorting the ballots at 8 a.m. this morning. Ballots will be tabulated after they are all validated. MSA ELECTIONS Director Emily Koo estimated that 4,800 students voted during the election, which ran from Monday morning until early last night. Koo said, however, that 5,000 ballots had been printed and she fears that up to 300 empty ballots have been stolen because several polling sites reported they were short of fresh ballots. The polling site at CRISP was left unatten- ded with open ballots for an hour, several MSA candidates said. Several candidates and students complained that MSA didn't set up polls last flight at East Quad and Bursley - traditionally among the heaviest dor- mitory polling sites - as had been ex- pected. Since Monday, the elections had been plagued with a lack of poll workers, which caused several scheduled polling sites to shut down, and others to close early. KOO SAID she would hold Wed- nesday's ballots until she has time to see if anyone has substantial complain- ts. She said the MSA election code rule requiring candidates to be 50 feet away from a polling site was violated repeatedly by candidates during the election. "It happened last year," Koo said. This year's elections ran just as smooth, if not smoother than last year." Central Student Judiciary Chief Justice Dennis Persinger said, "They (elections) were a little sloppier than usual." PERSINGER ALSO said efforts to validate and tabulate ballots will con- tinue, and election certification will take place Sunday at 7 p.m. See ELECTION, Page 5 who is out of town and was unavailable for comment yesterday, argued in his statement that disturbance of lawful meetings justifies the move on the part of the Board. "Constitutionally, it makes no dif- ference whether the protester is taken from the meeting or the meeting is taken from the protester," Davis wrote in the document. The WCCAA held its regular meeting at Trotter House last night, but before proceeding to the portion of the agenda where they would discuss "strategy," the members voted to request that the Daily reporter present leave the meeting room. "I DON'T THINK it's a good idea to let the (University) administration know what we're thinking," said Heidi See WCCAA, Page 5 CESF to, present, retire-ment forecast BY HOWARD WITT If current salary trends .continue, University faculty members may benefit from continued participation in the Social Security retirementsystem. Ironically, such a benefit may result because in ten years time, University professors could be considered low wage workers, explained Economics Prof. Edward Gramlich, chairman of the faculty Senate Assembly's Commit- tee on the Economic Status of the Faculty (CESF). CESF is preparing a report for the Assembly which examines the economic advantages and disadva.n- tages of possible withdrawal from the Social Security system. State and local government employees currently are not required to remain in the system, although a federal study commission See CESF, Page 7 Radiation levels almost normal in Pa. From AP and Reuter HARRISBURG, Pa. - Radiation levels dwindled to near normal around the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant yesterday, and federal officials said they were considering a proposal to take the disabled reactor into cold shutdown. And while officials are concerned about the durability of vital instrumen- ts inside the reactor, conditions at the plant remain "stable," Harold Denton, of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), said at a briefing. HE CONFIRMED that human error had contributed to the reactor accident. In Washington, NRC officials described three separate human errors that con- tributed to the crisis. The first error came when valves on an emergency pumping system - part of the reactor's coolant system - were closed, although they should have been open. Later, an operator turned off the plant's main emergency core cooling system at the wrong time. Finally, four standby water pumps were disengaged when there was no apparent reason for them not to be working. Denton said having the standby pum- ps disengaged was a violation of NRC regulations. He said engineers would maintain the plant in its current status for several days. IN WASHINGTON, HEW Secretary Joseph Califano said the population near the plant still faces radiation ex- posure, but he expected no increase in fatal cancer from radioactivity released so far. Califano told a Senate hearing that despite the leaks that occurred at the plant after an accident involving the cooling system, "We would still expect to find no additional cancer deaths above the 4,500 which would be expec- ted in the (area's) population." House accuses Diggs of 18 new violations WASHINGTON (AP) - The House ethics committee yesterday accused Rep. Charles Diggs, who already has been convicted of federal crimes, with 18 counts of violating House rules. The allegations filed by the commit- tee parallel in scope the federal charges upon which Diggs was convicted in a November jury trial. THE COMMITTEE charged that the Michigan Democrat inflated the salaries of selected employees on his congressional payroll in order to get kickbacks to help him pay his private debts or congressional expenses. The committee also alleged that Diggs placed employees on his congressional SThursday- * WCBN could be knocked off the air by stations with more wat- tage in the future. MSA voted to make open statement of support for WCBN wattage increase. See story, Page 2. " Opening game cancelled, but Tiger outlook inside. See story. payroll without assigning them any duties. Another committee count alleges Diggs placed a woman on his congressional payroll "with knowledge that the majority of her duties would be and were for the benefit of the respon- dent's business, the House of Diggs Funeral Home in Detroit, Mich." Nine of the counts claim Diggs' ac- tions were a misuse of his congressional payroll allowance. The remaining nine alleged that his actions "did not reflect creditably on the House of Represen- tatives." DIGGS IS currently appealing a three-year prison sentence after being convicted of payroll padding and of takingskickbacks from his House em- ployees. Diggs said in a prepared statement that he was disappointed in the commit- tee's decision to bring charges against him while his federal conviction is 1 being appealed. And he said he was "concerned about what effect the extensive publicity sure to be generated by the committee deliberations could have" on his appeal nraneredings Union hotel todayk ''dorm tomorrow : By PATRICIA HAGEN Gideon's Bible won't be in the drawer and there won't be room service or color television, but graduate students residing in the converted guest rooms in the Michigan Union next fall will be living in comparative luxury-at least compared to other Univer- sity dormitory residents. 91 guest rooms in the Union wjll be converted in August into rooms for 127 students. The space will be available to graduate students or students over 21. Each room, spacious by dorm stan- dards, has wall-to-wall carpeting, air conditioning, and a private bathroom. THE UNION seemed like a logical alternative to help alleviate the University's housing problem, according to Norm Snustad, associate University Housing director. The University Regents approved the conversion plans early this year due to concern over housing shortages and recent efforts to make the Union more stident-oriented. "There is a need for housing for transfer and graduate studen- ts that we haven't always been able to meet," said Snustad. He explained that because of the new rooms for grads in the Union, s more space will open un for undergraduates in South Quadrangle