Page 4-Sunday, April 8, 1979-The Michigan Daily THE WEEK _____________ IN REVIEW Belcher ri GOP keep Government down at City Hall will tot be altered as a result of last Mon- "lay's electons-all the incumbent can- 'didates were reinstated in their posts. And Mayor Louis Belcher, who beat his opponent, Jamie Kenworthy, by 473 iotes-9,936 to 9,463-has said he plans to continue striving for the long-range goals he mapped out during his past year in office. The mayor's plans in- elude increased street repair, zero-base $udgeting at City Hall, and a tornado warning system. ALONG WITH THE incumbent Councilmembers-Ken Latta (D-First 'Ward), Leslie Morris (D-Second Ward), Louis Senunas (R-Third Ward), dward Hood (R-Fourth Ward), and Gerlad Bell (R-Fifth Ward)-four of the eight ballot proposals were also ap- proved by the.voters. The passage of those proposals will enable the city to reconstruct several local streets and to purchase a solid waste shredding facility for the local garbage dump. R By approving Proposition A, voters have authorized a millage increase that will allow the city to borrow $525,000 for street repair, as a supplement to a $1,725,000 government grant. Three University streets-Ann, Maynard, and South University-will be resurfaced. : Proposition D authorizes the city to borrow no more than $700,000 to con- struct and equip a new fire station, to be located on the south side of Ann Arbor. the exact site has not yet been pinpoin- ted. THE MAYOR HAS said the fire station is needed to reduce the emergency response time for firefighters serving that area of town. Currently there is no station close to the Briarwood area. Belcher said he wants the maximum response time for city firefighters to be four and half minutes.' Also approved were Propositions E and F, which provide for the purchase of a $2,825,000 solid waste shredder and a $675,000 108-acre landfill addition ad- jacent to the present city dump, respec- tively. These two purchases will help pi'long the life of the fast-overflowing :landfill. 'City Administrator Sylvester Murray . 420 Mayna E.ighty-Nmie Y Vol. LXXXIX, No. 151 Edited and managed by - 4 Sudents Nesth DY SUPPLYING Nestles products to dormitory resi tbe University Food Service has, fet, symbolically approved the p.ny's policy of selling infant fo to underdeveloped countries i Third World. And, according to t 1 fant Formula Action Coa (INFACT), the formula has proven harmful if not prepared special conditions not usually fou those developing countries. Thi nula has been linked to milli cases of infant malnutrition i Third World. But dormitory residents now ha qpportunity to show their disfavo estles' policy by voting this we +c~1l for the University to boyco rcmpany's products. If the boyc -endorsed, the University Ho d ijvision will recognize student su afthe boycott, and Food Servic lialt the purchasing of Nestle item buy alternative brands. Although the University pre b uses only a few of the comp o products, students must still vo v the boycott. Any kind of suppo matter how extensive, must b minated so that the company eventually stop selling the fo when it is not prepared under sal Sditions. Nestles officials have a that the company has taken steps _____________U e-e ected; Is majorit said he could not offer a reason for the failure of the remaining four ballot proposals. In order to secure the drain repair funds that would have been authorized by Proposition B, the city will try to negotiate with the drain commissioner for an installment plan. The money is needed to repair the Allen Creek Drain, located in the center of Ann Arbor. TO PAY FOR the water, sewer and road repairs that would have been covered by Proposition C, the city plans to sell Special Assessment bonds that do not carry the full faith and credit of the city. Voter approval must be ob- tained for the sale of bonds that do pledge full faith and credit. Because of the defeat of Proposition G, the proposed new landfill equipment will have to be forfeited. Murray said the failure of that proposal came as a "total surprise," since the other two proposals benefitting the dump passed easily. The city's general budget will pay for the Archwood District road im- provements that would have been financed by bond issuance if Proposition H had passed. At Thursday night's City Council meeting-the last session of the Council year-both the Democrats and Republicans blasted the city's new punch card voting system, calling for a return to the old voting machines. Complications arose on election night, and some of the ballots had to be coun- ted by hand, resulting in later returns than had been expected. MrSA Elections Although results from the Michigan Student Assembly (MSA) elections have yet to be declared official, presidential and vice-presidential can- didates James Alland and Laurie Tyler from the Student Alliance for Better Representation (SABRE) were delcared winners early yesterday mor- ning with a 340-vote margin over People's Action- Coalition (PAC) can- didates Yvonne McClenney and Josephy Pelava. Last week's three-day election was embittered by controversy concerning the lack of poll sites, ballot problems, and electioneering by candidates, along with several minor' election-related charges. SEVERAL GROUPS and individuals, including PAC, have filed suits with the Central Student Judiciary (CSJ), calling for invalidation of the election. CSJ will hold a certification hearing tonight at 7 p.m. PAC tried to get CSJ to grant a tem- porary restraining order to prevent election officials from counting ballots, but the Judiciary decided' to proceed with the tabulations. PAC members wanted to open up more poll sites so that those who were "denied the right to vote," could vote in the election. PAC candidates are angry because two dormitory poll sites, East Quad and Bursley, did not have polls open Wed- nesday night, the last night of the elec- tion. PAC expected strong support from East Quad and Bursely dorm residents. ELECTION OFFICIALS and current MSA President Eric Arnson say that this year's election problems are similar to problems in MSA elections of past years, but that they were handled somewhat sloppier.. "It doesn't appear that there's any widespread problem as far as the balloting procedure goes," Arnson said. Less than 20 ballots were declared in- valid.. This year 4293 votes were tallied as opposed to last year's figure of 4427. SABRE and PAC were the major par- ties winning MSA seats, with each cap- turing 15 positions. Two independent candidates, one Young Socialist Alliarn ce candidate, and one write-in can- didate also won seats. The six ballot proposals and Board of Student position will be counted today at noon. Project Outreach The Psychology Department's experimental learning course Project Outreach faces drastic revisions by the department following a Literary College (LSA) Executive Committee directive. If the department does not revamp the program to address the Executive Committee's objections, the committee has threatened to cut off TAs funds for the project. THE EXECUTIVE Committee's ob- jections to the program were based on the committee's claim that un- dergraduates, who currently supervise other undergraduates in the program, are not qualified to serve in this role. The Psychology Department has formed a committee to revise the program which hopes to complete a report on the matter this week. Psychology Prof. Shula Renharz Project Outreach director, says she believes undergraduate students are qualified to supervise the projects. She also says the leadership experience of- fered Outreach supervisors is a valuable addition to their education. Moreover, Reinharz says the depar- tment will face enormous difficulties in recruiting faculty members to take the place of undergraduate supervisors. If the department cannot replace the un- dergraduates with faculty, many, if not most of the Outreach programs may be eliminated. SACFA conflict Admist the controversy surrounding the Regents' meetings several weeks ago, the Board directed the Senate Ad- visory Committee on Financial Affairs (SACFA) to update a March 1978 report on the South Africa divestiture issue. SACFA, who last year advised the Board to keep its holdings in banks and corporations doing business in South Africa, is not scheduled to have its up- dated report ready for the Regents' April meetings. But a new complication, which may damage the committee's credibility developed this week when the Washtenaw County Coalition Against Apartheid (WCCAA) charged SACFA's chairwoman, Patricia Longe, with con flict of interest because she is a memo ber of the boards of directors of the Manufacturers National Bank of Detroit and the Warner-Lambert cor- poration, two businesses holding in- vestments in South Africa. "If the University decides to divest then it's a conflict because she is going to want to have a position that it not divest. She has a stake in the outcome,' said WCCAA member Heidi Gottfried. Longe, however, said she believes her ties with the two businesses doesn't constitute a conflict of interest. The Week in Review was written by Editor-in-Chief Sue Warner, Editorial Director Michael Arkush, Night Editor Elisa Isaacson and Day Editor Julie Engebrecht. Daily Photo by LISA UDELSON Students wait in the Michigan Union as ballots are being tabulated in the MSA elections. ti tgan vat* rd St., Ann Arbor, MI 48109 ears of Editorial Freedom Letters Nuke experts make errors News Phone: 764-0552 students at the University of Michigan should boycott- es products . food Berkeley, and Notre Dame; have also dents, boycotted the company but it continues in ef- to sell the formula in underdeveloped com- countries. However, a boycott by the rmula University will show Nestle officials n the that students are deeply concerned he In- with the company's selling policy. in- The University boycott, if approved lbeen by the students, would aid INFACT's under effort, but it's only one step. It must be und in followed by a strong effort by all is for- University students, not just dormitory ons of residents, to stop buying Nestle n the products. For instance, students would still be able to purchase Nestles produc- ave an ts in stores and in candy machines r with across campus. eek to If the company is to stop selling the ott the formula to developing countries, it cott is must be persuaded by, consumers in -using the United States. After all, when a upport company begins to lose substantial ce will earnings, it starts to listen to per- ns and suasion. sently .. pany's ote for rt, no EDITORIAL STAFF )e ter- Sue Warner............................... EDITOR-IN-CHIEF may Richard Berke, Julie Rovner.........MANAGING EDITORS rmula Michael Arkush ...................... EDITORIAL DIRECTOR fe con- Brian Blanchard....................UNIVERSITY EDITOR Keith Richburg............................. CITY EDITOR argued Shelley Wolson..................... PERSONNEL DIRECTOR: s to in- Elizabeth Slowik ........................ FEATURES EDITOR DennisSabo.............................SPECIAL PROJECTS f _. ,- ARTS EDITORS To the Daily: As Three Mile Island has recently demonstrated, we risk a great deal by placing our national energy future in the hands of putative experts. Expertise, like the emperor's new clothes, sometimes vanishes upon close 'inspection. This needs emphasis in light of a recent letter to the Daily (April 5, 1979) by Stephen Wineberg regarding what he con- siders to be 'misguided' criticisms of nuclear power. Wineberg points out that the question "Are nuclear plants safe?" cannot be answered in the absolute, and that 'the relevant comparison is with alternative sources of energy. True enough. He then argues that ". . . any standard of safety that would flunk nuclear power would easily flunk other sources of power." This is followed by a call for a 'statistical estimation' as a basis for comparing the costs and benefits of nuclear power against coal. Here the expertise begins to evaporate. We are asked to com- pare power sources according to 'fatality rate per unit of power generated,' and are assured that those with the 'relevant actuarial knowledge' would choose nuclear over coal. Where is the data for this assertion, and how confident should we be that this conclusion is correct? The Nuclear Regulatory Commission recently disowned its Rasmussen Report on the safety of nuclear plants, and there iscnosscientific or engineering consensus which stands ready to fill this vacuum. Not long ago, the likelihood of a core meltdown was being com- pared with the probability of being struck by a meteorite. This view seems somewhat quaint today. The truth is that at Harrisburg we escapted a disaster by the skin of our collective teeth. There have been several other near misses, including Fermi I near Detroit and the Browns Ferry ber of reactor-years of experien- ce this implies, and the number of near misses we have already had, should make us rather ner- vous about the growth rates for nuclear plants which the industry (and until recently, the gover- nment) would advocate. I for one am unwilling to live with a Harrisburg-style accident every few years. Also, we have vir- tually no experience with the problems to be encountered as power plants deteriorate with use and age. Statistical estimation is fine in principle; I have done it myself on occasion. However, our sample size is frighteningly small. One often hears comparisons of nuclear with fossil fuel plants in discussions of the safety issues. There is no doubt that the en- vironmental costs of fossil fuel, and the dangers of coal extrac- tion, are considerable. However, one needs to ponder the stakes involved in a nuclear accident. A core meltdown could spread radioactive materials over' enormous land areas and render them uninhabitable- for- decades. It is unimaginable to me that we would weight such damage, and the associated deaths and birth defects, on the same scales as we would use for, let us say, air pollution. And, as is the case with the probability of disaster, the scope of disaster is subject to ex- tremely wide uncertainties. Just as no one foresaw the hydrogen bubble which almost uncovered the reactor core at Three Mile Island, it is entirely possible that we will not understand all of the ramifications of disaster unless we have one. Wineberg's resort to 'fatalities per unit of power generated,' 'statistical estimation,' and 'relevant actuarial knowledge' does not constitute the rationality he advocates. Instead, it provides a veneer of expertise for our ignorance. One does not merely need point estimates (which in themselves are rather scarce). about the stakes, and they are enormous. Learning by doing in the nuclear arena means ex- perimenting on the American public. If we allow the experts and utility companies to 'ex- periment until the probability of. disaster is clarified, our reliance on expertise may well do us in. -Greg Dow April 6, 1979 No Nukes To the Daily: How safe are we from nuclear radiation? The ongoing incident at the Three Mile Island plant in Pen- nsylvania is not the first one in which radiation has leaked into the biosphere from a nuclear power plant. In 1973, 115,000 gallons of high level radioactive waste leaked from a tank in Han- ford, Washington. Leaks have oc- curred in New York, Kentucky, Idaho, and from ocean dumping in Delaware and California (report by the Union of Concer- ned Scientists, 1977). Each time the public has been assured that -the exposure is harmless, less than that of a chest x-ray. Well, not only are the rates of cancer and leukemia acquisition higher among populations that have been exposed to radiation from nuclear reactors (studies cited by Gerald Drake, M.D., 2/79), but for every identified cellular mutation (cancers, leukemia), there could be as many as 10,000 unidentified mutations which may take twen- ty generations to be lethal (geneticist Herman Muller, American Journal of Public Health 1/64). Besides playing Russian Roulette with our own lives, we are going, to leave behind us a trail of mutations and radioac- tive waste dumps which will be a threat to survival thousands of .- - - . n - "^%F . On- - - +. - technological paradise." As evidenced by the leaks that have occurred thus far, power plants in the real world have not met the safety standards laid out in those blueprints. John King, chairman of the University's Nuclear Engineering department and a prominent proponent of nuclear power, mocks us when he says "it's not a question of whether there is a risk, but rather how much risk the public is willing to accept" (Daily, Local Reaction to Mishap by John Goyer, 3/30). We should hear this as a challenge and organize against nuclear power to show the in- dustry that werwill not accept the nuclear risk. Of course we can adapt to the presence of nuclear plants, but we can never suc- cessfully adapt to the radiation those plants are exposing us to, For more information, contact the Ann Arbor Alliance against nuclear power, or P.I.R.G.I.M. -Michael Gold Mechanical Engineering student - To the Daily- eurt As a student at the University of Michigan, I had no idea that when dealing with Campus Security, it was a case of us against them. When I tried to at- tend Reissner's "No To The Veil!" speech the officers there were totalitarian and hostile. Before I arrived at the Union, a group of chanting, Iranian men were thrown out. However, I am a non-political, non-Iranian woman who was deliberately deceived, bold-facedly lied to, and manhandled with no provocation. I can't believe that not only wouldn't they let me explain why I wanted in, but worse, they refused to give me any reason why they wouldn't admit me. Not only were my student rights violated (I am researching the . . . .