Thursday, September 9, 1971 THE MICHIGAN DAILY 4Pdge ..Five Thursday, September 9, 1971 THE MICHIGAN DAILY Page Five . OSS policy board: Power to the students? By GERI SPRUNG While students can say little a b o u t the amount of tuition they pay, they can, through the Office of S t u d e n t Services (OSS) decide that dormitories will buy only union-picked let- tuce. The creation of the student- faculty OSS policy board last year marked the first time stu- dents have had actual voting power in c e r t a i n University policy decisions. And, OSS was the logical place to initiate such decision - making since the ; of- fice is primarily concerned with activities relating to student rife - housing, student organiza- tions, and counseling. Yet the road to the creation of that board was a long one. Pressured to respond to in- creased campus unrest in the mid-sixties, the administration appointed a commission to study the role of students in decision- making. In spring 1968, the com- mission responded by calling for the creation of University-wide bodies which would give stu- dents a major role in governing student c o n d u c t and student services. The vague recommendations were finally given substance by an ad-hoc c omm iit tee which drafted a series of regental by- laws to implement the sugges- tions. Among the drafts was a proposal for a student domi- nated policy board to govern aSS. In the meantime. the by-law ran into a number of snags. Its passage was first delayed for over a year because of student- faculty-administration disagree- ment over various aspects of the draft. At the same time, a search committee, attempting to find a replacement for the out-going vice president for student af- fairs (later student services), was hindered as a controversy ensued over whether the new vice president should be ap- pointed before the by-law was passed. And with this stalemate, all the nominated candidates withdrew. The issue was finally resolved somewhat by the nomination and appointment of then-law Prof. Robert Knauss, who said he would be bound by the deci- sions of the board. But because of the adminis- tration's reluctance to create the board as well as the lengthy dispute over the powers of the proposed board, it seemed that the policy board's authority would be limited. While the board's major policy decisions have been reviewed and often vetoed by the Re- gents over the past year, the board has been given consider- able lee-way in determining general operations of OSS. This past year has been one of exploration for the board. As their powers were left unde- fined by the regental by-law which created the board, the m e m b e r s were continuously "feeling their way" around their jobs trying to anticipate the lim- its the Regents would impose on them. Thus, most of its work has been in reorganizing OSS, in- tegrating the various programs of the office, and creating new programs such as a campus le- gal aid branch for students. Occasionally, the board mikes a major policy decision, which comes under the close scrutiny of the Regents. One such instance )ccurred when the board approved a re- cruiting policy for the OSS placement office which was a radical re-interpretation of the University's overall recruiting policy. After consideration of the policy, the Regents politely vetoed it. The policy would have effec- tively barred over 250 major U S. profit corporations with offices in South Africa from using the OSS placement o f f i c e. The policy was aimed at enforcing the existing University recruit- ing policy, which prohibits ar'y , corporation which engages in discriminatory practices f r o mn recruiting on campus. Prompted by evidence put were recruiting students specific ally for employment in countries which sanction legal discrimina- tion. Besides rejection of the re- cruiting policy, the policy board has also made major changes in the organization of OSS. The of- ::r;:4{°: r::::: i{". srv~::4:. rr;::::t :wL,. +~L v'?VY.+ A.q ''.4"J'.:':J1 "; ' Y ;" ... ....r.....: v.: i"."