reporter's notebook
E4e Mf rIttgan Thiitij
Eighty-one years of editorial freedom
Edited and mnaged by students at the University of Michigan
Rantings and ravings
I
Jonathan millerI
420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor, Mich.
News Phone: 764-0552
Editorials rinted in The Michigan Daily express the individual opinions of staff writers
or the editors. This must be noted in all reprints.
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 28, 1971
NJICHT EDITOR: ROSE SUE BERSTEIN
Student representation
RECENT FACULTY criticism of S t u -
dent Government Council's failure to
appoint students to Senate Assembly ad-
visory committees appears to have had
the desired 'effect - SGC is beginning
to appoint people.
However, while SGC's desire to develop
"a new complete structure of recruitment
and interview procedure" for student-fa-
culty committees is laudable indeed, a
complete public analysis of SGC action
on student appointments has thus f a r
been lacking.
The new SGC position "does represent
a shift from the past," admits SGC Pres-
ident Rebecca Schenk. For over two years,
SGC administrations have declined to ap-
point students to committees - except
in unusual cases - when the committees
did not have at least student parity and
when the committees did not set policy.
By dropping these demands of student
parity and policy making power, SGC
has developed a. much more realistic at-
/ titude, leaving only the demand t'h a t
SGC be the sole body to make appoint-
ments.
QGC MUST acknowledge that its poor
reputation among the faculty and
administration stems from its slow re-
sponse to faculty and administration re-
quests for student committee members.
Representatives, of Senate Assembly
communicated with SGC leaders as early
as last April, right after the current SGC
administration assumed power - y e t
despite those initial requests for student
committee members and despite the
meetings over the summer that followed,
no students were appointed to any As-
sembly committees.
Editorial Staff
ROBERT KRAFTO WIT
Editor
- JIM BEATTIE DAVE CHUDWIN
Executive Editor Managing Editor
STEVE KOPPMAN .. Editorl Page Editor
RICK PERLOFF .. Associate Editorial Page Editor
PAT MAHONEY .. Assistant Editorial Page Editor
LYNN WEINER ... Associate Managing Editor
LARRY LEMPET . . Associate Managing Editor
ANITA CRONE ......... Arts Editor
JIM IRWIN Associate Art Editors
ROBERT CONROW Books Editor
JANET FREY ..... .............Personnel Director
JIM JUDKIS ..... Photogra; v Editor
NIGHT EDITORS: Rose Sue Berstein, Lindsay
Chaney, Mark Dillen, Sara Fitzgerald, Tammy
Jacobs, Alan Lenhoff, Hester Pulling, Carla Rapo-
port,'Robert Schreiner, W.E. Schrock, Geri Sprung
COPY EDITORS: Pat Bauer, Art Lerner.
DAY EDITORS: Linda Dreeben, Hannah Morrison,
Chris Parks, Gene Robinson, Tony Schwartz, Ted
stein, Paul Travis.
ASSISTANT NIGHT EDITORS: Jonathan Glauser,
John Mitchell, Beth Oberfelder, Gloria Jane
Smith, Sue Stark, Marcia Zoslaw.
Sports Staff
MORT NOVECK, Sports Editor
JIM KEVRA, Executive Sports Editor
RICK CORNFELDA....... Associate Sports Editor
TERRI POUCHEY.......Contributing Sports Editor
BETSY MAHON . ... Senior Night Editor
SPORTS NIGHT EDITORS: Bill Alterman, Bob An-
drews, Sandi Genis, Joel Greer, Elliot Legow,
John Papanek, Randy Phillips, Al Shackelford.
Business Staff
JAMES STOREY, Business Manager
RICHARD RADCLIFFE......... Advertising Manager
SUZANNE BOSCHAN Sales Manager
JOHN SOMMERS ........ ...Finance Manager
ANDY GOLDING ..... Associate Advertising Manager
DEPARTMENT MANAGERS: Bill Abbott-Display Adv.;
Rebecca Van Dyke-Classified Adv.; Fran Hymen
-National Adv.; Harry Hirsch-Layout.
ASSOCIATE MANAGERS: Alan Klein, Donna Sills.
Judy Cassel.
ASSISTANT MANAGERS: Paul Wenzloff, Steve Evseef,
Ashish Sarkar, Dave Lawson
On his own initiative, chemistry Prof.
Peter Smith, chairman of the Student Re-
lations Committee (SRC) 'sent a letter
to Schenk soon after she took office. Af-
ter months of more letters and calls to
her, Smith concluded "Rebecca Schenk
doesn't exist." Schenk has pleaded "lack
of staff," and said "The man (Smith)
doesn't understand that he has one com-
mittee and I have 25."
SINCE THEN SGC has called on s t u-
dents to apply for membership to
SRC, which is among three (of seven pos-
sible) Assembly committees that SGC
found acceptable for student member-
ship. In addition, Council recently ap-
pointed two undergraduates and one
graduate student to Assembly's Civil Li-
berties board, and is presently seeking
another graduate student to serve on the
board.
Yet if SGC insists upon appointing both
graduate and undergraduate members to
the committees, it may face serious ob-
jections from both Assembly and t h e
Graduate Federation. For both groups
have maintained that SGC has only the
authority to appoint the two undergrad-
uate members of an Assembly commit-
tee, while, they contend, the graduate
representative body is empowered to ap-
point the two graduate members.
But, according to the SGC constitution,
Council is to "serve as the appointing
body for selection of members of student
committees, student representatives to
University committees and student re-
presentatives to outside bodies."
THERE IS GOOD reason that SGC
should have final authority over all
student appointments, whether graduae
or undergraduate. For there are a host of
other special interest bodies on campus,
which could - were a precedent estab-
lished for Graduate Federation - demand
control over the appointient of their
constituents to the appropriate Assembly
committees.
The pressure from this plurality of
groups would only tend to fragment the
student voice on campus, while SGC con-
trol over appointments would lend a
sense of unity to the appointments pro-
cedure.
In the interim, SGC should appoint as
many students as it is entitled to, under
Assembly's guidelines, and it should do
so as quickly as possible. Council should,
in addition, send concrete proposals to
Assembly that explains why SGC should
be empowered to appoint all students to
the committees.
Meanwhile, Council has not even men-
tioned the other four advisory commit-
tees - Academic Affairs, University Rela-
tions, Proper Role and Research Policies
- on which some students might wish to
serve. Furthermore, it is SGC that is hold-
ing up the search committee's investiga-
tion for a new Vice President for Stu-
dent Services, through its slow appoint-
ment of student members.
Yet all these are important commit-
tees, and student representation is need-
ed immediately. The responsibility f o r
achieving this lies squarely with SGC.
-W. E. SCHROCK
IT SEEMS ALL YOU need to avoid getting
a parking ticket these days is a car
with a big radio antenna and a telephone.
At least, that's the ostensible reason why
city police meter maid D. L. Harless de-
clined Tuesday at lunchtime to issue a
violation notice to a big black Buick,
parked illegally on the Union Drive be-
tween the Union and the administration
building plaza.
Perhaps the real reason was that the
car belonged to Washtenaw County Sher-
iff Douglas Harvey, who was attending
a lunchtime meeting of thecity Demo-
cratic party in the MUG.
(Speaking to the Democrats in the Un-
ion grill was a former deputy, University
Criminology student Fred Postill. Postill,
who was fired by Harvey in 1968 for so-
called "insubordination," is an as yet
undeclared, but nonetheless serious, candi-
date for the Democratic nomination for
sheriff next year.)
METER MAID Harless - remember her
signature next time you get a parking tick-
et, she writes quite a few - arrived at the
Union in her Green Pinto, parked illegal-
ly, and began writing tickets for the cars
parked on the plaza side of the street. All
the meter spaces were occupied.
A bystander, familiar with Harless from
previous bitter experience, asked the meter
maid if she was going to write a violation
notice on the Buick.
"Whose car is it?" Harless replied, an-
swering a question with a question.
"Sheriff Harvey's," said the bystander.
Harless then explained that as a "coun-
ty car" the vehicle was immune from vio-
lation notices.
How did she know it was a county car?
"Well, its got the radio and everything,"
she explained, peering through the glass
into the automobile.
Radio and everything notwithstanding.
meter maid Harless' interpretation of city
ordinances leaves much to be desired. Her
supervisor, city police Lieut. Robert Conn,
says that he would have written the tick-
et, and she should have written the ticket
and promised an investigation of the in-
cident.
* *, *
THE U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency opened its brand new M o t o r
Vehicle Emission Laboratory on Plymouth
Rd. near North Campus yesterday - an
Anti-pollution Hornet with gas turbine
ultra-modern $10 million research com-
plex' which will serve as the hub of' the
nation's efort to de-pollute the automobile.
Following the dedication ceremonies in
the morning, newsmen were treated" to a
rather plain lunch of sandwiches - the
supply of coffee was, unfortunately, rath-
er too quickly depleted - and a tour of
the facility.
A variety of possible pollution solutions
were on display, including a novel "re-
formed fuel" car, turbine engined cars
and automobiles equipped with Ford's ex-
perimental low-emission engine.
One side-effect of the new laboratory
will be that city residents will have the
opportunity to observe at first hand the
experimental vehicles as they go on test
runs on local streets.
Many will be distinguishable more by the
noises emanating from under their hoods
and by their blue and white federal license
plates than by their shape, size or color.
Among them: U.S. Army jeeps and AMC
Hornets equipped with turbine engines
which whistle - the jeep does three miles
to the gallon - standard sized cars run-
ning on propane gas, and Post Office
trucks with the new Ford engine.
However, the farthest out of the cars
is possibly the only example of a German
made NSU RO. 80 in the United States.
AND, AS MIGHT be expected, the exotic
car has an exotic history. The NSU is il-
legal in America because it fails to meet
any federal emission standards. However,
the Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA) needed one for test purposes, par-
tially because it is one of only a few cars
in production equipped with a Wankel Ro-
tary engine, giving it phenomenal horse-
power for little weight.
The EPA solved the problem by enlist-
ing the support of the U.S. army military
intelligence command. The G.2s bought the
car used in Germany, and shipped it into
the U.S. secretly, avoiding customs inspec-
tion, according to a high level EPA of-
ficial.
However, the army, in the best tradi-
tion of that institution, made one change
to the car before handing it over to the
EPA for testing. They stripped off its coat
of white paint, and covered it in Army
drab green, like a tank, stenciling the le-
gend "U.S. Army" on its side.
"What a way to treat a sports car." mut-
tered one motoring writer unhappily yes-
terday.
It's probably the fastest jeep on the road,
but just how fast the EPA could not im-
mediately say.
"Everything's in kilometers," explained
an EPA aide.'
READERS OF THE Student Government
Council newspaper Student Action may
have been intrigued this week by a brief
unsigned story, appearing under the head-
line: "UM-FBI?"
"It has come to our attention," the ar-
ticle read, "than on August 23 a meet-
ing was held between agents from the
FBI (sic) and Mr. Ernest Zimmerman. as-
The article goes on to explain t h a t
"Mr. Zimmerman is the person who must
be spoken to if anyone wants to get in-
formation from the University's computer
file on students."
"There have been problems 'in the past
with the administration giving supposedly
confidential information to the govern-
ment," the story stated, "and we can only
hope that Mr. Zimmerman told the peo-
ple from the FBI to forget it. We doubt
it, and we hope that we will have more
information about it in the next issue of
Student Action."
WELL, FOR THOSE who are waiting
with bated breath, there appears to be
little factual basis for infering that any
exchange of confidential information about
student records did take place between
Zimmerman and any agent of the Federal
Bureau of Investigation on that date. In-
deed, Zimmerman emphatically denies
gven talking to an FBI agent then.
However, Charles Allmand, who shares
a secretary with Zimmerman, does recall
a meeting with an FBI agent, but says
they discussed a faculty member, not a
student.
"From time to time the FBI comes in
to verify the employment of faculty mem-
bers or staff who are invited, to partici-
pate in commissions of the federal gov-
ernment," Allmand explains. However, in
uases involving confidential information -
anything beyond a mere confirmation of
employment or status - the University's
confidentiality policy applies, and a release
is first obtained from the faculty mem-
ber in question, Allmand says.
As for that computer file; Zimmerman
explains that it contains nothing beyond
"simple demographic information such
as name, add'ess and student identifica-
tion number."
THERE IS NOTHING computerized yet,
Zimmerman says, which deals with student
academic records; and certainly no com-
puter or any other record of a student's
political activity.
4
4
*
sistant to the Vice
Affairs,"
President for Academic
Sheriff Harvey
Letters: The Daily's 'coverage' of noise pollution
ro The Daily:
I WAS DEEPLY upset to note
that an important phase of the
governmental process took place
.n Ann Arbor recently, but went
entirely unnnoticed by the highly
perceptive news gatherers at The
Daily. The Conservation and Re-
creation Committee of the Michi-
gan House of Representatives
came from Lansing in order to
hold public hearings on a bill to
control vehicular noise pollution.
The hearing was held Thursday,
Oct. 14, in the Rackham Ampi-
theater.
The committee came to A n n
Arbor realizing that this student
community was deeply concerned
with the problems of the environ-
ment. (In fact a recent survey
showed ecology second only to the
war as a problem in the minds of
U. of M. students.) The committee
hoped to get input from the uni-
versity community and to a 11 o w
quixotic quest
On arrogance, tolerance and Women
's Lib
rick pe rloli f
them to participate in the forma-
tion of law.
The Daily has long complained
that our government is not re-
sponsive to the people. Page after
page has been filled with protest
towards governmental decision
making and cries of power to the
people. But when government is
responsive, when it comes to the
campus to get students' ideas and
inputs on specific legislation, not
one word is printed. Is it that The
Daily feels it owes a duty to its
readers to inform them of the un-
responsiveness of government, but
not to inform them as to how they
can participate? Or is it that The
Daily feels its long espoused pro-
tests of unrepresentative govern-
ment is threatened by reality?
If I felt The Daily did not know
of this hearing, I might excuse
their actions as mere negligence
But a press release was sent to
them. Furthermore, at the request
of Rep. Ray Smit (R-Ann Arbor).
I twice visited The Daily offices to
inform them of the details of the
upcoming event. It was therefore
a conscious decision by The Daily
that potential direct involvement
in legislative decision making was
a low priority news item.
I would also feel less dismayed
if I felt The Daily did not involve
itself in the issue of making gov-
ernment more attuned to the de-
sires of youth. But political in-
volvement has been the battle cry
of this year's Daily. The paper
should be commended Xor its con-
sistency in urging the student vote,
but its motives must now be ques-
tioned. Can it really be interested
in student participation in gov-
farimpt here itp r't taket~ he.
r .
U.
i
S F+ ' fl
a,
before the elections."
ed a statement opposing legislation
,o give the people of Michigan
home rule powers for their county
governments.
The Sheriff is not alone. A cry
of anguish has gone up from coun-
ty clerks, prosecutors, treasurers,
Train commissioners and township
supervisors all over the S t a t e,
whose bastions of power may be
removed by home rule. Their fierce
apposition is all the more d i s -
tressing because all the proposed
legislation does is to enable the
i
4
ARROGANCE IS unhealthy fiber. It
is unfortunate indeed when this
trait is cultivated, and doubly unfor-
tunate when a group as important as
Women's Liberation falls prey to it.
Yet precisely this has happened.
FOR NOT ONLY have male reporters
found difficulty in covering women's
meetings on campus, but there exists an
even greater hostility toward men -
one senses that women at all affiliated
with the movement do not trust nor
take seriously a man's comment about
women's role in society or her role as a
woman, simply because he is a man,
hence a victim of conditioning.
Of course this contempt, understand-
able as it is, varies among women in
degree; certain women are more cynical
ifics, unburdened by the complications
of present and past personality, to pierce
through the gauze, and sense things
clearly.
It took the young, after all, to sense
(not cognitively) the ugliness of Amer-
ica; older people could not see the
decay of the environment or the glitter
of the suburbs. It was too close to
their nose. Similarly, it is often child-
ren - innocent and pure - who can
sense when something is awry with the
parents.
This is not to imply that men are in-
nocent and pure in the sense that young
people and children can be. But men
are men, born a different sex, a n d
sometimes oriented around different
styles of living. It is precisely because
they are different that they can offer
en today intensely respect Lawrence if
not that his characters contain grains
of themselves?
It is one thing to criticize Lawrence
normatively, for his views on w h a t
women should be,'but it is quite another
to condemn Lawrence for failing to por-
tray women accurately because he was
male.
Perhaps it will be said that a man as
sensitive as D. H. Lawrence is the ex-
ception, not the rule. There is much
truth here.
Yet people who have been socialized
can still offer helpful insights into oth-
ers' problems - middle Americans, in-
culcated as they are, saw very early that
young people lacked the sense of dig-
nity that comes with working, that
much of protest stemmed from boredom
whether to have an abortion, or whe-
ther a woman should attend graduate
school instead of following the more tra-
ditional path of marriage and preg-
nancy. These are matters that women,
as human beings, should decide; they
need little inspiration from men.
On other matters, men can provide
helpful insights. Their intuitions and
thoughts on what femininity is, what
femininity should be, and on the dif-
ferences that should persist between the
sexes can be particularly interesting to
women, precisely because they come
from men.
And naturally, men should exercise
the same tolerance in response to wo-
men's insights on questions which dis-
turb men; for men could argue ( b u t
mustn't) that women's advice is hope-
"He'll visit here just
not having its heart where i t s
words are. The students of this
university deserve to know how
they can participate in the system
which governs their lives; T h e
Daily only tells them how they
can't participate under the pre-
sent system.
The overall policy of The Daily
to paint the picture of present
American government as blatantly
unresponsive to the wishes of the
people works a deliberate fraud on
the students of this campus; but
it, Bellsh n,,ouTsmars_ Tn t+1-, e itsnt,
4