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t
TUESDAY, MARCH 9, 1971
NIGHT EDITOR: JONATHAN MILLER
The classified research fight
MILITARY RESEARCH has sat quietly
at Willow Run, tranquil and untouch-
ed, for nearly three years. Where has been
little clamor since 1968 when the Re-
gents set up a committee to oversee mili-
tary research, which is funded by the De-
fense Dept. and conducted largely in
secret by University scientists.
But now, quite unexpectedly, the issue
is returning. The group which took over
the Administration Bldg. tMo weeks ago
listed the abolition of military research
among its six demands - and some with-
in the. group are pressing for more mili-
tant action on the issue. A member of the
Senate Assembly committee on classified
research lashed out against the pro-
gram last month, catalyzing other nega-
tive reactions - most notably a state-
ment from Roger Lind, vice-chairman of
Assembly's executive committee, the Sen-
ate Advisory Committee on University Af-
fairs.
And now, a group of faculty members
has organized a campaign geared around
a resolution effectively calling for the end
of University classified research, to be
introduced . at the Assembly's meeting
next week. The professors are planning a
fast from tomorrow until next Tuesday.
They will also discuss the issue in the
Fishbowl on these days at noon.
With Senate Assembly considering the
resolution next week, the fasting activi-
ties provide an immediate method to
Editorial Staff
ROBERT KRAFTOWITZ
Editor
JIMl BEATTIE DAVE CHUDWIN
Executive Editor Managing Editor.
STEVE KOPPMAN . .. Editorial Page Editor
RICK PERLOFF . Associate Editorial Page Editor
PAT MAHONEY .. . Assistant Editorial Page Editor
LYNN WEINER........Associate Managing Editor
LARRY LEMPERT . .... Associate Managing Editor
ANITA CRONE......................Arts Editor
ROBERT' CONROW Books Editor
JIM JUDKIS .... ......Photography Editor
NIGHT EDITORS: Tammy Jacobs, Jonathan Miller,
Carla Rapoport, Hester Pulling, Robert Schreiner,
W. E. Schrock:.
COPY EDITORS: Rose Sue Berstein. Mark Dillen, Sara
Fitzgerald. .
DAY EDITORS: Linda Dreeben, Alan Lenhoff, Art Ler-
net, Jim McFerson, HannahaMorrison. Gene Robin-
son, Geri Sprung, Debra Thal.
ASSISTANT NIGHT EDITORS: Juanita Anderson, Ken
Cohn, Mike McCarthy, John Mitchell; Kristin Ring-
strom, Chris Parks, Zachary Schiller, Ken Schulze,
John Shamraj, Gloria Smith, Ted Stein, Chuck Wil-
bur.
drum up opposition to the Uniiersity's
collusion with the military - a partner-
ship which not only maintains a senseless
war, but, by virtue of the secret classifica-
tion of the research, puts the University
in clear conflict with the openness and
free interchange of ideas to which an
institute of learning is dedicated.
It is unlikely that Assembly will re-
commend next week that the Regents
eliminate classified military research,
since it has not considered the issue yet
this year. There is, however, some chance
that Assembly will make this recom-
mendations at its April meeting. But to do
so, large numbers of faculty members
must actively oppose classified research
and convince their colleagues on t h e
Assembly of the validity of this position.
And there is reason to believe that the
Regents would accept a recommendation
that the research be abolished. In 1968,
the Regents accepted Assembly's recom-
mendation that a committee be establish-
ed to oversee classified research. In 1969
they adopted Senate Assembly report on
ROTC, which called on the University to
renegotiate its contract with the De-
fense Department so that the depart-
Tnent assume the cost of maintaining the
program.
IN OTHER matters too the Regents have*
acquiesced when faculty support has
been evident. The regental reversal of
their opposition to a student - faculty
controlled bookstore was predicted on the
influential support of SACUA which, af-
,ter the seizure of the LSA Bldg., drew up
a. proposal subsequently accepted by the
Regents. Last winter, the Regents com-
mitted themselves to funding 10 per cent
black admissions when the faculties In-
dicated the schools and colleges would
shoulder the financial burden out of their
own budgets.
Thus, faculty support is essential . -
particularly if Assembly declines to re-
commend the end of military research. In
that case, the support of large numbers
of faculty members would be ,needed to
make any extralegal effort successful. In
any event, tomorrow's fast is an innova-
tive step in the gathering of faculty sup-
port.
EDITOR'S NOTE: The following article by
Terry Hamgbur, a history graduate, is a
statement of the Brain Mistrust, a radical
research group.
A FUNDAMENTAL principle of admin-
istrative .decision-making in a demo-
cracy is expressed by the widely-accepted
"conflict ofrinterest" proposition: those
who might have some vested interest in
the outcome of any particular decision
should not be a part of the mechanism
that makes it. In some cases conflict of
interest becomes so trincate and itsop-
erations so institutionalized that a strong
shadow of doubt is cast over the validity
of the entire decision-making process.
Recently the Board of Regents turned
down a formal request, supported by nine
of' the eleven student governments on
campus which took a position, to extend
to the entire University the Office of Stu-
dent Services procedure denying subsidiz-
ed placement services to companies with
operations in South Africa. The purpose
of this proposal is to apply the proudly
advertised University policy against dis-
crimination to bring it into conformity
with the multinational realities of Amer-
ican corporate enterprise.
Was the Board of Regents in any posi-
tion to make a fair and impartial apprai-
sal of the problem? Regents Cudlip and
Lindemer belong to law firms who have
as their clients American business organi-
zations with subsidiaries in South Africa
- such companies as Standard Oil, Gulf
Oil, Texaco, International Harvester,
Chrysler, Borden, and Armour & Co. Re-
gent Huebner, according to the son of
Lynn Townsend, the Chairman of the
Board, is married to a Vice-President -of
Chrysler, which owns Chrysler South
Africa (Pty.) Ltd.
We do not know if individual Regents
have stocks and bonds in companies which
operate in South Africa, but it is likely.
Full disclosure of all corporate holdings
should be made mandatory. Under the
circumstances, it would have been hon-
orable for a number of Regents to have
disqualified themselves from the recruit-
ing decision.
HOWEVER, THE network of influence
runs much deeper. The University owns
stocks and bonds in 56 companies which
make profits in South Africa. In 1969, the
total market value of these holdings was
approximately $41,600,000. For example,
among firms which do business in South
Africa, the University owns over one
million dollars each of stock in General
Motors, General Electric, Dow Chemical,
Standard Oil (N.J.), Shell Oil, Mobil Oil,
IBM, and Eastman Kodak. Moreover, many
corporations with South African subsid-
iaries have generously contributed gifts
and grants to the University. It should
also be noted that nine of the 27 members
who make up the Industrial Committee
for the College of Engineering in 1971-73,
and six of the 14 members who currently
sit on the Visiting Committee of the Busi-
ness School (both are industrial advisory
boards) are either board members or high-
ranking executives of firms with South
African connections.
We are not accusing any individual of
malfeasance nor are we intimating some
sinister conspiracy to defeat the OSS
proposal. When basic assufptions and in-
terests are widely held by those in power
and there is little active resistance to their
hegemony, elaborate machinations a n d
backroom plottings are unnecessary.
But it is difficult, to see how the Re-
gents could have arrived at an objective
decision - given their own individual
vested interests in the defeat of the OSS
proposal, and the corporate interests which
make up almost $42,000,000 in University
investments and consistently answer Uni-
versity fund-raising appeals. While we
could probably obtain public statements
from the Regents and corporate board
members and executives deploring racial
discrimination and condemning the brutal
apartheid policy of South Africa, liberal
principles are fragile reeds in the winds
of corporate profit margins.
THE STUDENT governments which vot-
ed overwhelmingly to accept the OSS pol-
icy did not face the same conflicts of in-
terests as did the Regents. It would have
been more democratic and might have in-
spired more confidence in the legitimacy
of the University decision-making process
had students been permitted to adjudicate
the matter. If the OSS policy were adopted,
the University would make about $250,000
yearly selling placement services n o w
provided free. It would be especially ap-
propriate to apply this sum to the imple-
mentation of University promises on in-
creased black enrollment.
This issue is really part of a larger
on Corporate Responsibility, remarks:
"This Spring, corporate America will go
through its annual election process. A few
white male directors will nominate a
few other directors, put, them
on their ballot and send it to t h e i r
shareholders - the corporate election.
There is no debate, no campaign, and no
contest, just a Russian Ballot. T h e s e
nominees will all be elected with at least
95 per cent of the vote, and they will re-
tire to board rooms with their fellow board
members, all representing the same in-
terest. There they will quietly make de-
cisions that will fundamentally affect mil-
lions of people who are not eneited to vote
in these corporate elections."
Banks, churches, foundations, insurance
companies and universities have huge stock
investments in business organizations.Uni-
versities have traditionally given their cor-
porate voting privileges automatically to
whatever management happens to be in
charge at the time. For example, at re-
cent annual shareholders meetings of Gen-
eral Motors and. Dow Chemical, the Uni-
versity of Michigan followed this custom-
ary practice, in effect, opposing Ralph
Nader and Campaign GM's reform propos-
als, and supporting the continued manu-
facture of napalm for the war in Indo-
china.
HERE THE academic community is dis-
enfranchised -- placing its trust in the
benevolence and wisdom of a handful
of wealthy white males to make decisions
which affect the people of this country
and the world, in many cases as pro-
foundly as the decisions of governments.
And these corporate decisions affect a n d
often prevent virtually the whole range
of political and social changes which
many of us want to move toward - toward
an end to the war in Indochina and the
escalating arms race, toward the right of
people in other parts of the world to con-
trol their own economies, toward an end to
institutionalized racial and sexual dis-
crimination, toward the right of work-
ing class people to adequate wages and
working conditions, and toward an end
to ecological destruction.
And who are these modern pharaohs? A
recent study of the 67 largest California-
based corporations revealed that of the
1008 directors not one is black or Mexican-
American and only six are women (three
of whom are married to the President or
Chairman of the Board). Of the top 1268
officers and executives of these companies
again not one black or brown face and
just six women (two of whom are married
to the President or Chairman of the
Board). Only five major American corpor-
ations have blacks on their boards.
These institutions have accumulated an
extraordinary amount of wealth, power
and influence. If one wishes to see dra-
matic shifts in national priorities and sub-
stantial reform there is simply no alter-
native to a frontal attack on the undemo-
cratic structures and -practices of Amer-
ican business corporations. We tolerate
from them (and universities) an arro-
gance, remoteness and elitism Americans
refuse, at least In theory, to accept from
governments.
The movement to make corporations sic-
ially accountable, which re-entered the
national consciousness durng the 1960's,
through the work of people ranging from
Ralph Nader and Campaign GM to SDS
and other groups on the Left, is alive and
will continue the struggle in a variety of
ways.
Last December Senator Lee Metcalf dis-
closed that 53 universities have a stag-
gering $968.1 million dollars invested in-
energy companies alone, and expressed the
hoperthat "faculties, students, adminis-
trations arfd alumni of our great universi-
ties would perform monumental service to
their country .. by re-directing the vot-
ing power of university stock in energy
companies."
THE UNIVERSITY OF Michigan holds
$51,947,682 of stock in American corpora
4-
*+
'I
Regent Lindemer
tions (market value, June 30, 1970). It is
no longer acceptable that the University
automatically turn over - without con-
sultation with any elements in the aca-
demic community - its vast voting
strength to tiny bands of essentially un-
elected rulers. It is time for the University
to begin to live up to its liberal rhetoric in
some concrete way. Judging from past ex-
perience, however, the Board of Regents
cannot be expected to rise to the oc-
casion. They are simply too bogged down
in the mire of personal interest and too
deeply integrated into the matric of cor-
porate America to ever initiate significant
change.
Students and faculty must put active and
sustained pressure of the Regents, con-
stantly calling into question their legiti-
macy to administer the vast corporate
holdings of the University. If "all power to
the people" means anything, it means that
individual freedom and self-dignity can
never be realities as long as Boards of
Regents and Boards of Directors continue
to exercise substantial control over peo-
ple's lives without their participation, with-
out their consent, and often even without
their knowledge.
4
Regent Cudlip
problem. If the Regents, closely tied to the
interests of major corporations, living out-
side the local Ann Arbor community, and
often demonstrating little understanding
of and appreciation for the currents of
social change in the University, are to
have their legitimacy challenged, then the
corporations themselves can be called into
even more serious question. Philip W.
--RICK PERLOFF
Associate Editorial
Page Editor
Moore, executive director of
the Project
Wayne County ail: The inhuman jungle
Letters to The Daily
The following are excerpts from a
legal brief being presented in Wayne
County Circuit Court on behalf of
Wayne County Jail inmates who are su-
ing the Wayne County Board of Com-
missioners and several other county
officials in an attempt to improve con-
ditions at the jail.
All six defendants have been held, in
the prison since last year without hav-
ing been convicted of a crime because
none have been able to post sufficient
bail to be freed. The inmates' suit seeks
to close the prison until such time as
plans and actions are initiated to al-
leviate the derteiorating physical and
.legal conditions borne by their fellow
prisoners.
One of the plaintiffs bringing the suit
is Lawrence (Pun) Plamundon, charged
in connection with the bombing of the
Ann Arbor CIA office in September
1968.
BETWEEN 1300 and 1500 persons are,
at any given time, incarcerated in
the Wayne County Jail. In excess of 1,000
prisoners are at all times incarcerated
in the jail solely because of their finan-
cial inability to post a sufficient sum of
money to meet their bail bond detainers.
More than 90 per cent of the prisoners
are indigent, and in a county in which no
more than 20 to 25 percent of the citizen-
ry is black, 85 per cent of the prisoners
are black.
The Wayne County Jail consists of two
sections, an original structure built in
1926 and an annex built in 1963.
The cells in the prison were designed
to house two detainees at one time. How-
ever, it is often the case that three pri-
sopers are forced to live cramped in one
of these tiny six by eight feet cells. Each
cell is identical in size and contains a
double bunk. When three prisoners are
entainerd in nne cell the lck nf nace
night. Prisoners are confined to their
cells, which are locked, from 9:00 p.m.
to 6:00 a.m.
TOILETS IN THE CELLS leak and
overflow flooding the sleeping quarters
of inmates and resulting in leakage from
one floor to another, below. When the
cells are locked overnight, conditions
caused by overflowing toilets are not
liveable, particularly for inmates forced
to sleep on the floor.
Fecal matter and urine cover the floors
of most cells.
Rats, roaches and insects abound
throughout the Wayne County Jail and
prisoners often must devise makeshift
protections from the rats.
Leaking and broken pipes from the
catwalk behind the cells often spray
water in the cells.
In the summer the heat is extremely
oppressive, the air rancid and the odor
of these close and inhuman quarters
disgusting.
THE ISOLATION WARD is used to
punish persons who allegedly violate in-
ternal jail rules which rules are not
published and are therefore unknown
to many prisoners.
The isolation ward contains eight in-
dividual cells, known as "the hole". The
bars to each cell are internally covered
by heavy steel mesh except for a small
slot at the bottom which is used to pass
in food and water. The interior of the cell
is bare concrete with a slightly elevated
slab at the rear. There is a small hole
in the floor which serves as a "toilet",
and defecation and urine are to be auto-
matically flushed down the hole, though
in practice the size of the "toilet" causes
excrement to be sprayed and washed
into the cell. There is no lighting in the
hole, and theheating facilities are sepa-
rated and constructed in such a manner
that the cells are exceptionally cold and
THERE ARE THREE so-called mental
wards on the seventh floor annex to the
Wayne County Jail.
The decision to commit persons to the
mental wards is made by persons with
no medical training. In fact, many per-
sons are often placed in such wards for
strictly punitive and vindictive reasons.
Though known as a "mental" ward,
persons confined therein receive no diag-
nosis or treatment. At present there is
not even a single psychiatrist who wcrks
out of the medical office at the Jail, nor
has there been for more than two
months.
WARD 611 CONTAINS those prisoners
who, without even the guise of due pro-
cess, are summarily and capriciously
labeled maximum security risks and
placed in this section of the annex. Po-
litical prisoners are frequently held here.
Each prisoner on the ward is confined
to his individual cell 22 hours a day and
never allowed off the ward except when
visited by an attorney.
As previously stated, jail rules are not
published, nor are Plaintiffs and their
class informed thereof, until such time
as violations allegedly occur. The "pro-
cedure" which results in persons being
sent to the hole is initiated by a deputy
on the floor. The alleged violation, may
be any act which, in the deputy's judg-
ment, is worthy of the "hole". Thus, pri-
soners are subjected to arbitrary disci-
pline without notice of rules. Isolation in
the barbaric "hole" often results from
minor incidents such as name calling- or
minor insolence.
Though there is a rule that persons are
to be kept in the hole for no more than
seven consecutive days, this "rule" too
is violated and prisoners are subjected
to and threatened with substantially
longer terms of incarceration.
Other restrictions often made upon
prisoners take the form of prohibiting
they are deprived of visitation privi-
leges, reading and writing materials,
mail, the wagon, cigarettes, blankets,
eating utensils, towels, and sometimes
the water from the wash basin is pur-
posefully shut off and mattresses re-
moved or not provided. Women have
been placed in "isolation" for weeks on
end and denied throughout any showers
and personal necessities such as sani-
tary napkins,
ONE DOCTOR WORKS at the Wayne
County Jail for four hours a day, five
days a week. He works out of a ver'y
small office on the seventh floor which
provides only the most substandard care.
After the physician's hours, medica-
tion prescribed by the doctor is distri-
buted to deputies who administer it to
prisoners. When medication is delivered
at the wrong times, the prisoner is not
even allowed'to delay taking the medica-
tion to conform with medical require-
ments.
The method for obtaining medical at-
tention is for the inmates to write out
their complaints which are given to the
deputies on duty, who have little or no
medical training. The doctor will only
see those inmates that the deputies de-
cide he should see.
Twenty hours a day and 24 hours each
weekend day prisoners have essentially
no medical facilities available.
FIFTY PERCENT or more of the in-
mates in the Wayne County Jail go
through some form of drug addiction
withdrawal, but the medical attention
provided is medically unsound. Prisoners
going through withdrawal are treated
for only four days; this "treatment" con-
sists of a vitamin pill, a relatively inef-
fectual pill to ease stomach cramps, and
a low-level synthetic narcotic.
Prisoners known to have tuberculosis
are not removed from the jail premises.
RC's function
To the Daily:
AS MEMBERS of the Residential
College community, we would like
to respond to the recent editorials
concerning the college, in hopes
that this response will clarify the
purpose of the Residential College
as a functional part of the Univer-
sity. The R.C. is a self-contained
academic and social unit. This is
probably the most salient feature
in the existence of the college as a
community.
As a result, any student or fac-
ulty member of the college can af-
fect the direction of his social and
academic endeavors. Any decision
made in the college is an open one,
made within the structure of a
student-faculty committee. All de-
cisions must then be approved by
the Representative Assembly where
faculty, students, and administra-
tors share equal responsibility in
deciding such problems as curric-
ulum and budget proposals, evalu-
ation systems, student academic
standing, and housing matters.
All applicants to the Residential
College must first be admitted to
LSA and request that, upon admis-
sion, their application be forward-
ed to the Residential College for
consideration. Students are then
chosen from a representative sam-
ple of LSA applicants according to
SAT scores and expected grade
point averages, the object being
to obtain a crosshsection of the
LSA population. No further regard
is given to attitudes, ethnic back-
ground, or political beliefs than is
the case in the larger university.
THE RESIDENTIAL College is
specifically a liberal arts college.
Students who are interested in sci-
encesbarediscouraged from apply-
ing, because of inadequate labora-
tory facilities and difficulties en-
countered in fulfilling both R. C.
and pre-professianal science re-
quirements. The contribution of the
R.C. is in the area of experimental
education. It is an attempt to per-
sonalize education by creating such
alternatives as pass-fail evalua-
tions, independent studies and con-
centrations, off-campus work-study
fprograms, and seminar classes.
Small class size and availability
of faculty allows for more produc-
tive student-faculty relations which
are necessary in accomplishing the
college's goals.
Although these characteristics
may not be unique to the Residen-
tial College, they are efforts on the
part of the college community to
eliminate the often made distinc-
tions between academic and social
experiences. It is the expectation
of the college that the benefits of
this type of experimental education
will eventually be more widely ac-
cepted to meet the needs of all
university students.
THE R.C. student is not the only
participant in the experiment.
Faculty plays an equally import-
ant role. An R.C. faculty member's
primary goal is to engage himself
in a mutual learning experience
with his students. Because they are
interested in teaching the under-
graduate in an informal situation,
many teachers volunteer their serv-
ices to the college. Due to the fi-
nancial crisis of the University,
R.C. is unable to maintain its own
full-time faculty and must there-
fore share faculty with' other de-
partments. However, let it be em-
phasized that the faculty members
are here upon their own request.
The financial crisis that the Uni-
versity is facing is proving to be
detrimental to the experimental
nature of the College. The shortage
of funds limits not only the avail-
ability of full-time faculty, the num-
ber and variety of course offer-
ingshbut also the autonomy needed
by the college to function as an
experiment.
It is our hope that this letter has
helped to clarify any misconcep-
tions held by those outside of the
Residential College community.
8
-Ellen Barahal
Mark Creekmore
'73
Grad
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