Eighty years of editorial freedom Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan Corporations and 'U': Subtle alliance 420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor, Mich News Phone: 764-0552 Editorials printed in The Michigan Daily express the individual opinions of staff writers or the editors. This must be noted in all reprints. 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 '. sI!w1,IG111;111 i:a: l9 "t : i E : ; 1 ice " F~r 'AM