Eighty years of editorial freedom
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THURSDAY, APRIL 15, 1971
NIGHT EDITOR: W. E. SCHROCK
The judiciary controversy
AFTER YEARS of wrangling over the
question of a campus judicial system,
the Regents tomorrow will consider, and
most likely pass, a new judicial plan for
the University community for a one-
year experimental period.
The plan is the result of almost a
year of effort by a committee of students,
faculty and administrators appointed by
President Robben Fleming to come up
with a workable plan to try and punish
those charged with offenses.
But the impetus behind the new judi-
clary runs much deeper, going back to
the student power demonstrations here
in 1985 when students first began to
ask for responsibility over their own af-
fairs.
A new judiciary is desperately needed
by the University. The present Regents
Interim Disciplinary Rules border on the
line of unconstitutionality, providing not
for trial by peers but by an outside hear-
ing officer appointed by the president of
the University, clearly not an impartial
party in most discipline cases.
As necessary as the new judiciary is,
the Regents should carefully consider
whether two changes made in the plan
agreed upon by the committee are wise.
In general, the judicial proposal calls
for guilt and punishment to be decided
by a vote of at/ least five out of six
randomly selected student jurors in cases
where students are defendants or faculty
jurors when defendants are faculty mem-
bers.
A complaint referee would handle the
filing of charges and provide for arbi-
tration if both parties agreed. Judicial
hearings would be presided over, by a
lawyer from outside the University com-
munity along with one student and one
faculty associate judge.
THE CHIEF remaining difference be-
tween the committee and the Re-
gents is over the power of these associate
judges.
The judiciary committee proposed that
all legal and procedural rulings on ques-
tions such as admissibility of evidence
and removing spectators from the hear-
ing room be decided by unanimous vote
of the three-man panel.
The regental draft would have the pre-
siding judge alone decide questions of
law with only rulings of decorum to be
made by a majority vote of the three.
THE REGENTS should consider rein-
stating the committee's procedure
before they give final approval to the
plan.
As the Chicago "Conspiracy" trial de-
monstrated, it is important that defend-
ants and spectators at a hearing under-
stand why judges make procedural rul-
ings and have confidence in these decis-
ions.
Granting the power to make t h e s e
decisions to an outsider alone when legal
questions are considered obliviates much
of the judiciary committee's efforts to
formulate a plan that will generate con-
fidence and be fair.
Senate Assembly wisely recognized this
when it last week urged the Regents to
have the three-man panel decide all rul-
ings by a majority vote.
THE SECOND major difference between
the committee's revised plan and the
regertal draft are selection procedures.
TheRegents have proposed a complicated
outirne where, in general, officers of the
system would be selected by the Regents
after prior approval of a slate of double
the number of vacancies by Student Gov-
ernment Council and Senate Assembly.
This cumbersome process could delay
the system and puts into the hands of
the Regents rather than the University
the final say in appointments.
The procedure proposed by the judicial
committee would have interviewing
boards propose a slate equal to the num-
ber of vacancies and the slate would
either have to be approved or rejected
by Student Government Council, Senate
Assembly and the Regents.
Such a procedure would probably be
more workable, quicker and result in
more representative officers for the sys-
tem.
IWHILE THE Regents should change
these two features of the draft, the
most important priority is to get the new
judicial system working for the one-year
experimental period that has been pro-
posed.
At long last members of the Univer-
sity would then have a judicial system
that, while by no means perfect, satis-
fies the requirements of fairness, im-
partiality, and acceptability to different
groups on campus.
-DAVE CHUDWIN
Managing Editor
GM: TI
By TOBY COOPER
Daily Guest Writer
JUST ABOUT the only inevitable
consequences of organized ef-
forts to combat American social
problems are hopeless confronta-
tions with powerful corporate en-
terprise, and ultimate frustration.
The Campaign to Make General
Motors Responsible is reversing
this trend, not by overpowering
its adversary (an obviously im-
possible task), but by building its
own sophisticated constituency for
socially conscious corporate con-
duct.
Campaign GM's choice of a target
was not an arbitrary one. General
Motors Corporation is the largest
corporate monolith in history, with
an annual budget larger than any
country in the world except the
U.S. and the Soviet Union. It has
a total payroll of 802,500 persons,
with more people employed o v e r-
seas than the U.S. State Depart-
ment.
Yet, despite its size and wealth,
(gross earnings for 1970 pushed
$51 million per day) GM remains
quite insensitive to social needs.
While proudly claiming leadership
in the areas of minority oppor-
tunities. pollution, and safety in-
novation, GM remains intransig-
ent unless threatened with I a w-
suits or public defacement.
In a typcial show of public re-
lations savior faire, GM issued a
booklet to all shareholders this
year, entitled "Progress in Areas
of Public Concern." The 49 page
booklet contains quasitechnical ar-
ticles by top engineers and mem-
bers of the Board of Directors.
and carefully assures the share-
holder of his viability in the de-
cision-making base of the Cor-
poration.
But the reported "progress" in
meeting social problems is care-
fully screened from evaluation in
the context of the current public
demand for equal opportunities,
environmental quality, and reli-
able, reasonably-priced products.
IN THE BOOKLET GM's Chair-
man James M. Roche reports on
the company's progress in minor-
Ity opportunities. "The problem
of inequality." he reasons. "still
lingers in America - and there-
fore in General Motors." Roche
ought to know something about
inequality, with salary and bonus-
es amounting to $795,000 per year,
or $379 an hour, he earns 100
times the salary of the average
UAW worker, and four times t h e
salary of the President of t h e
United States.
He goes on to boast of "encour-
aging results" in minority hiring
programs. By the end of 1970,
Roche claims. 15.3 per cent of
those employed by GM were mi-
'he
GM Chairman James Roche
need
nority Americans. The less en-
couraging statistic, that o n l y 3.8
per cent of GM's salaried em-
ployees are non-white, is not men-
tioned.
Even more distressing is Gen-
eral Motors' reported progress in
the increase of minority-owned
dealerships. GM has about 13,000
dealerships, 12 of which are own-
ed by blacks. "A year ago we had
only seven automobile dealers who
were black . .."
Such leadership does not go un-
recognized; Roche is a member
of the New Detroit Committee, the
Steering Committee of the Na-
tional Urban Coalition, and t h e
President's National Advisory
Council on Minority Enterprise.
Roche does not boast about GM's
first black member of the Board
of Directors, Reverend Leon Sul-
livan, who was appointed in Jan-
uary after Campaign GM press-
ed heavily for, the election of a
black to GM's Board at the an-
nual meeting last year. Reverend
Sullivan last month demanded ces-
sation of business in South Africa
by General Motors.
EMISSIONS RESEARCH di-
rector William G. Agnew reports
to shareholders on automotive
emission control. His stated pro-
gress is hardly encouraging to the
informed public, either. Despite
GM's efforts to deemphasize t h e
fact, the automobile remains the
largest single source of air pollu-
tion, and GM remains the largest
single source of automobiles.
Ralph Nader's study group re-
port on air pollution, Vanishing
Air, cites the. automotive contri-
bution to air pollution at 180 bil-
lion pounds, or 60 per cent of the
total annual tonnage of pollution
in this country. This figure is
based on the U.S. Department of
Health, Education and Welfare
data published in 1966. Agnew
brandishes the 1970 H.E.W. report
proudly; transportation accounts
for 42 per cent ofthe major pol-
lutants by weight. However, t h e
H.E.W. estimate of the total con-
tribution to the problem by the
internal combustion engine re-
mains unchanged at 180 billion
pounds per year. In other words,
the first report erred in its esti-
mate of air pollution from other
sources; air pollution is worse
than we thought. This dots not
have the slightest effect on the
seriousness of the problem with
respect to automobiles.
THUS, DR. AGNEW clouds the
issue with meaningless compari-
sons in an almost criminal attempt
to cover up the effects of carbon
monoxide on our lives. By clever-
ly relating carbon monoxide to the
effect of sulfur oxides (byproducts
of the combustion of coal) the
statement is made that sulfur ox-
ides are 200 times more harmful
than carbon monoxide. Since sul-
fur oxides have their primary ef-
ftct on the respiratory tract,
lungs, and heart, especially if
these tissues are already stressed
with bronchitis or emphysema,.
and carbon monoxide has lit t 1 e
effect on these areas, the state-
ment is true.
Carbon monoxide is a colorless,
for a social conscience
4
odorless gas, which kills people by
combining with the hmoglobin in
the blood 200 to 300 tim s faster
than oxygen, thus crippling t h e
body's oxygen transport system.
The preliminary effects of carbon
monoxide poisoning, drowsiness
and nausea, are often experienced
by drivers in a summer traffic
jam. No mention of these effects
is made in the report to share-
holders.
THIS IS NOT to deny that GM
is working on the problem of
auto emissions. The positive
crankcase ventilation (PCV)
valve, the one Mobil detergent
gasoline is supposed to keep clean,
is basically a device to recycle
crankcase fumes where carbon
monoxide and hydrocarbons a r e
concentrated. Crankcase e m i s -
sions account for about a quarter
of smog-forming hydrocarbons
that escape from the automobile.
GM first introduced this sim-
ple device on the 1961 California
models, when the Corporation was
faced with compulsion under new-
ly enacted state law. However, the
rest of the nation did not benefit
from California's innovativenap-
proach until the end of 1961, when
Secretary of H.E.W. Abraham
Ribicoff warned that he would
press for nationwide legislation
requiring crankcase controls if
the industry did not "voluntar-
ily" add them to all models by
1963.
Another jaded attempt to white-
wash the pollution problem is
GM's effort to equate the term
"smog" with the problem in the
Los Angeles basin. "Hydrocarbons,"
claims Agnew, "are of concern
only because of the role they play
in the combination with oxides of
nitrogen and sunlight to form
photochemical smog; photochemi-
cal smog is the type which oc-
curs primarily in the Los An-
geles area".
During the formation of t h e
CleantAir Act Amendments of
1965, the H.E.W. report disagreed
with this, concluidng that "evi-
dence of photochemical smog re-
action products outside of Cali-
fornia is clear." All of our metro-
politan areas monitored for smog
reactants are in imminent danger
of harmful smog formation. When
conditions for smog formation are
not right, air throughout the
country may still be dangerously
polluted.
THE FOCUS of GM's approach
to the emissions problem has been
to protect the internal combus-
tion system with a series of tack-
on devisces, and a heavy barrage
of public announcements that the
problem has been solved. Crank-
case blow-by devices, evaporate
controls, and exhaust control sys-
tems were all introduced with the
same redundant pattern; Cai-
fornia cars first, in compliance
with state law, and nationwide dis-
tribution one or two years later.
The new catyletic converter sys-
tem. designed by GM in a frantic
effort to meet the federal' a i r
quality standards for 1976, is a
bulky unit to be clamped midway
down the tailpipe where it prom-
ises to be another epensive com-
ponent in the syndrome of plan-
ned obsolescence.
None of the tack-on devices has
been able to control the increas-
ed emissions simply as a result of
increasing use of the automobile.
The result has been the perpetua-
tion of the internal combustion
engine's use - in an age when
more efficient systems could be
available - and a continuation of
our air pollution problem
THE ONE TYPE of pollution
which the auto industry will never
correct on its own is the presence
of automobiles themselves. Con-
gestion in the cities, crisscrossing
freeways, and 55,000 fatalities each
year continually remind us of
this. Ecologists worry about our
nation's population of 205 mil-
lion, which is growing at the rate
of one per cent per year.
But today we live with 105 mil-
lion automobiles, and their pop-
ulation is growing at the rate of
five per cent per year. Farms feed
people, but it takes oil fields and
refineries to feed automobiles.
How long will it be before these
two incompatible systems of land
use undermine each other? How
long, in fact, can General Motors
continue giving birth to auto-
mobiles at this rate, and fatten-
ing its present profit margin be-
fore society demands a change?
GM's progress seems pitiful in-
deed when viewed in the perspec-
tive of the demand for unpolluted
air or the need for black repre-
sentation in positions of business
leadership. The key question then
becomes, can we expect Ja m es
Roche and his kind to make viable
social decisions?
Attorney Phil Moore, director of
Campaign GM, says no. The men
atthe top of our giant corpora-
tions are too powerful, and much
too isolated from social problems
to be entrusted with social decis-
ions.
Most of our top executives live in
the suburbs, removed from t h e
sight of poverty. They commute
around rush hours, some even by
helicopter. Roche has no worries
about his car's performance, or
warranty, and his vacation c a n
easily be spent' in a chosen en-
vironment.
If GM feels it is doing its best
for the black man in America
by adding five black-owned deal-
er franchises to its roster of 13,-
000, we can only reinforce this
minimal committment, but point
out emphatically that the cor-
poration's efforts suffer from too
narrow a viewpoint. The p e o p 1 e
whose lives are affected by GM
must gain substantial representa-
tion in its decision-making base,
or the needed social consciousness
will never be felt.
THE PROBLEM is that corpor-
ate leaders already make sopial
decisions, unrestrained by the need
for comprehensive assessments of
possible 'social or environmental
harm. We cannot allow GM to
define our criteria for clean air,
nor can we allow James Roche
to determine the economic role of
American blacks.
Corporate' leaders mut be held
accountable for the inadequacy of
their social decisions through per-
sistent public efforts to expand the
decision-making structure of busi-
ness in order to adequately meet
public needs.
EDITOR'S NOTE: At their month-
lv meeting today and tomorrow,
the Regents will decide whetherto
vote the University's General Mot-
ors stock in favor of management
or Campaign GM, a national organ-
ization trying to reform the
company. Toby Cooper, a repre-
sentative of NACT, has been or-
ganizing local support for Campaign
GM.
Ri
4
#-i
4V
Housing: New opportunity
FOR AS LONG as anyone can remember,
students have faced a housing short-
age at the University. At their meeting
tomorrow, the Regents have an oppor-
tunity to alter significantly the Ann
Arbor housing market by approving a
plan to build 1,000 low-cost apartments.
Only a minority of students now live in
the University's dorms. After one or two
years of dorm life; students follow tradi-
tional instincts to move to apartments.
The apartments available for student oc-
cupancy are for the most part less ex-
pensive than the dorms, yet entirely un-
reasonable in the context of usual apart-
ment rents.
For example, a two-bedroom apart-
nent which houses four students may
cost about $320 monthly.
With the $80 per student, the entire
housing package of utilities, rent and
food amounts to considerably less than
the $150 monthly dorm rate.
THE PRICES charged to students here
r compare with prices for fashionable
apartments in such areas as Chicago's
near North Side and Boston's B e a c o n
Hill.
Thus, as long as the housing shortage
continues, with just enough spaces for
students seeking occupancy, students will
be forced to pay exorbitant rents.
Landlords know that students n e e d
places to live and that even excessive
rates fall below the dorm charges. In
addition, they cite high taxes, mainten-
ance costs and the burden of "student
wear and tear" as justification for their
fees.
But there is a solution to the housing
problem which the Regents can help Im-
plement - University sponsored low-
cost apartments.
A T THE tnrmv Othr Repynt n n p en
nance, through a loan from the Depart-
ment of Housing and Urban Development
(HUD), low-cost apartments for its stu-
dents. With the HUD loan, the Univer-
sity would pay nothing for the con-
struction, but would provide the land.
Student rents would pay off the loan.
The Housing board's plan calls for
construction of 1,000 units, to be open
to the University's students and workers.
If the project is to get underway, regental
approval must be granted at this month's
meeting to meet HUD's May 1 deadline for
loan applications.
The University claims to serve stu-
dents, not landlords. Here is a project
which will clearly improve student life,
and the University is reluctant to im-
plement it.
President Fleming has proposed an al-
ternate plan which would provide 2 5 0
units on North Campus. Although the ad-
ministration may feel this plan is better
than none, it might be counter produc-
tive by preventing the University f r o m
building enough units to significantly al-
ter the housing situation.
The Policy Board apartment proposal
is a splendid example of constructive stu-
dent criticism. Dissatisfied with the pre-
sent apartments and their high rates,
students investigated ways to alleviate
this problem. They presented a proposal,
through the student controlled Housing
Policy Board, which includes faculty
members and the Director of Housing.
Their proposal will cost the University
nothing, except for the increased busing.
TOMORROW'S REGENTS meeting pro-
vides an arena for observing just how
much weight is really given to s t u d e n t
needs and student efforts to help m e e t
these needs. The manner in which the
Regents deal with this housing proposal
Knox's resignation:
Opposing committee
F-11TOR's NOTE: This is the text of Michael Knox's letter of resignation
trom Senate Assembly's Classified Research Committee. The letter is ad-
dressed to History Prof. Gerhard Weinberg, chairman of Senate Assembly.
Dear Professor Weinberg:
AT ITS MARCH 22nd meeting, the Senate Assembly approved a reso-
lution expressing its confidence in me as a member of the Classified
Research Committee. I have considered this support to be a mandate
to continue to work for change within the structure of the Committee and
-the Senate Assembly. For several weeks now I have done this, however,
I can no longer in good faith continue to participate in an activity which
I consider to be, morally and philosophically, anathema. I would be less
than deserving of the Senate Assembly's confidence if, under the cir-
cumstances, I were to maintain membership in the Classified Research
Committee.
Despite the actions of the Senate Assembly, the results of the student
referendum, and all of the concerns recently expressed within the Uni-
versity Community, the Classified Research Committee continues to
function as before. The Committee
continues to approve research to
develop and perfect weapon sys-
tems which are being used to kill
human beings. It continues to ig-
nore the present University Policy
on Classified Research. It con-
tinues to be an ally of the military
research establishment. And the
Committee continues to operate in
secrecy, completely isolated from
its constituency.
IN A TOTALLY irresponsible ac-
tion last Friday, the Committee ap-
proved a sham proposal with full
knowledge that the contents of the
summary were completely fraudu-
lent. The funds requested were to
be used for another entirely unre-
lated unclassified project. The pro-
posed military research task in
question had already been accom-
Michael Knox plished. Further, this research task
had been accomplished without the
approval of the Committee. In fact a week earlier the Committee had
reviewed the same proposal and voted six to one to reject it as inap-
propriate research. The proposal was then reconsidered by the Com-
mittee on Friday and approved ex post facto eight to four.
Another recent incident is worth mentioning at this time. On April
7, 1971 the Vice-President for Research sent a memorandum to the Com-
mittee's chairman announcing that he had sent a classified research pro-
posal to the military sponsor without the Committee's approval. This
unilateral action is clearly questionable in view of the University's cur-
rent Policy on Classified Research.
MY CONCERNS about classified military research and the Classi-
fied Research Committee have already been elaborated in great deail.
I have remained a member of the Committee in the hope that it would
respond to the concerns of the Senate Assembly and the University Com-
i
Aw I
Letters to The.Daily
4
Research
To The Daily:
AS IS WELL known, students
have recently been intensely de-
bating whether or not classified
and military research should con-
tinue at the University- On March
30 and 31, students voted over-
whelmingly in the SGC referend-
um to stop their University's com-
plicity.
SGC President Rebecca Schenk
and a delegation of students se-
parately made the request last
week that Thursday or Friday,
April 15 and 16, when the Re-
nav. nrp mpti-na thpv hn1 an
dent opinion. Although students
comprise the majority of the Uni-
versity community, the Regents
will not even sit down and listen
to us, much less accept a student
input in the determination of Uni-
versity policy. We have been pro-
mised a "forum" in the fall, a
forum that the Regents will at-
tend only if they want to. But the
Regents choose to ignore us for
the present.
There will be a rally on the Diag
Friday at noon while the Re-
gents are having their "open"
meeting in a purposely small
room, demanding advanced tickets
for Pntrv .WP ar: mtin to e.
Embarrassment
To The Daily:
I AM AN Engineering student
living in East Quad and I read the
article "Outside the R.C. and
Looking In" with considerable
embarrassment. I am happy to
admit that Dave and Bill do not
reflect the attitudes of the ma-
jority of non-R.C. students in East
Quad.
As for having the guts and be-
ing the backbone of East Quad,
I believe that this responsibility
rests with the Representative As-
4,'