,.
Eighty-three years of editorial freedom
Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan
420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor, Mi. 48104
News Phone: 764-0552
HPC:
By RON BECK
If you are a University tenant, a n
portion of your life is affected by p
decisions originating in the UniversityI
ing Office. The condition of your lawn
paint on your walls, the presence (o
sence) of adequate recreation and e
tional facilities and services; all these
affected by University policy.
The University decides what you
have in your apartment (utilities,z
ances, furniture, etc.), what you ma
may sot add to this (appliances, pets,
paint, etc.), who will service your
plaints, and under what conditions. 11
live in a dorm it even decides what
when you will eat, not to mention the
tents of your mailbox.
Indeed, if you live in University o
and operated housing the University
combination parent landlord/city go
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 5, 1973
Revenue sharing politics
TEE REPUBLICAN City Councilmen
Monday cancelled a revenue sharing
contract with Tribal Funding Inc. They
claim the group has not complied with
the terms of the agreement, but that ar-
gument is at best legally suspect, and the
motivation behind it seems equally ques-
tionable.
Tribal Funding has provided only one
of 24 indoor rock concerts called for in
the $17,000 contract approved last March.
Although the concert series need not be
completed until next spring, the GOP
argues that contract has not been com-
plied with.
However, legal support for their con-
tention has been virtually non-existent.
The city attorney looked into the mat-
ter but did not issue an opinion. The Re-
publicans went ahead anyway and will
undoubtedly face a lawsuit from Tribal
Funding executives. }
Perhaps sensing the weakness of the
allegation, the GOP has also charged
Tribal Funding with a city zoning viola-
tion by renting office space from the
Rainbow People's Party (RPP) in an area
prohibiting such commercial uses.
While this charge is correct, it does not
appear to be justifiable grounds for ter-
minating the federal grant, but merely
another attempt at legalistic hocus-
pocus.
PRIOR TO THE contract cancellation,
Tribal Funding had been on the
verge of closing a deal for a new com-,
munity ballroom site. With the building
secured, Tribal Funding spokespersons
say the organization could easily hold
the necessary concerts.
Furthermore they believe the conser-
vative, business interests in the city do
not want the group to acquire any capi-
tal investments in the community.
The Republicans have long opposed
all the revenue sharing appropriations
to local social service groups and have
most vigorously attacked the allocation
to Tribal Funding, which is closely tied to
the radical RPP.
Clearly the opposition drew out of the
marked political differences between the
straight-laced Republicans and the RPP
members.
UNFORTUNATELY TRIBAL Funding
entered into the rent agreement
with RPP. Because of the overlapping
nature of the groups, the arrangement
spawned charges that RPP in effect was
renting from themselves, thus subvert-
ing the revenue sharing contract's in-
tention.
Although the rental did not violate
the contract, the action was very poor
judgment on the part of the organiza-
tions involved and may have prompted
some anti-Tribal Funding feelings.
Still, the Republican vote Monday night
has no legitimate rationale - only an
intense dislike of RPP and associated
groups. Hopefully any legal action will
bring a hasty reversal and restore the
contract with Tribal Funding.
Rubber stamp
short range planning objectives and speci-
najor fication of policy for resolving specific is-
)olicy sues) and long range (determination of long
Hous- term planning objectives, and specification
, the of policy for the attainment of such ob-
r ab- jectives.)
duca- ! Security: Policies concerned with ten-
e are ant health and safety, policies concerned
with protection of tenant privacy and per-
w i 11 sonal property and policies concerned with
appli- protection of University-owned property.
y or In each of these areas student efforts to
new formulate policy have met considerable re-
corn- sistance, and in some they have been to-
fvou tally futile. As regards staffing a compre-
tand hensive policy statement was adopted, but
con- over the years it has been gutted of its or-
wned ginal meaning.
is a This document, insuring the participation
vern- of students in the staff selection process,
has been finaly "legislated" out of exist-
ence by University attorney Roderick 4
Daane. According to Housing Director Feld-
kamp, Daane has ruled that this parti-
cular decision-making power is an adnin-
istrative power which can not be shared.
Thus the 1973-74 version of the staffing
policy document places this decision-mak-
ing authority solely in the hands of Feld-
\ kamp and company.
A similar situation exists in most other
areas of policy "control" as exercised by
this committee. Over the years policy-mak-
ing has come to mean policy advising, and
' advising has come to mean offering opin-
'i a ions. Opinions are seldom solicited on ma-
. jor issues, if they run counter to the Uni- participat
* versity's predetermined intentions, they are
generally ignored. versity H
Most typically the committee is "permit- The Da
ted" to choose between equally bad alter- as justifi
natives, which are affirmed to be the only lection p
rules alternatives the "higher-ups" (i.e. Univer- According
ife. city Vice-Presidents,Executive officers, or legally a
Regents) will accept. thus its s
o the If the committee chooses to ignore the full autho
s, so "good advice" of the Housing office and in- implies (
decis- novate its own policy, it is likely to find that all U
Ieter- its "ex-officio" chairman, Mr. Feldkamp, ing powe
for
Feldcamp?
John Feldcamp listening to student complaints.
Roderick aane
Compounding the fuel crisis
ment, making and enforcing its own
and affecting every aspect of your l
SOME YEARS AGO it occured tc
tenants of the university that person
heavily afected by University policyd
ions, should have a voice in the d
mination of those policies. This co
tion, strongly supported by SGC, le
the formation of a Housing Policy Con
tee, a committee comprised of student
ants and faculty members (specificall
cluding Housing staff from votingr
bership), with students holding the m
ity of the memberships.
The committee was granted a neb
charter to establish policy in matters
cerning University Housing and lef
flounder in setarch of a meaning fort
words. Ultimately, it has discovered
have no meaning.
Over the years it has become involv
policy issues concerning, at least, the
lowing categories of housing relevant is
* Staffing: Establishing a proce
(policy) for the recruitment and selecti
(housing) staff.
Budgeting: Establishing an annual
tal Expenditures Budget and priorities
setting (annual) rents in keeping
above.
* Operations: Maintainance and C
Improvements Policies (on-going)
special programs policies - educatio
creational, etc. (on-going).
t . Planning: Annual (determinatio
THE RESIGNATION of John Love as
chief energy adviser to the Nixon Ad-
ministration may well be indicative of
the President's refusal to deal seriously
with the energy crisis.
In his resignation statement Love cited
his lack of access to the President as rea-
son for his leaving the energy post. The
resignation followed speculation that
Love was about to be fired.
Apparently Love's "crime" was advo-
cating the rationing of gasoline, a serious
step no doubt, but one consistent with
the magnitude. of the fuel shortage fac-
ing the nation.
The Administration's disdain for ra-
tioning may be the product of an ana-
chronlsttc ideology that finds govern-
ment planning of the economy abhor-
rent. It is ironic that this attitude which
did so much to produce the energy crisis
should also prevent the adoption of a
reasonable approach to the problem.
'T IS MORE likely however, that this re-
fusal to turn to the rationing stems
from a calculated decision to insulate the
business community from the effects of
the shortage. As one inside source put it,
the Administration was more concerned
with "quieting the stock market than
solving the energy crisis."
President Nixon would have us believe
that the energy crisis can be overcome
through voluntary cooperation - dial
down the thermostat, put on a sweater.
And the oil companies assure us that we
are the best milage ingredient in our
cars. But behind this rhetoric of togeth-
erness and cooperation, lie policies that
would place the hardship of the energy
crisis on Americans of low and moderate
income while allowing oil profits to soar.
The Administration's alternative to gas
rationing appears to be an increase in
gasoline prices. In a recent statement
Herbert Stein, chairman of the Presi-
dent's Council of Economic advisers, indi-
cated that price increases would cut gas
consumption some 24 per cent.
HIGHER PRICES, however, only cut
consumption by pricing certain seg-
ments of the population out of the gaso-
line market altogether. Those who could
no longer afford to drive would be left
at the mercy of the nation's inadequate
public transit systems.
Quite understandably, the oil industry
also favors an increase in prices for gaso-
line and other fuel products, for it would
allow already lucrative profit margins to
rise. Yes, we can make it through the
fuel shortage together, some of us with
heatless homes and gasless cars, and
some of us reaping big corporate profits.
The effect of gas rationing, on the
other hand, would be to spread whatever
burden the fuel shortage imposes equal-
ly upon the nation's motorists while
keeping prices down. The Administra-
tion's consistent opposition to such a
policy indicates a willingness to let this
burden fall upon those who can least af-
ford it.
RATIONING ITSELF is not a very hap-
py prospect. It involves a large ad-
ministrative bureaucracy with fiascos
that are almost inevitable in such or-
ganizations. And of course, most people
will feel that their ration is just not ade-
quate.
Moreover, holding prices below their
market level is not economically feasi-
ble over the long run. But rationing
amounts to the most sensible and equit-
able solution to the fuel shortage.
Power play
TE CURIOUS EVENTS surrounding
the resignation of John Love from
his position of presidential energy ad-
viser is an excellent example of the bu-
reaucratic "bargaining games" for power
that occur within the government and
that often have strong effects on what
actions are taken.%
Love, who was reportedly one of the
few in the upper levels of the Nixon Ad-
ministration who favored gasoline ra-
tioning to deal with the energy crisis,
was apparently to have been shunted to
a rather meaningless position as a result
of the creation of the Federal Energy
Administration. To some observers' sur-
prise, Deputy Treasury Secretary Wil-
liam Simon is to head the new adminis-
tration.
Love felt that his continued position
as head of the Energy Policy Office would
soon be made pointless by Simon's agen-
cy and so he resigned.
Love had also been criticized for not
recognizing the heating oil shortage soon
enough as well as reportedly not having
the managerial ability to coordinate vari-
ous bureaucratic groups concerned with
energy.
The major effect, of course, is that the
important Nixon administration energy
advisers now favor high prices to curb
ion in the determination of Uni-
ousig pohcy.
ane ruling, which Feldkamp cites
cation for the vision of staff se-
olicy, has sinister imolications.
to this ruling the University is
ccountable for all its decisions,
staff administrators ''must" have
rity to make these decisions. This
and is rapidly coming to mean)
University grants of decision mak-
r to students are "inoperative."
nvic-
)a to
mnit-
ten-
y ex-
rem-
lajor-
ulous
con-
ft to
these
they
ed in
fol-
sues:
edure
on of
Capi-
s and
with
apital
and
n/re-
in of
arguing against the recommendations of his
own committee. Ultimately its policy sug-
gestions are, indeed, overruled by the
"higher-ups." A case in point is the 5
per cent increase in family housing this
year. This exact pattern was followed.
The Housing Policy Committee has re-
peatedly attempted to innovate procedures
for meaningful student participation in each
of the five major decision-making areas
identified, and the University has repeatedly
found ways to carve the core from these
proposals. The listing of examples could
run to several pages.
The effect has been to reduce the Hous-
ing Policy Committee to little more 'han
a rubber stamp; a futile gesture which
lends its legitimacy to the myth of student
In the Housing Policy Committee, at
least, this trend is being oposed. If the
University is no longer wiling to voluntarily
grant its student-tenants a voice in the
determination of Housing Office p licy,
then some foundation for the establishment
of that power must be identified.
Many students feel that the appropriate
base for this power is the Lease Agree-
ment between the University and its var-
ious student tenants. Provisions could be
written into this document granting to the
Housing Policy Committee (or some other
appropriate group) specific authority over
many important policy areas, and the Un!-
versity would be legally bound to honor
the provisions of that agreement.
Policy decisions of such a body would
not be subject to constant reversals by the
"If the committee chooses to ignore the 'good advice' of the
Housing Office and innovate its own policy, it is likely to
find its ex-officio chairman, John Feldcamp, arguing against
the recommendations of his own committee."
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University Executive Officers or the Board
of Regents.
A sub-committee has been established by
the Housing Policy Committee to investi-
gate this possibility and to recommend ap-
propriate changes in the basic lease agree-
ment. But securing University approval of
a revised lease will not be easy.
The University has never indicated an
interest in sharing its power with students,
and will probably be strongly opposed to a
lease which requires them to do so. A
Housing Policy Con mittee decision to re-
vise the lease might well be reversed by
any number of people, ranging from the
University attorney to the Vice-Presidents,
to the entire Board of Regents.
In the final analysis, however, the decision
of whether or not students secure and
retain a voice in the determination of hous-
ing policy will be a student decision, as it
rightfully should be. If the student tenants
of the University of Michigan really want
this voice, it is within their power to have
it.
But there will be a cost involved: a cost
in work houhrs, organization, and committ-
ment. No one really knows how much of a
confrontation might be necessary to force
the University to accept this kind of lease
revision. A petition drive? Demonstrations?
A rent strike? No one can say.
But everyone is agreed that the final
decision will rest with the student tenants,
and that their decision will be measured
by their willinginess to pay the price, what-
ever it is, necessary to force the Uni-
versity's acceptance of tenant demands.
Ron Beck is a member of the Housing
Policy Corn mittee.
II
To The Dail
.. .
... .
Letters:* Living in a prisoner's Void
ly:
I AM SERVING a 10 year to
life sentence in Ohio's $42 million
version of Auschwitz, and for the
past twenty months, Iahaverbeen
content to mope about vegetating
like the animal the Courts said I
was.
True, I have been many unsoc-
iable things, but I won't argue
whys and wherefores. After all this
time I begin to think and sort out
the differences in my life.
Being a high school drop-out in
the penitentiary does not mean I
am incapable of thought and now I
discover that man does not mean
anything if he is all ane and
that people are the only {ones of
value, family, friends and warm
times. I have none of these things.
I was content in knowing -ha- I
was strong and that lone wolves
survive these places, but there is
a deeper side of loneliness and
my mind now is beginning to graap
the importance and value of a
friend.
I have many 'friends' in here,
but they cannot provide perspec-
tive of life on the outside, they are
suffering the same miserable thing
I am. I have to know that that
bleak wall and this closet are not
the only things to live for, th at is
why I must go through this letter
writing thing in order to attract
some attention that may get me a
needed friend.
I have sent letters of this nature
to some of the nearby Ohio col-
leges, but it appears that apathy
is abundant with Ohioans. Besides
that, who ever heard of any civil-
ized people living here. So I ry
to remember the places I've been
and the people I've met while I
was kicking around Monroe and
Detroit many, many years ago, but
names and addresses fail me.
I was impressed with the real-
ism of the people in those cities,
and their general ability to grasp
certain situations. Of course. be-
I have nobody to rap to, it is
necessary that I try to make some-
one aware that I am here, and that
I need a real friend.
I guess that forwhatever hope
there is in a new day is why I in
writing. If you have a school pap-
er and can place this ad for me,
then I will have taken a major step
forward, if not, then I will have to
start all over again. The ad I
would like to have runs as follows:
"Twenty-nine-year young LEO
doing ten to life has had no mail
in twenty months. All alone and in
need of a friend. Would like to
hear from anyone, hex, race, phil-
osophy is unimportant (age to
50). Don't know much, exceot that
I am alone and really dig people-
people are all that matters any-
more. Norman Kosky No. 133536 -
Box 787 - Lucasville, Ohio 45648."
I know that my advertisement is
kind of long but how does one de-
scribe a void in 15 words or less?
To save space many of the words
could be abbreviated, but I leave
that up to your own discretion. If
all this is for naught, I can at least
salvage and savor the fact that I
have earnestly tried.
To whoever is reading this, I
want to thank you for your time,
effort and consideration in bear-
ing with me. I know that your
schedule is more than likely busy
and full and that it would appear
I have written a book - at least
a short story trying to express my-
self so I had better recite one of
those recipes for good-bye. Who-
ever you are, thank you and take
care.
Pax Homini.
-Norman Kosky
No. 133526
Box 787
Lucasville, Ohio
Dec. 3
lIme excuses
To The Daily:
THE MERCHANTS' contention
that the tagging of nonreturnable
cans and bottles would be too dif-
ficult and expensive seems ridi-
culous. The merchants would not
have to tag or mark every can
that they sell.
Simply, the merchants would only
have to give the buyer of nonre-
turnable containers a receipt which
entitles the buyer to return t h a t
number of containers for a deposit
refund.
The receipts could be tokens, or
stamps, etc., and could be given
at the checkout counter. The Ann
Arbor stores, in cooperation with
the city, could work out a system
in which the deposit receipts and
containers could be returned to
anv AnnsArbor store, evenif the
containers were not bought at that
store.
All the stores would pool their
deposits in a central fund. The
merchants would get back money
from the central fund as they re-
turned their deposit receipts. Each
store would be charged or paid a
contemporary amount of money for
the excess- number of nonreturn-
ables sold over the number of used
containers accepted back 'y the
store.
Each store would then pay some
amount for not handling its share
of empty nonreturnables. T h o s e
stores that handle more than their
share would collect from those
charged. Each receipt could have
an identification symbol on it so
as to make it impossible for the
stores to beat the system.
It might even be posible to com-
puterize the operation to make it
very easy. A system similar to this
could readily be worked out.
-Graydon Nance,
grad
'IE oLD SHELL (ANDr ALL. -IME CO1EQOIL c.QMt*4165) GAM~E
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