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Vol. LXXXVIII, No. 71 Ann Arbor, Michigan-Saturday, December 3, 1977 Ten Cents 10 Pages
PIRGIM tries hard sell at RISP lines
By MARK LEWISON
The crumpled "PIRGIM Voluntary
contribution Forms" in the snow
outside the CRISP registration build-
ing tell the story - this year the
consumer advocate group is being,
forced to "sell" itself to University
students like never before.
PIRGIM (Public Interest Re-
search Group in Michigan), founded
by the Ralph Nader organization in
1971, has always leaned heavily on
student contributions obtained here
at the University at registration.
BUT CHANGES made last year by
the Regents now require students
wishing to support PIRGIM to sign a
"contribution form" at registration.
This "positive check-off" system is
keeping PIRGIM volunteers very,
very busy.
"We'll keep the registration line
staffed constantly, even if I have to
fill in for others," said PIRGIM's
Tom Moran.
The so-called "positive check-off"
replaces a similar system, in which
PIRGIM donation forms were not
attached to student verification
forms at registration.
IT IS ALSO the first half of a
two-term contract which will not be
renewed if PIRGIM a is unable to
maintain a 33 per cent participation
rate. As of Monday, 52 per cent of
students registering for winter term
had made the two-dollar PIRGIM
pledge.
Last term PIRGIM got only 18 per
cent of the registering students to
sign donation forms, a failure which.
PIRGIM members attribute to the
'How are we going to get these freshmen to sign a
donation card if they don't know what it's for?'
PIRGIM staff Denise Sloan
'The whole staff has to work on (registration). It
takes away from PIRGIM'S real work.'
-Staffer Tim Kunin
confusing method of not including
donation forms with verification
forms. The method of donation has
been changed three times in three
terms.
"They (the Regents) really don't
want us on campus," said Denise
Sloan, a former paid PIRGIM staff
member who came from her home in
Lansing to work "for free" on the
donation drive at CRISP.
get their money back.
That system came under fire this
year from Regents Deane Baker
(R-Ann Arbor) and David Laro
(R-Flint). At the October meeting
Baker moved unsuccessfully to sever
all University ties with PIRGIM.
Other motions to curb PIRGIM's
registration privileges, donation
forms, and the number of PIRGIM
volunteers at CRISP were also
defeated, but the change from "nega-
tive" to "positive" check-off passed.
SINCE THEN PIRGIM has strug-
gled to survive. The group's Univer-
sity branch suffers from chronic un-
derstaffing, and many students are
unfamiliar with or hostile to the
group's work.
"How are we going to get these
freshmen to sign a donation card if
they don't know what it's for?" Sloan
complained.
"The whole staff has to work on
(registration)," said PIRGIM's Tim
Kunin. "It takes away from PIR-
GIM's real work."
PIRGIM'S PAST accomplishments
include lobbying for the Michigan
Consumer Protection Act, reforming
state eviction laws, helping pass a
freedom of information law, and
conducting consumer product sur-
veys on economy and child safety.
Public Interest Research Groups
exist in 20 other states under differ-
ent names: Colorado's is COPIRG,
Minnesota's IMPIRG, Maryland's
MaryPIRG. In Michigan PIRGIM
has branches at Grand Valley State
Colleges, Central Michigan Univer-
See-PIRGIM, Page 2
"EVERY TERM for the last three
they have come up with something
new we have to do. . . some new pro-
cedure. This term they won't even let
us mention on the form what PIR-
GIM is all about."
PIRGIM members favor a "nega-
tive check-off" system similar to that
in use before 1977, which required
students not wishing to support
PIRGIM to make a special effort to
Palestinians
urge boycott
against Egypt
AP Photo
Interrogation
A -Rhodesian trooper holds a gun to the heads of a line of prisoners near Kikidoo, Rhodesia in September. The prisoners were
forced to hold this position under a midday sun while the trooper repeatedly clicked the pistol's trigger in their faces. See related
story, page 3.
TRIPOLI, Libya (AP) - The Pal-
estinian leadership, backed by Lib-
yan leader Moammar Khadafy, is
urging an economic boycott of Egypt
to retaliate against President Anwar
Sadat's drive for peace with Israel,
Palestinian sources said yesterday.
Yasir Arafat of the Palestine Lib-
eration Organization (PLO) called on
the four-nation Arab "resistance
summit" meeting here to form a
hardline front against Sadat and his
apparent willingness to compromise,
a PLO spokesman said.
PALESTINIAN informants said
Arafat's PLO had officially decided
that an economic boycott was the
best response, isolating Sadat from
his fellow Arabs. Khadafy has al-
ready broken diplomatic relations
with Egypt and proclaimed a boycott
by Libya against-Egypt.
But there was no indication that
Syria, Egypt's ally in the 1973
October war, would join in a boycott.
And even if it did, the boycott would
be only marginally damaging to
Sadat's economy.
Egypt's main financial backers are
Saudi Arabia and other oil countries
on the Persian Gulf. Saudi Arabia, al-
though invited, refused to attend the
Tripoli talks, saying it would abstain
from any gathering unless it included
all Arab nations.
THE PARTICIPANTS in Tripoli
are generally considered the most
militant Arab states. Those here
were Palestinian leaders and repre-
sentatives of Libya, Syria, Algeria,
Iraq and South Yemen.
In Egypt, Sadat appeared little
concerned about the doings of his
Arab critics as he arrived with only
routine security to tour new housing
in Ismailia on the Suez Canal and to
mingle with cheering farmers and
Bedouins in the newly built town of
Serapium.
"We love you because you seek
food that will make men live, while
the rejectionists seek bullets that will
kill this man," boomed the village
sheik from a newly built mosque.
Later in the day Sadat met with
Somali President Mohammed Siad
Barre, who flew in from a meeting
with Saudi Arabian King Khaled.
There was speculation that Barre
was seeking to mediate Saudi supp-
port for Sadat's peace overtures to
Israel.
The only speakers at the first
three-hour formal session of the
Tripoli meeting were Khadafy, the
host, and Arafat. Visibly tired from
overnight discussions, they reviewed
swift-moving developments in the
Arab world since Sadat's trip to
Jerusalem two weeks ago, a trip seen
here as a sellout of the Arab cause.
With them at the closed-door
conference in the white People's
Palace were Presidents Hafez Assad
of Syria and Houari Boumedienne of
Algeria, Abdul Fetah Ismail of South
Yemen's ruling party and an Iraqi
delegation including Foreign Minis-
ter Saadoun Hamadi.
Hfuron,,
studied
By BRIAN BLANCHARD
The Urban Area Transporta-
tion Study (UATS) has added a
two-lane highway from Fuller
Street just west of the Huron
River to the Medical Center to
its list of plans to whisk com-
muters into campus from the nor-
theast.
UATS, a local planning group
supported by the county and area
townships, expects a judgment
from their consultant in two
weeks on the plan to build the
road leading from Fuller Street
under the Penn Central railroad
tracks and into the hospital area.
UATS plans to 'approve a final
proposal by January.
"THE IDEA is to divert the
hospital traffic and much of the
University traffic off to Fuller,"
said UATS Executive Director
' Robert Bolens. The road would
have to be "immediately west of
the river" to be worthwhile, he
said.
See HURON, Page 2
SOUTH AFRICA RELEASES FINDINGS:
Inquest: B1ko was not m
ByAPand UPI security police detained six blacks, in- inquest could render a judgment that no
.. . . .. ., , nn ~e ner~nibl "
PRETORIA, South Africa-A magis-
trate ruled yesterday at the end of a
15-day inquest that no proof of criminal
responsibility was found in the widely
condemned prison death of black leader
Steven Biko.
As the verdict was announced,
wailing blacks outside the courtroom
chanted "They have killed Steven
Biko" and nationalist songs and
slogans.
IN PRE-DAWN raids in Johan-
nesburg's black township of Soweto,
cluding Biko's elder brother, Khaya,
and his cousin, Solomon Biko, afamily
lawyer said. Both had been attending
the inquest regularly.
At the United Nations, U.S.
spokesman Tom Offenburger issued a
statement on behalf of the State Depar-
tment which said: "We were shocked
by the verdict in the face of compelling
evidence that at the least Steven Biko
was the victim of flagrant neglect and
irresponsibility. It seems inconceivable
on the evidence presented that the
one was responsioe.
The 30-year-old Biko's death Sept. 12
sparked worldwide protest and new
restrictions against blacks in South
Africa. These in turn prompted a
United Nations arms embargo against
the country.
The inquest verdict by Magistrate
Marthinus Prins, which took three
minutes to deliver, brought muted
gasps from the some 100 blacks in the
hearing chamber.
Prins declared, "The available
_ :d. . .. ... ,
y - ter- .__ . -
A2
attorney reports unanimity
urdered
evidence does not prove the death was
brought about by an act or omission in-
cluding an offense by any person."
BIKO'S WIDOW, Ntsiki, clad in
black, declined any comment as repor-
ters crowded around her after the ver-
dict. Biko family lawyers also refused,
comment, and attorney Shun Chetty
said any interested party could request
that a Supreme Court judge review the
findings.
In his brief verdict, following
thousands of words of legal argument
and intense cross-examination of
security policemen, Prins said: "The
head injury was probably sustained
during the morning of Wednesday,
Sept. 7, when the deceaseddwas in-
volved in a struggle with members of
the security branch."
Biko family counsel Sydney Ken-
tridge appealed Thursday for a firm
verdict that Biko died from a physical
assault by one or more of the eight
security policemen in charge of him on
the night of Sept. 6 or the morning of
Sept. 7 in the Port Elizabeth central
security police offices.
BIKO WAS KEPT naked for the
greater part of his detention and
chained hand and foot while in the
security police custody.
Kentridge said any verdict
exonerating the security police would
be interpreted as "license to abuse
helpless people with impunity."
During the inquest security police
denied beating Biko. Five members of
an interrogation squad said Biko went
"berserk" on the morning of Sept. 7
when presented with what they claimed
was evidence he was a revolutionary,
at National Women's Convention
By PAULA LASHINSKY
Strong feelings of unanimity, ac-
complishment, and satisfaction are
the messages that Jean King, chair-
person of the Michigan delegation to
the National Women's Convention,
has brought back from Houston.
Speaking before an informal gath-
ering at a Guild House luncheon
yesterday, King, an Ann Arbor
attorney, emphasized her obligation
to report to all Michigan residents.
"YOU, THE taxpayers, sent us
there. You paid the bills so you defi-
nitely have the right to know what
happened," said King.
King was proud to report on the
workings of the diverse Michigan
delegation, which she described as a
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T
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Nursing school awaits
decision on dispute
By MITCH CANTOR .
Nursing School Dean Mary Lohr
failed yesterday to make a final rul-
ing on faculty disputes involving staff
members in the graduate program of
psychiatric nursing, despite her pre-
vious statements that she would
decide on a course of action by yes-
terday morning.
Lohr did release a short statement
yesterday, which said, "Concerns
expressed by faculty and students
ae heina a ddressed. A taiment
Dean of Nursing Barbara Hansen
said some of the problems seem to be
racial in nature.
Another aspect of the disputes con-
cerns the way in which the program
is structured. "It -has to do with
administrative style," said Alfred
Sussman, dean of the Rackharp
Graduate School.
BEFORE COMING to the Univer-
sity, Davis worked in the nursing pro-\
gram at Eastern Michigan Univer-
U