h Jay, September 10, 1977-The Michigan Daily W t grEit a r Eighty-Eight Years of Editorial Freedom ilk Black education:Door closing 420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor, MI 48109 Vol. LXXXV!II, No._2 News Phone: 764-0552 .Edited and managed by students at the University-of Michigan Council deserves it's pay ANN ARBOR City Council members finally have their pay checks, but they can't spend even one penny of them. John Laird, a local attorney and for- mer Republican councilman, has filed suit to outlaw pay for Council, and until a decision is reached, the checks cannot be spent.. While blocking monetary compen- sation for Council has superficial merit, it is actuallu an indirect infringement of Constitutional rights to run for public of- fice. It has often been said that only the wealthy can run for office. A candidate must put in many hours campaigning, and spend considerable sums on promotion in order to win an election. Once elected, one must devote a large portion of time to prepare and study bills, meet with constituents, as well as attend meetings. This combination of time and money required to serve well in public office effectively excludes lower income persons from political life. The Constitution guerantees everyone an equal right to run for office (there are some age restrictions for high level federal posts), yet, many people can't" afford to work tens of hours per week without somesort of compensation. To deny a fair salary to council members is blatantly discriminatory in that only those who are financially secure can af- ford to run for public office. REPUBLICAN COUNCIL members have fought pay for Council since the ideasinception on the grounds that it would attract an unsavory breed of politician. While some might seek public office for monetary means, it seeme unlikely that the $5000 proposed salaries for council members would entice many unscrupulous characters. Republicans have also argued that since pay for Council has been rejected by voters in two recent referendii, it is the will of the people that Council members not be paid. But the argument is fallacious. Votes can be used to determine most things in a democracy, but not all. If the public were allowed to vote on whether or not to pay taxes, the vote would be a resounding no, and this is a similar case. Certain rules must be maintained in order to rotect the rights of the minority, regardless of the will of the majority. Simply put, you can't vote away rights. Perhaps Councilman Jamie Kenwor- thy (D-Fourth Ward) put it best when he said, in reference to the fact that he will have to live on what he makes as a councilman this year, "It's easier to eat' than not to eat." By BILL SIEVERT (PNS - A year ago, 17-year- old Andrew Gray, eldest of four children of a black, middle-class family in Richmond, Ga., was certain he'd be enrolling in col- lege this fall. By November he dutifully had sent off applications to the University of California at Davis and less prestigious Hayward State University ("just in case my grades aren't hot enough for U.C." . Last spring, Andrew received rejection notices from both cam- puses, a result of his B-minus grades and an unimpressive score on his college entrance exams. HIS CONFIDENCE shaken, he briefly flirted with a plan to apply to predominantly black Central State College in Ohio. But, he con- cluded, "it would cost too much to live away from home." A last-ditch plan to attend a lo- cal two-year community college caved in by mid-August. "I'm joining the Navy," he announced. "A community college would be like two more years of high school. Besides, I want some dollars in my pocket. The Navy will teach me computer program- ming or something, anl they'll pay me. I can always go to college later., Maybe. But, like many other black Americans of college age, Andrew Gray won't be heading off to campus this fall. And that has more than a few black educa- tors worried. After a decade of increased educational opportunities won through the civil rights struggles of the 1960s, the doors to higher education for blacks seem to be slamming shut again. The result, many educators fear, could be a serious reversal in the drive by racial minorities to achieve their slice of the American pie. Are Statistics Misleading? The Census Bureau recently reported -that, as of last fall, blacks comprised 10.7 per cent of all American college students, more than double the 4.6 per cent level of 1966. With blacks representing about 11 per cent of the U.S. population, the figures seemed to indicate that black people were finally achieving equality with whites in college opportunities. But black educators are charg- ing that the statistics are mis- leading. They point to another statistic in the same Censuc Bureau report: The number of black students showed no in- crease between the 1975 and 1976 academic years: In fact, the federal Office for Civil Rights reported last year that the percentage of undergrad- uate minority students actually dropped in seven states between 1972 and 1974, the last year for which full statistics are avail- able. OF EVEN GREATER concern, the educators point out that black students are disproportionately represented in two-year com- munity colleges and trade schools, which they remain drastically under-represented in the more selective four-year in- stituitions. And, as a result of the con- Vroversial Bakke decision of the California State Supreme Court (now under appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court to end the Uni- versity of California's special ad- missions program for minorities, the number of blacks applying to the prestigious schools of law and medicine has "declined drastically," according to univer- sity officials. U.C.-Berkeley sociologist Harry Edwards, a black professor who recently won a contentious battle for tenure, notes that educational obstacles for minorities persist even in the highest ranks of academe. His research reveals that the number of blacks on the university faculty is declining generally, and that three-quarters of black faculty members are denied tenure, compared to just 37 per cent of whites. Such statistics led the National Association for Equal Oppor- tunity in Higher Education (NAEOHE , an organization of some 500 black college leaders, to warn that, for a variety of rea- sons, "our educational process is eroding." Not 'Who' But 'Where' A major reason cited by the group is the mounting political pressure to provide more finan- cial aid to students from middle- class families, while reducing the funds available to lower-income students,many of whom are black. Black students, the group charges, are systematically being "tracked" into cheap com- munity colleges and trade- oriented schools, while prestigious four-year colleges remain an "elite" institutions for middle- and upper-class whites. "The real issue of access is not who goes to college, but who goes to college where," says Alexan- der Astin, professor of education' at UCLA and author of The Myth of Equal Access in Public Edu- cation. his research shows that up to 45 per cent of the blacks who enroll in some kind of post-secondary institution attend either a com- munity college or vocational school,, such as barber colleges or computer schools. A related problem involves the ''reverse discrimination'' attack on programs designed to make up for past inequities in graduate and professional schools, such as the California court's Bakke ruling. Special admissions programs today account for an estimated 60 per cent of all black students at- tending medical and law schools. If such programs are ended in other schools as a result of the U.S. Supreme Court upholding the Bakke ruling, educators ex- pect a sharp decline in black enrollment. ALREADY, SAYS Emma Coleman Jones, a law professor and member of the Law School Admissions Committee at U.C.- Davis, "many members of mi- nority groups have become dis- couraged from applying by the events that have followed the (Bakke decision.". The number of blacks applying to the Davis law school has fallen by 50 per cent, she says, and Davis' medical school and Berkeley's law school report sim- ilar drops. Atthe Harvard Business School, which disbanded its special committee on black ad- missions last year, first-year black enrollment declined to just 39 students in 1976, cotpared to 47 out of a total of 750 students in 1972. Even before the Bakke case, in 1974, only 3.5 per cent of all doc- torates awarded in the country went to U.S.-born blacks, and nearly 60 per cent of those were in one field: education. Less than one per cent of all the post-grad- uate degrees awarded went to anoint new black attorneys and physicians. A RECENT STUDY by the Na- tional Board on Graduate Education cites financial and mo- tivational stresses as the main obstacles. "Upon graduation from college," the report says, "im- mediate employment oppor- tunities may appear more rewarding (to blacks than ad- vanced study in view of the prospect of further financial dif- ficulties, the academic risk of graduate studies anal labor mar- ket uncertainties." These root causes often are cited to explain the serious high school drop-out rate, which an- nually disqualifies -re than seven million blacks be..veen the ages of 16 and 34 from attending any kind of college. MICHAEL BECKMAN Who says New York is a dead city? After this past summer, there can be no doubt in anyone's mind that the Big Apple is once again alive and making its presence felt. Like the phoenix, New York rose from the ashes to present America with the biggest entertainment event of the season. The city that has brought us such front-line attractions as Tammany Hall, the Newport Jazz Festival, the Miracle Mets of '69, the great garbage strike, draft riots and Kojak, recently unveiled a new act that is destined to make all previous attempts seem amateurish - Son of Sam.? Not since the days of William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulit- zer has the power of the press been so blatantly abused. At the turn of the century Hearst began stringing together a vast newspaper empire. To make his papers sell, he used sensationalist techniques that soon came to be labeled yellow journalism. Blood, gore, vice and crime were glorified in giant front page headlines, geared to the lower edu- cated classes with the sole aim of increasing circulation. Little regard was held for accuracy, honesty or how the story was pieced together - Hearst was sued for libel on more than one occassion, but he saw the suits as good publicity for his papers. HEARST SOLIDIFIED HIS EMPIRE in 1898 and demonstrated the potential powers of yellow journalism by using his New York Jour- nal as the organ of Cuban freedom fighters, and almost single-hand- edly caused the Spanish-American War. His papers grew to have a tremendous influence on public opinion in America, and more than on- ce affected the outcome of an election, and the fortunes of a rising political star. But his techniques were condemned by most of his peers, and when he died in 1951, yellow journalism as a formidable weapon pretty much was buried with him. Until this summer, that is. Son of Sam would have been just another raving, psychotic killer - the kind that Clint Eastwood always gets tangled up with in the "Dirty Harry" movies - if the media hadn't snatched at the chance to glorify him for the benefit of their sagging circulations. The New York Daily News - a paper conceived in the Hearst- Pulitzer era and never noted for its journalistic integrity - led the charge of the muck. Day after day they blared gigantic headlines promoting Sam, detailing his latest exploits and speculating (hoping? about his next targets. Daily News columnist Jimmy Breslin main- tained constant contact with Sam - as everyone who reads Doones- bury knows - for which I'm sure he received a substantial bonus from the publisher. THE OTHER MOTROPOLITAN PAPERS quickly followed the News' lead. The Post's coverage of Sam before his capture was on the same plane as the News'. Even The Daily Racing Form got into the act. The New York Times was perhaps the only major paper in the area to present some semblance of tasteful coverage of the case, but even it was prone to overplay at times. The net effect of the media's circulation drive coverage of the Son of Sam hunt is that the man who is presently being held as Sam, David Berkowitz, has absolutely no chance for a trial, if he is judged com- petent to stand trial. How can an impartial jury possibly be picked from among people who were mulling the possibility of a lynch mob af- ter Berkowitz was arrested? THIS MEDIA IRRESPONSIBILITY comes at a bad time. The im- plications of the Son of Sam coverage extend far beyond the denial of one person's constitutional rights to be judged by a jury of his peers. The actions of the New York media have only served to further inten- sify the battle between defenders of the freedom of the press, and those who believe that a free and irresponsible press can deny Americans protection under the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The outcome of this struggle will have an incalculable effect on American liberty. It is an issue that should be settled on a purely in- tellectual plane. The hatchet job on Son of Sam performed by the New York media, threatens to take the argument off of that plane, and to reduce it to an emotional and prejudicial one. Was the temporary rise in circulation really worth all of that? 'Something in the range of Sorry, we don't handle slum housing. Move the Kent State gym! " E'VE GOT TO build ourselves a movement and tear the system down," sung a guitar strumming mem- 7ber of the May 4th Coalition on the Re- gent's Plaza yesterday. The coalition, formed last spring, is trying to rally campus support to protest construction of a gym at Kent State University on the site of the 1970 slayings of four students by National Guardsmen. The singer also used his strong, pleasant voice to recall, with less revo- lutionary lyrics, the national outrage and protest against American involve- rent in southeast Asia. The poorly attended hour of protest was. emotionally tiring and confusing. On the one hand listeners were asked to build hatred for a pathetic former presi- dent: "It was cold calculated murder by the Nixon Administration." On the other hand they heard a local student deliver a calm narrative about his first pilgrim- ,age to the site of the tragic shootings. Our immoral involvement in Viet- nam should never be forgotten. Kent State is an important reminder of how with on different terms. T HE SPIRIT AND significance of the student protests that the May 4th Coalition is seeking to save and defend can only be weakened and ig- nored by rhetoric and bitter railing against "the rich." One need only see the faces of stu- dents on the Diag on the first day of classes, as the small group marched across campus, to appreciate the prob- lem. -"Four students dead, guard goes free, that's what the rich call Democracy," just isn't bound to win followers in Ann Arbor right now. We wish the May 4th Coalition good luck on their September 24th rally at Kent State to halt the destruction of a vital piece of American history. The students should offer support in memory of those who fell seven years ago. But like too many worthy causes in recent years, the case of "blanket hill" is in danger of dissolving to a stream of over-worked slogans shouted by a few The Gripes o f Wrt VA case To The Daily:, Veterans Hospital em- ployees are reluctant to talk with reporters for fear of being misquoted. The headline article in The Daily on 8-12-77 justified their fear. Statements at- tributed to me have caused me embarassment and may place my job in jeopardy. I did not make the statements regarding Dr. Lindenauer and Ms. Feather which appear as quotes. The conjecture hnut the numhr n f truth, the Michigan Nurses Association initiated that action before we had and contact with them. -Mary James Call us irresponsible To The Daily: Irrespective of any other irritating irregularities, irremissible irreverences, or irrelevant irrationali- ties that, from time to time, irresistibly irradiate Daily- land, cannot something be done to eradicate "irregard- less" from the front page (Sept. 9) before the Daily iteal hannaVe i.n..ni m4otw9 FINE MESS vYdvs GComt4 US wno,s-wEj