Eighty-Seven Years of Editorial Freedom
420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor, MI 48109
Thursday, February 10, 1977 News Phone: 764-0552
Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan
Carter starts off on right
foot in Soviet SALT talks
MSA NOTES:
MSA sports new image
RESIDENT CARTER struck an op-
tiMistic chord towards interna-
tional harmony with his offer to the
Soviet Union for the resumption of
Strategic Arms Limitation Talks
(SALT). The talks have been stalled
over the inclusion of the U.S. cruise
missile and the Soviet Backfire
bomber.
Carter proposed to remove these
two stumbling blocks from the ne-
gotiations in order to reach an im-
mediate agreement to halt the rap-
idly proliferating nuclear arms race
between the two world super-pow-
ers.
-Carter is showing a willingness to
make a deal in the interests of furth-
ering peace, but unlike the father of
detente, Richard Nixon, he is not so
adamant about making a name for
himself as a master diplomat, that
he will prostitute American interests
to a short-term agreement.
Carter made it "perfectly" clear
when announcing the proposal, at his
first press-conference, Tuesday, that
America will continue to speak out
against abuses of human rights by
the Soviet government, and that no
concessions will be made in this area
in exchange for SALT agreements.
THERE WAS A disturbing aspect to
Carter's offer, however. When
queried at the press conference about
Pentagon inspired rumors that the
Soviets have achieved nuclear super-
iority over America, he stated em-
phatically that "we have superior nu-
clear capability" to the Soviets. This
statement shows that the cold war
mentality that has pervaded Ameri-
can foreign policy since World War
IT still lingers in high government
circles. When are we finally going
to get off our national ego trip and
start worrying about how to ensure
world peace instead 'of continuing
to harbor illusory hopes of world
domination?
In any event, Carter's proposal to
institute a quick settlement can only
be looked at as a good omen. It is
a positive step forward at a time
when any attempt to affect any kind
of arms agreement is welcome. It is
hoped that the Soviets will respond
to -a positive offer, positively.
By STEVEN CARNEVALE
HOSE WHO have been arofid student govern-
ment for several years will tell stories of
outrageous past actions of the Central Governing
Student Body. They will also tell you of the tre-
mendous development that student government
has experienced in the last year.
In the past, students involved in student govern-
ment were immature and irrational when dealing
with the administration and special interest
groups. Student government became the arena
for political and personal battles. This internal
strife made the governing body ineffective and
unresponsive to the needs of students at the
University.
Today, a new breed of studentts has penetrated
student government. These students are forcing
Michigan Student Assembly (MSA) to be a re-
sponsible and receptive government to the stu-
dents on this campus. I have been involved with
MSA for about a year. I can attest to its recent
development and I welcome it. After many years
of struggle, we once again have a body that is
really an advocate for student interests here at
the University.
CURRENTLY, MSA is composed primarily of
individuals who have made a commitment to pro-
viding a better educational experience for the
students on this campus. These people typically
work twenty to thirty hours each week. A normal
day might include helping a student organization
find meeting space, solving academic unit prob-
lems, or simply monitering activities of the
faculty and administration to insure that students
are properly considered in all major actions
taken by the University. Every day brings a new
problem that student government )must deal
with. It is tragic to realize that in the past
student government has not mobilized around
issues that haev such a great effect upon the
quality of education here.
Today, MSA is working on important projects.
Among them are the proposed utilization of the
Waterman/Barbour complex as a student activi-
ties center and the proposed dorm facility across
from East Quad. Still, there is much left to be
desired about central student government
The most striking area is that of stud
port and participation in MSA. While t
some fifteen totally committed students
within MSA, there are another twenty
who find it difficult to be actively involve
people were either elected by the stud
at-large or appointed by a school or coll
ernment. These students seem to feel t
attending meetings regularly is a bur
getting involved with important project,
possible.
ALTHOUGH ASSEMBLY meetings p
necesary forum for solving some probli
daily office operation is where most prob
confronted. In many cases, the Assem
approves work that was completed in
ceding week/ Participation during the
both Assembly members and interested
is mandatory for an effective student gov
It is unfortunate that students on this
elected candidates that have no concept
nor a sincere commitment to the student
campus. I find this disheartening.
The tragedy of lack of participation in
that a great potential is not being uti
more students put time into student gov
then more problems could be confron
student input into University decision;
become a normal occurrence. It is time
dents at Michigan to have as large a
the University decision-making process
financial and educational commitment is
of the University.
I don't want to finish on a pesimistic
am enthusiastic with the involvement of
government into the useful organization
intended to be. We have set a treid of a
tive Central Student Government. I ht
trend will continue to grow strong. I en
all interested students on this campus to
active part in their own school of -college
ment and MSA. It is only through this
involvement that students will be ins
representation in the University Commun
Steven Carnevale is the Vice-Presidentc
t.
dent sup-
here are
working
students
d. These
ent body
ege gov-
hat even
den and
isis im-
rovide a
ems, the
lems are
ably just
the pre-
week by
students
e0
By PAT MATERKA
TWO YOUNG women were browsing through records in the
y University Cellar, talking about the women's movement.
They were speaking of it in the past tense, like suffrage.
"Five years ago, I could have really gotten involved," sighed
one. "But there aren't any issues now. Everything has been
settled."
"Title IX has eliminated discrimination against women in the
school systems. Affirmative Action programs have insured equal
job opportunities," her friend agreed. "There aren't any challenges
left."
No issues unsettled? No challenges left? We have good news
for anyone who thinks she's missed out on the action: all is not won.
q4"zcV11n0 TRUE, THINGS HAVE come a long way during the seventies.
ernment. On a personal level, individual women have more choices than
campus ever before. Non-traditional career paths are widening, from
of MSA maintenance mechanics to electrical- engineering. Increased child
s on this
care facilities, part-time job options and other resources have
MSA is enabled more and more women to combine family and career
lized. If responsibilities. Without feeling guilty about it.
ernment At the University, the seventies saw the establishment of an
ted and HEW-accepted Affirmative Action program and within that, the
s would Commission for Women. The Commission has initiated a number
for stu- of programs and protests which have helped reduced the gaps
voice in in male and female salaries, benefits and promotions.
as their Efforts have gone more slowly to increase women faculty
a part for all schools and departments and to raise the proportion of
women students in such male-dominated fields as urban planning,
note. I engineering, medicine, architecture and law.
student IN 1976 THERE was evidence of a number of small steps
it was which reflected the University's awareness of the existence of
n effec- women. It promised expanded athletic opportunities with the
ope this hiring of Virginia Hunt as associate director of athletics ,for wo-
lcourage men; named education Prof. Gwendolyn Baker as affirmative
take an action director; invited Francoise Giroud, French secretary of state
govern- on the condition of women, as spring commencement speaker, and
type of at the December graduation exercises, presented an honorary
ured of degree to First Lady Betty Ford.
ity. On the national level there is much unfinished business. The
status of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) is a case in point:
of MSA. Three more states must ratify it by March, 1979, before it becomes
law. The hesitancy on the -part of the uncommitted states is dis-
heartening, but the claims of the opponents - that ERA will force
women into the infantry, for example - are more so.
The recent Supreme Court decision that companies will not be
required to cover pregnancy as part of their medical insurance
benefits has to be viewed as a setback to working women.
suggest WOMEN COULD USE more advocates in the high court - and
ing, lbm- in Congress as well. While women constitute over half of the
itt" for voting population and 40 per cent of the labor force, they hold
your er- less than seven per cent of the public offices. Only 65 women
have been members of the House of Representatives and ten of the
Senate during the past half-century. That's about two per cent for
the total of both houses of Congress.
Prinz Even if you are not ready to run for office, there are many
ways to get involved. As a statement of women's issues, this
find out column barely skims the surface.
ciamput In the coming weeks, we will get down to specifics. The column
aid, ad will feature different authors and topics each week, and reader
he news. contributions are welcome.
y to be- The issues are much larger than who will hold doors open
year old for whom; they involve the freedom of all individuals to explore
because their full potential - and live up to it.
Flynt ruling: Oscene lustice
pICTURE THIS, if you will.
The Daily prints the word "shit"
on the front page (we have done it
several times), and we think nothing
of it. Suddenly, two Federal marshals
appear at 420 Maynard and haul all
ten Daily editors off to southern Iowa
to stand trial on an obscenity .charge.
It seems that the single Daily reader
in Iowa found the word offensive,
and brought it to the attention of
the community (pop. 150). The jury
agreed, and now all ten of us face
up to 25 years in prison.
Believe it or not, it could hap-
pen.
Tuesday, the publisher of "Hust-
ler" magazine, Larry Flynt, was sen-
tenced to 7-25 years in prison in Ohio
for pandering obscenity and engag-
ing in organized crime. The U.S. Su-
preme Court has left the final defini-
tion of obscenity up to individual
communities and a Cincinnati jury
was therefore able to find Flynt
guilty of selling.his magazine in the
city.
The "organized crime" charge,
though it may make a splash in the
headlines, has nothing to do with the
syndicates. Ohio law calls organized
crime -five or more persons partic-
ipating in an illegal act. This charge
sterns from the same act as the pan-
dering conviction, selling the maga-
zine in the city. The distributors and
vendors who sell "Hustler" are the
"five or more persons."
This decision sets a frighteningly
dangerous precedent: can the pub-
lisher of a newspaper or magazine
be charged with obscenity by any
community in which the publication
is sold?
WE MAY LEARN the answer to that
question very soon. On March 1,
Al Goldstein, publisher of "Screw"
magazine, will stand trial in Kansas
for pandering. Some time ago, three
postal workers in Kansas ordered a
subscription to Goldstein's publica-
tion, and when they received it, de-
termined that it was obscene without
even opening the magazines. The lo-
cal government agreed, and Gold-
stein, if convicted, would face a pri-
son term there merely for having
mailed out a subscription! The maga-
zine isn't even sold in stores there.
When this country was formed,
freedom of the press was guaranteed
by the Bill of Rights. By giving indi-
vidual communities the right to de-
fine obscenity, the Supreme Court has
shirked its responsibility to uphold
the Constitution and made a mock-
ery- of the free press issue.
One American patriot said many
years ago, "I don't believe what you
say, but I'll defend to the death your
right to say it."
This is an accurate assessment of
our attitude in this affair. We do not
support the publishing of magazines
that exploit sex, like "Screw" and
"Hustler," but if the readers want
to read it, and the producers want
to produce it, then it is our duty to
fight for their rights to do so.
It would be easy to overlook the
broader implications of rulings like
these. True, we may consider both
Hustler and Screw worthless and
trashy, but who says this stifling of
the press will stop with smutty maga-
zines? The Daily printed the obscene
Earl Butz' quote verbatum a few
months ago. Would we be subject to
prosecution if some backward, self-
righteous community decided that
quote was offensive?
There is no such thing as partial
freedom. Either you are free or you
aren't. And if we support freedom
of the press, then we must support
it no matter what is being printed,
obscene or not.
TODAY'S STAFF:
News: Phil Bokovoy, Joan Chartier,
Stu McConnell, Patty Montemurri,
Ken Parsigian, Martha Retallick,
Sue Warner, Margaret Yao
Editorial: Michael Beckman, Ken Par-
'-sigion
Arts: Lois Josimovich, Stephen Pick-
over
Photo: Pauline Lubens
Ltters toThe D
Berkeley merely amusing. Arr
be in the eye of th
To the Daily: but I am hard-pres
As a University of California ceive of a greater
graduate, I am constrainad to than Mr. Selbst's ins
offer a short reply to Jeff Seib- ences to the "Diag".
st's ludicrous and at times marked his articleI
thoroughly incoherent drivel con- of terminal acne.
cerning Berkeley. Had he re- of the West, indeed!
mained in Berkeley for more gratuitous violence (
than a rest stop - the apparent head into a whirli
length of his stay .- he would mixer") and sexism
have found a profoundly Etim- nice girlish-type nam
ulating community and ai: excel- neither deserve ;.om
lent university. Of course, as I reserve for his s
with any community of its size, Berkeley is "militai
Berkeley has its problems. Un- stand". How unfortu
fortunately tourists have always Ann Arbor cannot
been one of its more obnoxious honor. Selbst would-
ones. political animal if o
Mr. Selbst's main thesis - that In short, Mr. Sil
Berkeley's greatest sin is :ts al- your commentary ab
leged arrogance - I found truly wish to show A
Highren t
THERE IS A CRISIS in Ann Arbor; a crisis which is
simply a reflection of a national crisis-housing.
From the urban tenement to the rural hovel, people
experience either the common oppressions of tenancy
or the increasing dilemmas of buying and owning their
hard-won American Dream, the single family home.
In comparison with major U.S. cities, where no new
housing is being built and the existing housing is
rapidly turning into'slums, Ann Arbor's situation may
not seem severe. However, looking at the country as a
whole, Ann Arbor presents quite a bleak picture.
The Michigan Student Assembly Housing Law Reform
Project, this column's sponsor, has recently com-
pleted an investigation of U.S. Census Bureau's sta-
tistics for the years 1950, 1960, and 1970 and it has dis-
covered some startling figures.
As early as 1950, there was great disparity between
Ann Arbor rent and the national median. At that time,
Ann Arbor median contract rent per dwelling (the
amount paid directly to the landlord) was, believe it or
not, $54.50. U.S. median rent, however, was recorded
at $35.30.
1970 statistics show this disparity to be an increasing
trend. While the national median had jumped to $89,
Ann Arbor leaped to $153 (Th'e 1976 figure is even
higher, somewhere above $200). Thus, Ann Arbor prices
are not only high, but they're climbing higher and
higher with respect to the rest of the nation. In fact,
Ann Arbor's median rent has been shown to be a full
72% higher than the national median.
AS IF THIS were not burdensome enough, it was also
discovered that landlords who originally paid much of
the tenants' utilities (included, of course, in the rent)
are now sloughing these utility costs off on the tenants
at a faster rate than other landlords around the
country, and they're not compensating for it with any
rent reduction. This is evidenced by the fact that gross
rent (payment to the landlord and the separate utili-
ties and services) has been rising at an even more
rapid pace than contract rent. In 1950, gross rent
topped the national median by 30%; in 1970, the fig-
ure had climbed to 55%.
Several explanations for Ann Arbor's exorbitent
rent have been posed: the first is that Ann Arbor is
a university town and outrageous rent is inevitable in
any college community. The second reason often heard
is that Ann Arbor residents are wealthier than other
Aniericans and can therefore afford to pay the higher
costs:And the third explanation is the landlords' etern-
al scapegoat - inflation. As we shall see, none of these
"explanations" holds up under even minimal scrutiny.
With regard to Ann Arbor being a college town and
ogance may
e beholder,
sed to ccn-
arrogance
istent refer-
which pock-
like a case
Ann Arbor
As for his
"sh.aved her
ng dough
n ("a very
ned, Mary
nment. rhat
mirk t h at
ncy'. I as t
inate t h a t
claim that
t know a
ne bit him.
bst, I find
surd. If you
Ann Arbor's
ally.
best side to the world, I
that you define "linger
guistic, regional inse,,ur
us all and then lay5
rant pen to rest.
--Stafford Mattlie
To the Daily:
I read the Daily to f
what is happening on t
what Earl Butz really s,
for a little humor with th
I do not think it is funn
gin a story of a thirteen:
girl committing suicide
of Freddie Prinz with t
"All for love . . . they s
has no bounds." Humc
bounds. You weren't funj
were insensitive.
-Jim Finger
Lie line,
say love
or h as
nI. You
This is the first installment of a new column that will be
written by various members of the University's Commission for
Women, and will appear on this page every Thursday. Watch for
it!
eXCuses don
more income, they have to pay for dwellings that
cost 72% more.
MOREOVER, MANY IF NOT MOST people paying
rent are "unrelated individuals" (as they are referred
to by the Census Bureau); this would include most
students, who make up about half of Ann Arbor's
tenant population. Statistics show that such individuals
in Ann Arbor are much poorer than the average Amer-
ican income earner. Specifically, they earn 32% less
than other individuals around the country, yet they
too are forced to live in places that rent for 72%
more.
Thus, combining Ann Arbor families and individuals,
we find that they earn only 57% of the U.S. median
income, and 68% of the Michigan median; since 1960,
in fact, there has been a trend of decreasing income
for this combined group.
In a recent Daily article, there was an assertion
that landlords are simply charging what the market
will bear and people who can pay, will pay. There
are two fundamental problems in this assertion, al-
though there is no doubt that landlords do charge the
highest possible -rate. First, as we saw, individuals
(i.e. students) earn far less than the national median
in a town with a very high cost of living. Added to
this, students generally have a great deal of extra
expenses - tuition, books, lab fees, etc. Thus their
TENANTS RISING
by RICHARD DUTKA
dispensible income is even less than one might antici-
pate. The point is that siiply because they are pay-
ing the rent, it does not mean that they can afford
it; something else has to be cut._
The official standard for determining "shelter pov-
erty" is that any family spending over 25% of its
income for shelter is paying too much; in other words,
for the low-income earner, they cannot afford to meet
all the basic necessities. Despite the fact that even
at 25%, 50 million Americans would still be deemed
"shelter poor," the 1973 Mayor's Blue Ribbon Com-
mittee discovered that in the downtown campus area
tenants are paying an average of 33% of their in-
come towards rent, while the rent of the tenant com-
- n~ ... .. AI 75.... . 4... .- .- . -,..... C A
t hold Iup
their right to an education at the University. Ann Ar-
bor is fast becoming a middle class town.
The third explanation for Ann Arbor's high rent,
and probably the one tenants hear most often, is in-
flation. Many people believe Ann Arbor landlords and
realtors are suffering due to the fact that they have
not been able to maintain prices in proportion to the
rapidly rising inflation rate. However, the exact op-
posite is true. The MSA Housing Project, utilizing Con-
sumer Price Index (CPI) figures since 1950, shows
that while national rent inflation has gone up 103.4%,
Ann Arbor contract rent has soared a full 300%.- More-
over, the CPI for all goods and services, upon which
a rent hike may be justified, only rose approximately
133%. Inflation is not eating in to landlords' profits;
landlords' profits are instead contributing to the phe-
nomenal inflation rate.
One final note about the "plight" of Ann Arbor's
landlords. It is often claimed that landlords are forced
to charge these high rents because of Ann Arbor's
high property taxes. However, this is turning the sys-
tem of assessing property taxes on its head. Property
taxes are based on the value of the landlord's prop-
erty; this value is dependent on how much rent the
landlord charges. So if the taxes are high, it is only
because landlords are making windfall incomes off
their property, not vice-versa.
Ann Arbor is not an isolated phenomenon; it is a
section of the larger national housing crisis. Many of
the Housing Project's figures were based on compari-
sons with the national situation; however, the national
housing set-up is founded upon the same economic
relationships as Ann Arbor. In fact, Ann Arbor's plight
doesn't seem particularly acute when compared with
major urban centers such as Detroit, New York, or
Chicago.
THE NATIONAL AVERAGE purchase price of a
newly constructed single family home has just topped
$50,000. With soaring property taxes (to single home-
owners) and a 9% interest, many more families are
forced to become long-term tenants.
Federal HUD housing, originally created to provide
housing for low-income families, has not been able
(or not been allowed) to maintain pace with the in-
creasingly severe demand. The new HUD units that
are built are renting at levels far above what most
people, especially those on regulated incomes, can
afford. Housing starts in general (the number of per-
mits applied for and granted) recently hit a 20-year
low.
The 1970 Census shqwed that 25% of all housing
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