The t ail A.-," :, , .YK S.l Y.' Yh_2 ay AlaAA%. y fA., L s ..: . c ooses v ' for 1VI A: Once upon a time, student government repre- sentatives were important. They did all sorts of _Im- portant things and were well thought of and people recognized them on campus. They tried to solve prob- lems and they worked with students and faculty mem- bers and administrators. Then a great Dark Age came over student gov- ernment. It was filled with people who weren't im- portant at all. Students laughed at them. Professors looked the other way when they came along. Admin- istrators forgot their names. And then everybody for- got them entirely. So they fell to feuding and bicker- ing and doing things .that had a great deal to do with each 'other and nothing whatsoever to do with anybody else. It was all very silly. But now the great Dark Age seems to be ending. Student government is starting to do important things again. And some people are running for student gov- ernment who might be important themselves, if they get the change. -* * * Twenty-eight candidates, most bearing the acro- nyms of several vague campus political parties, are running for nine spots on the Michigan Student As- sembly (MSA) in this week's election. Some are abom- inably ill-informed, some are naively enthusiastic about the prospects of serving in student government, sev- eral are a combination of those two, and several are bright, aware, active people who see student govern- ment's limitations and mean to get the most out of what it offers. Those are the nine The Daily endorses. A little of the residue of the inept years of Stu- dent Government Council is left to befoul the air. Some of those running were marginally involved in those years, and they seem to have inheriated a taste for quibbling rhetoric and a mealy-mouthed accusa- tion or two. But they were a minority. The best candidates have taken a look at what MSA can do and what it should leave alone. They have seen that MSA can disperse the contents of its rather thick wallet to services for students. They understand that MSA can serve as a lobbyist to the Regents and the administration. They know the channels of influ- ence in the University and how to follow them. And best of all, they understand the need to get along. A couple of groups, in particular, show marked contrasts in social and political attitudes, but find themselves in agreement on several important issues and have cooperated admirably. A host of issues: - Student space. After the fight to turn Water- man/Barbour into a student service center, and a de- feat, MSA is turning its attention elsewhere in search of office space for student groups. The fourth floor of the Union has overflowed. - Funding for the Tenants' Union. The group takes home a healthy hunk of MSA's cash, and there is some question as to whether it should continue. Most candidates agree that the funding. should go on, giving' TU a shot in the arm and city landlords a pain in the neck. Both purposes seem worthwhile. - Course evaluation. The only place we CRISPees can find out about courses is in the University's own catalogue, a document which varies little from year to year and provides only the tersest of course descrip- tions - and no evaluation. Some of us know better, and a number of candidates plan to put all the class- wise knowledge into a campus-wide course evaluation service. - Tuition increases. Nobody wants them. MSA can't do much about them, except protest. And that may not be a waste of time. With these issues in mind, but with greater atten- tion to the awareness and energy demonstrated, The Daily has endorsed nine candidates: We endorsed some candidates because they have already shown dedication and brains on MSA. We endorsed others because they might bring freshness to the body. By no means do they agree on every issue we think important, but each shows an ability to help scatter the cloud that has hung over the second floor of the Michigan Union for too long. The Daily recommends: i Scott Kellman, president of MSA and titular head of the MOVE party. Kellman has shown that t he knows his stuff. MSA's improved image is due in large part to his hard work and expertise in dealing with the University's movers and shakers. He was instrumental in starting the Nite Owl bus service. He dug out more office space for students. He has pushed for lower tuition and is the chief sponsor of the campus-wide course evaluation. As head of MOVE, Kellman runs the slickest political organization on campus. The party's strength lies in the fraternities and sororities; the lines of communication there are wide open, and Kellman has used them well. The party's name stands for "Make Our Votes Effective," meaning Greek votes, but now they reject the fraternity tie..Don't buy it. Though the concerns of Greeks on MSA may coincide with the concerns of other students, MOVE is decidedly char- acterized by Greek members. There is little doubt that a vote for a MOVE candidate is a vote for Kellman's politics, but it may not be a vote for Kellman's dedication and expertise, and those two qualities are what MSA needs most. Other MOVE hopefuls are poorly informed and their election attempts seer half-hearted. Our confidence in Kellman doesn't extend to all of his associates. Wendy Goodman. A bright and energetic mem- ber of the Student Organizing Committee (SOC), Good- man is MSA's school and college coordinator, as well as its academic coordinator. She has organized dorm fasts and was active in the AFSCME Sstudent Sup- port Committee. Goodman says her party is "activist in nature." Perhaps. But what we find most valuable is her knowl- edge of the issues and her energy. SOC, based en- tirely in the Residential College, has occasionally wast- ed time on stands on issues that went beyond the focus of MSA, beyond reasonable expectations of stu- dent government. But Goodman has trained her ef- forts on the realistic, and her strong support for the Tenants' Union and other student services make her a particularly attractive candidate. * Jasper DiGiuseppe. An old hand from the SGC days, DiGiuseppe has nevertheless emerged untarnish- ed. A tireless worker and perhaps the best informed of all the candidates, he may be able to man a hand with the intricacies of MSA is running as an independent. give Kell- policy. He * Kevyn Orr. The only black candidate on the ballot. Orr is a smooth-talking freshman who says he wants to serve as a model, someone whose presence of MSA might convince other blacks to run. But he stresses that although he wants black-white polariza- tion to end, he also wants to represent all students. Articulate and enthusiastic, he would probably make a contribution to MSA. His only drawback is his tie to Campus Coalition, a rather ambiguous bunch under the didection of one Brian Laskey, quibbler extra- ordinaire. * Dave Laverty. A freshman with some good ideas. He is another independent, and though his enthusi- asm is not tempered by a deep knowledge of the is- sues, he seems bright enough to learn fast. ! Jenny Patchen. Another SOC candidate, Patchen brings Goodman's brand of activist concern for stu- dent services and student involvement in policy mat- ters. She is well-spoken and lacks the sort of obstinate radicalism that has alienated SOC from other groups in the past. - Tom Keating. Perhaps SOC's most articulate activist, Keating might serve as an effective radical gadfly on MSA, making sure MOVE types don't swal- low administration lines whole. *Cathy Pattinson. Next to Kellman, Pattinson is MOVE's best informed candidate, and the least de- pendent on Kellman for answers. She served in Alice Lloyd's government and has a handle on the issues confronting MSA. * Rick David. An independent, David kncows the student government scene almost too well. He sat on SGC and has been active on a host of University policy committees, but those associations have prompted in him, perhaps, too great an attention to the trivialities of policy. But he is extremely well-informed and his quibbling of old seems to be on the retreat. His present concerns seem neither too narrow nor too broad for MSA, and he deserves another shot. 14/te the 9act by Ke4 Pari d~lr Etd xa Bati Eighty-Seven Years of Editorial Freedom 420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor, MI 48109 Let's make the Dems accountable Sunddy, April 3, 1977 News Phone: 764-0552 Edited and managed by students'at the University of Michigan Vote 'yes' Monday on all three city ballot proposals TWO IMPORTANT funding propos- als appear on this week's Michi- gan Student Assembly (MSA) ballot, and we urge voters not to pass them over. The first deals with the MSA Hous- ing Reform Project. If passed, it would establish an assessment of 25 cents per student per semester for continu- ing the operations of this agency. As with the regular MSA assessment, the Housing Project fee would be refund- able through a negative check-off system. Oiperating with a skeletal staff get- ting subsistence salaries, the Housing Reform Project has proven its worth many times over through its research and lobbying efforts on behalf of student renters. The Housing Project is responsible for the invaluable tenants rights booklet, How to Evict Your Landlord. The project also did a very useful analysis of the recent ISR housing study to make the mass of facts and figures into a digestible form. This project will be eliminated if the funding plan fails. Please give it your 'yes' vote. HE DAILY urges a 'no' vote on the second spending issue for day care, although not without reluctance. The plan would allocate $7,500 from MSA regular funds for operating the Child Care Action Center (CCAC). It would not increase the overall MSA appro- priations budget. - Day care is a critical need on this campus, especially for low income or single parent student families. The University has generally evaded its responsibility to make low cost day care services available to those fami- lies that need it. This callous atti- tude denies many students the right to continued educational access. STUDENT GOVERNMENT has given money to the Child Care Action Center in the past, and this has been money well spent. CCAC is one of the more progressive, innovative and edu- cationally-oriented day care centers in the area. But, giving CCAC a whopping $7,500 from MSA's already limited alloca- tions budget would deprive many equally worthy projects of their op- erating funds as well. More realistic would be for MSA to return to its annual $1,500 appropriation for the center, an amount which wouldn't bust the bank. Ultimately, however, it isn't stu- dent government but the University as a whole that must take responsi- bility for meeting the day care need. "WE BELIEVE that Wheeler can and will move the city more efficiently and effectively than either of his opponents," The Daily's endorsement of Al Wheeler in the 1975 mayor's race read. I strongly supported that endorsement, and voted for Mayor Wheeler in 1975, but he's had two years to distinguish himself as mayor of Ann Arbor, and has thoroughly failed. This time I'm voting for Socialist Human Rights (SHRP) candidate Diana Slaughter. Wheeler assumed the office following the petty tyrannical reign of Republican, James Stephenson, and the liberal factions of this city (myself includ- ed) breathed a sigh of relief. He promised to set up a rent control study commission, the bare bones of hope to the thousands of students suffering ex- orbitant rents. He promised to be an active mayor: "I take this job seriously;" he said. "You won't find me sitting around." And he said he would work with City Council to bring about some necessary changes in this city. He has delivered on none of those promises. IN- FACT, HE HAS DELIVERED almost noth- ing worth noting to the city in the past two years. Wheeler argues that his hands have been tied by the Republicans (the Republicans have a six to five majority on Council), and that it has taken all his efforts and vetoes just to keep them from turning the city into a business operation. But while this may be true, it does not pardon Wheeler for being a do-nothing mayor. During his two years in office Wheeler has proposed a total of just six pieces of legislation, and four of those, interestingly enough, came in the last two months, just prior to election time. What's more, four of those six proposals have little or no significance to the city. He called for Coun- cil to oppose the B-1 bomber, to take a stand against capital punishment, to urge the state leg- islature to implement a program to help the poor pay for their utilities, and to call on the county to institute a program to check for PBB con- tamination. These are all noble gestures, to be sure, but that is all they are. How can Wheeler expect to "get anything constructive past those Republicans" when he hasn't yet tried? A mayor's job is to work with all the members of Council for the good of the city. But Mayor Wheeler seems content to merely maintain the status quo by veto- ing nearly every Republican bill - he has invoked his veto power 11 times in the last year. This Mexi- can standoff between the Republican councilmem- bers and the Democratic mayor is helping no one. While they battle among themselves, we are left to watch this city's downtown decay, to endure the second worst rental housing in the nation, and to rely on a transit system that is woefully inade- quate. BUT WHAT ARE OUR OPTIONS? Having de- cided not to vote for two more years of stagnation, we are left with Republican Louis Belcher, and Socialist Human Rights Party candidate Diana Slaughter. Belcher is an enigma in this election. He is bright, well-informed, and not afraid to act. His visions for the city are promising, and include: the elimination of the little-used Dial-a-ride sys- tem, expansion of the present main line bus sys- tem, the construction of at least two downtown high-rises to ease Ann Arbor's housing crisis, and the. construction of several parking structures to ease traffic, and encourage shoppers to go down- town. Unlike Wheeler, he has attacked the city's problems with concrete proposals, and possesses the determination to get the job done. Throughout this campaign he has courted the student vote,. painting himself as a moderate, if not liberal Re- publican. In fact, the new Lou Belcher is a solid, electable candidate. The only problem is that he has a record to be judged on, and during these past three years on Council he has not always been so carefully moderate. HE LED A FIGHT to abolish the $5 pot law, even though he says he favors it now. He opposed the preferential voting system, he voted against day care centers in residential areas, and as re- cently as last Monday he voted to discontinue the city's funding support of the Tenants Union. In short, he has never been accused of being anything less than a staunch conservative before this election, and I'm just not sure I can trust him. The mod- erate image that he has maintained the last few months could just be a ploy to woo student votes. After the election he may well revert, and that is a risk I refuse to take. So the only choice left is Slaughter, but it is a positive choice, not a lesser of three evils. Slaugi- ter has focused her campaign on sotial services and on government being more responsive to the people. She believes that housing should not be privately owned, but rather should work on a coop- erative system. "Housing is a baic need," she says, "and no one should be making a profit on it." She would increase the bus system, with the goal of turning Main St. into a mall open only to pedestrians and bikers, and she supports new hous- ing for lower and middle income groups. She is intelligent and dedicated, even if she is not quite as well versed on the issues and working of city government as her opponents. She has the zeal to learn on the job, if elected. BUT I AM NOT SO unrealistic touppose Qat Slaughter could actually win -- she can't. But she can force the Democratic party in this town to wake up to the fact that they aren't offering us what we want. I am basically a practical person, and I know there is little future in voting for third party idealogues. But the Democrats in Ann Arbor have started taking their student support for grant- ed, and only those same students can make them change. If Lou Belcher wins this election because of a low student turnout, or because he wins a significant portion of the student vote, the Demo- crats will reason that they must move to the right to win in two years, and that would be tragic. We must let Al Wheeler and the rest know that we are still progressive liberals, but that we won't con- tinue- to support listless administrations like the one we have just endured. And if we have to suffer through two years of a Republican dom- inated Council and a Republican mayor, then we should do it. Because in the long run, it will make the Democratic party in Ann Arbor one that we can feel good about supporting. Not one that we vote for just to keep the Republicans out. I'm go- ing to make the Democrats accountable for the past two years of limbo by voting for Diana Slaugh- ter tomorrew. You, should do the same. ...and on the MSA ballot proposals Letters to the Daily I POLITICAL PARTIES in Ann Arbor have'- found ballot proposals a handy vote-getting tool in local elec- tions for many years now, ever since the Human Rights Party (HRP) used, the technique to good purpose in 1974. Since then, it has become al- most obligatory to sponsor a pro- posal or two' every year -just to _,-- -. 44f.%. a - %,n,.ln '- t, 1HE DAILY suggests that voters ap- prove all three proposals. Proposal One would serve to open membership on the city's Assessment Board of Review to qualified citizens who are presently excluded because they hap- pen to be public employes. Propos- als Two and Three would represent a step in the direction of taking carej nf the rdtv's ahvsnl street and road election To The Daily: Having watched the editorial pages of The Daily over the years, I expected a more accur- ate analysis of the Ann Arbor mayor's race. Most distressing was the fine description of the Republican and the hesitant terms you used to describe Democrat Al Wheeler. the can- didate you endorsed. Further, I had hoped to find some in-depth Ann Arbor, Al has good reason to be careful and thorough in his actions as mayor. The fact that few good measures like a police weapons control ordinance, a human services department, and others have not been approved by Council is not Al's fault. The facts are that the Republicans controlled the majority of Coun- cil votes, and the political left has not been pushing for these and more radical issues. 'I'll comment on that latter item in the near future. of up to 20 per cent because they are single, or because they are married with both partners working. The Committee of Sin- gle Taxpayers (CO$T) has been working for several years to eliminate this inequity. To ac- complish this goal, Rep. Ed Koch 'has again introduced HR 850 in the House Ways and Means Committee. Also pending in Ways and Means is HR 84, introduced by Rep. Herb Harris, which would make a beginning toward in- MSA housing in no way cuts into ap- propriations for child care. To the Daily: Housing and child care are two very great and important prob- Recently, a leaflet entitled lems facing students at t h i s "Student Rip-Off?" was distrib- time; the ballot referrals Cn uted, uring students to vote each are distinct, and one dues "no" on the child care referral. not directly affect the other. The wording of the leaflet seems With regard to the Housing to pit the continuation of the Law 'Reform Project, the refer- MSA's Housing Law Reform ralwrequestsonl25 e ns p er Project against the mainren- rareussol25crsper ance carf the student (20 cents to the Project, n of child care. We r f the cents to the TU) - not a bad woulnglike Refoublicly carify price for some major progress . . . min this ranidly iegeneating I