Conmnmittee
says
House ean
diseipline
Diggs
WASHINGTON (UPI) - The House
Ethics Committee decided without
dissent yesterday that Congress can
discipline Rep. Charles Diggs Jr., (D-
Mich.), for his kickback conviction
even though voters have since re-
elected him to a 13th term.
Attorney Robert Barnett argued in
vain that the Constitution gives voters
an absolute right to decide who
represents them.
Diggs, senior black member of the
House, was convicted and given a
three-year sentence last October on
charges that he padded staff salaries to
get kickbacks to pay personal and
congressional expenses from July 1973
toJune 1977.
DIGGS HAS FILED an appeal that is
The Michigan Daily-Thursday, May 17, 197
to be argued June11.
The committee decided to investigate
whether this violated House rules and
warrants recommending that the
House discipline him either by
reprimand, censure or expulsion.
Diggs last November won re-election
by a majority of nearly 80 per cent in
his downtown Detroit district, where he
operates an undertaking establishment
called "The House of Diggs."
"THERE CAN BE no doubt ... that
Congressman Diggs' constituen-
ts ... were fully aware of the charges
against him, the trial and conviction,"
Barnett said. "It was on the front page
almost every day in the Detroit
newspapers."
See COMMITTEE, Page 7
Samoff supporters
to address
By SARA ANSPACH
Ten to 15 students belonging to the
Samoff Support Committee will ask the
Board of Regents at its meeting in
Dearborn today to intervene in
Assistant Political Science Prof. Joel
Samoff's tenure appeal to the LSA
Executive Committee.
The students said they will protest the
appeals procedure, and claimed the
process has taken too long and has been
unfair.
THE LSA Executive Committee
deliberated on Samoff's appeal last
Thursday, after receiving a report from
the three-member appeals committee,
which, according to Samoff, has
recommended that his appeal be
denied. Members of the Executive
Committee declined to comment on
whether a decision has been reached.
LSA Dean Billy Frye last week told a
group of Samoff supporters that he
believed the committee's deadline for
deciding Samoff's appeal is tomorrow,
although the group said he was unsure.
Other members of the Executive Com-
mittee have declined to confirm the
deadline date.
The LSA appeals process requires
that tenure decisions be appealed on
procedural grounds, rather than on the
basis of the actual decision. Samoff said
the appeals committee "took a narrow
Regents
view on what was procedural." He said
his appeal listed ten major complaints
about the procedure which the political
science department used in denying
him tenure, but that the appeals com-
mittee heard evidence on only two of his
points. Samoff said that committee did
not feel the other points were
procedural issues.
THE APPEALS committee took four
months to make a recommendation to
the LSA Executive Committee, a
process, Samoff said, which is supposed
to take one month. "A person could be
old and gray before the appeals process
is over," said Samoff.
Because the appeals process is so
cumbersome and because most of his
appeal was not heard by the committee,
Samoff said, "There are not really any
viable channels" by which a professor
can appeal a tenure decision.
If the Executive Committee should
heed the appeals committee's recom-
mendation and deny Samoff's appeal,
Samoff said he will appeal to a Univer-
sity body similar to LSA's grievance
system. Samoff said he has "certainly
considered" suing the University if his
attempts to go through formal appeal
channels are continually unsuccessful.
Next year Samoff will teach at the
University's Residential College and at
the Center for Afro-American and
African Studies.
Daily Photo by LISA KLAUSNER
Going once, going twice
Auctioneers eagerly sell objects darts from the Horner House, built in 1836. The
estate of the N. Divison Street house are being auctioned off by Braun and Helmei
Auctioneers.
today
I
Let them eat cake
While the nation wonders how much the price of
gasoline will rise each day, Sen. S. I. Hayakawa (R-
Calif.), former president of San Francisco State
College, yesterday proposed his own solution to the
problem. Hayakawa suggested that gasoline prices
should be allowed to rise up to $2 or $3 a- gallon,
because the wealthy would still buy it. "The impor-
tant thing," said Hayakawa, "is a lot of the poor
don't need gas because they're not working."
Hayakawa made the comments after California
Gov. Jerry Brown met yesterday with President
Carter. Hayakawa, whose office said he owns four
cars, mentioned nothing about oppressing the
masses.
Out of the horses' mouths
The scene: Dearborn Street in downtown
Chicago. The time: yesterday afternoon. The
characters: Greco and Nebo, two dark-colored
Quarter Horse geldings;. .p.bert (Mooney, attorney
for an 80-year-old man who is suing the city
because, he claims, his hip was broken during a fall
caused by one of the police department's horses; 12
city-bred jurors. Clooney requested the horses be
brought into the court proceedings so that the
citified jurors could be close enough to one of the
animals to understand how it could be frightening,
and, presumably, capable of knocking down his
client. But a group of admiring onlookers burst into
applause as the trained horses performed their neat
maneuvers before backed-up traffic. "At least they
got a close look at the horse," Clooney admitted.
Clooney's client, Vladas Valineviciuc, who claims
the horse made him fall and break his hip during a
rock-and-bottle throwing incident connected with a
1977 civil rights march, remained in the courtroom
24 stories above the equestrian scene on the steeet.
Valienvicius (who speaks no English) told an inter-
preter "he'd prefer not to go down."
Happenings...
. don't begin until 7:30 p.n., when the Ann Ar-
bor Historic District Commission presents a
film/discussion program in the Conference Room of
the new fire station at S. Fifth Street and Huron
Ave. Tonight, the film, A Future for the Past, will be
shown, and a discussion on "Buying, Financing, and
Maintaining the Older Home" will follow ... also at
7:30 p.m., the Rackham Student Government will
meet in the Rackham Board Room in the Rackham
Building... again at 7:30 p.m., in Conference
Rooms 5 and 6 in the Michigan Union, the Arbor
Alliance will discuss plans for a June 2 rally at the
Fermi II nuclear plant in Monroe ... at 8 p.m.,
there will be an ice cream social at Hillel. 2400 Ged-
des at Hill Street ... Ypsilanti High School presen-
ts "I Remember Mama" at 8 p.m. in the school's
theatre at 2095 Packard. The play continues through
Saturday.
*
On the outside
There's re-runs on TV, and there's re-runs in the
weather. Today will be much like yesterday, sunny,
warmer, winds 10-20 miles per hour. This is one
channel no one really wants to change.
A
7.