Page 4-Thursday, May 17, 1979-The Michigan Daily
eMichigan Daily
Eighty-nine Years of Editorial Freedom
420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor, MI. 48109
Vol. LXXXIX, No. 12-S News Phone: 764-0552
Edited and managed by students
at the University of Michigan
Singles now urbanizing
The real estate people call By MICHAEL SINGER
them SSWDs (for single,
separated, widowed or divorced), time, an increased demand for that get built will go to con-
and they are the fastest-growing housing. The demand results dominium or cooperative where
category of urban home seekers. from the extraordinary increase people buy their apartments with
"Young and old people seem to in single person households, tax advantages," said Sternlieb.
be choosing to be alone even in which means you need more THE AFFLUENCE, interests
these times of economic uncer- housing per capita than ever and public service needs of the
tainty when you would expect before, more kitchens and new home buyer contrast sharply
people to double up," said a Cen- bathrooms, more demands on our with those of the remaining urban
sus Bureau official, commenting resources." families and the poor.
on the nationwide trend toward According to Alonzo, the 14 Since they have no family ties,
single person households or one- million post-War babies marry the mob:
adult families. later and have children later, on the so
D i n MsThat trend cuts across class partly because women par- ban life
T HE RECENT decision by Vice-President for and race lines, overlaps with the ticipate more in the work force. commun
Student Services Henry Johnson to certify back-to4he city trend, and is Often both marrige partners THE S
the April Michigan Student Assembly (MSA) elec- profoundly changing urban work, and they often have few bars, dis
.. e America. children or none. - plexes, a
tions merely emphasizes the administration's " Fifty million Americans, Being primarily single and superm
self-interest regarding student government. representing 20 per cent of all young, the newcomers are at- cans of S
Administrative intervention in the student elec- households, now live alone. tracted to the central city by the They a
tions process is abhorrent. Designating Johnson " Between 1970 and 1976, the diversity and entertainment op- norms,.
number of single male tions, the new job market in of a free
as the sole certification decision-maker homeowners under age 35 rose finance, trade and administrtion, cipated]
illustrates the Regents' lack of faith in students to 213 per cent to nearly a half relatively cheap real estate and that last
govern themselves. million. Female homeowners, the potential savings in transpor- ticipant
Johnson's handling of the responsibility insulted also single and under 35, jumped tation to and from work. fulfillme
students and ignored their rights. He was in- 141 per cent to 193,000. During the THERE IS AN irony in this arranger
sulated from the entireressbynotbei i same period, one-person trend. It is what progressive and ret
rprocess by n g direc- households made up 90 per cent of planners and liberal politicians which th(
tly involved in the information gathering or the increase in the nation's renter have advocated for years: the Afflue
having personal contact with students. population. return of the middle class to the are now
The Central Student Judiciary's (CSJ) " Of 1.3 million households inner city. But instead of target o
unanimous ruling not to certify the election was formed in 1976, only 174,000 were restoring cities as vital, diverse Separate
discounted by Johnson, and the questions raised nuclear families. Single-person communities, this wave is likely works o
households numbered 549,000. to divide them even more shar- the wo
by the Judiciary were virtually ignored. Johnson The rest were one-adult families: ply. householi
stated that this election was no different than any mothers or fathers alone with There is an overall increase in Sumer N
other, despite widespread outcries of fraud and children. high rent units and a net loss of contact i
erroneous poll closings. " One in three households in low rent units in cities. "We are money
the city one in five in the subur- presiding over the end of the commod
Johnson justified ceretification by the enormity th, is composed of unrelated in- classic rental housing industry in complete
of trouble a new election would entail. His dividuals. the United States," predicted
reasoning reveals the insignificance ad- "WE WITNESS now a curious George Sternlieb, urban expert at
ministrators assign to a legitimate, fact," said William Alonzo, Rutges. ,;Micha
democratically elected student government. To professor of population policy at "Here in the cities we will go lance w
Harvard. "There is a population more and more to the European piece for
ramrod an illegitimate election down students decline in cities and, at the same system where the apartments
throats in order to avoid hassles is most reprehen-
sible.
Worse yet, Johnson is retaining control over
MSA's funds even though he certified the election.
And since the power of the purse virtually super-
cedes that of policy, MSA has no more influence
than when the election was in limbo. Johnson said
he will not restore funding control to MSA until he
reviews the entire funding process and CSJ. This
paternal attitude hardly belongs at the collegiate
level.
Disbanding MSA and reorganizing it is the only
way to insure that it will not become an arm of the
administration. The administration's willingness
to get involved in student government affairs in-
dicates that it will not refrain from further attem-
pts to subdue an unruly Assembly in the future.
A student government without autonomy is no
longer a student government. A committee
similar to the Commission to Study Student
Governance (CSSG), created in 1974, should be set
up to reorganize MSA in order to preserve student
rights.
This committee should be comprised of 17
students, appointed by each college's student
government; two faculty members, appointed by
the Senate Advisory Committee on University Af-
fairs (SACUA); and one administrator from the
Office of Student Services. This committee should
also preside over a new election in the fall.
If Assembly members are truly interested in
belonging to a legitimate body, they could find
ways to trim fat from their budget to fund a new -
election. The heavily student-weighted com-
position of the committee would arrest fears that
the administration will capitalize on the void left p
by disbanding. Only drastic measures such as
these can ensure the creation of a body respon- .
sible.t0;land working in the interests of studer# ' 9 TMORROW'S T1IES--S1NGLE SEPARATED, WIDOWED, DIVORCE
ile single people depend
cial infrastructure of ur-
to satisfy their needs for
ity.
SWDs gather in singles
cotheques, housing com-
n weekend tours, and in
arket aisles filled with
oup-for-One.
re developing new social
which include the vision
relationship with eman-
partners, relationships
only so long as each par-
enjoys unrestricted self-
nt. But many find such
ments too hard to sustain
reat into living alone,
en becomes a way of life.
nt singles, aged 18 to 35,
the primary marketing
the service economy.
d from all previous net-
f social support except
rkplace, the single
[r is the perfect con-
V'irtually every human
nvolves the exchange of
nd without that critical
ity, many SSWDs are
ly and entirely alone.
el Singer is a free-
riter who wrote this
Pacific News Service.
t
t * a s.. °..y. ...