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. ...