Page 4-Wednesday, August 8, 1979-The Michigan Daily
l
Michigan Daily LETTERS TO THE DAILY
To the Daily .was routinely approved by the To the Daily:
Eighty-nine Years of Editorial FreedomnIn April of this year, there was Regents without any comments The time has come t
some concern over a possible or questions. long hard look at the
conflict of interest in that It is a matter of public record power industry a:
Vol. LXXXIX, No. 61-S News Phone: 764-0552 Patricia Longe, chair of the that a Regent intends to in- legislation protecting
Senate Advisory Committee on troduce a motion calling for unlimited liability in the
Financial Affairs (SACFA), divestiture of University holdings a nuclear disaster.
Edited and managed by students which the University Board of in companies operating in South Presently, the Weiss
at the University of Michigan Regents charged in March to Africa when the SACFA reportis before Congress, whici
'_____.i_ _ __ _.__ ___ r P itp d (ri a brla i in S - P- dann h rn - nlr
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to take a
nuclear
nd the
it from
event of
Bill is
h would
MSA'ks au tonomy
must be restored
THE ADMINISTRATION never should have
intervened in the Michigan Student Assem-
bly's (MSA) affairs following last Spring's elec-
tion. Further, the Office of Student Services (OSS)
should not have taken control of MSA's funds or
maintained control this long.
Negotiations between Student Services Vice-
President Henry Johnson and MSA President Jim
Alland have continued throughout the summer.
The administration has suggested MSA formulate
guidelines on granting legitimacy and funds to
student organizations.
While Mr. Alland's efforts to understand the
administrative point-of-view seem constructive,
he must exercise extreme caution. It is hoped that
Mr. Alland fully understands the difference bet-
ween cooperating with the administration and
conceding student interests.
Some of the administration's suggestions ap-
pear constructive. MSA should devise guidelines
to decide which groups are recognized student
organizations and set standards of funding.
Although MSA's Budget Priorities Committee
does have some funding guidelines, they are
vague and should be clarified.
Likewise, the idea of creating an appeals
procedure within MSA for student groups that are
denied funds or have grievances about the amount
granted sounds reasonable.
But these suggestions must be processed by
MSA alone; the administration should not be in
the position of approving the specifics the Assem-
bly formulates.
Guidelines must not restrict the certification of
groups on the basis of ideology. And the ad-
ministration should not have a role in deciding
which projects, such as specific speakers, are ap-
proved.
Apd to safeguard MSA from future unwarran-
ted intervention, a committee composed of
Regents, administrators, and students should be
set up to devise a proposed Regental bylaw
clarifying MSA's relationship to the ad-
ministration. Guidelines for justified ad-
ministrative interference should be written to
discourage intervention.
The ,administration should only intervene in
MSA affairs if gross mishandling of funds occurs.
Even then, a new judiciary body which MSA may
create in the fall should be permitted to exhaust
all channels of action before the administration
interferes.
If students are to have a governmental voice in
this University, autonomy is essential.
I review the University's policy on
investment in companies doing
business in South Africam also
sat on the Board of Directors of
Warner-Lambert Corp. which
has a South African subsidiary.
At the time, the University owned
$804,000 of stock in Warner-Lam-
bert (Michigan Daily, April 5).
At the end of that month Yale
University divested itself of its
holdings in J.P. Morgan because
"the banking company said its
policy was to decide South
African loans on a case by case
basis and added that it was
willing to make loans directly to
that country's government"
(Michigan Daily May 2).
According to the monthly in-
vestment report presented at the
Regents' July meeting, the
University had purchased $27,567
of stock in Warner-Lambert and
$55,208 of stock in J.P. Morgan
since the previous report. This
presente tpresumai yin ap-
tember). One must assume that
this motion will be seriously con-
sidered, and that it could be adop-
ted if sufficiently convincing
arguxments are presented on its
behalf.
Why, then is the University now
increasing its investments in
companies operating in South
Africa? Under the circumstan-
ces, that the Unversity is about to
decide whether to end all invest-
ments there, these increases are
rather irresponsible. Either the
administrators responsible are
assuming that the Regents will
not divest regardless of what
happens at the September
meeting, or they are deliberately
increasing the University's
commitment in order to make
more difficult a decision to divest
(also the implementation of such
a decision if made).
-Dave Kadlecek
repeat the ritce-Anuerson Act
which places a ceiling on the
liability of a utility, no matter
how disasterous an accident
should occur. If nuclear power is
the safe form of energy that
Detroit Edison would have us
believe it is, why shouldn't they
accept the full financial respon-
sibility in the event of an ac-
cident, just as the airlines and
chemical companies are
required to do?
It's also about time to study
nuclear power and its long term
environmental effects rather
than continue the building of
plants, apparently without heed
to the general public good and
without considering viable alter-
natives such as solar power.
Write Congressman Carl Pursell
in Washington, or call his Ann
Arbor office (971-5760) to let him
know that we want action now!
-Grant Sutton
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