The Michigan Daily Edited and managed by Students at the University of Michigan Thursday, May 19, 1977 News Phone: 764-0552 University's investment policy needs change; now fHE UNIVERSITY has over $64 million invested in cor- porations with financial ties to the racist minority government of South Africa. The Administration and the Regents seem completely, satisfied with the situation. They shouldn't be. Today, students will address the subject of Univer- sity investments at the regular Regents meeting. They need our support. The Regents have said the University always votes with management, or sells the stock in question, as an explanation of their vote last week against a stockhold- er's resolution which would have forbade Ford Motor Company investment in South Africa, had it passed. The Regents and administrators have said our invest- ments would expedite the demise of Prime Minister John .Vorster's regime in South Africa, and would provide an economic base for the black majority when the inevitable change of power finally occurs. But, they are mistaken. Actually, every dollar we and other investors pump into South Africa breathes just that much more life in the oppressive white-minority rule there. Although it is true the industrializatidn of that coun- try has raised the salaries of block laborers, the salaries of their invariably white bosses have jumped at a much greater rate. So, the deplorable disparity between black and white wages increases. And, while investments in South Africa have grown steadily in the past five years, the government steadily has grown more oppressive, at a comparable rate. LAST WEEK over 100 blacks died in skirmishes with police and soldiers in South Africa. Last week hundreds of block children died from mal- nutrition or because of poor medical care in South Africa. Last week blacks still were not allowed to go into the "white areas," and they still have no say in govern- ment in South Africa. Last week, this University tacitly approved Ford Mo- tor Company's support-through-investment of that re- gime. Rather than sell its stock, the University should in- itiate and support stockholders resolutions which could require Ford to divest itself of any and all financial dealings with politically repressive countries. Students recognize the promotion of human rights through strategic foreign investment as more important than making a buck Students also recognize the poten- tial financial power the University could wield - if it wants to. The Regents must also recognize there moral obligation.s The students, which have already secured spots on the agenda, will address this issue, even though the Regents had no intention of discussing it. The Regents must realize students cannot morally support this University's investment policy. The Regents should not support that investment policy, either. We, as students, as Americans, must protest the University's present stance. Pardon me, sir. Would you like to be born again? Ludicrous Lou loses line on By JEFF RISTINE Lou Gordon made a fool out of himself the other night, and in doing so taught his viewers a valuable lesson about the right and wrong ways to discuss the issue of recombinant DNA re- search. Gordon, Detroit's premier tel- evision talk show host, utility rate hike foe and liberal gadfly, departed last Saturday from his customary guest roster of poli- ticians, sexual therapists, book peddlers and assorted freaks to invite a pair of scientists for a joust over genetic experiments w i t h recombinant DNA. Dr. Frederick Neidhardt, a profes- sor and chairman of our own University's microbiology de- partment, was to have.faced an MIT-scientist in a gentlemanly point-counterpoint. As regular viewers of Lovable Lou's twice-weekly program on Channel So know, however, guest and host end up shouting at each other as often as not. Gordon employs a prosecutorial inter- view style that makes Mike Wal- lace look like Joe Garagiol,. Philadelphia's Frank Rizzo and former M i c h i g a n Governor George Romney have stalked off in angel during their chats with (DNA) learning Gordon, and other subjects have combinant DNA research, as c been reduced to flustered, em- posed to the broad category barrassing speechlessness. DNA research or, as Gord. It wasn't Logical Lou's offen- tried to phrase it, DNA. sive style that ruined last Sat- Lightweight Lou also had urday's program, however. It be told bacteria have genes a. was his utter ignorance of vir- all living things have gene tually every aspect of the re- When Neidhardt t r i e d, wi combinant DNA question, and scale models, to show Gord. his unwillingness to acknowledge how the size of a single stra' it. Before the end of the pro- of DNA compares to the size gram, the two scientists, their a cell, the point flew past Gt. d e b a t e aborted by continual don like a Concorde SST. Anu hostus interruptus, resorted to at the end of the program, when unsuccessful attempts to teach both scientists were vainly at- Gordon the most elementary as- tempting to summarize their ar- pects of j u n i o r high school guments, Gordon suddenly be- biology. gan haranguing them for failing RECOMBINANT DNA re- to discover a cancer cure. search involves the transfer of "I'm all confused and I'm try- a DNA fragment from one or- ing to sort this out," Loquacious ganism to a bacterium of an- Lou finally admitted. other species, thereby altering NO ONE COULD have learned the latter's genetic characteris- very much from the program, tics. Most of the controversy but it did make clear the poten- surrounding the experiments has tial damage from wild debate focused on potential risks and over a complicated issue. Many benefits and whether the re- aspects of the recombinant DNA search should be regulated or research question have yet to be banned. \ resolved (whether protective Gordon opened his interview laws are necessary, for exam- with the two scientists by as- ple), and the public will need serting recombinant DNA re- spokespersons far more inform- search could create "little green ed and articulate than Lou Gor- men or pointed-ear men or a don -to advance both sides of poined-ear Dr. (sic) Spock," a the argument. If talk show hosts ridiculous s t a te m e nt which continue to frame the genetic would embarrass even the most experiments in terms of Frank- ardent opponents of the genetic ensteen monsters and pointed- experiments. ear Mr. Spocks, recombinant DNA research will be adjudi- LUDICROUS LOU p u r s u e d cated by emotion, not facts. this angle even further, asking That means pretentious, self- Neidhardt whether recombinant righteous "opinion leaders" like DNA could be used to create Gordon will have to stop regard- "a human being," "some kind of ing the recombinant DNA issue Frankensteen (that's the way he so personally. Lowbrow Lou con- pronounced it) monster," or "a tinually expressed fear about Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde." If what might happen if someone Gordon knew his subject as well "crossed my genes" with an- as he knew monster movie met- other organism. aphors, the program could have Which, come to think of it, been a success. could revive a popular style of I'm not saying Gordon should humor: have memorized the structure What would you get if you of E. coli or mapped out a chro- crossed Lou Gordon's g e n e s mosome, but get this: it wasn't with a particular tree known for until the interview was nearly its strong, du r a b 1 e, whitish over that Gordon realized the wood? scientists were discussing re- (-q snodusod v :Jamsuv) We need your help .: Attend Regents meeting - 1:30 p.m., Regents Rm. Admn., Contact your reps Sen. Donald Riegle (Dem.), 1205 Dirksen Bldg., Washing- ton, D.C. 20510 Sen. Robert Griffin (Rep.), 353 Russell Bldg., Capitol hill, Washington, D.C. 20515. Rep. Carl Pursell (Rep.), 1709 Longworth House Office Bldg., Washington, D.C. 20515. Sen. Gilbert Bursley (Rep.), Senate, State Capitol Bldg., Lansing, MI 48933. Rep. Perry Bullard (Dem), house of Representatives, State Capitol Bldg., Lansing, NI 48933.