The Michigan Daily
.~Ie e t . 11 3P°fT' ^ _ I w,,er' /e u ®C
Vol. LXXXVII,
No. ]4-S
Ann Arbor, Michigan-Saturday, May 21, 1977
Ten Cents
T welve Pages
v. a ... ...
Fleming, Regents discuss
ways of circumventing
new Open Meetings Act
by MICHAEL YELLIN
The University Regents debated whether to adopt exceptions
to the Michigan Open Meetings Law concerning their discussion
on issues of promotion, tenure, selection of senior officers and
faculty and University audits yesterday.
Regent Thomas Roach (D-Detroit) raised the issue and moved
the Regent adopt a policy which would allow such matters to be
taken up in executive sessions - closed to public participation-
on a two-thirds vote. The Open Meetings Law, enacted on April
1, is intended to make public decision making bodies operate in
open meetings.
SEVERAL Regents expressed doubt about the legality of the
Board overriding the State law. The Regents voted to table the
resolution until next month, when they will be presented with the
University counsel's opinion on this issue.
Roach's resolution resulted from discussion concerning the
approval of personnel actions concerning promotions, new ap-
pointments and selected administrative positions.
Roach indicated he only had questions about "one or two
per cent" of the people involved and said, "I feel so constrained
by the rights of privacy of these individuals that I will not dis-
cuss these matters at an open forum."
REGENT Robert Nederlander (D-Birmingham) agreed with
Roach on the sensitivity of this area but asked, "Do we have
the right to set our laws above those of the State?" But, Neder-
lander added, "If we are going to really run this University the
way it ought to be run (it may have to be) irregardless of State
regulations."
See REGENTS, Page 10
d S Africa
A hot time ,
The nice thing about being four years old is that hot weather doesn't bother you so much.
When the temperature yesterday climbed over 90, these two Silver Lake sunbathers did the
only natural thing.
US. won't defen
VIENNA, Austria (AP)- Vice
President Walter Mondale and
South African Prime Minister
John Vorster -failed to resolve
differences on South Africa's
race policies yesterday. Mon-
dale warned that the United
States would not come to South
Africa's defense if such policies
touch off racial war.
Mondale was later taken ill
with an attack of gastroenteritis
inflammation of the stomach
and the intestines - during a
flight to Belgrade, Yugoslavia,
for a two-day visit. The illness
forced a cancellation of the vice
president's first round of talks
with Yugoslavian officials.
WINDING UP two days of talks
in Vienna with the South Afri-
can leader, Mondale told a news
conference the two had agreed
on black majority rule in South-
West Africa - Namibia - and
Rhodesia but said Vorster had
remained adamant on his coun-
try's policy of strict racial seg-
regation, or apartheid.,
At a separate press conference,
Vorster said there was a "vital
difference" in the U.S. and
South African positions. He said
te United States was wrong in
tryinig to urge his country to
follow the American example of
integrating blacks into white so-
ciety and claimed South African
blacks already enjoy political
rights.
Critics of the South African
government argue that blacks do
not enjoy civil rights and eco-
nomic opportunities comparable
to whites.
MONDALE SAID, "We hope
the South Africans will not rely
on any illusions the' U.S. will
in the end intervene to save"
South Africa from the policies
it is pursuing, for we will not
do so."
"I think the message is now
clear to the South African gov-
ernment," Mondale said. "They
know that we believe that per-
petuating an unjust system is
the surest incentive to increase
Soviet influence and even racial
war, but quite apart from that,
is unjustified on its own
grounds."
Mondale said he repeatedly
stressed the American ex-
perience in civil rights in his
talks and urged Vorster to con-
sider it in softening his coun-
try's racial policies.
HE DESCRIBED racial inte-
gration in the United States as
having an effect "not only on
our domestic life, but our fore-
ign policy as well.
"We cannot accept, let alone
defend, the governments that re-
ject the basic principle of full
human rights, economic oppor-
tunity, and political participa-
tion for all of its people regard-
less of race."
Mondale said there were three
main parts in the Carter admin-
istration's policy on the plight
of blacks in southern Africa.
"PUT MOST SIMPLY, the poli-
cy which the President wished
me to convey was that there
was need for progress on all
three issues: majority rule for
Rhodesia and Namibia, and a
progressive transformation of
South African society to the
same end," Mondale said.
Mondale said the talks had
been "quite- difficult at times"
but retained a "basic civility."
"He said he had not threatened
Vorster with a list of possible
American reactions should South
Africa not modify its racial poli-
cies.
In his comments, Vorster de-
scribed the South African black
as "a proud man who belongs
to a nation of his own," and
maintained the apartheid poli-
cy of reservation-like "home-
lands" gave blacks a fair share
of the country. He said this
system gave blacks their own
territory, government and the
right to vote.
CRITICS HAVE charged the
homelands grant less developed
lands to blacks and are out of
proportion to their outnumbering
whites in South Africa by 15 mil-
lion to 4.5 million.
"We don't want to swamp the
blacks in South Africa . . . and
we don't want to be swamped by
them," the Prime Minister said.
"I look upon and I always
looked upon the American black
man as an American, American
in every sense of the word, and
the only difference is a differ-
ence of color," Vorster said.
"The black man in America was
divested of his Afircan person-
ality, lost his language, lost his
culture, lost his identity, lost his
c u s t o m s and traditions. The
black man in South Africa was
never a slave. He is a proud
man."
ON RHODESIA the two lead-
ers agreed to back current U.S.-
British moves to negotiate a
peaceful transition to black ma-
jority rule by 1978 through a
constitutional conference a n d
elections. Mondale said the Car-
ter administration has revised
the Ford administration's pro-
posal for an internationally fi-
nanced fund to aid the shift in
power.
City -fights sewer crisis
By GREGG KRUPA
Ann Arbor's Waste Water Treatment Plant
continues to be a thorn in the city's paw. Over
the past six months, city administrators and
politicos have had to perform a juggling act in
order to keep the overworked plant from inter-
fering with the city's continued growth.
The problem with the plant at 49 South Dix-
boro toad is that it is currently handling a mil-
lion to a million-and-a-half more gallons of un-
treated sewage flow than it is licensed to handle
by the state Department of Natural Resources
(DNR).
ALTHOUGH THE department does not set
limits on the amount of sewage flow allowed into
the plant, it does set limits on pounds of pollu-
tion allowed to enter the Huron River and the
concentration of sewage in the flow. The greater
the flow, the greater'*the concentration of sew-
age and the more pounds of pollution entering
the river.
"We think Ann Arbor could be doing a lot
better job of cleaning the water," said DNB
engineer David Sprow. "Especially in the warm
weather months between June and August when
water flow through the plant is at a low level,
we are going to be looking for an improvement
in the plants operation."
Sprow admitted that some waste water treat-
ment plants in the state have even worse re-
cords than the Ann Arbor plant, but he drew a
line between plants with antiquated facilities and
plants with newer equipment.
"THE ANN ARBOR plant simply is not doing
an adequate job considering the equipment and
facilities there," said Sprow.
City officials have gone forward with a sewer
conservation efforts aimed at bringing the city
into compliance with the state's requirements,
and possibly freeing new capacity for expan-
sion,
The first development was the ban placed by
See CITY, Page 5