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