The Michigan Daily-Friday, June 2, 1978-Page 3
School bill passes committee
By RENE BECKER
SpecialtoThe Daily
LANSING - A state House bill which
could ultimately force the University to
sell its investments in corporations
which do business in South Africa was
approved by the Civil Rights Commit-
tee here yesterday by a 7-1 margin.
House Bill 6341, introduced by Rep.
Perry Bullard (D-Ann Arbor) would
make it illegal for all educational in-
stitutions in Michigan to maintain in-
vestments in corporations that practice
or condone discrimination on the basis
of race, religion, color, national origin
or sex. The bill would take effect July 4,
1979.
Bullard said the bill is intended to
force universities including the Univer-
sity of Michigan to sell stocks and bonds
in corporations with South African sub-
sidiaries. The University owns more
than $90 million of stocks and bonds in
those corporations.
Though it faced minimal opposition
yesterday, Bullard said the bill was in
for a tough fight on the House floor. He
said it may be attacked on the basis of
constitutionality. However, even if it
passes the state legislature, observers
say universities still may not be forced
to divest. That eventuality is contingent
upon an interpretation by State Attor-
ney General Frank Kelley. A similar
law in Wisconsin was interpreted to
force the University of Wisconsin to
divest.
An amendment sponsored by Rep.
Edgar Geerling (R-Muskegon) which
would have covered corporations which
operate in countries which violate the
United Nation's Human Rights
Declaration was defeated 6-2 in com-
mittee.
David Wiley, the director of the
African Studies Center at Michigan
State University who testified before
the committee said a bill with t
a scope would be less likely to pa
becomes law, he said, it would
difficult to enforce.
In response to queries abc
financial burden education
stitutions would have to bear as
of the bill, the committee
testimony from University geo
professor Thomas Detwyler.
Detwyler said according to a
developed by the University's
ment office, the University wou
lost about $1 million in earning
1970 if it had divested then fro
porations with ties to South Afric
Rep. William William Bryant,
Grosse Point Farms), the only p
tee member to vote against thel
Geerlings, who passed, critici:
proposed legislation. They que
its ability to affect change in
Africa and were leery of the
financial burden the bill would p
oo wide educational institutions.
ass. If it But Mark Clodfelter (D-Flint) asked,
be too "Do we sit back and do nothing or do
we, at the state level, find ways that we
out the can affect change?"
al in-
a result Bryant asked Wiley why schools
heard should divest only from those cor-
graphy porations which do business in South
Africa. He asked why schools shouldn't
report be forced to sell stock in those cor-
invest- porations which operate wherever
ld have there is a disregard of human rights,
s since such as Cambodia, the Soviet Union or
Dm cor- Uganda.
a.
Jr. (R- Wiley said South Africa can be
ommit- singled out of the crowd because
bill and discrimination on the basis of color is
zed the legal there. He said South African con-
stioned stitution does not off:- blacks or
South "coloreds" the opportunity to change
heavy the system.
lace on
Wiley also argued that it was
hopeless to expect the American cor-
porations in South Africa to be, "a
major force for social change." He said
they employ only two per cent of the
population and have little effect if any
on the life of those outside of the com-
Spany.
American corporations support the
repressive South African regime by
importing technology and capital which
provides the government with the
power to militarily control the
population, Wiley said.
Detwyler called the committee's ap-
/ proval "a concrete first step for the
state's institutions of higher learning to
recognize and honor human rights
around the world."
In a recent interview, University
President Robben Fleming said
Bullard's bill fosters, "a very serious
constitutional question of whether the
legislature could, by an act, require the
University to divest." He said the bill
conflicts with, "the constitutional
power of the Regents to govern the
University."
But Fleming claimed that Bullard's
AP Photo real purpose for introducing the bill,
was "purely one of getting attention for
Port of that problem."
Birth of a dock
Vancouver pile worker Jdavad Sabahi stands in a growing forest of concrete piles that will support a new dock at the]
Vancouver, along the Columbia River.
today
Well, that's one way*...
The cabdriver who received a call to go to the
Washington State Penitentiary thought he was
taking three businessmen to the airport . .. that is,
until the police caught up with the cab about two
miles away from the prison.' It seems that he had
three convicts dressed in business suits. The three
had sdawed their way out of the visitors room at the
pen, where they had been tidying up for a Jaycees
meeting. They then used a pay phone near the en-
trance to the prison and called the A-1 cab company.
When the driver didn't appear right away, they
called back, requesting that they be picked up
without delay. It seems they were ina hurry.
*.. And that's another
In Richmond, Virginia, a boy about twelve or thir-
teen years decided to relieve a classroom of girls
from thei 'final-exam tediu'm'. Outsi de'the room,
down the hall of St. Gertrude's High School, the boy
ambled by Carol Hafer's class wearing nothing but
a suntan, on which, said Hafer, "he had a pretty
good start". He then exited out the building front,
stopped and posed, and walked out of view. When
the incident was reported to police, they had trouble
keeping a straight face. "Everyone seemed more
amused than upset," said Hafer.
Happenings ..
... today are rich with variety. At 3:30 p.m., the
Argo Park Canoe trip leaves from the International
Center. Canoe rental is $2.75 for two hours; trip
returns at 6:30 ... And Nobel Prize winner Rosalyn
Yalow Ph.D., co-inventor of the radio-immunoassay
with her late partner Dr. Solomon Berson, ad-
dresses the graduating class of the Medical School
at Hill. Aud., 4 p.m.... the Astronomical Film
Festival presents the film Mercury: Exploration of
a Planet, at 7:3 p.m. in MIB Aud. 3 ... the
Socialist Party and Friends of Independent Political
action present a film o Eugene Debs at 8 p.m., Con-
ference Room 6 in the Union . . . and, at last,
Astromony Visitors' Night features Jill Rugare
speaking on "Radio Stars-A Rare Occurence?" at
8:30 p.m. in Angell Aud. B.
On the outside .. .
We will have today something that the weather
service likes to call "variable cloudiness" . . . your
guess is as good as ours . . . but there will be, at any
rate, a goodly chance of afternoon showers, so don't
bother watering the grass. The high temperatures
will climb to 70', which is certainly a lot nicer than
the awful, sticky weather we've been having the last
few days . . . it's terrible. . we just sweat and
sweat, and drink lots of lemonade .. .sops, that's
'perspire'... well-brought-up people don't say
nasty words like 'sweat' .. .
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