Tuesday, June 24, 1975 THE MICHIGAN DAILY Page Seven
Laro: Regents' new wunderkind
(Continued from Page1)
still an all male hall during his stint
there.
"The food wasn't so great, and you
couldn't bring girls up to your room,"
he said. But South Quad's visitation
restrictions didn't seem to put a damper
on his social life at the University. "I
had a good time," he admitted, break-
ing out into a boyish grin.
Laro rushed Zeta Beta Tau soon after-
wards, becoming president by his senior
year. He said he did his best to elimi-
nate he traditional hazing and "ra-ra
stuff" that then marked Greek life on
campus. He was disappointed the frat
folded in 1967, but felt the reasons were
clear enough.
"I THINK IT could be attributed to a
maturation in student values. With the
advent of the war, there was not as
much of the joie de vivre attitude."
Larm's years at the University were
the dawn of the activist movement, and
he felt the first rumblings of discontent.
"There were no demonstrations, but
there was the beginning of a feeling of
dissent."
LARO'S OWN political development in
those years was more subtle and in-
direct. Although he will admit to "an
inherent political desire" as a college
student, his interest in politics was con-
fined to a more theoretical plane, pur-
suing a B.A. in political science.
"I remember sitting in the basement
of South Quad watching the Kennedy-
Nixon debates. I was sympathetic to
Nixon only because I thought he was
the more experienced candidate." Laro's
feelings about both men reflect tellingly
upon his own political thinking.
He can vividly recall the early morn-
ing of October 14, 1960 when Kennedy,
then in this midst of his presidential
campaign, made a brief stopover in the
city. On the steps of the Michigan Union,
Kennedy first expressed the idea of
what was to become the Peace Corps.
The Kennedy charisma, he felt, was
quite contagious.
"I REMEMBER he said' something
like 'I didn't come here to campaign, I
came here to get some sleep.' "
To Laro, however, Kennedy's Camelot
merely obscured what he felt was JFK's
"ineffectiveness and errors in judgment"
and she was totally dazed. She came up
to me and said 'You know, the President
was shot today.' She just wanted some-
body to talk to."
Laro recalled that the University had
no such plans to cancel the Wolverines'
football game with Ohio State, scheduled
for the next day. Although they subse
quently postponed the contest, Laro said,
"I think what they were going to do was
still play the game, but change the half-
time show to a tribute to Kennedy."
"Okay, politics plays a part in every appointment, but
I like to think I'm modest. I didn't get the appointment
because, hey, I'm David Laro, and I'm a great guy, and I
deserve to be on the Regents."
ALTHOUGH HIS fondest Cream as a
young man was to become a trial law-
yer, he became disillusioned after a
couple of years of private practice in
Flint and drifted into tax law.
His clients at the law firm of Wine-
garden, Booth, Shedd, and Laro include
several large corporations and promi-
nent businesspeople. Laro declined to
name them, but sufficed said that "some
of the names you would be familiar
with."
Laro's corporate orientation speaks di-
rectly to his attitude toward the Regents,
which he likens to a board of directors
framing policy for a large company.
"THE UNIVERSITY is more than just
classrooms, it is a $350 million a year
institution-a corporation, and there has
to be at least some structure."
Laro was aware of a familiar criti-
cism leveled against the Regents-that
they cannot acquire a feel for the Uni-
versity's problems with their monthly
meetings, and that they place too much
of a reliance on the recommendations
of the University's executive officers.
"YES, IT'S TRUE, we come up here
once a month, and it appears to be
rubber stamping. But I don't think I'm
here to rubber stamp. So far, no effort
has been made on the part of the officers
to push something by or treat my pres-
ence lightly."
Asked if he plans for public office
beyond the Regents, Laro just smiled
and said, "I have an active interest
that I have not yet defined in any par-
ticular direction." Whether the Regents
will be merely a way station for Laro's
higher ambitions, only time will tell.
"At this point in time," he concluded,
"I just want to put my energies into
being a good Regent."
which led to a deepening involvement
in Indochina, the Bay of Pigs, and near
tragedy with the Cuban missile crisis.
"Khruschev thought he was dealing
with some kind of kid at Vienna," he
explained.
KENNEDY'S spectre will always haunt
Laro's years at the University. On Fri-
day evening, November 22, 1963, Zeta
Beta Tau was to have held a splashy,
formal affair at Detroit's Sheraton Cadil-
lac Hotel. When Laro received word of
the events in Dallas, he had to decide
whether or not the party was still on.
After discussing the matter with an ad-
visor, Laro called it off. He says he
will never forget those first frightening,
disorienting hours after the shooting.
"I remember a woman coming to my
window. I had never seen her before,
Laro's experience with Richard Nixon,
as with President Ford, is a more per
sonal one. He is a not infrequent guest
at the White House, most recently hav-
ing been briefed on the Mayaguez inci-
dent last month. He said his impressions
:f Nixon were "very disappointing."
"HE TRIED to be humorous and he
wasn't, and he tried to be relaxed and
he wasn't. He just wasn't what one would
expect to be President."
Of Watergate, Laro said only that
Nixon's campaign suffered from "too
much money."
"They had too much money and they
didn't know how to spend it. I think
that I lost respect for Nixon in March
of 1974 when he refused to honor the
subpoena. I think he undermined the
entire legal system when he did that."
CHAMBER SOCIETY psichord. Violinist Jaime La-
Pentagon reports on Mayaguez rescue INVITED TO ENGLAND edo ndpellsr esle P a
NEW YORE ( }l.- The will perform a Ravel sonata.
Chamber Music Society of Lin- Using an authentic 18th-century
W A S H I N G T O N ( ) - released by the Cambodians to taken to the mainland. coln Center has accepted an in- fortepiano, Richard Goode will
The Pentagon told Congress ensure the safe withdrawal of vitation to give its first concert join clarinetist Gervase De Pe-
yesterday it did not know where the Marines that had been sent "THE OPERATION was con- outside the United States at yer and violist Walter Tram-
the civilian crew was when it into Koh Tang, an island off the ducted under the assumption England's Edinburgh Festival. pler in a Mozart clarinet trio.
launched the air and Marine Cambodian coast, to recover that members of the crew may F 1 u t i s t Paula Robinson, Guest artists violinist Ani Ka-
assault to recover the freight- the ship and crew, according have been in all three loca- obist Leonard Arner and bas- vafian and violist Scott Nick-
er Mayaguez last month but to the Pentagon statement, tions," the formal Pentagon re- soonist Loren Glickman will be renz will joi the socsety
assumed crew members might These details were provided ply said. heard in a Vivaldi sonata, with string players ofr the Men-
be in three different places. to the House Armed Services Charles Wadsworth at the har- delssohn "B Flat Quintet."
Committee in response to a re- The third location presum-
It also said U. S. planes con- solution of inquiry introduced ably was the Mayaguez itself HURRY! Bonus Chip Proqrom
ducted 1R bombing sorties by Rep. Michael Harrigton (D- which had been taken to Koh ze S Ends Monday, June 30, 1975
agaings e a vyAifilities Mass. ), and 37 other IHouse Tagafter capture by the Cam- S0
Eompong Som, Navy facilities mbodians.
on the Cambodian mainland. Aked what information U. S. The Pentagon said three of o
THE BOMBING continued af- intelligence had on the crew the eight helicopters carrying "i
before the assault was launch- the first assault wave of Ma-
ter the 39-member crew was ed, the Pentagon replied that rines on to the island crashed
air reconnaissance indicated on the beach and under Cambo- Save even more at Steak & 4!
ihere's
thru
END OF THE
TERM SPECIAL
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