Thursday, May 15, 1975 THE MICHIGAN DAFLY , Page Three Thursday, Ma 15, 1975 TH MICHIGAN DALY1Pa/e Thre Angry crowd VIENTIANE, Laos OP) - An U.S. Charge d'Affaires angry crowd of students ran- ian Chapman presented sacked an American agency yes- ficial protest over the terday in the town of Savanna- and the capture. of the khet and took three staff mem- cans to Premier Prince bers captive, a U.S. Embassy anna Phouma. The c official reported. The anti- government, in which th American disorders coincided menist-oriented Pathet L with Laos' shift toward corn- through the resignations- munism. cently g a i n e d dom The Americans were believed through the resignations unharmed and being held in the portant rightists, was to provincial governor's house in investigators from both the Mekong River town just right and left wings to Sa across from Thailand. The mob, khet today. apparently demonstrating aga- A similar student mobs inst both high food prices and the AID compound in the U.S. presence, broke into Prabang, the royal capil the compound of the Agency for miles north of Vietiane, b International D e v e l o p ment four Americans : there (ATD), and ransacked it of rise thought to be safe, en and other food supplies. sources said. Registration for Fair proves tiring loots U.S. agency Christ- an of- attack Ameri- Souv- oalition e Com- .ao re- of im- inance of im- send its vanna- sacKed Luang tal 200 ut the were mbassy The disorders made the posi- tion of Americans .more precar- ious in this landlocked Indo- chinese nation of 2.7 million per- sons. THE U.S. State Department said in Washington it will begin cutting the size of its embassy staff in Laos by the end of the week. Spokesman Robert Funseth said there are no plans to close the embassy, but all American officials have been called into Vientiane from countryside posts. In Vientiane an embassy spokesperson said reduction in staff has been goingon for some time and will now possibly be speeded up. FRAGMENTARY radio re- ports from Luang Prahang said a mob of about 3,000 students, teachers and redicab drivers ransacked the AID compound there and raided its rice sup. plies. They also reportedly seiz- ed food from stores in the city of 50,000. The reports said the mob oc- cupied the provincial governor's offices and began to distribute the rice taken from American stocks, apparently in' protest against the country's 70 per cent inflation and skyrocketing pric- es. Reports circulated that sim- ilar demonstrations woul-I be held in Vientiane today or Fri- day. Earlier in the day, the gov- ernment named Gen. Bounchan in Laos Savanthphaysan to replace Gen. Atsaphanthong Pathammavong, the strong rightist commander of the joint security force. WHILE ALSO a rightist, Bounchan is a less powerful fig- ure and is expected to be more agreeable to Pathet Lao de- mands. The joint security force is made up of a 1,000-man Path- et Lao battalion and another 1,- 000 men from the rightist side. Student demonstrators had earlier demanded the remov- al of Gen. Atsaphanthong, char- ging that he worked for the U.S. Central Intelligence Agen- cy. By SUSAN ADES "They should just open up Ann Arbor and let . the artists come in," said Beverly Coffin, one of more than 200 crafts- workers'standing vigil in the al- ley between the Union and West Quad yesterday afternoon for this morning's Free Fair registration. The Free Fair is one of the three individually sponsored fairs comprising the annual Ann Arbor Arts Fair held dur- ing the third week in July. To the disappointment of many, booth positions in the Free Fair are assigned on a first-come, first-served basis. "I CAME about 48 hours ahead of time," boasted Sonny Dalton, a metal sculptor proud of his status as first in line. He had the honor of establishing the rules for the other artists in their pre-registration wait. A tentative order for regis- tration priority was established as people took numbers upon their arrival. Last night at 8:00, the registration officials plan- ned to certify the order. Then the artists were to organize themselves into groups of 20 to facilitate this morning's actual site selection scheduled to be- gin at 8:00 a.m. Two hundred booth spaces are available on East Univer- sity and an additional ,200 ex- hibits can be set up downtown on Main Street for the Free Fair division. AS OF 3:00 p.m. yesterday, 168 people had signed up for registration. However, since the East University sites are in highest demand, people arriv- ing as late as last night or this morning may be disappointed in finding all choice positions oc- cupied. Beneath threatening skies, the motley crowd milled about, setting up sleeping bags, seek- ing out old acquaintances from past Fair experiences and just passing the time. One Kalamazoo artist, 93rd in line, -sat amidst an array of beer cans, bedding and friends under the shelter of. the West Quad garbage alcove. "It makes it real fun when people start to get together," he said, strum- See ART, Page 5 ARTISTS sack out between West Quad and the Union, patiently waiting in line for the chance to register at 8 a.m. today for the Free Fair division of the Ann Arbor Art Fair. The exhibition, scheduled for the third week of July, will be se t up along East University and Main Street. Counseling office gears up for likely passage of GRC changes GEO seeks dismissal of trespassing charges By TIM SCHICK Attorneys argued for a dismissal of trespassing charges against 44 members of the Graduate Employes Organization (GEO) yesterday, as a pre-trial hearing entered its second day. The GEO members were arrested last February 27 and 28 while pickeing outside the University's plant department buildings on Hoover and Green during the organization's strike. Elizabeth Kirchen, one of the arrested picketers, testified that the University did not have anyone arrested until it be- came clear the.presence of the picket line had an effect on truck deliveries into the Plant Dept. She added that she was arrested for trespassing in an area which is open to the public. DAVID BRASSFIELD, the picket captain at the time of the arrests, said "They are charging us with trespass in- stead of charging their own employes with slacking off."He referred to testimony that many truck drivers had asked the pickets to slow them down, On Tuesday, the defense attempted to show that the police had issued confusing orders as to where the strikers could legally picket. Defense attorney Donald Koster appeared pleased at the conclusion of the hearing and said yesterday's session "went very well." Brassfield too, was optimistic saying "eventually we'll win it" Judge S. J. Elden set May 28 as the date for further argument4, By SUSAN ADES The expected Regental pas- sage of several Graduation Re- quirement Commission (GRC) proposals tomorrow has prompt- ed the literary college (LSA) Academic Counseling Office to plan for the implementation of the recommended reforms. Although it is not absolutely certain that the Board of Re- gents will vote on the GAtC recommendations at its meet- ings today and tomorrow, ad- ministrators and students in the counseling offices of the Univer- sity say they do not want to be caught unprepared in the event of changes. ACCORDING to Marion Jackson, associate dean of aca- demic counseling, the involve- ment of students, faculty and administrators in the prepara- tion of the final proposal means that "the suggestions have not .been made lightly and they have evidently received wide- spread support." - In anticipation of such new GRC provisions as the addi- tion of distribution courses un- der the pass-fail option and the abolition of the lab science re- quirement, academic counselors are beginning to alert students to the'possible revisions. Jackson is particularly con- cerned about informing incom- ing freshpeople of the new dis- tribution requirements, should they be passed by the Regents. Orientation begins on the 15th of June and Jackson hopes the advisors "will be prepared to counsel them under the new changes." AS FOR student reaction to the proposed GRC changes, Jackson said, "I haven't picked up that much feeling, one way or another. The kinds of ques- tions that have come in here are the information-seeking type. "Some students are fairly well informed and some are to- tally unaware of the recom- mendations which are going to the Regents," she added. Concurring with Jackson's ob- servation is Seth Comstock, a student representative to the GRC and counselor at the Stu- dent Counseling Office (SCO). He attributed the lack of stu- dent awareness - to "general apathy." . I "THEY haven't gotten the word out to the students," he said, criticizing the adminis- tration for its apparent slow- ness in disseminating the in- formation. Meanwhile, Comstock says he has taken it upon himself to ex- plain the situation to as many students as possible. And as for a new approach to counseling, he said, that if a student is concerned about fulfilling a lab requirement he will advise, but "if they're not a graduating sen- ior they should wait on it for a while." Commenting on the possible changes in the distribution structure, Comstock s a i d, "They're leaving more things up to the °student's discretion, but they are also leaving more up to the counselor." ACCORDING to Comstock, this could occur as the result of greater scheduling flexibility where counselors could promote more courses in their own de- partments for instance. At LSA Checkpoint, most in- coming calls have concerned the possible GRC changes. Ac- cording to Dave Rogers, head of the Checkpoint system, "Con- fusion is as good a word as any," to describe the nature of the calls.