The Michigan Daily
Vol. LXXXVI, No. 15-S
Ann Arbor, Michigan-Tuesday, May 25, 1976
Ten Cents
Twelve Pages
White House bias charged
WASHINGTON (A') - A presidential commission
skipped over three women finalists to pick lower-rated
males for this year's White House fellowship pro-
gram, according to court records.
The records also show that thousands of commis-
sion documents were destroyed in "burn bags" after
they were sought as evidence in a lawsuit that ac-
cuses the panel of biaS against women.
WITH THE suit pending, the Presidential Commis-
sion on White House Fellows announced yesterday that
recipients of next year's fellowships will include eight
women, the most ever chosen for the program - and
four times as many as last year.
The 17 recipients for next year also include an
Oriental male. An Associated Press inquiry shows
the commission bypassed a highly rated Oriental male
last year in choosing the current fellows.
A DISAPPOINTED woman finalist, Dr. Serena Stier,
sued the commission last Nov. 21, claiming sex bias.
She based her suit in part on the fact that 14 of the 32
finalists were women, but only two women were
selected as fellows, along with 12 white males.
Carl Goodman, attorney for the fellowship commis-
sion, declined to say why the higher-ranking woman
were skipped over. He would neither confirm nor deny
that the omitted higher-ranking male was non-white.
Commission records filed with the U. S. District
Court in Washington show the commission departed
from its own numerical rating system last spring
in picking this year's fellowship recipients.
IT PASSED over female finalists whom the com-
missioners had ranked 14th, 15th, and 16th. Instead,
two white males ranked 17th and 18th were chosen.
The commissioners themselves are mostly white males.
The records show the commission also skipped No.
10, a male, whom several sources familiar with the
case say is a Chinese - American, Ernest Chu of Chap-
paqua, N.Y.
The rankings were distilled from rankings assigned
by each commissioner. The commissioners rated their
choices in order, one through 32, based on oral and
written exams. Final rankings were determined
through averaging the individual commissioners' rank-
ings.
TWO OF the women finalists signed affidavits say-
ing the program's director told them that 15 to 18
fellows would be selected from finalists for this year's
program. Had the commissioners picked that many
and had they followed their own ranking system, four
or five women would have been chosen rather than
two.
Attorney Goodman said the commission's reasons
for omitting the women had been given in testimony
but that the testimony is being kept confidential to
protect the privacy of those who were not selected.
"People were not selected on the basis of numerical
judgments," Goodman said. "They were selected on
the basis of a consensus - gathering among the com-
missioners. The numerical basis doesn't necessarily
mean who gets selected. There were reasons why
people weren't selected, but they are under court
seal."
EMAKESDEB
Con corde
Brown faces Ore. battle
WASIIINGTON /1,- Two British-
French Concordes brought faster than
sound passenger flight to the United
States yesterday but their debut was
marred when a private plane came
within 400 feet of one of the big jets
during the landing.
Racing - and beating - the sun in
their journey across the Atlantic, the
first of the two sleek jets landed at
Dulles International Airport at 11:54
a.m., the second aircraft was only one
minute behind.
The British Airways plane, the first
to land, made the journey from London
in three hours and 53 minutes or slight-
lv more thn half the time it takes a
con-entional et. The Air France plane
took slightiv less time to fly from Paris.
Because the' rrossed four time zones
dtring their flieht, the planes actually
landed hefore they took off in local time
measurements.
A crowd estir'ated at between 4,000
and 5,000 crammed the observation tow-
ers and platforms at the airport to see
the delta-winged jets land in their char-
acteristic drooped nose fashion.
But as the British plane circled the
airport to line up with the runway, an
unidentified private plane crossed over
him.
A controller at Dulles had warned the
British plane of the light aircraft in the
area and Capt. Brian Calvert routinely
asknowledged the warning.
About a half minuterlater, the conilot,
Capt. Normann Todd, radioed the Dutles
tower: "Incidentally, we just missed
that fellow by about 400 feet.
The Concorde was flying about 230
miles ner hour at the time. It continued
on its course and the small plane moved
ont of the way.
The Federal Aviation Administration
said it did not know who was flying the
small plane but a spokesman said the
aircraft might have been a photo plane
trying to take pictures of the 1,400 mile
per hour Concorde.
"As far as we're concerned, it was
not an unsafe condition," a FAA spokes-
man said. He noted the pilots had been
warned of aircraft in the area and that
they had spotted the plane.
See CONCORDE, Page 6
By DAVID WHITING
Daily News Analysis
PORTLAND - Oregonians, as they
prefer to be called, like to boast that
no presidential candidate can hope
to live in the White House without
having first won the Oregon primary.
There are two things one doesn't
kid about in the Northwest - one is
the environment and the other 'is
politics. Since 1924, no president has
been elected to the highest office in
the land without first wooing a ma-
jority of Oregonians.
IF HISTORY is to repeat itself in
this election year, the record appears
to spell certain disaster for Demo-
cratic presidential hopeful California
Gav. Edmund "Jerry" Brown. Brown
is expected to finish third here to-
day, and that would nearly eliminate
his chances of answering the Oval
Office phone.
Although Brown and most of his
campaign supporters are saying he
has a good chance of winning, the
primary here, none of the "smart
money" is being put on the thirty-
eight year old governor.
Brown is facing a major handicap
capturing Oregon delegates because
he filed too late to get his name on
the ballot. He has been waging a
hard write-in campaign, but it is
doubtful that his efforts will be re-
warded.
OREGONIANS don't take kindly to
newcomers and have a bad reputa-
tion when it comes to penciling in a
candidate's name. Nelson Rockefel-
ler, in 1968, fought the strongest
write-in race the state has ever seen
and only garnered 11.4 per cent of
the votes cast.
Even Brown's hard-working cam-
paign supporter and sister, Kathleen
Brown Rice, is not about to predict
victory for her brother at the Demo-
cratic Convention in July. Whenaask-
ed last week abotut Brown's chances
of getting the nomination, she smil-
ed and replied, "Let's just say it's
not locked up."
Those confident of a Brown vic-
tory in Oregon sit in the "Brown for
President" Portland headquarters
and describe the governor as a cross
See BROWN, Page 6