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Page 8-Saturday, February 23, 1980-The Michigan Daily
CREDIT UNIONS REPOR T DEFA UL TS UP
Americans
From The Associated Press
American families are losing the bat-
tle of the budget, according to represen-
tatives of the nation's more than 22,000
credit unions who say the problems cut
across age and income lines.
"I think they're in over their heads,"
said Jim Williams, president of the
Credit Union National Association,
discussing the finances of the nearly 40
million people who are members of
credit unions.
"THE TRENDS of delinquencies are
upward," said Williams at a recent
news conference in New York City.
"The repayment ratios on loans are
dropping."
Williams painted a gloomy picture,
even though he was speaking before the
announcement yesterday that the Con-
sumer Price Index in January rose 1.4
per cent, the biggest boost in more than
6/ years.
He said he expected delinquency
rates on loans would "at least double"
in the next six months. He also said that
the charge-off rate for credit unions on
loans that are uncollectable
traditionally ran at about one-fourth of
one per cent of all outstanding loans.
Yesterday, he said, the rate is a little
over one-third of one per cent. By the
end of the year, i
fourths of a per cent.
WILLIAMS SAID
striking young and+
people as well as the
section," he said.
Williams also sa
credit unions have
loans because they c
losing budge
t could hit three- ticularly for automobile purchases, at
,he said. interest rates that are higher than they
the problems are can afford.
old, middle-income CREDIT UNIONS --non-profit
e poor. "It's a cross organizations whose members have a
common bond like employment -
id that "a lot" of traditionally have been allowed to pay
e stopped making higher interest rates on savings than
do not have the fun- commercial banks or other financial
I think they're (American families) in over their heads
... The trends of delinquencies are upward. The re-
payment ratios on loans are dropping.'
t battle
ding installment debt in December
1978. A year.later, they held only 15.5
per cent.
WILLIAMS EXPRESSED confidence
that legislation would be approved by
Congress to allow credit unions to
charge higher interest rates - at least
temporarily. Federally chartered
credit unions - about half the total -
currently are limited to a 12 per cent
annual charge. Williams said he expec-
ted a plan to be worked out whereby
credit unions could charge 15 per cent
annual interest in certain circumstan-
ces. Raising the interest rate on loans
would let credit unions increase the in-
terest on savings to attract customers,
credit union officials say.
In an effort to help people manage
their money, the Credit Union National
Association is launching a "Financial
Fitness" program, designed to provide
information libraries, workshops and
counseling for members.
Jerry Lawrence, a spokesman for the
association, said a preliminary
evaluation of a soon-to-be-released
study conducted by the Gallup
organization for the credit unions, in-
dicated that people today do not think of
financial fitness in terms of savings or
investment.
m
14
-Credit
Union National Association
President Jim Williams
ds available. Others, he said, have put a
ceiling on the amount they will lend any
individual member or have imposed
stricter credit limits. He said, however,
he did not know the exact number of
credit unions that had been forced to
take these steps.
Alvin George of San Diego, chairman
of the Credit Union National
Association, said his local credit union
had put a $3,000 limit on loans, down
from $10,000. He said the limit was for-
cing'; some credit union members to
borrow from finance companies, par-
institutions and usually charge less in-
terest on loans. Because they rely
largely on volunteers, their operating
costs are lower.
Today, however, the availability of
high-interest alternatives to the
traditional savings account, including
things like certificates of deposit, has
caused many credit union members to
put money elsewhere. That means the
credit unions have less money to lend.
According to figures from the
Federal Reserve Board, credit unions
held almost 17 per cent of all outstan-
01
'U' male nursing students gain
Daily Photo by JOHN HAGEN
ZOLTON FERENCY attacks the proposed federal criminal code revision
in a speech at the Union last night. The MSU professor accused Congress
of misusing the code to attack certain forms of social behavior.
MSU Prof. Ferency
speaks out agaist
revised crimitnal code
r
acceptance despite
. N BY ABIGAIL MEISEL
Women doctors have traditionally
SIGN UP FOR OUR ' been thought of as pioneers breaking in-
FOOSBALL TOURNAMENT to a male-dominated field. But the
University also has some slightly dif-
PONSORED BY THE PAPE R CH ASE ferent medical pioneers - nineteen
men joining 780 women students in a
,the last one to.
demanding curriculum of academic
and clinical study in the School of Nur-
sing.
Like many df the other men, junior
Mike Haas started his medical career
as an aide in a military medical
evacuation unit. But Haas decided to
leave the Army to become a civilian
nurse. "I like the relaxed atmosphere
of a hospital setting," Haas said. "You
feel like you can be of benefit."
HAAS SAID being married and
having a child has helped him feel more
comfortable in even the most
traditionally, female settings. "One
mother's husband wouldn't go into the
delivery room, so I was a surrogate dad
and held her hand," he said.
The distribution of men in then nursing
field may not now be strong, but junior
Roland Jemerson feels it may soon
change. "The opportunities right now
for men in nursing are greater," he,
Turn Off
the Lights
HELP CONSERVE ENERGY!
5tereotpes
said. "It's a wide open field for you."
"Nursing is more of a profession unto
itself instead of a domestic service for
physicians. Nurses are more assertive:
in their attitudes," he continued. But he
said many people are not yet used to the
idea of a male nurse. "When I go on the
floor to work, patients think I'm a doc-
tor or orderly," Jemerson said.
MANY OF THE other men said they
were often confused with doctors, but
some said the confusion could actually
be advantageous. "Men are identified
with doctors and - especially at night
when there are only two nurses on duty
- can have more control of a unit,"
said Douglas Hankins, a 44-year-old
classmate of Jemerson. "Sometimes
the. authority of a nurse is less
questioned if it is a man."
Hankins said most tensions about
males in nursing arise not with patien-
ts, but with instructors. "There are
built-in biases that people can't deal
with honestly," Hankins said, speaking
both of his sex and his race.
But not all men are initially confident
about their choice of a nursing career.
"I had reservations at first and took
easily transferable classes," said one
undergraduate. "I got razzed about
nursing and the guy-girl ratio." The
ratio. does cause some small com-
plications.
By W. J. THOMPSON
Criticism of the government could
become illegal if a revised criminal
code were adopted by Congress,
Michigan State University criminal
justice professor Zolton Ferency
said last night.
"This is a conscious, deliberate ef-
fort to take advantage of the
criminal code revision to deal with
phenomena that have disturbed
them (the revision's sponsors),"
Ferencey said. "It would give the
government power over certain
overt activities which the gover-
nment has been unhappy about."
FERENCY, Democratic nominee
for governor in 1966, told the crowd
of 42 people at the Union's Kuenzel
Room that the revised code, Senate
Bill 1722, was the wrong way to
revise the criminal code. "You can
approach this from two directions,"
he said, "a piecemeal review or take
the entire criminal code and revise it
as a body."
Ferency said members of
Congress had used the Federal
Criminal Code to deal with things to
which they objected, such as drugs,
obscenity and other "social
behavior."
Ferency accused Sen. Edward
Kennedy (D-Mass.), of "shepher-
ding the criminal code revision
through Congress." People on the
left who support President, er,
Senator Kennedy are apologetic
about his role in this."
ferency emphasized that Kennedy
was the co-sponsor of the bill along
with conservative Senator Strom
Thurmond (R-S. Carolina). He said'
Kennedy could be pressured to with-
draw his support of the bill by at-
tacks on his presidential campaign.
"The closer election day comes, the
closer to the middle most people
hit," he said.
The revision of, the federal code
would greatly reduce the number of
federal statutes, Ferency said, but
"it is a very long piece of legislation,
which is one reason why it is difficult
to pass."
"Not as many would take the time
to make the personal judgment on
such a bill," Ferency warned.
"There is a tendency to follow the
leader." -
r
S.
Student Newspaper at The University of Michigan
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Chinese Communist Party in bad
condition, Peking newspaper reports
PEKING (AP) - A Peking,
newspaper said yesterday the Chinese
Communist Party is in bad shape - its
leadership weakened, discipline lost -
and there are reports the Central
Committee will meet any day to do
something about it.
The meeting, that some reports said
could come as early as today, also is
expected to formally restore the honor
of the late President Liu Shao-chi,
disgraced as the "No. 1 capitalist
roader" of the 1960s.
THERE HAVE been signs of Liu's
return to respectability, and formal
restoration could be seen as an indirect
4
WESLEY FOUNDATION
at the University of Michigan
(313) 668-6881
602 E. Huron at State
Ann Arbor, Michigan 48104
Monday, February 25
"Fight for Our Lives"-
A history of the
farmworker's struggle
slap at the late Chairman Mao Tsef
tung. Liu got into trouble for trying to
restore China's economy through
pragmatic measures that downplayed
Mao's idea of constant struggle for
ideological purity.
The current leadership, which took
over after the downfall of the party's
radical wing in 1976, has decreed a halt
to disruptive political campaigns to
concentrate all energies on moder-
nization.
But yesterday's commentary in thel
Peking Daily, organ of the party's
Peking Municipal Committee, said
some party members insist on the right
to decide for themselves whether the
Central Committee's policies are
correct or not - and to disobey them if
they are incorrect.
MONDAY
NOON
MOVIE
It blamed this viewc
"poisons" left by the radicals.
on deep
0
L6 TIN
EIMERICEIN
DEIIICE
The radical "gang of four," included
Mao's widow Jiang Jing and Politburo
members Yao Wenyuan, Zhang Zhun-
jiao and Wang Hongwen. They wielded
power under Mao's aegis in the late
1960's and early 1970's but now are ac-
cused of distorting Mao's teachings and
of encouraging rebellion against
veteran leaders so they could seize
power themselves. Liu and current
Senior Vice Premier Deng Xiaoping
were among their victims.0
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