Ninety-Two Years
of
Editorial Freedom
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PALE
Cloudy and cooler today,
with a good chance of
showers. A high in the mid-
40s.
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wVol. XCII, No. 36
Copyright 1981, The Michigan Daily
Ann Arbor, Michigan-Wednesday, October 21, 1981
Ten Cents
12 Pages
"The word 'fat' is no
big deal here. It's a
descriptive adjective.
Not an insult."
They're
By CHRISTINA ROUVALIS
At 21, Mylan Devereaux wants to stop hating
herself and start liking herself-all 250 pounds.
She wants to leave behind the memory of her
teenage years when she felt too awkward to relax
anywhere except in a movie theater and too
humiliated to attend her Weight Watchers class.
A DISCARD of what she calls the "size ten or
smaller society," Devereaux joined the state
chapter of the National Association to Aid Fat
Americans last month and found a group of people
who told her: It's OK to be fat.
"The (NAAFA) meeting was one of the only
places I've been where it didn't matter how big
you were," Devereaux said. "I didn't feel con-
spicuous. I didn't feel on edge for once.
"I felt normal for a change."
appy, and
AT HER FIRST meeting, held at the Southfiel
mall, Devereaux sat in a room filled with fat pet
sons. Fat by their own definition.
"The word 'fat' is no big deal here," said Dori
Mann, the chapter's vice president. "It's
descriptive adjective. Not an insult."
Devereaux not only felt at ease among her nei
fat friends, she was uplifted by their message.
"STAND STRAIGHT and tall and proud," Judi
Takalo, the chapter's treasurer told the grout
"We don't have to justify our size to anyone. I'r
big, I'm proud and I'm beautiful."
Although some of the 30 chapters of this nationa
organization lobby for "fat rights"-which includ
a call for wider seats in public auditoriums and a
end to sizism in advertising-the Michigan chat
ter is predominantly a social group.
Members spent most of this meeting laughini
say itsOK
d talking, and eating cookies and punch-proudly.
r- SOCIALIZING IS an activity that average-
weight persons take for granted but many fat per-
s sons shun, said Sherry Kessler, chapter president.
a "I knew one woman who only goes out for
grocery shopping and that's at night," Kessler
w said. "A lot of people are afraid to go out."
Devereaux agreed. "A lot of people put their life
e on hold. It's almost paralyzing.
p. "I USED TO STAY home and vegetate," she
m said of her high school days when she weighed 350
pounds. "I didn't want to be seen in public. I
al always felt like a toad. I looked terrible and I knew
le what I was supposed to look like. Smaller."
n Friends, Devereaux said, were hard to come by.
p- "A fat girl is an embarrassment. No one wants to
be seen with her."
g, And boyfriends or dates, well, they were unat-
to be at
tainable, she said.
"MEN ALWAYS SAY something when a women
passes. Cat calls or whatever," Devereaux said.
"If you're fat they say something that isn't nice.
You're a joke."
Many group members agree with Devereaux
that the day-to-day rejection, whether it is real or
imagined, is the biggest burden of carrying extra
poundage.
The local chapters meet monthly, and as a
social boost, the national organization offers a pen
pal service and computer dating.
STEPHEN MYDLARZ, 24, a network specialist
at Northern Telecom, dated little before he joined
NAAFA. Now, he said, he is flooded by attention
from women.
"If I see an attractive man talking to an attrac-
See THEY, Page 2
Vacancy rate
By JENNIFER MILLER
Those wintry days of frantic door-to-
door apartment hunting may be only a
bad memory.
"Take your time this year," advises
Jo Williams, assistant director of the
off-campus housing office. "There's no
need to grab the first thing that looks
half-way decent."
WILLIAMS' advice came after a
study done by her office found a central
campus vacancy rate of 13.7 percent
this September, up dramatically from
the less than 1 percent rate two years
ago.
The tight Ann Arbor housing market
of the past forced students to start
competing for scarce, high-rent
housing early in the winter term. By
the end of the term, most central cam-
pus apartments already were taken.
But for the past two years, landlords
have been left with a number of vacan-
'Take your time this year, there 's
need to grab the first thing that loo
half-way decent.'
-Jo Williams, assistant direc
of off-campus housi
soars
year's vacancy rate probably won't
cause a general lowering of rents -
which were raised an average of 11 per-
no cent this year.
However, the slow housing market
ks may give students more leverage to
negotiate with a landlord, such as
asking for certain repairs and
removing or adding clauses in the
for lease.
"I think we'll see landlords being
ing more competitive against each other,"
-Williams said, "going out of their way
,pril." to say to students, 'Rent from me in-
eanrib. stead of someone else, because I'll do
a anbe. this for you'."
a e Items over which students may be
or of the able to negotiate include painting,
rd wth refurbishing, adding a privacy clause,
;reed with and asking the landlord to use an incen-
to look. tive clause for on-time rent payments,
Cohen Cohen and Williams said.
time you The incentive clause gives the tenant
said this , See CITY, Page 2
cies after classes started in the fall.
Some landlords were offering lower
rents, or were willing to negotiate
prices this fall.
WILLIAMS cautioned students not to
wait until the end of summer to find a
place, however. The glut of vacancies
and the rent deals "might never happen
again," she said.
"Don't feel you have to make an early
decision," Williams said, "but do find a
place before you leave inA
Students should take their time
more selective when choosing
to live, she said.
Dale Cohen, associate direct
Ann Arbor Tenants' Union, ag
Williams. "There 's more time
Don't sign a lease right away,'
said, "but find a place by the i
leave in April."
BOTH COHEN and Williams
Photo by DEBORAH LEWIS
JO WILLIAMS, assistant director of off-campus housing, reviews an
analysis of the city housing market she completed recently. The off-campus
housing vacancy rate is on the rise, she reported.
'U' prof helps
draft African
*aid strategy
By MARK GINDIN
Developing countries in Africa should
shift from a reliance on the public sec-
tor toward free market economies, ac-
cording to a report issued by the World
Bank and written in part by a Univer-
sity professor.
The report, drafted by a team of
World Bank officials headed by Univer-
sity Prof. Elliot Berg, deals primarily
with underdeveloped countries below
the Sahara Desert in Africa.
THE REPORT stresses three main
areas of policy failure:
i The economic environment in the
sub-Saharan countries has not enhan-
ced growth in part, because trade
policies have overprotected industry
and agriculture; o .
" Governments of the countries are
0 "trying to do too much" to solve the
nations' problems;
" There has been a consistent bias
against agriculture in pricing, tax, and
exchange rate policies.
The report officially was released
Monday at three news conferences,
held simultaneously in New York,
Paris, and London, Berg said. The
Bank is now officially considering the
document and the position it will take in
the future regarding aid to Africa, he
said.
THE WORLD BANK, formally called
the International Bank for Reconstruc-
tion and Development, was set up by
the world's non-communist countries
after World War II in an effort to aid
developing nations, Berg said. About
100 countries are involved, he said, and
the United States contributed 27 per-
cent of the Bank's revenue last year.
Making the change in Sub-Saharan
nations from economies dominated by
the public sector will require a large
amount of outside aid, Berg said, and it
is the responsibility of the more affluent
countries to provide that help. "We are
calling for international aid to the area
to double within the next decade," he
said.
Among the changes recommended in
the report is a concerted effort to make
the economies of the countries more
competitive, Berg said. Currently
many countries have government
monopolies in industries that could be
handled more efficiently by the free
market, he said.
"THERE IS A small private sector
that has been discouraged and trod on"
by present government policies, Berg
said. The internal, small-scale
businesses should have more freedom
and incentives to operate, he said.
The monetary exchange rates in
many of the sub-Saharan countries are
vastly overvalued, Berg said. The
overvalued currency discourages
domestic business by making imports
less expensive than domestic goods, he
said. Much of the imported food con-
sumed by a country's people is sub-
sidized by the government, Berg said.
This policy also encourages the pur-
chase of imports while discouraging
domestic agriculture.
Many of the taxes in various coun-
tries are heavy and discourage produc-
See WORLD, Page 5
Photo by DEBORAH LEWIS
A bevy of beauties
Tavi Fulkerson, fashion reporter for the Ann Arbor News, and photographer Larry men featured on a new calendar before a party held yesterday afternoon
Wright, look on as Laura Mendiola gets autographs from some of the Michigan at Dooley's.
TODAY
Grandma in jail
N 82-YEAR-OLD woman told a judge she was
sorry she sold marijuana, and said her 98-year
old mother had warned her she could get
introuble for it. After Minnie Hall made her guilty
plea Monday, Sevierville, Tenn. Circuit Judge Ken Porter
fined her $250 and suspended an 11-month, 29-day jail sen-
tence. Hall told Porter her mother had been mad at her sin-
ce Sevier County sheriff's deputies arrested her at home
Oct. 5. The arrest came after a county grand jury indicted
Nol har ndnn Randr 'TTnnin 9f2 0and fir nther nennle
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the newest thing in toys for grown-ups as Ronnie Doll and
Nancy Doll. They have outfits for almost every oc-
casion-the ranch, the campaign trail, Camp David and an
inaugural ball. Dell Publishing Company is offering the cut-
out paper images in "First Family Paper Doll & Cut-Out
Book." Q
What good old days?2
Radical turnaround
The adult book store once bore a sign in red letters
saying, "Do not enter if offended be nudity or the human
body." But behind the white door these days there's a
mural of Jesus Christ. The Chapman highway Adult Book
Shop has been turned into the Pentecostal Revival Center.
There are pews where projection booths stood. Stained
glass windows decorate the front double doors, and the
scarlet letters on the side entrance are hidden by white
paint. There's a steeple on the roof. "From darkness to
light," said the Rev. William Bryant. Congregation mem-
bers met in Bryant's home for several months while they
For some of the most successful women in America, the
good old days are right now. Cosmopolitan magazine asked
women VIPs what their worst jobs had been, and learned
that nr many the nast meant hard times. Imagine financial
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