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OPINION
A
Wednesday, November 4, 1981
The Michigan Daily
y 1*
Vol.X
Sa me dbtdnsatn aity
Edited and managed by students at The University of Michigan
Wasserman
KCII, No. 48
420 Maynard St.
Ann Arbor, M1 48109
Editorials represent a majority opinion of the Daily's Editorial Board
Controlling the MRC
OUTLAWI,'& ABORTION 15l
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N OCTOBER, administrators
proposed creating a University
corporation to recruit industry support
for, research at the University. If
properly implemented, the corporation
could benefit the University both
academically and financially.
Certainly the University's fiscal
woes are not news. Declining state
subsidies and rapidly diminishing
federal grants for research will take
their toll on the financial well-being of
the University in the upcoming years.
A research corporation could serve as
a liason between the University and
the business community, soliciting
corporate funds for research and more
fully developing the University's ties
with the private sector.
TiIt id Mit hian R V
to abandon traditional scholarly
research for less worthy, but perhaps
more financially rewarding develop-
ment.
Currently, it has been proposed that
the corporation come under the control
of the Regents. However, both the
Regents and administration have a
tendency to view such entities as
money-makers rather than an element
in an academic compound. The Regents'
relationship with the Board of Inter-
collegiate Athletics is evidence of this.
However, one way to help deter such
a problem is by establishing a strong
controlling board composed primarily
of faculty members. Faculty mem-
bers are the group least likely to allow
research at the University to stray
from its scholarly intent and therefore
keep unethical research in check.
The board should also have some
student representation - research at
the University should also benefit the
students. If any group at the Univer-
sity can remove itself from the profit-
making motive it is tie students.
Therefore, they can help dissuade
University researchers from engaging
in research for purely mercenary
reasons.
The MRC can easily provide a boost
for the University and the State of
Michigan - but only if it is properly
adminstered.
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GOP
an ti-en vironmen talism
may mean costly lose n'2
Tne proposeu in icnigIaLI beOiQA
Corporation would give faculty the op-
portunity to participate in various
types of research they might not
otherwise have the opportunity to in
vistigate. The corporation could also
help make Ann Arbor a center for high
tdchnology, stimulating growth ani
d*velopment throughout the state of
Michigan.
IMRC research if not properly con-
tolled, however, could run contrary tc
mnjy of the academic ideals of the
1 iiversity. Since its primary purpose
i: that of a money-making operation,
the MRC could encourage some faculty
Reparation,
'S ONE OF those things your gung
ho, rediwhite-and-blue, football
coAch history teacher in high school
jug. didn't mention. And, even though
th e are still a few people around
wko will speak in its defense, it seldom
draws coverage in the nation's press.
B it still happened.
1942, under direct orders from
Pfsident Franklin Roosevelt - and
with the support of members of
Cojgress and the Judiciary - 117,000
Aericans, whose only "crime" was
to-have Japanese ancestors, were
stematically rounded up and placed
in relocation centers."
They were, in less bureaucratic ter-
4 put in concentration camps.
s much as many people would like
to forget it, their issue of the inter-
nment of Americans during World War
II has been brought back into the
public light by the hearings this week
of; the Commission on Wartime
Relocation and Internment of
Civilians. The commission,
established by Congress in 1980, is to
determine what compensation, if any,
is due the 80,000 camp survivors.
Despite the round condemnation the
internment now receives from civil
libertarians, a former Army official
testified before the commission on
Monday that the internment was
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dd
for Americans
justified. Karl Bendetsen, who direc-
ted the relocation program for the
government, argued that it was
necessary to round up the Americans
because there was a "very real and
present danger" of a Japanese in-
vasion of the West Coast, and that if the
Japanese-Americans had not been
evacuated, their lives would have been
in danger.
But what Bendelsen portrays as a
policy of benevolence, was, in fact, a
real and severe violation of the civil
liberties of American citizens. The in-
ternment caused lasting
phychological, physical, and financial
loss to the Japanese Americans, and
was, if anything, more a display of
American racism than of American
benevolence.
Argue that America made a.
mistake. Argue that we were caught
up in war hysteria. Argue that it's
been too long to justify paying money;
even argue that the budget precludes
paying money to the victims. Argue
anything but don't suggest that the in-
ternment was a good idea.
What was . done to Japanese-
Americans wasn't right, and no
amount of blather is going to make it
so. The issue now is what sort of
reparations are owed to the American
victims of an American mistake.
By June Taylor
WASHINGTON-Fear is spreading through
Republican congressional ranks that public
opposition to the Reagan administration's en-
vironmental policy may translate into costly
election losses in 1982.
As environmentalists recently delivered
petitions from 1.1 million Americans to oust
Interior Secretary James Watt, and as
Congress was interrogating Environmental
Protection Agency administrator Anne Gor-
such on her management of that agency,
pollster Louis Harris released a survey
showing continued overwhelming support for
environmental issues.
THE POLL ALSO indicated that the public
would trust a Democratically controlled
Congress to protect the environment more
than a Republican Congress by a margin of 60
to 25,percent.
In an interview, Harris noted that his sur-
vey was conducted in late September, before
much of the criticism of EPA management
had surfaced in the media and before the
culmination of the "dump Watt" campaign.
Harris said his organization will continue to
ask this question in the future and he expects
the trend to show even greater distrust of the
Republicans as a result of such publicity.
Some legislators fear that Republicans in
Congress are reaping the public criticism for
the environmental actions and attitudes of
President Reagan and his political appoin-
tees, despite a long record of Republican sup-
port for environmental protection.
SEN. ROBERT Stafford (R-Vt.) who heads
the Senate Environment and Public Works
Committee,has been a major player in the
passage of environmental legislation over the
last decade. Senate Majority Leader Howard
Baker (R-Tenn.) is given credit for much of
the Clear Air Act.
In the House, numerous Republicans, such
as Tom Evans of Delaware, Millicent Fen-
wick of New Jersey, and Jerry Lewis of
southern California are given high marks by
environmentalists.
Another such Republican is Rep. Jim Leach
of Iowa, the new chairman of the moderate
Republican Rippon Society. Leach has called
Secretary Watt "an aberration from the
Republican tradition," which he feels is the
"strongly pro-environmental tradition of
Teddy Roosevelt."
LEACH ADDED: "As the etymology of the
world would indicate, conservation is the lin-
chpin of historic conservatives. It is ironic
that some so-called conservatives today are
giving a higher priority to environmental
abandon than conserving our natural resour-
ces. These neo-conservatives are forsaking
LETTERS TO THE DAILY:
Interior Secretary James Watt's anti-en-
vironmental policies could mean big losses
for Republicans at the polls in 1982.
traditional conservative philosophy and
jeopardizing the political party most iden-
tified with conservative values."
Stafford said recently that he thought the
Reagan administration is mistaken if it thinks
it has a popular mandate to weaken environ-
mental laws. Stafford holds the reins in
guiding the Clear Air Act through
Congressional re-authorization. Many in
business, industry and the, Reagan ad-
ministration want to see that act altered sub-
stantially.
Testifying before a House committee
working on amendments to the law, Harris
told the politicians that his most recent poll
indicates that 80 percent of the American
people want to see the Clear Air Act kept as it
is now or made even stricter, and noted:
"This message on the deep desire on the part
of the American people to battle pollution is
one of the most overwhelming and clearest
we have ever recorded in our 25 years of sur-
veying public opinion."
RESPONDING TO questions about the
political implications of his poll, Harris told
the congressmen: "If you Democrats stay
with the Clear Air Act as it is now, you've got
quite' an issue going for you. Republicans, if
you appear to cut back or circumscribe,
you've got a real problem in the elections."
Environmentalists intend to make sure
politicians understand that problem and are
mobilizing election workers and doubling the
budget of their political action committees to
work for pro-environment candidates in up-'
coming state and national campaigns. While
they would like to keep a bipartisan balance
of environmental endorsements, and will in-
deed be campaigning for many Republican
candidates, one environmental lobbyist, him-
self a Republican, said: "Frankly, it would be
an environmental disaster if Republicans
took control of the House."
In such an event, some of the important
committee chairmanships would transfer to
senior Republicans who, in most cases, are
not sympathetic to the environmentalists",
agenda.
ANOTHER environmental lobbyist said he
thought the major problem for the
Republicans is that the public perceives the
Republican Party as the "party of big
business." He noted, "The public distrusts big
business generally and especially on en-
vironmental issues."
Rep. Claudine Schneider (R-R.I.) a staunch.
ally of environmentalists, agreed with this
analysis, but said she thinks the perception is;
unfair. "We're fighting for small business and'
human health," said Schneider, who sits on
the House Science and Technology Commit-
tee, which recently held hearings on the toxic
regulation in the new EPA.
Schneider said she is very concerned about,
talk within the administration of reducing en-
vironmental and health regulations. But on
the record of'her party, she noted: "We have
a strong Republican heritage for en-
vironment."
SEEKING TO KEEP the Republican Party
in the mainstream of environmental support,
Republican national chairman Richard
Richards met recently with some 85 Sierra
Club volunteers from around the country who
had come to Washington with their "dump
Watt" petitions.
One member told him, "I've been a
Republican all my life, but I can't take what Watt
and Gorsuch are doing. The money I used to
send to the Republican National Committee
I'm now sending to the Sierra Club."t"
That sentiment is shared by many. The
National Wildlife Federation, the country's
largest conservation organization, polled its
members and found that while they over-
whelmingly voted for Ronald Reagan they also
overwhelmingly disapproved of Secretary
Watt's policies. Yet in the face of such sen-
timent, White House political strategist Lyn
Nofziger is reported to have recommended
that Reagan not campaign for Republican
candidates critical of Watt.
In his testimony before the House, Louis
Harris called the environmental issue ''a
rather sacred cow."
In a feistycexchange with Reps. Cleve
Benedict (R-W.V.) and Don Ritter (R-Penn.)
Harris emphasized the continued over-
whelming support for the environment shown
in his poll, and told them: "The Republican
Party is at a crossroads on this ... You go on
like this and you're going to lose the '82 elec-
tion."
Taylor wrote this article for Pacific
News Service.
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The 'U' needs midterm study days
Kt
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To the Daily:
Now that my midterms are
over and I have time to do things
beside study, and while the
physical and emotional drain are
still fresh in my mind, I would
like to address the problem of
midterm anxiety.
Midterm anxiety is the feeling
of apprehension one gets before
midterm exams. It is brought
about by the recognition or tne
importance of the exam and the
desire of the individual to do well,
conflicting with the confidence
(or lack of confidence) one has in
iL rn.nrn.
preparing for these exams is
sacrificing in other areas. In this
way, getting a good grade means
cutting classes, losing wages, and
losing sleep.
In the end, instead of midterm
grades being a measure of
knowledge of the course, they
only reflect the priority of the
amount of time alloted to
studying for them. A student
could do poorly on an exam, not
because he didn't understand the
material but because he didn't
have as much time to prepare as
the next guy. A student should not
With this system students
would be able to commit suf-
ficient time to studying for these
exams. Test scores would be
more equitable because they ,
would reflect the degree of
knowledge and understanding of
all students, not just those with
ample time to study.
With this method, doing well on
midterm examinations would not
have to be at the expense of other
classes, activities, and personal
health.
-Cheri Jacobs
October 30
Letters
to the Daij
ly should
be
typed, triple-spaced, with inch
margins- All vuI mivin1 mlat h"
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