Ninety-One Years
of
Editorial Freedom
I
E
Sic 43 fl
IatiQ
DINGY
Last night's rain showers
will end before noon. High
around 60.
Vol. XCI, No. 154
Copyright 1981, The Michigan Daily
Ann Arbor, Michigan-Thursday, April 9, 1981
Ten Cents
Ten Pages
-ow
rik
Nurses stri e
ei aN 3Ya ^' 'b& fi ' e
dP/kt
t;++ °YR/ y,,iE > r z Ar t F a aS aa}
t f ,$,
t H
^j F jn
F t os ita
s F{ t
T 9 Fv F
"1v n Nu '4j b .t
{9 S:v. 3 {"P
to ; ta, S S e
WIN
Daily Photo by DAVID HARRIS,
TENANTS OF THE house at 736 S. State St. and their friends celebrate an order by Ann Arbor District Court Judge
George Alexander yesterday finalizing the city's first private rent control agreement.
er pays oin
unique rent control pact
By PAMELA KRAMER
The tenants of the house at 736 S.
State St. decided two years ago they,
weren't going to put up with what
they considered were shaky floors,
poor insulation, and "near slum
conditions."
So they took legal action against
their landlord, and started a rent
strike.
AND YESTERDAY, two years af-
ter the tenants of the house first
decided to withhold rent, Ann Arbor
District Court Judge George
Alexarder signed an order that will
reduce the rent charged for the last
two years and control the rent
charged through 1982-83, regardless
of who the future tenants are.
The out-of-court settlement bet-
ween Ann Arbor Tenants Union
bargainers, Student Legal Services
lawyers, and lawyers representing
JRJ Realty is the city's first private
rent control agreement, and tenants
advocates say they hope the tenants'
actions and success will set an
example for other Ann Arbor
residents.
According to the agreement, 1979-
80 rent for the nine-bedroom house,
which had been set at $1050 per mon-
th, will be rolled back to $1025. Rent
for 1980-81, which the landlord plan-
ned to set at $1150 will be set at
$1050; 1981-81 rent, which the lan-
dlord planned to set at $1600, will be
$1100; and the 1982-83 rent will be
held at $1275, Jonathan Rose,
Student Legal Services attorney for
the tenants said yesterday.
AN SLS statement said the Ann
Arbor Tenants Union estimates "the
arrangement will save the past,
current, and future tenants nearly
$15,000 over the four years.
The rent strike which preceded the
agreement is one of three strikes by
tenants of the house against the lan-
dlord in the past six years.
The current tenants said they did
not know about the strikes against
the house when they signed the
lease. "We saw it was in bad con-
dition, but the lease and Dave
Williams (of Old Towne Realty -
the company that handled the lease)
said it would all be taken care of,"
tenant David Simon said. "We ap-
proached Student Legal Services
because we didn't know what to do."
"WHEN WE MOVED in this place
was a mess," said Simon, who has
lived in the house for two years.
"One guy moved out after a week."
Stuart Wolf, another two-year
tenant, said residents of the house
have withheld more rent than any
other residents in Ann Arbor, and he
listed a number of reasons for the
rent strike.
"The house shakes so much I
could almost fall out of my bed
(when the tenants on the second
floor lift weights)," he said. "And if
you look at the side of the house,
you'll seewhere they're putting a fire
escape because two weeks ago two
members of the housing commission
refused on walk on (the old one)
because of the rotting wood."
HE ALSO CRITICIZED the repair
methods of the landlord.
"One day two guys came in and
said they were going to fix the
house," Wolf said. "They put up
rubber stripping because we'd been
complaining about the insulation,
and it fell off the next day."
"Rent strikes in the past got rent
reductions and repairs, but none of
them got tenant union recognition on
rent controls," Rose said.
"I think the tenants gave up quite
a bit, and we gave up some things,"
said IRJ lawyer Minka, commen-
ting 4 n the settlement, negotiated by
Greg Hesterberg of the Coalition for
Better Housing. "The management
company bent over backwards to
please the tenants."
Minka said he found it "humorous
. . really humorous" that Rose
called the agreement a major vic-
tory for the tenants' movement
throughout the state. "Tenants are
very well protected in Michigan
right now.
Roger Chard, director of South
Eastern Michigan Legal Services
said that although the case does not
set a precedent in a legal sense, the
settlement could have an effect.
By JOHN ADAM
University Hospital nurses, staging the first strike in the
hospital's 112-year history, walked off their jobs early
yesterday morning.
Non-emergency services have been cut back, according to
Senior Associate Hospital Director Edward Schwartz, and
the hospital is currently operating at approximately 60 per-
cent of its capacity.
The nurses called the strike early yesterday after a mid-
night deadline passed without an agreement. Negotiations
were called off at 4:30 a.m. yesterday. No further talks have
been scheduled.
Picket lines formed at 6 a.m. yesterday. Preliminary
estimates by hospital administrators indicate that about 50
percent of the nurses in the 1,100-member Professional Nurse
Council are participating in the walkout.
Strikes by public employees are illegal under state law.
Hospital administrators said they have not decided whether
to seek a court injunction to force the nurses back to work.
KEY ISSUES remaining in the talks are scheduling, man-
datory overtime, an economic package, and input into
policies that affect nursing care, according to a spokesperson
for the nurses.
The nurses are also seeking improved communication
between the nursing managers and the nursing staff.
"I believe that as long as their positions on the issues don't
change, it's going to be a long strike,"' said University
Hospital assistant personnel director John Forsyth.
"RIGHT NOW we think we are meeting their demands,"
Forsyth said, "but the nurses want the University to put
down guarantees in case of possible future shortages."
The University Hospital,which consists of seven hospital-
size units on the medical campus, including the Main
Hospital and Mott Children's Hospital, is operating under a
contigency plan developed during the negotiations.
All but one of the hospital's 19 operating rooms are in
operation and most surgery is continuing on schedule, accor-
ding to hospital administration. "New patients are being
admitted on a select basis determined by the capacity of the
medical services and the needs of patients," a hospital
statement said.
IN ADDITION, the hospital has reassigned administrative
nurses to patient care duties and has obtained additional
registered nurses from outisde sources. These, together with
the licensed practical nurses and nursing aides have brought
the nursing staff to a level consistent with the number of
patients now in the hospital, administrator Schwartz said.
The Nurses have been without a contract since September.
Since then, the nurses have been working under a week-to-
week extension of their old contract. Twelve days ago, the
nurses told hospital administrators they would strike if an
agreement on a new contract was not reached by midnight
yesterday.
About 18 months ago, a chronic shortage of nurses at then
hospital forced many nurses to work overtime, and
sometimes change shifts three times within a week.
SINCE THEN, said Schwartz, "we have perhaps developed
one of the largest recruiting drives in the country."
Nevertheless, according to nurses, the problem still exists
Cam. %
UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL NURSES picket outside the
hospital yesterday. Approximately half of the
hospital's 1,000 nurses walked off the job yesterday
over contract disputes with the administration.
in isolated units. One spokesperson cited the thoracic unit
where the hospital is "40 to 50 percent understaffed."
According to the nurses' representative, the hospital will
pay up to $500 for information leading to the recruitment of a
nurse for that unit.
Nurses in the thoracic unit occasionally must change shifts
three times a week, the nurses claimed. The nurse council
believes that these working conditions are driving nurses out
of the profession. "We want to make conditions better so we
stop losing nurses," a spokesperson said.
A nationwide shortage of nurses is the crux of the problem,
according to University hospital administration. This shor-
tage sometimes makes overtime and shift-changing
necessary, administrators said.
Administrators added that although conditions aren't
currently bad, the hospital is in no position to guarantee
future workloads.
According to Forsyth, nurses have requested getting three
of six weekends off and no mandatory overtime after 52
hours.
,.. . . . . .. . .: .. . . . . . .. . . . . . .. .A .. ri.lr.:Y.. . . . . . . . . . ... . . . . . . . . . . . . . ...........C...... . . . . .
...................e..................:....4....................................................
:. .... . ..... . .. . . .. . .... .. . .. . .. .. .. . . ....v,.. ,: ...('....... . . . . . . . . .. .. . . . . . ...... ,.,... .. . .. . .. . .. . .
............. ......... ......... ......... ....x.... ........,n ,. . ......... ..,;.:
grp dept.
say's review
,report unfair
By SUE INGLIS
The geography department faculty
charged in a statement that a recom-
mendation calling for either
elimination or program reduction of the
department contains glaring om-
missions and unsubstantiated asser-
tions.
The department, which made the
charges in a formal statement to be
related to LSA faculty today, also said
geography review committee members
Economics Prof. Harvey Brazer and
History Prof. Sidney Fine were biased
against the department because of
previous remarks made during their
involvement in a 1975 evaluation of the
department.
THE FOUR-MEMBER ad hoc review
committee has recommended two
alternative courses of action concer-
ning the geography department, the
first of which is to discontinue the
department entirely. The second alter-
native is to eliminate the cultural area
of the department, leaving only 8 of 14
professors and retaining the areas, of
cartography, and physical and urban
geography.
Both reports will be debated Monday
at a special LSA faculty meeting. The
faculty can vote to reject or accept the
committee's findings. The decision to
forward the review committee's
recommendation to Vice President for
Academic Affairs Billy Frye rests with
the college's dean and executive com-
mittee, who are not bound to the
decision of the faculty.
IF FRYE then supports discon-
tinuance of the program, the recom-
mendation will be acted upon by the
Regents.
Review Committee Chairman Brazer
said yesterday he had not seen the
geography department's response, but
said because of their membership on
the 1975 review committee he and Fine
"felt obliged to lean over backwards as
far as possible" in the recent review.
"We felt sufficiently confident of our
own integrity," he said.
"I believe that they did a very
careful, serious job of examining the
evidence," said Acting LSA Dean John
Knott. "I know that they wrestled with
some very difficult issues. I believe the
college owes them a debt for an effort
they have made in trying circumstan-
ces."
THE STATEMENT of response
charges the review contains
"damaging selective use of data and of
a relatively short datum period." The
statement notes the most recent data on
graduate students in the review report
are based on GRE scores and grade
point averages from only the 10
graduate students who entered in 1980.
"No space is given to discussing the ac-
complishments and quality of the
present group of 35 students," stated
the response.
"Their well-articulated statements
(at review hearings) described their
creative contributions to the various
fields of geography," the response ad-
ded. "Nowhere, however, is a tran-
script of those proceedings included
with the report."
THE REVIEW REPORT states
graduate students who testified "made
a favorable impression on committee
members, typically presenting well
argued statements with both academic
and work related experiences." The
report also contains trends in grade
point averages dating back to 1975.
Brazer noted that the fact additional
statistics on graduate students were not
included "suggests we were not im-
pressed." He explained that compared
to students in other graduate programs,
geography students were not excep-
tional.
The response also charges that the
review report fails to represent the
strengths of the department. "This
department has been a recognized
leader in graduate training in
American geography for over half a
century. The overwhelming majority of
our graduate students came to
See GEOGRAPHY, Page 3
~..
P kLU J9 , .
3.1 0' f.C" t.. vS.a 9 2 )C .>
".:
n\>.. ,O. . v. S. .. , .: a . ., .M .. S t .. , .. .
> .,..) . ) '.u. Xy ;!.
, t'"w '
, ,. b. C. f. .Cw..si, A(. ..w. ...A. M , ,.. .. ^.' ..., ... v, .. w. )a .,.. a. aY' S x': e.:, .:. .. ... ..a...a.. trU: 'C .n, Y. ,. .... ,. #: N. .,a.
.0.0.
,:
,.., x?.,..:... :.. ,:..';. .. -..,..,,.., ~am,.. ,, ... .o. 3lf ' ., s
.' t ,,.,,...o . ..:. :.. ... .. ,., .,,, .. ,., a~ .,h .., ,, w,. .. ... _..
. o-,"
,b .,:~k.,a,.a. zY.W.,.V.,.xA
--TODAY
Taxi into town
NYONE DRIVING THEIR CAR DOWN State
Street early this morning was in for a surprise.
At 4 a.m. this morning the Michigan Flyers,
a University flying club, moved one of their
airplanes from Ann Arbor airport onto the Diag, via State
Street and North University. The airplane is part of the
Michigan Flyers membership promotion that they have
every year just "before summer 'cause that's when the
on campus. In addition, the group will host a benefit dance
tomorrow night at South Quad end send the proceeds, along
with $100 from the South Quad Council, to the Atlanta
Children's Foundation. "It's more or less a message from
the University of Michigan that the students are concer-
ned," said Hunt House RDMary Jean Ferrick. Q
Union yesterday weren't escapees from the circus; they
were representatives of Ann Arbor Ozone House trying to
draw attention to themselves in their annual fund drive.
The money donated will be spent on family and youth coun-
seling and helping runaways get back with their families,
according to an Ozone House coordinator. The group has
about forty people, each holding the bucket in two-hour shif-
ts. They hope to earn about $800-$1,000, enough to run the
Ozone House for about a week. 0I
French fried book return
I m ..ihnin fa TTM T n, _ nn-r n ,r,_,F_.
Buc king bottle
Mechanical bulls are too tame for the urban cowboys of
Redmond, Washington, so they're busting a bucking beer
bottle. Lately nobody much wanted to ride the mechanical
bull at the New Towne Crier Tavern, so proprietors John
Dalzell and Jack Vermuellen converted the critter into a
bronco bottle. They got a huge plastic bottle-complete
with a snap-on top-and fitted it around the bull frame. It
was an immediate hit. The whirling bottle is harder to tame
than an ordinary bull. The slick surface cannot be gripped
firmly with knees or thighs and the ride is wilder. "It takes
I ...A '"' I~
i