OPINION_
Page 4
Friday, October 3, 1980
The Michigan Daily
Ulir Mibigan 4 3ailQ
Edited and-managed by students at The University of Michigan
Score: Fate 2,
Wolverines 1
i
Vol. XCI, No. 26
420 Maynard St.
Ann Arbor, MI 48109
Editorials represent a majority opinion of The Daily's Editorial Board
'U' should drop GE O suit
W HEN A CORPORATION loses a
decision on some legal matter,
its stockholders can be expected to
support an executive move to appeal
that decision. After all, from the per-
spective of the stockholder, the com-
pany's job is to earn the largest profits
possible, and that means avoiding
through any possible legal means fines
that may be imposed by the courts.
But that principle should not apply to
every institution that gets involved in a
lawsuit. The University, for instance,
certainly ought to take other issues in-
to consideration in its current legal
battle with the Graduate Employees
Organization.
For more than a year now, the main
area of dispute between the ad-
ministration and GEO, which
represents graduate teaching assistan-
ts, staff assistants, and research
assistants, has been whether the
organization has a right to call itself
labor union.
The University claims that its
graduate employees are primarily
here as students, and therefore are not
entitled to bargain collectively with the
administration. GEO wonders what
the fact that its members are students
has to do with their status as workers;
does an undergraduate working at an
automotive plant not have the right to
join or form a union?
Perhaps it would have been rather
quixotic to expect the administration
to surrender the employee-student
point without a battle. But when Judge
Shlomo Sperka of the Michigan Em-
ployment Relations Commission ruled
last July that teaching and staff
assistants are indeed entitled to collec-
tive bargaining rights (research
assistants, Sperka said, are not), the
Regents could have gracefully con-
ceded the point. Instead, they did the
predictable thing, moving to appeal
Sperka's decision.
The University's claim that
graduate students who stand before a
crowded classroom six or nine hours a
week teaching do not deserve the same
rights as other workers appears ab-
surd. We hope that the MERC appeals
board agrees, and that this time, the
University in turn drops its suit. After
all, Ann Arbor is not Dearborn, and the
University is not Ford Motor Com-
pany.
By Christopher Potter
God, it's come at last. The one horrible
question you never thought would be asked in
your lifetime: WHAT'S WRONG WITH THE
MICHIGAN FOOTBALL TEAM? I mean, the
very improvidence of two losses in two
games-is there something rotten in the hole
in the ground at Stadium and Main?
With all due apologies to Daily sports
itors and other worriers, let me hazard the
pinion that there is nothing wrong with the
Michigan football team. Nothing other than:
1) The fact that college football talent is
beginning to level out nationwide at an
astounding pace; and 2) The not-so-fanciful
fancy that God is a sadist who has made the U
of M his special target.
TIHE WOLvERINE's ghastly misfortunes
the last two Saturdays illustrate the wholly
arbitrary nature of that paranoid ritual
known as football ratings. Both games wound
up providing identical scenarios in which all
the second-guesses, might-have-beens, key
fumbles, turning point penalties, and other
teeth-gnashers ended up subordinated, ut-
terly, to the final play of each contest: If the
place kick of Notre Dame's Harry Oliver had
obeyed all the laws of probability and
slithered off to the left or the right, and if John
Wangler's short e id-zone pass to a wide-open
Anthony Carter hadn't been miraculously
tipped by a lunging South Carolina defen-
der-well, at the very least Bo's gladiators
would be perched proudly in the Top Ten
rankings, most likely in the top five.
There they'd sit, haughtily basking in the
zealous hosannas of both press and public:
Comeback kids, grace under pressure, cham-
pions in the clutch. The fact that such rapt
phrases would apply with equal legitimacy
with or without the final gun tragedies seems
of no relevance; all it took was two
plays-spanning about four seconds
each-and presto, our heroes are now cast
aside as chokeups; a loose, winning team
abruptly redesignated as a deeply troubled
one.
THE ACCUSATION just doesn't wash. The
Wolverines' woes are certainly in part sym-
ptomatic of the current metamorphoses in
college athletics. Bo Schembechler recently
ventured the notion that there are currently
"no superteams" in college football; while
inhabitants of Columbus and Tuscaloosa
might dispute that assertion, it seems clear
that times are changing nationwide. As athletic
department budgets grow ever tighter and
sports scholarships are increasingly restric-
ted and redirected, it becomes more and
more difficult for the perennial superpowers
to maintain their stranglehold on the cream of
collegiate talent.
It's not always true that the rich get richer
and the poor poorer; the Northwesterns of the
world are on the rise as never before, as was
quite bluntly demonstrated in Michigan's fir-
st-game squeaker over the Wildcats.
The Wolverines' other problem is con-
siderably more difficult to analyze beyond
quoting Bob Ufer's oft-repeated lament: "If it
weren't for bad luck, Michigan would have no
luck at all." As the years go by, a U of M fan
learns to live with heartbreak; the
Wolverine's seven most recent defeats have
come by a combined total of 22 points, driving
even the most passionate agnostic to the
halfway belief that some celestial power is
pulling the strings against us.
IF SOMETHING can go wrong, it will: The
Washington linebacker's once-in-a-million
pass interception in the '78 Rose Bowl,
Southern Cal's "phantom" touchdown the
following year-the list of horrors increases
relentlessly, rendering it perhaps advisable
,t
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01
*I
Rumors: No help at all
UMORS.w
They're always possible ih a
University community with huge,
ready-made social networks such as
those in dormitories and the Greek
system.
They're probably inevitable in the
wake of the brutal stabbing murders of
three women within a few miles of the
campus, the dragging of a man under a
car for almost a mile on State Street,
and a knife attack outside of South
Quad.
The origins of some of the rumors
are understandable. The man dragged
beneath the car was left crumpled on
State St. at Industrial Road; an almost
plausible rumor spread that a woman
was stabbed to death and her body was
left at that location.
Where others come from, however,
is less clear. Rumor had it that a body
was found stuffed into a Mosher-
Jordan garbage can and that another
woman was stabbed outside of the
Modern Language Building-stories
for which there is absolutely no-basis
in fact.
Though rumors of violent crime do
have the effect of making city residen-
ts more safety-conscious, ultimately
they do far more harm than good. Ar-
dent publicity efforts by the police,
University security, and concerned
,citizens can have the same positive ef-
fect without generating the at-
mosphere of terror that surrounds the
abundant talk of supposed murders,
rapes, and molestations.
Furthermore, false reports of a
growing crime wave could frighten
people into the dangerous practice of
carrying weapons for self-defense.
Perhaps the best way to stop rumors
is to keep well-informed. News of any
vicious crimes will be reported in the
local media; the police have exhibited
no tendency to suppress such infor-
mation.
And of course,. don't spread them
yourself.
Daily Photo by LISA KLAUSNER
to consult biorhythms or astrological charts
to determine the cause of such punishment.
Perhaps the fault does lie in our stars-after
all these years, no other explanation seems
any more plausible.
I detect nothing "complacent" about these
current Wolverines, despite the recent in-
timations elsewhere in these pages. The team
has so far displayed more fiery, imaginative
verve than any squad in recent memory. Bo
may lament that that's not the way he likes to
play football, but razzle-dazzle seems to be
the style the 1980 team plays best, like it or
not.
THE TEAM'S last-minute drives in both the
Notre Dame and South Carolina games were
inspired, furious masterworks; the sad fact
that neither effort brought victory merely
illustrates the fallacy of the American
mystique that honest effort always reaps
reward. Life can be very unfair.
In truth, it's been rather exhilarating to
watch three straight weeks of nerve-wren-
ching struggle in contrast to the dull
walkovers which hav'e ruled nine-tenths of all
Michigan's seasons during the past decade. I
always felt a vague sense of guilt sitting
through thosesendless stompings, something
ak la to a sensitive Roman watching
Christians gobbled by thejions. All of a sud-
den, each Saturday has become a tense, even-
handed adventure instead of an organized ex-
cuse for boozing, belching, and passing up.
This Michigan football team really has to
earn everything it gets, and in the process.
these guys might end up making us prouder of
them than of any other team in recent
memory. I can hardly wait till Saturday.'
Christop her Potter is a frequent con-
tributor to The Daily's Arts and Opinion
Pages.
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LETTERS TO THE DAILY:
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Copy center 'morally contemptible'
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To The Daily:
The current boycott of The
Wordprocessors, a duplicating.
firm at 211 S. State, Ann Arbor,
reflects the serious labor
problems which have existed in
the shop for over a year.
Recently the owners have seen
fit to attack individuals in print.
We recognize that the Company's
position is indefensible, but this is
no excuse to stoop to inflam-
matory statements, half-truths,
and personal attacks.
We will not dignify these
diatribes with a response, nor at-
tempt to detail the fine points of
this year-long struggle. We want.
to make the public aware of
recent developments in The Wor-
dprocessors' boycott.
In the past six months, the
National Labor Relations Board
has conducted two thorough in-
vestigations into several unfair
labor practice complaints filed
by workers at The Wor-
dprocessors. Both times the
NLRB's decisions have suppor-
issued and only in situations as
egregious as that at The Wor-
dprocessors. Owners have
argued the Company is not guilty
of union-busting, claiming to
have "documented proof."
However, that "proof" failed to
convince the NLRB during its in-
vestigations. In fact, counter
charges filed by the Company
were dismissed by the Board as
being without merit.
Employees who lost their jobs
in the union-busting campaign, as
well as sympathizers, picketed
the store for seven weeks, urging
consumers to boycott the firm.
This boycott has been very suc-
cessful and we thank our many
supporters in the business and
academic communities. We sin-
cerely appreciate the personal
sacrifices many of you have
made to honor this boycott.
However, the picketers, most of
whom have been out of work for
months, are accepting other jobs
and the picket line cannot be
maintained. We need your sup-
you to support an individual's
right to a free choice as guaran-
teed by law. More than 20 Wor-
dprocessors employees have
been denied that right and suf-
fered loss of their jobs as well. A
company which discriminates
against its employees,: interferes
with their legal rights, and
illegally fires them should be held
in our moral as well as legal con-:
tempt. Please take your business
elsewhere until The Wor-
dprocessors demonstrates they
deserve it.
-Micah Kaminer
Suzanne Napolean
September 29
Ram Dass article unfair
FOR~ R'E.iLctSON AND
1 cow DUSE ytt3w Nap,
_... .
--
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To The Daily:
I write in response to Jim Rob-
in's review of Ram Dass on
Friday's Arts page of The
Michigan Daily (Sept. 19). The
placement says something of
your regard for the
speaker-next to an im-
passionate article about "The
Same Band," above the film
listings.
. It could, more wisely, perhaps
be left at that.. However, as one
who heard Ram Dass that same
evening, among a peaceable,
Daily errors
caring people-I wish to con-
ment.
ItC would have been gracious
and more responsive if the writer
had researched his subject more
fully-and been able to approach
the speaker open and free of
prejudice.
In contrast to the reviewer,
Ram Dass spoke as a com-
passionate and loving man. He
cane as himself, unharmed-can
Mr. Robin say as much?
--Albert Mullen
Professor. School of Art
September 21
atrocious
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