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 . ;$, 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. 01 LETTERS TO THE DAILY: . i i M t Copy center 'morally contemptible' T - - iI SiI 00 H4, IPN C W-ESSMMJ 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, _... . -- =i --' 1 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 i I 1 I, h l I, , I Lai ' It I ' iE ' l I T'N t Y i - p LL-j ("'1 1 i , t ' r y k Ii i t