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OPINION
Page 4 Sunday, January 9, 1983 The Michigan Daily
Decisions on a forest and a fire
A FTER MONTHS of demonstrations,
investigations, and rumors, the verdict
finally came: The University's top budget
committee had recommended massive
changes-and massive budget cuts-at the
School of Natural Resources.
The proposals of the Budget Priorities Com-
mittee, made public Thursday, would cut the
school's budget by 30 percent, greatly reduce
the number of undergraduates in the school's
programs, and place a greater emphasis on the
school's doctoral program.
Several natural resources faculty mem-
in Review.r
bers-including the school's outgoing dean-
said the proposed cuts are too large and that a
20 percent cut is the most that would allow the
school to achieve quality. Other faculty mem-
bers criticized the entire review process and
suggested that the BPC knew all along how
much it wanted to cut from the school's budget.
Other faculty members were critical of the
committee's decision to de-emphasize doctoral
programs at the expense of master's
programs. The professors said that shift
showed great ignorance of the employment
needs of students.
Reaction from students in the school was
immediate and largely critical. "I'm not
satisfied at all with the results of the report,"
said Jeff Cox, a student who had helped
organize support for the school during the
U' v. state
I N THE LONG history of the divestment
controversy, the traditional standoff has
been between the University and the students.
The 1970s were a highpoint of student protest
against the University's policy of investing in
companies working in racially segregated
South Africa.
But for the 1980s, the new showdown may be
between the University and the state. The con-
flict hinges on legislation signed last month by
former Gov. Milliken-and sponsored by Rep.
Perry Bullard (D-Ann Arbor)-which requires
the University to withdraw all holdings in com-
panies connected to South Africa.
But, just as it ignored student pleas, the
University may decide to ignore the new law.
Administrators and Regents question the con-
stitutionality of the legislation, since the
Michigan constitution states that the Regents
have "control and direction of all expenditures
from the institution's funds."
Bullard, however, claims that the state can
enforce what it considers civil rights
legislation.
The University can either obey the law, take
the state to court, or do nothing until the 1984
compliance deadline and wait for the state to
make the first move.
Although the Regents are unsure what their
next move will be, one thing's for certain. The
University really doesn't seem to care much
what anyone else-be it a student or a state
senator-thinks about its divestment policies.
Blanchard's problem
O NLY NINE days into his first term as
governor, James Blanchard has a
problem-a $700 million problem. That's the
size of the state's budget deficit and it does not
bode well for Michigan or the University.
The $700 million shortfall means the state
Wasserman
4 4
Arroyo: Receives sentence
probably will have to slash some of its
programs and take more from taxpayers in or-
der to balance its budget as required by state
law. If past actions are any indication, the state
will undoubtedly use funds set aside for state
universities and colleges to mop up a
significant portion of the state's red ink-funds
this university says it can't afford to give up.
"We're already trying to absorb enormous
decreases as it is," runs the lament of the
University's top liaison with the state Richard
Kennedy. "We're hard pressed to figure where
we can cut this place anymore."
Kennedy and friends had . better start
figuring a little harder. Tax hike or no, state
House Speaker Gary Owen said the cuts in
state funded programs this year will be large-
significantly larger than last year's cut of $15
million to the University.
State budget officials said they hope the
governor will be able to come up with some
hard figures and proposals by the end of the
month. In the meantime, University officials
are planning for the worst and waiting to see
where the ax will fall.l
A final plea
JUST MORE THAN one year after the
Economics Building burned to the ground,
Arthur Arroyo last week was sentenced to five
to 10 years in prison for lighting the match.
His conviction effectively swept away the
last reminder of the Christmas Eve tragedy.
With Arroyo off to Jackson and out of the
headlines and with the grass growing thick and
green where the historic building used to stanc
on the Diag, there will be no hint to incoming
freshmen about the year-long drama.
Soon forgotten will be Arroyo's tearful
testimony during the trial, his sad accounts of
drifting from city to city during his early
adulthood looking for answers to why he just
didn't "fit in."
In the end, during his sentencing last Friday
in Ann Arbor's downtown Circuit Court, Judge
Henry Conlin listened to Arroyo make a firal
plea for sympathy. "I have serious personal
problems I have yet to overcome," the 31-year-
old former University employee told Conlin.."I
realize now that I am not capable of living
freely in society-please sentence me in a way
that can best enable me to do so."
Then Conlin read his sentence, two con-
secutive terms-one for the arson, the other for
earlier breaking into the building and stealing
a typewriter-with the promise of protection
from other prisoners.
The Week in Review was compiled by
Daily staff writers Julie Hinds, David4
Meyer, Kent Redding, and Charles Thom-
son.
Bullard: Ignored By 'U'?
review process. "I think all of my efforts have
fallen short-it hasn't paid off much."
Said another natural resources student:
"Nothing really surprised me . . . We're ob-
viously not going to sit back and say that's what
we expected, but we were really not sur-
prised."
The next round in the saga will come January
17, when the University's executive officers
will consider the BPC recommendations. Stay
tuned.
Edited and managed by students at The University of Michigan
Vol. XCIII, No. 81
420 Maynard St.
Ann Arbor, MI 48109
Editorials represent a majority opinion of the Daily's Editorial Board
Chesbrough's decision
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An,
HIM I
V.
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EVERY ONCE in a great while a
political issue is decided by the
vote or actions of just one politician.
Such is the case with the city's
marijuana law and Councilmember
Joyce Chesbrough.
For a while, of course, it had seemed
that Ann Arbor's liberal pot law, which
sets the fine for possession of
marijuana at $5, was relatively safe.
The efforts of an anti-marijuana
citizen's group had ended in apparent
failure; the group was able to get only
2,000 of the 5,200 signatures necessary
to place a proposal to change the law
on the city ballot.
But when the group changed its tac-
tics and decided to press the city coun-
cil to put the issue on the ballot, the
tables turned.
It would take seven of the council's
11 members to place a proposal on the
city ballot. With all four Democrats
firmly against the proposal, the anti-
marijuana group needs every one of
the seven Republicans to win.
This week, with the help of
Republican Chesbrough, the anti-
marijuana group might get just what it
needs.
Until a week ago, Chesbrough was
the only Republican on the council who
had not announced open support for
putting the proposal on the ballot. The
Fifth Ward Republican said that she
didn't feel strongly on the issue, but
that she was inclined toward suppor-
ting the existing law.
Unfortunately, Chesbrough has now
_ It
decided that instead of being an in-
dependent-minded councilmember
committed to the views for which she
was elected, she will be an obedient
Republican caucus-member and go
along with the mayor on this one.
Chesbrough has indicated that when
the issue comes up for a vote before
tomorrow night's council meeting, she
will vote to put the anti-marijuana
proposal on the ballot.
Chesbrough may have made her
decision to smooth things over for the
Republicans on the council, but here
reasoning is shortsighted. In the long
run, she is letting her party in for more
trouble than she knows.
Mayor Louis Belcher saw the poten-
tial danger last year when he backed
off the marijuana issue in the first
place. He recognized that a proposal to
end the city's lenient marijuana laws
could draw swarms of students to the
polls-swarms of students, that is, who
are inclined to vote Democratic. After
a brief flirtation with the anti-
marijuana faction, Belcher withdrew,
apparently content to leave the
marijuana laws-and the student
voting patterns-just as they are.
We certainly harbor no special fon-
dness for the Republicans on the coun-
cil or for the current level of student
voter apathy. We are fond, however, of
the state's most progressive drug laws,
and we urge Chesbrough to save her-
self a lot of trouble and change her
mind. Quickly.
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THE SENA- PRECOGNZES THE Th&TIO&UI.SD GENTLEMRO NRH ARTI
The bizarre abduction of
Illinois abortion clinic director
Hector Zevallos and his wife last
August shocked the nation when
it exposed the extreme methods
that some anti-abortion activists
are willing to use. But the kid-
napping was only the most
dramatic episode in a continuing
pattern of violence against abor-
tion clinics and personnel, ex-
ceeding in severity and frequen-
cy the first major outbreak in the
late 1970s.
Records from the Planned
Parenthood Federation (PPF),
which has 37 abortion clinic af-
filiates, and the National Abor-
tion Federation (NAF), which
represents 250 clinics nationally,
indicate the number of violent at-
tacks in the first eight months of
1982 roughly equalled the total
number of incidents which oc-
curred in the entire three years
ending in 1979. Included were
firebombings, bomb threats, ar-
son and vandalism. NAF director
Uta Landy says the figures un-
derestimate the problem, as
"some clinics simply don't report
these incidents because they are
taking them for granted."
FOLLOWING are examples of
violent actions against clinics
this vear.
An ti-abortion
crusade:
Frustra tio n
to violence
By Charles Pu/er
be related to feelings of betrayal
on the part of "extremists," who4
maintain that President Reagan
has not done enough to fulfill his
campaign promises about
restricting abortion.
LEGISLATIVE events regar-
ding abortion seem inextricably
linked to the current situation.
Pierce says, "I would directly at-
tribute these attacks to their (an-
ti-abortion interests) being th-
warted on legal and legislative
grounds." Landy agrees, noting
-that "it has to do with some level
of frustration the opposition feels
with being unable to outlaw abor-
tion." Majorities in Congress and
many state legislatures are
holding fast on the issue,
presumably fueled by polls con-
sistently showing most
Americans to be "pro-choice."
Another reason for the violent4
tactics may be that, to some ex-
tent, they get results. At least five
clinics have been temporarily
shut down due to arson or van-
dalism this year-including three
that were destroyed.
But the long-term effectiveness
of violence or coercion is
questionable. In Cincinnati ald
elsewhere, PPF clinic personnel
are trained regularly in
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car into the building.
" In August, at Planned Paren-
thood of San Joaquin County in
Stockton, Calif., vandals flooded
examination rooms, disconnec-
ted telephones and glued locks.
" The Cherry Hill Women's
Center in New Jersey was
destroyed by a firebomb in Oc-
tober.
The violence has come on top of
increasingly frequent picketing
at clinics and harassment of
clients and staff-called a "way
of life" by an employee of a van-
M a n n n PPF af
in Florida clinics and one in
Virginia.
ANOTHER group, Chicago-
based Pro-Live Action League
(PLAL), has organized many
demonstrations against abortion
clinics and hospitals. At times,
these have included vandalism
and a bomb threat, though
Joseph Scheidler, head of PLAL,
disavows such tactics. He does
endorse the use of criminal
trespass, however, which has in-
volved sit-ins and disruption of
clinic activities.
. :"
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