4
OPINION
Page 4
The Fights: Art
Sunday, March 6, 1983
The Michigan Daily
school and others
r- HE CRUCIBLE continues and it is the
School of Art now under the fiscal flame.
Last Thursday art students and faculty filled
Chrysler Auditorium on North Campus to plan
a reaction to the Budget Priorities Committee
recommendation to cut the school's budget by
25 percent.
School of Art Dean George Bayliss outlined a
campaign that he said would be "feisty," but
not "violent, foolish, or unproductive." The
campaign will include student paint-ins on the
Diag, sending a message on paper ground from
The Week
in Review
one -inch squares of donated clothing to Univer-
sity administrators, circulating petitions, and
writing letters and sending telegrams to
University officials, alumni, art gallery owners
and others associated with the fine arts.
Besides the over-all 25 percent budget reduc-
tion, the budget committee recommended.a 40
percent cut in faculty, reducing undergraduate
enrollment from 570 students to 300, expanding
non-art student classes, and working on the
enhancement of distinguished faculty.
Bayliss said he believed the committee has
tried to be fair in their evaluation of the
school, but admitted his fear that the recom-
mendations are "short-sighted" and will be
"unproductive and damaging" to the school in
the long run.
!-../ C/
1
like a solid hook just may put the consumer
organization on the floor.
PIRGIM, properly known as the Public In-
terest Research Group in Michigan, will ask
University authorities later this month for a
new fundraising system that will make it a lot
easier to squeeze a few bucks each term out of
cheapo students. PIRGIM thinks students
should fork over $12 each term automatically,
while those narrow-minded individuals who
choose not to give to this important cause could
ask for a refund.
But a group of students - many of whom are
wallpapering their South Quad dorm rooms
with The Michigan Review - has squared off
against the campus bleeding hearts and
threatens to drive PIRGIM straight from the
superior position it holds today.
The opposition believes PIRGIM shouldn't be
allowed to use the University's registration
system in any way for fundraising - as it
presently does.
Last month, the right collected 7000
signatures to support its position, while the left
could do no better than 5200.
Meanwhile, the National College Republican
Organization has decided to attack public in-
terest research groups throughout the country,
with a tactic similar to the one used in Ann Ar-
bor. The local group claims no affiliation with
the national cause, though PIRGIM leaders
suspect one exists.
What's to be done? The Regents will have to
decided if 7000 names are enough for a
knockout, or if 5200 names mandate the
heavyweight crown.
The likely result will be a draw. But no doubt
there will be calls for a rematch.
I Wasserman
Profits vs. Divestment
D IVESTMENT PROPONENTS better
think twice if they think the University's
plan to ask the Regents to authorize the sale of
stocks in four companies is a step toward com-
plete divestment. The University is selling
stock because the companies aren't showing
progress toward social reform in apartheid
South Africa, according to University invest-
ment officer Norman Herbert. And such a
move wouldn't prevent the University from in-
vesting in other companies operating there.
It would be only the second time since the
Regents endorsed the controversial Sullivan
Principles that the University has divested
from a company in South Africa. The principles
are a set of anti-apartheid guidelines aimed at
social, political, and economic reform for em-
ployees of firms operating in South Africa.
The University has been unable to obtain
detailed reports from Carnation Co., Dunn and
Bradstreet Corp., Dart and Kraft, Inc., and
Trane Co. despite Herbert's attempts to get
such information. In several letters to some of
the companies Herbert warned that if they
didn't comply with University requests, the
University would be forced to divest.
The University's new intentions come on the
heels of increasing pressure from students,
faculty, and state lawmakers urging divest-
ment. The height of this renewed movement
came late last month when the Senate Assem-
bly voted to ask the University to divest - the
first time the faculty has taken.action on the
issue as a group.
But advocates of divestment cannot claim
much of a victory, at least not until the Univer-
sity moves away from using the Sullivan Prin-
$5 fines vs. Apathy
4
A NN ARBOR'S unique $5 fine for those
caught with those funny Colombian
cigarettes v'ill be a thing of the past if city
voters repeal it in next month's election, but a
meeting this week aimed at saving the law
drew a surprisingly low turnout.
The Committee Against Recriminalization
held a mass meeting in the Union's large Pen-
dletom Room, but the 10 people who showed q'
barely filled the front row seats. Nevertheless,
conmittee coordinator Scott Prosterman said
he thinks there will be enough people between
his group, the group supporting weatherization
of rental units, and the omnipresent
Progressive Student Network to wage an effec-
tive campaign, but he conceded ,that most
students won't get involved unless the law is
repealed and enforcement becomes mote
strict.
The committee hoped to muster support
through a voter registration drive, but it's tQo
late for that since tomorrow is the last day to
register and be eligible to vote on April 4. -
The group will raise funds by peddling "$5.is
FINE with me" buttons, and they hope to she
lots of the buttons at the annual April 1 HaSh
Bash.' Prosterman said, however, that toe
smokers' ritual will probably be a boost for the
folks trying to repeal the law.
It looks like the price of getting high will be
getting higher.
Week in Review was compiled by Daily
staff writers Neil Chase, David Spak, Jon
Stewart, and Barry Witt.
ciples as its guidelines and toward more per-
manent and complete measures for getting out
of South Africa.
The next big test for the school will be at a
public hearing on the recommendations March
14. In the meantime, art students and faculty
will be organizing and planning to convince
University administrators to reconsider the
budget committee recommendations.
PIRGIM vs. The Right
THE FINAL round of PIRGIM's bout with
the local Reagan youth is near, andit looks
01iE ib:M tdt,&an ill atg
Edited and managed by students at The University of Michigan
Vol. XCIII, No. 121
420 Maynard St.
Ann Arbor, MI 48109
Editorials represent a majority opinion of the Daily's Editorial Board
Governors
T HIS PAST WEEK, another group
has come before the president to
complain of excessive defense spen-
ding and paltry aid to the nation's poor.
But this time the group's interest was
neither small nor insignificant; the
nation's governors represent the same
people as the president and their bipar-
tisan statement should not be ignored.
The collective wisdom of the nation's
governors told the president that
unless the budget deficit (to which high
defense spending is a major con-
tributor) is reduced, it will eventually
choke off the economic recovery. In a
characteristic reaction, Reagan said
he resented the "unfair" criticism and
would stick to his guns over butter
policy.
But the president forgets that both
Republican and Democratic governors
have their own deficits to worry about.
Combined state revenues are off by
nearly $8 billion. Whether you live in
Michigan, California, or Pennsylvania,
your state is in the midst of a budget
crisis with many governors pointing to
federal spending and economic
policies as the chief problem and right-
fully so.
More than a year ago, Reagan an-
nounced his "New Federalism"
fight back
proposal with great fanfare. Though
much of the program never received
more than a congressional hearing or
two, the central idea of shifting federal
responsibilities to the states has
brutally hit state and local governmen-
ts, as the companion principle of
federal compensation for such a move
was lost.
A $7 billion decline in federal grants
to state and local governments com-
bined with the recession and drastic
cuts in social spending have forced
local leaders to budgetary scissors,
leaving millions of unemployed and
working poor without vital federal and
local support.
States are not making up for federal
cuts and poor economic policy made at
the White House. Even though tens of
states are planning to increase their
own taxes, most of this will only make
up for lost tax revenues due to the
recession.
Thus, Republican and Democratic
governors alike have big complaints
about Reagan administration policy.
And in spite of the projected recovery,
the federal aid cutbacks and lingering
recession governors must cope with
now have blotted out the rosy picture of
the future painted by the ad-
ministration.
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Beating Chicago 's Machine
4
YES,
WITH
OUR PAWNS ARE DISSATISFIED
ECONOMIC CO9PMOrmOS OF LATE...
ANDYOURS ?
By Lynn Orr
CHICAGO-Has the era of in-
side connections finally run out?
That's the question echoing out
of Illinois in the wake of Harold
Washington's Democratic
mayoral primary victory. For
here, in the very capital of "in-
siders' politics," an outsider has
nosed out not one but two
favorites of Chicago's most
powerful organized blocs.
The "I Love Being Black" but-
tons worn by Washington's many
supporters-black, white and
Hispanic-tell just one part of the
story. The registration drive that
added more than 130,000 voters to
the rolls-ensuring that 40 per-
cent of this city's registered
voters were black-and the
political fever that generated an
unofficial 80 percent turnout in
this election, tell another part.
The voters' acceptance of the 60-
year-old, two-term
congressman's progressive
reform platform should send a
strong message to urban political
candidates elsewhere.
WASHINGTON pledged to
raise taxes, to improve city
race, a barrage of TV ads by both
his opponents, and typical
Chicago "dirty tricks" which
prompted the presence of some
400 federal election monitors at
the polls and an immediate im-
pounding of the ballots.
Pre-election charges of racial
smears and unfair practices in-
cluded allegations that Mayor
Jane Byrne's campaign workers
were passing out federal gover-
nment butter and cheese to
prospective supporters. Media
reports said that Cook County's
Democratic Party chairman told
precinct captains that the elec-
tion was "a racial thing" and
urged them to "save your city"
by helping Byrne win.
WASHINGTON said it was a
working people's coalition of
blacks, whites, and Hispanics
that gave him this victory.
Washington's record as an in-
dependent helped him garner
support. The Independent Voter
of Illinois-Independent Precinct
Organization gave Washington
its endorsement with nearly
unanimous support based on his
16-year record in the state
legislature and his congressinal
record in the state legislature and
Washington.
She found the National
Organization for Women's endor-
sement for Byrne embarrassing.
"The real story is that it's a new
independent movement in the
city. A big part of it is from the
black community, but it's being
supported by a lot of whites.
There's alliances that have been
forged in this campaign that will
continue."
Political analyst Don Rose
qualified her assessment,
saying, "It's scarcely a coalition.
It's a left fringe of whites and
Latinos." He sees no "white in-
dependent groupings en masse."
Rather it is whites from smaller,
sometimes single-issue
movements such as tenants'
rights and consumer groups, as
well as activists from the nuclear
freeze movement who stumped
for Washington on an individual
basis and brought in the
necessary 10 percent white vote.
WASHINGTON'S conviction
for failing to file his income tax in
the mid-'70s probably alienated
some of the traditional white
liberal vote, said Michael
Preston, associate professor of
political science at the University
grass-roots movement aided,
rather than led, by established
organizations such as Operation
PUSH and the Urban League,
said Robert Starks, associate
professor at Northeastern Illinois
University's Center for Inner
City Studies. The voter
registration drive began last
summer, evolving out of a litany
of complaints against Mayor
Byrne, who won 63 percent of the
black vote in her 1979 upset vic-
tory.
Minority gripes included last
spring's appointments to the
Chicago Board of Education,
which resulted in a white-
majority board setting policy for
a 60 percent-plus black student
population, and Byrne's attempts
to unseat her own black alder-
man appointee, Allan Streeter,
who began voting as an indepen-
dent. Black protest culminated in
a boycott of last year's Chicago
Fest, after Byrne appointed two
white women to the Chicago
Housing Authority Board,
creating another white-majority
board governing an 85 percent
black residential community.
Washington is expected to win
easily in the mayoral election in