Ninety-Three Years
of
Editorial Freedom
I
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Etai1Q
Chipper
The sun stays out today, but the
temperature will remain in the
cool 40s.
WoI. XCIII, No. 129
Copyright 1983, The Michigan Daily
Ann Arbor, Michigan - Wednesday, March 16, 1983
Ten Cents
Ten Pages
Government
loan
changes
perplex 'U'
New Soviet
oil prices
undercut
OPEC rates
LONDON (UPI) - the Soviet Union undercut
OPRC's $29-a-barrel price for crude oil yesterday,
casting doubt on the cartel's attempt to stave off a
worldwide oil pricing war. Britain, whose reaction
will determine the market's shape, gave no hint that
it also would lower its price.
Industry sources said the Soviet Union, which is the
world's largest producer, selling about 1 million
barrels a day to Western Europe, was offering its
Urals crude at $27 a barrel from northern ports and
$28 from Mediterranean terminals retroactive to
March 1.
THE NEW prices showed a $1.25 cut on the
Mediterranean shipments and a $2.15 cut on the nor-
thern cargoes, the sources said.
On Monday, OPEC ended a marathon 12-day
meeting with agreement on a 15 percent cut inits $34
base price for Arabian light - the 13-member cartel's
first price cut in its 23-year history.
See SOVIET, Page 2
By BARBARA MISLE
About the only thing students can
count on when applying for a guaran-
teed student loan lately is inconsisten-
cy.
Since 1981, the federal government
has changed the guidelines and
eligibility requirements for the loan
program every eight months, which has
caused delays and confusion in
processing students' applications, said
Elaine Nowak, director of the program
at the University.
UNLIKE OTHER federal financial
aid programs, GSL requirements can
be changed at any time by
fCongressional vote. This gives the
federal government free reign to tinker
with the program, Nowak said, leaving
universities without much control.
Guaranteed Student Loans are the
primary source of financial aid for
students at the University, and nation-
wide.
0 In 1982, the program received $46.6
million, compared to $12.5 million
devoted to other federal grants at the
University.
BUT FEWER students are applying
for the loans now, something Nowak
blames on confusion over all the
changes.
In October 1981, Congress approved
tougher eligibility requirements for ap-
plicants. Now all students from
families with incomes over $30,000 have
to pass a "needs test." The needs test is
designed to allow loan officers to check
many different criteria such as the
number of children a family is suppor-
ting in college, family income, and the
cost of the school the student will at-
tend.
Thentestwissupposed to ensure that
students who received loans really
needed them, Nowak said. Instead, she
said, the test has discouraged students
from applying because they assume
they would not qualify for the loan.
Nationally, the number of students
applying for the loans decreased from
3.5 million to 2.8 million from 1981 to
1982. At the University, applications
decreased from 16,419 to 12,450 during
the same period.
The needs test is also "a big
headache" for financial aid officers,
Nowak said.
"When a caller asks why we don't
just sign the application, they don't un-
derstand the complexity of the
process," Nowak said.
There is no complete set ofyguidelines
to tell financial aid offices how to im-
plement the loan program. Despite the
massive number of modifications and
updates added to the program in recent
years, the Department of Education
has not released a complete set of
regulations since 1979.
In addition to stiffer eligibility
requirements, interest rates were
raised in January 1981 to 7 to 9 percent.
Also in 1981, the government raised the
total amount a student can borrow from
$7,500 to $12,500 for undergraduates and
from $15,000 to $25,000 for graduate
students.
This is not as good as it sounds,
though, because money borrowed as an
undergraduate accumulates and is sub-
tracted from the total amount a student
can borrow in graduate school.
Congress also has imposed a five per-
See CHANGES, Page 3
Daily Photo by JON SNOW
Tell mom I'm at the libraryy
Law students sporting war paint and grass skirts perform in the Law Library as part of their induction
into the Barristers' club, a social organization.
Legal Services
By LAURIE DELATER
Detroit attorney Margaret Nichols
assumed directorship of Student Legal
Services Monday, ending a year-long
search for a new adminstrator to lead a
controversial reorganization of the
program.
The Legal Services Board of Directors
last April decided the program was not
running efficiently and that a new
director was needed to handle the ad-
ministrative work burdening the ex-
panding program, according to board
member David Chambers.
SPEAKING FOR the board, Cham-
bers said the former director, Jonathan
Rose, could better serve students' in-
terests as director of Housing Law
Reform, a separate unit within the
program. Chambers said Rose has not
received a pay cut.
Nichols, previously a staff attorney
for the Legal Aid Office of Detroit; said
she does not intend to change the objec-
tives of the service.
Instead she said she hopes to
establish procedures such as sick pay,
work distribution, grievance resolution,
job descriptions, and bookkeeping, to
improve the day-to-day operations.
"THE BOARD of directors was prin-
cipally looking for someone to handle
administrative detail that hadn't been
there" when the service was small,
Nichols said.
Student Legal Services provides free
legal counseling and representation
for all University students. The
program is also involved in housing law
reform.
In April 1978, the working budget of
legal services grew from $28,000 to
$120,000 after the University stopped
funding it and the student body voted to
allot the program $1.72 of their man-
datory $2.92 Michigan Student Assem-
gets ne
bly free. This year Legal Services has a
budget of $215,000.
When the board of directors began
reviewing the service in the fall of 1981,
they recognized that the growing
program was not running as efficiently
as it should have been, Chambers said.
AFTER FIVE months of review, the
board decided that Rose lacked ap-
propriate administrative skills and that
tension between him and the staff
warranted a reorganization of the of-
fice, Chambers said.
While he agrees that he doesn't have
adequate administrative skills, Rose
said the board used administrative
details as an excuse to resolve ongoing
salary disputes between himself and
staff attorneys.
As director Rose was responsible for
setting salaries and determining pay
raises. According to Rose and the
See LEGAL, Page 2
w boss
Nichols
. . plans to improve operations
Committee may ask for
state study of higher ed.
By GLEN YOUNG
A key Michigan House committee
may ask Gov. James Blanchard to
commission a study of the state's
higher education system to determine
what hurdles schools will have to over-
come in the 1980s and beyond.
The House Colleges and Universities
Committee, chaired by Rep. Wilfred
Webb (D-Hazel Park), had originally
scheduled discussin of the idea for last
week, but tabled the talks until today.
GARY HAWKS, director of
Michigan's Department of Education,
said a number of changing situations
would probably be included in such a
study. He said schools throughout the
state are contending with declining
enrollment, increasing education costs,
and shrinking budgets.
Hawks said it has been suggested that
the state close some schools or colleges
to help cut education costs but he said
the idea cannot be considered until
more data is available.
"How can you suggest schools be
closed before a study of the school is
done?" he asked.
THE COMMITTEE has yet to deter-
mine what specific directions and goals
would be included in the study. Hawks
said the general intent would be to
clarify what is presently available as
part of the state's education system.
"We have to make sure they (colleges
and universities) don't all drop the
same programs and leave Michigan
without certain programs altogether,"
he said.
Hawks said the study would probably
also look at the current situation in the
state's primary and secondary
educational systems to determine what
role they play in preparing students for
higher education.
DEDE MILLER-OWEN, an ad-
ministrative aide to Rep. Webb, said
See STATE, Page 5
Daily Photo by JON SNOW
Union organizer Joanna Williams (far right) and Heather Seixas, an office assistant in the Institute for Social Research
hand out carnations in the Union lobby yesterday to celebrate AFSCME's drive for a union election.
Union vote nears for 'U'staff
Shapiro testifies on tax increase
By JIM SPARKS
The University's 3,300 clerical
worker's should soon get a chance to
decide if they want to unionize.
Representatives from the American
Federation of State, County and
Municipal Employees (AFSCME) say
they have signatures from well over
30 percent of the clerical workers, the
percentage needed to authorize a
union election.
Reggie McGhee, AFSCME's public
affairs associate, said the union plans
to file with the Michigan Employment
Relations Commission today or
tomorrow and he expects an election
will be held by the end of April. The
commission must validate the cards
and then conduct the election.
While clerical workers have not yet
formed a bargaining team, Heather
Seixas, office assistant in the Institute
for Social Research, said informal
polls of various departments reveal
the top three concerns of the workers
are job security, increased benefits
and firm knowledge about whether or
not there will be a pay increase.
In January, clerical workers
received an average 5.5 percent pay
increase after the University ad-
ministration had originally said it
could not afford one.
the size of the increase and the fact
that it was not made retroactive has
angered many clerical workers, but
James Brinkerhoff, University's chief
financial officer and vice-president
said even with a union, "I think it's
going to be slim pickings."
LANSING (UPI)-Without a fast and
permanent financial shot in the arm,
the state's colleges and universities will
be in no shape to contribute to an
economic revival, University President
Harold Shapiro said yesterday.
Shapiro, also a nationally reknowned
economist, told the Senate Finance
Committee, "Michigan can expect to
fully participate" in what appears to be
an economic recovery beginning on the
national level.
SHAPIRO was one of nearly a
dozen education officials urging the
committee to quickly approve the
House-passed income tax increase now
before it.
Sen. Gary Corbin (D-Clio ) said a
vote by his committee on the tax
proposal pushed by Gov. James Blan-
chard might come anytime between
today and early next week. Corbin said
he wants some type of consensus in the
Senate Democratic caucus before
calling for a vote.
He noted little more than two weeks
remains until Blanchard's April 1
deadline for passing the tax plan, which
now calls for boosting the 4.6 percent
state income tax to a 6.35 percent
tax-with a graauai aecine a tat-
unemployment drops.
LOSS OF state money for tuition
grants are keeping low-income students
out of costly public schools like U
and private institutions like the Univer-
sity of Detroit, Shapiro said.
Shapiro said he believes Michigan's
current budget deficit is about $800
million, about halfway between the $900
million Blanchard estimates and the
$650 million some legislative financial
experts calculate.
_,
TODAY
Comic relief
ATTORNEYS FOR the comic strip "Peanuts" and
the University of Wisconsin Board of Regents
have reached an out of court settlement in a dis-
pute over an advertisement in a student
action." One of the ads in The Pointer urged students to
contact the health service for contraceptive information
and counseling. "From its inception, the 'Peanuts' strip has
been geared to wholesome, family entertainment and in-
nocent humor, and it has never contained any lewd,
lascivious, or obscene matter or dialogue," the syndicate
contended in its suit.
Jerry, he needs your help
TrRUSTEES OF THE University of LaVerne have voted
naie ac:-- chnr:a:- nhaA M N m-n W r1A :fn.
by Nixon's "farsighted foreign policies." It was to be finan-
ced by $12 million in private contributions and public grants
not yet raised. School officials had also hoped the institute
might help the university out of financial troubles that have
prompted trustees to consider selling campus dormitories
to raise "desperately needed" cash from investors seeking
tax shelters. A poll of 276 students by the school's Campus
Times newspaper last week showed 62 percent in favor of
the institute and only 16 percent opposed. Also endorsing
the proposal were the private liberal arts school's faculty
hv a 53-45 vote and the Alumni Relations Board by a 5-4
* 1933 - Residents of Betsy Barbour dorm voted 51-47 to
allow smoking in the rooms. Betsy Barbour was the last of
the four dorms to allow smoking.
-1961- The Inter-Quad Council decided to study criticisms
of complaints of dorm residents about dorm conditions.
* 1967 - The Fraternity Buyers Association admitted un-
fairness and inefficiency in purchasing supplies for frater-
nity residents.
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