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OPINION
Page 4
Sunday, March 20, 1983
The Michigan Daily
Mayor,
IT HAS ALL the makings of a major scandal,,
and once again it was uncovered by an ac-
cident. The script even has a cast of colorful
characters. But this time the leading man isn't
King Richard and his cabinet, it's King Louis
and the City Council.
Ann Arbor's scandal may not be as far
reaching as Watergate, but already city of-
ficials have begun to call the mayor's Ann Ar-
bor Airport fiasco, "Belchergate."
King Louis began to hold secret meetings
with the director of the Michigan Aeronautics
Commision in Oitober to obtain a grant to pay
for the expansion of the Ann Arbor Airport.
The only problem with this was that City
Council had voted down the proposal three
Council battle in 'Belchergate'
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times. Council members cited Detroit Metro
Airport, which is ony 28 miles away as a major
reasonfor the rejection. But in January the
Council had a change of heart and asked for
more information.
King Louis took this as a mandate to apply
for a federal grant to expand. It was not until
the bill reached the House Appropriations
Committee that Ann Arbor legislators found
out and stopped the bill.
When the legislators leaked news of the scam
to the press, King Louis found himself trading
barbs with state legislators and angry council
members.
King Richard chose to resign in the midst of
his scandal, but King Louis has chosen to
weather the storm - at least until the April
elections.
Cuts without reasons
W HEN THE BUDGET Priorities Commit-
, tee talks, people listen. When people talk,
the committee doesn't.
Take last week's open hearing on the
proposed 25 percent cut for the School of Art.
The chairwoman of the Budget Priorities
Committee, Prof. Mary Ann Swain,
enlightened the 500 people in attendance with a
dramatic reading of her committee's report on
the art school. It was her group that proposed a
25 percent cut for the school, despite a recom-
mendation from a subcommittee that reviewed
the school for nine months that no more than 15
percent of the budget should be trimmed.
The people in the school, from the dean down
to the lowliest freshperson, are crying for a
reason for the budget committee's recommen-
dation. The committee's report gives no better
reason than that the austere group knows what
the University really needs. Great, a lot of help
that is.
Meanwhile, the budget committee has
named Swain the sole spokesperson for the
group. Try to get some justification for the.
group's actions out of one of its members, and
all you'll get is, "Call Mary Ann Swain." So
what do you get from Swain? A mimic of the
report.
Later in the week, a group of faculty member
- who are notably upset with the review
process - gathered to air their disillusion-
ment. Chemistry Department Chairman
Thomas Dunn, who was chairman of the
Budget Priorities Committee when it was for-
med 12 years ago, said the budget committee of
today is little more than "a tool of the ad-
ministration."
Not a great surprise, considering that the
central administration's chief budget officer,
Billy Frye, sits on the committee along with a
few of his staff members. Of course Frye ser-
ves in an ex-officio (non-voting) role, but you'd
better bet that when certain people talk, the
Budget Priorities Committee listens.
Affirmative inaction
W OMEN MAY HAVE come a long way
baby, but not far enough. They have
worked their way out of the kitchen and into the
job market, but the University isn't buying.
A report presented to the Regents this week
revealed there was a serious shortage of both
women and minorities on the University's
faculty and administration.
The author of the report, Affirmative Action
Director Virginia Nordby, pointed out that
although the number of minority clerical level
workers stayed the same, there are no women in
top-level positions at the University.
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'U' Affirmitave Action: No power
There are no women vice presidents, only
one female dean (in the Nursing School), and
oply one female department chairperson, (in
the medical school.) The departments of
statistics and mechanical engineering took the
lead with no women faculty in either field.
It might be progress from the days when
women couldn't walk in the front door of the
Union, but the Regents were not pleased with
the report.
Since 1979, the University has lost 69 faculty
members due to attrition and 25 were women.
The outlook for the future isn't much better.
With departments walking the gangplank in
President Shapiro's budget cuts, it is likely the
numbers of women and minorities on staff will
continue to decrease.
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Anti-trusted athletes
I N THE WAKE of Herschel Walker's signing
with the United States Football League,
college football coaches, Michigan's Bo
Schembechler included, are jealously guarding
their underclassmen standouts. In their in-
security, they have gone as far as to enlist the
support of the U.S. Senate.
College football is so important that the
Senate should grant it a limited anti-trust
exemption which would allow professional
sports leagues to forbid college athletes from
dropping out of school in order to turn pro,
Shembechler told the Senate Judiciary Com-
mittee last week.
Adoption of such a rule could force college
athletes to pay their dues to their respective
colleges, before moving on to the big bucks of
the pros.
University Athletic Director Don Canham
said such a rule would be fine with him. He ad-
mitted that the main issue is not whether or not
the athlete was allowed to complete his
education, but whether he could complete his
college athletic eligibility.
While Canham says he's concerned about
keeping a tight reign on his marketable com-
modities, ie., student athletes, senators in
Washington claim their interest is much purer:
the athlete's education. Apparently no one has
told the avid college alums in Washington, that
even under the old restricted system that
Walker shattered, only 30 percent of
professional football players. in the United
States had earned their degrees.
The Week in Review was - compiled by
Daily staff writers Halle Czechowski, Bar
bara Misle, Kent Redding, and Barry Witt.
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Cl e fuItdjigan 4ai1j
Edited and managed by students at The University of Michigan
Vol. XCIII, No. 133
420 Maynard St.
Ann Arbor, MI 48109
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Editorials represent a majority opinion of the Daily's Editorial Board
Stricter guidelines needed
for 'U' research projects
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T HE BATTLE over non-classified
research guidelines enters its
most critical and possibly its final
stage tomorrow when the Senate
Assembly considers the ill-advised
suggestions of the Research Policies
Committee. If the assembly accepts
the committee's recommendations, it
would be a step away from
establishing responsible research
guidelines.
In September, the committee began
to examine ways of extending the
University's classified research policy
to non-classified research and to
establish a mechanism for enforcing
those guidelines. What the RPC came
"up with-restrictions on non-classified
research only if it has the "primary"
function of destroying human life and
allowing individual departments to
police themselves-is unacceptable.
These suggested guidelines water
down the classified research
guidelines which outlaw projects that
have the "foreseeable" application of
killing people. The proposal also would
draw a distinction between two types
of research where a distinction should
not be made. Proponents of the new
guidelines say they are protecting the
academic freedom of the researcher.
Certainly, such freedom is crucial to
the intellectual health of the Univer-
sity. But if passed, the committee's
suggestions would sacrifice some of
the academic integrity stricter
guidelines would preserve.
Implementing stricter guidelines for
non-classified research would be tan-
tamount to saying the University will
not be party research that destroys in-
stead of enriches human experience. A
university is supposed to be an in-
stitution of higher learning- of adva-
ncement. The RPC guidelines would
allow some research contrary to that
principle.
The second half of the committee's
suggestions-setting up individual
departmental oversight commit-
tees-also is a blunder. Under this plan
there would be no way to establish a
consistant set of criteria for deciding
when a research project violates the
guidelines. Various departments
might be encouraged not to question
any projects at all, no matter how ob-
vious a project violation might be.
Nor would the function of a central
oversight committee be to restrict
academic freedom through various
"witch hunts." Such a committee
would be set up only to ensure that
professors adhere to the assembly's
own research guidelines-whatever
those guidelines are. Academic
freedom is not restrained by asking
questions about a research project.
The question that the Senate Assem-
bly must answer tomorrow is will the
University make it easier for its
researchers to become party to any
destruction of human life-contrary to
a basic principle of a university? By
voting down the Research Policies
Committee recommendations, assem-
bly members can answer a resounding
6 no.,,
AND DENE ALL
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LETTERS TO THE DAILY:
An incentive for energy conservation
To the Daily:
After having lived in rented
housing in the Ann Arbor area for
a number of years, it will be a
pleasure to vote for Proposal A
("Energy Saving in Rental
Housing Law") in the coming
election.
As a citizen who is concerned
about the conservation of our
natural resources - and as a
consumer who is concerned about
my bank account - it has been
very frustrating to watch my
heating bills soar ever higher
each year. However, due to the
peculiar characteristics of the
rental housing market, there is
little incentive for any invest-
ment in energy conservation in
this area. The tenants who use
the energy are reluctant to invest
in something they do not own and
the owners see no need to invest,
as higher energy costs can be
easily passed on to the tenant.
Definitely, this is a no-win
situation resulting in an unpar-
donable waste of energy.
Proposal A - which would
require minimal levels of
weatherization such as calking ,
storm windows, attic insulation,
etc. - could go a long way toward
rectifying this market imperfec-
tion and thus, in the long run,
save us all a lot of energy and
money.
- Michael Kass
March 17
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Art is never outdated
Adopt new guidelines
To the Daily:
It would indeed amount to an
erroneous decision to curtail the
University's School of Art to any
substantial degree as has been
suggested. Let us never forget
that no matter how significant a
society's technical achievemen-
ts, they will become common
good and knowledge for the world
as has the wheel or nuclear
technology.
Unique, however, is a
civilization's art because it never
becomes outdated; in fact, it
becomes more relevant with age
and its inhabitants. Who would
today reject Netherland's, Fran-
ce's or Spain's paintings; Italy's,
Ireland's and Greece's sculp-
tures; or Russia's and Ger-
many's music?
Nineteenth century American
art is a wealth of achievement
and must be continued by such
young artists as are represented
in the University School of Art
with all their talent and in-
novative ideas and foremost,
their enthusiasm. Culture should
never take a backseat out of ex-
pediency in favor of more
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To the Daily:
At the March 16 meeting of
the Engineering Council, the
student government of the
College of Engineering passed a
resolution in support of the
Research Policy Committee's
porting much stricter controls on
nonclassified research and those
opposed to any regulation at all.
*Faculty reviewing research
proposals will have the technical
expertise necessary to assess its
implications.
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