40 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' 4 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. i M a 4 S '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. i 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. 6 I 0 Wasserman 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 " t '- i .... Vv TWe 00T AxtL MTOON OF CANCR AND ..0 _ C A\BOUT EATING ?OLLUTD DFIN n Editorials represent a majority opinion of the Daily's Editorial Board Stricter guidelines needed for 'U' research projects I t?!! e " f .' DK a ~~ r.-- 5- a-' 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 RrrFeRCE; To 1DO'N CWCAL p WEU... 1WS ON MOR i 3 I C; D- I SURE 1.00 i a x'I A 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 0 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 6 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. r