rtw ,..,. ~KS. 'i '.utas :. k ..,:.;:,. ..«",, w, ..e,,w. "":w. ..,;:..;w.usi h;.c. . ,.. ... . , °7t.:d. :: ,R3Y." .sue.-.".-r-..... ... Dummies ,.0 particpate in impact research By SUSAN BARTO While the University certainly can be proud of its alumni, churning out dum- mies seems a more lucrative business lately.' The University Transportation 'Research Institute recently garnered a ($550,000 federal contract to develop 'automobile crash test dummies to be used in future impact studies. CRASH-TEST dummies, technically 'known as anthropomorphic test devices 'tATDs) are human-like dolls resear- chers use to measure the effects on humans of impact in car crashes. Researchers use various restrain systems - harnesses, padded vests, cushioned dashboards and others - and study the results when the car con- taining the dummy hits a barrier at specific speeds. The dummies are built to be "repeatable, reproduceable, and able to be calibrated, said project director John Melvin. "They should do the same thing under the same conditions every time." FOR THE past ten years, car safety has been tested using a "Part 572 Dummy," named affectionately after its own reference in the United States Code of Federal Registration. Though well liked, Part 572 has been eclipsed by technology. "He has a chest that doesn't deform, and a neck that doesn't move," Melvin said of Part 572. "Researchers need a dummy with 'biofidelity,' a term coined to represent biomechanical respon- siveness." To meet the new research demands, Melvin will adorn the new dummy - called AATD for (you guessed it) Ad- vanced Anthropomorphic Test Device - with flexible joints, especially in the neck, and will have more human-like responses. MELVIN SAID particular attention will be paid to making the bones the correct weight in proportion to the heavier, softer tissues of the body. To study lacerations-of the face, the dummy will have a head of animal skin or vinyl. The Michigan Daily - Friday, October 7, 1983--Page 5 National drinking age proposed WASHINGTON (UPI) - Transpor- tation Secretary Elizabeth Dole said yesterday she favors raising the legal drinking age to 21 as part of a coor- dinated effort to reduce drunken driving and increase highway safety. In a speech to the American Automobile Association, Dole called for "The beginning of a new and massive crusade" to reduce traffic deaths. "Make no mistake about it, Americans today have declared war on the drunk driver," she said. "It's a war we don't intend to fight with rubber bullets or mere words of outrage." Dole said alcohol-related auto ac- cidents are the leading cause of deaths among young people. Blanchard stresses team effort (Continued from Page 1) "Today, I am calling on all of the people of Michigan to rally to the cause of Michigan's future - to help us move Michigan ahead - to build and to rebuild a competitive Michigan - to work together for a future of jobs for people, growth for our businesses and security for all our citizens." Blanchard said he will announce this month "a proposal for our welfare system that can turn welfare spending into workfare investment." Regulatory changes were promised, including securities reforms to make it easier to raise private capital, help for franchisors interested in coming to Michigan and efforts to streamline worker's compensation. Correction A story in yesterday's Daily erroneously stated that two University Security officers were allegedly assaulted last Wednesday. The incident actually occurred on Tuesday. "I wholeheartedly support your effor- ts to raise the minimum legal drinking age in all states to 21," she said. The secretary did not comment specifically on proposals before Congress to set a national drinking age of 21, an idea opposed by some on state's rights grounds.' Nineteen states have set 21 as the minimum legal age for drinking any alcohol, including spirits, wine and beer. In all, 26 states prohibit selling hard liquor to those under 21. There are proposals in several states to raise present age limits. Dole also said she wants to make organizational changes at the Tran- sportation Department to promote safety and to coordinate with state and private efforts. "I plan to establish a separate National Traffic Safety Ad- ministration," she said. "This is nota -mere shuffling of the boxes on some federal organization charts. We are, in fact, elevating safety to a level con- sistent with its importance while sim-. plifying the organizational structure." Any such proposal would have to be ap- proved by Congress. "Our goal is to improve the effec- tiveness of the safety mission by in- tegrating closely safety activities," Dole said. "Such consolidation will also make it easier for non-federal organizations, such as your own, to deal with the department on issues that are literally of life and death importance." Mom= Daily rnovo Dy Jt-E HRIER : John Melvin, project director of the Universities Transportation Research Institute, displays one of the dummies used in impact testing. Melvin said the institute has only decided what the outside of the dummy will look like. It must still, in conjun- ction with the subcontractor Wayne State University, assemble the specifications of how it should behave, design the body to give it human-like responses, and determine how to produce it economically and repeatably. IT WILL THEN be sent to the plant for mass-production. The entire project will take about five years, Melvin said. He said the dummy can cost anywhere from $20,000 for General Motors' "Hybrid #3" which is used only for private testing to $8,000 for the basic Part 572. To keep the price of the AATD down, manufacturers will offer baseline dummies and dummies with all the op- tions. One such option will be a com- puter which gives the dummy the ability to record data inside itself (that's no dummy). BUT THE basic doll is described as a 50th-percentile adult male. This means it is structured to resemble an average male human. It weighs approximatley 160 pounds and is five feet nine inches tall. Even though there is a historical tradition of male-based data for con- structing dummies, there are female and child dummies available, Melvin said. Dummies range from "5th percentile small female to the 95th percentile large male." THOUGH cosmetics are a low priority, the dummies do have a right to some vanity. When they appear in educational films, for example, they get to wear nice clothes and wigs. For testing they just wear long underwear so they will slide on the seat as a person in street clothes would. East Lansing SPECIAL After the Game Relax and Enjoy "The Ultimate HOT TUB Adventure" at CLEARWATER SPA Open 'til3 AM Sat. This Ad Will Save Wolverines $2.00 Phone Corner Grove & Linden 517-332-6318 (near Dooley's) . I Students ignorant of 'U' bud (Continued from Page 1) added that the University should "absol- utely" communicate with students directly, not through the media. Communicating to students directly "shouldn't be part of any specific plan, but it should be coordinated into their operating budget," said Kolb. ACCORDING to administrators, however, communication through local publications such as the Daily, The University Record, The Ann Arbor News and even Detroit media has been sufficient and even excessive. Direct mailings would not be worth the costs and would also be "unnessary and apt to be ineffective," said Billy Frye, the SUniversity's vice president for academic affairs and provost. h When told that few students were aware of what is happening, Frye responded, "Pardon me while I go into hysteria," noting the great attention given to the subject in the local press. The opportunities for students to learn about the reviews were "enormous," but students have to take the initiative to be informed, he said. "IT'S ABSOLUTELY incredible, not ,so much that students wouldn't know (about the five-year plan), but that they Swould imply that it is the University's ;responsibility to inform them," Frye F> said. In the past year, Frye has spoken at three forums on the budget cuts spon- sored by, faculty and students at which student attendance was sparse. It isn't clear whether students are Ignorant of the five-year plan because they are apathetic or because the Un- iversity has failed to inform them, said LSA junior Piers Lewis. "I DON'T KNOW which is a bigger factor or if one is caused by the other. I don't know which is the root, but (ignorance) has definitely set in," said Lewis, a member of the activist Progressive Student Network. Since February 1982, when the five- year plan was introduced, the ad- ministration has reallocated about $9.5 million of the University's $300 million general fund budget. Three schools are undergoing exten- sive reductions: * The School of Education is losing 40 percent of its budget, including 30 faculty members; " The School of Natural Resources will lose 25 percent and nine professors and; 'The School of Art is being cut by 18 percent losing 11 faculty positions. "LETTING students know is bad publicity for the school," said Shari Lynn, a senior in LSA. If the University wrote students letters about the cuts, it would discourage potential applicants, explained Lynn. "Ideally they should be honest, but practically they can't," she said. But even if the University directly notified students, would they care? "The same students who don't read newspapers are probably the same people who won't read their mail anyway," said Art School Dean George Bayliss. "IT SEEMS impossible to me that an intelligent student wouldn't know what's going on, but then again, I'm continually amazed," he said. Students in the art school were in- formed about the cuts since the reviews started through a mass meeting in the school, Bayliss said. Similar com- munication was initiated by the deans of education and natural resources. Bayliss still says he hasn't the "fain- test idea" why the art school was chosen to be reviewed. "Some still believe that there was something arbitrary and capricious about the way things were run," Bayliss said. STUDENT critics of the budget plan, however, say the reasons certain schools were chosen for budget cuts are clear: To decrease emphasis on the humanities and turn the University into a haven for high technology. Meetings of the influential Budget Priorities Committee (BPC) which made recommendations on cuts to schools were closed to the public. Mary Ann Swain, former chair- woman of the BPC who now works in Frye's office, said she isn't sure better communication with students is necessary. "IT'S CLEAR there are many mem- bers of the University community who aren't as informed as they'd like to be," she said. But she added that direct mailings are expensive and the reports are available in the library. "The BPC would welcome suggestions of better ways to get infor- mation out," she said. Asking for student participation is in- sincere, said Tom Mendelsohn, a mem- ber of the Michigan Student Assembly. "ADMINISTRATORS don't really want student input, they only say they do as a political safeguard," he said. Appointing a few token student 1 l' Iget cuts representatives on committees is not a sincere commitment, he said. What speaks louder is the ad- ministration's silence in failing to communicate directly with students, Mendelsohn said. "If they want this to be a University community and not an impersonal in- stitution they are really going to have to beef up communication," he said. New -medical adminisftrator- nominated (Continued from Page 1) He also will be expected to bring about improved communication, coor- dination, and cooperation between the medical school and the hospitals in what Hospital Executive Director Jep- tha Dalston described yesterday as 'uncertain and perilous times.' Harrison joined the Stanford faculty in 1963 after receiving his medical degree from the University of Alabama in 1958. Harrison's secretary at Stanford said he was on vacation and could not be reached for comment. z 0 zx Men' an Womn'sFashon portwea by 0 Men's and Women's Fashion Sportswear by: COMPLEMENTS/CLOSED, WILLI WEAR, TERRA BIOA 330 South State Street 761-6207 1! ! crisp crunchy 3 # bags of Macintosh & Jonathan apples................ .89 Apple Cider (1/2gal.)................................. 1.15 Dannon Pints...................................... ..63 Danny Cups (frozen '/2 pint)........................... .43 i I