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November 08, 1983 - Image 1

Resource type:
Text
Publication:
The Michigan Daily, 1983-11-08

Disclaimer: Computer generated plain text may have errors. Read more about this.

Ninety-four Years
of
Editorial Freedom

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Fading away
But radiating more warmth today.
Cloudy with a high around 60.

Vol. XCIV-No. 54 Copyright 1983, The Michigan Daily Ann Arbor, Michigan - Tuesday, November 8, 1983 Fifteen Cents Eight Pages

Students seize

'U'

research

lab

Activists call for end
to defense projects

By JIM SPARKS
and PETE WILLIAMS
Twenty-seven members of an activist
student group seized control of a
research laboratory in the East
Engineering Building yesterday,
vowing to "shut down" military
research on campus.
The demonstrators, all members of
the Progressive Student Network,
blockaded the door to the radiation
laboratory at 1:30 p.m. and refused en-
trance to the facility.
LATE LAST night PSN members
said they planned to stay in the.
For a detailed look at what goes
on in the radiation laboratory
see page 3.
basement laboratory at least until
morning, but would not indicate how
long after that they would remain.
Director of University security Walt
Stevens said the protesters would be
allowed to stay overnight, but said "at
some time (University President
Harold Shapiro) might have to make a
decision" to remove the students.
PSN members chose the radiation
laboratory because Electrical and
Computer Engineering Professor
Thomas Senior, who runs the lab,
regularly does research sponsored by
the Department of Defense.
SENIOR'S current project, called
electromagnetic pulse (EMP) resear-
ch, uses microwaves to simulate the
pulses given off to aircraft by lightning
or a nuclear explosion.
Senior said he is working to develop
sensors to measure the effect of light-
ning on planes but previous projects
have specifically referred to
stimulating a "high altitude nuclear
explosion."
The protesters demanded an end to
the EMP project, stopping all military
research at the University, extending
classifiedresearch guidelines to non-
classified research projects, and
disciplinary or legal action against the
participants.
"THIS WON'T be the last such
demonstration this term," said PSN
member and protest organizer Tom
Kaeding. "We won't be satisfied until

military research is completely off the
campus. We are not out here just for the
publicity. Certainly publicity will help
us but our ultimate goal is to get the
Pentagon off our campus."
"The military in this country
isn't a defensive system . . . It's not
preserving life at all, it's destroying
life," said PSN member Lee
Winkelman while blockading the lab
entrance.
Senior said the demonstrators should
direct their efforts at the University
regents instead of disrupting research
projects - if they want military
research suspended.
"THEIR DEMANDS concern policies
of the regents and the Reagan ad-
ministration. Disrupting the operation
of a laboratory is not a way to get to the
regents or the policy of the Reagan ad-
ministration. I have nothing to do with
those," he said.
Shelves of. the laboratory are covered
with scale-models of various aircraft,
including the B-1 bomber and the F-16
fighter bomber.
Researchers at the lab put the models
on a pillar in a chamber covered with
styrofoam and bombard them with
microwaves.
The waves simulate the pulse given
off by lightning or a nuclear explosion.
Senior came down to the lab several
minutes after the group took over and
answered student demands that he stop
the EMP project by saying he would talk
with students but would not respond to
demands.
"I will talk in the corridor, but I'm
not going to talk in the pressure
situation you have here," Senior said.
"The lab is open until 5 p.m. Please
don't do any damage and keep your
hands off the equipment."
When Senior left, the group quickly
formed a human blockade in front of
the door.
Although University security officials
and some graduate students stumbled
through the blockade, some lab
workers - could naT get past the
protesters.
Work-study student Peter Bauer, an
LSA sophomore, was unable to pick his
way through the crowd to take
oscilloscope readings. Senior and
See STUDENTS, Page 3

Daily Photo by DOUG McMAHON
Prof. Thomas Senior listens to students Amos Cornfeld and Nancy Arnoff read off their list of demands during the students' sit-in at his laboratory yesterday.
Protesters support PSN sit-in

By GEORGEA KOVANIS
About 150 protesters rallied on the front steps of the
East Engineering Building yesterday afternoon in a
show of support for demonstrators who took over a
University researcher's laboratory earlier in the day.
/ The protesters, who called for an end to military
research on campus, demonstrated while members
of the Progressive Student Network (PSN) staged a
sit-in at researcher Thomas Senior's laboratory.
SENIOR, A professor of electrical and computer
R engineering, is conducting research projects with
possible military applications.

"We want (Senior's) project off campus," said LSA
sophomore Valerie Flapan, a PSN member who led
the rally. "We have no intention of stopping our
protest until we get him out of here," she said.
Ann Arbor City Councilmember Lowell Peterson
(D-2nd Ward) called for a stop to what he termed an
increase in militarism on campus and across the
country. He urged protesters to fight forsan end to
military research by signing petitions, supporting
nuclear freeze legislation, and voting against gover-
nment figures who oppose the freeze.
"I THINK WE should vote the bastards out,"
Peterson said. "Vote Reagan out, vote Pursell out."
Not everyone at the rally agreed with Peterson and

PSN members, however. "Military research is
necessary for security," said David Wiltshire, an Ann
Arbor resident wnc mounted the steps to challenge
Peterson directly. "What's wrong with military
research?"
Wiltshire's comments were met wthjlod j ers and
chants from audience members, including Diag
regular Stoney Burke. "Nuclear war is suicide.
Everything fucking dies," Burke said.
LATER IN the rally, the demonstrators moved to
the Church Street side of the building and stood out-
see PROTESTERS, Page 3

Senate approval paves
way for MX production

From AP and UPI
WASHINGTON (UPI) - The
Senate yesterday endorsed the MX
nuclear missile, casting the last
major congressional vote needed
before the weapon moves into full-
scale production and handing
President Reagan a key win for his
military buildup. i
On a 56-37 vote, the Senate rejec-
ted an amendment offered by Sen.
Dale Bumpers (D-Ark) that would
have cut out $2.1 billion for building
the first 21 of a planned 100 intercon-
tinental missiles.
"I BELIEVE it is necessary to
make one last effort if only to clear
my conscience," -said Bumpers,
acknowledging defeat shortly before
the vote.
Bumpers also said that at an
estimated cost of $17 billion, the
missile is the most expensive
weapon in the U.S. nuclear arsenal,
outstripping by 60 percent the cost
per warhead of warheads carried by

the B-1 bomber or the Trident sub-
marine.
But Ted Stevens (R-Alaska).
manager of the bill, said deleting MX
funds would force President Reagan
and his negotiators to "Go
to arms reduction talks with one
arm tied behind them."
Bumpers was supported in brief
remarks by several other
Democrats, including Sens. Edward
Kennedy of Massachusetts, Ernest
Hollings (D-S.C.), Carl Levin (D-Mich.),
and Gary Hart (D.-Colo.), who led
the unsuccessful fight against
authorizing production of the
weapon last July.
"THE MX IS a missile without a
mission and a weapon without a
home," Kennedy said.
President Reagan and other sup-
porters say the MX is needed as a
"bargaining chip" to pressure the
Soviet Union to negotiate seriously
at the Geneva talks on curbing
strategic nuclear arms.

To make the new weapon safe
from Soviet attack, Pentagon oficals
have proposed several basing
schemes over the last 10 years.
They ranged from deploying the MX
in underground railroad cars to
"dense pack" clusters of missiles
designed to make incoming missiles
blow themselves up.
The Democratic House approved
MX funds by nine votes last week,
and In August, after an anti-MX
filibuster led by Gary Hart (D-
Colo.), the Senate approved con-
tinued production by a 58-41 vote.
The House approved the missile
217-208, dashing what many op-
ponents saw as the last hope to stop
the weapon before it moved into
production. The first missiles are
scheduled to be deployed in late 1986
or early 1987 in Minuteman missile
silos in Wyoming and western
Nebraska.

Doily Photo by DEBORAH LEWIS'
A University security officer climbs over the students who occupied Prof. Thomas Senior's radiation laboratory yester-
day in the East Engineering Building.

7TODAY

r.. .

NUMBER OF
DONORS

MATCHING
GIFTS

NUMBER OF
DONORS

COUNTRY

AMOUNT

Australia 1 37.60
Belgium 125
Brazil 1 $25 $ 25
Canada 14 435 79.70
England 2 225

COUNTRY
Alabama
Alaska
Arizona
Arkansas

29
6
103
16

AMOUNT
$ 1.235.00
245.00
4,401.00
425.00
26,726.00

MATCHING
GIFTS
$ 125.00
.00
150.00
50.00
5,260.00

Student types
FOR ALL YOU Type-A personalities who can't wait to
start worrying about what classes you are going to take
next semester, and for all you Type-B types who will decide
based on what time they are being offered: Do we have
news for you. The University, the official sponsor of the
Winter 1984 time schedule, has posted next semester's
master list outside 1213 Angell Hall for your inspection.
You'll have to wait until next week to get a portable one,
and until the week of Nov. 20 to obtain the crucial Course
Guide. Both will be placed outside 1407 Mason Hall, and
should amount to some fascinating reading, no matter what

Quad. A poll of students living in dorms, which was
released the same day, showed that two-thirds of the
students were in favor of co-educational living.
Also on this date in history:
"1951 - Student Government made its case to the Univer-
sity for a four, day vacation for Thanksgiving. Students, at
that time were only given one day off.
.1956 - University officials were doing everything they
could to prevent a panty raid after a pep rally to be held
that night. "The occurence of a panty raid is likely to mean
... that this will be the last pep rally'for a good many
years," one official warned.
"1977 - The Daily reported that the University was
making mnrrssn solving the nrnhhim ,of invPtaf c in

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