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OPINION
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Sunday, November 20, 1983
The ichgan ail
Nuclear Saints
NOTHER WEEK, another sit-in. This
week the Nuclear Saints of Americatook
over the popular confines of Prof. Thomas
Senior's radiation laboratory.
Last week the same lab was blockaded by the
Progressive Student Network.
But while the PSN is a known quantity
around campus, no one seemed able to figure
out this new group, apparantly formed just for
the sit-in, calling themselves the Nuclear Sain-
ts. And the group members didn't help out
much.
From the moment they entered the lab they
assumed a veil of sarcasm over their activities.
Dressed in white lab jackets, dark sunglasses,
and Walkman stereos the group members
claimed to want to help their "prophet," Prof.
Senior, conduct "around the clock military
research."
Brain ban
University students better hold onto their
brains. If the University finds out you're hiding
something in your cerebellum that they don't
like, you could lose your job.
Engineering Junior Piers Lewis
quickly learned that lesson last week. Lewis, a
member of the Progressive Student Network,
lost his job as a research assistant because
Engineering Prof. Joseph Datsko said the
student's anti-military views would affect his
work.
Datsko said that his current project, spon-
sored by the Department of Defense, would
conflict with PSN's stand against military
research.
But Lewis said PSN doesn't support booting
the DOD off campus, they only advocate adop-
ting guidelines to restrict Pentagon-sponsored
research that could ultimately kill people. Dat-
sko's project only had industrial applications.
Maybe a similar policy could be adopted at
CRISP so that students who are morally op-
posed to certain courses couldn't enroll in the
class. Anyone who thinks calculus is stupid
can't enroll. Or maybe students who hate to
write should have their ECB requirement
waived.
Better yet, the University could force studen-
ts to take a beliefs test, kind of like a brain
scan, before being admitted as freshpeople. If
students seemed too, you know, radical,
critical, or just using their brains too much,
send them to Ohio State.
Maybe PSN should have used the Nuclear
Saints' strategy of protesting in cognito when
they blockaded Professor Thomas Senior's
radiation lab last week.
Maybe PSN should just give up the fight
against military research on campus and be
like the rest of the mindless, apathetic students
who get along just fine with the University.
But PSN members were foolish enough to
think that they could voice their dissenting
views without fear of punishment.
They were wrong. Maybe Lewis can get a job
at McDonalds.
praise their prophet
unfair advantage and might be against election
rules.
With the air of a true politician, however,
Berman reversed direction after he was elec-
C T ted.
"The six joint independents ran an excellent
campaign, and I think any one of them would
make a good representative of the student
body," Berman said,
' Just like big-time politics. Well, almost.
Sigh of relief
Senior fell for the gag at first, thinking the
protestors actually were supporting his resear-
ch, which is sponsored by the defense depar-
tment. But he caught on when he saw that the
;group's projects included knitting a nuclear
Omissile nosecap warmer, and creating new life
from Fritos corn chips and refried bean dip.
Although the students never made any
demands, or gave any explanation for their ac-
tions, sources close to the group said they sup-
sported the PSN sit-in in the previous week.
After refusing several requests by University
security to leave the lab and finally being
threatened with arrest, the group filed out of
the laboratory after completing what they
called "a reasonable amount of research."
Despite the rising popularity of sit-ins in
Senior's lab, it is rumored that he is still
refusing to take reservations. Those groups
wanting to protest tomorrow will be served
only on a first-come, first serve basis.
Daily Photo by DOUG McMAHON
Prof. Thomas Senior jokes with members of the Nuclear Saints of America as he partakes in part
of the group's "cleansing" ritual sit-in by eating a snow ball donut. Little did Senior know that the
joke was on him, as the Saints used sarcasm
Network's sit-in almost two weeks ago.
Big time politics
Just like in big-time politics, the LSA Student
Government held its elections this week.
Well, almost like big-time politics. This
year's landslide winner was the SAID (Studen-
ts for Academic and Institutional Develop-
ment) party, which has held the LSA-SG
presidency for two years now. SAID's Eric
Bergman will be the new president; Jean
Wyman will hold down the vice-presidential
post. SAID also came away with nine seats on
the LSA-SG council.
The big news about this year's election,
however, was the overwhelming turnout. Well,
almost overwhelming. Six hundred more
to show their support for the Progressive Student
students voted this year than last - a 25 per-
cent increase.
The election didn't go nearly as well for An-
drew Hartman and his opposition party,
IGNITE. Hartman, who never seemed to be
able to generate any momentum after entering
the contest late, garnered only 518 of the 1,758
votes cast by LSA students. IGNITE failed to
place even one of their seven candidates on
LSA council.
A new-found cooperative effort by indepen-
dent candidates helped place five of them in
council seats. Independent candidates pooled
their election funds together gaining many of
the advantages of a party while side-stepping
the extra costs.
On Wednesday Berman complained that the
cooperative effort gave the independents an
Whew!
That must have been the reaction of the
leaders of the Graduate Employees
Organization when they announced that the
teaching assistants' union had ratified their
new contract with the University by a mere six
votes.
The vote was 325 in favor against five op-
posed, but because the union's constitution
requires that a majority of the membership
vote in favor of a contract. Since GEO's mem-
bership is 637, 319 votes were needed.
The contract, the union's first with the
University since 1976, gives TAs a 5.1 percent
pay hike along with a 7 percent tuition reduc-
tion. It also encourages, University depar-
tments to develop a class size policy and a TA
training program, while giving TAs a voice in
the process.
More importantly, though, the ratification
breathes new life into what was dangerously
close to becoming a dead union. The contract
gives GEO legitimacy to call itself the
representative of all 1,700 TAs and research
assistants instead of just the actual members,
of the union. The new contract also should help
GEO recruit new members.
Problems still remain, though, among them,
figuring out a way to get more union members
to bother to vote, but GEO's leaders have until
March 1985 to solve them.
That's when the new contract expires - and
when TAs will find out if they have a durable
union.
The Week in Review was compiled by
Daily staff writer Barbara Misle and Daily
editors Susan Makuch, David Spak, and
Bill Spindle.
LaBan
Edited and managed by students at The University of Michigan
Vol. XCIV-No. 65
420 Maynard St.
Ann Arbor, M1 48109
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Editorials represent a majority opinion of the Daily's Editorial Board
Enjoying diversions
Y ESTERDAY MORE than 106,000
people forgot their troubles and
watched an entertaining, exciting
Michigan-Ohio State football game.
Here's a look at some other items
making news this weekend:
* The Soviet Union again proposed to
remove half of its SS-20 medium-range
missiles aimed at Western Europe if
the United States cancelled its Western
European deployment of the Pershing
II and cruise missiles scheduled to
begin in December. The United States
again rejected the plan, stating again
that its aim in deploying the new
missiles was to offset the presence of
the SS-20s.
The Soviet proposal was more aimed
at laying the groundwork for blaming
the United States for crippling the ar-
ms reduction talks in Geneva than at
moving the negotiations forward.
* Congress, rushing to adjourn, ap-
proved the largest peacetime- defense
department budget ever - $250 billion.
Utopia
It included funds for the production of
the MX missile and for the B-1 bomber.
" The Central Intelligence Agency
reported that Soviet military spending
increases have slowed over the past
few years. But the agency said that
was a result of a downswing in the
Soviet economy, and not a move to
ease that nation's arms buildup. The
CIA report added that Soviet military
spending increases should rise at least
as much as the expected growth in the
Soviet economy in the next year.
" Argentina announced it now has
nuclear capability, adding another
nation to the growing list of potential
nuclear trouble spots. Though the
Argentines pledged to use their new
capability only for peaceful purposes,
they have not signed international
agreements allowing for inspection of
their nuclear facilities.
" Tonight ABC airs The Day After.
Yesterday's game was a welcome
diversion.
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LETTERS TO THE DAILY:
The 'U' good outlet for DOD money
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RUSFAMCt4 JOB WASN.'T IT?
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To the Daily:
The moral intent behind the
Progressive Student Network's
protest of DOD spending on cam-
pus is, at least to me, quite sane
and laudable. The Pentagon
budget is outrageously high. It
speaks of a nation which seems to
put a high price on death, and a
low price on life. I will not
recapitulate here the utter in-
sanity of it all. Others have done
a fine enough job of it, and in any
case it should be obvious to the
most casual halfwitted observer.
So I say "yes," the PSN has good
reason to be unhappy with the
current state of affairs, at least
insofar as our military budget is
concerned. It is unfortunate
however that they should expend
classified, often needlessly, and
seldom with any measure made
of the cost of society, in which it
might otherwise have found
useful and peaceful application.
One can imagine,. in analogy to
the manned space program, a
wider variety of technological of-
fshoot applications being derived
from military research, if only it
was intelligently disseminated.
But it isn't, so we may regard
most of it as a waste and a loss.
Consider now the case where
the Department of Defense gran-
ts funds for research to an
academic scientist, and take as a
specific example Dr. Thomas
Senior. He has tenure with the
University, and traditionally that
has meant that, unlike his in-
sides. What is far more likely to
result however is, like most
academic research, some of it
may or may not find immediate
application, and the rest will ser-
ve to expand the general body of
knowledge of some field or
another.
The entire University gains
financially from Senior's resear-
ch grant. In fact, in circumstan-
ces like this, the University's cut
usually amounts to quite a high
percentage of the total sum
awarded. This has the effect of
putting back into education some
of the money which has been
taken away in the name of defen-
se. It also serves as a means of
funding graduate students whose
technical prowess presumably
facts. Here I must point out that it
has been my experience to obser-
ve that often, what a grant
recipient may have proposed
doing, and what he or she may
actually end up doing, can often
be two quite different things. The
nature of scientific research is,
such that you follow it wherever
it lead you. I do not know the
specific inside details in Senior's
case, but then, do any of the
PSN? If no, then they should not
be so hasty in their condem-
nation.
In conclusion, I reiterate that
the moral motivation behind the
recent PSN sit-in of Thomas
Senior's laboratory was a good
one. However, their choice of a
target for protesting military
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