4 OPINION ePage 4 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 -4 COUJLD SAY - 'tOp ItXK sore, I o .Y Know WIAM \Alf" If a THAI TNING; Wu 1 j Kt , VD? WOR e lHisAm. w tL !1 NVRT" I 4 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. 4/7 TF Y 70I' G ... RfAwr ! . Am, " ms DAY AFTER J USA 6£ 6 D Y D OtYt GE7 4' 4 LETTERS TO THE DAILY: The 'U' good outlet for DOD money 4 .7- Ha.y ~, 2 tFLA^SH NOW DJtt> YoJR WJTERVIEW Go? RUSFAMCt4 JOB WASN.'T IT? -=I II 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 WHAT W4fPENFP ? I I-" d I --ylz V5 SJ S~ccK ___ LL' a:::: .::..:......:a