OPINION
Sunday, December 4, 1983
Page 4
The Michigan Daily
Jail, classes, and nuclear arms protests
T WO UNIVERSITY students were among at
least 54 people arrested this week at demon-
strations against an Oakland County manufac-
turer of cruise missile engines.
LSA sophomore Anita Ringo and LSA senior
Margaret Garrigues, plan to stay in jail as a
protest of the nuclear arms race. They even
arranged to get incompletes for all of their
classes this term. If convicted of all the
charges they face, they could spend the next 14
months behind bars.
Ringo, who was arrested Thursday morning,
and Garrigues, arrested Wednesday, were
protesting production of the missile engines by
blocking the entrance to the Walled Lake
protest when they sat down in front of the plant
entrance alongside a full scale replica of a
cruise missile. One of the five had fastened
himself to the model and Oakland County
police had to cut him free before placing the
man under arrest.
The week-long protests ended yesterday.
ADVICE and consent
The end of the term ritual students affec-
tionately call CRISP is under way again, but a
guide to help them pick classes was a little late
in hitting the streets.
The Michigan Student Assembly-published
ADVICE course guide wasn't distributed until
the middle of the week, though un-
dergraduates, particularly seniors, had
already begun registering Monday. The delay
was caused by a delay in the booklet's printing.
ADVICE, which has been helping students
pick LSA classes by evaluating both classes
and the professors teaching them for four
years, had to rely mainly on the efforts of its
coordinator for the past two years, Richard
Layman, and a few other devoted souls.
This edition of ADVICE also was a little dif-
ferent than in the past because it relied on data
accumulated in past years instead of using
surveys primarily from the corresponding
term the year before. In fact, this issue con-
tains no information on last winter's courses
because ADVICE staff members did not collect
survey results in CRISP lines last April.
That, in part, is because the guide will now rely
on course evaluations filled out in classes.
Layman said the move is designed to get more
accurate information, get more of it, and get it
under less harried circumstances.
The University's Center for Research on
Learning and Teaching, which already conduc-
ts such surveys, will provide ADVICE with the
information though professors must consent to
the release.
The hope is that ADVICE can make the tran-
sition and give students a useful supplement to
the LSA Course Guide. But without more staff,
one of MSA's most worthwhile projects could
be in danger of falling by the wayside, as
similar efforts have in the past.
Smokey the RA
University dormitories have been hot spots
over the past week, as two minor fires provided
residents with some added excitement in the
usually tense days between Thanksgiving and
finals. But quick thinking residential advisors
and an observant student helped make sure the
hazards didn't become more than small
routine-breakers.
The first fire began Sunday in West Quad's
kitchen when a rag caught fire on the coils of a
linen dryer. LSA sophomore Erich Heidenreich
spotted the trouble and alerted his RA, who
then pulled a fire alarm. Had Heidenreich not
noticed the problem, almost 1,200 West Quad
residents could have come back from
Thanksgiving break to more than just burnt
toast. There was no damage to the kitchen.
The second fire, this one at Mary Markley
Hall on Thursday night, was apparently caused
by dripping wax from a Chanukah candle.
Again, quick thinking kept the flames from
doing serious damage, as RA Ernst Van
Bergijk heard a smoke alarm go off, located
the fire, and pulled an alarm. Houtsing security
officials put out the fire before the Ann Arbor
Big deal
A chicken in every pot, a car in every garage,
as the old saying goes. And a computer ter-
minal on every desktop is a promise fast
becoming a reality at the University, according
to Engineering Dean James Duderstadt.
This week, Duderstadt announced that two
leading computer firms, Apple Computer, Inc.,
and Apollo Computer, Inc., have agreed to sell
the Engineering college $8 million of computer
equipment. Everyone involved with the sale
agrees that the University is getting a real deal
on the 800 terminals it is purchasing - "sub-
stantially reduced prices" seems to be the
favorite catchword - but nobody wants to be
more specific than $4 million $7 million for the
package. The college will finance the purchase
with corporate gifts and research funds.
Despite the size of the purchase, Duderstadt
says it is only the first step toward equiping
"each student, faculty, and staff member of the
college...with a personal computer
work station." That would mean several more
hefty purchases from major corporations.
At a press conference announcing the
agreement, Duderstadt said his ultimate goal
"is to create the most sophisticated environment
ment of any university in this nation.
headquarters of Williams International Corp.,
a Department of Defense contractor. The
protests involved many Detroit area peace
groups and even a group from Milwaukee.
Those arrested face charges for trespassing,
conspiracy to commit a misdemeanor, and
contempt of court' The contempt charges stem
from the protestors' refusal to obey a court or-
der not to interfere with work at the plant.
Ringo and Garrigues already have been con-
victed of the contempt of court charges and
were sentenced to 30 days in jail.
The five protestors arrested from Milwaukee
provided the highlight of Thursday morning's
Ready, set, CRISP. Those familiar lines began
forming again throughout the corridors of Lor-
ch Hall.
Fire Department arrived, and minor damage
was limited to the sixth floor dorm room where
it started.
Markley residents, though, were a might
slow in responding to the alarm because of the
frequency of false alarms in the building, ac-
cording to one student who did not want to be
identified. When the alarm persisted, though,
students finally left the building.
The Week in Review wascompiled by Daily
editor David Spak and Daily staff writer
Georgea Kovanis.
Edited and managed by students at The University of Michigan
Stew
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Vol. XCIV-No. 73
420 Maynard St.
Ann Arbor, MI 48109
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Editorials represent a majority opinion of the Daily's Editorial Board
Recall hurts 'U'
E VER GET THE feeling that
things were going just a little too
well to last? Something always shows
up to turn the tides.
So University officials discovered as
their recent optimism over improved
state government-University relations
was stemmed by the recent ouster of
two Democratic state senators. Philip
Mastin and David Serotkin were
recalled from office because of their
support for a 38 percent tax increase
earlier this year. That same tax in-
crease secured higher education a 9
percent funds increase earlier this
year and had University officials
beaming about a renewed commit-
ment from the state.
That kind of optimism is harder to
find today, and unfortunately, for good
reason. The two recalls and others
which are sure to follow, certainly do
nothing to encourage a strong com-
mitment to education.
The recall drives are aimed ex-
clusively at Democrats who supported
the tax increase. These are just the
legislators who backed the higher
education budget increase - one of the
largest increases in several years.
These are the legislators on which the
University was basing much of its op-
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timism.
If Republicans are elected to replace
Mastin and Serotkin, the political
balance in the Senate will swing to the
Republicans. This will make the
passage of any future tax bill ex-
tremely difficult, no matter how
socially responsible it is. And when tax
increases are necessary, higher
education is usually one of the main
reasons.
But even above party politics, the
recalls have chilled elected officials in
the state. These recalls give legislators
powerful incentive to watch out for
themselves, rather than the good of the
state. And part of that mentality ap-
pears to be reducing expenditures -
even the good ones. The anti-tax
groups driving these recalls un-
derestimate the tremendous need for
the tax hike; they don't seem to realize
the danger higher education and other
state services would have incurred had
the books been balanced by cutting.
The University needs help financing
buildings and programs. It needs
money for its General Fund so that
students don't have to bear exorbitant
tuition costs to support the school.
The recalls are not going to make
this money any easier to get.
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LETTERS TO THE DAILY:
When did Reagan join 'Star Wars'?
4
To the Daily:
In President Reagan's speech
on the Lebanon massacre he
referred to a "force" that was
responsible for it, an evil force in
the form of the Soviet Union and
its influence on other nations
such as Syria. In the Star Wars
mode Yuri Andropov and the
Soviet Union represent Darth
Vader and the "evil empire" and
Reagan is Luke Skywalker
coming in to save the world from
this evil threat. Though it sounds
foolish, it is this kind of thinking
that justifies for our ad-
ministration the United States'
foreign policy: Wherever the
Russians may be we must stamp
them out.
The subject of Ronald Reagan
and his foreign policy conjures up
many topics and much anger. I
could discuss Grenada, Lebanon,
El Salvador, Nicaragua, and who
knows where (we will surely be
the last to know, in the name of
"democracy"). But I'll confine
the topic to Ronald Reagan and
nuclear war.
My greatest fear comes from
and have at least 20 million sur-
vivors.
If all this sounds like something
out of a science fiction movie, it is
not. The aforementioned war
policy is presently stored away in
a Pentagon war office and is very
real. The policy includes a whole
tactical plan of how we can fight
and win a nuclear war against the
Russians. Not even in the Nixon,
Ford, or Carter administrations
was the possibility that we could
win a nuclear war so openly
discussed and actually believed.
What it comes down to is that
these men would sacrifice zoo
million American lives, the whole
Soviet population if need be, who
knows how many other lives, and
what sometimes gets forgotten:
our precious environment. All in
the name of "democracy".
Reagan et al. would decide our
fate based on their exaggerated
fears of the Russians taking over
the "free" world and rampantly
spreading communism into every
home. These thoughts are
frightening enough in themselves
but what's more frightening is
Union and in one fell swoop
destroy them without much
retaliation? No one openly ad-
vocates such a policy since it
wouldn't be a sound political
move, but our weapon "moder-
nization" program may make
Russian leaders wonder. Limited
nuclear war is a fantasy and pre-
emptive war is sheer insanity.
Let me go back to Hollywood to
illustrate clearer the absurdity of
Reagan's ideas. In the film War
Games the final message con-
veyed by the computer is that one
should not play the game of
nuclear war because no one will
win. I wish Reagan would relay
on movies other than Star Wars
to decide his policies.
It seems that a top priority
should be to get Mr. Reagan off
his high white horse. We must
band together to defeat the
Reagan clan. Granted, no
presidential candidate with a
chance of beating Reagan is ideal
but it is essential to put some
sanity into the White House.
We must talk about nuclear
war and the fears we have of it.
Nuclear war is not inevitable. We
are only meant to believe it is so
Reagan and his friends can go oh
and live out their fantasies. We
must not be afraid of facing the
reality that these men presently
control our fate and are putting
us in the gravest dangers with the
policies. In the name of
democracy we must take control
of our own fate and the first step
is to dethrone Reagan.
-David Guttchen
November15
'Wrong Decade' perplexing
To the Daily:
While its refreshing to see
students uniting to express strong
dividuals laughing so easily at~a
decade in which students were
seriously concerned about thjr