OPINION Sunday, March 4, 1984 Page 4 The Michigan Daily Aspiring THE UNIVERSITY'S Office of Admissions is flooded with applications for the next freshman class. Do those high school seniors know something we don't?, At last count in mid-February, the ad- missions office had received 1,009 more ap- plications than at that time last year, mostly due to a large increase in out-of-state applican- ts. Despite the high number of potential enrollees, the freshman class is targeted at 4,100 students, the same as this year. Cliff Sjogren and Lance Erickson, the top two University admissions officials, attribute applicants flood admissions sity from discriminating on the basis of sexual preference. At last month's regents meeting, members of the group, Lesbian and Gay Rights on Campus, (LaGROC), gave Shapiro a March 1 deadline for issuing the policy. But Shapiro didn't meet last week's deadline. And, it looks like gay rights activists will have to wait a while longer. Members of the group, composed mainly of University students and employees, fired questions at Shapiro for about 30 minutes. But Shapiro said he didn't know when he'd be able to issue a policy statement and didn't have many answers. Even though Shapiro wouldn't tell the group why he didn't meet the LaGROC deadline or what the gay rights activists could do to help speed up the long process of issuing a statement, many protestors said the action was a success. Demonstrators claimed they had suc- cessfully put pressure on Shapiro and vowed that more actions will occur in the future. Stirring things up Military research protests on this campus are a lot like old soldiers. They don't die. Despite the regents June 1983 rejection of guidelines for unclassified research, at least one professor on campus who isn't satisfied with the result is pressing for more discussion.. Medical School Prof. David Bassett suggested last November that the University sponsor a conference that would explore the issues of academic freedom and military, or "harmful," research. The faculty's top gover- ning group, the Senate Advisory Committee on University Affairs (SACUA) then forwarded it to a third-party group, the Collegiate Institute on Values and Science (CIVS) for further con- sideration. In the report sent to SACUA last week, CIVS's director Nicholas Steneck said that a conference should be held since there is still a desire on campus to limit defense department sponsored research. conference as well as some other changes which SACUA suggested, such as increased student participation in the planning and con- duct of the conference and increased com- munity involvement. Although the report predicts that it will take at least a year of planning before a conference could be held, it is nice to know that the military research issue is not fading away. I Getting their due the rise to increased recruiting efforts, par- ticularly the high number of personal contacts between applying students and admissions of- ficers, faculty, staff members, enrolled students, and alumni. "But another factor is that students are ap- plying to multiple schools now," said Erickson. "Students realize that it is a buyer's market." Students remain undecided longer now, said Erickson, to get the best financial aid scholarship deal from the best school. But these potential students seem oblivious to the budget cuts and reviews of University programs which have been conducted recen- tly. These cuts, some administrators have said, could seriously undercut the "fine academic reputation" on which the University prides itself, and on which it depends to recruit top-notch students. Maybe we know something those high school seniors should know. Lesbians and gays on campus rallied this week to force President Shapiro to issue a non- discriminatory policy... Waiting too long Campus gays are tired of waiting. Last week, about 55 gay rights activists chan- ting "M' go gay" and "gay rights now" mar- ched from a Diag rally to University President Harold Shapiro's offices on the second floor of the Fleming Administration Building and demanded some answers. They've been waiting 15 months for Shapiro to issue a policy that would prohibit the Univer- ...but Shapiro told them they would have to wait. Bassett's original proposal called for a con-- ference which would confront research that could be applied to the destruction or per- manent incapacitation of human -beings. The report from CIVS suggests a conference that is not limited to military research, but one which would also include debate on the link between research and moral responsibility. Members of SACUA, as well, seem to support the idea of a broad-based conference. SACUA has discussed the conference idea with University President Harold Shapiro. Ac- cording to SACUA's chairman Herbert Hildebrandt, Shapiro supports the idea of a After eight years of contract negotiation en- ded in November, the Graduate Employees Organization decided to rebuild its treasury by collecting unpaid dues from teaching assistan- ts. Enter the non-union TAs. Some have been paying GEO's $12-24 per semester dues for years, but many have never bothered. They were surprised to get letters last month saying their jobs were in jeopardy, and a group of 20 non-union TAs responded to the threats by star- ting a petition drive to change the rules. The petitioners want an "open shop" in which they have a choice as to whether they will support GEO. If they collect 560 TA signatures on their petitions, the TAs will be allowed to vote on making dues voluntary. They say that many businesses run under the open shop policy, and they charge that some TAs pay dues even though they don't believe in the union because they fear losing their jobs. But union leaders insist that GEO benefits all TAs and is a good investment for non- members. They cite health benefits, tuition breaks, and other perks in the contract. What's at stake in this petition drive is tens of thousands of dollars for the GEO budget. Everyone involved admits that most TAs don't care about the union, but GEO has managed to build interest by threatening TAs with dismissal. The Week in Review was compiled by Daily staff writers Neil Chase, Georgea Kovanis, Sharon Silbar, and Karen Tensa. Sinclair Edited and managed by students at The University of Michigan HEN1'Y ?AVLAVL- EXIL.EP IRANIAN comao1AN.. o-F .2 t Vol. XCIV-No. 121 420 Maynard St. Ann Arbor, MI 48109 So I SAWP. IMAM," I SAID, "N0W MANy IRANIANS Does IT TAKE To CLEAIR A MINEF1ELD? Editorials represent a majority opinion of the Dily's Editorial Board Stubborn professors MOST LSA faculty members recog- nize the need to hand out class outlines and syllabi to students at the beginning of the year, and recognize that students expect more than a check or a minus on papers they hand in for class. As educators, they should also realize that slapping a grade on a paper without comments does not contribute to the learning process. It was therefore surprising last mon- th when the LSA Joint Student Faculty Policy Committee voted 32 to 10 to water down a set of guidelines which, as Near Eastern Studies Prof. Louis Orlin said, are merely a way to im- prove the quality of LSA teaching. According to the committee's recommendations, faculty should be more available in office hours, hand out syllabi and class outlines promptly, critique all work students turn in, and speak English fluently - except in ad- vance foreign language courses. Are these recommendations unreasonable? If LSA faculty are already fulfilling these recommendations, they shouldn't have to worry about their en- forcement. The LSA faculty seems to hold some double standards in expecting studen- ts to turn in their work on time, while at the same time resisting a recom- mendation requiring that course outlines be done by the first weeks of class. But apparently some professors are worried that even simple guidelines are a repressive measure. Philosophy Prof. Carl Cohen said he doesn't think "a faculty code of conduct is an ap- propriate way to correct the abuses that are the concerns of the commit- tee," and called the proposal an "in- vitation to litigiousness." But saying that faculty are more likely to be sued under these guidelines is assuming too much. And if the abuses really are severe, maybe a faculty member should reform. The proposed guidelines have already been watered- down so much that they would not even order faculty but simply urge them to comply. "The faculty just doesn't want to be told what it should do," said English Prof. Eric Rabkin. Rabkin also argues that the proposed guidelines would place an unrealistic burden on departments to oversee professors. But this is a poor argument becauseasurely studentrcomplaints about faculty members must be someone's concern. And the head of a University department should have some influence over those faculty members beneath him. Rabkin's claim that the proposal does not allow for enough individual differences in teaching style is also ridiculous. If faculty members find their style cramped, they should remember that the only legitimate style is one which doesn't cramp the students' learning. Faculty members critical of the guidelines need to remember that teaching is only effective when studen- ts are learning and reaping the benefits of the knowledge of the professor. K AN4P lE 4SAIt), (TET THIS, NEIDj "THATW NJo JOKCE ...+1E sP, .,. NA IESAlt?, "THiAT'S NQ TQKE dr QoTAA MiLxITAtY SEcKETC w THAT IMAM, WM4AT A !A~P,«. 0/ ... A, A ! F - << +4AK4 (i s A 4 The decline of the middle class? By Franz Schurmann Ever since De Tocqueville, over a century and a half ago, marveled at America's wonder- ful middling ways, Americans have been convinced that what made this country great was its broad. middle class. But many observers believe the middle class is waning today, with im- portant consequences for the future of America. That belief will be tested by the outcome of this summer's Democratic con- vention and the November elec- tion. The question centers on whether the poor or the middle class have been hardest hit by recent economic changes and Reagan policies. Bob Kuttner, in an Atlantic article last July argued that the middle class was declining. Robert Samuelson in policies have hurt either the poor or the middle class. And Reagan himself, like most of his Republican predecessors, por- trays himself as a spokesman for Middle America. Few people would argue that the president's chief Democratic opponent, Walter Mondale, is the voice of America's, poor. That position has been taken by Jesse Jackson, whose "Rainbow Coalition" is built around Samuelson's thesis of the vic- timized poor. Mondale has been endorsed by organizations that represent in- dustrial workers, teachers, and feminist women, among others. These are all middle-class voters, hit hard by dein- dustrialization, declining wages, and unequal pay. A Mondale can- didacy assumes that Kuttner is Glenn, was a boy and even when he had the "right stuff" to orbit the earth. Unlike Mondale, Glenn believes the country, especially its moderate middle class, is all right; what's wrong are Reagan policies. However, the economic data is not deciding this debate. Something much less scientific will do that - voters' percep- tions.dAnd there is a perception among the middle class, evident in everyday conversations, that they are being squeezed more and more each year. Even with multiple incomes in the family, the cost of basics has been mounting steeply. There is less and less left for either a sun- ny vacation or a rainy day. It was this same middle-class percep- tion that elected Francois Mit- ticular economic class. George McGovern still attracts the liberal fringe that carried him to the nomination in 1972. There is the. westerner, Gary Hart, who thinks there is still political gold to be mined among the '70s-style environmentalist constituencies. And, if a woman's name should emerge as a serious vice presidential contender, then yet another major constituency will have a voice. From a broader perspective, we maytnot only be polarizing in- to a nation of rich and poor, as many of the economists suggest, but going from a homogenous to a heterogenous society. The great American middle class was a symbol and a reality of a national striving to. become a single people. What appears to be a decline of that middle class now alnmay ht-. nauw divPmifienitinnvu 4 4 i I