OPINION
Page 4
Sunday, March 11, 1984
i
The Michigan Daily
Arrests are made and accusations fly
IT'S GETTING so a group of friendly students
can't even sit around in a research lab
anymore without getting arrested.
In case you haven't heard, 10 students and one
University graduate were dragged from a
protest at the East Engineering Lab of Pof.
George Haddad by Ann Arbor Police on Tuesday
when they refused to leave on their own.
The protesters, members of the Progressive
Student Network, chose Haddad's lab because
they charged his research has direct ap-
plications to the Phoenix missile. Haddad agreed
that his research may have some military ap-
plications, but he said that military applications
are not the primary focus of his work. The Lab is
funded entirely by the Army, Navy, and Air For-
ce.
Members of PSN said they were spurred on by
the incident and, despite the 11 arrests, the group
was able to drawabout 200 students and Ann Ar-
bor residents to a candlelight march on Tuesday
night. The march's chief destination was the
front lawn of University President Harold
Shapiro's house.
The week got more interesting for those in-
volved when, on Thursday, two of the arrested
participants filed reports of assault against a
security guard and a graduate student in the lab.
John Hartigan, one of the students arrested,
claimed he had been kicked in the spine several
times by a student researcher in the lab. Ann Ar-
bor detective David Jahalke said an in-
vestigation would be made into the charges.
PSN had another rally in support of the 11.
protesters preceeding, their 9:00 a.m. arraign-
ment on Thursday. This time 40 members
braved the cold to cheer for "the Ann Arbor
eleven" outside city hall. The pretrial date of
Apr. 10 was set.
Partial revisions
Responding to the concerns of the Michigan
Student Assembly and other student groups, the
University this week agreed to a couple of
changes in the proposed student code of non-
academic conduct. But student leaders, among
them MSA President Mary Rowland, say that
the changes are not significant and that further
revisions are necessary.
The code allows the University to punish
students for committing crimes already enfor-
ced by civil authorities-arson, sexual
harassment, assault, theft, vandalism, and some
types of civil disobedience. The code also
provides for a judicial system composed of a
hearing officer and hearing board.
The University originally wanted three mem-
bers to serve on the board-a student, faculty
member, and administrator. Under the revised
version, however, the board would consist of
five members-two students, two faculty mem-
bers, -and one administrator. University
executive officers also agreed not to impose har-
sher punishments for students charged with
repeated violations.
The revisions are viewed by Rowland as a step
in the right direction, but she feels that further
steps should be taken. Most importantly, she is
asking for omission of the section allowing the
University to punish students for participating in
protests or demonstrations that disrupt Univer-
sity activity.
There is also a fair amount of dissatisfaction
surrounding the revision process. MSA would
like to have a representative involved in the
process and the vice president of "No Code,"
Eric Schnauffer, complained that "students have
very little input." He also believes that the ad-
ministration is "making changes for propaganda
purposes. The repressive parts of the code
remain.,
The chairman of the committee that wrote
the initial code, Communications Prof. William
Colburn, said that those opposing the code "are
providing a tremendous service to us in rewor-
ding the document. It's really getting tested
hard."
The code and criticisms thereof will be tested
hard during the MSA elections at the end of the
month. The assembly this week voted to include
on the ballot questions asking whether MSA
should support the proposed guidelines and
whether or not there should be a special student
vote to approve the code before the University
can enforce it.
With all due journalistic reverence, it is best
to let a god in the world of broadcast news
cover this University announcement himself:
"Thank you, Dan. In our last news story
tonight, I, Walter Cronkite, will be the speaker
for the University of Michigan's commen-
cement ceremonies on the 28th of April at 1
p.m. The ceremony will be the first University
graduation to be held in Michigan Stadium, the
world's largest college football colliseum, ."
The University will award Cronkite with an
honorary doctor of law' degree, an honorary
degree he was nominated for a long time ago.
According to Jim Shortt, an assistant to
President Harold Shapiro, this is the first time
Cronkite has been able to fit the University
commencement date into his schedule.
Cronkite acquired his journalistic training by
serving as the United Press war correspondent
in Europe during World War II. He switched
from print news to broadcast journalism in 1950
when he joined CBS Evening News.
Even though Cronkite retired from CBS in
1981, after 19 years as anchorman for the news,
he has remained in the public eye through ap-
pearances in television documentaries,
sailboat races, and speeches at, yes, college
graduations.
This year's graduates are too young to
remember much of Cronkite's career, but he
will still be recognized as one of the most
trusted men in America.
He has won the Peabody award, several
Emmy awards, the Presidential Medal of
Honor, and John Anderson considered making
him his running mate in the 1980 presidential
election because of his fine reputation.
"And that's the way it is ...
I
turnout at most RSG elections. Hillary Murtz,
vice president of the council, said the ballots
were intended to get more students par-
ticipating, and with a new election, they just'
might get out the vote.
Audience approval
4
PSN demonstrators encountered a formidable barrier during their protest at an engineering
lab on Tuesday.
Just making sure
Once was not enough for the Rackham Student
Government. In three weeks they will make
another attempt at electing a president, with
the same cast of candidates-Kodi Abili and
Angela Gantner.
Abili won the Feb. 3 election 107-74, but
Rackham's Executive Council decided Wed-
nesday night that the election had not followed
all the rules. After the polling booths had closed
Abili continued to hand out mail-in ballots to
students, a violation of the council's bylaws,
according to Business Administration Prof.
Herbert Hildebrant.
Hildebrant, who was asked to help interpret
the bylaws, said the ballots should have been
handed out at the booths, or sent out to all
Rackham students.
Gantner called for a new election after
Hildebrandt's explanation, and the rest of the
council approved, except Abili, who abstained.
Both Gantner and Abili say they will run again,
and other students may also enter the field.
The controversy over the mail-in ballots may
have been an unexpected boost for the low-,
The Week in Review was compiled by
Daily staff reporters Neil Chase and Karen
Tensa, and Daily editors Jim Boyd and Jim,
Sparks.
4
.. . .. . .. . .
Edited and managed by students at The University of Michigan
Stewart
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Vol. XCIV-No. 127
420 Maynard St.
Ann Arbor, Ml 48109
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Editorials represent a majority opinion of the Daily's Editorial Board
Hailing 'U'
Today's editorial is dedicated to that
wild and (some would say) crazy guy,
a political science professor from
California State Universiy, who raised
up the University from the depths of a
five-year, $20 million budget burnout to
the heights of academic snobdom by
awarding us the U.S. broze medal in
undergraduate and graduate
education. This loyal Maize-'n'-Blue
fan did what Bo's Boys couldn't do this
year - he brought home the roses and
finally put UCLA in their place (10th in
the nation). Sooooo, strike up the pep
band, tap the keg, let loose the
cheerleaders and the pom pon squad,
and let's raise our voices in song:
Hail to the Nation '(Education Standard
Hail to its staff of 50
Hail, hail to Jack Gourman the
college evaluator who thinks we is the
best.
Hail to the ed. school cutbacks
Hail to Hal Shapiro our hero
Hail, hail to (the University of)
Michigan and the bookworms of the
West.
(Editor's Note)
And also a special mention to all
those other top-notch University
programs that have fulfilled Gour-
man s mission "to make sure, if
possible, that every student should be
exposed to academic excellence." This
includes the University's com-
munications department which
received a third place ranking from
Gourman - undoubtedly for the right
fluff.
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LETTERS TO THE DAILY:
Tc
Typo insults French political system
r)'ST L OF ED.
To the Daily:
The typo at the very beginning
of your front page article "Fren-
ch Protest education control"
(Daily, March 4) was a shocking
illustration of what can go beyond
mere journalistic errors. The
unintended use of the word
"Soviet" instead of "Socialist"
was largely revelatory of a poor,
and unfortunately persistent,
misunderstanding in the popular
American press of the relation
between the two.
The paragraph: "The Soviet
government's plan to tighten con-
trol over France's educational
system has brought hundreds of
thousands of protesting teachers
and parents into the streets in
recent weeks" read apparently
well. Unfortunately, when we
look at the picture drawn in this
country of the Soviet Union
presented as the force of evil,
or when we hear the U.S. am-
bassador in Paris declaring on a
French national TV network that
Moscow has private contacts in
the Mitterand administration and
that French Communists
presentation of the French
political system.
This typo was even more unfor-
tunate in the context of the
present article as it commented
upon a reform proposed by the
Mitterand administration attem-
pting to generalize public
management over the high school
system. Everybody has been told
in this country that government
control over every single aspect
of the society is common practice
in the Soviet Union. The parallel
cannot obviously go any further.
These types of control have ab-
solutely nothing in common.
Your presentation of the reform,
like those of other newspapers,
failed to point out that the
proposed bill is not an attempt to
implement further control on the
French school system but to im-
plement public management.,
where it does not already exist.
The political debate in this
country, as far as foreign affairs
are concerned, is so polarized on
the Soviet Union that notions such
as socialism, communism, or
government control when applied
to other countries become
and again like any other -
newspaper in this country, is an
oversimplification of a complex
problem which certainly does not
deserve the reference to grossly
defined and inappropriate terms
when one has to deal with it.
Government involvement, as it
is the case in France, does not
necessarily mean reduction in
individual privacy or further con-
trol on the citizenry but should be
regarded as a policy choice
rather than a political or
ideological one. Your press is not
used to making this distinction
and I think it would be more than
appropriate to get away from
that. How many people in this
country are aware that one of the
major reforms President Mit-
terand put forth when he took of-
fice in 1981 was to decentralize
the bureaucratic machinery in
order to give more weight to
regional and local public policy
making? Is it an illustration of
what goes on in Eastern Europe?
The education reform bill curren-
tly under discussion is an attempt
to implement a uniform way of
regional decision-making: You
must refer in fact to one of the
functions of the regional offices of
the Ministry of Education which
obviously cannot make all
decisions in Paris and whose
structures were created several
decades ago. Once again you
proyide an oversimplification of
a part of the reform which has
been under discussion for the last
18 months. Although this over-
simplification, which is therefore
biased, is I assume unintended, it
largely misses the point about
French policy making which has
not become less negotiable since
1981. The conflict is currently un-
der serious negotiations and no
decisions will be made until all
parties reach some kind of
agreement. You should also be
aware that the number of people
protesting in the streets is not
always proportional, at least in
France, to the seriousness of the
issue at stake or the quality of
decision-making within the
government. And it is certainly
not because hundreds of thousan-
ds of people go out in the streets
that the government is on the
i