Administrators set on adopting
code
By LAURIE DELATER
Last in a series
As students try to drum up opposition and the
faculty attempts to formulate an opinion about
the proposed code governing student behavior
outside the classroom, administrators say they
are determined to put a code on the Univer-
'sity's books, perhaps even by the end of the
school year.
"I can make a prediciton that we will have a
code at the University. And I would say that we
would have a code by the end of this academic
Iyear," said Business Prof. William Colburn,
former chairman of the University committee
which originally drafted the code.
UNIVERSITY President Harold Shapiro
would not set a deadline, but said he is
definitely pushing the proposed code.
"I'm determined," he said. "But I'm not in a
hurry."
For close to eight months now, the ad-
ministration has been publicly pushing for the
code, attempting to convince the students,
faculty, and ultimately the University regents
that the code is needed.
THEIR MOTIVES range from paternalism
to fears that the University cannot adequately
protect itself from lawsuits or provide a safe
environment for research and learning.
And although administrators have en-
couraged student input into the drafting and
revisions of the code, they have not ruled out
sidestepping student leaders and passing a
code without their consent.
Administrators argue that perhaps the most
important reason for adopting a code is to
protect the University from lawsuits charging
negligence.
DAN SHARPHORN, a University policy
researcher who has worked extensively on the
code, said the University may be vulnerable to
lawsuits charging that student security stan-
dards are not adequate.
"If students get drunk in dorms and someone
breaks his neck, we'll lose in a second in any
court" under the current University rules,
Sharphorn said.
The code could be used in court to show that
security standards do exist, he said.
ALTHOUGH the University does not have
any negligence suits pending against it, univer-
sities nationwide are facing more and more
suits each year, said Bill Lemmer, an attorney
for the University's general council.
"Because there are (no suits) against the
University doesn't mean that much," he said.
"In the legal world what you want to do.. . is a
little preventive maintenance. You don't
want to go to court.''
Administrators also say the code is needed to
give the University a freer hand to punish or
expel students that it believes have committed
crimes on campus.
UNDER CURRENT Univesity rules there is
no formal procedure for expelling a student
and the University cannot take action against a
student if a civil or criminal proceeding is
being conducted at the same time.
"We cannot continue to have our hands tied
when some agency downtown gets involved,"
said Virginia Nordby, a legal advisor to the
president.
Although administrators see the proposed
code and judicial system as quicker, and less
bureaucratic than the public courts, they say
that the system would not violate students'
rights to due process or a fair trial.
A FEDERAL district judge in Michigan
upheld a college's right to prosecute a student
internally in January, 1983 when a Ferris State
College senior failed to win an injunction to
stop an internal hearing.
The student had been arrested off-campus
by local police for selling illegal drugs, accor-
ding to Carl Brevitts, an attorney for the
college.
'Administrators also said the code will also
provide a simple mechanism for studnents to
work out problems internally without turning
to criminal courts. Fran Foster, housing
security supervisor, said the less serious cases
of assault or harassment could be dealt with
under the code.
"I'VE HAD A student tell me, 'I was
assaulted by another student in the UGLi,'"
Johnson said. "I have to say there's no where
(she) can go to aggrieve that."
Despite all their efforts to sell the code to
student leaders, however, administrators are
See 'U', Page 2
Ninety-five Years_
of5l1iYellow
Editorial Freedom More sun and temperatures
reaching 80 degrees this after-
noon.
Vol. XCV, No. 15 Copyright 1984, The Michigan Daily Ann Arbor, Michigan - Saturday; September 22, 1984 Fifteen Cents Eight Pages
Regents
oppose
tax
rollback
By ERIC MATTSON
The 'University's Board of Regents,
by a vote of 6-0, voted yesterday to con-
demn the Voter's Choice ballot
proposal, which would allow citizens to
vote on most tax measures throughout
the state, and could cost the University
millions of dollars in state aid.
Most analysts agree that, if passed,
Voter's Choice - Proposal C on the
Nov. 6 ballot - would roll back state and
local property taxes to their 1981 levels
which, according to 'Rtegent Gerald
Dunn .(D-Garden City), could cause a
drastic cut in state appropriations to
the University.
IN AN UNCHARACTERISTICALLY
political move, the regents urged
University leaders - including Presi-
dent Harold Shapiro - to campaign
against the proposal because the effect
on the University could be "absolutely
horrendous," Dunn said.
According to Richard Kennedy, vice
president for state relations, the
University could lose nearly $20 million
in state aid if the proposal passes. And
"in the worst of all possible worlds,"
Kennedy said, the regents may be for-
ced to raise tuition in the middle of the
school year.
"That kind of one-year hit would be
enormously difficult to absorb," he
said.
IF PROPOSAL C is approved by
voters in November, tax rates would be
rolled back to their December, 1981
levels unless a special election is held to
approve the higher rates.
In addition to approving any change
in taxes, voters would have to okay in-
creases in other state fees, such as
licenses, unless the hikes were first
passed by four-fifths of the state
legislature.
Regent Thomas Roach (D-Saline)
said he voted for the board's resolution
partly because a minority of legislators
could force tax bills into the public's
hands. "You don't get much closer to
tyranny than that," he said.
UNIVERSITY President Harold
Shapiro said "I don't think the Univer-v
sity of Michigan would go away if this
were passed," but he added that he
would campaign against the measure
because of the large loss in revenue the
University could face.
If the proposal passes Dunn said, "it
would be a disaster for the state and the
University."
See TAX, Page 3
Z. .Z Z -Z-Z-Z-z-z-z-z- An ardent bookworm catches some shut eye outside the Michigan League yesterday afternoon.
Baker questions legality
of bankruptcy suit
Local bar owner sparked,
U-Club probe, oficial says
By LAURIE DELATER
University Regent Deane Baker (R-
Ann Arbor) Thursday contested a
petition filed against him by a Saline
building firm that is trying to force him
into bankruptcy.
York Contracting Inc. filed the
petition with the Michigan Bankruptcy
Court last August in an attempt to win
payment for past bills from Baker's
now defunct firm, through bankruptcy.
IN 1982, York filed suit against the
Deane Baker Co. of Dearborn, charging
that Baker's company failed to pay for
work done on Newport West Con-
dominiums in Ann Arbor.
Attorneys for Baker's firm said the
company would not pay for the work
because the work was unsatisfactory.
Last December Washtenaw circuit
Court Judge William Ager ordered
Baker's company to pay York $24,198 to
settle the dispute. But Baker's firm
never paid and was dissolved a month
later on Jan. 11, 1984, after Baker with-
drew all of the assets from the firm.
YORK THEN filed the petition to for-
ce Baker's defunct firm into bankrup-
tcy, which would force Baker to pay off
his creditors with the money he took out
of the firm.
In his statement filed Thursday,
Baker said York could not continue the
suit unless at least two other creditors
joined the firm.
State law says that if a company owes
money to more than 12 creditors, at
least three must jointly file a bankrup-
tcy suit. If there are 12 or fewer
creditors, only one must petition.,
BAKER SAID he has 17 creditors,
See BAKER, Page 2
By GEORGEA KOVANIS
A local bar owner is responsible for the State Liquor Con-
trol Commission's (LCC) crackdown on the Michigan
Union's University Club bar, an LCC official confirmed
yesterday.
According to Walter Keck, deputy director of the LCC's en-
forcement division, a complaint filed with the LCC in May by
an Ann Arbor bar owner sparked the investigation which has
lead to at least one citation against the U-Club.
THE BAR owner who filed the complaint has asked to
remain anonymous, Keck said.
According to Keck, the complaint charged that the U-Club,
which operates under a special "club license' served alcohol
to non-club members. This license allows the club to sell
alcohol to members of the University Club -,students, staff
members, faculty and alumni are automatically members.
Guests of these memers are also allowed to buy drinks.
"We don't just bounce around from one club to another,"
Keck said, adding that the LCC probably would not have
launched its investigation if the complaint had not been filed.
ON AUGUST 28, the U-Club was cited with one violation of
the state's liquor control laws after a liquor control officer
was served a drink on July 18.
The club will also more than likely be cited for an identical
incident which took place on Sept. 8, Keck said.
.He added that the report on the second violation has been
forwarded to the state attorney general who is expected to
decide next week whether or not to issue a second formal
citation against the U-Club.
Union director Frank Cianciola, has acknowledged the
slip-ups. "We probably weren't as diligent (in checking mem-
berships as we need be," Cianciola said.
AND IT'S this lack of diligence that has some local bar
See U-CLUB, Page 2
Baker
...files opposition
mTODAY.
Walden three
AN ENGLISH literature student in Kenmore, N.Y.
who has been threatened with $50-a-day-fines
unless he trims his yard says he will fight,
to keep the yard full of wildflowers-some stan-
ding feet tall. In a ruling Thursday ordering Stephen Ken-
Poly sci 111?
P RESIDENT REAGAN owns the whole world except
for China, Japan, Germany and Russia. He has white
hair like George Washington and his job involves arguing
with the "other one" who wants to be president. That is a
highly selective composite of how first graders at Holmes
Elementary School in Spring Lake view the nation's chief
executive. As part of a recent class project, the first
graders were asked four questions about the president.
Here are some of their answers: What is the president?
Someone who owns the whole world.., except China and
are hurt.""Makes people happy." "Pays water bills."
"Bosses wars." "Tells people what they'd like to know."
"Takes care of peoples' money." "Tells you there's anger."
"Helps army men if they've been shot in the war."
Non returnables
(CHINA'S ANCIENT culinary arts are taking a quantum
Most chopsticks used in Chinese restaurants are plastic or
wood, given a quick rinse after each use. Disposable chop-
sticks, lont used by restaurants in Japan, Hong Kong and
South Korea, are mass-produced of cheap wood and wrap-
ped in a sheath of paper.
On the inside ...
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The Oninion Page reviews The Michigan Review
... Arts