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OPINION
Page 4
Sunday, January 27, 1985
The MichiganI
Daily
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- 19
I
te a medbytigan M
Edited and managed by students at The University of Michigan
Federal cuts may harm 'U'
Vol. XCV, No. 97
420 Maynard St.
Ann Arbor, MI 48109
Editorials represent a majority opinion of the Daily's Editorial Board
Dragging rights
W ARNING: The Daily's editorial
board has determined that
government censorship is hazardous to
your health.
The latest challenge to free speech
comes from the National Advisory
Council on Drug Abuse, which last
week called for legislation to ban all
cigarette advertising and promotion.
The Reagan administration would do
well to follow through on its pledge for
less government intervention by
quashing this proposal before it gets
started.
The panel argued that cigarette ad-
vertising and sponsorship of concerts
and sports events mislead people about
the dangers involved in smoking.
While this may indeed be true, it, is
equally true that nearly all promotions
can be misconstrued in some way. If
the government bans cigarette adver-
tising, it might as well ben all adver-
tising which glamorizes potentially
dangerous substances.
Using such logic, we should get rid of
commercials featuring Hostess
Twinkies, which clearly glamorize the
dangers of munching the preser-
vative-and sugar-laden snack. Or
maybe we should eliminate adver-
tising for beer, which features people
clearly having fun while drinking
alcohol.
Cigarette advertising is subject to
the same truth in advertising laws as
other products, and the national anti-
smoking campaign can pursue change
by tightening enforcement of those
laws. Another approach to the
problem is increasing the resources
that educate the public about the
hazards of carcinogenic substances.
The greatest step the government
can take toward convincing people not
to smoke is to refrain from endorsing it
for purely political and economic
reasons. The huge subsidies which go
to the tobacco industry make all
government attempts at curbing the
smoking epidemic ring hollow.
Before Congress even considers an
outright ban on cigarette advertising
and promotion, it should take a long
hard look at what it has already done to
support what anti-smoking groups
have been fighting all along: the
powerful tobacco industry.
Rumors are surfacing in the nation's
capital about the Reagan Administration's at-
tempt to combat the federal defecit by
limiting the number of National Institutes of
Health (NIH) research grants. Those rumors
hit home this week.
Though final decisions on reductions of the
medical and health related grants will not be
unvieled until the president's budget is an-
nounced on February 4, the University's
Department of Research and Development
Administration (DRDA) already predicts
that research funding will be harder to find.
he Week
, "
According to Jim Randolf of DRDA no
existing researchers will have their grants
taken away, but new researchers should look
for privateyfunding instead of relying on the
government to foot the bill. The NIH curren-
tly is the largest single contributer of resear-
ch money to the University-representing
29.5 percent of the combined total.
Randolf assures that all money presently
funnelled to University research projects is
being used for legitimate work in various
fields. Since NIH grants money only for
medical and health related research, the cuts
present special problems for researchers who
may have to convince other federal agencies
like the Defense Department, or the Depar-
tment of Energy that their work is valuable
for the advancement of the medical sciences.
The NIH office in D.C. has refused to com-
ment about the possible reductions. The New
York Times last Monday reported that though
the administration cannot legally reduce the
funds to the NIH, it will instead limit the
number of grants which the agency can
distribute. The average NIH grant is between
$140,000 and $150,000.
PSN found guilty
On Thursday of last week, three members
of the Progressive Student Network were
convicted of trespassing for participating in a
sit-in the group conducted last March.
Eleven people were arrested at the demon-
stration, and the first three were tried and
found guilty last week. There will be a
pre-trial hearing for the others tomorrow.
Although the demonstrators were found
guilty and will face sentencing on Feb. 22, the
group felt the trial was a success.
"Our focus was not on getting a technical
acquittal," said Naomi Braine, one of the
demonstrators still to be tried.
The defendants blockaded an engineering
laboratory where they said a guidance
system for the Pheonix missle was being
researched. They refused to leave when the
trespass act was read to them.
The defense never tried to argue that this
"act" was not commited. What they wanted
the jury to decide was if what they did was a
crime. The jury decided it was, but even in
defeat something was accomplished.
The purpose of the sit-in was to draw atten-
tion to military research being done at the
University. Although the demonstrators were
given an opportunity to leave the laboratory
they were blockading before being arrested,
they all chose to stay and face the consequen-
ces of their actions.
The maximum penalty for trespassing is 30
days in jail and a $50 fine.
Pro-life protest
Members of local groups opposed to abor-
tion last week marked the 12th anniversary of
the Supreme Court decision legalizing most
abortions with speeches, prayers, and a
protest march to University Hospital.
More than 25 sign-toting anti-abortion
protesters showed up in the Diag at noon
Tuesday to lament the 1973 decision in Roe v.
Wade that gave American women the right to
choose to have an abortion.
Matthew Burchess, a member of a campus
pro-life group, briefly addressed the crowd to
proclaim that there is a consensus in the
medical community that human life begins at
conception. Supporters then joined in a
prayer led by Diag evangelist "Father" Mike
and marched on to the Observatory and East
Ann entrance of University Hospital.
Last year approximately 250 abortions
were performed at the University Hospital.
Local feminists celebrated the landmark
Supreme Court decision privately and
decided against venturing into the cold to
stage a counter-protest. Fortunately, local
abortion clinics said they escaped the violen-
ce that has been launched against clinics
nationwide.
Asbestos update
Lorch Hall continues to be plagued with
noise and inconvenience from construction,
forcing at least one University employee to
move out of her office. The construction
disturbances also lead to a meeting yesterday
afternoon between members of the Center for
Afro-American Studies, which is housed in
Lorch Hall, and LSA administration manager
Bland Leverette. The meeting focused on
future plans to move the center's offices to
another location.
"It's very stressful to be in the building
where there's so much noise and dust and
asbestos," said Maria Hall, a graduate
student in sociology who has relocated her
project in another building.
Lorch Hall employees have complained
about the construction difficulties, as well as
exposure to asbestos.
"There are a number of minor incon-
veniences that shouldn't have existed in the
first place," said Garry Fleming, Associate
Project Director with the center. "These
things keep piling up. They have a
cumulative effect."
Bland Leverette said that Lorch Hall is safe
and added that one of the options offered to
the center was to move their offices to
another part of the building. The other option
was to move the center's offices to East
Engineering temporarily.
Lorch Hall is being renovated for the per-
manent housing of the Institute for Public
Policies. The Center for Afro-American
Studies will move permanently to West
Engineering as soon as renovation there is
completed.
Ali endorsement
He didn't fly like a butterfly. Nor did he
sting like a bee. Muhammed Ali, who came to
the Nectarine Ballroom to endorse Ypsilanti
mayoral candidate Faz Husain, uncharac-
teristically spoke in a quiet voice and signed
autographs for the crowd.
Ali, only 43 years old, was not the outspoke'A
boxing champ of the '60s and '70s that many
fans expected. There were some bright
moments. At one point Ali addressed a
heckler with his characteristic, "Be cool,
fool," but for the most part he seemed to have
aged beyond his years.
The former world heavyweight champion is
currently undergoing neurological testing
and there are rumors that he may be suf-
fering from Parkinson's disease.
His doctors at the Neurological Institute at
New York's Columbia-Presbyterian Medical
Center said that Ali has been suffering from
symptoms similar to those of the disease. I
These include slurred speech, loss of coor-
dination, reduced muscle strength, and per-
sistent fatigue.
The reception of Ali was mostly
positive-fans surrounded him, women ran
up and kissed him-but one dejected fan
summed up the underlying mood of the
crowd. "I wish I'd seen him 15 years ago," he
said.
Week in Review was: compiled by Daily
editors Peter Williams- and Jackie Young
and Daily staff writers Tom Hrach and
Arona Pearlstein.
Bipartisan cutbacks
WORKING TO bring the defense
budget under control ought to be
a priority for everybody in
Washington, but for the past few years
it has been associated more with the
Democrats than the Republicans. For
that reason, Senate majority leader
Robert Dole's proposal to freeze the
defense budget is particularly com-
mendable.
Dole, in conjunction with other
Senate leaders, has been working on a
budget proposal independent of the
White House version. Under Dole's
plan, the $230 billion deficit will be cut
by $50 billion in 1986, and by $115 billion
in 1988.
Defense spending is one of the least
beneficial uses for tax dollars. It
heightens world tensions; produces a
commodity which cannot be returned
to the economy; and fails to create as
many jobs as other federally contrac-
ted production.
Dole's plan faces stiff competition
from Defense Secretary Caspar Wein-
berger's plan, which calls for a six
percent increase in defense spending.
President Reagan currently backs the
Weinberger plan, but different wings
of the administration have criticized it
and consequently slowed the drafting
process.
In drafting his proposal, Dole has
shown that not all Republicans
inherently support defense spending
increases. Before significant steps can
be taken toward controlling the defen-
se budget, both political parties will
have to lend their support to that goal.
Dole's proposal represents Republican
support, which coupled with similar
proposals from the Democrats may
result in the much-needed freeze and,
hopefully, begin on the path toward a
reduction in defense spending.
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Students governing quality
4
By Robert Hon igman
Last in a series offour articles.
The fourth level of understanding revolves
around the question of why good and humane
people run callous and self-serving in-
stitutions. This is not just a problem of
universities, but of nations and civilizations.
The Nature
of the
University
There is someting about human institutions
which enlists the allegiance of people and ties
their self-interest to the survival and success
of the institution-so that even as the in-
stitution becomes corrupt and self-serving,
good people cling to it, believe in it, and refuse
to see the evil it does.
A modest example would be the Regents of
the University of Michigan. For the past
decade they have been mostly liberal
deepest personal beliefs and values in order
to help the University succeed as a business?
Part of the answer lies in the fact that the
regents receive an enormous psychic income
from the prestige of the University, and this
income stream has made them partners in
the University business. They are totally un-
conscious of their self-interest, but it's ob-
vious that all the top people in the University
are obsessed with prestige and social success,
and have hitched their wagons to the Univer-
sity star.
It's not the lies, but the half-truths that
power human institutions. Where the self-
interest of the group conflicts with the truth,
it's the half-truth that is adopted as the in-
stitutional norm-and no single individual
can dislodge it.
Does research enhance teaching? Then why
are research faculty given lighter teaching
loads? Does the University serve many con-
stituencies? Then why does it hide behind in-
stitutional autonomy and academic freedom
whenever it's asked to take a moral stand that
conflicts with its business interests? Anyone
who questions these institutional half-truths
becomes an enemy of the institution.
Nor are university presidents the wise
leaders we imagine. They are hired as
technicians, much like football coaches or
airline pilots, to field a winning team or reach
only change the way that institutions are
governed by providing mechanisms of
democratic feedback and checks and balan-
ces to make them responsible to the people
they are supposed to serve.
We've forgotten that the regents were
elected throughout most of the University's
history to act as substitute parents for studen-
ts, and that, absent that function, they have no
other real purpose. A state board could keep
the University honest.
Perhaps it's time to have regents elected
exclusively by students, or make the Univer-
sity president pass a student referendum
every four years to keep his job.
There has to be some way to make the
quality of undergraduate education and the
quality of student housing real issues in the
life of the institution-issues that people'1
jobs live or die on, and where reputations are
wagered and are won or lost through actual
achievement, not paper promises.
In the meantime, I feel sorry for both the
powerful and the weak in an institution ob-
sessed with prestige and success at any cost.
The powerful life in a world of illusions con-
tinuously reinforced by the success of their
institutions, while the weak must endure and
try to remain sane.
That is perhaps why we always come to
love best those artist and poets who warned us
I ~/ ~in'