OPINION
Page 4 Sunday, April 21, 1985 The Michigan Daily
Edited and managed by students at The University of Michigan
Bikes exorcised on
Diag
Vol. XCV, No. 161
420 Maynard St.
Ann Arbor, MI 48109
Editorials represent a majority opinion of the Daily's Editorial Board
Pyrrhic victory
After collecting abandoned bikes and parts
of bikes from around campus, they turned a
backyard into a factory and assembled the
campus' newest form of transportation: The
Green Bike. Monday they wheeled 16 of them
into the Diag and completed the most bizarre
and interesting part of the project: the exor-
cism. Once the material value had been
"exorcised" out of the two dozen two
wheelers- the project was complete. Sixteen
bicycles painted in a dull green, were distrib-
uted around campus for public use.
The rules are simple. In addition to
following all of the applicable traffic laws, the
riders must use the bikes only in the central
campus area and should never lock the bikes.
It's a quick, gas-saving way to get to class,
ride across campus, or get home safety when
stranded alone at night. One Daily
photographers also found the bikes to be a
convenient way of getting to assignments.
You do have to be sort of careful, and it's
THE REAGAN Administration won
another key victory Tuesday when
the Senate Appropriations committee
approved a bill that would send funds
to guerrillas fighting the Sandinista
government in Nicaragua. That vic-
tory may have cost the Administration
more than it planned, however.
The proposal, which still must be
voted on by both houses of Congress,
calls for $14 billion in total aid to five
separate groups of rebels known
collectively as the Contras.
Under the current proposal none of
the aid could be used for military
operations for two months to pressure
the Sandinistas into meeting represen-
tatives of the Contras. The Sandinistas
have steadfastly refused any such
talks.
The proposal was, approved by a
margin of only 15-13 however and some
senators who voted to approve it claim
they will oppose it in the full Senate.
Realizing the slim chance that the bill
has of passing, the Reagan Ad-
ministration has announced support
for an amendment proposed by Rep.
Trent Lott (R-Miss.) which would
prevent the U.S. funds from every
being used for military supplies.
Such an administration proposal is
pointless however, because of the very
structure of the Contra army. The
Contras work from positions from
neighboring countries and have thus
far been unsuccessful in capturing any
territory in Nicaragua. They have no
use for agricultural, educational, or
long term medical aid. Any resources
they have will be used for military
operations or indirectly for food and
immediate medical treatment.
Furthermore, the fact that the Con-
tras have been unable to capture any
Nicaraguan territory suggests that
they do not have the popular support
necessary to win the war. In supporting
them, the United States is prolonging a
war that brings little hope of altering
the situation in any positive way.
Fortunately, the Lott proposal faces
a stiff battle for passage. Congress
seems aware of the insubstantial
nature of the amendment. The goal of
peace in the area would thus be served
by denying aid to the Contras and by
putting economic pressure on the San-
dinistas to insure that they work to best
represent the needs and concerns of all
the Nicaraguan people.
The Week
in R evieLaw
.*!
-i
}
k
*s
Student aid
F PRESIDENT Reagan's 1986 fiscal
budget proposal meets with
Congressional approval, federal
student aid will be reduced by $1.48
billion-a substantial chunk of the 1985
appropriations which totalled $7.92
billion.
While Education Secretary William
Bennett contends the cuts are aimed at
cleaning up a system corrupted by
well-heeled students vacationing in
Florida courtesy of federal funding,
the fact is that thousands of deserving
and truly needy individuals will be
hardest hit.
The University's Office of Financial
Aid figures that the proposal will out
Pell Grants, College Work Study,
Guaranteed Student Loans and ap-
proximately $26.9 million of the
current $36.4 million in (direct and
guaranteed) federal funds now being
allocated to Michigan students. The
cuts would affect three-fourths of those
12,000 students receiving aid.
It is anticipated that the Ad-
ministration's plan will face strong, bi-
partisan opposition in Washington.
Rep. James Jeffords (R-Vt.) has said
he is confident Congress will "reject
the shortsighted, destructive
proposals."'Congress is most likely to
respond to the administrative
proposals through either a "recoin-
ciliation" attempt, or by extending the
Higher Education Act. Either of these
tactics would enable the lawmakers to
alter the policies or "reauthorize''
threatened programs.
Reprive may also be realized if
Governor Blanchard's proposed 33
percent increase in state spending for
education comes through.
Bennett and his colleagues' callous
attitudes and public comments have
made lawmakers wary and attracted
an unusual amount of negative atten-
tion to the aid slashing proposal.
Last week two members of Bennett's
staff managed to alienate Sen. Lowell
Weicker (R-Conn) by announcing to a
Senate subcommittee that education
programs for the handicapped were
"selfish" and "misguided.'' The
father of a handicapped child, Sen.
Weicker pressed for an explaination of
the statement and learned that the two
Department of Education employees
believe all major federal education
programs should be abolished.
Certainly, some folk will always
abuse the system. But the reality is
that those relatively few devious aid
seekers won't be weeded out by the
cuts; some clever CPA can always be
hired to find another loophole in the
law to allow for a little education
allocation.
As 1985 marks the 20-year anniver-
sary of President Johnson's Great
Society ideals and policy toward
academic advancements, it is an ap-
propriate time to augment, not attack
the nation's most precious investment:
education.
advisable to test the brakes before you go
riding down Hill Street. The bikes were
visible all week, and if enough people care
enough about the new transportation system
the bikes will be available for many years to
come.
Monday's demonstration combined with the
overdue but welcome summer weather drew
a tremendous crowd, although some were a
bit confused about the meaning of the bizarre
ceremony.
Organizers said the ritual and their "Ar-
tificial Dissemination" newsletter were
designed to both launch the bike project and
draw attention to a "Bikes, Not Bombs"
campaign for the people in Nicaragua.
Remember - the Green Bike is not locked.
Protests continue
In a nationwide flash of student activism,
that has drawn repeated comparisons to
student uprisings in the 1960s, demonstrations I
continued last week around the country.
At the University of California at Berkeley,
over 100 students were arrested for staging a
sleep-in at Sproul Hall. They are calling for
the University of California system to divest
its estimated $1.7 billion from South Africa.
In spite of the arrests, the sleep-incontinues
and has inspired sympathy rallies across
campus.
Meanwhile, a similar sleep-in at Columbia
University in New York entered its third
week. On Monday, the Rev. Jesse Jackson
spoke before the demonstrators, prompting
President MichaelSovern to issue a promise
not to have the protestors arrested. Last
week, a judge had issued a temporary
restraining order which expired on Monday
that banned the University from any such ac-
tion.
At Harvard University, a rally in support of
the Berkeley and Columbia protests drew a
estimated crowd of 5,000 people. Cornell,
Rutgers, and Yale Universities held sym-
pathy rallies as well.
In Ann Arbor, the newly elected MSA voted
to send a letter of support to both Berkeley
and Columbia.
This week's Week in Review was com-
piled by Daily staffer Jody Becker and
Daily editors Neil Chase and Andrew
Eriksen.
Daily Photo by DAN HABIB
A green-clad 'exorcist' drives the evil out of a bicycle on the Diag Monday. Several hundred
spectators cheered the members of the group as the ceremony continued.
0j
Star Wars
University researchers and professors who
have submitted proposals to the Department
of Defense to conduct "Star Wars" research
and development came under fire this week
as student protesters converged on the
University's Office of Research, Develop-
ment, and Administration.
About 80 students protested the Univer-
sity's decision to pursue the funding without
student input.
The University has submitted four
proposals for $4,366,000 in Star Wars research
funds to the Strategic Defense Initiative
Organization, a special government office
created last year.
Reagan originally announced his Strategic
Defense Initiative in a nationally-televised
speech last year.
The Progressive Student Network plans to
initiate a University-wide forum in the fall.
this week to cut the medical technology
program at the end of the 1986-87 academic
year.
Thirty juniors and seniorstcurrently in the
program will he allowed to receive their
degrees under the plan. But the handful of
freshmen who came to the University hoping
to get into the program are going to be left out
in the cold.
Sandra Gluck, director of the program, said
that the best way to handle the freshman
situation would be to continue the program
another year.
The one-year extension would cost the
University $186,000.
The program has no tenured faculty, so the
instructors will either be relocated within the
Universtiy or helped to find other positions
outside the University.
There is little doubt, however, about the
quality of the program. "We consider our-
selves the best in the state," said Gluck, 'It's
been said we have the reputation as one of the
top programs in the country."
Med Tech cut
The University's Board of Regents decided
Stand- on abortion opens rift
By Kathy Burke
To some, they're modern versions of Galileo and Joan of Arc.
To others, they're the devil incarnate.
"They" are 24 nuns who signed an ad published in the New York
Times last fall stating that "a diversity of opinions regarding abortion
exists among committed Catholics," and that the church's official
condemnation of abortion is not the only "legitimate" Catholic
position.
It is unlikely the nuns anticipated the consequences- they have been
told to recant or face expulsion from their religious communities. And
it is unlikely the Vatican officials who made that demand anticipated
the uproar it would provoke.
The church hierarchy "are unrealistic and out of touch with the
people," said Sister Margaret Ellen Traxler, who now faces expulsion
after 44 years in the Notre Dame order.
All this has become even more a matter of particular concern to
religious women since three of the four priests and brothers who
signed the ad have recanted.
In its new Code of Canon Law which took effect over a year ago, the
Vatican ruled that all female clerics-nearly 120,000 in over 30 U.S. or-
ders-will have to alter their lifestyles. Many nuns who moved into
apartments to form the smaller communities urged by Vatican II
must now return to "their own religious house."
The Sacred Congregation For Religious and Secular Institutes
(SCRIS), the Vatican agency which oversees religious communities,
is a largely male body, whose officials "see themselves as possessing
the truth, as guardians of women, as protectors of the past," in the
words of one nun, former head of an order. Writing anonymously in
the National Catholic Reporter, she compared these officials to wife
guilty of such conduct."
So far none of the women who signed has repudiated the ad, nor have
the superiors demanded retractions.
The matter cannot be settled quietly. The alleged offense was too
public. More important, the nuns signed the document for "pastoral
and political reasons," according to Sr. Donna Quinn, a Dominican
who is president of Chicago Catholic Women and works as a counselor
in an inner city women's shelter.
"The ad was never intended to be in defiance of the Vatican, or to be
pro-abortion," she said. "Women signed it out of sensitivity to other
women's problems with the Reagan Administration." "Having borne
two children, I think abortion is a very sad thing," she continued.
"But my feeling is that as long as the church is as misogynistic as it is,
abortion may be some women's only way out. I look forward to the
time when there is no need for it, but meanwhile, women face such
problems as the irresponsibility of men, date rape, spouse rape, ansi
the church's unwillingness o discuss birth control issues."
Unwillingness to discuss seems to be key in this matter. Male .
theologians whose teachings deviate from official doctrine are called
in to discuss their views, but not the nuns.
"To SCRIS officials, the issue is abortion," noted the Leadership
Conference of Women Religious, LCWR, but "to many signers the
issue is dialogue."
Cardinal Joseph Bernardin, who chairs the Pro-Life Activities
Commitee of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, has written
that the ad "directly challenged the church's constant teaching about
the immorality of abortion," and that expulsion "may have o be in-
voked." But he, too, joined in the call for a "sincere attempt to
resolve, through dialogue, the serious problem which has arisen."
For now, the "dialogue" has spread for beyond the church and onto
TV ta lk t wq-nv~roP whic ha anr nuv nwrn.4- ennnr fn
!C= a-~wl.\21 & ~Z