4
OPINION
Page 4 Tuesday, October 8, 1985 The Michigan Dail
d ie an a nivsto Mia
Edited and managed by students at The University of Michigan
No handouts, just a hand
Vol. XCVI, No. 24
420 Maynard St.
Ann Arbor, MI 48109
Editorials represent a majority opinion of the Daily's Editorial Board
Quest for a code
P RESIDENT SHAPIRO is
getting impatient.
It has been eleven months since
he charged the resurrected
University Council with working
out a code of nonacademic conduct
that would be acceptable to studen-
ts, faculty, and administrators,
and now he wants bypass the
Council and submit a version of his
already discredited code to the
regents.
Although Shapiro has yet to
publicly announce his intentions,
two Council members as well as
Michigan Student Assembly
President Paul Josephson confirm
that in private meetings Shapiro
threatened to bypass the Council
unless it showed it had made
significant progress toward draf-
ting a final version.
The University Administration
first proposed the Code in 1983 but
offered several revisions in the
face of rising student objection, the
last one issued in November.
Shapiro then reestablished the
University Council, made up of
three administrators, three faculty
members, and three students, and
asked it to draft yet another
revision of the code.
But the Council took Shapiro a
step farther. In its early meetings,
the group decided that rather than
work to revise the "November
Code", it would begin by
xestablishing the needs of the
University community and then
proceeding to address them.
Subsequently the Council has
debated whether a code should be
punitive, and has proposed a
framework of "metarules" that
would allow for decentralized
guidelines throughout the Univer-
sity.
Such a process is necessarily
more time-consuming than mere
doctoring, yet it is also far more
substantial.
The November Code was as rife
with inconsistency, vagueness, and
disregard for the civil rights of the
students as any of its predecessors.
Fine-tuning the Code, as Shapiro
seems to have wanted the Council
to do, could never result in
anything more than either an inef-
fective document or an eminently
unfair one.
The Council, composed as it is of
representatives of the three largest
segments of the University com-
munity, is an appropriate arena in
which to address the concerns and
necessary actions of the Univer-
sity. That process will necessarily
take a long time.
The Administration took several
years to draft its first version of the
code, and so it seems unrealistic to
expect the Council - whose mem-
bers must also carry on their other'
occupations - to be able to draft
one in a substantially shorter time.
Shapiro might have an argument
for rushing the code if he were able
to demonstrate an immediate need
for it, but so far he has been unable
to show any harmful deficiencies in
the essentially dinosauric set of
rules dealing with large scale
student demonstrations that have
been in place since 1973.
Shapiro contends that those rules
are useless because they have
never been used, yet he has failed
to cite even a single incident in
which the University was unable to
either to seek restitution for
damages or to protect the safety of
the University community as a
result of the weaknesses.
Without a pressing need for a
code of nonacademic conduct,
Shapiro can have no valid reason
for pressuring the Council to
establish a goal pettier than a
thoughtful analysis of the problems
that do exist in the community and
a just means of dealing with them.
For all of his pique over the
Council's "delay", Shapiro has yet
to answer the question the
Michigan Student Assembly and
faculty senate have been asking
him for some time: why is there
such an urgent need for a code?
And until he answers that
question, he will himself continue
to hold up the establishment of just
regulations for nonacademic con-
duct.
By Roderick Linzie
The University of Michigan community
should welcome, with some skepticism, but
welcome nonetheless, Clarence Pendleton,
the Chairman of the U.S. Commission of Civil
Rights. The Michigan Federalist Society, his
host, are a greater mystery, due to this con-
troversial appearance in the life of the
University community. What are their group
goals and objectives? How many chapters
exist across the U.S.? How are these law
school students preparing to advance their
ideological perspectives on the issues of
racism, affirmative action, peace and justice
after Bush, Pendleton and Reagan retire?
These remain important questions even after
Pendleton has left the campus.
There are several key questions which
students of tonight's proceedings should con-
sider.
First, a more informative topic would be
"does racism and sexism still exist in the
Reagan administration?" Mr. Pendleton has
a close and controversial relationship to U.S.
Attorney General Edwin Meese (former ad-
visor to California Governor Ronald Reagan).
These ties involved controversial bank loans
to Meese by the Greater American Federal
Savings and Loan Association while Pen-
dleton was a board member. Meese leads a
shrewd effort to limit federal civil rights en-
forcement.
Meese's earlier attempts to get President
Reagan to sign the draft of an executive order
was unsuccessful. The order striking down all
requirements for numerical remedies for
discrimination, withdraws the legal basis for
government contractors to "utilize any
numerical quota, goal, or ratio." It takes a
passive, "good faith" approach to enfor-
cement of Executive Order 11246.
President Johnson signed EO 11246 in 1965
and prohibited discrimination by companies
and institutions that hold federal contracts. It
requires government contractors to provide
equal employment opportunity through af-
Linzie, a graduate student in sociology,
is a member of the Black Student Union.
Chassy
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firmative action. Furthermore, EO 11246 is
based upon the use of numerical hiring and
promotion goals with timetables as a remedy
when the employment of women and
minorities has been disproportionately low in
relation to their numbers in the available
work force. Pendleton's rhetorical statemen-
ts help his associates undercut basic fair-
employment law by deflecting the focus from
the consequences of discrimination to the
motivation: result vs. intent to discriminate.
Does evidence indicate that there has been
a decline in the significance of race? A recent
Harris poll indicates that 75 percent of all
Americans believe that special programs to
assure equal opportunity are fair and
necessary to overcome past discrimination.
Some consequences of recent and historical
discrimination are the differences in family
and personal income. In 1983 the median in-
come of Black families - $26,389 was com-
pared to White families - $32,569. For the
same year's full time work the median of
Black American males is only 71 percent of
White American males: $16,410 vs. $23,114.
The poverty and infant mortality rates
among Black, Hispanic, and Native
Americans are intolerably high. (1983 poverty
among Blacks was 32.4 percent. .Black
Americans were 12 percent of the U.S.
population.)
The question becomes, how can this
generation of Americans prepare to extend
the struggle for equity, justice and peace? We
must direct the changes that affect race
relations and progress, rather than to simply
go through those changes. Pendleton's con-
cern that Black Americans develop respect
for our own institutions, take advantage of
opportunities and collectively help to deter-
mine the destiny of American is proactive.
It is not new, however.
Self-determination and internal develop-
ment continue to be central to the struggles of
American Black, Hispanic, Native American
and Asian peoples. However, American
majorities enjoy the privilege of labelling
those struggles as isolationist.
For example, in the cases of hiring and
promotion of police and firefighters (e.g.
Detroit and Miami) such attempts at self-
reliance and "pulling oneself up by the boot-
!1
straps" have been repeatedly attacked as
being "reverse discrimination". The current
generation must begin to reshift the role of
government and assign new tasks to officials
on the federal payroll.
The role of government should be that of a
neutral actor, but not in the traditional sense
of neutrality and objectivity. This actor could
help to balance out inequities which occur
over time. This new actor must accept the dif-
ficult task of closing gaps of inequality caused
by the accumulation of advantage, prestige,
power, or status of any group (i.e., race, sex,
or class) over others in society..
The meritocracy that Pendleton idealizes
sounds great. However, the continued
existence of racism and sexism both in in-
stitutional and individual forms in America,4
mandate that we continue to act affirmatively
to overcome them.
If Pendleton answers yes to the Federalist
Society's question, he will thereby give fur-
ther support for American institutions and of-
ficials to act affirmatively in order to correct
the consequences of racism. If he answers no,
then it is suggested that he tour America.
Portions of Michigan, Ohio, Southern
California, or "Ole Dixie", where President
Reagan launched his 1980 bid for the White 4
House, would be enlightening spots. While on
tour he could apply for membership in any of
the local chapters of the Klu Klux Klan.
When the Klan is disbanded then, the Civil
Rights Commission and organizations may
no longer be needed. Or better yet, Pendleton
could review the racism which surfaced in the
Chicago mayoral election. He could report the
accounts of a rise in crosses burned on the
lawns of Black families in America's cities or
college sorority houses for an update on the
existence of racism.
But then, he may choose not to answer the
question at all. In either case, Black,
Hispanic, Asian, and Native Americans and
women are not asking for a handout, Com-
missioner Pendleton, just a hand!
Clarence Pendleton will speak this af-
ternoon at 6p.m. in the Hutchins room of
the Law School.
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SOVIET FOREIGN Minister
Eduard Shevardnadze recently
delivered an arms proposal to the
Reagan Whitehouse calling for a 50
percent cut in U.S. and Soviet nuc-
lear weapons. The reduction would
include all nuclear weapons,
whether missile warheads or
nuclear bombs aboard warships,
which were considered capable of
hitting their respective countries.
In return, the Soviets proposed a
ban on all research into what they
called "space-strike" weapons
(SDI). Although "impressed" by
Soviet initiatives, Reagan objects
to the Russian scheme on two basic
grounds: the necessary abandon-
ment of his cherished "Star Wars"
project and the "blatant one-
sidedness" in the reduction of
medium range based missiles.
Reagan and Secretary of State
Schultz remain committed to the
Strategic Defense Initiative as a
means by which to make nuclear
weapons obsolete. Unfortunately,
the Reagan administration in-
correctly believes that such a
commitment in itself will bring the
Russians to the bargaining table.
Reagan fails to understand the
surprising. Contrary to Reagan's
belief, SDI will serve only to
frighten the Soviets and stifle
debate ion real arms reduction
negotiations.
Understandably, the Soviet
proposal is not perfect. The
proposed 50 percent reduction in of-
fensive weapons initially sounds
appealing. As the Reagan ad-
ministration correctly points out,
the Soviets would still have
medium range weapons targeted
on every NATO capital in Europe.
Since the Soviet proposal per-
tains only to weapons directed at
the Soviet Union and U.S., the
Soviets would gain a considerable
advantage because much of their
middle range weapons are pointed
at Western Europe and would not
be affected.
In contrast these reductions would
remove U.S. land-based, submarine-
based, and air-launched missiles
targeted for the USSR. Thus, as
proposed, the 50/50 plan would give
the Soviets a decided advantage in
terms of medium range weaponry.
Unquestionably, the present
Soviet arms reduction proposal is
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....
LETTERS
Moose' mascot embarrasses University
To the Daily:
A recent "stunt" at the
Michigan-Maryland football
game on Sept. 28, and the
publicity it has received, have
left a bad taste in the mouths of
at least two die-hard Michigan
fans, and probably many others.
While sitting in our hard-
earned sections24seats enjoying
the pre-game show, we were left
speechless by the sight of this
moose-like creature on the field.
We were wondering whether our
fine university had suddenly
adopted this moose as our school
mascot.
We then realized that Don
Canham and the Michigan
Athletic Department would
never allow such a thing, but
we were embarassed at the
thought that someone (like the
Maryland student mentioned in
the Oct. 1 article ("Moose
mascot: Bullwinkle tradition
stays alive") in The Daily might
se, and a great history that make
Michigan football-not a second-
rate Bullwinkle, bison, or.
whatever, from freshman section
34.
Dan Boorstein is from
Cleveland, Ohio, an area afflic-
ted with Buckeye fever, where
people cheer for a mascot that
looks like Mayor McCheese.
Maybe he just doesn't realize we
don't play that way here in Ann
Arbor.
We're just glad that this
episode wasn't televised for the
entire country to see. The win-
ning tradition of Michigan
athletics has provided us with
many wonderful memories-
during our four years, and feel a
loser, bison-like Bullwinkle
mascot is an embarassment to
this fine university. G0
BLUE!!!!!
-Bob Cappadona
Paul Graf
October 2
MSA wrong to condone law breaking
To The Daily:
At the MSA meeting of Wed-
nesday, September 25, a
resolution was passed condem-
ning Carl Pursell for his con-
sistent ignorance of student con-
cerns in Central America. To
continue, the resolution urged
that the charges against the
protestors be dropped. These
protestors had been arrested on
Monday for trespassing at the
site of Pursell's local office
during a sit-in. Although we
agree with the fact that Pursell
n1My tidaE'~IlT1TY
should acknowledge more
student opinions, we, along with
several other assembly mem-
bers, feel that it is abhorretnt for
MSA to condone breaking the
law.
Regardless of the protestor's
position on Central America, we
should not judge what actions are
or are not worthy of civil infrac-
tion. By doing this we are indirec-
tly applying a code of student
behavior, while at the same time
we protest such attempts by the
Regents.
The landlord and other tenants
of Pursell's building have every
right to the due process of law in
the protection of their working
environment and property. Th
protestors accomplished their ob-
jective by voicing their opinion
through a sit-in, and they should
be ready to endure the con-
sequences of their actions. MSA
should not have endorsed this
resolution.
-Rick Frenkel
Mike Sovel
September 25
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