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Ninety-six years of editorial freedom
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Fourteen Pages
Vol. XCVI - No. 68
Copyright 1985, The Michigan Daily
Ann Arbor, Michigan - vveanesaay, December I1, 1985
'
scientists
defend animal research
By ROB EARLE
Most don't even know it exists.
Tucked away in the hospital, through
a back entrance, it's there for only a
few to see.
In the University Hospitals' Animal
Operating Room, two German
Shepards are slowly coming out of an
anesthetic. A photographer stands
nearby, waiting for permission from
the operating room supervisor to
photograph the dogs. The answer,
however, is no.
"It's real easy to misuse that kind of
photograph," said Dr. Donald Dafoe
Dafoe is a University transplant surgeon
who relies on laboratory animals to
further his surgical research.
And, like most University resear-
chers, Dafoe is concerned about the
negative image which surrounds
animal research.
That image has been accentuated
by what researchers call. animal
rights activists' latest threat - a bill
pending in the state Senate which
would prohibit using dogs and cats
from animal shelters in research.
Animal rights activists are pushing
for the passage of the bill, hailing it as
a giant step for humane treatment of
animals.
Yet researchers defend the pound-
release system, saying animals are
necessary for medical advancement.
Action on the bill - stalled by the
legislature's holiday breaks - is not
anticipated until sometime in
January. Nevertheless, it has caused
University researchers to become in-
creasingly cautious, if not paranoid,
about their actions.
'If (University researchers) don't have
anything to hide, they don't have anything
to worry about.'
-Doris Dickson
Michigan representative
of the Fun dfor Animals
buildings where animals are kept.
And although the Animal Liberation
Front has not been active here, Dr.
Daniel Ringler, director of the Unit
for Laboratory Animal Medicine, said
the precautions are necessary.
But animal rights activists, like
Doris Dickson, Michigan Represen-
tative of the Fund for Animals, a
national animal rights group, says the
locks are just a way of keeping the
animals from public view.
"If (University researchers) don't
have anything to hide, they don't have
anything to worry about," she said.
And Ringler says his lab has
nothing to conceal.
"The public is welcome to come in
for tours and we are always happy to
talk to the press."
Still, the researchers are wary of
bad publicity, especially on the sub-
ject of pound-released animals.
Ringler and Dafoe both said that, if
the bill now before the Senate Com-
mittee on Higher Education and
Technology passes, the cost of doing
research will soar.
"Our costs will increase
dramatically," Ringler said. "The
actual cost will go from about $140,000
a year to about $1,200,000 a year."
Dogs and cats are currently pur-
chased from federally-licensed
dealers, who buy the animals from
shelters for $4 to $8 each, and sell
them to the University for $25 to $35.
If the bill becomes law, the University
will only be able to use dogs and cats
specially bred for laboratory use.
"The bill," Dafoe said, "is going to
See SCIENTISTS, Page 7
At first, it would seem University
animal researchers have nothing to
fear. Allan Price, assistant vice
president for research, says the
University's animal research
program is exemplary. Nonetheless,
the University has taken steps to
avoid vandalism directed against its
facilities by animal rights activists.
Being on the defensive means
protecting labs from attacks similar
to those which have taken place at
other schools. At the University of
Western Ontario, for example, the
Animal Liberation Front broke into a
lab and freed several monkeys infec-
ted with the herpes virus.
The University has installed elec-
tronic combination locks on the doors
to all of the 230 rooms in the 24 campus
1
'U,'
forms
task force
on AIDS
By REBECCA BLUMENSTEIN
President Shapiro has created a
task force of four administrators to
investigate the need for AIDS policies
at the University.
"We need a small working group to
review the issues and be a recourse to
turn to in case of an outbreak of
AIDS," Shapiro said last night. On a
campus of this size, he added, it is
"inevitable" that a case eventually
will be discovered.
"WE WANT TO make sure the
University will play an active rather
than a passive role," said John
Heidke, associate director of housing
and a member of the task force. "The
bottom line of the group is to educate
and protect the rights of individuals
who may contract AIDS."
Virginia Nordby, director of the Of-
fice of Affirmative Action disclosed
the existence of the week-old commit-
tee yesterday at a meeting of the
University's task force against
homosexual discrimination. In the
last month she and other top ad-
ministrators had been reluctant to
discuss their plans for addressing
AIDS.
Last night Nordby said "it is impor-
tant to keep (the task force) low key to
avoid a lot of the tension that is
associated with AIDS presently."
Nordby chairs the task force. In
addition to Heidke, other members of
the task force are Colleen Dolan-
Greene, assistant director of person-
nel, and Dr. Caesar Briefer, director
of University Health Service.
According to Heidke, the force
needs to "seek advice and support
from a broad range." "The president
will make the decisions from there.
We have a strong interest in-keeping
things in a sound perspective when
dealing with such an energetic issue."
The administrators, who met for the
first time last week, are beginning
their work by reading a large packet
of information about AIDS provided
by Nordby's office. They eventually
will assess their own departments
about general awareness of AIDS and
whether there is a need for some type
of policy to address an outbreak.
No deadline has been set on when
the task force must report back to
Shapiro, and the only future meeting
of the group is scheduled for next
week, according to Heidke.
See 'U,' Page 3
Mean and muddy
The Michigan Rugby Team prefers muck and might. See photostory Page 11.
. . . . . . . . . ............................. .
Yale prof.
By JILL OSEROWSKY
Yale University political scientist Robert Dahl will
deliver this winter's commencement address, and is one
of three men who will receive honorary degrees from the
University at the 2 p.m. ceremony in Crisler Arena on
Dando and Kung have been visiting professors at the
University.
ACCORDING TO Prof. John Kingdon, chairman of the
political science department, Dahl's books about theories
of pluralist political systems have put him at the top of his
field.
State House votes to
divest S. Africa funds
10 [lha K a t Sunday. "His work has been very influential. People who don't
Dahl, who is one of the most distinguished political like it must grapple with it and criticize it, and people who
science professors in the world, and Shigemitsu Dando, a do" are guided in their work by it, Kingdon said. "We're
former member of the Supreme Court of Japan, will be delighted that he's getting the degree." Dahl currently
gImf1' A -j3 I&presented with honorary doctor of law degrees. holds the Sterling Chair, a distinguished position in Yale
Ecumenical theologian and Catholic priest Hans Kung University's political science department.
will receive an honorary degree of humane letters. Both See THREE, Page 3
wants delay of student computer fee
By MARY CHRIS JAKLEVIC
The Michigan Student Assembly
last night passed a resolution, 11 to 1,
condemning a mandatory student
computer fee which will appear on
tuition bills next semester.
Resolution backers say the com-
puter charge is a tuition hike in
disguise. The University approved in
principle the fee before tuition was set
last summer.
THE COMPUTER fee will add $50
to next semester's tuition bill. A $100
charge will be added each semester
thereafter.
"We need more computers. We
need more technology. The question is
who pays and at what price, and who
benefits," said Kurt Muenchow, the
School of Natural Resources' MSA
representative. He voted for the
measure.
Bruce Belcher, MSA's Rackham
representative voted against the
resolution. "I feel that computers
really are important for the Univer-
sity, and I think that students would
be getting enough bene
$100," he said.
FIVE MSA members ab
The resolution conten
administration has not
ficient efforts to find alte
ding sources for con
provement. It says that s
not consulted prior to imi
of the fee, and that no pla
made to include students
decision-making procesE
same level as facult
fits for the ministrators."
The resolution also calls for the
)stained. formation of a commission to study
ds that the possible funding alternatives for the
made suf- computer system before considering
ernative fun- mandatory fees from students.
mputer im- Assembly members said that the
tudents were need for computers is not uniform
plementation among the University's schools, and
ns have been therefore some schools would get
in the future more for their money than others.
ses "at the The proposal was voted on by 17
and ad- assembly members - barely enough
.y for a quorum.
LANSING (UPI) - Bills requiring
state pension funds to shed invest-
ments totaling more than $2 billion in
companies operating in white-ruled
South Africa cleared the House
yesterday with votes to spare.
The measures, called by backers
the largest divestment move so far in
the United States, were sent to an un-
certain fate in the Republican-
controlled Senate on votes of 67-39 and
71-36.
THE ACTION came after a very
brief debate which belied the substan-
tial controversy which has surroun-
ded the measures.
Agreements to protect state
retirees against losses, however, ap-
parently played a key role in
smoothing the way for passage of the
measures.
Gov. James Blanchard endorsed in
August a similar, phased divestment
move as a means of influencing racial
reforms in South Africa. But a com-
mission established to work out
details of the administration's
divestment policy ha t yet com-
pleted its work.
IN HIS remarks to the House, Rep.
Virgil Smith characterized the votes
as the culmination of a long struggle.
"This is an issue that has long been
coming to the floor of the Michigan
House of Representatives," said the
Detroit Democrat, who noted he has
pushed for divestment since 1978 but
had not previously been able to get the
issue out of committee.
"It has gotten to the floor of the
House because times are changing,"
he said.
VIOLENCE in the streets of South
Africa is precipitating that change, he
said.
TODAY
Library? What's a library?
VES, IT'S TRUE. Even the muckrakers of
Maynard Street have to study once in a
residence hall cafeterias in offering study days
specials. South Quad Food Service Manager David
Kluck said the special Fnacks and late hours in most
dormitory cafeterias are a way of thanking the studen-
ts. "If it wasn't for students in residence halls we
wouldn't be here," he said. Refreshments and places
for late studying will be available in most cafeterias
from Dec. 12 through Dec. 19. The Undergraduate
Chocolate-covered chips
WISCONSIN couple wants to give their
fellow yuppies something new and expensive
to munch on - chocolate-covered
potato chips at $18 a pound. Hollis Savin,
32, and her optometrist husband put up
$30,000 to start Yuppie Gourmet Inc. to market their
INSIDE
COPYCATS: Opinion looks at Britain's bow to
United States' pressure. See Page 4.
ROOFLESS: Arts reviews the David bromberg
i