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Ninety-six years of editorial freedom
Vol. XCVI - No. 116
Copyright 1986, The Michigan Daily
Twelve Pages
Ann Arbor, Michigan - Friday, March 21, 1986
House
defeats Contra
aid bill
WASHINGTON - A sharply
divided House, on a 222-210 vote
yesterday, defeated President
Reagan's plan to send $100 million in
military aid to Nicaraguan rebels.
The dramatic setback followed two
weeks of intense personal lobbying by
the president.
Presidential spokesman Larry
Speakes said the administration will
not abandon the fight. "We're gaining
converts, and the next battle will
bring us victory," he said. House
}Speaker Thomas O'Neill, (D-Mass.),
who led the opposition, promised an
April 15 vote in the House.
The setback for Reagan might be
temporary since the Senate is
scheduled to take up the issue next
week. But the vote, nonetheless,
represented Reagan's most serious
foreign policy reversal in Congress.
The Congress initially rejected his
aid request last year, but later - after
Nicaraguan leader Daniel Ortega
paid a visit to Moscow - approved $27
million in non-lethal aid.
Speakes said Reagan will press
"again and again until this battle is
won, until freedom is given the chance
that it deserves in Nicaragua.
"The American people have begun
to awaken to the danger emerging on
their doorstep," he said. "And one
day in the not too distant future that
awareness will come home to the
House of Representatives."
The vote followed two days of often
bitter debate that ended with O'Neill
saying Reagan's plan "takes us fur-
ther down the road to a situation
where our troops will be involved."
"In my judgement, the White House
will not be happy until it gets (troops)
into Nicaragua," O'Neill said just
before the vote. "In my heart, I fear
American boys will be in there after
the (November) election. I'm doing
all in my power (to stop it) because I
think it is wrong."
House Minority Leader Bob Michel,
(R-Ill.), responded to O'Neill: "It
will be too late because the com-
munists are already mobilizing for an
offensive."
Although the House vote represen-
ted a defeat for Reagan's Nicaraguan
policy, O'Neill apparently won some
last-minute votes by promising a new
round of votes on alternative aid
proposals on April 15. Reagan is con-
sidered likely to win some aid for the
rebels at that time.
Sixteen Republicans joined 206
Democrats in opposing Reagan's
proposal. Forty-six Democrats,
many from southern states, and 164
Republicans voted for the aid.
O'Neill said Wednesday the Contra
aid vote is as critical as the 1964
Tonkin Gulf resolution that President
Johnson exploited as a broad grant of
authority to escalate the U.S. combat
role in the Southeast Asian war.
"That ragtag army (Contras) will
go into Honduras. The Sandinistas
will follow them, and we'll be dragged
See BILL, Page 5
Local protesters rejoice over decision
By PHILIP LEVY
Local residents who had protested Rep. Carl
Pursell's support of President Reagan's plan to
send $100 million in aid to the Contras in
Nicaragua greeted the bill's defeat yesterday with
joy.
"We're going to celebrate," said Jim Burch-
field, a staff member in the School of Natural
Resources. "I'm very pleased that it was voted
down. I'm enormously relieved." He expressed
concern, however, about the possibility of a com-
promise aid package. "Something later is as bad
as something now," he said. "Aid to the Contras is
bad in any form."
Burchfield, a member of the Latin American
Solidarity Committee, (LASC), said the package's
defeat means that LASC is not planning more
protests at Pursell's local office. Some individuals
See CONTRA, Page 10
'U'
official
disappointed
with minority increase
By REBECCA BLUMENSTEIN
A top University official expressed
disappointment yesterday about
current minority enrollment levels,
but promised the Board of Regents
'that the University will fulfill its long-
terms goals for increasing the num-
bers of minority students on campus.
"We haven't yielded the numbers of
For other regents coverage, see
Page 3.
minority enrollment I'd hoped for, but
the programs that we've implemen-
ted promise to yield long-term, sub-
rstantial results," said Virginia Nor-
dby, director of the University's Of-
fice of Affirmative Action.
AT YESTERDAY'S regents'
meeting, Nordby and Niarra
Sudarkasa, associate vice president
for academic affairs, offered ex-
planations for minority enrollment
figures and trends released Monday
in an annual report on "Minority
Students at the University of
Michigan."
The report, issued by Nordby's of-
ficial, highlighted a minority
population that comprises 12 percent
of students, the largest ever at the
University, along with a "high level of
committment and willingness" to
sustain this trend.
Despite these figures, Nordby still
sees much room for improvement
"Increasing minority enrollment in
three to five years is a target we can
reach," she said.
Compared to other Big 10 schools,
Nordby said, the University boasts
the highest black enrollment on the
graduate level - 13.3 percent. On the
undergraduate level, though,
Michigan State and Ohio State
Universities have larger populations.
DURING THE time the University
experienced a drop on black
enrollment from 7.2 percent to a low
of 4.9 percent in 1983, MSU main-
tained its enrollment.
"We're not sure we know precisely
why MSU succeeds," Sudarkasa said.
"MSU has some things, like a week-
long pre-orientation for minority
students, that has made a very attrac-
tive climate for undergraduate
minority students," she added.
"Michigan has now implemented
some ideas like the pre-orientation to
narrow the gap," Sudarkasa said.
Although the spread between the
percentage of whites and blacks who
graduate within six years has
decreased from 28.5 percent to 17 per-
cent, Sudarkasa said that "we have
not yet identified and further under-
stood the factors that affect reten-
tion."
By conducting her ongoing survey
of minority students, Sudarkasa said
her hopes to become better aquainted
with these factors.
Daily Photo by CHRIS TWIGG
Greek god
A participant in the Mr. Greek Week contest struts his stuff at the Michigan Theater last night.
MSA election line-up: who will take over?
Meadow wants to address
student, not national, issues
Independent 'rookies' want
to bring MSA new ideas
By MARY CHRIS JAKLEVIC
The Michigan Student Assembly
has been too political this year and
needs to stick to campus issues, say
Meadow party candidates Kurt
Muenchow and Darrell Thompson.
Muenchow, a Natural Resources
senior who is running for president,
said the assembly often "bites off
more than it can chew" by addressing
national issues on which it can have
little influence.
' Muenchow said MSA should not
have approved the so-called "Bush
resolution" last fall, which endorsed
protesting Vice-President George
Bush's speech at the Peace Corps'
25th anniversary celebration. Suppor-
ters of the resolution said demon-
.strating against Bush was justified
because the Reagan administration
has not supported the "spirit" of the
Peace Corps.
Some representatives interpret
Muenchow's avoidance of national
See MUENCHOW, Page 5
By MARY CHRIS JAKLEVIC
LSA freshman Kurt VarnHagen, an
independent presidential candidate,
said that if he wins he will come to
MSA "just like a rookie on a baseball
team."
"He's just as good as the others, but
he hasn't got the experience. He's go
to work hard, and that's what I will
have to do," VarnHagen said.
THOUGH VARNHAGEN and his
running mate, engineering
sophomore Steve Savoy, have had lit-
tle experience on student gover-
nment, and none on MSA, they feel
they have as much of a chance of win-
ning as anyone else. Both candidates
have been hanging posters and cam-
paigning vigorously in dormitories to
publicize their campaign.
Both candidates feel that MSA
needs to be more attuned to what
students are thinking, and that they
would be "a breath of fresh air" on
the assembly.
See INDEPENDENTS, Page 5
Muenchow
... calls MSA too political
VarnHagen
... says student respect is key
Indispensable pair says a
code would be good for 'U'
MSA needs to reach out
more, says Student Rights
By MARY CHRIS JAKLEVIC
The Indispensable party is the first right to punish s
party ever to run on a "Yes Code" academic crimes, S
latform, and first-year law student a different light.
"Mark Soble, the party's presidential "RIGHT NOW th
candidate, is the first student to write punish students w
and propose his own code of non- judicial process. It
academic conduct. thing to create a l
Soble's "Code of Mutual Respon- so that these things
sibility" which he says will uphold whim of an admi
mutual responsibility between said.
students, is the centerpiece of the par- "We found a p
ty's platform. against having any
Though some students fear a code giving the admin
may legitimize the administration's See INDISPEN
TODAY-
Garghh
AS IF THEY had nothing better to do, those
tudents for non-
oble sees things in
he University can
ithout a uniform
t's not such a bad
egitimate process,
are not up to the
inistrator," Soble
aranoia in MSA
code. That's not
istration enough
SABLE, Page 5
By MARY CHRIS JAKLEVIC
"People know about the Tuesday
night MSA - they don't know about
the day-to-day MSA," according to
LSA junior Jen Faigel, the Student
Rights presidential candidate.
"People don't know where their
money goes. The student fee doesn't
go into things like the Bush resolution.
It goes into Student Legal Services and
the Tenants' Union and (MSA resear-
ch projects).
Faigel said the assembly's biggest
problem is reaching students, and her
party has presented a host of
proposals it hopes will bring MSA out
of isolation.
AMONG THESE are what Faigel
terms "coalition building" - coor-
dinating activities of student
organizatons with MSA projects, and
giving more organizations, such as
the Greeks, non-voting seats on the
assembly.
Faigel also said the assembly needs
See FAIGEL, Page 5
Soble
... says 'Yes Code'
Faigel
... stresses communications
dment to be removed from the bill before it gets
Athlete's mouth
F AN ARIZONA Senate Committee had its way,
state Rep. Reid Ewing would be remembered
forever as the Arizona state fungus. Ewing was shar-
ply criticized this week by fellow House members for
telling a columnist that Arizona politicians are "bought
dment to be removed from the bill before it gets
through the Senate.
Massachusetts muffins
T hink of sweet butter melting on a hot corn
muffin. Does Massachusetts come to mind? State
Rep. Eleanor Myerson and a group of pupils think it
should. Myerson is the sponsor of a bill that would
-INSIDE
ELECTION EXPECTATIONS: Opinion elicits can-
didates' promises on important election
issues. See Page 4.
ENTRE NOUS: Arts reviews Mary Tytler
Moore's new film, 'Just Between Friends'.
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