OPINION
Page 4 Wednesday, October 22, 1986 The Michigan Daily
t irMihian ti1
Edited and managed by students at The University of Michigan
Vol. XCVII, No. 35 420 Maynard St.
Ann Arbor, MI 48109
Unsigned editorials represent a majority of the Daily's Editorial Board
All other cartoons, signed articles, and letters do not necessarily represent the opinion of the Daily.
Wasserman
Minority recruitment
THE UNIVERSITY is suffering
from a lack of minority faculty
members and must continue to
improve recruitment and retention
efforts to redress this imbalance.
Some good first steps have been
and are being taken to attract more
faculty and to increase the pool of
graduate students. The University
has allocated some funding and
created the Michigan Minority
Merit Fellowship, which awards an
annual stipend plus full tuition to
50 minority students. This kind of
financial assistance, especially in
light of rising tuition, is essential,
but not adequate. In addition,
providing a positive atmosphere
with real chances for minority
faculty and student advancement
should be a priority.
Ann Arbor may be a small
townnbut there are plenty of
positive aspects of the community
which should be stressed to
prospective faculty members. The
administration should circulate a
brochure which includes current
minority and women faculty
members and different
organizations emphasizing the
specific concerns of these groups.
This should be sent to prospective
applicants, so .they have a better
sense . of wats. realTy. ging on
here in Ann Arbor. The pamphlet
could highlight the various area
studies programs, such as the
Center for Afro-American,
Southeast Asian, Middle Eastern,
Latin American and Carribean
Studies and the Women's Studies
Department. -
To follow up on the recruitment
effort, the University must
improve the current atmosphere by
centralizing the minority support
structure at the U and creating
opportunites for its faculty to
advance. Currently, each depart -
ment is responsible for recruitment
and retention. By creating a central
resource service for minority
services, the University would
streamline existing decentralized
service organizations into a more
effective, accessible and visible
whole. By centralizing the bank of
files on graduating or transfering
minority students, the University
could send resumes immediately
when a position opened up in
another department or school.
The lack of high level
minority and women faculty makes
it increasingly difficult for
minorities and women to have their
scholarly work fairly evaluated.
Looking to the future, the
University should establish greater
incentives for minority and women
graduate students to follow up their
studies with teaching positions.
By offering post-doctoral
fellowships to students here and at
other colleges, the University
would create opportunities for
minority students to engage in
post-graduate research and prepare
for an assistant or associate
professorship.
More minority faculty will come
to the University as a result of
aggressive recruiting and attractive
funding, and more will stay
because they are treated well and
offered options to advance to better
positions. This in turn will
increase the number of minority
students who will want to study at
the University.
If the University wants to attract
and keep minorities on this.
campus, it will have to focus more
attention on their special needs and
recognize how valuable their
unique perspectives are to the
school. In the same way that the
University provides funding and
support for its schools of
engineering and business
administration to make them both
more appealing and better able to
investigate new developments, the
University must invest in a top-
notch environment for minorities.
Such a happening would
demonstrate to minority students
and faculty that the University
recognizes and appreciates their
contributions. In the process, the
University will begin to realize its
potential as a progressive,
interesting, vital, and constantly
unfolding educational institution.
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Robertson merits lau
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To the Daily:
So it has come to this: a
Pentecostal TV evangelist who
can smugly pray away
hurricanes and heal cancer
victims over the air is a step
away from Presidential cand-
idacy-and nobody's laugh -
ing!
This man is Pat Robertson,
host of The 700 Club; a
charismatic Pentacostalist
whose right-wing extremism
hasn't stopped Michigan's
Republican Party from being
in favor of him by 53 percent
in the state primary. Even here
on the University campus,
well-known for its student
body's political liberalism, a
small group of Robertson
supporters exists. University
of Michigan Students for Pat
Robertson seem confident that
their guy has at least a fighting
chance. Robertson has said
that if he can collect three
million signatures on a
petition, he v .11 run.
However, the fa t tF at he has
resigned from TL A/0 Club
signifies that he might not
wait for the signatures after all.
.Robertson's critics are
saying his extremism, like
Jesse Jackson's, will be his
political downfall. His radical
views could push all the GOP
candidates further to the right
to keep pace with him, thereby
alienating the majority of
voters, who are conservative
moderates. But if Robertson is
wise to political technique (and
his background shows proof
that he is) he will turn down
his overt religiosity and turn
up the avuncular smile that
makes Ronnie look as dour and
sour as the farmer in
American Gothic. If
Robertson -can get people to
see him as "a politician, former
preacher," rather than "a
preacher, would-be politician,"
he has a better chance than
might otherwise be imagined.
Robertson has said he favors
aid to the Contras, Star Wars,
and a strong national defense
system. In a TV interview last
August, he chuckled warmly as
he explained why "women are
equal, by their place is in the
home, to care for the family."
This insidious benignity is
already seeping back into our
cultural mindset, and all it
needs are a few politicos in the
career prior to politics has been
religious evangelism.
Obviously, religion is highly
important to Pat Robertson.
Therefore, one can assume
virtually without doubt that
Robertson's religious beliefs
will influence his campaign,
and the way he would handle
the responsibilities of a
political office.
Even if Robertson himself
is a sure loser, he endorses
several candidates that
Michigan voters should be
especially concerned about.
They are: Patricia Hartangle,
for Michigan's state board of
education; Cyril Gregoricka,
for MSU's board, and Mary
Dahn, for WSU's. These three
are members of Robertson's
Freedom Council and support
fundamentalist educational
reform, which includes the
addition of creationism to the
science curriculum, madatory
school prayer, and censorship.
And what about Pat? Well,
what we need is a good,
healthy dose of laughter,
tempered with the
hter .
understanding that the time ist"
ripe for the reactionaries t6
gain more power than they.
have held since the McCarthy
era. To preserve American
freedom, we must take its '
dpponents seriously enough to
disarm them with their own
ridiculousness.
-Meredith McGhan
College Democrats
Chairperson Legislative
Affairs/Current Issues'
Committee?.
October 19.,t,
Clearing the smoke of Iran'
r
,
To the Daily:
Today's world is one of
international communication.
News from one part of the
world is reported and effects
everyone across the world.
News about earthquakes,
volcanic eruptions, floods and
other natural disasters bring the
attention ofpeople around the
world to the aid of these
victims. However, certain
news does not receive the
proper attention that it de-
serves, and the resulting re-
sponse of the world com-
munity, in spite of its
importance. One such case is
that of the recent use of
chemical warfare. Mustard and
nerve gas were invented by the
Germans and mass produced in
both world wars. Although
chemical weapons were out-
lawed in the 1925 Geneva
Protogol, there have been
numerous reports of the usage
of chemical warfare in the Iran-
Iraq war. At the request of the
Secretary-General of the United
Nations, Javier Perez de
Cuellar, a team composed of
chemical warfare experts was
sent to visit Iran in 1984 and
again to the Iranian front in
February, 1986. Members of
the U.N. team included Dr.
Gustav Anderson, head of the
Analytical Chemistry Section
of the National Defense
Research Institute in Sweden;
Dr Manuel Dominquez,
Colonel of the Army Medical
Corps in Spain; and Dr. Peter
Dunns, Superintendent Scient-
ist in the Department of
Defense in Australia. The
team was accompanied by
Director Iqbal Riza and Senior
Officer Sylvanus Tiewel of the
concentrations. In some areas,
large bomb fragments were
found, including parts con-
taining the filer plug and still
holding chemical agents.
However, the 1986 visit of the
U.N. representatives and
specialists found that the
intensity of the chemical war
had apparently increased.
According to the specialists
who personally observed 700
chemical casualities-reliable
franian reports indicate that
2,000 total casualties had been
admitted to hospitals in the
Ahwaz, Iran area which is close
to the war front and perhaps
10,000 more admitted at Val-
Fajr infirmary in Tehran, Iran.
The report from the United
Nations concludes that: (a)
chemical weapons in the form,
of aerial bombs have been used-
in the areas inspected in Iran by
the specialists; (b) the type of
chemical agents used were:
mustard gas and Tabun, a nerve
agent.
In spite of all these
documents and condemation by
the United Nations about the
usage of chemical weapons bgi
the Iraqi regime, this matter
has not been brought to an end,
I think that people around the
world should be informed about
this and continue to condemn
the usage of chemical warfare
in order to put an end to these
disgraceful acts done to the
human race and its dignity.
Mehdi S. Morsheli
.October 13
An open letter to Reagan
Open Letter to President
Reagan:
We want to urge you to
reconsider your stand on SDI
which you took at Reykjavik,
Iceland. We want peace; and
that means disarmament and
not testing and implementing
new weapons. The proposed
reduction of nuclear weapons as
outlined by you and Mr.
Gorbachev is a step of
historical significance, and
such a right step it is! Even if
we do go on with the research
on SDI, we don't have to test
and implement those new
devices-particularly when we
talk peace and are serious about
disarmament on an unpre -
cedented scale.
The world is not entirely"
ours. And we have to learn to,
make judicious compromises.
Please, Sir, try again. Meet!
with Mr. Gorbachev and settle
on terms which are good for
this country, and which the
whole world wishes you to
accept. We know how to Ile.
tough. It is time that we learn
to be wise. : r
-Professor Henryk
Skolimowski and the
Class on Alternative
Futures'
October 13'
Student criticizes Ulrich's
rn m -