j:l; b r Ltciau :43 tttlli Ninety-seven years of editorial freedom XCVII- No. 64 Copyright 1986, The Michigan Daily Ann Arbor, Michigan - Thursday, December 4, 1986 Ten Pages U -Cellar faces financial crisis By KERY MURAKAMI The University Cellar bookstore, beset by severe nancial problems, may consider folding, several sources said yesterday. Jeff Epton, a former employee who has kept up with the store's affairs, said at least two local banks this fall have refused to make loans to the store. The University Cellar depends on credit to buy new books for the book-buying rush at the beginning of fall and winter semesters, then repays the banks after the rush. Without such credit, the store would lose profits made during the beginning of winter term. The two terms combined comprise about 50 percent of the store's business, said Epton, a member of the Ann Arbor City Council. UNIVERSITY Cellar and local bank officials would not say how much the store needs, but Epton estimated the figure to be about $500,000. In addition, Citizens Trust Vice President Tom Dickinson confirmed that the bank had demanded that the store repay a 1972 loan that subsidized the store's move from the Michigan Union to its current location on the corner of Liberty and South Division streets. Dickinson refused to disclose the amount of the outstanding loan. Both Dickinson and Comerica Bank President Jim Andrews also acknowledged that they had rejected the store's loan requests. Store manager Jane Self and members of the University Cellar's Board of Directors refused to comment. In an effort to raise cash quickly, the store this week began a 50 percent discount sale and suspended buying back books. "Things are kind of up in the air," said Rackham graduate student Dave Bacon, a member of the store's board. He declined to elaborate. EPTON said, "The people over there are resilient people. But they'll have to consider several things, including folding. If it folds and we lose the 75 permanent jobs and the additional temporary rush jobs, the responsibility will fall on the heads of Ann Arbor banks." University Cellar employees interviewed yesterday refused to comment on that possibility, but they said they may take a voluntary pay cut in light of the store's troubles. After the store lost money last year, Epton said, workers volunteered a 20 percent pay decrease. It is unclear, however, whether any reasonable pay cut would raise enough money for the store. The University Cellar has had a tumultuous history, beginning with campus-wide protests in 1968 when the University's Board of Regents rejected proposals for a low-cost student-run bookstore. Students complained of uniformly high prices in Ann Arbor's bookstores, and felt a non-profit store would force others to lower their prices. Fearing further protests, the regents approved in early 1970 a one-time $100,000 allocation to form the University Cellar. The store left its home in the basement of the Michigan Union in 1982 after a dispute with Union officials over rent hikes and restrictions on selling items with 'M' and 'Go Blue' insignias. Survey. Jobs will decrease for grads EAST LANSING (AP) - College graduates in the 1986-87 ucademic year will find fewer jobs ut higher salaries than students who attained their degrees a year earlier, according to Michigan State University's annual survey of 761 businesses, industries, and govern- mental agencies. Graduates be warned: the employers consider drug screening an ethical procedure, said the survey. Twenty percent said they Wcreen new college graduates for drug use, and 95 percent of those who do said they'll reject job applicants when tests show See COLLEGE, Page 2 RHA officers resign The student officers of the Residence Hall Association resigned at the RHA meeting last night, The Daily learned late last night. RHA Secretary Bryan Case said President Peter Samet, Vice Pres - ident Rebecca Lawrence, and Treasurer Kevin Novak all resigned, citing academic reasons. -Eugene Pak Tuition plan to .go to Senate By MICHAEL LUSTIG Key Republican state senators and administrators yesterday reached an agreement on the guaranteed college tuition plan, almost a year after Gov. James Blanchard first proposed it. The Senate will consider the plan next week. The state House overwhelmingly passed the first version of the bill in May, but it had been held up in the Republican-controlled Senate Finance Committee. THE Republicans' version of the plan would let parents give the state a lump sum or a series of smaller payments in exchange for a promise of four years' paid undergraduate tuition in a state school when their children reach college age. The new version changes the way the state would handle the investment, and adds a couple of safety valves in case the plan doesn't live up to its promises. The compromise bill that will go to the Senate next week differs from the original bill, but it is actually stronger, said State Treasurer Robert Bowman, who was involved in the compromise negotiations. THE University has not taken an official stand on BEST, or the Baccalaureate Education System Trust. Roberta Palmer, assistant to the vice president for government relations, said the University is "supportive of programs that increase access to the University," but added that the University is unsure of how the program will work See STATE, Page 8 Petition for freedom Daily Photo by JOHN MUNSON LSA freshmen Jolie Grossinger, left, and Allison Bender sign letters as a part of yesterday's Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry's Awareness Day on the Diag. The letters were to President Reagan and Sovet premiere Mikhail Gorbachev, pushing for the emigration of Yuri and Nelli Shpeizman to Israel. The Shpeizmans were refused exit visas in their emigration attempts in 1978. 42 wome new shelt t so erek Disputed study says Ann Arbor hospitals most expensive By TIM DALY A group of Ann Arbor women is trying to establish a network of Washtenaw County homes to provide emergency shelter for poor women and their children. The network program was proposed as an alternative to building a permanent shelter to meet the increasing needs of the homeless. Andrea Walsh, coordinator of the Women's Crisis Center and a member of the group, said the program will be modeled after programs in other cities such as New York, where people in temporary emergency situations are matched with families. WA LSH said the program is geared toward low-income women and their children because women don't always feel safe at the shelters, and some shelters will not house children. Volunteer families would provide housing for periods of a few days to a month, Walsh said. The families may be reimbursed if the er plan group is able to get government or private funding, she added. In New York, the Department of Social Services reimburses host families, but Walsh said she isn't sure if the program here will receive government funding. "If no government funding is available, we will seek private funding or just ask people to volunteer to participate in the program," she said. The 15-member group, which met at Guild House last week, established a research committee to study similar programs in other cities. T E R E S A Swartzlander, a graduate student in the school of social work and a member of the research committee, said the group will go to area churches to find family volunteers. Swartzlander, a volunteer at the Women's Crisis Center, said one of the main reasons there is a need for the program is that there is not enough low-cost housing in Washtenaw County. By CARRIE LORANGER Ann Arbor's hospitals have a higher average cost per stay than any other city in the nation, a new study says, but hospital officials say the study was skewed because only one local hospital responded to the survey. Equicor, the group that did the study, sent questionnaires to 4,839 hospitals, but received only 2,362 responses. John Turck, director of public relations for University Hospitals, called the survey inaccurate because the University Hospital was the only hospital in Ann Arbor to respond to the survey. "IT isn't fair to say that Ann Arbor has the highest cost per stay," he said. "If only one other Ann Arbor hospital would have responded, that figure would have been different and Ann Arbor never would have made the report." Equicor reported that the average patient in Ann Arbor hospitals paid $10,744 per stay. Jane Eckles of the Southeast Michigan Hospitals Council said the University Hospitals' average cost per stay is actually not much higher than the rest of the nation's major hospitals. "The sample is skewed See SURVEY, Page 2 Petition sparks U' pension review i r' Walsh ... pushed for shelter "It takes time for low-income people to find low-cost housing that is in adequate condition," she said. "The network program will provide these people with a place to stay while they look." Although the program is directed toward low-income women, Walsh said victims of domestic violence will also be eligible for the program. "The women will have a See RESIDENTS, Page 3 By MARTHA SEVETSON University faculty members and administrators discussed the University's pension plan Tuesday, prompted by faculty opposition to its investments in nuclear weapons production and companies which do business in South Africa. Representatives of the Senate Advisory Committee on University Affairs' Retirement Subcommittee and the University's Office of Staff Benefits met because of a petition calling for a "socially responsible" retirement fund that was signed by 308 faculty members. The petition asks the University's Executive Officers and SACUA's Committee on the Economic Status of the Faculty (CESF) to either set up a new pension plan or negotiate with the group which currently handles the plan, Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association-College Retirement Equities Fund (TIAA- CREF). THE CREF fund invests in 29 of the top 30 nuclear weapons contractors and 171 U.S. companies with operations in South Africa. The investments in the companies make up 35 percent of the fund's market value. University faculty and staff annually contribute approximately $15 million to TIAA-CREF, which handles See PETITION, Page 8 TODAY- The "Great Cookie Challenge" . -,mysterious package arrived at The Daily donating half of its sales tomorrow to the Washtenaw County chapter of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. Five University fraternities and sororities will be participating in a two-minute cookie-eating contest at 12:45 p.m., then they'll take turns seeing who can sell the most cookies between 1 and 6 p.m. Half the nroceeds from Mrs. Fields Cookies will he to endorse its main attraction in Southern California: The Universal Studios Tour, home of King Kong, the A-Team and Psycho. But before we took Universal's prediction at face value, we, as inquiring reporters, had to check out the letter sent to Arizona State's (hisss) student newspaper. Lo and behold, according to this second letter. "Arizona will he nlavinoi (and -INSIDE TOXIC WASTE: Opinion addresses Michigan's seeping problem. See Page 4. I i