Ninety-eight years of editorial freedom Volume XCVII -No. 5 Ann Arbor, Michigan -Wednesday, September 16, 1987 Copyright 1987, The Michigan Daily Too many ,too few Dorm shortage forces students into lounges By ALYSSA LUSTIGMAN Most high school seniors who apply to the University don't expect to live in converted triples, shuffle from temporary to permanent rooms, or live in residence hall lounges refurbished into living space. But this has become a reality for several first-year students because of a 112 percent occupancy rate in residence halls. Currently, 15 students live in residence hall lounges, and 402 doubles in South Quad have been converted into triples. "We receive figures from the admission office that are based on projections to determine the percentage of students who will return to the traditional housing system," said Director of Housing Information Leroy Williams. "Unfortunately, those figures change, and a greater number of freshmen who were admitted to the University than projected decided to attend," he said. There are always more residents than originally planned for, Williams said. Housing officials expect some cancellations in residence hall leases. "If every student who signed a lease decided to live in a residence hall in the.fall,we would have over 100 students put in temporary housing. Right now, we only have 15," Williams said. Additional dorm space is usually found when students fail to show up or voluntarily give up their leases. When enrollment is beyond expectations, the housing office converts designated "surge rooms" into triples. According to South Quad Building Director Marion Antieau, "All of the surge rooms were used in South Quad this year." See CAMPUS, Page 2 Understaffing to factor in MD contract dispute By LISA POLLAK Resident physicians at University Hospitals allege violations of a two-and-a-half year contract signed with the hospital administration on Sept. 8. Dr. Ronald Bradley, chief negotiator for the House Officer Association (HOA) of residents, said yesterday that the Veteran's Administration Hospital of Ann Arbor has not honored an agreement to provide an on- duty nurse to assist residents in the walk-in/emergency clinic between the hours of 11 p.m. and 8 a.m. Because most University Hospital residents also rotate at the VA Hospital, the HOA contract included a letter of understanding that residents would be assisted. by a nurse 24 hours a day. Dr. John Sheagrean, Chief of Staff at VA Hospital, acknowledged yesterday that a shortage of nursing services has "put us in a difficult position -to provide a regulated level of personnel, and frankly, we just can't hire the nurses." But Sheagrean added he had not yet seen a copy of the contract letter - a document Bradley said contains Sheagrean's signature. Dr. Scott Gitlin, president of the HOA, said a resident on the late night shift at VA Hospial works only with a nurse's aide - a person unqualified to draw blood, administer intravenous medication, and conduct: other nursing duties. "A nurse's aide is in no way a nurse," said HOA Vice-president Dr. Alan Brown. "It's only a set of hands with usually not more than a high school education whose function is to help out nurses with' things like bedpans." See CONTRACT, Page 2 Daily Photo by SCOTT LITUCHY First year LSA student Mike Robinson stands in the doorway of his Mary Markley residence ball dorm room - a converted lounge. Robinson and 14 other students were forced to live in lounges because of the 112 per cent dorm occupancy rate. I Bork says his judgements are apolitical as Senate hearings begin WASHINGTON (AP) - Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork, denying that his judicial philosophy is either liberal or conservative, said yesterday that judges must be dedicated to restraint and respect for democratic processes. The federal appeals court judge, in an opening statement to the Senate Judiciary Committee considering his nomination, said, "My philosophy of judging is neither liberal or conservative. It is simply a philosophy of judging which gives the Constitution a full and fair interpretation, but where the Constitution is silent leaves the policy struggles to Congress, the President, legislatures and executives of the 50 states and to the American people." Meeting head-on some of the attacks of liberal critics, Bork said he values judicial precedent and singled out for special praise the 1954 Supreme Court ruling, Brown vs. Board of Education, that outlawed school segregation. "IT IS ONE THING as a legal theorist to criticize the reasoning of a prior decision, even to criticize it severely, as I have done," he said. "It is another and more serious thing altogether for a judge to ignore or.overturn a prior decision. That requires much careful thought." Bork said judges who impose their own values rather than interpret the Constitution deprive the American people of liberty. In response to questions from Judiciary Committee Chair Joseph Biden (D-Del.), Bork defended statements he has made criticizing an important Supreme Court ruling in 1965 that struck down a Connecticut law barring the use of contraceptives even by married See BORK, Page 5 UCAR continues struggle against racism By STEPHEN GREGORY More than 100 members of the University community crammed into the basement of the William Monroe Trotter House last night for the United Coalition Against Racism's first meeting of fall term. Messages prevalent at the meeting were that institutional racisrp permeates American society and that only with grassroots movements can changes in the system be rendered. UCAR member Barbara Ransby told the audience, "Racism has not gone anywhere since last spring." She added the group received seven complaints detailing racist incidents on campus over summer. "We have our job cut out for us, Ransby said. To underscore this point, UCAR played a15-minute video of a morning television talk show which featured three members of white supremecy groups, discussing their views on minorities. As meeting attendees watched with concern, one of the show's guests advocated shipping all non- white Americans to their countries of origin, while another said he would See RANSBY, Page 3 United Coalition Against Racism members Kendra Orr, Barbara Ransby, and Regina Gemison (front video on white supremacy at the group's first meeting last night. Daily Photo by SCOTT IITUCHY row, left to right) watch a .. a Michigan vies for super collider By MELISSA RAMSDELL The state of Michigan officially entered its bid to host the world's largest superconducting super collider last month when Governor Blanchard submitted a site proposal to the U.S. Department of Energy. "Those of us who have worked oval-shaped super conducting mag- nets which accelerate protons at close to the speed of light, causing the particles to collide at several points along the ring. These collisions will recreate the enormous energy present when the universe was created. It will allow Jones said Michigan would make an excellent host for the facility be- cause of the proximity of both the University and Michigan State Uni- versity to the sites, highly accessable transportation provided by the Detroit search and boost its economy by cre- ating 2,500 new jobs in the site's community. Michigan proposed Monroe County and the area between Lansing and Ann Arbor as its two sites. would be attracted to the place - all of the top universities in the country from a scientific point of view have had that type of facility near them," Kane said. Currently, a committee of 12 ex- perts established by the National Academy of Sciences is working to weed out sites failing to meet the criteria A chort list of candiiates INSIDE Who is going to be held account- able for illicit arms sales? OPINION, PAGE 4 Students interested in literary orga- nizations have a wide variety o groups in which they can get in- volved. ARTS, PAGE 7 Vri rcnn Pn~rt an awful lot ofhenefitc hPr crnia large.