I
Native
American
health
improves
By JIM PONIEWOZIK
Health care for N a t i v e
Americans has markedly improved
over the past several years, but
there is still room for progress,
said U.S. Assistant Surgeon
General Richard Church at a speech
in the C.C. Little Building
yesterday afternoon.
"In a lot of areas, the health
status (of Native Americans living
on or near reservations) has been
pretty bad," said Church in an
interview before his speech. "But
over the years, there's been a lot of
major improvement."
Church, also chief pharmacy
officer for the U.S. Public Health
Service (PHS) and himself a Native
American, told the audience of
about 50 people that the Indian
Health Service (IHS) branch of the
PHS has successfully reduced
health problems like infant
mortality.
Infant mortality among Native
Americans is now lower than that
among the general population,
Church said.
But Church added that Native
Americans still suffer from a high
rate of alcoholism - and
corresponding ailments such as
cirrhosis of the liver - and sudden
infant death syndrome. He blamed
Native Americans' low standard of
living for contributing to these
problems.
Another problem the IHS must
cope with is a lack of physicians,
said Church. The IHS has a staff of
only about 800 physicians, but
serves over 1,000,000 people.
"You always hear about the glut
of physicians, but there's a
distribution problem" because most
prefer to work in urban areas,
Church said.
Because of the shortages of staff,
Church said, pharmacists working
on reservations have greater
responsibility than those working
in urban areas, and often assist
,MyIans n pTescribing medicine-
The y IHS also works more
closely with members of the
community than other PHS
agencies, Church said. The staff
members usually know their
patients personally and make efforts
to improve sanitation conditions
and nutrition on the reservations.
"We're not replacing the native
diets," Church said, "but we're
trying to modify behavior as to
what .is eaten, at what age and how
Smuch."
Church, who received a Doctor
of Pharmacy degree from the
University in 1971, said in an
interview that he was motivated to
work with Native Americans in
part because of the inadequate state
of Native American health care
when he grew up near a reservation
in northern Michigan.
"Since I am a Native American,-
} I wanted to work in that area. It
was a chance to channel my skills
in to trying to improve the medical
situation," Church said.
Church will speak on Native
American health care again today at
noon in room 3554 of the C.C.
Little building.
The lecture, sponsored by the
College of Pharmacy, marked the
last day of the University's
"Commemoration of a Dream"
series of events honoring Martin
Luther King.
The Michigan Daily-Tuesday, January 26, 1988- Page 3
Landlords call
rent control
petitions faulty.
By PETER MOONEY
In an effort the keep rent control
off the April city election ballot,
Ann Arbor landlords are challenging
signatures on petitions submitted for
the ballot proposal, .
Citizens for Fair Rent submitted
approximately 5,400 signatures to
the city clerk in late December to
place the issue before the voters. If
passed, the proposal would limit the
ability of owners of existing hous-
ing to increase rents.
But Fred Gruber, a local landlord
and member of the Ann Arbor
Apartment Association, said several
of the petition signatures he looked
at appeared faulty.
"We found a lot of those w h o
signed were not registered voters,"
said Gruber. He added that in addition
to unregistered voters signing the
petition - which he considered an
honest mistake - there were some
who signed twice.
"That's trying to cheat," Gruber
said.
Gruber refers to rent control as an
"ill-begotten piece of legislation"
and says he would like to see it kept
off the ballot.
Tenant activists respond that they
submitted many more signatures
than the required number. The city
requires 3,882 signatures to put a
proposal on the ballot, meaning
Citizens for Fair Rent only has 'to
have 71 percent of their signatures
validated.
Vicki Wilson, a member of Citi-
zens for Fair Rent's coordinating
committee, said the challenge is an
attempt to divert the tenant grouo's
attention from the upcoming catm'
paign.
"The landlords were hoping it
would stretch us so that we wouldn't
have time to concentrate on the local
campaign," Wilson said. "This chal-
lenge is just a time stalling tactic by
the landlords."
City Clerk Winifred Northcross
said she will meet with both Citi-
zens for Fair Rents and Citizens fQr
Ann Arbor's Future, a group organ
nized in opposition to rent control:
tomorrow morning to discuss how
the signatures will be validated.
"We'll look at ten percent of the
signatures," Northcross said. If the
ten percent sample contains more
than 71 percent valid signatures, that
will probably be enough to put the
issue on the ballot, Northcross said.
Tenant activists also face Stiae
Senate bill 583, an attempt at the
state level to prevent city's froi
passing rent control ordinances, bit
say they are still forging ahead with
their campaign and have recruited
150 volunteers.
Doily Photo by DAVID LUBLINER
Actor and Director Andre DeShields, left, and Playwright Oyamo speak about Black theater in the United
States last night at Rackham Amphitheatre. The symposium was sponsored by the Institute of the
Humanities.
Three artists discuss Black
theatre's
By SHEALA DUI
The history, purposes, and future
in America was the subject of a sym
in the Rackham Ampitheatre. Actress
Director Andre De Shields, and Pla
composed a panel that adressed the que
of about 120 people.
All of the panelists adressed the n
Blacks are commonly offered in today
expressed anger that roles offered toF
often those of maids and prostitutes.
OyamO added that the image of
distorted since the days of the Rom
and despicable. "The image of Blac
negative in the Western mind. Ra
Western culture."
De Shields added that Blacks sho
with the "image we have of oursely
that Blacks have accepted the image
(of Blacks) and that this negative self
cause of many problems in the Black
De Sheilds described Black theat
young, very fragile and very prec
history and future
RANT discussed the history of Black theatre from Minstrelsy,
of Black Theatre when members of the white "mainstream" society
posium last night impersonated Blacks, through Vaudville, the Harlem
Lonette McKee, Renaissance to the present.
ywright OyamO The panel agreed that Black theatre has to go a lot
estions of a crowd further and search for "new images of ourselves" The
panel also called for Black theatre and Black people to
negative roles that support each other at the University and across the
's theatre. McKee country.
Black women are Finally, De Sheilds said that Black theatre should be
used as a tool for social change, entertainment and
Blacks has been enlightenment.
ans as being evil The symposium's main sponsor was the Institute
ks has been very
cism is a part of for the Humanities, along with the Office of Minority
Affairs and The Center for Afro-American and African
uld be concerned Studies. The Institute was started last August and is
ves". He also felt designed to support work in the Humanities.
s that whites have This year's theme is 'Theatre and Society'. Susan
-image may be the Kaufmann, Administrator of the Institute for The
community. Humanities, said the Institute felt that it was important
re as being "very to have a presentation on black theater. "We're trying
ious." The panel for a multi-cultural program," Kaufmann said.
Shultz campaigns for
ratification of tret
University professor researches
sound waves amid controversy
WASHINGTON (AP) - Sec-
retary of State George Shultz assured
conservative critics yesterday that the
United States will respond vigorous-
ly if the Soviet Union violates the
new arms reduction treaty in Europe,
but Sen. Jesse Helms (R- N.C.) de-
clared the Soviet Union already is
exploiting an "engraved invitation to
cheat."
As Shultz led off the adminis-
tration's campaign for Senate rat-
ification of the treaty, Helms,
waving a document marked in bright
red, contended he had obtained class-
ified information proving the So-
viets have already violated the pact
which calls for the elimination of
medium- and shorter-range nuclear
missiles.
Helms, an outspoken conserva-
tive, told the Senate Foreign Rel4-
tions Committee that he had received
confirmation.-of the document's au-
thenticity - its contents still undis-
closed - from CIA director Williami
Webster.
Shultz declined to discuss or evon
look at the document on grounds
that he was surrounded by photog-
raphers.
But Sen. Paul Sarbanes (D-Md.),
complaining that Helms had not read
aloud from a key section of a letter
from Webster, quoted the CIA chief
as saying that while the document
represented exerpts from a draft of a
CIA national intelligence estimate,
it did not tell the whole story.
By DAVID SCHWARTZ
Exploring the unknown is what
Theodore Birdsall likes to do best,
even if it does create controversy
sometimes. A University professor
of electrical engineering and
computer science, Birdsall is
currently researching characteristics
of sound waves in the depths of the
ocean - a project that has aroused
the protests of those who say it
could eventually be used in warfare.
Through research over the last
few years, he has discovered that
sound waves do not travel at a
constant speed through the ocean.
The speed of sound depends on water
temperature and salinity. Variations
in these factors can change the rate at
which sound travels.
Using this newfound knowledge,
Birdsall is now trying to learn more
about the ocean by sending sound
waves from one fixed point to
another. By recording the variations
in how quickly sound reaches from
one point to another, Birdsall can
determine the temperature and
salinity of the water in between.
In time, Birdsall hopes that his
discoveries can be applied to more
practical purposes. But one such
outcome of the project, which was
approved in April by Vice President
for Research Linda Wilson, angers
some students. The knowledge that
could result from the research could
be used to help the Navy find enemy
submarines in warfare.
The University's old research
policy, which has since been
changed, included a clause that said
no research could be conducted at the
University that could "kill or maim
human beings." Last March, the
policy was changed and no such
restrictions now exist.
Jackie Victor, chair of the
Michigan Student Assembly's Peace
and Justice Committee, said of
Birdsall, "He is working on a project
that is funded by the Navy that can
be, albeit longterm, used for
submarine detection."
Victor said that if the project was
not linked to submarines, it would
not have been funded by the Navy.
The $15 million project,
conducted in conjunction with the
Scripps Institute of Technology in
San Diego, is being funded by U.S.
Navy and the National Science
Foundation.
Correction
Due to an error in production,
two persons's views were misstated
in Monday's story on Th e
Advenures of Huckleberry Finn.
Helen Oliver, parent of a student
at Pioneer High School, said she
does not now feel the book is racist.
As a younger person, however, she
thought the book was racist because
she thought it portrayed the Black
slave Jim as dumb.
Also, University English
professor Lyall Powers said that "the
book is about racism. But it's not a
racist book." Portraying Huck Finn
as encouraging racist attitudes is
"like cnvin n honk nhont dipen
Birdsall admits that his current
research may in the future be applied
to submarines. However, he said, at
this time such applications are not
being investigated.
In defending his own research,
Birdsall compared what he was doing
to a newborn child. Just because a
baby may grow up to be a soldier is
no reason to kill the baby, he said.
Similarly, research that may some
time be used by the army should
still be done to advance technology.
For instance, Birdsall said that by
using sound waves, he will be able
to determine underwater currents, and
thus locate the flow of nutrients. By
doing this, Birdsall hopes to be able
to pinpoint the prime areas for
fishing, ending the uncertainty of
people who fish.
Birdsall said his research could
also be used to help oceanographers
by determining underwater weather.
In the future, Birdsall said sound
waves may be used to locate energy
sources below the ocean floor.
University Political Science Prof.
Raymond Tanter, whose research
See Birdsall, Page 5
Unexcused absences cause
problems for'
DETROIT (AP) - Unexcused
absences among General Motors
Corp. workers in 1987 totaled 8.8
percent of the scheduled hours, about
three times the U.S. average for all
workers, GM officials said.
Absenteeism costs GM more than
$1 billion annually, nearly one-third
of the automaker's 1986 earnings,
the Detroit Free Press said.
"Everybody - our members and
the employees in general - are tired
of those folks who just stay out,"
said Donald Ephlin, United Auto
Workers union vice president and di-
rector of the union's GM department.
"On the other hand, we have a re-
sponsibility to protect those who are
absent for good cause."
car company
The UAW contract signed with
GM last fall contains a tougber
stance on employees who are absent
from work for an unreasonable
amount of time.
As in the past, the contract reduces
benefits for workers absent more than
20 percent by an amount determined
by the number of days they were ab-
sent.
But new language adds that work-
ers who are absent more than 20 per-
cent of the time for two consecutive
six-month periods will be automati-
cally discharged if they are absent
four additional times for reasobs
considered unacceptable by jont
union-management committees.
THE LIST
What's happening in Ann Arbor today
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
SUMMER CAMPS OF CHAMPIONS
i
Speakers
Elwood "Woody" Holman
- "Economic Develpment in
Honduras." International Center,
12:00 p.m.
Alan Schell - "Trends and
Development of Array Antennas.".
Room 1200 EECS Building, at
4:00 p.m.
Al ff ft...
Society of Christian En-
gineers - Room 1014, Dow
Building, at 11:30 a.m.
Hill Street Players -
Auditions for "The Lesson" by
Eugene Ionesco, 7:00 p.m. Call
Hillel for appointment (663-3336).
Furthermore
Revolutionary History Ser-
r
l _ _
a
FIVE GOOD REASONS TO BE AN
ASSISTANT COORDINATOR OR
COUNSELOR:
1. Work with young talented athletes
from across the country
2. Have your days free to work
secondary jobs or attend classes.
3. Receive a double room to yourself,
three meals daily, and a living
allowance.
f '':. / .' -.'4:. tom: _ ' % ,;i'