Ninety-nine years of editorialfreedom
Vol. IC, No. 26 Ann Arbor, Michigan - Thursday, October 13, 1988 Copyright 1988, The Michigan Daily
Officials
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BY MIGUEL CRUZ
Last week the Ann Arbor Police
department revealed a policy which
allowed officers to purchase semi-
automatic pistols before Oct. 11 for
use on duty. The decision was made
by Police Chief William Corbett
without input or approval from the
Ann Arbor city council.
The department cited an increase
of automatic and semi-automatic
weapons in the hands of criminals as
the reason for the policy, but could
give no examples of cases in which
an officer was injured by a "better
armed" criminal and would have es-
caped injury if bearing a semi-auto-
matic instead of a revolver.
Currently, Ann Arbor officers on
routine patrol duty carry 5- or 6-shot
revolvers. The new guns hold 8 or
18 shots, depending on the model
selected, said one police officer who
refused to give his name. He said the
department would not release how
many officers have put in orders for
the weapons.
AUTHORITIES in other cities
and college campuses have differing
views on the issue of semi-auto-
matic weapons.
Michigan State University police
began training for department-issued
9mm semi-automatics in May. Lt.
our to
face
pro.tes
charges
policy
Michael Rice of the MSU police
said the decision was made by the
Director of Public Safety at the
school, and that the weapons have
never been fired in the line of duty.
East Lansing police are not al-
lowed to carry semi-automatic guns.
Chicago police are only autho-
rized to carry 6-shot, .38 caliber re-
volvers, said a Chicago police lieu-
tenant. Likewise, Detroit and New
York City police carry department-
issued 6-shot revolvers and anticipate
no change in the near future.
"WE BELIEVE the revolver is
a much safer weapon," said Lt.
Matthew Curran of the New York
City Police Firearms and Tactics
Unit. "For routine police use, it's
simpler and more dependable."
He said many changes in the de-
sign of current semi-automatics
would be necessary before they could
be considered for use in New York.
Chris Easton, weapons expert and
director of training for the Bloom-
ington, Indiana police department,
favors the guns but warns that a
policy permitting officers to pur-
chase their own weapons and
ammunition can be dangerous. The
lightweight alloy semi-automatic
guns can not take the wear of the
See Guns, Page 2
BY RYAN TUTAK
Four University students will be
arraigned Monday for assault and
battery and for disturbing the peace
during a protest of the inauguration
of University President James Dud-
erstadt last Thursday.
Charges were filed yesterday-
against LSA seniors Rollie Hudson
and Cale Southworth and Rackham
graduate students Michael Fischer
and Sandra Steingraber.
All four are Daily staff members.
Miitary
seeks
crash
causes
OSCODA, Mich. (AP) - The
Air Force began an investigation
yesterday of the crash of a tanker
plane at Wurtsmith Air Force Base in
which all six crewman were killed
and 10 passengers were injured.
An Air Force panel's probe of the
crash of the four engine KC-135
Stratotanker probably won't be
completed until early next year,
according to Capt. Robin Crumm.
The aircraft, which was used to
refuel other planes in flight, was
making its landing approach when it
crashed into the tarmac at the base in
the northeast Lower Peninsula, noted
Capt. Roger Davis.
"There was black oily smoke
everywhere. Pure black smoke.
There were flames all over the place,"
said Jerry Pytlik, an observer of the
crash.
The base's tower received no dis-
tress call from the plane before it
crashed, stated Davis.
Air Force spokespeople said in-
vestigators doubt wind sheer caused
the crash because it occurred in sunny
weather with light winds. Pinpoin-
ting the cause would-be difficult be-
cause the plane was too old to be
equipped with a flight recorder like
the "black box" carried by commer-
cial airlines, base Airperson Kim
Dvorak said.
The Duke's Mom KAREN HANDELMAN/Doily
Euterpe Dukakis, mother of presidential candidate Michael Dukakis, talks to the elderly at a
senior center yesterday. See Story, page 3.
The Washtenaw County Prosecu-
tor's office said Southworth, Daily
opinion page co-editor, is being
charged with assault and battery
against University Public Safety
Security Supervisor Rachel Flint.
Flint was not available for com-
ment.
Steingraber, a Daily opinion page
staff writer, is being charged with
disturbing the peace and assault and
See Protest, Page 3
RSG urges renaming of
Hatcher Grad Library
TAs get partial tax relief
on tuition waivers
BY TERESA PADUA
University graduate teaching as-
sistants can look forward to partial
tax relief on their 1988 tuition
waivers, but the question of future
taxation still remains.
The U.S. Senate passed a bill
Tuesday night which included an
amendment to exempt up to half, or
S$5,250, of this year's out-of-state
tuition waivers, said Matt James,
press secretary for Sen. Daniel
Moynihan, (D-N.Y.).
The amendment will be discussed
today at a joint House and Senate
committee to iron out differences
between the bill passed Tuesday and
the House bill passed in August, he
said. The House version extends the
exemption up to 1990, while the
Senate's version only covers this
year, he said. A vote on a final bill
is slated to be cast tomorrow.
THE TUITION WAIVERS
were previously tax-exempt, but that
exemption expired last year, said.
Tuition bill
clears Senate
Don Demetriades, president of the
Graduate Employees Organization.
As of January 1988, University
TAs were taxed on the entire amount
of their waivers, he said.
Non-resident teaching assistants
are hit hardest by the tax, he said.
Tuition waivers for out-of-state
graduate teaching assistants carrying
nine credits is $10,500 a year under
the GEO's current contract with the
University. Tuition for in-state TAs
is about half that amount, totalling
$5,056 a year.
The University has not withheld
the tax from the graduate teaching
assistants' paychecks, but instead
has billed them for the tax,
Demetriades said. The GEO urged
members not to pay the University
until Congress had voted on the is-
sue, he said.
REGARDLESS of which bill
passes, however, non-resident TAs
will still see a large part of their
paychecks going to the Internal
Revenue Service in the future.
Teaching assistants will still have
to pay taxes on half of their tuition
waivers, which will mean about a
$200 reduction in every paycheck for
non-resident teaching assistants, said
Demetriades.
The GEO is negotiating with
University officials to revise the
current contract to make the tuition
waivers tax-exempt, he said. The
University recommends rewording
the contract, but the GEO fears this
would eliminate the University's
obligation to provide the waivers.
If the GEO and the administration
can't agree on a word revision, he
said his organization will request
some form of contractual compensa-
tion for the tax burden.
BY MARK WEISBROT
Rackham Student Government, the graduate stu-
dents' governing council, called this week for the re-
naming of the Harlan Hatcher Graduate Library.
The council cited Hatcher's active support, during
his McCarthy-era tenure as University president, for the
removal of faculty on the basis of their political beliefs
or affiliations.
In 1954, at the height of the House Un-American
Activities Committee (HUAC) investigations of
academia, Hatcher suspended three University faculty
for refusing to testify about their political beliefs and
affiliations before HUAC. He subsequently recom-
mended the firing of two of these faculty, who were
later fired.
HATCHER URGED full co-operation with
HUAC and established University committees of fac-
ulty and administrators to investigate faculty suspected
of past or current Communist affiliation.
"This sordid chapter in the history of the University
should not be memorialized, but should be condemned
so as to prevent a recurrence of McCarthyistic attacks,"
said the resolution, which was passed unanimously
Monday night.
Alan Wald, an English professor who called for the
building to be renamed, was pleased by the resolution.
"I suspect there are a large number of buildings that
are misnamed for people who should not be honored,
and there is a whole pantheon of role models whose
history is repressed that could be substituted, especially
women and people of color," he said.
"I hope this is the beginning of a whole process of
renaming,"'he said.
THE RESOLUTION also called for*"victims of
the purge" to be invited to speak at the renaming cere-
mony.
Mark Greer, RSG vice president, compared the Mc-
Carthy era to "a similar crackdown taking place now,
directed primarily against students, with the current
protest code."
"Students who understand the history of academic
repression at the University will be better prepared to
understand and resist the current attempts at restricting
our freedoms," Greer said.
University Regent Thomas Roach (D-Saline) said he
didn't think the proposed renaming was "an appropriate
course of action."
"My predecessors were fit to name the building after
President Hatcher," Roach said. "He did a lot of great
things for the University and I'm content that the
building is named after him."
ROACH DECLINED to comment on Hatcher's
role in the investigation and removal of faculty during
the McCarthy era.
The University's Board of Regents has ultimate re-
sponsibility for the narming of buildings for individu-
als.
Regent Veronica Smith (R-Grosse Ile) said that she
did not want to say anything about the proposed
renaming "until she had heard more from both sides of
the issue." Regent Phillip Power (D-Ann Arbor) also
declined to comment.
Hatcher, who currently resides in Ann Arbor, could
not be reached for comment.
Debate
Bush, Dukakis prepare
for battle in LA tonight
BY THE ASSOCIATED
PRESS - Neither George Bush nor
Dukakis described his debate reper-
toire in baseball lingo, saying he
i
m py YR-