Ninety-nine years of editorial freedorn
Vol. IC, No. 29. Ann Arbor, Michigan - Tuesday, October 18, 1988 Copyright 1988, The Michigan Daily
Stores
praise
ppolice
increase
BY DAVID SCHWARTZ
Three people representing Ann
Arbor business associations ad-
dressed the Ann Arbor City Council
last night, commending Mayor Ger-
alti Jernigan's directive to increase
police patrols in the troubled May-
nard and Liberty area.
Jermigan's decision to request ad-
ditional officers came after a sharp
increase in assaults in the area. The
additional officers are only a tempo-
rary solution, Jernigan said, because
permanently expanding police pa-
trols would be too costly.
"Additional police presence is
necessary in this area so our cus-
tomers can patronize the area with-
out fear of crime," said Bill Hart,
who was speaking for the Midtown
Group, an association of downtown
businesses.
David Steiner, a representative of
the State Street Association, said,
"we believe the increased presence of
police in the area has sent a message
to the unruly element of the com-
munity."
Despite the praise levied by local
business leaders, not everyone was
in favor of the mayor's directive.
Councilmember Jeff Epton (D-Third
Ward) called the increased patrols
"absolutely meaningless."
"It appeals to editorial page writ-
ers, people who have been assaulted,
and people who sit at home and read
about assaults in the paper," he said.
Epton said he was not convinced that
there has been a significant crime
problem in the Maynard and Liberty
area.
Councilmember Terry Martin (R-
Second Ward) countered Epton's
opinion of the increased number of
officers. "I thought it was extremely
successful. We had a very quiet
weekend down there," she said.
As a long-term solution for alle-
See Council, Page 2
MSA stalls
vote
on
council
I
. . .Asociad, Prs
Protesting militarismP
An unidentified Army officer steps over a line of demonstrators yesterday morning as he
went to work at the Pentagon. Police arrested about 240 protesters, who were condeming
U.S. imperialism in El Salvador, blocking the building's entrance.
Local candidates trade
barbs on environment
BY STEVE KNOPPER
Meeting of the University Coun-
cil - the panel that makes student
conduct rules - has been delayed
once again.
Last night, the Michigan Student
Assembly tabled a proposal to re-
convene the council, a nine-member
committee of students, faculty, and
administrators.
If MSA accepts the proposal next
week, the faculty's Senate Advisory
Committee on University Affairs
and the University's executive offi-
cers would revise it as well. Then,
said SACUA chair Beth Reed, the
three groups would meet and come
up with overall rules for the council.
MSA members discussed the pro-
posal - drafted in September by
President Michael Phillips and Reed
- for half an hour before concluding
that they didn't want to rush into
accepting it.
Many say the University must re-
convene the council to give students
and faculty input on conduct rules so
the administration does not impose
more rules of its own. For example,
the University's Board of Regents
bypassed the council last spring
when it accepted rules against stu-
dent discriminatory conduct.
"It's been too long having things
shoved down our throat with no'in-
put at all," said LSA senior Julie
Murray, chair of MSA's Student
Rights Committee.
The council has not met since last
year because members could not
come to consensus on the student
code of non-academic conduct. Now
it may not meet until late Novem-
ber, Murray said.
The three-page proposal, tabled by
MSA, would establish a mediator to
help council members hold
constructive debate.
But assembly members questioned
several points in the tabled proposal.
For example, the mediator must be
elected by a two-thirds majority,
with votes from faculty, staff, and
students. LSA sophomore Rob Bell,
chair of the communications com-
mittee, said such a regulation was
undemocratic, though he supported
the proposal.
The council stirred controversy
until last July, when the regents
voted to eliminate it for a year un-
less the council itself could come up
with rules to make it more effective.
MSA and SACUA, though, say
students and faculty should have in-
put on several current conduct is-
See Council, Page 5
MSA
calls for
protest
account
BY STACEY GRAY
AND KRISTINE LALONDE
The Michigan Student Assembly
in its weekly meeting last night de-
manded an explanation from Univer-
sity President James Duderstadt for
the Department of Public Safety's
alleged use of excessive force of dur-
ing his inauguration ceremony.
The assembly also proposed a
policy monitoring the actions of
Public Safety and demanded a stu-
dent, worker, faculty, and
See MSA, Page 2
BY MICHAEL LUSTIG
Area political candidates stated
why they would be the best
candidates to defend the environment
at a forum last night sponsored by
two local environmentalist groups.
Democratic State Sen. Lana Pol-
lack, running against U.S. Rep. Carl
Pursell (R-Plymouth) for Michigan's
Second Congressional District seat,
said, "Everyone will stand up and say
they're environmentalists" because
protecting the environment should be
a bipartisan issue.
But she then attacked the Reagan
administration for having "little or
no respect for the environmental
ethic." She called Pursell's environ-
mental record terrible and specifically.
attacked the six-term incumbent for
trying to cut $6 billion from the
1985 Clean Water Act.
Pursell did not attend the forum,
co-sponsored by the Huron Valley
Sierra Club and the Ecology Center
of Ann Arbor, and sent his press
secretary Gary Cates to speak for
him.
Pursell has a good environmental
record, Cates said, noting that Pursell
won a legislator-of-the-year award
from the Michigan Environmental
Protection Agency in 1976 as a state
senator. Pursell voted for the Clean
Water Act in 1977 and 1985, and
proposed an amendment to freeze the
budget for the act in 1985 because
"he was active that year in a spending
freeze movement" and saw the addi-
tional money as wasteful.
Pollack and Pursell have not yet
debated together publicly. She has
received an endorsement from the
Sierra Club.
Democratic State Rep. Perry
Bullard, who represents Ann Arbor,
said President Ronald Reagan, Vice
President George Bush, and Pursell
"take the cake" for irresponsible
environmental policies.
He mentioned that Pursell was
called one of the "Dirty Dozen"
legislators on environmental issues
by a lobbying group, Environmental
Action.
Bullard's opponent, Republican
Rich Birkett was unable to attend the
forum because he could not leave
See Politics, Page 2
More
students
elect
not
to
vote
BY JON SOBEL
It was a time when University students thought
their vote could change the world. And for a brief mo-
ment, it did.
During the 1972 presidential election - a year after
the 26th amendment gave 18-year-olds the right to vote
- 18,000 out of 29,000 University students registered
to vote.
Entertainers Mitch Ryder and Spencer Davis boosted
the year-long registration drive in a "get out the vote"
concert. And on Election Day, lines of 700 people
formed outside polling places throughout campus. At
the Union, students waited five hours past the 8 p.m.
closing to cast ballots, as lawyers sought an injunction
to keep the polls open longer.
THE STUDENT VOTE proved decisive in local
contests for judge, city council, and sheriff. Six
months earlier, a newly formed third-party called the
Human Rights Party had stunned observers by captur-
ing two city council seats from the Democrats. Nancy
Wechsler, a student elected in the second ward, vowed,
"This town is never going to be the same again."
Yet 16 years later, such predictions appear less
probable now than then.
Student voter turnout in Ann Arbor has been in
steady and steep decline since 1972. Organizers of Stu-
dent Vote, an MSA-sponsored voter registration drive,
estimate that in the 1984 Presidential election, 70 per-
cent of students did not vote. Gone are the concerts,
the lines and, behind it all, the intensity.
Nationally, about 40 percent of eligible voters be-
tween 18 and 24 vote.
In local politics - where students amount to a third
of Ann Arbor's population - the numbers are even
more dramatic. Roughly 15,500 students voted locally
in 1972. In 1976 and 1980 the number stood around
10,000 and then dropped to 9,000 in 1984. While the
votes were dropping, the student population grew from
29,000 to 34,000.
WITH FEW EXCEPTIONS, turnout among
all groups has dropped throughout the 20th century.
Yet, no one seems to know why, especially for the
students.
Some blame an electoral process that turns increas-
ingly on packaging and less on substance. Some be-
lieve 1972 was an aberration, a time best explained by
the constant shadow of Vietnam and the threat of the
draft. Others look at the priorities of the "Me Genera-
tion" and say they are not surprised.
"Reagan has told people that self interest is the
highest interest. It's not all Reagan, but he's the best
example" said Ann Arbor City Councilmember Jeff
Epton (D-Third Ward).
History Prof. Charles Bright, an expert on voting
history in America, sees other forces at work. "It's not
that young people are somehow bad. There's no villain
in it. Democratic practice is hard to create and sustain.
Apathy is an effect, not a cause."
Bright believes that students voted in higher num-
bers because community issues and ties among stu-
dents brought them into politics. Now the ties appear
to have broken down.
"If the only thing politics really means is going
into a booth and pulling a lever, then there's very little
reason to participate," said Bright.
A controversial rent control proposal last spring
brought out only an estimated 4,000 students. "If stu-
dents were going to come out and vote, that was the
issue", said Ann Arbor City Councilmember Mark
Ouimet (R-Second Ward).
See Vote, Page 5
Faculty tables vote
Pon harassment code
BY ALYSSA LUSTIGMAN
The faculty's Senate Assembly
again tabled a motion yesterday
endorsing the current discriminatory
harassment policy for faculty and
staff members, until the policy is
brought before them in a more cohe-
sive state.
p Members of the assembly felt
they needed time to absorb new in-
formation about procedures brought
before them at the meeting.
The current interim policy utilizes
existing procedures, such as regents'
bylaws, for processing harassment
complaints against faculty and staff.
New procedures have not been
implemented because of concerns
from faculty members over possible
restraints of academic freedom.
to keep the revised procedures found
in the Sept. 16 draft of the policy,
with a few key changes, Swain said.
One change would be to institute a
See Faculty, Page 2
Detroit
gunner
1ils 2
officers
DETROIT - A gunner barricaded
himself in an apartment building on
the city's east side and shot two
police officers yesterday, killing
both, and police returning gunfire
shot the suspect to death, authorities
said.
The suspect, Charles Knowles,
was killed in the gunfight, according
to radio reports and the man's
nephew, Rick Knowles. Charles
Knowles was a tenant of the buil-