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-