Pgge 4 - The Michigan Daily - Thursday, September 8, 1988 PINION University names Duderstadt president: I* Vol. IC-No. 1 Unsigned editorials represent fhe majority views of the Daily's Editorial Board. Cartoons and signed editorials do not necessarily reflect the Daily's opinion. Vote to save student rights: S Regent Baker's greatest hits DURING HIS 16 YEARS AS a regent at the University, Deane Baker -has forwarded an agenda to act on his racist and homophobic attitudes and to consolidate University control over students, regardless of whether such control violates student rights. Student groups such as the Michigan Student Assembly (MSA) and the Lesbian and Gay Rights Organizing Committee (LaGROC) have requested his resignation, but Baker has refused to step down. This November, the Michigan elec- torate will have a chance to remove Baker from the position of power he has so consistently misused. A glance at the "highlights" of his career will indicate that no one concerned with the good of the University will vote for his re-election: *Baker's contempt for homosexuals on campus is well-documented. During a March 1984 regents meeting, Baker said, "Young people of this state, when they enroll at the University, ought not be forced, for example, to have a professed homosexual as a roommate, or a homo- sexual examining physician, or, for the children of married students, a homosexual camp counselor..." *When LaGROC demanded that the words "sexual orientation" be added to the University's non-discrimination policy at the January 1988 -"regents meeting, Baker again failed to address the vital issue of protect- ing the rights of a minority group on campus. Instead, he burst into a rampage about Mason Hall "being used as a meeting place for members of the homosexual community to perform sexual acts in the men's toi- let rooms," and called for an investigation of his warped allegations. *Baker has not refrained from.making comments which reflect racist attitudes. Referring to the University's Black enrollment goals, Baker said at the April 1987 regents meeting that "Ten percent is not a work- able percentage, and 12 percent is less workable... The further we go with the logic of hiring minorities, eventually there will be inequali- tics." Baker therefore opposes minority recruitment on the grounds that it would lower the quality of the University. *Baker has also opposed the establishment of an Office of Affir- mative Action; the appointment of an associate vice-president of academic affairs to deal with minority problems; the creation of the Minority Research Corporation, an independent institution to monitor minority problems; and divestment from South Africa. In April 1979 he claimed that anyone who would oppose the University's investment in South Africa must be Marxist or socialist. *Baker's disregard for student rights is demonstrated by his strong proponcnce for imposing a code of student non-academic conduct. A code such as Baker has recommended would threaten students' right to freedom of expression and leave the regents with the power to arbitrarily censor any student opinions with which they disagree. *Baker is a long-time advocate of exerting administration control over MSA's budget. In February 1979, Baker attempted to end MSA's funding of the Spartacus Youth League on the grounds that "MSA has adopted an attitude hazardous to the student body by allocating funds to pro-communist, anti-capitalist, anti-American groups." Baker and the other regents are presently threatening to withhold MSA funding en- tirely. *Baker's latest crusade to suppress student's rights has been to press for a new policy on student protest under which students who engage in protests that "exceed the normal bounds of acceptable University behavior" would be prosecuted and arrested. Of course, Baker leaves it up to himself and the administration to define what sort of behavior is considered acceptable - an effective way of restricting the expression of ideas on campus to those they find acceptable. Regent Deane Baker is an embarrassment and a disgrace to the Uni- versity. He must not be re-elected to a position of power from which he can subject the University community to his bigotry. In November, the students and the voters of the state of Michigan should send him a message that he is unqualified to represent them. More THIS TERM MARKS THE beginning of James Duderstadt's reign over the University, and the students are worse off for it. Chosen by the re- gents under a veil of secrecy, Duderstadt brings to the office a history of military research, mis- placed priorities, and gross ignorance of minority and women's issues. In 1982, Duderstadt, as dean of the College of Engineering, was investigating laser beams for an Air Force space weapons project. Duderstadt professed ignorance of military applicability of his work, claiming, "There's no particular weapons system that I'm aware of." But the Air Force itself boasted about the kinds of space laser research the dean was conducting. Observers in the Engineering department argued fiercely that Duderstadt's work violated University guidelines governing weapons research on campus. In response to student and faculty calls to end military research on campus, Duderstadt said that contributing to the "national defense" should be a "major goal" of the University. He has yet to justify publicly his decision to advance his own research career by developing technologies of death. Products of military research are most often used by fascist regimes in the Third World which commit atrocities against their own people. A University president blind to the connection be- tween research and the advancement of specific political systems does not have the skills neces- sary to lead this university. A president who un- derstands these connections and welcomes mili- tary-sponsored research is an even more frighten- ing prospect. Duderstadt was chosen by the regents as the of the next president of the University through a cland- estine search that flies in the face of open dem- ocratic process. In May, the regents were sued by the Ann Arbor News and other papers for their violation of the Open Meeting Act and the Freedom of Information Act by refusing to hand over information about the search. Denied an emergency injunction, the newspapers will continue their lawsuit in the circuit courts during the upcoming year. In order to escape public accountability, the regents interviewed candidates in groups of four, one less than the legal quorum. Students and fac- ulty had no way of knowing who was under con- sideration and how many candidates were passed up in favor of Duderstadt. Significantly, the stu- dent advisory committee did not endorse Duder- stadt and ranked him as the lowest of 16 finalists. During his career, Duderstadt has never in- dicated he places students high on his list of priorities for anything. As dean, he claimed to advocate improving the breadth of engineering students' education, but instead cut the Hu- manities Department from the school. From January to March 1987, Duderstadt filled in as interim president when Harold Shapiro took a sabbatical. During these months, United Co- alition Against Racism members presented de- mands to Duderstadt to combat racism. Duder- stadt and the administration alleged that racist incidents which occurred on campus were insig- nificant and unrelated; all Duderstadt had to say to the protesters was that racist incidents are "not appropriate." Also during his stint as interim president, graduate students occupied Duderstadt's office and same appealed to him to ameliorate the financial straits created by the tuition waiver tax. He did nothing. Many graduate students - particularly women and minorities - are now transferring to un- iversities willing to provide them with a liveable wage. During his tenure as provost, students received tuition increases of more than 20 percent. Du- derstadt failed in his primary responsibility td lobby the State of Michigan for more public funding. His only big achievement was the launching of the Undergraduate Initiative Fund for improving student life. One million dollars later, the program has produced few tangible results. Racial unrest, overcrowded dormitories, the increasing impoverishment of graduate students, the erosion of quality teaching, an administration hostile to student input - all these problems have wors- ened. As both dean and provost, Duderstadt's record of hiring women and minority faculty is abysmal. The Engineering Department remains pitifully dominated by white males even though Duderstadt had plenty of opportunities to change its profile. Duderstadt's lack of concern for mi- norities on this campus was reflected in his long delay in choosing a key executive spot for minority affairs; while he was interim president. he took more than a month to form a search committee. James Duderstadt is merely the latest man- ifestation of the flaws inherent in the Univer- sity's structure. It will be hard for students to keep their already tenuous position on campus with such an authoritarian figurehead. University policies adversely affect TAs: Graduate students overtaXed THROUGHOUT HUMANITIES and science departments, graduate stu- dents, particularly women and mi- norities, are dropping out, transfer- ring or moonlighting. These actions of distress are directly attributable to two policies which have eroded qua- lity undergraduate teaching and which are racist and sexist in their effect: the LSA ten-term teaching limit and the tuition waiver tax. A graduate student teaching assistant (TA) in the Spanish de- partment last fall sold stereo equip- ment by day in order to make meager ends meet. He was so exhausted he regularly dismissed his evening class early. A biology TA last winter term had a friend to serve as substitute teacher for a week because she was visiting another state university where she was thinking of transfer- ring. An English TA who moon- lights at a proofreading agency in order to pay her bills now regularly requires a month or more to grade and return a set of student papers. These are not isolated incidents but documented examples of the dire straits into which graduate students have fallen at the University. Most graduate students hold research or teaching assistantships which pro- vide a small stipend and a tuition waiver. Until this year, a waiver up to $5,250 was tax exempt. But the tax clause that had excluded tuition waivers as taxable income was not restored by Congress in 1988. Eight of the Big Ten universities responded to the change in with- holding requirements by raising sal- aries to cover the tax, or granting state residency to out-of-state stu- dents, or reclassifying tuition waiv- ers as scholarships. Only Ohio State and this university have taken no concrete steps to alleviate the sit- uation and ensure their graduate em- ployces a decent living wage. Last March, graduate students were served up with bills for with- holding taxes which, for many, ex- ceeded their monthly paychecks. The University callously offered to create a loan program at the University Credit Union whereby students without the capital resources to pay the bill had the privilege of falling into debt in order to pay taxes. More than 1,000 students refused to pay their bills when the Graduate Employee Organization (GEO) and groups representing research assis- tants called for a mass boycott. Hundreds of students occupied the Fleming Administration Building, appealed directly to then Provost Duderstadt for relief and were reas- sured of the administrations "aware- ness" and "concern." But as per usual, nothing was done. GEO members who met with the administration over the summer report no change in the official "tough-luck" shrug of sympathy. The University's special tax attorney failed to file his report in July and is still, after many months of research, investigating the situation. KAREN HANDELMAN/Doily GEO members rally on the Diag to demand the University take action to relieve the burden of new taxes on tuition waivers. Graduate student Stefan Kock collects tuition tax bills for presentation to then-VP James Duderstadt. 14:06o Don't let this bylaw be a bygone any longer Such explanations are unlikely to move the hearts of returning graduate students. If tuition waivers continue to be taxable income and if the Uni- versity continues to do nothing, they are almost certain to face a sub- stantial net loss in pay. In such a case, GEO would be justified in de- ciding the administration needs a graphic reminder of how the TA strike of a decade ago closed the University down. The exceedingly slow grinding mills of the University's legal in- vestigation stand in sharp contrast to the feverish pace graduate students in LSA are forced to labor under. LSA Dean Peter Steiner prohibits indi- vidual departments from offering more than ten semesters of teaching support to students who need more time to complete their degrees. Such a prohibition has no other effect than to stress out already bankrupt doctoral students and dis- FOR THE LAST SEVERAL terms, lesbian and gay male activists have been fighting for the right to be protected under the University's anti- discrimination bylaw, 14.06. This ongoing campaign deserves support by everyone in the University com- munity who upholds freedom of choice and equal protection under the law. Last January, the Lesbian and Gay Rights Organizing Committee (LaGROC) proposed to include sex- ual orientation in 14.06, the bylaw which states the University will not discriminate on the basis of color, creed, or sex. LaGROC brought their request to the regents for consider- ation. At their January meeting, however, the regents initially refused to even introduce the motion for discussion; when they finally started to talk about the issue, Regent Deane Baker interrupted to launch a rampage against the gay and lesbian sity seems to have no moral prob- lems at all with challenging state laws and asserting its autonomy. Although bound by law to divest, the University retains token invest- ments in order to force the state into court. Because 14.06 also applies to third parties the University does business with, Regent Thomas Roach has expressed anxiety that the University might find itself legally forbidden to work with the United States military if sexual orientation were included in 14.06. The military openly discriminates against gays, and is a huge source of income for the University. However, the Univ- ersity's investments in South Africa show that the administration is more than willing to work with discrim- inating third parties outside the law. Campus ROTC, which already dis- criminates against handicapped and other students, is in no jeopardy of disappearing due to changes in 1 A A4, eran status. The above arguments stand pri- marily as homophobic excuses de- signed to deny gays and lesbians their rightful protection under the law. Over 13 percent of students on campus are gay or lesbian, con- stituting the largest minority group on campus, and the University must take the appropriate steps to insure they will not be discriminated against. courage the pursuit of creative, an- bitious research projects. Many disciplines require disseE- tations that cannot be adequate4' completed in five years. Dissert- tions in field biology, for example, require an average of 6.5 years to complete. And yet, field biologists, medieval linguists and mathemati- cians are allotted the same five yeah of support to complete their r- search. The ten term limit discriminates against women. The clock does not stop for childbirth, childcare or any other family problems. Both the tuition tax and ten term policy are racist and sexist in their effect. As a group, women and mi- norities are economically disadvan- taged and therefore affected more severely by an extra tax burden of up to $900 a term. Women graduate students tend to be concentrated in the humanities and social sciences which offer smaller teaching frac- tions than do the natural science de- partments. Yet in spite of their low- er income, women must pay the same outrageous tuition tax. As a group, women and minori- ties enter the University with more academic deficiencies and must take heavier course loads. They are more dependent on their TA salaries as a source of support. Yet they are cut off after ten terms regardless of their situation. Both of these policies work. If,: C I F, r