Ninety-nine years of editorial freedom
Vol. I C, No. 82 Ann Arbor, Michigan - Wednesday, January 25, 1989 Copyright 1989, The Michigan Daily
MSA calls
for meeting
with regents
BY ALEX GORDON
In response to last week's harsh criticism and
threats from members of the University's Board of
Regents, the Michigan Student Assembly voted to
publicly call for a meeting of the regents and the as-
sembly.
MSA President Mike Phillips said last night that
he will draft a letter to the regents, which will be fol-
lowed up by a phone call. MSA will also buy an ad in
The Daily expressing the assembly's desire to com-
n unicate with the regents.
During the regents' meeting, Vice President for
Student Services Henry Johnson and Student
Organization Development Center (SODC) Director
Brad Borland publicly criticized MSA for not follow-
ing a regents' resolution last year requiring that the
assembly "engage in a consultative way with SODC."
"Johnson and Borland incorrectly stated the
relationship" between MSA and SODC, Phillips told
the assembly last night. He explained that the resolu-
tion, passed last summer, called for MSA to meet with
six or seven organizations, including SODC.
"We were supposed to point out our problems and
show that we have direction in solving these prob-
lems," Phillips said of the regents' resolution.
Phillips said MSA has fulfilled all the requirements
of the resolution. He said he has tried to set up meet-
ings with SODC twice a month, and that "SODC did
not even come to us to start the process until Octo-
ber."
Particularly, Phillips noted that MSA and SODC
together conducted an external survey of 150 student
,groups, but only received 15 responses, rendering the
survey's results statistically nonviable.
Borland confirmed Phillips' remarks about the sur-
vey last night, but would not comment further.
Phillips downplayed the importance of the entire
episode to MSA's survival. "My main concern is if
students decide to defunct MSA," said Phillips. "The
credit lies more with the students, not the regents. If
students think we're doing our job, were doing our
job."
Delro Harris, chair of MSA's minority affairs
committee, formally introduced the resolution to call
for a meeting with the regents. "As much as I'm
against MSA for a lot of things they've done, the re-
gents themselves are disrespectful," said Harris.
Harris is optimistic that the regents will respond to
the letter. "I'm thinking positive right now, I see no
reason why this shouldn't work."
Regent Paul Brown (D- Petosky) said last night
that he would be willing to wait until new assembly
officers are elected in March before making any final
decisions to cut funding. "That doesn't sound unrea-
sonable to me - I don't have my mind made up as to
what actions are necessary."
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See story,
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meets
BY TARA GRUZEN'
SPECIAL TO THE DAILY
LANSING - Gov. James Blan-
chard and student leaders from state
public universities criticized high
student tuition increases and dis-
cussed strategies to combat them
yesterday.
The meeting was the first of its
kind since students presented Blan-
chard with an award in 1986 for his
1984-85 efforts to freeze tuition in-
creases.
Alaina Lewis, chairperson and
legislative director to the Michigan
Collegiate Coalition, a state-wide
student lobbying group, said yester-
day's meeting occurred because she
and several student leaders spoke to
Blanchard last Thursday about tu-
ition increases.
"This show commitment on the
government's point of view on
higher education - there must be a
solution so students have more of an
impact on what affects them," said
Lewis.
Blanchard appeared to share the
financial concerns of the approxi-
mately 15 public univerisities repre-
sented.
"Any significant tuition increase,
by that I mean a double-digit in-
crease, is totally unjustified," Blan-
chard said yesterday. "However, we
have to be fair to university officials
on this too. They have been our al-
lies."
LSA senior Mike Phillips, presi-
dent of the Michigan Student As-
sembly, said the meeting gave stu-
dents a chance to participate directly
in policies regarding higher educa-
tion.
"The governor is going to be
more accountable to the students
than the administration," Phillips
said. "When you talk to him about
tuition, you know he can do some-
thing about it."
Lewis said students must have
more of a voice in decisions that
will eventually affect them. She
pushed Blanchard to get students ap-
pointed to the university boards
which make tuition decisions.
Blanchard said he will proceed
with caution before recommending
student appointments to university
boards and that the positions would
be filled based upon vacancy.
"The big concern will be to make
sure that the student has some
continuity of interest," Blanchard
said. "University administrations
would worry that students would
have a year-to-year interest rather
than an interest over a certain time
span."
Although appointing students to
the boards of other Michigan state;
universities may be possible, Lewis
said a state constitutional amend-
ment would probably be necessary to
appoint University of Michigan stu-
dents to the elected Board of Re-
gents.
"MCC now has its foot in the
door with the governor and we will
be here to make sure that he contit-
ues his commitment to higher
education," Lewis said.
During yesterday's meeting,
Blanchard also laid out three plans to
increase student involvement in state
policies between now and early
spring.
Blanchard proposed an honors in-
ternship program in state department
See Tuition, Page 2
Blanchard
with
student reps.
The Birds
European starlings flee from a tree on Washtenaw Avenue.
page 5.
Urban'
WASHINGTON (AP) -
National Urban League said yeste
economic gap between Blacks an
widened during the F
Administration, while Preside
may take steps to improve condi
Black America.
"I expect the Bush White B
be a very different place from the
White House," said John Jacob, p
of the National Urban League.
"I am hopeful that h
implement policies that close th
League crif
- The gap that puts African Americans on a
,rday the separate and unequal track from white
d whites Americans," he said.
Reagan The Urban League, releasing its
nt Bush annual assessment of the status and
tions for conditions of Blacks in America, cited
statistics which show racial inequality
louse to growing and Blacks facing increasing
Reagan misery from poverty, crime, and drugs.
president Jacob said Blacks were the only
major ethnic group whose
he will unemployment rate rose during the
he tragic 1980s. He said housing segregation
0 e
icizes Reagan era
increased, and black life expectancy at
birth began to decline.
During the 80's, "Blacks did not
share the prosperity and got more than
their share of the misery," Jacob said at a
news conference.
The report, "The State of Black
America, 1989," is the 14th annual
assessment of Black America by the
league, a 78-year-old research and
minorities advocate organization:
In a summary of economic
conditions, David Swinton, Dean of the
Business School at Jackson State
University in Mississippi, wrote that no
progress was made during the Reagan
administration to reduce economic
disparities faced by Blacks.
Bush's Cabinet appointments "have
been wise, and there are people at key
departments with whom we can work,"
Jacob said. He called on Bush to adopt as
a goal achieving economic parity
between whites and Blacks by the year
2000.
Director of Phoenix Project nuclear reactor retires
BY NOELLE SHAD WICK
The goal of the University's Michigan
Memorial Phoenix Project - to find
peaceful uses for nuclear energy - has not
changed in over 35 years, though the pro-
ject's director has changed three times.
On Feb. 1, Director Dr. William Kerr,
who has directed the project and Ford Nu-
clear Reactor for 28 years, will turn his
position over to Dr. Ronald Fleming from
the National Institute of Standards and
Technology.
Kerr retires from his post having
watched the public's reaction to nuclear
power change, and having developed some
ideas for its future use.
"In the late '40s and '50s there was lots
of enthusiasm for nuclear power," Kerr ex-
plained. "There was an idea that it would
make electric power so cheap that it
wouldn't even have to be metered."
The Michigan Memorial Phoenix Pro-
ject and Ford Nuclear Reactor, located on
North Campus, were founded as part of this
enthusiasm. Established after World War II
as a memorial to University students and
alumni killed in action, the project provided
money for faculty to study peaceful uses of
nuclear energy and examine its social im-
plications.
Many of the laboratory's early projects
originated from the social sciences and dealt
with the legal problems and social dimen-
sions of implementing nuclear power into
communities.
But though interest in nuclear power
was initially strong, concern over health
risks and radiation caused its image to di-
minish.
"I guess we thought that there might be
more of a positive response to nuclear
power than there has been," he said. "As
nuclear power has developed it has gotten a
negative image."
The industry's inability to design ade-
quate safety systems for nuclear power
reactors has wasted a lot of money, and ac-
counts for some of the negative image,
Kerr said.
However, "In the sense that [nuclear en-
ergy] can provide a major source of energy,
I think the reputation is undeserved," he
added.
The laboratory researches the behavior of
substances and neutrons, and also provides
services for the public and national compa-
nies.
People from across the country can send
in sample materials to be irradiated to de-
termine what kinds of substances the mate-
rial contains. The money collected from
this neutron analysis goes to support other
Phoenix funded projects.
See Reactor, Page 2
Soviet landslide buries 1,000
MOSCOW (AP) - Rescuers
trudged through the muddy rubble
and wreckage of their villages
yesterday in a desperate search for
survivers of the earthquake that
killed up to 1,000 people.
A 40-second tremor, which U.S.
seismologists registered as 5.4 on
the Richter scale, hit before dawn
Monday. It sent layers of mud
cascading onto mountain villages in
Tadzhikistan, a rural area about
1,800 miles south of Moscow.
Moslem villagers in "endless"
f..ticrnl ,nrnC, nhnirid their dped
than 100 bodies have been hauled
from the mud and wreckage.
Rescuers discovered only one
survivor, Sergei Muratov, 27.
Muratov was reported to be in
grave condition. He was rushed to a
hospital, where surgeons are
"fighting for his life," a
spokesperson said.
However, Vitaly Zhukov of the
republic's official news agency told
the Associated Press no survivors
were found during excavations
yesterday.
determined just what help will be
needed.
INSIDE
Does membership havei
leges?
its privi-
See Opinion, Page 4,
Have a laugh/wear a smile/stick
with us/ for a while...
See Arts, Page 10
>... ,, .