Ninety-nine years of editorialfreedom
Vol. I C, No. 95 Ann Arbor, Michigan - Monday, February 13, 1989 Copyright 1989, The Michigan Daily
Senator proposes
tax to
help
tuition
BY PATRICK STAIGER
State funding for higher education will continue to
be low this year, but universities need to find other
ways than raising tuition to make up the deficit, State
Senator William Sederburg told a student lobby group
yesterday.
Sederburg, chair of the Senate Appropriations
Subcommittee for Higher Education, speaking to
students in the Michigan Student Assembly chambers,
outlined a plan to increase state funds for universities
and especially University students - by a tax
levied on beer and wine.
"Give the state's fiscal situation, I'm trying to find
something we can do on our own," Sederburg said.
Because of state budget restraints, the legislature
will probably not ask for more than the three percent
increase for higher education proposed by Governor
James Blanchard, Sederburg said. In recent years, the
legislature has increased the governor's proposal before
finalizing the budget in July.
As state funds have dwindled over the past decade,
Michigan universities, rather than cutting their own
budgets, have increased tuition - more than 25 per-
cent in the last three years at the University.
Tuition will increase another 11 percent next year at
the University if administrators follow plans outlined
in their state budget proposal this fall.
The proposal had asked for an optimistic eight per-
cent increase in state funds, and included a nine percent
increase in tuition. It said student tuition would cover
any state allocation less than that amount.
Vice President for Government Relations Richard
Kennedy last week said he was not surprised by the
state allocation which was lower than they had asked.
"The state budget is as tight as we thought it
would be," Vice President for Government Relations
Richard Kennedy said last week.
Sederburg's tax would increase the tax on beer six-
and-one-half cents, and increase the tax on wine one
dollar and six cents per liter - creating $168 million
in revenue that could be used for student financial aid,
he said.
But Sederburg also called on universities to lessen
the tuition burden by trimming their own budgets, es-
pecially in the area of middle management.
"There is a built in inertia (by university adminis-
trators) that universities have to grow by five percent
or else we're 'in a crisis,' and the built in avenue for
this is student tuition," Sederburg said.
See Tuition, Page 5
WINTERFEST
Ann Arbor celebrates winter
by turning snow into art
In the early stages of sculpting the "The Snow Flake," two team members remove chunks of snow using
part of a chain. For best viewing hurry to Main Street before the next snow fall.
Deal
made to
speed
North
hearings
WASHINGTON (AP) - Chief
Justice William Rehnquist yesterday
postponed the start of Oliver North's
Iran-Contra trial, but the independent
prosecutor and Justice Department
later agreed on a plan aimed at let-
ting the trial go ahead.
The chief justice granted a Justice
Department request to delay North's
trial from Monday's scheduled start
until Friday, when the full Supreme
Court is scheduled to consider the
department's objections to the
planned release of classified material
by North's defense.
Hours later, Attorney General
Dick Thornburgh and independent
counsel Lawrence Walsh agreed to a
proposal that would impose more
stringent safeguards on North's use
of classified material.
If the proposal is approved by the
judge handling the case, U.S. Dis-
trict Judge Gerhard Gesell, the Jus-
tice Department will ask the
Supreme Court to lift the stay so the
North trial may proceed, according to
statements issued by the department
and Walsh.
Walsh and the department filed a
sealed motion with Gesell "which
requests that the district court enter
an additional protective order pre-
venting the release of classified in-
formation vital to U.S. national se-
curity interests," the Justice Depart-
ment said in a statement.
Rehnquist ordered yesterday "that
the trial proceedings in United States
vs. Oliver North... be stayed" pend-
ing consideration by the full
Supreme Court on Friday.
Walsh, whose office is prosecut-
ing North, had opposed the Justice
Department's efforts to delay the
trial and wanted to proceed immedi-
ately with opening arguments, say-
ing that national security concerns
had been amply addressed.
"The Justice Department con-
cluded, and the Independent Counsel
concurred, that the trial could not go
forward without an additional
protective order, and that it is essen-
tial for the court to enter such an or-
der," said a Justice Department
statement.
Walsh issued a separate motion
saying that the independent counsel
filed the motion with Gesell and that
the Justice Department "agreed to the
motion."
JOHN WEISE/Daty -
JESSICA GREENE /Dally
This sculpture, by Saginaw residents Bill Doehring, Bernie Hogah Ken Peterson puts finishing touches on the piece Love and Money, which finished second in the
And Peter Rumsey, won it all at the Michigan Snow Sculpting competition. See related story, Page 7.
contest.
BY LAURA COUNTS
"There isn't a cloud floating
around that is racism. It shows itself
in certain ways, and that's where we
have to fight it," United Coalition
Against Racism member Tracye
Matthews told the audience at the
Michigan Union on Saturday.
Fighting racism, and the distor-
Black
H isory
Month h 4
tion of Black issues in American
society,were the focus of a teach-in
on "Issues Confronting the Black
Community" over the weekend. The
teach-in, sponsored by UCAR and
the Ella Baker-Nelson Mandela Cen-
ter for Anti-Racist Education, was
part of Black History Month.
-in
panelists discuss
I
Topics include Mississippi Burning, the SATs
A panel and audience spent six
hours discussing the war on drugs,
attacks on the Black family struc-
ture, the film Mississippi Burning,
access to education, and the struggle
in Southern Africa.
About 50 people filed in at noon
for a panel entitled "Is the Black
Family in Crisis?: A Black Feminist
Critique," which generated heated
discussion about the negative myths
of Black family structure.
"To talk about the crisis of the
Black family is a misnomer," said
Rackham graduate student Barbara
Ransby.
Participants said statistics corre-
lating Black, female headed house-
holds with crime and drug use pro-
mote racist and sexist stereotypes.
Not only do such statistics ignore
alternative family structures, speak-
ers said, but they ignore economic
problems in the Black community
created by institutionalized racism.
Criticism of the media's portrayal
of Blacks centered around the film
Mississippi Burning, advertised as a
story about the murder of three
young civil rights workers in 1964.
UCAR members Rajal Patel and
Nikita Buckhoy criticized the film's
plot, which focused on the personal
differences between two white Fed-
eral Bureau of Investigation agents
and took a "murder mystery" ap-
proach.
They also criticized its distortion
of history. Patel pointed out that the
film changed details of the actual
case. For example, in a scene where
the three civil rights workers were
driving, the Black worker was in the
back seat and the two whites were in
the front. But in reality, the Black
worker was driving, Patel said.
Ransby said that unlike the
agents played by Gene Hackman and
Willem Dafoe, the FBI was a strong
force in trying to destroy the Civil
Rights Movement.
The film, aimed to attract a
white audience, contains only "a
slight infusion of Black culture,"
Ransby added.
For example, there were no im-
portant Black characters in the film,
said first-year Residential College
student Max Gordon, and the ones
who did appear were shown as vic-
tims, not fighters in the Civil
Rights Movement.
"People may feel uncomfortable
criticizing (the film) because they
think it's part of the (Civil Rights)
Movement. This film is detrimental
because it is not an accurate por-
trayal, and we need to be able to
look at it accurately and not be se-
duced by its packaging," Gordon
said.
Later, UCAR members Kimberly
aicism
Smith and David Maurrasse led a
talk on Black access to education.
"The University is doing things
halfway, saying 'aspire to this -
but we aren't going to change the
deck stacked against you,"' said LSA
alum Brandy Graham.
Smith read a statement from the
creator of the original Scholastic
Aptitude Test that said the test was
intended to separate people by race,
class and gender. She argued that the
test's format and language favors
white, middle class males.
The forum concluded with an up-
date on events in Southern Africa.
UCAR member Pam Nadesen en-
couraged the audience to keep sup-
porting the struggle against
apartheid. She called recent moves
towards reform by the South African
government - such as its elections
- a complete farce, designed to
"pacify the international commu-
nity."
Hon. Degree Committee
includes no students
Gophers beat Michigan 88-
80; Taylor out
BY JONATHAN SCOTT
Without student participation, the
University's Honorary Degree
Committee met as scheduled this
past October, reviewing candidates
and making recommendations that
now await approval by the Univer-
sity's Board of Regents.
No students narticinated in the
Student Services Henry Johnson.
In an MTS communication to
MSA, Duderstadt said his office re-
ceived MSA's recommendations late
because of a delay in communication
between Johnson and the president.
"It was a timing problem," said
Vice President for Government
Relations and Secretary Richard
BY STEVE BLONDER
SPECIAL TO THE DAILY
MINNEAPOLIS - Michigan
coach Bill Frieder hoped his Wol-
verines would play two good games
on the road trip to Iowa and
Minnesota.
One out of two isn't bad.
said last night. "They
getting offensive reb
just out-quicked us."
THE BIGGEI
were unable to matcl
esota guards Melvir
Ray Gaffney, who c
points.
indefinitely
y did a great jo Burton scored 42 points, and hauled
ounds, and they down 29 rebounds including 14 on
the offensive end.
R Wolverines "We did a good job crashing the
h up with Minn- boards," said Bond. "We are pretty
n Newbern and good at rebounding."
ombined for 38 The Gophers outrebounded Mich-
igan 41-21 to win their 12th con-
3