Ninety- nine years of editorialfreedom Vol. IC, No. 117 Ann Arbor, Michigan --Wednesday, March 22,1989 Copyright 1989, The Michigan Daily MSA debates condemning representatives I I 2 N Ftr M P I | BY TARA GRUZEN nosal to condemn the four rere sen- Constituents packed the Michigan Student Assembly chambers last night to debate the line between racism and free speech. Students from the United Coali- tion Against Racism, the Palestine Solidarity Committee, and the Les- bian and Gay Rights Organizing Committee spoke last night in favor of a proposal which would censure, or condemn, four MSA members. These four members - Gene Kavnatsky, Matt Mansfield, Bryan Mistele and Dan Tobocman - in- troduced a proposal at last week's assembly meeting that called for MSA to de-recognize UCAR on the basis of the People of Color confer- ence it sponsored. These four mem- bers were upset because certain planning sessions of the conference were open only to people of color, which they thought violated the MSA Compiled Code and the All- Campus Constitution. But after much heated debate, the proposal was changed to support UCAR and the conference rather than condemn the four sponsors of the original proposal. The new proposal will be on the agenda at next week's meeting. Michael Peterson, the MSA rep- resentative who introduced the pro- tatives, said although he changed the proposal, another assembly member may decide to reintroduce it again next week. "They have a right to say what they want to say," Peterson said. "What is important is that we make a statement in support of UCAR." Members of UCAR, LaGROC, and PSC, however, fully supported Today is the lst d ay to, vote i n For polr' times and locatons, see page 10 censuring the MSA members. "This body should condemn the people that made the resolution (to de-recognize UCAR) last week," said PSC member Daniel Kohn. "The question is whether this body will take a stand against its members that are racist," said a La- GROC representative. "LaGROC would like to fully support a call for a censure." See MSA, Page 2 Four anti-PIRGIM activists campaign against proposal 1 on the MSA ballot, which calls for direct student funding of the research group yesterday in front of the fishbowl. U.S. needs to aid reform in Panama to win drug war BY VERA SONGWE Daily News Analysis Third in a five-part series To Panamanians, history has produced a Central American Forum focus on: Panama bitter irony. Without American military support, General Manuel Antonio Noriega, could not have risen to power. And now he remains in power against American wishes. "Noreiga is to the American like Frankenstein. We created a can't get rid of," said Roberto LSA senior and member of t for Democracy in Latin Americ "His presence in Central A fecting us just as much as it manian people," Frisanchio sai Noriega's reign of terror in the flow of illegal drugs frorr the U.S have grown directly o ica's support for Panama's n ernment. "Unless it realizes this, the solve its own drug problem government killing its youth - or Panama's internal a monster we problems," said Antonio Bernal, an expert Frisanchio, on Panama and professor at Lehigh he Coalition University. a. Since gaining independence from merica is af- Colombia in 1903, Panamanian politics is the Pana- have been influenced by the United States d. more than any other Latin American coun- Panama and try except Puerto Rico. n Panama to Two-thirds of U.S investment in Central )ut of Amer- America is in Panama, and 12 percent of all nilitary gov- U.S. trade and 12 percent of its oil passes through the Panama Canal. To protect U.S. U.S. cannot interests, U.S. marines have entered the - which is country 18 times, taking full advantage of the original Panama treaty, which gave the U.S the right "in perpetuity" to military intervention in Panamanian affairs. In October 1968, the Panamanian De- fense Forces (PDF) under General Oman Torrijos - supplied with U.S. artillery - overthrew Panama's popularly elected civilian government. "America's reasoning then was simple: a strong military allows for national stabil- ity," said Bernal. "But to the peril of the Panamanian people, the U.S. had ignored a basic lesson of history - absolute power leads to absolute corruption." In 1968, Gen. Torrijos made Noriega his second-in-command. A year later, Noriega was soon placed in charge of PDF internal security. First accused of drug dealing and spying for the CIA, Noriega is currently suspected of expanding his activities to money laundering and illegal exportation of Cuban seafood to the United States. Noriega transformed Panama into what Senator Alfose D'Amato (R-New York) called "a total criminal empire probably as large as any that might exist in the world." See Panama, Page 2 Supreme v Court approves drug testing for some WASHINGTON (AP) - The Supreme Court, establishing guide- lines to test for drug and alcohol abuse in the American workplace, yesterday approved mandatory tests for some workers in sensitive gov- ernment jobs or entrusted with pub- lic safety. The justices upheld federal regulations forcing railroad workers involved in accidents to undergo blood and urine tests. In a separate vote the court ruled that the U.S. Customs Service can order urine tests for employees seeking drug-en- forcement jobs or positions that re- quire they carry firearms. The court ordered further lower court hearings to determine whether the Customs Service rules also should apply to workers with access to classified information. While the two cases do not deal with random drug testing, the court gave government officials and regu- lators broad powers to require tests for workers in sensitive jobs. Bush administration officials gov'tW hailed the rulings. Union officials who had challenged the mandatory tests said they were disappointed but some expressed that they hope the impact would be limited. Justice Anthony Kennedy, writ- ing for the court in both cases, said such tests do not violate workers' privacy rights even though they may be conducted without a court warrant or a suspicion that an individual is using drugs or alcohol. Although the rulings do not di- rectly affect most private employ- 'U' to announce candidates for Torkers ment they will further encourage private employers who impose or plan to inipose such tests. "The majority's acceptance of dragnet blood and urine testing en- sures that the first, and worst casu- alty of the war on drugs will be the precious liberties of our citizens," said Justice Thurgood Marshall. Attorney General Dick Thorn- burgh acknowledged that the rulings do not resolve whether more sweep- ing random drug tests are permitted. top posts the regents of violating the Open Meetings Act when searching for Shapiro's replacement last year. No students served on the six- member general counsel search committee; members included a for- mer regent, administrators, and a professor. University attorney John Ketelhut has been serving as acting general counsel since late 1986. Mary Ann Swain, the associate vice president for Academic Affairs, has been serving as interim Affirmative Action director since last year. MSA appointed two students to serve on the 11-member Affirma- See Search, Page 2 BY FRAN OBEID Candidates to fill the vacated po- sitions of University general counsel and Affirmative Action director will be recommended for approval at the University's Board of Regents' meeting this week, University offi- cials said yesterday. The officials refused to release the names of the candidates. Vice President and Chief Finan- cial Officer Farris Womack will rec- ommend a candidate to replace for- mer General Counsel Roderick Daane, who left the University more than two years ago. Michigan Student Assembly officers expressed concern that the regents may have met several general counsel candidates in violation of the Michigan Open Meetings Act. The law requires that meetings of a pub- lic body, in which a quorum of its members are present, be open to the public. If more than four of the eight re- gents had met last month to debate the candidates, it would constitute a violation of the law. The regents have denied any such violation. Assistant to the President Shirley Clarkson maintains that the regents were not violating the act. "The meeting between the candidates and the regents was not a job interview, it was just a courtesy," she said. But MSA Vice President Susan Overdorf disagreed. "Any part of the selection process to pick a Univer- sity official should be open to the public," she said. The search for a general counsel, which started over two years ago, was "put in limbo" when former University President Harold Shapiro departed for Princeton, Womack said. There is a pending lawsuit filed by three area newspapers, accusing Watch it wiggle Rachel Brodsky, an LSA sophomore, reaches for a Pi Phi jello jump on Tappan St. JESSICA GREENE /Daily raffle ticket at the Law School BY DIANE COOK Law School Dean Lee Bollinger's recent decision to invite the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation to speak at the May s graduatior student organizations informed him of recent lawsuits against the FBI by Hispanic FBI agents, who charged that the Bureau systematically discriminated against them in 1 speaker dr University of Michigan Law Review. "Dean Bollinger's inconsistent and hypo- critical actions towards racial and ethnic intolerance increase the hostile nature of an 'aws protest such a meeting. "He wants to encourage free speech, yet he won't have a meeting," said Holly Fechner, a Law School student representative to the