0 0 0 0 0 0 0 now than I was about what the best plan of economics is." Perhaps most important, he says, is that he's learned "how other radicals feel... It's made me appreciate the passion these people feel for these subjects." Supervising four departments of the University, with budgets totalling $2.5 to $3 million, Harrison's responsibilities include promoting University research and programs in the national media, and supervising the dispensation of information locally. Central to that image - for the last year-and-a-half - has been President Jim Duderstadt's "vision" for the University, the Michigan Mandate. Harrison, who says he re-wrote the Mandate while working as a consultant for the University, has been central in the broad effort to promote it. That's mostly because the document has no concrete plans, no hard numbers, no program for achieving the multi-cultural, pluralistic university it calls for. "There's nothing in the Michigan Mandate that has any function," says Audrey Golmon, Director of Academic Support Services for the School of Public Health. "Nothing related to University structure or mecha- nisms." Given the Mandate's status as a "vision," not a blueprint (a distinction Harrison is quick to make), the document s imple- mentation has been left in the realm of image; it's an idea, and ideas are important at univer- sities. "People give to a university," says Harrison, "because they feel in some way that it embodies values that they share. And so to the extent that you can promote the good things that are going on at the University, and people hear about them, they may be more likely to give." But he insists the Mandate - though admittedly more an expression of values than any- thing else - is not just about image. "The Mandate is not something we promote because it has any public relations value," he says. "The Mandate is something that has to be done for society and for the University." But, he adds, "I guess I would say that to the extent that the Mandate indicates that the University takes seriously its commitment to society it is probably a positive force in that way. That is, people will think more positively about the University." But without any program for action, Golmon and others have tower. Last fall he tried the lock and his key still fit 25 years later," said Engineering junior Kelly Hanink. The bond-funded renovation is still being paid off and the Union is now supported through university monies and generated, revenue. Cianciola was quick to point out that the approximately $280,000 that came from student tuition fees are returned via temporary employment and internships. "One of our major thrusts has been to create jobs on campus... I'm not going to deny the fact that students do cost less money [to hire] than others but our philosophy is founded on the principle that their Union experience can be helpful and meaningful to them," said Cianciola. Ranked as the sixth top student center in the nation by the New York Times in 1986, the Union has revived or instituted many services, programs and facilities, among them a student- monitored study lounge, the Michigan Union Grill Eateries and Commons, and the University Club. It has expanded to include the North Campus Commons, a satellite facility containing food operations, an art gallery, meeting rooms, and several retail shops. An extensive addition to that building was completed in 1989. The arts have long been an important component of the Union's programming and services. Helen Welford, assistant director for Arts and Programming, said that "Arts and Programming existed in bits and pieces." A wood shop exists in the Student Activities Building, and the Student Theater Arts Complex (located near Crisler Arena) was built so groups could rehearse and continue the tradition of the arts and theater. "From the beginning [of the renovation], there was a strong need to bring the visual arts back into the building," said Welford, who now oversees Art Lounge, a study room that exhibits primarily student artwork, with an emphasis on minorities. "The lounge has been fairly well received... Students can give a message to their peers and social issues can be aired through art," Welford added. Free concerts are also held in the Union on a regular basis. Student support services, such as the Student Organization Account Service, Michigan Advertising Works, and the Student Organization Development Center have been developed in the past decade. "I see the university experience as one of a continuum. We are only phasing a portion of the student's life. We can't touch all 35,000, students so what we've elected to do was to try and focus in and impact on student leaders and student organizations because those are the individuals that will most likely continue to be leaders, not only for the University, but for the larger community," Cianciola said. Sorc Organizational Consultant Rosa Lopez said, "We focus on individual leadership and organizational development." SODC assists students with finding organizations compatible with their interests and helps student leaders develop personal skills. It also aids organizations in areas such as member recruitment and publicity. Project Community and Project SERVE are two new Union programs making it possible for students to perform community service, often for academic credit. "We want to influence people's civic literacy," said Project Community Director Jeff Howard. "We want to provide a structural explanation as for why there are needy people in the community, and we want to show how exciting learning can be." LSA junior Jennifer Anderson was a student coordinator of Project Community's program at Lawton Elementary School. "We worked with children from low income housing and disadvantaged homes. It was great working in a school system," said Anderson, who intends to teach high school Spanish. "I gained a lot - maturity, independence, and confidence. And I know I can't teach elementary school for eight hours a day." . Jennifer DuneuMeekend What s In A Name.s "4 PUBLIC RELATIONS has a really bad name, says Walter Harrison, casting a grim smile across the little table in Frank's restaurant. "It's like being a dentist." Over the last three years, the 43 year-old Executive Director of University Relations has been catapulted to the fore of one of the University's most crucialfronts: it's image. From playing a major role in the creation of the now-legendary Michigan Mandate and attracting the CBS Morning News to campus 'I remember sitting outside the last year, to Fleming Building and having a kind directing the of semi-serious discussion about publication of the* Unversity Record how to blow it up.'andRMc rda ___ __ __ ___ __ __ ___ __ __ ___ __ __ and Mihgan Today, Harrison has done his best to earn the $106,050-per-year salary he's received since taking his present position last April. In a national climate which has seen the growth of corporate-style university management, and increased competition for private donations in the wake of federal cuts, public relations has assumed a new level of importance. With that has come a new source of power; universities are devoting vast resources to fashioning an image of themselves, and Michigan is no exception. By the time Walter Harrison arrived at Michigan to begin a Masters program in English, in 1968, his days as a student radical were waning. "Most of my real activism was at Trinity [College]," he recalled. There he had worked with a group pressuring the University to expand its curriculum to include such radical fields as sociology and American studies. Through the group, and his participation in anti-war rallies, he joined Students for a Democratic Society (sDs). When pressed, he describes watching the 1%8 Democratic convention on Tv in the lounge of his graduate dorm here. "For everyone else that was the height," he says. "But by then I was already in graduate school and I had all sorts of other things to worry about." A year later he joined the Air Force. Though clinging to some of his '60s heritage ("I think I'm still passionately committed to equal rights for all people. I think I'm passionately committed to the women's movement."), 20 years and six figures later, Harrison has changed. "I think some of my views in the '60s on foreign affairs were naive. I think I was dead wrong about drugs. Economically I think I've changed considerably. That is to say, I'm more to the right Renovation is still needed in some areas of the building, particularly on the fourth floor, where hotel rooms that once hosted the likes of John F. Kennedy, now house student organizations. Bacolor, an LSA senior and member of AIESEG, describes the organization's office. "It can't productively hold more than four people at a time," said Bacolor. "The lack of space forces us to stack files and manuals on top of a toilet in our president's office." The non- functioning toilet, enclosed in a wooden stall, is slated to be removed shortly. But the Billiards & Games Room, with its dark paneling, will most likely remain untouched. "If you go up there, you'll see a number of original photographs," said Cianciola. "That is pretty much as it was since the opening of the building and that was done intentionally." "A few years ago, an alumnus from 1921 came in," said Paradise. "He'd been around the Union and said that everything had changed but the pool room. It has stayed the same for about 70 years." "We should really have a statue of Paul Newman," Paradise said. "We got an unbelievable response after [The Hustler and The Color of Money] came out. You'd think we were giving away $20 bills." Cianciola, who has been in the Union business for 26 years (previously at Kent State University and Akron University), said he wouldn't trade the history of the Michigan Union for the newness offered by the Kent facility he created. "It's kind of like working in old castle - around every corner, a piece of history opens up." And students seem to find pieces of hidden history as well. Paradise recounted the story of a student who came into the billiards room at the end of his junior year. "With eyes as big as saucers," he inquired how long Since alumi 'Botti billiai alum prote tradil at leg the ro he lov room Stu female heads may f eight- byq between -these pictures? And this is the Michigan Union Pool, which inhabited the same space until 1967. 8 WEEKEND February 16, 1990 0.