Page 14-The Michigan Daily/New Student Edition - Thursday, September 6, 1990
Deputized security: another traditional summer move
a
K.
Slings 8
Arrows
PhilCohn
Welcome to another year (or, if
it's your first, Welcome aboard!). As
usual, the Board of Regents spent
the students' off season plowing
through the business they'd just as
soon not have people pay much at-
tention to.
So there was a quaint proposal
from renowned homophobe Regent
Deane Baker to provide an
"alternative" counseling center for
students seeking answers about gay
and lesbian life.
Baker is not satisfied with the
Lesbian and Gay Men's Programing
Office, because he's afraid they're
"biased," possibly "in favor" of
homosexuality. He wants an office
funded that will provide the service
of talking confused students out of
being who they are.
Isn't education great?
They also picked another Old Boy
from within the University to pro-
mote. This time it was Business
School Dean Gilbert Whitaker, who
got the in-house nod for the position
of University Provost and Vice Pres-
ident for Academic Affairs.
But the biggest coup of the
summer was the proposal to create
an autonomous University police
force. Under a law just approved by
the State, public schools in Michi-
gan are now free to send their own
gun-toting cops out amongst the
students, free from the constraints of
any of those quasi-democratic insti-
tutions like local governments.
Whereas before this year Univer-
sity cops were generally deputized
under a local police agency-if they
were deputized at all-now they only
have to answer to the Regents, in-
cluding Deane Baker.
See above.
Deputized University cops per-
formed their first public mission at
President James J. (for Jimmy) Dud-
erstadt's Inaugural Ball at Hill Audi-
torium, in October of '88. Some
students were unhappy with the ille-
gal, air-tight, in-house selection pro-
cess which culminated in promoting
yet another Old-Boy-networker to a
position of power. They held a
peaceful protest.
So, with the help of the Ann Ar-
bor Police (remember, the 'U' didn't
have it's own force yet), the Univer-
sity police assaulted the protestors,
dropping one to the ground with
enough force to give her a concus-
sion, and arresting another.
The next month, angry students
demanded to meet with the President
after the administration released a re-
port on Latino students which was
chock full of lies. The response from
University police was swift and sure
(student safety can't be compromised
by inefficiency). Several students had
their hands slammed in a door as
they were barricaded into a stairwell
and trapped for half an hour.
The political reality that the Uni-
versity adminiSIration faces is this:
there are times when they need ugly-
cop services, things people don't
much like to see, and things people
might just try to make trouble
about.
This includes busting heads (see
Vietnam). And that's just easier
when the political fallout has to fil-
ter in through a state-wide vote (how
the Regents are elected), and when
the cops in question don't have to
worry about the elected careers of
their bosses.
It gets worse, though. The law
passed by the State empowers Uni-
versity police forces to enforce local
and state laws, as well as university
regulations.
That wouldn't be such a big deal
if anybody at all outside of the ad-
ministration had a guaranteed say in
the creation of these regulations. In
fact, with Regental Bylaw 2.01 con-
veniently in his back pocket, Presi-
dent Jim himself can just impose
laws, without asking anyone at all.
And he's done it. And who would
question him if he had a pack of
armed private security guards to back
it up?
Fortunately, you and I don't have
to stand for this sitting down. Stu-
a
w.
l
To
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done by various other groups.
"What I foresee is starting out
with tons of information," she told
me, "just so people start seeing what
it's all about from the beginning.
MSA has the capacity of being the
organizing body, of networking."
That's a beginning. Van Valey also
knows that "the only way the Re-
gents will respond is if we actually
do something."
Stay tuned.
Van Valey throws MSA into the
debate knowing full well the politi-
cal flak she's in for. In last year's
elections her opponents made any
progress they did off arguments that
MSA should be "non-political," and
basically stay out of campus or other
politics outside of fighting for lower
tuition (a worthy cause) or promot-
ing meal plan reform (wow).
"That's such a stupid argument,"
she said. "MSA is never going to be
non-political, and they don't want it
to be non-political. They're just
pissed off because it's not their poli-
tics. There will always be people
opposed," she adds. "But that's the
worst reason to cower away from it."
In a country which sends more
Black men to prison than to college,
where seizing property without even
making the pretense of filing crimi-
nal charges is openly sanctioned by
the courts, and where police power
are continuously being expanded (thP
FBI finally buckled down and
changed the policy prohibiting its
officers from shooting people in the
back), resisting the militarization of
our campus takes on -an importance,
which extends beyond the confines
of Ann Arbor.
Cohen is an LSA junior and regu
larly has a column in the Daily'
Weekend Magazine
dents have already begun developing
a plan to resist the creation of the
v isit private police force.
Michigan Student Assembly
President Jennifer Van Valey is
planning to get the Assembly in-
U.S. 23 AT WASHTENAW AVENUE volved, in addition to the work being
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Same
Day
Contacts
MACS
continued from page 10
computer hardware and software to
students, faculty and staff at reduced
rates. Masten said the University
sold approximately 3,000 computers
last year, and approximately eighty-
five percent of those were Macs.
"Perceived ease of use," was the
reason Masten offered for the Uni-
versity's affection for the Mac. "It is
the user interface that people make
their decisions on." The Mac sports
an icon-based interface, whereas the
IBM clones are command based. But,
Masten said the IBM and its clones
now have programming, called
"Windows" which adds the icon in-
terface.
For those students who will be
returning this fall to the computing
centers to do papers, Masten said the
upgrades on the Macintosh software
this fall .won't be radically change
the programming in place last
spring.
The University will be consider-
ing a massive upgrade of the public
facility computers in the beginning
of 1991, when Apple releases Sys-
tem 7. But System 7 will require
more memory than the current com-
puters have, and thus will be an ex-
pensive transition.
TUITION
Continued from page 1
as promised last fall by University
President James Duderstadt. Out-of-
state undergraduates were hit with a
nine percent increase - also keeping
in line with his vows to keep those
increases below ten percent.
The tuition increases were a part
of the University's 1990-91 operat-
ing budget approved by the regents.
A 0.4 percent budget reduction for
every school and college and the
elimination of $3 million for build-
ing renovation were among several
cuts in the budget.
The regents blamed the state leg
islature for the tight budget and tu
ition increases. The University re
ceived a five percent increase - 3.5
percent below their request.
"I think the combination of the,
state appropriations... and the bud'
getary response... is a very sad one,*
said Regent Philip Power (D-Ann
Arbor), adding that there is a direct
connection between low state fund-
ing and tuition increases.
The budget, he said, "makes me
feel kind of as though somebody
punched me in the pit of my stom-
ach."
CORRECTION
In the Greek story on page 3 of the NSE University section, there were
several errors. Sharon Oster was a member of the Sigma Delta Tau sorority
house before she deactivated.
Interfraternity Council and Panhellenic Association are the bodies which
oversee the entire Greek system.
Julie Hale is the president of Pi Beta Phi. In additon, information
regarding the Greek system's contribution to local charities, for which they
raise thousands of dollars each year, was omitted. The Daily apologizes for
these mistakes.
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