Page 12-The Michigan Daily/New Student Edition -Thursday, September 6, 1990
Regents run our
'U'
by Christine Kloostra
Daily Staff Writer
So what exactly do these regents
do?.
The Board of Regents is the
governing body of the University,
including its branches in Flint and
Dearborn. Nearly everything they do
affects students' lives, and nearly
every rule and regulation governing
students' actions at the University
are rooted in regental actions.
Students are often unsure of what
it is exactly that the regents do.
Regents have the final vote on
countless University issues, ranging
from items as seemingly
insignificant as granting a semester
leave of absence to a professor to far-
reaching issues such as setting
tuition and housing rates.
- In recent years, the regents have
voted to divest their investments in
South Africa, appointed former
Provost and Vice President for
Academic Affairs James Duderstadt
to the presidency of the University,
awarded honorary degrees to former
University football coach and
athletic director Bo Schembecler and
his wife, Millie, and have also
contemplated such volatile issues as
a code of non-academic conduct,
deputization of campus security
officers, and an anti-discriminatory
harassment policy.
The regents also set many of the
rules governing University life. The
University has divided its rules into
three "classes" - the Bylaws of the
Board of Regents, rules initiated by
others but approved by the regents,
and rules of less importance not
subject to regental approval.
The bylaws, the "rules
concerning the more important
matters of general University
organization and policy," address a
wide range of topics, including the
dismissal procedures for faculty
members, admissions of patients to
University hospitals, the U-Club,
and discrimination.
The board is composed of eight
regents, from all over the state of
Michigan. Current regents hail from
locales as distant as Petoskey and
Muskegon, and from as near as Ann
Arbor and Brighton.
They are elected for an eight-year
term in a statewide election held in
November. The board currently has
two female members and two Black
members, one of whom is a female.
Regents' meetings are held on the
third Thursday and Friday of every
month in the Regents' Room in the
Fleming Administration Building.
The meetings are open to the public.
r
..
a
Nellie Varner (D-Detroit) Neil Nielsen (R-Brighton)
Regent for 9 years Regent for 5 years
Term ends 1 996 Term ends 1992
"I feel an urgent need to do something." "Just because the American tradition has a six-
Real job: Owns law firm shooter in everyone's back pocket doesn't mean
the University of Michigan has to be that way."
Real job: Lawyer
Philip Power (D-Ann Arbor)
Re gent for 3years
Term ends 1}90
"Hows about a weekend special?"
Real job: Owner of newspaper publishing com-
pany
Paul Brown (D-Petoskey)
Regent for 19 years
Term ends in 1994
"It's not our business to be in the police busi-
ness, but we do have a responsibility."
Real job: Lawyer
James Waters (D-Muskegon)
Regent for 19 years
Term ends 1994
"If I were a student, I'd probably be protest-
ing the code too."
Real job: Law firm personnel director
Dean Baker (R-Ann Arbor)
Regent for 17 years
Term ends in I996
"I'm not exactly a wilted lily when it comes
to being able to defend myself."
Real job: President of an Ann Arbor con-
strucion/development company.
Thomas Roach (D-Saline)
Regent for 15 ears
Term ends 1990, is not running for re-election
"If you don't say you are unhappy, we can
assume you are satisfied."
Real job: Lawyer
Veronica Smith (R-Grosse lie)
Regent for5y ears
Term ends 1 992
"If anybody ever gets hurt, I don't want blood on
my shoulders."
Real job: Substitute teacher
.0
Shanty debate still standing
by' Noelle Vance
Daily Staff Writer
They stand for issues, yet they
are issues in themselves.
The first student shanty con-
structed on campus appeared in
March of 1986. Members of the Free
South Africa Coordinating commit-
tee constructed a seven by seven foot
wooden shanty to protest racial seg-
regation in South Africa.
At the time, the structure w, s to
remain standing for two weeks and
40 people, working two at a
time,watched the shanties 24 hours a
day.
A lot has changed in the past four
years. Over time, the shanties have
been torn down, vandalized, burned
and spray painted.
Today, there are three Diag
shanties. An anti-apartheid shanty
still stands, but its sponsor is the
United Coalition Against Racism.
Bearing the green, gold and black
colors of the African National
Congress' flag, the decrepit plywood
and boarded over slogans bear little
resemblance to the well-constructed
shanty of the past.
A second shanty - sponsored by
the Palestinian Solidarity Commit-
tee - seeks the reopening of Pales-
tinian schools and an end to U.S.
backing of the Israeli government,
while across the sidewalk, the dis-
mantled remains of a wooden school
bus commemorate the death of sev-
eral young people killed in a 1988
firebombing. The bus was sponsored
by TAGAR.
The issues the shanties represent
are still major topics of discussion
on campus. But the purpose of the
shanties, many say has been forgot-
ten.
"They've been here so long," said
engineering senior Pete Olin as he
surveyed the Diag one afternoon.
"The effectiveness of the shanties
has been lost."
Many have gone as far as to call
for their removal.
A group of students with an
anonymous membership list, who
shared Olin's belief, formed last
spring to protest the shanties.
Calling itself Students Against
Diag Shanties, the group hung an
"anti-shanty" banner on the Diag re-
questing the shanties be dismantled.
During the same time, University
iAegent Thomas Roach (D-Saline)
called the structures an "unsightly
mess" and asked that the Diag be
"cleaned up."
But for the students who built
them and for many others on cam-
pus, the shanties should not be
judged for their aesthetics, but for
the issues they represent. Those is-
sues are not "pretty," they say.
University President James Dud-
erstadt has announced the develop-
See SHANTIES, Page 14
This
shanty
was built
to
protest
other
shanties.
Since
the
original
shanty
was built
in 1986,
it, and
the sub-
sequent
struc-
tures
have
contin-
ued to
ignite
contro-
versy
9
More
Than Just A Student Government!
r J
\ t_
Michigan Student Assembly
Central Student Government
GET
INVOLVED
I'
®
.r