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