The Michigan Daily - Tuesday, September 22,1992 - Page 3
Television
programs
to discuss
U-M issues
by Henry Goldblatt
and Karen Sabgir
Daily Staff Reporters
In an effort to bring critical issues
facing the U-M into the public's eye,
the university is continuing a series
of programs featuring U-M President
James Duderstadt and faculty mein-
bers discussing issues such as re-
search and graduate education.
The current production of
"Conversations with President
Duderstadt" - focusing on research
issues at U-M - will air on Ann
Arbor Community Access
Television (Channel 9) tonight, and
seven more times in the next two
weeks.
"We are trying to have a public
discussion of issues facing the uni-
versity community in a way that's
accessible to anyone who wants to
see the program," said Executive
Director of University Relations
Walter Harrison.
He added that the program is
shown at varied times during the
week to catch as many viewers as
possible.
Harrison said the programs are a
continutation of a three-part series
which began in the spring, which
featured discussions on undergradu-
ate education, the university's bud-
get, and the Michigan Mandate -
the U-M's commitment to increasing
minority enrollment and creating a
multicultural atmosphere on campus.
Harrison said he is unaware of
any other university using this for-
mat of communication.
Wono Lee, associate director of
News and Information Services, said
tonight's program will examine U-M
research and its relation to students
and faculty.
Also featured in this edition of
"Conversations with President
Duderstadt" will be Francis Collins,
professor of internal medicine and of
human genetics and director of the
U-M's Human Genome Center;
Sheldon Danziger, professor of so-
cial work and public policy and re-
search scientist for the Institute of
Public Policy Studies; and Homer
Neal, professor and chair of the de-
partment of physics.
Sarah Winans Newman, an asso-
ciate vice president for research and
professor of anatomy and cell biol-
ogy, and James Winn, an English
professor and director of the Institute
for the Humanities, will be on the
show, as well.
Two women lead race for
U.S. Senate in California
4'
Los
Times
Angeles
poll finds
Boxer and Feinstein
leading opponents
by 20 points, while
one-third of GOP
women plan to vote
Democratic in
November
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP)
Democrats Barbara Boxer and Dianne
Feinstein hold commanding leads in
their bids to make California the first
state to elect women to both its Senate
seats, with the dismal economy the
campaign's biggest factor.
Recent polls show Boxer and
Feinstein leading their opponents by
around 20 points. One survey indi-
cated that a third of Republican women
plan to vote Democratic in Novem-
ber.
A recent survey by the Los Ange-
les Times said 61 percent of respon-
dents believe the nation is in a serious
recession. Those voters favored
Democrats over Republicans by a 2-1
margin.
In California, unemployment hit
9.8 percent in August and about
500,000 people have lost their jobs in
the defense industry. Overall, an esti-
mated 1.5 million Californians areout
of work.
This year also marked the first
time that the number of people leav-
ing the state outpaced those moving to
California.
Boxer, who boasts one of the most
liberal voting records in Congress, is
pitted against Bruce Herschensohn, a
television commentator, former White
House aide to Richard Nixon and
member of the most conservative fac-
tion of the California GOP.
The winner will succeed Demo-
cratic incumbent Alan Cranston, who
is suffering from cancer and was po-
litically weakened by the savings and
loan scandal.
He is retiring after 24 years in the
Senate.
Feinstein, the former San Fran-
cisco mayor who was narrowly de-
feated by Pete Wilson in 1990 for the
state's governorship, faces Republi-
can Sen. John Seymour, a former
mayor of Anaheim and state senator
who was appointed by Wilson to fill
the Senate he had vacated.
The race is for a two-year term -
what is left of the term Wilson left.
Even though Seymour has occu-
pied his Senate seat for nearly two
years, he still is not well known to
voters.
The Times poll said that 51 per-
cent didn't know enough about him to
give even a generally favorable or
unfavorable rating.
The survey was done with less
than two months remaining before the
election.
Feinstein is the best known and
most favorably rated of the four Sen-
ate candidates.
The central plank of
Herschensohn's economic platform
is a flat-rate income tax and the aboli-
tion of taxes on interest, dividends
and capital gains, coupled with the
repeal of all deductions, including
home mortgage and medical deduc-
tions.
Boxer said the proposal "is going
to help the millionaires and hurt ev-
eryone else."
"Because the Cold War is over, wo
can reorder our priorities and still,
have the strongest military in the
world," Boxer said in her first debate
with Herschensohn earlier this month.
"It's time to bring the money home."
Herschensohn replied that Boxer
has "always been against a strong
defense" and said that if Boxer "had-
gotten her way, I believe the Soviet'
Union would still be the Soviet Union
today."
Feinstein and Seymour take simi
lar positions favoring moderate de-
fense spending cuts and overall cuts
in federal programs.
Both say they oppose tax increases,
but neither has taken an absolute no'-
new-taxes pledge.
MOLLY STEVENS/Daily
Try not to drool
Dr. Michael Hardy works on patient Joshua Elliot in the school
of dentistry.
Senior suspends studies to fight for worker safety bill
by Liz Vogel
LSA senior Lisa Eilar became
aware of problems with worker
safety last September.
Her 25-year-old brother, Stephen,
had just been hired at American
Bumper and Manufacturing in Ionia,
Mich., when he noticed that the
power-press he was operating did not
seem to work right.
He warned his supervisor that the
machine was malfunctioning, but
his superior replied, "Shut up and
get your ass back to the job," she re-
calls.
The next day, Stephen was
crushed to death when the malfunc-
tioning 1,300-ton press stamped
down three times while he was
reaching under it.
"They had to scrape him off the
press," Eilar said grimly.
Now, Eilar has suspended her
studies at the U-M for a year so she
can fight for a bill in Congress that
'I'm fighting for not only
my brother but for all
those that have died
before and after him.'
-Lisa Eilar
LSA senior
would increase worker safety.
"I'm fighting for not only my
brother but for all those that have
died before and after him," Eilar said.
"We know we can't bring my
brother back, but we want to help
others."
Eilar has been speaking out in
speeches and public hearings, asking
Congress to expand the Occupational
Safety Health Act, which has not
been refonned since 1972.
The bill would establish:
A 10-year jail term for any
employer responsible for a serious
employee injury;
Mandatory safety committees
composed of workers and their man-
agers, in which employees can speak
out without fear of losing their jobs;
and,
Whistle-blower protections al-
lowing employees who find safety
hazards to report them and remain
anonymous.
Eilar said she wants to improve
the safety of the workplace environ-
ment because "what you don't know
can hurt you or, in most cases, kill
you."
She added that the state of Michi-
gan is tough on surviving families,
because it mandates that families
cannot sue the victim's employer
unless they prove the employer in-
tended to maim or kill the victim.
Peg Seminaro, director of Safety
and Health for the American Federa-
tion of Labor and Congress of Indus-
trial Organizations (AFL-CIO),
watched Eilar and her father address
'She is making a very
real difference in
improving working
conditions for people in
this country.'
- Peg Seminaro
Director of Safety and
Health
AFL-CIO
the congressional Subcommittee for
Labor and Education in April.
"She was perhaps the most effec-
tive testimony in conveying the
problems that exist in American
workplaces and the need to improve
the job safety laws," Seminaro said.
In addition to lobbying nationally
for worker safety, Eilar is writing
letters and calling other families that
have experienced similar catastro-
phes.
"Every day since this has oc-
curred, individuals from across the
country have called me to relate sim-
ilar tragedies," Eilar said. "They ask
for advice, for direction."
Carrie Gatherum, an LSA junior
at the U-M Dearborn, met Eilar last
month after her fiance was killed in a
work-related accident.
"(Eilar) has inspired me. She is
really a strong person," Gatherumn
said.
Eilar said she wants to return to.
the U-M next term.
She said her experience has influ-
enced her to pursue graduate studies
in environmental and industrial
health.
"I have a great deal of respect for.
her," Seminaro said. "It is quite re-
markable that someone her age ha.
the level of commitment and convic-
tion that she does and she is making
a very real difference in improving
working conditions for people in
this country."
Former Nixon chiefs say U.S. believed American pilots were left in Vietnam
WASHINGTON (AP) - Two of
Richard Nixon's Pentagon chiefs told
a congressional panel yesterday that
the government believed American
pilots were left alive in Laos and not
returned at the end of the Vietnam
War.
Separate testimony by Melvin
Laird and James Schlesinger, both of
whom served as President Nixon's
secretary of defense two decades ago,
supported conclusions by leaders of
the Senate investigating committee
that not all Americans came home at
the war's end..
"I think it's quite extraordinary
when two former secretaries of de-
fense both give evidence document-
ing that they had information, or they
believed personally, that people were
Wive and not accounted for in Opera-
tion Homecoming," said Sen. John
Kerry (D-Mass.), chair of the Select
Committee on POW-MIA Affairs.
"They have acknowledged pub-
licly that there was evidence people
did not come back who should have,
that they were held prisoner to the
best of our knowledge," Kerry said.
Laird and Schlesinger appeared as
the panel began the first ever under-
oath, public questioning of the high-
est ranking officials of the Nixon ad-
ministration about their efforts to win
release of American POWs as they
negotiated an end to the long, bitter
war in Southeast Asia.
Henry Kissinger, Nixon's national
security adviser and secretary of state
who conducted the negotiations with
the North Vietnamese, was scheduled
to undergo questioning today.
Laird, a former Wisconsin Con-
gress member, was Nixon's defense
secretary for four years of the fight-
ing, from 1969 to 1973, when he
'I think it's quite extraordinary when two
former secretaries of defense both give evi-
dence documenting that they had information,
or they believed personally, that people were
alive and not accounted for in Operation
Homecoming.'
- Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.)
Chair, Select Committee on POW-MIA Affairs
moved to the White House as presi-
dential adviser to help Nixon battle
the growing Watergate scandal.
Schlesinger was Nixon's director
of Central Intelligence and became
secretary of defense in 1973.
Both testified that downed Ameri-
can pilots were contacted on the
ground in Laos by U.S. forces in num-
bers greater than were ever accounted
for.
During the peace negotiations with
North Vietnam, U.S. officials were
given a list of only 10 prisoners in
Laos.
"It is evident that the Laotians
gave no true accounting of the Ameri-
cans who had been taken in Laos,"
Schlesinger said.
Asked directly if the United States
left people behind, Schlesinger said:
"As of now, I can come to no other
conclusion. That does not mean that
there are any alive today."
Schlesinger speculated that some
may have been executed. Kerry said
others may have been killed in com-
bat on the ground or died of exposure
in the jungle.
Laird testified that the Pentagon
had solid information, such as letters,
eyewitness reports or direct radio con-
tact, on about 20 American pilots who
survived downings in Laos. Laird said
he notified Nixon of these estimates
in late 1972.
Only 10 were released the next
year.
Laird did not say how many pris-
oners he believed were never ac-
counted for, but said he was disap-
pointed by the short list provided
through the North Vietnamese.
Documents released by Sen. Bob
Smith (R-N.H.), vice chair of the com-
mittee, show that as many as 350 U.S.
personnel were missing or captured
in Laos.
Nixon, in a televised address to the
nation on March 29, 1973, declared
that as a result of the Paris peace
accords with North Vietnam, "All of
our American POWs are on their way
home."
Committee members have asserted
that evidence shows that statement
was false, and that its acceptance as,
fact severely damaged subsequent
efforts to unearth the truth about miss-
ing Americans.
Laird, questioned about Nixon's
statement, said he was no longer de-
fense secretary at that time and had no
input into the statement.
But he said he regretted Nixon
made it.
"I think it was unfortunate to be:
that positive," he said. "You can't be.
that positive with the kind of intelli-
gence we had when I left."
Student groups
J Alpha Kappa Psi Business Fra-
ternity, rush/informational meet-
ing, K1320 Business School, 6
p.m.
U International Observer, mass
meeting, 1209 Michigan Union,
8 p.m.
U Newman Catholic Student As-
sociation, U-M graduate, young
professional discussion group, 7
p.m., Euchartistic, 7 p.m., 331
Thompson St.
Q SPARK, revolutionary discussion
series, "Primitive communism
and the human nature lie," B122
MLB. 7-8 n.m.
Room, 8:30 p.m.
Q University of Michigan
Shotokan Karate, organizational
meeting, CCRB, Martial Arts
Room, 8:30-10 p.m.
Events
Q "American Intellectual Wars
and Palestinian Peace," speech
by Adjunct Prof. Anthony
Sullivan, International Center,
603 E. Madison St., 12 p.m.
Q Career Planning and Placement,
On-campus recruitment program
information session, Angell Hall,
Auditorium B, 8:10- 9 a.m.
Q Career Planning and Place-
marks," speech by Prof. C.F. Jeff
Wu, I.O.E. Building, 4 p.m.
Q Student Organizational Devel-
opment Center (SODC), lastday
of registration for brown bag
lunch "Reaching the Decision
Makers at U-M," 2202 Michigan
Union.
Q "The China Center: Problems
and Prospects," brown bag lunch
series with Director of the Center
for Chinese Studies Robert
Dernberger, Lane Hall,Commons
Room, 12 p.m.
Q U-M Students of Objectivism,
Harry Binsw..g2r speech, "Buy
American is Un-American,"
m