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One hundred three years of editorial freedom
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Stern quits
tenants'
*board due
to conflicts
MSA vice president-
elect resigns from
the Ann Arbor
Tenants' Union
board of directors
By RONNIE GLASSBERG
DAILY STAFF REPORTER
After months of trying to keep
LSA Rep. Jacob Stern off its board of
directors, the Ann Arbor Tenants'
Union (AATU) has agreed to recog-
nize him as a board member follow-
ing mediation.
0 However, the move may have
come too late.
Stern, vice president-elect of the
Michigan Student Assembly, resigned
from the position yesterday due to
conflicts with the pro-tenant organi-
zation.
Yesterday, MSA President Craig
Greenberg said half of the $22,000
allocated in September would return
to the MSA internal budget after
AATU missed a deadline for a report
detailing student use of AATU and a
review of the organization.
AATU Director Pattrice Maurer
she had not been told the date of the
deadline and said an MSA employee
told her that today was the deadline
for the report, which she turned in
Tuesday.
According to the AATU report to
*MSA, the tenants' union served 1,500
students last term.
Stern, who currently serves as chair
of the MSA Budget Priorities Com-
mittee, made a motion at Tuesday's
meeting that would move $11,000 of
funds to his committee that had been
originally allocated to AATU.
Following the passage of the mo-
tion, the Central Student Judiciary
#(CSJ) -the court governing MSA -
blocked MSA from using any of the
$11,000 until it heard a case filed
against the assembly by AATU in
CSJ.
At AATU board meetings, Stern
said he was threatened by other board
See AATU, page 2
PASS THE MATZAH
White House
takes offensive
in
Whitewater
LSA senior Loren Shevitz participates in the Reform Havurah Freedom Seder last night in East Quad.
In case of emergen cy, call
onMichia ota or
LOS ANGELES TIMES
WASHINGTON - White House
officials, concerned that Whitewater
will remain a vexing issue, have
launched a public relations blitz to
defend President Clinton and the first
lady and to keep the controversy from
interfering with the president's con-
gressional agenda.
The Clintons feel an obligation to
continue responding to questions
about Whitewater and plan to take a
leading role in the campaign after
returning to Washington this week-
end from a week-long vacation, se-
nior White House aides said yester-
day.
The president and Hillary Rodham
Clinton will travel to various cities
next week promoting health care re-
form and other legislative goals while
also responding to queries about
Whitewater, the aides said. In addi-
tion, Cabinet secretaries and Demo-
cratic members of Congress plan to
participate in 70 different "events"
related to the legislative agenda.
The overriding message of the
public relations campaign, officials
indicated, will be that the Clintons are
being fully responsive on Whitewater
and that the American people do not
want the controversy to become an
excuse for the legislative gridlock that
has characterized Washington in re-
cent years.
"I think a lot of the concern we
have in the country about Whitewater
arises more in the question of whether
it's going to disrupt government than
what may have happened 15 or 16
years ago" in the Whitewater contro-
versy, said presidential counselor
David Gergen.
That message, said Gergen, who
served as an aide to Republican Presi-
dents Nixon and Reagan, also has
been heard by "a lot of Republicans"
who are now talking about seeking
bipartisan answers to important policy
issues. Among them, he said, are
House Republican Leader Bob Michel
(R-Ill.) and House Republican Whip
By JUDITH KAFKA
DAILY STAFF REPORTER
It's your first time down-hill ski-
ing. You're doing pretty well, so you
head for the moghuls. Things get out
of control and before you know it,
you're stuck in traction for a month.
The last thing you want to do now
is CRISP.
Thanks to a new service offered
by the Michigan Mortar Board, Uni-
versity students won't need to worry
about situations like this.
The Mortar Board, which is a na-
tional honor society for seniors, is
now operating an Emergency Sup-
port Service for students with emer-
gency situations.
"It's for real emergencies,"
stressed Pam Friedman, a co-facilita-
tor of the new service, "for instance, a
death in the family or if a student is
hospitalized."
For students dealing with these
situations, the Mortar Board can now
provide services such as contacting
professors, delivering homework,
supplying updates on classwork and
even standing in line for CRISP.
"We want to help students deal
with these situations," Friedman said.
Beginning this week, the service,
which has been operating on a limited
basis since last fall, is available for all
undergraduates. The board may ex-
pand the program to include graduate
students in the future.
The idea for the service stemmed
from an essay submitted as part of an
application to Mortar Board.
"The question was something
,about ideas for improving student life
on campus, and the applicant had gone
through an emergency and wished
there had been a service like this avail-
able to her," Friedman said.
"It's taken a while to get off the
ground," she added, explaining that
the board needed time to find funding
and set up a structure for the idea.
In addition to the board's fund-
raising, the Office of Student Affairs
and the Michigan Student Assembly
provided funds for the service.
Right now a committee of five
board members is set up to run the
service, "but if we have a lot of calls,
everyone can help," Friedman said.
U To utilize the service, students
should call the board's office at 936-
0534 and leave a message with a
name, the date, a brief explanation of
the situation and a phone number.
Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.)
Gergen and two other senior White
House aides - Chief of Staff Tho-
mas F. McLarty and congressional
liaison Pat Griffin - discussed the
administration's plans to defend
Clinton and promote his policies at a
breakfast session with a large group
of Washington journalists.
Asked if the first lady has the same
obligation as the president to respond
to Whitewater questions, Gergen said
she already has fully disclosed how
she parlayed a $1,000 investment in
commodities futures into a $100,000
profit in the late 1970s.
"I think she feels it's important to
be responsive" to questions about
Whitewater, he said.
The Whitewater label has come to
embrace not only the Clinton's failed
real estate investment in the
Whitewater Development Corp. and
White House meetings allegedly held
to protect the Clintons from the con-
troversy, but also questions about Mrs.
Clinton's financial affairs and her role
as a Little Rock lawyer.
White House aides insisted that
despite Whitewater, Clinton's legis-
lative goals remain on track. How-
ever, McLarty said the continuing
furor tends to make people equate
Whitewater with gridlock and make
them lose "a sense of perhaps opti-
mism in the future."
Because Whitewater dominated
Clinton's news conference last week,
Gergen said he and the other officials
had hoped that much of their 75-
minute session with journalists yes-
terday would focus on the president's
policies. It was dominated by
Whitewater questions, reflecting a
preoccupation with the controversy
that some Clinton aides concede could
be a serious distraction for the admin-
istration in the months ahead.
Griffin, who only recently became
Clinton's chief assistant for congres-
sional relations, denied reports that
Whitewater already has adversely af-
fected the president's agenda.
State gets
tough on
underage
drinking
DETROIT (AP) - The penalties
for sanctioning underage drinking get
tougher June 1, and a prosecutor is
warning parents they could go to jail
if they allow alcohol at graduation
parties this year.
Parents or other adults who rent
limousines or allow their homes to be
used for graduation celebrations
should know that they now will be
legally responsible for any underage
alcohol use that takes place.
The state law change takes effect
June 1.
"If the adult allows those premises
to be used by individuals less than 21
ver of axe to conume alcohli
*Court grants 'U' reprieve in
r
N 'U' will not force
former regent to turn
over 'private' papers
from 1988 search
By JAMES R. CHO
DAILY STAFF REPORTER
The University Board of Regents
has been granted a reprieve in its
ongoing court battle with The Ann
Arbor News and the Detroit Free Press
over four documents that a former
regent refuses to hand over.
Washtenaw County Circuit Court
Judge Patrick J. Conlin ruled yester-
day that the University cannot be held
in contempt because Thomas A.
Roach (D-Ann Arbor) refuses to hand
over handwritten notes taken during
the University's ill-fated 1988 presi-
dential search.
University Director of Public Af-
fairs Lisa Baker said, "The motion
was a sanction against the University.
The judge denied the motion and we
will not be held in contempt."
The two newspapers filed the
motion to make the University re-
trieve personal notes kept by Roach.
On Feb. 11, Conlin ordered the
University to release documents per-
taining to the presidential search.
Conlin's order stems from the state
Supreme Court decision last Septem-
ber that found the University in viola-
pres. sea
tion of the Open Meetings Act during
its presidential search.
Roach is withholding four pages
of notes he took during a telephone
conference near the end of the search.
Roach has already released many other
handwritten notes which he believed
were covered by the court order.
"I turned over thousands of pages
of files, but these are different," Roach
said. "These were private notes I took
in telephone conversations I had with
two University faculty members and
two University presidents. They were
used to help me form my decision.
They were never copied or shared
with other regents."
Roach said he feels the documents
rch case
do not fall under the court ruling.
"This raises the question what
Conlin intended in his decision and
whether it is proper to disclose the
information," he said.
Conlin's ruling means the Univer-
sity cannot be penalized for Roach's
actions.
An attorney for the Free Press
reported in The Ann Arbor News yes-
terday, "The newspapers will pursue
the issue to prevent a precedent al-
lowing public bodies to avoid public
scrutiny by stashing records with in-
dividuals.".
The attorney added that the news-
papers are likely to continue to obtain
Roach's papers.
*Roach
China clears way for inspection
of North Korean nuclear sites
"ON