The Michigan Daily-Saturday, June 14, 1980-Page 3
Local Scene f
Health data can be asked
of applicants to colleges
By ELAINE RIDEOUT
With wire service reports
State Attorney General Frank Kelley ruled
yesterday students applying to federally-funded
colleges and universities may be required to provide
medical statements-a ruling, however, that
probably will not affect handicapped applicants,
Univesity officials said.
University Hospital Attorney Edward Goldman
speculated the ruling would have no effect on the ad-
mission of handicapped students to the University
due to federal, state, and local civil rights acts for-
bidding discrimination against the handicapped.
"Although I haven't seen the opinion," he said, "any
discriminatory action on the part of the admissions
wouldstill be iiviolation of those handicappedlaws."
KELLEY ISSUED THE opinion at the request of
state Labor Director Patricia Babcock, whose depar-
ECB to
sponsor
writing
workshops
By MARYEM RAFANI
June 17 will mark the beginning of a
three-and-one-half-day English writing
workshop presented by the University's
English Composition Board for state
high school and college faculty.
The workshop, part of an outreach
program begun by the board in August
1978, was established to show the
University's interest in surrounding
area high schools, said Frances Zorn,
assistant director of the board and
'writing workshop coordinating com-
mittee.
SINCE THE program's inception, she
said, representatives from the board
and the English Department have
traveled to area high schools eyplaining
new strategies for instruction in
writing.
' "We can't assess the impact it has
made on the students' writing yet," Univer
Zorn said, "but responses from too exp
teachers have been positive. Two of the their p
schools at which our attention was con-
centrated have adopted some
assessment procedures and plan to em-
phasize writing in all disciplines.
The workshop will emphasize ex-
pository and persuasive writing, Zorn
said, but will not place heavy emphasis
on creative writing. "It is designed to
help teachers in dealing with getting
students to write more and with making The p
assignments," she explained. "It will public sc
emphasize writing as a process, not a that of w
product. researche
The teaching methods to be presented Dr. Ch
at the workshop, which will be held at ministrati
the School of Public Health buildings, project re
are a combination of old and new theory ds, readic
together with the experienced ministrato
knowledge of the speakers, who are and secon
faculty members and administrators of ACCOR
' the board and English Department, suspension
tment includes a special commission on the problems
of the handicapped. ,
In his opinion, Kelley noted federal law specifically
prohibits colleges from asking applicants whether
they are handicapped.
"However, a post-secondary educational in-
stitution is not precluded from inquiring as to
whether an applicant meets its requirements for ad-
mission and participation in the educational program
in question," he said.
"IN MY OPINION, these institutions may require
medical statements concerning an applicant
physical or mental capacity to meet any of the in-
stitution's requirements for admission to or par-
ticipation in an educational program," he concluded.
According to Mike Moquin, assistant to the
assistant attorney general, "any state agency, in-
stitution, or officer must obey the formal opinion of
the attorneygeneral as of the day it is issued, until or
if the opinion is later overturned by a court."
Moquin said the opinion is based largely upon a
1979 Supreme Court ruling that found a community
college did not violate the Federal Handicapped Act
by barring a woman with serious hearing disabilities
from its nursing program.
"THE ACT STATES that handicapped persons
cannot be refused admission as long as they meet all
the program's requirements," he said. "The woman
couldn't comply in this case."
William Castanier, a spokesman for the state
Labor Department, said Kelley's opinion "could be a
real blow to handicappers depending on how it's en-
forced by Michigan institutions." He said some per-
sons are concerned the medical statements involved
could be used to discriminate against handicapped
SeeCOLLJEGES Page 8
Body language
'sity dance students make their way through the engineering arch yesterday while performing a dance that was
pansive for the confines of a studio. The dancers turned more than a few heads on the Diag before they concluded
erformance across from Drake's.
searehers. More blaeks than
lites suspended from sehool
yJOYCE FRIEDEN suspensions for different reasons than their white counter-
By Jparts. "It is more likely that a black child will be suspended
ercentage of black schoolchildren in Michigan for 'friction offenses' like fighting with teachers and ad-
hools receiving disciplinary suspensions is twice ministrators. A white child is more likely to be suspended for
hite schoolchildren, according to two University law violations-smoking or drinking alcohol," Moody said.
rs. Although the researchers attempted to look at statistics
arles Moody, director of the Project for Fair Ad- for other minority. students, their study results dealt
ion of Student Discipline, and Junious Williams, a primarily with blacks because the percentage of other
searcher, obtained their data by examining recor- minorities is "unappreciable" in many schools, Moody said.
ng school policies, and talking with teachers, ad- Moody said he felt parent anxiety contributed to the stric-
ors, parents, and children in desegregated primary ter discipline of minority children by teachers in
dary public schools throughout Michigan. desegregated schools: "A 'fear syndrome' develops among
RDING TO MOODY, the primary reasons for most the whites. They are afraid of the tales of extortion and in-
ns were attendance problems such as truancy or timidation (by black children) that they've heard about.
Beyond that, however, black childr e y 5>i -lI R Pase5
Zorn said.
tardiness.