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.