The Michigan Daily-Wednesday, June 18, 1980-Page 3
Local Scene
SALE OF BONDS PROVIDES PROTECTION
New 'U' hospital funds secure
By MITCH STUART
Despite Michigan's soaring rate of in-
flation and other economic woes, state
funding for the $210 million University
Hospital replacement project is not in
jeopard4, state and University officials
said yesterday.
Most of the funding for the project
will come from the public sale of bonds .
by the state Building Authority, which
affords the project a unique protection
from executive and legislative budget-
cutting.
"THERE'S A good deal more protec-
tion provided by the Building Authority
than by straight appropriations," said
Thomas Clay, director of the state's
budget office.
The Building Authority was set up in
1976 to provide capital funds for
buildings such as the replacement
hospital by putting state bonds on the
market.
"The bonding idea is just like a home
mortgage," Clay said. The Building
Authority will partially pay for the
hospital's construction with revenue
from bonds. Then, over a period of
about 20 years, the loan will'be paid off
to the Building Authority with hospital
revenues and state appropriations. The
Building Authority is responsible for
paying back the principal and interest
to purchasers of the bonds.
IN EFFECT, during that 20-year
period, the University will
simultaneously be receiving state
money (in general appropriations) and
paying it back to the state's Building
Authority.
Clay said the indirect payback is the
result of "a constitutional requirement
that an arm's length remain between
the Building Authority and the state,"
making the Authority a "quasi-state"
agency.
The state funding from the Building
Authority is safe from belt-tightening
occurring in other areas, Clay said.
With the state's financial picture as
bleak as it is, he added, if state general
appropriations had been backing the
construction of the hospital, "it would
have been very tempting to borrow that
money back --in other words delay the
project."
THE BUILDING Authority has the
ability to issue a total of $400 million in
bonds for various capital projects, but
See STATE, Page 7
Physical,
mental toll
highfor
jobless
By JOYCE FRIEDEN
Unemployment in Michigan, which is
continuing to rise as a result of the
nation's economic slump, may take a
heavy mental and physical toll on the
unemployed and their families, and
University professors involved in the
research believe state officials should
take a closer look at the problem.
University President Harold Shapiro,
Social Work Prof. Louis Ferman,
Psychology Prof. Robert Kahn, and
Assistant Prof. of Social Work David
Neal testified last Wednesday before
Governor William Milliken and other
state officials that unemployment may
be having added negative effects on the
out-of-work and their families.
ACCORDING TO Neal, ap-
proximately one-third of those unem-
ployed exhibited symptoms of
depression and anxiety on a par with
patients in psychiatric hospitals. Neas's
results come from a 1975 study he co-
authored of 110 laid-off workers from
the Ann Arbor area.
Kahn's presentation dealt with
physiological effects of the stresses of
unemployment, and cited increased
risks of gout, peptic ulcers, and
diabetes as examples of what unem-
ployment can do to the victim.
Ferman, co-author of a book entitled
Mental Health and the Economy, spoke
of increased number of cases of
suicides, wife-battering, child abuse,
and cardio-vascular failures that ac-
company unemployment.
"MANY PEOPLE think the effects of
unemployment are temporary," Fer-
man said, "but actually, people's lives
See PHYSICAL, Page9
Daily Photo by JIM KRUZ
IN THEIR FIRST session of their three-day orientation, approximately 140 incoming freshpersons lend an ear to orienta-
tion leader Tina VanDegraaf (left) as she explains the goals of the program. To VanDegraaf's right are orientation
leaders Kevin Fried, Melinda Cochran, and Scott Munzel.
isc graduates
ecome oriented to
By NICK KATSARELAS
They're here.
Since Sunday, hundreds of t-shirted, gym-shoed high
school graduates carrying multicolored folders have been
trodding the city's streets, gawking at the many buildings,
and in most cases, getting their first taste of life at the
University.
THEY ARE INCOMING freshpersons who are sitting,
walking, and sleeping through the ritualistic summer orien-
tation that all University students have experienced.
And yesterday, the third group of 140 future freshpersons
wandered around the halls and lobbies of East Quad, waiting
to begin the first session of their three-day orientation.
"When I got here, I felt really lost," explained Melinda
Henderson of Simsbury, Conn., as she waited yesterday for
the first session to begin at 2:45 p.m. "Now I feel more ner-
vous than I did when I got here."
BUT DEBBIE NEFF of Livonia said she didn't suffer
from any pre-orientation jitters. "I've been here before," she
said, "and I'm meeting new people."
The student orientation program is conducted by 16
student leaders, two coordinators, a secretary, an assistant
director, and Director Don Perigo, who said the University's
program is "constantly one that is recognized and
enmulated." . . - .
Approximately 140 students are taken through orientation
by four leaders every Monday through Wednesday.
THE INCOMING FRESHPERSONS talked quietly in the
South Dining Room of East Quad as they waited for the orien-
tation leaders to arrive. When they finally did, one asked the
teens to forsake their chairs for the floor, and a low growl
rumbled over the anxious group.
As the program began with "First of all, we'd like to
welcome you to the University of Michigan," the future
students selected a sitting position, and with their blue,
yellow, orange, and red "Orientation" folders at their sides,
they listened motionless as the leaders offered their introduc-
tory remarks.
Orientation Leader Melinda Cochran said that each per-
son was assigned to one of the four leaders, which explained
the four different colors of their folders. A loud "Ohhh,"
crescendoed through the dining room, followed by laughter,
offering the first relief to the up-to-then nervous orientees.
They switched sitting positions, smiled at their neighbors,
and settled in for another two hours of informative,
sometimes long-winded descriptions of the University, orien-
tation, and life as a freshperson.
"It was pretty boring," said Jane Boerma of St. Joseph,
"but we didn't want to say anything bad about it." Boerma
See NEW, Page 9