The Michiaan Daily-Thursday, May 14, 1981-Page 3
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE RECOMMENDS DISCONTINUANCE
Geographyre
By SUE INGLIS the department has a "good record" of
Given the severe budgetary con- placing its graduate students, the
straints the LSA College had to face in document also notes the two most
the past year, and will likely wrestle eminent faculty members of the depar-
wtinthe as utyar, thd wLSA Exkecte tment will retire within eight years and
with in the future, the LSA Executive the number of applicants to the
Comnmitee has recommended the graduate program "continues to
discontinuance of the University's dinish."
geography department, according to a diminish.
letter sent to all LSA faculty members Geography Department Chair-
yesterday. man John Nystuen said yesterday that
The elimination of the department the Executive Committee's decision is
was seen "as the best of a series of a "mistake," and the department will
unattractive options available at this appeal to the Regents for a recommen-
point," said the letter of formal dation. "They're taking out clearly
recommendation sent from the good scholars for the purpose of
Executive Committee to Vice- creating a 'smaller, but better Univer-
President for Academic Affairs Bill sity,' " he said.
Frye. THE DECISION HAS damaged both
"WE BELIEVE THAT the quality of the individuals in the department and
the department as a whole has declined the University as a whole, Nystuen
significantly in the last decade, and we said,' adding, "Who's going to want to
see little liklihood, given the economic hire a professor from a department that
situation of the College, that a is not considered worth being in the
desirable level of quality can. be University?"
restored and sustained in the forseeable He said the University has set a
future," the Committee said in its let- damaging precedent for reducing its
ter. size by "secretly targeting a depar-
Frye and University President tment ... and then villifying it for four
Harold Shapiro are expected to support months."
the Committee's recommendation to According to the Executive Commit-
discontinue the geography department, tee's recommendation, comparable
said Richard Kennedy, University Vice peer reviews of other possible can-
President for State Relations and didates for discontinuance were not
University secretary. initiated at the same time the
Kennedy said Frye and Shapiro will geography review began because the
forward their recommendations to the Committee believed that to do so would
Regents later this month but will "not be "needlessly damaging." Before
ask for any actions until they (the targeting geography for peer review,
Regents) have looked it over." The the Committee "attempted to view .. .
Regents will make the final decision as (it) in relation to other departments
to whether the department should be and programs in the college."
eliminated. NYSTUEN ADDED HE felt it would
WHILE THE EXECUTIVE Commit- be "very difficult to keep an assistant
tee's recommendation recognizes that professor committed" to teaching
the department includes "some highly geography within another department
respected members of the faculty" and if the University decides to maintain
port released
GEOGRAPHY DEPARTMENT CHAIRMAN John Nystuen said yesterday
he will appeal the LSA Executive Committee's recommendation to discon-
tinue his department before the Regents. Behind Nystuen are the pages from
the Executive Committee's formal recommendation.
the discipline in a form other than as a
department of the college.
The Executive Committee's recom-
mendation suggests that the University
administration establish a committee
which would include representation
from other schools and colleges as well
as from the present department - to
determine how the discipline of
geography should be restructured
within the college.
"WE ARE COMMITTED to makinga
serious, good faith effort to relocate
tenured faculty of the department,
either in the college or in other schools
and colleges of the University."
The Executive Committee is also
committed to making "every
reasonable effort to enable students
currently in the department to finish
their academic programs," accordingto
the document.
"I think there is such animosity bet-
ween the (geography) faculty and the
administration, that if professors had a
choice they would leave (were the
department discontinued)," said John
Oppenheim, a pre-doctoral geography
student. "But the market is so tight it
would be tough for a tenured faculty
member to find a job somewhere else at
a comparable level of pay."
'U' profs discuss legal insanity
Kelly's attorney may have
tough verdict to prove
By NANCY BILYEAU
Yesterday morning 'another small
step was taken toward the verdict Leo
Kelly's attorney hopes to obtain for his
client-not guilty by reason of insanity.
That verdict, however, could be dif-
ficult to secure in light of the complex
state statutes, public conceptions of
legal insanity, and confusing trial
procedures which often come into play
in cases like this one, according to
University professors from the Law
School and sociology department.
ALTHOUGH murder cases involving
insanity seem to get a great deal of
public attention-primarily due to ex-
tensive media coverage-the number of
insanity defenses recorded in Michigan
is actually quite small, said sociology
Prof. Lee Hamilton.
Furthermore, the percentage of
defendants who are successful in ob-
taining "not guilty" verdicts is even
smaller, Dr. Andrew Watson, who is
both a Law School professor and
psychiatry professor at the Medical
School.
A great deal hinges on how frightened
the jury is of insanity, Watson said.
"They think of this fantasy person tur-
ned loose on society," he explained.
"IF THEY'RE frightened enough,
the safest thing seems to be a guilty
verdict," Watson said.
Hamilton agreed that society often
has problems with the idea that an in-
sane person may not be legally respon-
sible for his actions. "There's a sense of
unfairness, of inequity," she said.
Jurors may act on the feeling that
someone has to be punished for a crime
that had horrible consequences, such as
multiple murders.
Many people are unsympathetic to
the plight of the insane, Hamilton said.
"It's easier to understand an epileptic
or a retarded person than a paranoid."
The first impulse of a juror is often to
deliver retribution, Watson said-a
reaction that defense lawyers must try
to counter throughout the trial.
ON A MORE concrete level, the
defense attorney must prove not just
mental illness, but a state of insanity at
See'U', Page 7
Daily Photo by PAUL ENGSTR
LEO KELLY'S defense attorney, William Waterman, discusses the case
with reporters yesterday in City Hall's sixth floor lobby. Waterman asked a
city judge for extensive psychiatric tests to determine his client's competen-
cy to stand trial.