The Michigan Daily-Saturday, May 9, 1981-Page 3
FEDERAL BUDGET CUTS HIT SOCIAL SCIENCES
U research will suffer
By SUE INGLIS although where the actual cuts are made will be Reagan administration's priorities for research
As of yet, just how much federal money the Univer- decided by congressional committees - not program cuts is unclear. But, he speculated that the
sity will lose as a result of cuts in government resear- President Reagan - the strong bi-partisan support administration is operating out of a conviction that
ch grants under the Reagan budget, recently ap- Reagan has received thus far on his programs, leads "social research leads to social programs."
proved by the House of Representatives, remains them to believe the committees will respect the "There has been speculation from here to
tenuous. But University researchers say one thing is president's wishes in cutting social science research. Washington," he added, "that social scientists are
clear - federal funding for social science research "THE REAGAN APPROPRIATION has hit the more liberal And that it was the social scientists that
projects will become increasingly scarce, while social sciences the most," said James Wessel, got the Nixon administration elected."
money for defense and "pure" science research will assistant director of the University's Institute for ACCORDING TO DAVID HEEBINK, assistant to
flourish. Social Research. the University president, the University is going to be
It is clear, the researchers say, that President "Almost anything that had the word 'social' on it particularly "vulnerable" to research funding cuts.
Reagan does not favor social science research. And got hit," Wessel said, adding that the logic behind the See 'U', Page 4
U'experts
disagree on
Ireland's future
By LOU FINTOR Ireland forever."
Experts at the University differ She stressed that the historical
widely in their predictions for the significance of British involvement in
future of Northern Ireland, currently Northern Ireland has finally reached
torn by riots and polarized factions. solvency. "One must put the death of
Two University professors, both (IRA guerrilla) Bobby Sands in per-
leading experts on the conflicts in Nor- spective, he is a martyr in a series of
thern Ireland, disagree on whether that martyrs that the people can rally
country will resolve peacefully its con- around for the time being, but
flicts with Britain over the question of polarization will not solve the problems
home rule, or whether the country will of Northern Ireland, it can only result in
be swept into a long and bloody civil increased violence, expediting a British
war. retreat and increasing the possibility of
The two experts do agree, however, civil war."
that-at least in the immediate Bromage feels that the union of Nor-
future-Northern Ireland will continue thern Ireland with the Irish Republic is
to be plagued by violence, and that inevitable; however, she sees the union
Britain's role in the country will coming through peaceful compromise
inevitably change. rather than a prolonged civil war.
Prof. Mary Bromage, instructor in Leo McNamara, an associate
the University's School of Business professor of English and former
Administration and author of several resident of Belfast, Northern Ireland,
books and articles on Irish views the conflict in another light.
Nationalism, sees in the future a slow, He feels the focal point of the crisis
gradual reconciliation between the lies with the two factions currently bat-
governments in Dublin, London, and tling for control in Northern
AL the people of Northern Ireland. Ireland-the Irish Republican Army,
"A compromise must finally be fighting for union with the Irish
reached," said Bromage, "the British Republic to the south, and the loyalists
government simply cannot afford to
economically subsidize Northern SPage 55
Photo by DAVID C
SITTING IN HIS OFFICE, English Professor Leo McNamara contemplates.
Northern Ireland's future. A leading expert on Irish history, McNamara
sees perpetual violence in that strife-torn country as inevitable.
Ann Arbor
offieials
react to
Reagan 's
new budget
By ANN MARIE FAZIO
The almost certain passage of President Reagan's
program-cutting budget plan doesn't have Ann Arbor's
Mayor Louis Belcher worried about the fate of his city.
"Ann Arbor is fairly self-sufficient," the mayor said
yesterday. "We haven't used much federal funds."
BELCHER ACTUALLY seems to like the plan, with its
massive cuts in aid to cities, that is making many other
mayors across the nation cringe. "There is far more
flexibility under Reagan's plan," he said. The city may be
getting less federal money, he said, but they will have more
control over what to do with the remaining money.
Other Ann Arbor officials, however, are more concerned
about the plan's effects on the city, its permanent residents,
and temporary student dwellers.
COUNCILWOMAN Leslie Morris is worried about the loss
of social programs that will result from Reagan's cuts. Un-
der the new federal budget, the federal taxes city residents
pay will be used for "military establishments" and not for
needed city projects or social services, Morris said. "Some of
those services are just going to disappear."
"Cities are very expensive to run," she added, and much of
the money the city pays out in federal taxes isn't coming
back.
THE FLEXIBILITY that Belcher refers to is due to the
new administration's switch from categorical grants
(federal grants to be used for specified programs) to block
grants (fixed sums of money given to a government with few
restrictions on its use), he said.
Barry Tilmann, Director of the city's Community
Development Block Grant program, said it is this switch that
will most severely affect the University.
Many categorical grants that come into Ann Arbor go to
the University for various research projects, Tilmann said.
"Most of the money goes to academics and not to the people
who need the services."
THE STATE, which has more control over the federal
money under a block grant plan, may have different
priorities than the federal government, according to
Tilmann, and may allocate the money accordingly.
Morris said the cost of student housing might be indirectly
affected by cuts in energy conservation incentive programs,
which give some type of monetary relief to landlords who
improve the energy efficiency of their units.
The most controlable cost of housing is the cost of utilities,
according to Morris, adding that, of course, utility costs are
lower in energy efficient houses.
. BUT WITH CUTS to the incentive programs, the cost of
making a unit more energy efficient or of maintaining an
inefficient one will be passed on to the tenant, Morris said.
Trish Boyer, of the Ann Arbor Tenant's Union, said,
however, that, in the long run, Reagan's budget plan may ac-
tually lower the high cost of Ann Arbor housing.
See REAGAN'S, Page 7