Opinion
Page b
Saturday, May 22, 1982
The Michiqan Daily
.........., .. ... ...... .j
Freeing inmates, accepting athletes
IF YOU COMMIT a crime and
get caught in the next few months,
you may not have a place to stay.
To help ease overcrowding in the
state prisons, Gov. William Milliken
declared a state of emergency Wed-
nesday that allows the early release of
nearly 900 inmates in several state
In spite of a local crime rate increae
after the early release last year, Jack
Frost, area manager of parole,
probation, and community resident
problems of the corrections depar-
tment, had some soothing words of area
residents. These prisoners "would be
released in 90 days anyway," he said.
More trial delays?
RE THAN A year after the shoot-
ings of two University students in
Bursley Hall, the trial of the alleged
murderer, Leo Kelly, faces even further
delays.
From a choice of over 150 perspective
jurors,,the field was narrowed down to
a 14-member jury in Washtenaw Coun-
ty Circuit Court Wednesday.
Kelly's attorney, William Waterman,
has challenged the jury selections,
however, because no members are
black, so the jury was not sworn in.
Waterman has also asked that the trial
be relocated, claiming a fair trial in
Washtenaw county would be impossible
because of pretrial publicity.
The trial is scheduled to begin Mon-
day at 9 a.m., but if Waterman's
challenge is upheld, the jury selection
process will have to start all over again.
Despite low scores
TNIVERSITY AND athletic depart-
ment officials were still insisting
last week that admissions standards
are not compromised for athletes.
In spite of the publication of
anonymous high school grade point
averages and SAT scores of several
current University athletes in a Daily
story in April, Admissions Director
Cliff Sjogren said these students were
probably enrolled in the School of
Education's physical education
program. The program has the lowest
threshold for admission at the Univer-
sity.
Athletic Director Don Canham said
the athletic department aids disadvan-
taged students and also aids the
University in achieving -its goal of 10
percent minority enrollment.
Even with the help of the athletic
department, however, the University
has achieved minority enrollment that
actually is closer to 5 percent. Perhaps
if the University expanded its athletic
department, then it could achieve the
affirmative action goals it set over ten
years ago.
The Week in Review was com-
piled by Daily editors Julie Hinds
and Kent Redding, and Daily staff
writer George Adams. It will be
featured every Saturday.
counties, including Washtenaw, over
the next three months.
The action comes on the eve of a
similar move last year by the governor,
but state and local officials do not ex-
pect the release to have much of an ef-
fect on the crime rate. Most of the in-
dividuals being released will be from
halftway houses, community residence
programs that provide a transition for
prisoners reentering the community.
In the past, overcrowding in state
prisons has caused riots in Jackson,
Ionia, and Marquette state prisons.
State prisons currently are 175 inmates
over their emergency capacity.
Waterman: Is fair trial possible?
The Michigan Daily
Vol. XCII, No. 14-S
Ninety-two Years of Editorial Freedom
Edited and managed by students
at the University of Michigan
LETTERS TO THE DAILY:
Doing business in S. Africa
A step backward
R IGHTI;ST ELEMENTS IN El Salvador's
Constituent Assembly currently are doing
exactly what many suspected they would -
suspending popular reforms.
The assembly suspended on Thursday a
reform program designed to redistribute land
in the strife-torn nation. Turn the country back
over to the rich landowners and to hell with the
peasants, they seem to be saying.
The suspension could put the country on the
brink of more intense civil violence. This time
U.S. aid must not help the government. One of
the preconditions made by the United States
during the formation of the riew Salvadoran
government was that it faced a cutoff of U.S.
economic and military aid if it reneged on the
land reform program.
Congress and the Reagan administration
must not reward the government of El Salvador
with any encouraging aid if it is intent on
moving back to privileged minority control, in-
steac + towardlefOrm andIreebndliatol.5
To the Daily:
It is well known that for several
years there has existed a basic
disagreement between some of
the Regents, and hundreds of
students and faculty on this cam-
pus regarding the issue of
divestment from South African
oriented stocks.
In "South African divestment
bill passes the state House"
(Daily, May 14), Regent
Thomas Roach (D-Saline) ex-
pressed disapproval of the bill
passed by the state House of
Representatives that, if it
became law, would require
public colleges to divest from
U.S. companies operating in
apartheid South Africa.
H4 said, "We're talking about
companies that are in Michigan,
that employ people in Michigan,
and pay Michigan taxes."
As Regent Roach knows;this is
only half the truth. These com
panies also happen to be multi-
national corporations, a new,
hard-to-define animal, with
global rather than national
horizons and appetites.
In South Africa, these com-
panies are no longer just
Michigan companies. They are
employers of South Africans, pay
South African taxes, and most
r i ar oreGjntI 'are ubject to South
Africa's ominous laws of apar- be taken over by the South
theid. U.S. civil rights standards African Ministry of Defense un-
are illegal in that nation. der current South African law.
Even more serious is the Even in peace time these com-
revelation by the New York panies sell trucks and other
Times of May 19;1978, that in the vehicles to the South African ar-
wake of the 1976 riots, General my and police.
Motors Corporation officials in Many prefer the divestment
S outh Africa drafted a secret route Perry Bullard has forged.
contingency plan to train its own One must hope his bill passes in
security personnel in 1977, in case the Senate and that others con-
of further race riots. tact state senators to tell them
Furthermore, in the case of a their views on divestment.
national emergency, G.M. and -Leonard Suransky
the rest of the auto industry could May 15, 1982
M1 DOES-NOT LiV B SCHOOL LUNCH PRO6AMM ALONEJ