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The Michigan Daily
Vol. XCII, No. 52-S
Ninety-two Years of Editorial Freedom
Edited and managed by students
at the University of Michigan
Saturday, July 31, 1982
The Michigan Daily
'U' Enrollment decline
raise's elitism fears,
A
it
Cold shoulder
for unemployed
S PRESIDENT Reagan said during his press
conference the other night, the economic
recovery we've all been waiting for will be ex-
tremely slow in coming. In light of that asser-
tion, it is amazing that the administration has
coldly tried to block the extension of unem-
ployment insurance.
Quite obviously, the unemployed are hit har-
dest by the current recession. With unem-
ployment running at the highest rate in four
decades, the suffering is deep and widespread.
To relieve that misery, the Senate has begun
hearings on proposals that would extend unem-
ployment insurance for at least another 13
weeks. Without that reprieve, thousands will be
off the insurance rolls with no prospects for
employment and dismal prospects that the
economy will turn around before they are for-
ced to sell their homes and go on welfare.
The administration's response is that an ex-
tension would be too costly. Of course it would,
be costly - but only a little more so than a
couple of B-1 bombers. As one senator said to
an adminsitration official, "You've got Marie
Antoinette beat. She said, 'Let them eat cake.'
It sounds to me like you're saying, 'Don't let
them eat anything if it is going to cost
money. -
Both Democratic and Republican senators
have come out in favor of continuing unem-
ployment insurance as a necessary and
humane response to an economic crisis out of
control. Nearly 2.2 million people fell below the
poverty line in 1981. The president seems intent
upon increasing that number.
As the Senate Democrats have suggested,
losses to the budget can be mitigated by a $2
billion increase in taxes on such benefits. That
is a fair response to those who worry about
ballooning deficits.
With the economic recovery a long way off,
an extension of unemployment benefits is
needed to keep many heads above water. In
times like these, the administration should not
be so blatantly cruel when it comes to aiding
those caught in the middle of a tightening
economic vice.
Letters and columns represent the opinions
of the individual author(s) and do not
necessarily reflect the attitudes or beliefs of
the Daily.
U NIVERSITY officials
announced this week that
student enrollment will actually
decline in the coming year. That
decline. combined with
decreasing state aid has left ad-
ministrators uncomfortable
about creeping budget problems
and elitism at the University.
The University will have nearly
830 fewer students in 1982-83 than
the previous year, according to
Sue Mims, director of the Office
,of Academic Planning and
Analysis.
That drop in enrollment and a
large increase in tuition is a
"short step to an uncomfortable
degree of elitism," said Cliff
Sjogren, director of un-
dergraduate admissions. In spite
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In spite of the assertion that non-faculty staff are essential to an ef-
fective faculty, the University's salary plan excludes them.
of the decline, freshman
enrollment will remain the same,
but the University accepted
nearly all the students who were
wait-listed, he said.
Vice President for Academic
Affairs Billy Frye said the
University was already being ac-
cused of becoming a "financially
elitist school," but he blamed the
lack of state support for pushing
the University in that direction.
In spite of the administration's
fears of the decline in enrollment
and higher tuition, it has no plans
to change its slogan from
"smaller, but better" to "expen-
sive, but elite."
'What about us?'
WHILE FACULTY members
were gloating over the
University's recent decision to
devote $5 million to a salary plan,
non-academic staff members
were asking, "what about us?"
University administrators
decided last week to devote the
first $5 million dollars saved in
the University's five-year
reallocation plan to a salary
program. What angered many
non-faculty staffers is that the
plan left them out of the picture
completely-no pay hike and
none expected, in these in-
flationary times.
"It is important to keep good
faculty here," said Lili Kivisto, a
student services assistant at the
political science department,
"but you have to realize it is the
(non-academic) support that
makes effective scholarship
possible.:'
University administrators said
they simply didn't have the
money for complete general staff
raise. But Jo Willsman, a clerical
employee at the Institute for
Social Research, was not convin-
ced and labeled the plan
"outrageous." If administrators
can "increase the top of the (pay)
scale," she said, "they can come
up with cash for the lower end."
In spite of the protest, it ap-
pears the plan will not be revam-
ped-unless, of course, the
faculty itself decides to share the
wealth.
Army conflict
SEVERAL LAW schools
around the nation, including
Wayne State University, have
kicked U.S. Army recruiters off
campus for discriminating
against homosexuals and the
handicapped. Now the Army has
threatened to remove its resear-
ch projects from those same
schools for that policy.
The controversy started when
the Army decided not to accept
people who were either
homosexuals or physically han-
dicapped. The law schools at
WSU, Harvard, Yale, and several
other universities decided that
was discriminatory and barred
theArmy from recruiting on their
campuses.
"Discrimination against
(homosexuals and the physically
handicapped) is not dissimilar
from discrimination by race, sex,
or national origin," explained
John Roberts, dean of WSU's law
school. "It's a matter of prin-
ciple."
The Army disagrees ard has
threatened to hit both the law
schools and their respective
universities where it counts-in
their research grant pocket-
books.
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