The Mic MSU to keep biotech By JIM SPARKS Battle Creek lost its bid to lure a biotechnology in- stitute away from Michigan State University yester- day, when the institute board voted 7-2 to stay in the Lansing area. In a closed meeting at the University's Fleming Administration Building, the board ended a three- month effort by a group calling itself Battle Creek Unlimited to move the Molecular Biology Institute (MBI) to Battle Creek. JOHN WEIL, chairman of MBI's board, said he was "very much impressed with the spirit of Battle Creek and with Battle Creek Unlimited," but said the advantages of staying close to a major university tip- ped the balance in Lansing's favor. One of the major contributors to MBI is Battle Creek's Kellogg Foundation, which has already spent $150,000 on the institute and is considering more gifts. But Weil said Kellogg did not pressure MBI to move as a condition for receiving money. "THE FOUNDATIONS have made it clear that they count on the health of the institution, not its location," he said. The vast majority of MBI's funding comes from a $6.2 million state grant. The institute has also received $50,000 from the Dow Foundation. MBI was founded by the state in 1981 in an attempt to help turn around Michigan's sagging economy by spawning new biotechnology firms. ONE OF ITS primary tasks is to fund research on developing improved plant and tree species through cloning techniques, and creating new chemicals from renewable resources. MSU's strong agricultural programs played a large part in the original decision to locate there. The institute is considering support for 12 resear- ch projects throughout the state, Weil said. One of the closest to receiving funds is a proposal by University Microbiology Prof. Ronald Olsen to develop new chemicals from lignin, a substance extracted from trees. CURRENTLY THE institute is working out of some offices at MSU, but Weil said they are looking at five sites in the Lansing area for a permanent location. He said he did not yet know whether the institute would end up on MSU property or off-campus. IN A STATEMENT released yesterday, MSU President Cecil Mackey said he was pleased the higan Doily - Saturday, August 13, 1983 - Page 3 institute board decided to keep MBI in the area, and said the benefits of MBI's research will not be restricted to East Lansing. "We are committed to sharing the vast resources and expertise available at MSU in moving the results of research into the entire state," he said. "The decision 4s one more example of the state's commitment to move aggressively in bringing together the internal resources required for Michigan's long-range economic development," Mackey added. MBI MAKES UP the biological part of Michigan's economic development. State planners feel that Michigan's forests may bring about an economic boom in the '90s, especially if MBI research can begin to produce fast-growing seedlings which will be almost identical to each other. The other major part of Michigan's high-tech effort is the Industrial Technology Institute (ITI), located in the University's Transportation Research In- stitute. ITI's goal is to help develop the "factory of the future" in Michigan - meaning plants which operate- largely by computers and robots. Court says teen illegally confiscated boss's pot LANSING (UPI) - The Michigan Court of Appeals yesterday ruled Nor- man Shurmur's rights were violated when a teenager he employed as a yard boy snatched alleged marijuana from his basement and turned it over to the local police. According to the court, James Cooper, a 16-year-old who mowed Shurmur's yard and did other work around the house, was the son of a Grosse Pointe Woods police auxiliary officer and a frequent visitor to the police station. On July 3, 1981, Cooper reportedly en- tered Shurmur's basement without permission and discovered four alleged marijuana plants growing there. Three days later, he saw what he believed to be a partially smoked marijuana cigarette in the house and related his observations to the local police. On the following day, the teen entered Shurmur's house and took several leaves from the plants, which he turned over to the police. AS A RESULT, a search warrant was issued, the plants were seized, and Shurmur found himself facing charges of illegal manufacture of marijuana. The judge, however, suppressed the illegally obtained evidence and dismissed the charge. The prosecution argued that Cooper was acting on his own volition as a private citizen when he took the alleged marijuana samples and that, therefore, there was no improper police action in- volved. The judge saw it differently, choosing to disbelieve Cooper's statements that the police did not request him to remove the leaves from the plant and deliver them for examination. If Cooper was operating under the authority of the police, the appeals court said, "the removal of the con- traband from defendant's residence constituted an unlawful search and seizure." Daily Photo by DOUG McMAHON Demonstrators march in front of the Federal Building Thursday to protest President Reagan's policies in Central America. Ralliers attack Reagan 's policy By JACKIE YOUNG About 25 opponents of President Reagan's Central American policies rallied in front of the Federal Building Thursday in what one protester called a "constant visual display of op- pression." Chanting "money for jobs, not for war, U.S. out of El Salvador," and "Hey, hey Uncle Sam, we remember Vietnam," members of the Univer- sity's Black Students Union, the Latin " American Solidarity Committee and the People's Anti-war Mobilization protested America's increasing in- volvement in Central America. HENRY JULL, a retired basket weaver, said the rally was "a good thing and I'm glad to see it." "I think it is going to wake up some people. Protest does things," he added. Phillip Whitlow, a conscientious ob- jector during the Vietnam War, also supported the protesters. "I THINK it is about time people got off their butts and did something about this," he said. "In Detroit about 50 per- cent of the people don't have jobs, and I think we are getting into another Viet- nam war." Whitlow said Reagan has declared war on blacks, the poor, and gays by boosting military spending at the ex- pense of social programs. Whitlow added he would immigrate to Canada again if the Pentagon asked him to fight in another war. "RIGHT NOW I feel as if Reagan is invading my home," he said. But Anne Doniger, an onlooker from Tamarack, Florida, took a dim view of the protesters comparison of Central America with Vietnam. "Would they rather have Russia taking over Central America?" she asked. "It is the Russians plan to take over the entire Caribbean and I don't want to be ringed in," Doniger said. "I don't want us to wait till after they drop the bomb to defend ourselves." University senior.Kris Moon, a mem- ber of the Workers World Party, said changes in the country's priorities are not going to ,come through the old avenes. "It isn't the Democrats who are going to stop the fighting," he said. "It was the Democrats who voted for the nuclear freeze, then the next week voted for the MX missile. The Democrats voted to cut off covert aid, but they voted to increase by $80 million overt aid tQ Central America," he said.