The Michigan Daily - Friday, June 15, 1984 - Page 11
Senate votes to continue MX production
(Continued from Page 1)
The vote, largely along party lines, came on a Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico had joined Kennedy table in Geneva, Kennedy said. "In reviewing the
motion by Sen. John Tower (R-Texas) to table an and Hart in sponsoring the attempt to scuttle the MX record of this administration, we have not been
amendment by Democrats Edward Kennedy of outright willing to do what ought to be done, and that is to put a
Massachusetts, Gary Hart of Colorado, and others But they proposed that $1.4 billion of the $2.6 billion proposal on the table to halt the arms race, before it
that would have eliminated all MX production money that 21 missiles would cost be redirected into 26 con- halts the human race."
from a $291 billion defense spending plan. ventional weapons and readiness programs, with the Just two weeks ago, the Houae narrowly approved
Majority Republicans remained confident they remaining $1.2 billion going to help close the federal a virtual moratorium against production of the MX,
could preserve at least 21 of the 40 missiles requested deficit. deciding that 15 missiles can be built but only if
by Reagan for production next fiscal year. A 19- Kennedy noted that Congress supported the MX las Congress determines next year that prospects for an
missile reduction was recommended by the Senate year after winning assurances from the ad- arms control accord with the Soviet Union are dim.
Armed Services Committee, headed by Tower, but ministration that it would be a "bargaining chip" in Earlier yesterday, the Republican-dominated
more severe cuts also were scheduled for debate. arms control talks. The Geneva talks subsequently chamber turned aside, 55-43, an attempt by Sen. Alan
Democratic Sens. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, Carl collapsed with a walkout by the Soviet Union. Dixon (D-Ill.), to trim $5.3 billion from the proposed
Levin of Michigan, Dale Bumpers of Arkansas and There was no realistic proposal placed on that defense budget.
State, city to recruit high technology firms
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the center for high-tech excellence."
A major part of that excellence is a
result of work done at the University.
According to University Vice President
for Research Alfred Sussman, such a
distinction is inevitable.
"It is probably true that Ann Arbor
will be a center for high-tech industry,"
Sussman said. "As.I see it, it isn't as if
it were a conscious decision to go in that
direction. It is the natural culmination
of the distinction of our University and
the nature of our city."
SUSSMAN SAID the cultural at-
mosphere perpetuated by the Univer-
sity community is attractive to young.
professionals, thus to high-tech com-
merce.
But it is more than Ann Arbor's night
life that encourages high-tech in-
dustries to locate here. Foremost
among the city's assets may be the
University's electrical and computer
engineering program, which is con-
sistently ranked in the top five
nationally.
According to the chairman of that
department, Prof. George Haddad, in-
teraction between industry and
academia appeals to high-tech firms.
"Part of the reason we hope (high-tech
firms) would move into this area is
because of our existence," Haddad
said. "It is a mutually beneficial sort of
thing." He said that high-tech firms can
tap the expertise of individual faculty
members and that University resear-
chers have access to equipment and
other resources normally not available
on a college campus.
THAT MUTUALLY beneficial en-
vironment will be augmented by the
construction of a $30 million electrical
engineering building. The state-funded
structure, to be completed in 1987, will
house an experimental microchip
facility that, according to School of
Engineering Dean James Duderstadt,
will allow students and faculty to design
and build special-purpose chips and
bring the electrical engineering depar-
tment to the forefront in high-tech elec-
tronics. Duderstadt said that this
building, Engineering I, would be the
most advanced electronics center in
the Midwest and one of the top univer-
sity laboratories in the nation.
At the ground-breaking ceremonies
for Engineering I, Gov. James Blan-
chard emphasized that this state ex-
penditure was part of Michigan's effort
to diversify its industries - a diver-
sification that he said begins with
research and development of elec-
tronics technology.
Blanchard likened the area to
California's "Silicon Valley," a center
of excellence in computer hardware
development and manufacturing.
HADDAD AGREED with the Silicon
Valley model. "We sure are going to try
very hard to make it that way," he said.
"And I think we have a good chance."
Others disagree with the governor's
state's retirement fund. That funding
was necessary for the company to begin
marketing the facility, according to
Wood and Co. President Rex Jenson.
"Because of this line of credit, firms
who arrive at the beginning of the
project can be assured that the whole
park will be developed as planned,"
Jenson said in a January press con-
ference.
Belcher also claims that firms like
the security blanket the research parks
provide. "These parks will be a success
as long as there are adequate transpor-
tation and utilities," he said. "If a
business wants to move into town, they
don't want to have to worry about
sewers and electricity and so forth. So
in this respect the research parks are a
good idea."
DUDERSTADT, on the other hand,
thinks large research parks are a
backward approach in the high tech
race.
"That is a little bit of the cart before
the horse," Duderstadt said. "What
they are trying to do is to provide a
physical location where companies can
site, but my suspicion is that it will be
the success of the little companies that
will catch people's attention.".
Duderstadt said the hope of research
parks is that they will entice a large
corporation such as IBM or Hewlett-
Packard into putting a research lab in
Ann Arbor.
ANOTHER reason the University
works to fill these research parks is the
state's economic situation.
"We take the view that as a state
university we would like to help the
state's economy, and one of our
missions is to do just that," Sussman
said.
He said University involvement in
research parks in order "to foster bet-
ter research and teaching" is one ap-
propriate way for the University to do
its share.
AND IN Pollack's opinion, the state
needs all the help it can get from Ann
Arbor.
"We have lost the edge in smokestack
industry," Pollack said. "And because
we have lost that edge, it is natural for
Michigan to have a high-tech economic
base."
According to Pollack, that economic
base in high-tech is inevitable. The
question is what type of foundation Ann
Arbor will provide for that base.
Tomorrow: The controversy
surrounding-one proposed high-tech
research center in Ann Arbor.
Duderstadt
... favors small high-tech firms
prognosis.
"As for whether we will become a
center known for electronics, it is kind
of up in the air," Ann Arbor Mayor
Louis Belcher said. "I don't see us
becoming another Silicon Valley by any
stretch of the imagination." Belcher
said that Ann Arbor's industries are
far more diverse than those of Silicon
Valley. He said that, unlike Ann Arbor,
that area relies only on computer
manufacturing as its economic base.
Belcher said instead of trying to
develop a Silicon Valley in Ann Arbor,
the state should concentrate on refining
its existing industry - an industry he
believes is too large an economic asset
to throw away.
But the auto industry Belcher
referred to is changing to prevent its
own demise. And Blanchard believes
that high-tech is the answer to the auto
industry's woes. For companies to in-
corporate high-tech systems into their
existing equipment, the state's
educational system must turn out
graduates competent in these systems.
To Blanchard, that means "a renewed
commitment to education" in the state
- specifically to high-tech education.
Ann Arbor, though, has more to offer
the high-tech firms than a top-notch
University. Three industrial research
parks are located in the Ann Arbor
area. These parks recruit research
facilities of large corporations with the
hope that they will spark the local
economy.
Themnewest park, specifically
designated a high-technology park, will
be worth an estimated $250 million upon
completion and covers 820 acres of land
near North Campus.
THE ANN ARBOR firm of Wood and
Co. received a $130,000 loan from the
University's Board of Regents in 1981 to
get the new park project started. In
January the developers received
another $7.7 million load from the
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