Sticks and stones ..billy clubs and mace. See OPINION Page 4. IC tutu a t E A TODAY Sunny, seasonable; High: 39, Low: 24. TOMORROW Mostly sunny, pleasant; High: 44, Low: 29. Since 1890 Vol. CI, No. 111 Ann Arbor, Michigan - Thursday, March 14, 1991 Copyng19 The Michigan aly ,Provost calls for bud et cub ack by Henry Goldblatt Daily Administration Reporter University departments are be- ginning to feel the brunt of the first round of Michigan budget cuts. University Provost Gilbert Whitaker this week sent a letter to University department heads giv- ing them till April 1 to submit budget revisions. The cut is a result of a 1 percent decrease in higher ed- ucation funding announced last fall. The University chose to wait to make these cuts until anticipated further cuts were made. Now that it appears Governor John Engler will not cut higher ed- ucation further, the University has chosen to cut $2.7 million from the University's general fund. The fund's sources include tuition rev- enues, state appropriations, federal grants and contracts, indirect cost recoveries and unrestricted private grants. Since the University's fiscal year does not coincide with the state's, $2 million will be cut from the University's base operating budget during the 1990-1991 fiscal year. The remaining amount will be cut from the next fiscal year. "The cuts were differentially al- See CUTS, Page 2 Baker urges Israel to heed U.N. resolutions Associated Press Secretary of State James Baker held extended talks last night with Syrian President Hafez Assad on a U.S. formula to bring peace to the Middle East, by having Israel give up territory in exchange for Arab recognition. Baker has told reporters travel- ing with him that he made no spe- cific demands of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir in their meeting Tuesday. But Israeli sources said early yesterday in Jerusalem that he stressed a need for compliance with the U.N. Secu- rity Council resolutions. Nearing the end of a five-nation trip to the Middle East, Baker also discussed with Assad a flurry of rumors regarding American hostages in Lebanon and a bur- geoning plan to guard the Persian Gulf oil fields with an alliance of Egyptian, Syrian and American troops. He added Lebanese Foreign Minister Fares Bouez to his. schedule for this morning, before flying to Moscow to measure the situation in the restive Soviet Union. The hostages are believed to be held in Lebanon by Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed group, and Baker wants to get the latest word from the Beirut government on the situation. "I think that the secretary feels that the climate is now better than it has been in a long time for mak- ing progress" in the region, Presi- dent Bush said in Ottawa, Canada. Bush and Canadian President Brian Mulroney signed a pact to reduce the amount of acid rain in North America. Bush stopped in Canada on the first leg of a five-day trip, that also will include sessions in Martinique with French President Francois Mitterrand and in Bermuda with British Prime Minister John Major. "I haven't seen anything pes- simistic coming out of the Baker reports," Bush said. "There is some kind of change," he said, fol- lowing the war in which the army of one of Israel's most threatening enemies was vanquished. that Gorbachev had sent messages to Arab leaders outlining Soviet views on security in the Persian Gulf and soliciting their views. Churkin said the messages were sent to "a wide ranige of Arab states," but he would not list them nor say whether Saddam was among them. In Iraq, demonstrators in the northern oil city of Mosul stormed two prisons and released 4,000 po- litical prisoners, according to Kur- dish leaders who claimed to con- trol almost 75 percent of Iraqi Kur- distan. An opposition leader in London said Kurdish forces had surrounded Mosul. Iraqi rebel leaders meeting in 'I think that the secretary feels that the climate is now better than it has been in a long time for making progress' -President George Bush Bush said it was "impossible to have normalized relations" with Iraq as long as Saddam Hussein remained in power. Still, he said, he was concerned about instability in the region because of internal unrest in Iraq. Bush also cautioned Iran against trying to take any Iraqi ter- ritory. "That would be the worst thing they could do," he said. A day before Baker's arrival in Moscow, Soviet Foreign Ministry spokesperson Vitaly Churkin said Beirut pledged to set up a transi- tional government to lead Iraq to democracy if they manage to un- seat Saddam. In New York, Kuwait's ambas- sador to the United Nations said Iraq's occupation and plunder of Kuwait may cost the emirate up to $100 billion in damages. On Capitol Hill, 240 members of the House signed a letter urging Bush to require Kuwait and Saudi Arabia to recognize Israel as the first step in a new peace process. Jump, dog! Brent Sherman, a senior in the School of Engineering, entertains his dog Baggins, or is Baggins entertaining him? 'U' offers TAs 4 percent salary .increase; negotiations continue by Stefanie Vines Daily Faculty Reporter The University offered teaching assistants a 4 percent salary in- crease for the next two years in continued negotiations over a new contract last night. The economic package pro- * posed by the University was a re- vised version of a three-year con- tract proposal calling for a 3.5 per- cent increase in 1991-92 and 1992- 93, and an additional 5 percent in- crease in 1993-94. The Graduate Employees Orga- nization (GEO) has proposed a two-year contract which included a 12 percent increase in 1991-92 and a 9 percent increase in 1992-93. The union plans to introduce a new counterproposal at the next week's bargaining session. The current TA contract's expi- ration date was extended to tomor- row from March 1. The University's new two-year contract proposal did not come as a surprise to GEO bargainers. "There were no real surprises about it. But the 4 percent increase is still way below the inflation rate," GEO president Chris Rober- son said. In addition to the new eco- nomic proposal, two small changes were made to non-economic is- sues.. GEO proposed a memo of un- derstanding which would not offi- cially be written into the contract, but would still be implemented. The memo proposed that a GEO representative and representatives from other student organizations such as the Michigan Student As- sembly be allowed to sit in on an existing University committee ex- amining childcare costs. The University agreed to allow a GEO representative to sit in on the committee, but refused admis- sion to other student organizations, said GEO bargainer John Robb. GEO also submitted a proposal calling for a two-term job security clause to ensure TAs of being hired for the entire academic year. The University rejected the two-term guarantee, but pledged to inform TAs in April of whether they will be hired for both the fall Talking about small details like and winter terms. this takes time away from the big- Robb remained unsatisfied with ger issues like class size and both University responses. childcare," he said. "Throwing in a couple of sen- When asked about how long tences doesn't change anything. See GEO, Page 3 Grad students grapple with T A troubles at other universities by Melissa Peerless Daily Higher Education Reporter As University Teaching Assis- tants battle with the administration over contract terms, TAs at other schools are facing their administra- tions with their own sets of de- mands. At the University of California at Berkeley, TAs have been hit hard by the system's impending budget cuts. The Association of Graduate Student Employees (AGSE) is currently petitioning for greater benefits and higher pay for its members. "Administrators are making bad decisions across the board," said AGSE member Jane Hoeptner. "The teaching assistants are feeling the brunt of these budget cuts but if we have to strike or something, it will affect everyone. The key is uniting faculty and un- dergrads behind us in our attempt to make the administration act reasonably," she added. The University of Iowa's Teach- ing Assistants have also been do- ing some difficult bargaining with university administrators. Among their demands are increased pay- ment and the implementation of a health insurance program. Kerry Johnson, an English TA, said, "Our problem has been major See TAS, Page 2 KIM GARRETT/Daily G. Gordon Liddy addresses the audience at Mendelssohn Theater in the Michigan League. Liddy: government Students 9 say aid for tuition T by Bethany Robertson Daily Government Reporter ; ;. ^y \* ,X23... ,, ; o dupes U.S by Andrew Levy Daily Staff Reporter i !. public The American public is being duped by the government, G. Gordon Liddy, a prominent Watergate figure, said yesterday in a lecture at Mendelssohn Theater. Liddy was the General Counsel for the Committee to Re-elect the President in 1972, and was sent to prison for having engineered the famous Watergate break-in that brought down the Nixon presidency. when you are discussing govern- ment, and when you are discussing Washington, D.C., they do not speak English," Liddy said. "You may have noticed that as a people, as a nation, we are characterized by the tendency to deny unpleasant reality through the misuse of language. How can you, or I,. or anyone else in this country even hope to cope with and solve a problem ... if, for example, we dare not even call it by name?" Rising tuition costs and dimin- ishing financial aid have raised the question of whether higher education is really worth the price, students said in a forum on the increasing costs of education J: :'. ? i