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Radio Therapy-5 #72 SEPTEMBER 1992 FREE Local Media-6 Getting lnvolved-7 Health Guide-8 Community Events-11 ANN ARBOR'S ALTERNATIVE NEWSMONTHLY SPECIAL INVESTIGATION Trouble at EMU By Eric Jackson p If you are an Eastern Michigan University (EMU) student working your way through school, chances are good that you faced acrisis when ! paying this semester's tuition bill. Your own money woes are prob- 1; ably related to a crisis that is coming HI I •MMf ij to a head at EMU—in the courts and 1 " I "' i -4 IB * By Phillis Engelbert li L ' >• in labor-management relations— I! • \ over its governance and the way that its funds are handled. All of this comes at a time when EMU administrators claim that the his summer, the rules regulating the Board for Student Publica- school is facing a budget crisis. Due —1 tions (BSP) underwent sweeping changes. The BSP is the to an alleged $7.3 million budget MfssHanHH governing body for all non-technical student publications, in- shortfall, there have been layoffs PHOTO: GREFORY FOX cludinTg the Michigan Daily, tlie Michiganensian yearbook, and Gargoyle and tuition increases of between 9.1 EMU's Welch Hall, home to both the EMU administration and the humor magazine. Under tlie changed rules, student and faculty member and 9.6%. Eastern Michigan University Foundation, a "private" group that positions, formerly selected by members of their respective groups, will be removed from the board. The changes, approved at tlie July 17 Regents' Yet it doesn't look like tlie uni- raises and spends university funds. versity is broke. This summer EMU meeting, give U-M President James Duderstadt the power to appoint tlie first was completing a new $13 million board under the new rules. The new BSP guidelines can only be viewed in (plus cost overruns) football sta- when this writer attempted to learn overwhelming majority of its funds the context of an era and climate of tightening U-M administration control dium and a $1.25 million outdoor more about tlie EMU Foundation directly from the university. In the over activities on campus. recreation center. Across campus, through a request to tlie founda- 1991-92 fiscal year, the foundation Tlie changes to the BS P were set forth in a proposal by tlie University Task university funds were being spent to tion under Michigan's Freedom of received $261,341 from the univer- Force on the Future Governance of Student Publications. The Task Force, widen sidewalks and to replace a Information Act (FOI A) and Open sity, tlie sum of all gifts made to tlie chaired by Sociology Professor Gayl Ness, had among its members a big parking lot near McKenny Meetings Act (OMA), the request university during 1991. In its own representative from the Michigan Student Assembly (MSA) and former Union. was denied. In his refusal to dis- name, the foundation raised Daily editor, Noah Finkel. The Task Force met for tlie past year and held two Among the many issues at stake close board meeting minutes and $116,120 directly from donors in public hearings. is your right to know how university other information, the foundation's the same time period. Before the changes, tlie BSP was comprised of 10 members. These funds are spent. That right may vir- chair, Chrysler Vice-President for More significantly, at a March included three students, three faculty members, three professional journalists tually disappear with tlie transfer of Marketing John Damoose, claimed 24, 1992 regents' meeting, the and a faculty chair. The students (two undergraduates and one graduate) were EMU assets to the Eastern Michi- that as a "private corporation," tlie university'seadowment, then worth elected during student government elections. The faculty members were gan University Foundation, a Michi- EMU Foundation is not subject to around $7.7 million, was handed named and confirmed by tlie faculty senate, while the faculty adviser was gan non-profit corporation which FOIA or OMA. over to the foundation. The endow- appointed by tlie president from a panel of names submitted by the faculty was founded in 1990 by EMU presi- This reporter then filed suit ment is the net sum of virtually senate. The professional journalists were selected by tlie president, from a list dent William Shelton as a result of against tlie foundation, seeking to every donation ever made by alumni of names submitted by editors of the student publications. an October 1989 resolution of compel disclosure of tlie requested and other supporters to Eastern The new rules creat a nine-member board, including at least four alumni EMU's board of regents. information and a declaration that Michigan University over its 143of student publications and at least three members of the University commu- year existence. It has traditionally nity (including students, faculty, and staff). All nine members of the initial According to records on file with FOIA and OMA apply in this mat- been conservatively invested in in- board are to be appointed by President Duderstadt. Three members will serve the Michigan Corporations and Se- ter. Pretrial conferences and mo- terest-bearing accounts, with the one-year terms, three will serve two-year terms, and tliree will serve three- curities Bureau, the foundation "is tions are scheduled to take place interest income being used mostly year terms. The board selection process thereafter will involve nominations organized and operated exclusively before Judge Kurtis T. Wilder on September 8-9 in Washtenaw as a scholarship fund. made by the board (three new members a year, for three-year terms each), and to receive, hold, invest and adminis- will be subject to approval by the president. ter funds and to make expenditures County Circuit Court. The endowment, which had Other changes give the new BSP authority over the student publications' to or on behalf of Eastern Michigan FOIA provides that organiza- never before supported university legal affairs and mandate tlie BSP to act in an advisory capacity over matters University." Accordingly, EMUhas tions which have public bodies as administrators, will be tapped to of editorial control. Another new BSP responsibility is that of adopting transferred millions of dollars in. their principal source of funding pay for a foundation president and "position descriptions and supervisory procedures for professional employ- university funds into the foun- are subject to the act's public dis- vice-president, whose starting sala- ees." dation.The foundation's offices are closure provisions. The OMA re- ries will be $102,000 and $72,000 at Welch Hall, EMU's administra- quires that groups which are cre- respectively, according to the Members of the university community, including free speech advocates, tion building, and the foundation's ated by public institutions and foundation's financial plan. The MSA leaders and others, have expressed alarm over the new BSPguidelines. work is currently being done by given the power to make final de- plan provides these two adminis- The new, non-democratic board will only be accountable to tlie presidentand EMU employees while foundation cisions about public business must trators with a combined initial an- not to tlie university community. Critics point to a pattern of control-grabbing staff positions are officially "va- open their meetings and provide nual travel budget of $15,000. Ac- actions by tlie administration in recent years, including tlie development and cant." meeting minutes on request. implementation of a Student Code of Non-Academic Conduct and the deputization of a U-M police force. Now the president and regents have Itsoundsbenevolentenough. Yet The foundation has recei ved an (see TROUBLE AT EMU, page 10) gained tlie potential to add "control over student media" to tlie list. (see CARPE DAILY, page 6) <:•:+ 2—AGENDA—SEPTEMBER 1992 DNR has the power to grant or deny a permit The conference also laid the groundwork to Public Hearing on Incinerator for the toxic incinerator and landfill. This may build a progressive third party. ENVOTECH proposes to locate a toxic be the only chance for public comment before The idea forthe PPC originated with former Governor Engler's appointees decide the mat- etcetera Jesse Jackson campaign official Ron Daniels. waste incinerator in Augusta Township, a few miles from the Ann Arbor/Ypsilanti area. If ter. For more information, call Michigan Citi- AGENDA is interested in receiving Daniels, Director of Project New Tomorrow (a allowed, they will build one of the country's zens Against ToxicSubstancesat43-X-DUMP. items from you for etcetera. Press multi-issue activist organization based in Youngstown, OH), is now running as an inde- largest incinerators. It would bum about 30,000 The Road to Freedom of Choice clippings, press releases, summa- tons of poisonous garbage every year. The pendent candidate for President in a number of How can you work to preserve the right to ries of local events and any other states (not Michigan). Daniels urged PPC at- residue would be buried nearby. Wind from choose? Talk to people and spread the pro- ideas or suggestions are wel- the southeast would carry minute amounts of tendees to find ways to combine issue activism choice message, urge your representatives to come. Just mail them to: Etcetera with electoral activism. toxic gasses and ash to Ypsilanti and Ann support the Freedom of Choice Act, donate Editor, AGENDA, 220 S. Main St., Arbor. According to critics, over the years, Ann Arbor, Ml 48104 Activists at the PPC created a National time or money to feminist organizations or People's Progressive Network (NPPN). For toxic ash would increasingly permeate every- candidates, demonstrate, write a letter to the thing in the area, from house dust to the fish in more information on the NPPN write: c/o editor, shop at stores which support family support to Dr.