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DAY CARE NOW

Dressed in a dark business suit, a white shirt and a square-dotted tie, U-M President Robben Fleming sat gingerly on the dirty cement steps outside the fortress-like Administration Building.

He turned to confront a group of 50 demonstrators, who were being scrutinized by a pair of security guards.

A young child rushed up and tooted a noise-maker. Fleming and the guards jumped nervously.

Then the demonstrators began chanting, "Free our children, day care now!"

"Frankly, I do not regard this as a priority issue in education," Fleming stonily told the demonstrators who were demanding U-M set up more child care centers.

"But isn't it an educational issue when women with children can't go to school?" a woman protestor asked.

Fleming stared back, a smile on his dry lips. "They made a free choice to have children," he said, beaming as if he had gotten the better of the argument.

But the crowd was infuriated. "What about the abortion laws?" they hooted in derision. "Did you ever try to get an abortion?"

Fleming looked stunned for a minute, then smoothly changed the subject.

In the end, the demonstration of Sept. 20 did not do anything to persuade the U-M hierarchy to provide day care facilities for children so their mothers, or fathers, can attend school.

Last year, after several parents signed petitions and held meetings, Fleming promised that U-M would pay for more child care centers this fall.

But when school opened, there was only one center for the children of U-M students and staff--at the School of Education Bldg. on East University St. And even teachers in that center argued the facility is too small for the 100 children it is supposed to serve.

Meanwhile, as many as 1,000 more children still need a place to stay during school hours.

Fleming, after reneging on his promise, resorted to bald-faced lies at the demonstration to try to cover up. For instance, he claimed that married families living in student housing at North Campus Commons had voted against a day care center.

In fact, 80.5 percent of 270 households questioned in a recent survey indicated they wanted a center.

And the demonstration itself was organized by parents from North Campus Commons.

On hand, too, were several members of the Human Rights Party, including party coordinator Nancy Romer Burghardt and her husband, Steve, HRP's state rep candidate.

The demonstrators were stopped from entering the Administration Bldg. by the security guards. But when they camped outside and appeared to be set on staying, Fleming rode the elevator down from his fourth-floor office and confronted them.

For about 20 minutes he sat nd tried to debate the demonstrators while their children milled restlessly about.

Fleming ignored or evaded several questions, particularly those dealing with sexism at U-M. He ducked a query, for instance, on why U-M still pays women (as a group) 35 percent less than men. And he would not talk about the suit filed by the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare (HEW) charging U-M with sexist hiring and enrollment practices.

Finally, he stood up, after repeatedly rebuffing the request for more child care centers, and admitted that U-M had not included extra child care funds in its budget and did not plan to.

Later the same afternoon Fleming welcomed about 200 students into his home for a special "open-house" party. But he pretended not to see those students who showed up at the party wearing "Free our children" signs.

Imagine this scenario:

A U-M researcher discovers a cheaper paint for cars. Robben Fleming persuades the professor to sell the paint formula. Robben Fleming then offers to buy the formula for Chrysler Motors Corp. When auto workers complain to the UAW that the new paint fumes are dangerous to their health, Robben Fleming makes sure that union stewards tell the workers to keep their mouths shut.

Who is this Robben Fleming?

This is the same Robben Fleming, it turns out, who is president of U-M, a member of the UAW's Public Review Board and a member of Chrysler's Board of Directors.

Fleming has been with U-M and the UAW for some time. But he just joined Chrysler Sept. 30 as one of 19 top directors.

A scenario like the above is not impossible, or even implausible. Nonetheless Fleming contends that he has not placed himself in a conflict of interest.

Some observers disagree. Among them is an assistant state attorney general who told the SUN:

"This is exactly the kind of hand-in-glove relationship that people who are being paid by tax dollars should avoid. I think Dr. Fleming is skating on vey thin ice."

The assistant attorney general, who asked not to be identified pending further investigation in the case, pointed out that Fleming could use his tax-supported job with the university to benefit Chrysler and thus benefit himself.

He also noted that former Michigan State President John Hannah in 1968 was kicked off the board of directors of a Lansing bank that was doing business with MSU.

At Chrysler, Fleming is in a position of helping decide overall policies for the world's third largest automaker. With gross sales of $100 million a year, it is also one of the top 40 corporations in the country.

A recent Congressional probe revealed that Chrysler last year used tax loopholes to avoid paying about three-quarters of what it was supposed to pay in taxes. It paid a tax rate of 13 percent compared, for instance, to an average assembly line worker who pays about 20 percent.

At the UAW, Fleming is on a board that oversees complaints from workers and supervises union elections.

"I don't see any problem," Fleming has told his critics. "I don't even think this is that unusual."

Even if Fleming is on safe legal ground, this open complicity between big business--big labour--and a big university is staggering to many people.

"What ever happened to the concept of free enterprise or the concept of academic freedom?" demanded Sally Holmes, a U-M junior in general studies.

"How can the UAW or the University of Michigan protect people form being exploited when the fox is right in there with the chickens?" she added.

Who are Fleming's fellow members on the board of directors? Among others are executives from Proctor & Gamble, American Express, Pan-Am and the investment manager for the Rockefeller family.

Rather than being in conflict with such company, Fleming apparently is right at home with it.

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COLLAGE/CUT-UP BY GARY GRIMSHAW/RAINBOW GRAPHICS -- MICH. DAILY PHOTO BY DENNY GAINER

TENANTS UNION EVICTED: SGC FALLS FLAT ON FACE

"Re-elect President Nixon" blares a garish sign on an office door in the Student Activities Bldg. (SAB).

Only a few weeks ago a Tenants Union (TU) placard was in the same spot.

"They kicked us out," explained a disgusted Dave Raaflaub, a TU spokesperson. "And they did it without the courtesy of telling us."

One night in mid-September, when only one person from TU was around, a coterie of students picked up TU's records and other belongings and unceremoniously dumped them in another office. The next day the Nixon campaign team set up headquarters in the old TU office.

The eviction order came from the Student Government Council (SGC), which is controlled this year by political moderates and bureaucratic incompetents.

SGC President Bill Jacobs explained that TU previously have been given the "preferential treatment" of two offices and that SGC simply wanted to put it on an equal footing with other student groups like the "Re-elect Nixon" bunch.

But the eviction also had political undertones.

TU is a student group that deals largely with tenant problems like unsafe housing, rent freeze violations or illegal leases. But last year it also entered the arena of student politics by fielding a slate of left-radical candidates for various SGC offices.

In a scandal infested election, TU was defeated and the more moderate GROUP slate led by Jacobs, won a majority.

But this fall the GROUP majority has fallen on hard times. Two of its members, Marty Scott and Mike Davis, are living in Detroit and Cleveland, respectively, and are no longer participating in SGC.

Jacobs, however, has refused to declare their seats vacant because, as he admits, he is afraid a more radical coalition will take over.

Consequently the 13-member SGC can seldom muster a quorum of nine. The TU eviction, for instance, came on a vote among six members.

In addition, one-third of SGC's $78,000 budget is tied up in two controversial projects. One is an allocation of $9,000 for student government elections this year, a price hike of 125% over two years ago. The other is $1 6,000 for a grocery co-op that apparently will not get going at least until next semester.

The situation is reminiscent of last year's SGC which was torn apart by a half-dozen resignations early last fall.

And it is prompting more talk among students to seek a referendum to abolish SGC altogether.

--SUN Editorial Board