Student Protest Leader Becomes Wsu President's Boss

I Just months ago, Michael I Einheuser' was a 23-yeaw)ld student protest leader whose 'hand the college president wouldn't shake at a college, dinner. This week, by a vote that made him the youngest member ever of Wayne State University's Bpard of Governors, Einheuser became the president's boss. Suddenly, his ideas for the university are no longer simpíy a matter for controversy. The vote that swept Einheuser and fellow Democrat Mildred Jeffrey to their new board seats Tuesday also gave the Democrats their first real edge (six - to - two) on the board in years. EINHEUSER is counting on the advantage. "I want to make tHe board a policy-making body,' not just a rubber stamp. That's all it's been for the last four years. They ■ (board members) have given1 him (Wayne president George Gullen .Ir.) carte blanche to run the university." Einheuser's idea of the right way to run the university includes having all Board of Governor's meetings 'open to I the public. It was a closed' meeting three years ago, when students were barred f rom a decisión to raise tuition, he says, that convinced him to run for office. It also includes insuring what he calis "due process" for students and teachers. Due process, he says, would pt-eI elude the denial of a profesI sör's tenure for economie I reasons. "The question is: Do you determine tenure on the basis of economics or on individual merit. I think it lías to be on individual merit," he reasons. It includes workin? towards I a tuition-free university as a long-range goal. 1 - The dinner wfncVEinneuser remembers so clearly took place last winter, by which time Einheuser had taken an active part in protests against such university administration policies as increased tuition and tenure. He recalls leaving the room with his date after the dinner ended. There was only one way out. It was past a long reception line in which the college president stood. Einheuser says Gullen shook the hand of each person who came down that line until he carne te Einheuser. Then, says Einheuser. Gullen shook the hand of the perosn ahead of him and the hand of the person behind him, as if Einheuser were not there. RADICAL IS not a word the new governor would apply to himself or any of these ideas. "Radical? What does that mean? I'd rather talk about what I am than put a label on it." The label he arrivés at by himself to describe his character is "people-oriented." It is his "people-oriented" nature, he says, that led hjm to consider being a Catholic priest at one time. "I was using the church as a vehicle to get to people," he now rationalizes. Einheuser says he evenfcually found greater satisïac1 ion in politics, in which he says he lias been a bystander since high school. Last year, he was chosen student council president at Wayne. It is his people-oriented nature that explains his involve ment in the program he now administers fof runaway kids. That program, the Detroit Transit Alternative, is housed in a former funeral parlor on the east side. His office, he rags, is in the enihalming room. He may vet have to start out his term with a fight. Two . years ago, when Èinheuser ran an unsuccessful race for a board seat, some claimed he was ineligible. A 1969 opinión by the attorney general's' office said students could not sit on the governing bodies of 1 their schools. ( Since Einheuser did not win that time, the question was not pursued. If he submits his. senior i chass paper on schedule this I year, Einheuser wïll not be a I student when he takes office in I January. So the question may I still be, moot. But it is cleai I that he is not content te let thé I ruling rest. ,"I think studentí. I .should be on the goveming I board of directors," he ftísists. I ÍHe says he expecs his age I to buy him no special tion. "Hopefully, I'm going to be judged on by performance, ; not my age." _____