Fleming, Called 'liar,' Ends Meeting With Students

The epithet "liar" applied to University President Robben W. Fleming by U-M Student Government Council Executive Vice President Mare Van Der Hout climaxed a confrontation by some 50 activitist students with Fleming yesterday. Van Der Hout had also charged the U-M president with lying at an earlier rally on the bookstore issue on the Diagonal prior to a march' on the Administration Building where Fleming met with the students in the Regents' Room. At the close of yesterday's confrontation in which Fleming assured the students the Board of Regents would take up the bookstore issue at its Oct. 17 meeting, Van Der Hout faced the U-M president and said "why do you lie? What about the students in the LSA Building?" V i s i b 1 y irritated, Fleming said as he left the room, "I don't discuss things with people who accuse me of lying, Mr. Van Der Hout." Asked earlier if "the store is going to be on the agenda" at the next Board of Regents meeting, the U-M president replied, "Yes." He said he didn't know if it would be taken up at the Oct. 16 or Oct. 17 session of the board but that "we will make it known in advance" and students will be permitted to attend. Asked what his personal feelings were on the bookstore, Fleming said, "I have said all along if you can have the kind of protection the regents have asked I am willing to go along with it. "The regents are concerned that it's going to be a viable operation so student money won't go down the drain." He said a $5 assessment may be too small and "the bookstore would cost you more than it is worth." Asked about the "possibility the regents will take up the ROTC issue," Fleming said, "It will probably be scheduled in November." At the sparsely attended rally on the Diagonal, Van Der Hout said "a lot of people before the bookstore issue thought Robben Fleming was a God, but we squashed that lie. We have shown Robben Fleming a liar. "At this stage I suggest we do nothing disruptive. It has been going pretty well and I think the regents will be on their knees." Alan Neff, spokesman for the Bookstorè Coordinating Committee, said "the idea of student control of the bookstorè will not be compromised. The bookstorè should be studentfaculty controlled. The only remaining obstacle in my mind is the regents." Other rally speakers expressed pleasure with the negotiations between the comrnittee and the Faculty Senate Advisory Committee on University Affairs (SACUA). Prof. Joseph N. Payne of the U-M Literary College and School of Education faculties and SACUA chairman tolid the rally progress had been made in meetings between representatives of student groups and faculty over the past 10 days on the bookstore issue. He said a four-hour meeting was held last Friday and another was to be held today. "We see our job as trying to move various proposals that can be supported by students, faculty and regents." He said progress had been made at last Friday's meeting "but much remains to be done." The Radical Caucus is I scheduled to hold a meeting atl 8 p.m. today in the U-M Student I Activities Building to discussl the bookstore issue and thel Vietnam Moratorium.