focus Let the sun shine on the Board of p Governors The Board of Governors has overstepped its authority by a margin too far for the Daily Campus to tolerate. . BOG members not only openly violated the executive session clause of the state Freedom of Information Act Tuesday night, but they also paraded their dubious role as a cohesive University organization in front of the students. By excluding a Daily Campus reporter from a meeting where an answer to student-Trustee Robert Wiggins‘ minority group financing criticism was to be drafted, BOG members have also tabled their accountability to students. Wiggins’ accusations make a _justifiable point. With a 100 per cent student BOG fee increase this year, the minority student committee only received a 15 per cent augmentation in their allotment. Ideally, a student's race, or ethnicity should not exclude him from any BOG activity; however, the cultural tastes of minority and white students differ. Minority students should see a similar increase on the BOG Inter-Cultural Committee budget as on their fee bills. The Daily Campus has decided to seek a hearing with the state Freedom of Informa- tion Commission challenging BOG’s right to call an executive session. An examination of the sunshine law’s executive session clause illustrates our point. The 1975 act specifies that a public agency can only call an executive session to discuss personnel matters, court action strategy, public security including police investiga- tions. privileged information between a lawyer and client, land or lease acquisition . the financial situation of commercial license applicants. trade secrets, test questions, police information identities. collective bari- gaining strategy, or juvenile police records.~ Obviously, a reply to Wiggins’ criticisms is not covered by any of these conditions. Obviously, the BOG was unsure of the contents of its reply to Wiggins. Obviously, the students’ right to know and the Daily Campus’ right to print were completely shelved by BOG. We do not question BOG’s right to‘ debate a reply to Wiggins. It is quite possible that the minority financing imbalance was a pure oversight. We do question Bog’s methods in reaching a reply to Wiggins, which is not yet public information one and a half days after their meeting. If the BOG executive session remained unchallenged, a dangerous precedent could be set at UConn. Any student organization could assume that its responsibilities were solely to its members, and not to all UConn students. ' Any organization could exclude the Daily Campus from its meetings and thus the students’ right to know. UConn could theoretically become a community of public groups operating behind closed doors. The Daily Campus, WHUS and other campus media would respect any executive ' session that complied with the Freedom of Information Act. But we will not stand for this blatant violation. In a matter of weeks, the Freedom of Information Commission will agree with our premises. Speakeasy Support Mansfield Tutorial To the Editor: My purpose for writing this letter is to inform the University community of an important and worthwhile volunteer program of- fered here at UConn. This pro- gram is Mansfield Tutorial. a program for mentally retarded children and adults at Mansfield Training School. Mental retardation as defined by one professional organization refers to “subaverage intellectual functioning which originates dur- ing the developmental period and is associated with impairments in adaptive behaviour." Basically. this means the men- tally retarded person is not able to function at the level of most of the people in society. If the rctardate is lucky, he or she willreceivc the love and encouragement needed from his or her family. and will be educated to the full extent of his or her capabilities. Eventually the rctardate may hold an unskilled or semi-skilled job and experience a feeling of self pride in being a contributing element to society. Many. however. are not so fortu- nate. For those mentally retard eo individuals who are residents at an institution such as Mansfield Mark A. Dupuis Managing Editor Cllnnnrrtirut lflailg Glamriua Serving Storrs Since I896 Susan A. Okula Editor-In-Chief Tony Cronin Steven D. Hull Senior Editors John) _‘_ ‘H . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. John J. Kwolek .................... .. Mark Gould .......................... .. Marla Romash ...................... .. Kathe Rogers ...................... .. James Schembari .................. .. E||en Gray . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. Richard Dept-eta ................... .. Darryl Campagna . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Buz shaman ...................... .. ........................ .. News Editor ........................ .. News Editor ....................... .. Sports Editor .......... -~ Assistant Sports Editor .................. . . Magazine Editor Subscription rates: $10 per year. second-class postage paid at Storrs. Ct. 06268. Published Monday through Friday during the regular school year. except during Thanksgiving. Christmas and spring breaks. and two weeks- tietore the end at each semester. Accepted for national advertising by the National Advertising service; Subscriber; United Press international Return noimcaoon oi unclaimed deliveries to Connecticut oaiiy Campus. 121 North Eagievme Road. Bo:i'U-8. University of Connecticut. Storrs, Ct. 06268. Training School. there is no way each resident can be provided with the individual attention he or she needs and deserves. Mansfield Tutorial is an at- tempt to provide these individuals with the opportunity to have a special friend from UConn - someone who can give them individual attention they need and deserve so badly. We need tutors. We don't require previous experience. All we ask is that you have an interest and a desire to give a couple of hours ofyour time a week to come to the Training School to be with these individuals and share in a very special experience. Mansfield Tutorial is held on Thursday evenings. Buses leave UConn at 6:30 p.m. and return at 8:30 p.m. Our orientation pro- gram is Thursday. September 23 at 7:00 p.m. in HRM I43. Bear in mind that the mentally retarded are still hampered by a society which is largely ignorant to them and their unique problems. Join Mansfield Tutorial - Join the fight for the mentally retarded . Ellen Robbins Windham Hall Staff member for Mansfield Tutorial Robert S. Kravchuk Business Manager ....................... .. Sports Editor ................... ..Features Editors .................... ..Features Editor Assistant News Editor ..... .- Assistant Features Editor x \ J K ‘M s.- . By MARY McCRORY WASHINGTON After you've read the paper some days, you matter for fear of an untimely demise of their own political ' careers. ask yourself why we need a State For some reason or other. the Department Lockheed. Lockheed does not set out to make foreign policy; it's just trying to make sales. But it is a very large animal and, like a St. Bernard turning around in a small room. it tends to knock over delicate objects like foreign gov- ernments. Take Holland for example. The 400-year-old House of Orange is reeling under the impact of disclosures about Lockheed’s dealings with the Queen's con- sort. Prince Bernhard. In the careful language of an official report, His Highness was “open to dishonorable requests and offers from Lockheed." The Dutch people were shocked and furious. Only the Queen's threat to abdicate if criminal charges are pressed contains their rage. In Italy. a parliamentary in- quirey has opened to determine which Italian officials partook of Lockheed's largesse. It is an exercise little needed by the notably shaky Christian Demo- cratic government and much sav- ored by the Communists. when we have Lockheed has brought tl'£great- est‘ upheaval since World War II to Japan. Former Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka. currently out on bail. faces bribery charges. being accused of having shared liberally in the $25 million spread through official Japan by Lockheed in its zeal to get a contract. His successor. Takep ‘Miki. is faced with a revolt in the Diet. many of whose members are opposed to his militant investigation of the question of corporations barging n to Henry Kisssinger's territory is not one being discussed iln the campaign.. Neither Gerald Ford nor Jimmy Carter seems espec- ially concerned. The “everybody-does-it” argu- ment is made by friends of Big Business on Capitol Hill. An outright ban on foreign bribes would be “unenforceable." ac- cording to Commerce Secretary Elliot Richardson. Young Jeremy Rifkin. who led zhe People's Bicentennial Com- nission. tried to rouse the pop- ilace against the corporations as the tirants. of our age, but there was little response. But the mounting evidence that they are the dominant force in American life may account for the apathy of voters, who are expected to stay away from the polls in unprece- dented numbers this year -- many because they feel like pygmies ‘confronted with giants who pol- lute their rivers and their rela- tions abroad while big govern- ment winks or looks the other way. ‘ Sen. Frank Church of Idaho continues doggedly with his in- quiry into the multi-national cor- porations’ questionable activities. He turned up one allegation that shocked no one -- a former Grumman official said he had been solicited for a $1 million campaign contribution by a Nixon White House aide in return for some high-level help on a plane contract for Japan. _ What was far more interesting was the story of Grumman and the Shah of Iran. Anxious to “”‘.??.‘:.’‘i.‘‘' wt; ‘ow. Loeheendslashing peddle the F14 plane, Grumman started out in Moscow, where one of its agents importuned the U.S. military attache to talk up the F14 to the Iranian military attache. It was fairly easy to wet the «appetite of the Shah. who is perhaps the world's No. 1 arms junkie. In due course, the Shah put in his order for 80 of the planes. Church's point'about the ep- isode was that Grumman had put on‘ so much pressure that by the time the administration got around to looking at the request, the decision had already been made. In these cases, theoretically. at least -- arms are sold by the United States like popcorn -- criteria have been applied. One of themlis "threat assessment.” With the Shah, whose Friendship Richard Nixon says is a pearl beyond price, the “threat assess- ment" is that he will be angry with us if we do not provide him with the military gadgets he craves. Church contends that the Shah cannot afford them and that the United States may pay for - them in increased gas prices. The term Church once applied to the CIA.“rouge elephant." seems increasingly to fit thegiant corporation. The giant corpor- ation uses baek channels, has unlimited funds and the “any- thing goes" mentality that marked the agency that brought the country into its worst dis- repute until the Lockheed revela- tions began to compete. Maybe they mean no harm. It would be nice if someone in a position to do so would suggest putting a leash on ‘them as they crash about the world buying foreign officials and drumming up arms sales. 1lh’Vt‘l ».- -i-.»—«-.........\-...=-cuaaavin mu-si mu... . .-.......,.,. . ...,,....m... .....,......,... . .. ...~ New . ..... ....._..,...........-.-.....-« rm».