A5P- ~r~ Financial stress: A way of llfe since 1855 Where will we get the money? Through the years that question has probably been voiced more frequently than any other around the nation's campuses. Repeatedly it has been posed amid great perplexity by the trustees, preSidents and other top administrators ofMSU during its 117 years. A review of the University's historical documents can only lead to the conclusion that being short of funds for educational necessities has virtually beeen a way oflife from the day MSU came into being. First in a series of three stories. MSU VERTICAL FILE Born in adversity, what was then The Agricultural College of the State of Michigan almost immediately began moving from one financial crisis to another. The darkest days came in 1863 during the Civil War when it appeared that no funds were to come from the State Legislature. It was rumored that the college would almost certainly close, and most of the 60 students prepared to finish their higher education elsewhere. But somehow the institution survived and "COntinued its slow growth. More affluent years came later, qut the periods of fre~dom from money worries we re scattered and brief: Evidence that financial woes are still lingering is contained in a headline ("MSU StiII Under Financial Stress") in the March 1972 issue of the MSU Alumni Newsletter over a column written by Presiden.t Wharton. In describing some of MSU's programs, Wharton noted the difficulties arising from a shortage of resources brought about because for the second straight year significant portions of the University appropriations were to be returned to the state treasury. DEPENDENT TO A LARGE part on one source of revenue for operational and capital expenditures - the State Legislature - MSU has always been subjected to the uncertainties of tax resources, competition from other agencies for state funds, and the good humor of the lawmakers. Although MSU on the average has fared about as well as similar institutions in other states, and sometimes better, there has probably never beef! a year when as much money was appropriated as was thought necessary for all vaJid purposes. Financially speaking, .MSU ' s beginning in 1855 was not an auspicious one. It rec~ived a largess of $56,320 from the sale of salt spring and swamp lands that had been previously granted by the State Legislature. That was all that was available to clear the forest site east of La!lsing, build the first building to be called College HaJl, (Continued on page 4) MSU News -Bulletin Vol. 3, No. 24 Michigan State University April 13,1972 R£C£'\I£o APR 177972 RfF£.R(/\c..... ICJlIGft,tv SI/i n: 'UN:' ','" LiLll/-\r, · .. :..r "7 r-r. ,~. "- -. 1 Two faculty organizations are in a race to get 30 percent for bargaining petition , It isnow, apparently, a race for first. Two organizations say they are close to receiving enough signatures from faculty authorizing a collective bargaining unit to call for a unionization election. But the number of signatures required (30 percent of a defined unit) varies with the their two organizations, because defined units vary. The MSU chapter of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) claims to be about 60 signatures short of its goal of 30 percent of a unit that includes all persons who teach or do research 50 percent or more of their time, including all full, and part, time facul ty, extension personnel, librarians, and counselors; also including faculty and researchers in the three medical colleges, and all department chairmen and directors of institutes and similar units. The MSU Faculty Associates, an affiliate of the Michigan Education Association (MEA), claims to be about 50 signatures short of its goal of 30 percent of a unit which includes all full ' time teaching and research faculty from professor through specialist, and all in those ranks who are half, time for three or more consecutive terms; plus nonacademic staff at nonsupervisory including librarians, levels , nonsupervisory directors of academic programs, artist in residence, counselors and academic advisers. The MEA's proposed unit would exclude cooperative extension personnel who do not hold academic rank ' in an Inside. · .. Sigma Xi winner, page 2 · .. Campus briefs, page 3 · .. Honors College, page 4 · .. Personnel's job, page 6 academic unit ; graduate assistants; re search associates and postdoctoral feliows; divisional librarians ; head coaches; visiting, professors ; adjunct faculty; clinical adjunct faculty; career military faculty; assistant, associate and department chairmen; directors of administrative units and deans; confidential employes; administrative, professional staff; and other executive and supervisory employes. The MEA's proposed unit was tentatively agreed upon by representatives of the central admini-stration and the Michigan Employment Relations CoIIlmis$ion (MERC) last month. At that time the AAUP had only enough signatures (about 10 percent) to qualify as an intervenor in any election. But if the AAUP should obtain enough signatures, the question of unit definition would again have to go into hearing stages first informally, and then, if agreement - is not reached, into formal hearings. If both groups ; receive '30 percent , signatures of their own defined units, it would become a matter of two contesting petitions being presented to MERC, and the unit would have to be defined before validity of the "30 percent" could be determined. At any rate, if either group should get 30 percent of whatever unit is determined, it appears that there will be at least three choices on a unionization ballot - AAUP, MEA and no unit. Position on the ballot is drawn by lot, and (Continued on page 4) Chorus and orchestra to perform Soloists soprano Suzanne Wernette, mezzo ' soprano Cora Enman, tenor Truby Oayton and bass ' baritone Lee E. Snook rehearse under conductor Gomer U. Jones, professor of music, for the Mozart "Mass in C Minor" scheduled for 8:15 PJl1. Sunday (April 16), in the Auditorium. The concert by the MSU Chorus and Orchestra of more than 300 is open to the public withont charge. ~ . Il.~ .. . 2t Page 2, MSU News-Bulletin, April 13, 1912 Sigma Xi research 'award to Purchase A scientist who helped develop the first vaccine that controls a form of cancer has won the University's 1972 Junior Sigma Xi Award for Meritorious Research. Harvey Graham Purchase received his award last week in recognition of his comprehensive study of a form of luekemia known as Marek's disease - a cancer of chickens. Purchase also recently won the Arthur S. Fleming Award as one of 10 outstanding men and women in the U.S. government during 1971. Purchase is an assistant professor of microbiology and public heahh, and a veterinary medical officer for the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Regional Poultry Research Laboratory on the campus. His research has led to a .safe and effective vaccine to control the disease that has been costing U.S. poultrymen more than $200 million a year, and it has sparked new efforts in the study of human cancer. Science notes China: The emphasis is on applied research China favors research that has applications in sight rather than pure research with applications distant and hidden. This was the observation of Chen Ning Yang who visited with physicists on the campus last week. The Nobel Laureate (physics, 1957) spent four weeks in China previous to President Nixon's visit. "1 think I' enjoyed an advantage, compared with many recent visitors of China," he said, "since these are people I .knew intimately before .qett China." Yang lived the first 23 years of his life in China. "China today, und.ou,. bt edly in a very thorough way, is giving, niote emphasis to l J '1,"- practical research tha~\pu re researc;/l," he said. ''Many of the re¥arch effort~ i~ the Institute of Physiolb',gy have been redirected," Yang said. "They ~~ I ,more intim ately amalgarRated with the problems of Chinese society . .. (and) many of these problems beb0111e related to medical research . "Purely theoretical work is not completely stopped, but there is flo doubt that preference is given to those aspects of science which are more relate'd to Chinese society." i "'01 " ... ' :' I' . . The general Chinese attitude toward science, he said, is that it is good for mankind, and should be fostered. ONE CONTRADICTION the Chinese recognize about their society is that, contrary to their spirit of egalitarianism, a specialism fosters a kind of elitism. "There are sophisticated sciences that require early training of brilliant young people," Yang said, "and China is afraid that if it trains a tremendous number of these people without simultaneously injecting into them the idea of the prevailing Chinese social value judgments, there indeed will be an elite class." He noted that China regards the suppression of leaders as "the most important effort at this moment. But, of course, we also know that China is busily trying to make computers and 'busily developing all kinds of industries which are very sophisticated. So China must feel the pressure, of the need, of highly trained sophisticated people to a large extent. How this contradiction will be resolved ... we will have to see." DURING A VIST with Premier Chou En - Lait, Yang was asked questions also common in America: * "How does a professor choose his own research work?" * "How much does a professor earn?" * "What is the situation of the blacks?" The Nobel Laureate said that the Chinese are very well informed about America, and that the Premier's questions were more for verificalion than for information. One paper printed in China, with a circulation of five million, carries only foreign news. Yang saw in one a column by William auckley, and jtems carried from UPI and AP. He said that the drastic changes in Chinese society may be due to imposition of moral ideas upon the mental fabric of the various ittdividuals. "Individual behavior is an interaction between the individual's history and that of the society around him," Yang said. "If the society imposes a value judgment which is more in line with selflessness, then the individual behavior would sllift in - PHILLIP E. MILLER that direction." ; - - -. \. Nobell.aureate C. N. Yang! and MSU's K. Wendell Olen. According to the Sigma Xi awards committee, Purchase's research is a major scientific breakthrough because it represents the first time any vaccine has been found effective against a naturally occurring cancer. "Medical research scie ntists consider this development extremely important in current cancer re se ar ch, " a committee spokesman noted. ''The research done by Purchase and his colleagues provides a model for counterparts in human disease," said Philipp Gerhardt, chairman · of microbiology and public health. "His work is so important that the National Cancer Institute has set up field stations in East Africa so that investigators from the U.S. and abroad can determine how Purchase's findings apply to the causes and prevention of Burkitt's lymphoma, a comparable form of cancer in man." Born in Livingstone, Northern Rhodesia, Purchase attended primary schools in Kenya' and England and secondary school at Prince of 'Vales School, Nairobi. He received his B.S. degree from the University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa, and in 1959 graduated cum laude from the University of Pretoria, Onderstepoort, with a B.V.Sc. degree in veterinary science. In 1961 he named a member of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons. Purchase came to the U.S. in 1961 and joined the staff at the Poultry Re se ar ch Laboratory as a research veterinarian. He received an M.S. degree in 1965 and a Ph.D. degree in 1970 in microbiology and public heahh at MSU. Hum{ln ecology symposl~um to explore ' consumer concerns The College of Human Ecology will mark its 75 th anniverS'ary with an alumni convocation and nationwide "Consumer Symposium" April 20 - 22. The sy mposium, '