Michigan Daily May Go on Strike To Protest Administration Control

The Michigan Daily, student newspaper of the University of Michigan, may suspend publication to protest what it calls administration attempts to control the paper.

Last Monday, the faculty and administration-dominated Board of Student Publications vetoed the appointment of Roger Rapaport as editor-in-chief of the Daily. Rapaport has been a frequent critic of the Michigan administration in recent months. Only the three students and one of the faculty members on the 12-member board voted to approve Rapaport's appointment.

The rejection of Rapaport, who was nominated by the outgoing editors of the Daily, was unprecedented. Though the Publications Board has legal control over all Michigan student publications, it has never before attempted to interfere with the Daily.

Rapaport first aroused the enmity of the university administration in October, 1966, when he published an article exposing a conflict of interest on the part of Eugene B. Power, a large benefactor of the university who was then serving on its Board of Regents.

Taking Slaps

During the late fall and winter of 1966, relations between the paper and the university steadily worsened. "We took some slaps at the university establishment and now that establishment is getting back at us," Daily staff member Steve Wildstrom remarked yesterday.

Luke Cooperrider, a professor of Law and a faculty member of the board yesterday denied that the action represented an administration attempt to curb the Daily.

"Certain board members merely had individual convictions that Mr. Rapaport was not acceptable as an editor-in-chief," he said.

Using telegrams from prominent Daily alumni and the editorial support of the Detroit Free Press, the Daily's staff is mounting an intense campaign to influence the board to reverse its decision when it meets tonight.