Michigan Hiring Plan Hit

Activist women at the University of Michigan have objected to the university's plans to eliminate sex discrimination in the Michigan faculty.

Pressured by the Department of Health, Education and Welfare, the university released a timetable last week that projected an increase in the number of-women on the Michigan teaching staff from the present 411 to 550 by 1973-74.

The release said that no increase in total faculty positions is foreseen. Because there will be no expansion of the Michigan faculty, female faculty membership will increase only as male faculty members leave their teaching posts.

Focus, a women's group at Michigan, objected to the plan because HEW,rather than the university, set the employment goals and no grievance machinery was established.

Harvard's plan to expand the hiring of women and minorities was approved by HEW in February and a "summary statement" of the plan was released March 13.

The Harvard statement did not contain figures on either current hiring practices or specific projections for the number of women or minority group members to be hired in the future.

Ann Michelini, a member of the Graduate Women's Organization, said that women at Harvard are skeptical of Harvard's plans until the actual figures are released.

Michelini, who also serves as a consultant to the Committee on the Status of Women, said that "actual figures will provide a check to insure that the University is living up to its promises" She said that women's groups will continue to pressure Harvard until these figures are released.