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Seventy-Seven Years of Editorial Freedom
EDITED AND MANAGED BY STUDENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
UNDER AUTHORITY OF BOARD IN CONTROL OF STUDENT PUBLICATIONS
"" k THE VIEW FROM HERE.. .
Opening the Closed Society
BY ROBERT KLIVANS
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Where Opinions Are Free, 420 MAYNARD ST., ANN ARBOR, MICH.
Truth Will Prevail
NEWS PHONE: 764-0552
Editorials printed in The Michigan Daily express the individual opinions of staff writers
or the editors. This must he noted in all reprints.
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 1968
NIGHT EDITOR: PAT O'DONOHUE
-.-m-j
As the. Khe San
Goes Rolling Along
THE LATEST and most unlikely victim following McCarthy's fortunes in New
of the Viet Cong winter-spring offen- Hampshire with less- than-bated breath,
sive is Melvin Dubin, the independent flirting with third party tickets in a num-
anti-war candidate in a Brooklyn special ber of states, and dismissing the new
congressional election who lost Tuesday fireworks in Southeast Asia with an "eh-
to the Democraic machine candidate. more of the same" shrug of the shoulders.
For if the savage first wave against No, where the President lost most of
the cities of South Vietnam - with the his support was among the hawks, who
threat of a second Dienbienphu looming through some perversion of logic saw
large out of the carnage - angered any our military embarrassment as a vin-
political group in this country it was the dication of their long-standing argu-
hawks. Dubin's defeat at the hands of ments to mine Haiphong harbor and
Bertram Podell, who supports the ad- bomb the hell out of what remains of
ministration's execution of the war with the North. If only the United States had
only mild reservations, is merely the last taken a firm stance three years ago, their
in a long string of events showing how reasoning seemed to go, none of this
annoyed the hawks are. would have happened.
Starting with the first incident, page
one, - there was Paul Harvey; yes, Paul Amid this hodgepodge of political mo-
Harvey. Using the same verbal vanishing tives came the Brooklyn by-election.
act upon which hid peculiar combination Dubin, the Reform Democratic peace,
.and backwoods 100 per cent candidate, is a millionaire industrialist
of migoismadretekwords,Hrvent who lost the 1966 Democratic primary
Americanism has rested for years, Harvey by 51 votes in a district where - like Ala-
performed an abrupt about-face and, in-b
explicably, came out against the war. No bama or Mississippi used to be - win-
reasons - fitting in perfectly with the ning the nomination is tantamount to
Harvey genre - no explanation, even. winning the election (68 per cent Jewish,
Only a violent outcry of dissatisfaction. 22 per cent Italian, 5 per cent Irish, 2
per cent Negro and Puerto Rican, apart-
ment complexes, small homes and stores.)
FOLLOW it up was all the wispy The night before the election, his chances
talk about nuclear weapons. While looked excellent.
the President and the cabinet seemed
hurt that it would be even suspected that By the next night it was all over and
they could even think of using tactical Podell, the machine Democrat, had de-
nuclear weapons at Khe Sanh, while they feated Dubin 4-3. Dubin lost not because
denied it vociferously, the singals were the doves failed to support him but be-
quite clear. cause the hawks, outraged over the ap-
Juist as a month and a half earlier parent defeat in the cities of Vietnam,
turned outmintfulldforceltoebeatehim bak
the administration had "floated" rumors turned out in full force to beat him back.
that hot pursuit of enemy guerillas into They gained little. Far from sharing
Cambodia was under consideration mere- their hard-line convictions, Podell is at
ly by denying that such a move was best a moderate supporter of the Presi-
possible, so now it seemed evident that dent who has called for an experimental
President Johnson was exercising his 30 day bombing halt and who told one,
psychology of public and press over tact- audience during the campaign that he
ical, low-yield atomic weapons. would "rather lose face in Vietnam and
Read: the United States can't afford save a few lives." At best, the hawks had
another setback at Khe Sanh like the brooded a duck.
one it suffered in the cities, and, if
forced, would even use nuclear weaponry AND DESPITE the obvious irony, Presi-
to prevent It. What President Johnson dent Johnson garnered little from
didn't make explicit, Republican candi- Dubin's defeat, either. Certainly in the
date Nixon blurted quite bluntly: "but midst of defeat on the battlefront, a
if waves of Chinese poured into Khe Johnson protege had smashed a political
Sanh ..." opponent at home. But the victory was
And if it wasn't established what all clearly pyrrhic. For the lesson of the Du-
this mean't by now, the most recent bin loss did not put a damper on the as-
Gallup poll made it brutally plain. Pres- pirations of other potential peace can-
ident John's popularity dropped more didates. Far from it. All the warning the
during one month than it ever had be- Dubin affair gave the anti-war forces was
fore - from 48 per cent to 41 per' cent. to time their election dates better around
But where Johnson lost support was not events in the field.
among the doves of academia, who were -URBANLEHNER
EVERYBODY complains about secrecy
at the University but nobody ever
does anything about it.
The Faculty Assembly rushes to dis-
band its meeting rather than have stu-
dent speakers listen to the debate. A
high-ranking faculty committee inves-
tigating campus communications media
attempts to hold closed meetings, only
to face a walk-out by enraged student
p a r t i c i p a n t s. The faculty-appointed
group which studies classified research
conducts its investigation behind closed
doors, no doubt expecting the University
community to accept with open arms its
benign decision.
All these are symptoms of an ailment
that shows few signs of improving. Doors
are slamming on meetings all over cam-
pus, maintaining a shroud which covers
much faculty activity.
While student leaders have aimed
much of their attack on secrecy in gov-
ernment research, the break-up of Mon-
day's faculty meeting emphasizes the
equally unpleasant secrecy that exists in
the most important bodies of supposed-
ly free and open debate at the University.
Yet attempts to open at least the large
faculty gatherings have proven unsuc-
cessful, and students face little prospect
of acquiring the right to observe the
faculty meetings.
WHY ISTHERE such intransigence by
the faculty, particularly over an obstacle
which can be easily circumvented by the
press? Meetings of the Faculty Senate
and Assembly receive coverage by The
Daily - both through the formal, offi-
cial versions of faculty spokesmen and
through private comments by faculty
sources. The closed doors don't really ac-
complish even a selective censorship;
they merely insult students who are gen-
uinely concerned about how the Uni-
versity faculty interprets and debates a
problem.
The only possible excuse for closed
meetings is self-defense: professors fear
disruptions by demonstrators and ob-
streperous student spectators. Perhaps
such a disturbance would arise - in an
open society this is one of the liabilities-
but there are laws of the University com-
munity under which a rowdy audience
could be punished. And, as is often the
case, once faculty meetings were opened
there would probably be little interest in
attendance outside the press. (After all,
the Presidential Commission on Decision-
Making has been conducting open meet-
ings for over a year, and hardly any-
one knows or cares).
Since the logic is on the side of open
meetings, what is preventing the faculty
from accepting a change? It is usually
argued that the faculty is "conserva-
tive" on matters of vested interest -
and a shift to open meetings would erode
faculty authority. "The same people who
oppose student involvement in decision-
making are fighting to keep meetings
closed," explains one faculty member.
Yet the issues of decision-making and
secrecy are actually discreet, though
their supporters and critics are usually
the same. What secrecy does, in fact, is
irritate the channels of student-faculty
relations and undermine needed co-oper-
ation. How are students to respect fac-
ulty decisions when they are reached be-
hind closed doors and then released to
the press? How do faculty members who
view students as "second-class partici-
pants" in the academic community ex-
pect this group to grow and learn if de-
prived of even viewing faculty debate?
THE PRESIDENTIAL Commission's
report will be released very shortly, and
it will structurally enlarge the student's
role in the University and involve stu-
dents more closely in previously purely
faculty domains. But, as the faculty's
behavior at Monday's short-lived meet-
ing indicates, the President's Report will
probably be a few years ahead of the
faculty mentality. And, as student ac-
tivists are so inclined to do, there will
be earnest attempts to span that gap be-
fore the year is out. If faculty members
fear demonstrations in open meetings,
they should beware the possibility of
more fiascos like Monday.
It ishnot a threat, but rather a fore-
cast that unless the faculty begins a
serious re-evaluation of its closed meet-
ings policy, they could become the scene
-rather than a prevention-of disrup-
tion.
Before the faculty tackles another im-
portant issue of campus-wide interest,
it should open its doors and clear the
air. Any less will only maintain a system
which alienates students and belies the
concept of a community of scholars.
4
Letters: Secret Research Discredits 'U'
*
To the Editor:
THOSE OF US who strained
hard, for strategic reasons, to
"keep our cool" during the LSA
faculty debate on classified re-
search were bound to be disap-
pointed. We were left without even
the satisfaction of having con-
fronted the Senate Assembly Com-
mittee and the sponsors of the
compromise resolution with the
implications of the University
staff's tragic involvement in the
evolution of a military society.
No one at the meeting was will-
ing totdeclare publicly that per-
haps the "national interest"~ was
actually being subverted by both
militarism and secrecy, and that a
protest vote in the nature of dis-
affiliation of major universities
from government research was an
appropriate response to the threats
to sanity and survivial posed by
present foreign policy. Most speak-
ers were, on the contrary, eager
to present their military creden-
tials and to disclaim that interest
in opposing classified research had
anything to do with the war in
Vietnam.
No one attending the meeting
reacted publicly to Professor El-
derfield's revelations regarding the
numbers of Ph.D. dissertations
based on classified research, the
numbers of teachers attracted be-
cause of their interest in classified
projects, etc. He was left with the
impression that this enumeration
was accepted as a reinforcement
for the support of classified re-
search.
For some of us, however, the
entire presentation, especially re-
marks regarding the financial
benefits to the city of Ann Arbor
that resulted from the two billion
dollar Bomarc project, sounded
like the Report from Iron Moun-
tain.
It seems to me on the basis of
the issues discussed and the as-
sumptions made at the meeting
that a liberal arts education at the
University is in many respects a
fraud. The University has be-
come a tool for the channeling of
young people into military and
business careers which serve the
short-term interests of certain
elites. That there are in existence
some students and some faculty
who reject orrresist these pressures
(these "opportunities") is a com-
pliment to themselves but hardly
a tribute to the University.
-Carol Andreas,
Lecturer in Sociology
This Man's Army
To the Editor:
I CAN SEE it all now:
"Well, soldier, I've called you
in here because I like to get to
know all my new recruits before
we start basic. It says here that
you just graduated with a B.S. in
physics. Hmm-good field, soldier,
good field. We can always use a
few new H-bombs. But, my ques-
tion is, what do you know that can
help this man's Army right now?"
"Well, Sir, I'm pretty good with
partial differential equations-you
should have seen the way I
handled the Schroedinger wave
equation on my 457 final."
"Yea, yea-but can you drive a
truck?"
"No, Sir, but I'm willing to
learn."
"Where'd you go to school, sol-
dier?"
"The University of Michigan, Sir.
I was planning to, do graduate
work there."
"Why me? Why me? That place
is crawling with beards and Com-
mies. You ain't one of those draft
card burners, are you?"
"No, Sir-I never really had the
courage."
"That's what I like about this
set-up; they expect me to win a
war, and then they stick me with a
bunch of cowards-worse yet, ed-
ucated cowards. What this country
needs is more dopes-dopes that
know where they're going. Then
maybe we'd see an end to all these
marches and protests. It's just ter-
riblie, soldier, terrible-sometimes
I'm ashamed to call myself an
American."
"I'm sorry, Sir."
"Forget it, soldier. You know,
you young people seem to feel that,
the Army is noplace for thought,
that orders are to be followed
blindly, without reflection. That's
just not true-not true at all. Let
me ask you a question soldier-do
you know why we're in Vietnam?"
"No, I don't."
"NO I DON'T SIR!
"I mean, no I don't, Sir."
"That's better. We'll make Army
material out of you yet. Now,
where were we? Oh yea, can you
drive a truck?"
-Dennis Fried, '68
Greek Spirit
To the Editor:
seeing the letter of my friend
John S. Asvestas, entitled
"Dance to Freedom's Death," in
your Saturday, February 3rd is-
sue, I would like to comment on
his charges against the Hellenic
Student Society for our participa-
tion in this year's World's Fair.
By participating in this yearly
event, I cannot see;how we repre-
sented the present military re-
gime of Greece. People and stu-
dents, in particular, do not neces-
sarily represent their Govern-
ments. It could be the other way
around. What we actually repre-
sented was the Greek Spirit which
is dependent of temporal dicta-
torships and of which we are very
proud.
The Hellenic Student Society is
not a political organization, but
even if it were, I don't understand
whythemGreek students should
be ashamed of a regime which
neither they nor their relatives
and friends in Greece ever voted
for, and which was imposed on
us with a lot of help from exter-
nal sources and the blessings of
our monarchy.
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Letting the Students Decide
AS FOR the accusations against
the present military regime, if my
friend had written his letter dur-
ing the first couple of months
following the coup, I could whole-
heartedly have endorsed it. But
now after the events culminating
in the expulsion of the Greek
monarchy, I would like to give the
colonels more chance to prove
themselves before I condemn
them. Although they stumbled
many times at the outset, no one
can deny the fact that they have
gained control of the situation,
outsmarting everybody, even the
powerful CIA. And no one can
claim to know what. their ulti-
mate goal is until they have es-
tablished themselves securely in
the government. The recent purg-
ing of the top generals still loyal
to the king on the one hand, and
last week's lifting of most of the
censorship of the press, on the
other, show the difficulty of pre-
dicting their intentions. To me
their greatest accomplishment so
far has been the expulsion of the
monarchy. The major obstacle to
a true democracy in Greece has
been the tremendous powers of
the, king, granted to him by the
WAY ToTIE FRONT?"
constitution. The only way out,
since the king nad control of the
army, was a revolution by the
army, and that is precisely what
happened.
EVERY revolution has its mis-
takes and costs, of ,course, but if
in the long run the present gover-
nors of Greece succeed in abolish-
ing the monarchy, the major
cancer of our political life, then
they will have my, and I suspect
most of the other Greeks', grati-
tude forever.
-Noimon Fountoidikis '68
Less Leniency
To the Editor:
EVEN IF students and student
leaders were as competent or
experienced in the running of a
great university as is a profes-
sional administration, it is ob-
vious that they still could not at-
tain as desirable results. Students
are on the scene for only a rela-
tively short period and conse-
quently lack that which intelli-
gent admiinstrators possess: an
overall direction, and a sense of
allegiance to future students, par-
ents, and taxpayers. Students lack
the continuity to effectively di-
rect a university. There are al-
ready many examples of disor-
iented and undirected programs
initiated by students who shortly
depart from campus, leaving the
administration to untangle the re-
mains. For several years I have
noted with dismay a permissive
attitude toward student authority
and a lack of concern for the long
run effects on the educational
value of this institution.
Of course reasonable student
participation in planning and ad-
ministration is extremely valu-
able both for the university and
the participating student. This
does not mean, however, that the
general educational and adminis-
trative functions should be dis-
rupted at the whims of self-
righteous social misfits. (By mis-
fits I don't necessarily refer to
hair monsters and the like, but
rather to those who obstruct the
rights of others in an effort to
overcome their own alienation.)
The events at the faculty assem-
bly last night forcefully demon-
strate the deplorable extent to
which permissive over-indulgence
of so-called student power has ob-
scured the purposes of the Uni-
versity. It seems unbelievable that
students would be allowed to bla-,
tantly obstruct the running of the
University. The scheduling of a
topic of student concern certain-
ly does not give the students a
right to illegally interfere with a
faculty meeting, especially when
eight students were already pres-
ent by invitation.
PERHAPS it is time that the
U.iversity became less lenient to-
wards those who unhesitatingly
disrupt and interfere with the ad-
ministrative process and the
rights of others. Those students
who refused to leave the faculty
assembly last night have indicat-
ed their disdain for due process
and the University in general. As
such they should, at the very
least, be denied the privilege of
continuing their education at inis
institution.
-R: S. Rumsey, Grad.
OPINION
The Daily has begun accept-
ing articles from faculty, ad-
ministration, and students on
,qubjects of their choice. They
are to be 600-900 words in
length and should be submitted
to the Editorial Director.
4
3E REPRESENTATIVE Assembly which
.the Residential College initiated Tues-
day evening is a significant first step
toward educational reform. It may even-
tually lead to the integration of students
into the decision-making apparatus of
other University schools and colleges.
As an experiment in student decision-
making, the Representative Assembly
fits well with Dean Robertson's concept
of the Residential College as a testing
ground for educational innovation.
Students should participate in decision-
making not only for democratic reasons
but also for the educational experience
involved. By implementing this philoso-
phy, the Residential College has per-
formed an important service for the aca-
demic community.
UNLIKE THE Steering Committee of the
literary college, the Representative
Assembly has the power formerly held by
the Residential Collge administration to
determine all the policies of the college.
The eight undergraduates, seven fac-
ulty and administrators, and two resident
fellows who compose the Assembly will
hire and fire faculty, draw up the cur-
riculum. make plans for remodeling and
future growth of the college, and decide
which professors will be granted tenure
in the college.
With the Student Government Council
beginning to push for academic . reform
and with the fledgling efforts under-
taken at schools like Yale-where stu-
dents sit on tenure committees - it is
obvious that the Residential College is
in the vanguard of what promises to be
a large movement for educational reform.
Such a movement has the potential not
only to change policy-making, but also to
play a key role in formulating new ideas
on the purpose and goals of higher edu-
cation.
The program unveiled at the Residential
College is similar to procedures that SGC
wants to be used in all the colleges of the
University.
JF THE ASSEMBLY carries out its re-
sponsibilities with imagination and
wisdom, this test of student participation
in decision making will be standing evi-
dence that other colleges can be feasibly
restructured to provide an effective stu-
dent voice in decision-making.
And, indeed, there is every indication
that the Representative Assembly will be
a fruitful precedent. The Assembly began
portentously by setting up a committee to
propose decision-making procedure in-
stead of formulating the method itself.
The committee will hear the ideas of
members of the college community before
making any recommendation.
The Residential College should be
commended for initiating its new admin-
istrative structure. Hopefully, this policy
will inspire other colleges to reform their
decision - making process to increase
student involvement.
-BRIAN FORD
Never Too Late
1-19
By WALTER SHAPIRO
SLOW AND STEADY turn the
wheels of justice.
Never one to leave a sleeping in-
justice lie, the New York State
Supreme Court finally got around
Monday to overturning the 1964
conviction of Lenny Bruce for giv-
ing an obscene monologue in a
Greenwich Village coffee house.
Unfortunately, the reversal came
a trifle late for Bruce who died
in 1966 at the age of 40 from what
the Los Angeles police took great
pleasure in describing as an over-
dose of narcotics.
However, friends of the come-
dian claimed in a series of maga-
zine eulogies that Bruce's death
was directly connected to suits like
the one in New York which all but
drove him from the stage.
The original 1964 decision called
resist noting in Comstockian tones
that the performance "contained
coarse, vulgar and profane lan-
guage which went beyond the
bounds of usual candor."
Needless to say this last judicial
slap on the hand would have deep-
ly amused Bruce who unfortunate-
ly was cryptically detained else-
where. Bruce-the first American
to see the obscenity in "peace feel-
ers"-would have appreciated the
excessive judicial pomp which
went into Monday's cultural reha-
bilitation of a defrocked comedian.
Luckily America has matured
sufficiently so we don't have to
regard Monday's decision as a
hammerblow against censorship.
But the reversal is at least indica-
tive of the guilt some judges must
have been feeling over the 1964
decision.
Pornography-despite the Ginz
only deal with a finite number of
combinations and situations.
CONSEQUENTLY, perhaps a
more relevant aspect of the Bruce
case, is the way it vividly il-
lustrates the powers of the police
"to get someone." By the mid-six-
ties, every time Bruce worked a
night club half of his audience
were plain clothesmen with, pad.
and pencils. Add to this the con-
stant spectre of a "drug plant" o.
a narcotics raid, and it's no smal:
wonder that by 1966 Bruce's
serenario was beginning to look
like a remake of "My Life in
Court.
However, the void which Lenny
Bruce left in the field of American
humor represents the real loss. A
footnote to this frightening era is
the total absence of any American
nnmin 0 1n eril nnio fmmnt
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