Seventy-Seven Years of Editorial Freedom
EDITED AND MANAGED BY STUDENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
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Editorials printed in The Michigan Daily express the individual opinions of staff writers
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FRIDAY, MARCH 15, 1968
NIGHT EDITOR: JILL CRABTREE
The Referenda Results:
Put Students on the Committee
THE RESULTS of the student referenda
on classified research and the with-
drawal from the Institute for Defense
Analyses are discouraging for those who
wish to insure the continued free climate
of this University community.
However, the size of the vote and the
level of interest aroused over a sophisti-
cated and complex issue confirms the
contention that students have far more
than a transient interest in University
affairs and must be given an equal role
in University decision-making.
Students, as well as administrators and
faculty, make short-sighted decisions, as
yesterday's vote clearly shows. Yet this
in no way lessens the student's claim for
an effective voice in University decisions
affecting the direction and purpose of an
educational institution of which he is an
essential component.
E REMAIN adamant in our conviction
that classified research has no place
in a university committed to the right of
free inquiry. It is one researcher's free-
dom to 'do classified research against
everyone's freedom of inquiry.
We hope the new Student Government.
Council President, Michael Koeneke, will
be successful in persuading his large
constituency of the rectitude of his "un-
equivocal- opposition" to classified re-
search.
There remains no justifiable reason for
the University's continued participation
in the Institute for Defense Analyses. By
remaining in IDA, the University is ac-
tively sanctioning the institute's role as
a resource group for immoral American
actions in Southeast Asia. President
Fleming must join with Princeton and
University of Chicago in leaving this
relic of the tense cold war days of the
1950's.
NEXT MONDAY, the Faculty Assembly
is expected to approve the Elderfield
Report - the faculty's ambiguous an-
swer to the problem of classified re-
search. The report asks for the creation
of a special review committee to pass on
the appropriateness of classified re-
search contracts. This committee would
supposedly reject those contracts whose
sponsors and title could not be revealed
and which would develop ways "to, de-
stroy human life."
The committee, which could be over-
ruled by the Vice President for Research,
would unfortunately be composed exclu-
sively of faculty members. The nature of
the Elderfield Report leaves the whole
problem of classified research up to a
committee for interpretation. Therefore,
the composition of this committee is
crucial.
STUDENTS must have a place on this
committee. The defeat of the refer-
enda does not mean that students are
not concerned with the issue of classi-
fied research. It should only be inter-
preted that the blanket end to classified
research which the referendum asked for
has been rejected. While the referenda
vote was unwise, it in no way undercuts
the student right to sit onthe classified
research review committee.
-MARK LEVIN
Editor
'We ARE showing therm the letter, Mr. President . . . But, the Viet
Cong can't read English!'
Echoes of the InnerCity
-NEAL BRUSS
Th e Myth o
Stu den tia lism
The newly-elected Student Government Council hopefully will
find that it is most effective when "the student voice" does not feel
the need to make itself heard.
This certainly does not mean that students should abandon Uni-
versity affairs and spend their free time watching faculty committees
run the University. It does mean that students, faculty and admin-
istrators with similar views should work together against students,
faculty and administrators with opposing views.
LATELY IT SEEMS "the student role" has been isolated. Students
have felt that somehow their views were different from those of
other persons, that their views were integrally related to their status
as students, and that their views would only be recognized when su-
dents as students were given some sort of official representation.
This view had unfortunate resuts.
! Activism became identified with students by mass media, gov-
ernment officials and even persons in, the University. And because
demonstrations were blamed on students, they were trivialized as
typically student behavior like spring beer blasts on the beaches of
Fort Lauderdale.
* Students espousing particular positions failed to work with
non-students who held similar views. Thus when partisan students
were rebuffed by, say, administrators who held different views, the
students felt their defeat was due to their inherently student status.
* The wide variety of opinion among the University's students
on given issues was ignored. It was felt that if students came to-
gether, they would quickly be able to articulate positions and demands.
This never occurred and has been a constant source of disillusionment
to those who champion "the student role."
"STUDENTIALISM," the view that there is a single student voice
to be recognized in University affairs, has surfaced as a political
philosophy in most recent campus issues.
The champions of studentialism felt that students opposed fac-
ulty on classified military research, that students opposed merchants
and th'eir administrative henchmen on the establishment of a Uni-
versity bookstore, that students opposed Regents in the fight against
parietal rules.
Such perspectives were wrong for two reasons. In all such issues,
not all students were allied against non-students. Similarly, students
were supported by large and important groups of non-students.
The view of studentialism further provided a perverse and incor-
rect political portrait of students as largely disinherited persons under
21. Participation by students within the larger community of the Uni-
versity and the nation - their individual activity in political groups,
their right to vote in elections as members of the larger community-
seems to be ignored by both critics and students themselves. The ulti-
mate triumph - and defeat - of studentialism came when Time
Magazine decided to sample "student" opinion in a mock Presidential
election on campuses across the country, Their opinions were isolated
as the student voice - somehow making them trivial on the national
scope.
Opponents of political protests identified them as student
disciplinary problems and felt that all that was needed was a
system of rules to punish students' disorderliness. They failed to
recognize - or ignored - the participation of faculty and non-
students. And they were all too willing to see very hot ideological
disputes treated as misbehavior.
The term "student" should stand only for a certain academic
status. It does not indicate a particular view towards University
or political affairs, and it should not be a mark of Cain culling
individuals from homogeneous ideological groups.
STUDENT GOVERNMENT COUNCIL should work for the dis-
persal of students into ideological blocks. It should declare Invidious
rules and policies which politically define persons in terms of academic
status. And it should increasingly attempt to sharpen the ideological
lines in the University community by avoiding the temptation to use
"the student voice" when a voice of persons who are students may
be combined with the voice of others who are not.
By WALTER SHAPIRO
and ANN MUNSTER
THERE ARE some obvious lim-
itations on the insights one
can get about the Detroit ghetto
sitting inaMark's Coffee House on
East William Street in Ann Arbor.
Even if you are talking to John
Watson who publishes the Inner
City Voice, a fledgling monthly
newspaper in the Detroit black
community.
Watson, in town last week and
returning this afternoon to speak
at the UGLI, describes himself as
a socialist. "I'm an anti-imperial-,
ist black revolutionary interna-
tionalist, as opposed to black cul-
tural nationalism," he explains.
The Inner City Voice with a
current circulation of about 10,000
is designed to serve as a focus "to
organize certain elements of the
community - workers, commun-
ity organizers - into a revolu-
tionary black political party.'l
Focusing on the role of the
black people as workers, he con-
tinued, "We must recognize the
use and the role ofdestructive
power. We can have effective
power in the plants. For the black
people have the power to stop the
economy."
VERY FEW RADICALS, either
black or white, have any sem-'
blance of a masterplan for the
future and in many ways this
lack of cant is a saving grace. But
there is still an ethereal,unreal
quality about the terms Watson
uses.
The vagueness may merely be a
function of the gulf between Ann
Arbor and Detroit. But one sus-
pects it is ultimately a conse-
quence of the impotence of the
position blacks hold and will con-
tinue to hold in American life.
In many ways Watson reflects
as much the traditional left as he
does the black radicalism of the
sixties. He regards last summer's
"rebellion in Detroit as basically
rooted in class and economics,
and not race."
Turning to the situation in De-
troit the spring after the summer
before, Watson was quite explicit,
"The black people had better
have guns. Due to the precarious
nature of the situation' the black
people have got to be armed."
WATSON contended that self-
defense demanded that the black
community arm itself. "We must
adequately defend o u r s e 1v e s
against a right-wing attack. De-
fense and survival is the watch-
word. As a result of the polariza-
tion created after the rebellion,
certain elements of the commun-
ity ' like Breakthrough - are
going to be trying to precipitate
an incident," he said.
Sounding slightly reminiscent
of John Foster Dulles, Watson
contended "there will be much
less violence if the other side
knows we intend to respond to
violence with violence."
Watson also provided some new
insights on the much-abused
term black power. He assessed the
black community in Detroit as
"probably the most politically
sophisticated in the country."
Consequently, he said, "We have
passed beyond the super-nation-
alism. We have passed beyond the
Black is Beautiful stage. We now
take 'that sort of thing for
granted."
WATSON'S alternative to this
kind of ineffectuality is an at-
tempt to place black autonomy in
the context of more traditional.
leftist political analysis. As Wat-
son does this, one is often re-
minded of images of romantic
revolutionaries of a more idealis-
tic era.
At a time when communication
between the ghetto and the larg-
er society has dwindled to prac-
tically nil, Watson today brings
to campus a somewhat muffled
echo of the inner city voice.
4
Making Language Optional
THE LITERARY COLLEGE curriculum
committee is presently considering a
restructuring of the required language
course sequence which would vastly im-
prove its educational merit.
The proposal calls for the creation of
a second sequence of courses in each
language which could be used to fulfill
the requirement. Unlike the present se-
quence, the new program would empha-
size the development of reading skills
at the expense of oral ability.
This "reading track" would provide a
solid alternative to those, likerscience
majors, who will have a greater need
for visual rather than spoken skills.
However, even if the proposed changes
are made, the college's language pro-
gram will still be handicapped by an edu-
cational anachronism - requiring mini-
mal proficiency in a foreign language
for graduation.
IN THE FIRST PLACE, speaking prag-
matically, it is unclear whether objec-
tives of the foreign language require-
ment are now met. According to the lit-
erary college catalogue, languages are
taught "to develop the essential skills of
speaking, understanding, and reading
the language as a preparation for its use
in professional and civic affairs, and to
provide a general view of the culture of
the people."
Though no definitive study is avail-
able, it appears, from conversations with
students, the elementary 1 a n g u a g e
courses achieve neither of these goals.
After two years of study few students
think they have mastered the basic tech-
nical skills of the language. Statistical
studies should be made.
Nor do the elementary language
courses appear to make any full blown
effort to expand the student's perspec-
tive of the foreign country's culture.
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In. the second place, because the lan-
guage sequence is required, these objec-
tives are oftenr self-defeating.
By requiring students to take two years
of a language, the literary college is fill-
ing its classes with students who have
little desire or need to be there.
Students who take a language course
only because it is required sometimes de-
stroy the educational atmosphere in the
classroom situation. Such students often
seek only good grades and the fulfillment
of the requirement.
These students do the amount of work
they consider necessary to obtain the
grade they desire and nothing more.
Their classroom participation is stifled
by the fear of erring when it should be
fraught with a desire to learn.
Without the burden .these students
place on the instructor and the rest of
the class, the program could be intensi-
fied because the impetus to learn, where
present, is always greater than the drive
to obtain good grades. In addition, stu-
dents who are not particularly adept at
language would not be forced to con-
tinue, thus improving the general level
of the class.
FURTHERMORE, the elimination of the
requirement would not mark the be-
ginning of a trend to end all language
studies. In fact, enrollment in elemen-
tary language classes would probably
not decrease as much as one might ex-
pect. They will still be filled with stu-
dents who wish to go to graduate school
and those who have hopes of traveling
abroad.
It is highly unlikely that professional
language study will suffer. Most lan-
guage majors either had contact with
their language before they came to the
University or were sufficiently interest-
ed to have taken an elementary course
without coercion.
By eliminating the requirement, inter-
est in language might conceivably in-
crease because the stigma currently at-
tached to the study of foreign languages
would have been removed to a large ex-
tent.
Foreign language courses at the Uni-
versity presently stand one level above
all others because they are required. Are
foreign language skills truly more basic
than skills in mathematics or knowledge
of history? Clearly the answer is no.
PY ELIMINATING the requirement, the
l+i'tTnrun11pan nwill nit foreign l an.
Letters: Legislator's Finance Rebuttal
EDITOR'S NOTE: The following
is an open letter to the students.
fackuty, administratorsiRegents,
and alumni or thle University.
T HA come to my attention
that several of you are rather
upset over the statements attrib-
uted to me in a Daily article of
February 28th. I don't deny that
these statements represent approx-
imately my views, although I cer-
tainly did not authorize their
publication.
It is true that the financial
manipulations explicated in the
audit report by the Legislative Au-
ditor General may result in a
somewhat smaller appropriation
this year for the University than
might otherwise have been the
case. If this happens, it should
be clearly understood that the
manipulations are the cause -
not the Auditor General's report
of them. You will notice that I
said may not will. No one can
say with any certainty what may
or may not be included in an ap-
propriation bill until after the bill
is enacted. Judging from the tone
of the article, as well as from
that of other items on the editor-
ial page of the February 28th
issue, it appears that neither The
Daily reporter nor the editors un-
derstand this fact.
IT IS TRUE, as several of you
have boasted, that the University
of Michigan is a great university.
It is not true, however, that it is
the only good institution of higher
education in this state - as some
of you have alleged. Loyalty to
your university is very commend-
able; but all of us must realize,
sooner orlater, than an education
is only what we make of it. Secur-
ing an education presupposes a
measure of effort on the part
of the individual, and there is
no reason to believe that Univer-
sity students are the only ones
who exert themselves. HoDefully,
a good education obtained at a
vran imvscit .-+w l(,h A ou nrs
of such a large institution. I be-
lieve this, and in your hearts you
do too.
With regard to the numerous
charges that the University has
suffered from financial malnu-
trition at the hands of the Legis-
lature during recent years, just
let me point out that the Legis-
lature has appropriated several
millions of dollars for operations
in excess of the amount actually
spent for such purposes by the
University. If ' professors have
been underpaid, if any department
has been understaffed, if student
financial aid funds have been in-
adequate - if any form of fin-
ancial malnutrition has existed
in University operations; it has
been the product of priorities es-
tablished at the University, by
University officials, for allocation
and expenditure of the funds
made available for University use.
There is no doubt in my mind
that any college or university in
this state would happily swap ap-
propriations with the University
of Michigan for any given year-
even this next one.
IT IS with this in mind that I
and other appropriation commit-
tee members, as well as the mem-
bers of the Legislature at large.
will review the needs, requests, and
recommendations for appropria-
tions fdr higher education for the
1968-69 fiscal year.
-George F. Montgomery,
State Representative,
21st District Member
Committee on
Appropriations
Davis on Davis
I'M SURPRISED by Ruth Tnom-
as s reaction to my inaugura-
tion speech (letter, 14 March).
Miss Thomas accused me of being
"completely out of order - in -.-
appearance, . . . tone, . . . (and)
message," of failing to salute the
president, of failing "to pledge any
nncishon eanftnn +n hP +A1rn h
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'You see one campus, you've seen 'em all...,.!'
of improving those relations will
fall hardest on;the man we were
inaugurating (a reason for show-
ing understanding and patience
in the vears to come): and that I
to raise significant issues where I
could be heard by all the deans,
Regents, Vice Presidents, and
most important faculty; and so
left the student place in the pro-
gram to no one. or to a student
Kenya Act
To the Editor:
WE, AS BRITISH citizens, would
like to express our shame at
i