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September 10, 1967 - Image 4

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The Michigan Daily, 1967-09-10

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EDTTED AND MANAGED BY STUDENTS OF THE UNTVERSITY OF MTCHIGAN
UNDER AUTHORITY OF BOARD TN CONTROL OF STUDENT PUBLICATIONS
Where Opinions Are Free, 420 MAYNARD ST., ANN ARBOR, MICH. NEws PHONE: 764-0552
Truth Will 'Preval
Editorials printed in The Michigan Daily express the individual opinions of staf writers
or the editors. This must be noted in all reprints.

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THE HARDER THEY FALL...
It's Time to Get Out of the NSA
By Johzn LottWie

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 1967

NIGHT EDITOR: WILLIAM BENOIT

Michigan Bell vs. The Students:
'Dial'M' for Murder.

WHAT EVER HAPPENED to the trust-
busting era?
Does ;anyone know of a Rent-a-Big-
Stick service in Ann Arbor? One that
can smash the Michigan Bell Telephone
Company to smithereens?
My prospective telephone has disap-
peared into the bowels of Michigan Bell
and I may never hear the sweet sound
of bells again.
And there is nothing I can do about it.
Michigan Bell happens to be the only
telephone company in town. I know be-
cause I asked one of their representatives
if they could recommend a more compe-
tent agency. "'m sorry; but we're the only
/one."'
However, they are not competent, effi-
cient or any other adjective that may fit
a bustling bureaucratic organization.
For example: Approximately one month
ago I asked to have a phone installed, a
simple ordinary phone complete with
dials and dial tone. They assured me that
it would arrive Sept. 7. For one month I
lovingly crossed off the days, anxiously
awaiting the erid of my exile from com-
munications. I am still waiting.
The problem, according to a mechani-
cal voice, is that there is no cable.
Therefore they cannot hook up a phone..
Their engineers "are working night and
day" on the problem (she really .said
that) but won't know anything for a
week. I heartily recommend that a time-
study be done on their engineering opera-
tions. So in a week they will allegedly
know whether or not they can hook up
a cable, then they will have to hook up the
cable, and then someone will have to in-
stall a phone. I may graduate before that
mythical event ever takes place.
The operator informed me that she
"could appreciate my difficulty" but there
"was nothing I can do. I'll call you as
soon as we know anything." A charming

idea, but I have no phone. That is why
I called her from a pay-phone in the first
place. They may be courteous (I swore atj
the poor woman for 40 minutes and she
never lost a polite tone) but I'm a bit
concerned about the area above their
shoulders.
FOR EXAMPLE, a friend of mine had a,
yellow phone installed. She had want-
ed a cord to go with it. But the cord
didn't come. A friendly representative of
the Michigan Bell Telephone Company
called her at work. Witness the follow-
ing conversation:
"Do you have a yellow phone?"
"Yes."
"And you wanted a cord for your yellow
phone?"
"Yes."
"What color would you like your cord?"
Don't they ever get tired of comments
dike that? The company is obviously
aware of the University's existence. It cer-
tainly provides a vast amount of support
for the Ann Arbor office. They must real-
ize that a University is made up of a,
relatively transient population, which re-
quires phones and cables for these
phones. They must realize that Septem-
ber is going to be their "hottest" month.
Surely they have some sort of plan for
taking care of all this business. One
might even reasonably expect this plan
to be an efficient one.
BUT EFFICIENCY seems absent from
the operations of the Michigan Bell
Telephone Company. Their advertising
slogan boasts that "We may be the only
telephone company in town, but we try
not to act like it."
True, they don't act like it. They don't
act like a phone company at all.
-PAT O'DONOHUE

JUST WHAT IS the National Student Association?
Most students here know it only as the organization
that was caught last year with its pants down for
accepting over three million dollars from the Central
Intelligence Agency over the period of the last 15 years.
Most students don't know what went on at last month's
NSA Congress at the University of Maryland; few really
care.
BUT WHAT HAPPENED was sad. The delegates came
to the convention and almost a priori accepted the NSA
staff rationale that CIA funding was necessary to the
association's very existence as the "spokesman" for the
nation's students. One staff member explained to the
opening plenary that "money becomes clean when it'
passes through my hands," and the delegates seemed to
believe and follow their national staff almost without
question.
The ethics of secrecy in a free society bothered very
few people; as far as delegates were concerned, the CIA
was to be chastized for its role in attempting to use
NSA to its own ends, not the association for accepting
the funds and playing "spy" for the federal government..
The staff, an amorphous and untouchable group of
longtime NSA members, controlled the Congress with an
iron hand: they drew up the rules and agenda before
the convention began and stuffed them down the oblig-
ing delegates' throats. They ruled over the 1100 dele-
gates and alternates in a manner reminiscent of the
efficiency of a General Motors stockholders' meeting;
Letters:Is the L

they used their bureaucratic hierarchy to control, from
the top down, almost every aspect of the two week farce
And the vast majority of the students, representing 326
of the nation's colleges and universities, hardly whim-
pered.
BUT THE NSA, in reality, has very little power. The
association represents only a minute fraction of the
nation's campuses-some fifteen per cent. Also, because
the NSA is a tax-free organization, it does not have the
legal power to lobby with the established power structure
to reach its desired ends.
In fact, the only real power it has is over the few
schools that do belong to it, by controlling their dele-
gates and using their institutions' names in purporting
to speak for all college students. The schools that are
members, by belonging, tacitly support this erroneous
notion.
But what does NSA do? The answer, of course, is
nothing. The annual congress serves as a two week
catharsis for student government leaders who have failed
so miserably on their respective campuses throughout
the school year to "radicalize" and pass sweeping but
meaningless resolutions endorsing student power, black
power, and attacking the draft and the war in Vietnam:
they "shock and irritate their elders," and invoke the
criticisms of the Eric Sevareids and the New York Times
editorial staff writers. And in doing so their collective
consciences are miraculously cleansed.
THE OBVIOUS ALTERNATIVE for this University is
to withdraw from so "blatently undemocratic" and use-

less an organization; something that Student Govern-
ment Council has the power to do with a simple majority
vote. But SGC, like NSA, is wary of doing anything that
has any real meaning. Several SGC members-including
one NSA staff member-argue that withdrawal now
would refuse them the opportunity to "subvert from
within.
What they fail to understand is that NSA is not
worth subverting. It's simply not worth SGC's time and
money--over $2000 a year from the council budget-to
accept the framework of an organization which they
all openly admit to be so ideologically opposed to every-
thing they stand for.
Council, to be any kind of success, should stop worry-
ing and fretting about the "overriding" national and
international issues of the day and finally get down to
what's happening on this campus. While issues such as
Black Power are certainly relevant to today's youth, they
are simply not within the realm of SGC's concerns.
IF SGC REALLY wants to do things that will affect
and generate student interest on campus, as it con-
tinually claims, it must first show its constituents that
it means business by withdrawing from NSA. It must
concentrate. on actions rather than just verbally re-
iterating pained cries of despair over student apathy: it
must get out of its stuffy offices in the Student Activities
Building and work to find out what is relevant to this
University's students.
A start must be made now. NSA must go.

iugby Club Getting Kicked Around?

I WONDER how many readers
are aware of the rotten deal
meted out by the Athletic Direc-
tor to many student spare-time
sportsmen at the University. In
particular, I am referring to the
players and supporters of the Uni-
versity Lacrosse and soccer teams
and other sportsmen using Wines
Field, more especially perhaps the
Rugby Club.
The Director appears unaware
of the injuries he has caused by
his disinterest in the players, their
game and the field. Wines Field
gets trodden hard by the band
week after week in the Fall; but
no one takes any interest in the
upkeep of the field. Like last Fall,
there is no grass, just thick weeds
which cut into the skin, and the
surface is no better than concrete
-hard enough to march on, but
not to play on! It would take little
effort on his part to see that the
ground gets a regular watering in
the same way that the grass on
the Diag gets watered.
Again the Director has been ap-
proacbed so that the football
practice field might be used when
empty for the scheduled games

against the Big Ten' Universities
on Saturday afternoons - but
again complete disinterest in
sports outside football. These oth-
er games can do no damage to
the grass of Ferry Field in any
way comparable to that done by
the band at the Stadium - let
alone Band Day itself.
I have played rugby against
other Big Ten teams, including
Ohio State, Michigan State, In-
diana, Wisconsin; but not one has
such poor playing conditions as
Michigan. The Rugby Club had 6Q
new players turn up for a prac-
tice over the Labor Day weekend,
so it's not just a few people who
want to play.
I should like to ask the Athle-
tic Director whether he thinks he
is doing sufficient to support
spare-time sportsmen in the fall
sports other than football.
-David Mildner, Grad.
Sorority Rush
MR. KLIVANS, for a writer that
has been criticizing Michigan
sororities for as long as you have
(Editorial, Sept. 7). you should

know that there are 23 chapters
on this campus and that there are
10 members on Panhellenic's Exe-
cutive Council who vote in Presi-
dent's Council.
Fall Rush is indeed a contro-
versial subject, even within the
Panhellenic Association. Now in
its second year, the Fall Rush
system is scheduled for a major
re-evaluation in Presidents' Coun-
cil this fall as provided in the
original proposal. Last year, ex-
tensive surveys were filled out by
sorority members, pledges, and
dorm women, in an attempt to as-
certain what the affect of Fall
Rush was. This information and
current data from this year will
be examined in our re-evaluation.
Changes have even been made
from last year's rush to accommo-
date holidays, length of time
spent, and superficiality associ-
ated with rushing.
One of the reasons for Fall
Rush is to see if freshmen women
who pledge their first semester
become better adjusted and as-
similated into college life because
of, rather than in spite of, their

pledgeship. It is a fact that the
scholastic average of sorority
pledges went up last year and was
higher than unaffiliated freshmen
women.
THE TEN MEMBERS of Exe-
cutive Council are elected by the
sorority system at large, in the
system's belief that a specific
number of qualified and duly elec-
ted sorority women should be fa-
miliar with an overall view of the
sorority system, not just indivi-
dual chapters. Their added insight
and knowledge of Panhellenic
procedures and proposals justifies
their vote. The Panhellenic Asso-
clation works for the betterment
of all 23 sororities, not just one or
two.
SGC has never backed away
from an inter-organizational feud
in the past, and the Panhellenic
Association would definitely not
be the exception. They indeed voi-
ced hesitations and objections to
the changeover, yet their wisdom
in allowing organizational auton-
omy in others' internal affairs
prevented their obstruction of
the plan.'You, as a Daily member,

surely realize how crucial this au-
tonomy is.
You say that the rushing period
is too short for freshmen women
to appraise sororities. At summer
orientation, new students attend
a Greek Open House for a prepar-
ed program on what the Greek
system offers as a way of life in
comparison to the other alterna-
tives offered on this campus.
RATHER THAN an exercise in
fear, Fall Rush is an exercise in
change and hopefully improve-
ment. Rather than hiding any-
thing, rushing. and pledging first
semester enhances and accentu-
ates college life for freshmen by
opening a range of activities us-
ually ignored by other freshmen.
If you would like to elaborate up-
on what you think Fall Rush is
hiding, Executive Councils would
enjoy discussing the matter with
you. Mr. Klivans, you have told
us the drawbacks of first semester
rushing, but what of the advan-
tagesf
-Ginger Neagle
Alumnae Relations Director
Panhellenic Council

ai

9

University and Union Reality

McNamara's Lonely Hearts Club Band

THE CURRENT WALKOUT by skilled
tradesmen of the University plant de-
partments is only another step in a
lengthy legal struggle which began over
two years ago, and whose outcome is still
uncertain.
The conflict began when the Regents
went to court in December, 1965, to con-
test the constitutionality of PA 379, an
amendment to the Hutchinson Act which
grants employes the right to bargain col-
lectively with their employers on matters
of wages, hours and working conditions.
The Regents contend that the University
as an autonomous state institution with
independent constitutional status does
not fall under the scope of PA 379. The
case, which is being heard before Wash-
tenaw County Circuit Judge William Ager,
is yet to be decided.
Since June, 1966, the University has
also been involved in a representation
case before the State Labor Mediation
Board (SLMB) concerning the appropri-
ate bargaining units for University em-
ployes. Three of the four unions which
originally petitioned, the board for action
are still involved and awaiting a deci-
sion. After several delays the case is now
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Second class postage paid at Ann Arbor. Michigan,
420 Maynard St.. Ann Arbor, Michigan, 48104.
Editorial Staff
ROGER RAPOPORT, Editor
MEREDITH EIKER, Managing Editor
MICHAEL HEFFER ROBERT KLIVANS
City Editor Editorial Director
SUSAN ELAN...........Associate Managing Editor
STEPHEN FIRSHEIN ...... Associate Managing Editor
LAURENCE MEDOW...Associate Managing Editor
RONALD KLEMPNER .... Associate Editorial Director
JOHN LOTTIER ......... Associate Editorial Director
SUSAN SCHNEPP ................Personnel Director
NEIL SHISTER................... Magazine Editor
CAROLE KAPLAN ........ Associate Magazine Editor
LISSA MATROSS..................Arts Editor
ANDY SAOHS...................... Photo Editor
RRBR. SHFIELD 'i......... ab hef

being held in abeyance because of the
question of the board's jurisdiction,
which, in turn, depends on the decision
on PA 379.
THE UNIVERSITY remains the only
state university which does not allow
its employes to bargain collectively. Union
members and other University employes
feeling impatient, and seeing that not
only their peers at other state universi-
ties, but thousands of teachers as well
are backing up their demands for bar-
gaining rights with walkouts, decided
they were justified in walking out, too.
University administrators contend, and
rightly so, that they have no other choice
than to continue the litigation in which
they are now involved. They charged
the assistant attorney general with being
responsible for the undue delays in the
PA 379 case.
Further, they point out that they can-
not recognize any bargaining unit now,
as the workers asked for Friday, be-
cause of the union court fights that will
result. A similar situation developed at
Michigan State University when they
recognized a union and are now becom-
ing embroiled in a representation suit
brought by another union. The identical
situation would happen here. With the
expansion of one of the unions, any set-
tlement with one would lead to court
battles with the others.
rHIS IS THE FIRST major walkout
the University has ever had, and it
should consider itself lucky that it has
gotten off so easily. The litigation jun-
gle in which the University now finds it-
self cannot be easily escaped. Judge Ag-
er's court could have been temporarily
circumvented if the University had ac-
cepted the tradesmen.s proposal Fri-
day.
The University now has its hands tied,
as certain administrators" have claimed,
but it was the University who has tied
them. By not dealing with the workers
earlier, they have allowed union con-
flicts to develop and made all other es-
cape routes impossible. The workers,
however, cannot be expected to give in,
for they are not at fault. They have wait-

THERE ARE signs that the
administration is getting fed
up with the deceit, wrong deci-
sions and dictatorial arrogance of
Robert Strange McNamara, the
man who never yet has been right
about Vietnam or any other mili-
tary matter.
Although it is too much to hope
that Lyndon Johnson will admit
how wrong he has been in keep-
ing McNamara on so long and
dismiss him, there is at least hope
that McNamara will not be per-
mitted to serve, as he has been,
as a sort of assistant President.
The major visible sign of Mc-
Namara's slippage in the court of
L.B.J. is the fact that, for the
first time, military men seem free
to voice the opposition to Mc-
Namara which always has been
,present.
THE ARMY CHIEF of staff,
Gen. Harold Johnson, has pub-
liclyaand loudly disagreed with
McNamara over the bombing of
Vietnamese port facilities through
which flow the supplies that make
it possible for the enemy to con-
tinue the war.
McNamara, displaying his usual
grasp of military matters, flatly
says that the miles of supplies
lined up at Haiphong harbor
would not make enough difference
in the war to risk bombing them.
The risk, he persists, would be in
possibly making Red China angry.
Gen. Johnson says that cutting
off the enemy's supplies is "es-
sential."
Even the Marine Corps, which
lately has been the most silent
of services in bucking McNamara,
has gone on record, through its
Icommandant, Wallace Greene. as
favoring stepped-up air attacks
against the enemy. McNamara
steadily downgrades the role of
airpower in the war.
The Air Force chief of staff,
Gen. John McConnell, also has
spoken out on McNamara's snip-
ing against airpower. It would
have taken. Gen. McConnell has
testified, 800.000 more ground
troops to fight the war so far
without our air strikes against
the North. McNamara, on the de-

cies against senators, congressmen
and military analysts, all of whom
have been powerless before the
unlimited White House support
upon which McNamara has been
able to count.
The fact that the chiels are now
fighting him openly can only
mean, it seems to me, that there
is certain knowledge now that the
White House is withdrawing 'some
of that support.
BEYOND THE visible signs,
there are others. During my last
trip to Washington I nowhere
found the forced enthusiasm that
administration officials used to
display about McNamara. In the
past you always got the impres-
sion that defending McNamara
was as much an official admin-
istration ypriority as defending the
Commander-in-Chief.
'Not now. McNamara has be-

come, in effect, just another
Cabinet officer. Perhaps the wid-
est rift that has opened between
McNamara and the President has
been that, single-handedly, Mc-
Namara has done more to weaken
the President's policies in Vietnam
than any other person on earth.
He has done it, first, by misman-
aging the defense establishment.
But more recently he has done it
his view, we can't win the war
by flatly telling the world that, in
anyway.
* * .*
A CLEAR BILL of indictment
may now be drawn up against
Secretary of Defense Robert
Strange McNamara. There is not
a single area, of his responsibility
in which he has not totally failed.
The indictment would lead off
with his fantastic testimony be-
fore the Senate preparedness sub-
committee in which he flatly said

that our operations against North
Vietnam could not bring them to
the negotiating table; in short,
could not win'the war.
That statement, which is re-
futed by all professional military
advice, indicates that the secretary
is in no mind to permit the mili-
tary a free hand in winning the
war. He is operating a war policy
totally at variance with the policy
which most Americans had as-
sumed was being followed-a po-'
licy directed at ending the war by
winning it.
The effect of this statement on
the, enemy is predictable. Unless
it is sharply struck down by the
President, it will encourage the
VietnamesetCommunists to drag
the war on endlessly, knowing
that they never will be subjected
to the full force of American
power.
On that count McNamara has

given more aid and comfort to the
enemy than all of the ranting
Vietnik marches and rallies, all
the teach-ins or anything else.
On that point alone McNamara
must be counted as more valuable
to the enemy, and more damaging
to our own men in the field,, than
a couple of new divisions of Com-
munist infantry.
IT IS NOW clear, in the most
recent public revelations of how
completely McNamara and the
Joint Chiefs of Staff differ on
the war, that McNamara has
steadily and willfully cut off the
access of military menj to the
President and to Congress.
'the Joint Chiefs, under law, are
supposed to be the President's
principal military advisers. Under
McNamara's high handed dictator-
ship at the 'Pentagon they have
been denied that function. Only
now are the gags slipping from
their mouths. But as long as Mc-
Namara is in office, the American
people, including the President,
can anticipate that he will do
everything possible to stifle mili-
tary opinions, silence dissent and
prevent the Congress and the
Commander - in - Chief from get-
ting all the facts.
McNamara may here be
charged with direct abuse of the
military-civilian relationship as
defined in our laws. That relation-
ship always has aimed at retain-
ing civilian control of the military.
It has never aimed: at turning
that civilian control into an ab-
solute political dictatorship by a
Cabinet officer, free to operate the
Pentagon as a private preserve
without interference from any
other civilian.
A LENGTHY section of the in-
dictment against this man would
list the times he has failed to tell
the truth to the people, to the
President or to the Congress. His
baldly false statements to , the
Congress regarding the readiness
and adequacy of forces and equip-
ment are examples.
Admittedly, there is no court in
which the indictment against Mc-
Namara is likely to be tried. It is
more a moral than a legalistic

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