mjw Aidpiwu aity 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 The Fourth Branch The Anti-Anti-Motherhood By Ron Klempner Bill Y: Where Opinions Are Free, 420 MAYNARD ST., ANN ARBOR, MICH. Truth Will Prevail NEws PHONE: 764-0552 ..._.. .. .......... .... __ __ :: .. .. ..h .. llh er. r ......... .. . . v x.. .. hl.h. .. .. : n. ......... rr. ..1 '1. .h...... .rh la.w..hr::.'}.. ;v:......« . or ..... :::::.. . ..«re: :.....,.... hl ... ::::.. ...: . .. .... ..r . . 1 ... ... .... ., ......... .. .....1 ............. .. : :. .} ..... ... ... .. ... .. .... .... fi :i .... ..1 ....... . :. .. ... :i : .: .. .......... r . .............. r......, .... . .. r ... ..w. ......w. r.r ... h ..... .... . h' i:............. ..,,.... ,. . .h ... ......... ..... ... .. .. .. . .. ... .. .. .. w.r:,"h:ror:r:".'::a.:v:..w"."::::. ::;:.".":a.S". ::::."xw{vvl.r.,1.,.4:1....{.,.,... J...a.. '}.......n...h..... .... ..v.. .. hr':41......1:: .... .......... C ;.: is iS:::. ; i.D .. .. ... Editorials printed in The Michigan Daily express the individual opinions of staff writers or the editors. This must be noted in all reprints. UNDAY, SEPTEMBER 17,1967 NIGHT EDITOR: MARK LEVIN SGC Sets New Code of Rules: First Step To Reorganization WHILE STUDENT Government Coun- cil's flat'replacing University-written ules and regulations for students with a code devised by SGC was a cut and tried expression of the philosophy that 'students should make their own rules," "ouncil did not usurp for usurpation's ake. Seen from the perspective of the adical changes in its own structure SGC :nvisions, its preemption of legislative uthority over student conduct emerges as an ingenious and potentially effective political stroke. The most abrupt revision was the telegation of complete authority to make ules concerning the internal affairs of tudents living in University housing .sits to the individual house councils of he residence halls themselves. This re- noves from the Office of Student Affairs and gives to the house councils the authority to decide what the rules will e on policies like dress regulations, late tours, and visiting privileges. SGC did not abolish freshman wo- nen's hours; what it did do was to leave o those women the power to decide who will dictate their hours, whether it be he house council or an all-campus refer- ndum. The new rules eliminate the Univer- ity's ban on the use of intoxicants by tudents 21 years or older living in Uni- rersity housing. They also abolish the Jniverstty's power to discipline students ender 21 apprehended for using intoxi- ants, leaving the matter to be enforced )y civil authorities. OTHERWISE, SGC merely rewrote some University regulations which were inclear, ambiguous, or opened the pos- ibility of double jeopardy. Most of the University-written rules were incorpo- ated into the new SGC code. As it exists now, SGC represents an ilmost galling waste of time, and every- 3ody, students and council members like, recognizes it. SGC represents no ne; except for the ex-officio members the presidents of Inter-Fraternity Coun- 11, Panhellenic, University Activities Jenter, and Inter-House Assembly), in- lividual council members have no clearly efined constituency to represent. SGC governs no one. Power to make tecisions of policy, and, before Thursday iight, regulations controlling student onduct, resides in the Regents through he administration. It has only been in he past few years with Student Housing fssociation and the draft counseling ervice that SGC has begun to serve any- DESPITE THE saccharine propaganda Council ladles out to freshmen in its come-on booklet (ironically entitled "Action") SGC is pathetically "like your high school student council." The reali- ties of the power structure have reduced its functions to making paper decisions and playing parliamentary games. Nobody knows this better or wants to correct it more than the Council members themselves. After considerable soul- searching, some members have decided that SGC can be made into a function- ing, representative organization only by scrapping the present structure and re-, building from the bottom up. It is for- seeable that before the end of the aca-. demic year, SGC will either dissolve itself in favor of another student organization or submit to radical restructuring. This decision must be made by the student body as a ,whole. BUT FOR THE decision to be meaning- ful a firmly entrenched backlog of student apathy must be overcome. By abolishing "University Regula- tions" and devising its pwn code of stu- dent conduct, SGC hopes to overcome that apathy, to create what SGC Presi- dent Bruce Kahn calls a "moment of interest" during which a new student government can be propitiously con- ceived. Council's decision must be considered a shrewd one. The administration can have little objection to the elimination of bad rubbish from the student conduct code. And the radical rule changes are precisely calculated to be ones which will receive widespread s t u d e n t support should a confrontation with the Univer- sity resllt. The administration's hands are tied. Joint Judiciary Council, whose members are appointed by SGC, enforces the rules. A majority of the members have pledged to enforce only those rules made or ap- proved by students. If the University wants to prevent students over 21 from drinking in the dorms or house councils from abolishing dress regulations, it will have to make a unilateral intervention like the sit-in ban. If it does, SGC will have its "moment of interest." But even if the administration bites its lip and allows the new regulations to stand, SGC's wise delegation of authority to the house councils will create new student interest in self-government, and draw students into the dialogue of re- form that must transpire before mean- ingful restructuring can take place. At any rate, it's worth a try.' THE NOTORIOUS NINETIETH (Congress, that is) has 'entered the home stretch of its first session. Since January it has rolled up a record as defender of the American way of life unparalled by any other legislative body, except perhaps the Mississippi state, legislature. It is therefore appropriate that we re-examine the 90th Congress' record 'in meeting the hot social issues of the day. In June the House of Representatives strode to protect that sacred American institution-the stars and stripes-and passed an anti-flag desecration bill. Spurred to action by the behavior of some demonstrators in Cen- tral Park, Congress saw to it that never again would our nation be plagued with the pollution of our air resulting from the burning of an American flag. Congress then moved to eliminate another source of air-pollution-the burning of American cities. sinthe aftermath of Detroit, Newark, and countless other "civic disorders" the House passed an anti-riot bill which was aimed at preventing what President Johnson this week called "those poisonous propagandists posed as spokesmen for the underprivileged" from inflaming the peaceful, contented, American slum dweller to riot. In this bold gesture the House protected the second of sacrosanct American institutions-law and order. As a final measure, Congress took action to protect the dignity and reputation of yet another great American institution-themselves-by unseating Rep. Adam Clay- ton (Keep-the-faith-baby) Powell, and censuring honest Sen. Thomas Dodd for behaviour that tended to bring into disrepute the reputation of the House and Senate. But the aforementioned publicized happenings were not the Congress' only dabblings with "anti-legislation. In a rare session held late in August (after most tuorists left Washington, and the press was busy covering Lynda Bird's last date with George Hamilton), the Senate launched a highly important debate to safeguard the most fundamental of American institutions: Mother- hood. This is how the session supposedly went: A hush fell over the Senate chamber, and Senator. M. Chaste Smith rose to introduce her bill. "In this time of internal and external stress and strife it is necessary that we protect the vital organs of our society from those who's willful intent is to discredit or otherwise undermine the nation's faith in those institutions dear to its heart. I feel it is in the nation's interest that we make it a federal crime to speak or act in any way or action that would demonstrate a disrespect for motherhood, or to use the word "mother" in vain or as a prefix to any other word." An Alabaman Senator supporting the measure said, "We must guard against those who would destroy our society by undermining or contributing to the deteriora- tion of American moral fiber. The anti-anti-motherhood bill will be the first step in such legislation for moral re-armament." The debate then intensified. From the other side of the floor Senator Jake Javits rose and retorted, "I don't mean to be like a Jewish mother, but, Senator, weren't you the one who during the debate on the 1964 Civil Rights Bill said that we couldn't legislative morality?" AT THIS POINT, the long-haired junior Senator from New York entered the chamber. When asked how he stood on the anti-anti-motherhood issue, he commented. "I think it is a worthwhile institution, and have privately done everything in my power to contribute to its further- ance." When he sat down, a cheer was heard from the usually sedate section of the Senate gallery reserved for "Family Members." Debate continued on the motion in what appeared to be a virtual deadlock. Finally, one of the Senators raised a point of order, and asked whether the bill meant that it would be a federal crime to practice birth-control, since such action was obviously against motherhood. Finding the group in a quandry over the issue, Hubert Humphrey, presiding over the Senate as a former phar- macist, pounded his gavel and adjourned the body until after~the Labor Day recess. Now that Congress is back in session, they can move on to more important areas of legislation. On next week's calender: Apple pie. I Letters: Recounting Sorority Experience To the Editor: LAST SUNDAY WHILE walking around the campus, I lad oc- casion to observe the rituals being caried out in front of the several fraternity and sorority houses. This display brought back to me the not so happy memories of my own freshman year some nine years ago. I want to make two comments that I wish someone had made to me in 1958. I have no desire to "expose" the sorority system. I do want to urge people to show a little less seriousness about a so- cial system (outmoded, I am afraid) which has no business being taken so seriously. I AM NOT SURE that the so- rorities serve a necessary function any more now that the university and various student organizations have begun to provide such a wealth of social and community opportunities for student involve- ment. It isn't necessary to enume- rate them. The campus abounds with places aid occasions for making friends and participating in activities that suit ones in- terests. The fraternities and sororities of the 30's and 40's served a func- tion on the university campus in a day when there were few institu- tioinal and social means for stu- dents to engage in non-academic activities. They may have served this function even in the late fif- ties when I was a member. But today it is difficult to find anything which the sorority can provide a girl that she could not find elsewher. Other housing ar- rangements, other organizations entail fewer restrictions on her own personality and intellectual growth. A second problem is the apathy that tends to be the result of the comfortable life provided by soror- ity living. Belonging to a sorority can easily prevent ones taking an active and creative interest in matters outside of the "sorority system." To this extent the soror- ity tends to provide an easy solu- tion to very short-ranged social desires. There is little cause to look outside of the sororities for friends or for non-academic activities, or outside of the fraternities for wekend parties. A university of this size and diversity should offer a tremend- ously varied experience. Experi- ence indeed, is the essence of the idea of the university. THE MAJOR DIFFICULTY with sororities is that they can so easily be an impediment to experience. They can stifle intellectual growth. I would like to ask the girls who are going through rush at the moment to think carefully about what, they are committing them- selves to and to make sure that they want to sacrifice a large measure of individual experience for the "social security" which they are told derives from be- longing to a sorority. Living outside of the seductive security of a sorority house can be a quick and sure way of learning to take care of oneself, to choose ones own friends, ones own course of study, ones leisure and recrea- tion. and to have the gumption to take advantage of the myriad op- portunities which the university offers. These should be four years of experiment, exploration, and growth. A sorority can be stulti- fying. -Diane Haight Nicholls Rackham Defend Scabs To The Editor: AM A SECOND year law stu- dent. I drive buses for the Transportation Services Depart- ment of the University and do so to earn enough to complete my education. not just to occupy my idle hours. I was not a "scab" as I was called by an uninformed undergraduate. A scab is defined by Webster as "one who takes the place of a striker." There was no strike against the Transportation Serv- ices. Six of the eighteen regular drivers walked off in sympathy with the strike by the Plant De- partment employees. LAST YEAR THERE was a big disagreement on campus about the small voice that students had in the administration of the Uni- versity. This year the same stu- dents are backing a labor or- ganization which, in the words 'of six strikers who rode my bus, "called the strike without their knowledge." According to these employees of the University, they had no chance to vote and the first thing they knew of the strike was when they went to work on the morning of September 7. Do you see the same inconsistency in the lines of thought that I per- ceive? These same students argue that what counts today is education and have sought such at one of the better universities in the Unit- ed States. Yet, when faced with a group attempting to hinder their pursuit of this goal, they join hands with this group and ask other students to do likewise. Why wasn't the strike called be- fore school started? Then the la- bor leaders would have had my sympathy if the strike had con- tinued after theecommencement of the school year. Then these people could look at you and say with a straight face: "I was not attempting to hinder your edu- cational pursuits. I was only try- ing to better myself." CHECK INTO SOME of the facts of the strike if you really want an eye-opener. The plant employees have wages compar- able to those in outside industry. They have the "guaranteed an- nual wage" In effect. Have they ever been laid off for lack of work? They have insurance, hos- pitalization. etc. They said they were after bargaining rights. What does this really mean to. you ,the student? Even more of that with which you were faced this past week. There will be more strikes, and more disruption of the func- tions of the University in its at- tempt to give you the best edu- cation possible. Do you really want to sanction this? The University is not an indus- try, and cannot be run on the same principles. When these peo- ple took jobs with the University, they should have realized that they were taking on the responsi- bility of helping students further their education. By striking, they have completely failed to accept that responsibility. Labor unions, with the strike as their weapon, have been the source of much of the social reform in this country, and I laud them for this. But there are no deplor- able conditions to rectify here at the University. Therefore, I cannot sympathize with this strike and I cannot comprehend how any informed student is able to do so once he has looked at the whole story. -Richard G. King Law '69 o r1 11 A~k Fi TI !3 r+7.-. -URBAN LEHNER What Is FC H.iding? "HE INCREDIBLE muddle of incongrui- ties which for the past year has typi- ed the policies of Interfraternity uncil leaves many of us wondering out the intentions and goals of that ganization. IFC officers have continual- demonstrated a desire to obscure or 'oid the pertinent issues which have ne and again been presented to them. eoccupation with preserving the rapid- deteriorating public image of the fra- rnity system appears to be their sole )al. Several recent incidents exemplify .is cover-up attitude. A study of rushee ews toward the fraternities was pub- hed recently by IFC, but not before an 'C vice-president had edited out a sec- n which he considered to be "unim- rtant to the report." It was later found it that the officer had deleted a part of .e report which mentioned the two fra- rnities most often complained about by .shees. The vice-president was a mem- r of one of these two fraternities. Another incident involved a high- nking IFC officer who told The Daily st year that he did not think it was the sponsibility of IFC to actively promote tegration in fraternities as is currently ing done by Panhellenic in sorority .sh. Significantly, this same officer is om a fraternity house which has been vestigated by IFC for possible discrimi- ition in membership selection. ANOTHER EXAMPLE of contradictions in IFC's policies has been in its atti- tude toward expansion of the fraternity system at the University. Last year they repeatedly voiced concern that because of a poor rush, expansion might be un- wise due to the fact that several houses were experiencing difficulty in getting pledges. This year, however, IFC is work- ing with at least one national fraternity in an attempt to set up a colony here. In the light of the closing of the Acacia house because of dwindling membership, expansion is merely replacing mediocrity with mediocrity. IFC's .actions thus become inconsis- tent with previous policy statements, and weaken many of the smaller, struggling houses. It now appears that despite Sage's forecast of "the best rush ever" rush may in fact experience a further numerical decline. THE MbST flagrant example of IFC's cover-up attitude has been the treat- ment of the complaints about the inef- ficiency of the Fraternity Buyers Asso- ciation which has caused higher than necessary food bills at several houses. IFC officers have repeatedly defended FBA publically while privately admitting that the organization is being in com- petently managed. Needless to say the removal of several houses from social probation by IFC last Thursday was just another in a series of "The latest Pt Autonomy To The Editor: DAILY NEWS STORIES and editorials of the past week have talked of "The principle of University autonomy" champion- ed by the Board of Regents; your writers try to, balance this lofty principle against workers' rights to collective bargaining. This is a completely unneces- sary task, because the Regents do not now, and never have endorsed University autonomy, w h ic h should be autonomy of all those who teach, learn or work here to collectively set the rules and goals of their activity. Rather, the Regents have stood - as last year's struggle over class ranking tells .is -for- the complete submission of the Uni- versity to the Regents. Their true principle - Regen- tal autonomy - is a simple beau- rocratic yearning for all-embrac- ing power along with no account- ability to anyone. Hopefully this goal of theirs is shared by no one else connected with the Univer- sity. -Peter Steinberger, Grad Macbird To The Editor: j RE D WITH interest the Daily, review of the play "MacBird." Mr. Appel and Miss Richmond tell us that: "The failing of the play is that nothing serious is suggested to the audience that they do not already feel before seeing it. Like much protest, it finds the faults but it cannot tell how to alleviate them." I don't know how many people on campus are acquainted with Barbara Garson's politics, but when she wrote the play "Mac- Bird," she was a member of the Berkeley Independent Socialist Club. In other words, she consid- ered herself to be a classic, revo- lutionary Marxist. What this means, is that it is through the words of the socialist worker that we learn of Mrs. Garson's final solution to the American problem. ACTUALLY MRS. GARSON is at least partially to ,blame' for making the didactic content of the play unclear. By casting the work- er as a Polonis, nothing that he says will be taken seriously. ofish joke , Book Interest To The Editor IN THE DAILY (September 9) an article appeared which was entitled "Study Shows Fair Local Book Prices." Part of the article contained quotes by R o b e r t Graham, manager of Follet's Book Store. Mr. Graham was quoted as say- ing, "When we have an opportu- nity to pass greater benefits on, to University students, we sure do." Mr. Graham's statement re- minded me of an incident which involved my roommate from last year, a dental student. He had to buy some special .graph paper which the dental book store was out of. Realizing Follet's sincere interest in stu- dents, he decided to patronize their store. My roommate told the clerk what he needed, was given the pa- per, and proceeded to the cash- ier. He was about to pay for the paper when someone from the managerial staff came running up to the check stand and said, Wait! There will be other dental stu- dents coming in for this paper. The price just went up to $2.20 in- stead of $2.10. INSTANCES LIKE THIS one would convince any student that Follett's is truely interested in "passing greater benefits on to University students." Sure they are. -=Joel Verbin Second year student in Social Work Bernstein To the Editor: THANKS TO R. A. PERRY for a perceptive review of.Tues- day evening's concert by the New "York Philharmonic under Leonard Bernstein's direction. Mr. Perry did leave unspoken some criticism that should be voiced here. Not only did the sections of the or- chestra fail to blend- with each other in the Mahler "Symphony," but the various string and wind groups did not agree within.them- selves on matters of rhythm, at- tack, phrasing, intonation, and vibrato. Moreover, Jeannette Za- rou, the soloist, was largely in- audible through what would seem to have been no fault of her own. In the Yves "Symphony" ragged- ness of ensemble was present but tip ---- .a r ,: Vr t. et .4 S P ^ _ L.E i 1 !4 - h, AuT or-,g f i R'LICY' + .°:, s )I 4 bI. E 1 41