Seventy-Seven Years of Editorial Freedom
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Editorials printed in The Michigan Daily express the individual opinions of staff writers
or the editors. This must be noted in all reprints.
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 1967
NIGHT EDITOR: DAVID KNOKEI
I
Allowing Residential College
A Free Hand to Experiment
HE RESIDENTIAL COLLEGE commu-
nity has stated that a curfew of wom-
en's hours is inconsistent with the phil-'
osophy and aims of the college. The en-
tire community of the Residential Col-
lege is in agreement on this issue. Now,
the college as a whole will pursue the
abolition of hours through the proper
University channels.
Before Mr. Feldkamp and others make
their decisions concerning this matter,
it would be wise to re-examine the nature
and intent for establishing the college.
The college, as commissioned by the
Regents, is simply a large laboratory in-
corporating many individual experiments
concerning curricula, community govern-
ment and social attitudes. The Lit School
has given the college a spirit of academic
freedom in which to explore the prob-
lems and values of certain curriculum
innovation. The Regents have -given the
Residential College an administration es-
tablished in such a way to discover the
feasibility of merging administration with
the rest of the academic community
where defined lines. of authority need
not exist.
SOCIAL EXPERIMENTATION, however,
has been stifled. The maintaining of
the University's ideals of social status quo
within the Residential College hinders
the innovation and progression of experi-
ments in academics and administration.
The very purpose of this experiment is
to find out whether certain things will
work. This task is given to the Residen-
tial College because it is felt that the risk
is too great to take on a mass scale.
Eliminating women's hours within
the Residential College is certainly no
more revolutionary than pass-fail courses
for freshmen. And besides, such elimina-
tion does not necessarily mean that it is
the right thing to do. Perhaps pass-fail
courses for undergrads will prove an
anti-stimulating phenomenon. Likewise,
perhaps the elimination of all women's
hours will propagate promiscuity.
In the same manner those who must
give the college the official OK are not
saying that they believe it is the right
thing to do. They are saying that it is
the correct action so that the experiment
can discover the favorable social milieu.
The Residential College community has
established a system of review and re-
call which could, feasibly, institute
stricter restrictions on women's hours
than presently exist in the University
system-if they find out that such ac-
tion is the right thing to do.
BUT IF THEY are denied this privilege
to investigate and experiment thej
University is undermining the very rea-
son the college was established. Subse-
quently the University will not only fail
to receive any conclusions concerning
social attitudes, it will also fail to ob-
tain valuable information in the area
of academics or administration.
Thus it seems but a simple matter to
decide whether or not this experiment
should be granted the right to experi-
ment. The money, the planning, the
work already finished on the new con-
cept would all be meaningless if the tools
of experimentation are denied those who
have been commissioned to experiment.
-JIM HECK
TWELVE-HUNDRED UNIVERSITY STUDENTS are
currently walking around campus with Visa cards in
their pockets. Before today is over, 1200 more may have
joined their ranks. Ultimately, if sales proceed at the same
rate as SGC's optimism, ten to 20,000 University students
wi11 become card-carrying capitalists.
Visa is a new "deal" being offered to college students
across the country-on this side of the Mississippi any-
way. And at least at a surface glance, there seems to be
something in the deal for everyone.
Visa is the registered trade mark for Shield Interna-
tional Corporation, a Washington, D.C. firm which lists
its objectives as "to aid both students and parents who
are faced with the high cost of a college education" and
"to increase student trade and establish customer loyalty
for both local and national businesses interested in the
college market."
A VISA MEMBERSHIP costs $1.50, and the imme-
diate rebate on this -purchase is a card and a "college
guide" listing the names of the participating merchants
and their individual discount offers. Also included in the
guide are further coupons entitling member students to
additional savings in various forms.
Sound reasonable enough? It is-if you don't look to
closely.
First of all, the 100 or so merchants offering dis-
counts are not confined to the University campus area.
Most are not even within walking distance of the campus
facilities. As a matter of fact, a vast majority of them
are located in the outer limits of Ann Arbor, in Ypsilanti.
Detroit, or even East Lansing.
Second, discounts have a minimal range: five to ten
per cent. This is, at best, a token gesture. Discounts are
applicable to cash purchases only and exclude sale and
fair trade items. Take, for example, Sam's Store on E.
Washington, well-known for its supply of Levis. Here is
seemingly good opportunity to use Visa discounts. But,
Levis are fair trade items and not eligible for Visa dis-
counts.
Further, Visa has made no in-roads into cutting the
cost of the greatest student expenses - books and food.
Bookstore discounts are noticeably lacking from the
Visa list in the Ann Arbor area (one Wayne bookstore
appears) and the only participating grocery is in Ypsil-
anti. Movie theaters offering reduced rates are also con-
fined to the Detroit area.
STUDENTS WITH CARS may find Visa membership
a small savings, but for University students who restrict
their shopping sprees to South University and State
Streets, with an occasional trek to Main Street, Visa
cards will prove relatively useless.
Visa, however, does have a significantly redeeming
feature. Shield International Corporation sells cards to
SGC at a cost of 90 cents per card. SGC in turn sells
the cards to students for $1.50 - a profit of 60 cents.
Twenty cents goes to the student actually' selling the
card, while the other forty cents fills the SGC treasury.
If student participation in Visa is high, SGC stands
to make a substantial gain: 10,000 Visa card sales will
net them $4,000. Although student benefit from Visa
cards themselves is negligible, benefit derived from SGC
activities could be conceivably worthwhile.
The only tangible plan SGC has at the moment is
the purchase of a Volkswagen Microbus to be used for
communication. But other more noble ventures are in
the works. Students purchasing Visa cards should be
aware the SGC will receive the greatest gains. Discounts
could bring the student a one-hundred per cent return
on his initial $1.50 investment. The question becomes one
of open support for SGC.
THIS IS A CRUCIAL semester for student govern-
ment at the University. SGC as it now exists may be
obsolete before the year is out, and a student government
organization independent of the University's Office of
Student Affairs will need funds in order to operate.
Visa is of questionnable merit. SGC is in a tenuous
position financially and politically.
And one SGC member commented last night, "I don't
plan to buy a Visa card and I don't know of any SGC
members who have as yet. .
It seems to be up to the students to decide the fate
of both Visa and SGC.
I
I
A
Old Authors Never Lie: They Fade A way
Changing Clothes at South Quad
THE LONG OVER-DUE rejection of dress
regulations by South Quad Council,
while hardly a "landmark decision," is
still somewhat gratifying to advocates of
student power as well as those who don't
give a damn about clothes.
Dress regulations were one of the more
anachronistic rules foisted upon an un-
willing student body. For years there
have been complaints about these rules,
but no one has dared to do anything
about them. Now, following the wake of
SGC and JJC in asserting the student
voice in their affairs, South Quad Coun-
cil has taken but a timid step forward.
Dress regulations for years annoyed
.dormitory residents, serving no educa-
tional or social purpose. They were an un-
necessary attempt to stamp middle-class
norms on these residents, and their abo-
lition is a welcome to all those welcom-
ing a spirit of reform.
HOPEFULLY, THIS SPIRIT will not go
unnoticed by other dorm councils.
However, abolishing dress regulations is
only one of many necessary reforms. One-
of which is the present cafeteria policy
which could stand reforming. Currently
all freshmen are forced to eat food which
is not only remarkably unpleasant but
needlessly expensive. Some arrangement
allowing students to pay on a pro-rated
basis of number of meals eaten should
be devised, thus not punishing students
who wish to eat elsewhere. While housing
administrators might argue that this sys-
tem would be more expensive because of
waste, they could easily determine the
expected attendance rate for meals as
accurately as they do now.
They might also consider a 'freer sign-
out policy for women. Radcliffe has such
a policy which allows students to stay
anywhere at night, and need only leave
their address in a sealed envelope, to be
used foPemergencies.
The actions taken by the dorm coun-
cils have not been terribly daring up to
now, and there is little reason to expect
that they will change significantly in
the future. They have as a rule, followed
leads given by their dorm directors or
by the unspoken policy of the University.
Abolition of dress regulations may be
a start, but certainly South Quad Coun-
cil is capable of something a bit more
imaginative than this.
-RON LANDSMAN
-LYNNE KILLEN
By JENNY STILLER
SOME THIRTY years ago, four
European writers of consider-
able note got together and pub-
lished "Authors Take Sides on
the Spanish War," a collection of
opinions, on the Spanish Civil
War solicited from 150 British
writers.The authors queried over-
whelmingly favored the republi-
can Loyalists, although there
were one or two exceptions. (Ezra
Pound spoiled the unaminity a bit
by telling his fellow artists, "You
are all had. Spain is an emotional
luxury to a gang of sap-headed
dilettantes.")
Nonetheless, the responses were
mostly heartening to the book's
Old Left editors., It even sold
about as well as could be expect-
ed, but when the civil war ended
with Franco victorious, and peo-
ple's minds turned to the more
pressing business of World War
II, everybody forgot about the
book.
But a few remembered it. And
when author-critic Cecil Woolf
and historian John Bagguley re-
read the book and compared their
memories to contemporary news-
papers, it was inevitable that it
would only be a matter of time
before "Authors Take Sides on
Vietnam" would be compiled and
published.
NOT TOO surprisingly, the 259
multi-national authors who re-
sponded to Woolf and Bagguley's
questionnaire viewed the United
States' role in Vietnam much the
same way that their predecessors
v i e w e d Generalissimo Franco's
fight for the control of Spain. Of
the 72 writers whose answers
could be judged to be unequivo-
cally for or against the U.S. pres-
ence in Vietnam, only six sup-
ported the official U.S. govern-
ment position.
Who these six are, however, is
revealing. The only American of
the group is John Updike, while
the other five, all British, are
Kingsley Amis, Robert Conquest,
Rupert Croft-Cooke, Roy Harrod,
and Auberon Waugh.
When asked "Are you for, or
against, the intervention of the
United States in Vietnam?" and
"How, in your opinion, should the
conflict in Vietnam be resolved?"
novelist Amis responded in a man-
ner that would make the Secre-
tary of Defense proud of him:
"Those who favor American
withdrawal must either admire
Communism, or suppose that it is
not imperialistic and aggressive,
Old Novelists for the war: Anis and Updike
or both. I can do neither, so I sup-
port America's present policy. It
may well be impossible to defeat
the Communists in the field. For-
tunately this is not necessary.
They have simply to be convinced
that they can never win. They will
collapse then."
NOVELIST, POET, and essayist
Updike proved more reflective in
his response:
"Like most Americans, I am un-
comfortable about our military
adventure in South Vietnam. But
in honesty I wonder how much of
the discomfort has to do with its
high cost, in lives and money, and
how much with its moral legiti-
macy. I do not believe that the
Viet Cong and Ho dhi Minh have
a moral edge over us. I am' for
our intervention if it does some
good, specifically if it enables the
people of South Vietnam to seek
their own political future. It is
absurd to suggest that a village in
the grip of guerrillas has freely
chosen, or that we owe it to his-
tory to bow before a wave of the
future engineered by terrorists."
But the answers of those op-
posed to the Vietnam war are also,
enlightening. Since few artists-
especially writers - make a name
for themselves before they are
thirty, and since a substantial
number of those responding to the
questionnaire have been establish-
ed liberals since the forties, the
book may practically be read as
a study in the art of moving from
angry young manhood to cynical
middle age.
AS THEY approach middle age,
most young radicals gyrate to-
ward one of"two extremes-refus-
ing to mature politically or "sell-
ing out." It is only a few rare
individuals who are fortunate
enough to achieve the golden
mean of growing older gracefully,
drawing on the experience' of the
added years to become calmer
without losing their original dedi-
cation to liberal principles. Of all
the authors who "take sides on
Vietnam" in the book, Jules Feif-
fer perhaps comes closest to find-
ing the golden mean, while the
two extremes are personified by
Norman Mailer and W. H. Auden.,
Perhaps because his reputation
is based chiefly on his current
output rather than on his
fhast successes, cartoonist-novelist-
playwright Feiffer's response is
not likely to startle or dismay any
of his admirers. His readers know
Feiffer to be a practical, clear-
sighted liberal who despite a
whimsically pessimistic view of
humanity has not lost his sense
of humor, and his statement on
Vietnam lives up to the image.
"The solution to the problem is
.so simple that I'm amazed it
hasn't occurred to anyone else,"
he wrote. "Lyndon Johnson should
go on nationwide TV and say to
the American people, 'Ah have
goofed,' thus ending the only real
aggression in Vietnam: our own.
If he brings to his withdrawl
speech the same tears of regret
he brings to his escalation speech-
es, the American people might
very well unite behind him and he
probably will not be impeached."
BUT TO THE admirers of either
Mailer or Auden, the spectacle of
one talented, intelligent man
striving through a grotesque par-
ody of his former self to regain
his lost youth, and another mouth-
ing platitudes to explain his "sell-
out" is both saddening and sober-
ing.
Mailer, whose reputation kas a
novelist was matched only by that
as resident crank during the hey-
day of Greenwich Village, could
come up with nothing better than,
"The truth is, maybe we need a
war. It may be the last of the
tonics. From Lydia Pinkham to
Vietnam in 60 years, or bust."
He went on to elaborate on a
supposedly tongue-in-cheek alter-
native - having "wars which 'are
like happenings . . . every sum-
mer. . . . Let us buy a tract of
land in the Amazon ... and throw
in marines and seabees and Air
Force, scuba divers for the river
bottom, . . . invite them all.
"We'll have war games with real
bullets and real flame throwers,
real hot-wire correspondents on
the spot, TV with phone-in aud-
ience participation, amateur war-
movie-film contests for the sol-
diers, discotheques, Playboy clubs,
pictures of the corpses for pay-
TV, you know what I mean-let's
get the hair on the toast for
breakfast."
If he wasn't making himself so
ridiculous, we could feel sorry for
him. As it is, poor old Norm just
gets written off as a total loss.
BUT MOST saddening of all is
the case of the young radical who,
like Auden, "sells out." Former
Britisher Auden, himself one of
the editors of "Authors Take
Sides on the Spanish War," told
the editors of the current book,
"Why writers should be- canvassed
for their opinion on controversial
political issues, I cannot imagine.
Their views have no more author-
ity than -those of any reasonably,
well-educated c i t i z e n. Indeed,
when read in bulk, the statements
made by writers, including the
greatest, would seem to indicate
that literary talent and political
common sense are rarely found
together."
Despite his changed attitude as
to whether men of letters should
comment on political affairs,
Auden went on to give his own
opirdon of the Vietnam conflict.
"War is a corrupting business,
but it is dishonest of those who
demand the immediate with-
drawal of all American troops to
pretend that their motives are
purely humanitarian. They believe,
rightly or wrongly, that it would
be better if the Communists won.
"My answer to your question is,
I suppose, that I believe a nego-
tiated peace,. to which the Viet
Cong will have to be a party, to
be possible, but not yet, and that,
therefore, American troops, alas,
must stay in Vietnam until it is.
But it would be absurd to call
this answer mine. It simply means
that I am an American citizen
who reads The New York Times."
Thirty years ago, Auden edited
a book of authors' political opin-
ions, co-authored a pacifistic
play, "On the Frontier," and
championed the republican cause
in the . clear-cut, facists-versus-
leftists Spanish Civil War. Today
we find him questioning why
anyone should be interested in
what authors think of politics,
indulging in simplistic interpreta-
A
'I
4
I
Norman Mailer
tions that make any pacifist
"rightly or wrongly" a Commun-
ist sympathizer, and forcing the
smoky issues of Vietnam into a
"clear-cut" mold so that he can
live with his view of theni. It is
a sad progression to watch.
The Auden-Mailer phenomenon
is unfortunately not an uncom-
mon one among men of letters. It
is widely recognized that the sen-
sitive; intelligent individual faces
in late adolescence the crisis of
"growing up absurd." What is less
accepted but just as prevalent is
the process of aging, which all
too often brings with it tile steady
deterioration of either his talent,
his, common sense, or, most often,
his ideals.
I
There's No Business Like
. . .
IN A PRELUDE to picking candidates to
fill the vaunted positions of their
soon-to-be established Business Hall of
Fame, the University's Business School
has conducted a survey among business
executives to ascertain who they consider
to be America's best businessmen of all
time.
The executives used a 10 point scale
(first place 10 points, second place nine,
etc.) to rate these behemoths of busi-
ness on their possession of what they
considered to be traits that are endear-
ing to all modern businessmen.
The survey also asked the executives
to choose 10 men considered to be the
top business scoundrels of all time. Five
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Daily except Monday during regular academic school
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of the men chosen as the greatest scoun-
drels (William Randolph Hearst, J. Pier-
pont Morgan, John D. Rockefeller, Cor-
nelius Vanderbilt and Andrew Carnegie)
were also considered to be among the
top businessmen.
AND MODERN BUSINESS is disturbed
by their low reputation among to-
day's college generation?
-R.A.K.
Happy 20th, CIA
WASHINGTON, Sept. 18 (The New York
Times) - The Central Intelligence
Agency was praised by President John-
son and Vice-President' Humphrey today
for its 20 years as the No. 1 American
intelligence service ...
"You can't expect in a free society to
be immune from criticism," Mr. Hum-
phrey said in an extemperaneous ad-
dress. "But remember," he said, "if you
weren't hing criticized. you wouldn't h
Letters:East Quad Council Defends Itself
To the Editor:
YOUR REPORT of the Sept. 19
S meeting of the Pro-Temp
Community Government of the
Residential College was marred by
inaccurate coverage. This is es-
pecially true with regard to your
account of my brief participation,
which was only to clarify East
Quadrangle Council's p o s i t i o n
with regard to the Residential
College government's autonomy.
What I said was that the Resi-
dential College's autonomy would
not be jeopardized by joining East
Quad Council.- I stated that we
were sharing the same facilities
and for that reason we should
cooperate, not that "we're not
separate."
In response to the, question
raised by the Residential College
students as to what sanctions the
East Quad Council would take if
they did not join, I replied that
East Quad Council had not pro-
nosr edan sanctinns hecause it
tional, have produced a misunder-
standing and malice which we
have been trying to avoid. In the
future, The Daily might avoid
misrepresentations of this sort by
sending a more experienced re-
porter to obtain correct informa-
tion for your articles.
--R. Braccialarghe, '70
Residential College
To the Editor:
WANT to express the apprecia-
tion of many of us here at the
Residential College for The Daily's
interest and sympathetic report-
ing.
However, I do think Tuesday's
article gave some misleading im-
pressions. For example, our small
carpeted classrooms are not the
Student Hilton by any means: the
carpets are made from a thread-
bare cut-up lounge carpet of many
year's use; the acoustic ceilings
are necessary to make the base-
ment rooms usable. Even at its
clude the average student and
make this an Honors College. If
the RC works, we want it to
work for typical students. If RC
students come to have more en-
thusiasm for ideas, if they learn
more or integrate their knowledge
better, we want to be able to see
if the college itself was responsi-
ble, and we could never do this
if we had too much of an elite
in the first place.
IT IS TRUE that students have
a large voice here, but our em-
phasis is somewhat different. We
have leapfrogged right over "stu-
dent power." which is a movement,
a reaction to student powerless-
ness, by starting with the premise
that students are not clients to
be administered to, but responsi-
ble members 'of the RC commu-
nity. The development of this com-
munity is our preoccupation, and
this is what should be stressed.
These kinds of misconceptions
can still encourage opposition to
'.. Ar i- . '" . .n '. r -+T n a +n ri
of the "automated" workers for
six months and while there cer-
tainly was mechanization the
worst that can be said about the
job is that it was boring.
Contrary to the implications of
Miss Eiker's "sensitive and bril-
liant" roommate, who is, I imag-
ine, merely naive, we were not
overworked, breaks being frequent.
I witnessed no "bitterness and
jeering;" and such words as "rats,
fear and resentment" are sheer
hyperbole.'
-Meegan Knutson '68
Reply
To the Editor:'
AFTER READING the letter of
Mr. Jay Calahan in The Daily
(Sept. 5), it became apparent that
he was more interested in meet-
ing the requirements of his dra-
matic speech writing class than
in discussing the issues at hand.
Between the ruffles of sarcastic
understanding of the issues, Mr.
Calahan missed the proverbial
boat.
The issues are these: It is in-
conceivable that the IHA proposal,
although aimed at helping the
residence hall employes obtain col-
lective bargaining, could have
significantly influenced the out-
come of the strike.
WHAT VAS conceivable was
that a students' strike which re-
moved services from other stu-
dents (yes, including paper plates
and being late for classes) could
only have an adverse effect on
the students themselves.
According to Mr. Calahan, all I
am interested in is making sure
I'm not eating on paper plates.
This is an indication of how deep-
ly he read my letter. The main
point, of the letter was that the
IHA was acting in a selfish man-
ner in asking the students not to
try to improve their own situa-
r!