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November 30, 1967 - Image 4

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The Michigan Daily, 1967-11-30

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Seventy-Seven Years of Editorial Freedom
EDITED AND MANAGED BY STUDENTS OF THE UNIVERSTTY OF MICHIGAN
UNDER AUTHORITY OF BOARD IN CONTROL OF STUDENT PUBLICATIONS
Where Opinions Are Free, 420 MAYNARD ST., ANN ARBOR, MICH. NEWS PHONE: 764-0552
Truth Will Prevail
Editorials printed in The Michigan Daily express the individual opinions of staff writers
or the editors. This must be noted in all reprints.

ROGER RAPOPORT:
Cutler's Last Stance

.......... ...t.-x. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 1967

NIGHT EDITOR: W. REXFORD BENOIT

Feldkamp's Distorted View
Of Student Power and SGC

1JHE UNIVERSITY ADMINISTRATION'S
fear that the elimination of women's
hours will be construed as a surrender to
student pressure, has clouded their view
of the conduct rules situation and served
to widen the credibility gap between stu-
dents and administrators.
Last Tuesday University Housing Direc-
tor John Feldkamp sent a rather poorly-
thought-out letter to all dorm students
and staff, which feebly attempted to
distort the issue by indicting both Stu-
dent Government Council and The Daily
for "misinforming" students.
Feldkamp states, "Because innocent
students may be harmed due to mis-
understandings, this letter is to make.
clear to residents that University regula-
tions are being and will continue to be
enforced." In fact, however, the regula-
tions are not being enforced. Women are
daily violating curfew with no disciplin-
ary action being taken.
FELDKAMP'S LETTER is an empty
threat because within the present
legal mechanism, the University must
rely on the student controlled Joint Ju-
diciary Council to enforce the rules. And
the University's conduct rules, which
have not been approved by students, are
unenforceable since JJC has said it will
not convict students for violating rules
in which students had no part in mak-
ing.
Presently, the only recourse left to
the administration is severe sanctions
against students who violate University
conduct rules. However, expulsions, sus-
pensions, and similar actions will not be
tolerated by students. In light of JJC's
legitimate judiciary power these become
extra-legal sanctions.
FELDKAMP'S DIFFICULTIES with stu-
dent organizations stems from the fact
that his view of the role of student
organizations has changed little since

the time he left SGC as its president in
1960. At that time SGC was merely an
administrative arm of the overall Uni-
versity administration, and Council's
right to act as a voice for the students
in setting their own regulations was un-
heard of.
Last year he would have laughed at
the thought of SGC being able to com-
mand enough respect and power to act
as a significant force in marshalling
student responsibility to a point where
students have become actively concerned
in obtaining control over the rules which
will influence their lives at the Univer-
sity. Now, faced with the veritable suc-
cess of SGC, he must wake up and
achieve a crammed education in the field
of student power and attitudes, while
trying to impede the progress of students'
acquisition of power and responsibility.
In the process, Feldkamp has stumbled
upon the Reed and Knauss Reports, and
is trying to cite these surveys in his
attempt to delay a legitimization of stu-
dents' power. He maintains that present
student-made rules are invalid because
they do not emanate from a "representa-
tive student * agency" which he stated
"was the primary concern of the Knauss
Report." Yet what can be more repre-
sentative than the petitioning by fresh-
man women in nearly every women's resi-
dence unit for the elimination of fresh-
man hours? Autocratic rules made by
administrators are not more "represen-
tative".
IT IS FELDKAMP, not SGC or the Daily,
who is misinforming students. The
right of students to make their.own con-
duct rules should be granted immediately.
Students are growing weary of the delays.
If the administration refuses to act, stu-
dents should engage in mass resistence.
-STEVE NISSEN
-LEE WEITZENKORN

QNE DAY LAST summer Vice-President for Student
Affairs Richard L. Cutler stopped for a moment in
the parking area behind the administration building to
chat with former Student Government Council President
Ed Robinson and Voice leader Eric Chester.
During the course of the discussion a Brinks truck
rolled up to the back door of the administration build-
ing. By the time Brinks men had emerged from the ad-
ministration building, a University graduate, George
White joined the discussion.
White saw the Brinks men (about 40 feet away) carry
out the money with their guns drawn. As a prank, White
yelled out at them "shoot, shoot."
Cutler turned and ran over to a nearby row of
parked cars where he crouched down out of gun range.
WHETHER CUTLER was joking or fleeing, the in-
cident nonetheless reflects something of the changed
nature of the Office of Student Affairs this fall. The
OSA has decided to avoid any sort of massive con-
frontation on crucial campus issues so far this year.
The policy is based on necessity. Last year the OSA
proved so irresponsible and ineffectual when it tried to
squelch student aspirations that it only isolated itself
from meaningful campus support.
Last fall the OSA tried to handle by fiat the first
controversial matter, a subpoena from the House Com-
mittee on UnAmerican Activities for the names of 65
students and faculty in three left wing groups. It turned
the names in without even conferring with the students
or faculty involved. The result: denunciation by every
meaningful group from SGC to the Lit school faculty
student elimination of membership lists, and almost
total erosion of support from key faculty and student
leaders.
Then when students started to get militant about
draft ranking, Cutler tried to get tough. He issued a ban
on disruptive sit-ins. The result: 1,500 students sat-in
and President Hatcher had to bail Cutler out by not
implementing the sit-in ban.
In February Cutler tried to use his seat on the Board
in Control of Student Publications to block appoint-
ment of new editors because he "wanted to provoke a
board crisis that would close The Daily down." He didn't
"like the direction the paper was going in." The result:
defeat, plus further undermining of student and faculty
support of the OSA.

IN THE LONG RUN all this has worked to the
benefit of the students, for this fall the OSA has found
itself unable to exert any kind of paternalistic controls
over the students.
To begin with, Student Government Council an-
nounced it was abolishing all University-written rules
over student conduct and letting individual living units
set their own standards. Furthermore, the highest cam-
pus appelate body-the Joint Judiciary Council-refused
to enforce any regulations not made by students.
Cutler, of course, tried to halt the SGC move. He
drafted a stern letter of rebuke and suggested possible
discipline for students who broke existing rules.
SINCE JJC HAD already indicated it wasn't enforc-
ing rules, Cutler's only hope was to get faculty units to
suspend students who violated rules. So he called in the
Faculty Senate Advisory Committee on University Af-
.fairs, and the Assistant and Associate Deans of the Uni-
versity's schools and colleges. In separate meetings he
tried to get them to endorse the stiff letter. At one point
he even asked the deans if they would consider issuing
the statement themselves.
The faculty leaders refused and generally indicated
the original letter was too strong. Cutler ultimately
shortened and toned down the letter and issued it to
SGC under his own signature. He asked SGC to consider
"a more complete resolution of the underlying issues."
But the request was ignored. Some women's housing
units announced they were abolishing hours and a few
girls came in late. Frederick House in South'Quadrangle
allowed women visitors in beyond normal hours. (albeit
the guests turned out to be people like SGC officer Ruth
Baumann). And SGC decided to "abolish" campus driv-
ing regulations which means that students won't have
to buy parking permits next semester.
OBVIOUSLY, ALL THIS would lay the groundwork
for disciplinary action by the OSA. But there was noth-
ing that unit could do. The faculty leaders who are
wisely committed to a policy of not disciplining students
for non-academic reasons weren't going to suspend a
woman for coming in late.
The Joint Judiciary Council was firmly pledged to
not enforcing regulations that weren't made by stu-
dents, i.e., visiting hours, driving regulations.
Fortunately, the Residence Hall Board of Governors

solved the OSA's most pressing dilemma: what to do
with women who violate hours regulations? The Board
abolished hours and Cutler is expected to ratify the
decision any day now.
BUT THAT DOESN'T solve OSA's more general
problem: what to do with the general principle that
students can ignore existing University regulations and
make their own rules unilaterally?
One immediate problem is what to do about Frederick
House having women visitors contrary to University
"rules."
A former campus SGC President, John Feldkamp
(presently University Housing Director), has come up
with a scheme. He talks of terminating the contract of
a dorm resident who violates University rules. But this
can hardly be construed as punishment, since few stu-
dents would really mind getting out of the dorm into an
apartment anyway.
It also appears doubtful that OSA will be able to
enforce driving regulations next semester. Again, Joint
Judiciary Council says it will not uphold the conviction
of any student (for driving without a permit) by the
student driving court.
The OSA3 even lost a financial battle with 171 stu-
dents who refuesed to pay a $10 monthly rent hike for
September. The married students successfully argued
that they were given insufficient notice on the increase
for their University housing.
THIS ALL SEEMS TO indicate that the students are
winning control over their own non-academic lives.
The Regents, of course, consider the old University
regulations in effect. But without the support of the
student constituency (SGC, JJC, Grad Assembly, etc.)
the old rules are meaningless.
The irony in all this is that while Cutler has been
cast as a villain, he actually emerges as something of a
hero. For his blatant mistakes like the sit-in ban and
turning names into HUAC merely cut off the kind of
support OSA needed to become. effective in squelching
student demands.
As a result, OSA has laid low this semester and
watched students begin to take meaningful control over
their non-academic lives. The students are calling the
shots for the first time and there isn't very much the
OSA can do about it.

41

ON BOOKS: The Limits of Liberalism

Farewell to an Old Favorite

SO ZOLTON FERENCY has resigned.
The articulate, erstwhile Ferency, the
Hungarian thorn in the establishment
side of the Democratic Party in Michigan,
has stepped down as chairman of a badly
splintered and ,leaderless organization
that is foundering on the rocks of the
Lyndon Johnson war policy.
Ferency has been a longtime member,
of the party faithful. As the 1966 Demo-
cratic gubernatorial candidate, and a for-
mer workmen's compensation referee in
Detroit, he has proven to be a loyal, hard
working party member.
He can now forget about his contri-
butions. You see, Zolton Ferency has
thumbed his nose at a party hierarchy
that has buried itself in yea-saying dog-
ma, and lost itself in the mire of un-
questioning, unswaying loyalty. But it is
still a hierarchy, a powerful patronage
machine with formidable credentials and
power.
THE ONLY HOPE for Zolton Ferency,
who but for his improbable name and
the Republicans' implausible governor,

might actually have made it to the gov-
ernor's chair, is that what is popular with
the Democratic Party leaders will not be
popular with the voters. The only hope
for Zolton Ferency-and the so-called
"Concerned Democrats" who will meet
in Detroit next week to discuss the 1968
race-is that the state and the nation
are wiser -than the Democratic Party.
But G. Mennen Williams, Neil Staebler,
Frank Kelley, and Philip Hart-all John-
son supporters-are smart politicians,
and as long as they control the Michigan
Democratic Party, one of the more in-
fluential state organizations in the na-
tional party, they will devise a plan to
save their collective neck. New strategy,
publicity, slogans and catch-phrases may'
save the Democrats yet.
So, more than likely, Zolton Ferency, in
exercising his conscience, has signed his
death warrant within the party.
WE CAN ALL hope that this isn't true,
but we've got to face facts. So, Mr.
Ferency, good-bye. We'll miss you.
-DANIEL OKRENT

THE LIMITS OF POWER, by Sen.
Eugene J. McCarthy, 238 pages, Holt,
Rinehart, and Winston, $5.95.
ALL POLITICAL SIGNS and
portents indicate that this
afternoon Senator Eugene Mc-
Carthy (D-Minn) will announce
his firm resolve to challenge Pres-
ident Johnson in the primaries
next year. In hopes of finding a
comprehensive exposition of the
Senator's views on foreign policy
I turned to his latest book, "The
Limits of Power."
But I innocently forgot the de-
gree to which the dictum "publish
or perish"' pervades the political
as wellas the academic arena.
Consequently I was unprepared for
a confrontation with the various
literary devices used by McCarthy
in tandem with his publishers to
create a book of ostensibly re-
spectable length when ambition
and political timetable warrant-
exceptionally wide margins, large,
easy-to-read print, four blank di-
vider pages between chapters, and
lengthy, easy-to-write narrative
histories of every aspect of world
affairs the Senator discusses.
While the book is limited by a
relative scarcity of hardcore intel-
lectual content, some clue to Mc-
Carthy's political heritage is given
by his admission that if the book
"has a personal mark, it is that
which I believe Adlai Stevenson
would have made on American for-
eign policy, had his ideas and his
attitudes been translated into po-
litical reality."
NOWHERE IS THE universal
bankruptcy of American liberalism
more clearly indicated than in this
simple admission by McCarthy.
McCarthy is implicitly contending
that since Stevensonian policies
were not applied to the America
of the early Fifties for which they
were designed, it is therefore fit-
ting and proper to expropriate

them for a much different Amer-
ica of the late Sixties.
The gap between what Adlai
Stevenson tried to do in 1952 by
"talking sense to the American
people" and what the prime re-
quisities of lasting peace and in-
ternational development command
us to do in 1968, is the most al-
arming facet of McCarthy's book.
For, five years after the Test
Ban Treaty was signed with the
Soviet Union, little substantive
progress has been made toward
dismantling the mutual balance of
terror apparatus which still casts
a somber shadow over the world.
And despite this crying need, Mc-
Carthy is still sufficiently rooted
in the Cold War philosophy to talk
of "maintaining a deterrent
against Soviet aggression."
According to the political ana-
lysts, one of the major reasons
why McCarthy has offered him-
self 'as a candidate in opposition
to President Johnson lies in his
desire to convince the dissident
Democrats and alienated youth
that there is still a home for their
non-belligerent viewpoints in the
two-party system.
However, it has developed as a
political postulate in America that
a President--regardless of how
much he differs from his predeces-
sor-can only elaborate upon the
edifice created by his predecessor,
rather than create imaginative in-
novations in the political structure.
Consequently McCarthy is lim-
ited to building upon the anti-
Communist foundation of the past
four Administrations. These lim-
itations are easily recognized when
he talks with equanimity about the
CIA and the Military Assistance
Program being "more carefully
controlled."
The keynote of the Senator's
Presidential crusade will be a
forthright and rousing, "I will be
more careful." .

clave theory under which we will
hold the easily defended parts of
Vietnam until Hanoi is ready to
negotiate.
This manifestation of total
political cowardice amounts to
saying that while the cause in
Vietnam is not worth $30 billion
a year and 600,000 men, our na-
tional honor, which might be
sullied by a precipitious with-
drawal, is certainly worth $10 bil-
lion a year and 200,000 men.
SIf the war in Vietnam is as
wrong as McCarthy implies, then
the continued carnage - at even
a de-escalated rate - is no way
justified. If this the best that
the conscience wing of the Demo-
cratic Party can offer, then the
outlook forkAmerican politics is
indeed bleak.
HOWEVER, McCarthy perhaps
unwittingly redeems himself in
the concluding chapter, on China.
Instead of using the vague tactics
of political avoidance, which have
so clearly dominated the rest of
the book, McCarthy forthrightly
demolishes the anti-China hyster-
ia which has been welling up in
Washington.
Sounding erudite and a little
reminiscent of the 1966 China
teach-in here, McCarthy convin-
cingly demonstrates that China is
not a particularly outwardly
aggressive power and that what
expansionist tendencies China has
are primarily nationalistic, ra-
ther than inscrutably ideological.
It is this aspect of McCarthy
which leads one to wish his
Presidential endeavor well. It is
not that I have hopes that the
Minnesoeta Democrat will free us
from the policies of the present.
But that I merely nurture the
small hope that a Eugene Mc-
Carthy may help this nation avoid
some of the more apparent pit-
falls of the future.

Such intellectual blinders lead
to the remarkable innocence
which McCarthy frequently dis-
plays. For example, he talks seri-
ously about solving the problems of
Latin America through a renewal
of the Alliance for Progress and a
stress on better trade relations,
while totally ignoring the role-
which many regard as diletari-
ous-that American capital and
U.S. industry are playing in re-
gard to national development south
of the Rio Grande.

This equanimity in the face of
past commitment is especially
visible in the McCarthy position
-on Vietnam. In a short chapter, in-
cluded apparently only out of
necessity, McCarthy gives the
standard neo-Schlesinger argu-
ments against the war and then
opts for a moderate way out.
THE McCARTHY APPROACH
is to embrace the militarily and
diplomatically absurd - but po-
litically attractive - Gavin en-

*9

Protecting the Capitalists

THERE IS A dedicated hard-core of cul-
tural iconoclasts who staunchly main-
tain that the really significant news
never sullies the trivia-strewn front pages
of America's leading newspapers.
Buried amid the Shipping News in a
pre-Thanksgiving New York Times was'
Thi'e Daily is a member of the Associated Press and
Collegate Press Service.
Fall and winter subscription rate: $4.50 per term by
carrier ($5 by mail); $8.00 for regular academic school
year ($9 by mrail)'.
Daily except Monday during regular academic school
year.
Daily except Sunday and Monday during regular
summer session.
Second class postage paid at Ann Arbor, Michigan,
420 Maynard St, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 48104.
Editorial Staff
ROGER RAPOPORT, Editor
MVR.En)To R RTRF, . aaiina Erito

the revelation that the New York Stock
Exchange is replacing the three foot high
wrought-iron fence which has protected
the Exchange so effectively from ma-
raudering hippies, with a mammoth floor-
to-ceiling wall of bullet-proof glass.
Those radicals, who are certain that the
American capitalist system is actually
tottering under the immense weight of
its unresolveable contradictions, will be
glad to know that the ' financial
barons of Wall Street agree with them.
OBVIOUSLY, NEW YORK'S financial
leaders recognize that the left-wing
elements who have already defiled the
sacred walls of the Pentagon are capable
of doing anything for an encore.
-w .S.

FEIFFER

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