artr £irt h tan DaUl
Seventy-nine years of editorial freedom
Edited and mandged by students of the University of Michigan
the jaundiced eye
Thorndyke goes to class
by ron landsman
i
0 Maynard St., Ann Arbor, Mich.
Editorials printed in The Michigan Daily express
or the editors. This must be n
ESDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 1970
News Phone: 764-0552
the individual opinions of staff writers
toted in all reprints.
NIGHT EDITOR: NADINE COHODAS
Disorder in the court
E EXCESSIVE contempt sentences
' levied by Judge Julius Hoffman
against the defendants and lawyers of the
Chicago conspiracy trial set a dangerous
precedent which could, if upheld by the
appeals courts, mean an end to even the
pretense of justice in the American judi-
cial system.
It was clear to every witness of the
trial that Judge Hoffman's idea of con-
tempt - at least when it comes to radical
defendants with long hair - involves
nothing more than existing. From t h e
very beginning, his vindictive treatment
of the defendants and their lawyers was
calculated to provoke increasingly bitter
and vituperous outbursts from the men
who are now calling themselves the "Chi-
cago 10."
Hoffman's intent to vindicate himself
by punishing the men who have, in his
view, defied him, was apparent from
the two-month, 19-day sentence he gave
Lee Weiner, the Northwestern University
sociologist who spent three-fourths of his
time in court reading and the rest of the
time asleep. Weiner will be jailed one
month for remarks made in court one
day, another month for a sentence utter-
ed another day. All of his "offenses" were
committeed out of the presence of the
jury, and between them all of the re-
marks he made out loud during the 20-
week trial could be read by the judge
in less than six minutes.
INER IS an unusual man. He remain-
ed quiet as he heard witnesses 11 e
about him, and he kept silent while the
marshals brutalized fellow defendants
and the judge utilized a double standard
in almost all of his rulings.
Others, who could not keep quiet under
such circumstances, will suffer more.
David Dellinger, whose sentence totals
over two years, got 5 months for char-
acterizing a policeman's testimony about
his actions as "bullshit." Jerry Rubin,
with a total sentence almost as long,
got six months for protesting when mar-
shals were dragging his wife out of the
courtroom. Seven months of Tom Hay-
den's 14-month, 14-day sentence were
the result of his protests at the chaining
and gagging of Bobby Seale.
It is significant that the most serious
sentences were those given the one black
defendant and the lawyer who headed the
defense team. Hoffman cannot to this
day understand the bitterness with which
Bobby Seale labelled him a racist nor
can he comprehend that his own violent
response to Seale's accusation was es-
sentially just that. And the chief offense
with which attorneys William Kunstler
and Leonard Weinglass are charged seems
to be their failure to "control" the eight
defendants.
HOFFMAN'S TENDENCY to interpret
any laughter as aimed at him, and
any slightly unusual behavior as a per-
sonal affront, is so clear even from a
reading of the transcript that it may well
be grounds for a reversal on appeal. But
there are even more valid legal reasons
why the contempt charges should be re-
versed.
According to Kunstler, Weinglass and
their seven-man appeals team, a judge
may not hand down a sentence for sum-
mary contempt after the completion of a
trial. Summary contempt, they argue, was
intended to be a device for maintaining
order in the courtroom by removing bois-
terous spectators, or disciplining unruly
parties to the lawsuit. Only in Seale's
case - where a mistrial was also declared
- were the contempt charges used in
this fashion. For all the others, the trial
had legally ended before the judge acted.
Furthermore, the Supreme Court ruled
last year that no contempt sentence set
without a jury trial could exceed s i x
months. Judge Hoffman has attempted
to circumvent this ruling by sentencing
each person to a number of sentences of
one day to six months each, those sent-
ences to run consecutively - but the de-
fense lawyers feel they stand a good
chance of having him overruled by an ap-
peals court.
THERE IS A CHANCE, however, that the
appeals courts will respond to the
changing judicial climate and uphold
Hoffman's sentences. Other defense ap-
peals have met with little success in the
appeals courts of Judge Hoffman's circuit,
and the probable presence of Harrold
Carswell on the Supreme Court by t h e
time the appeal reaches that body just
might lead the conservative justices to
play politics with the appeal in order to
keep the ten dissidents in prison.
If this happens, we may expect to see
ever increasing numbers of political pri-
soners in jails throughout the land. Al-
ready, contempt and disbarment proceed-
ings against radical lawyers are in pro-
gress all over the country, and they can
only increase in popularity if Judge Hoff-
man's sentences are upheld.
Thus the ultimate effect of the Chi-
cago contempt citations may well be an
end to the freedom of the bar as a pro-
f ession, as an increasingly repressive gov-
ernment intimidates or imprisons those
few lawyers willing to defend "the poor,
the persecuted, the radical, the militant,
the blacks, the pacifists and the political
pariahs."
POLITICAL REPRESSION will become
inevitable if the poor and the radi-
cal are unable to find lawyers to defend
them. And when a judge can sentence a
defendant for as much as four years for
contempt, even if the jury acquits him
of the original charge, there is little hope
left for justice.
Whether or not the contempt sentenc-
es are upheld, Julius Hoffman has done
irreparable harm to the American system
of justice. Eyen if the "Chicago 10" are
allowed to go free, the trial itself has de-
stroyed young people's respect for t h e
system Hoffman represents. And if the
sentences are upheld, the fairness will
truly be gone from the adversary system
of justice, and night will have fallen on
the Bill of Rights.
-JENNY STILLER
Editorial Page Editor
HORNDYKE IS a simple type, even
for a freshman, so when he heard
about Howard Cameron's definition of what
a class was, he was confused.
Cameron had said, according to T h e
Daily, that, "a professor without students
constitutes a class. Students without a
professor constitute nothing."
Now Thorndyke was pretty new to the
University, and he hadn't been in all that
many classes, but he still thought he knew
enough to suspect what Cameron had said.
But being obsequieous, besides a little
slow, he was sure professors must know
what they're talking about.
He first went to his Webster's New
Collegiate Dictionary, which was no help
at all. "A body of students meeting regu-
larly to study the same subject or to at-
tend lectures or recitations," Webster.
wrote of classes. It didn't mention pro-
fessors at all. He would have to look
further.
For some reason Confuscius came to
mind. "What is the sound of one hand
clapping?" the sage had once asked. The
thought wouldn't leave his head, but since
he saw no connection at all his confusion
only mounted.
It was clear that we would have to leave
South Quad if he hoped to discover what
Cameron went, so he meandered over to
Angell Hall, where many "classes" a r e
held, hoping to discover there w h a t
meaning Cameron's words had.
THE FIRST THING he saw was a
"recitation," and it seemed closer to what
Webster had said than Cameron. It was
a class full of students, and students only.
One student was designated "teaching
fellow," presumably because he was the
fellow who most looks and acts the way
professors say they act, and he taught the
class. With everyone, even the teaching
fellow, paying tuition to be there, this
type of class is the University's favorite.
(When Thorndyke gets older and wiser,
he will discover just how right this first
observation was. The State of Michigan,
for example, says such classes are very
good, the more students the better.
(From the state's view, this was the best
class possible, since everyone in the room
was paying to be there. All the state has
to do is supply a room someplace and
janitorial services. This, Thorndyke later
discovered, is known as "aid to education.")
BUT THORNDYKE was far from satis-
field, and he wandered further in search
of a Cameron "class."
Thorndyke eventually ran across one of
Cameron's "classes" - a professor sitting
in a room by himself - and so he asked
the professor exactly what type of class
he was teaching.
Barrington, theyprofessor, explained
carefully to Thorndyke that he wasn't in a
class. He said that by sitting in the room
he was creating knowledge, which Smith,
who was in charge of that sort of thing,
rewarded highly.
Thorndyke, having already learned the
ways of the state, said that Barrington
must be wrong. The state only wants
teaching which creates class hours and
fiscal year-equated students, and the more
of those for the less money, why the bet-
ter.
Barrington, who had a certain strange
affection for slow freshmen, patiently ex-
plained that fiscal year-equated students
weren't the only measure of what the
state wanted. It would settle, he pointed
out, for "articles published." This, he
said, was known as "research."
Research meant that someone else was
paying for Barrington to sit in the room,
so the state didn't have to pay for it.
Of course, everyone doing research has
two {offices (the other is always in ISR,
IPPS, MHRI or Canterbury House) which
costs the University money, but it doesn't
mind, being large-hearted as it is.
Thorndyke was crushed. It seemed that
Cameron was dead wrong. A room with
just students is a class, while a room
with just a professor isn't.
CAMERON'S logic would imply th a t
the faculty is the University, and the Uni-
versity is the faculty. But they are in-
distinguishable.
But unpleasant as such perceptions
are, they are really no worse than their
converse, which says students are the
University, and the University is the stu-
dents.
The State isn't much better. It wants
teaching and knows how to measure it-
in semester hours, fiscal year-equated stu-
dents and diplomas per dollar. The higher
the ratio, the better the teaching.
That anyone really gets educated here is
due to as a Yale professor recently cred-
itpd his reputation as a good teacher,
"dumb luck."
i
French students lose spirit of '68
By BILL LAVELY
(second of two parts)
IRONICALLY, at the time when
the French government has de-
cided to slice up the university in
a massive austerity program, the
rebellious spirit of the French stu-
dent appears to be at ebb tide.
The same students who in May
1968 were crowding amphitheatres
to argue and plan the democratic
university of the future, are now
seen shrugging their shoulders in
docile apathy over the university's
problems.
This dramatic change in t h e
revolutionary psyche of t h e
French student in the year and a
half since the May revolution has
been partly the effect of a govern-
ment policy designed to confuse
and divide students over the ques-
tion of reforms.
Many students, only shallowly
informed on the real structure of
the university, were deceived into
thinking that the elimination of
the mass lecture and the advent of
student representation on many
advisory committees were sub-
stantive changes.
THE REVOLUTIONARY cry of
1968-that the university is just
a subsidiary of private enterprise
- was never really understood by
the average student, who none-
theless joined the protest for
modernization of curricula. Thus,
the government was able to satis-
fy most of the students by merely
changing the facade of study
while retaining the centralized in-
trastructure and the university's
intimate ties with industry.
The remaining students who are
still dissatisfied with the univer-
sity's condition simply lack or-
ganization and leadership.
There are no leaders. And the
organization that was one of the
prime movers behind the M a y
revolution - the Union National
des Etudiants Francais (UNEF)-
has been split and largely discred-
ited since the grand days of the
revolution.
T HE CLOSEST THING to a
French s t u d e n t government,
UNEF is actually a student syn-
dicate recognized by the govern-
ment as a bargaining agent for
the students.
After May 1968, UNEF was forced
to reorganize because of a faction-
al dispute. One faction wanted to
sever ties with the government
and persue a political line. The
other faction wanted to retain its
privileged position and use it to
bring student pressure directly to
the government.
The result was two organiza-
tions. Official UNEF, t h e more
moderate group, appeared under
the title "UNEF-Renouveau." The
successionists formed an extra-
legal organization espousing Mao-
ism and revolution, and called it-
self the "Comites de Base -
UNEF."
UNEF - Renouveau was the
organizer of a series of strikes last
fall across France, practically all
of which failed. Caught in the
cross f i r e betweenconservative
groups and criticism from t h e
Comites de Base and other ex-
treme leftists, UNEF has clearly
lost its ability to unify student
organizations and protests.
No other organization has ap-
peared to take the place of UNEF.
Worse still, the complicated front
of leftist movements a r e more
splintered than ever, and inter-
factional conflict has turned ac-
tivism into a kind of circus side-
show at the university.
THE UNIVERSITY of Nice is
an excellent case in point of how
activist shennanigans have made
a mockery of the word "revolu-
tion." The Faculte de Lettres et
Sciences Humaines of the Univer-
sity of Nice is situated on a high
bluff overlooking the Mediter-
Letters to the Editor
Murder in my heart
for the judge
T1E FOLLOWING is a portion of the
statement by defense attorney William
Kunstler to U.S. District Judge Julius J.
Hoffman before he was sentenced to 4
years and 13 days on charges of summary
contempt in the Chicago conspiracy trial-
"Neither am I ashamed of my conduct
in this court for which I am about to be
punished. I have tried with all my heart
Iaithfully to represent my clients in the
face of what I considered and still con-
sider repressive and unjust conduct to-
ward them. If I have to pay with my lib-
erty for such representation, then that is
the price of my beliefs and sensibilities.
"I can only hopexthat my fate does not
deter other lawyers throughout the
country who, in the difficult days that lie
ahead, will be asked to defend clients
against a steadily increasing govern-
mental encroachment upon their most
fundamental liberties. If they are so de-
fo rn - k " rn .. - --vic ma . .-.wll -.-v
try. However, I have the utmost faith
that my beloved brethren at the bar,
young and old alike, will not allow them-
selves to be frightened out of defending
the poor, the persecuted, the radical, the
militant, the blacks, the pacifist and the
political pariahs of this land.
"But to those lawyers who may, in
learning of what has happened to me,
waver, I can say only this-stand firm,
remain true to those ideals of the law
which, even if openly violated here and
in other places, are true and glorious
goals, and above all, never desert those
principles of equality, justice and freedom
without which life has little' if any mean-
ing. I may not be the greatest lawyer in
the world but I think that I am, at this
moment, along with my colleague Len
Weinglass, the most privileged - being
punished for what we believe in."
HERE IS PART of Judge Hoffman's
Radical faculty
To the Editor:
ON SUNDAY night, Feb. 15, at-
tended at times by about 80 fac-
ulty members, university staff,
graduate students, and others
met to discuss, among other'
things, the developing threat of
expulsion from the university of
SDS, and the revocation of schol-
arships of various student pro-
testers. Regardless of the partic-
ulars of the case, we consider any
more against SDS as itself a polit-
ically repressive act, incompatible
with basic values on which the
University of Michigan should
stand.
We are observing these events
with deep concern-in fact, if
these actions are taken we are
seriously considering initiating a
strike of classes and other func-
tions.
SOME OF us are motivated pri-
marily by a concern for preserva-
tion of liberty for protesters on
this campus. Others feel that the
real criminals-the military, the
producers and researchers of wea-
pons of genocide and counter-
insurgency, and the corporate con-
trollers of education - are the
ones who should be expelled.
In any case, we write now to
serve notice to the SACUA, the
President, and to our colleagues:
the time of a silent, acquiescent
faculty is gone.
Roy Rappaport
Fred Rosen
Joe Wehrer
Rick Piltz
Arthur Mendel
Bruce Henstell
Marshall SahUns
Bobbie Ringwald
Joe Ringwald
Tom Schunior
Craig Morgan
Sing-huen Morgan
Sharon Rosen
Craig Hammond
Bob Beyer
Bruce Frier
David Houseman
David Zimmerman
Bill Rosenberg
Bob Ross
Janice Bude
Frithjof Bergmann
Feb. 15
Rubberstamp
To the Editor:
I JUST GOT back from t h e
Student Mobilization Committee's
Anti-War Conference in Cleveland.
Like a great number of other stu-
dent's there, I couldn't even stick
it out through the first meeting
where procedural matters w e r e
being voted upon. I left because
it was distressingly, obvious that as
far as Student Mobe's Steering
Committee was concerned the de-
cisions had been made and the
conference had been convenes to
rubber-stamp them. We decided
that it was ridiculous to partici-
pate in a "closed convention in
ap opencity" (the Cleveland po-
lice were really nice) while ex-
pressing solidarity with eight of
our brothers who had the courage
to challenge the audacity of a
similar gathering in Chicago in
August '68.
What I wish to make clear is
snot that Student Mobe is a re-
pressive, fascistic organization --
a convention such as the one I
just escaped practically has to be
run that way - but a few points
about the Movement in general.
To stick to our ideas we have to
scrape nationally-oriented activi-
ties - at least temporarily.
THUS FAR we have been engag-
ed in an anti-war movement rath-
er than a true peace movement.
What enutdo to have a t*np
tical pressure to end one war while
doing virtually nothing to pre-
vent future wars. We have forced
a Johnson-Humphrey out of pow-
er so that a Nixon-Agnew - a
far more insidious creature -
could take its place. In short, we
have to get together with the Peo-
ple to define the disease and find
a cure instead of just talking
about how awful the symptoms
are. No one will tell you that they
want war much less that it's
good. Nonetheless, few people can
see alternatives and fewer s t il l
realize that war's roots are the
causes of all social ills.
Since the dawn of civilization
theologans and philosophers have
been rapping about what some of
us like to consider the M o v e -
ment's philosophy of peace and
brotherhood. The world has yet
to seera socio-political-economic
system that implements peace and
brotherhood. It is twentieth cen-
tury man's challenge to find that
system. If he doesn't he will find,
to his severe anguish, that he has
at his fingertips the capacity to
make for himself a living hell so
vile that the desolation following
a nuclear holocaust would be wel-
come.
-David L. DeMarkey '72E
Feb. 14
Discrimination
To the Editor:
EIGHTEEN per cent of the pop-
ulation of Michigan is Negro (my
source is the Mack Students Un-
ion as quoted in the Daily). Then
surely eighteen per cent of your
Edgars, or, if my arithmetic be
quite correct, a full dozen, should
have gone to Negroes?
ranean. Like most French univer-
sities, it is a recent development,
constructed in the tasteless but
pragmatic university architecture
t h a t is standard throughout
France.
The political trading floor of
the complex, a lobby reminiscent
of the fishbowl, is daily filled with
leftists selling their literature, be
it Maoist, Stalinist, or Trotskyist.
No less than a diozen bonafide
leftist groups circulate their tracts
in this lobby, including the French
Communist Party (considered re-
actionary by the others), the
L i g u e Communiste, Humanite
Rouge, - G a u c h e Proletarlenne,
Comites de Base-UNEF, to name
just the major ones.
SEVERAL WEEKS AGO a club-
swinging rock-throwing .m e 1 e e
broke out in this lobby between
two activist groups. It was not too
exciting, but it is noteworthy be-
cause the adversaries were the
well - armed cadres of, Humanite
Rouge and Gauche Prolitarienne
- both strongly Maoist factions.
In this atmosphere, where Mao-
ists fight Maoists, the possibilities
of unified action by students seem
remote indeed. Yet the problems
that this faculty faces, and which
are typical of the problems of all
the French universities, continue
to beg for a solution.
The physical problems are only
too evident. The cavernous hole
behind the faculty, which is the
foundations for a badly needed
dormitory, has remained untouch-
ed all year. The spacious new li-
brary lacks only one thing: books.
In fact, their is less than one book
per student at the university on
the library's shelves. ,
Professors have doubled up their
teaching h o u r s to reduce class
size - but in the psychology de-
partment classes are still ranging
as high as sixty in a class.
All this makes work difficult.
But a more serious challenge to
the university-and' a n u c h
greater preoccupation of both
students and professors - are the
current government moves to in-
crease admission selectivity and
pare down enrollment.
MANY BELIEVE that the phas-
ing out of the second language in
the lycee (secondary school) -
will eliminate the teaching posi-
tions that current language ma-
jors expect to fill - was only the
beginning of a government policy
that will reduce and in some cases
eliminate, university s u bj ect s
which are readily salable to pri-
vate industry.
Professors of Spanish, German,
Italian, and Russian are antici-
pating more than 50 per cent re-
ductions in enrollment in their
departments because of the ruling
on' language. And they also see
many of their own positions
threatened by the cutback. Pro-
fessors of oriental a n d ancient
languages are uncertain that their
departments will even exist after
potential language students start
to turn elsewhere next year.
Other departments are fearful
that they will be next on educa-
tion minister Guichard's list. Un-
official emmanations from Paris
this week indicate that the next
two casualties will be history and
geography. The actual move be-
ing contemplated would make
those subjects optional in the last
twn years noiiud in th lveee.
dents in the liberal arts - has al-
ways been touch and go.
ONE OF TIE ROOTS of the
problem has been the traditional
admissions policy in the French
university which allows practically
anyone to enter, and only shakes
out the poor students after one or
two years.
In recent affluent times this
policy has caused the university's
first year classes to overflow with
hopeful students. Eventually many
of them gained their liberal arts
degrees and went in search of em-
ployment in the overpopulated
teaching profession. Many others
were doomed to failure and dis-
appointment.
Thus the new policy of high se-
lectiveness at the French univer-
sity may be regarded as a long
overdue change. And the adjust-
ment in departmental strengths
could possibly be justified under
the title of economic planning.
But Pompidou's policy is, if any-
thing, unplanned. Language stu-
dents who were on the road to an
occupation now find themselves up d
a blind alley. It is the suddenness
of the move that shocks them.
IT IHAS SHOCKED many of
them out their apathy. Ad ad hoc
strike committee for languges has
stirred more action at the Univer-
sity of Nice than this campus has
seen in almost two years. De-
manding a return to the two lan-
guage curriculum in the lycee, as
well as the repeal of the Guichard
circular of Jan. 2, which will
sharply increase the university's
selective standards, the movement
has caught on In several depart-
ments outside of languages.
Similar movements are gaining
strength at other universities
across France. At Lyon the entire
literary college is entering its sec-
,ond week of strikes.
But even though the strike
movement is rapidly gaining mo-
mentum, it seems unlikely that
strike leaders will be able to gal-
vanize any kind of lasting alliance
between warring factions, let alone
dissuade the government from its
plans. Too many students view
the strikes as useless and self-de-
feating. They argue that it puts
no real pressure on the govern-
ment-whose main interest seems
to be in emptying the classrooms
anyway.
One strike leader agreed that
student interest is in a slump. But
he was nonetheless hopeful:, "The
problem now is that students are
poorly informed. Next year-when
they start to see their department
reduced because it is "non-rent-
able, and when they start to feel
the pressure of the tougher selec-
tion-then you'll start to see some
protest."
If Pompidou continues in his
austerity drive against the uni-
versity, it seems inevitable that
the students-who every day are
feeling the pinch of increased
competition, lack of facilities and
an uncertain job future-will be-
gin to inform themselves.
Another maJor uprising in the
French universities seems remote
now. But it could happen, and
that is a fearful-and perhaps
moderating - consideration for
Pompidou.
For the policies of austerity,
while it is justified by politicians
4
i
0
.
A
-Edward Seidensticker
Professor of Japanese
306 Gunn