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Vol LXXX, No. 90 Ann Arbor, Michigan-Sunday, January 18, 1970 Ten Cents
Eight Pages
Fratenity
By HESTER PULLING
"To survive you have to adapt.
Fraternities on this campus are not
adapting fast enough to survive, so
they are dying," says Rick Osgood of
Delta Tau Delta. "They'll be gone in
another five years."
Predictions of the imminent death
of the fraternity system are nothing
new. They may even be as old as the
fraternities themselves. But if fra-
ternities here are not dying now,
' they are giving a very good imitation
of it.
Each year since 1966, University
fraternities have garnered fewer and
fewer pledges. The fall pledge classes
have dropped from over 500 in 1966
to less than 300 earlier this academic
year. And although winter rush has
increased, the fraternity system has
still registered an overall drop in
pledges.
These figures may even be opti-
mistic, however, because they do not
account for depledging. Alpha Tau
Omega, for example, had a pledge
class of six last fall, but every mem-
ber depledged. Figures are not avail-
able on how many others listed in
the 300 pledges also opted out.
While the system as a whole is
only hurting, several houses are on
the verge of crisis. Two large houses
-Alpha Delta Phi and Alpha Tau
Omega-have both failed to pledge
anyone so far this year. Theta Xi
and Sigma Alpha Epsilon, which
both pledged 15 students in the fall
of 1968, managed only three pledges
between the two of them last fall.
And Delta Tau Delta, with 15 pledges,
ystem
was still down from the 22 the pre-
vious fall.
Other houses have fared better,
and some, like Delta Sigma Phi, are
even on the increase. The few ex-
ceptions don't make the rule, how-.
ever, and some people in the fra-
ternity system are grim about the
Sfuture.
"Hell, yes, fraternities are dying,"
says ATO President John Cotner,
whose house has suffered particular-
ly badly this year. "We used to get
about 200 kids to rush this house,
but now 50 to 60 is considered good."
"The hardest job is just getting
people to look at us," he says.
The fraternities' failure to attract
new people is a result of the social
revolution now going on in middle
class high schools throughout the
country.
races 'I
"Over the whole group of students
coming in now, there is a new sort
of social awareness," explains Alpha
Delta Phi member Paul Johnson.
"The new kids are all love and
peace and do your own thing," adds
Louis Arvai of Delta Tau Delta.
"They are a world apart from most
fraternity upperclass men."
"Fraternities are notoriously apo-
litical," notes Sigma Alpha Epsilon
President James Pidgeon. "They
concentrate most heavily on social
and athletic areas,"
The rate of change in fraternities
is just too much slower than that of
the people who would be their mem-
bership. The result has been a gen-
eration gap within the fraternities
themselves.
"There's more of an individual-
i fe
or
istic attitude and people shy away
from groups and organizations," says
Phi Kappa Psi officer Damon
Schamu.
The most traditional features of
fraternities often are the most re-
pulsive to freshman. "Hell week,
TGs, the 'blackball,' and fraternity
selectivity are all bullshit," says
Dave Rosenberg, who boards at
Sigma Alpha Mu. "People like to
choose their own friends instead of
being placed in with a bunch of
people."
There are people in the fraternity
system who agree.
Says Zeta Beta Tau President Sam
Zell, "There are too many conserva-
tive people in the system who don't
want to reform. All they do is pre-
serve the archaic image."
death'
Most odious to many students is
the blackball system, by which one }
or two members can block an unde-
sired rushee from joining.
"People coming here are very
idealistic," says Leon Duletsky of
Phi Kappa Psi. "They see people
getting turned down for very minor
points and say, 'Sorry, that's not for
me. That's just not right.'
"This inequality *is inherent in
fraternities, though," he adds.
crisis
need to be individual and independ-
ent, things which fraternities don't
promote."
"The idea of a TG as a collective
effort is obnoxious now," he adds.
Gary Munce; who belonged to Phi
Gamma Delta for one year, felt that
the fraternity limited him. "You
have to be with the people you're
living with all the time. I just wanted
to get out by myself," he said.
Other reasons were the regulated
eating hours, poor food, lack of in-
terest in the social life provided, not
being able to choose the people you
live with, and the rules and obliga-
tions which members felt were un-
fair.
"The whole group action was bad,"
former Phi Epsilon Pi member Joe
See FRATERNITY, Page 8
The same feelings
freshmen away from
system have also led
to deactivitate in
numbers.
that have led
the fraternity
upperclassmen
unprecedented
"More people are deactivitating
than ever," says former Zeta Beta Tau
member Frank Tell. "There's more
300 STUDENTS ENROLLED
BGS program
draws growing support'
Traditional fraternity life: Gone tomorrow ?
ZIT leaves fraternity life,
opens rooms to everyone
By LINDSAY CHANEY
The popularity of the controversial Bache-
lor of General Studies program is growing
stronger in the degree's second full term
despite feeling by some faculty that it is
an inferior degree and speculations that
graduate schools will frown on it.
Currently about 300 students have en-
rolled in the program, 100 upperclassmen
and 200 freshmen and sophomores.
The BGS degree is an alternative to the
regular Bachelor of Arts degree. Unlike the
BA, the BGS does not have distribution
requirements or concentration programs.
Instead, students elect at least 60 hours of
advanced work (300 level or above) with no
more than 20 of those hours in one depart-
ment.
The degree emerged last spring from
a long dispute over the language require-
ment.
Most students enter the program to avoid
the confines of a distribution, and especially
language requirements.
"I hated language, and couldn't see the
relevance of it for my going into law school,
says Rich Cohen, a student counselor in the
BGS program.
But others enter the program to either
avoid other common requirements such as
natural sciences and freshman English or
to assert control over their own education.
"The important part of BGS is self deter-
mination," says one student.
Under the new program, students find a
greater freedom to make up their own
schedules without consulting a counselor.
"You don't have to hassle with counselors,
and you can register the first day without
getting kicked out of courses," says Dan
Berman, '71.
"Even if you want to major in something,
you can always take the BGS until the last
semester, then switch into a subject-which
means for the first three and a half years
you don't have to talk to any counselors."
adds Berman.
The major concern over the BGS program
-and one of the chief arguments used by
its opponents-is that it may attract students
who ai'e trying to get through college with
as little effort as possible.
"The BGS can be either the salvation of
geniuses or the refuge of scoundrels," says
James O'Neill, romance language depart-
ment chairman.
"The degree is what you make it,. and it's
an excellent opportunity to shape your own
education," declares Prof. Carl Cohen of the
philosophy department.
"You can take Mickey Mouse courses, or
you can really work at learning without the
hindrance of distribution or concentration
requirements," he adds.
Some students have expressed concern that
graduate schools will frown on applicants
with a BGS degree. However, no information
is yet available to substantiate this, since
See BGS, Page 8
By LIZ MARVIN
Zeta Beta Tau fraternity is officially
dead, but Zimmer, Blofeld and Troglite is
rising from the ashes.
So say the members of ZBT, which is
dropping out of Interfraternity Council,
shattering its conservative, fraternity image,
and opening its house to anyone who wants
to live there beginning next fall.
Plagued by the lack of pledges which has
affected most fraternities and dissatisfied
with .the fraternity stereotype, members of
ZBT. decided to open up the house rather
than close it down.
With the change, the name of course will
change. But "ZBT" will remain - with a
slightly changed image, heralded by recent
newspaper ads proclaiming "the ultimate ex-
perience in modern living."
"The name Zimmer has no meaning, Blo-
feld was a character in the James Bond
novels, and Troglite is some sort of animal,
I think," says ZBT Vice President Tom
Cohen.,
The new living situation will not be a
co-op, apartment or fraternity, but a "place
where people can get together," explains
Cohen.
The residents will not do any cooking or
housekeeping outside of the maintenance
of their own rooms. Instead, the cook and
maid now employed by the house will be
retained.
ZBT members hope to make the house
available to anyone, but there is still some
question whether the University will permit
women to live in the house, The house is
suitable for division into men's and women's
corridors, however.
ZBT is the first fraternity to try to main-
tain its house while discontinuing their
fraternity status.
In making the changeover, ZBT also will
withdraw from IFC, which Zell says "serves
no function." "It just takes $200 from the
house and gives no return," says Zell.
But the new ZBT has already won official
recognition from SGC as a student organiza-
tion and thus 'retains its ties with the
University..
In addition, ZBT is still affiliated with the
national organization in the sense that it
receives mail from the organization and
pays dues. However, the national has no
power over the individual fraternity. This
status was established last November.
Beginning today, there will be no rush.
PhysicaI fitness
at the 'U'
MEETS T UESDA Y:
-Daily-Rechard Le
Budding gymnasts from the Ann Arbor area tumble around Barbour Gymnasium, which
the University's physical education department has opened to kids every Saturday morn-
ing of one hour. Actually, the program is intended more as a laboratory for teachers In
training than a good time for kiddies.
Lit school assembly to discuss
student voting on major boards
By JAMES MACFERSON
The LSA Student Assembly will meet
Tuesday night to consider a proposal offer-
ing students voting seats on two administra-
tive bodies for the first time.
The proposal, offered by Prof. H. D.
Cameron of the classical studies department,
would grant students four of six seats on
the LSA administrative board and three of
six seats on all hearing boards.
Assembly members consider the proposal
as a possible precedent in the University-
wide struggle for student membership on
administrative committees.
Presently, there are non-voting ,members
Rather, anyone
the new living
the house at 1
who is interested in joining
arrangement should go to
p.m. today.
In creused minority admissions asked
on the administrative board, an executive
body which concerns itself with student
academic :matters, but no students on the
hearing boards which deal with specific
problems delegated to them by the adminis-
trative board.
The proposal has split the Assembly, a
group composed of all LSA students, into
two factions: those who favor the accept-
ance of the proposal because of the progress
it represents; and those who believe the
proposal is only a token measure.
Ken Lasser, Assembly chairman and Bob
Grobe, vice-chairman, are the chief op-
ponents on the questions.
Lasser believes that the proposal is satis-
factory and should be accepted as soon as
possible.
Grobe, maintains that acceptance of the
proposal would be a mistake,. however, and
Splans to offer a counter-proposal which he;
will present Tuesday.
"First," Grobe says, "I object to not hav-
ing five students on the policy-making
board, and second I object to not having six
out of six students on the hearing boards.''
"In addition," he adds, "I oppose the pro-
posal because it would establish a precedent
which might harm Student Government
Councils' present efforts to establish the
concept that faculty may not sit on student
disciplinary boards."
But Lasser counters that four members
on a previously all-faculty policy-making
board is a big step forward. "We have never
"What we do is important to the University.
We are not doing anything important to
SGC," he says.
However, Grobe believes Lasser's position
is too narrow. "Student groups should le
aware of what's going on in other grouis.
They should realize that other groups can
do better jobs in some areas."
Grobe also maintains that Lasser is con-
cerned mainly with the Literary college and
therefore does not give enough weight to
possible effects on the entire University.
See LIT, Page 8
face char ges
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (i) - The Massa-
chusetts Institute of Technology adminis-
tration says it will "move promptly" to seek
legal action against a group of more than
50 youths who occupied the office of MIT
President Howard W. Johnson for 34 hours.
The demonstrators, protesting the recent
expulsion of a student for participation in a
previous disturbance, left Johnson's office
Friday night of their own accord.
"The reason they left," Johnson said in
a statement, "is because MIT's faculty and
students refused to support threats and
By LYNN WEINER
Four major student organizations have endorsed a
proposal calling for the University to established as
a prime objective an expanded admissions and scholar-
ship program for minority-group students including
Mexican-Americans.
Student Government Council, Graduate Assembly, the
Black Student Union, and the Social Work Student
Union all accepted the proposal, presented last week by an
ad hoc group of interested students.
'The proposal. particularly seeks to expand existing
programs, which now focus on black admissions, to
include Mexican-Americans, or Chicanos. Its immediate
University allocate more funds to the program for
minority students in its next budget.
"It is clear we will get some program started, al-
though I don't yet know on what level," says Vice
President for Academic Affairs Allan Smith.
A major concern of the ad hoc group is that the
University hire a Chicano recruiter.
"One reason the University has no Chicano recruiter
is because of a lack of knowledge and awareness of the
issue," says Ray Padilla, an organizer of Chicanos of
Michigan (CAM).
"Most universities ignore the question of what to do
but similar groups on campuses throughout the country.
are developing and expanding.
An all-state conference of Chicanos will be held this
spring involving a coalition of high school and college
students, social workers, and interested citizens.
"The Chicano renaissance has begun", Padilla says.
"The Mexican-American has begun to vocalize his needs."
At the University CAM feels that at'least 50 Chicanos
should be admitted beginning in fall, 1970.
However, George Goodman, assistant director of ad-
missions, says that "At this point, the possibilities are
slim of getting any specific number of students in by
next fall. We're presently trying to admit as many