he £frihig!an Dait3J 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 JAMES WECHSLER Rewriting the history of Daleyland 4 420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor, Mich. News Phone: 764-0552 Editorials printed in The Michigan Daily exp ress the individual opinions of staff writers or the editors. This must be noted in all reprints. ON A FRIDAY that seems very long ago, I flew back from the Democratic debacle in dismal Daleyland and slipped away for the last two weeks of a divided summer holiday. Rarely has es- cape seemed more welcome but I learned anew that there is no serene hiding place for those who cannot achieveaabstinence from newspapers and TV. Chicago would haunt me; it still does, but for reasons somewhat different than I had anticipated. For now we are being told that it never really happened as we saw it. Amid all the nightmare remem- brances brought back from that wretched battleground outside the Hilton, there grew the hope that the shock-impact of the worst scenes, so widely transmitted on television, would stir the consci- ence of the country and restore sanity to a mindless national de- bate. All the simple-minded formulae of the "law-and-order" brigades SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 1968 NIGHT EDITOR: JIM HECK Residential College: Sharing the burden THE CHIEF PROBLEMS inherent in any educational institution of the size and diversity of this University are inflexibil- ity, anonymity, and expansion. This University has the additional problem that at this point in its history, it is acutely in need of funds to expand for the future and to maintain its cur- rent level of services and its high quality of instruction.' The Resldential College is an imagina- tive, educational innovation which ad- dresses itself to these problems of t h e multiversity on the undergraduate level. But this exciting experiment, designed to offer the intimacy and personal atten- tion of a small college with all the advan- tages of a cosmopolitan university, re- quires a major committment of funds. AND AT THIS JUNCTURE, the Univer- sity just doesn't have the money. It can barely afford to experiment for the future when it is fighting to maintain the present. As it has developed over the last six years, through planning sitages and actual implementation, the college has b e e n forced to scale down its cost and in the process has altered some of its funda- mental tenets. Originally, costs of the college, which was to be built near North Campus, soar- ed as high as $15 million for classroom a h d living units to accommodate 1200 students. The Regents committed the. University to, a slightly modified invest- ment of these proportions, but reneged on the promise one year later. Private fund raising drives had failed to produce even a minimal amount of funds necessary to begin the new construction. In addition, the University's deadlock with the legislature over Public, Act 124, which placed restrictions on University construction policies, had execerbated the need for new construction financing throughout the entire University. T h e desperate need of the literary for class- room and office space made the Resi- dential College third or fourth on t h e University's list of construction priorities. COGNIZANT of this desperate construc- tion situation, the Residential College agreed to accept a completely remodeled East Quadrangle with some adjoining pri- vate apartment structures tied into the package. At that point Residential College offi- cials said that as a result of their exper- ience with the college's first class, they now wanted to be close to central campus. They n o w thought a greatly modified East Quadrangle could fit their needs. By STAYING in East Quad, a part of the autonomous Residence Hall system, difficulties in financing for the college were also relieved. As announced on Fri- day, the Regents authorized the Univer- sity to float self-liquidating bonds in or- der to finance the revised educational ex- periment. Dormitory fee payments will now go to- ward paying off bonds for the renova- tions and additions needed for the new Residential College. Excess revenues from dormitory system budgets of the past two years are pledged toward the construc- tion, in addition to a portion of student fees. All this financial shifting is only justi- fiable if it does not meanthat only those people who live in the dormitories, are going to carry the burden for the Resi- dential College. And the Regents should be commended for their far-sighted action. BUT THIS method of financing must not be used as an excuse for hiking dormitory fees in the future. It must also not be used as an excuse for requiring freshman student and sophomore women to live in the dormitory system in order to keep it financially solvent. The Residential College in the long run may offer the only way the University can successfully expand without sacrific- ing the quality of instruction. The bene- fits the college may bring will be shared by-the whole University and the burden of financing this project must be equally 'distributed. -MARK LEVIN Editor Could this restore sanity to a "mindless national debate?" Letters: Student power in Omnibus' Confliet of interests TIE REMOVAL of the voting power of ex-officio members on SGC represents a positive first step towards providing a more open and direct process between the council and the student body. Although the voting power of the ex- officio members - representatives from Panhel, University Activities Center, In- ter-House Assembly and Interfraternity Council-was removed, the ex-officios can still remain on council and partici- pate in discussion. What remains is the opportunity for various student interest groups to bring their demands to the Council table. Re- moved is the injustice that resulted from members of these organizations having two voting representatives on SGC. FOR INTEREST groups, when they do arise and if they are true reflections of a particular ideology, coalesce around political rather than structural interests. To say that all dorm residents have the same interest is to contrive an ideology to fit a pre-existing mold. Furthermore, the selection of certain campus groups for ex-officio status to the exclusion of all other groups represents an arbitrary choice by the University. NOR COULD SGC benefit fully by the presence of ex-officio members. If the president of IHA or IFC is to carry out his primary task, that of servicing his own organization, he cannot devote the time required of a full time Council member. The relevancy of SGC to the student body is an area of concern of both stu- dents and the Council. Removing the vot- ing power of contrived lobbies is a means of doing away with some of the bureau- cratic screen between SGC and its con- stituency. Hopefully SGC will take the in- itiative not only to remove archaic in- terest groups but to respond to new ones: as they are formed. -LESLIE WAYNE To the Editor: IT WAS WITH g r e a t interest that I read Professor Mendel's article (The Daily, Sept 19) in which he emphasized creative, concrete reform of university ed- ucation and administration, and in which he suggested the desir- ability of finding out what other colleges and universities are doing in terms of educational innova- tion. During the 1968 Spring Se- mester, an experimental, interdis- ciplinary course was established at the University of Texas at Austin, in which "student power" achiev- ed reforms previously unobtain- able either by radical activists or "establishment" student-faculty/ student government committees. The course, entitled "Omnibus: An. Experiment in Enviromental Synthesis," was unique in many respects. Offered in the School of Architecture, it was taught by two undergraduates -'seniors major- ing in political science. The class itself was composed of twenty-one students, representing sixteen dif- ferent majors and ranging in classification f r o m freshmen through graduate students (ag s 18 to 33). G r a d e pressure was eliminated by offering the course on a pass/fail basis. There were no quizzes, no final exam, and no required readings - yet the stu- dents claimed that they did as much or more work for Omnibus as for their other courses. And more importantly, they claimed that in Omnibus they were inspir- ed to THINK - as opposed to memorize, fill in blanks or quizzes, do busy-work, etc. The class met in a different en- vironment each time. During the semester, the students were re- quired to complete a project -- of their own choice - over the units into which the course was divided: Environmental Perception and En- vironmental Control. The result- ant projects included poetry, mu- sical compositions, films and still- photograph essays, exhibits, mix- ed-media experiments, research papers, and even a reconstructed restroom complete w i t h graffiti (footnoted commentaries on to- day's society). For all of this, the students received three hours of credit (advanced) - and a con- siderable amount of attention from the administration, faculty and student body. STUDENT POWER was a real- ity in Omnibus. The two under- graduates who conceived of the idea, and who eventually taught the course, were part of the "masses" at the University of Texas - with no radical political affiliation, no education courses fto their credit, no connections with the administration, and no positions (or even friends) in the student government. They simply went straight to the administra- tion with their course proposal, and a week later one of the more progressive divisions of the uni- versity (Architecture) offered Om- nibus a place in its curriculum. employed and offered the students ample opportunity to suggest structural and substantive chang- es. As one of the former Omnibus professors, I am of couse pleased that the experiment was appar- ently quite successful - as indi- cated by the University of Texas' decision to offer more "interdisci- plinary, Omnibus-type courses in the future. In an era of sometimes violent student demonstrations and riots, it is particularly grat- ifying to me - and should be sig- nificant-to others - that in their final evaluation of Omnibus, a l a r g e majority of the students claimed that one of the most im- portant things they learned in the course was tolerance of other peo- ple's ideas. Perhaps serious re- formers here and at other univer- sities might take note of the in- teresting reforms begun at t h e University of Texas by means of a little "quiet subversion" on the part of some students -and by means of an administration's tol- erance of student power. -Sharon Weldon, Grad Sept. 20 Police brutality To the Editor: T HE MOST important realiza- tion to come out of the beating of a Daily editor by Washtenaw County law enforcement offices is that it can happen to anyone at almost any time. The myth of middle class ex- emption from policel brutality is slowly crumbling. Americans saw it in Chicago recently, and it was forceably brought home to Ann Arbor ever more recently. In a city whose police institu- tions are almost as hostile to stu- dents as they are to the blacks and the underprivileged, any at- tempt to deviate from the increas- ingly totalitarian norms of gov- ernment and social organization will be repressed, and if neces- sary, with violence. IT IS AT ONCE ironic and significant that this Daily editor was beaten when he tried to cover the sit-in at city hall. The moth- ers whose children do not have enough clothes to attend, school were rebuffedsby a city govern- ment long noted for its unrespon- Progressivism in the history dept.' fTHE HISTORY DEPARTMENT Forum Friday between .students and faculty set an exciting precedent for the possi- bilities of co-operation and major chang- es in the academic world. With the nature of the meeting being exploratory and experimental, discussion ranged over almost all major issues be. tween students and faculty - not only issues of substance such as grading, cred- it-hours and faculty appointments, but the possible future forms of representa- tion of students within the department as well. More important, the discussion, al- though occasionally somewhat heated, was rational and accomodating. Students and faculty showed respect and under- standing for the other's position and in- terests, while stating their own openly and unequivocally. could and should be a precedent for the rest of the literary college and the Uni- versity. The prospects of the forum are to return the issues to the grass-roots of the academic-world-the departments. From there, the process should reverse itself and lead to an increase in the viable stu- dent role in the colleges and universities. The history department -- students and faculty - has a very long way to go. So far they have talked, and there is much more talking yet to be done. But with careful and political handling, much - possibly everything within the realm - can be accomplished, and the advance can be extended to further implentation of student demands. --RON LANDSMAN Our loss Breaking the barricades By DAVID DUBOFF H ERE WE ARE only three weeks into the semester and already 'the chances of creating any meaningful change in campus life this year are rapidly diminishing. A handful of students, politicized for the first time by the emotion- alism of the welfare sit-in flounder as the issues dies in a morass of bureaucratic court procedure. VOICE members huddle in back rooms of the Union and plot while the rest of the students wander aimlessly from class to class.' Student Government Council sits in its ivory tower and debates whether or not it is representative of student opinion while asking their friends to petition for seats on SCG. Most freshmen probably have no idea who their representatives are. Is it any wonder that students cry "illegitimacy" when SGC uses student funds as bail for non-students without first going out and educating the campus about the issue of student privileged status? DAILY EDITORIAL WRITERS deplore student radicals for leaving the University to rot as they sit at their typewriters and play intellectual games with student opinion. We have set up false barricades. The University will not be saved by getting rid of distribution requirements or expanding pass-fail options as long as these issues remain irrelevant to the student body. If the very students who are are seeking change bow to the authority of the professor in the class- room, how can they help but be frustrated in their efforts to overturn the authority of the faculty outside of the classroom? The real barricades are in the dorms, co-ops, frats and apartment houses, where typical students lead typically frustrated lives, looking for something meaningful to tie into. Campus leaders should remember that the fight for control of your own life will begin only when people see the need to' fight for that control. BUT THE BARRICADES are also within us. Before we can go out and talk with students about what is most relevant to them, we must free ourselves. We must stop being the "local opposition," endlessly criticizing the administration while living, day-to-day, the very values that have made a mockery of the educational system. We have to redefine "responsibility." Our responsibility as students and as human beings is not to some abstract "University community." siveness to community problems. This may have been politically, stupid, but it was also politically inevitable, And without .reverting to a Marxist analysis of the situa- tion it seems plausable to say that Americans fare slowly divid- ing into two groups: those w ho control the government and major economic institutions and simply don't give a damn about the trou- bles of the rest, and the rest it- self. The second group holds the key to American politics. They are di- vided and internally hostile; they' range from Wallace'supporters to alienated blacks. Such incidents as the sit-in, however, may draw them closer together. The more sophisticated among them may, begin to realize that law and order without an underlying foundation of justice is simply a form of totalitarianism. If so, then some- thing good will have come out of this display of stupidly repres- sive violence. -Daniel J. Feid '69 Sept. 5 1 McCarthy To the Editor: THE McCARTHY write-in is much more than a protest vote. It will give to those who are dissatisfied with the other can- didates a chance to vote in good conscience. It will also support local candidates who are pledged to ending the war in Vietnam and beginning a war on poverty and racism; candidates who will be elected by and responsible to the people and not political machines. Keeping the McCarthy force alive will enable the grass roots move- ment which has sprung up across the country, to continue to gain strength in Michigan; a force which in four years could be strong enough to take over or defeat the Democratic Party and elect adcan- didate like McCarthy, Kennedy, Rockefeller or Lindsay, President. Some people are concerned that the write-in for McCarthy will take away votes from Humphrey and thereby help elect Nixon. But the write-in will attract mostly those people who won't vote at all or who at present, in order to register a protest vote are find- ing it necessary to vote for Wal- lace. Moreover, the pols show Nixon far ahead of Humphrey. There is even the chance that if Humphrey sees that he can't win without McCarthy support, he might adopt a dove plank to stop the write-in. Thus, to enable peo- ple to vote in good conscience, to electtlocal candidates who sup- port the minority peace plank and new policies at home, to keep a grass roots movement alive which can take over the country in four years, to keep public pressure for an end to the war on two hawk candidates, the McCarthy write- in is a good idea. The write-in relies on a canvass to reach the voters; on people talking to people. This way seems as good as any and better than mncf. f nh.kninpr a n ,.znk r nn- had been crudely tried by Daley and his club-happy deputies. The experiment had created a sham- bles that dishonored America and. in doing so, fulfilled the most lurid fantasies of a handful of pseudo-Guevaras whose avowed design was chaos. THE LESSON seemed self-evi- dent. We had seen the conse- quences of our spreading police- state mentality - the Innocent bloodied, the conscientious dis- senter treated as if he-or she- were armed enemies of the state. F the press hounded antd, in some; cases, beaten, volunteer medics battered and, finally, the head- quarters of a defeated candidate -Eugene McCarthy-ruthlessly invaded at dawn on a flimsy pre- text reminiscent of totalitarian night raids. We had been an exhibition in "overkill" staged in a mood of panic and sadism under the guid- ance of a hack mayor whose pro- fane taunts at Abe Ribicoff fur- ther sullied the debauched con- vention floor. In a subsequent TV interview Daley was to utter his fatal malapropism-the police were working "to preserve law and disorder." No other commen- tary so effectively summarized the story of what had happened in a city where, once the Bill of Rights was abrogated by the denial of adequate facilities for protest, the stage was grimly set for "con- frontation." THEN THE rewriting of his- tory began, and for a fortnight I watched the process from a Con- necticut refuge with futile anger The"revisionist" operation was actually foreshadowed before the convention ended by Walter Cron- kite's inexplicably obsequious CBS interview with Mayor Daley. This was the first of many episodes calculated to blur ;the ghastly truth recorded by the TV y photographers in some of their most diligent, dedicated hours.eI wrote from Chicago that week of my gratitude to TV for document- ing what my eyes-and those of hundreds of other newspapermen -had seen. But soon the nation was to be told that the cameras had been out of focus anid, judg- ing from subsequent polls, that is what many Americans want to believe. In the early-morning hours af- ter the "bust" at the Hilton, where I had seen police charge frenziedly into a sidewalk throng and a youth senselessly beaten in the lobby, I had a romaitic vis- ion of Hubert Humphrey rising to the occasion, crying out against the madness and recapturing a measure of esteem by standing up to czar Daley. He didn't; his fail- ure of nerve may one day be seen as a tragically lost chance to begin his campaign on a note of cour- age and independence. THEN, IN swift succession, there came Drew Pearson's absurd "re- velation" that TV had distorted the Chicago story to punish the Democrats for refusing to trans- fer their assemblage to Miami (and thereby cut TV's costs). Journalists who have notoriously served as FBI pipelines spread the "authoritative" word that J. Ed- gar Hoover had the names and numbers of the key Chicago play- ers and was pressing Attorney General Clark to conduct a roundup of 'the agitators. Thus does Hoover once again play in- cendiary Republican politics. AFL-CIO president G e o r g e Meany joined the hysteria, de- nouncing the "dirty-necked, dirty- mouthed demonstrators" and ex- culpating Daley; the NAACP's Roy Wilkins was almost equally insen- sitive in his cool retrospect. Now Mr. Meany and his asso- ciates on the federation's execu- tive council (whose followers were once called dirty names by right- wing essayists) are gathered here, ruefully wondering why their members are hypnotized by George Wallace's demagogy. YES, CHILDREN, there w e r e provocative and vulgar voices in the Chicago protest. There were a few Maoists and other species of far-out operatives (abetted by zealous infiltrators whose activism has never been fully explained). But what they sought came to pass not because of their revolu- tionary skills but because Richard Daley is a bully and/or a fool who ran his fiefdom that week as if it had been invaded by 200,- 000 armed aliens rather than by a few thousand (mostly young) peo- ple of very varied allegiances - many of whom joined the street dissent only when their dreams died in that sick, oppressive con- vention hall and whose "radicali- zation" progressed under the blows of Daley's nightstick bri- gade. Now we are told via Daley's, Metromedia production that we must joyously remember that no one was killed during Chicago's bloodletting hell-week. So far, there are also no reports of fatali- ties in' Prague's new era of Rus- sian law and order. But the story of Daleyland re- _nin P. ,isrr.rR n r,,tta hn M