"Onward, my brave lads" Etie Sfdot$n Dait3 Seventy-eight years of editorial freedom Edited and managed by students of the University of Michigan under authority of Board in Control of Student Publications Ir = r 420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor, Mich. News Phone: 764-0552 Editorials printed in The Michigan Daily exp ress the individual opirions of staff writers or the editors. This must be noted in all reprints. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 8, 1968 NIGHT EDITOR: PHILIP BLOCK Cox Report: An admnistraivt lessfnl -. mark levin The education ol the apathetic jRONICALLY, THE STUDENT ACTIVISM which so many faculty members irrationally fear will destroy their beloved academia, is l the logical result of a liberal education. Instead of fearing student activism, the faculty should welcome such directions in student thinking with the conviction that it is an application of their teachings, not a destructve, nihilistic approach to change. In reality, the faculty has more to fear from student apathy than activism. The gospel of liberal education they are spreading is not having the desired impact. For most students are not concerned about the institution which currently has the greatest impact on their lives- the university, The apathy and even resistance of most students to efforts to achieve the proper student role in the academic decision-making process should be alarming to the faculty. For it is indicative of how these same students will react toward established authority when outside the pro- tective walls of academic communities. A free society requires that institutions which exercise power over men's lives be continually scrutinized. Only eternal vigilance can insure that these institutions do not overstep the bounds which have been placed on that authority. Safeguarding man's freedom of action is only one aspect of ques- tioring society's institutions. The citizen must also ask normative questions of society's institutions-.what should they be doing, what structural change is desirable-not just are they properly performing their functions within their already defined limits. THE LONG-AWAITED report of the Cox Commission On the uprising at Colum- bia last spring constitutes a harsh, but totally justified indictment of the school's administration. The commission, chaired by former So- licitor General Archibald Cox, provides . a 222-page volume of remarkable insight into the problems Columbia faced and the causes of the spring disorder. Since Columbia is the forerunner of a new era in student, disorders, the report should be studied by those interested in avoiding a similar crisis on their campus. For many of the lessons learned at Morn- ingside Heights are equally applicable to hundreds of 'campuses across the nation. NOR WERE the disruptions at Columbia the result of isolated temporary situa-i tions. Administrators! and faculty nmust overcone their parochial biases and look, to the Cox Commission Report as a guide which cansput them on the right path to, responsible, enlightened higher educal tion. As the Cox Commission's report clearly shows, at every turn, both in the long run and the short run, the administration made disasterous mistakes: ' There was, for example, a long series of demonstrations' 'beginning in 1965 which' foreshadowed the major uprising last spring.Yet the administration made no constructive move to head off a pos- sible crisis. Furthermore, although disruptive ac- tivity was planned by a very small num- much smaller than the membership of Columbia's Students for a Democratic So- ciety) it hit upon this groundwell of "la- tent dissatisfaction" with the adminis- tration. "PROBABLY a majority of the students' supported the uprising. A n d the Columbia administration adopted a position that could only invite further dissatisfaction. "At a timne when the spirit of self-determination is run- ning strongly, the administration of Co- Second class postage- paid 'at Ann Arbor, 'Nigan, 420 MaynardSt., Ann Arbor, Michigan. 48104. , Daily except Monday during regular academic school; year. Daily except Sunday and Monday during regular summer session. The Daily is a member of the Associated Press and Collegiate Press Service. Fall and wintery subscription; rate $5.00,{per term by carrier ($5.50. by mail); $9.00 for regular academic school year ($10 by mail), Editorial Slat f MARK LEVIN; Editor STEPHEN WILDSTROM , URBAN LEHNER Managing Editor Editorial Director DAVID KNOKE, Executive Editor WALLACE IMMEN...................News Editor' PAT O'DONOHUE...................News-Editor CAROLYN MIEGEL'...... Associate Managing Editor DANIEL OKRENT........ . .. Feature Editor WALTER SHAPIRO' .......Associate Editorial Director' A q44 V.. V .JRX.L0 "11. lumbia's affairs too often conveyed an at- titude ofauthoritarianism a n d invited distrust." Furthermore, President Grayson Kirk made one, of most potentially dangerous kinds of' proclamations early in the academic year-a restriction which could easily be interpreted by students as an infringement of free speech. "Without consulation with students, and apparently without prior discussion with faculty members," Kirk banned all indoor demonstrations. Then, when some 100 students broke this; rule in early April to take a petition to Kirlk, another and more disasterous error was perpetrated - the school sus- pended only the six radical leaders of the demonstration. The leaders became in ef- fect, the ,vitims of political persecution' in the eyes of the students. Furthermore, these students were sus- pended from school without the public hearing they demanded - an apparent violation of their civil liberties. "THE DESIRE for student power, while scarcely articulated as a cause for seizing the campus building, was a pow- erful element of the explosion." The ban on demonstrations and the mishandling of the political leaders' suspensions only intensified the students' desire for con- trol over their own lives. \ "The government of a university de- pends, even more than that of a political -community upon the consent of all the governed to accept decisions reached by its constitutional processes. "Administrative intractability and re- sistance to change contribute to the breakdown of law and order." ' But the Columbia administration ~was totally intransigent, both on the question ofstudent decision-making authority and on specific issues. Such unwillingness to treat students as !members of the community rather than products in a factory is character- istiq of the most dangerous stage of re- cent university development around the country. That Columbia was in this stage for so long made a serious contribution to the crisis. WILL UNIVERSITY administrators sud- denly wake up and see the light? Un- likely. In fact, their initial reaction to Columbia was in many cases to tighten up regulations.' And, as the Cox Commission has shown, this reaction can only further aggravate- existing situations. For those who take a sensible attitude toward student power, there will be, little trouble. But for those entrenched in the status quo, digging in deeper means plant- ing the seeds of one, two ,or many Colum- bia's in the near future. -MARTIN HIRSCHMAN Letters to the Editor Dissenters To the Editor: ON NMONDAY, September 30, I was handed ahandbill at the Rackham Building- by one of the individuals protesting t h e exis- tence of the University and its method of supplying higher edu- cation. The University is accused of be- ing a ""brain trust command post that produces technicians to push the buttons of this technological society. Anq this society oppresses people." The handbill asks, "Who asked the U.S. into tleir country (Viet Nam), to decide how they can live their lives?" And further states that "We will not accept any system which channels our bodies into the army or our minds into anf authoritarian and inhu- mane bureaucracy. TO THE BEST of my knowledge these dissenting individuals had to apply for admission to the Uni- versity if indeed they are students. The University does not sent out invitations nor does it force any- one to remain a student. There are many students and members of the University staff who are deeply concerned about the injustices in our society and the misery throughout the world, and they are here at the Univer- sity to seek solutions to t h e s e problems and correct the wrongs. They feel that the University is doing more than "training stu- dents to perform functions for a, machine society whose policies are out of, our hands." IT IS COMMENDABLE that you too are aware of the many prob- lems in our society and that you wish to help solve them. But why must we forfit our education so that you may have an education tailored to your "o w n- interests and desires?" Why must you first destroy before you b'uild? If you cannot change to fit Into this university's culture or if you do not have the fortitude or the patience to try to effect a change and improve the existing system for the, good of everyone involved and not just a few individuals, then why don't you get out and find a school that will satisfy your need for individuality or, better yet, start your own? 'Or are your energiesonly for destruction? yDo you in reality lack the initiative and desire to function construc- tively in any society? -William Berg, grad. Oct. 12, Research To the Editor: THESE are troubled times in- deed. The same voice that calls for criteria of consistency and cohcr- ence in our judgment of the good, condemns their use as shackles on freedom. The same voice that praises t h e unfettered spirit of basic research, deplores the aby .- mal gap between its findings and applications. The same voice that urges Academia's involvement in All lettersd ust be typed, double-spaced and should be no longer than 300 words. All let- ters are subject to editing; those over 300 words will gen- erally be shortened. No unsign- ed letters will be printed. the affairs of the world, denou applied research as stultifyin the promethean curiosity thi the privilege 'and redeemirg q ity of the iyory tower. "Basic" and "applied" reses are both, terms which suffer result of b e i n g juxtaposed, more substantive meaning is tained by either than is conta in their deliberately laudatory derogatory connotations. Jud the worth of a research proje a complex task whose principa pacts are obfuscated when# universe is dichotomized int goodand a bad half depending whether or not the project practical applications.' THERE, IS NOTHING int sically good or bad in a resew problem. Such values accruet problem from the manner which the questions are posed, acumen and perpicacity of the terrogator, a nd the intellecl and technical competence thE brought to bear on the issues. needs only to recall the natur Pasteur's contributions to scie as he undertook to solve the' plied problems of the French w: silk, and sheep industries. Judgments are often difficu render. However, when they made in the public domain, as, the case in Browning's recentE torial regarding MHRI, on fundamental an issue in tod universities as "basic vbs. app] research" they should at least flect more factual inforinat thought, and concern than to ing seems to have b'een able to vote to the topic. -Sylvan Kornblu Sept. 30 . IN THE CLOSING 'MONTHS of his presidential campaign, Robert Kennedy frequently ended his speeches with a quote from George Bernard Shaw. "You see things as they are and ask why? I dream things that never were and ask why not?" How does one insure that both questions will always be asked? Admittedly, it is far more complicated than plugging students into the University decision-making process. But encouraging students to ex- amine educational institutions is a beginning. Since most faculty do not "dream things as they never were and ask why not," it is difficult to say students will gain anything on this account. For faculty are wallowing in ine'rtia on their many commit- tees. But it is .implicit in the argument' for student representation in academic decision-making that new functions will be performed. Committees must be redefined. The faculty must begin using-their imaginations in educational instead of just) scholastic directions. The committees students want to sit on will no longer be as dull as they currently are because they will be planning for the future-attempting to anticipate new fields of scholarship before society's new needs are pressed upon the University and searching out neglected areas of study. These potentially imaginative functions will be new functions. nces g to FOR EXAMPLE, executive committees would do more than merely' at is worry about the status of their department. They would examine pro- ual- gram development and,teaching methods. The energies of both faculty and students would be tapped for experiments for the future. On a small scale, this type of student-faculty responsibility exists arch noar in the Residential College. Possibly the most attractive feature as a about the RC is that it places students in such positions where they o must think about the type of education they are receiving. ined The academic architects of this controversial experiment realized, and from the beginning of their planning. that it is educationally desirable ging to include students qn all levels of decision-making, if the college hopes ct is to produce socially responsible citizens. 1 ts- .In this respect, the rest of the University can inexpensively learn t h e from the RC. o The multiversity is not challenging the unquestioning, authoritarian s on student. The multiversity is only responsive to ,those who can make has it work for them. It is, in effect, responsive to those who can subvert its rules and bureaucracy. trin- arch PRESIDENT FLEMING says he is not dissatisfied with the multi- to a versity because it does provide a better education than the institutions in of higher leajrning in his own generation. ,ILfind this hard to dispute. the lut I don't find it too meaningful to judge educational excellence in in-~ relative terms. 3tual What Fleming's argument does not take into 'consideration is OIs the deliterious effect of the size of the institution on the quality of One e of education outside ,the classroom. Its physical sprawl fosters apathy and ence discourages communication. ap- Faculty and administrators are failing as educators if they delude vine, themselves with this kind of logic. They must address .themselves to these problems. It to Putting students into positions of responsibility on all levels of are University decision-making is not the panacea. But it is a step in was encouraging the critical responses and concern which are essential to edi- improve the University and to maintain a free society. * ; Ar as lay's )lied re- ion, wn - de- m UNFORTUNATELY, many educators point out proudly that stV- dent activism and dissent represents only a small minority of the students on campus. This, for some reason, is supposed to mean they are doing a good job. More likely it means they have not succeeded as teachers. The activists are asking the really important questions about society. These students are rightfully angry and disillusioned about the values and direction of American society. ,.. t k _. x 6atonsville Nine: Solidarity against war and racism By DAVID DUBOFF A MOVEMENT APPEARS to be grow- ing among church activists aimed at' impressing upon the American people the need for militant, direct action to protest the immorality of the war and the draft. At least four times in the last year, this con cern has led to public de- struction of traft records, sub jecting the participants to severe recriminations from the government. e Last October, four men, including a Catholic priest and a Unitarian min-- ister, entered the Customs H o u s e in Baltimore and poured blood on draft files. Three of the f d u r are 'already serving prison sentences for this act. " On May 17, seven men and two women entered Local Board No. 33 in Catonsville, Maryland, a suburb of Bal- timore, removed files from the office and burned them outside the Board with napalm they manufactured from a ree- ipe in the Special Forces Handbook. Two of the nine had already been convicted for their involvement in the October action.t " On June 4 of this year'two young people entered a Boston draft board and poured black paint on approximately 700 files. Last Wednesday, they went on trial in Boston federal court for de- struction of federal property and ob- YESTERDAY, the "Cantonsville Nine" - as they have termed themselves - went on trial in Baltimore federal court. Under federal statutes, they face up to twenty-three years apiece for destruc- tion of Selective Service property. The County of, Baltimore is also charging them with crimes ranging from robbery and assault to sabotage. This would bring their sentence to a possible grand total of 54 years apiece for destroying mere pieces of paper. The "Baltimore Saints," as the latest issue of Ramparts termed t h e m, are clergy and laymen with deep religious convictions. Among them are: Fr. Dan- iel Berrigan, S. J. a poet, theologian and lecturer; Fr. Philip Berrigan,' S.J., a7 chairman and founder of Catholic Peace Fellowship,.now serving a six-year pris- on sentence for pouring blood on Balti- more draft files; Thomes L e w i s, a founder of the Baltimore 'Interfaith Peace Mission, also serving a six-year sentence for the same offense. Their reasons for destroying the files are best enumerated in their own words. The, following is an excerpt from the statement issued by all nine of the de- fendants at the time of their arrest: "We destroy these draft records not only, because they exploit our young trial to last only 4-5 days. The defense will be organized primarily to maintain and underline the political stand taken by the Nine., But this week's trial cannot be view- ed as an isolated incident. All four ac- tions, while seperated geographically, appears to be part of a growing move- ment. A press release issued by t h e Boston Two said they were motivated by the action of the Baltimore Four and the Catonsville Nine. The motivating force behind all of these actions seems to lie in the relig- ious background of the participants, arid in their concern for taking positive ac- tion to combat injustice. The following excerpts from the statement of the Mil- waukee 14, which included five Catholic priests, a Protestant minister, a Christ- ian brother and a co-chairman of the Catholic Peace Fellowship, serve to illu- strate their concern: "Our action is not an end in itself. We invite those who are ready to lay aside fear and economic addiction in order to join in the struggle to con- front injustice in a word and deed, to build a community worthy of men made in the image and likeness of God,. . a society in which it is easier for men to be human." pants attempted to escape. While the actions themselves were simple, clear and unequivocal, they serve to call at- tention to the important issues of our time, and suggest a means to deal with these problems. THE ISSUES which compelled t h e Catonsville Nine and the others to act- poverty, war, a n d racism, are issues which confront every American citizen. In an attempt to bring these issues; before the Americ'an people, the Catons- ville Nine Defense Committee" has is- sued a nationwide -call for people to converge on Baltimore this week to ex- press solidarity with the defendants. ,MANY CRITICS 'have argued t h a t these people have rendered themselves totally ineffective by bringing d o w n severe punishment on themselves for an act which has little if any'effect on the operation of Selective Service. But we must remember that- the ac- tions were taken not to keep particular men from being drafted, but to demon- strate a committment to aid the victims of American oppression around the world. Whatever we may thinkof their tactics, we cannot forget that the Nine and their successors have demonstrated the courage o ~ffther'.coa~nvictions n iwhatf / I ,r , i i