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October 15, 1968 - Image 4

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Publication:
The Michigan Daily, 1968-10-15

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Academic

Seventy-eight ears of editorial freedom
Edited and managed by students of the University of Michigan
under authority of Board in Control of Student Publications

reform:

Who really needs it?

420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor, Mich.

News Phone: 764-0552

Editorials printed in The Michigan Daily exp ress the individual opinions of stoff writers
or the editors. This must be noted in all reprints.

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 15, 1968

NIGHT EDITOR: HENRY GRIX

State educational funding:
Disheartening at best

DECRYING THE LACK of state support
for the finance of higher education
has nearly won the regularity of com-
plaining about dorm food, with one ex-
ception: tasty or not, greasy potatoes keep
students fairly healthy, but sooner or later
universities tend to die or, at least become
stagnant, when their coffers are -empty.
The latest documentation of the
states' skimpy support of their public uni-
versities comes from the National As-
sociation of State Universities and Land
Grant Colleges (NASULGC). That acro-
nyminous body stated the issue quite
succinctly: "state and land-grant uni-
versities throughout the nation are faced
with dangerous threats to their quality
and to the educational opportunity they
have long provided to citizens of this
country."'
No two institutions know the symp-
toms any better than the University of
Michigan and the University of California
-universally recognized as the nation's
two top state universities. Here in Michi-
gan the legislators have grudgingly pro-
vided the, University enough money to
meet inflationary increases and maintain
faculty support levels at a constant rate.
But that doesn't begin to account for'
originating new programs, covering staff
benefits and salaries, or in some cases
replacing vital faculty who retire or go
elsewhere.
Similarly in California Governor '
Reagan's across-the-board 10- per cent
appropriations reduction has placed the
J'Aeuse
REMEMBER which prominent Republi-
can in 1960 demanded a public apology
for a nasty four-letter word referring to
a subterranean locale used by Harry Tru-
man in a campaign speech?,
Guess who in Flint yesterday (and be-
fore the children, no less) used that same
word-the very same word-not once, but
twice?t
We demand an immediate public
apology.
-U.L.
Second class postage paid at Ann Arbor, Mirhigan'
420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor, Michigan. 48104.
Daily except Monday during regular academic school
year.
Daily except Sunday and Monday during regular
summer session.
Fall and winter subscription rate $5.00 per term by
carrier ($5.50 by maili);$9.00 for regular academic
school year ($10 by mail}.
Editorial Staff
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

University of California at the margin
of bare necessity.
EVEN MORE DISHEARTENING is the
disparity between the support increas-
es in Michigan and the average increases
noted by NASULGC in the rest of the
country. Comparing appropriations bet-
tween 1967-68 and 1968-69 the report
found an average hike of 15 per cent. For
Michigan the figure was a bare seven per
cent.
So what's to be done? Will the Uni-
versity have to scurry about Mother-Hub-
bard-like whittling down the size of he'r
academic cabinet? Federal funding has
been cut back as well, and while it's not
likely to go much lower, the University's
graduate fellowships, for example, were
cut in half this year. And neitheriis there
any extra help likely to be in store. Stu-
dents cry louder and louder with each
annual tuition hike. And stable invest-
ments tend to be just that-stable but in-
adequate to grow as rapidly as new costs.
Theoretical alternatives are not lack-
ing. A long-time notion behind some ad-
ministrators here has been that since the
University is in fact a national institution,
it and several comparable schools should
receive general federal support through
the U.S. Office of Education. For several
years MIT's Prof. Gerald Zacharias has
advocated some kind of federally operat-
ed opportunity bank from which students
could borrow unrestricted amounts of
money, repaid through a graduated sur-
charge on their later income. Under
such a plan universities might then
double tuitions. Technological visionaries
suggest inter-university co-ops whereby
greap universities would develop highly
specialized programs at the graduate level
and share students, professors and in-
formation via instantaneous communica-
tions nets backed up by powerful time-
sharing computers.
AS IS SO OFTEN the case in introducing
change in higher education, there is
no dearth of ideas. Rather, there exists
an almost spastic hesitation to implement
them. The state has not even agreed
to develop a consistent means of measure-
ment to determine what educational
needs really are. So, the odds don't look
too good for expecting Michigan - or any
other state really - to support the kind
and level of education which its com-
merce and industry have come to depend
upon. That means the scientists and
technologists who dream up zippier
coupes and quicker brakes will come from
elsewhere. And the urban planners who
might have rebuilt Twelfth St. will watch
Detroit flames in Texan compatible color.
And instead of irrigating the Midwestern
megalopolis, the Great Lakes will provide
bottled, distilled water at 25c a can.
These, among other things, will change.
-FRANK BROWNING

By STEVE ANZALONE
LOST SOMEWHERE in the dis-
cussion of academic reform is
a consideration of the great ma-
jority of students' feelings to-
ward changes in the academic
make-up of the University.
Whatever the motives of the
diverse groups crusading for "aca-
demic reform" (and they are
manifold) all of them are search-
ing for ways of improving the ed-
ucational processes of the Uni-
versity.
And one effect of any widescale
reforms in the quality of teaching,
the size of classes, or the prolife-
ration of seminars would inevit-
ably make the academic process
not only better but also, and most
importantly for the majority of,
students, more difficult.
And to be blunt, it is at least
problematic whether most stu-
dents want things any harder
than they already are.
IT IS IRONIC that those stu-
dents most seriously interested in
improving the academic format of
the University are the least polit-
ically attuned to the students'
wishes.
These idealisic reformers, tuck-
ed away in their department for-
ums, are concerned about the pres-
ent status of teaching in the Uni-
versity. By working to place stu-
dents on the faculty executive
committees where the decisions
are made they hope to bring about
the improvements they so badly
want. For them, it is academic re-
form for the sake of academic
reform.
On the other end of the spec-
trum is Voice/SDS, which has but
peripheral interest in the quality
of instruction. The majority Rad-
ical Caucus sees academic reform
as an issue around which students
can be organized and "radical-
ized."
Significantly, these politically

sensitive radicals have chosen
language and distribution require-
ments for their battleground. Ad-
mittedly they hope at the same
time that the moves for reform
will snowball into bigger and more
substantive concerns. But for
them, the first step it to mobilize
students.
AND THE ISSUE of greatest
student concern is not the level
of teaching or the number of stu-
dents per lecture but the language
and science distribution require-
ments in the literary college.
For regardless of the Radical
Caucaus' ultimate motives, the
large silent mass of students are
no more interested in widescale
cacademic reform than they are
likely to develop a "permanent
radical consciousness" from sign-
ing petitions against language re-
quirements.
If language requirements con-
tinue, they will be unhappy; but
then in four years they will grad-
uate. If language requirements are
abolished they will be happy. But
like the workers organized into
unions in the '30's, their own in-
terests are the satisfaction of their
immediate demands.
STILL, THE Radical Caucus's
program for change is being
waged on a far more realistic level
than the idealistic campaigns of
the department forum reformers.
The basic soundness of strategy-
to begin with distribution require-
ments-will be demonstrated in
the Radical Caucus the coming
months as students in large num-
bers sign the petitions and per-
haps engage in an occasional
demonstration to abolish the
odious language requirement.
But the revealing question is,
why? Do students reallysbelieve
that the language requirement is
antithetical to a student's right to
determine his own academic pro-
gram? Or, more likely, do students

dislike the language requirement
because they get bad grades in
French 231 or become bored with
the dreary process of learning a
foreign language?
And the problem with carrying
reform past abolition of require-
ments is that reform begins to
collide with the immediate in-
terests of the large silent mass.
OF COURSE it would be dif-
ficult to find a student who would
not subscribe to the general pro-
position, "Education should be
improved." ,But somewhere along
the line, the proposition has to be
translated into specific measures.
And speaking specifically, better
education means harder education
Take a 500 man lecture like His-
tory 101 and make it -a 10 student
seminar. Before you could go to
class thoroughly unprepared, be-
cause the assistant professor stuck
with the drudgery of teaching

first-semester history this time
around did all of the talking. To
pass the course required only oc-
casional attendance at lecture,
writing the paper, and cramming
the night before the final.
Now there is 500 pages of read-
ing a week, the professor knows
who you are and unless you're
prepared for class you're going to
look like an idiot. If the teacher
is good, and forces you to articu-
late in opposition to his well-de-
veloped pet theories, you've got to
know the stuff.
And unfortunately, a goodly
number of students who are now
struggling through the 500 man
lectures are going to respond, "if
this is academic reform, who
needs it."
SPOON-FED lectures may have
had educational dificiencies, but
at least they were relatively easy.

Teacher-student dialoge was hor-
rible, but who had anything to
talk to the prof about anyway?
Tangible academic reform is a
two-way street. Better professors
who devote more of their time to
teaching demand more of their
students. Smaller classes neces-
sitate better preparation. For
every improvemcnt in the acade-
mic schema there is more work
for the student.
Possibly the great silent mass
will evince unexpected life and
demand large-scale, meaningful
reforms. It would be nice to think
so.
On the other hand, the many
students who are keenly interested
in reform will not meet much op-
position from the apathetic major-
ity. Presumably, their apathy is
so pervasive that it will extend to
so thorough a rape of their in-
terests as the upgrading of the
quality of education on every level.

Letters:* Daily, Blacks, Panthel

Against bias
To the Editor:
W ENDY KRESS in a letter to
the editor of Oct. 11 expressed
the opinion that the walkout of
Alpha Kappa Alpha a n d Delta
Sigma Theta was an irrational
display.
Ever since Sept. 3, 1968 when it
was revealed that only seven of
the sororities had signed the reso-
lution, the members of Alpha
Kappa Alpha. Collegiate Sorosis,
and Delta Sigma Theta have been
meeting to examine possible ac-
tion to insure that strong sanc-
tions were imposed on those fail-
ing to sign the resolution, thereby
eliminating the necessity f o r a
walkout.
People living in the dormitories
and people who passed through
the Diag on Wednesday, Oct. 9,

"The first communist who lies down in front of my
A-bomb ... That's the lost A-bomb he'll ever lie down
in front of!"

AgL-
APP-\

saw members of Collegiate Sorosis
and Delta Sigma Theta attempt-
ing to gain student support, par-
ticularly the support of freshmen
women, so that the local chapters
could tell their nationals that the
student opposition to their failure
to sign the resolution might kill
the rush program, which would in
turn wreck the finances of the so-
rorities. These group actions were
supplemented by numerous indi-
vidual conversations:
IT ISNAIVE of Wendy Kress to
accuse us of taking such a decisive
step without reviewing the facts
available, including the member-
ship committee file. I, as a mem-
ber of the membership committee,
made certain everyone was aware
of the efforts the sororities that
failed to sign the resolution had
made. The conclusion at which we
unanimously arrived was that the
time when such effort could re-
place action has passed.
We recognize t h a t the local
chapters have made varying~ ef-
forts to convince their nationals.
We do not feel, however, that we
can allow a policy of binding and
required recommendations to ex-
ist which clearly violates the Pan-
hellenic Resolution of January 24,
1968, the SGC Rules on Member-
ship in a Student Organization,
and the Regents' By-Law z n2.14.
These recommendations consti-
tute illegal practices and therefore
should be eliminated today, not to-
morrow, or before 1970, or before
1972 as members of Panhel have
suggested,
THE HOUSING that Alpha Kap-
pa Alpha and Delta Sigma Theta
were able to get was the result of
the efforts of three people, Ginny
Mochel, Linda Sloan and Joan
Ringel. Not once did we receive
any assistance from ; the other,
chapters' presidents, or was the'
subject ever really discussed in
Panhel.
But the more important point
is this, whether we may or may
not have received help from Pan-
hellenic, we will not sacrifice our
principles on the recommendation
issue.
WE WILL NOT be a cover for
the discriiminatory policies of Pan-
hel. We feel that we can best help
Panhel eliminate discriminatory
procedures if we force people to
admit that, in fact, it is discrim-
inatory.
Our national policies tell us that
we cannot belong to a discrimina-
tory organization. Because we as
local chapters agree with these
policies, we cannot in conscience
belong to the Panhellenic Associa-
tion of the University of Michigan.
-Alexa Canady,
Delta Sigma Theta
Oct. 11

On reporting
To the Editor:
THE DAILY OF LATE has pre-
sented a series of articles and
editorials which have cast an un-
pleasant light on Panhellenic As-
sociation and its member organ-
izations. Many of the facts print-
ed are accurate, but many are in-
accurate and some are not even
mentioned. Because of this the
true picture of the situation in
Panhellenic is not presented.
First it should be made clear
that Panhel brought this matter
up itself. They were not forced
by any outside group to pass the
original resolution. The sorority
women have recognized the fact
that required and binding alum-
nae recommendations are a possi-
ble mechanism for discrimination
and have been working to elimin-
ate them.
There are 23 sororities at the
University, of these seven have
signed the statement. That leaves
16 remaining sororities. With your
clever subtitles such as Panhel
Bias Report it has been insinuated
that the remaining sixteen houses
are rampant with discrimination.
The fact is that the majority of
these houses do not have binding
recommendations. It is only be-
cause of a rather complex issue
with the Nationals that they have
not been able to sigh the state-
ment. However, because they have
not signed does not mean that the
sixteen houses utilize a system of
binding recommendations.
THE CHANCES for discrimina-
tion on the basis of color are al-
most non-existent as the rush of
the past years has shown. Figures
are not available on the number
of blacks rushing since no state-
mentof race is required or want-
ed during rush registration.
In regard to a Daily report and
subsequent editorial on the Octo-
ber 9 meeting of the. Presidents'
Council it is hard to believe a re-
porter was actually' present., It
may have seemed that everything
was shelved, but anyone who lis-
tened to the meeting would have
been able to realize the falsity of
this charge.
The report by the inembership
committee was given and debate
did take place. The only thing de-
layed was voting on the issue. This
was the result of a motion made
by Alexa Canady, a member of
Delta Sigma Theta, a black soror-
ity. The intent of the motion was
to allow the presidents to consult
their members on thi whole issue.
WE HOPE TO SEE a little more
objective reporting from T h e
Daily. At least let, the facts used
be the true facts.
-Rindi Carter
Public Relations
Chairman Panhel
Oct. 13

I

~Ian
By DAVE CHUDWIN
Despite protests to the contrary,
the aim of the National Aeronaut-
ics and Space Administration is
not the widening of the scientific
knowledge of s p a e e. Rather,it
seems to lie either in the limited
field of space engineering and me-
chanics or, worse still , solely in
the propaganda effects which the
United States hopes to gain from
its current manned space exploits.
It is ironic that, while the space
agency has put most of its effort
into the more expensive and
scientifically less valuable man-
ned flights, space appropriations
have dropped by twenty-five per
cent in the last three years. At
present funding levels, an ade-
quate manned space program can-
not be carried out in the future.
Since it takes at least several
years lead-time to prepare space-
craft and missions of the com-
plexity necessary for these flights,
NASA may well find itself unable
to use what few resources it has
available early in the next dec-
ade. It won't have the money to
support large scale manned flights,
and it will not have the necessary
vpr-z f inraArnfinnfnr theiin,-

in space: Is A

orbiting in

wrong direction?

billion f o r manned spaceflight.
Even then, only a portion of the
$475 million is spent on unmanned
spacecraft.
There are, no plans for any un-
manned planetary or lunar probes
for the 1970's except for a com-
paratively primitive photographic
mission to Mars in 1971.
This is despite the fact t h a t
there are a number of good op-
portunities for scientific flights in
the next decade. There are oppor-
tunities to reach Venus in 1970,
1973, and 1975 and Mars in 1973
and 1976. There are almost un-
limited launch chances for send-
ing spacecraft in Earth orbit and
to the moon.
In 1972 there will be an opti-
mum time to fly a spacecraft by
both Mercury and Venus at the
same time. In 1977 there will be a
once-in-a-160 years possibility of
sending a probe by three planets
at once - Jupiter, Neptune and
Uranus.
Under present plans, these op-
portunities are not going to be
taken advantage of.
MEMBERS OF CONGRESS
have not been insensitive to

space operations," he said. "Un-
manned missions have already
achieved remarkable results at a
very small fraction of the costs
associated with manned space-
flight."
Unmanned spacecraft have al-
ready photographed the entire
surface of the moon and parts of
Mars. Such probes have analyzed
the atmospheres of Mars and Ven-
us. and the surface of the moon.
Weather, communications and as-
tronomical satellites have already
reached a high degree of sophis-
tication.
Unmanned spacecraft are com-
paratively cheap. The unmanned
lunar orbiter satellites, which re-
turn a wealth of information about
the moon, cost only a fifth as
much per mission as the Apollo 7
flight now in orbit, and last for
significantly longer periods.
When men do not fly, the mil-
lions of dollars spent in "man-
rating" - the use of redundant
parts, the finest components and
exceptionally careful workman-
ship, all to insure the safety of the
men aboard - is simply not nec-
essary. Recovery forces, employ-
ing thousands of men and several

aboard there is a chance of trag-
edy. Astronauts Virgil Grissom,
Edward White, Roger Chaffee, and
Russia's Vladimir Komarov have
already paid the price with their
lives.
T h e proponents of manned
spaceflight are not without their
counter-arguments. The main ob-
jective to unmanned exploration
is that man adds an extra degree
of judgment and decision-making.
This is a v a li d argument. The
presence of men does tend to in-
crease mission flexibility.
Further, from a pragmatic point
of view, the manned flights are
regarded with more interest by the
public. Walt Cunningham, the
civilian astronaut aboard Apollo
7, explained in a pre-flight inter-
view that there is a "morbid cur-
iosity" that many people feel and
that there is, as well, the tendency
for many people to "Walter Mitty"
themselves into the situation.
Other features might include en-
joyment of pranks such as John
Young smuggling a corned beef
sandwich aboard Gemini 3, people
wanting to reassure themselves of
America's superiority, and the
sheer beauty of launches and
vi .coffhP n,.lr ifrnm na racnin

more concerned with propaganda
and hoopla than with the scien-
tific value of the flights. While
America's manned flights h a v e
carried some scientific experi-
ments, the space agency clearly
regards this as secondary to en-
gineering aspects, especially with
the present Apollo series.
The Apollo 7 crewmembers for
example, are active participants
in just two experiments which will
take a minimum of their t i m e
during the eleven-day flight. Fur-
ther, there are only two more au-
tomatic experiments on the mis-
sion. This policy of minimal ex-
perimentation is going to be con-
tinued on future Apollo flights in
the coming year.
The space agency also recently
announced that t h e first lunar
flight will not car'ry a scientific
package that was designed to be
left on the moon to send back
scientific information.
NASA has not been explicit in
expressing goals. If our goal is to
gain scientific knowledge, unman-
ned spacecraft are the best means
to this goal. If this is so, NASA
must change its emphasis from
manned to unmanned programs.

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