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. i