Sixty-Ninth Year
EDITED AND MANAGED BY STUDENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
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Editorials printed in The Michigan Daily express the individual opinions of staff writers
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Complexity Ruins Com nit

4
'

Y, APRIL 12, 1959

NIGHT EDITOR: CHARLES KOZOLL

OFFEE. . .BLACK By Richard Taub
Residence Halls Reviewed

tIF AN IDEALIST were to conjure up a flawless student residence, for the construction of
n whih unlimited funds were available, however, his basic plan would probably provide for
an "entry system," with twenty-five to fifty individuals living in single rooms arranged on
three or four floors, in every entry. If each unit of space were completely sound-proofed, if
each contained fits own commons, dining and recreation rooms, and lounge, its own library and
toilet and bath facilities, and were staf fed by its own resident adviser or house director, almost
perfect solution to the student housing problem would be found.
The compromises which practical necessity dictates for a state university are not unduly
severe . .. residence halls units housing one hundred or one hundred and twenty-five individuals
can be constructed-and the plans will include the most modern living, sleeping, dining, and
food preparation facilities, as well as adequ'ate commons'spaces, lounges, recreation rooms, music
rooms, libraries and other special features."
--Prof. Karl Litzenberg in a 1941 Michigan Alumnus article on the Michigan House Plan

Deterioration in Civil Defense?


DAY, 18 years later, the University has
moved a long way from even the basic pro-
gram outlined by Prof. Litzenberg. South Quad-
rangle, Alice Lloyd Hall and Mary Markley Hall,
with their large, impersonal, and somewhat
hotel like entry ways, their long narrow cor-
ridors, with rooms almost identical "all in a
row," are amazingly far from "ideal" residence
quarters. Certainly, if a student is looking for
a smaller, more personal unit with which he
can identify, he is not going to find it in these
residence halls,
It is true that the University has done the
best it could by dividing these halls into
"houses," but these have not been too effective.
It must of course be pinted out that the
University was working against time, and with
a limited amount of space when these present
halls were constructed. In some cases, archi-
tects had to plan up-build high buildings-
rather than out. And the University had to
prepare for the expected deluge of "war babies."
especially since Ann Arbor housing was so de-
cidedly second rate.
BUT THE Legislature, by refusing to appro-
priate enough funds to cope with increased
enrollment, has given the people who plan the
dormitories a respite-plans for the new North
Campus dormitory have been suspended, and
there is time for a re-examination of the
theories or lack of theories which went into the
construction of our most recent dormitories.
For as one person has pointed out, the latest
buildings simply had problems built into them.
This is not to imply that physical structures
are the most important factors in residence hall
administration. Certainly, a top notch staff
can devise a first class living and working unit,
no matter what the physical structure. And con-
versely, a really bad staff, cannot develop "a
good house," in the perfectly designed residence
ball.
A good house, as defined here, is one with
pleasant living conditions, and provisions for
some degree of group identity for the individual
student; one which yet still provides him with
a maximum amount of freedom. It's a place in
$vhich he will want to live, and one, in which
the freshman can adjust to the large imper-
sonal University. It is also, a place with an
academic as well as social orientation.
THAT THE PRESENT residence hall system
does not provide enough of this is quite
clear. The reasons for this are not entirely those'
of physical structure: the total staff is not as
good as it should be and the orientation pro-
gram could probably be better. Nevertheless,
the fault is also due, to some extent, to the de-
velopment of building styles in which the in-
dividual can hardly help but feel insignificant.
And the new residence hall on North Campus,
may be able to overcome these deficiencies. In
the first place, there will not be a land short-
age. It may be just as economical to build a
building two or three stories high, on North
Campus spread over a great deal of land, as
it is to build a building nine stories high, since
there are additional expenses incurred the
higher a building is built. According to Vice-
President for- Business and Finance Wilbur
Pierpont, no study has ever been made of this,
on this campus, and it really is about time
some kind of study was made.
Second, the University ought to again look
Into the entry system. Separate entries for
separate houses, again serves to provide more
of a group kind of identification. Even the ar-
rangements of West Quadrangle are far su-
perior to those of South, or Mary Markley.
THIRD, the University ought to look into the
possibilities of a suite system in the dormi-
tories. A room should not be just a place to
sleep and study, it should be a place to live. A
bedroom, and some sort of sitting room where
students can entertain, would tend to make
their "place" more like living quarters, and also
provide a degree of privacy impossible to now
maintain for those who want it. And strangely
enough, a suite system residence might be de-
signed in such a way so that it would cost no
more per student than present arrangements.
According to Vice-President Pierpont, no in-

frigerators. The advantages here are self-
evident.
ANYBODY who has read this far, may see
what appears to be an inherent contradic-
tion in what has gone before. This editorial has
called for residence halls which will provide
group identification; and yet, a high degree of
privacy. This need not be contradictory if the
residence halls are intelligently run. For there
are students who wish to be left alone, and they
ought to be, and there are others who are in-
veterate mixers. Further, a residence hall. sys-
tem should be organized, not for the handling
of some "average" person, but to handle instead
a wide variety of personalities.
The residence halls try to do this now, but
are frequently unsuccessful.
THIS CAN BE combatted in two ways; one is
the smaller living unit. But secondly, more
serious consideration ought to be given to the
creation of freshman dormitories. Such a plan
was rejected by the Board of Governors of
Residence Halls last year for largely incom-
prehensible reasons. The first was that students
should not be guinea pigs for sociologists and
phychologists, and the second, that it had been
tried before-during the war years. We do not
know what sociological and psychological
guinea pigs are; although they do sound ter-
ribly reprehensible. But we do think that any
intelligent residence hall staff man could pre-
vent this degeneration. The fact that such a
program was tried during the war, it seems to
us, is an extraordinarily good reason for trying
it again. Conditions during the war were not
what one could call "normal."
The advantages of a freshman hall are really
patently obvious. First, present residence hall
rules, and, in fact, the whole present set-up,
are aimed at freshmen. That this is distinctly
distasteful to upper-classmen can be seen from
the small number of upper classmen now living
in residence halls, and the large number of
upper class women who would like to live out.
Here, of course, a distinction must be made
between men and women's systems, first, be-
cause women are different from men, and
second, because women are required to live in
organized housing and men are not. Since this
writer does not feel qualified to explore the
women's situation in this particular area, the
rest of the discussion will be limited to men.
FRESHMEN ARE different from upperclass-
men-in fact, first semester freshmen are
different from second semester freshmen. Any-
body with half an eye can even pick out most
of the new students for the first two or three
weeks of the school year. The problems of
freshmen and their orientations are quite dif-
ferent from those of upperclassmen. They've
come from high schools of all kinds and towns
and cities running the spectrum from New York
to Trout Creek. And they have as many differ-
ent ideas of what to expect from a University.
To include upperclassmen with them, to
provide rules which must apply to all, is unfair.
FRESHMAN-UPPERCLASS housing has other
advantages as well. Because upperclassmen
do not require anywhere near the same number
of staff men that the present houses require,
the residence halls could be run more economi-
cally.
Further, more equitable arrangements could
be made for those living in upperclass housing.
For example, with a deferred rushing program,
men could decide second semester one of
three things-whether to join a fraternity,
whether to move into an apartment, or whether
to move into a particular upperclass house.
Some people who are opposed to freshman
Lhousing point out with some justification
that it is unfair to deprive freshmen of con-
tacts with upperclassmen; freshmen can gain
perspective from them, and can learn much
about college life as well.
THERE IS SOME validity to this claim, but it
is highly overrated. There is legitimate
question about how much contact freshmen
have with upperclassmen in the residence halls;
and further, just how valuable this contact is.
It might even turn out to be negative. Of
course. freshmen do have a great deal of con-

By NORMA SUE WOLFE
Daily Staff Writer
WITHIN the past week, four
prominent Americans have in-
dicated the gravity of Soviet
might and stressed maintenance of
military strength to deter attack.
Not one of the four mentioned
other statistics revealed this week
indicating United States techno-
logical and economic supremacy.
One, Gen. Thomas S. Power,
head of the Strategic Air Com-
mand, even charged in a censored
Pentagon testimony before the
House Appropriations Subcommit-
tee for Defense in Washington
that "our deterrent posture is de-
teriorating."
As of this moment, the "margin
of deterrance'.' of his forces was
termed adequate. However, the
"major share" of the deterrent
posture of SAC, he explained, is
the fleet of B-47 bombers. These
are becoming obsolete after 10
years, he added, and urged replac-
ing them with more modern B-
52's, B-58's and missiles.
* * *
THOUT this action "I think
you are just risking the whole
country," Gen. Power said. "That
is how important I feel it is.
"The force which is now pro-
grammed-which I am told by the
Pentagon is programmed-is not
adequate because it is not coming
fast enough," he charged. "I want
more and I want it faster. I have
so asked for it."
The SAC, the country's major
nuclear deterrent force of bomb-
ers and missiles, is now concen-
trating efforts on achieving a
status in which one-third of its
bombers would be ready with crews
for take-off within five minutes
after warning or an actual attack,

he said. Until this system is at-
tained and perfected, though, he
urged the establishment of a 24-
hour airborne alert system. This
would involve keeping a certain
number of nuclear-armed bombers
in the air at all times, ready for
combat.
"OUR REAL mission, you might
say, is to have that Russian
planner get up from his table every
morning and turn to Mr. Khrush-
chev and shake his head and say,
'Today is not the day, comrade.'
I think if we can do that we are
accomplishing our mission," he
said.
Gen. Power's talk precipitated
the testimony of Gen. Thomas D.
White, Air Force Chief of Staff in
Chicago. He called strategic retali-
ation ,forces "adequate" to meet
any surprise attack. U. S. military
power is sufficient to win any gen-
eral, thermonuclear war over Ber-
lin, he said.
But he warned against trying to
"match an opponent gun for gun,
aircraft for aircraft or missile for
missile."
In New York, Vice Admiral
Thomas S. Combs, commander of
the Eastern Sea Frontier, warned
that "the darkest threat in our
entire history now hangs over our
heads.
"In recent years we have heard
much about the strides made by
the Russians in the development of
intercontinental ballistic missiles,"
Admiral Combs said. "They have
made progress but this is pre-
sumably still a weapon of the
future,"
Soviet strength is not to be un-
derestimated, though, he cau-
tioned. He called upon "our leaders

to recognize the seriousness of the
threat and the need to be ready
for any eventuality."
And in South Bend, Ind., ex-
President Herbert Hoover suggest-
ed maintaining "such military
strength as will deter attack."
He warned, "We must continue
the development of scientific re-
search and invention which will
keep the Western world in the lead
in weapons of defense."
The prominent men's words of a
threat to security were highlighted
on front pages of newspapers all
over the conutry
* *
ON THE INSIDE pages were
small and, seemingly insignifi-
cant articles. First, three leading
electrical utility executives in New
Orleans, La., estimated that the
Soviet Union is about 20 years be-
hind the United States in per capi-
ta production of electricity. They
agreed that "there is no evidence
that the Russians will catch up in
the foreseeable future."
And, with the fading of the re-
cession, the U.S. has further in-
creased the gap between its total
production and that of the Soviet
Union. Last month the U.S. steel
industry operated above 90 per
cent of capacity and produced
twice as much as Soviet industry.
A general picture ofsteel and
other production indexes appears
to guarantee a substantial Ameri-
can lead during the first quarter,
despite the fact that Soviet indus-
trial production has continued to
grow.
Certainly such insignificant tech-
nological advances should not pre-
suppose an attitude of laxity or
confidence in security. But at least
they turn off a little of the heat in
the "cold war."

ByDPHILIP POWER
Daily Staff Writer
THE RAPID growth of the Uni-
versity and the consequent
need for increased organization
and an enlarged administrative
body to service it have made the
University an incredibly complex
institution.
There is a danger, however, that
its complexity may soon become so
great that only specially trained
administrators can know enough
about it to make knowledgeable
decisions. These problems have be-
come so complex that the Univer-
sity itself has set up a program of
Michigan Fellows in College Ad-
ministration for advanced training
in college administration.
However, the faculty member or
student is necessarily ignorant of
these special administrative skills.
Thus the faculty and students are
increasingly divorced from day to
day policy decisions at the Uni-
versity, and may soon be divided
from the fundamental decisions
regarding the ultimate ends of the
University community. This is so
both because they lack the neces-
sary knowledge, but also because
administrators have already taken
over many decision areas. These
groups are both, theoretically at
least, coequal parts of a univer-
sity. As such, they should have
the chancehto express their ideas
about University policy.
Thus to an increasing extent,
one of the supposedly coordinate
elements of the University is pro-
gressively monopolizing the im-
portant principle of self-determi-
nation function which should be
shared by them all. Further, ad-
ministrators are trained to deal
with problems in the most efficient
way they know. But it is possible
that the most efficient way may
in time become the most expedient
one. For the policies of this, or
any other, University to be de-
termined on the basis of expedi-
ency would be tragic indeed.
The influence and prestige of
the faculty is thus increasingly
diminished as the University
grows. Self-esteem of members of
the faculty is reduced because
they are fulfilling only a part of
their function within the univer-
sity community if they are rele-
gated to matters largely concerned
with the mechanics of teaching.
Further, there is some danger
that the faculty's realization of
this problem will lead it into many
activities which dilute its primary
function of effective teaching. The
increasing number of faculty
committees, either for certain ad-
ministrative purposes related to
faculty organization, or for allow-
ing the faculty a certain sphere
of decision-making; may occupy
increasing amounts of faculty
time in matters pot central to the
teaching dynamic.'
A university should offer the
teacher the opportunity to ex-
press his judgement on university
policy from his viewpoint as a
teacher, and not as a committee
member. One might urge that

since one of the primary functions
of a univ-ersity is to teach, the
teachers should have an import-
ant voice in the direction of uni-
versity affairs.
The increasing size and differ-
entiation of the University has led
to a certain specialization of func-
tion on the part of its. three ele-
ments. Administrators adminis-
trate and make decisions. Profes-
sors teach and do research. Some
students learn and some have a
good time. And even within these
three groups there is consider-
able differentiation. Administra-
tors may administer finance or
student affairs. Professors may be
members of the English or history
departments. And students gravi-
tate to known cliques.
All these groups are essential
parts of the university commu-
nity. Yet few of their now-
specialized functions and interests
overlap, except geographically.
This has created at Michigan a
split between the students, faculty
and administration, "the chasm at
State Street" which strikesat the
roots of the necessary essence of
a university community: mutual.
ity. A university is a unified,' func-
tioning organism guided and mo-
tivated by an intangible, yet all
important, spirit of an intellectual
community. Yet when this com
munity is split into at least three
increasingly exclusive groups, it
no longer can flourish. Instead of
being a meaningful institution, the
University becomes a three-head-
ed anomaly.
True, there is and ought to be
differentiation between student,
teacher and administrator. But if
there is to be an adequate esprit
de corps at the University, one
which can mold it into something
greater than the mere sum of its
parts, there must exist the all-
important common meeting
ground, both intellectually, func-
tionally and physically Such a
ground does not now exist.
Physically, a relaxing, convenient
place where an interested student
can sit down with a professor over
a leisurely cup of coffee and talk
is rare. Students congregate in the+
Union, faculty members in the
University Club.
This vital physical and intel-
lectual' meeting ground can only
be activated and fostered by a
strong flourishing spirit of the uni-
versity, which makes possible a
mutual regard and understanding
between all its elements.
A vicious circle is in operation
here: a lack of the spirit of the
University leads to a less effective
University. community, which in
turn is reflected in-certain prob-
lems facing the University as a
whole. These problems, in turn,
have their deleterious effect on the
University's spirit, which in turn
generates more difficulties.
Paradoxically, the solution is
thus implicit in a proper under-
standing of our fundamental prob-
lem, the nature of a university it-
self.

4

4

PAY BOOSTS OR LAYOFFS?
Steel Strike Threatens Nation's Economy

By JAMES BOW
Daily Staff Writer
IN THE AMERICAN steel in-
dustry, every question seems to
present a dilemma anid every an-
swer appears to be a prediction of
future crises.
The immediate question is, "Will
there be a strike after June 30,
when the current labor contracts
with the steel industry expire?"
"I cannot emphasize too strongly
that our union does not want a
strike," David J. McDonald, pres-
ident of the 1,200,000 - member
United Steelworker's Union, an-
swered. But he added that the
steel industry is "hell-bent on
fomenting a strike.".
McDonald's observation lies in
his own union's demands for
higher wages and increased bene-
fits and the steel industry's ap-
parent intent to keep wages, as
well as prices, stable. In the words
of Clifford Hood, president of
United States Steel, "With the al-
ready high rates of wages, we in
United States Steel can see no
reason why there should be more
employment cost increases and
more price increases again this
year. We will exert every effort
to avoid both."
AND THE steel industry will
have many bargaining battles to
fight in order to avoid all the
union's demands for direct and in-
direct wage increases. The ,Steel-
worker's Union will present its de-
mands April 30. McDonald has
hinted that the union will ask for
higher wages, a work week of 35
hours, higher Sunday overtime
pay, additional unemployment
benefits, and possibly a paid three-
month vacation every five years.
McDonald has punctuated these
demands with newspaper adver-
tisments proposing a billion dollar
pay boost, which would startle
even a modern-day John Henry.

industrial price increases through-
out the nation are imminent.
ON THE other hand, if steel-
workers go on strike, as they have
done five times in the past 13
years, then the entire spectrum of
American production may well feel
the blow. And this is a grim pos-
sibility for those who already look
with alarm at the nation's 4,750,-
000 unemployed.

'The pressure of a possible steel
crisis is a double-edged threat to
the government. Even with
Khrushchev's apparent easing of
the Berlin crises, the international
tension makes doubly dangerous a
shutdown of the nation's steel
mills. Although President Eisen-
hower has promised "to keep out-
side the business of collective bar-
gaining," he urged that a boost in
steel prices be avoided.

This third dimension in col-"
lective bargaining was criticized
by Prof. Lawrence Rogin, of the
University Institute of Labor Re-
lations and former educational'
director of the Textile' Worker's
Union, CIO. He objected to the
"willingness of the administra-
tion, which is supposed to be
against government controls, to
step ,in with impact clearly on the
union."

"Think We'd Better Lie Low For A While?"

The most significant thing about
this year's steel talks, he com-
mented, was the government's de-
sire to be in the picture before
collective bargaining starts on May
18. "This raises questions about
the whole concept of free collective
bargaining and free enterprise."
If the government is going to
step in; Prof. Rogin added, they
ought to do it according to some
system.
He discounted the argument
that a wage hike would neces-
sarily cause further inflation. "Re-
search would indicate that the
amount of inflation is much less
than alarmists believe." Rogin
cited inflation in other Western
nations which has exceeded the
United States' price rise.
BUT HE DID VIEW with alarm,
the five per cent of the nation's
population which is unemployed.
"In England when the unemploy-
ment figure reaches two and a
third per cent, they begin to do
something." HIe advocated expan-
sion in other areas besides manu-
facturing to provide -employment.
Thus, while labor, management,
and the concerned observer may
all worry about the same issues,
their stress varies. RogerBlough,
Chairman of the Board of United
States Steel, suggested that if Mc-
Donald gets his billion dollar wage
boost, "Why not do the same for
all the 65,000,000 gainfully 'em-
ployed people in America?
"In short, why not go on a real
inflationary bender while we 're
at it? It should be fun while it
lasts."
MANAGEMENT'S most recent
stand is the announcement that
the steel industry plans to freeze
wages for the coining year, con-
tending that the industry already
pays wages on a higher ratio than