s4r 3iria &tti
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
On not making it with the older city clerk
of
Maynard St., Ann Arbor, Mich.
News Phone: 764-0552 1
Editorials printed n The Mchigan Daily express the individual opinions of staff writers
or the editors. This must be noted in all reprints.
URSDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 1969 NIGHT EDITOR: NADINE COHODAS
b appointed...
iE PROPOSAL by State Sen. Gilbert
Bursley (R-Ann Arbor) to have the
vernor appoint the Regents merits
ious consideration.
etting aside for the moment the prob-
a of partisan politics,.one can assume.
tt a Governor with the advice and con-
.t of the senate would be more quali-
i to select men capable of performing
Regent than the electorate as a whole.
'he present situation of electing Dis-.
,t Judges attests to this fact. The de-
ing jurisprudence in the state began
en the positions became elected ones,
er the Governor relinquished his right
appoint them.
'he argument that one "bad" governor
uld appoint "bad" Regents ignores the
t that the senate has power over the
>ointments,
f the Regents no longer need to be di-
tly responsible to the public they
uld be able to function more efficiently
"educators" rather than "politicians."
GOOD, AUTONOMOUS university is
as responsible to the n a t i o n as a
ole as it is to a, single state. This does
mean the interests of the state would
neglected: The Governor and senate
L undoubtedly take into consideration
feelings of their constituents before
king any appointments.
evertheless, the Regents should be as
cerned as possible with, the issues of
ication as they are, removed from in-
ests of the state. O n l y by removing
them from the political sphere can their
dedication to education be assured..
The argument that partisan politics be-
comes more involved when a Governor
makes appointments is not valid. For the
past several elections, Regents have been
elected "on the ticket."
Election of state board of education
members follows a similar pattern.
The explanation for this lies in the fact
that Regents, unfortunately, attract little
more interest than drain' commissioners
and city ,clerks. Along with other posts,
the electorate either admits its ignorance
of the qualifications of Regental nomi-
ness and votes party line, or is ignorant
or apathetic of the whole electoral pro-
cess -and votes party line.
WITH THE GOVERNOR able to appoint
the Regents - and with certain re-
strictions -'it would be possible to cut-
down some of the partisan politics now
integrated with the running of our uni-
versities.
First, the Regents terms could be stag-
gered in such a way as to make a single
Governor unable to appoint but h a 1 f
throughout his t e r m. Secondly, as in
Connecticut, the Board of Regents could
be by law restricted to a five out of eight
majority from one party.
Given these restrictions not only would
partisan politics be somewhat more sep-
-arated from the Regents, but the quality
of the men who run the universities would
be, given - hopefully - closer scrutiny.
-JIM HECK
IN THE EARLY sixties, a distinguished black college
professor failed in an attempt to register to vote in
Mississippi.
Though the man was an expert in English litera-
ture, he didn't know the answers to a series of inter-'
pretative questions about the Constitution posed by a
dour white clerk.I
In Michigan, state law requires a prospective voter
to be 21 years old and a legal resident of Ann Arbor
for at least six months before he is allowed to register
here.
If those were the only requirements, I would be
voting in Ann Arbor in the April 7 city election. How-
ever, strict and possibly arbitrary application of another
statute bars my registration.
THE STATUTE READS in part: !No student shall
be deemed to have gained or lost a residence by reason
michael thoryn
of his being . . a student at any institution of higher
learning."
The city clerk and three. female assistants have
used this law as an excuse .to ask students for other
proof, often arbitrary, that they are legal residents of
Ann Arbor.
In my case, the oldest clerk, wearing a long blue
dress ambled confidently to the counter on the second
floor of city hall.
She exuded power as she dryly asked me if I was
a student. "Yes," I said. She quickly.came to the cru-
cial issue. "How long have you lived in Ann Arbor?"
Though I easily met the necessary 30-day resi-
dence requirement the key was, "where do you spend
your summers?"
"I consider Ann Arbor my home," I said.
Forced to continue, I said that my parents did not
give me any financial support during the school year.
BUT I MADE the mistake of admitting that I re-
turned home for large portions of the pastthree sum-
mers.
State Elections Director Bernard Apol has indicated
his willingness to establish "relevant criteria" for allow-
ing University students to register to vote.
Victor Adamo, SGC Voter Registration Director and
Neil Hollenshead, '70 Law, conferred with Apol last
week on the issue of discrimination against students
registering to vote for the first time in Ann Arbor.
"Such criteria as whether a student is self-support-
ing or where he goes on vacations are not pertinent .to
the issue," Hollenshead said.
"A student spends most of the year in Ann Arbor
and therefore he definitely has a stake in the decisions
made by the city," he continued, "and if he passes the
minimum requirements, he should be allowed to vote
here."
APOL MAY PUBLISH general guidelines for stu-
dent registration, but city clerks are invested by law
with the power to determine if a perspective voter meets
the requirements.
Adamo hopes concrete guidelines will be prepared
before the April election. A phone canvass is being made
of the 16,000 students at the University who reach age
21 before thze April election by Young Democrats, New
Democratic Coalition, and the newly formed Harris-for-
mayor group.
"We are concentrating on the approximately 1600
students who have turned 21 during the school year,"
Adamo said.
There are also tentative plans for law students to
accompany groups of students to city hall for a veri-
table storming of the clerks counter. In the past, many
students who were rejected-when there were no lines
succeeded when the clerks were harried.
I ',* * *
I BROUGHT MY PROBLEM to the city attorney's
office on the third floor. The attorney was out, but one
of the assistants, John Etter, spoke with me.
Etter carefully and pleasantly went over my where-
abouts'during the past three years with special consid-
eration on where I spent my summers, all the while
taking notes on a small yellow pad.
After, gathering all the information he n e e d e d
*
0
(Where did you work last summer? Have you worked
while in Ann Arbor?) Etter reached a decision.
On the whole I was more qualified than students
who depended on their parents for all their support, but
regretfully, he said, I just didn't make it. He quoted
the student statute, substituting "while" for "by rea-
son of."
He said he had talked to about 150 students over
the past year and he "didn't know how many made it.
Maybe half."
As he continued smiling, I knew I was beaten, at
least for the present.
LIKE MANY STUDENTS I live in Ann Arbor at
least eight months of the year, support myself, and am
21 years old before the election.
I want to be an informed 'voter. It is pretty hard
to learn about the county where my parents live, north
of Detroit, where the assistant city attorney suggested
I register.
Maybe I should move to Mississippi.
Letters: The dangers. of black autonomy
.. or not to be appointed
To the Editor:+
LORNA CHEROT'S e d i t o r i a l
"Black Autonomy" (Feb. 11),
reveals only a partial understand-
ing of the need for information
and insight into the problems and
culture of the black man in Amer-
ica. Her assumption is that
"whites as a group know their
place in society," (surely an ironic
/phrase at best) "and are aware
of their accomplishments." I
would like to suggest that this
assumption is false, because the
majority of whites still have not
recognized or acknowledged their
own aacial prejudice, that very
crucial part of their identity
which has created the very prob-
lems that the blacks are trying to
confront today.
It is essential for whites to un-
derstand the culture of the blacks
as it is for the blacks to under-
stand their own culture, because
this culture has very clearly been
influenced if not dominated by
the never 'very cordial relation-
ship between white and black men
in America.
White Americans must learn to
recognize the all-important role
they have played in creating the
identity crisis of the blacks. They
must understand that their own
identity is determined by their re-
lationship with the blacks.
IT IS FOR THIS REASON that
I am v e r y strongly opposed to
segregated courses of instruction
in black culture. The only justifi-
cation for such segregation would
be if it were just the blacks who
were lacking in knowledge about
gTE SEN. Gilbert Bursley has mis-
lirected his efforts to insure more
onsive a n d effective governing
'ds at the state's three major uni-
ities.
lthough Bursley's proposed consti-
>nal amendment recognizes that gov-
ng boards are now disturbingly
'nomous and absolute in their control
nilversities, there is no reason to
ve that changing the selection pro-
from state-wide election to guber-
rial appointment will change t h i s
ation.
ndeed, gubernatorial appointments
Id only widen the rift between the
mts and their constituents, the tax-
rs of the state.
ppoihtments could 'easily be used as
ical payoffs, becoming the objects of
yism; seeking gubernatorial ap-
tment can be as political as running
)ffice.
alifornia Gov. Ronald Reagan's poli-
appointment of Berkeley's,trustees
produced a board of big political
ributor's alienated from the com-
ity they control and responsive
fly to the state's administration.
Business Staff
RANDY RISSMAN. Business Manager
KRA US .........Associate Business Manager
PFEFFER ...............Advertising Manager
BROWN........Senior Circulation Manager
LUXON ..................Personnel Manager
I PARKER ...Finance Manager
BURSLEY, ONE of the senators backing
the state investigation of student ac-
tivism, may likewise .favor a more cen-
tralized appointment of regents, but the
unfortunate effect of such appointments
has been witnessed at Berkeley.
However, Bursley's argument that the
electorate could care less about the se-
lection of Regents is valid. On an al-
ready lengthy ballot, voters are less and
less inclined to concern themselves with
the appointment, of university govern-
ing boards. Until November, all the Uni-
versity's Regents were Republican, un-
doubtedly representative more of George
Romney's popularity than of the con-
scious popular, will.
But it is of prime importance to leave;
the selection of Regents to the citizens
of the state. To appoint the Regents is to
distort their representative function as
advocates of the interests of the taxpay-
ers in the joint administration of the
university community.
BURSLEY MXGHT .better recommend
that the Regents be made more direct-
ly responsible to their apathetic consti-
tuency. Special regental elections and the
opening of all Regent meetings to public
view mig t interest the public and make
the Regents more responsive.
But it is clear, the selection of Re-
gents should involve the citizens whose
taxes support the University's operation;
for the Regents are not responsible only
to the administration in Lansing.
-HENRY GRIX
"First, I'd like to point out the advantages
of THIS system . . "
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these problems and concern... This maining two-thirds 1v n o volan-
very obviously not being the case, teer," j
I can only predict a fundamental- 0 That (according to a DOD
ly destructive split between Ameri- survey) 41 per cent of the officers,
cans if blacks further develop 38 per cent of the regular enlistees
their sense of racial identity with- and 71 per cent of the reserves
out a parallel growth .of self-def- said they would not have entered
inition in terms of racial attitudes the service had It not been for the
and identity on the part of the draft (40 per cent overall);
whites. 0 That, were there no draft and
The new curriculum of courses were no changes to be made to
in black culture seems the logical the incentives for volunteers, the\
place for this mutual enlighten- annual volume of voluntary en-
ment to occur. I strongly u r g e listees would drop off to 50-60
that these courses not be limited per cent of pre-Vietnam revuire-
to black students. T h e r e is no ments, and to 30 per cent of the.
doubt that the whites have much required reserves;
to learn from the blacks. And it * And finally, that even if the
might just be possible that white incentive structure of the Army
students can offer something oth- would be altered significantly, a
er than an identity-destroying en- volunteer army would face ser-
vironment and racial prejudice to. ious problems: another DOD sur-
black students. I hope that this is vey of 16-19 year olds raised two
possible. I believe that it is pr''- questions: would they volunteer
sible. if pay in the military was equal
-Sandra Jane Sucher, '69 to comparable occupations in ci-
Feb. 11 vilian life? If pay was consider-
ably higher? To the firs" only 4,
per cent said yes, to the second,
draft only 17 per cent!
To the Editor: IN OTHER WORDS, the above
URBAN LEHNER in his editorial information clearly reveals t h a t
on the possibility of a volun- the military establishment relies
teer army (Jan. 24) claimed that on the draft not to Induct men di-
because draftees and draft-forced rectly, but to get men to volunteer.
volunteers constitute such a small That is, the Selective Service is
part of the army (15 per cent), primarily used not to draft men
the draft could be dismantled in but to CHANNEL them - not only
favor of an all volunteer army, into civilian occupations essential
That is, Mr. Lehner believes there to the "nationalinterest," but in-
would be sufficient military man- to military occupations as well.
power without the coercion of the Without the channeling power of
draft. the draft there would be hardly
This view is unfortunately mis- as many so-called "volunteers."
taken, and reveals a lack of uni-
derstanding about the true nature -Frank Hammer
of the draft. Testimony (see Aug.- Feb. 1
Sept. 1968 issue of Congressional
Digest) by the then-Assistant Conf!rontatiop
Secretary of Defense given before To the Editor:
the Committee on Armed Service HEN I READ the comment by
on June 30, 1966, reveals the fol- the distinguished editor of the
lowing: . distinguished Michigan Daily:
" That the draft produces less "But the faculty has pushed stu-
than one-third of the new enlisted dents to the wall through their ig-
entrants; norance and insensitivity. And
* That the ". . . pressure of the the responsibility for any violent
draft has a decided ;influence on confrontation which is precipitated
the decision of many of the re- must rest with them" I thought,
My God! what wall? You mean to
say the faculty is machine-gun-
ning students against the walls of
the administration building? Then
I heard the even more terrible
news: the faculty had failed to
lift the hideous language require-
ment which weighs like a rock on
the repressed, oppressed, depress-
ed, downtrodden, poverty-stricken,
underfed students of the Univer-
sity.
All I could do was to hope that
when faculty heads were being
pounded against the walls in the
inevitable "violent confrontation"
they were told that it was m erely
to replace their pathetic "ignor-
ance and insensitivity" with the
knowledge and compassion of
their students. Knowing that, I
felt sure, w-ould help them repent.
PLEASE EXCUSE the hysteria
but it seems that hysteria is the
criterion by which The Daily
judges what's fit to-print. In a
more rational tone then-Just be-
cause this country is .supposed to
be a democracy at the govern-
mental level does not mean that
all' the institutions in the country
are or should be democratic. Look
at SDS or SNCC.
SO AS FAR as democracy is
concerned, let The Daily put its
money where its mouth is and shut
up until the results of such a
referendum are in. It may turn
out thata truly democratic deci-
sion will be in opposition to our
august newspaper (remember clas-
'sified research?).
I hope not. But certainly the
students against language require-
ments have to show they are a
majority, before they have a leg
to stand on when approaching the
faculty; then the faculty may be
influenced by this fact in their
own democratic vote. $ut in any
case let's remember that heads can
sometimes be valuable and not
bash those we don't agree with
against walls.
-David Morris, '69
Feb.5
.
Democracy at the
By DANIEL ZWEkDLING
CURRICULUM reform is urgent t
and essential-but while stu-
dents demand changes in the
s classroom, they are ignoring the c
fundamental, most crucial issue
in college education today: who
makes the decisions?a
This is the question the more
radical students have stressed, 1
attacking piecomeal gains as stu-
dent'syndicalism -selling-out on
big issues for minor concessions.
And they are right. For as phi-'
losophy professor Carl Cohen sad- 1
ly showed in this week's Daily, 1
student gains will continue to be
benevolent concessions made., at
the whim and will of faculty and 1
administration forces - until stu-
dents finally demand and get a
decision-making vote.
It is the faculty and the ad- l
ministration who will decide what 1
and when to change. And all the 1
student noise and petitioning and
protests will be so much begging
at their paternal knee.r
U ,.
Students must have power of decision
,'
administration community, stu-
dent community, etc.). Members'
outside a community may have an
interest in the other community's
decisions, says Cohen, but they
are not equal and should not have
a vote in those decisions. Writes
Cohen: "It is naive, in some cir-
cumstances dangerous, to insist
that every person has a right to
a decision-making voice in every
affair that affects his life;"
*The faculty, simply by virtue
of its greater academic compe-
tence, "is markedly more able and
better prepared than students" to
deal with curricular problems.
Therefore it is "foolish" to en-
trust such decisions to students.
C O H E N' S OBSESSION with
"democracy" is heartwarming -
but it would be better to throw out
the label and talk concept. And
that is simply, human beings
should and must have a say in
decisions that affect their lives.
The "community" Cohen should
sions, says Cohen, is in public
debate-but he stresses "there is
an important difference between
having a role in the on-going de-
bate and having part of the deci-
sion - making powers." Exactly.
"Having a role in debate" is so
much powerless babble ;and there-
fore meaningless. It is easy for
Cohen to write in his scented
prose that "student views should
(and do now) have a real effect
on the decisions being made."
But this is empty rhetoric. Stu-
dent "views" have no real power
on decisions made by faculty and
administration forces-when and
if these forces want a certain
change, they make it. If not, they
don't. Students may choose when
to raise an issue, but wield no in-
fluence on its outcome. Surely
Cohen can not seriously think
that the faculty and administra-
tion would respond to student de-
mands if they were not ready to
concede those demands - witness
the language requirement issue-
.,nn.'. na.4 nnce "i-a ofi~nnre ttn
Reflecting carefully as Cohen
suggests, I can conclude only that
knowledge and wisdom, while they
vary in degree, are never absolute
nor dd they always correlate. Pro-
fessors have admittedly had more
experience than students in life
itself, by virtue of their age.. Pro-
fessors have usually had more
experience in the art of teaching
-but not necessarily ability-siri-
ply because they have taught
longer. And professors have great-
er expertise in certain academic
areas, because they have studied
them longer.
BUT NONE of this adds up to
a monopoly or even overwhelming
majority of a sort of knowledge
which leads to "right" decisions.
Prof. Alfred Meyer of the political
science department strongly favors
an automatic "pass" evaluation
system, while Prof. Richard Ste-
wart in the classic department
swears by grades. Prof. Richard
Brandt of the philosophy depart-
which equip him in his own way
to deal with related issues. College
students, simply because they have
been students for so many years,
have great expertise and knowl-
edge in what it means to learn.
Their professors have knowledge
in what it is to teach.
SOME STUDENTS are less so-
phisticated than others in this
"student expertise"' than others--
but 'then, professors have no
monopoly on sophistication or
competence either. Most of Co-
hen's colleagues are notoriously
accepted by their students a s
hopelessly dull, i nc omp3 e t e n t
teachers. Scholars, perhaps, but
miserable teachers. And for all
Cohen's academic competence, he
is no better judge of teaching
competence than any random stu-
dent sitting in a classroom.
What is best for a student, what
stimulates him most, what makes
him grow as he wishes to grow-
these are issues which only the
*