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Seventy-eight years of editorial freedom
Edited arnd managed by students of the University of Michigar
under authority of Board in Control of Student Publications
Wisconsin:
Beckoning
revolution
420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor, Mich.
News Phone: 764-0552
Editorials printed n The Mchigan Daily express the individual opinions of staff writers
or the editors. This must be noted in al reprints.
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 1969
NIGHT EDITOR: DANIEL ZWERDLING
t
ROTC and LSA:
Less than creditable
THE DECISION of the literary college
curriculum committee to recommend
abolition of ROTC credit was made on
solid academic grounds. The careful
'course-by-course study which their spe-
cial subcommittee made seemed to do an
admirable job of assessing where ROTC
courses were and were not of. academic
significance.
They found that there were only four
out of more than 50 ROTC courses that
could plausibly be awarded academic
credit because of" their content and
approach.
But even these courses are not assured-
ly credit worthy. The subcommittee noted
that the quality of the courses depends:
on the instructors as much as the texts,
and the literary college exerts no control
whatsoever over the selection of military
personnel.
With these limitations, the no-credit
limitation recommendation of the com-
mittee is entirely appropriate.
BY THE COMMITTEE'S own statement,
the' ROTC course materials are "con-
j ectural, non-analytical, cheaply moral-
istic, and often blatantly propagandistic."
But the committee left very open the
possibility that four specific courses be
granted one or two hours of credit, and
this does not seem to be a wise move.
Students do not take individual ROTC
courses because they are good courses,
but to avoid the draft or get a commis-
sion or get the $50 monthly stipend. For
the college to grant credit for the four,
courses is to knowingly encourage,, albeit
it lightly, students to take the ROTC
programs.
But with the information the college
now has of ROTC, this is clearly unjusti-.
fled. In addition to the report submitted
at the committee meeting yesterday, the
chairman of the subcommittee, Prof.
Locke Anderson, described the program
and its materials as "atrocious."
By granting credit for the good courses,
courses that could conceivably receive
credit, the college is encouraging students
to take all the courses. Students cannot
take these 200 and 300 level courses with-
out taking the (proposed) uncredited pre-
requisites. There is something awry in a
situation where students must take un-
credited courses-two to four of them-to
get to the credited ones.
But there is a still wider view. The
committee also recommended that the
college consider possible alternatives to
the current ROTC organization which
might utilize University courses for re-
lated work within the ROTC program.
ON STRICT ACADEMIC grounds this
would be unassailable. But if the
larger view of ROTC is kept in mind, of
its historical origin and purpose, this pos-
sible relationship: is questionable.
ROTC has its origins in World Waits I
and II when the' nation was in less liberal,
less humane moods. Army ROTC took its
modern form in 1917 (an earlier version
originated during the Civil War) and
Navy ROTC was added in 1927, when the
mood was still little changed. Air Force ..
ROTC was added in the wake of World
War II, in 1947, when the nation was in
a similar state.
For the times and their needs, this was,
perhaps, acceptable. But the needs today
are far different, and while this bastard-
ization of the University may be accept-
able in times of honest national emer-
gency, its continuing practice is unmeces-
sary and unacceptable.
It is irresponsible and unacceptable for
the college to have ROTC in any relation-
ship. It should be terminated now.
-RON LANDSMAN
x
By JIM HECK
THE DEMONSTRATIONS at
Wisconsin are a new kind of
disruption. They are well-planned.
sophisticated protests that make
one begin to say it is the begin-
ning of revolution.
Only once before-at Columbia
-have demonstrations been so
successful and gone on at such
length.
But the radical leaders at Wis-
consin and their tactics are much
different from those at Columbia.
They aren't as sloppy and spon-
taneous. They are sophisticated,
the likes of which we have iltver
seen on American campuses be-
fore.
It used to be that most campus
radicals were shy, reserved SDS'ers
who were only able to shout plati-
tudes with a megaphone. These
elves of revolution were never able
to field the problems arising dur-
ing a demonstration and their al-
legiance to the issues was ques-
tionable.
But the Wisconsin campus has a
clan of new radicals-black ones
-characterized by a high sophis-
tication, calm perseverance and
unalterable 'conviction.
THEY HAVE confronted the
administration at a justifiable
time, for they have attempted to
present their demands :,hrough
legitimate channels and they have
been constantly rebuffed. The de-
mands are reasonable and amaz-
ingly mild when compared with
demands of a similar 'nature at
other campuses.
Unlike many universities how
having problems with blacks, Wis-
consin has not been asked to de-
velop a segregated, autonimous
black studies program. The lead-
ers at Wisconsin called such an
idea "foolish" after the Milwaukee
Journal reported it was one of
their demands.
The Wisconsin blacks are ask-
ing for a black studies depart-
ment, but one opened to all stu-
dents. They made this request as
early as last summer.
They have also asked that the
expelled students from Oshkosh
be admitted to Wisconsin. The
students at Oshkosh had taken
part in demonstrations asking for
a black studies program there.
Originally, few of the iaders
really hoped this demand wxoud
be met. The state university sys-
tem and university system are
closely tied at Wisconsin-so much
so that when one of the systems
makes a policy decision the other
one usually follows.
BUT UNIVERSITY chancellor
H. Edwin Young set up an ad-
ministrative committee to study
the demand about a month ago
and the committee, chaired by a
vice president, recommended Wis-
consin accept the Oshkosh blacks
for the semester that began two
weeks ago.
The University didn't accept
them and remains tightlipped as
to why.
Otherdemands blacks are ask-
ing include veto power over the
hiring and firing of faculty for
the black studies department.
Originally they had asked for a
vote in the hiring and firing of
faculty "at all remotely involved"
with the program. The fact they
revised this demand was an at-
tenipt to show the administraion
the demands are negotiable.
q
But in his short Friday news
conference, Young claimed the
blacks would not negotiate with
him.
Seeing as how the blacks aie
revising their demands publi'sally
the credibility gap falls on Young,
not them.
The outbreak of demonstrations
a week ago was the culmination
of this kind of impenetrable bar-
rier to communication. The ad-
ministration remains extremely
quiet. It is this frustrating non-
communication for more than a
year that led the blacks to decide
demonstrating was the only way
left.
LAST MAY THE BLACKS de-
manded a special scholarship pro-
gram be set up to recruit inner
city -blacks. The request was
-ranted reluctantly by admin-
Sstrators, mainly because at the
Photographs by
Jay Cassidy
5....5':F.?':: ..:"{ ::' .* . ?..}
Dtime Wisconsin was one of the
tfew Big Ten universities that
iidn't already have such a pro-
vram.
;The blacks had planned io work
iwithin this structure-the only
nne that officiallyrepresented
a~hem-to improve their .nt on
pampus. But the university ap-
pointed a white director, one who
[he blacks claimed they were un-
table to work with.
So as far back at last summer
tthe black began "requesting" their
black studies department. Na-
tturally, they began the requests
jthrough the staff in the special
tccholarship program. But the staff
nuieted their attempts and the
request never really got to the
todministration.
The blacks regrouped, took the
,request directly to the administra-
tion with a postscript: the white
,director had to be ousted.
i Logically and perhaps unfor-
Itunately, the blacks resorted to
ijemonstration. But this time the
,demonstrations would be different.
tUtmost in the leaders' minds was
t;he realization of their ,lesnands,
;something ironically overlooked in
,1,1 of Wisconsin's past battles.
-knd thus, one of the most impor-
;tant criteria was to keep violence
0o a minimum, because in violence
bayonets, billy clubs and tear gas
win-ideas don't.
4
THIS IS NOT TO SAY they
wouldn't later use violence. Vio-
lence has been the rabble rouser
that in the past has brought the
campus out in full force.
A week ago Monday the blacks
walked into several large lectures
announcing the university was
shut down until it would begin
negotiating their demands. By
Monday afternoon the blacks were
picketing classes.
On Tuesday the Hayakawa gang
began retaliation. These 60 or so
noble defenders of the status quo
and the American Way were far
more violent than the demon-
strators ever intended to be. Irate
at night they ravaged student of-
fices and unsuccessfully tried to
occupy them.
Thursday the Hayakawas began
using their fists and classes awere
disrupted enough by the fist fights
that police moved in. When police
come to Wisconsin, students gr-eet
them en masse, and that brought
out the National Guard. That af-
ternoon 5.000 marching students
were confronted with bayonets and
tear gas.
The incident was actually ,lass-
ed as a failure in the yeas-long
attempt by the blacks to get their
demands.
THE VIOLENCE WAS USED,
though. That night, the blacks
gathered more than 12,000 dem-
onstrators-more than a third of
the campus-to march in a torch-
light parade on the capitol. The
march was peaceful and the po-
lice, realizing they had brought
everybody out with their reaction,
were restrained.
Friday the tactics were rein-
stated. In the morning meeting
at the union blacks leaders em-
phasized to the crowd of near 3.OCO
the need to remain nonviolent, to
disrupt but, not confront, to run
from the Hayakawas not hit them
back.
THE PICKETS maintained their
NixOn's coal mine solution
THE LIFE of a c o a l miner is neither
pleasant nor long. Long hours in the
pit, year after year, mean a deep cut into
the average life expectancy. And cutting
even deeper' are the frequent accidents
which have characterized most mining
operations.
Mining companies have, of course,
shown little sympathy for the conditions
under which their workers toil. And the
nmine workers own union has become so
isolated from its membership that more
often than not, union and management
are in complete harmony.
Meanwhile, the government has tradi-
tionally been so lethargic in its efforts to
protect the workers that former Secre-
tary of Interior Stewart Udall once called
the U.S. Bureau of Mines "timorous and
almost apologetic."
rwtorial Statff
MARK LEVIN, Editor ..
STEPHEN WILDSTROM URBAN LEHNER
Managing Editor Editorial Director
DAVID KNOKE, Executive Editor
WALLACE IMMEN..................News Editor
CAROLYN MIEGEL.......Associate Managing Editor
DANIEL OKRENT ..'.................Feature Editor
PAT O'DONOHUE ........ ........News Editor
WALTER SHAPIRO......Associate Editorial Director
HOWARD !KOHN ........ Associate Editorial Director
NEAL BRUSS....................Magazine Editor
ALISON SYMROSKI...... Associate Magazine Editor
AVIVA KEMPNER............Personnel Director
ANN MUNSTER ................. Contributing Editor
DAVID DUBOFF...........C.ontributing Editor
ANDY SACKS.......................Photo Editor
TN THE PAST FEW MONTHS, however,
there has been one ray of hope for the
bitter workers as they stood trapped be-
tween management and labor.
In office only four months, Director of
the Bureau of Mines John F. O'Leary has
already begun taking serious s t e p s to-
ward improving coal mining conditions.
O'Leary began his crackdown after the
coal mining disaster in Farmington, Va.
last fall. The underground explosion and
fire there took 78 lives.
In December, O'Leary ordered the bur-
eau's 300 mine inspectors to make spot
unannounced checks for coal-mine com-
pliance with federal safety regulations.
True, the bureau has long been empow-
ered to make such checks. But the 600
checks made in December alone was more
than three times the number made in all
of 1967.
And, not surprisingly, t h e inspectors
found serious violations. With the power
to close mines only with evidence of "im-
minent disaster," or "unwarrantable dis-
regard" of previously reported violations
the inspection staff has closed over. 200
mines since November.
UNFORTUNATELY, by doing his job too
well, O'Leary may have lost \it all to-
gether. Reports indicate that President
Nixon, under fire from angry mining in-
dustrial officials, will soon replace O'Leary
with someone less energetic.
-MARTIN HIRSCHMAN
44
1i
designated composure Friday,; the
two marching groups were goon
dispersed into even smaller ones:
perhaps as many as six. These
groups blocked main intersections,
but ran when the guard or police
marched in, setting up disruption
at an intersection further down.
This mobility avoided much
violence and kept the number of
arrets to a minimum. It als? dis-
rupted the city's traffic immeas-,
urably until police were finally
setting up road blockades several
miles from the campus -rea re-
routing traffic around it.
Perhaps the most obvious in-
dication of the disruption was the
interior of the capitol building it-'
self. Though demonstrators never
tried to enter the capitol, the in-
terior was sealed by three circular,
lines of police and barbed wire in-
a few places.
That day Gov. Warren nowles
introduced legislation calling for
the expulsion of all demonstra-
tors. But the bill went on: any
convicted- of the law wouldn't be
allowed on the campus area for a
year.
Such a measure is most prob-
ably unconstitutional, but it in-
1 dicates the intense reaction of, the
state legislature.
FRIDAY NIGHT more le isla-
tion appeared, this time by State
Sen. Gordon Rosleip (R-Darling-
ton) asking for the resignation of.
P esident Fred Harrington and
an investigation of 150 faculty
members. Rosleip got his list of
faculty members from those who
had supported the strike.
There is little doubt. Harrington
will be going out as President. He
spent both .Thursday and Friday
in Washington and disappeared
during the weekend.
The man on whom most of -the
burden now falls is Chancellor
H. Edwin Young. Young is tight-
lipped, moderately conservative,
and many legislators are stalling
action in the hope Young will take
control. In the scant number of
appearances he has made since
Monday Young criticized the Wis-
son Student Association for sup-
porting the strike but refused to
criticize the Hayakawa gang, said
he would work with legislators in
drawing up legislation to deal with
demonstrations, and claimed the
school already has the programs
and policies the blacks are de-
manding.
It is clear Young is worried
about his own status and knows
that the state legislatorsnot 'the
students or faculty-hold his purse
strings.
The Madison public is afraid
and is more concerned about the
goings on of the protest itself
than the issues involved, of
course. But when newsmen, who
are usually themselves college
graduates,, spurt out such frrele-
vent rhetorical questions as "Did
you know Tom Hayden' was on
campus?" it can do little but in-
furiate the protestors who then
very Justifiably feel totally, ignor-
ed.
The black militants know they
have been successful. They have
disrupted $he state capitol for a
week. But the members of the1 de-
monstrations don'treally under-
stand this, for there are as yet no
visible signs of accomplishment.
The accomplishments are there:
Harrington, a long-time hawk
for putting down anything re-
motely militant, will be gone and
if the demonstrations continue in-
to the week, so will Young.
IF THE DEMONSTRATIONS
lag for a while; the blacks may
resort to violence - perhaps a
disruptive sit-in until arrested.
If the militia then returns in
force, Wisconsin will explode.
Even the fraters there hate to
see green men with rifles at every
street corner. and besides, it jeo-
pardizes their sometimes extra-
lenal yet-togethers.
But if th- administrstion does
nootiate, the blacks will be there.
The question that would then
remain is what does the state gov-
ernment do? The probabilities are
not encouraging. The men at the
lapitol have small minds and a
perverse feeling they are the
world's best educators. If they
are unable to temper themselves.
Wisconsin might be closed down
- or the students might close
down the capitol,
'.
Banning sit-ins: An unrepresentative SGC stalling the iet
citable
By ROBERT KRAFTOWITZ
THE RECENT clashes between
students, administration and
police at many of the major uni-
versities in thie country have left
students here to onder wistfully
why nothing "exciting" like that
ever happens in Ann Arbor.
With this in mind, it seems a
bit out of place for Student Gov-
ernment Council to bother con-
sidering Thursday whether or not
they should rescind their ruling
banning disruptive sit-ins by stu-
dents. With no disruption in sight,
the issue seems to lack. relevance.
body which Considers itself the
representative of the students.
For SGC's claiming the Univer-
sity shouldn't have such power.
while granting itself the same
power misses the point. Neither
body should put itself in this role.
THE PRESENCE of the ruling
cannot help but deny Council its
much sought after legitimacy as
the political voice of the students.
However, the rub comes when
SGC considers whether in the-long
run such action is pramatically
in the best interests of its "con-
e44+1a_ 9}rr~h .4 a t14 1 1. . t.
judgment in setting proper stand-
ards of student behavior. In the
past the administration and fac-
ulty have always reasserted their
power when given the opportunity.
In September, 1967, SGC sub-
stituted its own code of rules for
the "University Regulations" is-
sued by the faculty and admin-
istration. In effect, Council grant-
ed itself the power to regulate
non-academic student conduct. Al-
though the action was taken with-
out regental approval, SGC seem-
ed to have a pretty air-tight case.
Prior to its adoption of the con-7
sumed powers, the Regents de-
clared the body "had exceeded its
jurisdiction by purporting to
abolish existing University rules
and regulations." They held that
without regental approval, "such
legislation is totally, without ef-
fect. Previous existing regulations
therefore remain in force."
The following month SGC and
JJC's jurisdiction was once again
challenged. In a letter, Vice Presi-
dent for Student Affairs Richard
L. Cutler asked the administrative
board of the literary college to ap-
ply "appropriate academic dis-
r nli +-"t + frm-rVoire-SnDS
bility for the disciplining of stu-
dents in this college."
NO SPECIFIC ACTION his been
taken as yet by either the faculty
or the administration to curtail
SGC's self-assumed powers over
conduct. However, Council Presi-
dent Michael Koeneke has ex-
pressed his concern that the re-
moval of the ban on disru-otive
sit-ins would be "an invitation 'r
the faculty and the administration
to take charge of student condo ct ,
regulations."
With such precedents, this ac-
tion becomes more -Whan just a
disruption, this will serve to
heighten the already anxious zeal
of our public servants. It will un-
doubte(l1y strengthen ' Lansing's
pressure on the faculty and ad-
ministration to begin reassuming
full control of student conduct
regulations and their enforcement.
In the end, the state may attempt
to force the University to take an
extremely harsh stand on student'
dissent.
Of course, this puts University
President Robben W. Fleming in
a very difficult position. One of
the major reasons this campus
has remained auiet in the midst
on the University to strengthen
its meager control of non-aca-
demic affairs, Fleming will have.
to choose between students de-
manding basic rights and the
overlords in the capitol.
As SGC Executive Vice Presi-
dent Bob Neff put it, "The honey-
moon between Fleming and the
students may be ending."
HOWEVER, IT IS perhaps the
end of the honeymoon between
SGC and the administration that
may be necessary to melt the icy
feelings between SGC and its
proper constituents.'- This might
W