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Seventy-eight years of editorial freedom
Edited and managed by students of the University of Michigan
A tale of three Senators
420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor, Mich.
News Phone: 764-0552
Editorials printed in The Michigan Daily express the individual opinions of staff writers
or the editors. This must be noted in aU reprints.
SATURDAY, MARCH 1, 1969
NIGHT EDITOR: BILL LAVELY
Soc Union on tenure:
A commendable recommendation
AFTER A quiet off-season, political fig-
ures are shaking off the lethargy of
the long 1968 political campaign and are
starting spring training for 1970.
Ann Arbor, which incidentally has a
mayoral election next month, has already
seen a good assortment of senators, both
old veterans and some of the season's
rookies. '
New York Sen. Charles Goodell was in
town last night with his friend Mary Esch;
Phil Hart made several speaking appear-
ances on behalf of mayoral candidate Rob-
ert Harris; rookie Robert Packwood spent
a quick four hours seeking student support
for Harris' opponent Richard Balzhiser.
And a couple of weeks ago, Wayne Morse,
a casualty in last November's election, came
as the opposite side of the coin to Strom
Thurmond, the Southern troglodyte, who
was here last month.
Morse,
a pretty
Senate is
Packwood, and Hart represent
good cross-section of what the
going to be, and what it could be.
THE UNDERGRADUATE sociology union
has taken a commendable step toward
giving students a more equitable role in
the departmental decision-making pro-
cess.
A proposal, passed by the union Thurs-
day and to be presented to the depart-
ment's curriculum committee Sunday,
marks both a novel and pragmatic ap-
proach to the thorny-prolelem of student
participation in tenure decisions.
The proposal asks for establishment of
separate student and faculty committees
that would both make tenure recom-
mendations to the department.
If the student - faculty committees
agreed on a tenure question, their recom-
mendations would become departmental
policy and the decision would' be sent to
the literary college executive committee
for final judgment.
If the two groups disagreed, the deci-
sion would be resolved by a joint commit-
tee composed of an equal number of
students and faculty members, with a
faculty chairman having final veto power.
This is a radical departure from stand-
ard department policy. Usually a depart-
ment's executive committee provides
tenure recommendations directly to the
college's executive committee without
consulting students, and sometimes un-
observed by many faculty.
IWAT SEEMS to bother many faculty
members, at least on the surface, is
just how three or four students sitting on
a departmental executive committee can
presume to represent the hundreds of
concentrators in that department.
This would easily be remedied under
the sociology proposal, for it stipulates
that the student tenure committee be
informed of upcoming tenure 'decisions
at least three months in advance of the
time a decision must be reached. This
would give the students ample oppor-
tunity to hold a departmental forum and
reach, by democratic processes, a decision
representing all the graduates and under-
graduates in attendance.
Chi cago
THE SELF - PROCLAIMED "World's
Greatest Newspaper" - the Chicago
Tribune - denied the existence of any
student protests one day this week as a
"protest" against protest.
Keeping in line with our elders, The,
Daily today denies the existence of
Chicago.
-MAYNARD
One would hope the proposed faculty
committees in each department would
also take the forum (or all-faculty meet-
ing) route so that they too could come to
representative decisions.
ANOTHER ASPECT of the tenure issue
that disturbs the faculty is having
students participate in what many pro-
fessors consider "a highly personal mat-
ter between professors."
Yet the students, unlike the professors,
would not be evaluating the professor
from the standpoint of how well he re-
searches or how much rapport he has
with his colleagues. They would be evalu-
ating the man solely on his worth as an
educator, solely on how well he can teach.
Consequently, the student committee
would not be probing issues of personal-
ity or issues that faculty members, quite
understandably, would just rather not
discuss with students. Instead they would
be probing matters which they, as stu-
dents, can demonstrate expertise.
BUT TENURE is not an all or nothing
proposition. There is a definite need
for both the students and the faculty- to
express their opinions on the value of a
professor to his department. For to ex-
clude one, as students have been excluded
for years, is to take away from the ulti-
mate quality of the decision.
And this is what is so commendable
about the sociology proposal. It delegates
authority between the two groups on a
basis of presumed competence.
The number of times the two agree may
not be as infrequent as some professors
expect, since both are primarily interested
in academic excellence.
When there is a dispute that the joint
committee finds itself unable to resolve,
a compromise valve exists.
The proposal stipulates that a faculty
member would have final veto power. It
would be even fairer to give a more im-
partial party, for example, the literary
college executive committee, final power
in resolving departmental conflicts. Both
faculty and student committee reports
could be presented to the college execu-
tive committee, where final judgment is
ultimately passed anyway.
THIS WOULD guarantee that both stu-
dents and faculty members have a
shared role in departmental decision-
niaking, with what would hopefully be an
equally impartial mediating body.
It at least deserves a try.
-RICK PERLOFF
ROBERT PACKWOOD, who succeeds
Morse in the Senate, is everything that
Morse is not. Young, disarmingly good-
looking with the voice of an urbane disc-
jockey, Packwood is frightening when we
see him as the trend in the Senate.
Packwood is another of the super-image
super-Republicans who fall outside the
traditional bounds of liberal and conserva-
tive. They are a new breed of pragmatists,
an advanced, stage of Charles Percyism-
very -Republican-youth-vigor-success, and
moral insensitivity.
At a reception last Thursday, Packwood
demonstrated pragmatic appeal. For him,
the question of ABM deployment is two-
fold, "will it work, and is it necessary." He
chides the liberals who are making it into
a "moral issue." Considerations of a con-
tinuing arms race, antagonizing the Rus-
sians, and the distaste of spending so much
money on weapons are not important to
the Robert Packwoods. The answer to the
ABM dilemma is a business-like pursuit
of data that will give them the answer
to that most essential of questions: "Will
it work?"
THE DEAD in Vietnam do not signifi-
cantly phase Sen. Packwood. The little
oposition to the war that he does muster
seems to be built upon the fact that the
Saigon government is not proceeding with
land reform. When he throws in words like
"market value" in discussing the Vietnam
situation, one can see that his celebrated
opposition to the draft is merely a busi-
nessman's dislike of inefficiency. Packwood
would not say that the draft is wrong; he
would say that it does not work well and
therefore should be replaced.
Packwood is a cruel pill to swallow as
the sucessor to Wayne Morse. The most
comfoiting thought about his kind of poli-
tician is that perhaps someday it will be
replaced by a computer, as his type of
' pragmatism is carried to nth degree.
Wayne Morse
WITH THE twin defeats of Wayne
Morse and Ernest Gruening last year. it
becomes necessary to rely on 'people like
Phil Hart to. preserve some semblance of
moral sensitivity in the Senate. Hart is a
dependable liberal, adequately independent
to act upon his political principles.
The Michigan senator's performance as
regards the war has been very disappoint-
ing for one who should have known better.
But now, he shows himself to be sufficient-
ly repentent for, as he puts it, the lack of
"wisdom" to vote against the Gulf of Ton-
kin resolution. His admission of culpability
is certainly encouraging in the face of the
current self-congratulation of the J. Wil-
liam Fulbrights whose performance on war
votes was no better than Sen. Hart's.
THERE ARE other encouraging signs
about Sen. Hart. On campus last Sunday,
Sen. Robert Packwood
in a meeting with Daily senior editors, he
said that he would support amnesty for
those Americans sitting out the war in
Canada. Hart is also expected to introduce
draft legislation of his own next week that
will ask for reducing enlistment to one 'year
after selection by lottery.
Hart will probably oppose such things
as campus investigations and Ilegislation
to get law and order back on campus. But
in any case, Hart should be returned to the
Senate in 1970 if for no other reason than
to keep out potential opponent Don Riegle
of Flint, who is even more Packwood than
Packwood.
WE USED to have a choice between fire-
breathing mavericks and wishy-washy lib-
erals. Now the wishy-washy liberals are
beginning to seem damn good.
Sen. Philip Hart
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By HOWARD KOHN
PROF. PETER FRANKEN of the
University's physics depart-
ment may yet prove to be 1968's
most unheralded sage.
A year ago Franken predicted
that "there is a 50-50 chance Cali-
fornia will be hit by a major,
bone-shattering earthquake soon."
"I would not want to live in
California because I'm raising a'
family and the risk is simply too
great," he added, noting that the
most likely place would be along
the San Andreas Fault.
On Thursday night two gentle,
rolling earthquakes, centered 25
miles northeast of Los Angeles-
squarely over the San Andreas
Fault, hit for nearly a minute.
The quakes measured 4.3 on the
Richter scale--significant, but not
enough to cause much damage.
Still the odds in Las Vegas on
Franken's prediction suffered a
sharp blow.
SEN. WILLIAM PROXMIRE
(D-Wis.) continued his investiga-
tion of Pentagon malfeasance by
revealing "the United States is
being cheated out of millions of
dollars on petroleum contracts"
used for military operations in
Thailand.
Proxmire said $1.2 million was
lost on one contract alone with
Asiatic Petroleum Corp. and
charged Secretary of the Navy
John Chafee with shoring up the
waste.
* * *
WISCONSIN'S state assembly
this week approved a bill to cut
off financial aid to students con-
victed for offenses rising out of
campus demonstrations.
The fever pitch of emotion
against college protesters also hit
the Wisconsin state university
board of regents who urged that
dissenters be expelled from school.
"I'm in favor of kicking out a stu-
dent and letting the courts decide
if we were wrong," explained
James Riley, a new appointee to
the board.
The state university board.
however, has no direct control Gver
the University of Wisconsin.
* * *
AGAINST THE WALL: Elvis
Presley, who hasn't made a stage
appearance since 1956, still com-
mands a pretty fair price at the
International Hotel in Las Vegas.
He signed a four-week contract
this week for an estimated $800,-
000. Only Barbara Streisand has
received a higher salary at the
hotel ...
. . . Max Rafferty, unsuccessful
candidate for the U.S. Senate, will
seek a third term as superinten-
dent of public schools in Califor-
nia. Gov. Ronald Reagan is his
bigest booster . . . Still loose after
rains flooded their cages at "Afri-
cas-U.S.A." in Parndale, Cal., are.
four eight-foot crocodiles which
were used for Hollywood movies.
They're believed to be swimming
in the Santa Clara River .. -
. . . Foreign-built taxis used in
a six-month test in New York got
a strong favorable response from
riders, but the drivers complained
because the cars had no power
steering . . . Bill Cosby has been
named man of the year by Har-
vard's Hasty Pudding Theatri-
cals ...
... ACCORDING TO a Wayne
State University study, Detroit's
white policemen, which make up
92 per cent of the force, "believe
the black community is overprivi-
leged" . . .
... Two years ago a Los Angeles
study committee set out to prove
that a public transportation sys-
tem was far superior to individual-
ly-,driven cars in a megalopolis.
This week the committee reported
that cars are far superior to a
public transportation system .
. . G. Mennen (Soapy) Wil-
liams has resigned as ambassador
to the Phillipines . . . This week's
death of King Saud, former ruler
of Saudi Arabia, deprives Greece
of its ideal tourist. Saud report-
edly spent $10 million a year in
Greece since being exiled in
1965 .
And Joseph Ivasiatyn, 20,
was sentenced to three to 13 years
in a Philadelphia prison for stab-
bing his wife, Shirley, 17, to death
after she went out on the street
in a bikini.
Letters to the editor should
be typed triple spaced and no
longer than 300 words. All let-
ters are subject to editing, and
those over 300 words will gen-
erally be shortened. Unsigned
letters will not be printed.
A rent strike reply: Please define 'unconscionable,' Mr.,T
alley
4IV
(EDITOR'S NOTE: The following ar-
tice was written by members of the
Rent Strike Steering Committee.)
T HE ARTICLE appearing in Tues-
day's Daily by Thomas Talley
attacking the rent strike is packed
with inaccuracies, dubious logic and
strong implications based upon fal-
lacious information.
The most blatant mistruth in Mr.
Talley's article is the charge that the
Rent Strike has not been willing to
negotiate with landlords. The land-
lords have refused thus far to enter
into any kind of serious negotiations,
although the Strike Committee has
always been and is now ready to be-
gin negotiations.
Instead, the apartment landlords
continue their belligerincies com-
pounded by their own tacit man-
euvering to destroy the student sup-
port the strike now has.
Despite Mr. Talley's guise as a dis-
interested party he is in fact a land-
lord himself. In addition, many strik-
ing tenants have reported that their
landlords have referred them to Mr.
Talley for "objective" legal advice.
Thus, we can only draw the in-
ference that his article was but ah-
other attempt by the landlords to dis-
credit the intentions of the Strike
Committee and to confuse the issues
involved.
WE ARE NOT concerned funda-
mentally with the profit margins of
Ann Arbor apartment owners. What
commands our interest and the ma-
jority of our time is the absymal con-
ditions in which many students live.
It is clear that all tenants-not just
students-are being denied the right
to decent housing at decent prices.
The backlog of housing violations
and the general condition of rental
housing in Ann Arbor attests to the
fact that tenants here are just not
getting a fair deal.
Given these objective conditions it
becomes unavoidable: tenants must
organize to deal with landlords from
a position of strength. It would be
Utopian to depend any longer on the
University, the city, or on anyone but
ourselves to rectify the existing in-
equalities.
MR. TALLEY claims Ann Arbor is
a place where the student can live
in "high style." But anyone who has
lived here in an apartment knows
what an imaginative leap it takes to
cross from the building that violates
safety codes, lacks maintenance serv-
ice, never returns damage deposits
to the city imagined by Talley.
He claims that profit margins in
Ann Arbor are eight to 12 per cent.
But a study made in 1965 by Uni-
versity graduate student Stewart
Gordon revealed that two typical
Ann Arbor apartment buildings yield-
ed 18 to 25 per cent return to the
landlords and beyond that, a seven
to 10 per cent return to the manage-
ment company.
If it were true that landlords were
in such a precarious financial posi-
tion', why, then, have 50 new build-
ings representing more than 2,000
new units been built here since 1964?
MR. TALLEY further asserts that
banks never write mortgages for less
than 20 years. But data from the
Washtenaw County Clerk's office re-
veal that most mortgages are written
for less than 15 years in Ann Arbor
and that only a very few exceed
20 years.
IT IS TRUE that Ann Arbor has
high property taxes as Mr. Talley in-
dicated in his article. But he disre-
garded the causes for those high
taxes. According to City Tax Assessor
(see Action Line, Ann Arbor News,
Feb. 13, 1969): "When appraising in-
come-producing property, the income
produced by that property is also
taken into consideration in the as-
sessment process."
It is also clear that managers have
no intentions of correlating their
rents with taxes. The Ann Arbor City
Council has passed a statement of
intent to lower the property tax rate
in the city next year, but the land-
lords are still promising higher rent.
In actuality, property taxes dip
into the managers' income very little.
Property taxes can be deducted as
"expenses" from federal income tax.
Further, the managers can repeat-
edly make tax write-offs for building
depreciation, thus placing the burden
upon Ann Arbor home-owners.
IT HAS BEEN suggested Ann Ar-
bor rents "really" aren't exhorbitant.
Acting on Mr. Talley's suggestion, we
consulted the Detroit Free Press for
comparative data on rents in the
Detroit area. While we found com-
parable rent ($265 for two bedrooms)
the facilities were quite incompar-
able.
In Southfield, a Detroit 'suburb,
that price included two bathrooms,
swimming pool, private club, brand-
new kitchen, 1570 square feet of liv-
ing space (compared to Ann Arbor's
750-1000 square feet).
A comparable apartment in Ann
Arbor-such as those offered by
Apartments Limited at 515 Walnut
St.-averages near $360 per month.
WHILE MANHATTAN rents may
at times rival Ann Arbor's, the negli-
gent mantenance and general service
in Ann Arbor are beyond comparison.
Further, a majority of the buildings
in New York City now have rent con-
trol. And the city council there is
moving to extend. such control to
even more apartments.
MR. TALLEY'S comparison of pri-
vate apartment costs to dormitory
costs is spurious. We can draw a
valid comparison between university-
owned and privately-owned apart-
ments. The Northwood apartments
for married students offer two-bed-
has conducted research in the area of
consumer credit. He states:
"The fact that a tenant has
withheld his rent would only
have a remote possibility of ad-
versely affecting a tenants' or'his
parent's credit rating. First it,
would be most unusual for a
credit reporting service to pick
up this kind of' information. A
recent study in Ann Arbor showed
that these reporting services
sometimes failed to report even
such major matters as bankrup-
ticies.
"Second, most credit reporting
services do not make ratings
'per se.' They compile facts con-
cerning the debtor. Potential
creditors willing to pay the price
purchase these facts and then
evaluate the debtor's record
themselves. It is improbable that
rent withholding on the part of
one who is in other respects a
good credit risk would substan-
tially impair his ability to obtain
credit."
Again, the most obvious misrepre-
sentation in Mr. Talley's article is
that students have not made attempts
to negotiate with the landlords. We
offer the following statement by
Mark Schrieber who was chairman
of the Student Housing Association
at the time landlord-tenant discus-
sions were broken off:
"For the past two years, re-
sponsible student leaders have
4ri~l oA *nmnniean~n d0thei. r wrin.-
*
4
fused to come because an an-
nouncement of the meeting was
published in The Daily. They con-
sidered openness a sign of bad
faith - they wanted all proceed-
inp-c to ha crrn-I nd kept from
trap. Our attorneys are dedicated to
the premise for the strike: that in
the " over-whelming majority of
cases in Ann Arbor tenants are
compelled to sign unconscionable
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