Seventy-Second Year l EDITED AND MANAGED BY STUDENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN UNDER AUTHORITY OF BOARD IN CONTROL OF STUDENT PUBLICATIONS "Where Opiniofls Are e STUDENT PUBLICATIONS BLDG. " ANN ARBOR, MICH. * Phone NO 2-3241 Truth Will Prevail" Editorials printed in The Michigan Daily express the individual opinions of staff writers or the editors. This must be noted in all reprints. TUESDAY, JULY 31, 1962 NIGHT EDITOR: CYNTHIA NEU Open Regents' Meetings: A Must for Voters and Critics BOWING TO PUBLIC PRESSURE, the Re- gents last April smiled coyly and voted to open their formal sessions to the public. And everyone hoped that after years of secrecy and a certain detached position the Regents occu- pied, that the decision-making processes by which the University ultimately is run would be revealed. However, it didn't happen quite that way. The Regents instead receded behind their closed Thursday and Friday morning meetings and on Friday afternoon left the public the scraps and outcome of their debate. At the informal meetings-where the debate takes plce-the business of the University is transacted. Vital issues are discussed (some- times heatedly, we're told), and decisions are made. But the public is allowed neither to see nor hear any of this. IN THE FRIDAY afternoon sessions, the Re- gents are a smiling and unanimous crew. Every issue, regardless of importance, is con- sidered in the same manner and attitude. It's stock treatment: an item is brought up, a mo- tion is made, this is followed by a couple frowns\ and an innocuous question or two, then the "tense" atmosphere is broken by someone cracking a joke, and without a demure the motion is passed. What has happened since April? The people most affected by the Regents are left complete- ly in the dark and The Daily can only guess by piecing various tidbits of information together. Major issues like the revisions in the Office of Student Affairs can be discussed for several meetings until an obscure decision is reached, and perhaps months later some final action is taken. AN ISSUE can be debated and a decision can be reached, only to be held back until a more auspicious public relations moment. This seems to be the fate of the Estep com- mittee's report on the University speaker policy. The report was submitted some months ago, but was kept undercover, supposedly to make sure the state legislators wouldn't be riled up. And after the Lansing people went home, the Regents proceeded to inspect the recommended changes. For two months they have sat on their results. It is a current rumor (one of many about the closed Regents' meetings) that although a de- cision was actually reached last week, it will be neither announced nor acted upon until Sep- tember or October. AT THEIR LAST MEETING, the Regents passed on major issues in five minutes with almost no discussion, and then dawdled over lesser ones. The first full-year academic calendar was passed after only two questions were raised- the effect of the calendar on varsity athletics and summer graduation. The Regents did not discuss the faculty nor the stduents nor the funds for trimester. Moreover, they spent more time discussing MSU Center 'THEY SHOULDN'T FORGET that the Leg- islature controls the pursestrings." This rather ominous comment was directed at the members of the Trustees of Michigan State University by state Senate Majority Leader Lynn O. Francis (R-Midland) after the Trustees voted to continue the controversial Labor and Industrial Relations Center. (The Legislature ordered that the center be disbanded. The MSU governors, however, have decided to rename the LIRC the School of La- bor and Industrial Relations and place it under the College of Social Science. The school will supplement the Center's activities with formal courses of study, leading to university degrees in labor and industrial relations.) THE DECISION of the MSU Trustees involves a great deal of courage. The Legislature has in the past used its power to appropriate funds as a sickle over the heads of the state universi- ties. Witness the trouble Wayne State Univer- sity had in getting its funds the year it revoked its stringent speakers ban. And, there is little doubt that MSU will find some of its funds sliced off next year. Yet, MSU only did what was necessary to preserve its academic freedoms. As MSU Presi- dent John Hannah puts it, "If we didn't take this action, they could tell us who to hire and what to teach." Why doesn't the Legislature test the legality of its decision in court. Precedent in this state plus the autonomous set up of the governing Boards of state universities indicates that the law-makers would have great difficulty in win- ning their case. Attorney general decisions and ccurt rulings have time after time been in favor of the universities in cases similar to this one. The Legislature doesn't want to stick: its neck out, that is, it doesn't dare. NSTEAD, the legislators are taking the cow- ard's way out. Instead of bringing the whole business out into the open, they are going to bide their time until next spring when appro- the University's policy on duplicate diplomas (which policy they found slightly ludicrous) than they had on the implementation of full- year operations. BUT, REMARKABLY, despite the too-polish- ed actions, the almost rehearsed responses and questions and answers, the monotony of the session, people wish to attend the meet- ings, anyway perhaps just to get a peek at what a Regent really looks like. Or perhaps to make sure they aren't merely the invention of some administrator wishing to slough the blame onto somebody else., 'To insure that the number of people who at- tend the meetings doesn't exceed the number of seats available, a pass system has been es- tablished by the Regents. Under the system, the session is open, but only to those who have passes. The Regents' Room seats about 40 people, leaving 25,000 po- tentially interested students and 1,200 ,faculty members definitely out of the meeting and in the proverbial cold. GRANTED, this has not been a problem yet, but could conceivably become one, if the Regents ever do consider a major issue at the open meeting. Several hundred interested spec- tators would be denied the chance to attend the meetings merely because the Regents desire not to leave their rooms for one of the University's auditoriums or large meeting halls. A desire that the Regents do as they said they would and open their meetings-not just open the decisions, the end products, but the actual meetings-does not necessarily mean that everything they discuss should be told to anyone who wants to know. These are naturally certain areas which ought not to be discussed in public. FOLLOWING TRADITIONAL governmental standards, the Regents should not discuss their investments or the sale or purchase of University property. This is usual protection against speculators influencing costs. And obviously personalities should be con- sidered behind closed doors. But this leaves a wide spectrum of vital is- sues in which students, faculty and others con- cerned with the University are interested. People who ponder the actions of the Re- gents are concerned with the general philoso- phy of the University. They are concerned with the general outline and philosophy of the Uni- versity budget, greatly affected by the im- pending full-year operation and by the changes in the Office of Student Affairs and speaker policies at the University. The more effect they have on the Regents' decisions, the more concerned and informed the public will become. AND IN DISCUSSING these areas openly the. Regents and the administration will put new pressures upon themselves. For they will no longer be protected by the secrecy of their meetings: they will have to justify themselves. Such pressures from the outside could lead to difficulties and delay needed reforms, yet at the same time it could force the University to be more articulate in its decision-making and more exact in its actions. There are no great forces holding back open Regents meetings-it is merely a matter of will and conscience, The Thursday as well as the Friday meetings can be opened, the passes dispensed with, the standard meeting and reaction ended. And a brief executive session could handle those mat- ters which would have to be discussed in pri- vate. THE REGENTS are, for many purposes, the University. Their policy, their philosophy, will become the models for the schools and col- leges and for their people. Further the Regents have a public responsi-. bility both to the University community and that state's citizenry that elect them. Secrecy shields this responsibility, for the unanimous chorus presented at formal sessions hides the authors of Regental policy, it opponents and its modifiers. Open Regents meetings therefore not only enlighten the University community about ad- ministrative policies, they serve to fix respon- sibility for the Regental constituency as well. -DENISE WACKER -PHILIP SUTIN Neat Work' THE VETERANS Readjustment Center is entering its final month of existence now, and patients are in the process of being trans- ferred to other institutions far less skilled and far less equipped to handle the extremely painstaking and delicate cases of psychia- trically disturbed war veterans. It is pointless, of course, to say that the state Legislature destroyed something good when it closed down the VRC, that somehow harsh nar- row-mindedness, the insensitive refusal to un- derstand or even sympathize with the down- trodden, helpless plight of fellow human be- ings. have once again emerged triumphant, as Regental Iceberg! ''A. SC .A ,....Mtte' l:,t',.' 4<. .,.,,aoc, .q:^ai L a..,oner :,b .4<2Q.v.< :' /, .§aye 4A 4A.'..A ... . s.v . .,.' 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