tic ' on Kati Seventy-Sixth Year EDITED AND MANAGED BY STUDENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN -- UNDER AUTHORITY OF BOARD IN CONTROL OF STUDENT PUBLICATIONS Where poW At - 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 all reprints. SATURDAY, JUNE 10, 1967 NIGHT EDITOR: WALTER SHAPIRO School Board Election: Defeat the Reactionaries WE ARE DEEPLY concerned about students more adequately, and the need Monday's (city school board elec- for racially balanced schools. tion and feel that the importance of The seventh candidate, James Wan- the race requires that we take a stand. zeck, stands roughly in the middle. Un- Seven candidates are trunning for like the other candidates, he has not three vacancies on the School Board. taken an adamant position on any of Though none of the candidates agree the issues involved in the campaign. totally on all the issues, they appear to be aligned into two ideological WE FEEL that the election of John- camps-those who merely criticize the son, Curby and Lewis-all of whom board for its past actions and those oppose the millage increase designed to who feel that the board can be mold- raise teachers' salaries and do not rec- ed into an effective organization. ognize de facto segregation of the One of the candidates, Paul Johnson, schools as an issue--would be disas- a former City Council member, is an trous to the city as a whole. Similarly, avowed member of the John Birch if any one of theme were elected, God- Society. He and two other candidates, frey would have someone to back him Robert E. Curby and Clark Lewis, have in his fight against the progressive received the support of present board policies of the board, and it would be- member William C. Godfrey, an out- come so muddled in controversy as to spoken critic of the board's policies on be totally ineffective. racial imbalance in the schools and Thus, we feel that in the interest the cost of the new Huron High. Th ,eeping thadnfhomtrint Three of the remaining four candi- of keeping the board from takig a dates are also running on a "ticket." huge step backward we must endorse CaresGordasephnnngT.n A. e.and Good, Lee and Craine. The other four Charles Good, Joseph T. A. Lee, and --Johnson, Curby, Lewis and Wanzecks Mrs. Asho I. Craine have received the- support of an ad hoc "Committee to we find totally unacceptable. Elect Good, Lee and Craine." While -DAVID DUBOFF neither the candidates nor the com- -JILL CRABTREE mittee supporting them take a similar -ANN MUNSTER stand on all questions, they appear to -STEPHEN FIRSHEIN be much more realistic in their atti- Co-Editor tudes toward federal aid to education, -LAURENCE MEDOW the need to train non-college bound Co-Editor ,r,. *'.r. Y~i {{y'tf' yr t ' *~""l S [ r"0 Why Not Initiate A Student Tribunal? .1 ,, , t .. } P d4 -fit. t-k l * 8717.L %u FALCOtNElK Letters to- the Editor Questioning Theatre Critique Nation's Capital Needs Home Rule ANN ARBOR has a population of about 50,000. Its citizens are represented 'by a mayor and city council, representatives to the state Legislature, Congressman Esch, Senators Hart and Griffith, and Governor Romney. Washington, D.C., has a population of one million. Its citizens aren't represented at all. Last week, President Johnson proposed a reorganization of the District of Co- lumbia government, effective within 14 days unless Congress specifically blocked it. The plan, which among other things, calls for reducing the number of Presi- dent-appointed D.C. commissioners from three to one, is of itself relatively unim- portant, chiefly because congressional re- action seems likely to kill it before the week is out. Several members of the House District Committee have already express- ed their disapproval, not of the plan itself (in fact, most of them seem to favor it), but of the President's attempt to accom- plish by executive order what most con- gressmen feel is a strictly legislative function. And even should the proposal be reintr9duced in the form of a bill, it is unlikely that action would be taken be- fore the legendary Washington August drives the Congress to the more moder- ate climes of their home districts. THE WASHINGTON beneath what the tourist sees is a complex city of con- trasts. It is European in design, American in problems, cosmopolitan in outlook. Its museums, art galleries and zoo are world- renowned, but its schools are among the worst in the country, and its transit sys- tem and downtown parking facilities are insufficient. The crime rate is phenom- enally high for a city its size, and while the suburbs include the richest outside of Long Island and Westchester in New York, the poverty of its slums-many of them in the very shadow of the Capitol- is comparable to that of the ghettos of New York, Detroit, or Chicago. It is on the border between North and South and its Negro citizens-60 per cent of the pop- ulation-find themselves caught between both varieties of race prejudice. The love- ly Rock Creek Park runs through the en- tire town, but nothing has ever been done to alleviate the pollution of both the creek and the river it flows into-the Potomac. Many of these problems are di- rectly related to the city's shabby treat- ment at the hands of Congress. Of course, home rule would not solve all of its prob- trict of Columbia. We (the sentiment in Washington is nearly unanimous) want not only a mayor and city council, but representation in the Congress around whose action our city's life revolves. The District of Columbia has a larger popu- lation than eight states, and has an equal claim to the two senators and two con- gressmen which its population deserves. There is a popular myth in the country at large that D.C. residents pay no taxes. This is patently untrue. "Taxation with- out representation" may be a trite battle cry, but unfortunately it is still valid. It has even been suggested that the case of the District of Columbia be brought before the UN for settlement, like that of other colonial territories. It is slightly ridiculous that Congress after Congress makes such an issue of denying. Washingtonians their basic rights as Americans, but the issue isstied up with many of the ancient traditions of that august body. District of Columbia committee posts in both houses are un- popular, and are usually relegated to freshmen lawmakers. For any congress- man from outside Maryland's Fifth or Eighth, or Virginia's Tenth Congressional Districts, undue attention of D.C. affairs means political suicide. Constituents from say, rural South-Carolina, want their congressman to represent them, not a lot of northern "nigrahs." This points up another important facet of the Dis- trict's "representation" in Congress. The key House District of Columbia Commit- tee operates, like other congressional com- mittees, on seniority, and southerners from "safe" rural districts tend to gravi- tate toward the high places. Self-govern- ment for Washington, the city with the highest percentage Negro population in the country? To the minds of many of the committee members, a Negro mayor would be the worst possible evil to in- flict on the nation's capital. And so the blundering congressional control con- tinues. WE MUST, in all fairness, realize that there are many valid legal problems to be overcome before the District of Columbia could achieve representative government. A constitutional amendment would be in order. So would a revision of the infamous Hatch Act, which forbids partisan political activity by civil serv- ants. Finally, a system of federal sup- port in lieu of real estate taxes (the most valuable property in the city is govern- Mr. Andrew Lugg's argument for "A New Theatre for Ann Arbor" (June 7) loses whatever force it might have had as a humble sug- gestion by condemning all forms of present, non-experimental the- atre as "institutionalized academic theatre," "technological theatre," and "Broadway stereotypes." He speaks knowingly of experimental theatre groups, like the Brook- Marowitz 'Theatre of Cruelty," and of new, "more relevant" Amer- ican playwrights, like Claude van Italie, Ronald Tavel, "and the rest," presuming mightily that such sketchy allusion to these uncommon entities will help car- ry his appeal. What Mr. Lugg seems not to realize about the American the- atre-going public (and perhaps any such public), in Ann Arbor or on Broadway, is that they simply do not go to the theatre for the same reasons he does. And this large, vague fact owes its ex- istence to essentially the same fault in the American system of cultural education as in Mr. Lugg's partially reasoned exhorta- tion: that is, the esoteric and ob- scure kind of half-explanation, half-apologia which the academ- ians and pseudo-intellectual crit- ics offer the plain public by way of invitation to a given play or ;laywright. SIMPLY STATED, Mr. Lugg's article, like so many reviews. treatises, and "Tulane Drama Re- view" tracts, would frighten away even the most determinedly open- minded, and average, Ann Arbor resident who "likes to go to the theatre" (this includes students). Why? Because the writer takes no pains to conceal his presumption of a special "inside" connection to the heart and vitality of thei theatre; because he addresses him- self all too obviously to a select number of would-be theatre sav- ants, who, he hopes, will applaud him as their banner bearer. He confirms the ordinary playgoer in his suspicion that anything created, argued, or praised by an "intellectual" will be beyond his comprehension, thus unenjoyable -a suspicion created largely by the popular academic notion that art and entertainment are anti- thetical. You can't persuade the com- placent, paying citizen to patron- ize an innovational form of enter- tainment by setting your own in- telligence above his, nor by im- pugning his taste for those fa- miliar "Broadway stereotypes," diversionshe's been forced into enjoying by critics who tell him that the really valid theatre is, in effect, too profound for him. Doesn't Mr. Lugg remember the time when he was afraid to com- ment on a play's presentation be- cause he didn't "know" the play as thoroughly as his inquiring fel- lows? THERE IS, furthermore, a dou- ble flaw in the logic of his appeal for a new theatre in Ann Arbor: first, it presumes, quite unjustly, the playwright is not good enough, or the director/producer has been unfaithful to the playwright, or something extrinsic to the play- in-performance has confused the ordinary spectator about his rea- son for being in the theatre-or all of the above. Furthermore, if the purist com- plains about the average theatre- goer saying as he leaves "The Playboy of the Western World," for instance: "I didn't understand what it meant," the remedy lies not in instituting experimental theatre the next day, but in con- veying to that normal innocent (who is probably feeling stupid, too) ,the assurance that his fail- ure to "understand" the play is at least 50 per cent attributable to someone else. IN THAT "someone else" group might well be an Andrew Lugg, who implies that the academic producers in Ann Arbor are con- spiring with playwrights to pre- vent the theatre from being "dy- namic" or "relevant." He himself may feel, quite justifiably, un- satisfied by the "regular theatre fare," due to his own long ex- posure to traditional forms of drama. Let the mystified ticket buyer decide for himself, then, whether or not he'll attend an- other "theatre museum" piece; and let Mr. Lugg produce his ex- perimental "Oedipus Rex" in Can- terbury House. But, please, let us not have another dissociated and peremp- tory voice pronouncing "culture monger" on those who, with gen- ius or temerity, attempt to pro- duce the "old masters" in accord- ance with the existent texts, and who prefer the good playwright's intentions to those of a director who thinkshimself more enlight- ened. If Mr. Lugg wants to produce experimental theatre, no obstacle should oppose him. But his partic- ular need for a "dynamic" ex- perimental theatre cannot be transposed into a categorical nec- essity for the Ann Arbor stu- dent-citizenry. And if, as it seems, Mr. Lugg has "outgrown" Soph- ocles or Shakespeare, one can only feel sorry for him. We can also, however, try sincerely to accord the new Sophocles as much at- tentiveness as we do the old, and then be extremely grateful to Mr. Lugg for something noved to dis- cuss. -Peter Ferran, Grad Reply Mr. Lugg replies: Mr. Ferran has missed. or mis- read the main points of my ar- gument. For example: 1) I certainly do not condemn all forms of "present, non-experi- mental theatre." I argued, in my article for an investigation into technological theatre: "they (the theatre personnel of the town) should be working on a couple of major performances which include is unsatisfactory is that the Speech and Drama Department habitual- ly play it safe. If they are always going to present museum pieces, nobody is going to find out what the town will take. 4) Our "Oedipus Rex" will not suggest that we have "outgrown" Sophocles. WE appreciate that a bunch of students with a budget of less than $200 cannot do Soph- ocles as he deserves (the Ypsilan- ti Greek Theatre could not ap- proach Greek theatre as we know it can be done). Our piece is dif- ferent. We start with Sophocles' idea and then see what we can reasonably do to extend both our- selves and our audience. Whether we succeed or not must be reserv- ed until after the performances. Even if I were to correct all of Mr. Ferran's misquotes and quotes- out-of-context, nothing would be gained. He asserts that everything is all right, whilst I use as a starting point that this is not so. The whole of my subsequent ar- gument simply suggests that the theatre-people should be attempt- ing to diversify our theatre-fare and gives a number of ways in which this might be achieved. The real debate is on how to get going Arab View Regardless of the outcome of the "Middle East crisis," one fact re- mains: the Israelis have made the Arab their whipping boy for two millenia of worldwide anti-Sem- itism. A guilt-ridden Western Eu- rope and some religious dreamers amongst the Jews created the very anachronism of Israel. Because the Western world failed to rid herself of her prejudices and some Jews insisted upon an ancient vi- sion, the Arabs were made to shoulder a problem which was not really theirs but that of the West- ern world. Europe alleviated her bad conscience by shoving three and a half million Jews into a distant corner of the Mediter- ranean right in the middle of an Arabic world. Shall we blame the Arabs for their resentment to this unnatural situation or shall we blame those who dreamed up the present state of Israel? -Ernst Soudek, Grad Multiversity Those in power like to be reas- sured that the system is all right. People fail; not systems. Roger Rapoport's cefense of the multi- versity must have been quite re- assuring to the powers of "U." "The multiversity can work for the student willing to bend his IBM card." And the ghetto can be a great inspiration to Negroes willing to take advantage of it (e.g., James Baldwin and Claude Brown). But this seems to be a pretty skimpy defense for either system. The following talk was given to the Michigan Association of Student Governments, on May 13, by Michael O'Connor, an economics professor of Central Michigan University. When we find students express- ing very critical attitudes, quite openly, from Berkeley to Brown, from Wayne State to Yale, we are obviously dealing with something much deeper than personalities, something that goes to the na- ture of the system itself, either the university system or the so- cial system. On the basis of a rather super- ficial analysis, I suggest that the student protests may be due in part to the fact that some stu- dents are beginning to take uni- versity ideals rather seriously. Ad- ministrative officers, on the oth- er hand, .are often too busy with all the myriad problems of new buildings, new libraries, new dor- mitories, to give much attention to ideals of any kind. The result has often been that the idealists, the students, array against the progmatists, the administrators- not uncommon only to the ac- companiment of violence. WHY HAS studentprotest brok- en out at this particular time? Perhaps because increasing stu- dent maturity has developed dur- ing a period when erosion is tak- ing place in the old defenses that once provided strong support for administrators in their control of students. Some of the more ob- vious of these defenses have been: first, the bread and circuses of collegiate athletics; second, vari- ous types of traditional loyalties such as those embodied in the typical phrase: for God, for Coun- try and for Yale; third, paternal- ism as a philosophy; fourth and perhaps the most important, long established devices for manipulat- ing the local campus environment, especially in small towns. Under the last heading, we should clas- sify administrative influence over the student newspaper and other student publications, administra- tive control over disciplinary pro- cedures, over student expulsion, over student loan funds, and over the campus police. There are ad- ministrations that have gone so far as to maintain files, dossiers, on student leaders, not unlike the FBI when dealing with subversive elements. Students are normally in a very poor position to protest. Adminis- trative power over a specific local environment has accumulated gradually over many years with- out objection from anyone. Sud- denly students object. When they do, they are in much the same position as unions in a strike sit- uation. Both students and union members are often called trou- blemakers since students as well as workers initiate the action, take the offensive, precipitate the con- frontation. Can anything be done about that? Are there any ways of grad- ually and peacefully developing a stronger position for students in between the episodes of conflict? Is there any way in which stu- dents can operate on a level above the local one that is so completely under administrative control? Is there any way in which students can get a fair hearing from an outside tribunal, such as the public at large? WELL, there are a quarter of a million college students in Mich- igan alone, and, mind you, this is a flow, constantly renewed, so it amounts to much,rmore than 250,000. In a few years, the col- lege student becomes a voter; and therefore of some political signifi- cance, likely to be listened to and heeded. If students could gradually learn to operate on the statewide level, as a unified, orga- nized body, with good communi- cation among themselves and with the public, then students could be far more effective than they are today. The statewide level could pro- vide a vantage point from which aid could be extended to students at , a particular campus, from above and outside the controlled local environment. Moreover, stu- dents on the state level could be- come a force for general prog- ress in all the higher education in the state. In what specific ways could stu- dents move toward statewide co- hesiveness and statewide action? There are many steps that could be taken, one step at a time over a period of many years. One as- pect is essential-communication. Communication is always basic in getting and maintaining cohesion and influence. Possiblye steps to- ward better communication range from having the stame statewide column reproduced in every Mich- igan college newspaper to other projects of vastly more ambitious scope. In the latter category of am- bitious projects would be a state- wide advertising consumer's guide mnralar n ip ba int; Reaersp IN ADDITION to the field of communications, there are other areas that could be developed by students on a statewide basis. For example, universities have long usednaccreditationsagencies to maintain and improve the quality of the degrees and the courses that are offered. Perhaps students could, on the state level, have an organization that would investi- gate and consider whether or not to accredit each institution in the state in terms of the treatment of students by the particular col- lege. This would mean that an orga- nization would have toswork out standards of what was thought to be proper treatment of stu- dents. It might be decided that certain things were bad, such as some types of double jeopardy, administrative censorship of stu- dent publications, administrative monopolistic control of the adver- tising revenues from student Pub- lications, and the use of subsidies to influence student policy. A list might also be made of those things considered to be good and standards set up for evaluat- ing each institution.tAstatewide publication of one type or an- other could bring these accredi- tation decisions to the attention of the public as well as to the at- tention of students throughout the state. I think you would be surprised to find how seriously ad- ministrators would regard these verdicts on accreditation. OPERATING on a statewide lev- el would have a decided impact on public opinion. In effect, or- ganized students would be able to treat public opinion as a tribunal to which they could appeal. Such a tribunal would be out- side the limited, local campus so dominated by administrators. If the appeal were proper and just, there would be many in the gen- eral public who would listen sym- pathetically. No administration could afford to flout public opin- ion in the way that student opin- ion is sometimes ignored. Of course, this type of thing would have to be done in very conservative fashion, The pace of change would have to be slow and careful. Only picked students should handle such a project, using older advisors selected by the students themselves. One mis-step could destroy the value of a rating proc- ess for many years to come. It would be wise to begin in positive, rather than negative fashion. Ac- creditations could be issued to those schools that had made prog- ress in specific aspects of student relations during the last 10 years, and such schools praised for such achievements, but ;making clear that an accreditation was in 'no sence a blanket endorsement of any current school policy. For a time, it would probably be best to get a good deal of ex- perience before condemning any transgressors, although speciali n- vestigations and reports could still be made. It might be possible to praise a backward school simply because it began to take a few, hesitant steps forward. THE HOPE would be that, within a few years, considerable agreement would take place on what constituted proper standards of, student relations - standards by which colleges could be meas- ured in the broadestrof terms, such as "acceptable" or not. These standards would necessarily be rel- ative since over the years the con- ception of what ideal student re- lations are inevitably changes. But at any given time standards could be rather specific, dealing with particular matters, such as dou- ble jeopardy, grounds for expul- sion, and similar problems. All this seems important to me because I believe we are on the threshold of a new era in which the student will play a far more dynamic role in society than in the past. In Michigan, for exam- ple, only a few decades ago the dynamic contributions came from such men as Henry Ford, who never attended, and was never subdued and polished by, any col- lege. But in this new space era, we have in effect, a" new kind of business, smoothly organized, gi- ants, operating throughout the world. And, in some ways, a new kind of government, encompass- ing such varied activities as func- tional fiscal policy, and selective service, venturing indeed far be- yond what we used 'to call hori- zons, to venture probes and sor- ties into space. When a society turns imagina- tive and creative, every phase of that society tends to be affect- ed. Such was the case in the Italian Renaissance of the 1400's. Such was the case in Elizabethan England, in the Shakespearian era. Today a new type of business and a new type of government will see come into existence a new type of university and a new type of student. I may be quite wrong but I believe that whatawe are witnessing may be the start of a #I I A Er V mA h I