Sev enty -Sixth Ycau'
EDITED AND MANAGED BY STUDENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OFM iCHIGAN
UNDER AUTHORITY OF BOARD IN CONTROL OF STUDENT PUBLICATIONS
This Is the Way We Get Our Yes-No Sex
ere Opnions Are Free. 420 MAYNARD ST.. ANN ARBOR, Micm.
Truth Will prevail
NET s l. loPI NE: 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.
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 1965 NIGHT EDITOR: LAUREN BAHR
'Pockets of Interest':
A Way To Improve SGC
RECENT COMMENT on the question of
reforming the structure of Student
Government Council has unfortunately
wound up being idealistic to the point of
uselessness.
Of course, ideals cannot be criticized.
But the real question is how those ideals
are put into practice, for if they are not
institutionalized effectively the results
become a mockery of the parent ideals.
This is just what has happened to SGC
today. Student government and effective
student representation are among the
finest ideals at the University. But the
way in which they are institutionalized
in SGC has become the mockery of that
same University.
In particular, the institution of all-.
campus representation, currently used to
represent students at the University, lies
at the root of many of the ;complaints
directed against the organization.
At first the theory sounds fine. Every-
one is eligible to elect a certain number
of his peers to represent the "students'
interest" to the world at large.
But the success of all this depends on
the assumption that all the University's
interest groups will take part in elect-
ing those representatives favorable to
their interests. That this has not hap-
pened is obvious; whenever anyone wants
anything done, an ad hoc group forms
and does it outside of SGC. Groups pro-
testing the war in Viet Nam, the Uni-
versity of Michigan Student Employes',
Union and the Student Book Service are
mute testimony to the fact that stu-
dent interest groups are not finding SGC
an effective means of expression.
CSGOC HAS THREE conceptual weaknesses
which greatly contribute to this dicho-
tomy between student interest and coun-
cil action.,
The first breakdown is simply in terms
of numbers. SGC's comparatively few rep-
resentatives cannot possibly be expected
to be able to represent so many diverse
interest groups, people committed to pro-
moting student action in a particular
area. This automatically alienates those
groups, and gives SGC members an un-
deserved reputation for not really car-
ing what the campus wishes.
The second of SGC's major failures
is somewhat the result of the first. Due
to the alienation of first one group and
then another SGC has, over the years,
divested itself of any meaningful con-
stituency.
Just prior to the last elections, one
candidate suggested that candidates re-
Zoo
ASSUME that the University's project-
ed enrollment of 40,000 students must
live within one mile of campus (because
the Regents will not let them drive cars).
The population density in this area, dis-
regarding all non-students and all com-
mercial and University land use, is about
13,000 people per square mile. This is
about one-half the population density of
the city of New York.
New York requires renkt control laws,
slum housing, and high-rise buildings to
take care of its masses: the city and the
University are agreed to eliminate all
three.
It is impossible. Half the area of any
city is streets. Half the remainder will
be campus and University land (the hos-
pital and the arboretum). One-sixth of
the area will be commercial-theatres,
restaurants and a few retail stores: most
retail stores will either be driven out by
the demand or will raise prices to pay
the rent-the captive audience will pay
(with parents' money).
The remainder leaves 100 square feet
of ground per person. Perhaps 40 square
feet of area to live in after dividing the
land and building on it. This is a six and
one-half foot square.
LET'S BUY each Regent a six and one-
half foot square cage.
-R. FARRELL
Editorial Staff
fuse to take office unless more than 5000
total votes were cast. It was ludicrous
enough when a candidate had to beg one-
fifth of the electorate to turn out; it was
even worse when he didn't get his wish.
The point is that campus-wide elec-
tions for officers responsible to the cam-
pus as a whole depend on the existence
of a broadly-based "student interest"
which quite simply does not exist. This is
the real cause of SGC's lack of constit-
uency; particular student groups may
care about SGC actions, but students in
general do not.
SGC's third tragic flaw is that the
model on which it is based carries a great
number of implications with it, implica-
tions which are patently unjustified when
applied to the University's student com-
munity. More specifically, gearing SGC to
a semi-congressional system results in a
great many more study committees and
parliamentary maneuverings than the
business at hand justifies.
Student government has become more
concerned with form than with content,
more interested in the way something is
done than in the doing of it.
EVEN GIVEN THESE operational dis-
advantages SGC managed to get along
as a studeit opinion forum fairly well
until a few years ago. That is, until Vice-
President for Student Affairs James A.
Lewis made certain concessions to the
body which removed the basis for its
principal complaints.{
The problem was that in doing so,
Lewis made the council's activists seem
effective without granting them what
they really were after: power. The result
of this was that the council's ability to
-gripe was silenced without a real test of
the larger issue of final power.
SThese three defects plus the sell-out
to Lewis have presented the campus with
the morass typical of SC in recent years.
What is needed now is a thorough re-
analysis of the entire situation from a
more pragmatic perspective. For it must
be remembered that to find acceptable}
answers it is important to first ask the
right questions.
In this search for effective ways to
amplify the voice of the interested stu-
dent it is important that mere cries for
"more power" not be accepted. Granted
this is an issue, but it is a superficial one.
Of real importance are concrete mechan-
isms for-obtaining this power and using
it well.
So-called "interest pockets" have as
been suggested as means to this end and
it would seem that, properly utilized, they
would be.
A TYPICAL PROPOSAL to implement
such a system might be one allowing a
minimal number of interested students
to petition the Office of Student Affairs
to elect a representative group to speak
for its interests in a particular area. Elec-
tions to the group might be on a campus-
wide basis, with all students interested
in that particular body voting for its
members.
The OSA itself might serve as a mediat-
ing body, until several such interest
groups could be elected, to police the
elections. What might be eventually en-
visioned is many of these groups, deal-
ing with such areas as housing, discrimi-
nation, or campus parking problems, co-
ordinated by a central body, elected either
by the groups or the voters at large, that
would itself have few functions other
than policing elections.
Essentially, this is little more than a
decentralization of SGC, with committees
being directly elected and holding a great
majority of power. What is now the coun-
cil itself would become little more than a
body to coordinate periodic elections and
ensure that the individual groups do not
intrude too much into one another's
fields.
It must be emphasized that this is not
what might be called a "plan." It is of-
fered rather as a sketch of the possibili-
ties open for SGC reform and a spring-
board for discussion of those possibilities.
IT IS USUALLY genuine des-
peration as the hips are swung
hard counterclockwise and usually
pure sickness of heart as the
knees bend and turn or the arms
pound the air. The commands of
the music are nicely unsubtle and
allow this kind of thing. There
are beer and cigarettes and sweat
in the nostrils and not much light
in the eyes, and all of it together
nicely imprisons us. In the middle
years of the 1960's, this is how we
go after our sex.
On most occasions, eventually
drawn into the party, we are un-
thinkingly overjoyed to go along,
for we are all too much captured
by this culture and so cannot de-
tach ourselves. Sometimes, how-
ever-given the right amount of
alcohol consumed in the right
manner or the occurence of not
knowing many of the others at
the party and thus not caring to
participate - we find ourselves,
instead, sitting on the couch and
watching.
These are reflections from one
such occasion:
THE PERVASIVENESS of any
current style in dance, music and
mating is perhaps not new. But
one cannot help feeling there is
more than coincidence or some
promotion man's machinations be-
hind these particular styles to
which we now give ourselves,
For these styles, in all their
grossness, have arisen at a time
when our need for interpersonal
involvements is heightened while
our capacities and means for in-
volvement are being dried up. The
styles reflect our inept gropings
after love, but they also make
them even more inept They con-
found the need and search for
human contacts with more and
more of the depersonalizing, sen-
sational - sensual overstimulations
which already pervade our senses.
The dilemma is in part a func-
tion of two (apparently non-con-
flicting) requisites for maintain-
ing the American social and eco-
nomic order:
-The property ethic as it re-
lates to a father's "possession" of
his children and the puulic's de-
sire to minimize its responsibilities
for individual citizens have, over
the course of centuries, !iequired
and caused the general moralistic
acceptance of prohibitions on pre-
marital sexual intercourse. Moral
sensitivities, as established by
parents, church, media and school,
not only inculcate the notion that
sex must be postponed until after
legaliresponsibilities have been
established but also press the
superego toward an abhorrence for
sex and an overriding guilt.
-On the other .hand, the ab-
sence of complete and effective
social control over the uses of
production facilities for goods and
services has created fantastic op-
portunities for the private eco-
nomic sector to produce and sell
in large volume whatever its ad-
vertising men can convince the
public it needs. The extreme _om-
petition this engenders for the
capture and creation of new
markets leads inevitably to the
exploitation of sexual stimuli in
order to ensure that consumption
is sufficiently large and suffi-
ciently manipulable for the pro-
ducers to meet their capital debts,
wage pressures and profit desires.
The appeals to sexual interests
in the advertising media and their
concomitant increase in the other,
non-advertising arts (and in the
cultural subset of dance and
music) means, in turn, that sexual
stimuli are not only inescapable
but are positively overbearing.
Yet the young person is supposed
to control his emotions.
THE DILEMMA IS further com-
plicated by the general and still-
little-understood or expressed ma-
laise which is slowly gripping a
large portion of young people in
America. Much of this malaise
can be laid to the gnawing aware-
ness of the discrepancy between
American ideals and American ac-
complishments in such areas as
foreign policy (Viet Nam espe-
cially), disarmament, poverty and
education.
At the same time, many of the
social institutions and usual ca-
reer patterns through which an
individual might once have found
meaningful outlets for his pecu-
liar talents and drives can no
longer offer satisfying futures.
overcapitalized in terms of the
emotional stake which men have
developed in them (as well as in
terms of money), they have in-
creasingly adopted those organi-
zational forms-all of which es-
sentially relate to bureaucratiza-
tion and standardized efficiency-
which alone keep them from
buckling under the pressures of
their own size and the complex
demands made on their services.
These new forms, however, do
not necessarily enable the institu-
tion to perform its functions bet-
ter, and they most decidely do not
make them more human places,
do not allow either the people
working in them or the people
served by them any new oppor-
tunities for fulfilling expression.
Instead, these forms are cultivated
essentially for the purpose of' the
Why Not?
By JEFFREY GOODMAN
institution's self-preservation, and
the result is that the young more
and more find themselves alien-
ated from the futures- that are
offered-the futures which society
expects of them and which are
virtually all that is available.
IN THE FACE of this malaise-
and especially when the individual
in its grip does not understand its
true social nature and has not yet
conceived of alternatives for him-
self-meaningful and intimate hu-
man involvements with other peo-
ple on a one-to-one basis become
extremely crucial. If one cannot
relate satisfyingly with the rest
of the world, he must at least be
able to relate in this way with
other individuals.
Yet interpersonal contacts have
been essentially forced and arti-
ficial from the beginning, so that
one does not really know how to
go about forming them well. And
there has been too little oppor-
tunity-within the framework of
the forms of expression and ex-
perimentation allowed and the
values inculcated-for the kind of
self development which is essen-
tial to a capacity to relate to
others.
So one becomes desperate for
contacts with others, yet at the
same time one is blocked from
achieving them. One cannot es-
cape the sexual components of
such involvement, yet one is de-
cidedly not capable in terms of
his own background, and one is
decidedly under the wrong kinds
of stimuli and pressures to be able
to cope with those components.
ONE IS CAUGHT between
fearing sex and being overstimu-
lated sexually. The fear proves a
disability when one would truly
like to become intimate- with an-
other, even non-sexually. One can
never be sure that his attempts at
sincerity and openness will not
be interpreted as attempts at se-
duction and, being guilty about
sex in the first place, one is afraid
that he really might be trying to
seduce.
So the male, afraid of uffend-
ing the female and not wanting
to increase his guilt should he
offend, suppresses his natural de-
sires to be closer with respect to
emotions, ideas, experiences; the
female, afraid of encouraging the
male beyond what her sexual in-
hibitions will allow, .is coy and
evasive.
The overstimulation, on the
other hand - especially as it is
heightened by the basic and nat-
ural sexual desires which it has
perverted-does not allow one to
avoid this sexual confounding.
Moreover, it increases the ten-
dency to conceive of potential re-
lationships exclusively in sexual
terms. One is communicating on
a level where the basic need sim-
ply for another person (basic be-
cause it exists in terms of the
whole personality and because sex
flows from it instead of vice
versa) cannot be satisfied. Yet one
is also inhibited from reaching
out in more meaningful terms.
So our contemporary dance and
music styles, which are essentially
exhibitionistic, become one of the
only channels-of communication-
the flexing of the body seductive-
ly, the assertion of prowess, the
heavy breathing' and the sweat-
ing to prove virility. Yet these
styles are basically dissatisfying
even to those who claim to enjoy
them often, for the sexuality upon
which they are based is at once
over tantalizing and forbidden,
and it therefore produces anxie-
ties. It is at once an attempt to
relate and a dismal failure at re-
lating, and therefor it frustrates,
for it has been invested with too,
much faith as a means of relating
and it can offer too little that is
satisfying. This sexuality is truly
desperate: caught as one is be-
tween his needs and the positive
and negative stimuli around him,
sexuality is but a final and al-
ready-defeated attempt.
THERE SEEMS no way out of
this desperation-which-is-bound-
to-destroy than to accept the ex-
istence and power and beauty of
sex, to accept one's own sexual
needs and their relationship nat-
urally to one's needs for involve-
ment with others, to accept sex as
a natural and potentially freeing
and deepening concomitant of af-
fection (therefore allowing real
affection and intimacy to develop
in the first place).
Indeed, there are still at least
instinctive awareness upon which
to build. One knows, though only
vaguely, that he needs another
person and that there are too
many barriers in the way of ac-
tually reaching out as a whole
person, attempting to grapple
with another person and letting
develop, as fully and as quickly as
it will, the affection and sex
which are wanted.
"Is It All Right, Sir, If We Continne To Exchange
Ambassad ors With Foreign Countries?"
+r '9r
One knows - though only in-
stictively and rarely consciously
or with true understanding-that
sex must and should be a natural
part of that relationship, that
one's own basic sensibilities about
how to use it responsibly (both
toward oneself and toward the
other person, with respect to emo-
tions as well as pregnancy) can
and should be trusted.
Perhaps one even senses some-
how that if sex would deepend
and beautify a relationship, if it
would function positively with re-
spect to personal needs instead of
constantly blocking their fulfill-
ment, then it must be done freely
and expressively. Its goodness for
each person and for the relation-
ship must somehow be preserved
against the inhumane perversions
of doubt and guilt.
Perhaps one even knows that he
must take for granted from the
start that it may well be healthy
and natural and good to have sex
with another when one wants it.
One must take for granted that,
when emotions and affections
have developed to the point that
one wants at least to explore an-
other person further, when one
wants to and can open more
channels of communication by ex-
pressing sincererly and unasham-
edly one's sexual desires - one
must take for granted that noth-
ing more need be required.
WITHOUT THESE kinds of
recognitions on the part of large
numbers of young people today
we must all, perhaps, face in-
creasing aloneness, increasing de-
spair and immobilization, increas-
ing inability to live satisfying lives.
We cannot cut sex from our be-
ings and we surely cannot cancel
our need for others. Nor will our
condition be any less desperate if
we let ourselves be dragged into
even more sexuality, even more
savagery, even more denial of the
goodness and necessity of sex. The
barriers which have been imposed
on meaningful involvements can-
not be afforded at this stage in
our history.
Yet if it is also true that our
condition is largely a function of
deeper economic or organizational
conditions in our society and of
some essentially contradictory and
Inhumane consequences of our
economic relationships, then mere-
ly adopting new attitudes will not
do. In the not-so-long run, those
more basic conditions and con-
tradictions must themselves be
altered, or any other effort is
futile.
A Dissent
on SGC's
Problems
To the Editor:
IN THIS EDITORIAL of Tues-
day, August 31, Leonard Pratt
expressed discontent with the
present structure of our Student
Government Council. Mr. Pratt's
two chief premises are that it is
of prime importance that stu-
dents take the initiative to be
active in their ownspheres of in-
terest and that these spheres of
interest should form the basis of
representation in the SGC. While
in full agreement with the first
point, I must take issue with the
second.
if students were to take an
active interest in their own spe-
cial spheres of activity, it is im-
mediately obvious that they would
insure the representation of their
appropriate interests on the SGC.
The altered structure of the
SGC as suggested in Mr. Pratt's
editorial would seem to guarantee
the right of representation to cer-
tain arbitrarily selected interest
groups. Such absolute right to
representation on our SGC can
only result in inflexibility and
stagnation within our system. No
matter how active or how power-
ful or how important an organiza-
tion may be to student life at the
University at present, there is no
certainty that its status will en-
dure.
Thus, the risk is run that groups
chosen for representation may, at
some time in the future, lose their
credentials to this privilege, or
worse, that new groups might be
discouraged from legitimate poli-
tical activity in SOC because of
the impossibility of gaining equit-
able representation.
HENCE, let us not tamper with
the structure of our SGC but in-
stead allow the students and their
groups to determine. just how ac-
tive and influential they want to
be, and let our political system, by
its nature, reward them accord-
ingly.
-James A. Mitchell, 'ยข8L
To the Editor:
S THE Michigan Daily pre-
pares to celebrate its 75th
anniversary as the "New York
Times of college journalism," it
V
U.S. Viet Policies
Have Nine Lives
By ROGER RAPOPORT
THE WAR in Viet Nam is a
confusing one. But if you think
things are confused on the battle-
field, imagine what the scene must
be like in a college classroom on
modern day Viet Nam.
A typical day would probably go
something like this.
"All right now, students, today
we are going to examine the
American commitment in Viet
Nam," begins the professor.
'Now then can any one tell us
who we were committed to .
that is committed to originally.".
One girl raises her hand and
says, "Batista."
"Peron," offers a boy.
"Chiang Kai Shek," bellows a
voice from the back of the room.
"No, No," says the professor,
"You've all got the wrong dictator,
it was Ngo Dinh Diem."
"Now then what happened to
Diem, Miss Fellows?"
"He led a strong government in
Viet Nam until November of 1963
when he was assassinated," she
replies.
"GOOD, now who took over
Correct,
" Therefore, why couldn't Tri-
gon reword the clause so as not
to require adherence to a specific
religious belief-a belief in Christ
as the "Lord"-so that it could
still choose its members accord-
ing to principles commonly at-
tributed to such a belief--"Chris-
tian principles" of honesty, chas-
tity,- etc?
Trigon stated at that time that
such action would be impossible
to take without changing the na-
ture of the fraternity.
I WAS a participant in the
hearings, and Trigon's answer to
the IFC appeal left me with two
possible conclusions.
! Trigon was in effect trying
to be a religious organization and
still a member of IFC and there-
fore discriminating, or
" Trigon was not discriminat-
after that?"
"Wasn't it Madame Nhu?"
pipes up one boy.
"Now, Mr. Jones, you know very.
well that Madame Nhu went
abroad after the assassination. It
was General Duong Van Minh
who took over."
"Now then, the United States
remained committed to Van. Minh
until January 30, 1964, when Gen-
eral Nguyen Khanh staged a coup
and was named President."
The United States tood staunch-
ly committed to the Khanh gov-
ernment until August 29, 1964
when General Khanh resigned and.
Dr. Nguyen Xuan Oanh took over.
"Now then class, Oanh became
acting premier until General
Khanh returned. shortly, there-
after andrnamed himself premier.
"THE STABLE government
changed hands on Oct. 30, 1964,
when Saigon's Mayor Tran -Van
Huong was appointed premier. Our
nation honored it's commitment to
the Van Huong government until
Dr. Oanh returned as premier on
Jan. 27, 1965."
"Is this the same Dr. Oanh who
led the government until he was
replaced by General Khanh," ask-
ed one girl.
"Yes," replies the professor. "He
was the same one and the United
States committed itself until Feb-
ruary 16, 1965 when Dr. Phan Huy
Quat replaced Dr. Oanh as Pre-
mier.
"At this juncture the United
States realized it was Khanh who
retained actual power. It backed
him until February 21 when- mili-
tary leaders voted 'no confidence'
and sent him abroad as an ambas-
sador at large."
"Excuse me sir, but who's on
first?" asks Miss Jones.
"No, no General Hu never comes
into the picture," the professor re-
plies.
"NOW THEN CLASS, the Unit-
ed States reaffirmed it's commit-
ment to the government of Dr.
Phan Huy Quat, leader of this
small and valiant nation."
"But then early in June Dr.
Juat decided to hand back the
reins of government to Lt. Nguyen
Cao Ky who is now staunchly
backed by the United States.
'And so class, for the ninth time
our government reaffirmed its
nnni2m_ n -li _A m"a
I
k'
Trigon 's Decision--
By ROBERT CARNEY
T RIGON'S RECENT decision to
change its membership oath to
meet with the approval of the IFC
executive committee was most
prudent.
Its action was not aimed merely
at approval by IFC. It was under-
taken to retain the spirit of Tri-
gon membership requirements and
the specific characteristics of Tri-
gon fraternity while at the same
time proving that it had no in-
tention of discriminating on the
grounds of a formal religious
creed.
In changing its oath, Trigon is
admitting that a belief in "our
Lord Jesus Christ"-which the
former oath asserted-is not es-
sential to the possession of what
are commonly called "Christian
principles."
ligious grounds, only on grounds
of character, pointing out that
several Trigon members were not
of the Christian faith and that
one was an atheist.
To support its case further, Tri-
gon's representative cited the Civil
Rights Bill amendment which as-
sures private clubs the right to
choose their members as they wish.
This argument, however, was ir-
relevant in the forum of discus-
sion in which it was presented-
the Fraternity Presidents' Assem-
bly of IFC, which must act with-
in the framework of its own by-
laws.
IFC'S REBUTTAL of the Trigon
appeal was simple:
0 The oath in question, no
matter how broadly interpreted,
could not be taken in good con-
science by members of certain
4