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