Seventy-Sixth Year
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Editorials printed in The Michigan Daily express the individual opinions of staff writers
or the editors. This mus t be noted in all reprints.
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 3, 1965 NIGHT EDITOR: JOHN MEREDITH
TODAY AND TOMORROW
U.S. Viet Nam Policy:
,An Expensive Stalemate
By WALTER LIPPMANN
.THE SUCCESS of the American buildup
in South Viet Nam has been, very
considerable when we measure it by what
so many informed people eared last
June. The Viet Cong has not been able
to smash the Saigonese army, to cut the
country in half, and in this military dis-
aster to bring about the overthrow of the
government in Saigon.
There is reason to think that the size
and power of the American forces has
discouraged or prevented the Viet Cong
from mounting big enough battles to
win a victory over the Saigonese.
'Yet, things have not come out as the
administration spokesmen hoped they
would. They allowed themselves to think
that a demonstration of our ability to
build up a great American force which
could not be defeated would compel or
persuade the Viet Cong and Hanoi to
agree to a negotiated settlement.
Quite the contrary has happened. The
position of the Viet Cong and Hanoi to-
day is even harder than it was last
spring.
WHY? Why, as we have put more and
more of the best troops we have into
South Viet Nam, as we have escalated
the violence of our attacks, have our
adversaries become everamore scornful
of our proposals to negotiate?
My own belief is that they are con-
vinced that, while the Americans can-
not,be defeated, the Americans cannot,
win the ;war pn the ground. This, how-
ever, is where the war has to be won,
in the villages of South Viet Nam,
The essential fact, which is beginning
to seep through the dispatches of some
of the American correspondents, is that
while- the Americans can seize almost
any place they choose to attack, the
Viet Cong will almost surely come back
once the Americans leave.
The war in Viet Nam is like punching
a tub full of water. We can make a hole
with our powerful fist wherever we punch'
the water. But once we pull back our
hand, possibly to punch another hole
in the water, the first hole disappears.
In theory, the Saigonese army ought to
fill the hole, ought to occupy and paci-
fy the places we seize. But the Saigon-
ese army is not able to do this because
It is too small and too war-weary.
It is too small because the villages,
which are the reservoirs of available
manpower, are for the most part Viet
Cong in their sympathies or are terroriz-
ed by the Viet Cong. The Saigonese army
is too disillusioned and has too little
morale to occupy territory which the
Americans have seized. What remains of
the Saigonese army has little enthusiasm
for the revolving politicians in Saigon.
THERE ARE SOME Republican politi-
clans who think that this mess can
be disentangled or ended by bombing
the industrial, and therefore populated,
centers of Hanoi and Haiphong. The
President, fortunately, has resisted the
temptation to make the war a total war
and thus to make it a general Asian war.
In any event, our adversaries in the
Viet Cong and in Hanoi show no signs of
being intimidated by the possibility of
total war. The Viet Cong in the South
are already receiving the full treatment
of total war by our area bombing, and
the North Vietnamese do not value their
material possessions, which are few, nor
even their lives, which are short and
unhappy, as do the people of a country
who have much to lose and much to -live
for.
Our adversaries, moreover, have time
to wait, 'time to retreat, to hide and to
live to fight another day. So we shall be
forced to face the fact that in order to
win the war in South Viet Nam we
shall have to occupy South Viet Nam
with American troops.
A few months ago Mr. Hanson Bald-
win, the military correspondent of the
New York Times, called for a million men
for Viet Nam. It sounded fantastic at
the time in light of what President John-
son was saying about not wanting a
wider war. But it is beginning to look
very much as if Mr. Baldwin had made
an informed and realistic estimate of
what a military solution would require.
THE SITUATION has become so tan-
sled that no clear and decisive solu-
tion is for the present conceivable. The
President is no nearer the negotiated
settlement which he has hoped to bring
about..
Failing the prospect of a settlement,
the President has managed to obtain the
assent of most of the country to the kind
of war we are fighting-a sporadic, low-
grade war carried on chiefly by a pro-
fessional American army. There is no
immediate prospect of big battles with
big casualties because the Viet Cong, so
it would seem, has withdrawn into guer-
rilla warfare.
Against the kind of force we have in
Viet Nam, guerrilla warfare cannot win
a victory. But neither can the guerrillas
be defeated decisively and put out of
business.
IF WE CANNOT or will not escalate the
war until we have an enormous army
which can occupy the country, our best
course is to dig in along the coast and
begin to discuss with the Vietnamese
politicians the formation of a govern-
ment in Saigon which can negotiate a
truce in the civil war. This course will
not please the majority of the President's
current advisers.
But with all due respect to them, how
do they propose to win this war, specif-
ically, what size of American army are
they prepared to draft and put into Indo-
China? For the war is not going to be
won by punching the water.
(c), 1965, The Washington Post Co.
The function of administra-
tion is to expedite the essential
academic business of teaching
and learning, e.g., as secretary
and janitor; and protectively
to represent the academic com-
munity in its external relations,
e.g., in court or as a fund-
raiser. When administration be-
comes the dominant force in
the community, however, it is a
sign that extra-mural powers
are in control-State"~Church
or Economy-and the admin-
istration is their agent. Notor-
iously, image-burnishing and
fund-raising disregard or even
prevent teaching and learning.
--Paul Goodman
"Thoughts on Berkeley"
MY THOUGHTS for this, week
were focused on things liter-
ary. I had hoped I might talk
about Katherine Anne Porter's
stories and the short story as art-
form. But the events of the week
have made this impossible. When
Regent Irene Murphy asks what
possible business of anyone's a
gift of one million dollars is, I
find myself enraged that one of
the controller's of this University's
fate thinks its students so stupid,
that they cannot see the hand-
writing on the wall.
Political power, Mrs. Murphy,
often follows economic power. And
one million dollars, whether given
across a conference table in dirty
Detroit or the opulent granite
expanse of the Regent's room, in
the Administration Building in
Ann Arbor, is one helluva lot of
economic power. In short, it com-
mits the University in ways that
perhaps it shouldn't be committed.
But that is pulling the trigger
without a hearing. What I should
like to do, what I have done as
a result of the horsetrading,
stock-trading, integrity-trading
that has gone on this week, is
ask: What is the idea of a uni-
versity? How has it changed from
say, John Henry Newman to Clark
Kerr? What is the function/end
of the contemporary university (if
indeed, anyone is willing to admit
to any)? What must students ac-
cept; what can they change? And
finally, what are the specific cor-
respondences between the Uni-
versity of Michigan and the prob-
lems universites as a whole face?
(Space demands that this last
question be answered next week.)
I
INITIALLY, the university was
conceived of as a place in which
students could gain wisdom. There
was no guarantee that they would
come away with wisdom-in-hand,'
but at the very least, they would.
have some knowledge. The uni-
versity was not a knowledge-
factory, except indirectly; that is,
as people could "use" their wis-
dom in life.
The university was set apart
from society. It was not "integrat-
ed" into it, often did not share
either its values or goals, often
operated in terms of its own ends.
The university was not the
problem-solver for society, not
the oracle where a distraught
people could run for aid, after
the Temple had failed. The uni-
versity could and did decide its
operation and goals. It had a head
as well as a body.
Of central importance was the
Weltanschaung. There was order
and it did not have to be con-
tinuously justified. The university
was a total way of life. It en-
compassed all facets of existence.
Its order had traditional, ethnic,
sacred, basis. The ends were con-
sidered understood; there was no
need to waste, time in definition.
II
OUR PROBLEM today is that
the "order" is no longer there.
Tradition and sacrements have
been exorcised. The ends are no
longer blithely considered "under-
stood." How and why a university
functions is a matter of justifica-
tion apart from the traditional
foundations, epoch-counterparts,
like the Greek Polis or the medie-
val Guild.
John Henry Newman was able
to isolate the idea of a university
because some of the sense of order
still remained. The university still
In Parenthesis
By GEORGE ABBOTT WHITE
stood apart from society, still sat
upon the hill. Newman's idea of a
university was intimately tied to
a Church counterpart, the parish,
where people lived and the church-
functioned, close together. The
parish concept as applied to the
university was viable, but only
because it operated before auto-
mobiles, commuter trains, indus-
trial parks, telephones. What we
have seen today, what with state-
wide campuses and bussing-for-
students, is a disintegration of the
parish. Students, faculty, admin-
istrators, no longer live contigu-
ously. There is no university com-
munity.
III
YET MUCH of our pr'esent idea
of a university is built upon that
cliche "community of scholars."
Our question thus becomes, in a
burgeoning Technopolitan society,
in a nation committed to the edu-
cation of all its able young-what
ideals are valid? What can we
reclaim from the past, make oper-
ative-without the use of myth
or' intellectual fallacy?
Mr. Clark Kerr, in his book,
"The Uses of the University,"
would have us believe that he
truly "understands" contemporary
society. According to Kerr, the
university Newman extolled has
become fragmented into a maze
of disparate and specialized fac-
ulties seldom in communication,
with each other and more involved
in research than teaching. Fur-,
ther, it has not only become
enormous-both in physical size
and scope-but, become totally in-
tegrated into society. It no longer
sits on the hill; it has become the
center of the revolution in knowl-
edge,- the crux of the knowledge-
industry.
What this means to the tradi-
tional idea of a university, Kerr
makes clear: society needs knowl-
edge and knowledgable people to
run it. The university, the "multi-
versity," provides them.
It is not that Kerr sees the uni-
versity as directionless, or that
the administrators are the center
of the "system" and firmly in con-
trol of all decisions, but that for
justification of the university's
function and end, he reverts to an
epoch-correspondence, the uni-
versity as Big Business.
Repulsive as it seems, the notion
cannot easily be refuted. Our own
University costs millions to run,
has millions tied up in property,
millions invested in business and
industry. Why shouldn't Kerr use
Big Business, when our own Uni-
versity is tied hand-and-foot to
government projects at North
Campus or Willow Run and huck-
ster-fashion, scurries after more?
Kerr's reasoning, which is really
acute, hinges upon the fact that
the university is no longer "apart"
from society, no longer sets its
own goals and follows them. In-
dustry, government, societal in-
terests, are no longer out. Pre-
cisely because the contemporary
university needs money, they are
very much in.
But the idea of the university
as Big Business prevents any of
the useful aspects of the past from
being used. It is this idea of
order, thissubstitution of bureau-
cratic organization for educational
values, that must be refuted.
Why should the University
adapt quickly? Why should the
university relinquish its tradition-
al (and valued) role of leader for
Kerr's contempora'ry idea of "me-
diator?" Why should the univer-
sity be a knowledge factory, an
assembly-line where intellectual
flunkies bolt and weld together
products that a public has been
brainwashed into buying.
IV
IT TAKES- more than anger
to confront Kerr's idea, for Kerr
is riding the crest of historical
analysis. Kerr undestands history
and his prophetic statements are
not to be questioned. You do not
approve his policies, you merely
submit to them. This "inevitable"
interpretation of history denies
freedom of the will in a subtle
manner: to protest, to oppose, to
struggle is not simply bad taste,
but meaningless. This, Kerr as-
sures us, is the way it is. Accept.
We must say once and for all,
that Big Business is not the idea
of a university. The idea of a
university is a center for teachers
and students, for clashing ideas,
for leadership. Pluralism, contrary
to the practice of Kerr, is not a
marsh devoid of values. A univer-
sity can have a brain as well as
a body if its president wishes to
work to make certain it does.
Decisions can be made by the
exercise of thought and imagina-
tion, not left to the equilibrium
of forces.
We are told and are well aware
of the growth and power of the
contemporary university, yet noth-
ing of its direction. "The -ends
are there," says Mr. Kerr. Yet are
they? What are their justifica-
tion? Who does the justifying?
The major component of the
university-which is missing in
Kerr's analysis--is the traditional
purpose of the university which
can be reclaimed from the past: to
inform, to enlighten, to enrich.
And this means more than ad-
copy editorials, more than U.S.
Information Agency glossing over
truth, more than two cars and a
dishwasher for every American.
It means once and for all, that the
university is, like the artist and
poet, apart from its society. It is
upon that hill no matter how
shiny the library doors, how
fluorescent the classroom lights.
It is not anyone's tool, not any
government's puppet, not any
ideology's vessel.
IN THE END, what saves a uni-
versity from becoming a training
institute or society's research cen-
ter, is the student body. The
mark of a true university, one
that "sits on a hill," is whether
or not it takes its students
seriously.
0
Flint College: The Necessary Compromise
EDITOR'S NOTE: Several
months ago, the University
plans to expand its two-year
Flint College branch by adding
freshman and sophomore classes
ran head-on into opposition
from the governor, the Legisla-
ture and the State Board of
Education. In April, the state
board not only ruled against
expansion but advised that the
branch be replaced by a new,
autonomous, tax-supported col-
lege; its sole concession was
that a freshman class could be
enrolled at Flint College this
fall. Although the dispute has
been out of the news for five
months, it still has not been
settled and now threatens again
to cause trouble for the Univer-
sity. This article is the last in
a three-part series outlining the
issues behind the Flint contro-
versy and explaining their rel-
evance to the total picture of
higher education in Michigan.
By JOHN MEREDITH
0 THIS POINT, higher educa-
tion in Michigan has not been
planned in terms of integrating
the programs of each tax-support-
ed institution into one over-all.
concept; rather, higher education
has just happened, sometimes for
better, sometimes for worse.
Now, for the first time, there
seems to be hope that a storm
of centralized direction relatively
free from the whims of politicians
can be attained. The potential in-
strument of central guidance is
the new State Board of Educa-
tion, an as-yet-untried advisory
body which hopefully can be built
into a prestigious ally of the in-
dividual colleges and universities
without becoming involved in the
petty squabbles which heretofore
have distorted educator's vision.
This hope still has a tenuous
basis; numerous factors, from
resistance to change within the
academic community to over-
exuberance and pettiness of Lan-
sing, may yet undermine the pos-
sible emergence of a sane system
of central direction.
THE ISSUE of Flint College
expansion has the potential to ac-
tivate these disruptive forces. It
has already aggravated several
eager, ill-informed legislators and
provoked special interest-oriented
resistance in the Flint community.
If another public hassle develops
over the Flint branch, the con-
troversy could easily expand to
encompass such far-ranging issues
as the constitutional autonomy of
state schools and the proper rela-
tionship between the new state
board and the Legislature.
Almost inevitably this would
further entrench the academic
community in its traditionalism
and inspire the politicians to try
to take a more active part in high-
er education.
An equitable settlement to the
their commitment to maintaining
a four-year program at Flint Col-
lege until the state provides for
a new school all dictate this
course of action.
The money which is appropriat-
ed will not, however, be clearly
designated for Flint expansion.
The request forms -which must be
sent to the state budget office do
not require that thetUniversity
specify' the amount of money it
intends to allocate for Flint Col-
lege. Instead, money for another
freshman class at the Flint branch
can be included in the broad
category of support for increased
enrollment.
THIS ELIMINATES the need
for the University to publicly re-
affirm its commitment to Flint
expansion and thus provides time
for it to work with the state board
toward a compromise, which hope-
fully would also be acceptable
to other interested parties in
Flint and Lansing.
Such a compromise need not
sacrifice Flint College to a vague
hope for coordination of higher
education in the future. Indeed,
the ideal solution for Flint's sys-
tem of education lies roughly half
way between the University's
present position and the board's
stance.
University officials have gone
on record as philosophically sup-
porting branch expansion and
have been critical of some of the
study reports attacking the use-
fulness of branches.
President Harlan Hatcher has
said, however, that in deference to
the state board the University will
not commit itself to further
branch expansion until and unless
branches are sanctioned by the
long-awaited master plan for
higher education, something which
the board has vowed to start work
on as soon as possible.
Still, the University has pledged
to maintain Flint College as a
four-year branch until the master
plan is completed, and this will
not be fore some time.
THE UNIVERSITY'S. position is
unfortunate in that it creates the
impression-probably an incorrect
one-that the University has no
intention of ever pulling out of
Flint and that, in vowing to co-
operate with the board, it is mere-
ly stalling for time. This impres-
sion is strengthened by past his-
tory plus a predisposition by some
legislators and educators to be
against the University.
The historical part is represent-
ed by the Delta College expansion
,dispute of 1962-63, incidents of
inter-institutional bickering dur-
ing the past few years and the
University's admitted preference
for the branch system.
The more nebulous aspect of
anti-University sentiment is de-
rived from this historical context
in combination with two other
factors: first, the University's re-
Flint branch-underenrollment, an
inbred atmosphere and alleged
awkwardness in the branch's re-
lations with Flint Junior College
--have prevented the institution
from fulfilling its potential.
Moreover, several of the criti-
cisms often leveled at branches
in general are applicable to Flint.
For example, the fact that
branches typically have close ties
with local interest groups has
been attacked as a potential
threat to their efficiency.
In Flint, private intrests, not-
ably the Mott Foundation, have
been intimately involved with
Flint College from its inception;
private involvement at Flint has
at nobtime been tainted by scan-
dal, but it has undeniably play-
ed a crucial role in the branch's
development and is a force to be
reckoned with in determining fu-
ture policy.
IN VIEW of these factors, re-
placement of the branch by an
independent school, as recom-
mended by the state board, would
not significantly lower the qual-
ity of Flint education. Although
a new school would inevitably
havedifficulty attracting a stu-
dent body and a competent fac-
ulty, the Flint branch itself is
hardly a first-rate college.
While Flint's strongman in
Lansing, Sen. Garland Lane, may
avow that he cannot envision a
school in Flint "without the name
and tradition of the University
of Michigan behind it," Flint Col-
lege lacks the diversity, high
quality faculty and superior fa-
cilities of its Ann Arbor parent.
Moreover, it is apparent from
independent studies conducted
during the last few years that
autonomous schools, not branch-
es, will be consistent with the
master plan when it does appear.
WITH ALL its shortcomings,
however, the branch still offers
a foundation onwhich to build
an institution. The task ahead,
then, is to engineer a smooth
transition from branch to auton-
omous institution so that the new
school can take advantage of this
foundation.
If for no other reason than
that it would put the University
in an untenable public position,
the board's recommendation that
the branch immediately revert to
a two-year institution is not the
best plan for Flint. In addition,
continuation for the immediate
future of a four-year rather than
a two-year program would leave
a better foundation for the new
school.
The only advantage of the two-
year plan is that it lessens chanc-
es of the board being accused of
permitting the University to stall
in hopes of being able to main-
tain the branch permanently. But,
Both the board and the Uni-
versity probably would like to see
such a solution. The board is
eager to avoid any open contro-
versy which would have detri-
mental repercussions for the over-
all state education picture; fur-
thermore, in a detailed statement
on Flint last May, ; President
Thomas Brennan emphasized his
'interest in ensuring continuity
in the transition from branch
to new school.
And University officials, about
to submit a record budget re-
quest to the temperamental Leg-
islature and keenly aware of the
potential for trouble in another
Flint controversy, are equally
eager to reach an acceptable com-
promise.
OBSTACLES to such a settle-
ment, if they appeared, would
emanate from the Flint commu-
nity and the Legislature. Private
interests in Flint, notably the
Mott Foundation, seem intent on
having Flint College maintain its
association with the University,
and their opinion is of import-
ance because of their political
influence, their close relationship
to the Flint branch and their ac-
tual potential financial support
for the University.
An incident last week, how-
ever, gave some indication that
the Mott Foundation might be
amenable toscompromise. The in-
dication was an announcement
that bids were about to be given
out to contractors for construc-
tion of an addition to the Mott
Memorial Building, the main
classroom facility at Flint Col-
lege.
Last December, the Mott Foun-
dation announced a $2.4 million
grant to go for construction of
the addition, However, it reveal-
ed in April that it would rescind
its offer unless the building was
to be occupied by a University
branch, not an independent
school.
Admittedly, this could mean
many things, including an un-
announced reassertion by the
University of its commitment to
stay in Flint. Hopefully, though,
It points to a conciliatory atti-
tude on the part of the founda-
tion.
THE SECOND potential source
of trouble for an agreement on
Flint College is the Legislature,
in particular, a group of its
younger Democratic members. En-
rollment pressure, greater finan-
cial demands from state schools
and perhaps the recent publicity
received by campus activists have
all served to intensify the law-
makers' interest in education.
Their stronger interest has
manifested itself in a variety of
ways. For example:
Although political maneuvering
unrelated to the University was
Involved, some dissatisfaction with
the University showed through,
'most obviously in remarks by
Rep. George F. Montgomery (D-
Detroit), who singled out Flint
branch expansion as an ill-advised
University policy.
-Last summer's tuition hike
inspired some of the same Ways
and Means Committee members
to begin an audit of the Univer-
sity's books. Results of the audit
are expected to be announced
shortly.
.THE POLITICIANS, in short,
are eager to become involved in
higher education. Their exuber-
ance makes the process of work-
ing out a compromise on Flint
College expansion more difficult
in that the'y are a diverse, tem-
peramental interest group which
must be pacified; equally impor-
tant, failure to reach a compro-
mise on -the Flint issue would be
an open invitation for legisla-
tors to plunge into and thus ag-
gravate a public h~assle.
Such a dispute at this time
could disastrously damage not
only the University's position but
could also upset the stability of
the higher education picture in
Michigan.
And only with stability is it
reasonable to hope that the state
board will develop into a prestig-
ious instrument for providing the
central guidance needed if Mich-
igan is to have an enlightened
system of higher education.
Viet Nam,
1965
By PETER McDONOUGH
Grad, Political Science
Not even the homes or the
trees are old:
Only the families and the
soldiers
Waiting, lost at last, In the
paddy,
In the rabid Jungle: these
innocent misers.
Behind the wind, above the .
clouds
And the hungry songless
hawks, louder
Than birth-a bottomless sea,
rare dice,
Neutral bones: an innocent
sacrifice.
Be careful, it says. Be careful
With me. Threats, pleas. Care.
The fathers hide by themselves,
And the sons cry out in their
funny clothes:
Chapter Advisors
FRATERNITY PRESIDENTS made an
addition to the Interfraternity Coun-
cil bylaws Thursday night by requiring
each fraternity chapter to have an ac-
tive advisor. The reasoning behind the
new bylaw stems from evidence that fra-
ternities with effective advisors consist-
ently profit from the contact.
The intent of IFC and the fraternity
presidents is to insure each chapter of
these benefits, which are expected to
include a mature continuity in leader-
ship and in standards of conduct among
fraternities.
A similar function is supposedly now
fulfilled by the -present chaperon re-
quirement "enforced" by the Office of
Student Affairs (two married couples,
26 years of age or older, to make sure
fraternity men behave like sober gen-
tlemen at their parties). This require-
ment is intended to bring fraternities
into closer contact with parents; alum-
ni and faculty, to improve relations in
these areas and to provide a mature, old-
d. 4-v in Ili'n-.. an 4',n .P'. :tctrrwifv 't..,. .ar
by Mr. Swoverland, fraternity investi-
gator for the OSA, is decreased.
This is the double standard in the
Greek society. When Swoverland does
visit, he is informed that the chaperons
were unable to come at the last minute
or that they had a flat tire and it was
too late to call off the party.
IFC is attempting to prevent a recur-
rence of this situation-chapter advisors
who exist in name only-by requiring
monthly reports on the activities and ac-
complishments of the advisors. However,
these reports are to be filled out by
chapter presidents, and only the signa-
ture, of the advisor is required. Thus the
validity of the reports will often be ques-
tionable; fraternity presidents will be
virtually as free to forge the advisors'
names as they are to forge the names of
their chaperons.
THE IDEA of chapter advisors is a good
one, and its benefits are easily dem-
onstrated. The OSA is aware of the bene-