Seve ty-Sixth Year EDITED AND MANAGED Y STUDENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN UNDER AUTHORITY OF BOARD IN CONTROL OF STUDENT PUBLICATIONS Housing: A Management Problem i , y Where Opinions Are Free, 420 MAYNARD ST., ANN APMOR, Micm. Truth Will Prevail 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. WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 8,1965 NIGHT EDITOR: JOHN MEREDITH Col. Holmes in Action: Perversion of Justice LAST OCTOBER 15TH 38 University stu- dents and teaching fellows partici- pated in a Viet Nam protest sit-in at the Ann Arbor draft board. Among the crowd of onlookers was a deputy director of the Selective Service system dispatched to the scene by Col. Arthur Holmes, state draft director. Concerned that the sit-in might vio- late the Selective Service Act, Col. Holmes had sent his subordinate to Ann Arbor to keep an eye on the situation. Col. Holmes' hopes were rewarded. The depu- ty's report convinced Holmes that the students had interfered with the draft board. The colonel called in all the files of the demonstrators. Unfortunately he could only obtain 31 files-the other dem- onstrators were girls and veterans. He quickly prepared a report to the local boards which said the students had vio- lated the Selective Service Act and hence were liable to be declared delinquent and subject to immediate induction into the armed forces. Four of the student demonstrators sub- sequently lost their deferments, are now 1-A and face immediate induction. COL. HOLMES' ACTION has set a new precedent in the American legal sys- tem. The unique sit-in trial was held in the colonel's office. Represented were the prosecutor (Col. Holmes' deputy director) and the judge (the colonel himself). There was no defense attorney nor were there any defendants. The colonel mere- ly scanned the prosecutor's report, looked up the selective service laws and then wrote his decision - the students had stopped the secretaries at the Ann Arbor draft board from completing their work. After adjourning his court the colonel sent the jury (the local draft boards) his decision. Judge Holmes explains that it "Has always been our policy to handle these situations administratively." The judge emphasizes that "All these boys have a right to an appeal." While the reclassified students have been informed they can have neither a lawyer nor wit- ness at their hearings, it has been rum- ored that their mothers will be allowed to attend. For a man who has no law degree, Col. Holmes appears to have a thorough knowledge of the function of due process in our legal system. He scoffs at such suggestions however, modestly asserting "I've been with this business 25 years and I still don't know all the laws." THERE ARE THOSE who tend to agree with the colonel. Among them are University President Harlan Hatcher, Vice-Presidents Richard Cutler and Al- lan Smith, Regent Irene Murphy, the Democratic State Central Committee, the American Jewish Congress, the Washing- ton Post, the Detroit Free Press, Rep. Charles Diggs, State Reps. Thomas White, Raymond Hood and Coleman Young, Neil Staebler, and the American Civil Liberties Union. They have all criticized Holmes' action. The ACLU has even gone so far as to seek a federal injunction against Col. Holmes, Gen. Hershey and the local draft boards to restore the students' original classification. Col. Holmes finds it hard to compre- hend why anyone would oppose such a move. He and national director Gen. Hershey claim they are not punishing dissent-that they are merely implement- ing existing Selective Service laws. But unfortunately the situation is not as simple as he believes. Did the pres- ence of 38 people on the floor of the Ann Arbor draft board really impede the busi- ness procedures of the draft? Anyone who had business at the board could have walked in and accomplished his mission. No one was sticking bubble gum in any typewriters or stealing erasers. In fact there was only one tie-up at the Ann Arbor draft board, as student Walter Pinkus noted in a recent letter to the Daily. A plainclothesman spent the entire afternoon perched on a window- sill, telephone receiver in hand. Hence the draft board's phone was tied up all afternoon. COL. HOLMES' action makes about as much sense as sentencing civil rights sit-inners to join the Klan. He apparently labors under the delusion that our gov- ernment is not one of laws but of Selec- tive Service officials. Obviously he is un- aware that Ann Arbor has courts cap- able of handling trespassers. His action is simply political reprisal based on a perverted notion of justice. The colonel is clearly 4-F material. -ROGER RAPOPORT COMPARED TO the University's other plant and space prob- lems reviewed here Sunday, stu- dent housing needs and difficul- ties seem fairly trivial. The Uni- versity is presently committed to a substantial student residences building program, and private building will be able to take care of the rest of the growth more than adequately, given the present pace. This doesn't leave an awful lot for the "Student Housing" report of the President's Commission on Off-Campus Housing to cover in the way of major policy recom- mendations. The really important policy decision on housing was in fact made several years ago some- where in the depths of the admin- istration on the grounds of ex- pediency.I That was to undertake a pro- gram of allowing and even encour- aging private housing development to supplement University - built housing. The University was just not interested (it's not clear whether or not it was able) in undertaking the massive building program needed to provide all students or even a large percent- age of them with housing. GIVEN THE irrevocable nature of this decision, the President's housing commission was left with two things to talk about: A stu- dent housing philosophy that somehow integrated living and learning in a meaningful way, and programs to implement such a philosophy. Though there has been a lot of discussion linking "student eco- nomic welfare" and low-cost hous- ing, this is a will-o-the-wisp in Ann Arbor, given the syrocketing building costs locally and the ex- tremely high cost of land any- where close to the University. Neither is low-cost housing par-' ticularly important. T h e Ivy League schools have long since recognized the irrelevancy of $50 cheaper housing for bringing low- income students to the university, and instead charge the going dorm rates, get their alumni to do the building, and clear a nice profit in the end for educational activities. For the low income students, they go out and recruit, encourag- ing them to come to college and giving them plenty of money to do it. WHAT IS important at this University then is that a coher- ent and educationally sound phi- losophy of housing be spelled out and implemented with reasonable cost limits. The housing report comes on pretty strong with phi- losophy, though much of it reiter- ates what has been said before. "The basic position that the stu- dent's living experiences should complement his classroom exper- iences is an integral part of the philosophy for student affairs set forth in 'The Reed Report' and unanimously adopted by the Board of Regents in 1962." The commission's contribution is to extend this philosophy to "all other areas of student hous- ing - married student housing, affiliated housing and off-campus housing." It states, "The Univer- sity cannot ignore this aspect of the total education of the more than 70 per cent of its student body living outside of the resi- dence halls." Unfortunately, philosophy is one thing, implementation another. The University has had the phi- losophy for over 25 years, since the Michigan House Plan was for- mulated in the late 1930's, but suc- cess has been transitory at best. After World War II, with the great flood of veterans into the University, the business office came to play a key role in admin- istration of theresidence halls. Over the years, authority; has be- come fragmented, split with the Office of Student Affairs, dele- gated, undelegated and redelegat- ed until it is almost impossible, as Michigan MAD By ROBERT JOHNSTON it is with so much of the Univer- sity's administration, to say who is doing what for whom. The locus of major power is still clearly within the business office, though the whole system is in fairly sad shape on both sides. Vice-President for Business and Finance Wilbur Pierpont has him- self privately criticized the busi- ness operations of the residence halls as inefficient, and, at the same time, residence halls direc- tor Eugene Haun has never chosen to exercise (or been able to) any authority over the business man- ager, Leonard Schaadt. MEANWHILE, all the major decisions-how much money is to be spent for what programs and especially what types of building programs are to be undertaken and how extensive they will be, and how it all is to be financed and with how much student money -are still made by Pierpont. The report states, "The Com- mission has previously described two 'truths' - the complex and. dynamic character of the student housing situation in Ann Arbor, and the inadequacy of a commis- sion or group such as this to act with the rapidity, thoroughness and authority that is required. "This report also describes in some detail the variety and divi- sion of authority that now exists with respect to the planning for, management, and provision of necessary services to meet the myriad housing needs of Michigan students." To break this deadlock of in- competence on one hand and either fragmented or misplaced control on the other, the housing commission has recommended a director of housing in Vice-Presi- dent for Student Affairs Richard Cutler's office. The report goes on to give some of the student housing gripes that they uncovered in their survey. Ironically, these concentrate not on housing philosophy and how well it is being implemented but on such mundane problems as noise, lighting, desks, heat and ventilation. This says little about how educationally relevant the student housing system is and nothing about what can be done about it. THE NEW director of housing,, assuming the office is created, should be the key figure in elim- inating the housing problems cov- ered in the report and in imple- menting some of the philosophy given there. The effect of the housing re- port will thus depend very much on the strength of the person chosen to carry it through. But it will also depend at least as much on the powers and auth- ority he is given and the coopera- tion he gets. Here is where the commission really fails in its task. It recommends the correct sol'u- tion, reorganization and reassign- ing of authority in housing in one man office (in student affairs, not business and finance), but it doesn't give any specifics of why this is so desperately needed. Without enumerating the spe- cific failures and log jams and other assorted horrors of the pres- ent housing administration sys- tem, it is doubtful that enough heat will be generated to press changes upon it. A new layer of administration will be imposed, but Pierpont will go on making major planning and finance decisions according to cri- teria and information known only to him, Schaadt will go on impos- ing a ridiculous and inefficient financial bureaucracy upon the residence halls system, Haun will go on being the most feeble of academic breezes in an academic wilderness, other parts of the housing system will continue sep- arately administered from heaven- knows-what obscure office, and Ann Arbor Realtors and landlords will continue to be allowed by the University to do pretty much as they please with private student housing. About the most an active direc- tor could do in this situation would be, with heroic effort, to make a few dents here and there, make things a little more livable on and off campus, and effect some of the more minor commis- sion recommendations. ONE HOPE remains, however, in this dismal picture. That is the student housing advisory com- mittee set up last fall. If the stu- dents on it press hard to get the facts on what has happened in housing and might happen, if they work over these facts and try to formulate meaningful h o u s i n g programs, and, if they are able to mobilize student support be- hind what they decide needs to be done. there is a chance things can get moving. Many of the committee's mem- bers have demonstrated ability to work on these problems and force them through to some sort of solution. With hard work, a lot of digging and a lot of pressure on Pierpont to let some information loose, they could begin to have an ef- fect in gaining for the director of housing enough backup force to really accomplish something - whether it be overhauling an an- tiquated residence hals systems, making it both efficient and edu- cationally valuable; making the Ann Arbor Realtors may more at- tention to student needs and less to their fat pocketbooks; or plan- ning a program of University stu- dent housing construction that will serve student and University needs and desires over the next 10-15 years. #r, Letters: On Language, Justice, Go, Team, Go DOES ANYBODY want to know the greatest threat to the health of the American college? (That is a rhetorical question. If the answer Is "no" I haven't got a column to write. On the other hand, such an an- swer evidences a deplorable standard of concern on your part. I shall therefore assume the answer is a forthright "yes" and continue.) The greatest threat to the health of the American college is that almost every- one who is not part of the college com- munity is sure that the campus is the center of drunken brawls, pagan danc- ing, sexual acrobatics, and general moral rot. And the source of this view, the sem- inal fount of the calumny, is the college movie. Now most of you are familiar with these products of 1935-45 Hollywood from your phony - headache - stay - home - from- school and watch-daytime-TV childhood. The campus was always State or U. or Jones, the actors were Dick Powell and Ruby Keeler and George Murphy and Jack Oakie as the dumb football player and the profs were all square eggheads (ignore the contradiction) except the kindly old English teacher who fixed the exam so Jack Oakie could pass and be eligible and beat anti-State or U. or Jones. There was lots of singing and parades everyday down the main campus with brass bands and rallies every night and the Paul Whiteman band just happened to get stuck in town and play at the big victory dance. O.K. THIS WAS 20, 30 years ago and now the first scene this girl who is there to catch a husband knocks down a couple of profs with her bicycle and they look up and-bam!-out comes a brass band and 400 kids in letter sweaters singing and dancing down the campus carrying the basketball team on their shoulders. I could go on with this but you might not believe it. The basketball player falls passionately in love with the girl who is out to get him (they sing to each other in the moonlight) and they have to get married because they can't wait to have at each other only 'he doesn't have any money so he cheats on the exam and flunks it and is ineligible for the big game so they burn the prof in effigy who flunk- ed him, and ... You understand I am not making this up. This movie is not more than four years old, and it nowhere occured to the writer that maybe (a) a campus wouldn't get tight to a man because its team might lose a game, or (b) that the two lovers might send the orchestra and moonlight hore and quietly go to bed with each oth- er or (c) that you wouldn't have to be Clark Kerr to call out the cops the ,first time a basketball pep rally was held smack in the campus in the middle of classes. OH, NO. Once again several hundred thousand viewers learn that the cam- pus is the Golden Land of Oz; once again a feast has been prepared for the Phili- stines who delight in feeding on tales of juvenalia and trivia amid the Groves of Academe. Keep tuition low? Why, so kids can dance and sing? Academic freedom? Why, - + ^V y, .tr... irir in -nM_ - Tt1 , l To the Editor: IN THE DAILY of December 1, there appears an article en- titled "Students Consider Aca- demic Reforms." The students re- ferred to are members of the Literary College Steering Com- mittee. It is encouraging to see stu- dents so genuinely concerned over the quality of the education that they have chosen to come here to receive. I would like to suggest, however, that the recommenda- tions of this committee might be more effective if its members would assume the responsibility of informing themselves more fully on the matters under considera- tion. They suggest, for instance, that qualified students be allowed to take a comprehensive language examination, thus having the op- portunity to satisfy their foreign language requirement by perform- ance on an eaxmination rather than through courses. The com- mittee members seem to be ig- norant of the fact that this is already the policy here, and has been for a number of years. In order to be thus qualified, however, it is necessary that a student have had several hundred hours of contact with the foreign language. If this is not accom- plished in the high school, then it must be done here. THIS LEADS to a question which has frequently appeared in the Daily, namely: Why have a language requirement? Certain in- dividuals, who seem to have un- limited access to the pages of the Daily for the expression of their views, regard foreign language study as a waste of time. Such is the case, evidently, with the Steer- ing Committee, to judge from the article mentioned above. To these and other like-minded students I would like to address the following remarks. A univer- sity is founded on and dedicated to the preservation and dissem- ination of certain humanistic vai- ues and areas of knowledge. (For A(sop: By JOSEPH ALSOP WASHINGTON - Ironically enough, the reasons for in- creased apprehensiveness about the Vietnamese War are directly rooted in the recent striking suc- cesses of the American and South Vietnamese forces. To see why this is so, one must begin with the fact that until quite recently the Communist leaders genuinely believed that no amount of American aid for South Viet Nam could possibly prevent the Viet Cong from winning their "war of liberation." Both the Hanoi and the Peking 1P.d.,.. kn+ +t.nmnetinr rthi s bp- further discussion of the educa- tional objectives of this university, see the Literary College Announce- ment, under Educational Objec- tives.) Men of learning have for cen- turies understood that foreign peoples and foreign cultures con- stitute such an area. This con- tinues to have validity today, not only for the intellectual develop- ment of the individual, but also because of the practical demands of the modern world. Indeed, on the national level, sympathetic un- derstanding of foreign ways has become a matter of highest im- portance. Now the most basic and central element of any culture is its lan- guage. Culture and language are inseparable. Any attempt to at- tain more than a superficial un- derstanding of a culture without some knowledge of the medium through which that culture finds expression is meaningless and futile. THIS, I FEEL, is sufficient jus- tification for the foreign lan- guage requirement. Ignorance of foreign languages is a bliss the educated person of today simply cannot afford. -Robert L. Kyes Department of German The South To the Editor: I'VE BEEN AMAZED to find that many of my friends are very happy over the recent con- victions of the white men in Ala- bama. They feel that the South is beginning to shape up under the pressure and that the 'outlook for equal justice down there is im- proving. However, the convictions have caused me to feel the op- posite. Collie Leroy Wilkins and the other guys will go to prison for their parts in the deaths of civil rights workers. Just by the nature of their crimes, they will imme- diately become the "kings" of the prison. I can't see them being ordered around by white prison guards and white wardens after they have killed Negroes and white civil rights workers. They will lead a very good life. with probably early paroles, and I wouldn't even be surprised if Mr. Wilkins became the next warden of the prison. THE CONVICTIONS were a smart move on the part of the South. With the great publicity they are now getting, many "good". people will think that maybe jus- tice is possible in the South-an obvious falsehood. President Johnson and the other federal investigators might now decide to relieve some of their, pressure for the acquisition of equal justice in the South, and things might now turn worse. I would have much rather seen these murderers acquitted, like all the rest have been, thus creat- ing more resentment toward the South, and probably a better chance for hope of equal justice in'that barbaric society. -Peter Meyers, '69' The Alumn us' To the Editor: Enclosed is a letter I have writ- ten to the Editor-in-Chief of the Michigan Alumnus. Mr. Robert Morgan Editor-in-Chief Michigan Alumus Dear Mr. Morgan: I READ with dismay and anger your apology to the Alumni of Michigan for the anti-Viet Nam war protestors in the last issue (November) of the Michigan Alumnus. You have implied that all alumni are ashamed of these people and you thereby took it upon yourself to apologize. I has- ten to assure you that I am ex- tremely proud of these protestors. I am not writing to debate Viet Nam; that unhappy country's so- cial, economic and politicalY fills several volumes; and it log of human suffering can even the staunchest suppo U.S. policy flinch at ourc behavior there. I am s though, that I resent yo sumption that there.is agre against the protestors and attempt to downgrade the bers and deprecate the mot those involved. As one of those studen spoke about from the "silent .I. am very gratified to fin silence ended. It took stonet ing and epithets of "dirty munist" against Prof. Nick children in 1954 beforea was aroused over the thr civil liberties and academic dom. THE STUDENTS may no an immediate and direct ef American foreign policy i Nam, but at least these and the faculty members in have underscored the ne understanding, communi and dissent regarding suchi the most important parto policy for many being our h murder by bombs, napaln gas of thousands of innocen ians, both North and Sout If for no other reason, ai ,against this negation of Am humanitarianism is a necess every American who wants main proud of being an Am -(Mrs.) Judy Gregory Perb Haveford, Pa. The New To the Editor: j WOULD LIKE to congr Mr. Schutze on the hig of dour sarcasm and godly ment he has attained in his trating articles on the "new It seems, however, thatb made one mistake in his vant, unbiased critique,f has forgotten to denoun "pseudohumanists" for bein cerned with the problems( history the sphere of their immediate in- s cata- terest. a make The glories of honored and tra- rter of ditional apathy should have been current sung of again, lest all the idealis- saying, tic fools in the world forget that ur as- reality forces every man to turn eement his back and pretend that he d your doesn't hear and doesn't see. num- Who cares that humans are ives of being brutally slaughtered on both sides of a terrible war? Who ts you cares that Negroes in the South t '50's," can't vote and must live in mortal nd the fear of hooded "patriots?" throw- Com- LET ME REMIND Mr. Schutze erson's that if fools hadn't "gabbled flab- anyone bily about sweetness, light and eat to brotherhood," there would still c free- be slavery in the South. Without Northern protest, there might never have been a voting bill pass- t have ed in 1965. Agitators do not think fect on that there is anything holy about n Viet their avowed concern for others, people but that it is merely in accord nvolved with the ideals of our religious ed for and cultural heritage. cation I suggest that Mr. Schutze policy; contemplate the problem of a man of that should turn his gaze inward and iorrible who cannot admit that anyone in m and the world could possibly have an t civil- unselfish motive, that could pos- h. sibly care about changing an un- protest just and brutal world. nerican -Martin Kane, '68 sity for to re- erican. oe, '56 1 G i r. THE STUDENT Nonviolent Co- Left ordinating Committee has been accused of being Communist in- filtrated. Jimmy Garrett of SNCC atulate answers the charges this way: h level "Man, the- Communists, they're judg- empty, man, empty. They've got s pene- the same stale ideas, the same w left." bureaucracy . , . When he gets he has mixed up with us, a Commie dies obser- and a person develops. They're for he not subverting us, we're subvert- ce the ing them." ig con- -THE DAILY TEXAN outside Collegiate Press Service A. of' What Comes Next on Viet Nam? edly pointed out in this space, the future course of Peking and Hanoi could never be safely predicted as long as the Communist leaders were so obviously acting on a false belief. When they were sure they were going to win anyway they were most unlikely to double their sacrifices and more than double their risks. To gauge their true intentions it was, therefore, necessary to wait for the moment of truth when they would cease to believe in the absolute certainty of victory. That moment seems to have come some time ago because of the flat failure of the Viet Cong's front took fairly heavy casualties. But this small force also put out of action the equivalent of an entire division of North Vietna- mese regulars. ALLOWANCE must be made for an expanded North Vietnamese in- vasion of the South. But allow- ance must also be made for the massive increase of offensive ef- fort that Gen. Westmoreland has long planned and carefully pre- pared. Given this increase of ef- fort, plus a number of further exchanges as unfavorable to the enemy as the exchange in the Ia Drang Valley, a fortunate break 4- +'- oi1.44^" i" ,-ni m T . n ._ In Laos, first of all, the North Vietnamese have long held the eastern part of the country, the area of the Ho Chi Minh Trail, in flagrant breach of treaty. Ten days or so ago, however, their troops made a sharp westward thrust toward the town of Thaked on the Mekong River. The thrust was briskly repulsed by Laotian army units (in itself a remarkable development, since the North Vietnanrese used to have a sort of high sign on the Laos). Prisoners taken by the Laos stat- ed that the aim of the thrust was actually to take Thaked. All this can mean. but by no means neces- supply flow to their ally. It can also mean, but again by no means necessarily means, that the Chi- nese intend to provide a garrison for North Viet Nam while more and more of the North Vietnamese army moves southward. Third and finally, there is no evidence as yet of any Chinese preparation for the one move that would insure a big war-a move down the line of the Mekong Valley. But Chinese activity on the Indian frontier has both increased and become much more aggressive in the last two weeks. And a Chi- nese attempt to invade bits of India would certainly create grave nrohlems for the United States.