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February 25, 1967 - Image 4

Resource type:
Text
Publication:
The Michigan Daily, 1967-02-25

Disclaimer: Computer generated plain text may have errors. Read more about this.

Seventy-Sixth Year
* EDITED AND MANAGED BY STUDENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
- ~ ,UNDER AUTHORITY OF BOARD IN CONTROL OF STUDENT PUBLICATIONS

Getting Kids Interested in Education

A

Where Opinions Are Free, 420 MAYNARD ST., ANN ARBOR, MIcH.
Truth Will Prevail

NEws PHONE: 764-0552

Editorials printed in The Michigan Daily exptess the individual opinions of staff writers
or the editors. This must be noted in all reprints.

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 1967

NIGHT EDITOR: MARK LEVIN

Universities Must Meet
Responsibilities in Ghetto

PRESIDENT HARLAN HATCHER deliv-
ered an address Thursday morning at
the Founders Day convocation of Union
College, Schenectady, N.Y., on the role of
the university today. He complained about
the demands being made upon the uni-
versity as an agency to solve the problems
of society.
Typifying these exorbitant requests, ac-
cording to Matcher, was a speech made
by Senator Abraham Ribicoff (D-Conn)
in Ann Arbor on February 10. The for-
mer secretary of health, education and
welfare charged that "American universi-
ties have been indifferent to the problems
of the urban ghettos."
Ribicoff proposed a comprehensive pro-
gram which included promises of guaran-
teed job opportunities for all; a home in
a decent environment; maximum encour-
agement for private investment in re-
building cities and slums; involvement of
the individual and emphasis on neighbor-
hood development; and reorganization of
the executive branch of the federal gov-
ernm'ent to meet problems with present
techniques and methods. Hatcher said, in
reply, "No university in the world has
any of the resources or the opportunity
and the tools or, I would add, the direct
responsibility for carrying out this pro-
gram."
APPARENTLY, President Hatcher has
misconstrued Ribicoff's remarks. The
five-point program (the final cost of
which Ribicoff estimated at $50 billion)
in question is the framework of the sen-
ator's legislative program-the outcome of
extensive hearings by! the subcommittee
on urban affairs which Ribicoff chairs.
He did not ask American universities to

compete with the federal government in
enacting these programs.
What Ribicoff did not say was that
universities, especially those in large ci-
ties, have "great laboratories in their back
yards, but they stay on the hill with their
gowns and won't sully their hands."
The senator's point is well taken. Uni-
versities need not compete with the fed-
eral government in providing jobs and
housing; and don't have to organize the
slum residents. They have unique re-
sources to deal with slums and ghettos
as areas of academic concern.
UNIVERSITY social science departments
have the capacity to perform profes-
sional grass-roots empirical analyses of
the problems of the ghetto, to propose new
solutions to these problems and to try
out these formulas in the testing ground
--Ribicoff's "laboratories"-the ghettos
provide.
To implement this, universities should
set up urban institutes. It is wide-
ly felt that the few schools that do have
centers use the ghettos to provide stu-
dents with experience in the use of sur-
vey research methods rather than out
of any deep academic interest in the
blight of the cities.
Universities do not, as President Hatch-
er says, "have the direct responsibility"
to carry out Ribicoff's program, but they
do have responsibilities to the commu-
nity. They acknowledge these responsibil-
ities when they accept projects like the
Highway Safety Research Institute. The
failure to devote their energies to stag-
gering problems in the ghettos would
be a serious denial of this duty.
-URBAN LEHNER

By LISSA MATROSS
(+ONRAD BIRDIE lives again, this
time in the First Baptist
Church in Ann Arbor.
The "Bye Bye Birdie" produc-
tion is being rehearsed by upper
elementary and junior high school
students from Willow Run as part
of the Ann Arbor Tutorial and
Cultural Relations Project.
The production will be a unique
and exciting experience. But then,
everything about the six-year-old
project has been exciting. It be-
gan in 1960 as an idea shared by
Richard Sleet and a small group
of fellow students at the Univer-
sity. Project Research Director
Morton H. Shaevitz of the psychol-
ogy department notes: "The re-
sponse of the community (in 1960)
might best be described as guard-
ed distaste."
As the project became more than
an idea-it now has 250 tutor-tu-
tee pairs - community reaction
changed. Originally, only St. An-
drew's Episcopal Church allowed
its facilities to be used by the
project. Now 19 churches are used.
THE ATTITUDE of the Ann Ar-
bor school system was at first,
according to Dr. Shaevitz, "one of
non-support." Then, in 1965, the
school system began a program of
busing school children from the
predominantly Negro elementary
school (Jones School) to 10 re-
ceiving schools. The city had at
last recognized that some chil-
dren were receiving a less-than-
adequate education.
When ways of remedying these
pr~oblems were discussed, the proj -
ect became better-known. Now, ac-
cording to Patricia Thomas, exec-
utive secretary of the project, the
project must turn down many tu-
tor requests made by parents,
school children, social workers and
visiting teachers.
Pat explains that a lack of suf-
ficient funds and tutoring facili-
ties forced the project to put a
ceiling on expansion. Tutees come
The Seahorse
I'm a sea horse and my name is
Charlie. Some people think I'm
a fish but I'm not. Lots of peo-
ple always are after me. And
everytime they go after me I
always sing this song:
My name is Charlie horse;
I'm the king of the sea.
I don't like for people to
Come-after me!
But one day I was skinned alive
And what do you think they
have seen.
Three little Charlie horses.
So I was a mother of three!
-By Cathy James, 5th Grade
Mack School

from four levels: lower elemen-
tary, upper elementary, junior high
and high school. There are four
project coordinators, each with
seven advisors. Theoretically, each
advisor is allowed a maximum of
seven tutor-tutee pairs. Thep res-
ent 250 pairs already exceed this
ceiling.
In addition, the project serves
two communities outside of Ann
Arbor. Sumpter Township is a rur-
al community of small farms and
low per capita income. The Sump-
ter school board saw the project as
a way of maximizing the learning
potential of the students. Willow
Run, a small poor community, is
the other area adjoining Ann Ar-
bor.
THE BIGGEST problem facing
the two outside programs is trans-
Christmas
I have a lot of fun on Christmas
Day,
We open our presents in a merry
way.
Thecolorful Christmas tree looks
very gay,
And with our new toys we do play.
The doll I want is Baby Magic,
She is the only one I would pick.
I'd never let my doll get sick.
I would give her Nestle's Quik.
There is an angel on top of our
tree,
I would like to see her free.
Up in heaven she would be,
Maybe she could look like me.
-By Jackie Scott, 4th Grade
Pittsfield School

portation. Private cars are used
both to take tutors to the two
communities and to bring tutees
to Ann Arbor. Project director Sleet
says that one graduate student
loaned the project his car for a
short time but soon needed it back.
The project is completely au-
tonomous although it is recogniz-
ed as a student organization by the
University. The University provides
an office in the Student Activities
Building, free mailing, use of mim-
eographing equipment and the free
use of University meeting room fa-
cilities.
Sleet explains the goal of the
project: to interest children in
education at the point where it is
still feasible to learn and develop
learning skills they would not or-
dinarily consider.
Asked if these goals have been
reached, Sleet says, "The kids per-
form better in school and have a
better understanding of education
and of the resources in the greater
community."
It is not unusual to find a tu-
toring pair in the UGLI audio room-
tapping their feet to the rhythms
of a Miles Davis record. Nor is it
unusual to find a wildly cheering
tutoring group at a Detroit Pis-
tons game. Groups of tutors, tu-
tees and parents attend special
project showings of "Raisin in the
Sun," "Dog of Flanders" and "The
Red Balloon."
Tutoring pairs wander through
the stacks of the Main Library
on campus. As Pat Thomas ex-
plains, "The project makes college
more real for kids."
THE BIGGEST problem facing
the project today is lack of funds.'
In past years the project relied on

bucket drives, sorority cookie sales
and funds given by SGC. In No-
vember, a $30,000 demonstration
grant was awarded to Shaevitz by
the Office of Economic Oppor-
tunity. The grant was good for one
year.
The stipend has paid for a full-
time director and full-time secre-
tary and for a staff of research-
ers. In addition, the grant has
been used to provide a typewrit-
er, tape recorder and books. In
conducting the research Shaevitz
wanted to explore three areas: 1)
what happens to the children in-
volved? 2) What happens to the
tutors? 3) What are the more dis-
tant theoretical aspects of the
project that could help other
groups to establish successful proj-
ects?
Questionnaires were filled out by
137 tutors. Shaevitz found that
more than one-half of the group
were from out-of-state. Almost all
The Ugly Sorceress
Once there was a Sorceress
Who always went hiss, hiss.
He liked to go hiss, hiss
Cause he was born to kiss.
One day he ate his brother Andy
,Cause he ate up all the candy.
-By Cathy James, 5th Grade
Mack School
Jitterbug
I was so nervous that I was
chewing gum. I dropped the pa-
per on the ground and a police-
man said I was a litterbug. I
might be a jitterbug but I'm
not a litterbug.
-By Lavern Boone, 6th Grade
Ford School

were white, but this is not sur-
prising at a campus that is ap-
proximately one per cent Negro.
The most outstanding change that
tutors experienced was an increase
in the knowledge of culturally de-
prived people. Tutors found "the
relationship" most important.
The children, however, placed a
much stronger emphasis on the
learning aspect. Shaevitz reports,
"What is suggested is that the
view of the culturally deprived
child is basically anti-intellectual
and as not concerned with achieve-
ment, may not be entirely true."
THE GRANT ran out officially
in December and the project has
received an extension through
May. Shaevitz will apply for a
renewal of the grant, butthere
is a chance it will not be accept-
ed. The grant was for demonstra-
tion purposes: the government
wants to find out if student vol-
unteer programs are effective in
changing the educational level of
children.
If the OEO decides that the
project no longer qualifies for a
pilot demonstration grant there
are other federal monies available,
according to Tom Isgar of the Tu-
torial Assistance Center. (The as-
sistance center is part of the Na-
tional Student Association and is
under contract to the OEO to pro-
vide technical assistance.)
Isgar explains that the Office
of Education funds tutorial proj-
ects under the Higher Education
Act and the Elementary and Sec-
ondary Education Act. In addi-
tion, the Department of Labor will
pay members of the Neighborhood
Youth Corps to tutor. Finally, a
tutorial project might qualify for
OEO Community Action funds.
Sleet, however, favors perma-
nent funding on the local level. He
would like to see the project sup-
ported by University students and
the local community. "There will
be a bucket drive in the middle
of March," says Sleet. "Let's see
how effective student power can
be."
The Talent of a Girl
Thousands of wonderlands all
over the world. Looking for the
talent of a imodern young girl.
Her talent goes far into the
world, to plenty and looking to
settle the lives of many. Her
talent has much to do with
voice, her talent has much to do
with songs. She tries to show
she's a good teenager, who's try-
ing to show the right from
wrong. God gave her a talent.
She wasn't sure till she was 20.
But she knows from this talent,
she's gained plenty.
-By Ann Smith, 8th Grade
Forsythe Jr. High

I

4

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4

4

Moral Vigilantes

A

LAST MONDAY and Tuesday the Profes-
sional Theatre Program presented the
play "Marat/de Sade" to packed houses
in Hill Aud. The play includes two scenes
where bared male backsides were forth-
rightly and prominently displayed. One
of the scenes showed a real-life totally
nude man walking away from the audi-
ence.
Apparently even a man of the brutish
sensibilities of Lt. Eugene Staudenmeier
decided "Marat/de Sade" is art, and the
Ann Arbor police did not act on tele-
phoned complaints about the play.
CINEMA GUILD officials, arrested for'
showing "Flaming Creatures," which
includes graphic scenes of a transvestite
orgy, are under heavy pressure from Vice-
President Cutler and the faculty govern-
ment not to show "Blow Job," an Andy
Warhol film.
While one can debate the merits of
"Flaming Creatures" from now until
Doomsdays critics have praised the film
and maintain that it has the "redeeming
social importance" which distinguishes it
from pornography.
"Blow Job" consists of nothing but 33
minutes of a head-and-shoulders shot of
a seated man (fully clothed, kids). Its ma-
jor message is that "obscenity" like so
much else in art is largely in the eye of
the (non-)beholder.
IT IS ASTONISHING to reflect on the
reaction which Cinema Guild's interest
In showing these two films has engender-

ed. President Hatcher displayed rare cour-
age last Friday when he urged the Re-
gents against moving against Cinema
Guild. He made a strong defense of artis-
tic freedom, and it is well that he did.
But he also seemed to indicate that
while students should be free to read
Ibsen and Dreiser, Cinema Guild shouldn't
be free to show them "Flaming Creatures,"
which somehow "goes too far."
Even the self-appointed guardians of
civil liberties have been-in popular terms
-"finking out." Prof. Abraham Kaplan of
the philosophy department took over the
chairmanship of the faculty's civil liber-
ties board by saying, "I don't want to
play chicken with our liberties."
To their credit, he and his colleagues
have raised money to help Cinema Guild
in its "Flaming Creatures" court case
and has told Cinema Guild officials that
they should have the freedom to show
"Blow Job" (which is about as obscene as
Whistler's Mother).
BUT THEY HAVE also told Cinema Guild
that, because of the intense reaction
to the proposed showing of "Blow Job"
has provoked in "the community" (cheap
alumni who use it as an excuse for not
giving money, and narrow puritans with
a cretinous appreciation of art), Cinema
Guild should not use its freedom to show
the movie. And Cinema Guild now fears
that if it does show the film the Univer-
sity will put it out of business.
To paraphrase Winston Churchill: Some
chicken, some liberties.
-MARK R. KILLINGSWORTH

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To the Editor:
AS SOMEONE who once worked
on The Daily, and a student
who relies on the paper as the only
source of campus news, I want to
express my disappointment at The
Daily staff's actions in its dispute
with the Board in Control of Stu-
dent Publications.
For many difficult years, Daily
editors insisted on the principle
that students and only students
had responsibility for what was put
into the paper, and for the ap-
pointment of each year's succeed-
ing senior staff. The technical le-
gal responsibility of the board in
both areas was regarded as a life-
less fiction without any importance
to those who actually ran the pa-
per.
This year's staff has surrender-
ed that principle, by agreeing to
publish their paper under super-
vision. They do not concede that
the board many censor them, and
they maintain that they still re-
tain the right to appoint succes-
sors. But the concessions they
made to the board, and reported
in the front page article on Thurs-
day, give the board a chance to
say that the student staff has ad-
mitted that the quality of The
Daily is a legitimate matter of
board concern; the staff has by
this action admitted that the
board's proper role is not to rub-
ber-stamp appointments and ig-
nore editorial content, but rather
to survey both.
In the future, if an appointments
crisis arises, students will be un-
able to claim that "it is not for
the board to decide who is ap-
pointed, or what is printed," since
the present surrender admits just
this.
MANY STUDENTS cared deeply
about these surrendered princi-
ples, and would have worked hard
to organize support for them, had
you, the editors, decided to fight
for them. Without you, the fight
could not be fought without you,
the fight was lost.
The story is sadder still because
The Daily staff was intent on view-

PhD Requirements
To the Editor:
RECENTLY the Graduate Stu-
dent Council conducted a "poll"
of graduate students' opinions
about Rackham language require-
ments for the PhD degree. The
methodology used in distributing
the questionnaire-and the ques-
tionnaire itself-were in my opin-
ion half-baked and provide a typi-
cal example of inadequate student
participation in the decision-mak-
ing process at this University. Of
the many grads that I contacted
personally about the "poll," none
knew about it until I mentioned it
to them.
Instead of the questionnaire try-
ing to find out what the blanket
PhD requirements in Rackham
should be, there was a clear pre-
sumption that some language re-
quirement "should be."
It would be interesting to have
The Daily present a thorough re-
port on this bit of inquiry by GSC
so that we may all under-
stand more about the deficiency
in research methodology which ex-
ists among our fellow grad stu-
dents, and perhaps among those
who advise them.
-George N. Vance, Jr., Grad
Indonesia
To the Editor:
PLEASE GET the facts right on
Indonesia.
Most of the country's 100 mil-
lion inhabitants may be subsist-
ence level farmers but they are
not "illiterate." The government
of Indonesia claims over 95 per
cent are literate. The most con-
servative UN studies indicate at
least 60 per cent are literate - a
figure much higher than that for
almost any other developing coun-
try, and indeed, not bad when com-
pared with many "developed"
countries.
Sukarno, though he has hurt they
country in many ways, gets the
credit for starting what can only
be called an unusually good educa-
tional system. He also gets credit
for unifying the country - nearly
everyone over the whole archi-

subsequently brought down one of
the Indonesian cabinets.
It is not correct to lump China,
Russia and the U.S. together as
if Indonesia owed vast sums to all
of them. Indonesia owes over a
billion dollars to Russia but less
than $30 million to the U.S. Indo-
nesia owes substantial sums to
Japan and many western European
countries, and again very little to
China. Indonesia has succeeded in
getting portions of this debt-par-
ticularly the debt to Russia - re-
scheduled.
WHAT MORE "radical shift" of
policies and views of the people
could have taken place than that
which followed the Sept. 30, 1965
coup? Is the slaughter of 250,000-,
500,000 Communist sympathizers
and the banning of all Communist
party activity not radical enough?
Instead of a radical shift, perhaps
more to the point is a period of
calm in which Indonesia, free of
the economy wrecking policies of
the Communists and having chan-
neled a large portion of defense
outlays into more productive work,
can resume building her society.
Considering Indonesia's human
and material resources, this pros-
pect, far from being hopeless, is
one of the most promising in the
area.
-Arthur S. Bechhoefer, Grad '67
(Formerly Training Officer,
U.S. AID Mission to Indonesia,
1962-65)
'Intellectual Life'
To the Editor:
ONE OF THE MOST warmly
greeted remarks made by Mal-
colm Boyd in his talk on the urban
ghetto (Feb. 19) blamed the uni-
versity for hot educating its stu-
dents for the kind of world they
will have to live in after gradua-
tion.
Because the charge re-emphasiz-
ed a theme which marked the visit
of Leslie Fiedler earlier in the se-
mester, a serious consideration of
what students may justly expect
from the university as regards the
"ralaan a ffair ari-ai i

tect and promote disciplined in-
quiry. To be most free, such in-
quiry should be independent and
self-justifying. A university should
be enough of an ivory tower that
a respect for the intellectual life is
nourished, and-it is to be hoped
-profoundly experienced by the
members of the community.
IF MY CONCEPTION is a valid
one, then the problem of "rele-
vant" education disappears. Boyd's
reiteration of a common complaint,
however, indicates dissatisfaction
with the detachment that is vital
to the university's unhampered
pursuit of its proper business. Bas-
ic acquaintance with the various
ways of thought in the natural
and social sciences and in the hu-
manities, coupled with thorough
study in a particular discipline, is
a process now found by some to be
inadequate to the times." But it is
a process which cannot be alien-
ated from real education.
What is apparently being de-
manded when the relevance of the
modern curriculum comes under
attack is topical education and,
disturbingly often, doctrinal edu-
cation. This is what the so-called
"free university" movement has
most conspicuously produced up to
now, all the while claiming to be
a refuge for the ideals of liberal
education supposedly sabotaged by
today's universities.
INSOFAR as the free.universities
and various forms of individual re-
bellion which fall short of orga-
nization are protests against the
hindrance of education to which
institutionalism often gives rise,
they are meaningfnul defenses of
a vital tradition. But insofar as
they distrust the impartiality and
firm autonomy of intellectual in-
quiry, and wish to make it serve
their own social and political pred-
ilections, they.are enemies of that
tradition.
Liberal education is not design-
ed to apply readily to an individ-
ual's life, throbbing with relevance
to every situation he may encoun-
ter. If we accept it on its own
terms.~ it provides a framework. a

director, Thomas Fox, is being
arbitrary and dictatorial in his
decisions on the dress regulations
for the students in the dorm.
Contrary to the slanted opinion
expressed in the letters column
on February 16, the rights of the
majority of the residents are not
being ignored. Dress regulations
are set by resident-elected repre-
sentatives and enforced, at the
council's request, by the quad ad-
ministration.
Eighty-three per cent of the
people who returned question-
naires on dress regulations fav-
ored changes-but only 43 per cent
of the residents of the entire resi-
dence hall were interested enough
in regulation change to return the
questionnaire - a questionnaire
written with an appeal to those
favoring easier regulations.
THE LETTER of February 16 la-
mented the "lack of cooperation
between students and administra-
tors." What lack of cooperation
exists in South Quad? The council
established a committee to write
and present to Mr. Fox a "blanket"
change in policy. He responded
with his reasons for not accepting
it. They were valid reasons deal-
ing with the fact that South Quad-
rangle is the showplace for visit-
ing dignitaries of the University
and the state-alumni, business-
men, legilsators who decide how
much money the University will
receive. Reasons dealing with the
fact that if there were students
who wanted more lenient dress
regulations, they could move to a
residency that doesn't shoulder
quite as much responsibility to the
University as South Quad.
COUNCIL then wrote an item-
by-item request for changes which
were partially accepted, with rea-
sons given for the parts that
were rejected. Mr. Fox also sug-
gested that each resident who felt
himself inconvenienced and un-
justly subjected to hardship might
speak out and allow his case to
be individually handled. This sug-
gestion , was accepted by South
Quad Council without dissent.

'Ii

on1ley: Defender of the Faith

OV. GEORGE ROMNEY admitted re-
cently that "I'm just a Republican and,
by golly, anyone who is a Republican is a
Republican, as far as I'M concerned."
By George, never let it be said that
Romney is a stupid man. In one appar-
ently simple statement, Romney has done
the impossible; he has defined the com-
plex nature of the Republican party. He.
has also effectively answered such critics
as "Tricky" Dick Nixon and Barry Gold-
water who have, upon occasion, hinted
that Lonesome George might not be

faithful to the Grand Old Party.
Now the - nation knows where Romney
stands. He has gone on record as stat-
ting that he is a Republican. Further-
more, he has hinted that there may be
more of them-"anyone who is a Repub-
lican is a Republican." Are they subver-
sive?
THE FEAT is almost, but not quite, as
spectacular as his immeasurable con-
tribution to the nation last year. At that
time he made the startling revelation that
". . . most people in the Communist party

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