Seventy-Sixth Year
EDITED AND MANAGED BY STUDENTS OF- THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
UNDER AUTHORITY OF BOARD N CONTROL OF STUDENT PUBLICATIONS
PERSPECTIVE SOn the Peasant Revolt
By HARVEY WASSERMAN
Where Opinions Are Free,
Truth Will Prevail
420 MAYNARD ST., ANN ARBOR, MICH.
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.
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 8, 1966
t
NIGHT EDITOR: MEREDITH EIKER
Editorials at Berkeley:*
Stupidity
WHAT HAPPENED yesterday? There
were the cops on campus again, and
there were arrests again, and there were
speeches again and there were mobs
again.
It was sickening, frightening, so utter-
ly stupid, so incredible. A picket of a
small table of three military officers re-
sulted in almost instant confrontation,
instant chaos, instant irrationality by ad-
ministrators, students, and non-students.
The administration should never have
called those clumsy cops on campus. The
administration should never have allowed
that Navy table down there. The admin-
istration should have granted amnesty
to those student demonstrators, and it still
should. But then, administrators have
never had any brains over and above how
to "run" this or "run" that, so whats to
be expected from such a bunch of machin-
ists.
WERE THE STUDENTS any brighter?
Did they attempt to set up an anti-
Navy table through any legitimate meth-
od? Did they attempt to get the Navy ta-
ble removed in any rational manner? Did
they realize, knowing how, stupid admin-
istrators are and how particularly dumb
our crop is, that there would be anything
other than arrests?
No. They picket, and when the table
isn't removed they sit in. Apparently rad-
icals are} simply incapable of acting in any
situation where there is not the imme-
diate gratification of confrontation. The
blood heats up at the sight of a cop. The
scene on Bancroft yesterday with a surg-
ing sea, a mob, of angry, booing, hating
people surrounding some of the most bru-
tal cops seems to show that things like
that are not settled until the Revolution.
There just seems no other way.
They've called for a strike-2000 stu-
dents voted overwhelmingly last night to
try to stop this University-as the man
once said, "stop the wheels," etc. They
want amnesty and much more: no no
doubt their demands are justified.
BUT IF THEIR DEMANDS are so justi-
fied and so well respected among the
students here, our stupid administration
should be allowed to have another chance.
The trouble is that nobody here is ever
given the benefit of the doubt: the ad-
ministration is forever screwing this let-
ter-writer or that public speaker. And by
now we all have learned never to trust
administrators because their minds work
in little, tiny ways.
Conciliatory as usual, we urge no strike
today. Earl F. Chit ought to be given to-
day to grant amnesty to all those students.
And he ought to tell Frank Coakley, the
county D.A., to drop charges against the
non-students arrested, there ought also to
be a hearing not only on the "facts" as
perceived by Messrs. Boyd, Savio, Rubin,
Cheit, et al, but a hearing on the issues.
The administration, as dumb and sin-
gle-minded as it is, osght to be given a
chance to see some light somewhere. The
faculty, which no doubt woke up this
morning to revolution over eggs, ought to,
be able to find out what happened - and
the rest of the students, the other 25,500
ought to be able to determine what hap-
pened.
rTHEN, AND THEN ONLY, should stu-
dents consider stopping the University.
Because if they plan to stop it and get
what they want, they may have to wait
longer than a one-day strike.
--From The Daily Californian
Thursday, December 1, 1966
'Strike -NLow'
YESTERDAY the Daily Californian ask-
ed students not to strike'and to give
the administration time to act without
the coercive aspects of the strike. All yes-
terday, as students struck and rallied, the
administration held meetings with facul-
ty members and some students in an ef-
fort to ascertain the facts.,
From 8 a.m., when the strike first went
into effect, until after midnight, there
was no word from the administration as
to what they planned to do. In fact, there
was no public word even that meetings
were being held and that some sort of de-
cision would be forthcoming.
Our patience with the administration is
at an end. In a situation where every day,
every hour adds to the tragedy of the sit-
uation, the administration has taken no
public action, has communicated to the
students not one word of what is being
done. In view of the administration's non-
action, we can see no alternative but to
support the strike.
THERE IS QUESTION raised of the pos-
sible effectiveness of the strike. But at
this point in the conflict, there is little
hope remaining that the administration
will respond to anything but pressure on
the part of a united student body. United,
not in the entire scope of the demands,
but in the belief that the administration
has fostered an intolerable situation and
that it is up to the administration to make
some concrete move to alleviate that sit-
uation.
-From The Daily Californian
Friday, December 2, 1966
UNIVERSITIES were set apart
-from society for a purpose.
They were meant to allow a
place where men could think and
talk independent of social press-
ures and biases. New perspectives
were to arise in such a situation.
Men could observe society from
the outside, as is necessary to truly
study it, and could provide fresh
ideas on how it to improve it.
American society, however, is
powerful, unusually too powerful
for its universities. The national
media is omnipresent; the powers
of the federal government are un-
deniable.
BUT THE TRULY great univer-
sities, Michigan among them,
have maintained much of their
isolation. They have maintained
an attraction for great minds and
have provided an atmosphere of
independent research, individually-
determined teaching methods, free
intellectual interaction.
As a result, these universities
have been able to define their so-
cial utilty in the highest of terms
original thought. Every institution
even in our present American so-
ciety, from Madison Avenue to the
monster in Washington, pays most
for the man with the new idea.
When a university stops producing
men with the capacity for that,
then its social utility is ended.
BUT THE POWERS of this uni-
versity have structured their jobs
so that the form and not the sub-
stance of the investment in stu-
dents and in "the institution" is
defended first.
Thus an interest in autonomy
deemed that the University would
challenge a public law on rec-
ognizing labor unions, and on
authority over building expansion.
But the defiance of social dictum
stopped there. The HUAC sub-
poena was made a private matter,
complied with without much ques-
tion. The use of the University
structure by the Selective Service
System was again hashed out in
private and a wholly legal alter-
native course of action was neither
chosen nor opened to the campus
for discussion.
Thus McCarthy was served here.
Thus HUAC was served here. Thus
the Selective Service System is
being served here.
But how has the student body
been served? In a rare upsurge of
interest and discontent the stu-
dent body of this University reg-
istered a vote on a University pol-
icy, and spent a considerable
amount of time and effort working
in a "movement."
THE UNIVERSITY President
and at least two of the Regents
found themselves willing to insult
that student body by implying re-
peatedly and openly that activities
here are in some way connected
with "national SDS."
"There is no conspiracy," Pres-
ident Hatcher has said, but by
mentioning such a "pattern" he
has deliberately impugned SDS
members both here and at other
campuses as having some type of
motives alien to the well-being of
the University, and has as much
as told non-SDS participants that
they are "dupes."
And thus predictably, the ad-
ministration has not even been
willing to take seriously a very
real criticism of the method in
which this University is run.
AMERICAN universities are
highly centralized institutions. The
President of this University has
immense powers over student life,
over the jobs of the faculty, and
over the day-by-day orientation
and tone of University affairs.
What students ask is a decen-
tralization of that power. Has any-
one from the administration both-
ered to offer a point-by-point de-
nial on the basis of what would be
substantively different were their
powers decentralized?
No.
4,000 students had to attend a
teach-in and threaten a sit-in be-
fore the President would even
agree to set up a committee to
study the issues.
THAT TYPE of inaction, in
many ways determined by Regent-
al pressure, is the most disturbing
fact of this semester. The status
quo has been given more than the
force of inertia; authority has
been defined as legitimacy. The'
challenge to that authority is call-
ed ilegitimate, whereas in a uni-
versity challenge and open-minded
acceptance must be the rule.
Thus while President Johnson
can equate dissent with cowardice,
President Hatcher can refuse to
accept dissent in good faith and
can work to stave if off regardless
of its value.
And Faculty opinion is treated in
the same light: "The Knauss re-
port? But that was a faculty re-
port: the administration didn't
have anything to do with it."
I HAVE BEEN deeply depressed
by the inability of the Regents and
administrators of this University
to realize that power in one's own
hands is not by definition good,
and does not necessarily "serve the
interest of the people of the state":
that limitation of freedom of
speech and the maltreatment of
an obviously well-meaning student
movement exact a far greater price
on a university than a loss of rap-
port with conservative elements of
society, whose perceptions are of
a situation that the Regents and
the President have considerable
power to define in the first place:
and that true quiet is meaningful
only when the general public is
made to understand why things
like HUAC subpoenas have to be
resisted.
"The courage to serve" means
the courage to lead, in every way.
The University of Michigan has
been a leader. Where are the Uni-
versity of Michigan's leaders?
Letters: Eckstein Criticizes Daily Editorial
To the Editor:
I AM WRITING to correct some
misconceptions and inaccura-
cies in your editorial of Decem-
ber 7, appearing under the signa-
ture of Miss Wolter.
The Literary College faculty did
not vote on December 5 on the is-
sue of class rankings. It will have
an opportunity to vote on this is-
sue at its special meeting on De-
cember 12.
The central issue before us on
December 5 was whether a pass-
fail option should or could be sub-
stituted for a letter grade, since
several faculty members felt that
as a matter of conscience they
could not submit grades if such
grades were to be used for class
ranking.
IT SEEMED to me that the
grading system was instituted for
educational purposes many dec-
ades ago, long before we had Se-
lective Service, student deferments
and class ranking. Thus grades
have always served a multiplicity
of purposes such as testing a stu-
dent's educational progress, serv-
ing as a basis for admission to
graduate school, as a basis 4 for
awarding fellowships, etc.
Class rankings on the other hand
were introduced only recently and
they do not serve any visible edu-
cational ends. Consequently a very
strong case can be made for
abolishing class ranking without
tampering with the grading sys-
tem which serves many other pur-
poses beside class ranking.
I am of course aware of the fact
that the grading system itself may
have shortcomings from an edu-
cational point of view but that has
to be then attacked in terms of
the educational issues involved.
Finally on the issue of con-
science. I did indeed consider it
a "dangerous precedent" butnot
for the reasons indicated by Miss
Wolter. I presented the following
hypothetical example: suppose that
I were an anti-Communist who as
a matter of deepest and most sin-
cere conviction considered any
Communist a danger to the social
and academic order; furthermore,
suppose that we had a federal gov-
ernment fellowship program; eligi-
bility in this fellowship program
required class ranking, which in
turn was based on grades.
Therefore, as a matter of con-
science I would be compelled to
deny grades to all students in my
class who were known to me to be
Communists.
THE POINT here really is that
we must respect a person's right
to conscientious objection, but we
as a society and an academic com-
munity are duty-bound to define
the criteria and rules in terms of
which this right can be exercised.
Otherwise this right can be
abused and used for ends which
would undermine academic free-
dom and the integrity of the Uni-
versity and of a free society.
-Alexander Eckstein
Professor of Economics
The Faculty
To the Editor:
THE LSA FACULTY'S over-
whelming rejection of a sirmall
minority's plea to be allowed to
respond to their conscientious
leading by grading similarly
scrupled students on a Pass/Fail
basis was sad to see.
I am not a member of that min-
ority, but it ill becomes the fac-
ulty of a liberal arts college to
treat anyone so illiberally. One
mark of the greatness of the
United States is its respect for
the right of conscientious objec-
tion to military conscription. The
faculty this week missed a sig-
nificent opportunity to extend that
principle to their own colleagues.
In so doing, they have placed a
heavy responsibiilty on the Uni-
versity administration to deal sen-
sitively with the dissident faculty
members, unsupported by their
peers. We cannot afford to lose
them.
Robert O. Blood, Jr.
Chi Phi
To the Editor:
AS PRESIDENT of Chi Phi Fra-
ternity I wish to take issue with
the letter which appeared in yes-
terday's Daily written by Frank
Miller.
It should be made clear at the
outset that Mr. Miller does not
speak for Chi Phi. Mr. Miller is
a "fifth-year" senior living cut-
side the house and thus not inti-
niately connected with the house.
Because he has not resided in
the house for the last three years,
he is unfamiliar with present
house policies. It should be re-
membered that Mr. Miller went
through Hell Week four years ago
and the practices referred to in
his letter regard his Hell Week.
While admittedly these unfortu-
nate practices have occurred in the
past, steps have been taken since
Mr. Miller's day to rectify the
situation. Practices so deeply em-
bedded in tradition are difficult
to change rapidly.
WE REALIZE that the current
feehng of the fraternity system
is opposed to these archaic activi-
ties, and have attempted to keep
ourselves in accord with this feel-
ing. Unfortunately, given the na-
ture of politics within a fraternity
house, changes are difficult and
painstaking to affect. Many of the
older men associated with our
house still remember the days of
paddling.
Currently our Hell Week Revi-
sion Committee has proposed the
most radical changes to date in
our pledging activities, bringing us
into accord with IFC policy. These
proposals were adopted with un-
animity and before the current
controversy arose.
We do not believe that we are
exempt from criticism, but never-
theless we feel we are making
progress in the right direction.
-Rod Waage, President
Chi Phi
Honoraries
To the Editor :
I N LIGHTrof the unfortunate
publicity the entire fraternity
system is receiving by the revela-
tion that outmoded and brutal
hazing techniques are still being
practiced by some of the Michi-
gan fraternities, it seems remark-
able to me that similar treatment
can be given-in public-to ini-
tiates of Michigan's honoraries
(Druids, Sphinx, Michigamua, etc.)
without similar repercussions and
action by responsible regulatory
bodies
I fail to understand why when
such behavior is manifested by
fraternities it is considered rep-
resentative of the immature and
archaic aspects of the system, and
when it is carried out in public by
the honoraries, so that the entire
student body can find amusement
by watching the initiates grovel in
muddy slime, it ismconsidered
merely a mild discomfort to be
suffered by those who would be
honored as Michigan's finest rep-
resentatives.
Why is it atrocious when the
Greeks do it, and amusing when
the University-sanctioned honor-
aries do it?
IN MY OPINION, the dousing
of half-naked initiates with paint,
in weather entirely too cold for
such attire, creates just as much
public disfavor as does the discov-
cry that Chi Phi is breaking IFC
bylaws; hazing is equally as out-
moded for university organizations
as it is for fraternities.
For the University to condone
such public displays of hazing
while self -righteously damning
fraternities for doing it privately
seems clearly hypocritical, and I
would advocate that the investiga-
tion into fraternity pledging and
initiation practices be extended to
the equally degrading public dis-
plays by the honoraries.
-Doug Richardson
President, Psi Upsilon
In or O.ut?
To the Editor:
FROM THE TONE of Mr. Mil-
ler's letter to The Daily (De-
cember 7), it seems obvious that
it is easier to put one's head into
a toilet than to take it out.
We remain high and dry,
--John Stewart, '68Et
-Kurt Emerson, '68
-Stuart Williams, '68
-Bob Ross, '68
Prostitution
To the Editor:
RECENTLY I READ of Defense
Department recommendations
which urged the University to "in-
form the public that all students
with basic, average ability are wel-
come and can be successful."
I understand that The Daily
carried this report in ' full; and
I hope that it pounced full upon
ihe shocking inconsistency of the
above quotation with the report as
a whole.
There is surely a difference be-
tween making the University avail-
able to highly-qualified students
without regard to race (with con-
cessions to promising Negroes
whose secondary schools were in-
adequate) and prostituting it to
the genuinely mediocre, of any
race.
WOULD the Defense Depart-
ment join those outraged Michi-
gan citizens whose B- average
(well, maybe C plus) youngsters
have been spurned by the Univer-
sity, in their effort to tear away
the last poor shreds of intellectual
rigor which distinguish this school
from any other Big Ten school,
and so the state of Michigan from
any other Midwestern state?
After all, is it so terribly unde-
sirable to be thought of as a
"large academic university?"
-Robert M. Simms, Alum
.,.Reform!
To the Editor:
THIS IS AN emotional appeal to
reason, a thought on the busi-
ness of ranking: I came to this
University, obviously, to "become
educated," and hopefully to en-
joy it along the way. That's an
important word-enjoy; I think
we all lose sight of it at times. I
DID NOT come here thinking that
I would have to pander to the
interests of an archaic and asin-
ine system which demands that I
grub for grades and engage in
meaningless competition with 30,-
000 other individuals. Therefore,
reformii!
. -Rod Pratt, '68
Quality?
To the Editor:
ARE WE, at the University, get-
ting the quality of education
we should be with teaching fel-
lows? I don't think so.
During a student's freshman year
at college, he is building a foun-
dation for the coming years in
school. He needs to build a solid
foundation, and this is accom-
plished by having, for one thing,
the best possible teachers avail-
able.
When I first began attending
classes at the University of Mich-
igan, I was shocked to find that
fellow students were teaching some
of the courses I was taking. These
"teaching fellows," as they are
called, did not impress me too
mu'ch.
I HAD A TALK with each of my
teaching fellows and I found that
among them was one who was
teaching for the extra money, an-
other had been artfully prompted
into teaching by his department
who claimed he would benefit
greatly from this experience of
teaching, and another was teach-
ing because this was a prerequi-
site to getting his PhD.
None of these men I have men-
tioned expressed a desire to be-
come a teacher in the future. A
good teacher is one ,who wants
to teach, who enjoys teaching, and
who will put forth every effort he
can to make the subject interest-
ing as well as informative.
Having teaching fellows who,
for the most part, do not want
to make teaching their vocation,
will not give us the quality of in-
struction we have a right to.
THE DEAN of the Engineering
College told me that one reason
for having teaching fellows is that
their presence gives our professors
time for research, Isn't the main
objective of our university educa-
tion and not research?
Well then, why is our univer-
sity so concerned with research?
We should be more concerned with
providing our students with cap-
able teachers.
A school is as good as its
teachers, and with our teaching
fellows, our school's rating will
surely suffer, but more Important
we-the students-will suffer.
-Robert L. Georgia, '70E
At
.4
.'.. r." 9S"x"Y" "5S7.o'^ .J s 1- " "~: .:1: "a :" rrn :.v:
rr. .?Ii:" vJ
. } . rJ":":4 . .r ls:o . r'x. r.. :":ti':
f' :" 1
" 1 "}:4{'w .SYri1.1 :M11..N Y+SR' .. lwS1.. J.x .+': J "!r.'G'r..f. A! }'! ":: i.1 ........... h. .4:":::::''.'i"?:"::":ti"::"::E" ................h.............1....:........... r.^..: Y. r,4,.......... s....
The National Plot:
IlreamlWas a .. .
A FAVORITE administrator of mine told
me today that he had a disturbing
dream last night. He woke up in a cold
sweat.
The dream started with the usual lohl-
pops and sesqui-cakes. But then came a
terrifying rumble, and sounds of mortar
fire from the Diag.
He saw the mob from the window. Hun-
dreds of them. Those bearded rebels,
sneaking behind trees, making their way
to Angell Hall.
He ran back to his desk and pulled out
his trusty Minuteman rifle-just as the
manual instructed.
"SDS has undermined student morale
with their ideas of democracy and stu-
dent participation. Those pinkoes have
infiltrated the University and subverted
a peaceful campus. What was even worse,
they've dumped Hatcher's tea in the Un-
ion pool."
THE STUDENTS closed in. They pushed
through the lobby of Angell Hall and
liberated the LS&A faculty.
"Those ideas to let junior women live
off campus are the first steps to shocking
Immoralities. Their call for more freedom
in their living quarters is an effort to
subvert their pure little minds. Their re-
quest for a University Bookstore is part
of their direct attack on capitalism.
"We should have, never allowed the
teaching of radical courses. Never should
have taught Locke and Jefferson. They've
led our students astray. Ideas do that."
NOW THE REBELE had taken over WC-
BN, and were urging the students to
unite. But my friend and his fellow ad-
ministrators weren't about to give up. "To
the basement fallout shelter," was the
cry.
iWth provisions for 15 weeks-the revo-
lution had to fizzle by finals-they would
plot the counter-revolution and rid the
campus of the dreaded Blue Menace.
At this time my friend woke up. We
both laughed over the absurdity of his
dream.
Some people are still dreaming.
-RONALD KLEMPNER
Solution.
IT SEEMS EVERYBODY is out to draft
us.
This time it was Senator Edward Ken-
nedy who, in a statement declaring the
draft inequitable, proposed to solve the
problem by including everyone-men and
women-in the draft. If you can't solve a
In a Nutshell By BETSY COHN
)v~v
/C
k~d I.
6~~
IN SPITE .of the fact that I had
stuck my head in the stove
and made ashes of my bangs two
days before, I decided that aside
from everything, I was going to
be thankful and grateful this past
Thanksgiving.
Oh how I tried! All morning I
hummed tunesabout cranberry
sauce, wore my favorite shoes,
reminisced about the joys of my
youth, thought affectionately
about my parents, reverently
about my grandmother and exub-
erantly acknowledged the presence
of young turkey and sweet pota-
toes.
It was pleasant after all; Santa
made his usual migration from the
storage room of Macy's to ac-
knowledge the end of the Thanks-
srvnnvn±,4.n ' .r..H .n nd h nfi, i
Upon arriving at the top of the
remaining stairs, my light heart
was suddenly inebriated with glee
as I opened the front door and
found the refrigerator lying prone
at my feet. It looked as though
a divine holocaust had just been
sneezed into my home . . . but I
was still thankful, at least I had
my health.
Ethel,. my jovial and heroic
roommate, emerged boldly from
the closet; her hair wildly try-
ing to escape from her head. She
had two pair of leather gloves on
her hands, gripping a curtain rod
with savage intensity. "MICE,"
she roared, then hured herself
back into the tangled heap of
shoes and hangers.
periment conducted by my enter-
prising roommate, Beth.
She had spent the past few
months in maternal bliss, feeding
her "babies" formula from plastic
doll's bottles, humming "Mickey
Mouse hymns" to them at night
and calling them each by name,
during the day. Fifteen mice had
been quartered in cardboard boxes
scattered throughout the house...
they were her children and now
they had fled.
BUT AS FOR ME, I was tired of
playing mouse and decided to rent
a cat for the day. 'Mrs. Emson
. . Human Society," (her voice
had a familiar squeal to it), she
whinnied about protecting her ani-
mals, then slammed the phone
down in my ear.
A