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