100%

Scanned image of the page. Keyboard directions: use + to zoom in, - to zoom out, arrow keys to pan inside the viewer.

Page Options

Download this Issue

Share

Something wrong?

Something wrong with this page? Report problem.

Rights / Permissions

This collection, digitized in collaboration with the Michigan Daily and the Board for Student Publications, contains materials that are protected by copyright law. Access to these materials is provided for non-profit educational and research purposes. If you use an item from this collection, it is your responsibility to consider the work's copyright status and obtain any required permission.

May 19, 1965 - Image 2

Resource type:
Text
Publication:
Michigan Daily, 1965-05-19

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

Snevnty-FifthbYear
EDITED AND MANAGED BT STUDENTS OF THE UNIvERSITY OF MICHIGAN
UNDER AUTHOAITY OE BOARD IN CONTROL OF STUDENT PUMisicATIONs

NEW ISSUES, BETTER LEADERS
Future of U'

Activism Getting Bright'

Where Opinions Are Free. 420 MAYNAAD ST., ANN Amirot, MICH.
Truth Will Prevail

NEWs PHoNE: 764-0552

Editorials printed in The Michigan Daily ex press the individual opinions of staff writers
or the editors. This must be noted in all reprints.
WEDNESDAY, MAY 19, 1965 NIGHT EDITOR: MICHAEL BADAMO

Both Parents and Students
Indulge in Hypocrisy

SINCE LAST FALL'S student revolts at
Berkeley, American periodicals have
been gutted with articles attempting to
explain briefly the character of the Amer-
ican college student.
There are many books on the market
both on the student himself and educa-
tion in general. The topic is being debated
in all circles of society.
Unfortunately most writers and ob-
servers fail to see one important part of
the student character. The student is
emulating what he sees in the adult
world and his actions are basically no
different than those of the adults around
him.
HEN A CHILD is born his parents and
other adults immediately begin to
teach him how to cope with the world.
This process continues throughout the
first part of the child's life. The child's
teaching on matters of conduct and
morality in most cases conforms to a
rather rigid standards of ethics. The con-
flict occurs when the, child reaches the
age where he can see the difference be-
tween the "right" things his parents
taught him and the things his parents
do in real life.
This is not to say that all parents or
all adults are ultimately hypocritical;
but the overt teaching of one ideology
and the exemplary teaching of another
is the pervasive practice.
Ekamples of this practice are ram-
pant and obvious. The child is taught
from a very early age that violence is
basically evil When he gets older he may
get into trouble with the law over some
violent act he has committed.
HE THEN RECEIVES a stern lecture
from a public official concerning the
wrongness of violence-while on a hun-
dred battlefields men settle their differ-
ences through the most violent acts ever
conceived. Men die violently and kill
violently andthey are considered heroes.
Men are permitted to die enclosed in tiny
rooms filled with poisoned gas or strapped
into harden wooden chairs fitted with
electrodes-and the world applauds.
The child is taught honestly, and this
precept is violated in a thousands ways
from television quiz show fixing and
payola to the dishonesty of men high in
the federal government. Labor leaders,
judges, policemen, lawyers, doctors are
all exposed as having fished in the till
with sticky fingers.
In most cases the child is taught all
men are created equal. At the same time,
all over America, both North and South,
men are persecuted for their color or for
what they believe. What is a child to
think when he is taught that men are
the same no matter what their color and
then sees his father participate in a
demonstration to keep Negroes out of
* the neighborhood?
JUDITH WARREN......................Co-Editor
ROBERT HIPPLER.......................Co-Editor
EDWARD HERSTEIN.................Sports Editor
JUDITH FIELDS .................. Business Manager
JEFFREY LEEDS........ ...... Supplement Manager
NIGHT EDITORS: W. Rexford Benoit, Michael Ba-
damo, Robert Moore, Barbara Seyfried, Bruce Was-
serstein.
Second class postage paid at Ann Arbor, Mich.
Published daily Tuesday through Saturday morning.

It can be argued that all the exam-
ples listed represent a minority of Amer-
ican feelings. This may be so, but it is
impossible to determine. Whether it is 49
per cent or 81 per cent of the total popu-
lation who indulge in a hypocritical out-
look it usually looks like a round 100 to
the student.
HOW DOES ADULT hypocrisy relate to
the student? -
The student in attempting to follow
the teachings and example of his parents
must also develop a path of hypocrisy.
The student's hypocrisy lies in the sep-
aration of his academic self from his ex-
tracurricular life.
He knows that he must attend classes
and study the material required, but even
though he does, it is a dead thing. Ex-
cept in a very few instances all he learns
in class is something to be studied and
forgotten as soon as the final exam is
over. The student is bored, the subject is
boring, and worse, the instructor is bored.
Most students freely admit that little
is really learned in the classroom.
THE EXTRACURRICULAR facet of the
student is where most of his univer-
sity education -occurs. The university with
a reputation of scholastic excellence
gathers together on its campus a collec-
tion of highly motivated and intelligent
students.
Because classroom learning is often
useless the highly motivated and intelli-
gent student must look elsewhere for his
education. He turns to those who are
nearest to him, his fellow students. Ideas
are exchanged and educational pathways
explored. Learning is accomplished.
Many students find a cause which to
devote time and energy. They aret called
student activists and are looked down
upon by much of the adult population as
"rebels without a cause." But if it were
not for their cause, they would not be
heard.
STUDENT AND ADULT hypocrisies, even
though one is a direct outgrowth of
the other, are essentially different in
one aspect. The morality the revolting
student was taught when he was young-
er is his essential motivating force rather
than the false practical values of his par-
ents that he pays lip service to. In the
parent this is reversed. The parent follows
his false practical social values and
preaches but does not practice his nomin-
al moral code.
So-when a student protests discrimi-
nation or the war in Viet Nam on a picket
line he is expressing his true feelings,
and when he drags himself out of bed
in time for an eight o'clock lecture which
bores him to death he is acting the way
society tells him he must.
It is highly unlikely that the adults of
today can fully recognize their hypocrisy
and even more unlikely they will take any
steps to come to grips with it. Any hope
must lie with the students.
IF THEY ARE ABLE to retain their es-
sential moral character intact when
they emerge from the college scene it can
be possible for students, who will be
shaping the world of the future, to im-
plant their morality into the very foun-
dations of society.
-MICHAEL BADAMO

EDITOR'S NOTE: In today's ar-
ticle, the eleventh and last in a
series, Philip Sutin, Grad, concludes
his exploration of the course of stu-
dent activism on the Vnivorsity
campus since 1060.
By PHILIP SUTIN
IN 1961, THERE were massive
crusades to change the Office of
Student Affairs, to end fraternity
bias and to lift the ban on Com-
munist speakers here and else-
where.
Today, faculty and outside
sources stimulate student activism.
There is little interest in campus
issues. The great pressure of out-
side events is reflected in the local
teach-in and civil rights move-
ment.
Several factors have led to the
decline in local issue activism and
its resurgence on nationalissues.
The University environment has
significantly changed. The semes-
ter is faster paced with the intro-
ductiontof trimester. Academic
competition is rougher and an in-
creasing number of applicants
bombard the University for a
limited number of places.
UNDER greater time pressures,
students have become more con-
cerned about their academic work
and are reluctant to make great
time commitments to extra-cur-
ricular activities. This reluctance
is re-enforced by- the increasing
competition for their place in the
University.
Applications have shot up by
more than one third in the past
three years although there has
been a steady, but slower increase
in enrollment. A place in the
University is more valuable than
it was three years ago and more
students realize this.
Beyond these structural changes
in the academic environment,
there has been some discourage-
ment ofastudent participation in
activities, particularly- by honors
students.
This policy has put a crimp in
both the liberal activist movement
and student activities in general
as much of the student leadership
comes from these brighter stu-
dents.
The work of the honors program
also weakens participation as
much time is needed in prepar-
ing a senior thesis in most de-

partmental honors programs.
MOST OF the major campus
junior women may live in apart-
ments and are not subject to
hiurs. Underclass women's cur-
fews have been liberalized.
A measure of due process has
been introduced into the student
judiciary system. Reforms in
housing-such as co-ed housing
and the pilot project-have made
dorm life tolerable.
A Communist may now speak
in University facilities and the
University is encouraging the
sponsorship of controversial speak-
ers. Even student wages are
scheduled to be raised.
THUS MANY of the gut issues
that spurred agitation are gone.
They have been replaced by more
complex, less immediate ones. The
old devils which excited student
ire also are lacking.
The hated Miss Bacon was
forced out, taking most of her
equally disliked top assistants with
her. Lewis, once cast in an arch
villain's role, has lost this image
as the changes in the OSA pro-
gressed.
Lewis has retired. Students will
again hold their fire as they see
what kind of vice-president Rich-
ard Cutler will be. The OSA should
have at least one more year of
relative freedom from student
criticism.
THE NEW campus issues and
people are more complex and less
controversial. It is hard to get
angry about an overcrowded Uni-
versity unless one lives in the
dorms and his double is converted
into a tight triple.
There are too few students so
strikingly affected. Solutions to
problems of University size, qual-
ity of education, diversity of stu-
dent body are. complex and de-
batable. There is no simple answer
like firing Miss Bacon and ending
the totalitarian practices that
sparked the major issues of the
recent past.
' The small turnout at Hatcher's
convocation where the president
dealt with these new issues illu-
strates their emotional blandness
and their lack of popularity
a m o n g students and student
leaders.

-i

A LIBERALIZED DAILY and a phalanx of young, active and aware faculty members bodes well for the
future of student activism on the University campus. Even SGC, whose recent elections (above) have
been the most sparsely attended in history, shows signs of promise.

*,

THE AFFILIATE discrimina-
tion issue has become lost in a
legal morass that has dismayed
and bored activists. Bias clauses
are not important any more and
nobody is pushing hard for their
elimination. Even the drift of
Daily sentiment leans toward ac-
commodation with affiliates rath-
er than reform.
The issues which serve as mag-
nets to draw student activists and
followers have largely disappear-
ed. National and world issues-
particularly civil rights-are more
appealing. Dramatic and mean-
ingful student action in these
crusades makes the campus and
its politics look very petty.
The New York Times as early
as two and one-half yearseago
and as late as November, 1964,
has noted this. nationwide trend
from the campus. The trend is
quite evidentmatsthe University,
enhanced . by the presence of
national student leaders uninter-
ested in campus affairs here.
SINCE THE establishment of
the Social Action Center in 1962,
goals that the activists were
seeking in the early 1960's have
been reached. Dean Deborah Ba-
con and the dean of women's of-
fice are both gone. Senior and

most of the top leadership of
national SDS resided in Ann
Arbor. They have carried out.and
continue to conduct national stu-
dent action campaigns from Ann
Arbor.
These programs not only draw
students interested in these broad-
er projects, but divert talent from
local projects. Voice has been torn
and confused. Is it a key chapter
of SDS or is it a campus force?
Many see this institutional schizo-
phrenia that has plagued Voice
being resolved in favor of SDS
projects.
Voice has reduced participa-
tion in SGC while many of its
people have drifted into ERAP.
Its campus programs have stress-
ed national and international is-
sues-poverty, peace, Viet Nam,
for example. SAL, while sponsored
by Voice, drew leadership whose
primary allegiance was elsewhere,
particularly in SDS projects.
NEVERTHELESS, Voice, stress-
ing national-international issues,
has had one of its best years. It
sponsored Paul Goodman and
held education and action pro-
grams on a variety of issues.
Voice's institutional schizophre-
nia will be cured next fall. ERAP
is moving to Chicago this sum-
mer, taking most key SDS people
with it. For the first time since
1962, there will not be a strong
SDS presence here.
Students recruited into national
projects have little inclination for
campus affairs. The teach-in
movement working student mem-
bers have played only small
roles in campus affairs. The civil
righters who marched in Mont-
gomery did so at SNCC's urgent
request.
FURTHER, the spring saw a
great influx of important speak-
ers and ideas. The merged Union-
League University Activities Cen-
ter sponsored a high-quality lec-
ture series on poverty.
The revived Challenge's lecture
series on Communist China turn-
ed into an expert discussion on
Viet Nam-invaluable as the crisis
brewed.

Independently sponsored speak-
ers such as CORE's James Farmer
and Goodman added ideas to be
perculated.
With this great influx of ideas,
action was certain to come. The
pressure of events molded it into
civil rights and Viet Nam.
THUS THE FUTURE of student
activism looks moderately bright
as fall comes. Activism's two im-
portant legitimizing agencies, Stu-
dent Government Council and The
Daily, have a decidedly more lib-
eral hue than in recent years.
SGC again is passing off-cam-
pus opinion motions. It condemned
repression in Alabama and sup-
ported the SDS South Africa
protest. Council also sent $250 to
Montgomery when the University
group ran out of money because
of an unplanned extended stay.
The conservatism of the last
year's office has been replaced by
a radical-moderate tension on the
Daily.
HOPEFULLY, the younger fac-
ulty who launched the teach-in
movement will play an increas-
ing role in University political af-
fairs.
Professors such as Gamson,
Moskos and Marshal Sahlins make 4
fine and vital additions to the
roster of faculty politicians. But
their interest is largely in im-
portantsnational and internation-
al issues.
The civil rights and teach-in
activists show that it is possi-
ble to beat trimester. Unfortu-
nately, the people working hardest
on these movements are usually
those with the least to lose under
the calendar. The deadening
weight of the growing academic
pressure has only lifted slightly.
"I WOULD BE surprised if you ,
did not show deep concern about
your world," Hatcher told the con-
vocation on student activism and
responsibility. "Coupled with ener-
gy, I expect sensitivity, alertness
and deep concern from students."
The University's students should
fulfill the expectations of their
president in the near future.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR:
Explains ELI Rooming Policy

To the Editor:
YOUR ISSUE of Friday, May 14,
carried a front page story, and
an editorial on the subject of re-
lations between English Language
Institute students and American
students.
I hope you will be able to print
this letter, which reports our prog-
ress in this. matter, and corrects
slight inaccuracies in your story.
In the first place, it has never
been "ELI Policy" to segregate
ELI students from Americans: it
would be more accurate totsay
that our policy is to bring them
together as much as possible.
FOR PURELY practical reasons,
however, connected with the pres-
sure on the dormitories to accept
freshmen, it has been extremely
difficult to achieve the organiza-
tional flexibility which would en-
able ELI students (who arrive in
Ann Arbor six times per yearfor
8 or 15-week 'periods) to room
with Americans.
Secondly, the student petition
referred to in your article was
simply a confirmation of our own
belief that opportunities for con-
tact between ELI students and
Americans should be increased.
This problem has been under dis-
cussion at the English Language
Institute for some time, and, a
few days before the petition ar-
rived, three decisions had been
made by the ELI administration.
These were: 1) to discuss with
dormitory authorities the possibil-
ity of relaxing the restrictions on
room-changing to enable ELI stu-

dents to room with Americans,
2) to arrange a social gathering,
or "mixer" for each incoming
group of ELI students to meet
American dorm residents, house-
mothers, etc., 3) to request select-
ed student societies to invite ELI
students with relevant' interests to
their meetings.
THE FIRST TWO of these de-
cisions have already been imple-
mented. At the first "mixer" held
in East Quad on May 6 there were
35 ELI students, but only six or

seven Americans. This was no
doubt due to the small number of
Americans currently in residence
and, in view of the concern they
have expressed, we are hopeful
that there will be a larger at-
tendance of Americans in the fall.
We hope to implement the third
decision at the start of the next
Academic Year, when student so-
cieties have elected their officers
and are fully active.
-J. C. Catford
Director,
English Language Institute

WASHINGTON NOTES:
Teach-In Presented Unbalanced Panel

By HAROLD WOLMAN
Special To The Daily
WASHINGTON -Notes on the
national teach-in:
Despite the attempt to come up
with a balanced program of speak-
ers, many observers felt the morn-
ing session of the national teach-
in was lacking in just that re-
spect.
Prof. Hans Morgenthau, in for-
mer years a favorite target of the
peace groups because of his "a-
moral, realistic" approach to in-
ternational politics, castigated the
administration for its unrealistic
approach to the Viet Nam situa-
tion.

FEIFFER

However, no one criticized the
policy from a moral point of view,
nor was there a bona fide repre-
sentative of the more radical left
present.
ISAAC DEUTSCHER, a self-
proclaimed Marxist, was undoubt-
edly expected to fulfill both of
these roles, but his rambling ad-
dress hardly touched on Viet Nam.
In addition, his reliance on Marx-
ist ideology made him more cur-
ious than relevant.
The administration viewpoint
was, however, even less well rep-
resented. Arthur Schlesinger was
billed as the main defender of ad-
ministration policy, but if no one
is willing to defend the adminis-
tration policy more than the for-
mer Kennedy aide, then popular
support has indeed left President
Johnson.
Schlesinger criticized the ad-
ministration's reliance on military
rather than political means, voic-
ed disapproval of the air raids- on
North Viet Nam, and took the ad-
ministration to task for attempt-
ing to silence its critics.
THE FAILURE of McGeorge
Bundy to appear threw the Inter-
University Committee (the organ-
izers of the teach-in) into hours of
agonized indecision and confusion.
Two members of the committee
were informed by the White House
at 10 a.m. that Bundy would not
be able to appear.
However, for some reason, other
top leaders of the committee did
not learn of this decision until
after newsmen had already re-

thropology department announced
the decision at 5 p.m. at the close
of the afternoon session.
THE EVENING seminars and
the plenary session on policy al-
ternatives were generally the least
successful part of the program.
Seminar rooms were hot, partici-
pants and audience seemed tired,
and participants adhered only in
the loosest manner to their topics.
In the seminar on political
morality, pandemonium reigned as
participants enthusiastically de-
fended their values.
,An unexpected appearance by
Mrs. Fannie Lou Hamer of the
Mississippi Freedom Democratic
Party, accompanied by Washing-
ton friends of SNCC resulted in an
exhortatory lecture on the rela-
tionship of Viet Nam to the civil
rights problems in Mississippi.
AT THE plenary session few
serious policy alternatives were of-
fered (each speaker from the
audience was allowed three min-
utes to develop his solutions to the
world's problems). Instead audi-
ence participants used the time to
vent their emotions either in favor
of in opposition to administration
policy, though quite a bit more
of the latter than the former,
One girl from the Washington
Friends' Center called for the res-
ignation of Bundy, Rusk and Mc-
Namara because of "their un-
paralleled arrogance, stupidity and
incompetence.,
Several speakers also spent their
time praising the Teach-In and
those who organized it. Seymour

that small country must have
more bridges than any country in
the world.
Arthur Schlesinger then bright-
ened the crowd when he remarked,
"When I think about statements
such as those on the 'gullibility
of educated men,' I reflect on the
White Paper and the gullibility of
Secretaries of State." Schlesinger
also recounted a quip from one of
his friends who had told him,
"What this country needs more
than anything else is a good
night's sleep."
Horse Race
THERE ARE three U.S. groups
competing to run things in
Saigon. There is the State Depart-
ment, represented by Ambassador
Maxwell Taylor; the Pentagon,
represented by General Westmore-
land, and the CIA, the personal-
ity of whose representatives is less
well known.
Each of these have their own
policies; each have their own
favorite list of potential puppets.
The Ngo brothers placed their
hopes on the Pentagon--and end-
ed up in pools of blood, with the
State Department engineering
their downfall. The triumvirate
which succeeded the Ngos placed
their money on the State Depart-
ment-they did not last. The pen-
alty for putting one's money on
the wrong American horse is very
severe indeed.
THE INSUPERABLE difficulty

A
*

~1

/

To TK66
CgmjC(9-,; cF
OA ifHAV6C
A6MU

'''' --
E
{
j
,_

10
LEH H Rc
OF OVT-
NOR 'HRN
A&ITATOR5~
vITHOU1~TCHE-

- ~COTE T AW'~
pr~opW N$l
FRIEW. A
..1'1AQK YOU, M-

Back to Top

© 2024 Regents of the University of Michigan