Seventy-seven years of editorial freedom
Edited and managed by students of the University of Michigan
under authority of Board in Control of Student Publications

Why school boards don't learn


420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor, Mich.

News Phone: 764-05521

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

FRIDAY, MAY 24, 1968

NIGHT EDITOR: DAVID MANN

The out-of-state problem:
New solutions for old realities'

WET FALL it will probably cost out-
of state students $1500 a year in tui-
tion to attend the University. Just three
short years ago when many of these stu-
dents were freshmen, the charge was
$900. A typical example of the rising cost
of education? Hardly.
The particular set of ' circumstances
which forced the University to raise tui-
tion 70 per cent in three years are nearly
unique. And because there are few prece-
dents no easy solutions are apparent.
The University is among a select few
of the nation's top state institutions
whigh have fallen into legislative dis-
favor. The high percentage of out-of-
state students here has been one of the
prime factors in the University's appro-
priations problems.
WHILE the University has faced a con-
servative and backward state Legis-
lature in recent years, attempts to solve
the appropriation dilemma have totally
lacked imagination. The same old argu-
ments\ and pleas fail again each year to
convince the Legislature that out-of-
state students should not be charged the
overwhelming share of the University's
cost in educating them.
Michigan State University, however,
has adopted a novel plan which providesw
for a graduated tuition based on the
income of a student's parents. The prin-
A bum rap
HERE IS a network of laws in the
United States which take a great deal
of effort to avoid breaking. Fortunately,
law enforcement officials use their
judgment in making arrests.
For example, two weeks ago when a
policeman found one Daily reporter hid-
ing under a bush in front of the SAB at
4 a.m., he could have arrested .him for
suspicious loitering. But after the re-
porter explained he was merely playing
hide-n-seek with several other reporters,
the policeman decided to forget the in-
cident.
Sometimes, of course, officials decide
the individual taken into custody is the
sort of person who should be arrested
anyway.
For example, H. Rap Brown was con-
victed Wednesday of breaking the Na-
tional Firearms Act by carrying an M-1
carbine across state lines after being in-
dicted for arson in a Maryland court two
days before (had he not been under in-
dictment, no crime would have been
committed under the law.)

ciple of the graduated tuition is entirely
consistent with the University's stated
goal of providing equal opportunity to
all students, but one wonders if the Re-
gents have even considered it. Applied
to out-of-state students it might provide
a viable alternative to ever-rising tuition
rates.
One thing, however, is clear - the
present tuition level has reached the
saturation point. Further increases be-
yond the $1500 per year level would put
the University out of competition for the
academically (but not necessarily finan-
cially) top out-of-state students. It is
also clear that large numbers of out-of-
state students might be forced to leave
the University for, solely financial
reasons.
But if the Legislature continues to de-
mand that non-resident students pay 75
per cent of the University's cost in edu-
cating them, "out-of-state tuition will
just keep going up," explains President
Fleming.
Must out-of-state tuition then "just
keep going up?" Not if the University is
flexible enough to seek new alternatives
to 'this old problem.
The graduated tuition and other new
approaches must be explored if the Uni-
versity is to keep its reputation as a
quality educational institution.
-STEVE NISSEN
for Brown
This would not be such a good example
except for the fact that Maryland offi-
cials had not informed Brown of his in-
dictment until after his arrest under
the firearms act.
So to prove Brown must have been
aware of the indictment, the prosecu-
tion was forced to bring 35 witnesses to
the stand who told of the widespread
coverage given the indictment by radio,
television and the press.
This testimony was apparently enough
to convince the jury "beyond a reason-
able doubt" that Brown must have been
aware of his indictment. Now he will
have to serve a five year prison term for
not reading the newspaper.
So, in America, it helps to have the
police on your side. And it helps to re-
main a "little man." Don't buck the
system. By all means, keep your name
out of the newspapers. And say a prayer
to the federal government every night
before you go to sleep.
-MARTIN HIRSCHMAN

By ANN MUNSTER
T TE ANN ARBOR school sys-
tem seems to be rapidly losing
ground 'in its battle against the
horde of problems which increas-
ingly beset it.
Not very long ago, it was almost
universally recognized as one of
the finest school systens in the
nation. It had the most beautiful
and spacious buildings, replete
with the latest gadgetry. And it
seemed to offer every conceivable
program, teaching a multitude of
skills and imparting sophisticated
knowledge. It was the envy of al-
most every school system in the
country.
Even now it is more conspicious
than many other systems; con-
spicuous, unfortunately, for its
helplessness. For it appears unable
to deal with the severe under-
mining of its major source of in-
come-the revenue from local
property taxes-with the discour-
aginglerosion of public confidence
in the schools and the growing
despair of bringing the education-
al system into line with the needs
of young people.
And the welter of confusion
emanating from the loud but far
from clear demands of the grow-
ing and increasingly insistent ele-
ments of the community whose
needs aren't remotely being met
by the existing system has yet to
elicit any intelligent response.
ANN ARBOR, which could once
honestly boast of a curriculum
that was far less rigidand irre-
levant to the needs and interests
of its student than other systems,
has not kept up the pace of its
earlier zeal to excel or fulfilled the
promises held out by its earlier
achievements.
It eliminated, earlier than many
other schools the practice of re-
quiring a number of subjects for
all students which were only per-
tinent to the educational plans
of some. It instituted, fairly early,
college level courses for students
with the capability and interest
to take them.
But it has been incredibly slow
to recognize that those students
who do not indicate that they plan
to go on to college or have other
specific vocational plans, will not
be satisfied with watered down
versions of some of the subjects
taught to other students. Nor does
it appear competent to deal with
the fact that college-bound stu-
dents have interests which range
beyond the traditional curriculum
set out for them, and could con-
ceivably participate more in the
formulation of the courses which
they study.
The seething unrest in the stu-
dent body, ignored as long as it
possibly could be, eventually
brought the hiring of a police-
counselor to preserve a minimum

of tranquility on the high school
campus. When this gesture of re-
pression met with enough public
disapproval, a human relations
director was hired to improve the
"rapport." We can only hope he
does something more about the
polarization of students in school
along class and racial lines than
similar institutions have accom-
plished combatting the same
problem in the larger society.
THE SOURCE of most of the
school system's problem is the'pre-
vailing notion that the school sys-
tem provides a service which the
community can passively expect to
be performed. The voters do not
see that a periodic vote of con-
fidence will not suffice to keep the
system functioning effectively,
and that members of the com-

steadfast opposition to increasing
local property taxes, because they,
comprise the one remaining fiscal
area which the voters can still
effectively balk.
But the annual campaign to ex-
tract a minimum of financial sup-
port for the school system from
the weary taxpayers has tended to
divide the community into two
frightfully hostile camps.
The winning side is generally
composed of those who promise
to exert some control over the
wanton spending of the school
board and who voice vigorous
opposition to a millage levy which
they are convinced is staggering
and shamefully unnecessary.
The losers have traditionally
been those well-meaning but al-
most equally shortsighted souls
who halfheartedly attempt to rea-

school system cannot cover the
wounds forever and fre(,,ently
creates complications.
Some of. the techniques which
the school system has devised for
coping with such crying needs as
busing children from low income
areas to schools in higher income
areas, have been positively devious
and awkward, and have so far
aroused more discontent than
they have alleviated.
THE PROPONENTS of iricreas-
ed millage proposals, who are es-
sentially products of an affluent
society, unable to acomprehend
shortages of funds are closing
their eyes to the implications of
the underlying principles of that
educational system which they are
so desperately trying to save. This,
will not accomplish,. those con-

..,.,.Y...:.., ..:}:::.:": J: " ,,^::. r. ..fi....... ..... . ." : <:%:r:0. . . . ...-." .
... it has been incredibly slow to recognize that those students who
do not indicate that they plan to go on to college or have other specific
vocational plans, will not be satisfied with watered down versions of
some of the subjects taught to other students. Nor does it appear com-
petent to deal with the fact that college-bound students have interests
which range beyond the traditional curriculum set out for them
: Y rY : v": "..:. . : v "w":" :111 "r "r:.w: m : ". ... ":r.: .: .: : ". r,.:r "r : : m.

munity must be integral partici-
pants in the educational process
if it is not to disintegrate into a
bumbling and oppressive bureau-
cracy.
As it stands, every spring-while
teachers and parents as well as
students are looking forward with
eager anticipation to a respite
from the pressures of the school
term-voters are plagued with a
whole complex of decisions. They
are called upon to determine in
one dramatic referendum the di-
rection the school system will fol-
low for the next fiscal years.
The isues hanging in the bal-
ance frequently range from the
selection of new trustees, who will
make major policy decisions for
the school system, to the decision
to levy taxes for millage and
bonding proposals which will pro-
vide funds for the school's opera-
tion and for construction of new
physical facilities.
The entire system seems cal-
culated to let the taxpayers ac-
cumulate all of their multi-caused
discontent with the school system
and express it in one emphatic
electoral veto.
THE ISSUE of the millage of
course runs deeper than a symp-
tom of dissatisfaction with the
board and the school system. The
burdens of increasing federal and
state taxes and the generally high
cost-of-living are reflected across
the nation in the widespread and

son with the unwilling taxpayers,
plead for their mercy, cross their
fingers, and make futile attempts
to muddleathrough. They invari-
ably get and spend when they
can, giving little more thought to
the long range needs of the
schools than their more tough-
minded adversaries.
Rarely have they significantly
displayed more creativity and in-
sight in producing a thorough-
going analysis of the school sys-
tem's priorities, in understanding
the more deeprooted needs of the
students, and in perceiving the
uselessness or shortsightedness of
many of its expenditures.
TO DATE there has only been
a whimpering recognition' from
the supposedly progressive seg-
ments of the community that the
existing system cannot cope with
the multifarious economic and so-
cial complications which it con-
tinues to produce.
Instead of openly grappling with
the deeprooted educational issues
and fundamental human problems
of the community, remedies have
been applied which assume that
these admittedly awesome prob-
lems cannot ever be eradicated,
but must be eternally controlled
An example of this is the creation
of an elective course in Negro his-
tory separate from the regular
course in American history. This
type of first aid method of treat-
ing the serious ailments of the

structive ends which they can
only vaguely sense and which
their excessive concentration on
the millage issue may ultimately
undermine.
The prosperity of days gone by,
when we could at least financially
afford aimless stopgap measures,
will no longer allow us to repress
deepseated problems of our edu-
cational system andof the social
system which it buttresses. Per-
haps there is a greater benefit to
be derived from the departure of
a portion of our material resources
if the loss stimulates a thorough
reexamination of our priorities.
For the long neglect of this task
is primarily what allowed such
awesome problems to accumulate
beneath the surface, till they are
now near the boiling point.
THE SOCIAL injustices, the
failures of a system tailored to suit
the needs of a school population
comprised of the children of Uni-
versity of Michigan personnel, to-
ward its minority students, can'
no longer be masked by achieve-
ments of the majority.
One ,candidate for school board
addresses himself to his glaring
dilemma by pointing out hope-
fully, "There is a wide open field
out there. Why do we have to,
push everyone into college? That's
the trouble with this board."
But a mere awareness of the
inapplicability of the goals of the
majority of students to the total

population, although this would
be a vital starting point is not suf-
ficient to instigate the sweeping
reforms which are needed. An an-
swer to the question "what do you
people want?" from the down-
trodden minority must be obtained
and employed to revamp the ed-
ucational system. And this will
not come unless this group is given
a voice in the determination of its
destiny.
The candidates in this June's
school election, perhaps more than
ever before, are men and women
of good will. Those of a less bene-
volent frame of mind gave up the
school in despair after the last
election. But they are not for the
most part a significant improve-
ment in terms of intellectual pow-
er and creativity than some of the
irate citizens who have previously
sought to gain control of the
school system.
They are more or less stymied
by the complexity and implica-
tions of the issues with which they
are dealing. And they are awe-
struck by the inadequacy of the
financial resources available for
coping with them.
THEIR IMPOTENCE, like that
of both their penny-pinching con-
servatives and crying liberal pred-
ecessors to deal with the school's
problems is symptomatic of a per-
vasive social malaise. One of the
most dangerous manifestations of
this is the utter dirth of creative
visions of the future and of clear-
sighted and far-reaching ap-
proaches to problems generally.
The current assumption seems
to be that we have been thrown
into the worst of all possible
worlds, one not to be changed in
any fundamental way, one in
which we can only feebly hope to
carry on some sort of wishy-washy
holding operation, or resort to
neurotic and intellectually sterile
panaceas.
One of the main problems, par-
ticularly in the Ann Arbor school
system, is that the voters fail to
appreciate the role of broad cre-
ative visions in effecting signi-
ficant change. The course of his-
tory is mapped out, at least to
some extent by images of the fu-
ture, interacting in complicated
and mysterious ways with social
forces, whenever these images are
strongly radiating and resonant
in substantial segments of society.
ciety.'
THE JUNE 1O school board
election in Ann Arbor ought to be
a refreshingly significant one be-
cause an alternative is finally
being offered to the dreary ex-
changes between outraged con-
servatives and whiny liberals,
which have been monotonously
repeated each year.
TOMORROW;
Two Candidates

h

'V

All the king's men in a Southern town

The Mcuarthy dilemma

AS THE RACE for the Democratic
presidential nomination emerges from
the back stretch, and the running begins
to get dirty, Sen. Eugene McCarthy has
ahead of him a course littered with para-
doxical challenges. For if the challenger
from Minnesota now tries to capture the
lead by injuring Sen. Kennedy, he risks
squandering his own strength - with
disqualification the certain result.
The heart of McCarthy's appeal is the
conviction he has so far been able to en-
gender that he is above the politician's
opportunism. He must come across as a
man of principle, a man who was willing
to take up arms for his principles when
the chance of victory seemed dismal. As
the primaries in Indiana and Nebraska
demonstrated conclusively, his support-
ers are not the workingman and the
farmer of the traditional Democratic
coalition. They are the intellectual, the
Stevensonian liberal purist, and hope-
fully most of all, the independent "com-
mon sense" voter who is weary of the
double-talking cynicism which charac-
terizes so many of America's elected of-
ficials. To them, McCarthy differs from
Kennedy not so much in being first to
challenge Johnson, but in seeming to
have challenged him for essentially noble
motives.
THUS for McCarthy now to ruminate
aloud about his potential for wheeling
and dealing at the convention in August

credibility, allowing the rumors to spread
unsquelched is tantamount to suicide.
As the noted psychoanalyst Erich
Fromm observed Wednesday in an ad-
vertisement in the New York Times:
Those who are enthusiastic for
McCarthy because his election would
give a chance for all humane forces
in America to consolidate and to
undertake basic and productive
changes in our foreign policy, as well
as in our policy at home, are not
taken in by the point of view that if
any other candidate has a better
chance to win, they will desert, with
regrets, from McCarthy. They dare
to have confidence in their own
judgment rather than in statistical
probabilities, and they believe that
the principle underlying the voting
for a candidate is fundamentally
different from the principle of bet-
ting on a horse...
McCarthy's personal animosity toward
Sen. Kennedy is understandable, but his
attempt to stop him by betting on
Humphrey's horse is likely to destroy his
own support while leaving Kennedy rel-
atively unscathed. To accuse Bobby of
opportunism is one thing, for it plays
right into McCarthy's theme; to flirt
with Hubert is another, and the note it
sounds is cacophonous.
McCARTHY'S best chance at this point
lies in a fresh replaying of the vari-
ations of his principal strength - the

By DAVID MANN
SALISBURY, Maryland, a sleepy,
quasi-Southern small town iso-
lated in the middle of the Eastern
Shore - a peninsula made up of
Delaware and small parts of
Maryland and Virginia - has
finally broken into the big time
league of our nation's racially di-
vided cities.
Last weekend, Salisbury exper-
ienced its first racial disturbance.
It couldn't be called a riot, or
mass civil disorder, but a dis-
turbance.
The precipitating incident was
the killing of a suspected burglar
as he attempted to escape from
Salisbury's police station during
questioning. The suspect, 22 year
old Daniel Kenneth Henry, a Ne-
gro deaf-mute, was unable to
hear the warning shout of the po-
lice officer who shot and killed
him after he did not heed the
shouted command to stop.
IT WAS Saturday night, with
many people out on the streets
of the Negro section of town, and
an angry crowd soon gathered to
protest Henry's death. Later that
night, when the crowd moved
along Main Street back to the
Negro district - distinctly sep-
arated from white Salisbury by
the Wicomico River - several
windows were broken, two stores
looted, and fires were set in the
Negro district.
Republican Governor Spiro T.
Agnew declared Salisbury a state
of emergency, brought in the Na-
tional Guard and state police
(1200 men), and clamped a cur-
few on the town and surrounding
area. The customary investigation
of the incident, suspension of the

officer, and enumeration of griev-
ances followed.
It is quiet in Salisbury now;
things are just about back to
their normal relaxed pace, but
Henry's funeral is scheduled for
tomorrow, and nobody in Salis-
bury is willing to predict whether
or not it w ll be the instigating
factor in a new flare-up of ten-
sion. What happens this Satur-
day, however, is of little import-
ance. What is important is why
the outbreak occurred in a com-
munity considered by many as a
model for biracial relations.
WHEN THE civil rights move-
ment started in earnest in 1963,
the leaders of white Salisbury
(unlike those of many Southern
towns) decided to submit' to the
court rulings and social pressures
and desegregate its schools, parks,
public facilities and places of
business. In general they would
give the Negroes what they asked
for virtually before they asked
for it. White citizens relate proud-
ly how when the Freedom Riders
came through town, the town's
Negroes asked them to leave.
During the riots of the past few
years in Cambridge, Maryland -
only 30 miles to the west - all
was always quiet in Salisbury.
Last fall, the final phase in the
desegregation of Salisbury's high
schools was completed with few
incidents. Last summer while De-
troit burned and the rest of the
country was increasingly con-
sumed in racial turmoil, Salisbury
looked on coolly.
Why, then, did Salisbury ex-
plode during the off season? In-
cidents of interracial violence are
fairly common in Salisbury's

black districts, as in all the na-
tion's ghettos; what 'made last
Saturday night's any different?
THE DIFFERENCE is one of
attitude according to the Rev.
Thomas Pendelton, member of
Salisbury's Biracial Committee
and NAACP chapter. The white
community "is practicing token-
ism," says Pendelton. "It is hold-
ing something back." Although
Salisbury has instituted the kind
of legal equality most- Northern
cities have enjoyed for several
years, like 'most Northern cities
there is an undercurrent of lat-
ent racism which Salisbury Ne-
groes deeply resent.
How can this be explained in
the light of Salisbury's ready sub-
mission to the pressures for in-
tegration and equal rights?
Although Salisbury is small
(the city and surrounding, area
include only 25,000 people) it is
the economic hub for most of
the Eastern Shore's 200,000 popu-
lation. Its business district and
agricultural processing plants
serve the entire area. Many feel
that an influential group of busi-
ness men decided among them-,
selves that the risk of racial vio-
lence would be economically
harmful, and set about to elim-
inate that possibility. Undoubted-
ly, of that group, many felt that
equality under the law should
have been extended to the town's
52 per cent Negro population re-
gardless of the economic motive,
but it took the pressure of the
dollar to force action.
For whatever motives, the black
man in Salisbury was told that
he would now be allowed to act
as an equal in the community,

and all was well for. the time
being.
The black population in Salis-
bury soon learned, however, that
they were getting much less than
they had been promised. Although
overt discrimination was largely
over, the Negroes of Salisbury still
felt the latent racism that re-
sided in attitudes and subtle dis-
crimination that cannot be
amended by public ordinances.
DESPITE the establishment of
a biracial commission and' other
positive steps by the City Council
and other organizations, resent-
ment smouldered in black Salis-
bury. It is the view of one city
councilman that the disturbance
was the work ,of the "irrespon-
sible" faction of militant youth,
but Pendelton thinks otherwise.
"Even giving the policeman.
that shot Henry every possible
benefit of the doubt, there had
to have been something in his at-
titude that made him shoot, be-
cause if Henry had been a white
man, he wouldn't have been
killed." Pendelton goes on to cite'
examples of subtle discriminatory
attitudes. "Even though they deny
it, the teachers, businessmen and
police in this town }have two sets
of attitudes toward people - a
good one for whites and a, bad
one for Negroes."
He claims that the school board
has turned a deaf ear on com-
plaints about dual teaching stand-
ards in Negro and white district
elementary schools, that there was
racism in City Hall, and that
there were too few Negro police
officers. A city councilman is able
to refute only one of these points.
He says salaries in the police de-
partment are so low that despite

an active recruitment program for
Negro officers, response has been
virtually nil. The other complaints
appear to be valid.
THE WHITE community in
Salisbury is proud of their liber-
:alism, of theirs model city of
brotherly love. It appears, how-
ever, that they have failed to
sound out opinion on the black,
side ofthe river.
In retrospect,, the incident in
Salisbury should not have come
as the surprise . that it did. Pen-
delton said that it was inevitable,
that the blacks in Salisbury were
bound to explode from the pres-
sure of subtle frustration, from
the discrepancy in deed and spirit
that people on the other side of
the river exhibited. "Nobody
wanted it to happen, and nobody
is glad that it did happen, but it
had to happen," says Pendelton.
Nobody in Salisbury is sure
what is going to follow this-week's
occurances. Some feel that now
something can be done to eradi-
cate the status quo ante attitude
of the whites, some fear that po-
larization and a hardening of.
hearts on each side will occur.
Only time will tell, but in the case
of this small town, there is hope.
THERE is hope in that people
are close enough ,'physically in
Salisbury to be able to resolve
their, conflicts, and return the
Wicomico River to the brackish
tidal stream that it is, rather than
keeping it as a symbol of divi-
sion and tension. If this is ac-
complished at all, it will be dif-
ficult. The outlook for the larger
cities, based on the happepings in
Salisbury, seems to indicate an
impossible task.

I

A

... ..,,". .... .... ... ....... .. .. .." ............ .'........ ."1 ."... . . "r V .:t.. . . .V;"r
....... .. . ... ... .... .. . .. ". .... r 5.. .....1. , .M . .. ,5..th . h1 lh h A.....5..Y~ S ..'.Y4.. 4,. .':{V.
.... ... ... .... . . . . .... . . r .. .... : . .... 5n5 .snn.h ..1 ,."".,h A . ..5 ... .. . . .""v ' {

Letters:* Lucy Kennedy's ornery logic

To the Editor:
UCY KENNEDY in her editor-
i~ lal (Daily, May 23) is cor-
rect in arguing that the draft has
provided the personal impetus
for moral questioning of the war;
but to further argue that the draft
should be continued so as to pro-

argument: birth control should be
denied to Latin America and Asia
so as to create a more impossible
situation that might inevitably
lead to widespread revolution.
Certainly, the draft has, as Miss
Kennedy asserts, created "civil
liberties martyrs"-Spock-Coffin.

A letter
To the Editor:
THIS MORNING I received a
letter from a friend of mine
now employed by the U.S. Army.
His letter provides insight to the
views of a reasonably typical G.I.

ing I'm presently cloistered
in - picture taking is strict-
ly forbidden, so you never
will. However, in our room
800 Nam bound GI's are pres-
ently housed. It's an amaz-
ingly inert group, noticeably
lacking in enthusiasm and

The whole ordeal has served
to reinforce the already raii-
pant cynicism in my own par-
ticular peer group, the old
gang from Ft. Harrison. One
of our members (the most
vociferously cynical) has an
appointment with the San

,