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A
place to call my own
By DANIEL OKRENT
ENE GILLIAM, a 35-year-old
amateur artist who has held
32 different jobs in the past six
years, ranging from appliance
salesman to electronic engineer,
was looking for a place for he and
his wife, Ramona, a little while
ago. They wanted something that
would serve as a home-studio
combination.
When the Gilliams, who have
been active in a number of local
cultural groups, found what they
wanted, the, two-part combina-
tion exploded into a multi-facet-
ed "thing" dedicated to commu-
nity betterment and cultural en-
420 May
-0552
SATURDAY, MAY 25, 1968
NIGHT EDITOR: LESLIE WAYNE
I npemening he rport
H leientl the re ort
Has it. all been: invain1
JT HAS BEEN 18 months since the mas-
sive display of student power which
led to the creation of the Presidential
Commission of the Stuaent Role in Deci-
sion-Making. The sweeping vice-presi-
dential powers, the. sit-in ban, wnd the
draft referendum are ancient history to
a good part of the student body.
Yet 18 months later after long and
tedious debate it is clear that students
are again about to be betrayed. For while
University students and leaders have pa-
tiently waited for reforms promised 18
months ago, it has become more and
more clear that the administration is
bargaining in bad faith.
The commission was created in an at-
mosphere of mistrust, but in the inter-
vening months student leaders and the
administration achieved at least peace-
ful co-existence. The University appeared
for a time to accept the one principle
which was the rallying cry of the Novem-
ber 1966 disturbances, that students alone
should have control over those aspects of
their lives which primarily affect them.
More specifically, that students and
only students should establish and en-
force conduct regulations governing their
non-academia University life. It is this
principle which became the backbone of
the battles to eliminate curfew for fresh-
man women, student control of visitation
policy in the dorms, and the abolition
of University restrictions on driving.
But as evidenced by the administra-
tion's intransigent position on the actual
implementation of the report of the deci-
sion-making commission, President Flem-
ing is unwilling to accept this most essen-
tial keystone of self-government.
JNDEED Fleming, who strongly endorsed
the commission though it was a left-
over from the previous administration,
appears intent on forcing students to ac-
cept his rules and even enforce them for
him.
Somewhere, both the spirit and the let-
ter of the commission's report have been
left far behind. The Hatcher commission,
its members adamantly assert, intended
to create an all-campus University Coun-
cil (UC) as the legislative arm of the
University community. However Vice-
President Cutler and Director of Student-
Community relations William Stuede
have found it convenient to draft a re-
gental by-law clearly antithetical to this
principle.
In the Stuede-Cutler draft, UC regula-
tions apply only to students, not the en-
tire University Community as the com-
mission intended.
So it would be the tri-partite Univer-
sity Council, composed of a majority of
faculty and administrators that would
make rules for students. That is not the
student role in decision-making recom- '
mended by the commission.
And if that aspect of the proposed by-
law weren't enough, Cutler and Stuede
added an even more odious and unac-
ceptable item. They proposed that rules
passed by UC (rules applying to only
students) should be submitted to the
Regents for approval after 45 days if
either Faculty Assembly or Student Gov-
ernment vetoed them.
WEN THE commission recommended
these two groups be given the right
to reject UC-passed regulations, they
clearly intended it to be an absolute veto.
One would have reason to seriously
question any UC regulation which either
tne faculty or students found unaccept-
able and vetoed.
The intent of this provision is not to-
tally clear. It would be unfair to say out
of hand that Fleming, the Regents, or the
Office of Student Affairs wish to use the
clause to adopt oppressive rules through
bypassing the SGC veto. But their stated
rationale for its inclusion is so dubious
that one can hardly see another reason
for the clause.
Fleming says publicly the Regents are
insistent there should be a provision in
the by-law to break a stalemate in UC.
Yet neither Fleming nor the Regents
give cogent reasons for their insistence.
The commission report, though admit-
tedly vague, seems to have a much more
limited role in mind for UC. The report
states: "University Council should deter-
mine... the locus of authority for mak-
ing rules of conduct by members of the
University community in areas where
the jurisdictional lines are unclear or
subject to dispute."
In addition the commission states "the
formulation of rules . . . relating for in-
stance to the regulation of picketting or
sit-ins should be carried out by an all-
University body at the highest level"
(University Council).
With UC regulating conduct in these
limited areas, student government would
continue to establish and enforce rules
applying to solely students, just as the
faculty would in a like manner govern
itself.
UC would operate only in those areas
,where authority was not clearly desig-
nated to some other groups.
RUT THE administration has shown
little desire for a fair and impartial
system of student rule-making. Fleming
apparently wants students to institution-
alize machinery for the administration
and faculty to control student conduct.
The ominous spectre of Columbia feeds
the administrative backlash in this ef-
fort to reestablish disciplinary control.
Students must realize that any compro-
mise represents total defeat and is clear-
ly a step backwards. For in the interim
between the November, 1966, demonstra-
tions and the final implementation of the
commission report, students have regu-
lated their own conduct. Joint Judiciary
Council has enforced only student-ap-
proved rules.
Students need not agree to any hastily
written by-laws submitted while the ma-
jority of the student body is vacationing
for the summer.
This is an issue worth fighting over.
And if the administration insists on a
mechanism to enforce oppressive conduct
regulations, students can easily return
the campus to the atmosphere in which
the commission, was created.
THERE WERE 1500 students sitting-in
at the administration building then,
but the campus is a bit bigger now and
the lobby of the new administration
building a lot smaller.
-STEVE NISSEN
ig Greeks gifts
These pronouncements are a dreary
echo of a distant past. They seem pain-
fully irrelevant in a time when the NATO
structure itself is being widely described
as obsolete, when ferment in the Soviet
empire is a dominant fact of European
life and when many relationships are
swiftly changing.
PERHAPS most vulnerable was Clif-
ford's claim that "we can play a
greater part in helping Greece to get
constitutional government if we continue
our military aid than if we stop it." The
men who are risking their lives in chal-
lenging the Greek dictatorship have re-
peatedly contended that U.S. military
shipments inevitably will strengthen and
sustain the regime's power and weaken
the prospects of its overthrow. Their tes-
richment. Scheduled to open this
Sunday with a benefit concert-
party that will hopefully pro-
vide the funds to get the whole
project going, "My Place" , is
'planned to accommodate the
varied energies of Ann Arborites
in a free community atmosphere.
"I doubt if this building could
ever look nice," Gene said the
other day as he surveyed the'
sprawling, ramshackle structure
at 215 E. Davis that the couple
has begun to occupy on a 10 year
lease. "But it will look clean-
and busy."
THE FIRST PART, the "clean,"
is expected to come from volun-
teer help. The second Trole--the
"busy"-is also going to be filled
by volunteers. But these volun-
teers, the Gilliams hope, will be
people who want or need a place
to go to do what they want to do.
The prospectus for "My Place"
calls for more varied activities
than one could logically inter-
connect, but the one-roof idea is
being adopted because of some-
thing present elsewhere that is
very illogical-"the air of insti-
tutionalism which inhibits per-
sonal identification and partici-
pation." So the air is being
whisked away to be replaced by
something incredibly fresh.
Wyhat do the Gilliams-who have
set up "My Place" as a non-
profit institution-plan to offer
that will fill the institutional
void? The list reads like a com-
bination college 4atalogue- m-
ployment agency listing-summer
camp schedule-arts and craft
center program. For instance, a
small part of the total program:
0 art classes and gallery
0 theatre workshop and pro-
ductions
0 music lessons
* film-making
* mathematics films and, lec-
tures
* lanned parenthood informa-
tion
0 job information and referral
* agency referrals
* home improvement informa-
tion.
Right now, the Gilliams are
lining up the'necessary instruc-
tors for undertakings like these,
and they are searching for people
to take part in them. But, more
importantly for the present, they
need money very badly.
FINANCING the omnibus proj-
ect is not going to be easy, at
least not the way they plan to go
about it. The regular operating
expenses will be rent for the build-
ing, $250 monthly salary that the
Gilliams will draw from the re-
ceipts, and the costs of building
renovation -and project supplies.
To cover it, they hope that they
will never have to charge admis-.
sion, except for affairs like Sun-
day's benefit ($2.50 a person).
So where is the money going
to come from? Contributions, they
hope. Admission charges for spe-
cial events. Hall rental from or-
ganized groups (non-organized
groups will be allowed meeting
space free). Eventually, receipts
that will surely come once they
have procured the permanent
cabaret license they are applying
for.
In the meantime, with sure op-
timism and dedication, they are
doing some planning. There is
scheduling to be done-time pri-
orities have to be established for
the various classes and functioirs
that will be taking place in the
building's nine rooms. And- there
is some sweat to be expended in
whipping the old building into
shape.
But for now, any project is
pointless without money. That's
why there's a benefit tomorrow at
6 p.m., with The Don Gillis Thing,
The Unpredictables, and The
Circus.
"OUR CHIEF CONCERN is with
the community of Ann Arbor,"
Gene said. "The guys who go to
work at three in the afternoon
and just sit around in the morn-
ing and do nothing. This is going
to be a place to go to."
If the Gilliams get the cash.
Stop in on Sunday, look around.
You'll see that it's worth' your
support.
.4
-Daily-Jay L. Cassidy
Beam will be removed from hall
Daily-Jay L. Cassidy
The Gilliams and their place
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4 F, A
I ri
ceducatton of oan Adams
By ANN MUNSTER
' HERE IS A dreary sameness
about each year's candidates for
the Ann Arbor school board. Over
the years' they usually can be
grouped into two sicategories-
mediocre and impossible.
This year, however, the omens
are quite a bit more propitious.
And the change is largely due to
the local New Politics Party which
has entered the fray with two
candidates, Bill Ayres and Joan
Adams. dedicated to saying some
non-traditional things about both
schools and the distant adults who
oversee them.
Their campaign provides a bad-
ly needed last ditch effort to
breathe some life into an educa-
tional system which seems to be
retreating further and further
from touch with living,breathing
students. Hopefully, it will show a
confrontation between diametric-
ally opposed educational philos-
ophies, if voters are able to pene-
trate the veil of subtle exchanges
which still shields the position of
some participants and it will for-
mulate a coherent image of what
is being debated.
ALTHOUGH the platforms of
the two candidates differ immen-
sely in many ways, they have in
common a creative approach to
educational problems. And they
both appeal strongly to those seg-
ments of the community which
the existing educational system is
unable to accommodate, and which
it is rapidly losing its ability to
silence.
The support of the New Politics
Party for these two candidatesis
illustrative of its new and unique
brand of utopianism.
Although it is seeking a trans-
formation of society that may be
more radical than any previously
envisioned, it has no plans for a
sudden dramatic coup, and is cer-
tainly not gathering its forces for
complete withdrawal from an
aging and ailing world.
It is part of a movement whose
tactics are undecided and whose
goals are undefined. This has
given rise to a modesty in its im-
mediate expectations and a flexi-
bility in its framework which en-
ables it casually to adopt a myriad
of aims and approaches from Bill
Ayres carefree slogan "the trouble
with the schools is that there are
too many grownups on the school
board" to Joan Adams' incisive
casting up to liberals the shallow-
ness and unfulfilled promises of
liberal programs.
The hostility of the less imagi-
native segments of society will by
no means serve to quell this move-
ment.
IF IT RUNS aground it vill be
because the disco itended elements
which it :s mobilizing have beco:me
to be affected, in whatever areas
of society seem to be salvageable.
This has brought forth a great
deal of emphasis on promoting in-
dividual self-determination and
an enormous stress on liberating
persons from irrational institu-
tional constraints.
One of the major points of em-
phasis in Mrs. Adams' campaign is
that the focal point of any just
and workable way of combatting
the problems of our educational
system is to find out from the
people affected what really are the
needs which are crying rout to be
resolved. It is one of the first co-,
herent attempts to answer the
question "what do you people
want?"
She has been actively seeking to
promote the involvement of that
sector of the community which is,
customarily denied a voice in the
decisions which influence they
quality of its children's education
by organizing it into groups which
can criticize the schools from a
position outside the power struc-
ture.
MRS. ADAMS opened her cam-
paign by saying that one of her
main reasons for running is that
she "has served on enough com-
mittees that made promises they
didn't fulfill." She now feels that
the only way to make a school sys-
tem that is wholly outdated re-
sponsive to the demands of its
students is for there to be some
real community representation.
She hopes that as an individual
who knows the needs and aspira-
tions of the disenfranchised com-
munity, she will attain the power
to speak for them.
The significance of Joan Adams'
campaign for a seat on the Ann
Arbor Board of Education derives
to a great extent from her reas-
sertion, in a new and far less facile
manner, of an optimism and of
certain fundamental faiths which
reigned more or less undisturbed
in this country throughout its
youth.
OF LATE, these beliefs have
beenrlargely lost sight of in the
welter of confusion which has en-
gulfed us as a result of the in-
ability of most of us to see the
relevance of these beliefs to a
rapidly changing environment.
And the optimism once believed
to be insuperable has been long
suffocating in the widespread de-
spair of problems which have
cropped up ac a pace to which we
are not accustomed and which are
being called to our attention with
a ferocity surpassed only by the
torment which they are inflicting
on their most obvious victims.
The need to be realistic in the
face of this turmoil has almost
totally stifled all imagination and
even wiped out the capacity to
combat our problems in the level-
of the individual, in sharp con-
trast to the more prevalent quasi-,
cynical faith in the process.
The entire thrust of her cam-
paign runs directly counter to the
kind of mentality which prevails
among most Ann Arbor voters.
Awestruck by the scope of the
community's needs, it can only
devise dramatic remedies, utterly
lacking in internal logic and and
in understanding of the needs of
either the community or the
school system.
In the past, these neurotic pro-'
posals have only enraged conserv-
atives, paralyzed liberal thinking,
and demonstrated to the low in-
come and black members of the
community that it is futile to ex-
pect the impetus for any construc-
tive change to come from the
existing power structure.
The campaign of Joan Adams
hits strongly at the pathetic in-
effectuality and possible insin-
cerity of those who have made
feeble hit or miss attempts at aid-
ing low income children to adjust
to the demands of a school sys-
tem primarily oriented around theF
,needs of fairly well off white stu-
dents.
It also provides an incisive
criticism of the monotonous lam-
ents of those who might like to
see innovations in the schools but
who are utterly lacing in the moti-
vation or ingenuity to make maxi-
mum use of even the existing re-
sources.
INSTEAD OF despairing at the
multitude of ills against which
the school system has at most
tried to merely hold its ground,
applying desperation measures on-
ly when forced to do something
by the threat of imminent dis-
aster, Mrs. Adams is full of sug-
gestions for rechanneling re-
sources, which with a little imagi-
nation and effort could alleviate
some of the more dramatic prob-
lems.
For example, she sees no reason
to despair at the far from perfect
achievements of Operation Head
Start. Presently, there is a huge
waste of effort involved and an
acute source of frustration grow-
ing for both pupils and the school
system because this program can-
not accomplish miracles in one
summer.
It is largely the lack of adequate
coordination between the federal
program and the local school sys-
tem which forces many of the
Head Start pupils to repeat, the
program the following summer.
The problem could be resolved if
a means were found to continue
the assistance given to the kids in
this program by incorporating the
teacher-aids, who currently have
no slot in the school system, into
the regular school program.
Funds for this and similar pro-
grams which would focus on the
basic educational and social needs
levels, but particularly in the high
school, is another problem which
Mrs. Adams sees being veiled by.
the focus on attractive exterior
and the more conspicuous marks
of a progressive school system for
which Ann Arbor has traditionally
striven.
Mrs. Adams contends that the
school system's method of warding
off an explosion with a show of
force by having police on the spot
to quell the trouble is by no means
the most enlightened way of cop-
ing with the situation.
She perceptively points out that
this and most of the school sys-
tem's methods for dealing with
problems in -the area of human
relationships amount to "putting
children close to adulthood force-
fully in an adolescent stage."
She believes very strongly that
"students can solve a lot of their
own problems. They have to be
heard. "The fundamental human
problem of the school system- is'
that kids are being pushed into a
corner where they have to fight
back."
Mrs. Adams' campaign strikes
sharply at the distorted values
which deeply permeate the ed-
ucational system, which are subtly
perhaps even more deleterious
than the unfulfilled promises and
half-hearted attempts to alleviate
the more obvious abuses.
She directs a major portion of
her attack on the school system at
the racial imbalance which is in-
herent in fundamental policy deci-
sions and which'seems organically
built into routine operation of the
schools.
A particularly telling mark of
the school system's failure toward
low income and black students,
which Mrs. Adams focues on is the
exceedingly high dropout rate of
these students and the age at
which most of them leave school.
She contends that the vast
majority of students, regardless of
their race or economic level, enter
high school with high hopes and
enthusiasm. 'But the accelerated
academic pace of high school, be-
gins to really tax the shaky ed-
ucational foundations of low in-
come and black students. The
increased segregation of the col-
lege-boundstudents from the non-
college-bound with the almost
total channeling of the system's
resources into programs exclusively
designed for college-bound stu-
dents is intensely discouraging for
the non-college bound, causing
them to drop out, regardless of
their ability or level of achieve-
ment in the curriculum in which
they were enrolled.'
MRS. ADAMS does not imply
that every child has an inalienable
right to pursue a college? prepara-
tory program, but she is vigorously
averse to relegating large numbers
of non-college bound students to
rranaraln 1 nrrin,,l.-which-4 n roam,,.n-. -.
myriad of extra-curricular activi-
ties, all tailored to suit the inter-
ests and convenience of the white
niiddle class majority is still an-
other example of the subtle in-
justices perpetrated under a' sy&-
tem almost wholly \insensitive to
the needs of its minority members.
By far the most significant sub--
stantive attack which Mrs. Adams
levels against the school system
consists in her criticism that the
perverted values which she sees
underlying the treatment of low
income and black students extends
to the intellectual dishonesty em-
bedded in the content of the cur-
riculum. She contends that the
teaching of black history as an
elective course separate from the
regular courses in American his-
tory is discriminatory and "can-
not contribute to mutual respect
between students of the two
races."
MRS. ADAMS envisions the pur-
pose of schools as "turning out
good citizens, prepared to make
their way in the world tomorrow,
with a good education that will
enable them to go as far as their
capabilities will allow, and with
the knowledge to build a better
world than we have."
She strongly agrees with those
who hold that the community
should give greater support to the
schools. But she is just as em-
phatic in' her insistence that the
schools have an obligation to the
community to merit this support
by producing educated individuals.
Joan Adams' campaign for a
seat on the school board, besides
being an expression of reaffirma-
tion of faith in representative gov-
erment, and the essential ability
of the individual to best deter-
mine his own destiny, is a reitera-
tion of the fundamental American
belief in the importance of educa-
tion and the emphasis on youth as
the foundation of a nation's
strength.
These ideas formed an impor-
tant part of the mental settwhich
prevailed' in this country in pre-
vious eras. Today, the emphasis
made by Joan Adams and others
on the importance of youth for
the health and future of the na-
tion does not lie, as it did earlier
in this nations history, in the no-
tion that youth power can be har-
nessed to increase American ma-
terial prosperity.
Rather,' youth ~s seen as ,a po-
tential Instrume;,t in bringing
about moral purification in the
nation. To achieve this, we need a
vastly improved educational sys-
tem because the family and the
other societal institutions which
mould young people are frightfully
inadequate.
MRS. ADAMS is campaigning to
right the inequities of the educa-
tional system, and through it so-
n _ _
w 0
ewroge ivii
jN HIS APPEAL for renewal of military,
aid to the oppressive Greek despotism,
Defense Secretary Clifford occupies dubi-
ous moral and strategic ground.
Appearing before the Senate Foreign
Relations Committee, Clifford contended
that "the obligations imposed on us, by
the NATO alliance are far more impor-
tant than the kind of government they
have in Greece or what they think of it."
He further asserted that NATO would
"disinegrate" if "our military aid to our
allies was determined by the kind of
government they maintain."
Second class pnstage paid at Ann Arbor. Michigan
420 Maynard St.. Ann Arnr, MIdhigan, 48104.
Daily excerit Sunday and Monday daring regular
}6