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
What those people wanted at YISU
420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor, Mich.
News Phone: 764-0552
Editorials printed in The .
or thec
SATURDAY, JUNE 8, 1968
Michigan Daily exp ress the individual opinions of staff writers
editors. This must be noted in all reprints.
NIGHT EDITOR: MARCIA ABRAMSON
Up with milage,
Ayers and Adams
THE ANN ARBOR school election, which
will be held Monday, June 10, could
be a very crucial one for the future of
the public school system. Three seats on
the Board of Education are up for re-
election. In addition, a millage package
of 11.66 mills, which includes renewal
of the existing levy of 4.5 mills, for which
the authorization expires this year, will
be on the ballot.
It would certainly not be impossible for
the school system to continue functioning
if its budget were carefully pruned to
eliminate unnecessary expenditures. And
the process of trimming the budget, if
carried out rationally, might benefit the
school system by bringing greater co-
herence to its programs and forcing it
to clarify its educational objectives.
But the schools need some funds to
operate. And the current manner of op-
erating the public schools is sufficiently
complicated and the judgment of the'
school board concerning ways to econ-
omize is sufficiently unsound, that we
can only support the present millage pro-
posal and hope that the selection of
three new members will bring fresh in-
sight to the schools' policy-making body.
N PREVIOUS years, despite the scare
generated by neo-Birchite attempts to
infiltrate the school board, the selection
of new trustees has had but slight impact
on the overall direction of the educa-
tional system.
Heretofore, candidates for school board
have been independent concerned tax-
payers striving to make their contribu-
tion to the struggle for more rational
policies and greater economy in the
school system, coalitions of angry citizens
endeavoring to curtail the board's ex-
travagance, or groups of well-meaning
liberals hoping to preserve certain facets
of the educational system which they
particularly cherish.
This year, however, the candidates for
the Board of Education are almost all
men and women of good will. Those
whose only concern is to safeguard their
own pocketbooks have largely fled the
contest in disgust or disinterest.
WVHILE NONE of this year's candidates
combines the background in a va-
riety of areas and the overall insight into
what is fundamentally wrong with Ann
Arbor's schools, each candidate has
shown some sincere concern and most
of them have some constructive insights
to offer.
Unfortunately, the condition of our
educational system has deteriorated past
the point where the blend of concerns
and suggestions of most of these can-
didates will suffice to remedy the ills
which plague our schools from the ele-
mentary to the high school level.
The basic approach of attacking cer-
tain "evils" in the school system and ad-
hering unshakably to the notion that
particular steps must be taken to right
these pet wrongs, which characterizes
both the wishy-washy programmatic
style of the liberals and the conserva-
tives' obsession with extravagance, is
doomed.
rHE TIME has come for the voters to
realize that in our educational sys-
tem and in society as a whole we can,
choose to do no more than cultivate the
positive or the negative potentials. And
to successfully follow a positive course
in solving our schools' problems requires
a consistently constructive outlook that
does not get bogged down in sacred
methods and is not daunted by the com-
plexities which efforts to cope with the
existing structure inevitably incur.
We feel that only two of the eight
candidates seeking election to the Ann
Arbor Board of Education this year, Bill
Ayers and John Adams, have demonstrat-
ed this vitally needed creative approach.
Only these two have our unqualified sup-
port.
Ayers offers the only cogent analysis of
the fundamental failure of our school
is the only candidate who has articulat-
ed a sound and coherent educational
philosophy.
i Mrs. Adams is the only candidate who
has demonstrated any awareness of the
nature of the school system's failure to-
ward its low income and Negro minority
and is the most capable of articulating
their needs to the Board and the com-
munity.
THE OTHER candidates, with the ex-
ception of Ted Heusel, represent an
exceptionally high level for school board
candidates, of sincere concern with the
educational system. But in view of the
dimensions which these problems have
taken, their diverse suggestions for cop-
ing with them are inadequate.
Of the remaining candidates, Cecil W:
Warner is the most acceptable. Although
not an outstanding critic of the existing
educational system, Warner has more
'coherent and constructive suggestions
for reform.
One candidate, Ted Heusel, is unrea-
onably obsessed with the perennial prob-
lems of high millage levies and school
board extravagance and is totally unac-
ceptable.
-MARCIA ABRAMSON
-URBAN LEHNER
Co-Editor
--ANN MUNSTER
By MARTIN HIRSCHMAN
First of a Series
N HEN CAMPUS police ,assisted
saeand local. officials in
arresting several Michigan State
University students on charges
of selling marijuana and LSD
Monday, even MSU's activist stu-
dents didn't quite know what to
do.
Finals had started that day, and
student concern was expected to
be at a minimum. In addition, the
State News, the student news-
paper, had already ceased publi-
cation for the term and informa-
tion would be difficult to dissemi-
nate.
Furthermore, the last final ex-
aminations were scheduled for
Saturday (today) and most stu-
dents would probably leave cam-
pus even before then. Thus, even
if some meaningful protest were
organized, it could not be expect-
ed to have any effect on an ad-
ministration which to avert it
had only to wait.
Despite these handicaps, several
students decided to do what they
could immediately. The result was
three days of protests, 26 addi-
tional arrests, and promises from
many students that they would
continue to work for the move-
ment over the summer so that it
would not die.
The activists had several rea-
sons for beginning the protests
even at such 'an inopportune
moment:
* Students recalled a similar
bust during last year's final ex-
aminaio period and believed
that the timing of the busts was
designed.
" Bail for the 12 people arrest-
ed was set at $5000 for sale of
marijuana and $10,000 for sale of
LSD. Several needed bond money
/and funds for legal aid.
0 The campus police had aid-
ed officials in arresting students.
This, said demonstrators, was not
the proper function of an aren of
the university. /
h Sincerthe students were ar-
rested for sale, activists reasoned,
there must be a system of inform-
ers, organized by (or at least with
the cooperation of) the univer-
sity, in the dormitories. Several
of the students said they had in
the past been approached by
dormitory counselors and asked
to spy on other residents.
were involved in widespread vio-
lence across the campus-violence
which students claimed the po-
lice had caused.
WITH THE situation as it
stands now, it might well be wise
for MSU to move to a system
similar to that used at the Uni-
versity.
At the very least, administrators
should consult with students and
faculty and grant the initial de-
mands of the protesters: that
the police be placed under the
control of a student-faculty com-
mittee, that they be disarmed, and
that they refuse to give further
cooperation to outside law en-
forcement agencies.
The actions of the police affect
the students most directly, the
faculty less and the administra-
tion not at all. It Is the students
who should have primary control
over the police force - a force
which is, nominally at least, de-
signed to protect them.
Besides the police, many stu-
dents were, interested in taking
action because of their feelings
about the prohibition. of mari-'
Juana itself. In this case, their
protests could be seen as unfair
and misdirected.
However, as Prof. Dhirenda
Sharma of MSUs philosophy de-
partmenttold reporters, we should
be proud of the students for pro-
testing the arrests. "Instead, we
call them subversive," he added.
SHARMA SAID that Monday's
bust would never have occurred
in a truly free society. There is
never anything like it in Western
Europe, he continued,t"only rin
the communist and totalitarian
countries, and in the United
States."
Sharma said the "whole world
is crying out" the, upression of.
individuals and at the violence in
the United States.
The professor suggested that a
fitting activity for the university
would be to investigate the dan-
gers, if any, involved in taking
marijuana, instead of blindly co-
operating with the police.
"Alma mater means 'mother,"
Sharma explained, saying the
university should protect the stu-
dent, just as a parent should. The
university should allow the stu-
dent the freedom he needs to
develop as an educated person,
and should advise' him, Sharma
said. "Some of my students are
in jail; how can I advise them?"
Sharma's notion of education
is hardly as strange as it may
sound. It is, for example, ap-
proached most closely inth
United States by schools like Har-
vard and Yale. Even at the Uni-
versity, resident advisors are,be-
ginning to be the friend of te
student, instead of the oppoent.
MSU is just a few years behind
the University in. this regard, and
both are many years behind Har-
vard or Yale-good advice in any
structuralized form is virtually
nonexistent.
But if the protests at NSU
resume this summer'or next fall,
the administration may be faced
with the choice of jailing a huge
portion of its students, or lib-
eralizing. Then they will realize
that it is the quiet campuses, not
the conservative ones, which get
the most money from the legisla-
ture. If the protesters spend the
summer organizing for confron-
tation in the fall the time will not
be wastedntheaarrests already
-'made will not have been in vain.
" Other busts had taken place
throughout the year, but never
with as many arrests.
* As one speaker claimed at
a rally, with MSU's general fund
appropriation pending in the
state legislature, the bust was an
attempt to leave a favorable im-
pression with senators and rep-
resentatives.
M THE first written demands of
the protesters were aimed par-
ticularly at the campus police-
and for good reason. Unlike the
University's Stanford Security
force, the MSU campus police
(Department of Public Safety) is
a branch of the city police invited
to the campus by the MSU Trus-
tees.
The campus police armed with
guns and clubs regularly patrol
the campus. Several students
complained at the rallies that the
police made a habit of harrassing
i 4
Letters to the Editor
It suits Ann Arbor ill
WHEN THE Supreme Court recently
ruled that all county boards of
supervisors must be districted on an equal
population basis, Washtenaw County
hurriedly organized an Apportionment
Commission to comply with this new rul-
ing. Unfortunately, the plan issued by
that Commission is more of an example
of expedient rather than equal appor-
tionment. Although Washtenaw County
was permitted a maximum of 21 members
on the new board, it chose instead a thir-
teen member board that could easily fit
Into the present district scheme. Rather
than giving several minority groups their
own representatives, these groups have
been engulfed into larger districts.
Part of the problem arises out of the
guidelines set by the state legislature
and the fear of the apportionment com-
mission to overstep any one of these lim-
its. The legislature provided that "equally
populated, nearly equally shaped" dis-
tricts must be apportioned wherever pos-
sible. At the same time, the legislature
permitted Washtenaw County to divide
its county into a maximum of 21 districts.
TE APPORTIONMENT commission,
fearing any violation of these require-
ments adopted a 13 district plan. Under
this plan, none of the counties present
precinct boundaries would have to be
crossed as they would if the 21 member
a small group of poor residents in an
overwhelming affluent population.
In only one ward, could enough sup-
port be gathered to elect a Negro repre-
sentative to city council.
However, to chastise the apportion-
ment commission for producing an un-
balanced plan may be a bit harsh. The
commission remained a mere extension
of the one party monopoly that domin-
ates Ann Arbor city government. With
five Republican members and only one
Democrat, a plan favoring the majority
could only be expected.
UNFORTUNATELY, it is the minorities
that must suffer. The possibility' of a
redistricting plan offered these groups a
hope of greater representation. A 21
member plan could have legally filled
the state qualifications and at the same
time given the minorities a greater voice.
The Democratic party, traditional
guard of the Negro vote, represents ap-
proximately one-third of Washtenaw
County voters, However, under the new
plan, it has been estimated that the Dem-
ocrats could not capture more than
three seats. Ypsilanti ward one, for ex-
ample, would receive its own district if
a 21 district plan were adopted. Under
the 13 district plan, ward one has been
submerged with a larger and more af-
fluent, white Republican area.
Violence
To the Editor:
O NC2EAGAIN this nation has
been thrown into violence;
and once again people are offering
prayers and eulogies, and are won-
dering "Why?" People blame the
lack of gun control laws; and fi-
nally some legislation might take
place on that. People blame the
violence and sickness of America;
and ironically the President now
finally apoints a commission to
study the causes of violence. But
WHY has no one in the press or
radio connected the violence done
to Senator Robert Kennedy and
to Martin Luther King with the
violence we are doing to others
abroad? Why haven't the radio
and press made the observation
that the easier we make it for
ourselves and our young men to
commit violence abroad (most es-
pecially in vietnam), the easier
it becomes for us to do violence
to ourselves at home, in ghettos
and in presidential primaries?
We have a governmental struc-
ture that institutionalizes violence
--our Selective Service System is
at present in essence putting
young men on trial for not want-
ing to murder. It has become al-
most impossible now for a young
man to obtain Conscientious Ob-
jector status; and it certainly
never was as easy for a young
man to sign up for civilian alter-
native service as it has been for
him to enlist in the Armed For-
ces.
Yet we wonder why violence
occurs. For years, people have
known that we have war toys,
guns, violent movies and TV pro-
grams and violent advertisements,
but little has been done about it.
Yet people wonder at the causes
of violence. One of the things that
Senator Robert Kennedy cam-
paigned hardest about was his
opposition to the Vietnam war.
Why has no one mentioned this
deep conviction of Kennedy's
about the war in eulogies for him?
Why has no one connected his
death to the war? People ask
"Why this violence?", and yet fail
to see the most obvious thing-
we Americans have made violence
at home and abroad to become the
American way of life.
-Dorothy Eliot
Shocked
To the Editor:
WAS shocked to read Fleming's
May letter to the faculty (Daily,
June 4). I cannot imagine a less
politic act at this time, The letter
is a plain, irresponsible, and al-
most-irresistable invitation to an-
archy.
SGC has clearly and often
warned that it will not tolerate
any imposition ofwdiscipline for
action by a student outside the
arbitrariness, and stupidity so re-
cently seen at Columbia. And yet
Fleming, without prior consulta-
tion with students, inviolation of
the happy practice of this past
year, and disregarding a report he
promised to follow, has arrogantly,
arbitrarily, and stupidly called
upon the faculty to punish stu-
dents for conduct even Fleming's
serpentine argumentation could
not turn into academic conduct.
What is clear is that Fleming does
not trust students and will do
everything he can to keep them
subject to the will of others.
My first impulse, upon putting
down /Fleming's letter, was to rush
over to his office immediately with
fifty or so other students and dis-
ruptively lock him up for the night
or until we could talk some sense
into him. I have so far restrained
myself. (I am not overly emotion-
al.) But, if the faculty act upon
Fleming's recommendation, I will
look with fraternal admiration
upon anyone, anyone at all, who
disrupts this campus, and on the
slightest provocation, I will my-
self participate - with unexpres-
sible glee and no guilt -- in a dis-
ruption. I'm sure there are many
other self-respecting students re-
acting the same way. And that's
exactly the point.
--Michael Davis, Grad.
Commenting
To the Editor:
IN REGARD to the Michigan
Fraternity Comimentary's April,
1968 article on "The Student
Newspaper" (Daily, June 7) I
would like to pose a few salient
questions. First of all, to whom is
the Commentary addressing its re-
marks?
Apparently to the editors of a
large university newspaper, The
Daily. But the content of the ar-
ticle woulld lead the reader to
believe that the newspaper in
question was a high-school under-
taking which had stepped out of
the narrow confines of dating,
awards and teacher-student pro-
files to confront the scary issues
of the Big World Beyond, none of
which the sheltered adolescent
wither desired to, or was pre-
pared to, face.
What kind of a newspaper
should students of a large univer-
sity have? "Tell the students
about themselves" the Commen-
tary blandly offers us by way of
response. The implication is that
a "student" newspaper has no
right to be a "great" newspaper.
PERHAPS a mimeographed gos-
sip or scandal sheet, which named
names and tittilated the busy stu-
dent who wants to escape from his
aparently frustrating, boring, and
not very real "studies" to the sig-
nificant world of personalrumor,
revelation and reputation might
local affairs which reach no high-
er than the family or the income?
Or will the university student
take his position as a world cit-
izen, speaking to the conscience
of his generation with the welfare
of future generations also at
heart?
Perhaps a university ews
paper's role is to implement he
student's studies, to counteract
tendencies of the university to
force students into apathetic by-
standers, watching while the so-
ciety grapples with violence and
social inequality, the real moral
conflicts of which his studies are
only the academic representa-
tion.
For our future life, what our
government doesrinside our uni-
versities, whether with the CIA
or with classified research, and
for what reason monies are ap-
propriated, whether for athletes
or for the lesser priviledged sec-
tors of our society, must become
of infinitely more than "passing
interest' to "the average student."
THESE "average students" will
be the ones who will create, by
their votes, by their active parti-
cipation, dissenting and outlining
reforms for our rapidly changing
society (which isn't changing fast
enough) the kind of world into
which we will not fear to bring
forth better-than-average chil-
dren.
The Daily's continuing role will
be to tell us not about who we
already are, but about the better,
selves we can become. Isn't that
why we're here in the first place?
-Betsy Smith, Grad.
Gun laws
To the Editor:
IWOULD be difficult to disagree
with Ann Munster's editorial
point that gun laws would be "no
nanacea" for murders, but sure-
ly no one who supports such laws
believes that they are a panacea.
However, her confidence that new
laws controlling the sale of guns
and ammunition could be "no
more effective than the current
precautions" seems unjustified to
me. Anyway, if the laws succeed
in thwarting the murderous im-
pulse of only one maniac, they are
worth supporting-actively.
What is disturbing about the
editorial is its implication that
supporting new laws for control-
ling guns is mere misty idealism,
'one of those "perennial crusades"
meant to show disapproval of
violence. But almost everyone dis-
aprovesof violence, in the ab-
stract, and now, in a nation hor-
rified by Senator Kennedy's mur-
der, it is easy (and common) to
speak against violence.
To get guns and ammunition
controlled and restricted by law
is to do something which needs to
By JOHN BISHOP
The author, a fourth year
graduate student writing a dis-
sertation on "financing higher
education" is head of the ad-
visory commission to the vice-
president for student affairs.
E UNIVERSITY is again con-
sidering a tuition increase.
Unhappy as this may make most
of us feel-especially those like
myself who are classified as non-
residents-I'm afraid it's inevita-
ble. Last year despite the tuition
increase faculty salaries were al-
lowed to slide. The nationwide'
faculty salary average rose 5 per
cent faster than our own. We
slipped on the A.A.U.P. rating
from A to B. Though one can
never attribute a man's decision
to any one factor, it is interesting
that this year three of the most
respected scholars in the depart-
ment in which I am majoring
have either left temporarily or
decided not to return after spend-
ing the year on leave.
Painful as it may be, however,
we must admit that most of us can
afford another $20 to $40 a se-
mester. In 1966, 36 per cent of
the parents of freshmen earned
over $15,000. Yet many students
and their parents cannot afford a
tuition increase. I estimate that
at least 6400 in-state undergrad-
uates are in need of financial aid.
For some of these an uncompen-
sated tuition increase when added
to the extremely high cost of liv-
ing in Ann Arbor would be the
last straw forcing them to drop
out of higher education entirely
or commute to Wayne, Eastern,
or Highland Park Community Col-
lege instead of attending here.
college for the weathy alone it
already is to expand the scholar-
ship-grant in aid program. When
tuition has been raised in the
past the Regents have traditional-
ly increased the stipends of the
3800 Ann Arbor undergraduates
on scholarship by the amount of
the tuition increase. This would
cost $228,000 for ;a $60 a year in-
crease. Much of it is available
form non-university sources.
This is not enough, however,
for there are at least 2,600 instate
undergraduates that by the Col-
lege Scholarship Standards re-
quire aid but who do not receive a
scholarship or gift aid. Using data
from the A.C.E. student informa-
tion form on the number of sib-
lings and parental income of
student I have calculated the total
need for financial aid by Ann Ar-
bor in-state undergraduates to be
at least six milion dollars. Hardly
more than half of this need,
$3,250,000, was provided by schol-
arships and loans available from
Michigan Higher Ed. or the Uni-
versity. The 2,215,000 of scholar-
ships included Michigan Higher
Ed. and $284,000 of athletic tend-
ers. The 1,035,000 of loans assumes
that one third of the loans made
to undergraduates are to out-of-
state students.
THUS THERE already exists a
financial gap of 2.75 million dol-
lars. A tuition increase of 60 dol-
lars would increase that gap by
$395,000. So far it has not been
contemplated to increase grant
aid outside the Opportunity Award
program bytmore than $240,000.
The opportunity award program
increase is impressive only on
students who were on the street
late at night.
In any case, when police
brougjit warrants for the arrests
of several MSU students to the
campus police, the campus force
helped the police locate the stu-
dents.
Some of the arrested students
live in the dormitories, and it_ is'
difficult to understand how police
obtained information of the al-
leged marijuana and LSD sales.
without the cooperation of other
students, or of the resident ad-
visors.
This situation at least suggests
that the alleged "system of in-
formers" may exist,
If it does, it is a clear invasion
of the privacy of MSU's students.
In addition, it is, as one professor
told students at a rally, incom-
patible with academic freedom.
THE ISSUES are hazy, at best.
Why, for instance, should stu-
dents at the Michigan State cam-
pus be protected from police any
more than the average citizen?
One reason is that-for the stu-
dent living on-campus at least-
the dormitory is his home and he
should have the usual rights of
privacy. This privacy is clearly
endangered if roommate is en-
listed to spy against roommate.
As for the police themselves,
the necessity of an armed, mili-
tant force on campus is highly
dubious. In addition, there has
for a long time been considerable
ill feeling, for the 'police on the
part of the students, This has
been especially true since the
final examination period in June
1966 when students and ;police
I1
Shades of rich-white