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I!
From
Columbia to the park to,
THURSDAY, AUGUST 1, 1968
NIGHT EDITOR: STEVE NISSEN
Fee folly at the U'
By MARTIN HIRSCHMAN
NEW YORK -- There is a single
police barrier before the drive-
way at' West 113th Street and
Morningside Drive which leads to
the site of the controversial gym-
nasium in Morningside Park, a
few blocks from the Columbia
University, campus.
The site has been leveled in
preparation for construction, but
work on the gym has been at a
standstill since students took over
five university buildings in late
April. No one who'll talk seems
to know when or if construction
will resume.
The fence which protesting stu-
dents judiciously tore down just
before they took their first build-
ing on April 23 has been restored
and reinforced. Behind each pole
in the fence is a 10-foot long, six-
inch thick wooden beem, wedged
into give the fence added re-
sistance to those who would have
it down again.
Further resistance is provided
by the Negro police lieutenant
sitting in a small wooden shack
just inside the fence. He is listen-
ing to a popular radio station
and staring at me suspiciously as
I write this.
several black youngsters are going
at our national pastime with full
vigor.
Farther east, beyond the park,
lies Harlem. Most of the build-
ings there are quite old and, con-
sequently, are considerably short-
er than their downtown counter-
parts. When these buildings in
Harlem were constructed - per-
haps at the turn of the century-
the elevator was not available and
few structures are over five sto-
ries tall.
Yesterday I took the IND sub-
way branch uptown to Columbia
instead of the usual IRT and
found myself in the middle of
Harlem, several blocks from Mor-
ningside Heights. There was not a
single white face in sight and I,
felt very white, rich and well-fed
as I hurried to the park and up
the cliff to "safety."
HARLEM HAS BEEN the for-
gotten part of the city. Riots here
over the last five years have help-
ed remind New Yorkers, though,
and in some very small ways the
city is just beginning to do some-
thing about it.
Mayor Lindsay has tried bread.
and circuses for many residents,
by arranging such events as block
parties with the N.Y. Yankees and
promoting on-the-street perform-
ances by stars and local talent.
But for many it is not enough---
it is the circus without the bread.
** *
618 WEST 114th Street is an
old, six-story brick building one
block from the Columbia campus
which protesting students and
local residents took over on May
22 for a half-day before police
cordoned off the street and moved
in to arrest over 50.
The arrestees claimed the
building is an example of the uni-
versity's racist policies and in-
trusion into the community. The
dwelling is owned by the school
and, at the time of the.take-over,
demonstrators claimed that over
half its residents had been evicted.
There is a fire-escape mounted
onto the side of the building but
much of its black paint is worn
away, revealing the corrosion be-
neath. There are a dozen door
bells in the outer hall of the
building, but only two of them are
labelled.
There is but one garbage pail
on the street ready for collection,
while at least ten empty ones lie
in the cellar below.
Two cats are sleeping at 618-
one on the cement stoop and an-
other between a first floor window,
and the bars which guard it.
Except for the momentary ap-
pearance of the head of a small
Negro boy at a third-story win-
dow, 618 West 114th Street seems
virtually deserted.
* * *
FLAPPING GENTLY in the
breeze over 536 West 114th Street
is a red flag displaying the drav#-
ing of a large, erect rodent with
g rifle in his hand standing be-
fore an overflowing garbage can
-the symbol of Rat, an under-
ground newspaper and of a local
branch of the Students for a
Democratic Society.
During the academic year Phi
Epsilon Pi fraternity rents the
building from its owner, Colum-
bia University, but this summer
the school's SDS and other/ stu-
dents involved in continuing the
student strike and other protest
activities which forced the closing
of the campus in the spring have
sublet the buildong for $1600 and
set up a school in revolution.
The Summer Liberation School
offers 38 courses, from "Photo-
graphy" to "Imperialism and Rev-
olution in the Oppressed Nations"
without tuition and claims the
participation of over 700 students.
Funds for the school come .from
contributions.
ALSO OPERATING out of 536
is the Student Steering Commit-
tee, which ran much of the pro-
Harlem
test activity in the spring and
continues to represent the most
radical segment of the student
body. (Some more moderate mem-
bers of the committee quit in the
spring.)
On the wall of the first floor
hall of the building hang a pic-
ture of Che Guevara, quotations
from Mao Tse-tung, and notices
of various activities, including
marches, demonstrations and a
petition drive to put Eldridge
Cleaver on the presidential ballot.
One student explains the suc-
cess of the liberation school as the
outcome of the "polarization" of
attitudes which took place on the
campus last spring. Students here
plan to take advanatage of this
polarization to precipitate a crisis
on campus soon after school re-
opens on Sept. 26.
In fact, the people who are run-
ning the show at 536 have become
so radicalized by the events of
the past year that they can see no
way in which confrontation with
the administration can be avoided
-even if they wish to avoid it.
Even if all the demands of the
spring are met, one female mem-
ber of the steering committee told
me, it won't be enough. "We don't
expect to keep our demands. As
revolutionaries our demands can
never be -met."
A4
THE UNIVERSITY'S current fee struc-
ture is inequitable, contradictory, and
based on outdated policies. Moreover,
some administrators appear to be un-
aware of the accumulating mistakes in
their procedures and insensitive to con-
structive suggestions to eliminate the
problem.
Under the new fee assessment plan
which makes it more expensive to take
equivalent course loads in different
terms, students are unfairly charged
thousands of dollars every year through
the complicated system of minimum fees.
Students who elect partial course loads
during the spring-summer full term pay
more for their credit hours than those
students who elect an Identical number
of credit hours during the two half term
sessions.
This is because the fee assessment plan
has two different minimum fees with half
term students assessed a smaller amount.
THE MINIMUM fee is the least amount
a student can pay for being registered
at the University. It is charged to those
students who do not take a full course
load or to those who wish to register
without, taking credit courses in order
to use campus facilities.
The problem in the fee assessment
structure arises when a student elects a
partial course load. He is charged both
the mirilmum fee and a specified amount
for each credit hour he elects.
For example, because minimum fees
are different for the half term to the
full term, an in-state student will be pay-
ing $20 more for each credit if he elects
a partial load during the full term. The
minimum fee for in-state undergraduate
students for a half term will be $20 while
the minimum fee for the full term will
be $40.
A N IN-STATE student taking two hours
in the half-term pays the cost of each
fee of $20, while a' stident taking an
credit hour in addition to the minimum
identical course load in the full term
pays a minimum fee of $40.
The fee assessment plan also penalizes
many students who elect courses simul-
taneously in both half terms and the full '
term during the spring-summer trimes-
ter. Under the system in operation since
1965, a student in this category pays
three separate minimum fees.'
The failure of the administration to
keep the fee assessment policy up to date
has created unfair tuition assessments
for many students. Large-scale restruc-
turing of the fee assessment system
should be undertaken by both students
and administrators and compensation
should be granted to those students who
have suffered under the present system
for the past four years.
-STUART GANNES
MORNINGSIDE PARK
100 feet behind the site+
gym to a baseball field
drops
of the
where
Some random thoughts on the politicktock
"Lxce n ile, Mr1. Wallace .. . You're stepping an11
l ines"
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Tired of the pooh-pooh
MAYBE - NOT - and - then - again -
maybe presidential candidate Ron-
ald Reagan apparently lacks a basic un-
derstanding of the frustration of politi-
cal dissenters in the country.
On a news forum last Sunday the Cali-
fornia governor was questioned about
Vice President Humphrey's recent speech
in Los Angeles, where he was shouted
down by about 50 black militants.
Reagan likened the disruptive listen-
ers to the Hitler Youth of Nazi Germany.
He said the backbone of the Third Reich
came from students like this "disrupting
political rallies" and later "breaking
down doors in the night."
That Reagan can regard this incident
as merely one of rude disturbance and
that he considers the protesters similar
to Hitler Youth indicates he has over-
looked some vital aspects of the present
political situation.
WHAT REAGAN has disregarded is the
possibility that a boisterous inter-
ruption of a public rally may be the only
way dissenters can be heard.
That they need go so far implies the
dissenters believe a gentler form of pro-
test (letters, pickets, etc.) is meaningless.
They are not satisfied with being pooh-
poohed by professional politicians who
give a cursory glance to their letters and
scoff at their marches.
A rude outburst such as the one which
greeted Humphrey is, as Reagan took
such pains to point out, a violation of
freedom of speech, and on one level it
can be considered inexcusable. Humphrey
should have been given the opportunity
to finish what he had to say.
HOWEVER, while the disruption may
have been inexcusable on those
grounds, it is entirely understandable
and permissable on others. Those black
militants in Watts were frustrated. They
were intent on being heard this time and
not with being given a hasty brush off.
Contrary to Reagan's inference, pro-
testers are not interested in breaking
down any doors in the night nor do they
want to drag any government officials
to concentration camps or burn books
whose content differs from their views.
Instead they only are attempting to be
heard - and more important, to be
listened to.
IF THIS SMALL episode is indeed indic-
ative of Reagan's attitude and under-
standing of protests and protesters then
we have much to fear should he attain
any higher office than governor of Cali-
fornia.
The only bright spot in Sunday's half
hour question and answer session was
Reagan's promise not to run down dis-
ruptive students with his car as George
Wallace has threatened to do. Most likely
Reagan would use his horse and buggy.
-NADINE COHODAS
By WALTER SHAPIRO
IT'S THAT TIME of year again. The Republican Convention .opens
in Miami Beach next Monday. As expected, Rockefeller and Nixon
are squabbling over the polls and their respective strength on the first\
ballot. And the spectre of Ronald Reagan hangs over everything.
Already there are the usual conjectures that a deadlocked con-
vention might turn to a Percy or a Lindsay on the fifth ballot and
thereby save America from a dismal Nixon-Humphrey clash.
So between now and the time the balloting starts the hopes of
a nation will focus on whether the deathless Richard Nixon can be
stopped on the first ballot.
As exciting as the thought of a deadlocked convention is, it is
questionable whether that sort of thrilling political confrontation is
possible these days. For thanks to television, too many people will be
watching.
A deadlocked convention with a darkhorse candidate - like Percy
or Lindsay - emerging from the backrooms and hotel lobbies is
loaded with the kind of drama that audiences-at home love and filled
with the kind of chaotic realism that politicians hate.
They believe a party squabbling with the entire electorate eagerly
looking on in living color will appear to be ,indecisive, irresponsible,
and often just plain vulgar. A darkhorse candidate emerges not by
popular acclaim, but as the choice of the boys in the backroom who
want to get the dangerously unpredictable convention over with and
the delegates home so they can go back to-running the party.
And since "bossism" and the "backrooms" are forbidden political
images these days, politicians are probably convinced that a dark-
horse candidate would all but destroy the party's reputation for rep-
resenting the popular will.
So while I may be overly pessimistic and fervently pray for an
exciting convention in Miami Beach, I have a suspicion that television
has killed the dranatic convention, the same way it has eliminated
election night suspense.
WHILE EVENTS HAVE succeeded in making all political pundits
look foolish this year, it's been quite interesting to follow the emotional
flip-flops of the New York Times' greyish eminence, James Reston,
as he regards the upcoming election.
Like all of us before Lyndon Johnson announced his withdrawal,
Reston was moaning over the total unresponsiveness of the American
political system.
But come the springtime and the primaries, Reston was one of the
first to eagerly proclaim that our wondrous political structure proved
responsive after all.
Around the mid-summer hiatus as political a9tivity started to
die down awaiting the conventions, depression began to set in as
Reston became convinced that Johnson had stepped aside to give the
nation a dismal choice between Humphrey and Nixon.
Suddenly this aura of gloom disappeared and Reston appeared
radiant. Gleaning through the position papers of the two candidates,
Reston appeared to discover the divine plan behind the Humphrey-
Nixon race.
The election was to revolve around the hoary question of our
attitudes toward the Soviet Union. Humphrey would defend the ac-
commodation of the sixties and Nixon would hark back to the con-
tainment of the fifties.
Alas, euphoria proved elusive. Even Reston realized how mean-
ingless a campaign focusing around bygone issues can be. And with
a heavy heart and a downcast look, Reston proclaimed yesterday from
his pulpit on the Times editorial page, "It's hard to believe . . . that
something is not deeply wrong with the system."
* * *
ONE LAST NOTE for those devotees of plots, counter-plots, and
a generally devious and double-dealing approach to politics.. A Harris
poll printed in Tuesday's New York Post reveals that President Lyndon
Baines Johnson - remember him? - would defeat Richard Nixon
for the presidency by a substantial margin.
On the eve of the Democratic Convention, just picture Lyndon
sitting down to tell his Vice President a secret - and your imagination
can take it from there.
"Up, boy-you can't backslide 'now"
10
r pmus
Fi*rkusny j*tops tri~umphant s eries
Smashing the Rock
THE CHARGING Rhinoceros of Regu-
lation Department:.
City Council's decision Monday to pro-
hibit the use of electronically amplified
instruments in public parks is a good
example of hasty over-reaction to the
demands of an irate constituency, with
relatively little regard to the needs of
less enfranchised members of the com-
munity - namely student types, under-
21 music lovers and their fellow travelers.
Both councilmen and members of the
Police Department apparently received
several conplaints in the past few weeks
about a rock band concert at West Park
two Sundays ago.
The complaints resulted in the arrest
of the performers, members of the rock
group (the M-C Five) and their man-
ager under the city's all-purpose noise
ordinance. But such action was not
enough for members of Council, who de-
manded and received more specific regu-
lations.
IT GOES without saying that even the
most loving children of light cannot
in the name nf eniovment disturb the
at the park, rather than prohibiting am-
plified music altogether. A bandshell is
already there, and residents have not
asked to have it torn down; obviously
the park was designed to accommodate
some kind of noise.
As the new regulation now stands, rock
groups will presumably have to put over
their sound using four extra-loud guitars
and one fantastic drummer, while sym-
phony orchestras, who also use the shell,
will have no problem being heard.
I TNFORTUNATELY, Council did not see
the inequity of this regulation, and
proceeded to approve it, ignoring the
lone voice of Councilman Cappaert, who
seems to be a fan.
Cappaert suggested that the ban on
rock concerts could at least be made
temporary, until the city health depart-
ment could set up, decibel guidelines in
conjunction with the University speech
clinic, or until an alternate site for the
concerts could be found.
Either one of these solutions would be
more acceptable than the present situ-'
ation, although there are few sites in
By R. A. PERRY
Words of congratulations and
appreciation must be expressed to
Gail Rector, Director of the Uni-
versity Musical Society, for a tri-
umphant summer concert series.
Even with an excess of festivals
occupying every moment of a mu-
sician's summer, Mr. Rector has
managed to book and present in
Ann Arbor four completely out-
standing pianists.
The Ann Arbor series ended last
night with a recital by the Czech
keyboard artist, Rudolf Firkusny,
in Rackham Aud. Once again, a
rave review must be reported, for
Firkusny'sconcert was in every
way a success.
Firkusny, a mature and sea-
soned musician, perfected his ar-
tistry before these present years
when record companies often ex-
ploit young pianists' talents and
bloat them into exaggeration. No
over-sell, no technical nor poetic
exageration mar the suave, sen-
sitive, and well-grounded confi-
dence of Mr. Firkusny. He does
not try to wow the audience, does
not seek to say "see how sensitive
I am" or "see how I am whipping
off this fiendish work." Rather,
he ferrets out the expressive line
of the music, even in works which
are overtly virtuosic, and seeks to
idiomatically speak the composer's
poetry.
His technical facility strikes
one as beautiful, not awesome,
and this was especially true in
four Etudes by Debussy. In "pou
les arpeges composes" he made
the piano sing like a harp (he is a
splendid Debussy player) ; in
Brahms' C major Intermezzo he
subsumed manual challenge in the
longer line of musical expression.
posth., by Schubert. This sonata
comes from Schubert's last year,
when the composer, living penni-
less in Vienna, also wrote the
marvelous "Schwannengesang"
cycle and the C major Quintet.
The sonata displays all of Schu -
bert's fertile lyrical imagination
adherence to a free sonata devel--
opment, and a more important at-
tention to personal spiritual state-
ment. The themes of the first two
movements, actually quite similar,
are seraphically beautiful and
pensive; in the end two move-,
ments Schubert rises above all
dolor and revels in rhythmic and
melodic delights that reveal the
musical spirit unfettered by dark-
ness of daily existence.
Mr. Firkusny gave the work the
time and feeling it demands. He
honored and illuminated Schu-
bert's poetic expression, finding as
much meaning in developmental
as well as major thematic pas-
sages. The "Andante" was won-
derfully evanescent..
#i
Letters: Good ol I-Ms
To the Editor:
IT IS MORE
you made
Wines Field.
than about time,
inquiries about
No one appears willing to ac-
cept responsibility for Wines
Field and yet two weeks ago a
decision was made toblacktop
part of it for use of the Band.
This is the only lighted field in
the University and it is sheer
stupidity to have a lighted car
park and yet be building a 'pede-
strian plaza' in front of the Ad-
ministration Bldg. (Another case
of the University whitewashing it-
self?).
The Intramural Department
will be losing a lighted field which
would have six or seven games
football per day during the Fall.
and now they will require an ex-
tra three fields during the after-
noon. One nameless maniacal ad-
ministrator suggested that the
blacktopped field may be used for
touch football. The cost of the
Wines Field improvements is
mittee will not meet until after
the beginning of the Fall semes-
ter, by which time Wines Field
will be partially blacktopped. Re-
peated requests to meet with in-
terested students to discuss this
question have been ignored.
At no stage were students con-
sulted in the planning of black-
topping part of Wines Field.
However, you reported only last
week Vice President Arthur Ross
said that "students can and
should make a contribution to
University planning." When the
majority of the students return
in the Fall they will find that part
of Wines Field is blacktopped
without their knowledge. This de-
cision has still not yet been offi-
cially announced.
THOUGH THE Athletic De-
partment has given assurances
that Wines Field will be com-
pleted for use by the beginning of
the Fall, it is now rumored that it
will not be ready by Oct. This will
ruin the Intramural Department
and Club Sports schedules. and
1