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 420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor, Mich. News Phone: 764-0552 Editorials printed in The Michigan Daily exp ress the individual opinions of staff writers or the editors. This must be noted in all reprints. 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" I, 'I) " '" , '' ' Ka . , ---_ti . r j 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