Qir 3fidr4an Dait
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THURSDAY, MAY 8, 1969
NIGHT EDITOR: HAROLD ROSENTHAL
SACUA action on ROTC:
A contemptible stall
THE SENATE ADVISORY Committee on
University Affairs (SACUA) recom-
mendation t h a t the Academic Affairs
committee make an extensive study of
Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC)
is clearly designed to prolong the obvious
necessity for eliminating credit for ROTC
courses.
The literary college curriculum 'com-
mittee has already reviewed the issue and
found that the bulk of ROTC course ma-
terial is "conjectural, non-analytical, and
often blatantly propagandistic." T h e
committee overwhelmingly accepted this
vehement denouncement of ROTC a n d
recommended that all credit for ROTC
be dropped in the literary college.
But the college's executive committee
decided not to act on the recommenda-
tion and suggested instead that the Sen-
ate Assembly study ROTC further and
formulate "a set of policy statements and
recommendations that might be address-
ed to the Regents."
The literary college then referred the
issue to SACUA which in t u r n recom-
mended that the Academic Affairs Com-
mittee of the Assembly study it.
THE BUCK HIAS BEEN PASSED from the
literary co lege's curriculum commit-
tee to its executive committee and from
there to SACUA and the Assembly which
represent the faculty of a 11 University
schools and colleges. ROTC is now stuck
in the Assembly with nowhere to go but
to the Regents..
The only conceivable purpose for bring-
ing a literary college issue before the fac-
ulty at large and requesting an addition-
al study is procrastination.
It is always necessary to study an issue
before making a final decision, but the is-
sue of ROTC accreditation has been stud-
ied. And the objective study is not at all
ambiguous. T h e recommendation is
strong, decisive and clear. It is thus ap-
parent that Senate Assembly is looking
for a way out of dropping all credit for
ROTC courses and that this new study
is intended to find that way out. If the
study can unearth any vestige of academ-
ic merit in any of the ROTC courses, the
Assembly could use this as a basis f o r
maintaining credit for ROTC.
THE ONLY conceivable reason for the
Assembly's wanting to maintain credit
for ROTC is the $10 million the Univer-
sity receives for classified research, most
of it from the Army, and perhaps some
misguided desire to maintain this un-
healthy status quo.
THE ASSEMBLY has three alternatives:
It can go against student opinion and
precedents set by Stanford, Harvard,
Yale and other universities and decide
credit should be maintained for ROTC
courses; it can recommend to the Re-
gents that all credit for ROTC in the
literary college be dropped; or it can
hedge by suggesting credit be dropped for
some ROTC courses and maintaining it
for others.
Whatever the Assembly does, it will not
do it for a long time. The 'Assembly will
not formally hear SACUA's recommenda-
tion until its May 19 meeting. An "ex-
tensive" study can be dragged out for an-
other few months, and then the Assem-
bly may still try to let the entire issue die
in committee.
The University is trying to avoid t h e
ROTC issue rather than trying to solve
it, and such tooling of University bure-
aucracy can only be condemned.
-ERIKA HOFF
....JAMES WE LE R
Where is the, Gaulle now?
martin. hirschnan
High school revolt
NEW YORK
}N POLITICAL and social maturity, high school students are fast
outgrowing the authoritarian environment which the present sec-
ondary educational system continues to enforce.
No longer do they docilely tolerate the tremendous powers which
teachers have over their conduct. No longer do they humbly comply
with anachronistic dress regulations.
Not only are high school students protesting these intrusions on
their personal lives and behavior, but they have also gained a new
and growing political awareness-and they are hastening to put this
new knowledge into practice.
IN NEW YORK CITY, fast becoming the home of educational
bedlam, the rift between the aspirations of students and the traditional
goals their teachers and administrators continue to pursue is becoming
only too painfully clear.
Obscuring the everyday news of knifings and vandalism, the story
of a continuing series of violent, politically oriented acts by high school
students has wormed its way into a semi-permanent slot on even the
crowded front page of the New York Times.
The story varies from school to school, but most of the recent
violence has centered around a one-day city-wide boycott by black
students and the ill-timed, ill-considered and even outright racist
reactions of the school principals.
Lucky indeed, is the high school principal who has not of late been
quoted by the Times. But even these anonymous administrators are
having their troubles-press coverage of the high schools has been an
epic of understatement.
ONE OF THESE FACELESS entities ,is Maurice Bleifeld, biology-
teacher-made-good and now principal of one of the best non-specialized
schools in the city, Martin Van Buren High School.
Tucked away in a residential section of eastern Queens, Van Buren
is probably the most suburban of the city schools. Nonetheless, the
school has its share of black students who, after extensive redistricting,
travel from not-so-nearby Jamaica and St. Albans.
When Van Buren's blacks participated in the city-wide boycott
last month, Bleifeld responded by sending absent-without-excuse no-
tices to the parents of every black student who had been absent-even
those who had brought in illness notes.
In response, or in apparent or alleged response, a storm of violence
hit the school a few days later: mobs roamed the halls smashing
windows and a can of mace exploded in a corridor sending dozens to
the emergency room.
Now some 3o policemen guard the school-two in every bathroom
and, fittingly, two in the principal office. Students and teachers await
the next move.
WHILE THEY WAIT, there are other forces working to exacer-
gate the tension. The students have finally formed a union and there
is an underground newspaper run by SDS-type high school students.
Meanwhile, even the school's single lip-service concession to
democracy, the General Organization (student government) is causing
a significant stir by cutting off funds to the student newspaper which
has generally taken an unfavorable view of the activities of the student
union and the black students.
Censorship? Not really. The paper :s already censored by Raymond
Marcus, a tired-old-liberal English teacher who won't let the student
editors say anything of moment about the operations of the school.
MARCUS, OF COURSE, exemplifies the attitudes of trying to del
with activism in the high school and colleges. He simply cannot accept,
never will accept, the concept that students have rights as human beings
and of citizens of the academic communities in which they live.
But for all that, the existence of the Marcuses is not surprising.
What is indeed surprising is the rise of activism among the high school
students themselves.
THERE ARE NO SIMPLE answers. In part, high school student ac-
tivism is a result of the growth in our society of a highly vocal minority
- so vocal, so active that they are beginning to instill the long-needed
feeling that complaining about greviances is a legitimate pursuit.
But specific conditions have also helped the high school movement
take hold. Last August I had the mixed fortune to attend a meeting
of Columbia-SDS. One 'of the topics of discussion was "spreading the
revolution to the high schools." And to, a certain extent, they have
succeeded.
But if SDS provided the impetus for rebellion, they certainly hit on
a gold mine of discontent in the high schools, and certainly the high
school students are getting little or no help from nefarious outside agi-
tators.
Meanwhile, activism among black students seems more directly re-
lated to the events which shook the city last fall - the teachers strike
and the growing aura of racism which has surrounded both teachers
and administrators as a result.
IF ANALYSING high school student unrest is difficult, predicting
the results of the students efforts is almost impossible. Eventually prin-
cipals will be forced to make minor concessions to students in areas
like dress regulation. And they may possibly institute some black studies
courses to appease black students.
But to go beyond this, to give the students any real freedom - even
freedom to walk the halls without a pass - the principals are likely
to run into a solid wall of opposition from the students' parents. For the
mentality of the Marcuses is precisely the mentality of most parents.
Raymond Marcus is nothing more than an insecure parent. His son,
in fact, is a senior at Van Buren.
4
AAUP statement praiseworthy
(Editor's note: The following editorial
is reprinted from the May 5 issue of the
New York Poit.)
THE RESPECTED, long - established
American Association of University
Professors h a s spoken out forthrightly
against "a direct threat to academic free-
dom" discerned in the recent oratory of
U.S. Attorney General Mitchell and other
Administration spokesmen.
A resolution approved by a majority of
800 convention delegates - representing
90,000 professors - voiced special con-
cern over Mitchell's threat to s t a g e a
large-scale governmental crackdown on
"violence-prone militants."
Clearly the sense of the meeting was
consistent with the spirit of t h e note-
worthy 'declaration adopted jointly by
Editorial Staff
MARCIA ABRAMSON...................Co-Editor
JIM HECK... ......................... Co-Editor
MARTIN HIRSCHMAN . Summer Supplement Editor
JIM FORRESTER >....... .. Summer Sports Editor
PHIL HERTZU JAssociate Summer Sports Editor
ERIC PERGEAUX,,JAY CASSIDY...... Photo Editor
students, faculty and administrators at
Amherst college warning t h a t campus
turmoil will continue unless "political
leadership addresses itself to the major
problems of our society - the huge ex-
penditures of national resources for mili-
tary purposes, the inequities practiced by
the present draft system, the critical
needs of America's 23,000,000 poor, t h e
unequal divisions of our life on racial is-
sues."
BOTH THE AAUP pronouncement and
the Amherst statement come f r o in
those w h o have shunned identification
with the strategy of disorder a n d vio-
lence. They are a reasoned attempt to re-
mind the Administration and its cheer-
leaders that unease and unrest on t h e
campus extend far beyond the ranks of
the disruptionists, and that punitive re-
sponses - no matter h o w justified in
special settings - contain no lasting an-
swers for a concerned generation.
(The scene is Charles de
Gaulle's country residence at
Colombey - les - Deux - Eglises
about 24 hours after his resig-
nation. He is conversing with a
longtime aide.)
DE GAULLE: I am rested and
refreshed. Now, what news
from Paris. Is it torn by disorder?
Do not spare me ugly details.
Aide: We have no news of con-
sequence.
De Gaulle: Ah, they must have
cut off all communication.
Aide: Not to my knowledge.
De Gaulle: What do the news-
casts say? There is no reference
to tumult and strife in the streets?
Aide: The last report said Paris
was quiet. Only a few minor
episodes. The people seem numb
or dumb.
De Gaulle: They frequently
lack an immediate sense of history.
Are you certain we are adequately
informed? Surely there have beeni
demonstrations by my enemies and
friends?,
Aide: Perhaps they will come
tomorrow, or the day after.
DE GAULLE: There have been
no requests for my appearance
on television?
Aide: Ves, we have a cable from
something called the Johnny Car-
son Show, asking you to appear
if you visit the United States.
De Gaulle: And what is the
Monsieur Carson show?
Aide: Oh, I understand it has
a very large audience.
De Gaulle: And why does this
gentleman assume I am coming
to his country?
Aide: I suppose he read that
President Nixon had renewed the
invitation after last night's, uh,
unpleasantness.
De Gaulle: That seems a pre-
sumptuous conclusion. S u r e l y
there will be a better refuge in
winted for this aged body.
Aide: You will never be aged in
spirit.
De Gaulle: Thank you, my old
friend. Tell me, the French press?
Have there been editorials urging
me to reconsider?
Aide: We have not received
word of any yet. It is early.
De Gaulle: They have probably
already imposed a censorship: I
cannot believe the silence could
be so pervasive.
Aide: Perhaps there is aware-
ness there can be no Gaullism
\ithout de Gaulle. It is like
speaking of religion without God.
* * *
DE GAULLE: YOU promise that
you are not hiding any news of
what is happening in our country
-that you have not invented this
picture of serenity?
Aide: No, truly, nothing is hap-
pening.
De Gaulle: You mean France is
dead?
Aide: Perhaps it would be truer
to say that France is reflecting
sadly on the meaning of its folly.
(De Gaulle turns on a news-
cast. An announcer is saying
that "in springtime Paris today
it was almost as if nothing had
happened." He turns it off.)
De Gaulle:It has been a long
journey together, Francois. Now
we near the end.
Aide: For you there is never an
end. There are only intermissions
between great acts.
De Gaulle: I cannot believe all
is placid.
Aide: There is said to be ten-
sion about the franc.
De Gaulle: I have never been
concerned with monetary matters.
It is not the franc that I care
about; it is France.
Aide: (A messenger arrives.)
Ah, another TV invitation.
De Gaulle: From Paris?
Aide: No, it is from Lawrence
Spivak of Meet the Press in Wash-
ington.
De Gaulle: Please, the full text.
-Aide: "Our program would be
honored if you would be our guest
during dour projected visit to
Washington."
DE GAULLE: IT appears that
if I am to be a stranger in my
own country, I shall have a wider
audience across the sea.
Aide: You have lived through
such hours before.
De Gaulle: Perhaps. (Another
messenger arrives.)
Aide: Another television invita-
tion. It is again from Washington.
It is a program called Face the
Nation.
De Gaulle: A poor joke in these
circumstances. (The telephone
rings and the aide is heard say-
ing: "Henri, what is the true con-
dition in Paris? . . . Then he re-
marks "oh" and hangs up.)
De Gaulle: Quickly, tell me-
things have begun to happen? Do
not minimize the account; I am
prepared for news of any sort. I
am even ready to go to Paris at
a moment's notice if I am needed
to restore order.
Aide: Henri says all is very
quiet. He said a trifle sarcastical-
ly: "No, Paris is not burning .. .
and there is no deluge." I have
never really liked Henri.
De Gaulle: Has our nation be-
come a cemetery? I shall walk
briefly in the garden now. This
dull tranquillity causes me great
tension. Summon me at once if
there is any news. I cannot be-
lieve France is dead so soon after
my departure.
(C) New York Post
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LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
The dedication, the love and the dream of the ungainly no
ew RC
To the Editor:
THE SERIES of articles now ap-
pearing in The Daily address
themselves to the genuine need of
the University community to know
w h a t the Residential College is
attempting to be and what ways it
is finding of getting there. Un-
fortunately, the articles are fail-
ing, I think, to get at the heart of
the matter.
I propose in this letter to try to
produce an epitome of the College,
as it were the bones beneath the
flesh that is the series now ap-
pearing in this paper.
First off, the College was con-
ceived in the traditionalist impulse
of wanting in the middle of this
huge, pulsing, growing university
to retrieve and nuture the funda-
mentally important one-to-one re-
lation of a student to a scholar,
a scholar who is interested in that
student as a human being (one
who, in especially important ways,
is in the process of becoming).
Out of that impulse came the
Planning Committee, a group of
lege during its planning) retired,
and the literary college gave the
new college as an earnest of its
support of the faculty dream the
best gift it could give: Dean Rob-
ertson.
4 And then we opened our doors;
in walked the freshmen; and the
dream, it seemed, was coming true.
What no planner and no adminis-
trator had anticipated now hap-
pened. T h e students (freshmen)
somehow sensed t h e dedication,
the love, the dream behind their
ungainly new college. (What oth-
er college w a s ever planned by
faculty?)
They made that purity of pur-
pose theirs, and so began the met-
amorphosis of the faculty dream
into a student dream. The work-
ing of that metamorphosis con-
tinues, erupting from time to time
onto the pages of your newspa-
per. If you look at the eruptions
you'll find t h a t the passion of
them is the passion of students
and faculty dreaming the p u r e
dream and trying to give it life.
bage and jargon of the social
scientist. I've set down for y o u
what I believe to be the essence of
the place: what needs to be known
if one would know the RC.
--Paul G. Wagner
Assistant to the Director
Residential College '
April 16
ROTC
To the Editors:
I WOULD LIKE to address the
following remarks on the ROTC
controversy to the students, fac-
ulty, and regents of the univer-
sity.
Few except the overly pious
among us would deny that we live
in a malestrom of force both on
the domestic and the internation-
al scene. On balance the military
is probably more a symptom than
a cause of this violence. However,
until a more enlightened culture
epoch arrives when our society is
less overcome with passions over
ideology, property, and power, it
of these problems. Such a proposal
is a well-meaning evasion of them.
Furthermore, it doesn't appear
that the consequences of such ac-
tion have been explored. Destruc-
tion of the nationwide ROTC or-
ganization would not cripple the
military - it would simply sub-
stitute a more reactionary officer
recruitment system for the pres-
ent arrangements.
MY PROPOSAL then is not to
purge the military from the cam-
pus at this moment in history but
simply to treat it as another ex-
tra-curricular campus activity like
the Gilbert and Sullivan Society
or the SDS. Chastise the preten-
tions of ROTC to academic credit,
but let it survive as one of the few
imperfect means of humanizing
our military institutions which, in
all liklihood, will remain with us
for the indefinite future.
-James Fay, Grad
April 16
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