Seventy-Third Yewr ED IT AD MAMNAGE RD]Y STmwr oF n T UNiVUrr OF MICHIGAN vNDER AUTHORIrTY O 0AD IN CONTOL OF STUDENT PUBLICATIONS 'where oinIWWnsAr e 2" STUDENT PUBuc vu oNs BLDw., Aw Aaso, MAcn., PHONE wo 2-3241 Trxh wjn . Editorials printed in The Michigan Daily express the individual opinions of staff writers or the editors. This must be noted in at* reprints. IDAY, MARCH 15, 1964 NIGHT EDITOR: KENNETH WINTER * A FACE IN THE CROWD: A Committee of Expediters By Ronald Wilton, Editor University Must Set Criteria In Accepting Research VICE-PRESIDENT for Research Ralph A. Sawyer has announced that $40 million is being spent at the University this fiscal year for research compared with $36 million last year and a meager $1 million as recently as 1940. These figures are impressive-even daz- zling-considering that the total expendi- tures of the University last year was under $130 million. The great importance of the research effort at the University has be- come a matter of fact in the last few years. But the relationships that are to be established between research and the other functions of the University have yet to be clearly delineated or even under- stood. IT IS REASONABLY CLEAR that the breakneck speed of research growth is slowing down and moving into line with the general growth of the University. Re- search expenditures increased almost $5 million from 1962 to 1963 and are ex- pected to increase only $4 million in the current fiscal year. It has long been the official policy of the University that the research and teaching functions of the University are to be intimately connected and interde- pendent. This goal has been accomplished fairly well so far, more successfully per- haps than in the other great research uni- versities of the country. Even so, the re- search and teaching connections of the Institute of Science and Technology on North Campus and at Willow Run are ten- uous at best. Therebis,tfurthermore, continual pres- sure to expand research work into areas that would add superficially to the Uni- versity's public luster but do little to en- hance the inner strength of the Univer- sity's many functions. This pressure comes from administrators for whom a rapidly rising figure for research expenditures works some strange magic of pride and image; from a State Legislature that ex- pects present day wizardry from a re- search program that must be basically oriented to "pure" research that has little relation to today's economic or industrial problems; and from a federal government that must have results now, not complex and abstract ideas, to display to its tax- payers. THIS IS NOT TO SAY that the Univer- sity is to play no part in, for example, advancing the state's economy or con- tributing to the national scientific effort. The University is, after all, a great store- house of talent and facilities that can be of great use to the state and the nation. The system whereby University talent is available to "counsel" Michigan indus- try is an example of cooperation that does not interfere with University functions. The water pollution laboratory scheduled for North Campus is an example of how the University can benefit greatly from federal funds without tying itself to un- desirable commitments. The lab is to be owned and operated by the government but will draw heavily on University tal- ent and will in turn be a seedbed for important University research and grad- uate training. It is through such means as these that pressures for expansion of research into undesirable areas are being met and re- sisted. It will take increasing fortitude to resist them in the future as the great expansion in research slows down and projects are sought more and more in- discriminately to keep up the pace. FORTY MILLION DOLLARS is a stack of money, no doubt about it, but this sum carries its own price tag in the form of indirect costs. By the research vice- president's own admission, these are amounting to about $2.5 million for this year.'that is $2.5 million in extra salaries, building space and administration that must be born by the University and is not paid for by those contracting for research. For this reason it is doubly important to make sure that the research done is im- portant in relation to teaching and to the advancement of knowledge, and is not carried on either for its own sake or the sake of any so-called obligation to the state or nation. The area to which the University should confine itself in accepting and in- stitutionalizing research is undoubtedly a hard one to define properly, lines are fuzzy, and the temptations to stretch them just a little are great. Nevertheless, the lines must be firmly drawn and strict- ly adhered to. The University cannot af- ford literally or figuratively to commit any of its vast store of talent and facili- ties to functions far afield from its in- tended scope-what someone has called "discovery and dissemination of new truth."-ROBERT JOHNSTON DOES THE UNIVERSITY have a problem with a deteriorat- ing intellectual climate? What is the value of an education and what is it for? Should the Uni- versity be an educational or a vocational institution and which is it now? These questions have been rais- ed before but almost always in small informal groups, students having a bull session in an apart- ment, faculty members getting to- gether socially and in small mixed groups just talking. They have not been raised by a substantial seg- ment of the community. Admin- istrators are too busy running their offices, faculty members have to teach and do research, students have to study. Small groups like the Literary College Steering Com- mittee and the University Senate subcommittees are limited both in what they can discuss and the power they have. On Thursday the senior and junior staffs of The Daily had lunch with Regent Eugene Power who raised these questions during the course of the discussion. Some of the proposals brought forth merit further study. There is no doubt that the problem is a real one. When a Regent starts talking about a problem, you know it has arrived. THE PRESENT institutional structure of the University does not provide for anyone to think about these problems on the in- tellectual level, relate them to present practices and then im- plement changes. Not only does nobody have the time, but with the xecption of the President and the Regents nobody has the power to implement new ideas. Everybody is too busy. The question is whether -the problem of the intellectual climate of the University is enough of a problem or concern to warrant the creation of a position to deal with it. The consensus of discus- sions I've been in indicates that it is. The first thought that comes to mind is the creation of a vice- president for intellectual climate or of University reform or some otherwsuch title. This has numer- ous drawbacks which rule it out. One man, no matter how able will not be able to bring the versitility required to the job. Furthermore,, making him a member of the administration would tend to make this person loathe to criticize administrative practices. Other administrators, jealous of the power this person would have to be effective, might be motivated to undermine this person or put pressure on him in some way. The best method would prob- ably be a committee. It would be created by thetRegents and report directly to them. It would be composed of students, faculty and administrators-two or three of each would be the optimum size -and would have the power to make policy as well as recommend it with only the Regents having a veto. THIS IS essential. A group that can only recommend to existing administrators will soon find its work relegated to the bottom of various office baskets. In a University of this size and complexity there are many toes that are going to be stepped on. This group must have the power to do the stepping if these con- cerns are ever going to be dealt with. There are many details to be worked out. The group would hopefully meet two or three times a week at least, which would mean allowing members to adjust their schedules around the meetings. The status of the committee would probably call for some kind of financial renumeration. Member- ship should not be regarded as just one more thing to do, it should be the person's main con- cern while he is part of the group., If membership on this committee cuts into a faculty member's re- search time or a student's study time, he should not be penalized. Thinking about this reminds me of a science fiction story I once read. It concerned a Com- munist country whose production potential was not being realized, both because of wrong theoretical conceptions and numerous bottle- necks and administrative botch- ings. The two top leaders found the average citizen of the country and created him a "Comerade Expiditer," with the power to go around the country and investigate and change any aspect of the economy, whether theoretical or practical, which he felt was act- ing as a brake on progress. He started stepping on toes im- mediately, and when he started removing the leader's friends from top positions for inoompetence, and throwing outnCommunist theory in favor of capitalist prac- tices, they decided to remove him. By this time however the ex- piditer had talked to workers, en- gineers and farmers and con- vinced them that politicians were just too incompetant to run things like factories and a national agri- culture. The story ended with numerous coups d'etat kicking po- liticians out of office all across the country. IT IS DOUBTFUL that such an expiditing committee at the University would bring about the same result. However the prin- ciple is still the same. The value of such a group to the whole community is more important than the fear of officially placed toes. The above proposal is a solution from the top. Complementing it should be a solution acting at the bottom. Before every semester entering students are brought to the Uni- versity for an orientation period. They take a battery of tests, are shown the campus and attend mixers. They are told what a great University this is but they are not really told why. They are also not brought into contact with any- thing relevant to the values or purposes of education or the Uni- versity. What is called for is the creation of a class, either required or elec- tive, at the freshman level. It would be given for credit but without a grade. It would devote itself to trying to stimulate in the student's mind thought on why he is up here, what education is, why it is a good thing and why universities are around. EDUCATION can be viewed in a number of ways. It is a means of training people to fill voca- tional slots in society. It is also a means whereby today's gen- eration is acquainted with the whole history of man's struggle against his environment and the knowledge he has accumulated during this struggle. It prepares the student to carry on the struggle and to add his genera- tion's contribution to this his- tory. It is this definition of edu- cation which makes the student feel a relationship to the whole of humanity and which breaks down barriers between men. It is this definition of educa- tion which is downplayed at this University while the first defini- tion gets the emphasis. It is be- cause of this emphasis on voca- tional education and the financial and material rewards it brings that questions have been raised about intellectual climate, motivation, stimulation and purpose. It is the second definition which must be- come a significant part of the University's foundation. The creation of the proposed class would help accomplish this aim. It would be taught in 'small sections to maximize discussion. Discussion leaders would be stu- dents, faculty and administrators whose main purpose would be to present knowledge about reality and to stimulate thought. The most outlandish ideas would be encouraged. The end result would hopefully be a greater commit- ment to knowledge and education as ends in themselves rather than as means to future rewards. Such a class would take money to set up. The members of an education- al community should be convinced that such a result is worth what- ever amount of money is needed. REGENT Power's interest and concern about the problem of the University's intellectual cli- mate is commendable and must be encouraged. But the whole job is not his. Other concerned individuals must step forth and confront the community with the problem. The two solutions offered here are not the only ones, others must be presented and discussed. What is needed perhaps more than any- thing else is a sense of urgency which will change the context of discussion from that of an in- teresting intellectual exercise to that of a definite reality which must be acted on soon. WOMEN & CHILDREN FIRST: Science Marches On By DICK POLLINGER THIS WEEK I was going to write about ear-piercing as an unconscious symbol of defloration among college girls, but I was advised that it would almost Certainly constitute a breach of the kind of good taste which always characterizes student publications. The practice of having one's ears pierced presents new evidence in support of the largely ignored Aural Stage of development, espoused by a small group of psychoanalysts (most of whom practice in college1 towns, curiously enough). It should be clear, of course, that there is something significant going on just from looking at which girls pierce their ears, which girls don't, which ones want to but are afraid, when the piercing is done, and under what conditions, and the consequent feelings of mixed wordliness, pride, and guilt. The motives and rationales supporting the act are even more re- vealing but ought, I suppose, to await complete exposition in a more appropriately clinical setting. INSTEAD, because of the impending spring weather which threat- ens to empty the fishbowl out onto the diag, it is possible to be topical and yet continue in the same spirit of social science as before. That is, I would like briefly to fill you in on the latest research findings of my social scientist friend (the one, you may remember, who did the little experiment on class-note rigidity and self-reference grammar which I reported in this column several months ago) which this time is about, racial immigration patterns at the University. To be brief, he finds that there is a continuous gradient from the crowd at the news-board end of the fishbowl, which is nearly 100 per cent Jewish, to the Angell Hall end of the connecting corridor, which is nearly 100 per cent Gentile (and thus mistakenly; though commonly, called the "Gaza Strip"). A topologically equivalent space, he finds, is the area between the library steps and the north diag benches. The'gradual change in religious complexion he attributes to a phenomenon which he calls the Adolescent Cultural Normative Ex- change (ACNE). This "exchange" represents, to quote the report, "the tendency of youth, when spatially emancipated from its family back- ground, to explore the folkways of a different, previously forbidden sub- culture which, as a consequence, assumes an overpowering glamour. The exchange reaches its peak, apparently, about the end of the sophomore year. * * * * OF COURSE this is all mathematically derived, but I frankly don't understand the mathematics, nor do I feel it necessary to pass them on to you. The really important thing, it seems to me, is to understand that even next week, when one day you will wake up to smell the air outside and know that it is spring irrevocably, social science is march- ing onward to make our world a more orderly place in which to live. UNION SHOW: Student Artists Lack Serious Searching THE EXHIBITION of student art work to be viewed currently at the Michigan Union is on the whole very disappointing. Unfortunately, the selection committee's standards were exceedingly flexible: the quality of the work varied from the vulgar and insipid to a few well- conceived and finely executed items. The graphics and sculpture generally are the most rewarding. Thomas Minkler's series of character sketches, or rather caricatures, reveal a delightful yet sarcastic approach to the portrayal of the Landlady, the Student and several other types. Al Loving's intaglio has a wonderful, warm, coloristic treatment of blacks to create an intimate and profound abstract composition. Karen Eufinger's wood- cut, "L'Enchante," carries a sense of mystery and nostalgia through the simple forms of a house and tree. THE SCULPTURE, for the most part well-executed, lacks life and expressiveness. Karen Peterson's "Family" links torsos in Rodin-like organic movement. There is a searching here for smoothly flowing articulated surfaces which are pleasing and emotionally moving. Wi- liam Mandt's metal constructions are the most finished and fully evolved works in this category. The better paintings reveal a more embryonic state of development in which most of these student- artists' attempts can be placed. Very few of them appear to be developing along any path at all or to be seriously searching for a way. Mike Liberman's 'Mike's Side" reveals a good sense of strong color juxtapositions to create space and mood. "Beatrice" by Marti Mun captures in a vibrating personal image the romantic figure of Dante's love. Ilze Prikulis and Minkler also have paintings in the show which can be classified above the general low quality. THE EXHIBITION itself reveals a tendency toward academicism for which university art schools are infamous. Too many of the works depend on imitation of a particular artist's style without any attempt to understand or explore the actual implications of it. What is needed is not outward appearances-and even that is, lacking in these works whose greatest sin is poor technical quality- but a genuine, honest and personal search for an artistic mode. -Miriam Levin 'PICNIC ON THE GRASS': Wise, Old Nature f LETTERS to the EDITOR To the Editor: MICHAEL ZWEIG has added his own contribution to the "ple- thora of shallow criticisms con- tinuously hurled at The Daily." It is a little longer perhaps than the usual criticism but certainly no deeper. -Jon S. Shepherd, '64 Sleep-.- To the Editor: J WOULD like to take this op- portunity to thank the women's honorary circle for graciously al- lowing me two hours' sleep Wednesday night. Once again the pre-dawn seren- ade, calculated to wake as many people as possible, was successful. * * * I AM NOT begrudging the wo- men students their deserved rec- ognition, but I do believe the hon- oraries could show a little respect for others and a little common courtesy. Quiet hours are enforced and all guests are required to leave before closing, so why should the honoraries be given the sole privi- lege of breaking University rules? -Holly Parmentier, '65Ph. - ,. UNDERSCORE: UN Needs Flexible, Force IN THE WAKE of the Cyprus crisis, Har- lan Cleveland, assistant secretary of state for international organization af- fairs, called for a flexible international peace force, well financed and ready on moment's notice to put out any interna- tional fires. Action should be taken to implement" Cleveland's proposal immediately. The Cy- prus crisis has proved that the United Nations' peace keeping machinery is in- adequate to meet fast developing interna- tional crises. THE CYPRUS FORCE is the third UN peace force. The first two-stationed around the Israeli border and in the Congo-were relatively simple to raise and were immediately dispatched to the trouble scene. However, the effort to raise troops for Cyprus almost collapsed, and Mediter- ranean war between Greece and Turkey was narrowly averted. The smaller powers that usually contribute troops for such efforts were reticent for they could not meet the expense themselves. Only after the United States, Britain and the West European powers agreed to supply the needed $6 million, downpayment, did Editorial Staff RONALD WILTON, Editor DAVID MARCUS GERALD STOROH Editorial Director City Editor BARBARA LAZARUS............Personnel Director PF-TT.TP gTTTT9 T inn *i,,n..1 n a itor~. Canada, Finland and others rush troops to the embattled island. Thus neither troops nor their financial support were available at the speed nec- essary to keep the peace. In the several days after the Security Council had au- thorized the force, the Cyprus armed peace deteriorated with the internecine massacre of Greek and Turkish Cypriots 'continuing. Turkish troops seemed to mass for an invasion and the Greeks seemed ready to counter it. Secretary- General U Thant's inability to raise the peace force served to intensify the crisis. THIS SLIDE toward war could have been averted had the United Nations been able to move immediately. Cleve- land's proposal is a step in the right di- rection. Every nation should designate at least 5000 men for immediate call to UN duty. These troops should be trained in riot control and peace keeping tech- niques. The, major powers such as the United States, Britain, France and the So- viet Union should not supply troops but supplies and transportation since they are better equipped for these operations than other nations. Further, a large special fund should be established to maintain these forces. The cost should be pro-rated among all United Nations members according to their ability to pay. THE UN is already structured to handle a reserve peace force. Under the UN Charter, the Security Council should have a military staff committee to advise it. At the Cinema Guild 'PICNIC on the Grass" presents a rare and bewildering critical task. It is quite simply a great film and a great comedy, and be- fore it one's critical faculties are blunted into unequivocal and pious admiration. Renoir's mastery of light sa- tirical badinage was apparent as far back as "Rules of the Game" in 1939. And in that film, and less spectacularly, in the earlier "Great Illusion," he developed a rich vein of piercing social com- mentary. In "Picnic on the Grass,' these elements unite twenty years later, with a density of verbal wit that I can never recollect having encountered in the cinema before. Social comment and satire link hands in a fantasy woven around the real and Huxleyan menace of mass human procrea- tion by artificial insemination (A.I.D. THE STORYLINE has the kind of illusory simplicity that permits Renoir to peg almost any relevant observation to it, however gaudy or brilliant. An eminent geneticist is running for the Presidency of Europe (and the slight-but only slight-unreality of this notion is at another the - scientist is a charming, unsophisticated booby, as ignorant of the meaning of life as he is alive to its reason. But Renoir's chief juxtaposition is simply of nature against art. LIKE, for instance, Antonioni, he trepresents this in symbols. But unlike Antonioni, his symbols do not consist in quick allusions: they are firm startling images, used narratively. The hurricane that introduces the geneticist to roman- tic passion is evoked by a goatherd playing a flute (not Pan-pipes, curiously) beneath the columns of a crumbling Greek temple. "Prog- ress" is transient, but nature, like the ancient oak-trees that appear at intervals throughout the film, is as old as wisdom. This solemn message paradox- cally provides one of the chief components of the comic brilliance of the film. For comedy, to be great:-as this is-it must flourish from a root furrow of seriousness and truth. For further evidence of this, witness the funniest moments in Chaplin (the factory sequence in "Modern Times" or the boot stew in "The Gold Rush"), all tinctured with the wry suggestion of reality.