t mldiigaa Bath Seventy-Second Year EDITED AND MANAGED BY STUDENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN UNDER AUTHORITY OF BOARD IN CONTROL OF STUDENT PUBLICATIONS ere Opinions Are Free STUDENT PUBLICATIONS BLDG. * ANN ARBOR, MICH., Phone NO 2-3241 Truth WUil revail" PN^ UNION OPPOSITION: Merit Ratings Stir Teaching Controversy t'N I By PATRICIA O'CONNOR ditorials printed in The Michigan Daily express the individual opinions of staff writers or the editors. This must be noted in all reprints. t 4 .. 1% MARCH 23, 1962 NIGHT EDITOR: JUDITH.BLEIER The Future of SGC- Let's Go On From Here ._ AVIA) Fy&y. " ESGC elections are over. ,No one will ever be able to untangle the skein of irregularities and misdeeds that ac- companied these elections. Many, including this newspaper, share the blame. Who can say whether certain candidates were not unfairly eliminated, that certain others were not un- deservedly elected due to farcical rules and po- litically motivated inconsistencies in the Rules and Credentials Qommittee? 'This campaign has exposed Council in all of its most glaring weaknesses. Unswerving 'fac.- tionalism reached its ultimate in the Stanley Lubin decision - setting off a chain reaction of events in which one Council member was of- ficially censured and many others should re- evaluate their own actions and attitudes. The meager field of candidates displayed no outstanding personality, no highly qualified in- dividual, and many with no promise whatso- evir. Campus interest reflected the field. About 15 per cent of the students voted; had it not been for all the write-ins the figure would have been lower. B UT AS ridiculous as this whole campaign was, it is foolish to try to do it over. Stu- dent Government Council is facing extinction. The newly elected members have all said they want to help Council. They have all charac- terized themselves as "individual thinkers," committed to no bloc. Now they must prove it. Ken Miller has told everyone throughout the campaign of his faith in the ability of students About Face THE WIND of public opinion has done an about face in the case of the 155,000 reserv- ists called to active duty last October. Ori- ginally the subject of great sympathies for their broken careers and interrupted .studies, they are now castigated by Congressmen and the press because their sacrifice is insignificant compared to those who have given their lives in defense of the nation. But perhaps the reservists' recurrent com- plaints are not so much based on a reluctance to serve their country, but upon confusion caused by the administration's meaningless answers to their queries. Like "why are we still here?" Answer: "To let the Russians know that America isn't kidding." W HO'S KIDDING who? The "ready reserv- ists" have now been on duty almost six months. They were supposed to be "battle ready" within three weeks of the allup. Today, many units are still eves unable to keep up their own day to day existence of maintaining files and procuring supplies, much less parti- cipate in any real military challenge. The Berlin Call-up has demonstrated nothing more than the complete uselessness of the pres- ent reserve program as an asset to American defense. Rather than show our strength, it vividly demonstrated to the entire world (which happens to include the Soviet Union and Red China) that the reserve units which bolster our might on paper. are almost meaningless en- tities in a realistic situation. There is a well-circulated Washington theory that this is exactly what Kennedy had in mind and that he beautifully engineered the whole affair in order to reorganize the reserve pro- gram (i.e., weaken it) and divert its funds into the two new Army divisions which are soon to become a reality. . T IS unfortunate that many men's lives had to be "reorganized" in the process., Sp.4 H. MOLOTCH to handle responsibility. The responsibility is now his to handle. Katy Ford was given a seat on Council by a lot of people who thought she got a raw deal. But if she wants to make a constructive contribution to Council she must show that she does have a fresh outlook, one that will not be restricted by any preconceptions made before a knowledge of facts. Fred BatIle, too, has declared that he will not vote any line. Batlle, especially toward the end of the campaign, has shown much promise. He must live up to this promise on Council. Howard Abrams will no doubt hew the lib- eral line. One can only hope that he will not become dogmatic, that his mind will be open as he considers the varied problems facing Coun- cil. Richard G'sell has bemoaned Council's po- larity throughout the campaign. G'sell, him- self, will probably not offer much help. Voting records show that the only time he voted with the liberals and against the conservatives last semester was on a motion to extend adjour'n- ment to 1:30 a.m. Larry Monberg has mouthed the same phrases as the rest of..the candidates. He often spoke off the top of his head and when caught, as he was at the Panhel open house by League President Bea Nemlaha, his insolence flared unchecked. His candidacy was marred by at least one, if not more, violations. HIS IS the ambivalent group coming onto Council. They have much work ahead of them. Election rules and procedures should be completely overhauled. The Hare system is unfair and illogical. A candidate can get every second place vote and be dropped after the first ballot. Such a system must be replaced. Council does not need the anticlimactic two- day elections. Many colleges, like Syracuse, borrow voting machines from surrounding cities. Without the Hare system, SGC could do the same, thus streamlining the election pro- cess. While cheating is still possible with ma- chines, ballot stuffing is such a tradition now that anything would be an improvement. COUNCIL'S past polarity must give way to more ,willingness to listen and to compro- mise when necessary. The Council must communicate with its campus. Candidates always say that they will improve communications, but they are missing the point. Council members need not go to groups; groups should approach Council mem- bers. IFC and Panhel could perform a great service if they organize a program in which SGC members would be invited to houses to speak and debate about current issues and general philosophies. THESE are some of the areas where positive improvements can be made. Much depends on the members of Council themselves. They must get away from the level of pettiness which has characterized Council for so long. Not only must they communicate with the campus, they must learn to communicate with each other. They must try to 'understand this University and their role within it. They must face issues squarely, rather than talking around them.E Student Government Council still has a chance. If the new members, elected and ex- officio, will earnestly go to work, they can re- verse the negative current which has engulfed SGC for so long. But the time is growing short. The campus will only mock SGC for so long before it stops laughing and forgets the group altogether. -H. NEIL BERKSON , . .° i.. ': ":=. .a,_ .; ' , ..r .+' f . , "', t ": a . - , , W Nitto. a." t xI 14 Z~i -2\tTOS ' Ais~lci, P)IVI 1N(G Ror, LETTERS TO THE EDITOR: SGC Housecleaning in, Order THE AMERICAN Federation of Teachers called an extraordi- nary one-day national conference last Saturday to open a drive against "the growing education cancer called merit rating." This "cancerous" merit rating involves paying some teachers of outstand- ing ability and service salaries above the regular scale or advanc- ing them beyond the normal "steps" Although few communities now offer merit pay, the AFT (mem- bership of 75,000) claims that many more are planning to intro- duce it. The National Educational Association (788,000 members) also opposes merit rating. * * * THE AFT in an apparently un- compromising stand views merit rating as nothing but an effort to keep pay scales low, while disguis- ing the truth for publicity pur- poses by handing out a few sub- stantial pay checks to administra- tors' pets. To the argument that business executives gladly compete for merit pay the AFT replies that they "are not required by law to obtain specified education degrees and obtain certification after graduation as are teachers'f "Two basic questions have never been answered satisfactorily," says an official AFT statement. "One revolves around the question of what is a merit teacher. The sec- ond is the method of selection. Who is going to sit in judgment and what criteria will be used?" The AFT sees the inevitable con- sequences as low politics and even lower morale. , * * THOSE WHO honestly call for merit pay In the interest of better education, and not merely as a dodge to undermine teachers' sal- aries, tend to argue: -Only the promise of relatively unlimited advancement can bring a large number of ambitious career professionals into teaching. The actual number of those who reach very high pay in industry and other professions is relatively small, but the incentive is there. DAILY OFFICIAL BULLETIN The Daily Official Bulletin Is an official publication of The Univer- sity of Michian for whieh The Michigan Daily assumes no editorial responsibility. Notices should be sent in TYPEWRITTEN form to Room. 3564 Administration Building before 2 p.m.,' two days preceding publication. FRIDAY, MARCH 23 General Notices Applications for the Selective Service college qualification test are now being distributed at t e Ann Arbor Selective Service Board. 103 East Liberty. Appli- cationsmust'be in by March 27, 1962. U.S. Rubber Company Scholarships: These scholarshipseare open to rsen students 'in Engineering or Business Administration who have completed a minimum of two years work at The University of Michigan and whose vo- cational, goal is the entering of some type of work in industry. An academic avrage of 3.0 or better is expected. Recipients must agree to repay one- fourth of the stipend to this scholar- ship fund within a three-year period after graduation unless other arrange- ments are made. Stipends are variable depending on financial need. Applica-' tion forms for thisnscholarship are available, at the Scholarship Office, 2011 Student Activities Bldg. The University of Michigan Blood Bank Association, in cooperation with 'the American Red Cross, will have its regular Blood ank Clinic on March 28, 1962. The Clinic hours are 10:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. and from 1:00 to 3:30 p.m. Any full-time or part-time reg- ularly emplyed staff member of the University interested in becoming a (Continued on Page ) -A scale with a ceiling creates a mixture of a labor and civil service atmosphere which Offends some able people who object to what seems to be the assumption of equal abilities or the disregard of superior abilities. -By denying that it is possible to "tell a good teacher," the edu- cators are flying in the face of their own basic theories aboutthe importance of individual diffe- ences in human beings. They dis- criminate against the most able by making all equal. -Absence of merit pay drives many who would prefer to remain teachers into the ranks of the ad- ministration, merely for financial reasons. -If neither the Judgment of school administrators not the opinions of teachers' peers can be trusted with the task of determin- ing merit, without the certainty of favoritism, politics and corruption, 'can the profession be considered qualified to preside over education itself?2 PERHAPS THESE advocates of merit rating tend to resolve too easily the question of how one, determines a good teacher. The NEA a year ago sponsored re-. search into the question, "Who Is A Good Teacher?" The discussions were held jointly with the NEA's department of classroom teachers and the American Association of School Administrators as well as the National School Boards Asso- ciation. They reached no conclu- sions resolving the merit rating issue. They found'it easier to tell when a teacher is not very good \and why. The AF T, however, seems, mis- taken in its blind opposition to merit rating. To argue that teach- ers should not be exposed to com- petition for merit pay because they are "required by law to ob- tain specified education degrees and obtain certification after ing their adversaries argument that the 'disregard of superior abilities becomes established with- out merit pay. An education degree and a' cer- tificate to teach should not become the means of providing oneself with a secure living for as long as one wishes to teach with no dis- turbing thoughts of competition through excellence. ,* * 4 THE AFT, currently engaged in a strong organizational.campaign, would probably view compromise unfavorably. The NEA, which includes among its membership classroom teachers as well as administrators, might be more inclined toward a less rigid outlook. The NEA, however, is also fighting for an increase of its membership. Little change can be expected until some clearer indi- cation enterges on how strongly the rank/and file of teachers feel about the issue. The intrinsic changes in school organization may lead, to eventual compromises. If team teaching puts special responsibility on some team leaders or if television makes some teachers' outstanding talents both recognizable and more widely distributed, merit pay may easily come into undisputed existence. Special rewards for outstanding teacherq may also emerge in cases of dealing with slum schools, gifted or retarded children, and other special problems. * * * MEANWHILE, energy might bet- ter be devoted to resolving the issue of how one determines a good teacher and how a merit plan could work rather than flatly re- fusing to hear of its implementa- tion. To the Editor: IT WOULD seem that this most recent Campus Controversy, i.e., the SGC election procedures, mer- its at least as much. if not more consideration than other topics re- cently gracing the pages of The Daily. SGC must, in -theory at least, rank as the most significant student , organization of campus scope presently in existence. It supposedly represents s t u d e n t opinion and thinking at the broadest level, although in reality even its most enraptured support- ers will admit it does not. The re- sponsibility it has to the student body, however, is no less real be- cause it is not truly representative, and its recent actions measure up in no way with its obligations. More specifically, it is time that SGC, collectively and individually, ceases pointing fingers at the rest of the universe and focuses atten- tion upon itself. Housecleaning is in order, and nowhere is this more obvious than in events of the past few days. However hypocritical it may seem to some for SGC to dis- qualify one candidate for improp- er petitioning procedure one day, and discover the next that one of its agents aided another candidate in doing the same thing, the more essential point is the inherent structural and operational flaws in the Council organization itself. Present election regulations are petty in reasoning and absurd in logic. I am not qualified by ex- perience with or knowledge of SGC to suggest detailed changes, but surely a re-evaluation of pol- icy and procedure not only of elec- tion methods but of the whole of SGC should be undertaken. This, I suspect, would prove far more valuable to both SGC and the student body (something rare at present, in view of the Council's actions for the past four years) than name-calling, declaration- writing, discrimination-investigat- ing, and the multitude of other activities with which SGC typical- ly concerns itself. I've been look- ing for this plank in someone's platform for some time, and have yet to find it. (Since I am about to go and vote, perhaps I'll have better luck this time.)' -James Lovett, '62 A&D Protest..." To the Editor: Y ADD my .protest to the SGC rules and elections committee. At 11:30 p.m. Wednesday that group went into a secret session, supposedly to consider charged ballot-stuffing for Lawrence Mon- berg. The contents of this meet- ing were never announced. If there were violations, the commit- tee should make public its deci- sion; if not, it is only fair to Mr Monberg to formally clear him. -Joe Feldman, '64 Ludicrous... To the Editor: AMONG many, I share the sen- ior editors' opinion that, "This SGC election has been ludicrous" But only those apathetic vacuums which completely lack a clearunderstanding of Student Government Council and of cam- pus politics in general will take an entirely negative attitude toward SGC's current difficulties. Two features support an oppo- mous essay on comedy that laugh-' ter is above all a corrective. Applying this to the present SC comedy of errors and to the re- flected condition of that frganiza- tion, perhaps we may ,ure folly with folly. -Ron Newman, '63 Proposal... To the Editor: BEING a humble and contrite soul, I should like to propose what seems to me to be an unsur- passable solution for the woes be- setting the SGC campaign com- mittee: Henceforth, any would-be council member who takes out a petition of candidacy, will be im- mediately, and irrevokably dis- qualified from running. The virtues of this plan are many; but most important, since no one could run for office and take out a petition, all ballots would be entirely write-in votes. Obviously, since there can be less chance of fraud in write-in votes, there would be no more of this nauseous chaos which now pre- vails over what was once to be a most rational election procedure. In this manner the wonderful Hare System would operate effi- ciently, and SGC would no longer be the center of campus ridicule. I think that my suggestion should be immediately accepted, and should be made retroactive to this election. Then, of course, it would have to be held again, and everyone would have an equal opportunity; and I might be in- duced to vote for the first time in four years. -Kermit Krueger, '62 LSA No Informtio To the Editor: FEEL A COMPULSION to voice my evaluation of the elections which have taken place these past two days, the regulations pertain- ing to them and the publicity af- forded the candidates. It appears that the basic cause of the ballot- ing difficulties was the complete inefficiency of the University bu- reaucracy in (1) not having produced IDs which give pertinent iinformation as to class and school, (2) not being able to remedy this situation by providing check lists of such information for use at the polls in order to determine who should have which ballots,. and (3) causing the elections com- mittee of SGC to spend hundreds of hours attempting to solve these problems in order that an effective and democratic election could be conducted. As a result of this diversion of attention to matters which proved beyond their control, the election officials did not have the time to properly recruit or instruct poll workers. Many friends who plan- ned to vote for me remarked either "They (the poll workers) said we (grad students) couldn't vote in the Publications Board election" or "When do we vote for you?" (after voting for SGC candidates, but not receiving the other bal- lots). THEELECTION regulations es- tablished by SGC appear to en- courage campus-wide apathy to- Perhaps the 40 per cent of the total University who are graduate students, and nearly all living 'in private housing, are not entitled to know who is running and that elections pertain to areas other than SGC itself. If so, why not limit the vote to undergraduates? Rather than the present un- limited number of posters limited to certain areas, I suggest that a limit be placed on the number of posters but that their location be at the discretion of the candidate. For even the official SGC posters, which included only candidates for SGC, are not readily visible to the passing student, being buried with dozens of other posters on bulletin boards such as in the Union base- ment. The interest of thousands of additional students could be stim- ulated by colorful signs and dis- plays strategically placed through- out the campus. This change might also, discourage the drab commercially printed placards which most candidates, myself in- cluded, have placed in merchants' windows and encourage colorful, informative campaign announce- ments which would challenge'the voters to investigate the candi- dates background, purpose and platform." * * * WITHOUT COMMENT on the coverage given SGC candidates, I believe that The Daily negligently omitted any discussion through news or editorial channels of can- didates for publications board (the very board which elects The Daily's vital staff personnl), the Union Board, the athletic board, and the various senior board posts. Mentioning names, classes, and .schools is not sufficient in a uni- versity the size of Michigan. Each candidate- submitted a qualifica- tion sheet and the information thereon should have' been con- veyed to the student body through the official University news organ. Further, it seems to be more than an oversight that The Daily has totally neglected to stress that all students within the University may vote in the elections-at least for SGC and publicationsboard positions. Most graduate students from whom I have solicited sup- port have been quite amazed to learn that they are eligible to vote in these supposed "campus wide" elections. The purpose of informing seems to be overlooked or ignored by The Daily in this arearand yet it com- plains of student apathy and ig- norance. Or is this the situation that The Daily and a majority of SGC members wold prefer to see exist among the graduate stu- dents? It can only be hoped that SGC and The Daily will soon realize their responsibility to graduate students - whom night editor Michael Olinick predicts will be in a vast majority by 1982-and students living outside of the Uni- versity housing system. -Art Frederick, '64L Illusion . . To the Editor: I HAD THE unfortunate experi- ence of reading your 'editorial "Progress" printed recently, and had it destroy an illusion that you had a sophisticated paper. No doubt Harrah has keen insight CREATIVE ARTS FESTIVAL: 'i __ TODAY AND TOMORROW Crisis in 'Argentina By WALTER LIPPMANN rHE CRISIS in the Argentine boiled up when President Frondizi took the risk of permit- Lng a free election. Since the' fall of Peron in 955, his followers have been forbidden to run or public office. In Sunday's election President rondizi lifted this ban and pulled the cork ut of the bottle. The Peronista candidates olled something like 40 per cent of the vote. 'hey won in ten provinces, including Buenos ires where a third of the population lives., The military, who had deposed Peron in 1955, eacted at once and President Frondizi is now he head, or perhaps the prisoner of a civilian- ailitary coalition which is cancelling the re- ults of the election and barring the Peronista andidates from taking office in the provinces. rHE ELECTION has shown that at present in the Argentine democracy and free elections re not workable. For within the electorate here is a revolutionary mass which is so large rnd so strong that the real choice is between wo kinds of dictatorships-one in the style of eron and the, other the rule of the armed orces. There is, it would appear, no middle arty between the extremes which is big and trong enough to govern the country. Peronism's idenngical souree is not commu- tro. We shall be missing the point unless we realize that there is in the Argentine a highly discontented and semi-revolutionary native mi- nority of at least 40 per cent, and that while it can be disenfranchised; it is not likely soon to be liquidated. THERE IS no way way to disguise the fact that what has happened in the Argentine is a searching challenge to the Alliance for Prog- ress and 'to the basis of our Latin American policy. Our hope is that there will take place in Latin America a peaceable but radical social reform, conducted according to sound financial principles and carried on without violence and without revolutionary expropriation, by demo cratic governments freely elected. The Argentine, which is the richest and in many ways the'most advanced country in Latin America, has found it impossible to live accord- ing to this formula There is such discontent even in this ad- vanced Latin American country that when al- lowed to express itself in a free election, it opened the way immediately to the restoration of a distatorship. THE ARGENTINE, at least, and probably oth- Hooker Beats Out Blues IRock'n Roll Style J OHN LEE HOOKER rides somewhere between Bo Diddley and Brownie MaGhee on the Blues Line Inc. His train commutes between city and country blues on a rock'n roll gauge track and he gives his passengers a good ride. "Hobo Blues" with the haunting refrain "Freight Train-Take Care of My Child," showed Hooker at his best blues last night while "Have a Ball Boogie" and "Baby Let's Make It" were delivered with 12 bar rock'n roll aplomb. The only man to appear at both the Newport Jazz Festival and the Newport Folk Festival, Hooker has struck his own 'distinctive style of reality monologue--first-person dissertations on real life. They become blues when accompanied by a slow, beat and rock'n roll when -speeded: up. HIS ELECTRIC "GUITAR playing is expressionistic in a similar sense to expressionistic painting-erratic but a form of communica- tion. Even more erratic was his presentation of songs. They were not ordered or announced, which left a "stream of consciousness" im- pression. Starting' out with "I Just Love to See You Off" hbe faded into a rock version of "I'm in the Mood for Love." He then gave a traditional rendition of "Tupelo," making a disaster in Tupelo, Miss., real to a college audience. Next came the city blues, heavily accented with rock'n roll. In this trend came the "Don't Break the Rules-Keep on to School" a temptation dialogue and "Have a Ball-Boogie," spiced with the local touch of Hastings Street, Detroit. The request numbers-"Traveling Blues," "Please Don't Go," "Long the Avenue" and "Arkansas" were excellent. Sociologists and an-