Seventy-Second Year
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OSA IN TRANSITION:
Confusion in Quad Control
EUROPEAN DATELINE:
Paris in Paralysis:
day of the Greve'
t, DECEMBER 5,1961
NIGHT EDITOR: MICHAEL OLINICK
Si gma Nu's Bias Clause:
What Will.Happen Here?
HE DILEMMA faced by Sigma Nu social
fraternity at Cornell University during the
t week spotlights a dangerous situation for
chapter here. It may well turn out that
ma Nu locals will be kicked off both cam-
ses
Lt Cornell; the chapter was placed on dis-
linary probation by the Interfraternity
uncil for "insufficient efforts" to remove
bias clause. Here, the Sigma Nu local is
of the last fraternities known to have an
rt bias clause in its constitution. Article
section 4 states: "MEMERSHIP QUALI-
DATIONS. Members must be MEN, free born
I of free ancestry, and without Negro blood,
-i have'the dharacter and bearirgg of gentle-
ft Cornell the probation period will last
:11 September 1962, and if the local does
, get rid of its clause by September 1963
will be banned until it does. At the Univer-
r, the fraternity's discriminatory clause is
direct violation of Regents Bylaw 2.14; stat-
that "the University shall not discriminate
Onst any person because of race, color, re-
on, creed, national origin or ancestry."
be only action currently taken to implement
4 ruling is the requirement that affiliate
ups must submit their constitutional and
ier relevant data concerning membership
action criteria to the Office of Student A-
..
Student government Council's Committee
Membership Selection in Student Organiza-
r, is currently viewing the statements, while
the same time the Council is debatihg
ether to set up a deadline for their sub-
sion. After this, the body will sooner or
er have to come to some ,sort of decision
whether certain affiliate charters violate
Regents Bylaw, and what penalties to
e'ss for such non-obediance. -
EITHER UNIVERSITY in the future levels
an ultimatum upon the Sigma Nu chapters
get rid of the clause or get off campus, the
ternity will have four courses of action:
.) disband and get off campus,
) disaffiliate from the national and go
al
) persuade the national to drop the clause,
) obtain a waiver from the national to
e the local autonomy on the one clause.
hapter presidents at Cornell and the Uni-
sity have said that their houses ,absolutely
not desire to pursue the first two choices.
e possibility of successfully following the
rd is also miniscule, as Sigma Nu, like most
ternities, is dominated by Southern chap-
5, who are not noted for their ardent will-
ness to remove racial requirements.
3ut it;is very possiblethat Sigma Nu locals
x obtain a waiver. Before 1960, the national
I chosen to lose several chapters (including
s at Wesleyan and Syracuse) rather than
uiesce to the rules of the universities in-
Ved. However, last year the national came
ough with a new policy providing that a
ver would be granted if a chapter applied
one,'If there was a definite threat to 'the
pter's existence and if the chapter exhibited
cific opposition to the threat.
Ln SOC deadline similar to the 1963 limit
Cornell would certainly constitute a threat
the local's existence, and "specific opposi-
i" would be attained easily enough by
tements at constitutents time at council
etiings or by letters to the editor. Although
national has not yet granted any waivers
ce 1960, and although the chapter here is
I uncommitted as to whether it would apply
a waiver if necessary, it seems likely that,
forced, the local here would go for the
"Blink
RRISTMAS TIME is here! And South Quad-
rangle has done it again. Atop the kitchen
f sits a quaint, glaring sign which flashes
oel" . . ."Moderne" . . . "Noel"
oderene" This is clearly a good idea. Next
r, one hopes East and West Quads follow
ith's example with "Snowflake" . .. "Ball"
,lly" . . . Hop", signs.
ut why stop at this? The Administration
ilding should brightly announce "Season's
etings" in red and green neon. Perhaps
Bell Hall's "Religion, Morality' and Know-
ge Being . . ." could be given that Christ-
s tint. After all, these are the things that
ke Christmas worthwhile . . . worthwhile
. worthwhile
--R. KRAUT
waiver. The national, preferring not to lose
a chapter at one of the nation's best univer-
sities, would probably grant it.
BUT THERE IS the question whether a waiv-
er would be enough to keep Sigma Nu on
this .campus. The chapter would apply reluc-
tantly, and only as a last resort. This lack of
good faith and the grudging compliance with
the Regents bylaw indicate that the local
is frankly antagonistic to removal of the clause
and to the University's and SGC's commit-
ment to non-discrimination.
These conditions will have profound in-
fluence on SGC discussions. It is now not only
politically safe, but popular to attack dis-
trimination. This may be enough to influence
the moderates on the council who hold the
balance of power between the six or so liberals
and the six or so conservatives. In addition,
the two factions are split not on whether bias
is desirable but on the methods to eliminate
it. A third, unwritten, unexpressed but never-
theless existing, factor is that the Sigma Nu
chapter here,,on several occasions has acquired
a som'ewhat unsavory reputation in the frater-
nity system and probably in the administration.
Thus, with these complications, it appears
that eventually Sigma Nu will go. (Alpha Tau
Oiega having already obtained a waiver, may,
for the same reasons, be asked to leave campus
as well.
The only other major question in this situa-
tion would be whether Vice-President for Stu-
dent Affairs James A. Lewis would veto an
SGC move to disband the fraternities. It had
been strongly rumored that University Presi-
dent Harlan Hatcher, and not Lewis, would
make the actual veto ruling, but Lewis said
last Wednesday "in all sincerity" that the
actual decision would be up to him. In re-
sponse to another question by Robert Ross,
Lewis, in typical fashion, refused to comment
on whether he would veto an SGC motion
to throw an organization off campus, claiming
that he doesn't like to answer hypothetical
questions. In addition, he nurtures a well-
known dislike of coercion to remove bias
clauses, and prefers more gentle methods.
But it is unlikely that he would veto action
to extinguish Sigma Nu (or the ATO's). The
reasons for which the administration in 1951,
1952 and 1957 vetoed student government de-
cisions would not apply now, as the council
structure and the particular cases are dif-
ferent. 'It also is doubtful that he would
deliberately incite any more antagonism from
the liberal student and faculty wing.
THUS IT IS SAFE to assume that Sigma Nu
and Alpha Taux Omega will someday be
asked to leave. But it is important to realize
that their banning will not fundamentally alter
the fraternity system here. The two fraternities,
especially Sigma Ni, will probably serve as
handy scapegoats for the rest of the blatant,
hypocriticaland unofficial bias which charac-
terizes fraternities on this campus. It is known
that several chapters, having piously removed
discriminatory clauses in their constitutions,
enforce a religious qualification in the initia-
tion rituals. The rituals often demand a
Christian response, thus ruling out the possi-
bility of a Jew completing the ritual.
Many of the fraternities have been very
slow in tu'ning in the required membership
selection statements, and some of the other
statements appear to be inadequate. Only
abou five of the campus fraternities include
Jews as well as Gentiles. (It is indeed ironic
that Sigma Nu has had its statement in since
February, and that it is one of the few
chapters to cross ethnic lines, as several Jewish
men have been members and even officers.)
Twenty two fraternities have eliminated bias
clauses in the past 12 years, but bias has
merely retreated from open declaration to
underground practice. Just as it is not logical
to say that eliminating clauses eliminates real
discrimination, it is no longer feasible to dwell
in platitudes about "education" as the only
antidote' for removing bias. A recent study
by a Rutgers professor demolishes this, belief,
citing statistics to show that formal education
and a university atmosphere do not sub-
stantially affect attitudes toward prejudice.
Added to these two poles of frustration (both
coercion and "education" are ineffective) are
stubborn impediments to change. This is a
conservative Univergity, and social change
comes grudgingly and only after much sweat.
Unlike many other campuses, it is possible to be
socially acceptable here without being af-
filiated. Individuals clamoring for revision
will be outside the fraternity system here.
Thus processes for c]Aange within the system
will be less urgent. Even the non-directional
Lewis has complained about the ineffectiveness
of Interfraternity Council's limited efforts
(mostly "educational") to encourage the elim-
ination of discrimination.
Thus Student Government Council is severely
handicapped (aside from completely banning
affiliate groups) in eradicating bias. But it
(EDITOR'S NOTE-The following
article begins a three-part series on
men's residence halls at the Uni-
versity, as part of a continuing
study of issues relevant to the cur-
rent. re-evaluation of the office of
student affairs. The writer has been
house president and member of a
quad council, IHIC and IQC. He Is
a member of'Quadrants, and was a
delegate to the 1960 Big Ten Resi-
dence Halls Conference.)
By RICHARD OSTLING
Associate Editorial Director
WHEN THE UNIVERSITY went
into thehousing business in
the late '30's, it put itself in line
for more headaches than the
average landlord, who doesn't cook
meals or collect garbage, and
couldn't care less who visits the
tenant.
Thebuilding of men's residence
halls represented paternalism in
the finest sense of that word-
concern for the student as a grow-
ing individual whose educational
life extends beyond the four walls
of the classroom.
The quads also took thousands
of men out of semi slum apart-
ments and rooms, and assured stu-
dents of being able to find decent
living conditions in Ann Arbor.
* * *
BUT AS AN OFF-SHOOT of this
constructive step, the University
has faced continual problems on
how much responsibility it has for
the men, in residence halls. It
seems clear that the administra-
tion has decided it should "run"
the halls as much as it can, with
students having only an advisory
voice in decisions-a voice which
often gets laryngitis after meeting
a cold front in the offices of Uni-
versity officials.
At the same time, there is a
great deal of anarchy within the
administration - staff hierarchy.
Lines of authority are vague, and
direction is lacking. There is no
definite concept of what the men's
halls should be doing being put
into practice.
THERE IS OVER-CONTROL as
far as relations with students is
concerned. There is under-control
within the administration itself.
The Michigan House Plan states
"the private lives of several thou-
sands students must be of more
than casual interest to the insti-
tution. An example of how this
basically sound principle has been
perverted is the present status of
Inter-Quadrangle Council, sup-
posedly the student government
over all 25 men's houses.
For years, this body, as Inter-
House Council, was almost worth-
less. Even when the group did'
nothing, there always seemed to
be potential in its structure. A
1960 reorganization made the body
smaller and gave it the dynamism
to really accomplish something,
given dynamic leadership.
This it got with the administra-
tion of Tom Moch. Moch's council,
now in its last weeks, has shaken
a lot of dust off old quad prob-
lems, but in doing so it has brought
out the limitations of the IQC.
* *
THE WOMEN-IN-THE-QUADS
hassle clearly established that it
is the administrators and facul-
ty members who establish all poli-
cies on residence halls..
The Board of Governors dis-
missal of the IQC motion, over-
whelmingly supported by students,
said the students' private lives
were not only a matter of "more
than casual interest," but a mat-
ter of control.
Statements by Board members
also raised the question of why
this group should be defining such
policies. One member's fear that
the academic climate would suffer
showed an extreme lack of knowl-
edge on what the halls are really
like. Allowing women visitors, at
least on weekends, would actually
make no difference in study at-
mosphere.
The Board membership includes
only two students. The adminis-
trative members tend to be com-
mitted to the status quo, and fac-
ulty members can have only lim-
ited knowledge about the residence
halls.
- *
THIS TREND of ignoring stu-
dent opinion extended to much
more routine matters at the last
meeting. Projects which repre-
sented what Moch estimates as
"hundreds of hours of work" by
students were altered or held up
by the Board.
The discussion on the future of
radio station WCBN went to com-
mittee. An associate membership
plan was revised. A policy on han-
dling of guest groups within the
halls, formulated over the past two,
years, was postponed because it
could not be considered until an
administrator (business manager
Leonard Schaadt) had been con-
sulted over again.I
There is probably a need for
such a board of review acting in
place of the Regents, who have
bigger problems to worry about.
But its basic interest should be
financial affairs, with details of
student life governed directly by
IQC and reviewed by SGC and the
Regents.
At present, Moch and Company
have the unpleasant choice of
either remaining a discussion
group or reverting to a policy
sometimes followed in the past, of
not bringing issues to the Board
at all, since the relationship has
never really been defined in prac-
tice.
THE EXTENT of over-control
is hard to characterize on the
quad or house level, because the
under-control within the adminis-
tration has permitted a wide va
riety of conditions.
The three resident directors ap-
parently have different ideas of
what they should be doing in the
quads. One delegates a surprising
amount of detail to the quad pres-
ident. Another runs an attempted
administrative fiat which has
earned him the nickname "quad
god."
The house situation is even
closer to anarchy. As one former
RA put it: "Nobody ever told us
what we were supposed to be do-
ing.".
Assistant Dean of Men for res-
idence halls John M. Hale admits
his resident advisors "have a wide
degree of latitude. They stress
varying roles of the RA as they
wish, and reach the same objec-
tives in different ways."
Hale fears that if closer control
were kept on the RA's "we would
get less qualified people or kill
initiative."
But the result has been that
some RA's have done nothing to
help the student programs and
have taken little initiative in coun-
selling, while others have inspired
thoughts of the Third Reich. The
second type of situation has caus-
ed student feelings of persecution
and made house governments as
powerless as IQC appears to be.
Houses vary in quality, and if
student goyernment has failed
there is some justification for a
partially staff-run house. But
this should be a temporary condi-
tion which ends as soon as stu-
dents can run their own lives
again.
ADMINISTRATIVE under-con-
trol can be seen not only in the
variety among houses, but in per-
sonnel policies. Promotions appear
to be automatic, with little con-
cern for the actual job being done.
If students feel their rights are
being violated within the house,
there is no clear channel of com-
plaint open to them. Resident di-
rectors and dean of men's office
personnel will customarily back
up the RA's, and relief through
student councils often has proved
ineffectual.
Besides a more definite com-
plaint mechanism, there is a need
for new relationships between
student government and staff.
TWO interesting experiments
are in the works. East Quad Coun-
cil wants to become a joint stuix
dent-RA group, which might in-
crease student power and would
certainly improve communication.
IQC next month will begin a se-
ries of open forums on quad prob-
lems to which all senior staff per-
sonnel will be invited.
If the OSA study committee can
bring about more direct adminis-
tration, right up to the offices of
the dean of men and vice-presi-
dent for student affairs, then
there is some hope that the quads
will start to improve.
Caprice of personalities will be
lessened, students will be able to
define just how much power over
their own lives they possess, and
faults will be more obvious and
easier to clear up.
But at present, making con-
structive criticisms of the resi-
dence halls is like boxing 'with a
cloud.
By GLORIA BOWLES
Daily Correspondent
PARIS-THE CITY worked by
candlelight on Tuesday until
5 p.m., when the lights came on,
signalling the end of a strike
which left the city -virtually para-
lyzed for a day, without electriety,
gas, subway, buses, trains or other
essential services.
The third major strike this fall
hit not only in Paris, but in all
of France. 500,000 workers in na-
tionalized industries walked off
the job demanding higher wages.
They contend that government
wage scales are not keeping pace
with benefits offered by private
firms.
THE AVERAGE PARISIAN on
the day of the "greve," a usual
occurrence in the city of late,
finds his life seriously disrupted:
if he is, for example, a dentist.
a hairdresser or in the car in-
dustry, he closes up shop for
lack of electricity and employees.
If dependent on the public trans-
portation system, an employer
probably could not, in any case,
get to work.
Students, usually quite adept at
finding excuses for missing school,
have a good one in the subway
strike; many of the professors
themselves aren't able to come.
The extraordinarily conscientious
student couldn't even get a taxi
to classes, or work well at home
without lights.
The day of a greve in Paris is
a kind of holiday for school child-
ren, who welcome the strikes. But
for their parents, these frequent
protests are a much more serious
matter.
ONLY A MONTH AGO, on Oct.
26, Parisians and all Frenchman
experienced a similar strike. At
that time, Andre Francois-Poncet
of Acalemie-Francaise, writing in
Le Figaro, mourned the plight of
the innocent Parisian victims of
the strikes. He noted that the
strikes only provoked a French-
man's, "bitter thoughts," and he'
imagined that most Parisians were
thinking.:
"What! A class of workers,
whose job is to watch over the
execution of services indispensible
to my life, stops all of a sudden
to insure the furctioning of these
services, and crosses his arms,
without caring about the injuries
he's causing me!"
"Is this democracy? In the be-
havior of these men, indifferent
to the trouble for which they are
the cause and the damage they
inflict on their fellow citizens, is
there a trace of that devotion to
the interest of others that is the
strength of republican states ... .
But it's on me, the innocent vic-
tim that the blow falls . . . Pity
for me . . . Pity for the public!"
Poncet's imaginary Parisian also
questions the advisability of na-
tionalization of industries: He as-
serts he was previously convinced
by government arguments that
only the benevolent protection of
the state could insure the proper
functioning of those essential ser-
vices. But the state is not the
model patron it promised it would
be, and perhaps even a profit-
minded private owner would be
more satisfactory, from his point
of view.
* * *
WHAT RECOURSE, if any, does
this "innocent Parisian" have?
First,most authorities agree
that private ownership is out of
the question. Besides, Parisian pol-
itical scientists, including the well-
known Maurice Duverger assert
that such a change would not
bring improvement.
Is there a solution to be found
in the law? The Conseil d'Etat, in
a 1950 decision, proclaimed the
right of civil service workers to
strike. The regulation of the right
to strike was earlier orseen by
the preamble of the 1946 con-
stitution, which guaranteed strike
rights "within the framework of
the laws." But the legislature
never took advantage of the open-
ing.
A more recent decree of May
20, 1961, orders the proper gov-
ernment authority, in this case
the Ministry for Public Works and
Transports, to requisition, or
seize, the striking personnel. A
temporary seizure does not dis-
courage men campaigning for
higher wages, and so this decree
has proved ineffective.
Francois-Poncet, journalists and
political scientists have suggested
a board of conciliation and ar-
bitration to act as liason between
the government and workers in
nationalized industries. Such a
board would be armed with real
power to conduct wage negotia-
tions, perhaps also strike regula-
tions and to enforce them.
These same ' writers cite the
British arbitration tribunal for the
Civil Service, and also a French
system of obligatory arbitration
of former times, which was aban-
doned with the coming of the war.
* * *
ALTHOUGH they always seem
to know the answers, it is not up
to the political scientists and the
journalists to solve the probleri
of frequent and disrupting strikes.
Rather, it is to the Senate and
The Chambre des Deputies that
Parisians, and all of France, look
for regulation of the right to
strike.
Until the legislature does de-
cide to take action, Paris will con-
tinue to be harassed by national
strikes, Frenchmen will find them-
selves without electricity and a
way to work-and school child-
ren will have frequent holidays.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR:
Puritanical- Victorian
Tyranny, Segregation!
ro the Editor:
WHILE THE BATTLE for wo-
men visitors in the quads
rages in these pages, I would like
to call our attention to anqther
Puritanical-Victorian (take your
choice) convention' to whose harsh
dicta we Americans so unwittingly
and apathetically bow-the tyr-
anny of the separated washroom
facilities for men and women.
So deeply within us is this prud-
ish dogma rooted that even the
Voice party has overlooked, the
threat it poses to our liberal her-
itage. It should though, for every
time we enter a washroom we
fail to exercise the individual re-
sponsibility whose onus we must
bear as the real decision-making
members of our beloved demo-
cracy-(or is it republic?).
Alas, yes-for who makes the
choice for us?
Paternalistic sign-painters, that's
who.
*, * *
NEEDLESS TO SAY, separate
facilities are irrelevant in this,,
the era of co-educational dormi-
tories and the fast-dying dual
standard. The "mixed company"
joke has an outmoded term since
some of us have so disillusioningly
discovered that men and women
(even college boys and college
girls) use the safine dirty words
when chatting ' within their re-
spective groups. I'll even bet the
same dirty jokes are scrawled on
the pastel-porcelained walls of
the pastel-porcelained stalls in
the respective pastel-porcelained
washrooms in the pastel-porcelain-
ed dormitories of this partially
pastel-porcelained university.
What's more, separate wash-
rooms prove to be wasteful. Pres-
ent facilities are more than twice
as plentiful as the need demands.
Moreover, we have to hire and
keep two separate custodial staffs
to maintain them. There is no
logical reason why we can't com-
bine the Office of Men's Wash-
room Maintenance and the Office
of Women's Washroom Mainten-
ance into the more practical and,
lest we forget, more passionately
democratic OFFICE OF STU-
DENTS' WASHROOM MAINTEN-
ANCE.
I REALIZE this change would
have to be effected most gradually.
Thusly, for a starter, I suggest
each of the University housing"
units schedule three open-open
washrooms next year. Perhaps
later we could charter a bus-trip
to the South protesting while
testing the bus depots' unboubtedly
segregated facilities.
I certainly hope this separated
washroom myopia is corrected. For
once it is I'd be certain the spirit
of responsible and rugged individ-
ualism would pervade throughout
our ivy-ivory-towered community.
Boy, then would we ever be
responsible!
-Henry W. DeZutter,'63
DRAMATIC ARTS:
Dance Troupe Exciting
AS THE RECIPIENT of the 1961 Dance Magazine Award for inno-
vations in dance, Merce Cunningham seemed disarmingly straight-
forward in the works he presented last night. The total concern with
visual presentation was comparable to classical ballet and the vocab-
ulary of movement was, on the whole, that of basic modern dance.
However familiar the vocabulary, the performance was brilliant in its
clarity and precision.
The "Suite for Five" opens on a note of dynamic tranquility and
continues to build with pristine clarity and economy. Although the
"quiet center" is highly charged, the total effect is hypnotic. We move
because we move,
IN "CRISES," the subtle psychological relationships are never fully
developed (what exactly is the significance of the, elasticities?). The
possible meanings are not emphasized but remain subservient to the
rhythmic play.
Pointed, but as usual delightfully understated (note the bell-bot-
tomed black tutus); "Antic Meet" parodied among other things his
own work. In "room for two" the third leg of the classical pas de deux
is augumented by four more. In "social" Mr. Cunningham comments
on how we swimmingly pass each other in dark glasses.
THROUGHOUT THE PROGRAM Mr. Cunningham's use of music
was not so much as accompaniment but as an equally important form
to enhance or undercut the form of the dance. John Cage demands
that we hear in a new fashion; Merce Cunningham demands that we
see in a new fashion.
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