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Seventy-First Year
EDITED AND MANAGED BY STUDENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
ere Opinions Are Free UNDER AUTHORITY OF BOARD IN CONTROL OF STUDENT ,PUBLICATIONS
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Editorials printed in The Michigan Daily express the individual opinions of staff writers
or the editors. This must be noted in all reprints.
Which
Way the
University
,TEMBER 15, 1961
NIGHT EDITOR: MICHAEL HARRAH
Class of '65
Matrieulation In Crisis
OR THE FRESHMAN in 1961, the start of
college will be less of a jolt than it has been
the past. Admission pressures, brought 'on
the well-documented "baby boom" of which
is a part, have already extended to the
gh schools, impressing on him the need
r diligent study and self-discipline. But the,
ncept of around-the-clock education will be
w to him. So also will be ,the experience of
aring a cramped campus with 25,000 others.
the dorms and on the diags, the freshman
s already discovered that college students are,
penetrable bodies, though he may have yet
learn that they are also thinking, feeling,
lible human beings like himself.
rhe admissions scramble and impossibility
privacy are only the beginning of the pres-
res the freshman will feel. If he, believes
rnpetition for grades goes on only in high
hool, he'll soon learn that college is com-.
titive beyond belief or reason-and that the
ikes are higher:. admission to graduate
lool, a fellowship, a \good job. He'll want
devote enough time to' studies to satisfy
saesthetic thirst for knowledge. But he will
nagged by fears that by studying constantly
is missing other cultural and educational
portunities available only at a university.
may turn to extracirricular activities as a
nd of comic relief from the stresses of aca-
mia,and find, a month slater that they con-
me more time than classes and, in some
y, are more satisfying. This view has little.
rrency among the faculty, and the* pressure
an that direction increases. Citizenship tugs
the student, too, and with a world so
iinently in need of saving, unconscientious
deed is the student who feels no obligation
respond.,
"IH STUDENT is torn in all directions. He
wants to take time to work, to be with
Lends, to be a good citizen,'to broaden him-
If, to contemplate, to relax, and to do so
thout stress or haste. This turns out to be
ipossible. A stu#lent of normal interest and,
ergy' will probably overextend himself, and
i up, cursing the slowness of his mental
culties and the time he wastes sleeping.
Under this crush of conflicting responsibili-
es, several things may happen. There is an
,cellent chance that, at some time or other,
will wind up in Room 218, Health Service.
arely, he may flunk out. More probably, he
ill try to contract his obligations, to 'effect
Thoreau-like simplification. He will narrow
a attention, concentrating on the handful of
ings whicli most interest him. Other fields
knowledge he excludes; extracirricular ac-
rities are eschewed or even scorned, and
ie responsibilities of citizenship, he imagines,
'r discharged by dutifully reading The New
ork Times. This is the 'model student, sup-
orted in fact, if not in principle, by most
culty members, and It reaches its highest
age of development in the typical graduate
I happen to believe that such a contraction
is not only unhealthy but, in the present day
and age, incredibly myopic, and that the
student's initial overextention is a more genuine
and ultimately more realistic 'response to the,
challenges he senses. For the freshman is
reaching maturity in a bewildering and terrify-
ing world, a world which accelerates uncon-
trolled toward a plainly forseeable collision
with destruction, accumulating unprecedented
problems along the way. It is a world grown
complex beyond' comprehension, a world whose
organic behavior is starkly insane, a world
his generation did not create but which, trite
though it sounds, it must save.
THERE is some evidence that the old ideas
of scholarly aloofness are changing. Aca-
demicians - of all ages -- are beginning to
acknowledge, with a chill, that ivory towers,
are no protection against fallout. Thus, we find
the socially-oriented "Go-Blue" type of stu-
dent activity everywhere on the decline, yield-
ing to student groups who soberly grapple with
the most fornidible and basic of problems: the
hackneyed but nonetheless real "student move-
ment," born of necessity. in foreign climes and
hopefully transplanted to indifferent, if not
hostile, American soil. Faculty members, too,
are developing a new social responsibility, as
atomic scientists debate the dangers of nu-
clear testing and the Harvard faculty deserts
to Washington.
Knowing the magnitude of the task, the
thoughtful student may despair at the response
made thus far by his peers and .elders. He is
confronted with a student liberalism riddled
with inconsistencies, a conservatism out ofj
touch with reality, a "middle-of-the-road"
relativism which masks lack of principle-each
clique touting its own monistic solution to the
world's troubles. Abolish the Committee, or
the income tax. Recognize Red China. Fight
inflation. Faced with such a time-consuming
and shallow dissipation of energies, the student
may incline to agree with his professors that
participatory democracy is a bore that de-
tracts from the time he can devote to his real
interests. But the ambient insanity, the feeling
of an "awful malaise" that must be opposed,
rises to counter the disillusionment..
Sometime the student may find himself
worrying about 'the draft or unconsciously
listening for the bombs to fall, and it will oc-
cur to him that this madness is only a bad
habit, that we began by treating one another
rudely and have never been able to change.
That, I think, is the real explanation for the
shape we're in. But the explanation suggests
no simple corrective. Ultimately, salvation of
civilization becomes an intimately personal
process in which the student must somehow
choose in his thousand daily crises the humane
alternatives, thus hopefully finding his way
to a better order.
-JOHN ROBERTS
Editor
By PHILIP SHERMAN
City Editor
THE PAST academic year was a
time of questioning, a time of
charge and counter-charge--even,
perhaps, a time of troubles.
And, without a doubt, it was a
discomfiting time for the people
whose ideas and policies were be-
ing brought into the arena of pub-
lic debate and analysis.
Some damning charges were
published against the University's
residence halls. It was alleged
that the residences were not pro-
perly fulfilling a substantive edu-
cational role, that their staffs
were unresponsive to reasonable
student demands, that business
considerations were being put be-
fore human ones.
There were complaints, too,
about the Michigan Union's ideas
of who should and who should
not be allowed to use Union facil-
ities.
At year's end, a faculty report
asked sweeping changes in the
office of Student Affairs, both in
structure and in personnel. The
report had been stimulated by
students who seemed to feel a
frustration that the University,
particularly those parts especially
designed to deal with students'
non-academic affairs, was unre-
sponsive to student feelings.
QUESTIONS WERE RAISED
too about the new full-year calen-
dar whose effects won't be fully
felt till the entering freshmen
are seniors. There was also the
secretive manner in which these
significant changes were brought
about, an example of the secrecy
that too often pervades the Uni-
versity.
The Daily's own policies were
questioned by some Student Gov-
ernment Council members, and,
though the matter never did come
to a vote, it was obvious The Daily"
wasn't likely to win many popular-
ity contests.
Even one administrator's aver-
sion to beards was brought into
the open and, the policy ended.
This kind of questioning went
on against the normal background
of intellectual interplay of teacher
and students. Both kinds of query
have a common root. Substance,
not impulse, is the only difference.
s . .
OFF-CAMPUS, the most direct
kinds of questions ,were asked by
the state Legislature, and, as was
so often the case last year, ad-
ministrators were the targets. The
Legislature showed no more than
its usual lack of understanding of
the needs of Michigan higher edu-
cationeand of the particular and
different needs of the University.
Many social fraternities were
running into difficulties on other
campuses because of alleged racial
and religious discrimination; these
developments are having a still-
to-be measured effect on local
chapters.
Students across the nation on-
tinued, their protests against such
social and political evils as dis-
'crimination and the activities of
the House Un-American Activities
Committee. Other students formed
conservative counter-movements
against the liberals.
In these kinds of activity, the
students may only have been re-
flecting the views of some of their
elders, but they most certainly did
add a fervor and a sense of ur-
gency that had not previously
existed. It was indeed an articulate
year, and this was reflected in the
University community.
* * *
THE QUESTIONING within the
University community was good:
for only by continuous self-exam-
ination does an institution main-
tain its vigor. An organization as
big as the University can slide
along without change but also with
decreasing effectiveness. Any of
the hundreds of branches - stu-
dent, faculty or administrative -
can also get away with this simply
because it is only a part of an
immense cosmos.
The spirit of analysis, though it
does not permeate the entire com-
munity, is a sign that life and
a spirit of progress does exist in
some places. There are a great
many people who are not satisfied
and who are willing to say so.
Dissatisfaction is the first step
toward progress, and a better Uni-
versity community.
This is the other side of the
coin of questioning. For, if an
attack on a given institution's pro-
cedures or set of mind is destruc-
tive, it also clears the way for
an improvement.
There were a great many specific
advances that grew along side the
questions last year.
* * *
THE AMERICANS Committed
to World . Responsibility - the
Peace Corps group - was formed
and had a material effect on the
plans of the then-Senator John F.
Kennedy. A liberal student poli-
tical organization, Voice, was
started, and a branch of the con-
servative Young Americans for
Freedom was formed. Challenge,
an intellectual forum on contem-
porary world problems, got off
to a successful start with one of
the best rosters of lecturers seen
on campus in quite a while.
Individual students showed
some increasing interest in cam-
pus issues. Members of Student
Government Council, responding
to the challenge of a minority,
diligently and forthrightly con-
sidered some of the day's major
issues.
And, if some Union policies pro-
voked opposition, the impulse be-
hind them was a good one: to have
the Union provide better service to
an increasingly large student pub-
lie.
Interquadrangle Council, if it
was not completely happy about
the way the residence halls ad-
ministration was challenged, still
got together a conference on the
quadrangles.
Vote totals in the SGC election
went up a little too, though they
were still too low.
* * *
BOTH THE QUESTIONS and
the actions raise the hope that
the coming year will be a year of
answers and solutions. The an-
swers aren't going to be easy, and
they won't be finished by June.
In fact, it is usual that' problem-
solving raises .a .whole host of
supplemental difficulties, but these
too may be ironed out.
The crux of the .matter is sim-
ple: the movements of the past
year must be continued and a
favorable set of mind toward prob-
lem solving must be created. If
this is done, 1961-62 will be a sig-
nificant year indeed.
. * *
SOME OF THE answers are
obvious:
Action will be taken on the rec-
omijendations on the Office of
Student Affairs.
Work .will be carried out on a
revision of the Michigan House
Plan, which is the theory behind
the way the residence halls are
suposed to operate. (There is ap-
parently some disagreement here
between the administration and
the students on just what in 'the
plan should be revised, but it is
significant that discussion will be
, opened.)
The Unon ought to be able t
make its policies clearer, and tc
demonstrate once and for all it
policies are the result of a "new
look" at the entire institution
not simply an attempt to keer
a few individuals out of the Grill
Such a general assessment-based
on honest information-is a good
thing, and should bring many im-
provements in the Union. This,
at least, is the Union's aim. Full
cooperation with the entire cam-
pus will expedite its fulfillment.
The Committee on Membership
Selection in Student Organiza-
tions, SGC's watchdog on alleged
bias in student organizations ought
to have some public action ready
soon. It's been working quietly for
close to a year, and it's high time
that the public be let in on some
of what's going on. The negotia-
tions and investigations are deli-'.
cate, but on a matter of such
import, total secrecy - one of
the banes of a vital, informed and
participating university commun-
ity - is not in order all of the
time.
Of course, the doings in Lan-
sing will receive full publicity.
* * *.
SUCH are some of the public
matters.
It is of vital importance that
such change be made openly, with
full participation by the entire
- University community. Only in
this way can the wishes and the
ideas of faculty, students and ad-
ministrators be given fair and full
treatmgnt. Formulation of Uni-.
versity policy should be with some
obvious and necessary limitations,'
something akin to the activity of
the classroom.
These aren't military secrets
that are being discussed - they,
are policies that affect every per-
son in the University. Ifthe aca-
demy is a democracy - and it
ought to be so, at least to a much
greater extent than at present -
then this massive secrecy that
exists in every corner of the com-
munity must be eliminated.
* * *
.. THESE ARE the reasons why a
conference on the university -
in which all three groups will dis-
cuss policy - is a good thing;
these are also the reasons why
appointment of an entirely-faculty
committee to consider reorganiza-
tion of the office of student affairs
is not at all good. 1-"
The decision-making power may
have to rest in a few places; but
until the time that decision is
made, policy determination should
be open - and open to all.
At present it is not. And stu-
dents especially must sometimes,
almost literally, break their heads
just to be heard. The free and
powerful expression of opinion
can not exist if its enunciation
depends on the permission of a
few individuals and committees.
* * *
THERE ARE some other kinds
of events that were also recog-
nizable last year. They didn't of-
ten break into headlines, but they
were the kinds of things that lie
behind what does. It is necessary
that these deeper movements, be
recognized, evaluated and their
courses changed, if necessary.
One of them is a growing poli-
tical awareness on the part of
many students, reflected most ob-
viously in some of their conver-
sation.
This is the first Cold War gen-
eration; and the Cold War has
called forth, finally, something of
an honest, even sophisticated con-
sciousness of the rest of the world
that was only nascent in the
people who won the world war.
Though development of aware-
ness has hardly been complete,
and in many cases has only
brought more fears, still it is nec-
essary for national and personal
success in the new world. The
University feeds on this spirit, but'
must also feed it.
* * *
THERE HAS ALSO been a
growth of the academic sentiment,
a growing seriousness that ac-
companies the new political aware-
ness. Education is serious busi-
ness, a necessity for success if
nothing else. More people at the
University are realizing this.
Student organizations have been
having problems getting enough
people to work. Part of the prob-
lem is that many organizational
aims Just seem irrelevant to the
serious studlent. But groups that'
offer genuine intellectual growth
- as long as they do exclude the
strictly academic - will doubt-
less gain in popularity. Challenge
and the SGC summer reading pro-'
grams may be an example. So may
be Voice, YAP's and even this
newspaper.
The campus is far from becom-,
ing an intellectual ghetto - even
in the face of increasing atten-
tion to graduate study. But it is
more serious, and the more selec-
tive admissions policy is only part
of the reason. The students them-
selves are changing some - and
for the better.
THE FACULTY MAN is chang-
ing too. His new prestige doesn't
arise solely from the fact,. that,
Kennedy hired so manyHarvard-
men. Professors and their ideas
are now realized to be vital;,Hope-
fully, this will be reflected in add-'
ed economic and social advances.
The faculty also believes that'
it is seizing anew a substantial
role in University policy deter-
mination. This voice, some pro-
fesors argue, was too easily sur-
renderedto the central adminis-
tration some years ago. Activists
on the faculty now feel they are
gaining an increasing say in what's
going'on. The faculty Senate Stu-
dent Relations Committee's ini-
tiative in the Office of Student
Affairs business supports this
view.
But the. way the faculty com-
mission was made to operate on
the full-year calendar - it was in
effect presented with the decision
that such a calendar was going to
be made up and told to find the'
best one - points in the olpposite
,direction.
, The past decline of faculty
power has been matched by an
increasing weight for the central
administration, notably in areas
concerned with students.
PARADOXICALLY, the admin-
istration has also encouraged de-
centralization, arguing that as.
each smaller academic division
has freedom to determine its own
aims and policies, it will be that
much stronger. But this has also
meant, at times, a lack of leader-
ship from the top, with too many
people unsure of just what the
University is trying to do L- and
why.
Though "aims" are a little ne-
bulous for an institution as large
as this one, still it appears that
decisions have been left to work
themselves out on such key prob-
lems as overall size, distribution of
academic and financial resources,
and commitment of University
prestige behind various ideas -
such as opposition to discrimina-
tion or National Defense Educa-
tion Act loyalty requirements.
a , «
THE UNIVERSITY is already a
vast creature of many disparate
parts, and, if anything, the frag-
mentation is increasing. A man
at Willow Run Laboratory or "
Peach Mountain Observatory may
never hear' of the momumental
middle English Dictionary now be-
ing compose in Angell Hall. And
the literary scholars may not
know that a development vital to
national defense is going on at
North Campus.,
Unfortunately, it appears un-
likely that this year will see much
in the way of a solution to these
problems if, indeed, such a solu-
tion is even possible.
Related to increasing fragmen-
tation is the growth of graduate
study and so-called "higher-
higher. education" - advanced
doctoral and post-doctoral pro-
grams training, much of it in the
natural and social sciences, and
In such exotic new areas as com-
munications' sciences and geogra-
phic area studies.
These .programs are ,of neces-
sity specialized, which means their.
members may not bother to re-
late themselves to the University
as whole
THERE ARE good reasons for
the University's ,growing titerest
in theseareas. In an incresingly
technical and complicated world,
the call for expertise is treinen-
dous and education is what creates
it. The University has been in a
good position, with both the fac-
ulty and facilities, to answer this
call.
Though a good deal of earth,:In
the form of desire for institutional
prestige, has been mixed with the
nobler motives for this response,
the University is still fulfilling a
vital social role.
Apparently encouraging this
fragmentation and growth of
specialization are both federal and
foundation funds. These monies
genaerally -go for specific .wok=y
specific academic research groups.
They are not'intended for .veral
University benefit, but for certain
specified results, to be arrived at
by certain specified departments.,
It'is an open question how much
influence the desire for this kind
of money has on University policy
determination. It is also .indeter-
minate exactly how Much en-
couragement it gives to fragmen.'
tation. Possibly outside mone
to some extent, onlytakinga-i
vantage of institutional 'factor, a
that already, exist.
Whatever the causes, the trend
toward bigness and mere width, as.
opposedto breadth, continues.
I
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LETTERS TO THE EDITOR:
Prosperous B igotry
In U' Backya-rd',
TODAY AND TOMORROW
On Berlin Negotiations
By WALTER: LIPPMANN
To the Editor:
HE University of Michigan has
a well deserved and hard-earn-
ed reputation as a liberal and
democratic institution. Students
have long championed the cause
of civil -rights on the campus as
well as in distant areas. We think
nothing of sending a group of
freedom riders to a southern state
to protest undemocratic and de-
grading customs aimed at subju-
gating and humiliating certain
segments of our human family. In-
deed, we have, I think, looked upon
B WE GET READY to negotiate about Ber-
lin, we need to know concretely what is our
ommitment. A month ago the answer to this
uestion was plain enough. When we said we
rould defend the freedom of West Berlin, 'we
neant, to be precise, that people and goods
aust continue to move freely along the air
orridors, the turnpikes, the railroads, and the
anals. If access on these routes is open, West
erlin will have the physical basis of its free-
tom, freedom to elect its government, personal
iberty, and economic freedom to act as part;
A the West German economy. This physical
asis of West Berlin's freedom is what we are
ommitted to defend, if necessary by war.
But while this commitment is still in full
orce, the Soviet action of August 13 in sealing
ff' East Berlin has raised a new problem. It
s whether the half-city can continue to flour-
h, whether it will not wither on the vine. Dr.
denauer's ambassador has said that Berlin
ill wither if 'the physical partition of Ger-
rany, which was consumated on August 13,
ecomes an accepted and established fact.
Editorial Staff
JOHN ROBERTS, Editor
PHILIP SHERMAN HARVEY MOLOTIH
City Editor Editorial Director
USAN FARRELL..............,.Personnel Director
AITH WEINSTEIN ................ Magazine Editor
4ICHAEL BURNS .. ..,............... sports Editor
AT GOLDEN . ..........Associate City Editor
1ICHARD OSTLING.......Associate Editorial Director
DAVID ANDREWS............Associate Sports Editor
"LIFF MARKS .............Associate Sports Editor
Business Staff t
rsxn rs.y * fly o Y 3tr . .. ..lna Ra n na
If the half-city is to continue to flourish,
its people must be given reason to believe that
they have a function to perform in the future
of the German nation. It is not easy to give
them that belief, and while, as Vice-President,
Johnson has said rather too imprecisely, our
lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor are
pledged in West Berlin, we are in fact pledged
to protect access. But we are not and cannot
be iledged to a guarantee of the prosperity of
West Berlin. All we can promise is to try, pro-
vided the West Germans cooperate, to nego-
tiate a status for West Berlin which will give
its inhabitants a' sense of security and confi-
deice in the future. This cannot possibly be
done merely by standing firm and standing pat.
HE PRESIDENT will now have to decide
whether his objective in the coming nego-
tiatiqns is merely to keep open the access
routes--or whether he will try for a wider
objective-not only for the physical freedom
of West Berlin but for its dignity and prosper-
ity. This is a hard and complicated decision.
If he concentrates on the narrow objective,
he can probably achieve it by standing firm
on the decision to resist"if the access routes
are closed. For while the Soviet Union will still
have great opportunity to harrass the access
routes, it does not have a vital interest in
blockading them. But not to interfere with ac-
cess, or not to interfere very much, will not
be sufficient. The Allied rights of access must
be reconfirmed in some kind of contract. For
otherwise, the people of West Berlin will be
left in a dangerous and demoralizing uncer-
tainty. The Soviet price for a reconfirmation
of the rights of access ,will now have to be ex-
plored.
Assuming the best, that the price is mod-
erate and honorable, the outcome will leave
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Withering Heights
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activities such as these as a duty,'
and 'we have not shrunk from its
performance.
But while we applaud the blows
efor freedom struck inn'some other
state, perhaps the students of the
University of Michigankwould do
well to take a close look at their
own.
This University sponsors a sum-
mer camp for the speech handi-
capped in Leelanau County, a few
miles south of a small village call-
ed Northport. While Northport is
an exceedingly lovely tourist at-
traction, its charming exterior
conceals the blight of prejudice. In
this village there 'Is an enforced
policy which denies to a Negro or
to an American Indian the right
to sit in a tavern and drink his
bser. He stands, rain or shine, in.
small groups in the street, an'ob-
ject of public ridicule and shame.
No freedom riders go to North-
port; no one has ever heard of it,
and besides, it is so awfully far out
of the way. For three months of
the year it belongs to the-tourist
crop, and the remainder of the
time it lives off whatever manna
fell from the tourist's hand as they
passed through. Therein lies the
reason for their racial policies; to'
'keep the "town "clean" for the
tourist.
*'. * *
THE UNIVERSITY of Michigan,
by not protesting these policies, is
in effect supporting them. Why
does .the University tolerate in
Michigan a state of affairs it
wouldgnever condone elsewhere?
What would be the fate of a-Negro
speech student from this Univer-
sity who attended the speech
camp? It would seem that this in-
stitution, proud of its own reputa-
tion if not that of villages like
Northport, would movetheir camp
into an area which is a bit more
enlightened and less bigoted.
A situation like the unfortunate
one existing in Northport can only
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IN THIS' RUSH toward advanc-
ed study, it's possible the under-
graduate will miss out. Already, a
few students, particularly scien.
tists, complain that. too many
teachers seem to be conducting
classes only because 'it's the way
to get University research facili-
ties- and money. Administrators
have seemed to say that advanced
study should be the primary con-
tribution of the University to the
state and national higher educa-
tional system.
On >the other hand, advanced.
work means that more good fac-
ulty people may be attracted to
the University, which is a gain for
all. It may also mean better teach-
ing by the people already here.
And the growth of the college
and departmental honors pro-
grams in the literary college in-
dicates, at least, that some under-
. graduates won't be 'forgotten.
* * *
IT 'IS VERY HARD to influence
these movements, and to see their
connection with day-to-day events.
The drive for -improvement of
subsidiary institutions, however,
must not obscure what is going
on at the deepest' levels. Improve-
ments ,should be made with a
realization of the depths and a
desire to influence what goes on
there.
The growing political conscious-
ness, for instance, Is 4 good rea-
son for the encouragement of ef-
fective student government. And
* '
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