i t 5j 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 Truth Will Prevail" STUDENT PUBLICATIONS BLDG. * ANN ARBOR, MICH. * Phone NO 2-3241 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 I 4 .~1 I 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 1 j Withering Heights .., vI 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 ~ E c r' r: i t V L r' _ a T L , I 2 a T a r 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 * ' d I P. ci t a '_