Sneiy-T'hird Year EDrrED AND MANAGED BY STUDENTS OF THE UNIvERSrrY of MiCmAN UNDER AuTHORIrY OF BOARD IN CONTROL OF STUDENT PumwCnoNs nlons Are Free STUDENT PUBLICATIONS BLDG., ANN ARBOR, MIc., PHONE No 2-3241 Vill Prevail" LETTERS TO THE ] "What's This Talk About A Fitness Program?" 4J Tru , i ., a+ , , sk i L . : , ,, ;_,. , Ross, Stockmeyer View SResignations from SGC Editorials printed in The Michigan Daily express the individual opinions of staff writers or the editors. This must be noted in all reprints. /f:::- , )AY, FEBRUARY 15, 1963 NIGHT EDITOR: BARBARA LAZARUS Honors Housing Plan: Step in the Wrong Direction. HE PROPOSAL for special housing for rhonors students comes up annually At about the ,same time as spring rush. The proposal as discussed in this year's communique from the Honors Council is different from last year's, however, in that it sounds rather definite about trying the scheme which hitherto was merely a suggestion.; Apparently the Honors Council has declared invalid last year's protests that such a housing arrangement is most undemocratic. While this objection is, on the contrary a very sound one, particularly in a state-sponsored university, it is by no means the only one. A NY ATTEMPT to organize honors students into a housing unit, even on a voluntary basis must be founded on the assumption that honors students are more intelligent and harder-working than non-honors students. It mus$, also assume that honors students are more intellectually inclined than non-honors students, more interested in culture and aca- demic discussions and more likely to be stim- ulgted by a hothouse atmosphere where they can bask in warmth generated by active brain cells than in .normal housing units. The general conclusion of all this must be that honors students will be happier and better off living with each other than with their less elite contemporaries. The first assumptionseems highly unlikely to be true. Most probably there are just as man'y intelligent students outside the honors program as in it, particularly in the junior and senior years, when many become dissatisfied with the departmental honors programs and drop out of them to pursue courses which, for one reason or another, promise to be more satisfying. There are probably more exceptionally brilliant and creative students outside the program than in it because these students are seldom in- terested enough in amassing a grade-point average to qualify for the program in the first place. It is probably not true that honors students work harder than non-honors students. Once admitted to the program, honors students usually find that grades are 'achieved with a minimum of effort because instructors some- how seem to have the feeling that honors students, like graduate students, should never receive any grade lower than a B minus. BUT EVEN ASSUMING that all these propo- sitions were true, does this necessarily mean that honors students ought to live together? I think not. Intelligence and dilligence are not necessarily the qualities that make for a good roommate, next-door-neighbor or confidante. Friendliness, warmth, sympathy. even a certain degree of neatness and perfunctory courtesy are more necessary in a roommate than in- tellectual companionship in dormitory rooms the size of most of those the University boasts. One of the best aspects of the University is that anyone who is in' the mood for an aca- demic discussion, a visit to the museum or an evening at a concert need hardly- step out of his way to find company. Such company need not necessarily be found next door or even within the same doimitory-although it a very rare instance when it is not to be found there-it is seldom farther away than a 15 minute walk at the very most. On the other hand, a good understanding roommate or friend is a necessity to one's round the clock happiness, and ought not to be farther from reach than the length of a corridor most of the time. It would be ridiculous to assert that intel- ligence is not even a factor in one's selection oof a roommate or friend. Of course it is, whether conscious or unconscious. But in this instance the always artificial distinction be- tween honors and nori-honors students dis- appears altogether. There are very few real dummies at the University these days. They simply do not get admitted, and so it is most likely that taken by itself the intelligenceI differential between honors and non-honors1 -stuents (assuming that there is one) is highly1 unlikely to be the decisive factor in forming a friendship. YET EVEN if all this were true-even if it could be proved that living in an honors housing unit would increase the individual honors student's happiness and productivity- it would not be beneficial to his development as an individual. One of the advantages - of attending the University is the great variety in the student body. While 'his closest friends may remain people much like himself, the individual stu- dent ought to make it his business during his residence on campus to meet and get to know as many different types of people as he can. One excellent way of meeting people is living in the same dormitory or house with them. A pretty sure way not to meet them is to re- strict one's circle of acquaintances to the same group of people one has seen in class for as long as one has been attending the University. Even lumping unified scientists and honors music students togefher does not sppply the necessary variety. And if honors housing is a bad thing for honors students, it is a far worse thing for the campus in general-worse even than the sorority and fraternity system which at least ostensibly offers everyone an equal chance for membership,. WHEN STUDENTS are admitted to the Uni- versity, they are admitted because they have met the entrance requirements.. They are admitted on a socially equal basis andnot as first, second or third class citizens. As mem- bers of the entire university community they remain on an equal basis, whether or not they happen to fit into the academic echelon known as honors. There are obviously distinctions to be made among ,students on the basis of their class' work, interest and motivation. The distinctions are acknowledged by the establishment of an honors college, by grades on a transcript and by recognition such as the Honors Convocation and Phi Beta Kappa. But these distinctions are academic in the narrowest sense. They are a part of the classroom formality of the University and ought not to be carried beyond it. The effort to integrate the dormitory system into the overall academic purpose of the Uni- versity is certainly a commendable one and as a general goal ought to be advanced. This does not mean, however that the right to live in certain of the dormitories ought be handed out as an academic reward. Housing in the University then becomes a matter of special privileges rather than free variety of choice. Those who can make it socially get to live in sororities and fraternities. Senior women and men who are sophomores and above can have apartments. Undergraduate women who achieve a ceitain unspecified level of social, culture and academic desirability get to live in Martha Cook. The rest of the undergraduate rejectees get lumped together in various dorm- itories and left to shift for themselves. THE ENTIRE SYSTEM is manifestly unfair and ought to be reorganized from scratch instead of having its iijustces compounded by the addition of honors housing. Every University student ought to have as much right as any other University student to live in any given type of University housing. That includes sorority and fraternity houses and Martha Cook as well as the dormitories. If more students apply for a given housing unit than it can accommodate (which will always be the case with certain houses whose location or size makes them tremendously desirable) a seniority system should be used, and within that a purely random selection process such as pulling names out of a hat. This doesn't mean that people have no right to decide which of their friends they want to -live with. The choice of a roommate is always' open and in addition to that if several friends apply together for a certains dormitory they are most likely to find them- selves in it. If honors students want to room with other honors students, that's fine, but they must choose on the genuine basis of personal qualities and -not on the artificial basis of honors. -JUDITH OPPENHEIM E Editorial Director ,~:-40 .i sop 'ta- i rr~ - xp . rolo TODAY AND TOMORROW: Unity at TheBrink By WALTER LIPPMANN. HERE WOULD be less puzzle- ment about General de Gaulle, I believe, if we began by recogniz- ing that the difference between us is over the cold war. The general writes down to a degree which President Kennedy would not dare to do the military and political threat of the Soviet Union. That is why the general dares, as Mr. Macmillan said on Monday, "to bring the whole Western Alliance into great jeopardy." In the general's view, the bal- ance of power has turned de- cisively against the Soviet Union, and, consequently, the Western Alliance is obsolescent and of diminishing importance. Once again, as is usual in hu- man affairs, a wartime coalition begins to break up as peace begins to break out. THE GENERAL, it seems to me, is acting today on what is likely to happen, but to happen only in the future. Surely it would be more prudent if in our dealings with Mr. Khrushchev, which are still very difficult and dangerous,, the Western Alliance were being consolidated rather than disrupt- ed. But the general hasi of course, heard this argument. He is un- impressed by it. However much we may think that western unity is paramount and imperative, he does not in fact believe that west- ern unity is paramount and im- perative. We shall not move him by cying out that the Western Alliance is in danger and that American troops may be with- drawn from Europe. We may be sure that General de Gaulle, who certainly is not want- ing in foresight, has foreseen this possibility. I would suppose he has satisfied himself that what counts most in the Western Alliance, the American military commitment in Europe, is bound to remain until Gaullist Europe is strong enough to deal on equal terms with the Soviet Union. He does not have to woo us. For we are already in- dissolubly married to Europe, and, until the West and the East ar- rive at an eventual peace, we can- not dissolve this marriage. In the meantime, there is no need to re- ward us for doing what we have to do. This is the right context, I would say, in which to study the question of "how," as Life mag- azine puts it, "we shift our west- ern nuclear monopoly . . . into (an) alliance of genuine equals The inner core of our nuclear monopoly is the fact that only the President of the United States has authority to use our nuclear weapons. 'Because our nuclear weapons are something like 98 per cent of the nuclear strength of the whole Western Alliance, no other nuclear power, neither Brit- ain or France, can in fact fire a nuclear weapons without the con- sent of the President of the United States. Neither General de Gaulle nor Prime Minister Macmillan could conceivably usetheir nuclear weapons unless they knew for-cer- tain that they were covered by the United States against Soviet re- prisals.* THIS IS the American nuclear monopoly and to live under its protection is, says the general, "intolerable fora great state." How are we to arrive at a toler- able relationship? For their will have to be a relationship between European and American nuclear power-at least until that very dis- tant day when Europe has a nu-' clear power of its own capable of coping with the Soviet Union. The crucial problem of the rela- tionship turns on the ultimate command decision to use nuclear weapons. The more closely we examine this problem, the clearer it becomes, I submit, that at the final point of decision in war there, must be unity of command. Coali- tions cannot be conducted by com- mittees in time of war. In the whole process of preparing and planning, there is not only room but need for committees represent- ing the members of the coalition. But when there is war, they must . choose a Foch, an Eisenhower, a MacArthur, a Kennedy. The further we get from the brink, the less do we have to think about unity of command (i.e., monopoly) and the: more we can think of a committee of equals. For this reason, it is most un-- likely that we shall find now a theoretical solution, of the prob- lem posed by our nuclear mono- poly. The problem is most acute when war is not imminent. One can say that monopoly, or unity of command, may be intolerable in peacetime. But it is indispen- sable in wartime. The great con- troversy today about the monopoly is due primarily to the relaxation of the tension of the cold war. The controversy would evaporate if we were on the brink of a great war. (c) 1963, The Washington Post ,Co. Applause HAVE YOU ever noticed how a concert audience will applaud a familiar encorse after a few bars have been played? They are not applauding the music or the per- former. They are applauding themselves because they recognized it. --Sigmound Spaeth The Common Sense of Music To the Editor: THIS LETTER is to explain our resignation from Student Gov- ernment Council to be effective with the seating of new Council members March 15, 1963. We take this action for the fol- lowing reasons: 1) We are looking forward to graduation in June and neither of us expects to return here. at east as students, in the fall. Thus, if we were to retain our seats, Coun- cil would again be faced with the impossible situation of filling two vacancies or the disadvantage of operating with a shortage of per- sonnel. Both of these situations have proved harmful in the past and we have no desire for repeat performances. 2) It has become Increasingly evident -in the past year that Council leadership has rested on us in the main. Without attempt- ing any value judgement on this situation, we firmly are in. accord that thepresent condition should change and that others should take positions of leadership and responsibility. 3) This being our last semester at the University, we also have personal reasons for resigning. These are mainly academic and alone would not require such dras- tic action. But taken in context with our other concerns, resigna- tion 'at this time appears to be the most desirable course of ac- tion. * * * WE REALIZE that Student Gov- ernment Council is presently in a crucial position-that major al- terations in Council's form and procedures are on the horizon if student government is to survive. We pare not leaving a sinking ship, but, rather, opening up opportun- ities for new leaders. It seems only fair to us that any changes should be made by those who will have to operate under them. How- ever, our interest in and our know- ledge of student government will not be lost in the process. We plan to act as willing advisors should the Council request our assistance. We both plan to submit to you in the near future some of our thoughts and recommendations about the present and future of SGC.' -Robert Ross, '63 --Steven Stockmeyer, '63 Limitation *: . To the Editor: "AGE LIMITS Rubenstein." May I ask? What's limiting the Music Critic? If Mr. Rubenstein were to pass away suddenly after having been rendered this genuine critical ver- bal barrage, I would say it would be in order for the Music Critic to suffer an endless guilty con- science. : * * * AT 77, even a typewriter-pound- ing expert is not the wizard that he was at 40. Surely 4000 plus people did not attend Mr. Rubenstein's perform- ance to listen for how many 'little flaws he will blend into his ren- ditions! It is by far a profounder read- ing pleasure to see someone outdo- ing himself in remarking about the genuine good in people, by that I mean, to caress verbally his extraordinarily many becoming inner flaws. I would say he is the possessor of many of those and he is to be envied for them. 1 It showed by the standing ova- tions, that people "almost" loved him to death. How warm and lovely! -J. Krauss TV... To the Editor: CONGRATULATIONS on what was essentially a good 'article on TV at the college level"TV May Meet Needs of Enrollment Rise," in a recent issue of The Daily. The implication, however' that television is merely a means of meeting higher educational costs and increased enrollment can be misleading. To be sure,' instructional tele- vision (ITV) can be used advan- tageously in these areas, but an even more serious problem facing higher education (as well as ele-, mentary and secondary education) is that of the "knowledge explo- sion." Higher costs and more stu- dents can be met relatively simply with more money-if the populace deems it desirable to meet these problems; buildings can be -built and teachers hired-both with dol- lars. But how do we endeavor to teach more subject matter to these students in the same amount of time (or even less time)? This will take more than just dollars. The vast body of subject matter. which has to be mastered by to- day'scollege graduate (in non- scientific as 'well as in scientific fields) is increasing at a prodigious rate. And we must master the techniques of instruction whici- can keep pace with this expanding body of knowledge. Television andJ programmed instruction, as well as many other new innovations, are tools which can be used-- which must be used-if we are to succeed in our educational obliga- certain jobs better than any other available means. The medical school's color installation is one of the most extensive in the coun- try; it affords every medical stu- dent a better-than-front-row seat for close-up views of delicate operations and minute demon- strations that formerly were well viewed only by the few who coudx 'crowd around the operating tabl or the demonstration area. 1mi- larly, in the English Language Institute, the television aera provides an unexcelled opportun- ity for students unobtrusively to witness the teaching demonstra- tions that are so vital a part of their instruction. Television is do- ing moredthan just meeting rising costs and enrollments. Also, I should likeptoconment briefly on the fear expressed by "many educators" that ITV will tend to thwart "unorthodox dis- cussions and highly controversial subjects." The analogy of ITV to the bland conformity of com- mercial televisiongis utterly fal- lacious. One might as well try s to draw an analogy between a textbook and a drug store sex- pocketbook. The analogy is, rather, between the two media themselves -that of print, and that of tele- vision. Like the printing press, television is only a tool, a medium of communication. Like any print- ed literature, television may be us- ed for information, for propgan- da, or for entertainment. Like a book, a television program may be trash or it may be worthwhile. As to the claim that ITV "cre- ates an automatic and conforming mind," again, let me compare this medium with the printed page. No' book, regardless of its stimulating and challenging content, can con- tribute to any overt interaction with the individual reader, I.e, tn reader cannot enter into a liv discussion with the printed page, But it is as the student assimilates and applies this knowledge--In solitary meditation, in discussion among his peers, and in the give- and-take of the ideal formal, small-sizedkclassroom-thatktes learning, takes place. Likewse with an ITV presentation (which has its own unique qualities of production, aesthetics, motivation, teaching techniques, integration of other tools, et. al., which cannot be exactly duplicated in any other' medium--in textbooks or In lie lectures), education takes place not' only with rote acceptance of what is presented (likewise with textbooks or lectures) but with' the creative application and as- similation of the material. * * * IN FACT, to cite an example from the elementary and secon- dary level, many programs of the Midwest Program on Airborne Television Instruction (MPATI) present controversial discussions and topics. Many students are ex- posed to more challenging and stimulating teaching than they ever were before the introduction of the 'MPATI lessons into their classrooms. If controversy and excitement are not presented over any ITV project, it is not the fault of the television system but of the manner in which it is being used. The danger is not that television cannot do the job, because we know that it can. But rather, the danger is that television will not be given the opportunity to 0.o the job, because we won't let it. -Donald N. Wood MPATI Area Coordinator PITTSBURGH: Evening TH~E PITTSBURC*H Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Wil- liam Steinberg, presented a high- ly' Austrian and highly entertain- ing program in Hill Auditorium last evening. It has been just three years since this orchestra played here last, and it is more evident with each concert season that the Pitts- burgh Symphony is gaining a prominent place among the nine or ten great orchestras in the United States. William Steinberg has been conductor of the orches- tra for eleven years now, ahd he has drilled into his group stand- ards of exact execution and sensi- tive itnerplay which result in per- formance that moves along like -well, like clockwork. The program was keenly plan- -ned. It began with Haydn's "Sym- phony No. 91 in C major" and Mr. Steinberg established immedi- ately a pattern of solid, sure tempos. The "Minuetto" was espe- cially pleasing. Next was "Big Ben" by Ernst Toch, written when the composer was living in London after fleeing the Nazi occupation of Austria.. The orchestra presented a passion- ate performance. Mechanism of another kind was presented in Webern's "Symphony for Chamber Orchestra, Opus 21." This is a twelve-tone work, and at the end, without a 5-1 cadence, Pacifism Obsolete DURING THE heat of the last Cuban crisis, a demonstration for peace was held on the Diag. There were philosophical discussions, loud speeches, lively arguments, and a good time was had by all.y However, behind all this ballyhoo there seems to be a dangerous misunderstanding on the, part of the demonstrators of the practical meanings of the terms "politics," and "phil- osophy." Politics has been described as "the art of getting done what is possible." Philoso- phy however, is not burdened with such mun- dane limitations as "what is possible," or even reality for that matter. At the basis of any political decision to control or eliminate nuclear weapons is the stark desire to stay alive, and any test-ban arrangement that would decrease the possibility %-w AL 1%.-I w as those without sufficient inspection, as sug- gested recently by the Soviet Union, would be absurd. HOWEVER, AT the base of any philosophical decision °outlawing the bomb is the lofty concept of the brotherhood of man. To the philosopher, this idea takes on almost a re- ligious significance, involving emotional reac- tions and a code to live by. This kind of think- ing, coupled with a clear rational awareness of the destructive capacity of nuclear weapons, and a healthy amount of youthful exuberance, can lead to the clearly political decision to participate in an anti-bomb demonstration. Before the idea of Brotherhood can become significant in the field of international poli- tics, it must be universally accepted. It is C S C C 0 S 8 l Vi : .a . n u _, Politico THE END was a sordid one for a prime minister who had as- pired to emulate Macdonald. He had seemed. for a time, to cap- ture the imagination of the Cana- dian people as only one statesman does in a generation. He failed to grapple with the problems they. expected him to solve. He survived the 1962 election, in which his party ran second in the popular vote, owing to the unforseen rise of Social Credit in Quebec which denied the Liberals their expected support from that province. He can hardly survive the next one. History will judge John Diefen- baker, and it will not judge him kindly. He campaigned on his claim to have restored the health of the economy a week before he was forced to reveal the most serious monetary crisis of our gen- eration. He muttered impressiv ly about the need for national unity, and dismissed an inquiry into English-French relations as a waste of time. He made procras- tination a way of life. He thunder- ed denunciation of Communism, which he combatted by sowing discord in, the Western Alliance and evolving a defense policy so esoteric that his own minister of national defense proved unable to understand it. Though the skies By BARBARA PASH IN HIS latest move to bolster his shaky throne and endear himself to the United States, Iranian Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlevi has dis- tributed 2 million acres of private land to peasant families. - Supposedly the former land- owners will be compensated for their loss and supposedly this land will be distributed in a fair and equal manner. For this move, the Shah has received a chorus of praise in the American press. But the government of Iran is that ofhan absolute dictatorship. Pahlevi disbanded the Ma Jlis (parliament) a year and a half ago and has been ruling by royal decree and referendum ever since. This disquieting fact has been widely ignored by journalists, who seem to think that by distributing land the Shah has redeemed him- self. ** * * FOOLING THE IRANIANS: Land Grants Insfiin tion of land was not done for hu- manitarian reasons, rather it was necessary for the Shah to mollify the unrest the regime has aroused. Moreover one wonders about the contradictory reports noting the rioting against and cheering of the "people" for Pahlevi; Surely the students and few intellectuals of Iran will not be soothed by this act when they still have no voice- in the government, when the stan- dard of living is so low and when there are few opportunities forI advancement. Nor are the power- ful landowners and priests over- joyed by the distribution of land. * * -* AND WHETHER the Shah real- izes it or not, his action may cause more trouble in the future. He has given the Iranian masses a glimpse of a better life, and they will not be content with semi-solutions. Either you provide them with full. opportunity for advancement or you keep them in a state of ignor-