w
Seventy-TUird Year
EDITED AND MANAGED BY STUD)ENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
THE DELTA CONTROVERSY:
'Piggy-Back'
vs.
'U' Branch: Which One?
UNDER AUTHORITY OF BOARD IN CONTROL OF STUDENT PUBLICATIONS
Whe Opinns Are Free STUDENT PUBLICATIONS BLDG., ANN ARBOR, MICH., PHONE NO 2-3241
Truth will Prevai"
Editorials printed in The Michigan Daily express the individual opinions of staff writers
or the editors. This must b6: noted in all reprints.
RIDAY. MARCH 15, 1963
NIGHT EDITOR: BARBARA LAZARUS
Putting The 'Government'
Into Student Council
THE MAIN PROBLEM with student govern-
ment is that the students on the Council
have nothing to govern. The president chairs
what is essentially a debating society and
expresses student opinion to all adult comers.
The executive vice-president runs a 'small
bureaucracy which does the busy work for the
administration. The Council chamber is filled
on Wednesday evenings with hot, smokey air.
In order to become a governing body SGC
must have something to govern. It does not
govern students in dormitories or quadrangles.
It does not govern students in fraternities or
sororities. It does not govern students in apart-
ments. It does not govern.
If SGC is to become governmental, it must
first rally to itself what little authority resides
in student groups. It must, for example, grab
power from Assembly House Council (what-
ever power it still has after the coup d'dress).
No dormitory alone is strong enough to fight
the administration effectively on dress regula-
tions. AHC by itself, even if it had the back-
ing of the dormitories cannot fight, in fact
except for Mary Beth Norton, dare not fight
the administration. Women will never be able
to gain the right to dress until SQC represent-
ing all students at the University stands up and
legislates dress regulations, telling the admin-
istration not to run student lives.
LEGISLATES-A GOVERNMENT legislates.
The students on this campus have
yet to legislate anything of major importance.
The Regents and not SGC legislated bylaw 2.14
and Council is saving the University months
of meetings and bickering with fraternity na-
tionals. When the showdown comes it will be
the Regents who will decide to prosecute or
not. (And judging from a most recent ex-
perience, they may choose not. to act at all
leaving SOC holding the bag.)
What, then, should SGC do? It should go
through the Office of Student Affairs' booklet
on student conduct and pass or reject every-
thing therein. If SGC passes a ruling-fine. If,
SGC rejects it, then the ptudents should not
obey the regulation. Theif "duly constituted"
government has put this "regulation" through
the legislative process and failed to approve of
it. Therefore as a legal University rule it does
not exist.
;SGC should also form an academic commit-
tee. This would . oversee the literary college
steering committee (now under Dean James H.
Robertson), the Honors Council (now under
Prof. Otto Graf), the Graduate Student Coun-
cil which is deeply involved in academic mat-
ters, and other related organizations in the
various colleges. The academic committee's
biggest task will be to gain legitimate entrance
into the Faculty Senate and related commit-
tees and begin the long process towards stu-
dent-faculty government. But one caution-
student committees of this sort tend to dis-
criminate on the basis of grade point averages.
Honors students who usually compromise these
committees cannot understand, much less solve,
the problems which confront the "masses" at
the University. The three point elite are often
unaware of serious drawbacks on lower levels.
Therefore a number of seats on the academic
committee should be reserved for students with
less than a 2.75 academic average.
This committee would also administer a
yearly course-evaluation form which they would
examine and compile the results into a course
guide booklet.
SGC SHOULD immediately legislate an honors
sign-out system in the two to be converted
co-ed dormitories. This would save the Uni-
versity untold thousands in building a co-ed
wall in the lobbies of South Quad and Mary
Markley which will eventually have peep holes
and lovers clinging on either side.
SGC should implement in time for the 16th
National Student Congress the direct election
of the four delegates. A special election in early
May would be appropriate. Council passed
the direct election motion and it is stupid to
sit on this idea for a whole year.
Finally, if a polarization of student political
parties is desired, perhaps the British system
rather than, the American system should be
employed. The American system would pit one
man against another for the SGC presidency,
winner take all. The problem is that the loser,
who is the most competent spokesman for his
side, would not sit on Council.
Under an adapted British system, the parties
would declare before the election whom they
would elect president if they gained control
of the Council. Both parties could, in effect,
run a polarized campaign for the presidency
which would also stress the individual party
candidates as well. And both of the presidential
candidates would be on the Council as elected
members. One would then be elected president
and the other would become his "most loyal
opposition."
-HARRY PERLSTADT
Co-Magazine Editor
(EDITOR'S NOTE: This is the sec-
ond of two articles dealing with the
University and Delta College.)
By KENNETH WINTER
ONE THING for sure: Michigan's
Thumb area needs a degree-
granting college. Half a dozen
studies, mountains of reports,
scores of politicians and educators
agree on this.
Nor is there much doubt that
they'll get one, with all this sup-
port. The question now is: What
kind of college will they get?
At present, there are only two
leading contenders for the title;
if for no other reason than that
they are the only plans that have
been wrapped up into a compre-
hensive, coherent, ready-to-use
form.
IN THIS CORNER, the Jam-
rich plan (alias the "piggy-back"
plan or the Wurzel bill), which
calls for an independent, two-year
state college, serving only juniors
and seniors, to supplement the
present freshman-sophomore fa-
cilities of Delta Junior College.
And in this corner, the Univer-
sity branch plan (the label "Uni-
versity campus" is preferred by its
advocates), consisting of the grad-
ual establishment of a four-year
University branch on the Delta
campus, with Delta continuing as
a junior college.
As might be expected in a mat-
ter as complex as the establish-
ment of a new college, the choice
between the two is not simple.
Involved in such a debate is a
multiplicity of smaller issues, and
a number of questions of basic
educational philosophy. The deci-
sion is further complicated because
both plans have their advantages,
but neither is flawless.
', * *
PERHAPS the best way to
evaluate the two proposals is to
consider some of the elements
which are most likely to combine
to make a new college successful,
and see how each plan stacks up
in terms of these criteria.
The first problem a new college
faces is simply getting off the
ground. It must be able to attract
a qualified faculty, able students,
and adequate financial support.
Soon after, it must obtain accre-
ditation, and hopefully gain some
measure of prestige for the diplo-
mas it awards. And to accomplish-
all these things, it must have
capable leaders to make the cru-
cial decisions of this period.
In this embryo stage, the Uni-
versity-branch school would have
a certain head start over its in-
dependent counterpart. Being a
part-even a relatively indepen-
dent part-of an established insti-
tution would mean several things.
PERHAPS the biggest factor is
a somewhat emotional one: the
University's prestige. The idea of
being part of the University would
have a considerable attraction for
faculty members, because of its
prestige and because of the ap-
parent extra security of being with
a going concern. Its drawing power
for students, whose selection of a
school is generally less rationally-
based, would be even stronger.
Under present conditions, the
new branch could gain accredita-
tion quite easily, for accrediting
organizations have been approving
branches of already-accredited
universities almost automatically.
However, this may soon be a thing
of the past: the nationwide pro-
liferation of branch-units of vary-
ing quality is inducing such groups
to begin inspecting branches more
critically before endorsing them.
But the power of prestige has
already been demonstrated in the
Delta case. Not only have the
faculty and students of Delta al-
ready gone all-out in favor of al-
liance with the University, but a
Thumb-area industrialist pledged
$1 million to support a Univer-
sity branch at Delta-long before
any specific plan was even in the
talking stage. With such pro-
University feeling prevalent
throughout much of the Thumb
area, a branch there would not
lack financial support-for a
while, at least.
Besides prestige, some more con-
crete benefits would befall the
new college due to its branch
status. The University could pro-
vide it with some faculty or staff
personnel, if needed, to tide it
over the formative months. And
the University's experience in ad-
ministering a four-year institution
could easily be helpful.
* * *
ONCE THE new college is firmly
established, however, the advan-
tages of being a branch begin to
disappear, and the short-comings
of such an arrangement begin to
set in.
First of all, there is the ques-
tion of the college's academic rep-
utation. At first, the mere pres-
ence of the University's name on
the branch's diplomas might be
enough to give them considerable
stature. But if a Delta-campus de-
gree is to continue to mean all
that an Ann Arbor-campus di-
ploma does, the academic level of
the branch will have to equal
that of the central campus.
This is unlikely to be the case.
If admissions standards are made
Unless the less qualified are merely
flunked out-which would defeat
the purpose of the college which
is to provide room for more of the
state's students-the courses would
have to be made either easier or
less intensive, or the whole under-
graduate program would have to
be stretched over a longer period
of time. All of these alternatives
would diminish the real meaning
of a Delta-campus diploma.
Thus, the report's claim that
"the effect of establishing a Uni-
versity Delta campus will be to
enable more students to obtain a
University of Michigan degree" is
rather deceptive. It would be a
University degree in name only-
and the distinction could not, and
should not, be hidden for long.
To note the probable difference
between the University's degree
and the new college's diploma,
however, is not to cast aspersions
upon the new college. In having
looser standards, it would be ful-
filling precisely the function that
it should: giving a sound, four-
year education to those students
who can't get into the University
(or other colleges with similar
academicdemands) but who clear-
ly are willing and able to obtain a
bachelor's degree. But the Univer-
sity's aegis should not be used
in an attempt to represent such
diplomas as something they aren't.
* * *
ANOTHER QUESTION which
should be asked, if not definitely
answered, at this time, concerns
the fate of Delta as a community
college. With a "big brother," the
University branch, sitting right
beside it on the same campus,
both Delta's functions and .up-
port could well become diluted.
Generally speaking, a commun-
ity college has two purposes:
providing "technical-terminal"
schooling, preparing students to
enter certain vocations after two
years of post-high school work;
and giving academic education,
either to supplement the technical-
terminal student's vocational
courses, or to provide some post-
high school schooling for those
who will seek a degree, or to pre-
pare students to transfer to a
senior college to earn a degree.
The danger in the branch plan
is that the academic function of
the junior college will slowly be
absorbed by the University branch.
If this happened, Delta itself
would become little more than a
technical-trade school. Its stu-
dents would be cut off from the
branch because of its higher admis-
sions standards and more difficult
courses, and would miss out on the
post-high school general education
that is so valuable in our increas-
ingly complex world. Not that this
diminution of the junior college
must inevitably occur, but the pos-
sibility exists and should be con-
sidered.
* * *
ALONG WITH this goes the
possibility that Delta would be
eclipsed financially as well. If the
promised level of local support for
the University branch materializes
i
r
1
t
1
"PIGGY-BACK' PLAN--Dean Jamrich suggests establishing
"Saginaw Valley Senior College," an independent college for
juniors and seniors only, under a board appointed by the Gov-
ernor with Senate consent. Its only proposed connection with
Delta Community College-the sharing of three members between
the governing boards of Delta and SVSC, will be void if the new
constitution passes. (On both diagrams on this page, the units
outlined in heavy black are the proposed new ones, the others
already exist and would remain; white arrows indicate lines of
responsibility; and the broken lines indicate appointive powers.
other units under their ultimate
control. But if a dispute arises,
the points of conflict are ready-
made.
Moreover, unless the branch's
leaders are to be strictly on their
own (in which case there isn't
much point to the alliance in the
first place), it will mean extra ad-
ministrative work for the Ann
Arbor bureaucracy, which is al-
ready big and busy enough. This
burden could be lessened by the
principles of decentralized admin-
istration, which the University al-
ready uses quite successfully.
But an extra load would neces-
sarily fall at least once a year,
every year, when the branch's ap-
propriation would have to be con-
sidered, compared, trimmed and
worked in with the requests from
all the other University depart-
ments. Other matters requiring
such coordination would add sim-
ilar burdens.
* * *
THEN THERE'S the ubiquitous
question of finances. Anyone who
thinks that the branch school
could never lack sufficient funds,
that it could lean on the Univer-
sity like Junior asking Dad for a
few bucks, had better forget the
idea. The University has little
cash to throw around-and there's
no escaping the fact that the ap-
propriations ultimately come from
Lansing, with orbwithout a detour
through Ann Arbor.
The biggest danger in the
branch plan appears when we view
the Delta situation on a statewide
basis. This would be the Univer-
sity's third branch, and Michigan
State University already has one.
The problem is that we may soon
see the established universities
setting up branches all over the
state. Of course, there is nothing
wrong with this-if it is simply a
matter of success setting a prece-
dent for future expansion.
Senate Power
setting up branches for these pres-
tige-political reasons, whether the
arrangements are educationally
sound or not. It is apparent that
no university will sit idly by if it
feels its "competitors" are gobbling
up the state.
And the fast is that many col-
lege officials across the state be-
lieve that that is precisely what
the University is beginning to do
-and they don't intend to be left
out of the race. MSU President
John Hannah, for example, has
declared that if the Delta branch
is established, MSU will begin
shopping around for new branches.
Even some smaller state univer-
sities have made similar declara-
tions.
Whether or not the University
really has such aggressive ambi-
tions is not the question. As long
as the other universities believe
it has, this would be enough to
touch off a destructive rat race.
FINALLY, while we're in this
statewide perspective, there is the
question of whether the Thumb-
area citizens really have a right
to demand local control over an
institution supported by the whole
state-as they have been ada-
mantly seeking since longbefore
the branch plan was conceived.
None of the other state universi-
ties have it. Shouldn't the new col-
lege-whatever its administrative
arrangement - be responsible to
the entire state, rather than Bay,
Midland and Saginaw counties
alone?
So much for the question of
branch vs. independent college.
There is another point of con-
tention between the two proposals,
and it is a point which is really
more important to the college it-
self than the branch question.
This is the question of whether
the new college should provide a
full four-year program, as the
University plan advocates, or only
the top two years, as in the
"piggy-back" proposal.
* * *
A FOUR-YEAR college has
numerous advantages over a two-
year college, and these will be
particularly important in the case
of a brand-new institution.
In the first place, it can attract
better students. Few well-qualified
high-school graduates will select
a junior college over a regular col-
lege or university. Thus the main
source of students for the "piggy-
back" senior college-namely, the
junior college-would not yield a
sufficient number of qualified stu-
dents to enable it to maintain
high standards.
Nor would it be likely to get
them as transfers from the four-
year colleges. The qualified stu-
dent who chose to spend his first
two years at, say, Central Michi-
gan University, would have little
reason to interrupt hisseducation
to transfer to the new senior col-
lege. And for that matter, the
junior college-educated student
would be as likely to . transfer to
one of the four-year colleges as to
spend his last two years at the
"piggy-back" senior college.
ASIDE FROM its greater ability
to attract students, a four-year
college offers them many benefits
a two-year institution can't. Para-
mount among these would be
greater flexibility and choice of
curricula (a student can take
freshman and senior-level courses
simultaneously, for example) and
a more rewarding and complete
selection of extracurricular activi-
ties and events. Also, more institu-
tional loyalty, resulting in stronger
alumni support, would be a likely
result.
An actual illustration of the ad-
vantages of a four-year college is
provided by the dynamic growth
of MSU's four-year campus in
Oakland County, while the Uni-
versity's two-year branches at
Flint and Dearborn have been
quite disappointing.
It would seem, then, that the
best answer to the Thumb area's
education needs is the establish-
ment of a state-supported, in-
dependent, four-year college.
In the long run, there is little
reason for making it a University
branch, and the administrative
complexities and the danger of
future inter-university rivalry out-
weight the short-run benefits of
such an arrangement. The Uni-
versity could do little for Delta
except loan it some prestige and
know-how; anything more sub-
stantial could be given only at the
expense of the University's Ann,
Arbor programs.
IN TERMS of practical politics,
as well, the four-year independent
college has its advantages. If the
two existing plans die in this
year's Legislature-as is likely to
happen-it could become the ideal
compromise. It would satisfy legis-
lators who oppose the branch con-
cept, while providing a four-year
college, which is essentially what
the Thumb-area citizens have been
seeking all along. If the Thumb-
area people will reduce their some-
what unjustified demands for
guarantees of local control, there
is no reason why the independent
college couldn't get underway by
the fall of 1964-which is as soon
as any plan is likely to get into
operation anyway.
The first hurdles of getting it
into operation would, of course,'
remain--with 'no University pres-
tige to lean on. But a sound basic
concept, imaginatively implement-
ed by dedicated leaders, will be
far more important than a bor-
rowed image in establishing a
dynamic new college. And with the
enthusiasm and vision the Thumb
area's leaders have shown since
300 of them set to work in 1956,
the outlook for their new college
would be very bright indeed.
CINEMA GUILD:
One I--
Brando
MARLON BRANDO is a phe-
nomenon of the American
cinema. He has probably received
more publicity than any other star
of the last decade. His recent
"Mutiny on the Bounty" received
fabulous amounts of publicity re-
lated to his striving for perfection,
his change or unchangeability of
mind and many other idiosyncra-
cies that have come to be associat-
ed with his name.
In 1961, a motion picture was
released that is pure unadulterated
Brando. It took endless months to
make, cost endless sums of money
to produce and ran for an endless
two hours and thirty-five minutes.
For example he waited days to
get the ocean breaking on shore
just right. He was too meticulous,
seeking perfection beyond neces-
sity, they claimed. But that's just
part of the story of "One-Eyed
Jacks."
In the acting every motion-
from the limb to the lip-is a
precise function carefully tendered
by Brando, carefully taught by
Brando and carefully emphasized
by Brando. Brando gets caught up
in his directing to such a point
that the emulation of his feelings,
einotions, and philosophy to the
screen is too often boring.
* * *
KARL MALPEN seems to lunge
out at the viewer every time his
curly lock of hair appears on the
screen. Katy Jurado sort of sits
here and looks there, doing no-
thing and adding nothing to the
motion picture. And Pina Pellicer,
as Brando's lover, seems as fragile
as bone china, as loving as warm-
ed-over molasses and as real as
the technicolor dyes that produce
her image on the celluloid.
Brando, of course, is his usual
mumbling self. He scratches his
forehead, rubs his earlobe and
siddles into a comfortable, lazy
position. He loses his temper with
a nice mighty roar like the ocean
breakers that seem to fascinate
him. He saunters around the
screen as if he's waiting for some-
one to give him something which
he deserves. And he gets it--five
years in prison "scrapping the
maggots out of the sores of my
ankles," half a dozen or so lashes
with a whip and a few broken
fingers on his-God forbid-gun
hand.
The Brando style seems to be
catching, or else he knows how to
put a little of himself into those
he directs. Some of his sidekicks
in the film can mumble Just as
well and unintelligably as lie does.
They can take physical punish-
ment with nary a flick of the eye-
brow, or do things casually with-
out any obvious concern for ap-
pearances when all along they are
putting on a he-man show.
s * *
SO THIS is how the tough cow-
boys of the bygone years of our
country fought, loved and died.
This is how a certain "Rio" took
his punishment, his love aind his
'1
i
THE UNIVERSITY SENATE supposedly has
a lot of power. Regents Bylaw 4.01 gives
it the right to make "binding" decisions on
matters which fall under its jurisdiction. In
addition, the Senate has the right to discuss
any matters having anything to do with the
University.
But the real power of the Senate is actually
vague and sometimes disregarded.
For example, after nearly two years of
piddling around with a faculty-approved pro-
posal to set up a commission on faculty ex-
cellence, the administration announced to the
Senate at its last meeting that the proposal
had been sent back to committee,
TlE PROPOSAL for an excellence commis-
sion was passed by the Senate two years
ago. Its purpose was to investigate whether the
general conditionstof excellence, as outlined in
a report which accompanied the proposal,
existed within the individual units. It was not
in any way intended to usurp the powers
granted to the individual faculties, executive
committees and deans.
From the beginning, it was a controversial
issue. It was one of the two issues that.have
been debated in the Senate in the last five
years. After being passed in April 1961, the
proposal was sent to the Regents who accepted
the report and gave it to University Ixecutive
Vice-President Marvin L. Niehuss to study
means of implementation.
Vice-President Niehuss decided first to solicit
the opinions of the deans and executive com-
mittees about the proposal. They were un-
favorable. At least, the deans said, such a
commission couldn't help them to achieve ex-
cellence.
LAST FALL, a year after the Regents had
accepted the report, Vice-President Niehuss
and Vice-President for Academic Affairs Roger
W. Heyns went before the Senate Advisory
Committee on University Affairs, which is the
proper place for them to go for advice. The
vice-presidents asked what they should do in
view of the opposition of the deans? The SAC
Editorial Staff
obligingly sent the proposal back to the com-
mittee that first formulated it.
The SAC, however, does not have the power
to send proposals passed by the Senate back
to committee. The SAC is set up according to
Regents Bylaw 4.03 "to consider x and advise
regarding matters within the jurisdiction of
the University Senate, which affect the func-
tioning of the University as an institution of
higher learning . . ." In addition, the SAC
or its chairman generally have responsibility
for coordinating the vast committee system of
the Senate. It also can advise in emergency
situations where the Senate does not have
time to meet although its advice cannot be
construed as having the weight of the entire
faculty behind it.
But the SACUA is not a board in review
sitting over the Senate. It is poor judgement
on the part of both Heyns and Niehuss that
the proposal was sent back to committee by
the SAC. They ought to have sought the SAC's
advice and then, if the SAC concurred in their
misgivings, they ought to have brought up the
difficulties of implimentation at the next Sen-
ate meeting.
ALSO THEY SHOULD have taken into account
the source of the objections. After all, it
is only to be expected that deans and executives
committees feel a certain pride in their own
units and a certain responsibility for their
quality.
No dean would ,ever admit openly that such a
commission could improve the qualitly of his
unit; he would rather work with the executive
committee and the faculty and improve things
internally.
Furthermore, if the excellence commission
were a failure, nobody would be stuck with it
for very long. The proposal itself calls for an
initial period of experimentation after which
the administration could recommend expansion
of its functions or abolition of the group, de-
pending on its success or failure.
BESIDESTHE OBVIOUS disregard for a
faculty decision, the return of the proposal
to committee points to some of the weaknesses
of the present structure of faculty government.
The Senate itself is a little like Congress with
individual committees doing most of the work.
The Senate itself meets only three or four
times a year and its size-more than 1200
members-makes it difficult to have any mean-
ingful debate on issues.
'U-BRANCH PROPOSAL-This plan would set up "The Univer-
sity of Michigan at Delta," a four-year University branch on
the Delta Campus. Its nine-member board would include three
appointed by the Regents, three by the Delta Board, and the
remaining three appointed by the first six. It would be ultimately
responsible to the Regents. As in the Jamrich plan, Delta itself
would remain a tri-county-supported junior college.
and persists, the result could well
be the financial neglect of the
junior college-which will continue
to be totally dependent upon the
tri-county area for support.
Another problem is that of ad-
ministration. The diagram of the
proposed governing board hints at
some of its complexities-and some
of the possible points of conflict.
The basic problem here is to give
the Thumb-area residents con-
siderable authority over the opera-
tion of the college (something they
have insisted upon since the be-
ginning), while the Regents re-
tain ultimate authority-at least
in theory. The result: a curious
method of appointing the branch's
governing board, a device to guar-
antee at least three (and quite
probably, six) of the nine mem-
bers will be home-town folk; the
problem of the Regents being re-
sponsible for a board they did not
completely appoint; and the ques-
tion of precisely how much auton-
omy the college is going to get.
Dean Jamrich's independent-col-
But it is no secret that there
are already numerous varieties of
backstabbing among Michigan's
public universities, which must
compete with one another for the
state's meager education funds
and whatever other favors the
public can bestow. The setting-up
of a branch in a given area gives
a university a big jump in this
competition, by engendering plenty
of grass-roots support -- which
manifests itself through private
support and a more favorable leg-
islative attitude towards the uni-
versity in question.
* * *
THE DANGER, then, is that a
trend will get underway towards
DeGAULLE ON RUSSIA:
The French Thesis
HARLES DE GAULLE is not a
"cold warrior" against the
With these two assumptions
as the premise for political action,