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,