Seventy-Third Year EDITED AND MANAGED BY STUDENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN UNDER AUTHORITY OF BOARD IN CONTROL OF STUDENT PUBLICATIONS here Opinions Are eSTUDENT PUBLICATIONS BLDG., ANN ARBOR, MICH., PHONE No 2-3241 "thth Will Prvail Editorials printed in The Michigan Daily express the individual opinions of staff writers or the editors. This must be noted in all reprints. CONVENTIONS: Press Faces Problems Squarely NY, MAY 1, 1963 NIGHT EDITOR; ELLEN SILVERMAN University Must Provide coherent Education WHILE THE UNIVE SITY may be a leader in research, it is dragging its feet and imagination far behind other institutions in the crucial areas of teaching, course content and honors programs. Some moves have been made to improve these areas. A' significant step forward came Monday with the creation of a University Senate Advisory Committee on Conditions for Staff Excellence. Although this committee will not discuss the professional qualities of the faculties in the various schools and colleges, it will evaluate salaries, promotion rates and facilities-all important to the preservation of a good faculty. Moreover, the Center for Learn- ing and- Teaching has been giving advice on improving methods. Yet rumblings continue to come from the students, especially the undergraduates, who feel they are being cheated. Is the University living on its past laurels? Is it trying to give the students here a consistent, well-ordered education? I do not think so. A CASE IN POINT of a school that knows where it is going-and which is attempting to guide its students educationally-is St. John' College, a small school in Annapolis Cooped Co-ops HE RECENT MOVE by the Ann Arbor City Council to reclassify the Inter-Cooperative Council co-ops from two-family to multi-family dwellings will prevent ICC from expanding in residential areas. Because the property is more expensive in non-residential areas, the Council's reclassification eliminates, for all practical purposes,the possibility of expansion by the student-owned cooperatives. ICC claims it was told by individuals close to Council -that co-ops were placed in the multi- family dwelling category because Council mem- bers did not understand clearly what an ICC house was. They assumed that the ICC co-ops were organized on the same basis as the mam- moth Oxford Rd. University housing project, which also includes co-ops. I AFTER RECEIVING this information, ICC leaders arranged a meeting with City At- torney Jacob E. Fahrner last month. At this time ICC and Fahrner altered the definition of a cooperative to make a distinction between the two different types: the huge University complex of cooperatives and the tiny, student- owned ICC douses. The Ann Arbor Planning Commission re- viewed this definition and accepted it. How- ever, in what would seem to be an illogical move, the Commission voted to keep its rec- ommendation of the multi-family zone for ICC houses., More than 25 University students appeared at the City Council meeting Monday night to protest the proposed zoning change, which came before Council that night for final con- sideration. Under pressure, the body referred the matter back to the planning commission. HOPEFULLY, the Commission will consider the facts of the ICC case fairly. It has granted the two-family zoning to fraternities and sororities which, for zoning purposes, are structurally .parallel to co-ops: they house 20 to 50 students in single homes. There are com- mon dining areas and private rooms. The ICC houses, like fraternities and sorori- ties, are not a part of a multiple-unit residen- tial project. They have as much right to the two-family zoning classification as the affiliates do. The Planning Commission should realize its error and submit the proper ICC zoning rec- ommendations to Council. -MARILYN KORAL operating under the great books concept of education. Unlike the University, which it seems is committed to research first and foremost, St. John's is dedicated to the in- tense, highly academic exploration of the greatest ideas the world has known. To achieve its goals-to foster "critical in- telligence and an awareness of the principles that govern our behavior and understanding" -St. John's uses the most honest intellectual approach available. At the University, and especially the literary college, the student, in his first years, is confronted with, bits and scraps of everything from psychology, philos- ophy and literature to botany and zoology. There is no unifying thread. Conversely, stu- dents at St. John's, through four years, trace the development of the great ideas In the Western world, reading significant books in their entirety. Faculty as well as students must cope with many new ideas-they cannot rest on their PhD's. An especially interesting facet of the programis the Friday evening seminar; while University students frolic at beer parties and Spring Weekend and libraries are half- full, St. John's is stimulating its students in another and more beneficial way. AM NOT suggesting that the University adopt in all its, strenuous and glorious depth the impressive program' which St. John's is able to institute rThe University is too large, too homogeneous to undertake such a task. But it would be wise, and it certainly is about time, for the University to consider the direc- tion in which it is going educationally. A good place to begin would be in the various honors programs in the literary college. There are special honors courses such as Psychology 190 and 191, special honors sections of the larger lecture courses, honors programs such as political science honors and college honors courses. No one of these, except the honors programs, provides an overall honors approach for the more advanced students. Even the honors programs are not as intensified as they could be. Other schools, such as Michigan State University and the University of Illinois, equally as large as the University, have man- aged t6 organize honors programs which allow a capable student to. take only honors courses or sections. The college honors program offers probably the more interesting intellectual manna in the literary college. Unfortunately, these courses are few in relationship to the number of people equipped to take them. They require as an instructor a unique faculty person, or group of people as in the case of Revolution- ary Ideas in Science, with a variety of interests and talents. Their scope is broad; they come the closest in the literary college to being in- tellectually challenging courses. If the University were sincerely interested in improving the quality of undergraduate edu- cation, it could begin by supplementing. the college honors courses. Next year two new courses will be offered: the nature of religion and the self-concept of the American. The University should keep adding to the growing number of these courses; ideally, every under- graduate Who wished to take one should be able to without increasing the size of any course beyond 20, an optimum discussion level. THIS INSTITUTION cannot afford to rest on its laurels. Other schools are doing more than preparing for increased numbers; they are preparing for an ,increasingly aware and more well educated college freshman. St. John's is only one school which has met the demand for improved education. The University should follow suit. -M ARJORIE BRAHMS Acting Associate Editorial Director By PHILIP SUTIN Acting National Concerns Editor THE NATION'S publishers and editors, after reviewing the shambles of the last year, moved encouragingly toward alleviating the chronic problems of labor re- lations and managed news. Both dilemmas had led to dis- aster since the American Society of Newspaper Editors, the American Newspaper Publishers Association and the Associated Press Manag- ing Editors held their concurrent conventions last April. In October, the Kennedy admin- istration manipulated the press like a puppet and then had the gall to admit it. Winter brought the disastrous New York and Cleveland newspaper strikes. Reviewing these two problems, the editors and publishers began to chart new courses of action that could go a long way toward alleviating both of them. * * * PERHAPS the most hopeful sign was the ANPA's decision to con- duct "a series of studies designed to preserve free local collective bargaining," and aimed at main- taining labor peace. This research dealing with automation problems as well as collective bargaining would be carried out by the AN- PA's labor relations committee. The committee might consult with newspaper union leaders, but according to ANPA officials, such meetings are still in a "tenuous" discussion stage. It hopes to have an interim report by next April. The seriousness of the problem was underscored by reports on the expanding use of automation in typesetting and a proposal for a News Ma Rematin..s (EDITOR'S NOTE: This is the first in a two-part series about the techniques of news mnanagement.) By ROBERTSELWA MANAGEMENT of the news is an issue that will not die. No No matter what the President says at his press conferences, he can- not satisfy the critics-many of whom regard the press confer- ence itself- as a device for news management.- And no wonder-in the general sense of the term, there is truth to the charge of attempted news management. The Kennedy Ad- ministration does it, and so did the Eisenhower Administration and other previous administra- tions. But the worst offenders, throughout the years, have been the newsmen themselves. Journ- alists were managing the news before John F. Kennedy was born. It was the managed news of Wil- liam Randolph Hearst and imita- tors that constituted a major cause of the war over Cuba in 1898. Today's war over Cuba is in some part merely management of news by editors playing up the sometimes irresponsible charges of critics of the Kennedy Adminis- tration. S* * * THE DISPUTE about managed news is partly a matter of par- tisanship. Many people cite the President's cancellation of the White House subscription to the New York Herald Tribune as an example of managed news. But the original managed news in that affair was carried by the Herald Tribune as it played up the Re- publican Party and flailed away at the Democratic administration. The dispute about managed news Is also a nonpartisan concern of Journalists and the public. Journalists attending a regional conference of Sigma Delta Chi discussed the topic, noting a num- ber of news management devices. Since they have been used so often by so many, they deserve examination. The devices include: The Leak, usually from a deputy assistant secretary, to a key reporter or to a group of re- porters, about some development. The development may be a new policy that the secretary of state is thinking of pursuing. Since he is worried about the response of the American people or especially of Congress, he prefers to keep the Idea unofficial. If the idea is praised, he can announce it of- ficially. If the idea is criticized, he might decide to reject it. The leak is a form of news man- agement and a legitimate form. It is legitimate when it serves to advance public debate about gov- ernmental policy without bind- ing the government to a policy. that is inadequately thought out. Government policies should be subjected to intense analysis both before and after they are adopted. The leak is a good way of getting this analysis beforehand. -THE EXCLUSIVE Story. It is interesting to note that a man known for getting exclusive stories is one of the foremost critics of , "labor court" to arbitrate publish- er-union disputes. Publishers are progressing be- yond the typesetting-by-comput- ing stage and are looking forward to the time when all mechanical work will be automated. Compu- ters are also being used in the clerical and business sides of the newspaper. Often, a computer will punch teletypesetting tape and record classified ad sales. Researchers are now studying electronic photographic newspaper reproduction. One system would use columns of type photographed from a cathode-ray tube. Another would reproduce newspapers by charging electronically sensitive paper. Both of these methods have serious drawbacks, but researchers are confident these can be elimin- ated within a few years. * *~ * HAROLD C. DURBIN of ANPA's Research Institute summed up this trend: "Wherever possible routine human tasks will be eliminated. Manual control of hyphenation, justification and even capitaliza- tion (still a function of human computer-typist) may be relegated to newspaper - printing history books." Fortunately for the printing craft unions, automation is limit- ed to a few papers. Most unions are desperately fighting against this trend, but automation's cost advantages in a tight-budget in- dustry may drive publishers to breaking the union to savethe business. The unions which have stood in the way of technological progress for 70 years can no longer afford to do so. The suggestion of newly-elected ANPA President Irwin Maier for a three-sided "labor court" may nagement Live, Issue' such stories promote discussion of national policy, they are a positive form of managed news. When an exclusive story is used to harm someone unjustly-such° as the Saturday Evening Post exposeof Adlai Stevenson's alleged "soft- ness" during the Cuban crisis- this becomes a bad form of man- aged news. -The Background Conference and the Unofficial Spokesman. President Kennedy gave a back- ground conference to a group of reporters in becember and it con- cerned "What the President is thinking at the end of the year, according to thg most authorita- tive source." The 'authtiritatve source" was the President himself, and he later released the tran- script of the conference, getting his ideas about foreign affairs a second play as an added benefit of making the conference official. * * * IDEALLY there should be no need for the nonidentification of the source involved in this sort of thing. But the sensitivity of prime ministers and presidents and premiers and nations is such that a mis-stated remark can overturn a government or can dis- rupt the normal procedures of foreign relations. International delicacy demands at times the news management device of the Background Conference. It can be dangerous when it gives too much influence to the party in power. But it can also be beneficial when it enables report- ers to write more intelligent stories.' point the way out of this intract- able situation. He suggested that the publishers and unions agree to a no-strike, no-lockout contract with the court, consisting of indus- try, union and public members set- tling the unresolved issues. SUCH A PROPOSAL is ill-ad- vised as both sides would tend to wait for the final verdict rather than bargain collectively to solve their disagreements. Yet, this sort of three-sided body could be used to study the automation problem and devise new solutions for it. The publishers were in a con- ciliatory mood and seemed to un- derstand the union's job security fears. "I would guess that few, if any, publishers would contenance the wholesale and abrupt dismissal of long-service employes because of the introduction of improved mechanical processes," Maier de- clared. Hopefully, the publisher's con- ciliatory mood will be matched by the printing craft unions. ** * THE EDITORS and publishers also faced up to the managed news problem. "We hold in our hands the weapon with which to conquer managed news; and get at the truth still . . . What is that weap- on? It is the newspaper reporter. As long as we have competent re- porters and as long as publishers and editors back those reporters all the way the news will not be managed very long." ASNE President Herbert Bruck- er's statement struck at the heart of the managed news problem. Hopefully, he drove the, point home to his fellow editors. The press is essentially its own victim. The Washington press corps, especially Pentagon reporters, have not been critical enough of the system and thus went along for the ride when the Administration managed the news. Brucker also pointed out the dangers of the Cold War. He warn- ed that "in a war, each side tends to adopt the meanest character- istics of the enemy." Managed news policies, he noted, reflect this trend. IN A CONTEST with the Soviet Union, past masters of news sup- pression, the United States can only come out second best. The long American tradition of open- ness would not permit heavily con- trolled news. Maier also directed his ire at government secrecy. He warned that when the government spreads misinformation, it corrodes its popular trust. It was encouraging to hear the leading editors and publishers talk this way. Perhaps they can lead the press out of the managed news dilemma. More reportorial initia- tive combined with probing analy- sis is needed. The Associated Press is making progress in this direction. Under its new general manager Wes Gal- lagher, the AP has instituted new Washington and international news roundup columns and' is on a five-year program to deepen its news coverage. The managed news problem has received attention from the Moss Committee in Congress as well as Sigma Delta Chi and other jour- nalistic organizations. Congres- sional interest is a significant step forward. The outlook for the press seems encouraging if the brave and forthright speechmaking can be matched by brav/and forthright deeds. PTP 'Virginia Woolf' CompellingBrua "WHO'S AFRAID of Virginia Woolf?" the latest barbed feather in the cap of the University's Professional Theatre Program, is an excruciating theatrical experience, written at a fevered pitch, directed with brutal precision, and played with all the stops out. In the finest traditions of drama, this play does not subtly compel its audience to a specific end, but it wrenches-forcing laughter, exposing nerve ends, and finally plunging actor and playgoer into the ice cold reality of a final resolution. It is not pretty. It is undeniably theatrical. The cast, uniformly excellent, is moved by director Alan Schneider in patterns of caged animals, cir- cumventing, attacking on new flanks; re-evaluating in an in- tellectual chess that is played with explosives. * e s KATE REID, known in this community for her frequent ap- pearances at Stratford, Ontario, comes on like seventy, when sixty- five would do nicely, but when she settles down into the first act, she runs a very taut ship. If she rises above the pitch of activity a bit too far from time to time, it is an understandable if unfor- tunate reaction to a stimulus of KATE REM actors and author. She is brutally .AT R E powerful, now coy, now feline, and *.'brutal power now reminiscent of a charging bull, and she sustains her characteriza- tion with unbelievable stamina. Sheppard Strudwick is a superb foil for this kind of pyrotechnics. He is smooth, understated and her unqualified equal in this matching of wits. Bill Berger and Eileen Fulton are accurate counterpoints to the ferocity of the two leads, land the only negative comment to be leveled at the actors is a mention of projection problems in the cavernous Michigan Theatre. Both the actors and the audience are placed at an unforgivable disadvantage by the acoustical problems. AS A PLAYWRIGHT, Albee has come a long way from "Zoo Story," but perhaps it is a bit early to give him the unrestricted praise that will undoubtedly come with later and more controlled works. "Vir- ginia Woolf" is a mature piece of stagecraft, and stands quite rightly in the first line of recent American contributions to dramatic litera- ture. But when he releases the twisted energy of George and Martha, on stage, he is reluctant to let them' work themselves out, and as a result he can be seen carefully manipulating, restating, sand over- stating from time to time, and getting occasionally in the way of the four characters on stage. George claims he and Martha are "exercising what is left of their wits." What is left is considerable, and Albee need not underscore what becomes diabolically evident in their characters shortly into the first act. He sets the pace at a frenetic level, and one is constantly as- tounded to learn, as he gathers his breath at each intermission, that remarkable little consequential action has occurred in the previous act. It is language and passion that Albee manipulates, and perhaps his skill in editing his own work will soon match his skill in handling the language. Nevertheless, what evolves is a kind of enormous intellec- tually sick joke that remains, if marred by occasional flaws, a bravura evening of compelling and stunning theatre. -Jack G. O'Brien CINEMA GUILD: Lack of Imagination .Ruins'ROMe,'o' ONE WOULD expect with spec- tacle, stars, Shakespeare and the strains of Tchaikovsky a grand if not glorious movie could be made. But the opulence and melo- drama that characterised many of the big productions of the thirties, watered ddwn and grossly colored William Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet." Playing at the Cinema Guild for an unusual three night stand from tonight until Friday, this over- blown but dramatically frail movie was concocted in the best tradi- tions of the big productions. But the dull thuds of wooden swords, wooden action and often wooden delivery of' Shakespeare's t A Worthwhile Challenge poetry proves that a spectacular physical manifestation of a play is not enough to compensate for the distinct lack of imagination. * * * "IMAGINATION" is key word to what is wrong with this "Romeo and Juliet." There is no vigor or real sense of feeling engendered by the actors, even though they are the big names. Edna Mae Oliver as Juliet's nurse is the only person on the screen who gives a living performance. John Barrymore as Mercutio is satisfying but the rest of the crew only lives up to a stiff standard. Norma Shearer as Juliet resem- bles through most of the movie the fawn she is shown feeding at the beginning. Only towards the end, when the real tragedy of the Capulet-Montague feud "is form- ing, does she display some talent. Leslie Howard, looking more like a brisk; forty-year old than the young lover, works hard but only presents a stilted Romeo. The actors provide no feeling of excitement to the viewer; the sets and over-lavishness of the pro- duction bog the action down. Yet Shakespeare's beautiful p o e t r y comes through. In fact, it is the only item of worth in the movie. ONE PROBLEM with seeing this production of the tlirties is that a differentidea was held as to how a play should be transferred to the screen. The melodrama is heavily emphasized. Little touches of action or setting are used to make it obvious to the unintelli- gent viewer certain characteris- tics of the personalities. As pre- viously mentioned, Juliet is shown, the very first time she is on the screen, feeding a fawn in the idyllic garden of her home. What else is this but a way to show innocence and youth? All too of- ten, the camera concentrates on Norma Shearer's smile and clear, white face to emphasize supposed- ly the striking beauty of the her- oine. The only reaction an intel- ligent' movie-goer and play-lover can have is one of revolt. IN THE FUEL scenes, the camera plays from the action of the combatants to the enthralled crowd watching the fight. This is to give the impression of com- UNLESS SOMEONE comes up with a new idea by Friday the University will see Challenge peter out. According to spokesman Ronald Newman, '63, "If at least the embryo of a presentable program is not presented by 3 p.m. Friday it is likely" that Challenge will die. The March 23 issue of Saturday Review praised this ,student sponsored seminar and lecture series as "one of the most active" groups currently promoting student social awareness. Its passing would be a significant loss to the University. The first three Challenge programs, civil liberties, emerging nations and nuclear war proved to be controversial and stimulating. However, the series encountered difficulties when it presented "The Challenge of Higher Editorial Staff MICHAEL OLINICK, Editor JUDITH OPPENHEIM MICHAEL HARRAH Editorial Director City Editor Education." Interest waned and attendance was embarassingly poor. THIS SEMESTER Newman encountered some difficulty in getting funds from the Uni- versity. However, the University coughed up a $3000 appropriation for "The Complexion of American Morality." Unfortunately, the series was not presented, and the money was returned. Little explanation was made other than an apathetic public and a disinterested organization. True, it would have been difficult to pre- sent a stimulating,hcoherent series of seminars on such a broad abstract topic. The failure of the previous series which was, if anything, more concrete, presented a real problem. How- ever it is the business of effective, alert leader- ship to solve such problems. Newman also complains of organizational difficulties. For example, there is a lack of continuity from one series to another. The- establishment of a relatively permanent staff, interested' in Challenge, rather than any specific issue would alleviate this situation. Including underclasmen on this staff would acquaint them with the problems of lining up speakers and organizing a program. i ~.. L fiii E~