Seventy-First Year EDITED AND MANAGED BY STUDENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN re Opinions Are Free UNDER AUTHORITY OF BOARD IN CONTROL OF STUDENT PUBLICATIONS' 'ruth Will Prevail" STUDENT PUBLICATIONS BLDG. * ANN ARBOR, MICH. * Phone NO 2-3241 Editorials printed in The Michigan Daily express the individual opinions of staff writers or the editors. This must be noted in all reprints. Conference on the, Universi v-il gESDAY, MARCH 8, 1961 NIGHT EDITOR: SUSAN FARRELL .............. Operation Abolition; ud the Right To Question ['DENT GOVERNMENT COUNCIL'S de- cision on "Operation Abolition" tonight is Lecision that involves far more than judging ilm. lather, the film is merely a take-off point ich gives the Council the opportunity to press itself on such vital issues as academic edom, the validity of the Bill of Rights, and need to -cease regarding the question of mmunism in America as a sacred, unde- table issue. 'hese issues are supposedly not the main icerns of the film--supposedly the concern the film is to establish a casual link between ident demonstrations aggainst the House -American Activities Committee in San ancisco last May and Communist Party in- ;ration of the San Francisco area. The film gins with a photograph of one of the articles James Roosevelt (D-Calf) which attacks e committee. The remainder of the film, Ich concentrates on emphasizing the role Communists in the San Francisco demon- ations, attempts to discredit all criticism of e committee by creating the impression that ch criticism is Communist dominated, Com- mist-led, Communist-supported, and that e organizations and people who participate in i criticism have been infiltrated and in- enced by Communists. PEdIFIC PORTIONS OF the film will doubt- less be discussed ad infinitum tonight and s article does not intend to go into these ,idents in detail. Perhaps two examples, wever, will be instructive as illustrations of e viscuous implications and slanted informa- n that are rampant throughout the film. There is a photograph of Vincent E. Hallenan tside the hearing room' Accompanying the wing of Hallenan are these remarks: "This Vincent E. Hallenan, who ran for President the Progressive Party ticket in 1952. He has ced served a prison term and is lawyer for reral Communist witnesses." Let us examine the possible interpretations at could be derived from this statement. st, ran for the Progressive Party-meaning ran for an obscure party that has a name- rogressive"-which could easily be construed left-wing, and perhaps a Communist front. cond, served a prison term-the film is out Communism so maybe he served a prison *m for an infraction relating to Communism, t the film doesn't say. The remark does, wever, serve to discredit Hallenan further. nally, we hear the piece de =resistance-a vyer for several Communist witnesses. Aha, e may reason, look at the kind of lawyers mmunists get-men who run for obscure po- ical parties and serve prison terms. Futher- >re, he's a lawyer for several Communist wit- sses. Clearly, Hallenan has a marked Red nt about him which further proves that there n be no question of lawyers honestly trying protect a Communist's constitutional rights ce these lawyers are themselves closely gned with Communism. 'HE SECOND EXAMPLE of the distorted content of the film comes extremely close an outright lie. The film portrays the stu- nts in the police station after their demon- ations had been violently crushed. "Organ- d resistance changes into confusion at the lice station," the film tells us as it portrays o physically exhausted students. The nar- or continues by saying that part of the idents confusion stemmed from their realiza- in that they had been "unwitting dupes" of a Communist Party and "had performed lihe ppets," The film neglects the fact that the students Laotian Dragon 'IE PEOPLE OF confused Laos like other would-be free and rightly governed peoples come more a part of the world of modern litical civilization with every test to their ternal government-that is, when they're not rding off dragons. Last week panic swept over Vientiane, the pital of this civil war-torn Asiatic country iere as many as four "kings" have claimed premacy. Residents, recalling the living rror of war that they have known so well, d the city screaming as the crack of machine ns and mortars split the night air. 'HEX RETURNED LATER - relieved and otherwise - when they found that all the nfire was simply a part of a big celebration er the moon eclipse that night. An eclipse, cording to Laotian legend, is caused because e moon is being eaten by a dragon. So, true Laotian tradition, the militry turned out, ot the dragon down, and saved the moon. Now, since the civilization on our side of the earl is unhappily without such custom, we obably cannot understand the full signifi- ace of the situation. But what happens when like the fellow on radio says-the' Laotians at the station unanimously signed a statement that they were not ashamed of their actions and would be willing to repeat them. This type of McCarthyite tactic and pre- sentation is seen throughout the film., fH E ENTIRE FILM, for instance, leaves the impression that one's ideas on a specific issue are discredited if they are shared by Communists. It is obvious that Communists would be against this committee: the com- mittee's purpose is to eliminate Communists individually and en masse from America. It is also natural, however, that non-Communist and anti-Communist civil libertarians should be against the committee. It is natural that civil libertarians would oppose the use of Con- gressional investigatory power to harass and endanger men for their political beliefs-even when those political beliefs may have been discarded twenty or thirty years ago. It is natural that civil libertarians would oppose a committee that operates on the assumption that membership in a political party implies total acceptance of the most obnoxious methods, theories and 'policies of that party. It is this attempt to establish guilt by asso- ciation that can be seen in J. Edgar Hoover's fear that the Southern sit-in movement is Communist-inspired since 'Communists ad- vocate civil rights.- Associated with the film's viscuous use of guilt by association is the implied limitations the film's supporters would place upon political activity and the right to criticize. Since the film concerns college students, this also be- comes an issue of academic freedom. ONE OF THE worst residual habits of Ameri- can thought left by the McCarthy era has been the tendency to regard American Com- munism as an issue of absolutes-either one believes it is justifiable to employ a method- ology that makes a mockery of democracy in attacking Communism or one is either a Com- munist himself, a fellow-traveler, tool or dupe. This thinking naturally extends itself to dis- cussion of the House and Senate committees concerned with Communism. A recent example of such thinking was HUAC chairman Francis Walter's (D-Pa) statement that "there are no two sides to the question of Communism being evil and un- American." This is fine, indeed. But the validity of this statement does not free the committee from criticism; does not free the committee from its obligations as part of a democratic system of government to conduct itself in a responsible and objective way. And whether or not a committee is dealing with an issue of great emotive force, such as Com- munism, this does not mean it is beyond logical criticism. One need not be a labor racketeer to criticize hearings on labor rack- eteering nor need one be a Communist to oppose the methods of hearings on Commun- ism. F SUCH THINKING 'is accepted, then the Bill of Rights becomes, like many other things in modern America, a document of all relatives and no absolutes. Americans do not have constitutional rights-only non-Commun- ist Americans are entitled to such rights. It is merely a logical extension of this thinking that enables Arkansas to pass a law prohibiting NAACP members from holding state jobs and Mississippi to require applicants for state jobs to list all organizations they have belonged to for the past five- years. Such laws are very much in keeping with the thinking of the committee. The NAACP, which advocates changes that would revolutionize and over- throw the existing political and social order of the South, is indeed subversive in Arkansas and Mississippi. Thus the only difference be- tween extending rights to non-Communist Americans only and, in the South, to whites only is one of degree. To date, objection to condemnation of the film has not seemed to crystallize at SGC. The most irrelevant objection to consideration of the film -- namely, that students were dis- orderly in their demonstrations - has already beep included in the motion. ANOTHER OBJECTION HAS been that the film does not attempt to establish as fact the Communist-inspired nature of the demon- strations but only as impression. This does not deny the fact that the "impression" is sup- ported by the same distorted and inaccurate film as would be the "fact." What underlies such petty objections to the motion is more likely the climate of fear and timidity which the committee has man- aged to create. Unless those Council members who oppose this motion declare themselves with greater articulation, they will give the appearance of having their thinking governed and influenced by fear and timidity. If such a climate of fear is to change-if we are to revert to the proper right of citizens in a democracy to freely descuss all issues- (EDITOR'S NOTE: The following jointly-prepared article is the eighth in The Daily's series on "The Uni- versity's Greatest Needs." Power is currently a special student, and was Daily Editorial Director in 1959-60.) By THOMAS HAYDEN Editor and PHILIP POWER SHARPLY RISING enrollment pressures, inadequate operat- ing budget, a disastrous morator- ium on University and state con- struction, competition from other universities and colleges for key faculty members and choice re- search grants, spiralling size and administrative complexity, the ex- citing frontiers of new knowledge, the challenges of the sixties for state universitiesbn h All these problems facing the University are crucial and long- standing, and their Very repeti- tious ring suggests that on of the University's greatest needs surely is to sit itself down and face the issues squarely and collectively. Wise consideration of our com- mon issues must involve not just administrative decision - makers, but a broader range of individuals from the whole community who, since they are substantially af- fected by the issues, have a legiti- mate interest in their eventual resolution. *s " WE SUGGEST a Conference on the University as a step towards such resolution. Spanning a two- day period, the conference would bring together persons from many areas of the University who would address themselves, in an inform- ed, frank, and imaginative way, to specific issues and also to the larger problem of maintaining, improving and even defining a qualityuniversity. The concept "quality universi- ty" is necessarily ambiguous; but as far as this particular University is concerned, we suggest that striving toward and achievement of "quality" demands an accept- ance of two basic beliefs: 1) That a university is a com- munity characterized by a certain mutuality of purpose, arising from the common dedication of its members to education and schol- arship and maintained by con- stant and effective communication throughout. To the extent that this University is without lucid intercommunication, it approaches stasis and stagnancy and contra- dicts the meaning of community. S * 4 4 2) THAT THE University must work relentlessly at being a face- to-face, rather than a mass, so- ciety. Though necessarily bureau- cratic, the University should at- tempt always to prevent bureau- c'rtic interference in the personal confrontation between individuals which is essential to education. Perhaps ironically, we are pro- posing that a little more bureauc- racy-the conference itself-can be an effective instrument in pro- moting the personal mode of as- sociation crucial to the Univer- sity's proper functioning. Keeping these considerations centrally in mind, we foresee the following series of worthwhile ob- jectives for a Conference on the University: * * * 1) INCREASED Communica- tion: The need for communication within the University is acute, yet at present there exists no con- scious, organized, general effort designed to draw all elements of the University into mutual dia- logue. Committees of various sorts which might do the job are usually limited in scope and mem- bership, or limited to individual schools and colleges. Communication is not only a good in itself. It has a broader utility and many far-reaching ef- fects. If any student group, for example, would take the time and effort to thoroughly communicate its position vis a vis certain is- sues to other similarly-concerned groups in the University, rumor, allegations, and consequent fric- tion might well be reduced. * * * THE CONFERENCE would be designed to facilitate such com- munication. In bringing University people face to face, interpreting their thoughts and needs to each other, and in providing informa- tion about specific problems, it would offer the prerequisites for serious gropu inquiry. * * * 2) INTROSPECTION: Any large organization must from time to time focus concern on itself-its organization and inner workings, its present state and future plans, it spurposes and underlying as- sumptions. This is because or- ganizations, if not purposefully directed, tend to grow and move in sometimes undesirable and un- expected directions. When this happens, there is a further ten- dency for the "decision-makers" to rationalize the change as being acceptable: ("Perhaps the speak- ers' policy is not entirely tenable, but everything considered, things work out all right as they are"). If the University has certain specific goals it wishes to attain, it cannot trust to chance that it will somehow reach them without Outline of Proposal Proposal for a Conference on the University: Objectives: 1) Increased Communication 2) Introspection 3) Democratization of Decision-Making 4) Improvement of University Planning 5) Challenge to Sterotyped Thought 6) Utilization of Imagination Date: A weekend late in April Participants: 50 students, 50 administrators, 100 faculty members, plus the Board of Regents Possible Discussion Topics: (Listed by Committee and Subcommittee) 1) The University and the Public a) Fund-Raising b) Relations with Alumni c) Constitutional Responsibilities d) Relations with the Legislature e) Admissions Policy, 2) University Planning (physical institution) a) North Campus b) Housing c) Areas of Expansion 3) The University as an Educational Institution ernment Council as it is of some departmental chairmen. The conference would confront decision-makers with different as- sumptions and ways of thinking, even with different sets of relevant information. Hitherto protected ideas and assumptions would be opened to essential public scru- tiny and challenge. Forced to grapple with new ideas and meth- ods, decision-makers might re- think their ow nassumptions in light of present-day realities and alternative solutions. 6) UTILIZATION of Imagina- tion: Imagination is too rarely an element in the development and enactment of University policy. Unfortunately, creative persons not directly involved in decision- making often have no access to information that governs policy- formation or hesitate to waste their time or energy taking an idea through bothersome and un- familiar, channels. Thus their fresh and potentially valuable vi- sion has little effect at the some- times stale administrative level of University policy-making. The conference would provide an opportunity for confrontation between the original and the con- ventional, the unorganized and- the bureaucratic, the visionary and the pragmatic. * * * THE NEED for such a confron- tation is demonstrated each time a University decision is made on a basis of expediency or habit, or each time a creative professor or student expresses a feeling that he is impotent to influence the course of the University. Concern for lack of imagina- tion in decision-making has been publicly formulated, for example, by Prof. C. E. Lehmann of, the education school in a recent essay in The Daily suggesting the need for a stimulated, imaginative fac- ulty leadership, but a leadership requiring minimal involvement in unnecessary administrative detail, Other' faculty members have often advocated a program of "visiting committees" which would a) b) d) e) Calendar Maintenance of Faculty Quality Intercollegiate Athletics Research at the University f) The Graduate Student School and the Graduate or should it strive to preserve ex- cellence at all costs, including ceilings on enrollment? If enroll- ment is increased, should it be on the undergraduate or graduate- professional levels? Such decisions, and the policies based on them, must be conscious- ly made by the University; they must not be the product of the passage of events. By providing a structured op- portunity for careful, far-ranging group and individual introspection into the nature and goals of the University, the Conference would meet needs often felt but less often met. * S 3) DEMOCRATIZATION of De- cision-Making: In formation of general policies, the relationship between students, faculty, and ad- ministration should be more one of harmonious interaction rather than one of rigid separation. We do not mean to suggest that ALL parts of the University should take part in ALL decisions made, What we do mean is that it is both fair and practical that those segments of the University directly affected by certain policies should 'participate at some state in their formulation. In addition to its fairness, the practicality of such a process should be evident. The faculty, for example, knows by direct ex- perience much about the problem of maintaining , faculty quality; therefore decisions in this area are likely to be better made when the faculty point of view is consid- ered. Similarly, administrators can bring practical experience to bear on the question of legislative re- lations. Students are equipped to comment on teaching quality. * * * BUT THERE PRESENTLY ap- pears to be some tendency for the administration to make decisions of general importance after what may be hasty and uninformative discussloit with the students and/or faculty involved. By the character of their jobs, administrators do so much deci- sion-making that unless a con- scious and continued effort is de- voted toward involving other seg- ments of the University in mak- ing plans and decisions, a practice of exclusively administrative deci- sion-making may arise by default. If decisions are the sole work of an isolated few and rather than of a participating many, aliena- tion from the University complex will emerge, because the Univer- sity will be just that: a complex, not a community. * * * THE HISTORY of the Student Activities Building and the recent decision to build an addition for it illustrate the value of represen- tative decision-making. Construc- tion of the SAB was started only after prolonged and intensive talks between students (who in fact first conceived the idea) and ad- ministrators; as a result the building was not only effectively planned, but advance considera- tion of all views ironed out dis- putes before it was too late. The newly-built wing, however, was in- itiated and planned by the ad- ministration without any signifi- cant student involvement; as a result, construction started amid protest that the addition was not really necessary, that much-need- ed money (obtained from student fees) was being poorly used. Seri- ous and perhaps unnecessary con- flict over alleged administrative dictation arose. The Conference would provide a presently-lacking opportunity for members of all segments of the University to discuss upcom- i-- doni -n-c fv n~"a .o v .a 4) IMPROVE University Plan- ning: Setting the' University's goals for the future, as we have said, is a matter in which the en- tire community ought to partici- pate to some degree. But effective planning involves much more. Plans, and the goals they pro- ject, ought to be clearly and con- sciously set in advance, so as to act as a framework around which specific policies and programs can be developed. And there must be a clear awareness of the precise way in which plans, perhaps su- perficially unrelated, affect each other to help or hinder the Uni- versity reach its goals. Whenever University planning treats a problem as immediate and isolated, rather than within a long-range context, two dangers result: The particularproblem at hand may not be fully resolved and, further, an individual deci- sion of necessity receives broad and continuing institutional sup- port. A decision, once made, may even commit the University to other policies in its support- * * * FOR EXAMPLE, the University built South Quadrangle and Mary Markley in response to the im- mediate need for large quantities of inexpensive dormitory space necessitated by the decision to in- crease errollment. Yet, due to the rush and the pressures of finances many important elements in con- sidering of housing at a Univer- sity-privacy and quiet, for in, stance-were sacrificed. The dor- mitories were built, have proved to be inadequate in many impor- tant respects, are 'disliked by many students living in them, and have committed the University to a long-term policy of support largely because they are there. The conference would bring all elements of the University togeth- er with the purpose, of thinking about the University's expressed and potential goals and long-range plans in their own right, not as last-minute hindrances to policies which are largely directed toward immediate needs. The conference would also make people aware of the vast network of interrelationships which exists between all areas of University policy. In any organization, de- cision-makers tend to make deci- sions on a basis of their own im- mediate concerns and responsibili- ties; thus plans are made in a vacuum, with too little awareness of their wider implications within and without the University. « « « THE CONCEPT of academic freedom offers a perfect illustra- tion of this process of segregating problem from problem, group from group. Obviously academic freedom is the concern of us all, yet this year, without broadly-in- tegrated consideration, 1) Presi- dent Hatcher sent short notes to Wayne State supporting them in the Communist speaker episode, 2) faculty members, many know- ing nothing of President Hatcher's notes, became upset with the im- plications of the Wayne situation and set up a faculty group to study academic freedom and responsibil- ity, 3) Student Government Coun- cil spent weeks considering the establishment of the Student Rights and Academic Freedom Committee, which has been tabled since 1959, and finally rejected the idea by a one-vote margin. The conference might help cur- tail such useless separateness. * * * 5) CHALLENGE Stereotyped Thought: In the University, as in any large concern, people who have made many decisions in a -n.-rin ,.lr a.o. nv o a nn no,-- SUBCOMMITTEES would meet first, then would bring their thinking to committee meetings, where wider implications and re- lationships could be explored and - hopefully some conclusions could be reached. Obviously, there must be some selection of problems to be con- sidered, for no conference could adequately discuss the entire range of concerns to the University community. Such a selection should take into account both short-run problems, for which so- lutions must be found In the im- mediate future, and also the long- run problems involving the Uni- versity's ultimate assumptions and ' goals, solutions for which must evolve over long periods of care- ful .consideration. ,Short-range problems should be discussed be- fore decisions are' made about them, and need not be reconsid- ered at later sessions. Considera- tion of basic, recurrent problems should take place every few years, so that re-evaluations and modi- fications can take place in policy as circumstances and opinions change. There are ertain more general- points about the conference that need to be stressed: FRANKNESS and Honesty: The basic premise of the conference is that people from all levels of the University can come together with only the best interests of the Uni- versity in mind, and talk freely, frankly and honestly, dealing with the issues as they are, avoiding rationalizations or defensive Jus- tifications of policy. Withotit fear of reprisals, an administrator must be able to tell an SGC member that if the Council wants to be a real part of the University, it must be more than a partisan gripe ses- sion; a teaching fellow must' be able to tell the President that he doesn't like the University's seem- ingtemphasis on quantity; a stu- dent must be able to tell an ad- ministrator that the new wing of the SAB was a waste of money. Attendance: Except for the plenary session, attendance would have to be on a basis of invitation, both to insure an adequate level of information and to keep the size of subcommittees and com- mittes within reason. WORKING PAPERS: Useful discussion cannot take place with- out adequate information. There- fore it is absloutely necessary that thorough, factually accurate and objective working papers be pro- vided for each committee-and sub- committee discussion. The commit- tee papers would be aimed at wide perspectives a n d implications, while the subcommittee papers would be concise, specific, aimed at providing a factual base' for a limited, intensive discussion. Working papers would be writ- ten by people presently working in the specific areas to be discussed, who would have immediate access to relevant information and be in a position to authoritatively ex- plain the problems facing the University in that particular area. Follow-Through: The confer- ence cannot take place every day of the academic year. But for it to have any value at all ,those who attend must keep fully in mind its lessons even after it is long over. An SOC President who at- tends, finds that some of his poli- cies were justly criticized, and who then forgets the whole thing and continues to operate precisely as he did before he was wasting his time at the conference. * * * RECURRENT EVENT: To max- imize this follow-through, we feel, the conference should be a yearly event. This would not only rein- force its impact on "repeat" par- ticipants and keep the conclusions of the conference before the Uni- versity, but would also over sev- eral years enable a considerable percentage of the University com- munity to participate, Recording: We feel that the main points of committee and subcommittee discussions, as well as their conclusions, should be re- corded both to give some degree of exactitude to the discussions and for future reference. We hope arrangements can be made to have such records made in cooperation with the chairman of each group. Publication: We hope that all addresses, working papers, sum- maries of discussions and conclu- sions from each conference can be published. This would help great- ly in obtaining the kind of follow- through discussed above. Informa- tion, insights, disagreements and confrontations could be referred to in the d a i1 y determina- tion of policy at the University, and over the years there could be built up an unparalleled. record of the University's self - analysis, growth and progress. We feel that the conference on the University is one of its great- est needs and could be of vast benefit to the entire community. We invite your criticism, discus- sion, ideas and assistance. I DAILY I make objective and imaginative surveys of University conditions. Again, this suggests the practical value of freshness as an element in planning and decision-making. * * * TO HELP ATTAIN these objec- tives, we have evolved some ten- tative proposals for the organiza- tion of the conference on the Uni- versity. To be held on a weekend, per- haps in late April, the conference would involve about 200 partici- pants, selected from all elements of the University community. We would expect around 50 students, 50 administrators, 100 faculty members, plus those of the Board of Regents who could attend. The conference would have three phases: plenary session, sub- committee meetings,. committee meetings. The plenary session, open to the e n t i r e University community would begin the conference. There, a general address on the present and future state of the University could be given by a University of- ficial, and the purpose and or- ganization of the conference could be fully explained to the partici- pants. The conference would then be broken down into subcommittee and cnmmittee meetino nmmit.