"Just Want To Give You a Little Ballast, Boy"
Seventy-First Year
EDITED AND MANAGED BY STUDENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
"Where Opinions Are Free UNDER AUTHORITY OF BOARD N CONTROL OF STUDENT PUBLICATIONS
Truth Will Prevail STUDENT PUBLICATIONS BLDG. * ANN ARBOR, Mcu. Phone NO 2-3241
Editorials printed in The Michigan Daily express the individual opinions of staff writers
or the editors. This mus t be noted in all reprints.
FRIDAY, MAY 19, 1961 NIGHT EDITOR: PETER STEINBERGER
Confidential Evaluations:
Valuable within Limits
THE DEANS' OFFICES should, in some re- THE ACADEMIC DEANS and counselors have
spects, be supported in their formulation indicated that these reports are extremely
and use of confidential residence halls evalua- valuable to them in serving the students. They
tion reports to provide better personal and explain that secrecy is necessary in order to
academic counseling for students. assure that the dorm or quad counselors may
It is to be sharply questioned, however, feel free to make their reports.
whether these reports should be used either by It is also needed, they say, so that a counselor
the deans or by academic counselors for the may guide a student's thinking and his evalua-
purpose of giving recommendations to pros- tion of himself without incurring his anger or
pective employers. resistance. Such a reaction would be likely if
The reports suffer necessarily from bureau- the evaluation were read to the student, one
cratic ills: they try to provide immediate, per- counselor says.
sonal information about individuals within a Tefrstesle n h oiyen
huge institution. The barriers to such an at- ployed in filling them out are subject to con-
temte a mosutin urh ntarr e .shstant criticism and revision by all who use
tempt are almost Insurmountable. them, with an eye to their continued improve-
THE FORMS are filled out by staff assistants ment.
1 E r As long as the information contained in
dormitory counselors, resident advisors and these evaluations remains within the Univer-
housemothers. Many such people are ill- sity system, there can be some assurance that
qualified to judge personality and character flaws and possible errors will be allowed for by
traits. those who must use them. It is a different
Each of them has roughly 50 students to matter entirely, however, when the information
closely evaluate. The great possibility of error is used for personnel recommendations to pros-
in such a system is obvious, and is only slightly pective employers.
alleviated by the "on-the-job" training given to When the non-academic deans or counselors
staff men and women who are often little are asked to write a recommendation for a
older than those they must counsel and eval- student, for either summer or permanent em-
uateh ployment, the evaluation report is used as a
Both the men'sand the stuen's foacdem i source. Only the deans and counselors see
for infot or stud ts, hisdfmia them, and it is up to their discretion to send
aldjustment or study habits, his family and employers only that information which is im-
community background, his employmentlduring mediately relevant to the job in question.
the school year, his activities, his health, his
appearance and emotional or social adjustment. IT IS IN SUCH CASES that the great pos-
'Such subjective analyses can pose a tremen- sibility of error can be most dangerous. When
dous ethical problem to those who must make the information contained in the reports is
them. These qualms have occassionally been used only to guide the student in his academic
voiced by counselors or housemothers who feel life and only as the basis for advice to him, he
that they do not and cannot know the students retains some check on its effects.
well enough to evaluate them fairly. When, however, it is allowed to affect his
future, and he is kept from knowing the con-
ANOTHER BARRIER to the effectiveness of tents of a recommendation based on such
the evaluations is that they are written questionable information, the problem takes
every year only for students who live in resi- on a new character.
dence halls, co-ops, and sorority houses. Those
living in apartments or fraternity houses are HILE UNIVERSITY PERSONNEL can, with
not evaluated. after their freshman year. care, remain aware of the likelihood of
Information regarding a student's study compounded errors in the reports and in their
habits, background, activities (and, for men use within the system, employers cannot. A
only, social and scholastic attitudes) is sent recommendation bearing the authoritative
to academic counselors upon request. If a stamp of the University should contain only
student is in serious academic difficulty, the information about which the University can.
balance of the information contained in the speak with authority-a transcript.
report may be obtained by his academic coun- It is perhaps unfortunate that the University
selor. The counselor may also ask that a com- must be large and must encounter great bar-
plete, new, evaluation be written during the riers in trying to obtain personal information
school year if he feels that the existing record about its students. That it must, for the bene-
is out of date. fit of the students themselves, obtain such in-
Because the reports are confidential-they formaon, by whatever necessarily clumsy
are not to be shown or paraphrased to either means, is obvious
the student or his parents-it is all too likely But it is equally obvious that the Univer-
that students, who suddenly become aware sity is obliged to keep such information within
that such evaluations are being made and who its own bounds, and to destroy it when its
understand little about them, may react with purpose-that of an aid to student counseling
indignation and demand their immediate --is ended and the student has graduated.
abolishment. This would be unfortunate. -CORA PALMER
TODAY AND TOMORROW
Dying Poicy
By WALTER LIPPMANN
SIDELINE ON SGC
Ct
Basic Questions
Still Unanswered
By JUDITH OPPENHEIM
WEDNESDAY NIGHT'S Student Government Council discussion of
"pink slip" evaluations in the quadrangles raised several interest-
ing questions for which no one seemed to have a positive answer.
A motion introduced at the meeting by Inter-Quadrangle Council
President Thomas Moch, '62, recommends that SGC go on record as
supporting the non-academic evaluations and, at the same time, rec-
ommend that their existence and nature be made known to quad resi-
dents.
In explaining the reports, Moch said that if a pink slip advises
.4
EDUCATION CRISIS:
Blame Rests with Public
condtoa aproalordisapproval
the following year, the man in-
volved must be told of the rec-
ommendation and also the reasons
for it.
s * h+
BRIAN GLICK, '62, asked
whether a resident would be noti-
fied of the contents of the report
only if it were unfavorable enough
to jeopardize his readmittance to
the quad. He also asked what the
benefit of the reports were in
cases where the resident was not
returning to the quad.
Moch said the reports, although
kept in each student's permanent
file, are rarely used after he leaves
the quad. He said that in cases
wherethe student's readmission is
not in question, notification of the
contents of the report is left to
the discretion of the staff man.
Roger Seasonwein, '61, asked
why it is necessary that the re-
ports be kept confidential. He
agreed there is a need for rec-
ommendations on students' read-
mission, but objected to the fact
that these reports become part of
a student's permanent file and
contain material which is quite
irrelevant to his being in the quad.
Seasonwein also questioned the
competency of the resident adviser
and staff members to write such
reports and objected strongly to
their being used for job recom-
mendations, cases brought before
joint judiciary council and the
permanent file rather than just
the quad records.
IT IS OBVIOUS from this dis-
cussion that much more detailed
information is necessary before
SGC can make an intelligent de-
cision regarding the value of these
slips. The above questions must be
answered as well as several others.
Precisely what criteria are to
be used by the staff men as a
guide for filling in the slips? Un-
der what conditions are they per-
mitted or advised to consult with
students or show them the re-
ports? In cases where the reports
are used for recommendations to
prospective employers, are they
quoted exactly or simply para-
phrased? Are these reports ever
used by the judiciaries or by the
deans for reasons other than de-
cision on readmittance to the dor-
mitories? When a student leaves
the quad after a year and his re-
port is later used, does it indi-
cate that he was in residence for
only one year?
These questions ought to be an-
swered by the quad administra-
tion before SGC decides on a rec-
ommendation. At this point it
seems that serious ethical objec-
tions can be raised to several as-
pects of the pink' slips, but as yet
there has been insufficient infor-
mation presented to warrant any
sound conclusion.
AT THE STATE:
'Big Show'
Big Drag
'THE BIG SHOW" was a pretty
big drag. One could be almost
tempted to suspect Ed Sullivan
was paid more to plug the mo-
vie than was spent on the whole
production, cast included.
Circus movies have one useful
aspect by their very nature-when
the story slows down, they can
focus on animals or death-defying
trapeze artists. They also possess
a similarity to conventional West-
erns-a setting in which the bad
guys can be bumped off if they
are in danger of up-staging the
hero.
Behind the glitter of lights; be-
low the terrifying tightropes; in
front of the bloodthirsty crowds;
above the usual beneath-the-can-
vas intrigues; lies a morbidly con-
ventional moral movie. The bad
guys are punished with horrible
death. The good guys are delivered
faithful wives and cherubic chil-
dren.
S* * s
BIG PAPPA started by swing-
ing from lamp. posts . . . well,
somewhere in Germany, and fin
ally built an empire in Munchen
--his own circus ring. One son
and one daughter are the apples of
his eye. Three sons are spineless
slobs, but one is a treacherous
coward and therein lies the drama.
The coward is originally reject-
ed because he is afraid of high
places, so he becomes a knife-
thrower. Don't be fooled, though,
this is only for viewers who read
mystery stories. The act doesn't
please Pappa, so son tries to marry
himself to a lady trying to climb
in the circus world.
Pappa disapproves of this also,
so he marries the daughter' of the
biggest menagerie in Europe. Aft-
er a bit of hatred, the rejected
circus climber is hurt by' faulty
rigging, which makes Big Pappy
guilty of manslaughter, or at the
least, liable.
Sociological determinism has
set the environment for moral
pressures to come to the fore.
Proud son takes the blame and
serves Pappa's prison sentence.
And eventually the bad guys are
all killed.
The only surprise in the movie
came when they took Esther Wil-
liams out of the water after only
about 15 seconds. The only thing
learned was the fact that Euro-
pean's think the polar bear the
most dangerous circus animal.
--Thomas Brien
of a student's return to the quad
THE REVOLUTION in Iran and the revolu-
tion in South Korea are warning signs about
the situation on the periphery of Asia. They
are warnings that it is not only in Laos that
there is trouble for the American client states.
IN IRAN, the revolution is a desperate at-
temp at the top, with the blessing of the Shah,
to reform the regime before it is overthrown
from below. The present revolution is not anti-
Western, anti-American, or pro-Communist.
But it may well be all of these things in the
end if the reforms which it has begun do not
go deep enough. The hour is late in Iran.
In South Korea the revolution is the work
of the Army, and it is not now anti-Western,
anti-American, or pro-Communist. But this
new military government, although it is not
anti-American in theory, is in fact defying and
ignoring our embassy and the American Army
commander.
The revolutions in South Korea and Iran,
following the disorders in Laos and South Viet-
nam, are a warning that in Asia the policy of
containment by American satellite states is
breaking down. In all four of these countries
the governments have been our clients, indeed
they have been our creations. All of them are
crumbling, and in the last analysis they are
all crumbling for the same reason. In reflection
to the rising popular feeling of independence
Editorial Staff
THOMAS HAYDEN, Editor
NAN MARKEL JEAN SPENCER
City Editor Editorial Director
and the rising popular expectations of material
welfare, these American client states are not
only corrupt but they are intolerably reaction-
ary. The fact that they are also under the
protection of a foreign and non-Asian power
is an additional liability.
The Kennedy administration did not form
the policy of setting up on the periphery of
Asia a semi-circle of American military clients.
But it is now confronted with the breakdown
of that policy, with the disorders, the dangers,
and the pains of having to pick up the pieces.
This is an experience which the American
people have never had before and it is one for
which their leaders have not prepared them.
They have not been told by anyone in authority
that there has been a radical change in the
military situation and what the consequences
of that change are. They have not been told
that the military situation which existed when
John Foster Dulles established this policy no
longer exists. They have not been told that he
made it work by shaking the bomb at the
Communists. That is why so many of them
suppose that Mr. Kennedy can make it work
with a few Marines and by shaking his fist.
Our moral and intellectual unpreparedness
for the reality of things is causing widespread
demoralization among' us. We must not let
ourselves be overcome by it. We can do that
best, I think, by recognizing that our present
experience on the periphery of Asia is the
American equivalent of what the British and
the French are experiencing during the liquida-
tion of their colonial empires. For what we are
witnessing is the dissolution of the Dulles
system of Asian protectorates.
THERE ARE DIEHARDS in France who
would like to overthrow Gen. de Gaulle in
ode . usthme think- fM kren Aleoria renrh
By PHILIP SHERMAN
Acting City Editor
THE DEBACLE in the Legisla-
ture this year makes it quite
clearthat higher education is in
trouble in Michigan.
Yet the root of the problem is
not in the state Legislature itself,
but rather in the people it rep-
resents. It is the people's opposi-
tion, indifference or misunder-
standing of higher education which
has resulted in the inadequate
support which has been demon-
strated.
Higher education has failed to
sell itself to enough Michigan
voters - constituents who could
have pressured the Legislature in-
to providing backing, either finan-
cial or moral.
WHAT IT THAT CURRENT of
public opinion on higher education
which has failed to make a strong
and favorable impression. Vice-
President for University Relations
Lyle M. Nelson last fall described
the results of a Survey Research
Center study of the problem.
Only about five per cent of the
population are "active supporters"
of higher education, he said. This
group holds favorable attitudes
towards professors and strongly
urges concentration on funda-
mental subjects, particularly in
high school. It is aware of higher
education's non-teaching functions
and is most likely to urge greater
tax support.
To this group should be added
"The Hopeful," the 30per cent
who know a little about higher
education and hold favorable at-
titudes towards it. They are, how-
ever, unsure about what a parent
should do to help his children
prepare for college.
ON THE OTHER SIDE ARE:
1) "The Isolated," (20 per cent)
who have had little or no contact
with higher education but are not
heavily opposed to its support.
2) "The Uninterested" (30 per
cent) who see little "responsibility
in their roles as parents for the
encouragement and support of
their children's education."
3) "The Disaffected" (15 per
cent) have attended college with
no marked success, are the non-
contributors to their colleges and
take no active part in education
on any level until their own child-
ren are affected. "There is more
opposition for expanding college
enrollment in this group than in
any others," the SRC report says.
THE FIGURES don't say enough.
DAILY
OFFICIAL
BULLETIN
The Daily Official Bulletin is an
official publication of The Univer-
sity of Michigan for which The
Michigan Daily assumes no editorial
responsibility. Notices should be
sent in TYPEWRITTEN form to
Room 3519 Administration Building,
before 2 p.m., two days preceding
publication.
FRIDAY MAY 19
The popular view of higher edu-
cation in Michigan and elsewhere,
has traditionally been one of mis-
trust, even of dislike for "smart"
professors who "know all the an-
swers." Congressional hearings on
"subversive" professors do little to
improve this image.
This view is more likely to be
held in rural rather than urban
areas (though city dwellers have
nothing to brag about in their
appreciation of higher education.)
But, in Michigan, conservative
rural legislators dominate both
houses and one of the great par-
ties. The $200,000 cut in the Wayne
State University budget may in
fact be interpreted in this light.:
the lawmaker's action on the
speaker ban was a move of petty
revenge against a liberalising pol-
icy.
Offsetting this distrust of edu-
cators are the many non-college
graduates who have a real desire
to educate their children as a
means to economic and social ad-
vancement. At the very least, they
will support aid for undergraduate
college education and oppose tui-
tion boosts because of the drain on
their own limited pocketbooks. But
their attitudes on out-of-state stu-
dents and graduate education may
be something else, as may oe their
views on liberal intellectuals.
PUBLIC OPINION is so vitally
important because of the extreme
sensitivity of most state legislators
to their constituents' opinions. One
Democrat, who favors a limit on
out-of-state enrollment says he
does so only because the 250,000
people of his urban district want
it.
THE CONTEXT of indifference
or misunderstanding cuts across
party lines in the Legislature, and,
presumably, in the state. Both
Republicans and Democrats favor-
ed out-of-state enrollment limits.
The Republicans support a tuition
boost much more strongly, but it
is not always clear that the Demo-
crats oppose this on educational or
political grounds. If formulated on
the latter basis, their attitude is as
potentially damaging as the Re-
publicans'.
But on the subject of appropria-
tions, there is a more clear-cut
split.
1) The Republican Old Guard
apparently set a ceiling on spend-
ing at the beginning of the ses-
sion and stuck to it. They assumed
they had been mandated to dis-
continue the nuisance taxes, and
this they did.
The problem of course could
have been solved to an extent by
comprehensive tax reform, but the
right-wing lawmakers apparently
ruled this out as well for the past
session.
2) Generally, the Democrats'
record is better. Gov. Swainson
recommended increases for higher
education, but these were based on
a more sanguine-and probably
inflated-estimate of state rev-
enues. The Legislature refused to
accept the estimates and passed
a lower appropriation.
* * *
To the Editor:
IN MY OPINION, Gerald Storch's
editorial in Sunday's Daily was
one of the worst to appear in The
Daily this year.
First, Storch goes along with
a recent trend I have noticed of
calling rational criticism of Israel
"anti-Semitism." The basic ques-
tions concerning the Arab-Israeli
conflict were left unanswered in
the editorial. If the Arab was
right, there are no grounds for
objection; if he was wrong, intelli-
gent discussion should bring out
the fact. In any case, much criti-
cism does not make a speech anti-
Semitic any more than rational
but emotional criticism of Ade-
nauer's policies would make a
speech "anti-German."
Perhaps Storch's comments on
the "Operation Abolition" debate
were even worse. The only evidence
of the crowd becoming "incensed"
at the speaker's controversial
statement was hissing from a def-
inite minority of those present.
Later, the "largely hostile audi-
ence" applauded enthusiastically
as Fulton Lewis scored tellingly
against Seasonwein's highly repe-
titious attack on the film. And are
college students so devoted to the
status quo that we must worry
about possible "tragic" crowd be-
havior during a speech advocating
treason or violent revolution?
Let us hope that such editor-
ials, or preferably such writers
are left out in the future so that
we may be spared the misleading
propaganda which Mr. Storch de-
plores.
-Gary DeYoung, '64
TlP fnn --
titude towards Arabs as well as
Jews.
He correctly claims that both
Arabs and Jews belong to the Se-
mitic race. However, if he had
bothered to look up the term
"anti-Semitic" in Webster's Ap-
proved Dictionary, he would have
found tha tits correct definition is:
"One who favors the social and
political persecution of Jews." No
mention of Arabs ...
Thus Gerald Storch is justified,
if he wishes, to go on calling Arab
consulate officials anti-Semites.
-Imants E. Golts, 62E
Zionists .
To the Editor:
I WISH TO COMMENT on your
editorial published in your news-
paper on Sunday, May 14, written
by Gerald Storch, entitled "Prob-
lems of Free Speech." Mr. Storch
said, "the speaker constantly
equated the Jewish people with
Zionists." In the speech which I
delivered at the University of
Michigan on May 11, 1961 at 8:00
p.m.. I said the following: "Before
the British mandate, early Jewish
immigrants lived in peace and
friendship with their Arab neigh-
bors. Jews through the Arab world
enjoyed complete religious, social
and political freedom. Many men
held top governmental posts." I
went on to say by quoting Mr. Elias
Cohen's letter to Rabbi Berger,
which was published in Rabbi
Berger's book "Who Knows Better
Must Say So" on page 14, the
following: " . . . as a matter of
fact the Egyptian Jews never felt
anti-semitism or discrimination."
IN THE LATTER PART of my,
joyed full political and religious
freedom. This was re-emphasized
in World War II when Arab states
"opened their doors" to any Jews
fleeing from Germany."
It is apparent that Mr. Storch
is contradicting himself.
-Fawzi Abu-Diab
Midwest Director
Arab Information Center
Ignorance ...
To the Editor:
T HE SHORT EDITORIAL in
Sunday's Daily concerning Mr.
Toynbee and the Jews was but
one further example of the recent
trend toward irresponsible journal.
ism on the part of the Daily. Miss
Winter's article shows a lack of
knowledge of both Mr. Toynbee's
position as well as the traditional
values and purposes of the Jewish
way of life. The references to the
Jews as a race are scientifically
unfounded, and any scrutinization
will show the Jews are anything
but a -pure stock.
The suggestion that Judaism
opposes intermarriage for the sake
of propagating a "pure race
shows a total ignorance of the
motives of not only Judiasm but
of all great religions which strive
to maintain a continuity of belief,
tradition and dynamism through
the bonds of the family.
The analogy of the Jewish posi-
tion opposing assimilation as being
akin to that of the Aryan-race
theory of Nazi Germany is but
another appalling example, of the
unclear logic and uninformed
thinking on the part of the writer.
THE FACT that an editorial
such as this could be written is
nne thing hut that it conld hA
Swainson came around later, but
too late. The GOP moderates might
have then joined the Democrats
but by then they felt a necessity
for party loyalty to preserve their
effectiveness.
Nevertheless, Swainson has been
a great deal better than his oppo-
sition on the issue of higher edu-
cation. His bonding proposal for
construction of state buildings has
won the approval of the univer-
sities and colleges. And his belated
program of tax revision would have
allowed subsequent expansion of
revenue sources to facilitate high-
er education appropriations.
The situation is therefore not
totally dark. But the Democrats
too show certain misunderstand-
ings of higher education-as in
their attitude towards out-of-state
enrollment limits. And the old
line GOP, which still controls the
Legislature, is far, far worse.
The moderate Republicans offer
a hope that this control can be
broken. If it can, a major break-
through will have been made.
But although serious, the prob-
lem for higher education as a
whole may not be insurmountable.
The problem at this University
may indeed be insurmountable.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR:
Arab Speech Stirs Campus
'I