I

Seventy-Fifth Year
EDMD AND MANAGED BY STUDENTS OF THE UIVELUSrT OF MICHIGAN
UNDER AUTHOrITY OF BOARD IN CONTKOL OF STUDENT PUBLICATIONS

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR:
Pmro and Con of Plus and Minus Grading

.

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Editorials printed in The Michigan Daily express the individual opinions of staff writers
or the editors. This must be noted in all reprints..
THURSDAY, 4 FEBRUARY 1965 NIGHT EDITOR: DAVID BLOCK

The Time Has Come To End
Lansing's Political Dance

JNITIAL DEMOCRATIC attacks on Gov.
George Romney's budget smack strong-
ly of partisan politics. Legislators must
be careful not to allow a party-lines
struggle to distort the real issues involved
in the governor's budget.
Obviously, budget recommendations
have more propagandizing ability than
any other state issue. They affect most
voters where voters are affected most
strongly-,in their pocketbooks.
Budget recommendations offer a con-
venient center of attack for legislators
who are "out to get" the governor. The
budget is the one area in which citizens
who are potentially opposed to Romney
can easily be encouraged to voice their op-
position simply because a legislator says
the recommendations are "woefully in-
adequate," as Senate Majority Floor
Leader Basil Brown (D-Detroit) did Tues-
day.
BROWN MADE the statement about an+
hour after he first saw the budget, an
hour filled with a meeting of the Legis-
lature and various conferences. This cer-
tainly is not the kind of close scrutiny
one would hope a legislator would devote
before saying the budget is "woefully in-
adequate." But it does get Detroit votes,
and evidently that is all Brown is after.
It is just this kind of statement, made
for the effect it has on the voters rather
than given as a forthright appraisal of a
problem, which will distort budget issues
into political issues and make the budget.
the gerrymandered, log-rolled, back-
scratched misfit it has too often been.
Political convictions should play a part
in budget legislation but political exped-
lents should hopefully be excluded from
it.
Rather, a realistic appraisal of the is-
sues involved is necessary. Such issues as

tax reform and amount of the state sur-
plus should be seriously considered.
WHEN ROMNEY introduced his first
ill-fated attempt at tax reform, he
noted three principal areas in need of
such reform. The first of the three is that
current tax structures are working
against the lower income groups, just op-
posite of what they should be. doing.
Michigan puts a flat four per cent sales
tax on most household items; as this tax
is not similarly imposed on services, va-
cations and other high-income expendi-
tures, it puts an unfair burden on the
low-income family.
Michigan's business taxes are similarly
primitive, taxing as they do new and es-,
tablished, struggling and sound, business-
es alike. Discouraging business, the taxes
also discourage jobs.
Third, local units of government, faced
with expanding needs, must somehow find
new sources of revenue. Yet their un-
guided experiments require some type of
state supervision.
THESE ARE THE ISSUES which state
legislators once pretended did not
exist. They are the issues which exist now
as they existed then, issues which will
not be aided by politically-inspired ac-
cusations..
The question of the state surplus, esti-
mated anywhere from $75 to $110 million,
is another political firecracker. This year
Romney has again demanded fiscal. sta-
bility while Democratic legislators now
want increases in state services.;
It seems to be a reciprocal matter. Rom-
ney proposes, a Democrat opposes. It's a
dance which one soon tires of. Hopefully
this year the Legislature will exhaust it-
self in the game and find another.
-LEONARD PRATT

To the Editor:
LAST WEEK Dean Robertson
asked the literary college
steering committee for its opin-
ions relative to the introduction
of plus and minus marks in the
present grading system. Since that
time, much discussion has been
generated in student, faculty and
administrative circles.
For the benefit of all concerned
with this problem, I am enclosing
a summary of the positive and
negative arguments which devel-
oped in the course of our discus-
sion.
It should be noted that this is
only one of the areas in which
the steering committee s involv-
ed this year~ Students interested
in the committee and its work or
having suggestions related to a
particular academic problem are
invited to contact the committee
through Dean Robertson's office,
1220 Angell Hall.
Pro: Plus and minus marks
would:
1) Provide a fairer system of
grades;
2) Give more information about
the mark received (whether it is
'high or low);
3) Give graduate schools a more
accurate (if detail implies ac-
curacy) record of the student's
work;
4) Reduce, as Prof. Needler not-
ed, tension prior to exams;
5) Relieve teachers of the agony
of making borderline decisions be-
tween rather wide alternatives;
Con: Plus and minus marks would:
1) Increase pettiness and bick-
ering over grades;
2) Be an increased bother to
many instructors who may ignore
the change altogether;
3) Increase the subjective ele-
ment in grading while tending to
give grades an unjustified look
of accuracy or fairness;
4) Probably not make any dif-
ference to thenstudent's overall
average (since pluses and minuses
would average themselves out);
5) Would not give graduate
schools a better picture of tle
student's standing since the plus
and minus marks would be even
more relative than the straight
grades (and would probably be
ignored).
SEVERAL compromise measures
were suggested and the arguments,
in brief, follow.
Give plus and/or minus in C
range only:
Pro: C range is the widest range
and further discrimination is
needed.
Con: See general reasons against
the proposal for a change.
Give just plus marks:
GPro: Wouldkgivesstudent the
benefit of the doubt.
Con. Would tend to make all
non plus grades seem weak.
Give plus and minus only on post-
cards:
Pro: Gives students better idea
of his achievement and standing.
Con: Such comments are usually
added now. No argument against
this except that it might lead to
pressure to put the mark on the
transcript.,
Give plus and minus on tran-
scripts, but don't change the
point-equivalent system:
Pro: Would give grad schools
more information.
Con: Grad schools would prob-
ably ignore such marks which, in
any event, would probably balance
out.
While these proposals and argu-
ments are hardly complete, they
should give the reader a solid sur-
vey of the general problem. It was
the considered opinion of the com-
mittee that in the end proposed
changes in the grading system
would create more problems than
they would solve.
-Roger Price, '65
Chairman, Literary College
Steering Committee

Pre-Registration
To the Editor:
THE LETTER appearing recent-
ly concerning the advance
classification program (pre-regis-
tration) indicates the need for a
clarification of the purposes and
objectives of the program.
In addition to alleviating the

crowded conditions in the classi-
fication area at registration, the
advance classification program
accomplishes two major objec-
tives:
1) Each student who partici-
pates is assured of a reservation
in a course. The only exception
to this is the student who classi-
fies very late in the program and
elects a course that is closed. This
student must elect an alternate
course and classify for it at regis-
tration.
2) Enrollment information is
provided to the academic depart-
ments at a time when changes
can still be made in space and fac-
ulty assignments. This informa-
tion may result in increasing the
size of a section or the addition
of more sections to a course. Thus
more students get into the
courses they desire.
STUDENTS are classified into
courses according to instructions
provided by the academic depart-
ments. For instance, the enroll-
ment in multiple section courses
must be kept even, which requires
the alteration of schedules. The
majority of students request class
hours between 9:00 a.m. and 2:00
p.m., Monday, Wednesday and
Friday,.and it is impossible to
conform to the wishes of all of
them.
The classification clerks have a
college background and know and
.understand the importance of a
"good" schedule. Every student
is given thedbest time schedule
available at the' time his schedule
is processed.
This may be of interest. During
the fall term 13,554 students were
classified into more than 80,000
classes with better than 99 per
cent accuracy. The administration
is constantly reviewing this opera-
tion to determine even better ways
and means of serving the students
and faculty. The present data
processing equipment available to
us is not capable of processing an
operation of this magnitude, and
it will be at least two years before
this can be accomplished.
-Douglas R. Woolley,
Director of Registration
and Classification
Housing
To the Editor:
W ITH THE rEFERENCE to the
motion passed by IQC con-
cerning the exclusion of English
Language Institute students from
quadrangles to help solve the
crowded situation, I would like to?
point out that although IQC is
doing its best to alleviate the
problem, the above motion will be
impractical.
ELI students are enrolled for
only 8 or 15 week sessions. It will
be very difficult for them to find
"suitable off-campus housing" for
such short periods. The landlords
just will not rent.
ELI students normally do not
-understand English well enough
for them to get around, buy gro-
ceries, etc., without great incon-
venience.
ELI students have a very tough
academic schedule, and they do
not have time to cook and do the
housekeeping required in off-
campus housing.
ELI students will generally feel
better with the resident director
and other students around them
while in a strange situation, even
if they do not practice their Eng-
lish with the American students
or add to the atmosphere -
ELI students do not, take up a
sufficient number of places to
make their exclusion justifiable;
in the fall of 1964 there were only
29 and 82 ELI students enrolled
for 8 week and 15 week sessions
respectively, and not all of them
stayed in the quads.
FINALLY, ELI students are also

University students and have as
much right as any students to
stay in the quads. Besides, it
would be much easier for all con-
cerned if other more effective
measures were taken, e.g., build-
ing University apartments or hav-
ing a quota for students above the
freshman level in the quads. Ex-
cluding ELI students will not solve


...MUST 1#IAVM ItNTINM'r'AThIE-' IA. TTtY >ONT ANSWER."

AMA Alternative to Medicare

-HE AMERICAN Medical Association's
proposed alternative to medicare-
though it comes a bit late--deserves seri-
ous consideration.'
The AMA plan appears to be more com-
prehensive than the .one expected from
the administration. It would provide, ac-
cording to its sponsors, not only hospital.
and nursing home care but medical, surgi-
cal and drug expenses for all over 65
unable to afford them. It also would pro-
Sensational
THE UNIVERSITY journalism series,
-which has heard Ben Bagdikian ex-
plain how editors often throttle news and
David Halberstam relate how government
attempts to direct it, yesterday heard
Clark Mollenhoff illustrate how reporters
sensationalize it.
It would be wrong to suggest that this
demonstration was voluntary.
It was highly effective-although quite
unwitting. For example, Mollenhoff im-
plied that White House representatives
were trying to throttle the Jenkins af-
fair. The New York Times noted, however,
that the two men Mollenhoff referred to,
Clark. Clifford and Abe Fortas, stressed
that they were acting as Jenkins' per-
sonal friends; they simply wanted to let
him leave his job gracefully without per-
manently damaging him.
And with all his concern for Otto Otep-
ka's "ordeal" Mollenhoff failed to note
that it is, to say the least, highly improper
for any government employe to give any
document, however important, to anyone,
without proper authorization--as Otepka
did.
Hence, by a few omissions of fact, Mol-
lenhoff has tinged relatively innocuous
events with the ominous colors of con-
spiracy. This is not good newspaper writ-
ing; it does, however, sell newspapers.
Mollenhoff's attitude towards the "in-
tegrity of the press" thus seems some-
what like Samuel Butler's respectable
people who "would be equally horrified to
hear the Christian religion doubted as see
it practiced."
-MARK KILLINGSWORTH

vide, in amounts scaled to individual
need, similar services for those able to
pay only a part of such costs.
The criterion for such financial assist-
ance would be a statement of total in-
come. The amount would vary in differ-
ent areas and would be set by state legis-
latures. It is a sound provision because it
removes the demeaning "means test" of
total assets as a method of determining
when assistance should be given.
USING INCOME as a factor for assist-
ance rather than total means is a
fair method. No person over 65 with a
fixed, low income should be penalized for
having been frugal enough to have ac-
quired a home, auto, television set or oth-
er comforts. Nor should any person over
65 able to afford the purchase of health
insurance be given unnecessary assist-
ance.
Furthermore, the AMA's plan offers
more medical aid to the indigent aged
than does the administration's plan. The
plan put forth by the administration pro-
vides for only 60 days of hospital care in
any one year. Private insurance plans
can offer much more. The administration
program does not provide for payment of
physician's or surgeon's fees. Private in-
surance plans can and do provide for
such payment.
In addition, a more accurate assess-
ment of costs, present and future, would
be possible through the AMA's proposal.
The cost of the administration's program
cannot be assessed.
HAD THE AMA PROPOSAL been sub-
mitted in concrete form one or two years
ago, its chances of acceptance would have
been better than at present. President
Johnson has now committed himself to a
medicare system based on social security
and, backed as he is by his landslide vic-
tory of last November and a workable
majority in both House and Senate, there
is, at the moment at least, little expecta-
tion of compromise with the AMA.
However, the AMA proposal may still
have a considerable influence on the bill
the President and Rep. Wilbur D. Mills
(D-Ark), chairman of the House Ways
and Means Committee, are seeking to
formulate. Mills has been a long-time

the quadrangle problem to any
significant degree.
_-Yee C. Chen,.'65Y
President, International
Students Association
To' the Editor:
NOT THAT it's an issue of world
shaking importance, but the
resolution passed by IQC Monday
night which bars first semester
Ann Arbor residents and English
Language Institute students from
living in the quads is not very
thoughtful and quite unfair.
It may seem strange to most
students that anyone would want
to live in a quad, but then most
University students aren't going
to school in their own home town
or aren't foreign students who
want and need to. have the op-
portunity of becoming involved in
University activities with other
students.
Having the chance to. become
part of the University community
is especially hard at a school with
30,000 students, and a student who'
doesn't have the natural "wean-
ing" process of going to another
city for college should' not bear
the penalty of being forced to live;
in his high school environment
if he can financially afford not
to.
* * *
ANN ARBORITES who love
their parents, brothers and sisters
but prefer to grow up on their
own outside of their home should
be allowed to. If an Ann Arborite
chooses not to go out of state to
a school with more expensive tui-
tion and transportation costs, why'
does IQC say that he can't spend
part of the savings to live among
other students here? Why in ten
years if thencrowding gets worse
IQC might prohibit all Michigan
residents from living in the quads!
(And what would the Legislature
think then?)
If there were no "townies" or.
foreign students who wanted to
live in the dorms, IQC would have
no reason to make such a rule,
but by making this outright pro-
hibitioi the council admits the
existence of a significant number

of first-year students who would
be kept from doing something they
wanted to do.
Instead of making a prohibitive
rule, why doesn't IQC make a
permissive rule that would serve
the same end and cause less dis-
satisfaction? For example they'
could allow those who don't want
quad living to live in apartments
instead.
* * * .
THE ANSWER given to this]
question by some officials would
be in loco parentis (the outmoded,
idea that the University acts as a
substitute parent and guardian
while the child is a student away
from home). This would sound"
ridiculous if any IQC member were,
to argue it, because he knows his
constituents can come or go at
any time of the day or night, can,
have beer in their rooms, and for
all practical purposes have very
few restrictions, as it should be.
So why =do they restrict both those
who want to move in and those
who want to get out?
We 70-80 townies who moved
from home to dorm in 1960 appre-
ciated the chance to be in IM
sports, run for dorm offices, be
appointed to house judic, buy
block tickets for concerts and
learn that mom's cooking was
fabulous by comparison. Perhaps
IQC will relent and allow our
younger brothers and sisters the
same chance to be part of the
nonclassroom college life and thus
avoid a picket line or sit-in at the'
IQC:offices on charges of second-
class citizenship and discrimiin a-
tory housing regulations.
-Christopher Cohen, '67L
Academies
To the Editor;
IN WHAT world does Ralph H.
Smith (letter to the editor, Jan.:
26) live? If our moral standards
were to 'be set by the military
academies - those "showcases of,
morality" whose members are
dedicated to and trained in the
destruction of other men - then
we would be in a bad way.
The question of whether an of-

ficer would lie, cheat or steal
seems less significant beside the
long list of horrors and brutalities
committed against enemy and ally
in the name of military exped-
iency.
If it is an honor to be called an
officer, then it is only so to th~e
military mind-that world of nar-
row and hypocritical morality,
where the General Walkers and
MacArthurs flourish. Mr. Smith
reflects that attitude-in his state-
ment that "any officer who would
cheat, lie or steal is of no use to
himself, his men or his coun-
try . . . Such morality, compas-
sion, and understanding typifies
the "fighting man."
-Jeremy Lustig, Grad

'LADYKILLERS':

Effective
Double .Bill.
4
At the cinema Guid
PEOPLE planning on attending
the current Cinema Guild mo-
vie, "The Ladykillers," are going to
get two for the price of one. The
short is excellent.
"Freedom Ride" is a wild con-
trast to the Alec Guinness rari-
fied atmosphere comedy. Stark
against other-world,hfantastic
slapstick stands the short docu-
mentary film of the first of the
Freedom Rides.
NO FALSE THEATRICS or trick
photography could be more power-
ful than these shots and stills of
the first handful of Freedom Rid-
ers who bought their bus tickets
in Washington, D.C., May 4, 1961,
and attempted to ride to New Or-
leans. Their specific goal was to
desegregate the Southern waiting
rooms--but the ride inevitably be-
came the symbol of segregation
everywhere "from South Africa to
Seattle."
The producer didn't need to do
anything more than show the
state troopers and United States
soldiersea few feet down the road
from the "Welcome to Mississippi"
sign-or the sign on the Jackson,
Miss., courthouse that talks about
equal justice for all under the law.
Back to the world of the un-
real:
"LADYKILLERS" is one of
those grizzly movies a la early
Guinness. Certainly wouldn't rec-
ognize him. He was, however,
funny as the nutty mastermind
of the daring bank robbery.- It is
one of those comedies of timing
where the wicked crooks get
caught in their own heart-of-
gold sentimentality. Maybe this
was the prototype for the many
movies that have followed using
the format. It's a good gimmicir.
Peter Sellers is highly billed in
the advertisements-I'll be chari-
table and not say anything about
exploitation of the name. His part

THE PINNACLE OF A FOOTHILL:
February Gargoyle Is Mildly Amusing

ON DECEMBER 12, 1962, a Daily reporter wrote, "Today is a special
day for the University: Gargoyle is back."
It wasn't very special. The first issue was a disaster. The second
was an obscene disaster. Since then, the Garg has inched upward
toward the level of the mildly amusing. With the February edition,
out yesterday, it seemed to have reached the pinnacle of this foothill.
At least this time the reader knows when something is supposed
to be hilarious, even if it isn't.
WHILE THE FIRST ISSUES seemed to have been written at a
fraternity party-by the guests and for their own amusement-a few
sparks of individual talent have begun to appear. And the Garg is
beginning to look more professional, though the staff still needs
someone with a ruler and an eye to paste up its pages.

that, in spite of overwhelming odds, the average student can
overcome any amount of flack thrown at him. Not only did the
Rose Bowl show that the U. of M. has the best football team, butt
it also showed that we have the most organized tours. In fact
they were so organized that no one, except an honored few,
actually knew what was going on.
This sort of matter-of-fact exaggeration tries to pass for satire
throughout the issue. From time to time, the straight-faced absurdity
of real satire seems near. A student announces to "Uncle Harley" that
he is about to hang himself, and asks if his mother can collect his
$50 enrollment deposit. Harley, calculating the damage to the room and
other expenses involved in taking care of the suicide, advises him to
"tell your mother to forget it."
The "Universal Musical Society," in a sedate, formal announce-