I
Seventy-Fifth Year
EDrrmh AND MANAGED BY STDNT m UNIVEI.SrrY OP MICIGMAN
UNDER AUTHORITY OF BOARD FN CONThOL( OP STUDENT PUBLICATIONS
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR:
Service Academy Objectives: Official View
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re OpinionsA 420 MAYNArn ST., ANN Axwo , Mcm.
ruth Will Prevail
NEws PHoNE: 764-0552
Editorials printed in The Michigan Daily express the individual opinions of staff writers
or the editors. This must be noted in all reprints.
SATURDAY, 6 FEBRUARY 1965 NIGHT EDITOR: LAURENCE KIRSHBAUM
The NeXt Campaign:
boldPaternalisn
THE ALL-OUT ATTACK launched a few
years ago against University "pater-
nalism" never got east of State Street. It
should have,,
The critics of that day argued that an
institution catering to adult or nearly-
adult students had no business making
rules aimed at protecting each student
from himself. They campaigned against
rules preventing him from going where he
wanted, associating with whomever he
pleased, listening to whoever interested
him, and thinking and acting as his own
conscience dictated.
But for both practical and ideologi-
cal reasons, the critics explicitly con-
fined themselves to the Office of Stu-
dent Affairs-in other words, to rules
governing the student outside the class-
room. The paternalism which governed,
and still governs, his academic life re-
mained sacred.
Now, while undergraduate education is
being placed under the microscope as un-
dergraduate extracurricular life was then,
the question of academic paternalism
should not be passed over so lightly. For
it shares most of the faults of the pa-
ternalism exercised from west of State
Street.
WHAT IS ACADEMIC paternalism?
To define it in principle, we can di-
vide academic regulations into two kinds.
First, there are rules aimed at minimiz-
ing the damage one student can do to
the education of another. Second, there
are rules whose only raison d'etre is that
they attempt to minimize the damage a
student can do to his own education.
Under the first category fall, for exam-
ple;rules which restrict choices of courses.
Since course capacity is not infinite, some
students will have to be left out.:And a
student who is taking up classroom space
and learning nothing is hurting not only
himself but a more enthusiastic student
who might otherwise be in that section.
Here you need rules and people to imple-
ment them in specific cases.
Similarly with graduation requirements
and grading policies. Like it or not, an
important aspect of today's college life is
the student's "paycheck": the grades,
credits and degrees he receives for turn-
ning out a certain amount of work. As
long as this foul practice remains a fact
of life, it must be administered fairly.
The University cannot, in the name of
freedom, "pay" one student for something
he l has not done while another works
for it. Again, here is an area where one
student can hurt another, so standards
must be set up and enforced.
A STUDENT'S SOCIAL obligation, then,
is to avoid preventing his fellows from
getting their education and to receive
"fpay" only for work he has done. It is
hard to see any justification for rules
which go beyond this.
Yet there are such rules: the rules of
academic paternalism. Often, for exam-
ple, colleges require a student to take a
"full-time" credit load, defending this de-
mand only with the assertion that "you
should finish college as quickly as possi-
ble." Similarly, restrictions on dropping
courses after the Nth week of class, ap-
parently designed to prevent foolhardy
snap decisions made under the pressure
of an upcoming exam, prevent many aca-
demically sound decisions from being
made.
Within the courses, requirements such
as class attendance are equally paternal-
istic-if a student finds a given class
worthless and stays away, nothing beyond
the student suffers except perhaps the
instructor's ego.
ALL SUCH PATERNALISTIC r u l1e s
should be abolished. On the negative
side, they hurt the relationship between
students and their counselors and in-
structors. Whereas these people could be
a source of intelligent advice for the stu-
dent, they are now often perceived -
quite accurately-as authorities: people
who have the power to prevent the stu-
dent from making the decisions he wants,
and people who may use this power if they
are consulted. So the student discusses
the important questions with his room-
mate and uses his counselor to sign drop-
and-add slips."
On the positive side, the abolition of
academic paternalism would encourage
the student - and his counselors and
teachers, in whom he now would be able
to confide-to do a lot more individualiz-
ed planning of his college career. There
are many individual cases in which a
student will do best to take five or 21
credits instead of 15, or take three or six
years to get his degree instead of four.
With these alternatives wide open, one of
the main driving forces behind the rat-
race, get-it-over-with attitude toward
college would disappear.
THIS IS NOT A DENIAL of the need for
counseling. Indeed, with a greater
range of choice, the student will need
the wisdom of experienced people even
more. But only when counselors can stop
being rule- enforcers can they become
true counselors.-
Even with freer counseling, of course,
some students will make some mistakes
they would not make under a more au-
thoritarian system. But the number and
magnitude of mistakes made because of
blanket rules or counselors' inconsistent
discretion are far greater-and far more
serious, because these mistakes are forced
on the student.
TOO LONG, the mystique of academic
expertise has protected these arbitrary
rules. Some day, perhaps, the perfect set
of academic paternalism rules will be de-
vised-perfect in that every time the Uni-
versity makes a student's decision for
him, that decision will indeed be the best
one for the student. Then, perhaps, aca-
demic paternalism will be justified.
That day is not here, and will not be
for a long time. Until it arrives, there
should be no paternalistic rules at all.
-KENNETH WINTER
Managing Editor
To the Editor:
rME LETTER of Jeremy Lustig
in the Feb. 4 Daily was really
an eye-opener for me. As a grad-
uate of one of the service acad-
emies "whose members are dedi-
cated to and trained in the de-
struction of other men" (Lustig's
definition), I couldn't help but
wonder how he came to this con-
elusion. As stated in official pub-
lications the objectives of West
Point are:
To instill discipline. To instill
a high sense of honor, To pro-
vide the knowledge and general
education equivalent to that
given by our leading universities,
and particularly to develop the
powers of analysis so that the
mind may reason to a logical
conclusion.
Certainly Mr. Lustig must have
great knowledge of the academies
and insight into their operation to
be able to state their mission so
much more succinctly.
IN MY STUDIES of military
history, numerous extmples of
heroism, courage in the face of
adversity and compassion in the
moment of victory were cited as
distinguishing characteristics of
famous American soldiers. No-
where in these formal studies, nor
in subsequent "outside reading,
have I seen this "long list of hor-
rors and brutalities committed
against enemy and ally in the
name of military expediency" to
which Lustig so sweepingly al-
ludes.
Perhaps, though, he is referring
to such things as the "brutal"
treatment of Chinese and North
Korean prisoners of war whch
motivated eighty thousand of them
to elect not to return to their
homeland-a privilege they gain-
ed, by the way, because of the
United Nations "military expe-
diency" of continuing a costly war
rather than compromise humani-
tarian principles.
And since he places Gen. Doug-
las MacArthur in "that world of
narrow and hypocritical morality,"
I wonder, what place he would
relegate to Generals George C.
Marshall, Dwight D. Eisenhower
andrGeorge Crook (who cham-
pioned the rights of the Indians
he was ordered to fight and of
whom one chief said, "He, at least,
had never lied to us. His words
gave the people hope. He died.
Their hopes died again.").
I WONDER ALSO what would
be Lustig's reaction to this quote
from the book, The Armed Forces
Officer, which is required read-
ing for all newly, commissioned
officers:
To speak of ethics in the same
breath with war may seem like
sheer cant and hypocrisy. But
in the possibility that those who
best understand the use and
nature of armed power may
excel all others in stimulating
that higher morality which may
someday restrain war, lies a
main chance for the future.
-Samuel L. Myers, Jr
Captain, U.S. Army
Trigon
To the Editor:
IT SEEMS TO ME that the night
editor who wrote "The Educa-
tion of Trigon" was getting sleepy
and put his pen into gear before
finishing his research. He is one
of a very select few who believe
Trigon was originally a Methodist
men's club.
But to the point; let me take
two quotes from the editorial:
The number of nonwhites
rushing fraternities is extremely
small, and most houses give
them a polite rush and wait for
them to leave of their own vo-
lition. The Christian-Jewish
problem is alleviated by the
existence of predominantly Jew-
ish fraternities .. .
Yet noenoticeable change has
come over any of the accused
units after its supposed re-
demption. The changed rules
didn't seem to affect practice to
any great extent.t
I fail to see how Trigon can be
blamed for IFC's hypocrisy. IFC
seems to be doing a good job of
it all by itself.
y-Earl Morris, Jr., '65
To the Editor:
SHE FEB. 3 editorial "The Edu-
cation of. Trigon," essentially
contends that it is better that
Trigon engage in hypocricy than
for IFC to do so. There are two
objections to the solution pro-
posed.
First, as must be obvious to
anyone familiar with the "bias-
clause" issue, Trigon has consist-
ently refused to practice hypo-
crisy in any of its dealings, and
will continue' to do so. John
Bryant isn't the first to suggest
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~A(KI~oN
such a subterfuge, but such a
course of action has always been
rejected because of its inherent
hypocrisy.
The second objection is that
Trigon's suggested hypocrisy would
not cure IFOC's hypocrisy. Many,
of IFC's member fraternities en-
gage in discrimination in mem-
TODAY AND TOMORROW:
Leader Image I
S
By WALTER LIPPMANN.
THERE IS no doubt something
weird, and to many something
disconcerting, in the quietness,
which looks .like passivity, of the,
Johnson foreign policy.'
There is a notion in the air
that he does not know or care
about foreign affairs and that this
is why he refrains from striking
pronouncements' and urgent in-
tervention in Europe, why also he
refrains from trying to settle the
affairs of Asia by confrontation
to the point of war with North
Viet Nam and Red China. The
feeling which this restraint pro-
duces is not unlike the silence
after a long and loud deafening
noise.
But as a matter of fact much
has been happening in our for-
eign policy, and this is already
visible in Europe. The President's
decision during the autumn to re-
lax the pressure for our proposal
to create a multilateral nuclear
force was quietly done. But it was
a far-reaching decision. If it did
not mean the end, it certainly
foreshadowed the end of our post-
war attitude toward the affairs
of the European continent.
* *
DURING the years immediately
after the war when Western Eur-
ope was defenseless and prostrate,
there had been constructed an
ideological framework for the
Marshall Plan and NATO. In this
ideological framework the image
of the United States was
the protector, the preser
guide and the leader of Eu
This image has becom
pletely out-of-date. It d
reflect the recovery of
Europe or the detente in
war which has existed si
test ban treaty. But this n
our European role is still
the mental furniture of
large number of America
now feel angry or frustrat
feel "defeated" because of
pean allies do not dance
tune which the piper wl
used to pay used to play.
view, if President Lyndoi
son did what he ought t4
would make them resui
dance.
I count it an event
policy to have recogniz
this extravagant concer
European affairs will n
any longer and does in
as a boomerang.
NOT MANY PEOPLE
country realize how dee
intimately we involved c
in postwar European affai
is why so many American
appreciate the .extent o
Americanism in Europe.'
a clandestine history wh
no -doubt someday be
about our interventions I
pean domestic affairs. It i
to say now that, though
tives were high and th
was good, once this medd
Out of Date
that of no longer indispensable to the
ver, the salvation of Europe it became in-
rope. tolerable to Europeans.
ne com- An especially annoying part of
foes not our superintending of Europe was
Western our playing of favorites among
the cold our European. allies. The special
ince the relationship with the British was,
otion of of course, an old one and is, I
part of believe, enduring. But when in our
a very postwar zeal we translated it into
ans who American pressure to promote
ed. They British entry into the Common
ur Euro- Market, we invited and we got
to the Gen. Charles de Gaulle's resound-
hom we ing rebuff.
In their Even more mischievous has been
n John- the postwar special relationship
o do, he with Conrad Adenauer's Germany.
me the In the 1950's the old chancellor
was elevated by the State Depart-
of high ment to the role of principal
ed that European adviser. This official
n with deference to his prejudices re-
ot work sulted, I believe, in hardening
fact act the division of Germany and of
Europe and of postponing the
movement toward reunification
in this which has at long last begun to
ply and get underway.
ourselves * *
rs. That OUR European policy has now
s do not been adjusted to the evolution of
of anti- European affairs. Instead of try-
There is ing to run Europe, or "lead" it, we
ich will are allowing the Europeans, who
written are fully recovered from the war,
n Euro- to sort out their own relations
s enough with one another. Instead of deep-
our mo- ening the division of Europe, as
e cause we did in the years under Ade-
ling was nauer's domination of the State
Department, we are encouraging
and assisting that drawing to-
gether of the European peoples-
of Europe "from the Atlantic to
the Urals"-which is the hope of
the future.
As compared with Europe, the
.. situation in Asia is far more
threatening and far lesspromis-
ing. Though it should be possible
to postpone and then to avoid a
mortal confrontation with Red
China, there is a possibility of it
which we must always reckon
with. I do not believe we can
avoid a confrontation by pre-
cipitating it. And as long as we
are entangled on the mainland of
~Asia, a confrontation with, China
would take place under the most
unfavorable conditions for the
United States. For we should have
to choose between, on the one
hand, a wanton massacre of
Chinese by nuclear weapons and,
nn th, ,th.r n.. di. ffiat~ina rwn
bership selection' on the basis of
race or religion, while as a body
purporting the contrary. Many
member fraternities condone or
encourage the consumption of al-
cohol at social functions, while\ as
a body condemning those member
fraternities unluckily caught by
the University. Being able to wink
at discrimination rathier than hav-
ing to condemn it only makes the
IFC's hypocrisy more subtle in
one particular area
* *
IFC DOES NOT face "public
hypocrisy" so much as. "loss of
face." It has tried to Ireplace
the dictation of membership se-
lection policy by national fra-
ternity organizations with the'
dictation of membership selection
policy by IFC. Now it seems that
one tyranny is just as repugnant
as the other.
The "artificial crisis" is there-
sult of IFC's unstudied enactment
of a hypocritical bylaw, and not
TIigon's maintenance of its prin-
ciples and purpose for the last 60
years.
-Wayne D. Warren, Grad
Injustice
To the Editor:.
1 FEEL that a grave injustice has
been done to the Gibbs Tour
people ,in the Gargoyle article ;on
the Rose Bowl trips. Mr. Ward-
ner tells of the few inconveniences
to and from the coast, but barely
touches upon the hotel accom-
modations which by far out-
weighed other minor setbacks.
The ensuing are some excerpts
from this writer's "thank you"
note to the Gibbs people:
On arrival in Los Angeles, we
were set off at the "world-
famous" Alexandria Hotel. Now
just think of all these advantages
which one doesn't expect from
even the finest establishments:
1) Very tricky hallway floors
which ran like a well layed-out
obstacle course. The rugs were
torn in strategic places and the
floor underneath had little ridges
and chuck-holes, which was a test
for even the most able athletes
amongst us;
2) Free gum on the walls of our
room;
3) Artistically chipped paint on
the ceilings which lent a Euro-
pean air to the place. This wasn't
limited to our rooms but was an
important feature of the hallway
decor;
4) Beer cans were neatly strewn
along several places in the hall.
Unfortunately, not being 21, I
couldn't avail myself of this serv-
ice. It seems that few others did
either, as, the cans remained un-
touched for the duration of our
visit;
5) Upon entering our room, the
beds were unmade giving one and
all that tasty, "lived-in" feeling;
6) There were dances held at
our hotel every night. It was most
exciting to watch a guy dressed up
in policeman .clothes and a gun,
with two unif4rmed women frisk-
ing the boys and girls before they
were allowed to proceed into 'the
dance. Having such colorful people
in our hotel gave it an unusually
thrilling atmosphere;
7) The management was nice
enough to allow many females to
sit around in the lobby apparently
as a companion service for young
men. It was a nice gesture on their
part to allow these thoughtful
young ladies to dispense of their
services in our hotel;
8) Just to add a bit of daring
to our elevator rides, there was a
card in the elevator which stated
that the last safety inspection ex-
pired as of September, 1962.
This list goes on and on, but
I feel that it should suffice to
answer Hugh Wardner's undue
criticism.
-Richard Balaban, '66
The New, Sorority RushPlan
F PROCESS makes product, the sorority
system may look forward to a definite
improvement.
The passage of the new fall rush pro-
posal is indicative of a change in outlook
among sorority women in general, and
the foresight of Panhellenic leadership
in particular.
The sorority system has long been un-
der attack, and one of the least attrac-
tive parts of the system is rush. But if.
rush is an evil, it is a necessary one for
it provides the method by which sorori-
ties are sustained. The fall rush plan
presents a much improved approach to
membership selection.
ACTUALLY, THE CHANGE in structure
is not a revolutionary one. The pri-
mary difference between the fall plan
and previous rush structure is replacing
mixers with open houses. Instead of in-
troducing rushees to lines of singing sor-
ority women, the new plan presents a
more informal and realistic basis for comn
more personal basis with the sorority
woman she might find as her roommate.
Conversely, the rush plan includes
many benefits for sorority women. The
houses with small quotas will be given an
opportunity for greater freedom within
the structure. All houses will find it eas-
ier to get to know their prospective pledg-
es on a better basis, with more time al-
lotted to talking and less to superficial
entertainment,
ALTHOUGH THE RUSH plan is limited
to fall rush only, it is indicative of a
change in attitude that has more per-
vasive ramifications. The University is
undergoing immense change, of which tri-
mester is just an example, and if the
sorority system is to survive in such an
atmosphere it, too, must alter its orien-
tation. Within the University environ-
ment, the women are changing; no longer
are they starry-eyed when they think of
sororities, for their attitude is more ma-
"I Can't Keep Up My Dues In Everything"
--y-..
~a 1
POLISHED FOLK SINGER:
Josh White Disappoints
No One at Hill Concert
A TRULY PROFESIONAL ARTIST performed at Hill Auditorium
.last night. His name--Josh White.
Thought by many people to be one of the technical wizzards of
six string guitar, he disappointed no one. In fact, his nimble fingers
at times overshadowed his pleasing but not so nimble voice. His
opening blues "Betty and Dupree" was good evidence of this. "Waltz-
ing Matilda" also seemed a bit "too staged," almost as if he were
trying to get new stage appeal out of an old song which if sung
simply would have been sung best.
When listening to an evening of Josh White one is -sometimes
subjected to a few too many songs done in his somewhat unvaried
style and classic arrangements. Cases in point were "Frankie and
Johnnie," "Hard Times Blues," and "Foggy, Foggy Dew."
However, these were by far not the bulk of the concert and
White's ever-present amoral humor received the usual legions of
laughter and identification from the college students young and old.
White's humor, however, should .not be interpreted as having arisen
to cater to the button-down collegiates, for long before folk music
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